Spider-Man Homecoming - What sort of spider-man movie is it. (spoilers)

Vacation is over badgers... i back.

So...

Sony knew that they had screwed the pooch with Spider-Man. They reached out to Marvel and the Disney Marvel movie dept. Then they begged.

So did it help, was it worth it?


Yes... Yes it did.

Now i like many others think that  the Toby-Man 2 movie was the best Spider-Man movie as far. In my mind this movie trumps that one. Not only does Peter Parker come across like a very teenage... well.. teenager. Now the movie does take another step in blending two comic settings, the core marvel one and the so called Ultimates one. The later was a modern reboot of the marvel universe that instead of messing with the core universe Marvel set it up as it´s own thing. It was a bit more grim and gritty. But without going in to grimdark territory. In this setting Spider-Man was again a teenager (in the core universe he is grown up and sitting in that weird 30-ish zone) and his supporting cast where updated to be more independent. ezpecially Aunt May that went from a kind senior citizen to a much younger (more 45+ than 65+) woman on the move. Much of this does carry over in to the new movie.

It also sidesteps many of the weird issues that have been brought up in previous movies regarding the spider suite and other things . It simply runs on Tony Stark MAGIC.

Now the story it self is fairly basic for a opener in a franchise. The hero has gained the power ( guess what.. not origin story)  and now heeds the call of heroism only to mess up and is forced to find his resolve. Then comic book end happens. =P

But it is the care that has been taken to not only be funny and endearing but also have some serious nods to spider comic history. It also handle it´s villains in a good way. Not the hamfisted Toby-Man 3 or the re-boot who wasted a really good villain for a sequel bait that never came to be.

As for the actors. Tom Holland is the same kind of natural it that RDJ brought to Tony Stark and Well RDJ is as always good... In fact at this point it is hard to see where he ends and Tony starts. RDJ fill a good roll as mentor and also part of the more lighthearted comedy of the movie.

Marisa Tomei and Laura Harrier make for two good supporting characters and both are believable as Aunt May and Liz Allen.

But the star of the show is by far Mr Keaton who threads a thin line between creepy and endearing with just the right amount of chewing the scenery. After all you can not play a comic book villain without a little bit of overacting. Now he does serve as a replacement for the  green goblin in some ways but with a very simple and rooted motivation for his villainy.

All in all it is the Spider-Man that Sony needed and if they are smart they will learn from this and actually continue to produce good super hero movies.

Until next time

Stay safe, be kind and play fair.

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. 

Misplaced stories and what to do with them. (Fantastic Beasts spoilers)

First off…

Spoilers ahead…

You have been warned…

So in my Fantastic beasts review I mentioned that there were some minor scenes that felt out of place… .. . These where any scene that contained the unmasked Gellert Grindelwald aka Graves. They literally bookend the story and have no impact at all. This is very much a done story being shoehorned in to a multi movie narrative. Now before someone says to them self “that filthy muggler has no clue of how important Grindelwald is to the story” This is partially true, it has been close to 10 years since I read the last in the core series and have not really revisited them since. Sure I did watch all the movies but they never stuck. So in many ways I had but the vaguest grasp of Grindelwald going in to this movie, add to that my active avoidance of spoilers and previews. I was as close to a blank state as I have ever been going in to a franchise movie. (compare with my encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel and DC lore that have me going in to any such movie with more knowledge than I care to think about.) So I did not really care about the opening scene and once the end scene comes rolling around it was more of a… dafuk… But I am aware of the importance of Grindelwald, I was just expecting them to push that in to the next movie.

And this is where my main gripe comes in, I think the people making the movie had the same idea until some focus group came in and had their say. The scenes with Grindelwald are sloppy and pointless. They serve no purpose at all in my mind and while I get that people new to the franchise need some anchoring for this character seeing how it is obscure to say the least, and that trying to launch an entire movie series built on him would be risky. They did not have to be so bleeding lazy about it.

