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Micah Ulibarri (79 KP) rated Star War #44 in Books
Mar 15, 2018
A Strong start to a new story
Contains spoilers, click to show
A new story begins in Marvel's flagship series for the Star Wars universe. After the destruction of the Death Star, the Alliance's greatest heroes; Leia, Han, and Luke, must convince the Mon Calamari to join their rebellion and donate their great capital ships to the cause.
Readers familar with the Star Wars galaxy will understand how important this never before told story is to the universe. The rebellion has few warships at this time and decide to ask their friend and everyone's favorite Star wars meme, Admiral Ackbar, to call in a favor from his planet. In a time when Star Wars comics has been criticized for being irrelevant in the grand scheme, this story is one worth telling and with real stakes on the galaxy.
Don't worry. You're faborite Star wars characters are written with great respect to who the characters are while still keeping them fresh and interesting. I particularly found myself enjoying Han in this issue.
While the previous arcs had been somewhat episodic and disjointed, this one seems to make sense and includes reveals from the previous issue, leading to a more cohesive overall feel to the series since Kieron Gillen took over from Jason Aaron.
The main thing holding the issue back from being great is its need to exposit and introduce what the next arc will include. A couple times the exposition can be a bit cumbersome.
Finally, my hope is that this series will bring another tie-in from The Clone Wars animated series. They seem to be telegraphing the return of Mon Cal king Lee-Char. I would be quite tickled if we got to see a more wisened version of him in this series.
Conclusion: A fun and strong start with just a couple hiccups in the set up and a great place to junp on for the curious.
Readers familar with the Star Wars galaxy will understand how important this never before told story is to the universe. The rebellion has few warships at this time and decide to ask their friend and everyone's favorite Star wars meme, Admiral Ackbar, to call in a favor from his planet. In a time when Star Wars comics has been criticized for being irrelevant in the grand scheme, this story is one worth telling and with real stakes on the galaxy.
Don't worry. You're faborite Star wars characters are written with great respect to who the characters are while still keeping them fresh and interesting. I particularly found myself enjoying Han in this issue.
While the previous arcs had been somewhat episodic and disjointed, this one seems to make sense and includes reveals from the previous issue, leading to a more cohesive overall feel to the series since Kieron Gillen took over from Jason Aaron.
The main thing holding the issue back from being great is its need to exposit and introduce what the next arc will include. A couple times the exposition can be a bit cumbersome.
Finally, my hope is that this series will bring another tie-in from The Clone Wars animated series. They seem to be telegraphing the return of Mon Cal king Lee-Char. I would be quite tickled if we got to see a more wisened version of him in this series.
Conclusion: A fun and strong start with just a couple hiccups in the set up and a great place to junp on for the curious.
David McK (3752 KP) rated Thrawn (Star Wars: Thrawn #1) in Books
Jan 28, 2019
I think therte may have been other Star Wars books prior to [a:Timothy Zahn|12479|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215545810p2/12479.jpg]'s 'Heir to the Empire' trilogy, but I believe all those were set during (or prior to) the events of the movies, with Zahn holding the position of being the first author to be licensed to extend the story beyond the end of 'Return of the Jedi', and thus to kickstart the whole Extended Universe (or EU) of the Star Wars stories prior to the abolition of the same when Disnay acquired Luasfilm.
The three novels in that series - [b:Heir to the Empire|216443|Heir to the Empire (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy #1)|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398253847s/216443.jpg|1133995], [b:Dark Force Rising|216442|Dark Force Rising|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451092000s/216442.jpg|463790] and [b:The Last Command|216422|The Last Command|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451092026s/216422.jpg|397139] - set a VERY high bar for the subsequent novels to reach, mainly due to who would become a fan favourite character: that of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn's past, however, was only ever hinted at in those stories.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm (and did away with the old EU, renaming them Legends), they did state, however, that they would 'cherry-pick' the best parts for inclusion in the Disney Star Wars canon: a promise they kept when Thrawn appeared as one of the key villains in the third season of the animated TV show 'Star Wars: Rebels'. And, in this, Zahn once again returns to perhaps his most famous creation, filling in (some of) the blans about his early days in the Imperial Navy.
