Wonder Woman - What the DC movie universe should be.

As per usual i am not going to go in to plot details but it is a movie worth seeing and it is in my mind how DC should make their movies. I do feel sorry for whom ever had to write the script for Justice League trying to do Wonder Woman justice in that movie. Done wrong and and the backlash will be savage. 

Anyway the movie does a good job of blending Wonder Womans often changed and rewritten backstory and give it a solid feel. It is not a perfect movie.. what even that means. But it has solid humor and a fairly well-crafted story. Supporting roles are properly supporting and the villain actually have a believable motivation. Even if it is a bit stock. 

Visually the movie is stunning and it does a really good job of telling a story through light and set dressing. Same goes for sound design. The movie sounds great. It does pander to the 3D for the sake of 3D but nothing really important would be lost if one was to view it in 2D. Mostly it is a bunch of stuff flying towards the viewer. I lay this solidly at the feet of WB and not the crew who made the movie. 

As for the actors. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine bring that timing and chemistry that have been lacking in all the other modern DC movies. You believe them and the journey they take. As for Etta Candy played by Lucy Davis, she brings just the right light and snarky observation needed to ground the start of the movies second act. Would have liked to see a bit more of her tho. 

Now it is worth mentioning that this movie have very little connective tissue to the rest of the DC universe, but that was to be expected seeing as it is set during WW1. And since this is not Marvel... No end credit scene for you. 

In short. Go see it. It is worth it even if you dislike the rest of the DC offerings. Just remember to not base your decision of watching Justice league on this movie as there is no connection between the production teams. That one will be a Snyder picture. 

Until next time

Stay safe, be kind and play fair. 

Bye

Iron Fist. Putty in a silk glove or seriously good? (spoilers)

Did the Marvel/Netflix behemoth do their first bungle?

Well according to the score aggregators. Yes.

But i personally think that is mostly due to the expectations not being met. You see Iron fist is not kung-fu action series, it is in fact not really a kung-fu anything... Like most other of the Marvel/Netflix shows it is a personal drama about facing great personal adversity. In this specific case, it is a pretty much spot on "fish out of water" story about how someone who is basically an emotionally stunted child in a grown man's body with an understanding of the modern world of a 10-year-old. 

Now that does not for a good trailer make and I feel that Netflix was feeling a bit like I do about the character... Danny Rand is dry white toast (in the comics usually clad in green and yellow spandex) with the personality of a Weetabix. So they did not really have much to work with. Most of Danny's good stuff comes from bouncing his dry wit off Luke Cage in the comics and his role is most of the time the sage and calm centre. He is of course not at that place in the series... In fact, in the series he is dumb as rocks. But in a way that does make me at least sympathetic towards him. We also need to remember that Matt Murdock carried a pretty big idiot ball in the first season too. 

Now the worry i have is how they are going to complete Danny´s journey before the defenders (or more realistically at the start of the Defenders) to give him a role outside of "glowing punch guy". I guess he could have the Tony Stark role for the team. Using his money to solve some of the issues like transport and medicine. But for all intents, acting as the moral and emotional centre of the group. I have a difficult time seeing that. 

But the show is solid and while I feel the lack of a solid villain might a bit distracting  It does open up for some serious twists and keep you invested in what will happen. But just stay away from the idea of this being something akin to a Jackie Chan movie. 

Because it sure as heck is not. 

Until next time.

Stay safe, be kind and play fair. 

Fantastic beasts: A spoiler free review

First off, sorry about the lateness of this post but i simply fell asleep before i could write it up. It is also good to digest a movie a bit before writing about it in my mind. 

Fantastic beasts and where to find them, for the people unfamiliar is the latest movie in the Harry Potter universe. It is a prequel of sorts and is set during the roaring 20´s. As the title suggest it is about the the author of the in universe book "Fantastic beasts and where to find them". This book has been presented as a end all be all source of best knowledge. I am going to leave the story of the movie at that and simply say that it is a very good story. 

Now the movie it self is well crafted, if one discount a handful of scenes, but these does not really impact the movie so that is something i am willing to overlook. Both the female and male lead are likeable and especially Redmayne have that perfect adrokable vibe. But as good as they are they are almost upstaged by the supporting cast, human and beast alike. It is also nice to see the movie break a few tropes that plagues most average blockbusters. 

