Phew! That was close!

Only 7 minutes left in the day and I remembered that I haven't posted on here yet, boy that was a close one, that is all, see ya tomorrow!

-Danny

My Favourite Characters - Wash

Continuing my favourite characters series, it's Wash from Firefly. Now picking your favourite character from Firefly is already difficult enough, I mean it's Firefly. But while most people settle on picking someone like Mal, I have always had a soft spot for Wash, mostly because he is just the most fun member of the group. Mal is just a little bit too damaged for my taste and sometimes a bit of a downer, it doesn't make him a bad character, in fact it makes him an even more complex character, but my favourite part of Mal was all of his funny one liners, but you know who does that even better? Wash. Wash was the pilot of the Serenity and more often than not, the comic relief. And I'll be dammed if he wasn't the best comic relief in the galaxy. The guy is just filled with memorable lines and moments "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" "were I not wed I'd take you in a manly fashion" "oh god, oh god we're going to die?" and of course "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar". Fact is, Wash in my opinion has no bad moments or character traits to him, he has great chemistry with almost every crew member and gets most of the best lines, and you can't forget the relationship between him & Zoey, which Joss Whedon himself said that they are the one couple that he wrote that he would have never broken up, that should be enough to tell you how awesome they are "Psychic? Isn't that just a bit science-fiction?" "We live in a spaceship honey". Also you can't forget that Saffron once tried to seduce him and he refused because he loves his wife too much, and keep in mind that Saffron is played by Christina Hendricks...turning her down should be impossible, this man is truly incredible. And not to mention in the film "Serenity" it makes us realise just how much we love the guy. In my opinion Wash is the most entertaining character in the crew, he's the most honest and likeable, he's the best character from one of the best shows.

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 for 2018...whaaaaaat????

Weeks ago, it was announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will be released in 2018, that's 4 years away from now and when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released, now obviously we'll be getting Spider-Man stuff in-between, but we won't officially see another Spider-Man movie for 4 whole years...that's insane. Not that we have to wait that long, I'm more than fine with waiting 4 years for another Spider-Man movie, the thing that gets to me is when I realised that the next time I see a Spider-Man movie in theatres, i'll be an adult...I'll be 22 years old, I'll have a job, I'll have my own place, I will have finished my education...this is insane. I mean when the first Spider-Man movie came out I was 7 years old, it was the first ever superhero movie I watched, when Spider-Man 3 came out I had just started secondary school. When Amazing Spider-Man came out in theatres I was in college, when Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out I was just finishing college. And now with Amazing Spider-Man 3 coming out and I'll be an adult...this franchise has been there with me through all the major points in my life, every time I see a new Spider-Man movie something major has changed, who I am as a person is completely different from who I was when I went to see the last film, and the same is happening with this new film...and the strangest part is, this is the only thing in my future I can confirm. In 2018 I don't know where I want to live, I don't know what my job will be, who my friends will be, what i'll be doing with my life, the only thing that I am 100% sure on about my life in the year 2018 is that I will go see The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in theatres, and the fact that that's the only thing I can confirm feels just a little bit daunting to me.

-Danny

Han & Luke's Rankings

So in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is a commander and Han is a captain, but in Return of the Jedi they are both generals, now my question is, how is this possible? I mean they couldn't have been promoted inbetween films because Luke was on Degobah training to be a jedi and Han was frozen in carbonite, neither of them were with the rebels in between movies so what did they do to get promoted? Especially to something as high a ranking as a general!

Talking About My Favourite Characters - Hermione

When it comes to fiction, the most important element to me over every other aspect of a product is the characters, characters can make or break a product to me, whether it be film, TV, video game, book, etc. It doesn't matter if the story is fantastic and full of deep themes and metaphors, if I find the characters boring, I don't like the film. And then on the otherside if the story is uttershit and cliched as hell but has a really cool character, then I could end up liking the film. Character over story for me, so as you can imagine I have plenty of favourite characters, and I decided that every so often I'm going to do a blog post where I just talk about them, and I'm starting this whole thing off with the best character from my favourite fantasy story, Hermione from Harry Potter.

Hermione is a total badass, she's the one who knows everything and if it wasn't for her, shit would never get done. Let's start off with her best quality, her intelligence. Hermione despite being muggle-born knows more about the wizarding world and magic than probably half of the teachers at Hogwarts, she's the best wizard in the school and because of her brains she got Harry & Ron out of a problem on multiple occasions. Whether it be making a polyjuice potion when only 12 or convincing Harry to start up Dumbledore's Army, she's the one that makes the big difference. As Ron puts it "we wouldn't last two days without her" and that is very true, in the Deathly Hallows she's the one coming up with plans, she's the one that knows all of the spells to keep them safe, she's the one that figures out the sword of Gryffindor will destry the Horcrux's, let's face it, in comparison to her, Harry is a total dumbass, she's the better character, make her the focus of the story!

But there is more to her than brains, if that was all there was then she'd be a Ravenclaw, the only thing more powerful than her brain is her heart, her courage and loyalty is the reason why she is constantly in perrel that she gets herself out of, her friends need her, she knows it, even when it could end in her getting killed (or worse, expelled) she isn't going to abandon them. She's smart, loyal, responsible & brave, she's an all-round fantastic character, and is one of the very best.

-Danny

Schmoes Know Network Reviews

If you don't watch the Schmoes Know then here's a history lesson for ya. Schmoes Know is a brand name started by the Schmoes Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis, it started out with them doing movie reviews on YouTube (in horrible video quality, let's be honest) back in 2008 and to this day they are still doing that (though the quality is much better) and now they are the first YouTube film critics to be recognised by Rotten Tomatoes, they go to screenings for movies and have interviewed dozens of people in the industry. Eventually they began their own podcast in a living room with some cheap microphones, and now they have their own studio, team of professionals and recently have started their own network. This network consists of other team members of the Schmoes Know crew with their own podcasts to talk about specific movie related topics and while I imagine there will be more in the future, I'm gonna talk about the ones on the network right now.

Box Office Breakdown

I'll be honest, the initial concept for this podcast didn't interest me, I mean we already get the box office facts on sundays so I didn't see the point in having a whole podcast dedicated to it. But then I saw who was hosting it, JTE & Finstock, put those two together and you have a great comedy team, but then again, something was missing, and then we got Sara Stretton, who just completed this trio of awesome. Finstock being the wild and hard to control one, JTE as the more direct and unorganised one and Sara as the voice of reason, you couldn't ask for a better trio. So while the concept itself still doesn't interest me, I keep watching every week simply for the hosts, because they're the ones that make the show entertaining.

