Arrow "Al-Sah-Him" Review

"I will not fight an unarmed man" so don't pick up the sword then, problem solved. Also how many times can someone say the phrase "I don't understand" in one episode? So this was Al-Sah-Him, where Ollie has now been brainwashed by Ra's Al Ghul into becoming his perfect soldier, who's frst goal is to hunt down Nyssa and bring her to justice. What remains of Team Arrow tries to protect Nyssa but to no avail, as Ollie is still able to capture her and bring her back to the League of Assassins, where it is revealed she stole the alpha & omega, a chemical that can poison an entire city on it's release, and plans on having Ollie release it into Starling City. Oh and he proclaims Nyssa and Ollie are to get married...awkward.

This episode was okay, no major problems, no big story issues or annoying character moments, it was a very serviceable episode, which I know I shouldn't be happy about, but considering where Arrow has been going this season, serviceable is actually really good (depressingly). Though I will say I feel like the fact that it's been getting better near the end of the season gives me hope for an awesome season finale, Arrow always does awesome season finales. So let's talk about some things that actually stood out to me in this episode, the first one being kind of a small thing, but I could have sworn Roy was gonna show up in this episode because his name was in the opening credits. Maybe i just haven't been observant enough and his name has been there all along, but usually when an actor leaves a show, they take his name out of the credits. But this does make me realise i do genuinely miss having Roy around, even if he didn't do anything this season, but I imagine he'll be back for the finale (Or the Titans spin-off, fingers crossed).

As for Ollie's whole transformation sequence, I accept it, there was nothing shocking or unique about it, it's just sort of a brainwashing episode, the good guy has now gone bad and the remaining good guys have to convince him, we've seen it a dozen times before. In fact this is why I thought Roy was returning, as if to say the only person who could convince him to go back to normal is his former partner. But now with Felicity telling Thea that Roy's alive and where he lives, makes me think that she's going to be leaving the show too and joining him on the Titans spin-off (Again, fingers crossed). Which I understand because there's not very much they can do with Thea that they haven't already done with Laurel, they would just be retreading familiar territory. But then I wonder who could she be in the Titans spin-off, I mean they made up her character for the TV Show, well there are two people that I can think of, one is Speedy, who initially was Roy but eventually a girl named Mia Dearden took up that mantel, and Ollie has called Thea Speedy on several occasions, also Mia, Thea, the names sound alike. The other would be Artemis, another one of Green Arrow's sidekicks in the Young Justice cartoon series. But why would they have two archers in one series? Oh well, I'm sure they'll figure something out, again, that is if Thea is going to be in the Teen Titans show, and that is if Teen Titans is actually going to happen.

Apart from that, I only have small things to touch upon, the first is Laurel using her powers for the first time, well not technically her powers but a gadget that does it for her. This was built for her by Cisco in one of the crossovers with The Flash, only they never explain it here, even though the audiences are pretty much the exact same, they should still probably explain how she can do that for those people who don't watch Flash. Also why didn't they effect Diggle? He was standing right next to her! Did he have some sort of earplug? Explain Guys! Explain! And why does she only use it once!? Would have come in mighty handy during that final fight. Ah well, still looked cool though.

Also in flashback-land, half of Hong Kong is wiped out by the Alpha & Omega, and now Ollie has it again (Funny how things that happened to him in the past all seem to come back exactly 5 years later) and we see Akio is poisoned and this is most likely what will kill him. Firstly, how many times this season have they worried about Akio and when they run home to find him, he stays hidden for like a minute and then comes running out, I swear that's all this kid is good for. Also, while this may be dark, I'm glad he's finally gonna die, because be honest, what has he added to the show apart from being a burden? Yeah he's a kid but he doesn't even have a personality, he's literally an escort mission and nothing more.

Overall, I liked this episode, nothing major either positive or negative, and it is mostly here to set up things for the finale, but i still think it's good. 7/10.

-Danny

The Flash "The Trap" Review

"Founding member of--" you son of a bitch, that is some damn good teasing. This is The Trap where now that the gang is 100% sure that Harrison Wells is the Reverse-Flash, they plan to set a trap for him by recreating the time where Wells killed Cisco in order to get him to confess to killing Barry's mother, meanwhile, Eddie plans on proposing to Iris, who has started to piece together all the clues of the particle accelerator and all the meta-humans showing up.

Harrison Wells so far has been a very interesting villain, for the most part because of Tom Cavanaugh being an excellent actor and is able to play the sophisticated and wise Harrison Wells, as well as the sinister and traitorous nature of him. But this episode adds something that I was hoping they would do. Wells' plan all along was to train Barry so he could get himself back home and eventually kill him, except you don't spend this much time with someone, bonding with them, learning with them without growing somewhat connected. Wells has been watching Barry grow up for years, and once he got his powers, he trained him and they had fun, they made memories. Even though Wells still has a clear goal in mind, there is still that hint of conflict in him, nothing to make him question his actions, but enough where he does genuinely enjoy Barry's company. It's planting the seeds like this to make his future actions all the more complex and interesting. And it's not just one-sided, even though Barry knows the truth about Wells now, he still knows when he can trust him and is still grateful for what he's done. Conflict on both sides is what has made this duo such an interesting hero/villain dynamic. Although I will say, if this episode proved anything, it's that Grant Gustin really can't do threatening very well without coming across as a child, he's a really good actor, but he's not very threatening.

Then there was Barry and co. discovering Wells' time chamber (Awesome name) and learning so many facts about the future, Barry becomes the chief of police, Iris is going to marry someone named Allen (Take a guess at which Allen, I mean i doubt Bart's an option yet) and of course that Barry is going to disappear in a crisis, an "infinite crisis" if you will. Cisco puts it best, this is really freaky, also the hints at a small costume change in the future, but then there's the paradox on who influenced who. But the biggest problem with this story is still how Cisco remembers Wells killing him, considering that it never happened, and what is there explanation for how he remembers this? "I dunno" well fuck!

Then there's everyone's favourite wet blanket Iris, who has finally pieced together that the particle accelerator is the cause of all the meta-humans. Two things. One: Yeah, everyone else figured this out 20 episodes ago, and Two: NO SHIT! Giant science explosion, suddenly half the population has super powers, a monkey could have figured this out sooner! Oh, and then there's Eddie planning on proposing to Iris and Joe not giving his blessing for some pretty legitimate reasons. "She'll get swept up in the romance and say yes and years from now she'll realise she made a mistake, but she'll stay with him because she made a promise" or to translate "she makes a dumb decision, realises it was dumb way after everyone else realises and then makes another dumb decision" yeah that pretty much sums up Iris. I'll be honest, when it was her and Eddie on the bridge, I was rooting for the Reverse Flash.

This was a very good episode; Wells remains an engaging and layered villain and i'm very excited to see what's going to happen between these two, but their inability to explain Cisco's memory and Iris still being a waste of screen time really does bog it down. 7/10.

-Danny

The Most YouTube YouTubers

I've said before how much I love YouTube for being a place where anyone and everyone can have a voice, and through the millions of YouTube channels there is plenty of crap as well as generic garbage, but there is also plenty of good YouTube channels, some of which provides better comedy, music or intellectual discussions than the mainstream corporations. But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about some of my personal favourite YouTubers who completely represent YouTube. The channels that would never work on television or any other medium, the ones that are a very niche style that the only place they could find success is YouTube (In no particular order)

It's Just Some Random Guy

This is a channel where a man plays with superhero action figures while doing voice over for them and it is the most low budget show you can imagine, no fancy camera, no elaborate sets, just a guy holding action figures in front of a wall and doing silly voices. But that's not to say there is no production value, the sound quality is very nice, and a lot of people will tell you that sound is just as (if not more) important than visuals. Not to mention the voice acting and comedic writing is top notch, the majority of it done by just one guy and if you're a Marvel or a DC fan then you are going to get a big laugh out of this.

