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I Miss Reaper

Reaper was a short-lived CW series that ran for two seasons from 2007 until 2009. It was about  Sam Oliver, a college drop-out stuck at dead-end job, who, on his 21-st birthday learned that his parents sold his soul to the Devil. He now has to work as a Reaper, essentially Hell's Bounty Hunter, catching souls that have escaped from hell and are going about doing their unfinished business, usually wreaking havoc of various proportions in the world of the living. Souls are captured in "vessels", which are specialized containers disguised as common household appliances, with a different vessel for each soul. Fortunately, Sam can rely on the help of his best friends, the lovable goofballs Sock and Ben.
As you imagine, Reaper was a series that focused mostly on the comedic aspect of its premise. It's a show that very much felt like Supernatural's lighthearted, goofier cousin and it frequently delivered some big laughs. While Brett Harrison's Sam was a solid, dependable lead, for me it was Tyler Labine's Sock and Ray Wise's Devil that made the show really memorable. Labine plays your typical obnoxious comic-relief character, but for the most part, he managed to keep Sock in the sweet spot right between really funny and really annoying, creating that rare really likable character that you'd still probably punch in the face. Most of the funny banter between the three friends comes either from Sock, or from the other two bouncing lines off of him, which made for a really enjoyable dynamic between them.

As for Ray Wise, he outright stole every single scene he was in. His Devil is one of my favorite portrayals of Satan of all time. He has a slightly creepy, but mostly really cheesy uncle sort of vibe going on, with a Jack Nicholson's Joker grin seemingly glued to his face. He's sleezy, manipulative and constantly plays pranks on just about everyone, but mostly on Sam, frequently teleporting him to random locations just for the hell of it, if you pardon the pun. Maintaining the jokey side of Satan for the most part made his serious moments stand out even more. When the situation called for it, this was a Devil you wouldn't want to cross and Ray Wise could switch from delightfully cheesy to cold and menacing at the drop of a hat.
Early on, the show's routine would go something like this - Sam is going about his mundane existence, harboring a crush for his colleague Andi and not really doing anything about his life, when The Devil teleports him somewhere, makes fun of him for a little while and gives him a vessel and a hint about the escaped soul. A good chunk of the episode is then spent trying to piece together what the soul wants and how the vessel works and after at least one encounter in which either the vessel doesn't work or something else goes wrong, there's one final battle in which the soul is successfully captured and brought back to hell - via a portal in a DMV, because, as the Devil puts it, "any place that seems like hell on Earth, is hell on Earth."  Neat. It seemed strange that all of these escaped souls just happened to be always popping pretty close to where Sam lives and works, but it's easy to forgive. Eventually the show did break out of its formula and started to try out some different things. Some changes were nice, like finding out more about the deal that Sam's parents made with the Devil or having Andi figure out that Sam is Hell's Bounty Hunter and the two of them eventually starting to date, while others were kind of weird, like Sock's crush on his step-sister. The show also brought in a whole bunch of demon characters near the end of a season one and really played around with them in season two, including having Ben even dating a demon. It became less about capturing souls and more about the mythology of this bizarre world and where Sam and his friends belong in it. Season two played around with some really cool concepts that I can't go into much detail out of fear of spoilers and while it was also where the aforementioned step-sister crush storyline happened, it was for the most part fresh and exciting.
The show was cancelled and while there were talks of renewing it and even of a comic book or animated spin-off, none of that has happened and it doesn't look like it will. It's a shame, because the show had a solid premise and a lot of potential, particularly with the direction it was heading at the end of season two, what with introducing angels and such. I think there's a lot that could have been explored with this world and these characters. Still, it's two seasons of good, solid entertainment with plenty of laughs, memorable characters, some cool concepts and decent special effects, so I recommend you check it out if you find the time.

Wouldn't you trust him?

Batman: Assault on Arkham Review

Arkham Asylum has lousy security. You'd think that a place that has pretty much weekly breakouts (holidays too when you have Calendar Man) would try a little bit harder. Like maybe not let in someone suspicious who the system couldn't recognize the first five times you ran his ID, but then suddenly did. Or maybe change the passwords every once in a while, especially when a former member of your staff has gone homicidal and is a wanted criminal. You know, the little things.

