Category: Reviews

REVIEW: Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Surprising to some, Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have some commonalities. After all, the half-shell heroes were initially created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a parody of Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil, before coming to DC and turning his talents to The Dark Knight. Both properties work best in the shadows and had the producers of this animated adventure leaned into that, this could have been a cut above an obvious cash grab.

The participants have met before, in three miniseries from DC Comics and IDW in addition to one strictly set in their “Adventures” incarnations, aimed more at all-ages readers. Now, we have Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a briskly paced story. It’s not bad, but boy, it could have been so much more had anyone made an effort.

The versus portion of the story is the most obvious bit of fan service since time immemorial has required crossovers to begin with a fight before a partnership can begin.  The Foot Clan arrives in Gotham City for nefarious purposes and gets discovered by Batgirl (Rachel Bloom) just before Leonardo (Eric Bauza), Donatello (Baron Vaughn), Raphael (Darren Criss), and Michelangelo (Kyle Mooney) arrive. As usual, they are on the trail of Shredder (Andrew Kishino) and the next target is, of course Wayne Enterprises. Enter: Batman (Troy Baker) and Robin (Ben Giroux). Mix, repeat.

And if the usual felons arrive for one team, surely we must have equal villains for the other so toss in The Penguin (Tom Kenny), Mr. Freeze John DiMaggio), Two-Face (Keith Ferguson), Ra’s al Ghul (Cas Anvar), Scarecrow (Jim Meskimen0, and of course, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn (both Tara Strong).  All of these are underutilized which is s shame since the turtles versus the rogues could have been as interesting as watching the Caped Crusader face off against Shredder.

This works when your young viewer knows both properties because introductions and backgrounds are the least concern to writer Marly Halpern-Graser and director Jake Castorena. Instead, it’s to keep things upbeat and moving for 84 colorful minutes. One thing rising above the sameness is Kevin Riepl’s score.

The film is out in a variety of formats including the 4k Ultra HD/Blu-ray/ Digital HD combo pack, which was reviewed. The 2160p transfer works best with the colors and is acceptable all around, just not stunning. The Blu-ray actually might work a little better for overall balance. The audio is more than up to the task, just not in a noteworthy way.

In keeping with the same old feel of the main feature, the special features continue that with perfunctory features starting with Cowabunga Batman! When Comic Book Worlds Collide (12:31), Fight Night in Gotham (18:06); and A Sneak Peek at Batman: Hush (9:18). That’s it no extra cartoons from either property or anything about their comic book meetings, which is a shame.

 

REVIEW: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin

REVIEW: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin

With the box office less than hoped for, Warner Bros. decided it was time to entice parents and the children who stayed away from the darker Batman Returns. Despite the comic book source material of the late 1980s being grim and gritty, Warner saw the dollar signs after the success of Batman the Animated Series and wanted those younger viewers.

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin are out this week in newly restored 4k UHD editions, part of Warner Home Entertainment’s 30th anniversary salute to Burton’s Batman. That and Batman Returns were reviewed yesterday.

Forever is transitional, keeping a lot of the menace from the previous films and replicating the two villains are better than one formula.

Desiring to go younger, the execs turned from Tim Burton to another visual stylist, Joel Schumacher. He was ordered to lighten things up and finally bring in Robin. Burton, star Michael Keaton, and composer Danny Elfman were out. Schumacher’s two films are therefore considered lesser works, colorful but vapid, wasting some good performances.

What hurt was that the original script by Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler focused heavily on the Riddler and then Two-Face was added and the entire story was revised by Akiva Goldsman. As a result, Two-Face, teased with the introduction of Billy Dee Williams in 1989, is now wasted with an inconsistent performance by Tommy Lee Jones. On the other hand, the addition of Nicole Kidman’s Dr. Chase Meridien was nice, giving the new Bruce Wayne, Val Kilmer, someone to relate with. I always liked Kilmer’s work here and it holds up. Chris O’Donnell’s Dick Grayson, though, was a bit too old and there is a distinct lack of chemistry between the Dynamic Duo. The potential for a much stronger film was there as noted by the many deleted sequences but style won out over substance.

This trend accelerated with 1997’s Batman & Robin, which derailed the franchise for decades and spoiled more comics from being adapted for the screen. Schumacher and Goldsman were back and now the director wanted to pay homage to the ABC series and the work of artist Dick Sprang. The problem is, the audiences of that time, didn’t want that approach and their critical word of mouth, coupled with scathing reviews, made the film reviled. George Clooney, replacing Kilmer, continues to apologize for his charismatic-less performance.

And if two villains were good, three would have to be better, right? Not with the horrible work of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. Vying with him for screen time in this overstuffed production was Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, which was at least an interesting approach to the character. Totally wasted was Bane (Jeep Swenson), reduced to thoughtless body guard rather than the brilliant tactician as created in the comics. Then you have Alicia Silverstone being shoved into the story as Alfred’s niece so a Batgirl can be added for balance.

None of this is good or works and made the DC staff groan out loud long before the audiences got to see this embarrassment.

Whereas the 2160 high definition upgrade perfectly caught the darker tones on Burton’s films, here, we nicely capture the brilliant colors applied to these films. You might need sunglasses at times, as Schumacher went for brilliance (much as the ABC series did, but that was designed to sell color TVs). On the few occasions when things grew dark, the details are never lost, letting you appreciate this aspect of the production design.

The high-quality care extends to the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, which nicely captures Elliot Goldenthal’s brand new score, ordered to avoid Elfman’s more somber sounds. Like his predecessor, he included pop tracks which sound just lovely.

Both films are released as combo packs with newly restored Blu-ray discs and Digital HD codes.  A box-set of all four will be out in September if you want to consider Christmas gift-giving. All the previous special features are replicated and there are no new pieces, which is a shame.

