Arrow "Midnight City" Review

So do Arrow and Flash have some sort of rule that only one is allowed to have a great episode per week? Because The Flash this week was great, Arrow...wasn't. So in Midnight City, Laurel officially becomes a member of Team Arrow, really because she kinda forces her way onto the team despite her sucking at fighting. She also pretends to be Sara for the sake of her father and it turns out that creepy DJ dude that works for Thea is actually working with Ra's Al Ghul, because every character needs to be a martial artist in the show apparently. Also Oliver is still with Maseo and Tatsu and we have a flashback of Oliver and Maseo saving Tatsu from gangsters. So yeah, spelling it out like that, not a whole lot happens in this episode, and the stuff that does, isn't very engaging.

Let's talk about Laurel as Black Canary first, seeing as that's the focus of the episode...um...she's not as bad i thought she was gonna be? Now don't get me wrong, she's still not good, but could have been a lot worse. She wants so hard to prove herself that she's a hero despite the fact that she's had like a month worth of boxing lessons, seriously Laurel, you're acting like a bratty 12 year old who thinks they're all grown up. In fact this makes it a good episode for Roy, being the voice of reason and trying to talk some sense into the lawyer playing dominatrix. I'm sorry but this doesn't work at all, she's not as badass as Sara in terms of physically or presentation wise and it's completely unbelievable that she'd be this good at it so quickly, the fact that she forces her way onto the team should be enough to let you know how unprepared she is for this. And she just looks out of place in that costume with the others, she doesn't look like a superhero, she looks like someone dressed up as a superhero.

You wanna know what the best part about this episode was? The banter between Ray and Felicity. As much as i've come to hate the term "shipping" especially with this show, i definitely ship Ray & Felicity, as much as people want her and Oliver get together, it's so fucking stupid, her and Oliver don't share any romantic chemistry, they don't have any similar interests and they didn't even have any romantic scenes building up to the relationship, just afterwards. Her and Ray have much better chemistry, have a lot in common and are yet to have a bad scene together, it doesn't feel forced or pandering, just stop with Olicity (Also a fucking stupid name) already, it's dumb.

And then there were the scenes with Oliver, uh...they were okay. The stuff in the present felt quite short and not very consequential to the over all plot and the same can be said for the stuff in the flashbacks, they go to a club to save Tatsu, and they do...that's it. Admittedly this is all probably building up to something bigger in the end and this just works as a way for the characters to take a break, but i dunno, i was hoping for something more considering how disappointing the main story of the episode was.

Oh and the DJ guy was a spy, first of all, where the fuck has this guy been? Second of all, why the fuck did he come back!? I said it all in his introductory episode, take away the fact that the guy is handsome and he is the creepiest motherfucker in the show's history, he's an arrogant, perverted douche bag, and for some reason i feel like the fact it was all an act, isn't gonna make me like him.

I can see in the future that this will be an episode on the DVD that i'll skip, it wasn't very interesting and has plenty of stupid, simple as that. I give it a 5/10.

-Danny

The Flash "The Sound and the Fury" Review

Sorry this review is a little bit late, but I clearly have plenty to talk abou these days. Nevertheless, here is the review for the latest episode of The Flash. In this episode, a former employee and protege of Dr Wells has returned in the form of Pied Piper. He was Wells number one guy and is a genius in every way, always thinking 10 steps ahead and always having a plan, he is also able to find the frequency of any material and make it explode (Superhero science, just go with it). His main goal is to make Wells suffer for betraying him and lying to everyone for his own selfish needs, but when he begins endangering the lives of innocent civilians, and Barry's friends, The Flash needs to take action to beat him...oh and Iris gets a job at a newspaper or something.

Actually The Flash, really doesn't have that much to do in this episode, he has a quick fight at the start, battles Piper a couple of times and that's really it. A whole lot of this episode focuses on Barry and his friends, which is a good thing because at the end of the day, that's where the emotional weight lies. Up until this point, Wells has always been the mentor of the group, and while we know of his secrets, the gang doesn't, up until this point where they learn more about his past and now he has to earn their trust. It's a conflict that hasn't been discussed yet in this show and it makes for good character development. And it makes me think that while Wells is also a villain in secret, he may actually consider the others to be his friends, which makes me wonder what his true motives really are. My favourite moment is again, a very small one, when they all take a photo together, with Barry still in costume. Obviously this is going to bite them in the ass later on in the season, but it just helps to solidify this friendship that the four of them have made.

This was also a really good episode for Cisco, he had a personal connection to Piper, that being that they were rivals when working for Wells, and also he got the best line of the episode "he was an asshole, but sometimes...he was a dick". I also liked the interactions between Cisco and Piper, you can tell these two really didn't like each other and it allowed Cisco to show a side of himself that he hasn't before. He's always been the light hearted, goofy nickname kinda guy, here, we see someone who genuinely gets under his skin, and it was great.

And the villain of this episode was incredible, I love this villain. Yes he did do the ultimate villain cliche where he gets captured just to break out because "it was all part of his plan" yeah that's stupid, but apart from that he was awesome. I love his backstory, yeah he was an obnoxious and cocky prick but he wasn't a bad person, when he knew there was a risk of the particle accelerator that it could kill people and wanted to shut it down. I also loved his behaviour in the show, every scene he's in, you always feel like he has complete control, he knows exactly what you're going to do, it was so eery and cool. Also you know, an openly gay supervillain, that's kinda cool, i haven't seen that before. They also imply that he'd be coming back later on, I hope so because so far, this is the coolest villain on The Flash.

Also unlike the previous episode, this one has an established theme that connects the characters' personal lives to their hero lives, and that being the theme of forgiveness. Piper is a villain because Wells fired him and threatened to ruin his life, and because he kept this from Team Flash, he begins to lose their trust. He needs to admit to what he did was wrong and find a way to make up for it, which he did. See guys, consistency and theming always makes things feel more cohesive.

My only problem with this episode is Iris, because what she's doing is so uninteresting and disconnected from everything else that i didn't give a damn about it, and not to mention she had like 2 scenes dedicated to it, that's hardly substantial time to set up a subplot. Or maybe they knew people wouldn't give a damn so they didn't even bother.

In the end, this episode gets a 9/10, almost everything worked about this episode except for Iris's subplot.

-Danny

The Fantastic Four and why audiences are spoilt brats

I want it to be on the record that this movie has had my full support from day one and I am completely confident that it will be good. With that being said, after months and months and months of no promotion for this film, we finally got a trailer for it and people are split. Some people (Like me) love the trailer, it teases the audience, hints at a big scale story and the film looks beautiful, i'm talking cinematography wise, it looks great. But those who didn't like the trailer all say the same thing "why is it dark & gritty? Comic book movies are supposed to be fun! I thought we were done with this dark & gritty phase."

First of all, to the people who assumed it sucked just because they waited this long to reveal the trailer for it, shut the hell up, just because a studio decides maybe for once you should be patient and wants to surprise you, doesn't mean you should conclude that it's going to be a bad movie.

Second of all, if you hate the fact that this movie is going for a dark & gritty tone and think that's been overdone in superhero movies "they should be more fun and light hearted!". I absolutley despise this comment because it doesn't make any sense. I did an entirely seperate rant about this here so you can go check that out, but long story short, the dark & gritty phase is nothing but complete bullshit. Only 7 out of 27 comic book movies Post-Dark Knight were dark & gritty, including X-Men Days of Future Past (Didn't hear anyone complain about THAT!). But nevertheless, that's 20 movies that are made to be fun and colourful and only the minority were attempting to be dark & gritty, does that sound like a trend to you? And besides, isn't it just as bad if ALL comic book movies are light hearted and fun, the same way if all comic book movies were dark & gritty?