The main "heroes" of Assault are the Suicide Squad, a bunch of B and C-list villains rounded up by the US government to run dangerous missions in exchange for reduced sentences. It's a good set-up and a fun bunch of characters - Killer Frost, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, King Shark and Harley Quinn. Boomerang and Deadshot have a rivalry, which results in some fights and a couple of funny lines, nothing really special there. Shark and Frost have a "cool" dynamic (the movie makes plenty more ice puns, don't worry) going on and watching them interact was kind of fun. Harley and Deadshot have a sort of romance going on, which at first I really got into, because it was nice to see Harley taking interest in someone other than the Joker, even going as far as making her hate him for what's he done to her. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go further than that and the implication is that everything goes back to the way it was by the end, which annoyed me. Deadshot sometimes shows off a picture of him and a little girl, which I guess is supposed to mean we should be sympathetic towards him, but it doesn't really work, because he never talks about his daughter with anyone. We don't see them interact in flashbacks or anything, so it was impossible to care about that at all. The plot follows the Suicide Squad as they must break into Arkham to retrieve something from The Riddler, which seems like overkill, considering the aforementioned blatant security problems. Then there are set-ups, double-crosses, ulterior motives, all very predictable and unexciting. Nothing really happens, plot or character wise. Nobody learns anything or gains anything. The action is decent and frequent, but without a good story and character development to back it up, it just ends up feeling rather dull, watching people you don't really care about punching each other. 

Assault on Arkham is supposed to fit with the Arkham video game franchise continuity, which at first I thought would be great. Arkham Origins failed to deliver on its promise to shine a spotlight on a bunch of secondary villains and instead made its story about the Joker and Bane, and while it wasn't a bad story, it threaded familiar ground for the franchise, so I was hoping Assault would make up for that. It kind of does, because it is ultimately about the Suicide Squad and sticks with them for the majority of the time. Batman and the Joker are present, but are definitely side characters. Like I said though, while Assault is about the Suicide Squad, it doesn't really do anything with them. They fight together, share a few memorable moments and lines, they start double-crossing and going their separate ways, or are unceremoniously killed off. That's it. Trying to fit it in the Arkham game continuity makes it even more of a mess though. The Penguin looks and acts nothing like The Penguin from the games and even though he had only scene, it was very distracting. Breaking up Harley and the Joker is a cool concept, but it's wasted in this continuity, because the two are together in the games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, which clearly take place after Assault. The movie is riddled with oddities and inconsistencies like that, and it's frustrating and distracting. 

The animation is decent. The actions scenes in particular look great, but the backgrounds are very lackluster and bland, which kind of sucks the excitement right out of the fights. The character designs, while distinct, didn't really astound and having the guys all dressed up and the gals in revealing skimpy outfits and frequently undressing was just as tasteless as it was pointless. I also noticed a pretty glaring mistake at one point, as Deadshot switched facial hair several times within the same scene. The voice acting is top-notch, with Bat-veteran Kevin Conroy once again donning the cape and cowl and Troy Baker reprising his spectacular debut from Arkham Origins as the new Joker. Even three years later, it's still sad that Mark Hamill retired from the character, but Baker seems more than worthy to fill in those clown shoes His performance is reminiscent of Hamill, but still has its own unique flavor to it. Hearing the Joker cuss thanks to the R-rating was also quite fun. 

Overall I thought Assault on Arkham was a pretty big waste of time. Even die-hard Batman fans won't be able to glean much from this one, sadly. Go back and watch Superman/Batman: Public Enemies or Batman: Under the Red Hood (yet another stellar Joker, this time by John DiMaggio) again, while you wait for Arkham Knight. 

Here we see The Joker about to break out of his cell because the wiring for the door was in the wall of said cell. Yet another brilliant decision by Arkham Security.  

A Tribute to Robin Williams (1951-2014)

I freely admit that I am not familiar with Robin Williams' career in its entirety. I've seen a lot of his movies and some of his stand-up, but I know there's a lot of what he gave the world that I have yet to experience. What I do know is that I have never seen Robin Williams be bad in anything he set out to do. He's been in bad movies, as have just about all actors at some point in their careers, but he himself was not bad in them. Even with a sub-par script, he always gave it his all. The sheer warmth and utter joy of his performances brought a smile to my face even if sometimes the jokes he was given couldn't. When he smiled, the whole movie smiled with him. When he laughed, the world seemed a little less darker. I remember how, when a friend of mine was quoting some of Robin's raunchier, a lot more adult-oriented humor, I was a little set aback at first. Back then, I knew him best as the lovable clown and I couldn't imagine him deliver such crude, albeit really funny jokes. Then I watched his stand-up and I didn't need to imagine it. It was my favorite lovable clown, cussing like mad and it worked like a charm. I remember the first time I saw Robin Williams take on a role with a heftier dose of drama in Good Will Hunting, and how effortlessly he slipped into it, yet still freely incorporating humor, without in any way jeopardizing the more serious tone the movie required. His range as an actor and a comedian is truly something to be admired and this is coming from someone who hasn't even all of his work yet. Robin Williams was a man of many talents - a gifted comedian, a great actor and an all around wonderful human being. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. May he rest in peace.