Batman Forever offers up Audio Commentary: Director Joel Schumacher; Riddle Me This? Why is Batman Forever?; Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight Pt. 5 – Reinventing a Hero; Batman Forever: The Heroes; Batman Forever: The Villains; Beyond Batman; Deleted Scenes; “Kiss From a Rose” by Seal; and Theatrical Trailer.

Batman & Robin contains Audio Commentary: Director Joel Schumacher; Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight pt. 6 – Batman Unbound; Batman & Robin: The Heroes; Batman & Robin: The Villains; Beyond Batman; Deleted Scene: Alfred’s Lost Love; Music Videos: “The End is the Beginning is the End” by The Smashing Pumpkins, “Look Into My Eyes” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and “Foolish Games” by Jewel;  and Theatrical Trailer.

REVIEW: Batman and Batman Returns

REVIEW: Batman and Batman Returns

Suddenly thirty years ago doesn’t seem that long back, especially as so much from that era is being resurrected, repurposed, and remembered. This month we celebrate the anniversary of Tim Burton’s Batman and Warner Home Entertainment is offering up all four films from that period in spiffy new 4K UHD editions (a box set collection will be out in September). We will look at those DVDs divided in half, the two Burton films now and tomorrow the pair from director Joel Schumacher.

It’s been argued that this film made super-heroes palatable to Hollywood once more, although it can be said it took until 2008 before that became a reality. What we did get was this film coming after mainstream media began recognizing comic books had “grown up”. In 1989, we already had Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ The Watchmen, etc. set the table and get people to pay attention.

The first Batman feature film languished in production hell since the rights were granted to producers Mike Uslan and Benjamin Melniker in 1980. It took Miller and the press to get Hollywood off their collective asses to get the film made. The brilliant stroke was turning it over to visual stylist Burton, coming off the visually spectacular Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice. He, in turn, brought on Anton Furst to make certain Gotham City was as much a character as the guy in the cape and cowl.

Casting was the final element with Burton recognizing that Michael Keaton could bring the gravitas to Bruce Wayne and his alter ego. Pairing him against Jack Nicholson’s Joker made certain we’d be sitting up and paying attention.

It was super-hero noir in the best possible way as Danny Elfman’s haunting score reminded us that this was a dark world that needed a hero. The Sam Hamm script was serviceable with only a few questionable plot points but it was secondary to the visual feast.

With this smash success, Burton was quickly resigned for a sequel and here he upped both the ante and weirdness factor. Danny DeVito’s Penguin was malicious, grotesque, and a far cry from the Joker while Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman was a wonder. Unfortunately, the script made a lot less sense and callbacks to plot points from the ABC television series marred the effort. Had it been a Bat and Cat story, it would probably have been stronger.

The box office was good, but not as great as expected. The darker tone, in the wake of the billions earned in bat-licensing since 1989, scared Warner Brothers. As a result, they turned the franchise over to Schumacher with directions to lighten things up. The results speak for themselves.

As with other rereleases, Warner has done a superb job with the new edition. The 2160 high definition images are excellent, well matched with the Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Each film is released in a combo pack with a restored Blu-ray edition, making it superior to the 2009 Anthology Collection. Unfortunately, there are zero new extras just imported ones from that previous boxset. If you want the upgraded picture and sound, then these are for you.

Here, the upgraded images allow you to revel in Gotham’s darkness, with the colors popping for emphasis. Yes, it’s a dark place matching a dark story featuring a guy in mostly black so here, we can see the details with a clarity that makes you appreciate Furst’s designs and Cinematographer Roger Pratt’s work all the more. Similarly, when we get to the Joker and his colorful takeover of Gotham in the latter half, the colors pop in dazzling detail.

Cinematographer Stefan Czapsky has even more darkness to work with in the sequel since so much of the Penguin’s antics occur at night plus Catwoman being in the shadows as well. Again, the restoration is superior and you pick up on the grit, grim, and ghoulish aspects of the city and its protector. When we do go into the light, such as the scenes between Keaton and Pfeiffer in Wayne Manor, the color is warm and saturated.

Again, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack brilliantly captures every sound effect and musical note with crisp clarity.

The special features ported over from the last Batman Blu-ray include Audio Commentary: Director Tim Burton; On the Set with Bob Kane; Legends of the Dark Knight: The History of Batman; Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight; Batman: The Heroes; Batman: The Villains; Beyond Batman; Batman: The Complete Robin Storyboard Sequence; Music Videos; and Theatrical Trailer.

The Batman Returns special features include Audio Commentary: Director Tim Burton; The Bat, the Cat, and the Penguin; Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight Pt. 4 – Dark Side of the Knight; Batman Returns: The Heroes; Batman Returns: The Villains; Beyond Batman; “Face to Face” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Theatrical Trailer.

It Tolls for King’s Landing, Innocent Civilians, and a Once Well-Written Show: A review of Game of Thrones episode 8.5, “The Bells”

As Drogon flies across King’s Landing, torching its buildings, caches of wildfire erupt into green flame.

Warning: There be dragons! But ye shall be burned even more by the SPOILERS that abound! 

So she finally went and did it.

Daenerys Targaryen, who over the course of eight seasons, went from an apparently innocent waif, traded like a piece of chattel, to an assertive and determined navigator of the Westeros chess board who freed entire cities of slaves, acquired two armies in a quest to reclaim her family’s throne from usurpers and tyrants, has snapped, and borne out her family’s penchant for insanity. Not content at conquering King’s Landing, and defeating Cersei, she threw morality and human decency to the winds, and torched entire sections of King’s Landing, turning scores of innocent men, woman and children into French fries for no justifiable reason.