However, this does not concentrate solely on Thrawn himself, but on a couple of other ancillary characters to him (no Rukh or the Noghri, yet), including Ariahdne Pryce - another Imperial from that TV show (and the sections of the novel dealing wih her of which, I found, to be the least interesting).
The three novels in that series - [b:Heir to the Empire|216443|Heir to the Empire (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy #1)|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398253847s/216443.jpg|1133995], [b:Dark Force Rising|216442|Dark Force Rising|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451092000s/216442.jpg|463790] and [b:The Last Command|216422|The Last Command|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451092026s/216422.jpg|397139] - set a VERY high bar for the subsequent novels to reach, mainly due to who would become a fan favourite character: that of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn's past, however, was only ever hinted at in those stories.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm (and did away with the old EU, renaming them Legends), they did state, however, that they would 'cherry-pick' the best parts for inclusion in the Disney Star Wars canon: a promise they kept when Thrawn appeared as one of the key villains in the third season of the animated TV show 'Star Wars: Rebels'. And, in this, Zahn once again returns to perhaps his most famous creation, filling in (some of) the blans about his early days in the Imperial Navy.
However, this does not concentrate solely on Thrawn himself, but on a couple of other ancillary characters to him (no Rukh or the Noghri, yet), including Ariahdne Pryce - another Imperial from that TV show (and the sections of the novel dealing wih her of which, I found, to be the least interesting).
Josh Burns (166 KP) rated Megashark vs Crocasaurus (2010) in Movies
Jun 21, 2019
Is this B Monster Movie worth the watch?
Megashark vs Crocasaurus has a decent concept behind it as far as B Monster Movies go. 2 ancient giant animals somehow survived, hidden away, only to wake up for what is hopefully an epic clash. But does it deliver?
The acting amd writing is about what you'd expect from a movie like this. It's passable most of the time, but sometimes, not so much. That being said, top notch acting amd writing is not why anyone watches movies like this.
The movies biggest downfall is it's monsters. They look absolutely terrible and have inconsistent size from scene to scene. Let me break each one down.
The Megashark: this may be the least intetesting "giant monster" I've seen brought to screen, and unfortunately, itbis the star of the franchise (yes there is more than one Megashark movie). Terrible CGI aside, it's kills were extremely underwhelming, mostly resorting to flopping out of the water, to smash ships with it's tail as it hurtles over them, causing little CGI explosions. As an example of the inconsistent size, when it's fin sticks out of the water upon approaching a ship, it is about the size of the whole shark when it is seen flopping out of the water.
The Crocasaurus: This one is marginally more interesting with a wider range of terribly animated kills and the ability to be on both land and water.
The Clash: This was a laughably bad "battle between the two monsters. Most of it consisted of them forming a circle, both with the others tail it it's mouth, as the military poured missiles into them.
Overall, it's not at all a good movie, but I'm pretty sure that's intentional to a point. It has its moments where it reaches levels of fun for fans of the genre. If you catch it on TV ir maybe a streaming service (it's on Amazon Prime now), it might be worth a watch, but I don't recommend spending money on it.
The acting amd writing is about what you'd expect from a movie like this. It's passable most of the time, but sometimes, not so much. That being said, top notch acting amd writing is not why anyone watches movies like this.
The movies biggest downfall is it's monsters. They look absolutely terrible and have inconsistent size from scene to scene. Let me break each one down.
The Megashark: this may be the least intetesting "giant monster" I've seen brought to screen, and unfortunately, itbis the star of the franchise (yes there is more than one Megashark movie). Terrible CGI aside, it's kills were extremely underwhelming, mostly resorting to flopping out of the water, to smash ships with it's tail as it hurtles over them, causing little CGI explosions. As an example of the inconsistent size, when it's fin sticks out of the water upon approaching a ship, it is about the size of the whole shark when it is seen flopping out of the water.