My Problem with Marvel's Villains

The Marvel Cinematic Universe does not have particularly interesting villains. Now, before you go nuts, yes, there is Loki - he is all kinds of interesting. What about the rest though?

Remember these guys? Me neither.

Abomination, Iron Monger, Whiplash, Red Skull, Mandarin, Malekith, Ronan the Accuser - how many of these guys really struck a chord with the audiences of their respective movies? In a good, non-they-totally-ruined-the-Mandarin, memorable kind of way. I don't think any of them made that much of an impression, which seems puzzling. Okay, Iron Monger and Whiplash are just guys in variations of Iron Man's armor and Blonsky just turns into an uglier, brown version of the Hulk, but the other guys, particularly Red Skull, Malekith and Ronan have great designs. Their look is very creative, very distinct and just all around really cool. Even if not all of the villains look that great, they are all played by critically acclaimed actors (most of them British - quite a bold move by Marvel Studios to cast British actors as villains, I wonder if it will catch on). We're talking heavyweights like Jeff Bridges and Ben Kingsley, established names like Christopher Eccleston, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, up and coming new actors like Lee Pace etc. All of the villains also pose a legitimate threat to their respective heroes. Whether they plan to destroy a city, a nation, the world, the galaxy or the whole universe, all of these guys have power and can stand their own against the likes of Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy alike. So we have a bunch of menacing, dangerous villains, half of which look really cool, unique and badass, all of which are played by great actors and all of them almost completely forgettable. Not boring, but not really that interesting either. What's the problem here?
Well, they're all too one-dimensional. Think about it. Blonsky wants the power of the Hulk, Iron Monger is after the money, Whiplash wants revenge, Red Skull is a Nazi, Mandarin wants revenge and power, Malekith wants revenge and power and Ronan wants revenge and power. Not that there's anything wrong with simplistic, straightforward goals, but for most of these guys, those goals are their entire character. The rest is just hints. Blonsky has a hint of pining after the energy of his lost youth and getting off on the power of the Hulk like an addict. Whiplash and Mandarin have a hint of a deeply held personal hatred for Tony Stark that drives them to extremes. Ronan has a hint of deeply held personal hatred for Zandarians, who have caused the death of many in his own family. Red Skull has a hint of being a Nazi... no wait, he is a Nazi. Anyway, the point is, these hints are usually established early on in the movie for about a minute or two and might be casually referenced here and there during the rest of it, but for the most part, the villains are there to be the threat, the boogeyman that the hero fights during the climax. Heck, if the actors playing them weren't so good, we might not even have picked up on those hints. In The Incredible Hulk, Tim Roth has a scene that barely lasts a few seconds of him just looking at his reflection in a bathroom mirror. In those few seconds, he manages to convey a look of pure, ravenous hunger, a harrowing, all-consuming lust for power, trapped inside of a gaunt shell of a man. Why couldn't we see more of this? Why was it only a few seconds?
Again, the problem is not with the goals themselves. If you look at Loki, his goals can also be boiled down to wanting revenge and power, but with him, you really get to know why he's after those things. We know his full backstory, not just hints. We know his pains, his struggles. We are intimately familiar with the demons that haunt him and that makes him easy to relate to and all the more memorable. His frustration and desire to be someone of worth, someone powerful and respected is something we understand, because we see where it's coming from. In a a lot of ways, Loki is just as pathetic as he is menacing, just as worthy of pity as he is of scorn and that's what makes him interesting.

You just want to give him a hug and then punch him.

