Well, it was finally time to take a look at what has been done to the Spider Man comics as of late and what better place to start than with the first volume right? Well, there has definitely been no exaggerations when I’ve heard about how awful Peter has become over the years because he is definitely a terrible main character. The comic would be decent without all of the constant love at first sight moments, but they are here so the comic takes a shot. Let’s see why it couldn’t become the definitive Spider Man series.
Well, the plot is that Peter Parker is back! Doctor Octopus wrecked most of his social life during the time that he had taken control of Peter’s body so now Parker finds himself in an estranged world. Unfortunately, he doesn’t actually remember what happened over those last few weeks/months so he is completely out of the loop. He owns a company so hopefully he knows what to do with it. Black Cat was defeated by Doc Ock so now she wants to destroy Spider Man. She teams up with Electro and they get ready to attack the Wallcrawler. Meanwhile, Spider Man learns of another kid who was bitten by the radioactive spider of his origin and frees her from her cell. Her name is Silk and now they will be teaming up while trying not to constantly fall for each other due to their spider instincts.
So, the main reason why this comic is pretty unenjoyable are the constant, unnecessary scenes that bring it down. We get a pointless scene where a new character appears and makes out with Electro only to be destroyed. The passionate embraces between Spider Man and Silk are also pretty bad and they really hurt the story. Spider Man doesn’t look like the seasoned veteran that he is and he looked a lot more professional back in the 60’s. Likewise, you can’t really become a fan of Silk when she’s also giving in to the instincts so easily. It’s just terrible writing and the series seems to be doing all that it can to quickly rack up some sales by having controversial moments like that one without actually worrying about the plot.
The actual writing is hilariously bad in the comic, but it could actually work if not for scenes like the ones that I just mentioned. One person actually says the word “hashtag” out loud as they upload pics to twitter and there really are jokes in almost every page. The writer definitely wants you to know that this series is supposed to be really funny. Again, it’s pretty bad, but in a funny way so I can deal with that. It could have still gotten a 7 if not for the fake romance. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
It should also be noted that the art is pretty bad here. The facial expressions will crack you up many times over. Captain America’s face is drawn like that of a child’s and J Jonah Jameson’s are even more exaggerated than usual. His big 180 change over the TV industry is one of the best parts because of how he’s drawn. I definitely would prefer some better drawings for this series, but at least it keeps up the humorous tone here. If only the characters were more likable.
Okay, let’s actually talk about the heroes. Spider Man was not officially retconned so we’re still supposed to believe that this is the same Spider Man from back in the 60’s. At least he did age about 20 years over the last 50 so his character progression is much better than the average hero’s. That being said, his experience and personality have certainly taken a big dip. Spider Man is only good at cracking jokes now and he’s simply not a good crimefighter anymore. He’s treated as a joke and this is justified because he keeps messing up. He really doesn’t look good against Black Cat and it makes you wonder how he has survived for so long. He may have his spider sense, but you can only dodge for so long before the enemy eventually gets a lucky hit. This portrayal of him is quite possibly the worst that I have ever seen and Parker has become the kind of hero that you will actively root against. He goes after so many women nowadays that he may as well be James Bond and that’s why I don’t see him becoming a very likable character in his series for a very long time. The ship has sailed and it did so without Parker.
Silk debuted in this volume, but she’s not a good character either. As much blame as I give Peter for their situations, she definitely deserves half of the blame. Nothing can happen without two people right so Silk should have also kept Peter in the legendary friend zone. She’s pretty tough and the comics are definitely trying to make her seem like the better crimefighter than Parker. I don’t know how long that will last, but just having cool super powers is not enough to instantly make you a likable character. Silk’s going to need a personality change and her overconfidence can be a bit much considering she only has the proportionate strength of a spider. At least her good luck counters Black Cat’s bad luck…but those powers were always a stretch anyway.
Electro doesn’t look great here. He was messed around with by Doc Ock and now he basically has to work for Black Cat. Things just don’t go his way, but at least the ending leaves some hope for him to hopefully become a better person. He seems tired of the whole villain gig so maybe he’ll just stay in jail peacefully until the next writer decides to grab him and make an arc around the thunder villain. Black Cat is now a total villain so gone are the days where she would ambiguously tread the line of what side she wanted to help. Either way, she was caught trying to steal something so she has nobody to blame but herself for being thrown into prison. Her reaction of wanting to destroy Spider Man is definitely a little exaggerated, but I guess Slott just wants her to become a villain once again. She’s still not very threatening though because Spider Man is physically more impressive than her and luck powers can only help for so long. I definitely don’t see her coming out on top for very long, but it seems like she may stick around for quite a while.
