Marvel/DC (etc) Movies & TV

Okay, so I watched the finale, and admit, even after your overt warning for it, I still completely missed the TNG easter egg.

As a lot of the seasons on these shows are winding down, maybe we should offer some recaps/thoughts. Keeping in spoiler tag for now,

Spoiler

Ha, well I am pretty glad that Zoom finally had his comeuppance. Overall I thought this entire season was much weaker than the last, and the story arc faltered at so many points, if I was just a casual viewer I could see a lot of people tuning out. After building Zoom up so much to be this ultimate big bad, I think they bit themselves in the foot by then realising they needed to somehow also give him a weakness to allow Flash to take him down. As I already hinted, I did not like the fGarrick reveal, and I think from then on he became too unbelievable as a real menace, and only succeeded due to whatever gimmick of the week. Ultimately, I think the writers completely lost track of where they wanted to story to go. They seemed so torn between metahuman of the week, Zoom's season long menace, and whatever personal drama they kept throwing at the show, that they could never decide what to focus on, and as a result if all suffered. I also don't think I saw Flash (or the others) act as stupidly before, and go against their characterisations, all just to develop some plot conveniences. In fact, there was so much contrived stuff, just to throw some barriers in Flash's way [which, to be fair, they kind of have to do to not make him so OP'ed, but again, that was another problem I had with the season, really blowing up the amount of things he could do.] It was all really falling apart by the time they wrapped it up. Too many things that strained even the credibility that they had built up internally in the show, as trying to throw too many little things all into one season, without thought of how they were going to let it play out long term. I think that was the biggest issue. And the entire finale basically coming down to Zoom challenging Flash to a race to see who was the fastest was pretty much a summation of the exact lameness that the season turned into.

But anyways. What else? I am not sure I wanted to see Wally take up the speedforce, despite them kind of hinting at it non-stop. I think having him in the show is cool, and works as a nice nod to the fans, but don't think they necessarily need to already work in the next Flash mythos, when Barry is still just discovering his powers. Having Barry's dad/doppleganger be the first Flash was something interesting, I kind of saw it coming, and definitely call Jay being the one in the mask, but making him still be hero and continue on as Flash in Earth-2 felt a bit heavy-handed and unlikely (for me). I wonder if this is - now- the actual final departure of Tom Cavanagh from the show. He did bring a fair bit to the cast IMO. So anyhow, I could keep going, but don't want to rant off too much. I thought the season was just okay. All in all, I was really disappointed I think mainly because S1 was just so good, and I think they could have focused the story and developed some believable plots more, but what can you do. I really hope they bring it back for S3. I would like the writers to show confidence in building a strong story, give their viewers a bit more credit, and nail down some real plans for how the show and characters will develop over multi-season arcs.

 

Oh, you delightful bastard.

Spoiler

Zoooooooooooooooooooom!!!!!

So,


- double spoiler warning -


Flashpoint already?

 

Oh man, you have no idea how I am trying to restrict myself from going into a multi-page rant about X-Men:A and all the franchise movies in fact. But suffice it to say, short form, I completely agree with you on all of the above. I think the only saving grave for me not absolutely ripping this latest one apart, is frankly that I went in with such low expectations, it would have been nearly impossible to be worse than I thought. And so it wasn't. I don't know if it surpassed BvS level, but I also think it is not really a good comparison to draw either. I am a huge X-men fan, but honestly, every one of these movies has been such a crushing disappointment, that I am barely feeling anything anymore when one comes out. The 2000s era films were flawed - of course - and I have a great many feelings about Singer, but at the time when they came out, there was a near dearth of anything in this entire genre, and for all that it got wrong and awful things they did, the fact was we got to see an X-men movie on the big screen, a film about relatively unknown comic heroes, and a fairly risky venture compared to now. But the market has changed. It is not like that anymore, and the general moviegoing audience, nevermind fans, has some expectations when it comes to film, even if only for entertainment. I felt X-Men:A was lacking on just so many levels in this regard.