And finally, the first two Fantastic Four movies were light hearted & goofy and they sucked. Now if you're going to say "well they can still be light hearted & goofy, but still be good in the hands of a good director" then why can't the same be said about it being dark & gritty? Why can't that be good in the hands of a good director?

My point being stop focusing on the dark & gritty aspect as if that's a death sentence and stop pretending this was ever a trend in the first place.

P.S. The trailer was awesome.

-Danny

My Favourite Characters - Starfire

Writing up that analysis of The Judas Contract yesterday has inspired me to talk about one of my favourite characters from the Teen Titans (Yes one of, several others will be featured here in the future) Starfire. And when I say Starfire, I mean the cartoon's version of Starfire. Because the comic book version...hmm, how do I put this? She's Fucking Terrible! The comic book version of Starfire is nothing more than an intergalactic slut, she's one of the most fanservice feeding characters in the DC universe and is nothing more than a walking pair of tits with no personality!..Though I will say, that is part of the reason why I love the TV version so much is because she's nothing like her comic book counterpart, if she was made even slightly like her comic book counterpart, then she would have been a complete drag with nothing interesting about her. In the TV Show, Starfire is a princess from another planet called Tamaran, she was taken prisoner by another alien race and ends up stranded on Earth where she befriends her fellow Titans and becomes one of the original 5 members.

Starfire is a very girly character, she's the most feminine of the group, she cares about beauty, fashion and cooking, she is also very pacifistic and tries to befriend as many people as she can, she is also very easily grossed out and is hopeful romantic, particularly with her teammate Robin. So from all of this she would seem quite stereotypical and not very interesting so why is she so great in my opinion? Because this is only half of her personality, the other part Kicks Ass!!

Starfire, despite being a pacifist, is not afraid to fight, only when she absolutely has to, and part of that is because she is stronger than she looks, she can shoot lasers from her eyes, energy bolts from her hands and is also capable of flight and insane strength, in fact she's the strongest member of the Teen Titans. And her people's powers come from their emotions, their joy, their passion, their fury, a combination of all of them and being able to express them is what makes them so strong. Starfire embraces her femininity and it makes her stronger, while stereotypically feminine traits are seen as weaker, it's what makes Starfire as strong as she is.

This is one of the reasons why i've always praised Teen Titans for being a great show for boys & girls, because the women are actually the strongest members of the team, but without having to betray their femininity, while at the same time not being pigeon-hold into those cliches.

Another element that i've always appreciated in characters in general is loyalty, that feeling of being dedicated to your friends and family beyond logical reason. Out of all the Titans, Starfire is the one most emotionally connected to her friends, she fights the hardest to protect them and tries the hardest to keep them happy. Nothing gets in her way and if you ever mess with her friends then you are toast, but if you're nice then she'd be more than happy to be your friend.

Starfire is one of the most underrated feminine icons there is, not just for kids shows, but in general, she embrases the traits that are supposedly seen as weak and makes them her strengths, her passion is what makes her powerful and her characterization in the show is almost unfair that a character that is so awful in the comics became someone so well realized.

-Danny

The Judas Contract Vs Aftershock

I've stated before how big of a fan I am of the Teen Titans animated series and I personally consider it to be the best animated superhero show in existence (No offence to Batman, Justice League, Superior Spider-Man, Young Justice--okay wow we have a lot of good shows in this genre). But one of the biggest complaints about the series is its more kid friendly portrayal of a lot of the famous Teen Titans storylines from the comics, the most controversial one being The Judas Contract. And I can understand why they would be upset about it, but what i think animated series lacks in adult material, it makes up for in mature themes. So let's talk about both of them and try and see which one is better.

In 1984, the Teen Titans comic had introduced a new member to the team, Tara, who had the ability to control the Earth, she was with the team for nearly a year when it was revealed that she was a spy, working for the infamous Teen Titan villain, Slade Wilson A.K.A. Deathstroke The Terminator and is also his lover (Keep in mind she is 16 and he's in his 40's). Once she revealed her true self, she betrayed the team and was able to capture them all, her and Deathstroke selling them to the H.I.V.E. (Evil people) where they would kill them. In the end, Dick Grayson, now with the new persona of Nightwing and with a new team member going by the name Jericho are able to free the other Titans and a fight breaks out, in which Tara tries to kill them all herself and they try to speak some sense into her. In the end, they are forced to accept that Tara can't be reasoned with, she's not under anyone's influence and never really was their friend, she's nothing more than a psychopath, who wants nothing more than to kill the others. Eventually, Tara accidentally kills herself while trying to kill the other Titans but fails, the Titans then hold a funeral for her, keeping it a secret that she betrayed them so her family can believe she died a hero.

While in the 2004 season, Terra (Spelt differently) while still an undercover traitor, also became friends with the Titans, she wasn't pretending to be their friend, she actually liked and trusted them. When she did eventually betray them and defeat them all in battle, she ends up having a change of heart. However Slade (Not called Deathstroke in the series) is revealed to be able to control Terra physically. A similar battle occurs where she nearly murders the Titans and they try and break through to her, in the end she takes control of her body and sacrifices herself to save the Titans and kill Slade.

So the big differences here are the fact that Terra really was good deep down and is able to redeem herself in the end but Tara was a straight up killer who took joy in other people's misery and she hated the Titans. The arcs for both characters I think are pretty damn excellent and it really does come down to your personal preference; though I do have to go with Terra, due to the fact that the friendship she had with the Titans was real on both sides, and the relationship between her and Beast Boy was also very serious. In the comic, Tara and "Changling" (I hate that stupid name) was a ploy on Tara's part, but completely real for Changeling, which makes her betrayal and death a lot harder for him to deal with, which is one of the ways how the comic is superior because of Garfield's (Changling's real name) suffering. Both Beast Boy and Changling's feeling for Terra/Tara are real, the difference being Beast Boy was able to get through to Terra, while Changling was not.

But still, even with that, I think the TV Show told the superior story, because of how the other Titans react to it. In the comic, we only see the aftermath of the fights with Tara, but in the show, we see the fights, the best one being between Terra and Raven. In both comic and show, Raven doesn't trust Tara, in the comic it's because she senses the evil deep inside, in the show, it's simply because she hasn't proven herself to her. Eventually Terra does earn Raven's trust, which makes the fight between them that much better, not only are the two the most powerful members of the team, but Terra is actually able to get under Raven's skin and mock her, make her angry. The fight is epic both physically and emotionally.

Tara spent nearly an entire year with the Titans while Terra only spent a few episodes, yet their friendship comes across as much more serious and believable, making the end result, much more tragic.

However there is one area in which the comics wins hands down, Tara's reason for betraying the Titans. She's a psychopath, she wants to prove she's better than everyone else and she hates the Titans and everything they stand for, sure, seems simplistic, but it's coherent. In the show, I don't understand why she betrays the Titans, they were good to her, she liked them, everything was great, the only logic behind it that I can think of is that maybe she was afraid of Slade too much to tell him no. But then this also leads me to another issue, at one point, when Terra is at her most conflicted and Beast Boy learns of her affiliation with Slade, he yells at her and disowns her as a member and a friend, which is the final stepping stone into her betraying them. This felt way too out of character for Beast Boy for him to completely disown Terra like that, especially considering everytime he sees Terra afterwards, he tries to convince her to join them again. You could argue that it was just the heat of the moment that made him say that, but no, Beast Boy is in more control of his emotions than that, especially his anger, especially with the girl he loves, he would never yell at her like that, especially when she apologises for the deception.

