Film Review – The Avengers

by

‘Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.‘

The AvengersMarvel’s experiment with a shared movie universe has been defying the odds for a while; the various Iron Man, Captain America and Thor movies have each been successful in their own right, and even the less than stellar Hulk movies have pulled in a reasonable income. But the real question on everyone’s mind was whether anyone could pull off a movie that featured all of these characters without feeling like a complete mess. Happily, Joss Whedon is up to the task; delivering a solid movie that doesn’t quite live up to the hype (could anything?) but never fails to entertain throughout. Continue reading →

TV Review – Game of Thrones

by

‘Arya reveals her identity to Gendry on the road north while Gold Cloaks pursue the party. Tyrion is far from happy with Cersei after the recent bloody actions in the capital. One of Dany’s scouts returns with bad news. Theon Greyjoy finally returns home to his father Balon after years as a Stark ward and hostage. Stannis’ right hand man, Davos, enlists a pirate with a fleet of ships to join Stannis’ cause.‘

Well things are beginning to heat up, now that we’ve caught up with almost all the season one characters, and been introduced to a few new ones. Continue reading →

Film Review – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

by

‘The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization’s name.‘

Going by the example of the Mission: Impossible series, it would seem that a secret agent can only succeed when they go rogue from their agency. This is a tried and true trope of the genre, but it would be nice to see at least one of the four movies in the franchise move away from this setup. In Ethan Hunt’s latest outing, it would seem that the whole agency has been disavowed by the government after a particularly bad screw up at the Kremlin. It is up to Ethan, along with his prerequisite team of Tech Nerd (Simon Pegg), Hot Girl (Paula Patton) and Mysterious Guy (Jeremy Renner) to save the world once again from the bad guys through a series of thrilling chases, death-defying stunts and last-minute luck. Continue reading →

TV Review – Community – Digital Exploration of Interior Design

by

‘Troy and Abed decide to build a pillow fort to rival their old blanket fort, while Jeff finds out he has a locker and Pierce and Shirley send Britta undercover to get dirt on Greendale’s new Subway.‘

Dean Pelton

Three episodes back into the second half of Community’s run, and it still feels so good to have it back. Continue reading →

Film Review – The Hunger Games

by

‘Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister’s place for the latest match.‘

Given the enormous success of the Harry Potter franchise and the fact that the Twilight films are about to wrap up, it was inevitable that Hollywood would find another young adult novel franchise to mine in the hopes of continuing the gravy train. While Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy doesn’t have the high-profile of its predecessors, there is still a massive inbuilt audience for any film adaptation and the studio has banked on that with a reported $100 million+ budget. Unfortunately, the filmmakers have relied far too much on the source material; leaving the film a confusingly mediocre experience that feels like it should have been so much more. Continue reading →

Film Review – Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

by

‘As Johnny Blaze hides out in Eastern Europe, he is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form.‘

Year: 2012

Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor, Nic Cage’s Crazy Eyes

Writers: Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman, David S. Goyer

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage’s Crazy Eyes, Ciarán Hinds, Idris Elba, Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth

How the hell did this movie get made? Did anyone involved see the first Ghost Rider? Continue reading →

Book Review – Ready Player One (Guest Review)

by

‘At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.‘

What are you doing right now? Whatever game you are playing; whatever comic you are reading; whatever T.V. show you are watching… drop it! Continue reading →

TV Review – Comic Book Men – Con Gone Wrong / Ink

by

‘AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.‘

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, Mike Zapcic

Network: AMC

Well, there we go.

There’s not a great deal left to say now that we’ve reached the end of AMC’s niche show Comic Book Men. Comics & collectibles were bought and sold; people talked about superheroes; geeks made fun of each other. If there had been a splash of pornography it would be like someone filming the internet. Continue reading →

Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn Released

by

After nearly 10 years, the fan developed project Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn has been released to eager Wing Commander fans around the world. The Darkest Dawn is a fully standalone game that uses an enhanced version of the Freespace 2 engine to give players a chance to step back into the Confed universe with two campaigns, 55 missions, a full cast of voice actors, cut-scenes, varied ship and mission types and much, much more. Continue reading →

Film Review – John Carter

by

‘Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.‘

John Carter

Given the ridiculous number of Tarzan adaptations to grace the big screen over the last century, it’s amazing that there hasn’t been a big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ other epic series until now (apparently there was a direct to DVD movie in 2009). There have been many attempts over the years to bring this project to life by various studios, but the story always remained the same: ‘the technology isn’t advanced enough to do it justice.’ It’s curious that an animated version never made it off the ground, but now we have the next best thing, a CGI filled blockbuster directed by Pixar’s Andrew Stanton. Continue reading →