Jameson is still a pretty likable guy though and it’ll be fun to see how he tries to wreck Spider Man’s life from the TV station. The Spider Man universe is still pretty large and there are many plots that will likely be around for quite a while. That’s why it’s regrettable that the series has been handled so poorly as of late. Then again, you can argue that Peter Parker hasn’t looked good in his own series for years at this point. I miss the 80’s-90’s where he was arguably at his peak and things just went down for him at that point. I can’t say that volume 1 will leave you hyped for what’s to come next, but the bright side is that most of the other characters besides Peter actually look decent. If the series was to let go of the flirting with everyone scenes, it could actually go places.
Overall, This is one of those graphic novels that will definitely make you accept the possible upcoming Marvel reboot with open arms. I only say possible because depending how merged the universes get, there may not be a huge amount of differences to the Spider Man realm. It’s not the universe that has gone wrong either, it’s simply Peter’s character. Parker is the guy who needs a reboot and hopefully his personality will get a complete rewrite. It’s entirely possible that this is also the writer’s influence so he needs to go as well or this will not change. I definitely don’t recommend this volume. It may be pretty fun on the whole, but the romance scenes are simply too much and they make Peter look terrible. If you want a good Spider Man adventure, check out the Cosmic Spider Man arc!
Overall 4/10
It’s time to look at one of the adaptions for Dorian Grey. This is the 1945 film and this was at an era where there were dozens of great films. Typically, the writing for films in the 40’s-60’s was very engaging and the dialogue was enough to keep you glued to the seat. For some reason, that didn’t work here and I did not care for this film, but at least the visuals still make it easy to see what is happening. Let’s see why this film couldn’t bring in a retro victory.
The film follows a man named Dorian Gray and he wants someone to make a portrait of him. This happens and he wishes that the painting could age instead of him. This results in Gray obtaining immortality so now he can live forever or it actually means that his looks do not age while he still does on the inside. I’m inclined to think that it is the former, but I suppose that you can still make a case for both. Now that he is immortal….what will he do next?
I feel like the film didn’t know what to do at that point. Once he became immortal, Gray had no real ambitions and he just started to get psychotic as the film went on. Destroying those who got in his way was something that he did for no real reason and let’s not forget the moments of black mail. It’s definitely very hard to actually find Dorian Gray to be a likable character amidst all of this and no matter how sympathetic he tries to be at the end, it doesn’t work. We don’t get a reason to believe that he could have been a changed person since his random episodes during the film make trusting him a little difficult.
When you have a film where the lead character is not interesting or likable, then you’re bound to run into some problems. As I mentioned earlier, I typically enjoy the back and forth dialogue in these kinds of films, but it didn’t work this time. The characters weren’t very engaging and neither was the plot so most of the dialogue just felt like filler that never went anywhere. Listening to the characters talk about their own view on ethics may be intriguing, but it won’t do anything for you.
It should also be noted that the film starts off on a really low note with a butterfly being destroyed in one of the opening scenes. It’s a scene like that, which quickly takes you out of a film and it’s hard to really enjoy it. If a film is good enough, it can still rise above that and get a decent rating, but when a film is already intended to be a little bleak and uneventful…this does not help its case as the event will stay fresh in your memory. Another character doesn’t help his case after that as he tries to destroy another animal and ends up destroying a human instead. It was an accident of course, but it shows why shooting for sport is definitely not a good hobby.
The film is very old so the violence isn’t terrible. We get a quick death by stabbing that is mostly seen through a silhouette, but the most gruesome part of the film is easily the painting. The whole film is in black and white aside from the painting, which is in color. This is used to show us just how grotesque the main character is, but the film goes way too far. Between all of the blood that is on the painting and the poor condition of the man’s body, it’s just pretty gross to look at. We could have gotten the same impression without the blood of the ugly bits by just making the guys eyes black or throwing some horns on. As it stands, you’ll just want to look away whenever the painting actually appears.
One of the main things that also hurt the film is that it’s one of those movies that will make you start to feel sleepy as you watch it. That’s because you go through long periods of time where nothing happens like in the Hobbit or LOTR films. It all goes back to the fact that there isn’t really a plot once Gray becomes immortal. It’s basically just him walking around and discovering that being immortal is not a whole lot of fun. Typically, it might have been, but he did sell his soul to become immortal so the cost was too great for him.
At the very least, the message is pretty good since the film shows that selling your soul for any price is never worth it. Immortality and riches are meaningless if you’re just going to burn away in hell for an eternity afterwards. Let’s face it, even if you are immortal, you’ll be taken out eventually once people find out. In the film, nobody really seems concerned that Gray always looks the same and they seem to think that he just has some kind of secret, but 50 years from then, you can bet that the government and many villains would be getting suspicious. Gray made the wrong move and he definitely paid for it throughout the film.
