mwpowelllde

I like how they've started this one off. Titans crew, study this one: they did not take nearly 1.5 seasons for some semblance of a team to form. Basically, Pilot meet the new Stargirl. More or less. Course, it's only the pilot, so maybe they don't fall off from there. We'll see. Oh and Starfire still cannot fly. Plausible, I suppose, because she's kinda in the dulldrums over the whole lost royalty thing. But I digress... Great start on Stargirl, I think.

It's been interesting observing some of the follow on work from the MCU's second and third wave cast members. In this case, MIB Intl, not is best work ever. However, this one, pretty darned good, IMO. Oh, in both, there were moments that felt a bit type cast, to be sure. And you do have to remember the executive crew on this one; written in part by Joe Russo, think Russo brothers, Avengers, etc. But it did not overwhelm the overarching story line. They kinda setup for a sequel, but how in the hell Rake survived all that, who knows... He would have to have lightning coursing through his veins, or Cheez Whiz. All in all, worth the watch. Oh, and if you catch it apart from Flix, subs are ESSENTIAL.

FI meets anthology origin reveal slasher flick. We've all seen the slasher flicks with an interwoven origin story of the protagonists. Peña nails Montalban's accent; a little too rigidly I thought. And wait a second, Yang is then Tattoo? I suppose there were not any little people who could fill that role. Just felt a little forced as the story arc unfolded, especially toward the end, to force the conclusion, Roarke + Tattoo, "Welcome to F. I."

Much of the film did capture the sense of a real or imagined invisible presence, The Invisible Man, if you will. They did a good job at portraying that essence. However, as the film progressed, it became more about one woman's liberation, almost emancipation, from a marital, spousal abuse situation, and less about The Invisible Man. In fact, that just became a plot device in the end, which, IMO, really killed the whole premise of the film. Which, not entirely surprising when you consider the type casting of one actress, Elisabeth Moss. Sad, because it really could have been "just" about The Invisible Man, and that whole thing, but that was muted behind what it morphed into. I even got the sense that a hallway tussle with almost an entire a police unit was pretty much an Invisible Man apologetic of sorts, but it does not make up for the confusion in the messaging, even to the point of trying to play off this man in the very end as being somehow "reclusive", i.e. "invisible".

It is worth the watch, but the story has been told before. Little bit different spin, packaging, etc. The up and coming cub finds the burned out sage, who trains him up to face the seasoned bully. Throw in a couple of novel romantic situations, the PC side kick team mate, and there you go. As others observed, nice change of pace from the hero films, etc, but still a cookie cutter formula film.

Three aspects of the character and nature of the film were pretty consistent throughout. A couple of fairly well known, I think, actors anchored throughout. Most of the acting just felt raw, if a bit plastic faced, at times. That's first and foremost. Second, the practice, sparring, etc, passable enough, I thought. While I do not follow MMA or that culture that closely, I've seen enough of it, passable. It was less about that, itself, as it was portraying the lead character as the "rag doll" through and through, and in that, they definitely succeeded. Which brings me to the overall arch of the film; somewhat predictable, from the nospect to the prospect to the outspect to the respect, if you will. Speaking of course of the struggling lead character and her character development, such as it was, throughout the film. Again, bearing in mind, a bit plastic faced on its surface at times. There was one notable twist at the end that really endeared me to her as a character and I wanted the best for her into the last and final round of her bout. But I will not spoil that here. Worth the watch for that development.

Let's see. Started interesting enough, "what if" Kal-El landed on Russian soil instead of in "Kansas", so to speak. That was about the extent of its interest though. Quickly degenerated into a kind of fascist dictator Uberman, if you will. Even went so far as to proposition a "MAGA" version of Bizarro. Along the way, let's also throw Batman, however "plausible" his supposed upbringing might be under a communist style oppression. Also, Princess Diana aka Wonder Woman. And the a militarized version of the "Green Lantern Corp" while we're at it. Oh, and let's not forget such obvious references to "Ike", "JFK", and on from there. Not the same thing as the comics I remember growing up. Definitely not. Let this serve as inoculation to the programming attempts.

Let's see, sum this up in as few words as possible to save folks the trouble... Let's see how many debauch and/or gag jokes we can cram into twenty nine of the worst minutes you'll ever spend (or less in my case) being curious about this "sci-fi" comedic series. Don't waste your time. Ugh.

From somewhere over the rainbow to a storied redemption and a tragic life lost. Somewhere along the way I'd heard that Judy Garland was pretty much doped out of her mind whenever she performed, and this film does a pretty decent job at capturing that issue, from her early childhood, through to her last months with us on Earth. I also concur with so many of the comments, it is not often you find a subject so well matched to the performer, and vice versa, but in this we have exactly that with Renée Zellweger's portrayal of Frances Ethel Gumm AKA Judy Garland. Her younger self is portrayed by Darci Shaw, who also does fine work in her supporting role. The film also does a fairly good job exposing just how rampant the child slavery, borderline sex in this case, trade really is, Hollywood being one of the industry's chief protagonists, mind you. Not for the faint of heart, but it is also not grotesquely unwholesome subject matter, either. Would definitely accompany younger viewers with the more mature material.