Guilty Movie Pleasures

I'll be honest, this is my least favourite of the podcasts, now that's not to say that it's a bad podcast, it's just they haven't really discussed a film that I care all too much about (Except for Point Break). That plus Steve Simone while funny I'm in the minority of not thinking he's hilarious, The Wildman I obviously love but again, the main thing is if I don't care about the movie, I don't care about the podcast.

Jedi Alliance

This right here is my favourite new podcast on the network, and why? Because I bloody love Star Wars! Who doesn't? I mean it's Star Wars! It's always interesting to talk about the greatest science-fiction film franchise of all time, and not to mention Ken Napzok & Maude Garrett are hilarious, seperate or together, everything about this podcast works, Jedi Alliance FTW!

Marvel Movie News

This was one that I was very curious on as it's the only podcast made up of entirely new crew members, so I was quite excited for it, getting to meet the new crew members and also I am a big fan of Marvel so it was definitely something I was interested in. And it definitely met my expectations, talking about all things Marvel, including the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, as soon as they brought that up I was a fan, it's still rather new so I can't fully judge it yet but I am definitely going to keep watching.

Meet the Movie Press

Probably the most educational of the new podcasts, taking a more critical look at the movie press industry overall and seeing it from different aspects from getting a new scoop and the legality and honesty of the press industry and seeing how much work these people have to put into it, it's a very interesting podcast to listen to. I will admit it's technically the least entertaining of the podcasts but I feel as though it's main goal is to educate its listeners and it definitely meets that goal because I always feel that little bit smarter after listening to it.

Profiles

So let me just say this about Profiles, Alicia Malone and Scott Mantz are just simply amazing, they are the best hosts on the network, hearing them geek out over things is just the best, they could be talking about making a loaf of bread and they'll somehow make it the most entertaining thing in your life. Hearing these two talk about some of the greatest film makers of all time is just a blast and according to Schmoeville it appears to be their favourite podcast, for me it's a very close second to Jedi Alliance and it is just fantastic.

Schmoes Know Podcast

And finally we have the big one, the original and the greatest podcast of all time, the Schmoes Know Podcast. This is my favourite mostly because it has all of the great characters from the other podcasts but it is the one that made me such a huge fan of the Schmoes and I look forward to it every week, hell, I've even stayed up late sometimes to watch it live, and considering that it airs at 2am England time, that takes commitment. It's the podcast that started it all and gave us the Schmoeville that we all love, not to mention it has the best guests and has a lot of great segments on it like Schmoevillian of the week, Celebrity Dating Game, Ultimate Trivia, The Game, Tweet a Celebrity, Ken's news. It's the podcast that started it all and made the Schmoes who they are today and has the most content towards it, it's the best podcast on the network and the best podcast there is.

-Danny

Pranks Are All Wrong!

One of the biggest and often most controversial forms of vidoes on YouTube is prank videos, people that specialize in going around town and making "pranks" and getting loads of views for them for minimum effort. Now these prank channels often go through a lot of controversy for being rude, inappropriate and more often than not, immoral and people often say these aren't real pranks, they're just people being twats. And I agree with that sentiment, but I take it one step furthur, even if these pranks had no controversy surrounding them, they're still not pranks! A prank is doing something risky, silly, unexpected, etc and convince someone that it is a legitimate scenario, thus when revealing the fact it's not serious, they look like a fool. This is what a prank is. What a lot of YouTubers do is one of two things, either putting themselves in a silly situation and making them look like the fool rather than the victim of the "prank". Or forcefully putting someone in a silly situation, in which case that's not a prank because they didn't fall for anything! Now i'm not saying these videos aren't funny...I mean i don't think they're funny but every so often they get a laugh out of me. What I'm saying is that these aren't pranks either the wrong person looks like the fool or no one looks like the fool, that's the major problem here, So learn what a prank is or don't do it at all! Fool of a took.

-Danny

So uni so far

So I have recently started university and have been here for several days already, haven't started my courses yet so the past few days have just been getting used to the uni life, hanging out with flatmates and having fun. So here's what I've been doing, I got drunk and partied...that was pretty much it. But it was kind of a big deal for me because in all my years I have never been drunk before, not because I have any kind of moral stance on it, I just don't really drink alcohol very often, but of course that all changed over the weekend where I learnt that I am very good with shots, they taste alright and get ya drunk pretty quickly, so I ended up having over a dozen of those, that was cool. Then me and a dozen other people, all of whom I share accommodation with, went clubbing and got even more drunk, and yet again, this was my first time doing something like this. I never went to a club before because I never really cared for it, I'm definitely a pub guy rather than a club guy. They just seemed loud, crowded and basically, not my scene. And while granted I still don't think it is my thing, I mean I'm not exactly going to count the days till the next time we go out is, but I thought it was pretty decent and I wouldn't mind doing it again at some point. But with that being said I was the first one out of our group that wanted to leave, I mean once I stopped buying drinks got bored of dancing like we'd been doing for the past 2 hours, really there were no surprises left for the night so once everyone else was like "let's go back" I thought "oh thank god" but then 15 minutes later they all went out again and I said fuck it, I'm going to bed. And that is the story of uni so far, and it's been pretty fun, hopefully it will be fun for a while seeing as I'll be living here for a year...shit I better find a good hairdresser.

-Danny

What Will 2014 Mean to Me?

So for some reason I've kinda been in a reflecting stage recently, most likely because I'm at university now, yeah, that's a big change in my life, in a new city, meeting new people and having to take care of myself, it's a big deal for me and I'll talk more about it tomorrow; but for now, I've started reflecting back on 2014 a little early and I feel like talking about it, so, let's talk about it. So when I think back to 2014 I feel like what I'm going to remember more than anything is the summer of this year, which is probably the second best summer of my life. In case you're wondering the best summer of my life was 2012, that was my Stand By Me summer, the one where you go for long walks with your friends, talk about life and learn things about each other and yourselves that you never had before, everyone has a summer like that and that was mine. But this summer was my first actual "adult" summer, seeing as I'm 18 now and so are all my friends we can actually do adult things, we can go to pubs and clubs and several of us can drive (don't worry, we don't drink & drive, we're still responsible) it's a big time for all of us and really we wanted to make this summer mean more than any other summer we've had because while we are adults this is the last chance to make "childhood" memories, because after this we have to start acting like adults.

