Superman Unchained Deluxe Edition Review

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I finally got to check out one of Superman’s recent comic titles and it’s safe to say that Unchained lives up to the hype. It’s too bad that it couldn’t have kept going on since it was certainly on the right track to fame and fortune. Snyder does a good job of depicting Superman and we get a very good amount of action. It’s easily one of, if not the best Superman stories that I have read and you can make a strong case for this actually being the best comic book of all time. I’m not going to go quite that far yet, but it is certainly awesome.

For the plot, Clark Kent no longer works at the Planet. He’s finally just getting to enjoy life and everything seems right with the world. Unfortunately, a terrorist organization has been getting pretty active lately and that keeps Superman pretty busy with nuclear strikes and their other forms of mayhem. It wouldn’t be so bad if the government didn’t continue to get in Superman’s way, but that’s just how it goes this time. They have an ace up their sleeve in the form of Wraith. Wraith is a mysterious figure who has been helping the government from the sidelines for decades and his powers are comparable to Superman’s. Superman’s going to have the fight of his life on his hands, but luckily he has Batman and Wonder Woman to back him up considering how many dangerous situations continue to pop up.

First off, the art is really good here. It’s easily some of the best in the business. The only parts of the comic where the art looked off was in the flashbacks, but for some reason that was actually intentional. It was drawn with a lack of color and it doesn’t work very well. Next to the colorful fights, it just doesn’t work. Luckily, this is pretty rare and the rest of the art easily makes up for this. It looks dynamite and a lot of attention was given to all of the details. Superman’s display of his x ray vision is a good example of this as his eyes turn blue. It’s a small detail that is appreciated as you read the issues.

As this is the Deluxe Edition, there are a lot of bonus covers at the end. You may have been surprised at how thick the volume was and that’s why. A good 20-30 pages are spent showing us a lot of fun covers. They’re pretty cool and it’s always enjoyable to see the retro ones that had such interesting plots. We also get the director’s cut for the first comic, which is pretty fun as well. I would have preferred that for a comic with more action, but it was still pretty neat.

You’ll be glad to know that the characters are portrayed very well. Wonder Woman gets less of a role than Batman, but she still gets a good hit in and there’s nothing that will make you question her character. Batman looks awesome right from the start. “If you’re here to intimidate me, then you’re wasting your time” is one of his better quotes. Another good one arises when Wraith lets Batman know that there’s no way that Superman can detect the villain’s presence thanks to how he can control his energy. Batman’s reply is essentially, “Good, now he can’t save you” and it’s pretty great. I always like to see Batman looking so confident and awesome. He holds his own against Wraith for quite a while and that is an extremely impressive feat. I also liked his new suit and Batman’s ring invention worked perfectly. If Batman had some more prep time, things definitely could have gotten dicey for Wraith.

As for Superman, I was not surprised that he also looked really good. We got a flashback to show how heroic he was even as a kid. He was always ready to help someone and he would never take a life. In the present, he constantly makes sure not to cross the line and he’s very confident in his abilities. Not in a rude way as he is sometimes portrayed, but just in the way that a commander has to be confident. Superman’s genius is also displayed at times and he doesn’t mindlessly punch his way through things. The author shows us how Superman sees a situation and it’s pretty cool. He’s always analyzing and thinking of possible solutions to a problem as he approaches it. Superman’s easily my favorite comic book character and when he is portrayed like this, there’s nobody who’s even close. If only Man of Steel could have used this storyline for the film to show off Superman’s heroics.

Wraith is the big villain and I’m sure that you’ll find his mere existence to be a stretch. How did nobody notice him in the last 75 years right? He can turn invisible, but it’s definitely something that you will find hard to believe. Well, we’ll just let that slide this time and look at him as a character. Wraith is not a likable “hero” but he makes for a pretty good villain. He snaps rather quickly, but I suppose that we didn’t expect him to keep up the facade for very long. It does make his final appearance a little sudden, but at the same time, he is still committing to his role as a soldier. He wasn’t made aware of his race’s plans and protecting the Earth in his way is still Wraith’s main mission. It’s too bad that he was so stubborn since he really could have been a valuable ally to the heroes. That being said, one should never cross Superman. He is said to be a little stronger than Superman, but I naturally don’t buy that. Once they battle in an even playing field, Superman proves who the stronger warrior is. Superman’s a master of hand to hand combat so his super abilities are definitely not his only asset.

The supporting characters are also present of course. Lois looks pretty good as she takes chances, but she is pretty reasonable once she is thrown into dangerous situations. She also helps out a little when the army ends up going nuts. Jimmy is around, but his role is pretty sad. He just can’t stay away from trouble. Lex Luthor also looks as sadistic as you would expect and he admits that Superman isn’t half bad when the man of steel cannot hear him. Lex definitely makes for a pretty interesting villain and he is typically one step ahead of the other characters.

If anything’s a little dicey, it’s the fact that the government seems way more powerful than usual. Since when do they have the ability to casually fire black hole bullets and energy blasts that can even cripple Superman? They were apparently organized for such a battle, but getting the tech is just unbelievable. It’s ironic that the government always looks good when they are about to face a superhero, but then they crack once an actual villain appears. If their weapons are this good then they should have defeated Darkseid and the Aquaman villain. Of course, this is a mini series so you can say that the continuity is a little dicey, but it’s just an example. Things would be so much different if the government was this strong. They were actually defeating Superman, which I still find hard to believe.

On the bright side, it did give Superman an excuse to don his Superman Prime outfit. Now that was an awesome moment and I think I speak for all DC fans when I say that we miss the guy. Superman Prime was just so intense and his outfit was definitely a keeper. Once again, I do have to reiterate that no matter how much tech the government had, there’s no way that they should be able to defeat Superman. Superman’s speed should be able to totally outclass their tech and the battle would be over before it even started. That doesn’t happen, but Superman still fights on to the bitter end so it was handled rather well compared to how it could have ended.

Finally, there was one main reason above all that made this comic not just good or great, but amazing. It wasn’t the incredible writing, the dynamic art, or even the fact that Batman got to be so awesome. No, the clinching factor was the amazing fights that we got. The whole trade paperback is loaded with action and the fights between Superman and Wraith are definitely the highlights here. They get punched across cities and continents. You never want to take your eyes away from the action for a moment. The series may have been quite a few issues, but you’ll find yourself just blasting through the whole collection because you can’t tear yourself away. I haven’t read something this enjoyable in terms of action in a long time and now it’s time for the big question..is this the greatest comic of all time?

Before now, that title would go to either the Secret Wars or X Sanction. Both of those are great comics to be sure, but I have to say that this one tops them both. It shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that I still do prefer DC to Marvel. Adding in the fact that Superman is the main character here and it’s a no brainer. It’ll be almost impossible to top this collection and I don’t see such a thing happening for a long time. It’s really too bad that Unchained ended so quickly, but we got a great ending and a really fun ride. Thus, I can safely say that I am satisfied with it and I highly recommend checking this volume out. If you wanted to see a likable Superman and a comic that fits in a lot of action while still having great dialogue, this is the comic for you!

Overall 10/10

The Bad Seed Review

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Well, it’s time to look at a really old film that couldn’t manage to be that good. It’s an uncommon occurrence, but we have seen it occur as with the Picture of Dorian Grey. This film is much worse than that one and we’re talking 2001 levels of wince worthiness. The concept doomed the film from the start so there’s not much that it could have done, but it still managed to underwhelm.

Christine’s life seems to be just about perfect. Her husband is a hard working member of the army and her daughter is extremely polite. Mix that in with her nice neighbors and she really couldn’t hope for better. Unfortunately, her life begins to unravel once she finds out that her daughter is not quite as nice as she appears. No, she is actually pretty bad and now she must decide what to do with Rhoda. Will she even be able to do something about this situation?

Well, I’ve got to start somewhere so let’s just look at one of the film’s big problems from the get go. That’s the plot. For horror films, I prefer (in this order) the villain to be a Kaiju>>>Monster>>>Alien>>Super Powered Thug>>>Random guy>>>Friend>>>Family Member>>>Main Character. I never like it when the big villain actually turns out to be a family member or the main character. “The main character is the villain” twist almost never works and it makes it hard to root for anyone. I also don’t care for the friend ultimately becoming the big villain either in this kind of film although it can work out depending on how it’s handled. In a more comic bookey film like the Avengers, it works out beautifully, but imagining that subplot in an old film like this one…well it wouldn’t work.