Now no movie is flawless, and in the case of this movie, outside of those errant scenes most problems in this movie have to do with how the action scenes are cut, they are messy and the use of a first person view in some of them really does not work. Add a rather lackluster use of 3D and you have what sometimes feel almost Michael Bay-ish. I´l go in more detail about my thoughts regarding what worked and not in my spoiler review. 

To sum things up i think Fantastic beasts and where to find them is a great movie and i felt my money was welt spent. But it does touch on some subjects that will leave people who have just read the books or even more just seen the other movies a tad bit confused. Go watch Fantastic beasts and where to find them, you will not be disappointed. 

/T

Stranger days. A Dr Strange review. (spoilers...)

Smolder smolder smolder

So i spent last night watching the latest offering Doctor Strange, based on the comic character by the same name,and right of the bat Marvel wastes no time reminding us that they have a interconnected cinematic universe as the logo now sports more movie clips than comic pages. 

But i get ahead of my self, in case you are not familiar with Dr Stephen Strange, he starts out as the less charming Tony Stark, both in this movie but also in his comic. A superstar surgeon with a ego that make Dr House look humble and a nurturing a budding god complex as he fancies him self one who holds life and death in his hands, and only the ones with a case big or difficult enough (but with a safe margin for success)get his care. It goes without saying that Dr Strange treats anyone not him self as shit. 

But fate, as it usually does in origins stories... Has other plans and send dear Stephen on a one way trip off a cliff and in to the caring arms of irony. The car accident destroys his hands 

Now with his entire life literary shattered and with no one really to blame but him self he reacts very human and lashes out at everyone. He spends his wealth on experimental surgery and consultations. But to no avail. He then hears about a mystic called the ancient one. Taking a desperate last stab Stephen seeks out this mystic. The rest is as they say history, Strange learns that there is a much bigger world beyond his science and in time ends up as the Sorcerer Supreme, the guardian of all magic.  

The movie follows this story to a beat, it is one of the most faithful translations Marvel Studios have done, Keeping strides with Captain  America. In the movie the car is a Italian supercar and it is hinted that if he was not such a huge arsehole people might have gone looking for him sooner and thus saved his hands, but beyond that the transition from surgeon Dr Strange to mystic Dr Strange follows the comics without any deviation. 

Now in the movie Strange have to find a group of mystics after learning of a man who regained the use of his destroyed spine after having studied with the Ancient one, After getting the acid trip of his life by the way of mind magic, giving a entirely new meaning to the phrase "tripping balls". Strange is unceremoniously tossed out on the street again having been deemed to vain and arrogant to handle the power the Ancient one could teach. 

This ties back in to the opening of the movie where a very angry and former student of the Ancient one Mads Mikkelsen compartmentalize the librarian of the mystic order and then steals "insert object of DOOM... (not that Doom)" and sets out to enable the overtaking of the world. Strange it would seem reminds the Ancient one of this failed pupil. 

At this point it should be obvious that the movie is not exactly breaking new ground, but it is ok, it would feel very out of place and the last time we really had a Superhero movie trying to break new ground we got Ang Lee´s Hulk movie... Not a fan. 

So the story from here on is pretty textbook, Strange get accepted, trains and fails only to triumph at the critical moment. what saves the movie is the excellent acting and comedic timing. It is a funny movie that delivers on the action and Benedict Cumberbatch get to channel some of the same sides he showed in Sherlock. 

The supporting cast is as good, starting with Mads character who manages to do surprisingly much with a script that is just a hair longer than the one for Boba Fett. He is more a catalyst for future events than an actual villain, a problem many of Marvels movie villains have had. But he is just the right amount of smug zealot that you feel very good when he gets his comeuppances. 

Tilda Swinton as the Ancient one did cause some commotion for all about... five seconds... Some allegations of whitewashing was leveled...   But seeing that this is what the Ancient one used to look like. Switching the gender and nationality was not that big of an issue, dude was not very Asian to begin with. Swinton does a really good job of playing this odd and peculiar mystic who defends the reality as it is.  

Mordo also plays a big role in this and while he is set up as the counterbalance for Strange it is not too hard to see what path he will take, and by the end of the movie he has gone full on magic fascist. But i like how they portray him and his motivations does make sense.  

Last but not least i have to mention Wong... Played by Benedict Wong... (i just fond that a little funny.) In the original portrayed as Strange´s manservant in a very stereotypical outfit. Here he is the ever important wall whom Strange can bounce jokes off. He also serves as the head librarian after the old one lost his.. well... head. 