In the end, both versions are fantastic, and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. The Judas Contract is much more coherent and dark, but Aftershock is a lot more emotional and better paced. It's hard to say one is superior than the other but in the end I have to go with Aftershock, maybe it's my nostalgia, maybe it's cause it's my introduction to the story arc, but in the end, it's the one i get more invested in and is the bigger tragedy of the two.

-Danny

Chronicle - Cheap Thoughts

I think it's safe to say that people are sick of the found footage genre, it's lazy, cheap and often ruins the feeling of immersion because people always end up yelling "Put the camera down already!". However, here we have a film that does things a little differently. Chronicle is the story of 3 teenage boys, Andrew, Steve & Matt, who find a strange object underground and results in them getting the superpower of telekinesis. At first, things are great, that is until Andrew begins to expand on his powers and starts to use his abilities for the wrong reasons.

Chronicle was directed by Josh Trank and written by Max Landis, the debut work for both of them. It starred unknown actors Dane DeHaan, Michael B Jordon & Alex Russell. It had a budget of $12 Million and ended up making $126 Million in the box office. The film was positively received by both critics and audiences and supposedly has a sequel in the works (Though i doubt that'll ever come about).

Despite it's success, few people actually talk about this film anymore, which is a shame because this is honestly the best found footage film ever made. So let's actually talk about how this film utilises this tool. First of all, it can't actually be considered a found footage film because the footage isn't "found" because we are seeing things as they're being recorded, so it's more of "live footage". Another thing that it does is utilise multiple camera view points, because it's all live, we're not limited to just a single view point for the entire film, but phones, security cameras, dashcams, we have them all to allow for different perspectives, however the most prominent one being Andrew's camera for the majority of the film. This is part of Andrew's character, he describes the reason he films everything is because it feels like a barrier between him and other people. Also the fact that he uses his powers to levitate the camera means we still get a lot of cinematic angles, and not just POV shots for the entire thing.

Andrew is our main character of the film, he lives in a poor neighbourhood, has a terminally ill mother and an abusive father, he's bullied in his neighbourhood and at his school and his only friend is his cousin Matt who gives him rides to school everyday. I've heard some people describe Andrew as the villain of the film, though i disagree. After Andrew and the other two lads get superpowers, they become the best of friends, and because Matt & Steve are popular at high school, they try and make Andrew popular, but because of Andrew's struggle with his homelife, he ends up regressing into his old ways and because of his new powers, he begins to see himself as bigger than everyone else, and now, if he wants something, he takes it.

This is Andrew's arc of the film, his rise to power and his inevitable downfall because of his corrupted moral views. Anyone who's ever been bullied in their lives has had revenge fantasies on what they would do, well this is a person who can now live out those fantasies, and because he's spent his life surrounded by negative emotions, he pushes out the positive ones, refusing to accept them as fact. Andrew isn't a villain, he's just a normal kid who's been through a lot of bad experiences like a lot of teenagers, his downfall comes from the fact he doesn't see the light in his life because it's over shadowed by the darkness. Andrew is one of the best written and developed characters in the found footage genre, we identify with him and we feel sorry for him. He's also excellently portrayed by Dane DeHaan, who, despite playing similar roles in several films afterwards, but he does it very well.

Our next character is Matt, played by Alex Russell; Matt is the hero of the movie, though he's not the main character, in the end we see that he was the hero all along. Before they get their powers, we see Matt talk about philosophy and morals. His only real goal in the movie is trying to hook up with a girl named Casey, a big superhero cliche. Most heroes are the ones with greatness and responsibility thrusted upon them and Matt is one of those characters, he didn't ask for super powers and even when he has them, he's the one who uses them the least in the group, but in the end he's the one who has to stand up to Andrew and save the day. At the end of the film, he's the only one of the trio who survives and is determined to figure out what happened to them that gave them their powers in the first place.

Finally there is Steve played by Michael B Jordan, and this is the actor who, after watching this film, I knew would go on the great things, which he has done, with films like Fruitvale Station, and the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, this guy is going to be a major star because he is a phenomenal actor. Though his character may get the least development, he's the victim of the group. The one who had everything going for him, who always wanted to do the right thing and often gets his way...so of course he is the one killed off. Steve was Andrew's best friend and once he dies (By Andrew's hands), Andrew loses the last glimmer of hope he had.

Another element that I love the experimentation with their powers, they realise that telekinesis can be used for so much more than just moving things (Though we get plenty of entertaining scenes of them pranking people with it) they also learn to fly because they can just levitate themselves, and even find a way to create barriers around them to protect them from harm. These are also the scenes that show the trio developing their relationships and growing stronger as friends, as well as scenes of them talking about their personal lives, which feel like real people, hell i've had conversations like these with my friends in very similar manners. Which makes the end result all the more tragic.

Now some people do have certain problems with the film, mostly, how they got their powers is never explained, there's a crystal underground and it gives them powers, but it also breaks the camera which means we don't see a whole lot of the initial stages, but then cut to them playing with their powers. I can understand why some people would be upset with this, and yes while I would also like to know the details, it doesn't bother me too much because in context, we're seeing the entire film from the perspective of these 3 kids, if they never figure out where their powers came from then we shouldn't. And they do attempt to investigate their origins at one point but they quickly realise that it's a lost cause and give up on the matter. So no, this doesn't bother me, but i understand why it would bother other people, after all when telling an origin story, the actual origin is quite important.

Chronicle is a fantastic film that should not be forgotten and hopefully it will develop a cult following and eventually be seen as the highlight of the found footage genre.

Chronicle gets a 9/10.

-Danny

The Death of PDI/Dreamworks

A few days ago, news broke that Dreamworks Animation is closing down PDI studios, one of their subsidiaries who produced many of their films, including Antz, Megamind, Kung Fu Panda and the Madagascar & Shrek movies. This means over 500 jobs are being ended, but don't worry, many of them are getting jobs at the main Dreamworks Animation studio, or at the very least, opportunities at other studios, hell, a lot of animation & gaming studios have openly said they're offering jobs to those laid off, so all is good for them. And being honest that was my main concern with this closure because personally i feel like this isn't going to affect the quality of Dreamworks films very much. All of their films are for the most part, produced by either Dreamworks Animation or Pacific Digital Images (PDI).  And though PDI has made plenty of great films, they also have made the weakest of the Dreamworks films, including Shark Tale, Over the Hedge & Mr Peabody & Sherman; not to mention their habit of not letting a franchise die, *cough* Shrek *cough* Madagascar*.

Dreamworks Animation, especially over the past few years have-in my opinion-become better than the last few Pixar movies. How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2 are some of the best animated films i've ever seen, Monsters vs Aliens which was funny as hell, and while Kung Fu Panda (By PDI) was good, it's sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 (By Dreamworks) was a masterpiece. Or hell, let's go back to Dreamworks' routes, Prince of Egypt, an amazing movie. My point is, I honestly think this might be the right move for Dreamworks. Their filmography is half great and half mediocre (Hell, their only awful film is Shark Tale) but most their mediocre films did come from PDI, and now, with the cut backs on films, meaning more time to work on the current ones and make them all the better. The best of Dreamworks is still around and those at PDI will still have jobs so yeah, looking into it, i'm all for this decision, my only problem is Gimme Kung Fu Panda 3 already!!

-Danny

Titan A.E. - Cheap Thoughts

Hello there, welcome to Cheap Thoughts, where I talk about things that don't matter, and today we're talking about the forgetten work of a great director, Titan AE. Released in the year 2000 and directed by Don Bluth, the king of animation. The film takes place in the year 3043, Cale (Matt Damon) is a salvage yard worker, after the destructon of Earth, along with his father, 15 years ago. After his scrapyard is attacked by the alien race known as the Drej (the same people who destroyed Earth) Cale ends up onboard a ship of a small band of misfit pirates, lead by a man named Korso. As it turns out, Korso and crew are searching for something known as the Titan, which Cale just so happens to have the co-ordinates for, after a long adventure involving betrayal and action, they discover Titan and realise it has the power to create a new Earth, which the Drej are not happy about, so a battle ensues in which Korso sacrifices himself to kill the Drej, New Earth is formed and they all lived happily ever after.

This was Don Bluth's last ever film before he retired and that upsets me greatly, because a director that good should not end his career on a film this bad. I mean, seriously, this film, is god awful. Nothing about it works, it's as cliched and boring as a film can get, these characters are like everything you've seen before, in Firefly or Rebels or Guardains of the Galaxy or really any science fiction series that focuses on a bunch of space outlaws. Granted this did come before most of what made that genre so popular, but the characters in it are boring as hell and are incredibly cliched. Admittedly the designs of the aliens are nice, but they're too obvious, I mean a lot of aliens are based on Earth creatures, but there's little creativity here, the one based on a turtle, looks exactly like a turtle, the one based on Kangaroos looks exactly like a Kangeroo, there's nothing unique about them, physically or personally. The worst one is the main character Cale, who is the most boring, cliched, nice guy thrown into a bad situation that you've ever seen before. Actually let's go back to that Firefly comparison, because this film was co-written by Joss Whedon, and it kinda makes sense because this entire film feels like a first draft on Firefly (Thankfully, it wasn't).

The story is as boring and predictable as you could have imagined, you don't care about what's happening because you've seen it a million times. Nothing about this universe created is unique or inspired, everything about it sucks. And yes, the A.E. does stand for After Earth, that should be a clue on how bad this movie is. The villains are creatures of pure energy, which sounds like a cool concept, but it's completley squandered by how little development they're given. I don't want to repeat myself so i'll some this all up with one word: Boring. Everything about this movie is boring. The characters: Boring. The story: Boring. The designs: Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.

But that's not even the worst offense, this film does what I didn't even think was possible, the animation, in a Don-Bluth-Movie is absolutley terrible. Those words shouldn't ever have to be in the same sentence, this is Don Bluth, the man behind Land Before Time, An American Tail, The Secret of NIMH. Hell even his bad movies still look nice, but here, this is some of the worst animation ever. Not just because of the blend of hand drawn and computer generated, but yeah, let's talk about that. The movie uses both traditional animation and computer animation and blends the two together and it is the worst blending of the two that I have ever seen. They so obviously do not blend well that this would be embarrasing for a first time director, let alone a veteran like Bluth. But even seperated, the animation is still crap. The computer animation is poorly rendered and looks like a joke, while the hand drawn animation has such a distinct lack of detail and colour palette that it just looks cheap and lazily done.

With the talent behind this film, this could have been something amazing, but instead we got a boring, cliched, ugly and predictable movie that has put me straight up into a state of denial on Don Bluth's involvement in the film.

I'm giving Titan A.E. a 2/10.

-Danny

My Thoughts on Marvel's Battleworld

So here's something controversial, in May this year, Marvel are going to be destroying all the Marvel Universes and mashing them all together...huh. So if you're not that big of a comic person, here's the rundown, in the Marvel comics, there are multiple universes, and the two main ones are simply referred to as the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe, if you ever read a Marvel comic, they are most likely going to be from one of these two universes. They usually have the same characters but with slight differences, for example, in the Ultimate universe, Spider-Man is black and is a new character named Miles Morales, who over the past couple of years has become quite popular with the fans. And what Marvel are going to be doing is mashing these two universes together permanently, taking the best elements from both universes and putting them together in a brand new continuity, so basically a half-reboot of the Marvel comics, meaning if you've never read a Marvel comic but really want to get into it, this would be a good starting point.

Now this has caused a lot of backlash from fans, simply because they want clarity on what elements will remain, who will be Captain America? Who will be Spider-Man? Is Wolverine still going to be dead? What about female Thor? Ms Marvel? All of these questions and more make people worried about the coming future.

Now personally there are some things that I do seriously care about seeing, mostly Ms Marvel and Miles Morales because they are some of my favourite Marvel characters right now, though considering they are also everyone else's favourite characters, i doubt they wouldn't make the cut. I also want this to mean a return to form for the X-Men because there are so many X-Men comics and it's gotten so complicated that I want things to be simple again, give me one team of X-Men and have Xaviar be in charge of them. Preferably do the same with The Avengers, but that i'm a little more lenient on.

Apart from that, gotta be honest, i'm all for it, a lot of people complain that this means Marvel are going to get rid of a bunch of their newer characters and try and stylize themselves more like the films (Because you know, they haven't been doing that for the past 8 years) and worry that the diverse range of characters that Marvel have begun to introduce over the past few years are gonna be gone...and to that I say bullshit. Like i said, comics like Ms Marvel or Ultimate Spider-Man are some of their best selling comics, why would they abandon them? And it is entirely possible that there can be more than one Spider-Man in a Marvel universe, hell, right now we have 6 Spider-Man on Earth 616, and that's not even including the Spider-Verse arc they're currently going through.

What this is going to do is give Marvel a fresh start to do whatever they want without having to worry about the decades of content beforehand and introduce a lot of new faces into comics, especially considering how fast this fanbase has been growing.

But up until we can tell who's gonna be making it into Battleworld, we can't really make any judgements so...fingers crossed...I guess.

-Danny

Arrow "Left Behind" Review

The Flash, while I'm very happy to have to back, the most recent episode was disappointing due to the lack of consistency and theming of the episode. Arrow on the other hand had a great opening episode, let's talk about it.

Previously ON DRAGONBALL Z!--sorry, force of habit. Previously on Arrow, we saw Oliver fight against Ra's Al Ghul and not only lose, but get stabbed through the chest and get kicked off a motherfucking mountain. So he's sort of out of commission right now and the others are beginning to suspect that he may be dead, yet try to continue on with their jobs anyway. However, once Malcolm Merlyn provides them with the evidence to prove that Ollie is dead, it becomes harder and harder for them to find the will to continue their mission.

This is one of the few times where it never felt like Arrow was spoon-feeding us the emotions of the characters and having to spell everything out, sometimes, letting your emotions out in other ways or subtle ways is all that is needed. Take Felicity's argument with Ray, when she tells him that it is pointless to try and become a hero because it's not going to change anything and it's not what his fiance would have wanted. She's expressing her emotions vicariously through Ray, without having to say something stupid to make it really obvious that she's upset about Ollie. But what makes it even better is Ray's reaction, a man so cheerful and helpful, suddenly becomes quite stoic and quitely says "Don't ever tell me what Anna would have wanted". He doesn't have a big rant at her or even raise his voice, but this change in his tone, though subtle, feels massive for the audience.

This is definitely the highlight of the episode, seeing everyone coping with the supposed death of Oliver, Felicity trying to compensate for the death of Ollie or Diggle talking about how he still saw himself as his bodyguard. This is some of the best emotional writing in the show's history and it was greatly delivered from the actors, without over-acting it.

Then there is the actual plot to the episode where they have a large gangster steal all the evidence of the convicts that Team Arrow have put away the past few months, with the evidence gone, there's nothing keeping them in prison (Don't believe that's how it works for already convicted criminals) so now a super gang is forming who plan to take over the Glades (Poor part of town). There isn't much to talk about with this just yet seeing as this is only the set up of a story arc so all i'll say right now is, so far, so good.

The flashbacks of this episode we see Ollie and Maseo beginning to form a new found trust in each other, after Maseo's wife was kidnapped in the previous episode, and Ollie swears to help him find her. This of course parallels the scenes within the episode that show Maseo helping the dying Oliver and taking him somwhere safe, that would be Tatsu's secret shelter. Now this is something that i'm kind of mixed on, on one hand, this raises a lot of questions that will most likely be answered later on and is a good cliffhanger for the audience. But on the other hand, it ruins a lot of the tension in the flashbacks because now we can confirm that all major characters within the flashbacks are in present day (Except for their son, GASP) so it kind of loses a lot of the tension on where that story arc was going to go. As well as the tension of what's going to happen to Oliver, at least keep him dead for a couple of episodes, but nope, he wakes up in the end.

Oh, and then there was Laurel dawning her Black Canary costume, an idea that was stupid from the get go because Sara was so much cooler than Laurel. So even though the idea was stupid, her costume was stupid and Laurel is stupid...i dunno, it did bother me as much as I thought it would, maybe i've just accepted that Laurel is going to be a major character, no matter how little people want her there. Also she got literally 10 seconds on screen so we can hardly judge her completley as Black Canary.

Overall, this was a great episode, some parts of it were greater than others, but I can't think of anything that was really bad in it. Honestly if more episodes were like this, especially when it comes to the emotional conflict of the series, then I think the show would be all the better for it.

I'm giving "Left Behind" an 8/10.

-Danny

The Flash "Revenge of the Rogues" Review

Finally get to do this again, welcome to my weely review of The Flash (And yes, Arrow tomorrow), and our latest episode "Revenge of the Rogues" sees the return of Captain Cold, teaming up with Heat Wave to hunt down and kill The Flash, they kidnap Caitlin as an attempt to lure him out and a battle ensues and of course Barry is the winner.

Alright so what do I like about this episode? Well for the most part, it was actually a lot of small things, like Barry moving back in with Joe, and seeing the science guys geek out about Ghostbusters. There were a lot of great character interactions in this episode which shows exactly why I love these characters and this show in general. Oh and Barry grabbed a missle out of the air and threw it back at a drone...because he's fucking awesome. I also like that Star Labs is starting to make progress with the CCPD by developing ice resistant riot shields, which also gives Cisco a fair amount to do in this episode, rather than just explaining things.

But as for what i didn't like about the episode...it's actually the main story. Which don't get me wrong, it's not a bad story, it's just kinda stupid. For example, Cold & Heat steal a $25 Million painting and Cold says it's not enough, because as long as The Flash is around, the next job won't go down so easily...um...you've got a $25 Million painting, what next job!? You're filthy rich! Go buy an island somewhere, where Flash can't find you, and then they burn the painting!? What the fuck!? And then there's the climax of the episode, Cold & Heat challenging Barry and the only way for Barry to beat them is the cross the streams (Hence the Ghostbusters talk). But they make it look so hard, except one problem, he's the fucking Flash! He travels at super speed, the bad guys can't aim for shit against him. And even then, why are the police just stood there!? These guys are out in the open with no body armour and have their hands full with The Flash, just shoot these fuckers already!

Apart from that, I also struggle to get a grip of what the theme is in this particular episode because everyone is doing something different. Iris is moving in with Eddie, Caitlin is trying to learn more about her fiance, and Barry's emotional arc is completley different from what The Flash has to physically go through. So i can't actually get a grip on what this episode is trying to say, the only thing that develops emotionally is Barry & Iris getting over the awkwardness but that's a matter of time, not any significant event helping them through it.

This is one of those episodes where it's the little things that make you enjoy it, the character interactions, the cool moments with Flash, the jokes. It's all good, but when you look at the episode as a whole and what the main focus is, you see all the problems and inconsistencies. But with that being said, I'm just happy to have The Flash back on our screens.

I'm giving this episode a 6/10.

-Danny

I Am Legend - Cheap Thoughts

Hello and welcome to the first instalment of Cheap Thoughts, a series where I talk about products on my mind. The first film that I want to talk about is I Am Legend. (Spoilers Ahead) Released in 2007, directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. The story follows Smith's character Robert Neville, a scientist for the army in New York City. After a virus breakout causes the zombie apocalypse, however, there's a twist, the zombies (Or vampires, depends who you ask) can only travel at night, as the sunlight burns their flesh, meaning during the day, Robert is the only human in all of New York, along with his dog Sam and a stray animal every now and again. The majority of the film just follows Robert through his daily routine, travelling around New York, experimenting on rats to try and find a cure and broadcasting his location in case there are any other survivors looking for shelter. After a while, Robert's dog and only friend Sam is infected and Robert is forced to kill her, in a fit of rage, Robert tries to kill himself and as many "Darkseekers" as possible, but is saved by a woman and a child, two more survivors. Once they return back to Robert's home, they are over swarmed with Darkseekers and retreat to the basement, where they discover that Robert's experiments have begun working, he then provides the woman, Anna, with a sample and tells her to find help, she and the boy, Ethan, escape while Robert sacrifices himself to kill the Darkseekers. Later on, Anna discovers a colony of survivors and the film ends with an optimistic view of the future.

The film was a box office hit and both critics and audiences seemed to like it fine, it was one of Smith's last films before he took a 5 year long hiatus (Which no one seemed to notice) and he was most likely the main reason why the film was a box office success. And it definitely feels like his kind of movie, after all, this is a man with an ego so big he refused the role of Django in Django Unchained because he wanted to be the main character (Even though his character is in the fucking title!) But I digress, because he is actually a major part of why I love this movie.

Smith's character, despite being the only character on screen for the majority of the film is very engaging, and not just because of Smith, he's not cracking one liners and cool quips every 5 seconds, in fact there's very little dialogue in the first act of the film, most of the dialogue is through flashbacks of the initial breakout and the death of Smith's family. The film definitely creates this sense of isolation, not just through Smith being the only person on screen, but through his actions. Everyday he goes to a Blockbusters (So much for predicting the future!) and has multiple mannequins scattered in the store and pretends to have conversations with them and gives them personalities, as a coping method, even pretending to have an awkward encounter with one of them. This ends with a great emotional pay off at the end of the second act, after Sam dies and he is at his breaking point, he returns to the shop and begs one of the mannequins "Please say hello to me" and it is honestly a heartbreaking scene, to see this man at his lowest, where he has given up on everything.

So I should probably talk about the dog itself, yes it is a heartbreaking scene, not just because they broke the number one rule of movies (Never kill the dog!) but because Robert is being forced to kill his best friend in the entire world, in fact, his only friend in the entire world. Though again, I think what sells this most is Smith's performance, in fact I would go as far to say as this is one of the best performances he's ever given and is often overlooked, not his all time best, but one of.

The other thing that I love is the pacing and lack of dialogue in the movie, like i said, there is very little dialogue in the first act of the movie, it gives the film a sense of atmosphere and scale, something about seeing New York City completely empty just doesn't sit right. And there's an incredibly tense scene where Sam runs into a pitch black building and Robert, completley terrified, has to run in after her and you could cut the tension with a knife. Robert isn't a soldier, he's a scientist, so when he runs in there, he doesn't do it bravely, he's scared out of his wits that he'll be attacked. It's a great scene.

Although this film does have some major issues, the first one being the Darkseekers themselves, ignoring what a stupid title that is anyway, it's hard to define what they are. They have the origins of zombies, if you get bit by one you become one, they feast off flesh, they seem like zombies. But they're also sensetive to light, have some intelligence and again, if you get bit by one, you become one. I don't know which one they're supposed to be, or maybe it's a mixture of both, but it's not made very clear. And not to mention the CG on the creatures is awful, this is a classic example of where practical would have been much better than CGI.

Then there is the third act of the movie which just kinda...sucks. Once the woman and the child are introduced, the film becomes far less interesting because the new characters aren't interesting; they're cliched, underdeveloped and boring. And then there is the ending of the movie, which a lot of people complain about, in fact most people prefer the alternate ending of the movie. In the original ending, the darkseekers stormed Robert's house in search of one of their own that Robert was experimenting on. They found her and just...left...yeah, just left. I don't really like this ending because it makes the Darkseekers come across as co-oporative, which makes them less threatening and savage. Also it's just a little bit too happy ending, the original ending was bitter sweet with an optimistic view of the future, so yeah I prefer it this way to the initial ending.

Overall I think I Am Legend is a very underlooked film that not a whole lot of people talk about, it has a great performance by Will Smith, great pacing, an engaging atmosphere, crappy effects and a less than impressive third act.

But nevertheless I am giving I Am Legend an 8/10

-Danny

Cheap Thoughts Introduction

So i've been struggling to come up with topics to talk about on this blog for a few weeks now so i've decided to come up with a new series where I review a certain film, TV Show, videogame, etc, that I feel is worth talking about, yet rarely is (For better or worse). And the title of this series will be 'Cheap Thoughts'. Why that title? Well you ever hear the phrase "A penny for your thoughts" it's just sort of a play on of that, my thoughts on a product, and they're not going to be indepth analysis of them (Maybe for some) so they're not going to be extravagant and in detail, just my simple thoughts, or my cheap thoughts. With that being said, join me tomorrow where I talk about the Will Smith hit, I Am Legend.

-Danny

Was 2014 a Good Year For Movies?

Whenever a top 10 best movies of *Blank Year* comes out, they always say it was a great year for movies, but was it? I mean let's look back over this decade so far.

In 2010 there were films like Toy Story 3, Inception, How to Train Your Dragon, The Social Network, 127 Hours, Kick Ass, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1. Three of those got a 10/10 from me, all the others got a 9/10.

In 2011 we had 50/50, Hugo, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Warrior, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: First Class, The Muppets, Paul, Attack the Block, The Raid. Four of which are 10/10 and the rest 9/10.

2012 had films like The Avengers, Chronicle, Wreck-It Ralph, Looper, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Amazing Spider-Man, Silver Linings Playbook , Cabin in the Woods , Skyfall, Dredd, Ted, Argo, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, The Dark Knight Rises. Granted only one 10/10 from that year but more 9/10s than any other year.

So at this point everything is just getting better and better, I am loving more and more movies as the decade goes on...and then we hit 2013...Which granted while not terrible, it is the first year of the decade where I was disapointed with a lot of the films I was looking forward too.

But some of the films from 2013 I did love were The World's End, Her, Prisoners, Gravity, Catching Fire, The Spectacular Now, Frozen, Saving Mr Banks. Only one 10/10 and the rest were 9/10s. Still a pretty good list of films, but the weakest of the decade.

And now we come up to 2014, what were some films I love from this year? Nightcrawler, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Birdman, The LEGO Movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Raid 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America The Winter Soldier, The Babadook, 22 Jump Street, Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods, I Know That Voice, Begin Again, Whiplash, The Guest ...So yeah, it was a great year for movies. Again, only one 10/10 and the rest were 9/10s. A much better year than 2013 and it was incredibly difficult to decide what films to put on my top 10 films list.

So to answer the question I ponders, was 2014 a good year for movies? Yes. Absolutley. Honestly I think this decade is already much better than the 2000's. That's not to say there weren't any iconic movies to come out of the 2000's, but I'm just saying, it would be a lot harder for me to make top 10 lists for movies of those years (Especially 2006) than it is right now.

And with 2015 having so much potential, I am thoroughly looking forward to what we have in store for us.

-Danny

Nightcrawler - Movie Review

Due to the lack of nominations for Nightcrawler at the oscars this year, I feel the need to talk about it because it straight up deserved to be nominated, and keep in mind when it comes to the Oscar movies, me liking them are usually 50/50, and this was one of the best (Too bad it wasn't nominated). Nightcrawler follows the story of Louis Bloom, a socially inept man who clearly doesn't know how to communicate with regular people and strives to be the best at what he does, he doesn't really care what it is that he does, just as long as he's the best at it. He ends up discovering the world of freelance journalism, getting video footage of major news stories and then selling them to the news. Throughout the film we see him become obsessed with this job and goes from socially deranged to compulsive psychopath.

Jake Gyllenhaal is in my opinion one of the greatest actors working today, his performances in films like Prisoners, Donnie Darko & Zodiac are more than enough proof of that, and this performance is just going to add to that great resume. Lou is a man with no boundaries and isn't afraid to speak his mind and be blunt with people, no matter how rude or disturbing as it may come across, and in a society where we've come to love characters like that (Sherlock, House) it's nice to see a portrayal of someone like that who is legitimately creepy as he should be. In the first scene we see him attack a security guard just so he can steal his watch and from that point on everytime he's alone in a room with someone it becomes the most intense scene of the film, just to be trumped by the next time it happens. Gyllenhaal's physical transformation is commendable as well, while most actors get praise for going through huge physical changes, it's the small things that make this character truly disturbing, rather than be physically anorexic, he's just really skinny with a pale complexion, not to mention long greasy hair and i noticed his character rarely blinks. It's the little things like that, which usually go unnoticed that when put together can really create a character.

As the film goes on and we see Lou get better and better as his job, we also see his mental state getting worse and worse, he even goes as far to tamper with a crime scene, just to make it look more appealing on film. He breaks the law and manipulates his co-workers into getting things right, he comes across as a man who has no empathy for human life and has no boundaries or ethics, if he has to do something morally deplorable in order to get a good shot then he will. This might honestly be my favourite performance from Gyllenhaal and considering his line of work, that is a big statement to say.

Another part of what makes this film so great is the script, the dialogue and interactions between Lou and his co-workers is both disturbing and engaging, you know that if you met someone who spoke like this in real life, you would see them as a monster, just like Lou is here, yet the way he talks and how confident he is in what he's saying, you're hanging on to every word. Everything Lou says, he says to progress in life, to improve his career and his lifestyle, not caring what people think of him or even how it would affect them.

The film is also very well directed, despite having a low budget of only $8 Million, the climax of the movie consisting of a car chase feels epic and grand. Dan Gilroy, the writer & director of the movie was able to take a relatively small story and make it feel larger than life. For a first time director he did an incredible job and I am very much looking forward to seeing what else he does in the future. The pacing of the film is also great, no scene ever drags, nor does it get boring, because Lou is portrayed as such a disturbing character, every scene engaging.

If i were to point out any issues with the movie, I would say maybe the supporting cast don't get much development and the police investigation of Lou was rather overlooked. But honestly those aspects don't really bother me very much because what is given the majority of the focus is incredible, and if I had seen this film when it was first released, then it most definitely would have been in my top 10, hell, it would have been in my top 5.

Because I'm giving Nightcrawler a 9/10.

-Danny

Dick Poop!

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My Favourite Characters - Luke Skywalker

I think it's no secret that Star Wars is one of if not the biggest piece of media of all time. What started out as one man's dream project became the most iconic science-fiction series in history, spanning into books, TV shows, videogames and influencing hundreds and hundreds of wannabee films. And at the centre of all this, leading the charge in this phenomenon is our lead character, Luke Skywalker. The main reason why I've always loved Luke as a character is because this is the ultimate hero rises tail. The underdog with no distinct talents but is forced (Puns!) into greatness and has to overcome obstacles both physically and emotionally and become a brave warrior. It's a character arc that has been done a million times but I feel Luke's is easily on of the best. Let's take a look at his journey.

In A New Hope we see him as a wide-eyed young soul who dreams of fighting in the rebellion and to achieve something with his life, he then meets Ben Kenobi and learns that his father was a great Jedi Knight who was strong with the force, as is Luke. Throughout the film we see Luke learn how to use the force and start his journey to being a great warrior, after his mentor dies he is forced to continue on his own, which leads to him blowing up the Death Star and getting his first taste of greatness. In Empire we see him continue his training with Master Yoda, learning to harness the force for it's potential and become a better Jedi by facing challenges physically and psychologically. But his ego and compassion for his friends gets the better of him and he leaves to early, convincing himself he is ready to face off against Darth Vader. Once he does, he loses horribly, having his hand cut off and finding out that the face of evil is in fact his father. Now at his absolute low point, Luke gets a huge blow to his ego and realises that he truly has to commit himself to his training and only fight when he is told he is ready.

And then we get to Return of the Jedi, my favourite of the franchise, because it's the conclusion to his arc. We reunite with look, several years since Empire and instantly we can tell he is a different person, he is able to manipulate people's thoughts, he is calm in the face of danger; he is one the force. And on top of it all, he's got a new green lightsaber because he's just that badass. From this point on, it's not about beating Vader, but it's about showing him the good in him, that he was once a hero and he can be again. While simultaneously the Empire are trying to show the darkness in him, but deep inside, Luke is good, he has always been good, and he'll always be good, nothing can change that. And his father finally sees this, his father sees the error of his ways and saves his son. Luke had done it, he had saved the galaxy and defeated the empire and managed to redeem his father.

This is one of the best paced and written hero arcs that I've ever seen, we care about Luke and want to see him progress, every mistake he makes is understandable and never comes across as stupid or irresponsible, and his victory in the end is earned and we see him grow as a man and a hero. Because that's what Luke is, Luke is a hero who we root for, he feel compasion for, and we cheer for when he wins. Luke is my favourite character in Star Wars and one of my favourite characters of all time.

-Danny

That One Friend...

Yesterday I complained about those random internet commenters that always like to correct you on the small details as some pathetic attempt to feel superior than you because you have better knowledge on a trivial fact than they do. Well it got me thinking on real people who do stuff like that, but not just on trivial things, but everything. We all have that one friend that feels the need to act like they can do everything better than you, if you say you can hold your breath under water for 30 seconds, he'll say he can do it in one minute, if you say you can do 60 pushups in a minute, he'll say he can do 100, if you say you're really good at a videogame, he'll claim he's better. We all have this egotistically desperate friend who for some reason has this logic where if we think he's better than us then for some reason we'll like them more when in reality it makes us like them less because they come across as competitive, assumptive, egotistic, and most of all, douchey. So if you are one of those people who are so insecure about yourselves that you feel the need to act better than all of your friends...fuck off.

-Danny

"Um, Actually..."

There is no phrase on the internet that comes across as more douchey than "um, actually" whenever I comment on something and someone responds with "um, actually" I sigh and go "oh crap". Because whenever someone is correcting me on something and they use the phrase "um, actually" it is always the most miniscule, pointless, irrelevant fact that just does not matter, yet having this little nugget of knowledge in their minds says "If i share this pointless little factoid then they will see how clever i am and respect me as their intellectual superior!". When in reality I think "Does it really fucking matter?" that little tidbit rarely will affect what i'm saying overall, so there's no point in correcting it. So remember, the next time you get the temptation to correst someone, be aware of the "um, actually". Don't be a douche.

-Danny

The Dream of Podcasting

I am a big fan of podcasts, my personal favourites are Pretty Much It, Comedy Bang Bang, Co-Optional and anything from the Schmoes Know Team. And I hope that one day I could start a podcast of my own with several friends, I even have a few ideas on what we could talk about, the problem is buying the equipment for podcasts are costs money and not to mention gathering people together for that and all that stuff, right now it's nothing more than a dream, but someday, it shall happen. Hopefully.

-Danny

Nope.

Gotcha again!

-Danny

So 200th tomorrow

So it's the 200th post tomorrow...hm, I wonder if i'm gonna do something big or am I gonna be a big cocktease like last time?

-Danny

Ant-Man Trailer Thoughts

The Ant-Man trailer premiered recently, and people's thoughts are mixed, people loved it, others were meh. Now first of all, and I hate how often I have to say this IT'S A MOTHERFUCKING TEASER!! Don't expect it to give away all the plot points and best moments in the goddamn teaser trailer. With that being said, I was always looking forward to this movie and this trailer doesn't change anything. I think the cast comes across as great, the costume looks perfect and I like the effect of when he changes size, it was a good trailer. Honestly what gets me more excited than anything is the new Ant-Man comic book with Scott Lang, which even though it's one issue in, is awesome so far, if they make the movie like this then I will fall in love with the Ant-Man movie. So that's really it, the trailer was fine, I was already really excited for the movie, and I still am...done.

-Danny

50 Shades of Grey Rating (Because that matters)

The upcoming 50 Shades of Grey movie (Because people still care about that I think) has officially been given an R Rating, which is good because it's still profitable while still having sleaze. And also NC-17 is considered to be the box office death rating, name one movie that was a box office hit that was rated NC-17. Which is something that I don't get, only adults can see it, but there are more of them than teenagers. Admittedly teenagers have more disposable income, but even so. Especially with 50 Shades of Grey being rated R is pointless, because an R rating means that anyone under 17 needs a parent or guardian to see the movie, the problem with that is, who the fuck is gonna go with their parents to see 50 Shades of Grey!?

-Danny

Wow i've been slacking recently

Good thing no one reads this.

-Danny

My Favourite Characters - Mordin

Wow, another Mass Effect character, hey i told ya there would be a lot of these. The funny thing is, I really didn't like Mordin when we first started to get to know him, long story short, he helped to neuter an entire species (The Krogan), sending the entire planet into a downward spiral of war, poverty and distress. And the two Krogans we had on our team were awesome, so I would get into a lot of arguments with Mordin over his decisions...that was until we played through his loyalty mission. In his loyalty mission, we finally get an explanation, he wasn't doing it because he felt it was the right thing to do, he did it because it was a necessity. The Krogan are violent and live for combat, and breed quickly, if they were to live freely then that would cause mayhem, a statistical probability as he would put it. So he dedicated his time & brains to working towards enhancing the genophage, the neutering formula pretty much. But, the genophage wasn't implemented to exterminate them, but control them, that's why he was so crucial to the formula, because they needed it to be 1 in 1000 births were successful, they needed a balance, killing the Krogan for what they 'might' do is immoral, and this is what we learn about Mordin, while he may have come across as a cold hearted bastard (Well he might be, being an alien and all) he still had rules he lived by. He was a logical person, but also saw the need for boundaries and respect for life, he never tested on living creatures, seeing it as cruel and had a large interest in religion, found comfort in the thought of a bigger picture behind it all.

He never had any personal hatred for the Krogans, he just new it was something that had to happen, and he had to be the one to do it, as he puts it "had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong". And this is something he lived by, in Mass Effect 3 when he dedicated his efforts to curing the genophage, he did it because it was also a necessity, he would go as far for this cause to sacrifice himself to curing the species he doomed, which I like to believe there was always that underlying level of guilt he had for doing something so awful, and was so relieved at the thought that he could repent for his crimes against nature. And i'm not gonna lie, when he died, I not only cried, but I saluted this man, because of his selfless and logical sacrifice. He was indeed the very model of a scientist salarian.

-Danny

Do People Like Cloverfield?

When Cloverfield came out, it was huge, and no I don't just mean the monster, but I mean everyone was talking about this movie, everyone went to go see it and yet...I have no idea what people think about it. Do people love it? Hate it? Indifferent? I don't know...I mean I know how I feel about it, personally I love this film. The first 20 minutes of the film are spent establishing the characters that we are going to spend the rest of the movie with and I genuinely grew to care about them, they feel almost like characters in a sitcom and you know what, I would watch that sitcom. But they're also well written enough to feel like genuine people, they're not perfect people with their lives all sorted and they're not dispicable or obnoxious (Except for Jason, but he's supposed to be). I felt like I could identify myself with these people, sadly I quickly realised I was Hud, which is kinda depressing. So when the disaster strikes, I was invested in seeing these people get out, and it was sad whenever someone died. And while most found footage movies suffer from suspension of disbelief been broken, mostly because at some point you feel like yelling "Put the camera down and run!" it's more acceptable here because the camera man Hud (Get it?) is kind of dumb. Also rewatching it makes me realise just how many single takes are done in this movie, it's quite impressively handled. And yes I like the way how the monster was handled, we barely see it but we never forget that it is this present threat in the film, and the focus remains on our main characters rather than glorifying the creature. The film definitely has vibes of 9/11, big disaster in New York, monument destroyed and a whole lot of it is captured on video camera and we see the survivors of the event and the trauma they go through. Also this movie has one hell of a crew, Matt Reeves directing, JJ Abrams producing and Drew Goddard writing, these people are insanely good at what they do and this is no different. Now am I saying this is a masterpiece of it's genre? No. Well actually considering it's competition in the found footage genre it actually might be. The film can be cliched at times, the spider thing was stupid and certain elements are so unrealistic that it doesn't balance well, like how good is the quality of that camera? Seriously that thing has perfect sound and video, it's a bit distracting. But I can't think of any problems that seriously bring the film down for me. Also it is worth noting that some people might complain about the run time of this movie and that being that it is really short, like i'm talking barely making it past 70 minutes, but to be fair I don't think it needed to be any longer, it had a story to tell and it told it at a decent pace, I think it works well for the film. And also the marketing of film was genius, the trailer was nothing more than the clip of the statue of liberty's head getting thrown across the city, that was it, not even a title, the mystery behind it got a lot of people talking, so when they finally learnt what it was, they absolutley had to see it, just look at that poster, it looks incredible.

I kinda love this movie and feel like it sometimes gets overlooked, I love the acting, I love the writing, I love the directing, I love the marketing and I love the pacing. Yes some visuals don't do it for me and I do have my nitpicks, but I still thoroughly enjoy it. 9/10.

-Danny

The Cowboy Bebop Experiment

Read Me First!

If you didn't read the article above (Then you're a rebel, I like that) I'll sum it up, two guys decided to watch Grown Ups 2 every week for a whole year just to see what would happen, and i found this very fascinating, so I want to try doing something similar. However, while they decided to do a bad movie, I want to do a good one, something that I won't hate myself for, so I picked Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. A film I thoroughly enjoy, will I still like it by this time next year? Hopefully. We'll find out eventually...

-Danny

Christine Cavanaugh: 1963-2014

I know this news story is a few days old but I really haven't had the opportunity to talk about it, but here we go. Christine Cavanaugh is a woman that was part of a lot of our childhoods, she was the voice of Chuckie in Rugrats, Gosalyn from Darkwing Duck, Babe from Babe and Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory. It's always sad when someone whose work you admired passes away, but when it's someone from your childhood, that makes it all the worse. Some of my favourite shows as a kid were Dexter's Lab and Rugrats, and Chuckie was always my favourite. Admittedly I didn't grow up with Babe or Darkwing Duck, though Darkwing Duck is a show that i started watching the past year and I am loving it. Even though she retired in the mid-2000's and her roles were taken up by other people, she was the original, and a great talent who has made a name for herself. These characters have expanded more than just the generation of kids they were meant for and will live on as cartoon classics and so will she.

2015: The Future 'N' Shit

I swear to god if I hear one more Back to the Future joke...that movie took place on October 21st, cool your beans.

But apart from that, 2015, a new year for things to happen, there seem to be two camps on what a new year means to people, one group are people who are determined to change everything in their lives and the others are people who see the significance of this period to be arbitrary and stupid. I am in neither camps, I know that things will be different by this time next year, but i'm not gonna force them, if they happen then they happen, and there will be plenty of things that change that I wouldn't have been able to predict. But with that being said, let's actually talk about stuff I want to happen and what I'm looking forward to.

One of my resolutions-and yes I write resolutions because I actually fucking do them-is to lose weight, my goal would be to drop to 200lbs by the end of the year, ideally the summer, which is not impossible, it's a fair enough goal for me, i lose weight quite fast, i just so happen to put it on just as quick. Really having to take care of myself has done some good for me, I buy healthier food, go for a lot of walks, eat less often, I think I could actually do it. Something else I would like is to hit at least 100 subscribers on my YouTube channel, which if you're not subscribed too then just click here okay. I mean I'm currently at 77 which I think is like double what I had last year, so that should also be doable.

Also you know, doing well at university would be nice, make some new friends, some new memories, that's all good but again, that's stuff you can't predict what's gonna happen, i'm sure there will be plenty of things about 2015 that I'll love and things that I hate, we'll just have to wait and see. So those are all the personal things for 2015, then there are other things like...

STAR WARS!!!!! 2015 is the year of Star Wars, we have a new Battlefront game being released, we got some more Rebels coming our way, and oh yeah, THE FORCE AWAKENS IS IN 11 MONTHS!!!!! Can ya tell i'm excited?

We also got plenty of Marvel movies coming out, we got Batman: Arkham Knight & Uncharted 4 for the videogames, all of my favourite shows are returning like Arrow, Flash, Gravity Falls, Game of Thrones, Community. It's a good time to be a nerd.

Also maybe we can stop losing our goddamn airplanes in 2015!

-Danny