It’s naturally used because a twist like this can really be milked for emotional value and you know that the characters will have a tough time taking Rhoda to the authorities despite the fact that she is a murderer. Well, it may cause some drama for the characters, but as a film plot, it’s more annoying than anything else. The heroes know what they should do and watching them not do it can be sad. By “them” I’m really talking about Christine.

The Bad Seed also drags on a lot. It may only be a little over 2 hours, but it’ll feel like 3 by the time that it is done. I was 1 hour into the film and I thought that we were at the ending because it had been so long. Little did I know that we weren’t quite done yet. It helps that we all know how mean Rhoda is, but the characters refuse to believe it for a while. So, you can only watch a villain trick the heroes with a cutesy act for so long before you begin to get bored.

The film did opt for a different ending than the book and both have their demerits so it’s tough to say which is better. Naturally, I can’t even go too much into this area for spoiler reasons, but the best ending would have been to send Rhoda to jail. This doesn’t get to happen, but I’m happy that the aunt got to survive. She was definitely one of the better characters in the film and she really meant well. She even has a Lovebird so you can tell that she’s a respectable person. The film doesn’t resort to animal violence so I’ll give the film some props there.

The film has one character named Leroy who doesn’t add anything to the movie. He is just here to the audience has another unlikable character to root against. I suspect that this is supposed to make you want to take Rhoda’s side despite what she has done. They simply didn’t need to add this guy and at least his wisecrack about someone being lonely doesn’t go anywhere. I was expecting it too and for Rhoda to destroy him, proving that her skills can be used for good. That doesn’t happen though and we’re left with a bad character.

Rhoda is definitely not good as well. Her reasons for destroying people boil down to one thing. She simply wants whatever she can’t have and she’ll destroy anyone to get it. She destroys a kid, an old lady, and an adult so she covers all of the bases. Naturally, this doomed her as a character from the start and we have more cases of civilian deaths, which aren’t cool. Destroying characters who can’t fight back is always pretty distasteful and it was yet another nail in the coffin for this movie. It’s also a stretch that the kid made it to the raft and the lifeguard didn’t notice, but Rhoda tends to plan for everything.

Christine also deserves some of the blame since she tries to cover this up rather than going to the proper authorities like she should have. That was a critical mistake on her part and it’s something that she should have tried a little harder to avoid. Instead of doing that, she just decides to cross the line and it’s not a great move. I also have to question the ending because it means that the shot must not have hit something critical. I don’t see how you can miss at such close range.

The film has an interesting tale about bad seeds and the theory where you can inherit being evil through your genes as opposed to the environment shaping you. It’s the Nature vs Nurture argument that people like to discuss and it’s naturally a bit of a mix. I’m more on the Nature side as in the soul, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the genes. You can inherit someone’s looks and probably a bit of their character as well, but the choices between good and evil are ultimately your own. Nobody’s destined to be a great person or to be a bad one. That’s simply something that you decide from the get go. The film suggests otherwise and I definitely disagree there. Rhoda became a bad person on her own and it ultimately came back to bite her.

Still, if the whole film had just been a discussion between the professionals, that could have been entertaining. Listening to theories and such is always pretty enjoyable and it may not be for everyone, but 2 hours of that could actually be amusing so long as they don’t begin to run in circles. I suppose that just about everything would have been an improvement for this film though. It didn’t even have a soundtrack to protect us from the events. Had the villain been the neighbor’s daughter and she was attacking the heroes, that could have been more amusing. They’d still need to cut out her attack on the old lady and the kid, but it could have worked. “Could” being the key word of course.