Honestly, I don't want to drag this out, as probably no one is going to be reading it anyways, and I don't want to over-mention too many things. So I will just cut it off for now, and say yes to the above. I don't know whether I could recommend this to even a general person going to the movies. See it if you are bored and have some money burning a hole in your pocket, but otherwise, you might want to skip it until you can watch it by some other means.

 

Hahaha, no, it didn't. What I was trying to say was that BvS was so bad, it has set a new bar for awful movies (not in the Manos or Room sense, naturally). So from now on, I am using is a comparable metric for movies. And even with my low expectations, and how I thing there was about a hundred things they could have easily changed to improve Apocalypse, I would agree that it beat out BvS, and did not have nearly the history, money, or studio clout behind it.

 

Decently put, but I don't think it does justice to the wrongness of the movie, but it - aptly - points out what a slog it was to get through. And unenjoyable for me. But I don't think anyone had fun making this movie either, so it has to make you wonder. A classic example of this movie's terrible lack of awarness, [I assume] Singer's dig at Last Stand through the ROTJ line, while perhaps also being a kind of tongue-in-cheek jab, fails to be self-aware at all, because it IS so forced. And does he not realise that Kinberg was the writer for X3 (not to mention counting xXx, F4nt4stic Four, and Jumper among his very illustrious and storied career)? Either Singer needs some serious counting lessons, just doesn't give a shit, or has so much loathing for the audience; but whichever one of these it is, it shows you he should absolutely not be in charge of running this film.

Arrgh, reading that takedown is just making me relive all the awfulness of the movie all over again!!

Bonus point for this excerpt:

 

I haven't seen any of it yet, but have heard some good things so far. It has a lot to live up to, but I am cautiously optimistic.

 

Started in on Preacher today. I'm quite impressed so far: it's towing exaggeration and earnestness along together into a very successful tone; doing a nice job of layering in character and mystery in a way that hasn't (yet) made me yawn or roll my eyes; and it manages the trick of making the frequent dips into violence coherently shot, genuinely funny and successfully horrifying - an oft attempted trifecta that's almost never pulled off with any success.

I'm 3 in, and it is AMC, so there's still plenty of time for them to fuck it all up!

Hopefully they'll keep up the good work. If not, there will still always be a ton of great little details to remember. For example:

Spoiler

HOUSTON'S 4TH ANNUAL

SNUFF FILM
FESTIVAL​

-TODAY’S SHOWINGS-
10:00 A.M. - ESCAPE, RUN, HIDE... BUT DIE!
11:00 A.M. - BURN, BABY, BURN
11:14 A.M. - I AM JACK’S SEVERED HEAD
12:02 P.M. - THIS IS THE END... OF YOUR LIFE
1:00 P.M. - THE DENTIST AND THE DRILL
1:45 P.M. - THE LOTION IN THE BASKET
3.05 P.M. - THE BUTCHER, BAKER, AND

THE CANDLESTICK IN THE HEAD​

3:29 P.M. - A SALISBURY STEAK RECIPE
4.00 P.M. - A QUICK DIVORCE
5.00 P.M. - AXE ME NO QUESTIONS,

I WILL TEAR OUT YOUR EYES​

Super fun.

Off to clear the next two off of the ol' hard drive. I'll meet you back here on Sunday night.

​

 

Agreed. Three episodes in myself too. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it definitely fits a very nice slot in the time-wasting section. A great blend of the mystery, dark humour, and action that I think Preacher deserves. I attribute a lot of its success to the 'Deadpool factor' - two showrunners (Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen) who are passionate about the source material. It really comes through and makes all the difference to me. Very much unlike that other AMC comic show.

And any show that manages to work in two American Recordings tracks into the first two episodes has my vote and then some.

 

Nothing like a Blind Melon cover to kill a ? and the Mysterians buzz, but at least it soundtracked hilarity.

 

Finally got around to Deadpool tonight. Giant fun so far, but with around a half hour left I'm totally worried that it might poo poo the bed in the third act. Gingers crossed.

EDIT: All was shoop a-doop good.

 

@a.atom - Watch these instead: