Blog Archives
The Phantom
The Phantom 1996
I vaguely remember when this movie was coming out back in 96. It was during that second comparatively small wave of superhero movies after Tim Burton’s Batman, and when the movies were still trying to stay true to the look of the comic book heroes but not always everything else, and while there was a minor change to the Phantom’s typical striped shorts making them solid purple it looked almost exactly like how the Phantom looks in the comic books, and in my opinion it looked completely ridiculous, and purple is my favorite color. While it’s billed as a superhero movie, it plays much more like a much lesser Indiana Jones adventure movie as it is set in the late 30’s, takes place mostly in the jungle, and they are even going after some skulls with crystals in them. I remember hearing about how bad of a movie this is, but it ended up being a lot more fun than I expected. It’s quite cheesy at times and has plenty of silly dialogue and plot elements, but I went in expecting a flop and came up with a halfway decent pulp adventure.
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past 2014
Many people would say that the last good X-Men movie that we got was way back in 2003 with X-2: X-Men United which also happens to be the last film of the franchise directed by Bryan Singer. There was also the franchise re-boot with First Class directed by Matthew Vaughn which also got quite a bit of critical praise, and now we have this movie. Bryan Singer has come back to direct and Matthew Vaughn contributed to the script to bring the worlds of First Class and the original trilogy back together, even though the Last Stand is treated pretty much as if it never actually happened aside from a few memories in Wolverine’s head about what happens to Jean. Not only that, but this storyline is one of the most iconic and revered within the continuity of the X-Men comic, though I only know what was pulled from it for the 90’s cartoon series. Honestly, I loved where they went with this story and thought it was handled masterfully. There are still some holes here and there, but overall it was a fantastic way to tie together the rest of the movies into a slightly more cohesive continuity. There is a lot to cover in this movie, and as usual I’m not going to tread lightly on spoilers so be forewarned.
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The Crow: Wicked Prayer
The Crow: Wicked Prayer 2005
I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for quite a while after re-watching the original Crow and watching the first sequel, City of Angels. But considering how bad the first sequel was and I imagined it went downhill from there I just kept putting it off. But when I was scheduling an upcoming Filmwhys guest, I found out that he had never seen the first Crow, and while I had already covered that movie I finally decided it was time to take on another one of the sequels. I went with Wicked Prayer mainly because for whatever reason, that was the one that was paired with City of Angels on the bargain bin double sided DVD I picked up for this site even though it completely skips the third movie. But as with most of the Crow movies, there is no connection between them aside from the fact that someone is killed in a major dick move and they come back for vengeance, or as the “legend” puts it: “make the wrong things right”. This movie also has some star power backing it up more or less with the likes of David Boreanaz, Tara Reid, Edward Furlong, and Dennis Hopper. After watching the first sequel, it felt like a pale imitation of the original and this fourth one is much more like a hollow mockery of it.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #22
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 22
Episode: The Beginning of the End
Original Airdate: 5-13-14
It’s been an up and down year for this show for many people, although coming from a fan I always thought that it started good and only got better as the season went on and the finale was the icing on the cake. There’s plenty of surprises, some more surprising than others, with the typical mix of drama, humor, and action, all ramped up to the maximum. And now that we’ve come to the end of this season, next year there’s a lot more superhero and comic book shows so I may be doing things a little bit differently but we’ll just have to wait and see. Next week be sure to come on back as I take a look back at this first season as a whole. But for now, let’s get back to the episode at hand.