Game Theory

Game Theory combines several things I love, videogames, flashy effects and SCIENCE!!! All to come up with the most detailed and researched fan theories you will ever hear someone go into, discussing the hidden lore of Five Nights at Freddy's, discussing whether the floating city of Columbia can exist and oh so many theories on how Mario is a communist/villain/ego-maniac...only on Game Theory.

The Flick Pick (John Flickster)

John Flickster isn't on this list because of his content but more so for his style and presentation, he's a man that excels at the weird and the over the top nature that can easily turn people off for thinking he is...well, psychotic, but I absolutely love it. Out of all the top movie critics on YouTube his seems to be the most niche yet also successful, a perfect combo of the two.

Little Kuriboh

Though he doesn't make as many videos as he used to for several reasons, Little Kuriboh is absolutely hilarious, a man who does voice-over parodies of a children's anime. You get a lot of these abridged series these days but most people would agree the two main ones are Team Four Star and Little Kuriboh, but LK is the one who has been doing it longer (I think) and also comes across as much more of a specific taste, while I love TFS, someone could watch and enjoy their stuff even if they haven't seen Dragonball Z, and because of that, LK feels more unique and considering that it's mostly a one man job and less professionally made, it makes me respect him more.

NerdCubed

If you were to pick the one genre of videos that could define YouTube it is let's players, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Let's Players, and for the most part a shit ton are garbage, but that doesn't deny the fact that of all genres on YouTube, they are most definitely the YouTubest...So i have to put atleast one on here, and my favourite Let's Player on YouTube is NerdCubed, most because he's actually funny, he has interesting opinions, he doesn't just do clickbait videos like Five Nights at Freddy's or Goat Simulator, he has genuine talent unlike a lot of Let's Players and in a market with so many options, he still stands out amongst them all.

D Piddy

A man cosplays as Deadpool and goes to dozens of conventions and makes an absolute fool of himself and goofing off with other cosplayers and just having a ton of fun doing it. Now you may think that this would get old after a while but it really doesn't, he comes up with new ideas to present it, cosplays as other characters from time to time and even does a few sketches and songs. D Piddy shows everything great about cosplay and conventions, how much fun you can have and celebrating the nerdy. Being nerdy is more popular now than it's ever been and D Piddy shows that off by showing how much fun being nerdy can be.

Rob Scallon

YouTube has allowed for a lot of musicians out there to try something new, to give what the studios would never see as successful, Lindsay Stirling, Tay Zonday and the one that I find to be a niche...iest is Rob Scallon, where else can you find someone play a heavy metal song with a banjo, or make a ballad out of a Theremin or play one note per Wheezy Waiter video or write a song called "I Fufufufucking Love Christmas". 

God I fucking love YouTube sometimes, they don't always deliver on the weird and wonderful, but when they do it's excellent.

-Danny

The Infinity Gauntlet - Cheap Thoughts

The Infinity Gauntlet is one of the most iconic crossover storylines in all of the Marvel Universe, so big that it's going to eventually be an Avengers film in what will most likely be their biggest outing in 2018 and 2019 with Infinity War Part 1 & 2. Being a big Marvel fan and in the mood to read some classics, i decided to pick it up, so here's how it goes. *Spoilers Ahead* Thanos The Mad Titan has come into possession of the Infinity Gauntlet (Read The Thanos Quest for context) and has now become an Omnipotent being, capable of warping reality to his desire just by thinking about it, all to impress the love of his life, the embodiment of death. After literally wiping out half of the galaxy, Adam Warlock and Silver Surfer recruit the remaining superheroes of Earth to fight Thanos. After they fail and are defeated with ease, Adam reveals that the real fight begins with the cosmic entities of the universe (Basically gods) to fight Thanos together, yet that still fails and in the end, after multiple battles, Adam Warlock becomes the new master of the gauntlet, everything Thanos did is reversed and he is punished by forced to live out a secluded and ordinary life as a farmer...huh.

Now despite the praise for this comic, I still went in with low expectations (Because that's just the smart thing to do) and I was still underwhelmed with the story. It starts off great, showing the power and force of Thanos by wiping out half the universe within the blink of an eye, and once the remaining heroes are called in to fight, it becomes really epic, having members of the Avengers, the X-Men and other heroes teaming up to fight him, even if it all turns out to be inevitable, even Warlock says that it's admirable that even though they know their chances of winning are next to nothing, they never give up, never show cowardice or regret, they will fight to protect until their last breath. Even Thanos's fight with the cosmic entities is still really awesome, though it proves the pointlessness of the heroes showing up, they didn't wear him down at all and the entities were for some reason Plan B even though really they were their only option. And then in the end it really begins to drag along, at one point Nebula gets the gauntlet and reverses all of Thanos's actions, when really Warlock could have done that once he gets the Gauntlet.

Also can I just say I absolutely hate Adam Warlock in this comic? I know very little about this character apart from what i've been told, but i've never actually read a comic with him in it before and he did not leave a very good impression on me. Not only did he pull the whole "ah, but i actually planned for that to happen" way too many times to the point where it becomes incredibly obnoxious, but his plans don't make any sense (refer to sending in the heroes first) and he decides the best punishment for Thanos is to strip him of all power. Even if he deserves the power of the gauntlet (Which later comics will show that he doesn't) why is he the one to decide Thanos's punishment? And maybe it's just me, but i feel the punishment for someone who literally killed half the population of the universe deserves something a little harsher than house arrest!

And multiple characters in this book felt wasted and completely unnecessary, again, while all of the heroes are utterly pointless in the end bar for a few, half of them disappear halfway through and the other half feel like they were picked at random. Spider-Man is in the comic for no other reason than to sell issues, the only thing he does is shoot web in Thanos's eyes them is presumably dead (We never actually see his death on screen) and while Captain America and Wolverine get a cool moment to shine, again, it is utterly pointless in the long run.

As for the artwork, it's pretty fantastic. It was penned by George Perez and Ron Lim (famous for doing cosmic work for Marvel) and it looks pretty amazing how they design the giant fight scenes of this book and give it a grand scale and a sense of epicness. The detail and character models are all consistent and well done, but the real highlight are the covers, especially #1 and #4 for being incredibly stylish and epic, though I do have a softspot for the simplicity yet effectiveness of #3.

In the end, the comic starts off relatively strong and has lovely artwork and great fights, but it all seems to fall apart by the end and suffers from bad pacing, a waste of characters and the general suckiness of Adam Warlock. I'm giving Infinity War a 6/10.

-Danny

Leia Organa: The Only Woman in the Galaxy

Star Wars gets a bad wrap for being being supposedly sexist, which ya can't deny all the complaints, for the longest time it appeared that there was only one woman in the galaxy, but man was she hell of a woman. There's a key question that you need to ask when it comes to female representation, what's more important: Having large number of women but with little character behind them, or only one woman with a lot of character behind her? Obviously it would be better to have both, but these are the two laws that seem to apply to Star Wars so far. The prequel films have plenty of women and all pass the Bechtel test, but the characters are boring and forgettable, while the original films only have Leia, but she is amazing.