Cannot believe this is getting such high reviews. Not familiar with the game, etc. However, it is basically a reprisal role for Cavill. Review the JL movie and tell me Pet Cemetery Kal-El is not the same character. Cavill does not have a monopoly on typecast roles; however, come on... Surely could have done a better job with this.

Became sort of a sleeper zombie movie toward the end... Started out well enough, hope filled virgin astronaut "sees the world" for the first time through astronaut eyes and cannot unsee what she saw. Unfortunately, the film degrades pretty quickly from there into a failing if not outright failed marriage, amidst infidelities layered upon infidelities that end up destroying the lives of both Lucy and quite possibly the people in her sphere and wake as she tries to jet her way through her "mission". Oh, and did I mention digs on the glory days of the shuttle program, and by that I mean, in the same vain as the film's outlook on marriage, drug the space program through the mud as well? Considering the leading lady, I guess I am not that surprised that we would see such a dark message, even while learning to don her "new eyes" for seeing the world. Who knows, maybe the character met an untimely end and got swarmed by those bees. Watch at your own risk.

All the politics and social engineering b/s put aside... It is pretty freaking hilarious what they are doing with this cross over this season. Will we actually see Titans and/or Doom Patrol guest stars, outside of the cameo teasers? Or a mystery Doctor Fate cameo? Come again? Or the fact that there were Tom Welling and Erica Durance cameos i.e. Smallville. Or the obvious Brandon Routh Clark Kent / Superman reprisal. And, of course, did anyone catch the unmistakable voice of Kevin Conroy before he surreptitiously made his entrance down the stairwell? I wonder who is next? The Lanterns? We can get a Doctor Fate cameo but we cannot have proper light shed on the Lantern Corps? Such a long Christmas break potentially waiting for some of these answers.

Don't waste your time. F-bombs every other word, needless violence, even for a "purely" HQ series. Not worth the bandwidth.

So, they cue S2 and now suddenly they 'agree´ on a team name? The continuity is a bit broken, they really should have let the season play through in S1 and it might be more plausible... Instead if feels more like the S1 resolution we were wanting.

Edit: Last season they could not quite figure out who they were. Then magically all of a sudden in what would have been the last episode they figured out they had a history as 'the Titans´. Now this season, not to be out done, but they are also finding it hard to discover who they are in the shadow of 'the Titans´. Well, duh, it is 'Teen Titans´ in the making. Basically you have a rehashing of the cartoon series', IMO. The story is the story, but come on guys!

Oh, and Starfire and her kind still do not know how to fly! Kinda sucks...

From Dark Phoenix to Dark X-Men in one generation. That's about the beginning, middle and end of the whole franchise reboot summed up in a single sentence. There was nothing about this movie trilogy that I thought paid any sort of respect worthy of the comic book saga, in my opinion. The only thing it served to do was further distort the comic book franchise and rob anyone of their enjoyment of the same. The only thing worse then their handling of the Mystique death, whatever the personal feelings of the cast, crew, production staff, etc, was their interpretation how the X-Men, et al, might react. If you are into divisions based on identity politics, gender bias, or what have you, then this movie is for you. Otherwise, I would save your money, it is not worth it.

I get it, it's a series done for basically what network television again? Exactly. I just found. Budgets for many foot tapping dark matter or light dagger heroes are tight. I get it. Still, even with the attempts at character development, it's just underwhelming.

So many of these series these days tease and tease and tease and never quite reveal the 'origin story' so to speak. Only sort of do. Was that way with Titans; Doom Patrol very nearly originated the Doom Patrol, but I am still unconvinced they embrace who they are. At least in this series we more or less have a true origin, and that inside of one episode. Hallelujah! But there was a let down... It's a shame the creative team behind it parted ways before we could get a full season out of it, over "creative differences" or some such. Ah well. Just when we were getting a good thing.

Good mix of horror elements with anti-hero undertones, I thought. If you have followed Elizabeth Banks movies at all, you know that she is generally type-cast in nearly-successfully, but fundamentally-flawed supporting, sometimes leading ladies. This movie was no different. She desperately tried to do the right thing throughout the movie, but much to her chagrin, and in the worst possible way in the end, their twisted, bent, demon spawn alien of a child just would not listen to reason. It got creepy pretty quickly, but it was pretty much dark by about halfway through the film. The moment when the kid gets seriously twisted, like the bits to that point weren't bad enough, was a bit of a stretch. All that "superior" intellect, but apparently his inherited genetics did not include much in the way of emotional intelligence; without saying too much, you'll get it when you see it. Which at that point through pretty much the close of the film any displays of his abilities were just horror plot devices for the intended effect. Would it merge into the DCEU at all? Who knows. It might be interesting for Clark Kent to learn that an evil counter agent did actually arrive. But I do not think that was the goal at all. There were definitely true horror moments in the film in which practical effects were the focus of the scenes through and through; usually as a consequence of the boy exercising his abilities in one manner or another for maximum effect. Worth a watch.

I actually rather enjoyed this film. It was not perfect, it has some flaws throughout, but the delivery managed to embrace those flaws. The main character was believable. Her love interest was not a complete idiot, unlike so much of main stream media today; a bit misguided maybe, but not a complete nimrod. And carried with it a message, the subversion of humanity. Left us pregnant anticipating a sequel, which I fully expect would probably be delivered, but we'll see.