Where to start comics: Glossary

Terms you might need to know.
(this is constantly being updated over time, so check back with each new article posted to see if any new terms were added.)

Embracing the DCnU

To say I was furious at DC when they announced their relaunch(then misquoted as Reboot) is an understatement.

A Classic Spielberg film, with someone else directing - a review of Super8

Do you ever wonder what happened to blockbusters nowadays? That mystery, that magic. It's pretty much gone. We know every film that is coming out and when it's coming out. Hell, we know when they are filming, when they are working on effects and how long it takes for one of these projects to come into existence. We can figure out entire plots just from a brief description, a title, and the trailer. We see so much footage that we can piece together the movie into a cohesive adventure without much effort. The magic of wonder, the mystery of having no idea what a movie is about except a title and brief teaser trailer is gone. Now we have interviews upon interviews, clips everywhere, stills, leaked scripts, early screenings. All of our progress in communication has destroyed the mystery of movies. Super 8 tries to recapture that magic.

Where to start reading comics: Appendix one Intro Books

Appendix one: intro books


The idea behind each of these volumes is that you can start with just this volumne and get a full, complete, enjyoable story. They are jumping on points and at the same time are great sign posts for how to expand outward towards other books.

Where to start reading comics: Appendix two

Appendix two: Intro indie books

DCnU Complete List

DC has announced 52 new issues to rekickstart the universe.
Here I am going to write down each and every title as they are revealed. More to come on this subject.

Where to start reading Comics: Part one

Part one: Where not to start.

I've actually been asked this question a few times: "Holy F. Where do I start reading comics?"
And I usually tell them to start with what looks interesting. For starting comics you kind of need to start with characters you like. There are plenty of stories I love but I know that a large number of them aren't for new readers.

Using Telepathy to get chicks? Winning. - a review of X-Men First Class

Once upon a time two boys had very different, very startling changes occur in their life. For Erik it was the loss of his mother. For Charles it was the discovery of a young girl named Raven who had wandered into his house. These two events would send these men in search of answers to a problem that exists in the world. An issue of Fear and Xenophobia. And for almost everyone these themes will ring true. And soon enough these two boys would become men. And those men will seek out answers in their own way, only to one day have their paths colide and be changed forever. Two men who have very much united in a cause.

FlashSchsFearPointItselfIsm - Part one a discusion of event comics.

There are a handful of Event Comics out there.
The Flashpoints and the Fear Itselfs.
Then there are the Schisms and the Battle for the cowls.
The Return of Bruce Waynes and the Messiah Wars.

Then there are the Second Comings and Chaos Wars.

There are also the Three's and the Death of Spider-Mans.

The Final Crisis and the Ultimatums.





So to write this up into categories.
Some events are line wide and represent a through line, a marker post.
These are books like Flashpoint, Fear Itself, Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Infinite Crisis, House of M, Civil War.


Some events are family wide.
These are the events like X-Men Crossovers, Shadowland, Ultimatum, Batman Inc./Batman Reborn, War of the Green Lanterns, Sinestro Corps

There are also crossover events. Things like Utopia, Widowmaker.

And some are simply events in their own right out of their solo books.
These are Fantastic Four Three, One More Day, The Death of Captain America, Return of The King.




Some books are events in their own right. Some books are merely stepping stones to the next thing. That isn't to say they can't be both. And often they want to be one and end up being another.

Let's start with when books are events in their own right. Civil War. While Marvel had been teasing this event for months and months leading up. the only time we really saw books that lead into it were right before civil war. And even they just layed the ground work for really show casing the event. Spider-man showed off Tony Stark going to congress. But if you look at Civil War it was just this precursor that set up Tony and Peter's relationship and Tony's connection to congress. And as we approached the end, we speculated the ending but never it was never hyped. And when it came we had a new landscape for comics. But Civil War still mattered. We were still talking about the contents of Civil War as this new era came on.
Then jump forward to Marvel's next big event. An event they spent years setting up. Secret Invasion. for months and months before hand we were watching as the conspiracy and the distrust built. It played on the setup and fallout of Civil War. But after the event started we were suddenly told about this mysterious end point. Kept Hush Hush and called only Dark Reign, we were told that the entire event was pitched on the ending. And once the Dark Reign happened, we didn't care about Secret Invasion. We didn't talk about secret invasion or the big moments. Except to complain about how illogical the ending was. Sure the Dark Reign was a really interesting idea, but the logistics about how it happened didn't work and everyone knew it. It suddenly didn't matter about the events of that transpired before. It was merely a transition event.