Leia starts off as your typical female role of the time, she's the princess who needs to be rescued by the dashing heroes, though she doesn't entirely fulfil the role at first. While captured she is shown to be brave, resilient and sassy, even towards the most vile members of the Empire, but even then her role and personality are minimal to avoid her being a terrible character, it's once she's rescued that she fully develops as a character and breaks convention. Once Luke and Han rescue her from her cell, she aids in the escape, evades the stormtroopers, fighting the guards and all while maintaining her sassy yet aggressive attitude. While one may interpret this as ungrateful and even bitchy, it's all for the sake of her main objective, delivering the death star plans to the rebellion. Though from that point on she becomes nothing more than a side character for the rest of the film, she sits back and again the men take charge.

One Empire roles around, her role becomes much more present with more responsibility and rapport with the other characters, most notably Han Solo. The relationship between Han and Leia is one of the highlights of the franchise and is considered one of the best couples in all of film; the back and forth arguments between the two, the constant clash of dominance and their equal annoyance and respect for each other make them perfect. Both of them are thick-headed and enjoy positions of power, no one challenges them like each other and they couldn't live without one another. The chemistry between the two and the constant bickering makes them highly entertaining and worthy of their title as one of cinema's best couples. The relationship would only grow stronger in Jedi when Leia repays the favour of rescuing Han, just like he did for her in Hope, his cockiness is only matched by her tolerance. "I love you" "I know" is such a hard line to be made romantic but somehow they make it work.

As for the rest of her role in Empire, again, she starts off strong, shown to take a role of leadership amongst the Rebellion and clearly respected amongst her comrades, she's smart, brave and willing to fight, but sadly it doesn't last. The rest of the film is mostly the bickering between her and Han, and while still entertaining, doesn't amount to much for her character independently or the story overall, but then again that is my biggest problem with Empire, how very little of the film (Especially for Leia's group) actually has any progression for the narrative and is just them running away from the Empire. Once they arrive on Bespin it is relatively the same thing until they attempt to escape, where Leia's role is the same as everyone else's, but i don't have a problem with that. The best kind of feminist icons are the ones that don't draw attention to themselves, the film never stops and makes a point on Leia being a woman who can fight and take charge, it's just accepted, which is the way it should be.

But then a whole lot of that has to be thrown out the window in Jedi with the stupid gold bikini. Up until this point, the films hadn't really made any kind of message or reference to Leia's gender apart from the title of Princess and her relationship with Han, but even then it still works in context with the film, this is the first time where it felt Leia was been exploited for the sake of the audience and resorted down to fanservice. Again, her saving Han is a good starting point, and this isn't the only time she saves his life in the film, but she's immediately captured and thrown into a gold bikini for...i don't know what for. The dark implication is that this is for Jabba's own sexual relief, but it's never expressed that that's why, and i'm kind of glad they didn't, the last thing I want to think about is Jabba's sexual activity. However this also means that the only reasoning why she is dressed like this is simply for the audience, to see a scandalously dressed Leia to fulfil the fantasies of certain audience members. Now i don't have any problem with fanservice when the characters are still well written, which Leia is, but when she doesn't start out as fanservice and is downgraded to that, it seems a little insulting to the character.

And then for the rest of the film i can't think of any significant problems I have with her purpose in the film, except for her role with the Ewoks. Initially Leia is the first to become friends with the Ewoks, which could lead to her being the reason they recruit them to fight against the Stormtroopers, which is still a stupid plot point but that's for another time. But in the end, her friendship with the Ewoks doesn't contribute anything, convincing them to not eat the others and recruiting them to fight the Empire, making her role in the film relatively small, but then again it seems she does just as much as Han or Chewie.

As for any other general issues I have with the character, they're minimal but still worth discussing. The first one being the destruction of Alderaan and her lack of a reaction. Once escaping the Death Star, Luke is upset that a man he's known for less than a day just died and Leia has to console him, despite the fact that everyone she's ever known just died, I really feel like the consoling should be the other way around, yet it is never even acknowledged. Also is she still technically a princess when her planet blows up? I mean she doesn't have a kingdom anymore.

Overall, Leia is still a great character, and I'd much rather have just one great female character than a whole bunch of meh female characters, yes she has her flaws that prevent her from being the first lady of sci-fi (That honour is still Ellen Ripley). Leia is at her best when she is treated as an equal to the other characters, however when they do put emphasis on her as a female is when they start to falter and eventually turning her into a degrading sex symbol for no reason.

-Danny

My Favourite Characters - Bill Cipher

I don't talk enough about villains on this series and that's usually because when I think of my favourite characters, they're normally the ones that inspire me, make me think in different ways or make me a better person, so i don't normally think of villains in that way, so I think it's time to change that and talk about some villains. Bill Cipher is an omniscient figure in the Gravity Falls series, he can be anywhere at anytime he wants and is also a bit of a psychopath...actually he's a really big psychopath who enjoys torture, suffering and the misery of others to a masochistic level. Now you may be thinking How can a cartoon character from a kids show be like that? Well it's very simple Gravity Falls is kind of a fucked up show, but in all the right ways, it has graphic imagery, dark themes and scary characters, Bill being the embodiment of all of them "here, have a decapitated head that never stops screaming".

Even though Bill has what seems to be unlimited power and can manipulate all of existent, or as he puts it "reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram" he uses it for very little. He's screw with your mind, distort reality just to annoy you and from a first glance, is just an annoying character. But knowing that it's all a facade and should you annoy him then he could destroy everything around you and send you into eternal suffering, it's what he's capable of but chooses not to that makes him terrifying, especially when the smallest of things can set him off and he can kill you whenever he wants. Also his voice is highly unsettling, it just sounds like someone talking in this voice that is equally hyper as it is aggressive.

The best kind of villains for me are the ones that are insane but also have a large amount of power, yet choose not to use it because it's more fun to watch people suffer, but knowing that they're crazy means they can change their mind at the drop of a hat and kill you in the worst way possible. I am not exaggerating when I say I haven't seen a villain this insane and equally scary since the Joker from Batman.

And the thing is, we know very little about his powers or his motives, right now he's just spreading chaos but he says himself that he has big plans in store for the Pine family, and considering all the clues and symbols we've seen connected to him. We've only seen a fragment of what he's capable of and even less about what his big plan is, but we know it's something big, something diabolical and something insane and I cannot wait to find out!

-Danny

Arrow "The Fallen" Review

I'm gonna be honest, i am on the brink of giving up on Arrow, i mean i'll still watch it but i don't know about reviewing it every week because if the show is going to do the same thing every week, then i'm going to end up saying the same things about it every week...and then we get an episode like this that actually tries. You may have noticed a giant fluctuation in my reviews for Arrow, that is mostly because we go from several bad episodes to a good one so when the good one shows up, i'm ecstatic for it, but i don't have that much excitement for this one because i'm tired of that, yes this episode is good but you know what's better? When all the episodes are good, or at the very least there is consistency in the quality. This is The Fallen, where Thea was stabbed and nearly killed by Ra's Al Ghul because-just as I predicted-Ollie would have no choice but to use the Lazarus Pit to bring her back to life, in return he agrees to become the heir to Ra's Al Ghul and...they go through with it. Yeah no last minute switcheroo or lucky loophole or implausible escape, he becomes the heir, will this stick? I doubt it.

You know what this episode has that a lot of others don't? A point. You've heard me complain about this before, so many episodes and sub-plots come across as straight up filler, they don't add to the plot, connect through a metaphor or a theme, they're just there to waste time, and that is the best thing I can say about this episode, no scene or conversation felt like a waste. The biggest and most often repeated fault that this show has is Ollie saying he's going to do something, people complain, Ollie does it anyway, argue about 3-4 times, repeat next episode. Here, they still argue, but it's only once, and do you know what comes out of that argument? A new opinion, a new perspective, plot development, realistic reactions, you know, the stuff that these type of arguments would need if they were to have any point in existing!