I still love the movie that sits between these bookends and I think that a movie about Grindelwald will be interesting especially if they perhaps play up the by fans suggested romance between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Mostly because it would explain a few things about ol´ Albus. It just pokes me the wrong way that this was the way we got introduced to the character.

It was also fun to see Ezra Miller seeing how he is the new Flash, trying to fill the place that Grant Gustin have in my heart… 

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.

Happy halloween Terror.. Overwatch halloween event

So my favorite non-diplomatic solution to inter-personal conslicts OverWatch just got its first proper seasonal event. It is a spooky tale of a mad scientist and his abominabel creation. This event brings more themed costumes and other in-game goodies. But it also give us a taste of some proper PvE gameplay as we are presented with a horde mode. Now i would love to tell you how it works but so far the cue is infinite and the gameplay is scarce. I´l have to get back with more info at a later date.

Now the skins are a good mix of new models and re-colored regular skins. But unlike the previous summer games event you can actually buy these with in-game gold (for now it seems) making the grind a little less painful. And there are some wicked skins.  I´l show them off below. But for now this seem to be a massive step up from the summer games and unless the brawl is a down right bust it will be setting a nice bar for the coming seasonal events to follow.








Skin spoilers incoming













Ana - Ghoul (re-color)

Bastion - Tombstone (re-color)

Hanzo - Demon (re-color)

Junkrat - Dr Junkenstein (new model)

Mercy - Witch (new model)

Pharah - Possesed (re-color)

Reaper - Pumpkin (new model)

Reinhardt - Coldheardt (re-color)

Roadhog - the Monster (new model)

Soldier 76 - Immortal (re-color)

Symetra - Vampire (re-color)

Zenyatta - Skullyatta (re-color)

Enjoy and take care.

Suicide Squad a review. Spoilers.

So what to say about the Suicide Squad.... 

It is a movie that have some serious problem, but none of them big enough to stop me from enjoying the movie. But first... The plot goes thusly.

Superman have pretty much triggered a new arms race as the world realized that not only where they not prepared for a metahuman (DC´s catch-all term for anything with superpowers) attack but they where woefully unequipped... These events where part of the BvS movie. 

Enter Amanda Waller (played to perfection by Viola Davis, at no point did you doubt that she could and would destroy you) and Task Force X lead by the biggest stick since Scott Summers... Rick Flagg(played by Joel Kinnaman). My guess is that Flagg had his pert in the movie reduced when Tom Hardy dropped out because he literally serve no purpose in the movie. Anyway... Flagg is the commanding "officer" of the task force consisting of the best of the worst. The idea is to send in a bunch of nano-explosive laced criminals to do black op´s missions. If they live and complete the objective they get time off their sentences. If they fail Waller just toss them under the buss and if they start to color outside of the lines... click click boom. Head comes off. Generally speaking at least one member of Suicide Squad tend to bite it when they are sent out. 

I leave it up to you to guess if this movie follow suite. 

So.... Enter the antagonist, A ancient metahuman that the government try to control, this goes about as good as expected. So once the big bad start to fuck up one of DC comics many made up cities Waller activate TF:X and Flagg, a bunch of no-name marines and the self titled Suicide Squad consisting of 

Deadshot (Will Smith, master marksman and single dad) 

Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, amphibian metahuman with heighten strength and durability)

El Diablo (Jay Hernandez, Pyrokenetic gangboss)

Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, Angry.. really angry.. Throws boomerangs) 

Enchantress (Cara Delevingne, the host of a angry spirit that can do magic.. ish...)

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, Crazy as balls acrobat and psychologist)

Flagg also bring in Katana (Karen Fukuhara, Master swordsman with a magic sword) as his enforcer, not a all together bad idea seeing how these are not the most balanced people to begin with. Beyond this point the movie can pretty much be split in to two... One is a average summer action movie and the other is a fairly smartly written drama... neither get the time it needs to really shine. I guess it do not need to tell anyone that the big bad is beaten and everyone is happy... Oh well... Alive... Sort of... Also we have a Joker sub-plot that is fun but also really does not go anywhere.(I´l make a separate post about Jarred Letos Joker.. Lot to say there.)  This is very clearly a origins movie setting up this sub-franchise of the DC CU. 