Now looking forward we see three major events. Flashpoint. Schism. Fear Itself. In all honesty, I have heard nothing about the end game of Fear Itself, much less the post Fear Itself landscape. and while we haven't heard about the post Schism landscape we know that "things will never be the same." Which means that the entire event might become a one line in a recap, not unlike secret invasion. And then we have Flashpoint. This is likely the most talked about event since Civil War. If you follow comics news then the only thing you've heard in the last few days is about September. DC is relaunching the whole line at number one. We don't know the exact details but the common rumor is that the main continuity and the Flashpoint continuity will merge and create a new younger continuity. But the problem is, we've stopped talking about Flashpoint. We've stopped caring. We know that most of it doesn't matter. We only care about September. Not Flashpoint. Geoff Johns(writer of Flashpoint) has said the first rule of Flashpoint is don't talk about what comes after Flashpoint. And yet here we are, talking about it. DC dropped the ball. They needed to transition us into this, not force us to accept this change. WE needed to be eased into it, or better, kept in the dark until September. I know I was bashing the way marvel transitioned into Dark Reign story-wise, but preview wise they handled it skillfully. They put out solicits with titles, numbers, and creators, but ever solicit and cover said Classified or "Not final title." It was an expert way to hide the truth. And in the end it got us to a good point where we could see some unique stories. Flashpoint was not good at this. They let the reboot cat out of the bag, and whether or not you agree with the change, all it did was stir the pan, not flip the flapjack.
When done right, an event book is a book everyone wants to read because it's well written. This is the civil war's and the Blackest Nights. The bad ones are the events that make us consider them non events designed only to get us to point B, I.E. Battle for the Cowl and X-Men's Utopia. And so we have to stand back and watch as Schism, Fear Itself, and Flashpoint stir until we reach the end of the summer and find out what really happens.


(End of Part one)
Look for Part two this fall upon the completion of Flashpoint and Schism and part three upon the completion of Fear Itself.

Broken bones, muscles, spirits, and wangs - its a review of Mortal Kombat 2011

Mortal Kombat is the best fighting game that has come out since the 16-bit days. I had more fun playing this game that I have had playing any other fighter that has come out. Let's start with the most obvious part. The characters. The roster here is nothing we haven't seen before(well, that's not true, there are two, but that'll be covered in the spoiler section) but the characters are all well designed. New takes on the old designs. The best bits are the costumes of characters before they become what we know them as. Particularly Cyrax and Sector. I can't praise this game without telling everyone that this game has a good story, a story that outshines every fighting game to date. Fully voice acted, this integrated combat will set the precedent for how all fighting game stories have to be connected. And as you progress you'll unlock stages, costumes, and characters. All of which sets you up for one hell of a local multiplayer experience. Though it is sometimes a bit trickier as you have to go into the Krypt and try and find some extras like costumes, fatalities and art. The Krypt is well animated, able to create scares and creepouts. Every character has access to four finishing moves: Two Fatalities, A babality, and a stage fatality. The variety and complexity of these moves are awesome. They are also gross and sick as you'd expect. The special moves are easy to perform, and often intuitive. Then after you have finished the story mode, there is the challenge tower which while providing unique challenges, it also pits you in some off story matches that could have easily fit in between chapters.
So that's the good, let's talk about the bad. For example, the worst part of the story mode is the broken boss battles. Boss Battles are not a test of strategy, but of luck and mini game timing. Bosses prevent blocking, hitting, and combos. I spent almost three hours trying to beat the final boss and every strategy I sought out(because eventually you just want it to be over) basically boiled down to spam a move, use a simple attack. And it still takes about 10 minutes, and a whole lot of luck. A few other problems exist, such as 1 on 2 matches, including a match that is 1 man versus 2 bosses. The inability to skip cut scenes is an issue. Particularly after you restart and it plays the previous cut scene, some of which are dreadfully long on second viewing. Also there is no option to restart a match mid fight, so in some instances where it is otherwise required to win the first round or have a certain amount of super bar(such as boss battles) this is a major time sink.
There are times when hit detection, combo breaking, fatalities, and special moves don't respond correctly and instead become a hindrance rather than an advantage. A personal issue for me is that this is yet another fighting game that focuses on juggling and combos over any amount of skill that can result in a novice player being juggled and completed hammered by a skilled player before even having a chance to hit said player.
And lastly, for a game that focuses on a tournament, there isn't a tournament mode....