Overall, The Picture of Dorian Gray is definitely not one of the better films. From the 40’s titles that I’ve seen, it very well could be the worst, but I can’t say that with 100% certainty. The film just isn’t very interesting and the grotesque painting coupled with the animal violence really hurt it. There are also no real likable characters since most of them are corrupt or just decide to take the easy way out of situations. It’s a film that would work better if the immortality bit was just a side plot and the real story involved some kind of adventure of something. They definitely need to add some more meat to the story. I definitely would not recommend this film and if you want to see something that’s retro, check out the old Superman shorts of one of the Bogart and Bacall films. Then you’ll see how action can really help a story.
Overall 3/10
Well, the Mega specials continue here as Alain carries on in his journey to defeat all of the Mega evolved Pokemon. Unfortunately, this is a goal that is even more difficult than Ash’s dream of being a Pokemon Master so it shall never happen. Still, Alain can just try to defeat all of the Mega Pokemon that he encounters. That would be a nice start to his goal. This special is pretty good, but it’s not quite as engaging as the first special. There simply isn’t as much action to be found here.
Alain was looking for more people to fight when his sidekick ended up falling down only to be helped up by the Pokemon Champion, Steven. Alain quickly challenges Steven to a fight that the champion cannot refuse and Alain’s big fight is here. His Charizard is powerful, but he’s up against a champion right now so you can bet that it won’t be an easy fight. That’s the meat of the episode and after that the heroes use some ruins that they have found to locate a large energy source. It could be the ultimate Mega Stone…let’s hope that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands!
Speaking of which, Lysandre has a pretty big role in the special. There will be no drama for the kids who played Pokemon X/Y, but for those of you who do not play the games, you’ll still realize that something is fishy with this guy. I didn’t care for him anyway as Lysandre interrupted a good fight and he seems a little condescending. His hairstyle is pretty good though since it stands out. Hopefully Alain turns against him quickly and uses his good ole Charizard to take his boss down!
Steven is a pretty likable character and you can tell that his skills are worthy of being a Pokemon Master. I don’t like the fact that his Metagross is not blue, but I suppose that making it a shiny version makes the kid look even more impressive. Suffice to say, I was rooting for Alain, but it definitely makes sense that he was being crushed in the fight. One simply does not defeat a Pokemon Champion and especially someone with Alain’s track record. See, Alain talks a good game, but he has a habit of losing when the going gets tough.
Alain’s goal is to defeat all of the Mega Pokemon, but he’s already been defeated twice if I recall correctly and he suffered a tie that would have been a loss in this special as well. Alain is a nice guy and he’s finally getting used to the power of friendship, but he’s still going to have to improve his fighting skills if he wants to stay relevant in the Pokemon world. He’s definitely no Ash Ketchum, but he’s a cool lead.
I still can’t wait until the anime starts to use Mega Evolutions more as it is certainly a good step in the Pokemon universe. Imagine seeing Pikachu having a Mega Stone and gradually mastering his new form as the series goes on! It would add a Shonen Twist to keep Pokemon going and the visuals are always great once that happens. The Mega energy that envelops the Pokemon and causes many cool destruction scenes is something that we need to see more of.
The animation is naturally very good for this special. The fight scenes are a lot of fun to watch and the energy attacks all have a lot of detail. The character designs are easy to look at and it’s a win all around. Pokemon definitely proves that it can still hold up with the best mon shows. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is another story. It wrecks the tension and excitement that the fights have because the music is so slow and happy. It’s simply not well suited to accompany these action scenes and I have to wonder what the channel was thinking. Throw in some rock themes from GX or rip some music from Pokemon Advanced, but just about anything would have been an improvement over what we got. Music is a key ingredient in anything and especially an anime so they need to get that fixed before act III comes out.
Unfortunately, this special is still really short and it’s basically equivalent to watching a normal episode of Pokemon. To an extent, it does feel like a normal episode and you would probably just call this filler if it was occurring alongside Ash’s adventures. That would have actually been interesting, but this way is better since we get to have both. Hopefully this series gets many acts although I hope that they make it bi weekly or at least monthly soon since the wait can be pretty bad. It will certainly help with the pacing since nothing really happened in this episode, but it wouldn’t feel as bad if we had the next one coming in a few weeks.
Overall, Act II may not be as intense as Act I, but it’s still a pretty fun Pokemon special. It’s really everything that you would expect from the classic franchise as we get some cool action scenes and some world building for the future. It’s almost inevitable that Alain will have to fight his boss so that should be a pretty intense fight. I hope that we get to see some more game characters like Red and Blue as the special series goes on. The most important thing is for the specials to fix the soundtrack. That negative really needs to be addressed before the third Act arrives since it really limits the special’s potential. It’s only about 20 minutes so I’ll expect all of my blog followers to give it a shot by then unless you plan to watch all of the acts as a film once they end. Otherwise, see you then!