In so doing, she adds The Mad Queen to her list of titles, becoming her father’s daughter, and the true heir to King Aerys II. 

And it’s not like this wasn’t pre-ordained, right? Both novelist George R.R. Martin and the producers who adapted his Song of Ice and Fire for the screen, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, made it clear early on, by establishing the Targaryen family’s propensity for insanity, and through the prophetic visions experienced by Bran and Daenerys herself, that she would eventually make it to King’s Landing, but that it would not necessarily be a happy ending, which have always been few and far between on a show that’s always been more about employing subversion to illustrate the horror of war and the dangers of absolute rule by narcissists who see themselves as the center of all things.

In this sense, setting us up to think that Varys deserved to be executed, and to feel joy at seeing the gates of King’s Landing disintegrated as Drogon flies through them on a giant torrent of flame, only to later be horrified when Dany refused to stop, and realize that Varys was “right” all along, is right in line with this modus operandi. Irrespective of her words and even her actions regarding tyrants, Dany has never indicated that hers is a war for egalitarianism or democracy, even if she freed some cities’ worth of slaves along the way.  Her actions have always centered upon what she wanted for herself, and her kindness and generosity always stopped at those who came between her and her goals.

So no, her rampage at King’s Landing wasn’t without setup. That isn’t the problem.

The problem is the same one that’s pervaded the entire season.

Lousy execution.

It’s the writing, stupid!

The last five episodes, especially the last three, have been marred by major established premises that have been ignored or dropped; a conclusion to the Night King storyline that while satisfying on an action level, did not tie into the status quo of Jon or Bran, the Cersei storyline, or even affect Dany’s ability to wage war on King’s Landing; unceremonious exits of important characters like Sam, Gilly, Tormund and Ghost; and plot holes bigger than that one Viserion blew through the Wall.

In “The Long Night”, we saw the Dothraki snuffed out by the horde of the dead, with only one or two horseriders coming back from that idiotic charge-with-no-dragonglass. In the next episode, “The Last of the Starks”, Grey Worm tells Daenerys that half their forces are gone, and takes some pieces off the map. The lone unnamed Dothraki in the room does the same. Yet in this episode, a large group of Dothraki charge King’s Landing in force. In “Starks,” Dany is flying toward Dragonstone, and all of a sudden neither she, nor Drogon nor Rhaegal can see eleven ships below them, allowing Euron’s ships to land not one, not two, but three arrows at Rhaegal in rapid succession, while missing Drogon entirely. According to Benioff, this his because Dany “kind of forgot” about Euron’s fleet. I’m not making that up. Read it yourself.

But now in “The Bells,” she has regained the sense to properly take advantage of her altitude in the very way she should have, and can destroy a fleet that now numbers at least 137 ships? (Yes, I counted.)

In “The Last of the Starks”, Drogon swoops down to Euron’s fleet, which numbers eleven ships (left), but in “The Bells” (right), its numbers have swelled to well over 100.

But what’s far worse than changed or ignored premises or plot holes is how this season has handled the show’s signature quality: Characterization.

The series has always been one of the best works in modern popular fiction when it comes to depicting the motivations that drive a large cast of characters’ actions, and how those motivations interact with the plot, theme and allegory. But this season, the character work has seemed so phoned-in that AT&T should’ve gotten an onscreen story credit. (Hey, it beats a Starbucks cup.)

Take Varys’ turn as traitor. In “The Last of the Starks”, Dany says she wants to rip Cersei out of King’s Landing “root and stem,” and Tyrion reminds her that the plan is to do that without destroying the entire city. Dany gives no indication that she disagrees with this. Quite the contrary, she adds that under her rule, all of the people of Westeros would live under her rightful rule “without fear or cruelty.” But then Varys starts talking to Tyrion about finding someone else to rule Westeros. This comes about not because Dany’s reaction to Missandei’s execution, because while they sail to Dragonstone before that happens, simply because Tyrion has just informed him of Jon’s true parentage. This appears to have been done to provoke our animus toward Varys for his disloyalty, so that when Dany does go postal, Benioff and Weiss can again go, “Gotcha!” with our expectations. But Varys wasn’t right, since his disloyalty was about being picky about prospective ruler pedigrees, and because Dany ever gave any inclination toward tyranny. In this way, Varys seems to have acted they way he did because he read the script. And I’ve come to expect better from this show.

Then take the Stark women’s soapy motivations. In “Starks,” Arya and Sansa say that even though they harbor respect and gratitude for Dany helping them fight the Night King, that they’ll never trust her because “She’s not one of us.” Really? Were the Wildlings “one of us”? How about that giant, Wun-Wun, who died fighting for the Starks in the Battle of the Bastards? For that matter, Robert Baratheon himself wasn’t from the North. Did the Stark women fail to observe loyalty among their people to King Robert, despite what an incompetent, cruel boor he was? By contrast, Dany loves Jon, and lost one of her dragons just saving Jon’s life (risking her own in the process) and lost half of her soldiers and one of her dearest friends fighting for Winterfell. Just what does she have to do to earn Arya and Sansa’s loyalty? Arya certainly feels loyalty to the Hound. Should Dany kill Arya’s best friend, kidnap her and then ride with her up and down Westeros while occasionally slapping her around?

Of course, this isn’t what lit up the Web following the episode’s premiere.

Daenerys: Portrait of a Tyrant

The real dragon in the living room is Daenerys’s decision to burn large sections of King’s Landing, along with civilians running for their lives. While this may be a fulfillment of the visions that Dany and Bran experienced earlier in the series, and illustrative of how even good people in positions of power can let power go to their heads, it doesn’t ring true on a character level, since characters’ behavior has to make sense in the context of their overall arcs. It’s not enough to point out that people “snap” in real life, or that Dany’s father was nuts. Hell, even he didn’t suddenly “snap”, but was a naturally erratic man who gradually declined due to a combination of age, political tension, and jealousy of his Hand, Tywin Lannister.1 Characterization isn’t about just using real life as a precedent. It’s something that has to be constructed as part of the writers’ craft, just as any other art form, and thus having a character turn arbitrarily to simply match an established prophecy breaks our suspension of disbelief.