The Crocasaurus: This one is marginally more interesting with a wider range of terribly animated kills and the ability to be on both land and water.
The Clash: This was a laughably bad "battle between the two monsters. Most of it consisted of them forming a circle, both with the others tail it it's mouth, as the military poured missiles into them.
Overall, it's not at all a good movie, but I'm pretty sure that's intentional to a point. It has its moments where it reaches levels of fun for fans of the genre. If you catch it on TV ir maybe a streaming service (it's on Amazon Prime now), it might be worth a watch, but I don't recommend spending money on it.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons #4) in Books
Jul 23, 2019
This is the fourth in the DC Icons series, all of which I have now reviewed. It started with Wonder Woman, then moved through Batman and Catwoman before culminating in Superman. All four books have been written by popular young adult authors, from Leigh Bardugo to Marie Lu to Sarah J. Maas. Superman went to Matt De La Peña, who I had not actually heard of before. He apparently wrote a book called Ball Don't Lie that was made into a movie in 2011, and another book titled Mexican Whiteboy. What I'm trying to say is that De La Peña's Hispanic background makes him a perfect choice for this book. Because whatever else can be said about Superman, his is the ultimate immigrant story.
And this book not only tells Superman's immigrant story, but deals heavily with immigrant issues around him as well. Smallville is deliberating a new law that is basically stop-and-frisk; Hispanic people are going missing; undocumented immigrants are getting beaten in the streets. Clark is rightly horrified, and vows to get to the bottom of the disappearances.
The book is very timely, and I love what it says about one of our country's greatest fictional heroes. It reminds me of Justice League: Gods and Monsters, in which Superman is the son of General Zod, and was raised by illegal Mexican immigrants instead of the all-American Kents. (It's a fantastic animated movie, and well worth watching.)
Lex Luthor makes an appearance, and for a while I thought Clark's best friend, Lana, was a stand-in for Lois, but Lois is mentioned ever-so-briefly late in the book.
This is the fourth and final book in the DC Icons series, and taken as a whole, they're quite good. I wish they were a little more entwined with one another, but I understand that would be difficult with four different authors. But they are a very neat re-work of the four characters' origin stories.
You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com
And this book not only tells Superman's immigrant story, but deals heavily with immigrant issues around him as well. Smallville is deliberating a new law that is basically stop-and-frisk; Hispanic people are going missing; undocumented immigrants are getting beaten in the streets. Clark is rightly horrified, and vows to get to the bottom of the disappearances.
The book is very timely, and I love what it says about one of our country's greatest fictional heroes. It reminds me of Justice League: Gods and Monsters, in which Superman is the son of General Zod, and was raised by illegal Mexican immigrants instead of the all-American Kents. (It's a fantastic animated movie, and well worth watching.)
Lex Luthor makes an appearance, and for a while I thought Clark's best friend, Lana, was a stand-in for Lois, but Lois is mentioned ever-so-briefly late in the book.
This is the fourth and final book in the DC Icons series, and taken as a whole, they're quite good. I wish they were a little more entwined with one another, but I understand that would be difficult with four different authors. But they are a very neat re-work of the four characters' origin stories.
You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated the Xbox 360 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum in Video Games
Nov 4, 2019 (Updated Nov 4, 2019)
Welcome to the Madness
Arkham Asylum- is one, if not the best batman video game or all time. It is a excellent game, that gamers shouls play. If you want to feel the experience of being batman, this game does that.
Lets talk about it:
In the game's main storyline, Batman battles his archenemy, the Joker, who instigates an elaborate plot to seize control of Arkham Asylum, trap Batman inside with many of his incarcerated foes, and threaten the fictional Gotham City with hidden bombs.
Most of the game's leading characters are voiced by actors who have appeared in other media based on the DC Animated Universe; Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin reprised their roles as Batman, the Joker, and his sidekick Harley Quinn respectively.