Overall, The Bad Seed is a film that I highly suggest skipping. It’s really just a tragedy film where you watch the main characters cry and experience more sad events as the movie goes on. We naturally get to see the victim’s mom appear and we find out that the experience basically broke her. She is now a drunk and then Christine basically breaks by the end. If I want to see something breaking, I’ll look at a documentary of Super Smash Bros Brawl’s reputation! Tragedies are like Horrors in the fact that neither one of them tends to be very good. If you want a film with some sad scenes that is still great, check out Yugioh Bonds Beyond Time. We do get an emotional death and things tend to get very intense very quickly, but it balances that out with good plot progression and some action. Just watching the sad scenes over and over again does not make a film and that’s where The Bad Seed went wrong.

Overall 1/10

2010 The Year We Made Contact Review

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“It’s full of stars” is something that you probably said as you finished 2001: A Space Odyssey a while back, but little did we know that the line would be used to death in this film. It’s probably said like 5-10 times in the film. No worries, it’s a decent line….but it doesn’t really mean anything. Think of it as a red herring and then back away to the plot. This film plays is straight as opposed to the last one and it’s actually a decent film. It was much better than I could have hoped and it fixed just about all of the problems from the first film.

For starters…well, let’s talk about the plot first. Dave and his crew died/vanished so now Earth is sending in a new fleet. The Americans were slacking off a little this time so Russia builds the spaceship first. This means that three Americans have to join them on the journey. They are heading to where the black coffin was so that they can find the ship and get some answers. Once they restore Hal 9000, everything should be peachy..right? Let’s just say that the aliens are not done yet!

First of all, this film has no animal violence. That’s already a huge improvement from the first film. The start of this movie was so much more interesting that it was almost criminal. In the 5 seconds that 2001 needed to make me dislike the film, I was already getting ready for an epic adventure here. The difference between the two films is simply astounding and I’m proud of the fact that this film dared to be different from 2001. The beginning is very interesting because it plays out like a video game. We don’t know what happened to the previous crew, but the dialogue and pictures as pretty off so you suspect that aliens must have been involved.

To be honest, this is the kind of film that may be even more interesting if you had not seen the first film. The reason is that the beginning gets even more intriguing when they mention that the last line was “It’s full of Stars” before the hero vanished. That really hints that something major is going to happen. Unfortunately, the film drops the ball there, but we’ll get into that in a moment.

The film still doesn’t have the problem of being dragged out. A lot of the scenes simply last a little longer than they should and it’s noticeable. The dinner scene is definitely guilty of this as well as most of the space scenes. Even the beginning as the film recaps the last one, the text goes a little slower than necessary. Of course, it’s not nearly as bad as it could have been so this isn’t much of a negative.

After watching this film, I’m confident that the black coffin shaped objects are spaceships. The film alludes to this in one of the scenes as they believe that the aliens are warning them away from the planet. When you attempt to land on the object with hostile intent, then they simply blast you away with a cool energy blast. At the end of the film, all of the black objects head to one of the planets and the aliens claim that they will be peaceful so long as we never try to set foot there. I trust them about as much as I can throw the aliens, but there’s not much that the humans can do at this point. That being said, in the after ending scene, we see that one of the objects has stayed on Earth. Looks like the Extinction of humanity may be sooner than we had figured eh? It’s always a little sad to see the humans look so outmatched, but it’s not as frustrating as usual since we don’t actually see the aliens kick them around.

That being said, it is also pretty sad that we don’t get to see the aliens. We only see one of their people and it is the newly awakened Dave who comes to greet the heroes. It seems like his mind has been absorbed by the collective so he still remembers everything, but he is not actually Dave. His persona tries to emerge several times, but he has lost this battle. He definitely shouldn’t have decided to use the portal eh? His fate was certainly not pleasant, but at least he warns the heroes to leave. He was allowed to by the rulers….or so he says.

It’s fun to see Hal 9000 back on the big screen. He still seems like a likable character and the plot twist is pretty interesting. Was he really a bad guy? The film implies that he isn’t, but it’s still pretty intriguing to think about based on what happened last time. I like to think that he is still evil and he just let the humans live this time, but it’s definitely something to think about.