Was Dany’s rampage really out of anger over Rhaegal and Missandei? That look of barely restrained rage on her face after Missandei was executed was certainly one we hadn’t seen before. But if that’s the case, her anger should’ve been directed at Cersei and Euron, and Benioff confirmed that this was the case. Instead, she torches peasants who had nothing to do with it. In a behind-the-scenes featurette, episode director Miguel Sapochnik said that Dany felt “empty” when the bells went off, and producer D.B. Weiss explained that at that moment, she decided to make it “personal”. The problem with this is that killing people who probably hated Cersei as much as Dany did, isn’t personal, because it’s been made clear by now Cersei didn’t care about those people.

Benioff also pointed out that before her execution at the end of “Starks,” Missandei’s last word, “Dracarys,” which was her way of telling Dany to burn them all. So what? Dany has spent eight seasons fighting against slavery, tyranny and cruelty towards the innocent, and now she’s grown so myopic over the death of her best friend that she decides to honor a condemned woman’s dying wish to murder innocent people—even though she repated her anti-tyranny platform to Tyrion after Missandei’s death? Sorry, but this is a poor rationalization any way you look it.

Some reviewers have attempted to argue the Dany has always been a mad queen, pointing to her past brutalities to people like Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Pyat Pree, Kraznys mo Nakloz, and the Tullys, but this ignores the fact that those people had actually transgressed against her. Like it or not, “The Bells” represents the first time she has committed acts of unambiguous murder upon innocent people who had done nothing to her.

I noticed that the episode seems to try to provide other excuses for Dany, but none are particularly convincing. Consider her statement to Tyrion in Dragonstone’s throne room that she would not allow Cersei to use her mercy as a weakness. This cannot explain her killing spree, since she embarked upon it after the Lannister army surrendered. And if her actions at King’s Landing was Dany’s way of merely making a point to Cersei about Cersei attempt to use people as a defensive tactic, then this means that Dany committed mass murder out of spite.

There’s also the scene where she tries snogging with Jon in front of the fireplace, and after he fails to return her affections in earnest, she resolves, “Alright, then. Let it be fear.” Seriously? She burned countless civilians to a crisp because Jon wouldn’t give her some sugar? In HBO’s “Inside the Episode” featurette, D.B. Weiss states that this was the moment when Dany resigned herself to the belief that she would need to resort to committing an atrocity in order to “get things done,” but this ignores the fact that she had already gotten it done without it.

I want to make clear: I don’t have a problem with the idea of sympathetic characters taking tragic descents into darkness, provided that it naturally follows what’s been established up to that point. I do not, for example, have a problem with Grey Worm’s actions, since they were not inconsistent with his character. Ditto for the Dothraki and Northmen committing atrocities, since even if Dany decreed to the former that their raping and pillaging days were over (much as she had done with Yara and Theon), they may have taken her lighting up the city as a sign that it had gone out the window.

Dany burning large numbers of citizens would be more believable if it was prompted in a way that made things at least a bit more fuzzy: Imagine this: Cersei ties random citizens up against the walls of the city, and the Red Keep, using them as personal human shields. Dany then makes the decision to burn them because those innocents’ deaths are unavoidable, and then during the smoke and ash, it becomes more difficult for her to clearly see the Lannisters surrender, and to discern who is a civilian and who is a soldier, a tragic iteration of what happens in the during the “fog of war”. But this didn’t happen, as there was no “fog.”

Just ash.

There is, however, one nagging detail I noticed in the episode that gives me cause to hold off on final judgment of her turn, one that leads me to hope that what we saw in “The Bells” is not all that there was to see, and will pay off in the finale, once again prompting us to reevaluate what we previously thought was true: After that shot of Dany after the bells tolled, we never got a close-up shot of her during her destruction of the city. Why is this? Wouldn’t showing her face twisted into a grimace of pure rage during her rampage be crucial to that scene? It makes no sense not to show her face during this. I got to thinking that maybe they plan on showing us her rampage again in the finale, only from Dany’s POV, revealing something similar to what I just described. Perhaps she was trying to destroy fortifications that looked like armories or barracks or assets that Cersei could use to hide or escape, and Drogon’s limited precision with fire killed some civilians near those buildings, and when Grey Worm saw this, he misunderstood this, and took it as justification for embarking on a vendetta on those who murdered his love, and everything just snowballed from there. Perhaps when Dany then saw the fighting resume, she then took this as a sign that Lannister soldiers were ignoring the bells, and justified doing so herself, a sequence of causality that neither Jon nor any other single player would understand at the time. All of this could render her actions in a more morally ambiguous light. It would also fit squarely in the wheelhouse of both Martin and the showrunners, who have relied heavily on contrasting POVs in this way throughout the series. Is that what they’re going to do here, in order to make Dany’s actions and her reasons for them more morally ambiguous, with their seemingly threadbare explanations in the behind-the-scenes material a cover for it?

In perusing the Web, it seems that I’m not alone in noticing the lack of a close-up, with another reviewer speculating that the reason for this is that Bran had warged into Drogon to burn the city. If Dany spent the rampage trying helplessly trying to regain control over her dragon, this would explain why they couldn’t show her in close-up.

Not with a bang, but a whimper. And falling bricks.

Even if this is borne out, the rest of the major characters’ arcs fair little better, and unlike Dany, theirs are finished.