The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in combat and exploration.
Rocksteady began developing ideas for a sequel months before Arkham Asylum's completion, hiding hints to the sequel within the game.
The player can use "Detective Vision"—a visual mode which provides contextual information, tinting the game world blue and highlighting interactive objects like destructible walls and removable grates, the number of enemies in an area and their status—such as their awareness of Batman's presence—and shows civilians and corpses.
The game world has 240 collectable items, such as Riddler trophies, chattering Joker teeth, interview tapes with some of Arkham's inmates, and cryptic messages left in the asylum by its founder Amadeus Arkham that discuss the facility's bleak history.
The player can use predatory tactics through stealth—including silent takedowns, dropping from overhead perches and snatching enemies away, or using the explosive gel to knock foes off their feet—to tilt the odds in their favor.
I love this game, i can go on and on about how i love this game.
If you havent played it yet, i would reccordmend playing it.
Lets talk about it:
In the game's main storyline, Batman battles his archenemy, the Joker, who instigates an elaborate plot to seize control of Arkham Asylum, trap Batman inside with many of his incarcerated foes, and threaten the fictional Gotham City with hidden bombs.
Most of the game's leading characters are voiced by actors who have appeared in other media based on the DC Animated Universe; Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin reprised their roles as Batman, the Joker, and his sidekick Harley Quinn respectively.
The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in combat and exploration.
Rocksteady began developing ideas for a sequel months before Arkham Asylum's completion, hiding hints to the sequel within the game.
The player can use "Detective Vision"—a visual mode which provides contextual information, tinting the game world blue and highlighting interactive objects like destructible walls and removable grates, the number of enemies in an area and their status—such as their awareness of Batman's presence—and shows civilians and corpses.
The game world has 240 collectable items, such as Riddler trophies, chattering Joker teeth, interview tapes with some of Arkham's inmates, and cryptic messages left in the asylum by its founder Amadeus Arkham that discuss the facility's bleak history.
The player can use predatory tactics through stealth—including silent takedowns, dropping from overhead perches and snatching enemies away, or using the explosive gel to knock foes off their feet—to tilt the odds in their favor.
I love this game, i can go on and on about how i love this game.
If you havent played it yet, i would reccordmend playing it.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
Hotel Transylvania 2 is a new animated family film from Columbia Films, produced by Sony.
It has a huge voice cast, including stars Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Dresher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullally, Dana Carvey, Mel Brooks & Jon Lovitz.
This movie was super cute. The adult audience, myself included, laughed out loud, a lot. The kids thought it was hilarious, too.
One thing I liked a lot is that NOT all the good parts are in the commercials and previews, which means there is still “movie left to see” when you get to actually see the film, which is frequently not the case with highly advertised films.
The movie picks up where the first one left off, showing the wedding of Drac’s daughter Mavis to human Jonathan, and quickly jumping from there to the birth of a child (a son! (Named Dennis)) and then to the boys fourth birthday.
When Dennis doesn’t show any signs of his vamp heritage, Drac feels he must step in and try to help the boy “find his fangs”. Jonathan’s parents are none too thrilled with this turn of events and protest in words and actions.
The overall tone of the movie is happy, and teaches a lesson of acceptance.
The chemistry that showed up in the first film, is back in force between Dracula and his hotel buddies, and causes the movie to flow along without any major hiccups.
The jokes are cute, and play to both the kids and to adult humor.
There wasn’t anything that I found to be so inappropriate that it made my grind my teeth, which was a nice change in a children’s film.
If I had to make a complaint, it would honestly be that the movie seemed to almost move TOO quickly and I could have sat through another 20 minutes at least. Even though it’s run time is 90 minutes, it doesn’t “feel like” it lasts that long, and even my 7 year old son said it was ‘a quick movie’.
It has a huge voice cast, including stars Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Dresher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullally, Dana Carvey, Mel Brooks & Jon Lovitz.