And we did a lot this summer, we went camping, went to MCM Comic-con, went to festivals & concerts, and a lot of those events involved alcohol, but we also kept the classic summer activities and bonded and friendships grew stronger and talked about all that emotional crap which friends do and I enjoyed all of it. But honestly my favourite summer activity that we didn't really get to do this much is just hang out, go for walks and talk about life, whether it be personal or just any ol' crap in life, that's where the memories really go and yeah we got some but not as much as 2012, hence why that's still my favourite summer. But above all else what I realised most from this summer is that I want to be a proper adult already, and I know people always say enjoy your youth but honestly i'm at that point where I think I'm ready to start a proper life, I want me and my friends to be able to hangout at my place without asking permission and be able to stay there until 2am without question, I want to have a real job and be able to support myself, yeah the job may suck but atleast I'll have a home that is 100% my home. I mean don't get me wrong I'm very happy with my family life but I think i'm ready to move on from that already.

But apart from that this has been a pretty busy year so far, I went to New York for the first time in my life and that was fucking awesome, it's even more impressive considering I-do-not-like-cities. I don't, I'm a village boy and I love the village, it's nice & quiet, everyone you know is within walking distance and there's nothing better than being awake at 3am and you get that silence that you can't get in a city. But New York I felt was a great town and I'd love to go back there again, and again, and again. But preferably not when it's snowing...fuck NY snow. I also finished college, 3 years of my life all for a few A-Levels and now I'm at university, the final stage of my education, after this I am officially an adult, I'm entering that stage of my life and that is daunting and exciting and even after all of this, the year still isn't over yet.

My life at uni has literally just begun, hell I haven't even started classes yet, all i've done is move in to my accommodation. For all I know my life could completely change here and when I go home i'll be a completely different person...or nothing could change and when I go home this christmas i'll be the same person I am right now, who knows? Being honest I'm not one of those people that thinks life is going to be absolutely different from here on out, like all my friends that are going to university as well have been like that, my best friend saying how this is a new stage in our lives and I just felt like saying "...dude i'll see you in like a month" I mean I can understand the sentiment and I am going to miss all my friends but at the same time those are my roots, that area and those people are who made me what I am today and I don't think all of that is going to be undone in just a little bit of time away, then again my best friend has been at uni for a week and he's already getting drunk, something he never did back home, so for all I know i've just got my foot in my mouth, we'll find out in the following months. After all...winter is coming...well...technically autumn is coming first but after that...winter is coming.

-Danny

The Animaniacs are perverted

If you've ever seen an episode of the animaniacs then you've probably at somepoint heard the phrase "HELLOOOOOOOOO NURSE!" followed by smooching and chasing people around the room for more smooching. As a kid it's just harmless banter amongst the characters, but as you grow older you realise how sick and disgusting this is...let's face it guys, the Warner Brothers (And The Warner Sister Dot) are total perverts, they constantly kiss people without their consent and often when a character knows what they're going to do, they actively try and prevent it and even run away from them, just to be caught and have to kiss them against their will. Not only are the Warner Brothers (And Warner Sister) total perverts and kinda sluts for making out with everyone they meet, but they are pretty much just a few steps away from full on rape, and that is kinda sick. I know I'm just reading into this too much but I mean, come on, whenever you watch Animaniacs now as an adult, you can't help but think to yourself "this is just a touch rapey" because it is. It's funny as hell, but rapey, and I am not okay with, that I am okay with that.

-Danny

This is The Greatest Thing Ever!

I grew up with the Power Rangers, not all of it though, I saw a couple of reruns of Mighty Morphin, Zeo & Turbo but for me my first official Power Rangers series was In Space and I watched it all the way through my childhood up to Ninja Storm is when I stopped caring, but up until then, Power Rangers was my jam, I absolutely loved everything Power Rangers. Of course now that I'm older I realise it is the stupidest fucking thing in the history of the world, but that kinda makes me love it more. It is the pinnacle of cheesiness and over the top ridiculous nonsense, overall, it's just silly, but I still love it. And recently I found an old clip of the show, a crossover episode with the In Space Power Rangers and the Lost Galaxy Power Rangers and it was the best thing I've seen in my life.

Basically, every season the new Power Rangers would do a crossover with the previous Power Rangers and awesomeness would ensue. But this was the first ever crossover and watching this again as a kind-of-technically adult and remembering how I felt the first time I saw this I absolutely lost my shit. As a kid this was the best thing ever, this was my Avengers, seeing two different childhood hero groups combining into one, and you wanna know something? When I saw this again for the first time in 15 years, I still lost my shit. Everything about this scene is over the top, nostalgia filled badassery, I literally geekgasmed at this, and I never geekgasm.

The first super awesome part is when the other rangers show up to help and they do those ridiculous poses and you're reaction is like "Holy shit! It's the old Rangers! WTF!? Awesome!!!!" Then your second reaction is depression because Zhane isn't there, but you get over it. And then comes to greatest thing ever, the In Space Rangers morph into the Power Rangers again...OOH MY GOOOODDDD!! Hearing the old theme song and seeing those transformation sequences again is just badass and waves of nostalgia come crawling back. But it gets even better, then the Lost Galaxy crew morph as well and the theme songs just transition into one another, seamlessly going from In Space to Lost Galaxy as if they were part of the same song ohmygodit'ssogood! But it doesn't stop there, then there are the poses, the stupid, pointless, silly looking poses that have no reason being there...and it is fucking awesome. But there's still one thing left...the thing that brings it all together in badassery...the explosions...The two teams together for the first time and all of a sudden several explosions behind them and they just stand there looking badass. Why were there explosions? No fucking clue, makes no sense, but I'll be dammed if it isn't the coolest thing ever!

Nothing in this clip makes any goddamn sense and is stupid as hell, but if you grew up with the Power Rangers tell me that this isn't the best thing in Power Rangers history, if not the history of everything, the only thing that has a chance of topping it is that Red Rangers special where all the Red Power Rangers teamed up. That was the shit.

-Danny

Why Supernatural Ends at Season 5

Supernatural is a hit fantasy show on the CW with a HUGE fanbase...seriously, like, it's not even a fanbase at this point, it's a cult. And I overall really enjoy the show, I like the characters, the monsters, the humour and the creative plots. But above all else it has in my opinion a very well written and thought out finale of the show...too bad the show continued for 5 seasons after that finale. Yeah despite having a damn good ending to the show and also season 5 being as big as a season as you can get, for some reason the show is still going on, and that reason being that it is popular and the CW are going to squeeze it for everything that it's worth. However as far as I'm concerned this show ends with season 5 and here are my reasons why. First off: This is where it was supposed to end, Eric Kripke, the creator of the show always intended for it to be a 5 season long show and once it was renewed, he left the show because everything after that point was not part of the big plan. Reason two: the show isn't gonna get any bigger, the fifth season has the world at the apocalypse's door and the main baddie is Lucifer, A.K.A. Satan. This is as big as it gets people, how are you going to top Satan!? Reason Three: It's a damn good ending. It's just like I said, it's a damn good ending, it perfectly wraps up Sam & Dean's story in a clever and well thought out manor, showing the growth and change of these characters as well as expressing their relationship as brothers and their dedication to the job, it's not a perfect ending by any means and I'm sure a lot of fans were disappointed by it but for me, I thought it was great and whatever the "official" ending is, it's not gonna be able to top this. This show was a great five season long run but for one reason or another they decided to carry on...my wayward son.