Now what make the movie a worthwhile watch in my mind is the fact that it does a lot of "show not tell" as far as the characters and their motivations. The action part of the movie is rather useless, it does what it needs and for the most part it is well put together. But seeing how the movie manages to make you feel for the bad guys as wells as the antagonist... Not so much for the big bad... But it belongs to the action part of the movie. The smart use of the bigger DC universe is another, the movie fits in very well and actually makes me more interested in the upcoming movies. There is a genuin warmth in the movie and more than a few really funny moments. The timing and pacing is also nice and the extra credit scene is absolute gold. 

Now i have brought up before (several times.. I know) how much I like the Amanda Waller character and there is not enough praise I can give to Davis for how she make this character work (and álso David Ayer and John Ostrander for actually writing a good character) She has all the menace and stone cold attitude that i always felt that the Arrow version lacked. You get the feeling that she could make even Batman tighten up with a single look... Not to mention the poor generals and politicians she bulldoze in the movie.

It does suffer from traileritis... Much of the early movie have been spoiled by trailers and seeing how the later part holds no real twists worth mentioning... It was annoying, But the great soundtrack from the trailers carry over in to the film it self making up for some of it. 

So to cap it off... It is no Avengers but a much better film than the previous Superman films gave any indication of DC/WB being able to produce. A easy to digest summer popcorn film with a great cast and enough hearth to fill the empty void that BvS left. 

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. 

Civil War – Marvel style. Captain America 3 Spoiler version

Captain America: Civil War is the latest offering form the house of the mouse´s super hero division. And as usual when it comes to the Cap movies it is not so much a super hero movie as a movie with super heroes in it. In this case a political thriller mixed with a psychological drama… Is said genres where raised on Rice Krispies.  But seeing how it is an ensemble film following in the messy footsteps of Avengers 2 I had my doubts that it would not turn in to a horrid convoluted mess.

It is my great pleasure to inform you all that it in fact was not a horrid convoluted mess.

But I get ahead of myself. The story goes thusly.

In the aftermath of Age of Ultron the world in general and Sokovia in particular are not all that hyped about the Avengers any more. Sure they did save the world.. or at least New York from giant armored space whales, but since they have not had much in the way of wins… Between Iron Man getting his house blown up and thrash a commercial dock, SHEILD trying to take over the world by the way of Hydra (or the other way around depending on point of view). Captain America dropping three very expensive experimental aircrafts on a fairly populated area and no to mention the rogue AI trying to annihilate an entire country… An AI created in part by Tony Stark. And as the movie opens they manage to explode a building when trying to capture a terrorist. To say it has been a couple of rough years is a mild understatement.

So the plan is to turn the Avengers in to a UN/Nato attack dog. This is done by the way of equal amounts of guilt and threats and for ol Steve Rogers this does not really mesh with the idea of them being a global force for good. So there you have the schism. But most people agree it could perhaps be a good idea to at least appear to fall in line. As this debate is going on Steve is informed that his almost dame and favorite British spy Peggy Carter has passed away and while visiting her funeral gets some words of “wisdom” from Peggy’s niece Sharon aka agent 13 aka Steve’s old neighbor. So while Cap and Falcon goes on a buddy road trip the rest of the Avengers gear up to attend the signing of the so called Sokovia Accord.

Here we meet T'Chaka, the current king of Wakanda and his son T´Challa. He seems like a nice guy and as such T'Chaka very quickly get an explosion in the back making T´Challa the effective king. Fortunately for him he does not only get the throne of one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world but he also get a super suit and the alias of Black Panther. This is good as he seek to avenge his father. Go him.

Our buddy cop team of Cap and Falcon get involved in this when it looks like the Winter Solider was the one pulling the “trigger” and Cap want to save his old buddy seeing how pretty much everyone else he knew is dead. We do have to remember that Cap might be closer to 100 years chronologically but he is still a 25-ish year old nerd. This will also be important to remember once we get to Caps romantic sub-plot… if you like to call it that.