In the words of a wise green ogre, he has layers! All good characters need layers, villains included. Not just hints of layers. Blonsky's thirst for power could have been just as compelling and tragic as Loki's. Ronan's desire for vengeance could have been explored much deeper, delving into his personal tragedy, allowing Lee Pace to emote something besides righteous, over-dramatic anger.
The strength of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been its heroes, and not its villains. Just because Ronan is a bit lackluster, at least in terms of character, doesn't make Guardians of the Galaxy any less enjoyable, because the Guardians themselves are great characters. Just because the Iron Man villains are mostly dull doesn't mean the Iron Man movies are bad, because Robert Downey Jr. The thing is, the villains don't have to be dull, lackluster or simply one note. They can be so much more than just evil people doing evil things for the sake of being evil or angry. There really is no excuse for that when Marvel has such great actors and creative designs at their fingertips. If they can pull it off with Loki, why not the others? Let's hope Thanos and Ultron mix things up a bit in future Marvel installments.


P.S. I'm not counting The Winter Soldier, because he was basically brainwashed and was more of a glorified henchman, at least so far. It would be like counting Hawkeye from the first half of The Avengers as a villain.

The Worst Plot-hole in The Dark Knight Rises

I do this fun little exercise for my brain that I call "plot stitching". The way it works is, I take any plot hole from any story and I try to explain it in a way that fits that particular story and is not too contrived. I think it's good practice for anyone interested in storytelling. For instance, let's take some of the more notorious plot holes from The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final chapter in the Christopher Nolan Batman saga. How did Bruce Wayne make it from the prison to Gotham? Well, Bruce Wayne is a smart man who's been around the world and has access to many resources. It's not unlikely that he has contacts all over the world, people he's met in his travels, who would be willing to help. Even more likely for someone who spends most of his time dishing out vigilante justice is that he has money stashed throughout the world in various safehouses in case of emergencies. Once he gets to the nearest one and gets his bearings (or would that be batings?), reaching Gotham shouldn't take too long. As for how he got inside Gotham without anyone spotting him - he is (spoilers!) Batman after all. Sneaking into places unseen is kind of his thing. Okay, but why would he waste time setting up and enormous flaming Bat symbol when there's a nuclear bomb hours away from destroying Gotham? Well, what if he didn't? It's far more likely that some of the people trapped in Gotham, who still believe in Batman and hope he will come to their aid in their darkest hour, prepared the symbol either to inspire their fellow citizens or simply to spit in the faces of Bane's followers. Batman stumbled onto them and decided it was too good of a set up to waste. Not the best explanations, but at least they're plausible.
There is, however, one moment in the The Dark Knight Rises that defies any logical explanation. A plot hole that infuriates me beyond compare. Most people harp on the aforementioned seemingly miraculous return to Gotham, but what bugs me a lot more is what happens immediately before it. Bruce Wayne breaks out of the prison in which Bane left him to die. He escapes, achieving both a physical and metaphorical "rise" from the dark, overcoming his fear and weakness so that he can return to his city in its time of need - and then he drops a rope down as he leaves. He drops a rope down so that all the other prisoners can climb out and escape. Let's break this incredibly stupid moment down and see all the various levels in which it makes no sense whatsoever.

Still not as big as this plot-hole. 

Let's start with the prison itself. The entire point of this prison and the reason it doesn't have any guards or security systems is that it is supposed to be impossible to climb out of the pit and escape. Actually managing to do it is a testament to your will and determination. You earn your freedom by achieving the impossible and rising above your physical limitations. This is all fine and good until you realize that as soon as once person manages to get out, he can just drop a rope for the like Bruce, thus completely circumventing the spiritual journey and incredible challenge for everyone else. Maybe it would have been nice to leave at least one guard to make sure that doesn't happen.
More importantly, why would Bruce Wayne of all people drop a rope down to a bunch of, as far as he is aware, hardened criminals sentenced to the deepest, darkest pit? The same pit both of the movie's villains came from? The ones trying to nuke a city? Sure, he met a nice friendly doctor, but we didn't see him interact with the rest of the prisoners. They could be murderous psychopaths for all we know - and at least some, if not most, probably are, because, again, both of the main villains of the movie were from that very prison. That means that even out of the people he knows from the prison, the majority are dangerous criminals. On the one hand, yes, Bruce Wayne values all life, but given the circumstances, wouldn't it make more sense to come back after the crisis is averted and make sure everyone is out, but still kept somewhere secure? As it stands, he just let go hundreds of dangerous criminals out, without any means of controlling them or even keeping track of their location. Not to mention that all of this presumably happening within walking distance of a populated area, since obviously Bruce Wayne made it out okay - unless he survived because of his incredible bat-endurance and simply left everyone else to die a slow, painful death in the harsh desert.
What baffles me most is that him dropping the rope happens in all of two seconds. It's not brought up again, nor does it have any significance. You can blink and miss it completely. Knowing that something so blatantly stupid can be so easily fixed makes it all the more frustrating for me. Now don't get me wrong - just because I can plot stitch some of the bigger problems doesn't mean they don't piss me off, but at least I can think of a way that those could have been explained. Those two seconds of Bruce Wayne dropping a rope, however, just mystify me. The complete lack of logical and common sense, both from a plot and character standpoint hurt my brain more than anything else in the entire movie. For me, this is the absolute worst moment in The Dark Knight Rises.
Bruce leaving Blake to be Gotham's defender even though he's had absolutely none of the years of intense training and of physical and mental preparation, the study of the criminal mind, or any of the wealth of resources that Bruce had at his disposal through Wayne Enterprises is a close second.