For nothing else I can say that this episode had focus, it knew what it wanted to tell and it didn't waste time with stupid sub-plots or lazy filler, it was a well paced story of Ollie joining the league of assassins eventually. One could argue how simple of a plot this is, it's not complex, it doesn't have a running theme or major twist, but at this point, i'm just glad that the writers of this show can do simple, they can have just one story to tell and they can do it right. It developed the plot of the season along, it had interesting discussions and character growth...and PG-13 sex...woo.

Also I should mention that this episode in particular had excellent performances from all the cast members. I've said that Stephen Amell is the saving grace of this show, except he hasn't really had an opportunity to show that in a while, but everything about his performance during the hospital scenes were very well done. Ra's Al Ghul actually had really good character development by learning of him losing the woman he loved and showing enough compassion to Ollie to atleast let him say goodbye to his loved one, because yeah, he's not a monster, at least not entirely, he still understands people will be ruled by their emotions and sometimes it's good to indulge that. And for the first time ever I actually believes the romantic chemistry between Ollie and Felicity, no, i don't think this will last and no i still don't want them to be a couple, all i'm saying is that for the first time ever, i bought it.

My only real complaint with this episode is the pointlessness of Thea's losing her memory temporarily, it seems that it was only done to avoid her arguing against Ollie staying behind (because lord knows how we need more arguments on this show). So it doesn't seem to be for any major character arc or new perspective, but more of to get her out of the way for the second half, and considering that she was the catalyst that got them this far, that seems rather lazy.

This isn't a great episode, it has problem but i think the good outways the bad in this case, it was a good episode and really, that's all i wanted. 7/10.

-Danny

The Flash "Who Is Harrison Wells" Review

There are times when I don't really have the passion to write about the latest Flash episode, because every so often we get an episode like this which is just meh and thus, i have almost nothing to talk about. I mean even with the bad episodes I still have stuff to say, but with things like this, there really isn't that much. We have a villain of the week, in this case it's Everyman who can change his appearance to look like anyone he touches and meanwhile Cisco and Joe visit Central City in order to do some more research on Harrison Wells past and they end up finding the original Harrison Wells' body and Eobarb Thawne's secret room.

The reason why I have nothing to say is because there is nothing new, the thing with Everyman was cliched and we've seen this story done a million times and this episode does nothing new with it, it hits every trope and though it's not the worst cliched storyline in the world and it could have been a lot worse, that doesn't make it good.

Then there is all the focus of the main arc for the season, the characters learn the truth about Harrison Wells and this pretty much catches them up to speed (Puns!) with where the audience is, but the audience didn't get any new information, it was all stuff that we already know. Seeing Detective Lance was nice, and even Laurel was actually enjoyable to see here, but that's it, there's not much substance to this episode, nothing interesting to discuss, positive or negative, it was a very meh episode.

I am giving this episode a 4/10. I think that might be the lowest rating i've given an episode of The Flash.

-Danny

300 Posts

Oh look, my 300th post, another milestone...still not gonna do anything special for em.

-Danny

"Empowering" Women of the 90's

The 90's was not a good time for women in terms of action movies...I mean, probably for other reasons involving actual problems, but that's a can of worms for another time. The 90's was an odd time in the media, it's the time when they wanted to represent other groups and cultures except they had no idea how to do it, nor did they want to risk losing what was considered the major demographic (Straight dudes). So this odd compromise was made for what I call "Babe Women" basically, take an incredibly sexy woman, have her kicks someone's ass and then when someone points out that she's sexy she goes "don't call me babe". There's a paradox with these women, they don't want men to sexualize them, yet they dress in very tight and revealing clothing, i mean take a look at that picture, i doubt she's wearing that for practical use, hell the heels alone make it a bad choice for fighting gear.

And this was the paradox, straight dudes ruled (and still kinda do) the Hollywood industry, they didn't know how to write strong women because they knew very little about how to write women, especially in a way that felt realistic yet also action packed. Now we could get into the semantics of it all and talk about the male gaze and all that shit, but i personally don't buy into it, just because these days I feel like it's used more of an excuse to complain about any sexy woman in film rather than when it is an actual problem (Barb Wire is a good example of when it IS a problem). Like I said, they wanted to appeal to women by making these tough characters who can kick ass, but didn't want to alienate the other half of the population so they also made them sexy while doing it, thus they go for two half measures, pleasing no one because they overthought it. Back in the 80's, while there were far less female action stars, when there were, they didn't care about appealing to different demographics, they just wrote an awesome character that happened to be female (Ripley is a great example of this).

I can only think of a handful of badass women from the 90's that didn't have sex appeal as a selling point, like Sarah Conner, Buffy, Mulan. And do you know why these people succeeded as empowering women? Because that wasn't the point. These women weren't presented with Hollywood saying "These are your empowering women!" they were badass characters who ended up with that honour. I'm sure they were written with the intention of being good role models, but nothing in their films/shows would suggest it, no one is trying to force it on their audience or say you have to be inspired by them. They just present them the way they should be, cool without having to be told that they're cool.

So even though people still complain that this problem is still going on (which it is) atleast be grateful that it's a lot better than it was back then.

-Danny

Who Rules The Videogames?

When it comes to discussing DC vs Marvel, here's how the conversation usually goes: Marvel for the movies, DC for the television, comics is really a personal preference (I'm a Marvel guy myself). But there's one topic that has yet to have a deciding victor, who makes the better videogames? DC or Marvel? Now for the sake of this topic i obviously can't look at every game by both companies, nor will I be looking at any tie-ins for the shows or movies, purely original adaptations (Ain't that an oxymoron for ya). So, let's start with the Marvel games.

Marvel

Marvel have had a shit ton of videogames based on their most popular characters, the most prominent ones being for Spider-Man. Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro released on the Playstation and N64 were some of the first videogames that I ever played and to this day remain nostalgic classics. But the best Spider-Man game in my opinion is Ultimate Spider-Man released for the Playstation 2 and Gamecube, this here is the definitive Spider-Man game, the writing and art style are ripped straight out of a comic, it's funny, it's action packed and not only do you feel like Spider-Man, but you also feel like Venom, that's right, you got to play as Venom in this game. But that's not the end of the Spider-Man games, there was also Friend or Foe, Web of Shadows, Shattered Dimensions, which were all...okay.

But we still have other games to look at apart from Spider-Man, in 2004 we received a game called X-Men Legends, an action RPG developed by Raven Software, it follows the basic X-Men story, Magneto wants to destroy humanity, X-Men stop him. While the game is certainly dated in a lot of aspects, i can't help but love this game. The character interactions, the voice acting, the amount of playable characters, the combat, the whole feel of the game just makes it so damn entertaining for me, and it's a personal favourite of mine. We also got a sequel Rise of Apocalypse which was okay, but we got a lot less character interactions and feels much more bare boned. Raven Software continued to make Marvel games with Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which was pretty much X-Men Legends except with every popular Marvel character, ranging from Spider-Man to Luke Cage. Still a lot of fun except because there are so many characters, it feels a lot more jumbled and less personal.

Then of course there were the movie tie-in games, which actually had a couple of good hits (Spider-Man 2 & X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and the arcade games, the Marvel Vs Capcom games, Disney infinity, there are a ton of them, some good, some bad, but not really anything worth giving full descriptions on.

DC

DC's library is considerably smaller seeing as most of their games are tie-ins to their show or movies, but it's still worth talking about what there is, but rather than do this in chronological order like Marvel, i'm just going to do this in the order I feel like, and the first one being Injustice: Gods Among Us.