So with the issue and the motivation set up for this “civil war” the avengers set out to beat the ever living crap out of each other. As the story unravel we see that much of this fuzz was for a former Hydra agent by the name of Zemo to get access to the Winter Solider so he could find information on a very special mission that the Winter Soldier did back in the days. Turns out that Bucky was not the only Russian super soldier and that he did in fact kill Howard Stark. The plan here seems to be to drive a permanent wedge between Tony and Steve and in turn split the Avengers.

So Cap and Tony kick the snot out of each other and then Cap and Bucky makes off to Wakanda where they put Bucky on ice until they can figure out a way to break his brainwashing.

So… The movie is good in fact I would say it beats A2 by a mile and does so with about the same size of cast. Maybe it is because the story is much more personal and the conflict more anchored in… Well… Reality if that is the word to use. Sure we have to play with a lot of plot convenience and among other things I feel that Cap´s motivations are forced. But at the same time as I said we have to keep in mind that Steve is a young man who has one person left in the world that can relate to him and see him as the person he was before he became Cap. I would go pretty far for a person like that. Same goes for his rather hasty romantic sub-plot with Sharon Carter, forced but not entirely out of character. Sure it is a bit weird but she is the closest he will ever get to the love of his life. Not a healthy basis for a relationship but again he is a young (and in some way emotionally underdeveloped) man on the rebound from a lot of shit. To seek solace in familiarity is not unheard of.

Now I of course have to link back to the comics arch that provided name and over all story to this film… As expected they share very little beyond the name but the movie still do a very good job at hitting key points from the comics. The Stamford incident (one of the most emotional gut punches in modern comics history in my mind) where a villain out of hand blows up a good chunk of a town called Stamford including a school full of children. The super-person superMAX iirc called sector 42 or some such, Spiderman (did not do much in the movie but is kind of important in the comics) and the whole bit with Cap realizing that he is in fact going out of control. These moments all translated in to the film in one way or the other.

So it was a worthy end to the Captain America saga and a way to redeem Avengers age of Ultron for being a messy messy thing. It is with confidence I now turn my eyes towards the future of the Marvel cinematic universe.

//T

Daredevil season 2 – The good the bad and the ugly.

So Daredevil season 2 just dropped and like any Netflix series I watched the entire thing in one single sitting. This is in itself not a good idea as the series weigh in at a decent 13 episodes. But it also tend to make one a tad bit more critical as the series goes on.

Now the story so far goes thusly. (Spoilers… And more spoilers)

Matt Murdoc is a bland lawyer that run a kind of pro-bono practice with his law school buddy Foggy Nelson. Unbeknownst to Foggy Matt has super senses that he gained as a child after being splashed with chemicals… because that is a thing… when he saved an elderly man. Now as an adult he put these special skills to use to meet out vigilante justice on the people who the legal system cannot. During the first season we get to know Matt, Foggy and their first customer turned secretary Karen Page as they protect New York´s Hell´s Kitchen both in court and on the streets. The conflict focuses as the criminal and political power player Wilson Fisk makes his presence known putting him and Matt on a collision course. This whole affair resolves with Matt exposing his second life to Foggy and Fisk ending up behind bars. Setting the stage for season two.

In season two we find Matt and the gang pretty much where we left them last time… Just about a year later. With Matt doing his dance of being a sort of lawyer at day and fearless vigilante at night a new player enters the vigilante scene by turning several gang in the city in to Swiss cheese. And while Foggy and Karen go to war against the district attorney over first a survivor of the gang massacre and then later the Punisher aka Frank Castle as his repeated murders brought him in to conflict with Daredevil. Then the story goes completely off the rail... In short order we find out that Castle was a victim of a failed drug bust that caused his family to be gunned down, the DA office covered it up for political reasons, his former CO being a drug lord and that his entire war was based on a misunderstanding. All in all he had a very bad time. Add to this mess that Matt is cutting out on his duties as lawyer to run around with his ex-girlfriend who just happen to be an assassin as she try to take down a bunch of honest to god ninjas. In the end nothing get resolved and anyone familiar with Electra and her story from the comics should know how that storyline ends.