+
Story mode
Variety
Local Multiplayer
The Krypt
Stages
Fatalities
Costumes and their relevancy
Challenge Tower


-
no restart.
No skip cut scene
No replay chapters.
Balance
Boss Battles are not a test of strategy, but of luck and mini game timing
Bosses prevent blocking, hitting, and combos
attacks not working consistently
Fatalities not being performed correctly.
Juggling still persists to exist.
Game relies too much on spam and juggling.
collision detection is awful.
Inconsistent recovery times and animation times.
Lack of proper counters
Glitchy controls.
No Tournament mode.


Spoilerssssssssss:

(1)Back in the day, Smoke was a ninja. And then he was captured and coverted for the cyber initiative. And he became Cyber Smoke. Here however, time has changed, and Smoke was not captured, but instead the second Sub Zero was. Leading to a wonderful conflict between Noob Saibot and Cyber Sub-Zero. Furthermore the ps3 version comes fully equipped with Kratos, the God of War.
(2)
Khan is one of those bosses that breaks the rules of the game. It is common for all of the bosses but it is in the final bout that you really see him hit the spam hammer. The lack of reaction makes him nearly impossible to beat without resorting to boring tactics. It is because of this that the game becomes almost unplayable at this juncture.
End of spoilerrrsssssss




All in all, the game is a B-. More of a try before you buy, because not everyone will like it. That said, you owe it to yourself to play through the story mode.
*I attempted to use MK online, however it only ever found 1 opponent and they backed out before the match began.

*There are a few attack spams possible and they are an issue that needs to be addressed and you can tell a difference between gamer types based on their answer to this problem. You can always tell the difference between the good players and the hardcore players. Hardcore players are the dumbasses who think adding more broken moves to the characters who aren't already broken will make the game better. the good players know that the solution is to take away the teleport moves.

Yo Ho Yo Ho, oh sorry didn't mean to call you a name - a review of POTC On Stranger Tides

Oh Pirates, you had a whole lot of promise once upon a time. And then you failed to edit movies. Instead, you sat and pretty much put word for word the script on screen. That wasn't really pretty. And while I do enjoy all three films, they were absolutely flawed in various ways. However, On Stranger Tides, while faulty, is the first of the film series since the original that really feels like it knows what it wants to be. And what it wants to be is the pirate equivilent of Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Gone are the nagging characters and the insane budget(one of which you can partially mourn for). Instead we have a cast full of characters you want to spend time with. Other than the spanish, who for some reason get no respect and no names and no screen time, the rest of these characters are set about on their course and developed into a team of characters who will go on to inhabit this world. And really, the plot here is kind of flimsy other than to create an atmosphere for which the characters can monkey about. This movie is a bridge between two different franchises. It fully links the previous trilogy of meh, and a potentially awesome future. The movie is a throw back to serials of the first half of the twentith century. Therefore you have to stick around to the end to see what's on the horizon. I am ready for a dozen more of these movies, released every other year. Why? Because these films, soon, will realize what they have to do. They have to become James Bond. What I mean is the day will come when we will have to let Johnny Depp go and let someone else pick up the mantle. But that is another day. Our new additions, BlackBeard and Angelica are wonderful new additions to the universe. Ian Mcshane is absolutely menacing in his role,and while he doesn't outshine Bill Nigh he does do a strong job to keep up with the often under appreciated Geoffry Rush. Penelope Cruz mostly just stands arond and is hot. Her only real action sequence is clearly a stunt double, never once even looking like she was in the scene. And lastly you have my favorite pair of characters, The Priest and The Mermaid. They are a perfect example of characters who DON'T need to return. I thought they were great and will often be forgotten, but in my mind they are the through line for this movie. I'm firmly hoping for a bunch of stand alone tales about various mystical objects. I'd love for the POTC version of Bermuda Triangle.

Okay, most of this is rambling, but the movie is very much worth your time and this film, is a B. It's a good time to be had.

