Shmee.Me

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015

New Supergirl Info!

Well some audition tapes for the new CBS show Supergirl have leaked, and while they have already been taken down, they do give us some interesting tidbits about the show. You can read the full dialog over at SpoilerTV, but I thought I would just give you some of my takeaways.

1: Superman will exist in this show. Whether they are casting a new one or are going to use the current movie Man of Steel and just use pictures we don’t know, but the dialog talks about him a lot.

2: It looks like Jimmy Olsen is going to be regular. If Superman is around somewhere, why not his best friend Jimmy.

3: Supergirl will remember more about Krypton than Supes. It looks like she left the planet when she was twelve not an infant, and it appears that she is quite attached to her old life.

4: Just like the Man of Steel movie it doesn’t look like Kara’s family is to happy about her new side job. They are worried about her, and what people will do once they find out what she is. Though with Superman around it kind of seems like an odd worry to me.

Sadly we still don’t know who will be playing Supergirl, but I am sure we will soon if they are in the middle of casting. I keep meaning to do a casting for this show, but it always kind makes me feel a little like a perv looking for young talented actresses on the internet. The internet version of talent is different than what you would think.

Here is hoping this show turns out. Though I think they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by just making a Powergirl show. Oh well. We will see what CBS comes up with next year.

January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

After The Apes Rise They Dawn!

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a surprise hit back in 2011, so it was no surprise that Fox green lit a sequel. The question on everyone’s mind though was could Dawn of the Planet of the Apes work without the central relationship between Caesar (Andy Serkis) and Will Rodman (James Franco). The answer is yes, and it could work quite well.

The story takes place ten years after Rise, and the world has been decimated by a virus based on the drug that made Caesar and the rest of the Apes smarter. Only 10% of humans have survived. Meanwhile Caesar and the rest of the Apes have been busy creating their civilization in the woods above San Francisco. They care little of the plight of the humans until one shows up and shoots one of the Apes. Now Caesar will have to do everything he can to avoid war.

This story is really the natural progression of the first one. In Rise we learn how the Apes gain their intelligence, and now in Dawn we learn how they start to take over the world, but I like how that wasn’t the whole story, they also work in few observations about human nature, or should I say Ape nature? Can humans ever truly be at peace? The Apes had a chance and they failed, and the humans obviously failed. It was an interesting look at an old question.

The human cast featuring Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, and Keri Russell was pretty decent, but they really weren’t given a lot to do. Oldman got to be the power hungery jerk that wanted nothing but to wipe out the Apes, and Clarke just wanted everyone to get along. Russell gets to look sad and pretty. They are capable of more, but they were fine. The Ape actors really stole the show. Serkis’ Caesar was once again amazingly complex, and you could see the stresses of leadership really weighing on him. Toby Kebbell as the rebel Ape Koba was equally excellent. You could see the fear and anger driving him forward.

I also have to give a big shout out to the special effects crew. Everything looked great, and sure every now and then something looked a little off, but it was never distracting. For the most part all of the Ape actors looked real. They earned their Oscar nomination.

If the human actors were as well written and as interesting as their Ape counterparts this movie would have been great. As it is, it was still a good movie and worth watching. Not quite as good as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes managed to hold its own. Not bad for a franchise that was once thought of as a joke.

January 16, 2015January 16, 2015

The Sandman Returns To Your Dreams!

I have been meaning to read Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman for quite some time, but it always seemed like such a daunting task. It is a large and weird work, and it was so 90’s looking if that is a thing, but I can’t stay away from Gaiman’s books for forever, so I gave The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes a try. Clearly staying away from this series was an error in judgment because it was wonderful.

The series revolves around The Lord of Dreams aka The Sandman. It starts off with him being captured by a group trying to gain immortality. They think that he will give it to them in exchange for his release. They of course or wrong because it turns out that immortals have a lot of patience. Still, eventually when he does get free he has to fix what they broke and reclaim his Kingdom and tools. Which will require quite a bit of effort even for the Dream King.

I love that this book is so different, but still so familiar. It is odd and it is about an old immortal, but it is still firmly in the DC Universe, so having the Martian Manhunter or John Constantine show up is completely normal. Though I guess if the DC Universe can have Dr. Fate or The Enchantress why not an old god or two.

The art is wonderfully crazy. While it still mostly looks like the DC Universe we have come to know and love, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcom Jones have created their own very dreamy version. It is really pretty, and fun to look at. Sure it might be a little too 90’s punk, but overall it is just great work.

Taking so long to start this book series was a huge mistake. Like all of Gaiman’s work, I am in love with it. Though I should point out that this book is for adults only. I will not be letting little Shmee read this for quite some time, but I hope to share it with her when she is old enough. I will not wait as long to read the next volume. I am doing my best to learn from my mistakes.

January 15, 2015

A Trip To The Future With Parks And Recreation Season 7!

Well Parks and Recreation is back for its seventh and final season, and it is shaping up to be a fun one. They have moved the show’s time period up to 2017, and we are getting to see the cast deal with their success. It turns out after getting what you want it is hard to keep it.

Leslie is having a hard time convincing people to put in a national park instead of a tech giant’s headquarters; Tom finds out that money doesn’t buy him the happiness that he wanted; Ben is unsure of himself as the new city manager, and April is starting to wonder if she has chosen the right path in life.

I think moving the show forward was a great idea for a final season because we will get to see how these characters have changed, and how they deal with their new circumstances. The first two episodes were funny, so at least they are starting off in a good direction. I am wondering how tightly they are going to wrap this up, or if they are going to leave a few threads dangling just in case.

I am glad that Parks and Rec is back on the air. It is sad that this is its final season, but at least it is going out on top and not slowly disintegrating in to nothing. If they can keep up the quality of the first two episodes we are in for a great final sendoff.

January 14, 2015January 14, 2015

Batman Battles Hush!

Thanks to a great Christmas gift from The Paladin, I was able to buy Batman: The Complete Hush from comiXology. It was written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams, and colored by Alex Sinclair. An all star lineup if there ever was one, and they did not disappoint with this book.

Batman has to fight all of his old foes, but for some reason he is always a step or two behind them. The mysterious Hush seems to be outplaying him. Batman will have to use all his tricks, and trust his allies to stop this new threat.

What I loved about this book is that Loeb used pretty much all of Batman’s main villains, and he did it without feeling like they were shoehorned in there just because he felt like he needed to. The villains all had a reason to be in this book. This book, while being in the main line, is its own self contained story as well with a beginning and end, which is nice for a trade paper back. You don’t need to feel like you need to buy seven more to complete the series. Thanks to its self contained nature it is also a great place to start reading Batman comics since it covers just about anything you would need to know.

The artists all did a good job. Batman, Gotham, and all the rest just seem to jump off the page (well tablet screen anyway). You expect a comic book to look good when you get this much talent, and they delivered. If you want to see Batman looking his best, this is a good book to read.

If you have been thinking about getting a graphic novel about the Dark Knight, Hush would be an excellent one to choose. You can find the book just about anywhere, and it seems like it is always on sale, so you shouldn’t have to break the bank. Batman: The Complete Hush gets my full recommendation!