-Danny

Will Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Be Good?

A movie that a lot of people are excited for and a lot of other people who are sceptical for, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, the first time ever that Batman and Superman will be on the big screen for the first time ever, of course people are going to be excited for this. However the reason why some people are sceptical is because they just didn't think Man of Steel was very good, I personally am sort of split on the film, while I enjoy it overall I can't say it's technically a good film, the story isn't very well told and it has plenty of cliches and good god, would a little bit of colour kill ya!? So considering that the starting film of this DC Cinematic Universe started out with mixed reviews and they still seem to be playing catch up with Marvel, you can imagine that would make people nervous about their future instalments.

I however are very excited for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, but not only am I excited, but I'm confident in it, because so far they seem to have learnt from their mistakes. What were the two biggest problems with the first film for me? The script and the cinematography. The script of the film had a poorly constructed story, little character development of even personality given to the characters, but then again that's what you'd expect out of a David .S. Goyer script. This time round we have Chris Terrio writing the screenplay for the film, and what has this guy done before? Argo, which won the Acadamy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, so you know, that helps give me confidence. And then there is the cinematographer, in Man of Steel the director of photography was Amir Mokri, who I felt did a bad job, there was way too much shaky cam in it rather than actual effort put into setting up every shot, also it was really badly lit and pretty damn dull to look at. This time round we have Larry Fong, who has worked with Zack Snyder on multiple films such as 300 and Watchmen, and you know how most people will say the best thing about Zack Snyder is that he never makes a bad looking movie? Well this guy deserves plenty of credit, I mean just look at the trailer for Watchmen, very few words are said, it's mostly told through visuals, and they look absolutely stunning.

Which leads me to my next point, the director, Zack Snyder. Now it's no secret that Zack Snyder is not the most successful guy when it comes to story, I mean they're not necessarily bad, just not the best part. However, given a good script then I feel like he can pull it off, after all Watchmen in my opinion is his best film yet, mostly because it has a very solid script to work off of, just leave him in charge of getting the visuals across and boom, you've got a good movie. And while the cinematography in Man of Steel was off, the action was fantastic, and that was because of Snyder. So considering that we have a good screenwriter on the film to give the movie a good story, a good cinematographer to support Snyder's visuals, and considering all of things that we've seen so far, more colour in the Superman suit, an awesome looking Batsuit and Batmobile, I'd say we've got a pretty good movie coming our way.

Also here are my quick thoughts on other points of the movie: Ben Affleck, I like him, I thought he was a good choice, not to mention the guy has really turned his career around in the past few years and has proven himself as a great film maker. The title, it sucks, why couldn't you just call it Batman vs Superman, putting Dawn of Justice in there is just stupid, we know you've got Justice League coming, you don't need to spell it out for us. The Batsuit, it looks fucking awesome.

-Danny

Peter's Dad Lives!

Here's a little story for you, for those of you that felt the Amazing Spider-Man 2 story was already big and convoluted, here's another subplot for you, they originally had it in the script that at the end of the movie, Peter's father Richard (who we were lead to believe dead) is actually alive...fuck knows how that happened, and he was supposed to find Peter...again, fuck knows how that happened and teach him about not giving up hope and he has a responsibility to the city and to his loved ones and all that good stuff. When I first heard about this, I thought "holy shit, I can't believe that they thought this idea was good enough to make it into any form of the script"...and low and behold, not only was it in the script at one point but they FUCKING FILMED IT! HOW!? How is this possible!? How did all major people involved: The writers, the director, the producers, the actors, the fucking coffee guy, how did no one at one point say "You know? this is a pretty stupid idea" How did this scene get cleared to not only be in the script but TO-BE-FILMED! It is the dumbest, most ridiculous idea to put in an already too full plot!

Okay, let's actually be fair and talk about some good stuff from this scene, mostly it's Garfield's performance, Garfield is a fantastic actor, not only is he a perfect Peter Parker but he really gets to show his acting chops here, his reaction to seeing his father and the state of denial mixed with anger that he goes through is phenomenal...but this is still a stupid fucking idea! I mean...seriously!? Did they ever think this was going to work!? There is nothing they could do to make this scene actually fit without removing any sense of realism and dignity the series had going for it, this was just an atrocious idea from the get go and I can't believe it made it far enough into production to be FILMED! That is just ridiculous!

Especially seeing as being honest, most of these deleted scenes actually improve the film, they solve a lot of small plot holes that the film had and they're pretty quick scenes, they could easily have been left in the film and it wouldn't have affected the pacing or tone of the scenes of film overall, they might as well should have kept them in. But this scene...no. Keep this thing as far away as possible, because this scene could have easily ruined this franchise permanently.

-Danny

Marvel Needs to Toughen Up!

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Marvel movies

A lot of people have pointed out the trend in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that being no one fucking dies! They fake death it, Loki, Bucky, Coulson, Pepper, Loki again, Nick Fury, Groot, all of these characters have died on screen just to be brought back at a later point in the film or in a future instalment. The big problem with this trend is that it takes away all sense of realism and suspense that the movies have, a character dies, big deal, he's not permanently dead, I could go and heat up a pop tart and the character will be back before I've finished. This means that in the future when a character genuinely dies (My money's on Iron Man or Captain America) we're not going to accept it, we'll always have it in the back of our mind that they can come back, no death in the Marvel universe is going to be permanent. Now you could say that that's reminiscent of the comic books, where they kill off characters all the time and bring them back like that, but this isn't a comic book, this is a movie. If there's no tension then there's no interest, but Marvel still has a chance, because not everyone has caught on to this trend, they still have time, the next person they kill has to be a permanent death, because that's what I'd say they've got, they've got one more death in them before people get sick of it and they just lose all interest, so Marvel, don't fuck this up.

-Danny

ERASED

Round Five: Story

So with the scores all tied up it all comes down to story, which one was better? Well, let’s talk about it, The Last of Us is a pretty simple story, Joel is hired to escort Ellie across the country because she might be the key to a cure, of course the story gets a lot more complex than that though that’s mostly due to the characters and their complexity rather than the story becoming all too intricate. While in The Walking Dead the first season is all about Lee getting Clementine to Savannah to find her parents, again, seems like a pretty simple story, but the intrigue comes from the complications and characters they meet along the way. Neither of them are really detailed and original plots, but they don’t need to be, the focus is on the characters and they’re all very well written and very interesting, they’re the reason the stories work so well is because they’re written so well, it’s not about what experiences they go through, it’s about how they react to it.