This movie was super cute. The adult audience, myself included, laughed out loud, a lot. The kids thought it was hilarious, too.
One thing I liked a lot is that NOT all the good parts are in the commercials and previews, which means there is still “movie left to see” when you get to actually see the film, which is frequently not the case with highly advertised films.
The movie picks up where the first one left off, showing the wedding of Drac’s daughter Mavis to human Jonathan, and quickly jumping from there to the birth of a child (a son! (Named Dennis)) and then to the boys fourth birthday.
When Dennis doesn’t show any signs of his vamp heritage, Drac feels he must step in and try to help the boy “find his fangs”. Jonathan’s parents are none too thrilled with this turn of events and protest in words and actions.
The overall tone of the movie is happy, and teaches a lesson of acceptance.
The chemistry that showed up in the first film, is back in force between Dracula and his hotel buddies, and causes the movie to flow along without any major hiccups.
The jokes are cute, and play to both the kids and to adult humor.
There wasn’t anything that I found to be so inappropriate that it made my grind my teeth, which was a nice change in a children’s film.
If I had to make a complaint, it would honestly be that the movie seemed to almost move TOO quickly and I could have sat through another 20 minutes at least. Even though it’s run time is 90 minutes, it doesn’t “feel like” it lasts that long, and even my 7 year old son said it was ‘a quick movie’.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Frozen (2013) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
One thing that easily wins my heart over in animated movies is the adorable little kid. Think Boo in Monsters, Inc. or Agnes from Despicable Me. Wide-eyed, funny and cute is the winning formula. In Frozen it’s Anna who wins me over with a simple flop and a sigh as she tries to entice her sister, Elsa in a late night snow adventure. As the older of the two princesses of Arendelle, young Elsa tries to be the responsible one, but even she can’t resist little Anna’s whispered, “Do you want to build a snowman?”
Because the only trailers I saw for this movie were the funny scenes with Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer, I honestly had no idea the movie was going to be a musical treat about two princesses. Disney knows the formula of a simple but engaging story, an attractive heroine, catchy songs and comical supporting characters has worked for them time and time again, so they doubled their efforts with two princesses, voiced beautifully by Kristin Bell (Anna) and Glee’s Idina Menzel (Elsa), two funny supporting characters and a plethora of memorable songs. While strongly geared toward little Disney princesses, boys will enjoy the antics of Olaf, voiced perfectly by Jon Gad and the bravery of Kristoff and his reindeer Sven, both voiced by another Glee alum, Jonathan Groff.
Disney must love the fact that every movie they release about princesses sparks nostalgic feelings of other Disney favorites. Because of the constant reference to “A true love’s kiss” in this movie, I’m digging around for my copy of “Enchanted”. While the songs are more broadway than the Disney pop little kids love, weeks after screening this movie both my husband and I still sing, “Do you want to build a snowman?” to each other and try to look as adorable as Anna. A definitely must-watch again.
Because the only trailers I saw for this movie were the funny scenes with Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer, I honestly had no idea the movie was going to be a musical treat about two princesses. Disney knows the formula of a simple but engaging story, an attractive heroine, catchy songs and comical supporting characters has worked for them time and time again, so they doubled their efforts with two princesses, voiced beautifully by Kristin Bell (Anna) and Glee’s Idina Menzel (Elsa), two funny supporting characters and a plethora of memorable songs. While strongly geared toward little Disney princesses, boys will enjoy the antics of Olaf, voiced perfectly by Jon Gad and the bravery of Kristoff and his reindeer Sven, both voiced by another Glee alum, Jonathan Groff.
Disney must love the fact that every movie they release about princesses sparks nostalgic feelings of other Disney favorites. Because of the constant reference to “A true love’s kiss” in this movie, I’m digging around for my copy of “Enchanted”. While the songs are more broadway than the Disney pop little kids love, weeks after screening this movie both my husband and I still sing, “Do you want to build a snowman?” to each other and try to look as adorable as Anna. A definitely must-watch again.
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