Dylan Dog: Mediocre Detective - a review of Dylan Dog Dead of Night

Alright, I don't want to spend to long thinking about this film. You see, this is the kind of film where if you spend too much time thinking about it, it's a bad movie. It's genuinely got poor effects, poor sound, poor practical effects, poor kittens, and poor hot chicks.
So let's break this down. This movie is poor. Or rather, Cheap. This movie originally was going to have a big budget, but just before filming began they had that budget eviscerated. So suddenly what could have been a great summer opener became and indie film to be released when no one was looking. Hell, I saw an ad for this movie, and had a hard time finding it. In fact, the only reason I ended up seeing it was because I got sent Run Of Engagement passes and happen to be at the right place at the right time. And then, unsuprisingly there were four people in my theater: myself, an older gentlemen with a pad and paper, and a late twenties couple loudly making out.
I know all of this because this movie has a few parts that drag. You see, there are two performances that are at the very least entertaining to watch work their magic, and I'd love to see them go head to head in something calibrated to them. I'm talking about the awesome Taye Diggs, who plays a vampire that runs a vampire club, and Brandon Routh who plays our former detective, Dylan Dog. This movie is the classic detective story with a supernatural twist. I won't say horror, because it really doesn't feel like horror. It's a mystery(though not a thriller, a subgenre that often gets ignored) with elements of comedy mixed in. There are some genuinly interesting ideas here, and a handful that are actually pretty good in execution. But outside of Brandon and Taye the acting tops out at Hey, it's Jimmy Olsen, droping back down to "This is my emoting face. Can't you tell since it's my horny/angry/betraying/sad face." There was clearly some good visions here in concept, likely the source material, but in execution most of it falls flat. When it eventually reaches netflix, as these things do, it'll be worth your time to gander. Think of it like a direct to video movie or a scifi original movie. Not good by most standards, but sometimes if just ever so watchable.
Do I say go out of your way for this? Not really unless you are a hardcore fan of Brandon or Taye, which being both made this movie a worth my hour and fifty minutes.
The plot is really predictable, the music is very meh and the graphics are about on par with doctor who. But the perfect audience for this movie is 10-12 year olds who want something that is their kind of humour but not too complex or too scary or too adult. There is only one real pg-13 moment, but it's so brief that most 10-12 year olds will be watching worse on their programs.
I'd give the movie a D. It's not a failure, but it's never good.

The God Of Thunder Reigns Supreme - a review of Thor

In a world where movies never quite reach our expectations, where we are forced to sit through the trite, and the mundane, we find Thor. Thor is all about the acting. In every way we are talking about performances that are nuanced and varied in ways that the one two punch of talented director and talented actors fused together can bring to the table. Everyone makes the part but there are a handful of actors who jump leaps and bounds above the rest. In third place we have Sir Anthony Hopkins, whose role as Odin is quite pressing. His voice, his presence, even the looks he give feel the weight of Odin. He absolutely is the Allfather and in every way is playing the role he was born to play. But if Anthony Hopkins, a talent actor to play a character then Chris Hemsworth is Thor who happens to be an actor. You will believe a Thor can fly. Or something. He is both Charming and Arrogant. He is skilled in every way possible. And then, then, Then, There is Mr. Tom Hiddelson who completely became Loki. He is both vulnerable and vengeful. You will both relate and despise him. He is the pure embodiment of Mischief.
The plot uses the Iron Man origin formula, but has one advantage: Better third act. Here there is no down time, no moments where you go “really?”, everything happens and it works. Almost. The biggest weakness of this movie is that Thor’s turn to humility feels rushed. It’s not quite 100 percent. It’s about 90 percent there; it was just missing that last Omph to get it to 100 percent. This far outshines Iron Man 2, it offers much in the way of getting us to the Avengers, but that paving doesn’t feel like the point of the movie. Instead it feels like an extra moment of being ready. The film even ends on a note to set up future Thor sequels rather than marvel movies, though with a cameo by Jeremy Renner, you absolutely could set up more of the world.
Overall, this movie is a solid A. No ifs and ors about it, the absolute best Marvel movie to date, and by extension, the second greatest comic book movie to date.

Supernatural's Anime Dawn...Is it as good? - A review of Supernatural the Animation Eps 1 and 2

I am going to try and keep this as Laymen friendly as possible, but it'll be tough, so sorry if you can't keep up.
Interestingly enough the series might actually work for non-supernatural fans better. The show is rather based in mysteries and the animation keeps that up well. Give it a try for sure.
Now for fans, the first two episodes are adaptations of two classic Supernatural(SPN) episodes, Skinwalker and Road Kill. On first glance, both of these episodes seem a bit out of place. Certainly not the introductions we all were familiar with. But if you were to pick out the best ghost episode, would it not be Road Kill? It tells an incredibly somber and unique story within the context of supernatural. And Skinwalker of course plays on many fears that the brothers have and really establishes certain themes of the series early.

Both episodes, plot wise, are good half-hour adaptations of otherwise hour long stories. But it'll be a later post where I discuss the story and the choices therein regarding adaptations and episode selection(and should it come up, the strength of original stories). The animation is very pretty. They certainly keep up with the visual style of the show, while still taking advantage of the format. The major improvements we get is that limited view of the monsters are a style choice instead of a limitation of the budget and due to completely different standards of decency, the blood level is upped considerably.
I haven't had a chance to hear the Japanese voice actors, but i'll edit that in as an update later once I've had that chance. With that said, the american voice actors are mostly competent. There are two exceptions. One is Jared Padalicki who is at the same quality as his Live Action counter part. On the flip side Jensen Ackles voicing Dean comes off as cheesy and sounds wrong. Now the wrong portion is likely because over the course of six seasons his voice has changed and Jensen is now giving him a more youthful voice. After two episodes its starting to grow on me, but we'll see if that lasts. But it just feels a bit off. This is one of the grey areas I think non-spn fans will be able to look past because for what he is doing, Jensen is quite good.

My biggest complaint is I don't feel like I know that much about the brothers in the anime universe. I know that Dean is older and stayed with his father as Sam went off to college, but that's about it.

And finally, having seen what the third episode is, I must say, Home as episode three? That's...special. On the brightside, this means we will never ever have to see the anime version of Racist truck, Houses of Holy, or Bugs so we the fans, win.
I recommend this for fans, of course. But I'd even say that without being a fan of the original this show holds up and would rank a solid B and is certainly worth your time.

Son of Bowie doesn't hit it as far, but still scores - A review of Source Code

Son of Bowie, Duncan Jones, hits it out of the park again(though not quite as far). I will say, I'm a little disappointed it wasn't the sequel to Moon I was expecting. And it didn't sucker punch me with it's topic the way Moon did. in general, I'd say that that it was a success though it felt more mainstream and less brave than his previous effort.

This will remain a spoiler-free review but the basic premise is that Captain Colter Stevens is dropped into the body of another man and suddenly has to solve a crime, with only 8 minute bursts to figure out when a terrorist will attack again.

What does this movie rock? Storytelling. It its well paced and unfolds the story perfectly. The movie never does anything to telegraph things(except a few things that I could easily figure out just by setting, but my companion could not). The plot takes some really interesting turns, and overall never fails to put character and heart over plot and convenience.

The acting is incredibly solid and often is pretty impressive.

The flaws? Well there are some loose ends and the endgame scenario feels a little bit out of place from the rest of the movie. In fact, the last 2-3 minutes feels like it was shoehorned in,easily the weakest segment of the movie. So what can I say, this is a solid B.

The Prince of White Man:Sucking of Time - a review of Prince of Persia the Sands of Time

Whew, that is one long title ain't it?
Ugh, I sort of reviewed this one on facebook as I was watching it but it was so bad that I need to warn everyone I can about it. I know many people, myself included, were vaguely interested in this movie. In fact, my love of Prince of Persia games caused me to ignore the bad reviews and say, "hey, maybe this is one of those movies that get badly reviewed that I enjoy". I wasn't expecting greatness, just entertainment. I didn't get entertainment.

Of course, most of you are likely aware of the fact that we have a bunch of white actors playing Persia or various middle eastern originated characters. We've all complained, and race bending is an unfortunate practice we need to break. if nothing else let this be your warning sign that yes, this is in fact much worse. now the one bright side I can say is that because Jake is playing The Prince(who has a bs name which is unforgivable), they actually crafted a tolerable origin. They didn't risk anything trying to pass him off as Persia so I am thankful for that, but beyond that I can't give them much. However, we are supposed to believe that Alfred Molina and Sir Ben Kingsly are Persian. For comparison, according to the wikipedias, Ben is English, his father of African/Indian descent, his mother of Russian or German descendant. A very English man, who was even knighted. Alfred's mother was Italian, his father was Spanish, and he was raised in England. So Englishmen. and no, they (thankfully) don't try to fake Persian accents, though they do put a considerable makeup on them. And worse yet is all of their acting is mediocre for mediocre actors, meaning that for these two titans of acting, it was especially disappointing.

The story was...Okay? It loosely follows the plot of the first game, and even has a few elements that improve upon the story. So the two major improvements are A) the female lead and most of the actions she takes make sense. Her acting is bland and really disappointing, but on a script level she works well. The other big change is that the betrayal is done via a magical artifact. This is a pleasant surprise because in all other incarnations our first introduction to this being a world of magic are via the Dagger. This sets a precedent for this world being bigger and more magical and that goes a long way. But then there is the execution. Every action. Every Betrayal, every shift, every reveal, feels forced and telegraphed. If you don't foresee the uncle to be evil from the very second he starts talking then you aren't paying attention. All in all the plot felt like a rehash of some elements of the games plot minus the good stuff. I mean, why couldn't we see an army of sand monsters? and then there comes the real, real problem.
Dastan as he is known, rarely if ever pulls off any Prince moves. A little bit of scaling the wall with arrows at the beginning, and jumping along a collapsing room at the end and that's it. This movie didn't need a lot of be awesome in action. Some running up walls, some swinging, some climbing, and some intricate traps. And then some fighting. Too much to ask for some awesome action in my action movie? Apparently.

In all, I'd rather watch Live Free or Die Hard because at least it had entertaining action("you just killed a helicopter with a car!"). This? No. This needs to be avoided at all costs. The acting is wooden and fake, the plot is predictable and boring. This is an F. A complete and total failure.

Guest Review: Unknown in under a paragraph

Unknown

Guy wakes up and doesn't know who he is, stabs a guy in the neck, and everyone gets corn. The End.


This review brought to you by Lady Elara

Science fiction Love Story where the love comes first - a review of Never Let Me Go

Ah Childhood love. It was a growing trend last year in 2010. Okay, so two films really don't count as a trend but whatever. Now a man whose opinion I generally always agree with(DAMN YOU ABOUT SUCKER PUNCH), and who even when we disagree I still respect the opinion he establishes, called this his favorite movie of last year. And thus I HAD to buy it and watch it. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Is it the best movie of the year? That's arguable because I was and as I learned tuesday night, still am, in love with Scott Pilgrim vs The world. So let us start with what works because it far out weighs the little problems this movie had. The first and foremost is the fact that this is a science fiction movie about clones bred for the sole purpose of organ harvesting to keep people from dying who are raised to adulthood. They are done this so that they can still live a full life. It is this really fantastic premise. And I'm labeling this spoilers but I don't think it needs the spoiler tag because it's part of the synopsis. But here's the real kicked to the story, they don't dwell to much on this fact. It really is a coming of age story that happens to be about clones. Yes we get some fantastic story work done involving morality and humanity but that isn't what is at the core of this story. The core is the acting. Oh wow, is it ever amazing here. Andrew Garfield should have won an Oscar for his work here. He shows such a dynamic range of acting that I knew as soon as I watched it that this kid could not only pull off Peter Parker in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man, but that he is going to go on to be a star. Keira Knightly delivers in her non-POTC skills where she is fantastic. But the heart, the soul, and really the real gem of this movie is Carey Mulligan. Your heart will break for some of the absolute real emotion she brings to the table. Fully dynamic, and an absolute delight to watch, she will defy your expectations. So the only real downfalls in this film is that the score doesn't do a whole lot and the plot is a little simplistic, never rising above the basic premise. But when you see this twisted three dimensional love story, you'll be swept away. I can completely and whole heartily say that this is an amazing movie that you owe it to yourself to see. This is an A.