This season of Daredevil seems rushed, like they had a handful of episodes planned but then had to fill in the rest of the story… Maybe not as they went but it felt rushed. The Frank Castle storyline feels solid and apart from the weird twist on the end was well paced. The Electra story otoh felt slapped on and had some serious pacing issues. Now with that said the overall impression is that Daredevil season 2 still make for some really good TV but that it does not really live up to the previous season or Jessica Jones. We will have to see how the Netflix marvel series holds up as we move forward in to Luke Cage and beyond.

So my final recommendation is to watch it but make sure to spread it out over some time to counteract the dip in the middle of the season. 

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. 

Marvels Jessica Jones - a solid punch to the gut. (Spoilers… Duh)

So with Netflix rising to become an entertainment giant and Disney want to have their Marvel property in, on and around every place on earth the multi series deal that spawned Daredevil was not unexpected.

What was unexpected was how seriously Netflix took the deal. Daredevil was a very well-produced series that set the new bar for in my mind not only superhero series but any kind of fantasy drama. So when the teasers for Jessica Jones started to drop the “buzz” was real. But as a comics fan and as someone who is fleetingly familiar with the character of Jessica Jones I had some reservations. Mostly because Jones is a broken human being, used and abused in the worst of ways. How would Netflix tell that part of the story? The answer in hindsight should have been clear. They simply told it as it were.

So for the people not familiar with the story it goes thusly. Jessica Jones is a girl with superpowers, flight, super strength and some limited rapid healing. Like most people who get powers in the marvel universe she decides to be a hero. In the comics they wrote her in as a background character, someone who had always been there but never seen. But she had not even taken down her first Batroc before she fell under the control of the villain Purple man (aka Kilgrave/Killgrave). A sadist with mind control powers by the way of pheromones. Both in the series and the comics what follow is a period of mental torture and well… Rape. But it ends with her breaking free of his control and slowly trying to put her life back together. She hangs up her cape and goes in to private investigation and heavy drinking.

The series picks up at this point and tell most of the backstory in flashbacks, including a live action version of the outfit she used in the comics. The series love to toss in this kind of Easter eggs. In fact the very first scene in the series is a picture perfect recreation of the opening scene in the comics.

I mentioned earlier that the series does not pull any punches or really make any excuses for the way Jessica acts. They just drop her there and tell us to deal with it however we like. This is refreshing and lends a certain level of realism to the story. The series also does a very good job I have been told of portraying someone who have lived with abuse and trauma. While I have very little in the way of reference myself it felt very genuine. Now with this being Netflix and thusly not regulated by the American TV-censor board everything is a bit more gritty. While not as in your face gory as Daredevil, Jessica Jones has its fair share of both blood, sex and drugs. But I never feel they go overboard with it. It still fits very well in with the theme and mood of the series.

Now Jessica Jones is backed up by a real nice cast of characters including childhood friend and former childactor-turned-radio host Trish Walker and bulletproof bar owner and sometimes fuckbuddy Luke Cage. Trish in many ways become Jessica´s flip-side. Someone who also have faced trauma and abuse but choose to put on a façade of normality rather than choosing Jessica´s “fuck all” attitude.

As for Luke he does not get as much development, mostly because he is next up for his own series on Netflix but the series do an apt job of making him a believable character and a stellar job of bringing the comic hero to life.  Also the sex scenes between Luke and Jessica are as comedic as they are tragic.

Now it would be a grave error to not bring up perhaps the best portrayal of a villain in the Marvel cinematic universe. Kilgrave is as scary as he is pathetic. The fact that he sees himself as the victim of his own power and honestly do not see any problem in how he bends peoples wills. He simply sees himself as superior. In fact Jessica is the only known case of someone resisting his control. This have made him obsessed with her and the length he goes to in order to play mind-games with her is downright scary. At the same time he is at the core just a very broken and scared man. Afraid to be left alone and forgotten. Like Kingpin his motivations are clear as a character and they are maybe not relatable but at least they are things we can understand. These are the same traits I think made Loki such a good villain, we can all understand rejection and obsession. The seeking of approval and that is what makes it so effective when Kilgrave goes to such extreme lengths, because we all have at one time or another wished we had that very power to bend others to our will.