But then again I feel as though-even though the story is very simple-The Last of Us just tells it better, after all with every event and every experience that the characters go through, you genuinely feel like they’re different people by the end of the story, in The Walking Dead, you don’t feel like they’ve come all that far, I mean Lee & Clementine’s relationship was pretty much established in the first episode and there were no major changes to it throughout the story, in The Last of Us the relationship is much better paced out and takes time for them to care about each other, and throughout the story their relationship is constantly being challenged. And even more so, the story in second season of The Walking Dead isn’t really all that focused, at first you think it’s going to be about Clementine & Christa heading to Wellington, then you think it’s gonna be about Clementine trying to fit in with this new group, then you think it’ll be about the gang surviving inside a prison with Carver, then you think it’ll be about Kenny’s mental health--I think you get the point. While both stories are definitely character pieces, the story in The Walking Dead just isn’t all that focused, The Last of Us never forgets what the end goal is, to get Ellie to the Fireflies, so considering that it’s more solid a story and better paced, I have to say it, The Last of Us is the winner.

Winner: The Last of Us

So with a score of 3-2 The Last of Us comes out on top as the superior game.

Round Four: Gameplay

It’s The Last of Us…I don’t really think it’s a debate at this point, it’s obviously going to be The Last of Us, I mean it has a fantastic cover system, spot on 3^rd person shooter mechanics, clever A.I. and a variety of different fighting mechanics to choose from, from gun fight to fist fight to stealth or if you’re skilled enough, avoid the fight altogether. The Walking Dead is a point & click game…that’s it, every so often it’ll try to introduce a quick time event but it’s normally pointless and buggy as hell, not to mention not very exhilarating, in The Last of Us you feel like you’re in the moment and understand the danger present, obviously they win.

Winner: The Last of Us

Round Three: Supporting Characters

Not to sound like a broken record but, yet again, it’s a tough choice, both games have a great supporting cast, for instance, The Last of Us has Tommy, Sarah, Tess, Henry, Sam, David, Marlene, Riley & Bill. While The Walking Dead has Kenny, Duck, Katjaa, Carly, Doug, Lilly, Larry, Ben, Christa, Omid, Charles, Molly, Bonnie, Luke, Sarah, Carlos, Nick, Alvin, Rebecca, Sarita, Mike, Jane & Arvo…so this is probably gonna take a while to go through. First of all with The Last of Us, a lot of the characters have a strong purpose in the game and are very well done characters. Sarah & Riley for example act as anchors for our main characters and really are the two that really show them as people at their most vulnerable. While the others act more as a reflection of who they are, Tommy for example is a reminder of who Joel used to be, Tess reflects who Joel is now, Henry & Sam are there to mirror Joel & Ellie’s relationship and how what loyalty can do to a person.  David & Marlene show what a person is capable of when pushed to the extremes and Bill shows why companionship is important now more than ever. Every character has their purpose and place in the game and are all very well done and memorable characters.

While The Walking Dead is a little more complicated, considering how many characters there are spread across two seasons, not everyone gets a decent amount of development, they’re not bad characters per-say, they just don’t really have a defined personality, so I’m probably just gonna skip over a the lot of them. And even with those left over they’re not always the best, Ben, Sarah & Nick for example are really annoying and when they eventually die, you don’t honestly feel that much sympathy for them, in fact when given the option to kill off Ben I didn’t even hesitate, the guy was more trouble than he’s worth. While others while having definitive personalities, just weren’t given that much to do.

So that leaves only several other characters and really the only ones who matter, the first one being Jane, Jane is awesome, not only does she has some great chemistry with Clementine but the parallels that she shares with her really help build their relationship and the two definitely grow from each other, Jane becoming more sympathetic and Clementine becoming a little bit more hard core. Another character is Luke who ends up playing about several roles at once, he’s the leader, he’s the optimist, he’s the rebel, for any other character this would be too much to handle, but Luke actually manages it pretty well, mostly because he’s not perfect at any of them. He may be the leader but he’s still open to other people’s opinions, he’s optimistic but has his limits and he may rebel against others but he’s willing to compromise, he’s really the only character that you have full confidence in throughout the entire season.

And of course there is Kenny, oh Kenny…Kenny is the only supporting character to properly carry over from season one to season two, and boy is there a lot to talk about. When we first meet Kenny he’s an honest, loyal and respectable guy whose main concern is protecting his family, over time he builds a friendship with both Lee & Clementine and after he loses both his wife & son, they’re the only two that really pull him through and he almost dies protecting them, so we’re lead to believe he’s dead. But in season two when we finally see him again and learn that he’s alive, it’s without a doubt one of the most emotional moments in the game, when you’re given the option to hug him you bet that I hugged him. Which then also leads to the most heart-breaking storyline of the season and that would be the slow mental decline of Kenny. After everything that this guy has been through, losing his family, seeing his friends killed in front of him and being brutally beaten up by a psycho, you can imagine that it’ll leave an effect on him, and it does exactly that, he becomes more brutal and narrow-minded, unwilling to compromise and it becomes easier for him to make tough choices, this all comes to a climax where you’re given an ultimatum to kill Kenny or let him kill Jane, and either way you go you’re gonna get emotional. If you kill him then he finally says that he’s at peace and can be with his family again, but if you save him then he begins to even out some more and you see him become more human as time goes on and you finally get to see more of Kenny from the first game and yet again, the emotions begin piling on.

So this is a real tough one, do you go for the small and memorable group or do you go for the large but varied group? Well again it’s really tough but I’ve gotta go with The Walking Dead on this. I mean yeah I don't remember every character nor do I care that much for others, but for the members that do stick out to me, I really love them. The Last of Us may have better written characters and may have used them better, but I never cared for them nearly as much as I did for people like Kenny or Luke. Again the characters in The Last of Us are still really good, but they sometimes feel more like plot points rather than legitimate people, in The Walking Dead, they feel like legitimate people, and that’s what matters most to me, the winner: The Walking Dead.