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Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie
Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie 2013
It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve heard about this movie coming out before I finally got the chance to watch it. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Kevin Smith, not just his movies but also his many different podcasts. While I don’t listen to as many of them as I used to, I still keep up with Hollywood Babble-On, Tell-em Steve Dave, and occasionally the original SModcast. This is also one of those rare cases where this movie is based on a run of comic books that I have read before seeing this movie and actually own. There are quite a few changes to the story, the format, and definitely the art style, along with many inside jokes that seem like they’re intended for fans of the podcasts, but at the same time I felt like they are just jokes that I had heard many times over because they were inspired by something that he’s said in one of his podcasts whether it was intentional or not. And while I generally enjoy Kevin Smith’s humor, I felt like this movie focused too much of the juvenile dick and fart jokes into such a small space of just over an hour that I quickly grew tired of it. There are several moments of fun, but overall I just wasn’t that interested in the exploits of Bluntman and Chronic as I thought I would have been.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #21
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 21
Episode: Ragtag
Original Airdate: 5-6-14
Gearing up to the season finale next week and the show decides to actually slow things down a little bit and take a look into Ward’s past and his relationship with Garrett. While I didn’t really care too much for almost any of the flashback scenes, there were still enough fun to be had in Coulson’s team and with Rayna to keep me interested in this episode throughout and from the look of things, it has the season finale ready to go out with a big bang even if it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll be making the gravitron callback this season, instead saving it for a second season which is still up in the air as far as I can tell.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #20
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 20
Episode: Nothing Personal
Original Airdate: 4-29-14
Ran a little late on this episode’s roundup because I didn’t have internet until the other day, but I’m mostly moved in now and back into the swing of things so I am ready to get back into the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its run up to the season finale. Things are getting much more complicated with Ward’s alignment change, the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. as an organization and the entire disruption of Coulson’s team. Agent Triplett is starting to fit in a little bit more, but things are also not going quite so well between the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the US government. And on top of everything else, Deathlok makes another appearance and so does Maria Hill.
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Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer 2014
It’s always weird to me the way that some movies are released. This is a Korean film filled with mostly American and British actors and filmed in English with the exception of a couple characters, and it’s based off of a French graphic novel. It’s a sci-fi movie set in a dystopian future. It was completed and released in Korea last year. And yet it still hasn’t gotten a US release date until June, of course this was partly due to the conflict between the director Bong Joon-ho and the distributer Harvey Weinstein who wanted to cut about 30 minutes from the movie to make it a more action-heavy movie, cutting out much of the character development. In a time when it feels like two hours is the standard movie runtime and many movies run two and a half to almost three hours, this does not seem like an over-long movie at all. On top of that, I really loved this movie; the action, the characters, and especially the sci-fi concepts behind it. It’s the best sci-fi movie that I have seen in quite a while even though it’s grounded in mostly current technology.
Son of Batman
Son of Batman 2014
It’s time for yet another entry from DC Animation which almost always produce some of my favorite animated superheroes. This time around it’s a story that I wasn’t familiar with at all, which as the title suggests is about the son of Batman. If you’ve seen Dark Knight Rises, or are familiar with what’s happened in the comic books it’s not a big surprise that Batman hooks up with Talia Al Ghul who isn’t always as cutthroat as her father from what I understand. There’s also apparently some deal with how the kid is born in the first place in the comics but it’s mostly glossed over in this movie. Anyway, the League of Shadows is in trouble so Talia takes her son Damian to meet his heretofore unknown father who just so happens to be Batman for a little father and son bonding time. Of course, being raised within the League of Shadows isn’t without its downfalls and there’s also the matter at hand where Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke has killed Ra’s Al Ghul and Damian is looking for revenge and is not above killing, which obviously doesn’t sit well with Batman. Anyway it’s a fun movie and continues a similar look from Justice League: War and also a similar mix of blood and occasional humor which I enjoyed as usual.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #19
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 19
episode: Light in the Darkness
original airdate: 4-22-14
Quick recap: The cat’s out of the bag, Hydra’s out in the open and Agent Ward is in with them, but the rest of the team doesn’t know it yet. S.H.I.E.L.D. is more or less dissolved except for a handful of scattered agents still loyal to Nick Fury and the ideals that he stands for. The Fridge has been opened and dozens of criminals both insane and superpowered have been released into the wild and Coulson’s team is one of the few groups out there willing and able to stop them. It’s almost an excuse to turn the show back into a freak of the week except instead of doing that, they tie the most wanted fugitive directly into the past of the show as someone that Coulson has dealt with in the past and it is finally a chance to meet the mysterious cellist that he has mentioned a few times. Meanwhile there are still trust issues within the team, not just towards Ward who the audience knows isn’t trustworthy, but also still between Fitz & Simmons, Coulson & May, and Trippett & Fitz. All in all it adds up to another great episode.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 