The big-ish bad  is Dormammu and while he got a Galactus/Phalanx treatment and just becomes mostly a big head... It could have been way worse. He is the lord of a place called the dark dimention that lies outside of time and he wants to take over the world... How he is defeated i will not reveal here... But it is simply awesome. The second big thing is of course the time gem hidden inside of a relic that Strange picks up along the way. It serves a very important plot point and will be very important in the next Avenger movie. 

Verdict: I really enjoyed this movie and for what it is worth i would rank it on the same level as GotG, it is a fun and wild popcorn movie that have some really insane special effects but is a tiny bit hampered by the very classic narrative used. I say that you should go and see it while it is in theaters as it will lose some of its visual impact once it is on TV´s and monitors (unless you have a Gear.. then i would thing it is smart thing to wait. =P)

Also there is a brilliant end credit scene with Thor and a stein of beer. It also hints at the probability of Hemsworth, Hiddelston and Cumberbatch in the same scene... How they will contain that... who knows.

The game is afoot... Game of thrones season 6... Spoilers

So... We can all agree that a lot of things went sideways in the most literal of way this season. And I know there is much complaining about how the season had less time continuity than Dr Who. But that is one of these things you either learn to let go or become forever stuck on. 

Me I just do not have enough fucks to give. 

This season saw the show wrap up a lot of loose threads and try to neatly wrap a bunch of rather lively scorpions. As expected it was messy and and well.. frankly.. sloppy. But I am sure that HBO have a very firm point of "wrap this shit up" because it is a very expensive show to make. Taking things at book pace and I am sure that they would have to release the final episode some time after the end of time. We... as the general population would not like that I am sure. 

Now things ofc kicked off with the least twisty twist in the history of the series. Jon Snow was not dead.. or well he was dead but he got better. As people are inclined to do. It would set the tone for some serious cases of "walking it off". Also just to get that out of the way "R+L=J" = True. For the people not in the loop, Jon is the bastard of Rhegar Taygarian and Lianna Stark. Ned only took him as his to keep him safe from Robert who probably did not like the idea of contending with a legitimate heir to the throne... Well as legitimate as any conquer can be. I guess that will be a fun thing for him to learn in the future. For now only Bran knows. Bran is now the greenest of seers and still bloody annoying. Beyond that he really did not serve as much beyond a plot device. But we got to know that he was the one who messed up Hodor. That was a nice twist. "Hold the door" indeed. Arya does her Daredevil thing this season and while it was sort of boring it was never really that good in the books either. She then decides to go home and straight up murder people, Walder Frey being at the top of the list. Nice touch how she baked a Frey pie... It is like a humble pie, but with the children of Walder Frey as the main ingredient. 

This does generally not bode very well for Cersei but since she spent this entire season working her way from crazy to nuttier than Nutella i think she will be to busy to notice when Arya kille her. On the bright side we do have a less Wild Fire in Kings Landing (and a lot less Sept of Baelor) but i felt it was a tad bit heavy handed and not a very good buildup. Tomen´s reaction to the entire thing was very human. Having lost his love Margaery and any chance of ever ruling the land by any other mean than fear he simply steps out from his balcony and falls to his death. Nothing grand or spectacular about it. No real drama. He simply takes his crown from his head and calmly place it by the side. Then he just take a casual stroll out the window. And with that he fulfills the fate that was told to young Cersei. She has now lost all her children. My bet is that it will be Jamie who will wrap up the prophecy seeing how she is going in to insane territory. Combining that with her crowning her self queen and i fear Jamie will be forced to add another regent to his name. 

As for Danny, this season has pretty much just been a bunch of sizzle moments. Some more than other as she once again put the Dothraki people under her control, took back Mereen... again... and now sail for Westeros. She got to be bad ass but nothing of real consequences came to pass.  

Now the big question mark for me this season was going to be Sansa. After last season she was pretty much robbed of any momentum and left as a plot device. While she still serves this role in this season she does retake some of the momentum and show that she has been taught by some of the biggest arseholes in Westeros. Sure Jon might have been crowned king in the north but since he has the diplomatic ability of grape (as per all male Stark´s) my guess is that she will carry the brunt of that work.

Anyway... For what it is worth and to answer my question that I stated at the start of the season. Yes it was worth it if you enjoy the show for what it is. But if you are looking for solid and logical TV... 

This is not your show. 

My watch is over.. Overwatch.

So I... Like pretty much all of humanity it seems. Have now had some solid time with Overwatch, Blizzards new hero shooter is about as solid as one would expect. But for me it ticks a much more important box.

Ain´t he the most adorable little crazy mercenary you ever seen.

You see... I suck at shooter games. Used to be fairly good back in the old days of BF 1942... Then things just kept getting faster and I kept getting slower, Then came the era of the sniper and i pretty much said... Fuck this... 

Now this is where the gameplay of OverWatch is so bloody brilliant. It is the epitome of the Blizzard idea of having something for everyone. No longer do I need to fear being useless to my team because i can not hit the broad side of Roadhog. I can go in and tank the living crap out of things as a over sized German knight with a power-armor and a freaking energy shield... As in a honest to god, carried on your arm shield. Simply put i can feel useful.

Now the game is at it´s core a fairly standard online arena shooter. You are part of as team and try to shoot the face of the opposing team. The maps are well designed but the game lacks game modes and while the ones we get a point capture mode and a escort mode that is very well designed and offer a ton of fun and action. They are also all we get. And it does get a bit repetitive after a while.

Now the core of OverWatch is the heroes, taking ideas from the moba space and giving us 21 (at the moment) unique heroes that as I mentioned before has something for everyone but without it feeling forced. We will see more heroes added as time goes by. But for now we have a good solid mix of wonderfully colorful and cheesy.

And that i think is the games strongest point. The art style is just so vibrant and lively. It is like a Pixar movie dialed up to 11.

Now this game is not for everybody, if you do not like shooters it has noting to offer gameplay wise. Aaaaand it has some micro transactions for stuff like skins and icons. While it does not bother me all to much I know it is a deal breaker for some people. More power to you. That will not change either but compared to EA´s pants-on-head stupid system of locking maps behind paywalls and splitting the player base i feel inclined to urge everyone to at least give Blizzard a pat on the head for not fucking their players over completely. So if you like arena shooters, give this one a try. I am willing to bet you will at least get your 40/60 bucks worth of entertainment out of it.

Deadpool the good, the bad and man is he ugly.

Let us first get something out of the way. This is not a movie for everyone. The humor is not for everyone and in fact some people will find it way to over the top. It might also be one of the most intelligent movies you watch this year.

But to me the movie is perhaps the most genuine depiction of a hero on the big screen so far. This most likely comes from the fact that Deadpool is a movie that the fans birthed. Nobody at studio level was interested in a R-rated superhero movie, or so the story goes. But Reynolds and the fans pushed and pushed until the project was greenlit.

Exactly how much of this is true we will most likely never know. But it makes for a perfect backdrop for a little movie that could.

So Deadpool the character is the creation of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. An intentional or unintentional (depending on who you ask) riff on the DC character Deathstroke, who should be familiar to fans of the Arrow show. Deadpool quickly developed in to a sort of “adult” version of Sinderman in regards to his banter and antics. Somewhere along the way he also picked up the habit of speaking directly to the reader of the comic. He is a hyper-violent mercenary who just so happen to do some good every now and then… Usually with a lot of collateral damage.

Now the movie for most part is a note by note recreation of Deadpool. Sure a few small things have been omitted such as exactly how he got his powers and they made him a tad bit more likeable. Beyond that he is every bit as foul and crazy as one should expect.

The story goes thusly. Wade Wilson is a gun for hire that falls in low with a stripper and finds out he has terminal cancer… everywhere. He get a offer to be the receiver of some superpower that will save him. In order to save his life and relationship he says yes. He comes out with a awesome healing factor and the looks of… and I quote…  “Freddy Kreuger if he facefucked a topographical map of Utah” But he has one shot. The guy in charge of the facility Ajax told Wade that he could restore his face if he wanted. So Deadpool breaks out and goes on a hunt for Ajax. After a lot of violence and some tender tender moments Deadpool track his nemesis down and… Well... More violence happens.  

Deadpool is not a movie you watch for its deep and engaging story, even if this one under all its sarcasm and forth wall breaking nonsense is surprisingly well crafted. It is easy to just see the dirty jokes and over the top action scenes. But beneath this does some really smart things. Like how it takes you in to a stripclub but elegantly refuse to spend any more time on the environment then it does any other. Or how it use the X-Men character Colossus as a counterpoint to Deadpools R-rated antics. Colossus is a genuine nice guy in the comics and this make him a perfect counterpart to Deadpool. There is also a really good chemistry between the actors in the movie and especially between Dreadpool and Weasel. Now we know there will be a sequel since the movie broke all projections and I think some records. My only fear is that the next movie will have more studio involvement in order to try and reproduce the breakout hit… And that never turns out well. 

Cape and cowls week 3 2016 (Spoilers ahead…)

So with the back half of the DC TV imperium kicking off and welcoming the new kid to the sandbox we are dropped right in to the action.

Supergirl: The show opens up with old man Schott approving his own early release by the way of a Yo-yo. As fun as that might sound this introduction to the character of Toyman is downright creepy, as it should be when you are dealing with a murderous inventor with a stone to grind and no real regard for human life. Now some of you might say… Schott... That sounds a tiny bit familiar. Turns out this is the estranged father doing time to Winn Schott Jr Catco´s resident it support and all around tech wizard. So the episode mostly deals with Winn having to confront his own fears about becoming like his father and his feelings for Kara. It goes about as good as one can expect. But Toyman gets tucked away and while Winn finally admits how he feels to Kara it only serves to further complicate their relationship. In the other main plotline we see D.E.O (they smell so nice…) chief Hank break in to Lord Industries in order to find out what he is hiding there. Turns out it is a sort of comatose girl that looks very much like Kara. Now it has pretty much been confirmed who this is, and it is a take on the classic Superman villain Bizzaro. I did at first think they were going to do the Powergirl character but that might be saved for later seasons. So for those who do not know who that little rascal Bizzaro is… The character is usually a zombie-esq mirror image of superman that sometimes hails from a universe where everything is opposite. So love is hate and happy is sad… Other times it is a scientific experiment, more in line with the story I assume they will go with here. Any way it will in essence replace the kryptonians as the “strong enough to pose a threat” for a while. The episode ends on a real cliffhanger as we see Max Lord spying on Kara and Alex by way of a bug he planted on Alex bag while she was out on the town with him (as a distraction to get him to leave Lord industries) and I can´t but help that the writers got a tiiiiny bit lazy here. After all I find it hard to believe that a trained agent of D.E.O would not go through her clothes and other things to check for this sort of stuff. But as it stands he now know… well… Everything (or as much as the plot needs him to know). This series is picking up steam and sort of finding its stride. It has more work to do but all in all it is turning out for the better. Going to be very interesting to see the direction they take this half of the season.

The Flash: In this episode we find out if slow and steady really do win the race as we meet the Turtle. A man so slow he cannot be caught. Beyond that this is a very classic “everything is falling apart” episode with several shifts in relationships. But the main plot revolves around a metahuman who can, for a lack of a better word drain the kinetic energy from his surroundings. In essence slowing everything down. It turns out that Cisco have been on the case of this guy and several other metahumans unbeknown to Barry. Now in order to stop him Barry have to overpower the slow-power of the Turtle, this tying in to him further developing his powers in order to be able to beat Zoom. Beyond this we had a literal smorgasbord of emotional fuckups. Jay is dying from plot… Wells is slowly going insane, Patty is leaving town to pursue an education as a CSI (the fact that she was kidnapped did not exactly help either.) Joe and Wally have a breakdown and a sort of understanding and Barry... Well… He just keep on being Barry.

To add some extra WTF to this episode we see Eobard Thawn aka Dr Zoom/Reverse flash pop up again… So all in all this episode was a lot of setup and very little payoff. But the series itself keep doing much right and very little wrong.

Arrow: Dark dark dark angry angry angst and some amazingly poor decisions making… That pretty much sums up this episode. We see Anarchy popping up again and in what can only be described as an astonishingly shortsighted move goes for the throat of Damien Darkh by taking on his family, or what the girl and the woman he has been seen with are. Oliver on the other hand is dealing with Felicity being shot and paralyzed. He does this with the grace and deft touch of a wrecking ball... As usual. So after murderifying a few of Damiens ghost soldiers and both setting Anarchy on the loose and then promptly losing track of him it is up to team Arrow to one again pull his arse out of the fire. Fortunately the rest of the team is on the ball and team Arrow can manages to stop Anarchy from killing Darkhs family and not get killed by an enraged Dark in the process. Again this episode was a lot of setup for things to come. Arrow as a series has this problem with Oliver being about as stubborn and boneheaded as mule, now this is very true to his character in the comics, as a very dear friend pointed out “he is no Batman”. But the constant shifting from one extreme to another does get a bit annoying at times. Now we have a lot of interesting things coming up and I still enjoy the series but I I am not all that sure they will be able to keep the steam up for the entire season.

Legends of Tomorrow: The new kids on the block can be summed up as follows. Time jumping arsehat steals time machine and then lie his arse off to gather a team of historically insignificant persons under the pretenses that they are destined to become legends. All this to save his family. Hilarity ensues… Actually it is far from that bad. I do like that the setup we had shown to us just was a rouse and that Hunter is in fact about as damaged as the rest of the team. Anyway… Timetraveler Rip Hunter gathers the Atom, Firestorm, former black now White Canary, the Hawks and the oh so shippable pair of Heatwave and Captain Cold. The goal is to go back in time and take out Vandal Savage. (yeah… his back… Not really like he was going to stay dead now anyway.) In essence we have a Taskforce X in time and space. The team go back to the 70´s to talk to the only Vandal Savage expert in the world. Turns out he is a child of the Hawks from an earlier life. We then get a very effective demonstration of “thou shalt not try to fuck with time for your own personal gain” and poor dr Boardman dies and the team is forced to flee as a time jumping bounty hunter almost take them out. This is part 1 of a two part “pilot”.

Now while this show is about as surprising as vanilla ice cream. The writing for especially Heatwave and Captain Cold is really funny and both actors do a stellar job delivering what is in short comedy gold. They end up carrying a lot of the show in this episode. Now that is not to say the rest of the characters are not well written. In fact this series does not really seem to take it self all that seriously, in a good way. For an example we have the scene were dr Stein is trying to convince Jax that they both need to go. Jax refuse and dr Stein simply choose to drug and kidnap him. This will not be a series of boy scouts and honor students.

So with the end of these seasons on the move things are looking bright but not entirely unproblematic. We will see were we land by the end of it. But I am sure it will be an entertaining ride to that point. 

The house of El. Supergirl episode 1-9 in review

So the not-superman show that is made by partially the same people that are doing the not-batman show have just come back from its mid-season break and I feel this is a great time to talk a bit about how Superman´s  cousin fair this time around.

Now do note that there will be  spoilers … So if you have not seen the show you have been warned.

The show start us off with a Kara Zor-El hiding her powers trying to fit in, working as the assistant to Cat Grant, as self-made media mogul and “queen of the media”. We quickly get the sory of how Kara was chosen to look over the baby cousin Kal El on earth she is blasted in to the phantom zone and well… arrives a bit late. She is placed with the Danvers family and spends most of her time as a regular person.. as far as one can with near godlike powers. Soon hi-jinx ensues as Kara´s sister is in mortal danger and she have her call to action. She is introduced to a transplanted Jimmy Olsen who we later learn is there on Superman´s behalf to keep an eye on her. We also meet Winn Schott Jr The office tech expert and “nice guy”. We get a really funny montage of her making her costume and then the show sort of goes in to a trifecta of clumsy hi-jinx, workplace comedy and monster of the week. We are also introduced to Alex Danvers, Kara´s sister and secret agent for the government’s alien protection/observation/neutralization unit DEO. A lot of weird things happens and we get the feeling that not everything is as it appears. Now as if the plot was not complex as it is we meet Mex Lord´s. A inventor and xenophobe without a moral compass. The first half of the season was slow and a bit unsure of itself.

Ok last chance… now we go in to real spoilers…

The show wrapped up with some really big hitters… We got introduced to T.O Morrow and Red Tornado in his pre-hero role of angry android and we get a big slew of backstory and super people punching each other in the form of Astra In-Ze the sister to Kara´s mother Alura. A Kryptonian eco-terrorist. And as if this was not enough the show finally revealed that the head of the DEO is no other than the Martian Manhunter. This had been hinted at for a few episodes but it is really going to be interesting to see what one of DC´s real powerhouses as far as well.. power… will do one the current story arc plays out. (for those unaware of the Martian Manhunters powers they include.. Telepathy, flight, shapeshifting, density shifting, super strength and  rapid healing. But he ls pyrophobic.) Now if episode 9 is anything to go by we will soon see another classic Supergirl enemy/allied  Powergirl. A sometimes clone of Supergirl that in the comics and other media tend to be under some kind of brainwashing. This time around she will most likely be. It is that or Bizzaro Supergirl  (Bizzaro is another sometimes clone of superman that looks like a zombie and speaks in opposites as happy meaning angry or sad and friend meaning enemy  and so on… ) or maybe a fuzion of both the characters. It is also going to be interesting to see how Winn will develop seeing how he is the son of DC´s Toyman a very twisted tech genius. It does explain though how Winn is not just a tech expert but almost supernaturally good with tech. I´d love to see him throw down against Felicity. =)