To understand what’s wrong with what happens to the characters in this episode and others, you have to look at how their stories have been developed to date, and you’ll see why they’re called arcs. For example, Tyrion sees his father writing a letter in the third season premiere, “Valar Dohaeris,” that includes the phrase “ripe for the trap.” In that season’s finale, “Mhysa,” which is the episode that takes place after the Red Wedding, Bran tells a story of the Rat Cook, who cooks his guests into the food served as a feast, an act whose heinousness stems from the Westerosian view that killing a guest under one’s own roof is an unforgivable sin. This establishes a cultural viewpoint explaining how the Red Wedding is regarded by the people of Westeros, warring families or not. So when Arya bakes Walder Frey’s sons into the pie she serves to him in the sixth season finale, and then poses as him to oversee her murder of his soldiers in the seventh season premiere, these cease to be mere events in individual episodes, but pieces of a cohesive whole. A single tapestry, in which climaxes feel more satisfying because they come as the payoff that follows a long setup. That’s what separates an abrupt shocking plot twist from a carefully crafted one.

This is what’s missing from this season, and this episode.

I just assumed, for example, that when Arya set out from Winterfell for King’s Landing to kill Cersei, that it was as much a mission handed to her by Dany as it was a personal vendetta. But nothing here indicates that Dany thought to take advantage of the skills she knew Arya had. I also assumed that this arc would tied into Cleganebowl, and with Cersei’s ultimate fate. Maybe Arya made her play for the Queen, killing a bunch of her guards in the process, and just when she was about to strike the killing blow upon Cersei, it’s blocked by the Mountain, who suddenly appears and beats Arya nearly to death. And just when he’s about to deliver a fatal blow to her per Cersei’s order, that’s blocked in turn by the Hound, who then has the fight of his life with his brother for Arya. This might’ve been an even sweeter turn of events if Arya and the Hound hadn’t been shown leaving Winterfell together. If they had the Hound leaving to go find some quiet hillside to retire, failing to convince Arya to stay at Winterfell, his sudden appearance there would be a more satisfying and poignant surprise. Maybe during this brawl, Cersei could have ended up falling from a tower into the spot where Ned Stark was executed, making her end all the more poetic. Or something like that. Anything.

Instead what we got was two tall brothers who decided it was time to fight when they could’ve done when the confronted one another in the seventh season finale, a number of gratuitously implausible stab wounds inflicted upon Jamie, and a bunch of bricks falling on Cersei. Instead of layering these denouements in a way that tied them together along with the Night King arc and the Azor Ahai prophecy, in a way that echoed with the series’ overall mythology, what we got was thematically flat. A series of endings that were journalistic rather than resonant. We got the who, what, where, when and how, but not the heart. The Night King was done away with mid-season, and Cersei is killed not in the series finale, but its penultimate installment.

Are there some good moments? Sure. That moment when Arya addresses The Hound by his given name for the first time ever was a nice touch. And the FX were excellent. That one over-the-shoulder shot of a Lannister soldier as a split suddenly appears in his torso upon the swing of a Northman’s sword was extremely impressive. But the sum of these individual moments does not add up to a story that transcends them.

Speculation for the finale

So going into the finale, what are we left with?

We saw Arya mount a white horse, much like Death, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation. Where she’s galloping off to is fairly obvious, as is the conflict that will drive the violence in the finale. The only question will be whether she will kill Dany, or be foiled be Grey Worm, leading to a duel between them, which I admit, would redeem the Cleganebowl somewhat.

Perhaps as they fight, Jon finds a still-intact scorpion, perhaps half-covered in debris, that Dany and Drogon missed and then use it on the Drogon? I noticed that contrary to what Qyburn said, we didn’t see Drogon destroy all of them, and one shot of Drogon showed him passing over a number of them on his way to destroying a corner tower at the city gates. And if this leads the Unsullied to attack Jon and the Northmen, seemingly to the point of near-defeat, and they are saved by the arrival of Tormund on the Wildlings, with Ghost biting off Grey Worm’s head, it would redeem their inelegant departure in “Starks.” If only.

And then there’s that little girl, the last of Varys’ little birds, allowing one last manipulation of his to survive his death and manifest itself in the series finale.

Benioff and Weiss have not played their last hand, and I haven’t lost my last ounce of faith. The season is what it is. But the show can still go out on a high note. When Sansa told Tyrion about Jon’s secret parentage in “Starks,” one reviewer took issue with what he perceived as irresponsibility on her part, not realizing that this move was deliberately written as a “master stroke” of manipulation, as Dany herself tells Jon a few scenes into this episode, so it’s not like they’ve completely lost the ability to write good character work, and even disguise it.

In spite of everything I’ve written here, the lower quality of this season’s writing has not soured me on the sprawling epic created by my fellow native of Hudson County.

In fact, I’ve just started reading the first novel in the series. I intend to read them all, perhaps putting my run through Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series on hold in order to keep the continuity of the story fresh in my mind from novel to novel, and who knows, maybe by the time I’m done, my fellow native of Hudson County, New Jersey will have finished writing the final two novels, or at least decided upon a firm release date.

Hope springs eternal. 

Footnotes

1. Martin, George R.R. (2014). The World of Ice and Fire. Bantam. pp. 113 – 129.

REVIEW: Miss Bala

REVIEW: Miss Bala

In an era of female empowerment, Hollywood is looking far and wide in an attempt to create role models and franchises for proper exploitation. The most recent non-super-powered entry in this field is Miss Bala, a remake of the 2011 Mexican film of the same name, starring CW darling Gina Rodriguez.

We take a makeup artist everywoman and watch her routine, not entirely satisfying life get upended by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Along the way, she is terrified, betrayed, seduced, and ultimately woke. She goes from patsy to taking control of her destiny, finding the strength to do things she couldn’t imagine weeks earlier.