After the DC vs Mortal Kombat game developed by NetherRealm Studios, they decided to make a full on fighting game based around the DC Universe, and it was actually kind of awesome. Not only were there a ton of playable characters but it actually had a very engaging story and plenty of variety in it's combat and game style options. But that's actually kind of it for the mid-level DC videogames, there are only two more that I want to talk about and they both hold their own level of recognition in the gaming world but for two completely different reasons, the first one of course being Superman 64.

Superman 64 is often considered to be one of the worst videogames of all time, and it is completely understandable why, everything about this game is wrong. The gameplay is wrong, the level design is wrong, the animations are wrong, the controls are wrong, who in their right mind looked at this and thought it could possibly be a success? If you have no idea what Superman 64 is, just YouTube it, because it is something that has to be seen to be believed in how bad it is. But on the other end of the scale...

While DC may have the honour of one of the worst videogames of all time, they also have the honour of having one of the best videogames of all time, in fact, they actually have two. Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are straight up masterpieces in my opinion, the depiction and analytical worth depth the characters have, the inventive and insanely fun gameplay, the gripping stories, the beautiful art design and music, great stories, amazing bosses. Yeah Arkham Origins wasn't so hot, but these two games are some of the best I have ever played.

Conclusion

So really, it's hard to tell which one is actually the superior company for videogames, Marvel are more consistent with their releases, but technically speaking haven't done anything amazing. While DC hold the title for having one of the worst games ever made and one of the best, but with less variety. So do you go for the consistently good or the fluctuation between awful and amazing? Again, this feels like a very debatable pick, but I have to go with DC for this one, because while Marvel have made more good games, all of their great stuff is from over a decade ago and haven't done much since; DC's worst game was nearly 2 decades ago and have more than made up for it in recent years, so in my opinion i have to go for DC for the superior games.

-Danny

You Probably Shouldn't Read This

So I just saw the movie Showgirls for the first time and it was straight up disgusting. One of the biggest complaints I hear about the film is that it's wildly sexist, and while I normally don't react that way to films about women exploring/exploiting their sexuality, even if it is presented through the eyes of a man...wow were they right about this movie. See the reason why I don't mind the sexualization of characters, female or male, as long as they still have a character to them, something that these girls don't. But that's not what this post is about, yes the movie is incredibly sexist but there's one part of the film that really got me thinking...how film deals with rape...yeah we're going there.

Whenever a movie, book, television show, videogame or pretty much anything ever tries to portray rape, it will almost always be viewed as insensitive, misinformed and above all else, offensive. My query isn't why people are offended, i completely understand why, rape is a horrifying thing and can ruin a person's life, so portraying it in a piece of fiction is a double-edged sword, if they romanticise it or play down the trauma it can cause then people will say it's insulting, but if they portray it realistically then people say it's exploitive. But why is rape seen as a more sensitive subject than death or other subjects? If a character is murdered then people aren't going to rage about it, that is unless it's a very specific manner, e.g: someone child murder for comedic purposes. If a character has an abortion then some people will complain, but these days people are more on the side of pro-choice.

What seems to be the biggest red flag is whenever a character is raped as a form of character development, whether it be for themselves or even worse, someone else. People are killed all the time in movies as a way of developing characters and for the most part, it's never a serious issue, if someone is raped and whether they become a mess or a stronger person because of it, it's almost never okay. I suppose you could argue that it's because in reality, people are more likely going to be scarred and an emotional wreck after such an experience, but you could say the same about someone you love being murdered, if a kid had to watch his parents gun downed in an alley, they're probably not going to become Batman. Again, i'm not complaining that people are upset by a life altering tragedy being resorted down to a plot device, i'm just curious on why it's okay to use one tragedy and not the other, especially when it could be argued that murder is just as bad-if not worse-than rape. But that's coming from someone who has never had to go through either experiences, myself or the people close to me, and hopefully never will.

-Danny

Arrow "Broken Arrow" Review

Where to begin with this...odd conception of an episode...so this is Broken Arrow, no, not the 1996 action film starring John Travolta and Christian Slater (Though that would be one hell of a crossover) this is the latest Arrow episode. Here we have Roy going to jail pretending to be the Arrow and ends up faking his death, escaping and going incognito, meanwhile, Ollie realises he's pretty much useless at this point and has to rely on Ray to fight the villain of the week, a meta-human named Deathbolt played by Doug Jones. In the end, it's a combination of Ray and Oliver's skills that lead to their victory. Also Thea is stabbed and most likely killed by Ra's Al Ghul...so let's get down to business.

Let's start with the Deathbolt plot because that's surprisingly what I have to most to say about. Back when it was announced that Doug Jones would be appearing in both Arrow and Flash, I got really excited because Doug Jones is one of the greatest character actors of all time...and they made him a villain of the week...wow what a waste. Although I suppose he will be appearing in Flash next week so I guess he's the villain of the fortnight? My point is, when I hear Doug Jones as a meta-human, I expect something awesome, or at the very least an elaborate costume for him to wear, instead we get a Cyclops rip-off who really isn't that threatening or memorable. Maybe he'll leave a bigger impact in his next appearance, but for right now it was really disappointing. But atleast we got more of Cisco and Ray together, infact, screw Olicity, i'm shipping Raysco. But seriously, how do the meta-humans poop? Ray asks the real questions here.

Then there was Roy's imprisonment followed by an abrupt death and an even abrupter goodbye, which I don't get, there was nothing in this season to build up to him having a goodbye, nor any alternatives set up for him. Is he going to join that team-up show in the works? Maybe the Teen Titans? Or are they literally just cutting him out for no reason? Though now that I think about it, it's not all that surprising that they're cutting him out because he has had very little to do this season except be the voice of reason amongst a bunch of angry nutbags. But that's not to say you have to get rid of him, he's still a likeable character and maybe seeing him in a different position would be good for him. But seriously, how rushed was this exit?

And then as if one big change in the status quo (not that things were quo before) Ra's shows up and kills Thea, or atleast, that's what it looks like. Now first of all, yes they actually did set this up prior so it's not completely out of left field. But second of all, i doubt she's dead; think about what Ra's said before killing her "he will beg me" so my theory is, he kills her so Ollie has no choice but to beg Ra's to use the lazarus pit to bring her back to life, Ra's will agree if Ollie agrees to take over as his heir. Not a bad plan, but then I think that maybe this should have been option A, i mean I don't see how ruining his reputation is going to help anything.

In the end, this was a meh episode (surprise!) the major events didn't get enough focus and what did get focus didn't actually feel important enough; it's a case of where the less interesting plot got more focus than the one that deserves the attention. 6/10.

-Danny

Joss Whedon is Being Sued

Sorry, the review for Arrow has been pushed back to tomorrow because this news story is worth talking about. Joss Whedon and Lionsgate are being sued for $10 Million by author Peter Gallagher for the claim that Joss's film Cabin in the Woods is a rip-off of his book The Little White Trip: A Night in the Pines. The book follows the story of a group of young adults travelling to a cabin in the middle of the woods where the previous inhabitants were a family, murdered by the father who have returned from the dead to kill the new tenants, In the end, it is revealed that the friends are being filmed and manipulated by persons behind the scenes, thus becoming inadvertent characters in a real-life horror show for the enjoyment of others. Now from a first glance, there are definitely similarities between the two, Cabin in the Woods has a group of young adults go into the woods and gets attacked by a family of zombies, except the major difference being that we (the audience) know about it being a giant sham and being controlled by an organisation from the start. But even with those similarities, I still find this claim to be bullshit.