For me this show does share some traits with Marvels Agents of shield that its first season so far is all over the place and have some pacing problems but it does have much more interesting characters 

Running Wild

This is the second in a series of posts that will happen in rapid succession before i settle back in to a more regular posting pattern. I hope you enjoy.

Today we will talk about a subject near and dear to me, namely the Crew. Back in November the game got it´s first major content injections with the Wild Run expansion. With this came three so called extreme specs in the form of Drag, Drift and Monster truck. It also featured a new event called the Summit. This is a set of PvP and PvE challenges themed around things such as a place on the map, a car brand or a nationality. The idea is to compete on a server wide leaderboard and win parts, extreme car kits crew credits or exclusive cars. It is set up in such a way that there are a series of qualifying events throughout the month leading up to each summit. Score at least an overall bronze medal in three qualifiers and you get to enter the summit. This is not hard any anyone one want to can get their medals.

The event has a set list of game modes but the tracks change from event to event. But there will always be one event each for the new extreme specs and two time attack races.  One is open to any car of the corresponding spec and the other is locked to a specific brand of car or bike. Yes bikes have come to the Crew and they use the regular specs such a street or dirt. Each event also have a crew and a regular PvP event. And don´t worry if you do not have a garage rivaling Jay Leno, the game lends you a car for any event that you lack a car for and the PvP event put all players in equally good cars to make things even.

So all in all the Wild Run have given the Crew players something to do once they reach max level. It is still the same game but now at least there is that element of competition that the old PvP system did not deliver. They have also made it easier to connect to a PvP game, something I complained about in my original review.

But all is not sunshine and puppies, a fair number of players who bought the gold edition or the season pass felt that the Wild Run expansion should have been included in the season pass and that the fact that there is now content locked behind a paywall is something unsightly in this day and age. There has also been complaints that the bikes and the drag spec make the game pay to win since a good player can use these to gain an advantage in some races(bikes) and decimate some skills challenges (drag and bike). While this does have merit there is no actual reward beyond recognition topping these things. The final thing that get under peoples skin is the ever current presence of cheaters, previously easy to avoid and with very little impact in the game at large. The new addition of a competitive leaderboard in combination with actual prices for to top players have had them coming out of the woodwork. Ubisoft claims to be working on the issue but only time will tell. For most people the impact is minimal and only the very top percent will ever really run the risk of losing anything from these “players”.

So to cap things off the Wild Run have injected a much needed purpose in to the Crew and with the promise of more varied qualifier tracks and challenges in combination with the continued effort to introduce more cars and ways to customize them the future looks really bright for this game. 

Elementary he said… Sherlock and the abominable bride (spoiler free)

When viewing BBC´s Sherlock one always have to go in with the mindset of enjoying a rare but small bit of bit of confection This modern adaptation of A.C Doyle´s master detective is in many ways one of a kind. Now with that said I do start to wonder if it has not begun to become a tad bit long in the tooth. This episode take place directly after the end of the last season. The season ended with Sherlock putting a permanent end to a particular problem. As a result he was placed on a plane heading for banishment. Only to be recalled about five minutes in as an old foe shows it´s face again. After a quick recap it then sends us off with a nice “what if” scenario set in the 1800´s

The episode is set in the time of the original Sherlock Holmes, as such it takes place in London in the late 1800´s. Holmes and Watson are tasked to solve a very strange murder and we quickly find out that the game is… as it should.. afoot.

The episode plays freely with the classic Holmes tropes and I have to say that I got a tiny thrill form seeing Cumberbatch don the classic outfit. Freeman also fit very well in with the look of the time, complete with mustache and bowler. In fact I think that Watson is the character they have the most fun with out of the main cast. Giving him a bit more attitude and letting him spar much more with Sherlock. Especially as things take the predictable but enjoyable turns, as in you know there will be some twists and turns not that it was a predictable episode. In fact it hits you from left field more than once. The episode does also visit the somewhat darker sides of Sherlock in a very clever way.