Overall 7/10
The Fast and the Furious is a film series that many are familiar with at this point. It is getting close to 10 films at this point and the films are earning more and more money as they go on. The latter ones look pretty exciting, but this film doesn’t exactly start the series on a high note. Some cool races to be sure, but it was lacking in other areas.
There are many people engaged in underground racing and the FBI sends an agent in. The agent’s name is Brian and he must gain the trust of these outlaws and find some proof so they could be locked away. As serious as the underground racing is, the mysterious attacks on truck drivers is even worse. Unfortunately, the agent begins to develop feelings for one of the characters and starts to become friends with the boss, Dominic. Brian may be in a little too deep now!
It is a pretty good premise…well, mostly anyway. The beginning of the film feels like a level from Need For Speed as the newcomer challenges the pros so that he can earn some respect. The night race is pretty good. The visuals are not quite as exciting as its counterparts in Speed Racer and Need For Speed, but this is only the first film so it will likely improve as the series goes on. The races are the selling point of the series after all. If the film had kept that as a focus then it could have been really good, unfortunately that didn’t happen.
The film really suffers from the fanservice and unnecessary scenes of romance/physical pleasure. Most of the characters are in the slums area and they hang out with many shady characters. A lot of attention is drawn to the skimpy attire that the characters wear and it’s all in rather poor taste. This may be underground racing, but I would prefer the film to place the emphasis on the dangerous racing than on the background characters. This is an obstacle that the film never gets around. It simply keeps popping up over and over again.
The main character isn’t likable either as a result since he quickly succumbs to a one night stand. Brian likes the character, but if she is that easy then he should probably reconsider the situation. His final decision is also one that I don’t agree with. Naturally, the film tried to make Dominic sympathetic, but he was still guilty. Do the crime and then do the time. He shouldn’t be left off the hook so easily just because he experienced a sad event back in the day. As long as he stays in such a troubled environment, problems will continue to occur around him. Of course, these two characters were still a lot better than most of the supporting characters, but that isn’t saying a whole lot. None of them were actually likable after all.
The language wasn’t as much of a problem as I had expected given how the characters were interacting. There is still some there, but it was not abundant enough to really warrant much of a warning. You will likely forget about it by the end. The film isn’t very violent either although the scene where the villains force someone to swallow motor oil is a little intense. A guy also gets stuck to a truck, which makes his arm get pretty injured. By and large, it’s still nothing worse than the average action film. Actually, it turns out that the film does have quite a bit of language. With 3 ultimately bad words and a high number of others, the language does actually work against the film. I saw the TV version, which edited out most of the language, but if you end up watching it on DVD or somewhere where the language is kept in, then I deduct the rating to a 2 and definitely advise you to stay away from this title. Check out a good Pac Man ep for fun or some Speed Racer cartoons if you want another racing dvd.
As this is a film with a lot of car action, there is bound to be a lot of plot hax. Driving at high speeds without hitting any other cars when there are a lot of blind turns. The cops crash a lot of course. The biggest scene does not involve a race though, it was the battle against the truck driver. With his shotgun, the heroes should have been doomed from the start. He had a lot of point blank opportunities to hit them and simply breaking would have saved him several times. At least the truck driver won in the final battle, but the casualties would likely have been a lot higher. The first encounter was also pretty suspect as the driver just stood there and watched as he got pwned. I hope that they would put up a better fight if this happened in real life.
The government hangs out in the shadows as you would expect and they show that merely having a lot of resources is not always good enough to solve the case. They only have one special agent on the field so they really are running in blind the entire time. They talk a pretty good game and it is amusing to see their bravado in the midst of such a tricky situation, but the ultimate irony is that they were actually right from the start this time. They pegged it on Dominic from the very beginning and the main character is the one who tried to divert suspicion away from him. So, if you ever wanted to see the government look sort of smart in a film like this…this could be your big chance.
The soundtrack is very fast and lively, but it could still be better. This is one of those times where instrumental just works better. The lyrics are just distracting and while you probably won’t even know what they are saying, it would be for the best if they had just left then out. The actual rhythms certainly work well with the film though.
Overall, The Fast and the Furious is a film that could have been much better than it was. It was plagued by many of the problems that arise in the average film, but to a higher degree than you would expect. The film tries a little too hard to depict how the slums look and goes overboard on making every character unlikable. The racing scenes are typically a lot of fun, but we only get 2 real races in the film. There are a lot of scenes that involve cars in other ways, but I would have liked some more pure races. I am confident that the series will improve and I recommend just taking a pass on this title. If you want some good races, then check out Speed Racer!
Overall 3/10
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