Let's look at the case, it was a self-published book that according to news sources only ran 7,500 copies, making the chances that Joss Whedon and co-writer Drew Goddard reading it, highly unlikely to have ever read the book. Also the film is a satire of typical Hollywood tropes in horror films, the heavy emphasis on gore, stereotypical characters making poor decisions, over-sexualization of female characters, etc. Also the idea of characters going to a cabin in the woods, serious or satire, is not an original story (Evil Dead anyone?). Finally, look at the timing of this lawsuit, the film started production in 2009 and was released in 2012, yet the author waits until now to file a lawsuit? Now it is possible that he only just saw the film recently but to sue them just as Joss Whedon is in the spotlight again with Avengers: Age of Ultron coming out, doesn't that seem a bit coincidental to anyone? It's like last year when Bryan Singer, director of X-Men Days of Future Past was taken to court just as the film was being released over claims of him molesting someone over a decade prior, and surprise-surprise, the case was dismissed. And again, the lawsuit is for Joss Whedon & Lionsgate, not Drew Goddard, probably because he's not in the spotlight right now to be taken advantage of.

Now while I don't know him personally, but looking at his work prior, this doesn't seem like the type of this for Joss Whedon to do. He has made some of the most creative and entertaining work of the 21st century, why steal someone else's idea at the height of his career? And the similarities seem...too similar to be serious, and i know that may seem stupid to say, but let's look at it closely. The book has two characters named Julie and Dura, the film has two characters named Jules and Dana. Joss is not an idiot, and i don't know anyone who would be stupid enough to rip-off a story and keep the names that similar, it really does feel like a coincidence.

And no this isn't me being a Whedon fanboy coming to defend his honour, nor is it me intentionally slandering this author...well maybe a little bit, but hey, this is why i'm not a lawyer, but from my perspective, this seems a little too fishy for me to think this is a serious case of intellectual infringement.

-Danny

The Flash "All Star Team Up" Review

"God there's two of them" "I thought central city was the fun one" "is that a bird? no it's a plane" "bee careful, bad pun sorry, just don't die" "you just died, maybe you should order in tonight""oh thank god the food's here" "BOOM! Drop the mike!...metaphorical cause I don't have a mike" "either my fear of bees is gone or it's much much worse". I think this episode wins the award of greatest one liners in a single episode. This is All Star Team Up, which sees Ray Palmer & Felicity Smoak arrive in Central City to improve the ATOM suit and to catch a crazy scientist who builds killer robot bees...only on The Flash. Also Eddie struggles to keep Barry's secret from Iris and Barry can't decide whether or not he can trust Cisco and Caitlin.

So let's talk about the main plot of the episode...bees I guess. It's nothing more than a villain of the week, a filler plot to give the characters something to do apart from sit around and chat. But i've said it before, my favourite parts of this show are when it's just characters talking to each other, and this is another example of that. Ray and Felicity fit perfectly in this show, and seeing the different relationships and conversations that they have amongst each other like Ray & Cisco being good buds, it was the highlight of the show. But then I worry that it might be too good, because if this episode proved anything, it's that Felicity and Ray most definitely belong on Flash than they do Arrow, they have better chemistry, their characters are more akin to this style of writing and the over the top nature of Flash is perfect for them. Also this episode supports my view of Felicity and Ray being a better couple than Felicity and Ollie, and i have a feeling the writers of Flash think that too. So if these two ever want to come back to Central City, they are more than welcome.

Then there is the subplot of this weeks episode, Iris & Eddie, which again, proves that Iris is the worst character in the show, before she was just useless, now she's crossed over into annoying. Iris is upset that Eddie is keeping a big secret from her, fair enough, but the way how they handle it was the worst way possible. First of all, it's not Eddie's secret he's keeping, it's Barry's, they could tell her that and then she'll lay off Eddie and start pestering Barry. But the worst part is at the end when she says he can tell her his secret of she'll break up with him; now here's a little bit of relationship advice for y'all NEVER GIVE AN ULTIMATUM. If you're dating someone and they say "do this or i'm breaking up with you" then break up with them, that is not someone who you should be dating who is willing to threaten you with something like that, so my advice for Eddie: dump the bitch.

Finally there is the story progression, Barry tells Cisco and Caitlin about their theory on Dr Wells, also Cisco is able to remember Wells killing him...even though Barry went back in time and that never happened (I'm aparently able to buy killer robot bees, but not repressed memories of an event that technically didn't even happen). Now the actual story progression here was relatively small in comparison to other episodes but the focus here was more of in connection to the theme of this weeks episode, trust & betrayal. Barry isn't sure if he can trust Cisco and Caitlin, which fair enough, they've been with Dr Wells for years now, it's entirely possible they would take his side over Barry, so yet again, this show doesn't force the emotional conflict like a lot of other melodramas like to. Again my biggest problem with how this was handled is the lack of subtlety, but then again, this show likes to be so blatant with it's messages that if they ever did try to be subtle then it would probably go over my head even though my reflexes are too quick and I would catch it (That's right, I just made a Marvel reference in a DC review, drop the mike...metaphorically of course).

Overall, this was a solid episode, the highlights were as always the interactions between the characters, though the story did feel like a lot of filler. Though when Cisco said they were off to karaoke, please tell me I wasn't the only one who wanted to see that, I want my musical episode dammit! And again, my favourite parts are when they're just hanging out, so i would definitely watch an episode of just them at karaoke. I give this episode an 8/10.

-Danny

The Evolution of Captain America

Well, I spoke about Iron Man rather negatively before, I guess it's only fair to talk about his opposite, both politically and for me personally, because I love Captain America, but to explain my love for him, let's go back to his conception. When Captain America first appeared back in the 1940's, his character was there simply as a piece of propaganda, sock ol' Hitler in the jaw and all that good patriotism that America is filled with. As the years went on, Captain America in a way remained a piece of propaganda, his character acted as a reflection of the American dream, his idealistic nature, strong belief in basic humans rights and his actions, no matter how destructive always having the best intentions at heart. But then we get to the movie version who is both a faithful retelling of his traditional origin, but also adjusting him for a post-modern world. In Captain America; The First Avenger the role that Captain America plays in the film, is initially that of a piece of propaganda; despite his amazing abilities, the American military used him as a marketing tool, like I said, staying faithful, while also giving it a post-modern twist. As for his personality, it is mostly intact, he still holds true to his values, represents to idealistic nature of the American dream and always stands up for the little guy, the biggest difference that I can note is that this version of Captain America seems more light-hearted and sympathetic, while the comic book counterpart (At least these days) seems more aggressive and worn down by the cruel reality of the world. That is most likely because comic book CA is more worn down than his movie version, but nevertheless, I personally prefer the more open-minded CA rather than the comic book version.

But that's all good as an adaptation, but how is Captain America used as a film character, what do we understand about him and what can we learn from looking deeper into the films? Like I said, Captain America is the representation of the American Dream, he wants nothing more than to do good, and while most films would have their character go through an emotional arc and have their protagonist be a better person by the end, Steve Rodgers really doesn't need to go through one, he's already got the perfect mindset, his challenge in the first film is entirely physical. He wants to do good but doesn't have the means to do so, once he does have the means, he doesn't know how to direct it and by the end he is the hero he wants to be. For me this makes him a much more likeable character, the people that are set in their ways and even when they don't have the means, they still want to fight the worthy fight, my favourite line that sums up his character is "I don't wanna kill anyone, I just don't like bullies".

Then there is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a movie that had a tough task of giving us themes and ideas to challenge both Captain America and us the audience. By this point Captain America is by all means the perfect man, he has the perfect ideals, the perfect body, in all ways he is the living embodiment of the American dream, so what could be powerful enough to challenge the American dream? Well America of course. I don't think it's any secret that most people see the American dream as nothing more than that, a dream. In our post-modern, Internet blessed, invasion of privacy world known as the 21st century, America has become far more self-reflexive and much more cynical, all the theories and fears of the past based around government are right, corrupt police, government invading privacy and bearing down on you with the ideology of "if you've got nothing to hide, then you've got nothing to fear". Again, Steve sums it up with one line "This isn't freedom, this is fear". Working as both a critical view on a modern day American society, a little too on the nose, but nevertheless effective and relevant, a film that tries harder than most in it's genre to actually say something important.