The problem with the film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is that we don’t develop Gloria Fuentes as a character to care about beyond a few perfunctory scenes before things go sideways. When she and a girlfriend, Suzu (Cristina Rodlo), are at a nightclub, it happens to be the night members of the “Las Estrellas” gang attacks. Suzu goes missing and Gloria, who admits seeing the attackers’ faces, winds up in the hands of a corrupt police officer who turns her over to Lino (Ismael Cruz Córdova).

She s briefly in the hands of the DEA, using a civilian as a pawn to entrap Lino, but when things go wrong, disavow her, forcing Gloria to side with her captor. There’s a touch of Stockholm syndrome at work, a hint of sexual desire between Lino and Gloria, and a whole lot of things going boom.

Gloria, Lino, and all the other characters in this story are bland, boring, and two-dimensional. Any attempt to add complexity to the players falls flat. We should be rooting for Gloria to overcome her circumstances and come out on top, but we don’t believe the steps in the paint-by-numbers script from Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. Hardwicke can get good performances from her cast as witnessed by Thirteen and even Twilight, but seems more intent on the action pieces than the characters.

Rodriguez is clearly a talented, appealing actress and it’s good to see her stretch beyond Jane the Virgin but was ill-served here.

The film is out from Sony Home Entertainment in a handful of formats. The standard DVD was reviewed and looks and sounds fine, although I’ve come to miss the sharper definition of the superior formats.

The DVD contains the usual assortment of special features including Audio Commentary from Hardwicke, Producer Jamie Marshall, and Associate Producer Shayda Frost. Then we get into the more perfunctory pieces including Gina: The Strength of a Woman (4:03), The Bigger the Bang (7:31), Making of Miss Bala (7:05), Wardrobe Tests with Commentary by Director Catherine Hardwicke (7:30), Action Rehearsal with Commentary by Director Catherine Hardwicke (4:59), Deleted & Extended Scenes (7:31).

REVIEW: Justice League vs. the Fatal Five

I have always been a big Legion of Super-Heroes fan and early on, designated Star Boy as my favorite Legionnaire. Maybe it’s because he was an underdog hero, but I’ve always liked him so was thrilled to see he would take center stage in the just-released Justice League vs. the Fatal Five. I admit to being a little less than thrilled they were going with the mentally unbalanced Star Boy as depicted in the Brad Meltzer run of Justice League. But, by pairing him with agoraphobic Jessica Cruz, I could understand the larger themes at work, I was fine with it.

I just wish their final product lived up to their intentions (and all the high-faulting hype seen on the bonus material). Instead, we get an over-stuffed, under-edited work that makes very little sense.

As best I understand it, Mano, Tharok, and the Persuader were going back in time to free the Emerald Empress and Validus from the sciencells on Oa in the 21st Century because apparently 31st Century prisons suck. To free the pair, they need to steal a time bubble from the Legion and Star Boy is brought along by mistake.

In the 21st century, Star Boy, without his meds, is considered a lunatic and assigned to Arkham Asylum for ten months. Meanwhile, the Fatal Three-fifths are seemingly trapped for a while until they get free then commit a lot of mayhem before leaving for Oa.

Said mayhem brings in the Justice League with trainee Miss Martian along for the experience, although so little background is given about her that if you weren’t familiar with Young Justice she’d be an anomaly. The League needs their Lantern, despite Jessica still struggling with the PTSD inflicted on her after witnessing her friends being gunned down two years earlier.

Seeing the villains on the news, Star Boy (or Thomas Kallor –why go from Thom to Thomas?) frees himself and finally begins making sense to the League.

What makes less sense is the villains making it to Oa with a coerced Jessica to breezily access the vast prison cells and free the final pieces of the puzzle. And of course, the Guardians of the Universe would allow the Empress to keep the powerful Eye of Ekron in the cell. When Salaak and Kilowog show up, they’re easily dispatched but apparently the devastating prison breakout doesn’t alert the all-powerful Guardians, who allow the Eye ro drain the Central Power Battery’s energy.

That doesn’t stop Jessica from finding her Green Lantern mojo which marks a nice turning point. I wish they left her ring as a snarky companion, ala the comics, along with Jessica’s early struggles at forming constructs but you get the idea.

They then threaten the Earth’s sun to end the age of heroes, creating a future without heroes to defeat them. The JL must make a desperate last stand to save the future and Earth and a few other things.

At least, that’s what I think the story is about. The fight scenes are too long and poorly choreographed (too often heroes stand around to get zapped). That said, there are some great lines of dialogue and nice character buts sprinkled throughout complete with a tear-inducing ultimate sacrifice and funeral scene. But it’s all too little to really make this, the 34th film from Warner Animation, truly enjoyable.

It’s certainly nice to see the JL Unlimited art style once more along with a cadre of familiar voice artists but this is disconnected from that series as well as the budding animated universe so this is ab odd stand-alone, produced and directed by Sam Liu, who has done better work. The script by Eric Carrasco, Jim Krieg, and Alan Burnet need a strong story editor’s hand.

The film is released in all the usual combo packs complete with the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Digital HD edition. What already looks sharp o Blu-ray looks even brighter and sharper on the HDR10 disc. Technical fans will appreciate the improved colors, attention to detail and higher resolution. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is even better so you won’t miss the Dolby Atmos that usually accompanies these releases.

All the bonus features can only be found on the Blu-ray disc and they’re a fairly standard assortment. We begin with Audio Commentary with Executive Producer Bruce Timm, Director Sam Liu, and Screenwriters Jim Krieg & Eric Carrasco and they provide a lot of behind-the-scenes details.