Winner: The Walking Dead

Round Two: Joel Vs Lee

Again, it’s a really tough choice here, Joel was a simple family man from Texas who was there at the dawn of the apocalypse and ends up losing his daughter in the process, while Lee was a history professor who after murdering his wife is sent to jail, but after the apocalypse breaks loose he ends up free, both of them end up coming across the two girls and develop a father-daughter relationship with them. Though surprisingly enough their stories are actually reversed to what the previous two had, in this case, Joel is the one who becomes colder throughout the game while Lee is constantly trying to prove himself as a good man, but it’s played up a little differently. Joel has gone a lot farther to survive and has committed a lot of atrocious acts and even killed innocent people. This makes him a lot less relatable but at the same time you can see where he’s coming from, he’s aware that he’s a bad person but you understand why. Joel is unkind to the world because the world was unkind to Joel, after losing his wife and Sarah and Tess and not to mention seeing the people around him become darker and more depressing, it’s perfectly understandable why a man like this would be the way he is.

While Lee, while also committing horrible acts, you always see a sense of regret, even at the start of the game, he knows what he did was wrong and if he could take it back then he would and this is something you see throughout the entire game, he’s constantly given opportunities to be the better man while Joel almost always choses the more selfish and darker path simply because it’s easier. So both do horrible things but being honest the fact that Lee is always trying to be a better person makes him a more likeable character, especially in the end of the game when their girls are in life threatening situations and they have to try and save them. For Lee it’s a matter of saving Clementine from a fate she doesn’t deserve, and even though he risks tooth & nail for her and ends up dying because of it, you know he wouldn’t have it any other way. While Joel is protecting Ellie simply because he can’t live without her, despite the fact that her death would mean a potential cure for the infection and if she were given the choice then she’d more than be happy to sacrifice herself for the greater good. And I know you could make the argument that there’s no guarantee that the cure will work but come on, do you really think Joel cares about that? Even if it were a guarantee that the cure would save the world that wouldn’t change his actions in the slightest. So putting all this into consideration, I’ve gotta say, Lee is the better character, both of them go through horrible events but Lee is constantly trying to make himself a better person, Joel-isn’t. So, sorry Joel but I’ve gotta say it, point goes to Lee.

Winner: Lee

Round One: Ellie vs Clementine

Now for those of you saying “But wait, they’re not the main characters!” well maybe more so for Ellie rather than Clementine seeing as she was the main focus for season two, but for the other, even though Joel is the playable character for the majority of the game, Ellie is the one that gets the most focus, we’re the one that gets the most development and the one we identify with the most, not to mention she’s the one front and centre on the box art, so suck it.


And to start off, let me just say that these two, are just incredible; oh, not just because they’re great characters, but because they prove most major studios wrong, you know what I’m talking about, that idea that gamers can only relate to characters if they’re a straight white male which every gamer in the world will tell you is not true. Well here’s the proof, not only do we have two female protagonists but they’re also kids, that’s really rare, you know what’s even rarer than that? One of them is black and the other is a lesbian, that’s almost unheard of for a videogame character, let alone a main character! So no matter who wins, they’re both fantastic in my book.

But more into who is actually the better character, that’s gonna be tricky, Clementine is a little girl who ends up being thrown into a zombie apocalypse and has to learn quick how to fight to survive or else she’ll die, while Ellie was born into the zombie apocalypse, this is all she’s ever known and has been bred to fight all her life. So looking at it from this perspective I would have to say Clementine is the better character, not only is she a lot younger than Ellie but she is all of a sudden thrusted into this life, her childhood is cut short in order to survive, the innocent life of yesterday is suddenly gone, so her fight for survival is made all the more impressive. But on the other hand, Ellie has had a lot more experience in this world and is the better fighter; after all if you were in a zombie apocalypse you’d probably want Ellie by your side over Clementine.

But it’s not just about what events they go through but how they deal with it, Clementine after experiencing a tragedy often becomes more mature and often colder from the experience, with every death she becomes a lot more use to it and overtime is hardly affected by it; granted she still does have that soft side to her where you see how much she really cares, but for the most part she’s becoming more used to the situation. While Ellie, while arguably going through even more tragic experiences, I mean yeah both of them lost their friends and family but Clementine was never nearly raped and eaten, Ellie never loses her sense of humanity, and that’s a big part of her character, she always tries to see the best in other people and find the good in a bad situation. Not only is this impressive considering everything she goes through but the fact is she’s a person that shouldn’t even have any humanity to begin with, she was raised in this desolate world and has seen humanity at its worst. Fact is, while Clementine is always learning from her experiences, she is slowly losing more of her humanity, Ellie is always learning but always keeps her humanity, so while I hate to leave Clementine high and dry, I can only pick one winner, and in this case, the winner of this round is Ellie.

Winner: Ellie

The Last of Us Vs The Walking Dead

Last year on my YouTube channel I made a video titled The Last of Us Vs Bioshock Infinite where I compared the two biggest games of the year and in the end The Last of Us won. So I decided to do the same again this year by comparing two of the biggest games, The Walking Dead and The Last of Us again...wow that's kinda depressing. Anyway, the reason why I'm not doing this as a video is simply because making that video took FOREVER to make and I just don't have it in me to make that video again, now admittedly I might actually make it if I can feel it later on in the year but for now, I feel like talking about the topic now, and even though the year isn't over yet, let's be honest, these are the two games that are best to be compared, they're both father/daughter stories, they take place in the zombie apocalypse, etc, so I think it's pretty fair to compare the two. So for the next few days I'll be comparing the two games in five different categories: Main Character, Secondary Character, Supporting Characters, Gameplay & Story and whichever one comes out on top is the winner and the superior game in my opinion. So I'll see you all tomorrow when the games begin, it's time for The Last of Us Vs The Walking Dead.

Is Swearing Cheating?

I like to watch a lot of comedies and a lot of comedians, and there are a fair few that never or rarely swear even though it's unlikely any kids will be watching, and i've heard a number of them say that the reason why they don't swear is because they find it as a form of cheating, as if swearing is just an easy way to get a laugh, this is something that I can respect because they feel like they don't want just cheap laughs but at the same time I kinda disagree with it. A good joke can all come down to how you word it, and some words are just funnier than others, for example "Glockenspiel", yes that is an actual English word and it is fucking hilarious, it is impossible to use the word glockenspiel in a serious manor, in fact trying to say it seriously just makes it funnier, try saying glockenspiel in a serious tone, it's just not possible. And it's the same with swear words, sometimes a well used swear is funny as hell, but that's the key, how & who uses the swear can make or break the joke. In something such as The Hangover they swear all the time, like every 5th syllable is a swear word, it's just not funny any more. But if you see a little kid use the word "shit" without even knowing what it means you're obviously gonna giggle at that, because you don't expect it and the context in which it is being used is a funny scenario. An example of a curse used right is in X-Men First Class, when Charles & Erik meet Logan and the only thing he says to them is "Go fuck yourselves" now this made everyone in the theatre laugh for several reasons, one: it's the only thing he says in the movie, two: you don't expect it and three: he's the only person to swear in the entire movie and they used it perfectly. But then again, sometimes censoring a swear is even funnier, like in the Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged series (awesome show by the way). In the clip below, the fact that we have no idea what he's saying but just knowing that he's swearing is funny, plus hearing that beeping noise over and over again also adds to the comedy, a funny sound effect is always great, but a looped sound effect is even better.