But it's not just America being challenged, it's Captain America, his patriotic, god fearing and optimistic society of the 1940s is gone and now he is really a man out of time, with his traditional beliefs now seen as dated and unrealistic. He now has to acknowledge the possibility that what he's always held true may not be a fight worth fighting, and again, it's not Captain America himself that needs to change, but rather the world around him, here we have an honest man who wants to do good, and a system that has been filled with secrets and bureaucracy and questionable morals and finally have it all collapse in on itself. Of course there is still a physical challenge present, that being The Winter Soldier, also a man out of time, but one who has forcefully been adapted into the corrupt system, losing his old ways. Now admittedly he's not as interesting as a villain could be, mostly because his change was forced upon him and he acts as nothing more than a puppet, but nevertheless there is still that conflict present.

While Iron Man's answer to fighting a corrupt system is to straight out reject it for his own system which is equally questionable, Captain America rather seeks to improve the system and even when he does things by his own accord, it's never for his own benefit, nor risk the lives of innocent people. Captain America is an idealistic character in a corrupt world, which is always something that I love to see and is one my favourite characters and is a hero worth looking up too.

-Danny

Is Jimmy Fallon a YouTuber?

About a month ago, YouTube channel The Fine Bros uploaded a video called "YouTubers React to Jimmy Fallon" if you need context, here it is: YouTubers are people who make YouTube videos for a living, it's debatable what a YouTuber actually is, but for the sake of this post, that's the definition I'm going with because those are the people featured in the video. The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is an American talk show, who over the past year or so has started uploading clips to YouTube and becoming viral hits. In the video, the YouTubers discussed the idea of television moving over to YouTube and opening up that market, and a lot of the YouTubers seemed...self-entitled. Their basic point was that they didn't want television to absorb YouTube and the powers that be start seeing content like this as the dominate form. Now fair enough, it's their jobs and what makes YouTube so unique is how it differs from television and feels like a much more independent form and they can't compete with Television in terms of budget or mass appeal. But at the same time, these YouTubers don't own YouTube.

What makes YouTube so great is that anyone and everyone can use it, I use it, I'm still on a very small scale, but I can still express my voice and opinions, the same with thousands of people, hundreds of which have turned this into their full time job. And inviting everyone to use it also includes television, they see plenty of benefits from this format and use it as a marketing tool, they post videos on there, they go viral, thus, more people will watch Jimmy Fallon, or at least be aware of him. Movie studios have been doing this for years now, releasing their trailers on YouTube are a marketing form, I don't see YouTubers complaining about that. They also referred to his videos as clickbait, which they're not, clickbait is tricking people with a nice hook in your title and providing something less engaging, the videos are called celebrities lip syncing and that is exactly what happens. If they meant they are there simply to go viral, then i would agree with that, and that's fine, also hypocritical of these YouTubers to say. YouTube is their job, they make videos hoping to get as many views as possible, the same as viral-bait videos, you have the same goal, get views, get money.

Another issue they have with this is that because they can't compete with this type of production quality, they worry Fallon will set an expectation for viewers that traditional YouTubers can't compete with. No. Keep in mind the current standard of quality for people outside of the YouTube community is still silly cat videos and fail compilations, not to mention people are still aware that this is a clip from a TV show, no expectations are going to be set from these videos, also this complaint implies that people watching have never seen a YouTube video before and that's just highly unlikely. But let's say that some people watch this and this is the quality of video they look for...that's fine! Everyone has their own opinion and their own preferences, there are plenty of popular YouTubers that i don't subscribe to because their content doesn't appeal to me, if people only want to watch videos of this variety then that's what they're going to do.

Another issue they've had is that this will take away focus from traditional YouTubers, now this i think they're half right, not from audiences, but from YouTube itself. Audiences can watch YouTube videos whenever they want, and they can watch as many as they want from a huge variety of channels, it's not like someone is going to watch a Jimmy Fallon video and be like "Well damn, there goes my quota for the day" it doesn't work like that. But for YouTube, they have a good point, if these videos become the dominant content then other styles and channels are going to get less attention and will slowly die out, not to mention the possibility of YouTube adapting for Television rather than the other way around could endanger the benefits and unique position that YouTube is currently in.

A final point they made, directing Jimmy/Anyone of this content style is to share the views and suggest that if they're using their home to promote themselves, they should repay the favour by helping promote YouTube and YouTube content creators. So in return I am going to address YouTubers directly: They-don't-owe-you-anything. Like I said, YouTube is a free format where anyone can make content, including Television shows to promote themselves, and they do it well, just because you were here first and are using YouTube in the traditional manner, doesn't mean people like Jimmy Fallon have to promote you, they don't owe you any favours, you're not the reason Fallon's content is successful on YouTube, you have nothing to do with it, don't act so self-entitled. YouTube is a constantly growing medium, where it was 10 years ago is not where it is today and the same can be said for your content, where you started and where you are now has most likely upgraded in quality and will always be improving, just because Fallon has high quality with minimal time and low risk, does not make you better and does not make you superior.

-Danny

The Many Flaws of Iron Man

With the superhero genre being the most popular genre in Hollywood right now, a lot of people like to analyse these characters and see if they hold any value or worth in the long run and for the most part they do. Captain America works as a reflection of American idealism vs the corruption of the real system, Spider-Man shows all the strong qualities we look for in heroes but also the negative impact of vigilantism, Batman is really whatever the hell you want him to be at this point there are so many different ways to analyse him. And then there's the breakout hero of the bunch, Iron Man, arguably the most popular hero of this generation, but also the one with the most issues as a person and an idea.

One of the major criticisms with idolising superheroes is that for the most part they are vigilantes who decide to take the law into their own hands, and in some aspects it's understandable. Daredevil works against a corrupt police force in a localised area, he's not putting the lives of anyone at risk except his own, but Iron Man is a rich weapons designer/alcoholic who decides to build his own weapon and fight terrorists.

So let's start off with the first of of his decision, the first one being that he makes a super weapon for himself (The Iron Man suit) and goes to a war zone and shoots up the first terrorists he sees, not only endangering their hostages but going in guns ablazing with very little context. Instead of giving the terrorists a chance to turn themselves in or talk this out, he much rather shoot everyone, which yes he got lucky but considering that so many heroes are working as reflections of our world and our ideals, in reality there would be a lot more negative consequences to this kind of scenario, it's never that simple. And then there are the legal ramifications of this, touched upon in Iron Man 2 where the US Government tries to get Tony Stark to hand over the Iron Man suit and it is played up as we are supposed to support Tony fighting the oppression of government over one man, except the government is right. Tony is a weapon's manufacturer under a legal contract, now i don't know the specifics of his contract but they normally say, if you build a weapon, you build it for us, so legally, they have the rights to the suit, morally, they should still probably get it, because again, the idea of one man having all the power in deciding what's right and wrong is a bad system, that's how dictatorships are formed and people don't always like that scenario. It just so happens that the government official wanting the suit happened to be part of Hydra, but my point still stands.