There’s also A Sneak Peek at Batman: Hush (9:18) which lionizes a beautifully drawn but bloated serial that’s finally being adapted and Battling the Invisible Menace (8:05), which nicely addresses the mental health issues found in the film; Justice League vs. Fatal Five: Unity of Hero (15:11) pats DC on the back for being so diverse these days.

Packed into the disc as repeated Sneak Peeks for Justice League Dark (8:12) and Justice League vs. Teen Titans (11:31). From the DC Vault we get Legion of Super-Heroes, “Man of Tomorrow” (22:44) and Justice League Unlimited, “Far From Home” (22:57).

REVIEW: Apocalypse Taco

Apocalypse Taco
By Nathan Hale
128 pages, Amulet Books, $14.99

Nathan Hale is a popular, creative graphic novelist, bouncing between historic tales and original stories. This is the latter and while the theme of science gone wild is a good one, along with being responsible with your experiments, there is so much that doesn’t plausibly work that the fantastic elements fail to engage the imagination.

Let’s start with the fact that a high school production of Brigadoon is so far behind schedule a parent willingly remains with the entire crew to finish the sets in an overnight marathon (permission slips included). That’s irresponsible on the parent’s part as well as the school’s.

At 1:30 in the morning, she sends her 11-year-old twins Axl and Ivan out with Sid to go get the crew food. While out, things get weird. Strange creepy crawlies begin appearing out of nowhere and there’s a Taco Bear drive-thru where there previously wasn’t one.

Creatures, both vaguely familiar and terrifyingly unique, emerge and threaten the trio. Apparently, they are the only ones still unaffected by whatever is ailing their city and run screaming from point to point. It’s not until we’re halfway through the book that they meet multi-armed Wendy who finally explains what is happening.

We get flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks and there’s some interesting underlying issues emerging, but no way does a college kid have the ability to access tools to build the nanotechnology behind the grotesque threat, but being able to perform his experiments unchecked. There are ethical issues raised, which is good, and a distinct lack of smart decisions made by adults, which is a bad message in a middle school graphic novel.

There’s more running, screaming, transformations, and threats which Hale briskly paces, using a black, white, and tones of orange to create an interesting mood. But really, there’s not enough content here to sustain 128 pages. While there are some witty lines of dialogue, our trio of protagonists are fairly underdeveloped.

If you’re a fan of Hale, then try it. Otherwise, there are far better choices out there.

REVIEW: Bumblebee

REVIEW: Bumblebee

Allow me to state upfront that I have now nor ever have been a fan of the Transformers. When they arrived, my tastes ran in other directions. That said, I have done some behind-the-scenes work with the franchise a few times in my career so have a good working knowledge. I’ve also seen the first Michael Bay and bits of the subsequent ones, enough to know these also aren’t to my taste.

I was therefore ready to outright reject the first solo film, Bumblebee, but the trailers hooked me. That and the arrival of Hailee Steinfeld, who I have enjoyed since True Grit. As a result, the film, out now on disc from Paramount Home Entertainment, is far more enjoyable than imagined.

By making this about a girl and her robot, a tried and true formula dating back decades (was Gigantor the first?), the film is smaller, needing only so much backstory to be plausible. Set in the film universe, it’s set in the past and therefore acts as a prequel to the overstuffed films that have ground the series into rust.

We get glimpses of the Cybertron civil war, with Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), the Autobot leader, ordering loyal B-127 (Dylan O’Brien) to seek safety on Earth. No sooner does he land than scared humans and vile Decipticons batter him, damaging his vocal synthesizer and sending him into hiding. That is, until he’s discovered by18-year-old Charlie Watson (Steinfeld). She’s emotionally damaged, having just lost her father, and they find one another in a series of charming scenes.

All that changes when Sector 7’s Jack Burns (John Cena) alerts the bad guys B-127 has been located, then the running, chasing, shooting, and exploding begins in earnest. By then, we’re emotionally invested in the pair and put up with the noise. At its core, the film is about people learning to find their voices and overcome adversity of all stripes, in order to stand tall and move forward. That’s a good message for the intended audience.

The film is out in a nice variety of formats including the 4K Ultra HD Combo and Blu-ray combo. The movie is said to have been shot at a resolution of 3.4K, and finished at 2K giving us a sharp, colorful, and detailed image. All the CGI looks particularly good in 4K. The Blu-ray 1080p transfer is equally good. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack provides an excellent companion to the visuals.

What’s lacking are excellent special features, delivering instead, the same old. We have

The best part of the package (both $k and Blu-ray) is the prequel mini-comic Sector 7 Adventures, which is nicely written and drawn and I wish the credits were provided although it was packaged by Avalanche Comics Entertainment, which produced a previous Transformers in-pack comic and know their stuff.

The special features include Sector 7 Archive: Agent Burns: Welcome to Sector 7 (0:50), Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome (9:19), a motion comic version of the ACE comic; Deleted and Extended Scenes (19:05) — Original Opening, Drive to Karate Class, Birthday Present, Car Wash and Beetle Breakdown, Charlie Drops Off Mona and Conan, Decepticons Inspect the Armory, Drive to Cliff, Sector 7, and Appliance War; Outtakes) — Burns Meets Bee, War Room, There’s a Door in My Way, Charlie in Trash, and Saved the World; Bee Vision: The Transformers Robots of Cybertron (3:56); Bringing Bumblebee to the Big Screen in five parts: The Story of Bumblebee (3:54), The Stars Align (7:04), Bumblebee Goes Back to G1 (10:02), Back to the Beetle (6:20), and California Cruisin’ Down Memory Lane (19:57).