So I say go watch Jessica Jones and Daredevil on Netflix. It will be worth a month´s subscription. (also if you do, check out Orange is the new Black. A very good series in its own right.) 

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 

Jurassic world. It can not be worse than JP3.

Ok first off i am a bad bad person that fails at planning and time management. Sorry about that. Secondly I know I said this was going to be about Blizzards OverWatch… Then the new Jurassic Park trailer hit the web… .. .In case you missed it.

It… Is… Glorious…((also spoilers for the trailer and by extension the film.))

It is just about as facedesk stupid as you would expect a continuation of the Jurassic Park movie franchise to be. (The books are a different matter… So I will leave them out of this. )

You just went and made a new dinosaur... Probably not a good idea.

The story goes as follow. Jurassic World is John Hammond’s vision come true… But what is better than gene-modified dinos… Hybrids… Now way that could end badly… Then Chris Pratt is awesome and they have trained Velociraptors as hunting dogs… I would assume a CEO or other legal entity will get eaten… Also there are kids… Because Jurassic Park…I also like to point out that a pack of hunter/tracker raptors are an awesome idea.

So the trailer is only roughly two and a half minute long but it is packed with so much nostalgia and ambiance that... Well you get a little bit of that feeling you had when you saw the first movie. Now I have seen all the movies and I even think I saw the first one in the cinemas but I might be wrong. It was after all a few years ago. Now I loved the first movie, hard not to seeing as I was all of… 12 at the timer of release and that I had a fascination with Dinosaurs since a very young age. But I also picked up the book and enjoyed the heck out of that one. I think it is fair to say that Lost World did not really live up to the expectations, not only was I older but it lacked the punch that the second book had, at least as I remember it now thinking back. It was also a god awful movie in its own right. The less said about the third film… The better.

 

Walking with dinosaurs... Hammond style.

Actually let´s talk a bit about the third film any way. It did really take the bad things from the previous two movies and ramped it up even more. Big got bigger, Dumb got dumber and evil got more evil. And they had the audacity to put in the scene with the aviary. I like they tried to un-FUBAR the raptors (they seem to have given up that idea for this move and simply gone with “this is OUR raptors…” ) but all they manage to do is make them look.. Stupid… Not to mention young Clayton, lord of the jungle and first in line to inherit the Greytile estate…. Yes that little kid that somehow did what well trained and equipped adults failed to do. Fuck iNGen should hire him as the COO for their new park… In fact that would be an amazing turn of events. After all he should be 20-something by now…

crocosaursthingamabob... And yes.. that is a very big shark it is eating.

Any way Jurassic Park 3 was a horrid mess of Triceratops shit and it pretty much killed the franchise for me. So back when I first heard about the new movie (in any shape beyond “it might get done” and “raptors with lasers on their heads”) I was very much “Meh…” but you know what this trailer has me a bit pumped, and seeing how the film always was more fiction the sci-fi roots of the book all this stupid shit does not bother me. After all if you make genetically engineered “dinosaurs” why not make them a bit bigger and meaner looking, after all it is what the crowd is paying for. So what if the size of your regular lapdog or the T-Rex could not and would not outrun an average joe on a bike. You are putting on a show and by god a show they are going to get. Who give a fuck if the T-Rex is nearly blind due to shoddy DNA work or the beefed up…? Tylosaurinae…(or more likley a Mosasaurus? But who the heck knows...) only might liv a few weeks… It is showbiz.

 

I will most likely go in to Jurassic World hibernation now seeing as this is one of the franchises that I fear will go down hard on the path of spoiler-tastic.

 

Any way it is agood trailer and I am very much pumped for the idea and the concept. Also I kind of like Chris Pratt in these loveable douche roles