So to wrap this up, no, swearing is not a form of cheating, it's just a fact that some words are funnier than others, it all comes down to how they're used, and if you disagree then you can go ************************************* with a pelican.

-Danny

Why Yes, this is a post about Coco Pops

No I haven't run out of ideas just yet, let me give you an explanation, I was thinking about what I could do for a topic for today's post but I couldn't think of anything actually meaningful to talk about, I mean not every post has to be discussing some big thematic or relevant issue amongst media and society but still when I make a post I at the very least want it to have some meaning, only two or three times have I made a post simply to fulfill that quota without an interesting topic or discussion put into it and that's not something I want to do, because I don't want this to become like Twitter where I talk about meaningless and arbitrary things that have no purpose or interest, it doesn't have to be a deep topic, it just needs to be something that I can have at least some discussion on, I mean hell I did a post based entirely around pizza and I was still able to create a discussion on that, a fairly one sided discussion but still a discussion so I still say it counts.

So then I thought I could do an entire post about how I want posts to have some meaning to them and I don't want to be a blog that just lists off things that I've done that day and I was going to make a joke about making a post about the cereal Coco Pops and pretend that I could make a discussion out of it but then I ended up thinking about plenty of topics about it like how I like the taste, how advertising for the products has changed (I miss the jingle), the spin off cereals or actually describe the product to Americans who don't have Coco Pops for some reason. They're chocolate rice krispies but apparently we like that so much we gave it it's own cereal.

So then my joke ended up becoming a post in it's own and suddenly it was worth a post but then again...it's a post about Coco Pops and that would be stupid. Especially considering all the serious topics that I could talk about such as the misrepresentation of gamers in the media or the cultural significance of fiction or the exploitation of our youth or why this website for some reason doesn't recognise 'blog' as a word (You're a fucking blog! How does that not register!?) So with all that being said what exactly is the topic and significance of this blog? I have no idea I was really just rambling there and put about several topics into one but you know what, I'm satisfied.

-Danny

What is this generation's identity?

You always here people complaining about how today's kids are media obsessed, despite the fact that us as a society have been media obsessed since the 1940's yeah I don't know about you but every argument I here against why this generation sucks could easily be transferred to any other generation, the music sucks? Yeah guess what, the 70's had a lot of shitty music as well, the big difference being the shitty stuff gets left behind in the 70's, only the good stuff carries over. Society & government are falling apart, no this is something that has been going on since...well, forever, but ever since the 1960's we've started to become more aware of this and started to fight back due to the boom in the media. Teenagers are obnoxious, yeah what else is new? Face it, a lot of these complaints aren't new details, you're just finally aware of them because society has become a lot more observant.

How is this any different from people looking at their phones?

The biggest deciding factor in this generation's identity is the media, we're becoming a lot more aware of everything happening in the world, we can travel to the middle of Central America without even leaving our homes, we can talk to people halfway around the world through a computer, and in more recent years, we're beginning to expose the corruption of the world that we've always suspected. If the government or police do something wrong then the world is going to know about it, if a cop beats an innocent person then that's on camera and once that gets uploaded to the internet it's never coming down. But that's really more of our society as a whole, I'm talking about this generation, the teens and young adults of the 2010's (okay we really need to think of a name for this decade). What is our identity?

Well we're the pioneers of the internet and have used it for entertainment, jobs, personal lives amongst all sorts, the idea of someone sitting at home in front of a camera and talking about their day doesn't sound like the type of thing one can do for a job, and yet, here it is, people have become celebrities through doing just that. Or if someone wanted to be a comedian but no major company or studio would give them a break, they can gather an audience through the internet. The possibilities for making a name for yourself are easier than ever; but then again, we're just the first generation to do this, what is something that we exclusively will have? What will people look back at and think of this culture.

Well the first thing would be fashion, things such as ugg boots, thrift shop clothes, spikey hair, belly button piercings, sure these things existed before hand but really, no one abused these things the same way our generation did. Also while it's hard to predict where we'll go in the future, there's also been a big change in what's considered "cool" and "hot". Just 10 or 20 years ago, the stereotypical hot guy would be the jock, the big tough guy that was hard as a rock, and while those people are still considered hot these days, they have some competition, nowadays what's often considered to be the hot guy is the sensitive guy, I mean still obviously really hot but the muscles aren't the big seller, guys that are more sensitive, focus more on their looks and are all round, less "masculine" than before. While for girls, again the thing before would be the super fashionable and popular girl, and again while they still are like that, these days the shy and introverted girls seem to be getting a lot more attention, and that's the big difference in this generation, suddenly being introverted and nerdy became cool.

Just look at how big things like Comic-Con or Doctor Who are these days, being a nerd is more popular now than it's ever been, before usually the stereotypical nerd was the unattractive introvert and was considered uncool, and again, those people still exist today but they're not necessarily the majority any more. Superheroes are the big movie seller, 50% of gamers are female, cosplay is a new form of modelling, hell I'm sure Doctor Who's fanbase is largely women nowadays. And while this has been an awesome development, though has had some backlash from "real nerds" it is a major change and I honestly think/hope it is here to stay.

But apart from that, this generation isn't really all that different, but that kinda is our identity, we realised that we're not different but we wanted to be, the fact that we're exposed to so much of the world it's become harder and harder to be unique or find your own thing, so everyone tries to be different and unique, whether it be liking obscure things or dressing in a strange way, now I know what you're thinking, I just described a hipster. Well...yes and no, you see a legit hipster is someone who is dressing up/acting like/liking something ironically, they don't actually enjoy what they're doing, they enjoy it ironically, this was considered the basic hipster description. But these days it is definitely more about not being ironic, but about being different, liking a band that no one else listens to, watching nothing but foreign films or anything that is different from what everyone else is doing. Because we don't want to be defined by our generation's identity, we want our own identity, which in turn, became this generation's identity.

-Danny

There is too much to watch!