REVIEW: Aquaman

REVIEW: Aquaman

Aquaman is wet and wild fun while not entirely holding together as well as it should. The film, the sixth in the in the loosely-connected DC Extended Universe, continues the momentum started with Wonder Woman. Director James Wan certainly makes the undersea world come to vivid life although I wish he spent a little more time on the world-building and character interrelationships.

We pick up a year after his appearance in the disappointing Justice League and Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) continues to reject his fate as a hero. While he opens the film by stopping a sub full of pirates, including the man who will become Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), it seems an infrequent activity. He’s quickly back to drinking and bar fighting, hoping the world will leave him alone.

Instead, forces are at work to make certain that never happens.

While hanging out with dad, Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison), he’s under attack and Mera (Amber Heard), whose relationship with him is never clearly established her or in JL, shows up to explain Atlantis is readying to make war on the surface world and this was just the beginning.

His half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson), is scheming with Mera’s dad to either forge alliances with the various undersea kingdoms, or seize them, creating an unstoppable force.

Well, there’s one force: Arthur. He is convinced to claim his birthright and we get some lovely flashbacks about his origins so we see Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), an exiled queen, fall in love with the lonely lighthouse keeper until the day soldiers came crashing into their home to take her away. Young Arthur is trained by Vulko (Willem Dafoe), adviser to throne, and we watch his burgeoning telepathic command of sea life.

He challenges Orm, gets beaten, and goes on the run as the film shifts to a quest adventure to find the powerful trident of King Atlan, which will acknowledge his right to the throne. (Atlan was created by Peter David and Esteban Maroto for DC’s The Atlantis Chronicles which I edited and personally, couldn’t have been happier to see their names in the credits.)

While on the quest, the relationship between allies becomes something more, but they get interrupted by Black Manta, who is out for revenge since Arthur allowed his dad to die during the pre-credits sequence.

Everything builds to the all-out war between Aquaman and Meta versus Orm’s army. Lots of special effects, bombastic music, and special effects galore. Of course, once we reach the mid-point, the film stops surprising us and delivers every anticipated beat, robbing the film of being something above average.

The film is bloated but entertaining and with the backstory established, maybe the inevitable sequel (and unnecessary Trench spinoff) will go in fresh directions.

The movie is out in the usual assortment of packages, complete with retail exclusives. The Blu-ray combo was reviewed and the 1080p transfer looks sharp and brilliantly colorful. The aspect ratio is 2.40:1, with the IMAX-formatted scenes framed at 1.78:1. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is actually superior with TrueHD 7.1 in the mix. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is adequate.

One would think that with Aquaman a staple of television since his animated debut in 1967, there’d be some special features about the character and his comic book origins, but no such luck. Instead, its all about the movie, ranging from interesting to boring to perfunctory.

We open with Going Deep Into the World of Aquaman (19:00); Becoming Aquaman (13:00); James Wan: World Builder (8:00); Aqua Tech (6:00), Atlantis Warfare (5:00), The Dark Depths of Black Manta (7:00), Heroines of Atlantis (6:00), Villainous Training (6:00), Kingdoms of the Seven Seas (7:00), Creating Undersea Creatures (7:00), A Match Made in Atlantis (3:00), and finally, Scene Study Breakdowns (11:00). There’s also a Shazam! Sneak Peek (3:00), with a scene from the following film in the series.

REVIEW: Robin Hood

I understand the compulsion to find a fresh take on a classic tale. After all, you have the weight of literary history and beloved film adaptations to contend with, so a straight remake would be boring. But, when you tackle a Robin Hood tale, it has to be set in a plausible time and place, with characters that make sense.

The legend of Robin Hood dates back to the 13th or 14th century and in time grew in scope so it wasn’t just Robin versus the Sheriff of Nottingham, but came to encompass King John and the Crusades.

There are so many ballads and poems to draw from for inspiration that a nice, historically accurate film would have been welcome. Instead, Director Otto Bathurst and screenwriters Ben Chandler and David James Kelly went in entirely the other direction, creating a fantastical Medieval world that was visually stunning and entirely devoid of interest. Their Robin Hood took more than three years to realize and arrived with a thud, a critical and box office failure, The film, out now from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, is really not worth you time despite a fine cast.

We have Taron Egerton as Robin of Loxley and he can handle the action just fine but lacks the charisma of his predecessors. Playing the token Morgan Freeman role this time is Jamie Foxx as Little John, a staggeringly dumb concept. Better is Ben Mendelsohn as the villainous Sheriff and Paul Anderson as Guy of Gisborne. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Eve Hewson is wonderful as Maid Marion, enlivening a rather emotionally dull story.

Robin is pressed into serving his King during the Third Crusade and dislikes the violence inherent in the system only to return and find home has been corrupted. He has to swing into action to right wrongs and restore a sense of justice to the common folk. All well and good but the internal logic is faulty throughout and the production design suggests this is set on an alternate Earth where “Gatling” bows spit out arrows and the technology is way beyond that of the time period we know.

It’s all a lot of noise without a heart. Even an uncredited cameo from producer Leonardo DiCaprio can’t help this mess.

The movie is out in a variety of formats including the 4k Ultra HD, Blu-ray, Digital HD combo pack. Here the film’s 2160p transfer in 2.40:1 is superior to the content. Everything dazzles the eye thanks to the 8K source resolution, finished in 4K. This is stunning to watch, making the lack of content even more disappointing. The Blu-ray version is pretty nifty to watch, too.

Thankfully, the Dolby Atmos track is more than on a par with the visuals.

Given the lack of demand for this disc, they certainly spared effort on the special features. We get a bunch of Electronic Press Kit features and little else of note. There’s Outlaws and Auteurs: Reshaping Robin Hood (1:04:28); Outtakes (4:38), and Deleted Scenes (8:26), none of which would have made this a better film.