But for the sake of argument, let's say that the government aren't the right people to use the Iron Man suit (which if Captain America has taught us anything, they're not) does that make Tony Stark the next best choice? No. In the first film he's inexperienced, selfish and very brass, in the second, he is shown to be an alcoholic and in the third he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, in none of these scenarios is this a person that should be trusted with the most dangerous weapon on the planet. The only reason why Tony Stark is yet to face any consequences for his actions is because he is the main character and we are suppose to believe he is always in the right, except when so many other superheroes are trying to show the negative consequences of vigilantism, Tony Stark ruins it.

Now yes it is most likely that Tony Stark will face the consequences for his actions in both Age of Ultron and Civil War, where the conversation becomes much more than just implications but actual discussions, where Stark tries to turn himself around and actually become a functioning figure in the United States Government on controlling and registering superheroes so these type of scenarios become less common. However, that doesn't change the fact that Stark has been getting away with this bullshit for 7 years now and only now people have started to make that change.

Now keep in mind, this is not me saying I dislike Iron Man, I love Iron Man, he is a very entertaining character, he kicks a lot of ass and Robert Downey Jr is very funny to watch on screen, what i'm saying is the implications of the character and the films viewpoint on how to counter terrorism is highly flawed when it just resorts to: a different kind of terrorism.

-Danny

Pros and Cons: Daredevil

I haven't fully decided whether or not i'm going to do a full review of Daredevil yet, but I just finished watching all of the episodes (Don't judge me) so here are my pros and cons of the show.

Pros

Cast & Characters: I honestly could not find a single cast member that I was let down with, and in live action superhero shows, I thought that to be impossible (Iris, Laurel, etc). But fact is, no character is wasted, no character is one dimensional, no character is badly acted, I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, my personal favourites being Matt Murdock (Obviously) Wilson Fisk (I'll talk about him in a second) and Wesley (Best sidekick ever).

Wilson Fisk: Marvel have never really done villains very well, even though everyone loves Loki, i personally never found him threatening as a villain, just entertaining. Wilson Fisk had everything a good-nay-a great villain needed, he had an interesting backstory, he had complex motives, he was intimidating both politically and physically and finally he was performed excellently by Vincent D'Onofrio. In my opinion, Wilson Fisk is the best villain that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has given us to this day.

Action: While Arrow has some excellent fight choreography, the cinematography doesn't always complement it; here, the action is fast, dynamic and most of all, clear on what's happening. Also Daredevil is not invincible, he is clearly seen getting hurt or tired in almost all the fight scenes, and that's an important detail that humanises the character. Though I will say, sometimes it is obvious someone didn't actually get punched.

Style: This is one of the most artistically gripping shows on television right now, you hear people say we are in the golden age of television (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, True Detective) well Daredevil i feel can be held up just as well as any of them. The colour scheme, the cinematography, the atmosphere, the opening, the costume designs (Both hero & normal) it is excellent, just watch the rainy fight scene in episode one for proof of that.

Hallway Fight: The fight scene in episode two is the best fight scene i've seen since The Raid 2, the choreography, the cinematography, the lack of music. 100% Perfect.

Cons

Daredevil's Powers: Something about Murdock's blindness (or lack thereof) really bothers me, what makes a character like this interesting is how their disability leads to an alternate ability, but in Murdock's case, there is no disability anymore, his powers are so good he can tell where everything is, what people look like, there is no real downside to his powers. Also they can be really inconsistent, like not hearing a police car until it's right behind him, I mean I know he says he has to focus it, but he really doesn't hear a siren until it's 10ft from him!?

Plot: The story arc of the show reminded me a lot of the first season of Arrow (better paced, but still similar), also looking at it in a broad spectrum, the plot is really simple and predictable. It's the interesting characters and tone of the show that keep it interesting and engaging, but if i were to describe the plot, it doesn't sound like anything groundbreaking.

Summary

Clearly you can tell I have a lot more good things to say about this show than there are bad things, and even the bad things aren't anything legitimately bad, just nitpicks or elements that need to be improved. Fact is, this is one of the best and most unique superhero shows that I have ever seen, I can't wait to see more and i'm giving Daredevil a 9/10.

-Danny

The Quality of Art is Reversed

A lot of both everyday society and high class society have views of art and what we deem to be high art, though it's a system that doesn't function on creativity, practicality or variety, but more of it's traditional status. Books are seen as more intellectual than comics, plays more high-class than films and films more important than videogames when in reality it should all be reversed. Drawings are seen as the most traditional form of art, when you think art, your mind instantly thinks of an image on a canvas that someone made with a pencil or a brush (to simplify it) and books are normally seen as the preferred form of telling a narrative, it can be as long as it wants to be, can go into insane amounts of detail and create ideas and stories like nothing else. So when you combine the highest form of visual art and the highest form of story art, you get comic books and this is a...lower form of art? Now obviously combining the two doesn't instantly have the benefits of both forms, a painting for example usually doesn't have a story to it, thus the images presented are up to your own interpretation, and while we can get that for comic books, it's usually more from a narrative aspect than a visual aspect. But apart from that, they still have the variety of styles you can get in a painting, they can be detailed, creative and beautiful images, except they can also tell a story, they can have social themes, complex characters and imaginative stories that they want to tell, stories like Watchmen or Persepolis or Batman. While there is some loss in the combining of the two, they're not as vague as paintings and they're not as detailed as books, yet they still retain 90% of the qualities of both forms, so why is it seen as the lower form of art?

The same can be said comparing movies to videogames, while films have a longer history of being complex and engaging, videogames, especially in the 21st century have become more artistically stimulating, have deeper characters and themes and can tell a story just as well as movies. I would infact take it a step further and say videogames can do it better, and i've discussed it before, the element of control. Videogames give you control of characters, they give you control over the story, the narrative becomes much more personal when you make the choices and the emotional connection that much stronger. People forget that when films were first born, they were nothing but mindless entertainment, something to distract the masses for a little while, the gimmick of seeing moving pictures was enough to keep people coming back, but eventually the charm wore off and if they wanted the form to survive, they had to make it stronger. The same with videogames, they didn't care about stories, they were just blown away by the fact that we had control over what was on screen, again, the same thing, the charm was going to wear down so if they wanted to survive, they had to try harder.

Even films are looked down upon as a lower form of art in comparison to theatre, yet from every technical aspect, theatre is the inferior form. Theatre is always a live performance, which means you only have one take, if you screw up or you don't get it right, that's it, that's the best you can do, film allows you to redo a performance as much as you want to get it perfect, but even then, the performances always have to be exaggerated on the stage, actors have to compromise the integrity of a performance, just to make sure the people in the back can hear them, meaning the dialogue may not always be delivered in the appropriate manner. Not to mention, it's a lot harder to get sucked into a play when you're always aware you're watching performers, you're looking at a set, you're surrounded by other people, you never fully believe you're in this world. Especially from a visual aspect, theatre doesn't have that much to offer in comparison, a film can tell an entire story or create emotions just through visuals alone, what the artist chooses to show you and how they choose to show it, an effect that is much harder to recreate on the stage and rarely done as much.

So why are the highest forms of art, considered the highest forms of art? Well, the main reason being tradition. Books came before Comic Books, Theatre came before Film, Film came before Videogames, the world is often unkind to new talent, new creations (Yes that's from Ratatouille). People are more comfortable accepting films as higher art than videogames because they've already proven to them that they can be, they prefer seeing books as better than comics because that's what they were. When these things were first created and introduced to the world, they were nothing more than fun play things and ways to kill time, the problem is, while the art form has grown, the people at the top haven't, they haven't accepted that new material and new ideas can do things not only differently, for better. Yes a lot of it does come down to personal taste and there are always going to be advantages and disadvantages from each art form to another, but in the end, the greatest form of art isn't what's old or what's new, but what's changing, what adapts to make the art form more capable of expressing great ideas by great artists.

-Danny