You know when people tell you "oh my god you have to watch this show/movie or play this game or read this book!" and you're just there like "...okay" because it's impossible! There is too much out there! One person can not watch/play/read everything that they supposedly have to, I have a list of things that I need to WPR (watch/play/read) and I have about 60 things on that list, I own about 10 of them and are currently going through 5 of them, the problem is I am a lazy binge watcher, I am not one of those people that can go through 10 seasons of a show in a day, why? Because I want to do all of the things! I have so much media surrounding me that I can't just do one thing or else I feel like I'm slacking, so I'll watch new episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while also playing Deadpool on Xbox 360, but because there is so much to do I feel guilty when something is left on there too long when I could have finished it by now, I've had Star Trek on my list for 2 years now and I haven't watched a single episode, I plan to watch it eventually but Star Trek is too big of a commitment! 3 seasons, 8 movies about about a half a dozen spin-offs, there's too much! And I feel even more guilty when I choose to binge watch something that I already have watched all the way through, how can I binge watch Friends for the 50th time when I haven't even finished Seinfeld once!? Because I watch Friends to relax! Seinfeld while awesome, I don't want to rush through it, I want to watch it when I'm ready, I got through 7 seasons and I will watch the other 2 when I feel like it, why isn't that enough!?

And those 60 things on my list, I'm sure if I put on everything that I plan to WPR then that list would be about 200 things on there. And then in a few weeks there will be a whole new list of shows added for the new TV season...oh god it's too much. My point to all of this being, it is impossible for someone to watch everything that they need to watch, even though I have this great feeling inside of me when I finally catch up and finish a show, if I try and balance all of them at once then I will always forget about some of them and they will be lost in the abyss of unfinished shows.

-Danny

August: The End of Summer (and possibly life as we know it)

Welcome back to my monthly recap of things that I did in the previous month, in this case it would be august, the last month of the summer and that it a thought that depresses us all, because Summer is a time for freedom, expression, tanning and ice cream, god I miss it already (even though it's still technically Summer) so let's talk about things!

Firstly, the thing that I did mostly throughout August was see Guardians of the Galaxy...a lot, seriously, that movie was fucking awesome. I also had a birthday, that was sweet, turned 19, went bowling with my friends, I won because I rock at bowling. But probably the biggest thing that happened to me during this summer was I got accepted into university...yay! Seriously though, this is something that I have been stressing over for months, my entire future rides on those 3 grades telling me if i'll be going to university, I know a lot of people say university isn't a necessity these days but to me it is, mostly because of stalling because I am not ready to be a proper adult yet. So actually passing my exams and getting into university was awesome and I'll be heading out there later this month so that's nerv-racking and exciting all at the same time...yay. And for the record yes I will be blogging about my university experiences every so often once I actually go there. Also preparing for university is hard, there are about a million things you need to buy and a lot of paperwork to sign and I've had to learn how to cook things, fuck that shit, I mean cooking is fun but it takes so long!

But that's really it for what I did in this month, honestly a lot of the time I just sort of watched a lot of TV because hanging out with friends is expensive having to go to the pub and the cinema and shopping and I'm a student now! I'm poor! Don't make me buy things! What happened to the good old days of sitting at home and playing Halo on multiplayer and beating all my friends because I rock at Halo, almost as much as I rock at bowling. Also if things are hard to socialize now then they'll be even harder when we've all gone off into different parts of the country to study or get jobs and stuff, I mean I've been friends with these people for years, two of them have been my best friends for 10 years now, those are the type of people that you want to keep around, thank god for social media.

-Danny

69 Posts

Hehehehehehehehehe, I've made 69 posts on this blog...wait a minute...I've just ruined it by making this post...OH FUCK!!

-Danny

The Best Spider-Man videogame

Spider-Man has had a lot of videogames, some have been awesome, others have been Amazing Spider-Man 2 (That game sucks!) but when it comes to the greatest Spider-Man videogame, the one that people always talk about and bring up as the greatest Spider-Man game is none other than Spider-Man 2, of course people love the movie so naturally they would love the videogame for it. But here's the thing, I disagree, I don't think Spider-Man 2 is the best videogame. I mean don't get me wrong, Spider-Man 2 is still a good game, but I can think of one other game that is better than Spider-Man 2 (Probably two games but I never played Shattered Dimensions though I hear great things) and can you guess what it is? Well considering that you've probably looked at the picture then you probably can, it's Ultimate Spider-Man.

So what is it exactly? What is it that I love about Ultimate Spider-Man that Spider-Man 2 doesn't have? Well take everything you like about Spider-Man 2, large city, precise swinging mechanics and it makes you feel like Spider-Man. Well all of that is in Ultimate Spider-Man and more, firstly, the cell shaded style to give it a true comic book feel just helps it feel more like a Spider-Man story and it means the graphics don't date as easy as Spider-Man 2, better voice acting and best of all, you can play as Venom! That and more creative boss battles, more precise and creative melee combat, basically, it's awesome, it's much better than Spider-Man 2 and is my all time favourite Spider-Man videogame.

Thanks for tuning into Spider-Man week (I honestly didn't realise I was going to do this as a thing) it's always fun to talk about one of the greatest heroes of all time and while I will definitely be talking about him again in the future, for now, it's back to basics.

-Danny

Jameson is a Hero

Continuing my Spider-Man week (cause I guess that is a thing now, god knows what I'm doing tomorrow) I want to bring up a moment from the man with a mouth of gold, J Jonah Jameson. In case you couldn't tell from my reviews of the Spider-Man movies, I love Jameson, he is the best part of the Spider-Man movies, he has the best lines, the most memorable scenes and is played perfectly by JK Simmons, strange that in a movie series with such bad casting that they end up with the best casted character in comic book movie history (Hugh Jackman is a close second). Now if you were to ask someone to describe Jameson they'd probably describe him as a fast talker, quite obnoxious, committed to the job and overall, a dick I mean just look at the way he treats his employees. But there's one moment that people always forget about, hell even I forget about it until I actually watch Spider-Man again, and that would be the scene in Spider-Man where Jameson is attacked by Green Goblin.

In this scene, Goblin attacks Jameson demanding the name of the photographer who takes pictures of Spider-Man in hopes of finding him, and Jameson responds with "I don't know who he is, the pictures just come in the mail!", and then of course Spider-Man shows up and stops the Goblin from hurting him and that's pretty much all Jameson does in the scene. But just think about it, Jameson and Peter don't have the best relationship, they don't hate each other but at best they just put up with each other, but how cool is it that even in the face of death without hesitation his instincts aren't to rat on Peter but to lie and protect him, it's a small moment but it really speaks a lot about Jameson's character and honestly shows that he would really be a cool boss to have, I mean I don't know about you, but protecting you even in a life threatening situation is always a good quality to find in people. Just another reason why Jameson is a miracle of a character.

-Danny