Guardians of the Galaxy Spoiler-Free Review

So what, there was a pre-credits scene, a post-credits scene, but not a mid-credits scene? 0/10, worst Marvel Studios movie to date. I mean, sure, the movie itself was incredible, but the lack of a 30-second teaser namedropping something that I then have to google to understand and be excited about in the middle of the credits just left a bitter taste in my mouth as I walked out of the cinema. Thankfully, remembering the scene of the talking raccoon firing a gun and laughing maniacally while on the back of a giant humanoid tree quickly cured that.
Before I talk about the movie proper, let's go over just how much it had working against it even before production started. Guardians of the Galaxy is about a roster of characters that were completely unknown to a general audience, two of which are the aforementioned gun-trotting raccoon named Rocket and the humanoid tree called Groot.  Even in the comics, this iteration of the team is fairly new. The movie is also set entirely in outer space, spending almost no time on our little blue planet, which is a first for any Marvel Studios movie. The nearest thing to a comparison is the Thor movies, but even in those, Midgard was present and frequently visited. In terms of universe building, Guardians expands on certain plot points and characters from previous movies, but doesn't have an immediate, strong connection to any of them. There's no Nick Fury to tie everything together neatly, just Thanos' giant smug purple mug. So, what we're left with essentially is a high-concept science-fiction movie about a group of utterly bizarre and unknown characters, most of which are aliens and they're fighting other aliens in outer space. Now, to me personally, that sounds awesome, but it lacks any sort of mainstream appeal whatsoever. So how come it made close to 95 million dollars opening weekend?

They were originally "Team Rocket" but apparently that was taken

Well, the marketing focused on fleshing out the movie's colorful group of screwball characters and outlined Guardians as a fell-good action-adventure movie with a strong emphasis on humor, set against some wonderful 70s tunes - which is good, because that's exactly what Guardians is.
So, how does this feel-good, humorous action adventure start off? At the deathbed of a cancer patient. Yikes. Wasting no time on that heartbreak. You know, it wasn't the awesome trailers, ridiculously awesome concept or the 92% on Rotten Tomatoes that made me realize this movie was going to be amazing - it was that opening scene. Why? Well, it's at that point I understood that this was going to be more than just a ludicrously silly sci-fi movie. It was going to be a ludicrously silly sci-fi movie with a heart. It's a movie where the talking raccoon can have a heavy-handed emotional scene less than a minute after another character has used the phrase "pelvic sorcery" non-ironically and it still manages to tug at your heartstrings. It's a movie that know it's characters are silly people, but they are still people. They have feelings and desires, demons to deal with it and tragedies to overcome. That's the glue that tied the whole movie together for me - being able to take it seriously just made the silly moments even more hilarious.
Every character has his own distinct identity and style of humor and they all complement each other perfectly. The movie smartly focuses on their team dymanic, keeping the plot simple and straightforward. The writing is sharp and exceptionally witty, making the characters endlessly quotable and all the more memorable for it. The actors give it their all and deliver with solid performances, embracing the madness of this world with ease. It's also impossible not to mention how breathtakingly beautiful Guardians is. Every frame oozes digital visual splendor. It's a movie soaked in imagination and saturated in vibrant colors.
The only slightly negative thing I can mention is that some moments stretch even my limits in terms of how how corny it got, but they were very few and far between. If you're a person who has a hard time dealing with silliness, I can't imagine you'll like Guardians. It's a movie that celebrates silliness and flaunts overkill with pride. It aims to overwhelm and it ground its character just enough to keep everything from falling apart and for me, it worked beautifully. It's one of the best Marvel Studios movies so far and one of the most entertaining and gorgeous flicks I have ever seen. I (G)root for the Guardians of the Galaxy 100%.

Also, Karen. Just Karen.