Soulless War Movies Seek Characters inquire inside - a review of Battle Los Angeles

Straight up, I’m very meh about this movie. It didn’t grab me, didn’t distract me, and had me looking at my phone on a regular basis for what time it was and how long it’d take to get to a good action scene. The flaws in this movie are fairly glaring, not the least of which were the script. This script sucks, the dialogue is stilted and only made passable by some decent actors. But even good, some great, actors can’t save these characters. The main character played by Aaron Eckheart of The Dark Knight, gives a rather uninspired performance here. His character’s arc literally is at the beginning of the movie he is the stereotypical one week (or in this case, one day) from retirement cop(Marine) who gets pulled into one last case(war). And at the end he is gung ho to keep fighting. Which as far as bad clichés go, it’s not the worst, but it is never earned. And that is ultimately the problem here. None of these characters earn the end result of their stories and I never once cared that anyone died. In fact, I only cared when by the end a character DIDN’T die. And it made me cranky. The characters are all bland, two dimensional caricatures that belong in a Roland Emerich movie. And that isn’t a bad way to compare this. All you have here is big sequences that look cool but don’t amount to much. There are clearly some cool ideas going on with these aliens, but the story is so vague and unspecific about them that they come down to the role of Invaders! And we never get to know what they really want or why they are here or who any of them are. In a post District 9 world where we clearly can be told the motivations and desires of alien forces, we shouldn’t be forced to live with faceless enemies especially in a movie that clocks in at under two hours. In many ways this is the movie form of a game called Resistance: Fall of Man. Which takes a similar aesthetic to an alien invasion, but in that you get better characters and story, so I’d say go check that one out. There even is a fantastic moment of product placement for Resistance 2 on one of the billboards, so I’d say the creators knew it too. I can’t in good conscience recommend this movie, but I also can’t claim it to be good. It’ll likely go down in my mind as one of those films that failed spectacularly to live up its potential. So is this movie Black Hawk Down with Aliens? Yeah if you want to boil it down to that, but you have to foot note that there is not character here. None. So this is without a doubt, a D movie. Not worth your time, not a complete failure, but ultimately just a footnote towards some better set pieces to come.

Some of Them want to be used - A review of Sucker Punch

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
Okay so before I get into spoilers, here’s the thing. SEE THIS MOVIE. I can’t sing it enough praise, but if you do yourself one favor, see this movie. It is this year’s Scott Pilgrim and Kick Ass.
So
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
So the plot of this movie is some bad, traumatic events happen to this young girl. She is then wrongfully placed into an asylum and has five days to figure out how to get out or be lobotomized because her stepfather paid the right guy off. So what does she do? She supplants a fantasy world into her view and begins a cunning plan by some old man in her imagination.
Sounds weird right? Gets weirder. See in this fantasy world, whenever she dances she creates a new fantasy world where she(Baby Doll) and her allies form a team of ass kicking women and fight in various fantasy realities including an alternate World War II, a horde of Orcs sieging a castle with a dragon in its heart, and feudal Japan fused with modern day guns. It’s an amalgamation of everything awesome and as such it creates a wildly visual movie. Now there isn’t a whole lot to say plot wise going on here. There aren’t too many deep levels to it, frankly, and it’s ambiguous when it comes to the stuff you can analyze. It is in many ways the girl equivalent of 300 in that it is a group of five young women fighting for survival.
The acting ranges from fantastically emotive to kind of dull and predictable. The “villains” are fairly one note and don’t have a lot to offer to the plate. Only four of the characters have any development, and two of them are entwined by being Sisters. Baby Doll gets the most story out of this and her backstory visual montage is quite the spectacle. And yet, I can’t call this movie shallow. Yes, it is a bunch of girls in skimpy outfits being bad ass and gun toting and at time there is homoerotic subtext going on between them. But it is in every way about empowerment and improving the esteem of these young women.
The best parts are absolutely the visuals, but even more so is those visuals combind with an amazing soundtrack. Zach Snyder has a habit of releasing movies with killer soundtracks and this is no different. But what is different is that in a large handful of action scenes or scenes without dialogue you have music and their lyrics telling the story for you. So much so that I would call this a new genre of musical. It is in every way an action movie, but it follows so many tropes of a musical that it blows my mind away.
My biggest complaint is A) the third act isn’t as strong as the first two and feels kind of rushed. Sure, it is exactly what the film told us and telegraphed to us via the five items she has to collect in her fantasy world. And B) it wasn’t in 3D. I know, that sounds stupid but when you see this movie, it was clearly a film that could have gained from being in 3D rather than in simple 2D.
So in all, no the film isn’t perfect, but it is absolutely an A-. I might amend this on further viewings to be an A, but this is such a fun adventure that everyone really needs to see it. So get out there and do it now!