The cast and crew as usual is top notch and this time we also add a layer of set and costumes that also feel spot on, even if I have t admit that I am but a novice when it comes to fashion and architecture from the 1800´s. Now a very real problem is that both of the main cast is getting and more big roles and it is kind of unclear as for how long this will be a thing. Now thanks to how compact the show is I guess it would be easier to fit shooting in between other work and it is not like thay have had a regular schedule to begin with. But this would in my mind work very well as a last episode. A nice way to round off a very good series. And that is in a way what ties in to my earlier comment about it getting abit long in the tooth. Some of the luster is in fact gone. And I am in way curious to see where they will take this as they are moving beyond the classic stories and seeking new lands. Now they have not used all the stories but most of the big ones have in one way or another been referenced.

But either way it is still a very enjoyable watch and I highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the series or just well produced television in general. 

Who you said…? S08E10 In the forest of the night.

Here we are again, ready for a spin through time and space. Turns out we are neither going through time or space this time… Eh well a little space but it is hardly nothing. But that is not to say that this is not an interesting episode. In fact it is a very nicely paced and tense episode that strike a good balance between light-hearted banter and some good old fashion mystery. We also see Danny Pink in action and that is always fun in my mind. Now the story goes as follow.

A small girl dressed in a red overcoat (oh you not so subtle red riding hood reference) knocks on the Doctors door and tell him that she has been sent to find him as it turns out that the entirety of London, and the world have been overgrown by trees. Next we find the dynamic duo of Oswald/Pink as they are having a museum sleepover… Is this I thing… It seems I went to the wrong school when I was young. Any way as the class exit the exhibition they had been straying in they see a big slice of a tree with a strange year ring. Turns out the door is blocked by enough foliage to all but shut them in. It would seem that leaving is not as easy as it seems. As the Doctor and Maven, the girl with the red hood get ahold of Clara and set up a meeting between the two groups with the Doctor and Maven staying at Trafalgar Square and O/P + kids moving from what I assume is the museum of natural history(seeing as they are on Cromwell road) to meet up with them. With the mystery squarely afoot the Doctor take son his oldest nemesis… Wood. 

In the meantime we get to follow the by now rather horrid train wreck of lies and deceit that is Clara’s relationship with Danny as Danny slowly puts together that Clara have been lying right to his face the entire time about her relationship with the Doctor. Things take a turn for the weird when it turns out that Danny is a tiger tamer and that Maven is a conduit for the sentient forest that acts as the guardian of earth. It also turns out that earth is about to be dipped in to the fryer by a solar flare. Hence the mighty morphing power Ents… We get a very nice moment as Clara tell the Doctor that she does not want to be saved because she does not want to be the last of her kind and that this time it is the earth that saves the Doctor. But it turns out that the trees are going to save the earth with oxygen and well everything works out in a way so perfect that even Hallmark would have a hard time writing it.

As I mentioned earlier I really liked the pacing of this episode and while not a massive tension builder it keep a fairly constant level, enough to keep you invested in what was happening. With that said it is a bit sad in my mind when the companion get upstaged twice by a child. First the girl who puked in the TARDIS and now Maven would both make for much more interesting companions then Clara in my mind. But that is just my humble opinion. Beyond that this was a nice little filler episode in which exactly nothing of any real value happened and by the end of it everything was back to normal.

What does Nelson rest his eyes upon..?

But as the teaser for the next episode showed  us.. It is in every way the calm before the storm as we move up on the season finally. I was hoping to see some sort of de-asshattering of the Doctor but he remains the crazy alien. It is like they have to compensate for Tennant and Smiths understanding and well attuned Doctors. Hopefully we will see some change over the final episodes and in to the next season.

The sets in this episode were gorgeous, the organic and lush world mixing with the familiar everyday backdrop made for some very nice sets, even if I am not sure that I have ever seen London that small or empty. Also I have never seen Londoners that passive. But it was a really nice change and whatever you can say about this season it has at least had a very good variation in the sets used.

So if I should say there was a emotional theme in this episode it would be… .. . Caring and open-mindedness. But this was really just a filler.

So let´s get in to a holding pattern on the express elevator to hell as we get ready for next weeks episode.

T.