You may be wondering why I have not really mentioned the humans yet. Well, that’s because they really are not of much consequence this time around. The human sub plot simply isn’t very interesting and nothing really happens. The Russians and Americans learn to team up while they are stranded in space, but none of them ever become really good characters. I liked the overweight politician from the beginning, but then he was written out of the film before he really got to make some waves. The main guy isn’t bad, but he’s just pretty generic. Hal’s creator is someone that you probably don’t want to trust and the Engineer is afraid of heights. They’re not a bad crew and they do manage to avoid the romance angle, but that’s about all that I can say for them.

We don’t get any intense visuals like last time, but it’s certainly worth the trade off. Not a lot happens during the film, but it’s a pretty interesting ride while you’re experiencing it. It’s not the kind of film that I would care to watch again, but it wasn’t a bad film. It really made no mistakes and the one reason why I can’t give it a positive rating is because there wasn’t much to it. Not doing anything wrong can be tough, but it’s also important to do something right as well. Throwing in some actual aliens or some more likable characters could have helped push this to a 6. Still, compared to the first film, a 5 definitely isn’t bad.

Overall, 2010 is a pretty good sequel. It’s one of the few sequels that can say that it easily smashed the original. You have to admit that this is serious bragging rights when you really think about it. The atmospheare of the film is also a lot more intense than 2001’s as it feels like a horror/thriller at some points. When the aliens are typing “All your worlds…” a certain line will likely come to mind. Unfortunately, what they wrote wasn’t very cool, but it was still a moment where you may have to take a step back from the intensity of the film. I recommend checking this out if you want to see a dialogue based sci-fi film. It can be interesting just don’t expect the aliens to show up. On the other hand, I would sooner recommend renting Centipede Infestation for the Wii so that you can play it over the weekend.

Overall 5/10

Dromus vs Oolong

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Oolong may seem like he’s just a pig, but he can actually shapeshift. It won’t really help him in this battle, but it’s good to know that he tried. He may throw a good punch or two, but he’s simply outmatched against someone as powerful as Dromus. Dromus has now reached a positive record on the blog and we’ll see how much further he can go. Dromus wins.

Dromus vs One Above All

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The One Above All is back in biz, but he’s still going to lose this round. Dromus is great at close quarters combat, but we can’t forget the fact that he’s also pretty good from afar as well. Dromus is simply a deadly opponent to go up against in any scenario and I don’t see the One Above All managing to win this round. He’s simply outgunned. Dromus wins.

Dromus vs Bass

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You know the old saying, never mess with Bass! Bass is far too strong for Dromus and he never holds anything back. This is Dromus’ first battle so it’s expected that he’ll take a loss, but he’ll likely bounce right back because he’s just that good. He’s a pretty likable character and you can sympathize with the guy by the end, but that doesn’t make him a better fighter. Bass wins.

Ban vs James Bond

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James Bond has returned to fight and he’s ready to really give Ban a piece of his mind. That being said, James Bond has no real way to land a good hit in here. Ban is too quick and his Achilles is more than a match for the secret agent. Achilles has super strength as well as speed, that’s a winning combo if I’ve ever heard of one! Ban wins.

Ban vs One Above All

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The One Above All is really not someone that you want to fight considering how powerful he is supposed to be. If he even gets a fraction of the feats that he should be capable of…the One Above All will be a tough fighter to beat. That being said, we haven’t seen any true feats for the guy yet so Ban can easily take the win here. His robot is simply too powerful to stop. Ban wins.

Ban vs Bass

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Ban makes his debut on the blog, but he’s going up against the strongest fighter in all of media. Naturally, we can’t expect him to win this match, but he can learn from this loss and use his newfound experience to win his next battles. Ban is a tough fighter and he never goes down without a proper fight. We can expect him to be right back after a brief intermission. Until then, let’s watch Bass take the win. Bass wins.

Wii Fit Trainer vs Purna

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I hope you’re ready to stretch your imagination since it’s time for the Wii Fit Trainer to enter the stage once more. Purna is a pretty impressive fighter considering that she deals with zombies on a day to day basis, but that won’t be enough to defeat this athletic master. The Wii Fit Trainer can pull off just about any Yoga technique and she can also fire off energy blasts that deal tremendous amounts of damage. Purna won’t even be able to get close. Wii Fit Trainer wins.