2014, what a year it's been. There have been 4 Marvel movies (ranging from good to brilliant in my opinion), a movie that's essentially a toy commercial that was actually very good, and mostly movies I really don't give a sh*t about. We've had 3 new DC Comics TV series (ranging from good to very good in my opinion) and a new Marvel one coming soon (I'll give it a chance, but a Peggy Carter series really isn't all that appealing to me) we saw an end to Beware the Batman (wow, that ended on a wimper) and the continued downfall of the comic animated tv series industry (there is also some downfall in the animated direct to DVD stuff too, but Assault on Arkham was great) We saw the end of the Legend of Korra, with tears of both joy and sadness. We also saw the release of games such as Infamous: Second Son, Destiny, Sunset Overdrive and Titanfall (I only own Infamous: Second Son from this list, and I thoroughly enjoyed it) whilst Batman Arkham Knight has been delayed.
In DC comics we see the launch of a huge array of new titles, with a new creative team and relaunch on the Teen Titans (I'll get to that later in the week), a series called Arkham Manor (which is effectively a mini-series given that it ends with Batman Eternal) a bunch of weekly mini-series including Batman: Eternal, Future's End and Earth 2: World's end (I only read Batman eternal, but I'd struggle to recommend it), Dick Grayson is known to the world (and surely a simple Google search would tell anyone Bruce Wayne is Batman from that) and is a secret agent. Lex Luthor is a member of the Justice League. With Marvel Peter Parker returns to being Spider-man, after Otto Octavious took the reins for a while and... That's really all I know about Marvel comics, I'm not an avid Marvel reader.
So, with all that, let's take a look at this site. I first designed it to kill time when I wasn't revising for exams. A had a few reviews I wanted to do, and I did them, now I have over 100 reviews on the site (and I've lost count so I couldn't do a 100th review special, it was a probably a TV review anyway)
So, at the time of the year to look back on your successes, let's take a look at my top 10 most popular reviews. Before we begin, I'm going to exclude Son of Batman (Rage issues #4) from this list. It is a popular review, however, it was at a point where I barely understood the tool, and I didn't know how to make a jump point on an entry, so you couldn't see the entire review on the home page (spoilers and everything) instead I used a link to a separate page for it, but eventually I came back to the review and added the jump point, what I'm saying is it's hard to quantify who visited the page via links, who read the whole review on the entry, and who read the entry just to get the initial page link.
So, with that said, let's take a look
10. Batman: Arkham Origins
9. What I did and didn't like about Batman (1989)
8. The Legend of Korra: After All These Years
7. Doctor Who - Listen
Alright, alright! Yes, this episode was a marmite type of episode, a lot of people liked it, a lot of people didn't. I liked it, but... it has a particular flaw.
Who thought I could a 9000 word review, out of a 90-minute movie? I did, long before I wrote it. I hate this movie above any other movie I have ever watched, and likely will ever watch. So, there's not point in me doing a top list of anything I've reviewed. Yes I am aware of the terrible Dragonball Evolution adaptation, and 1, I don't have rage for it because I don't know the source material, and 2. I've seen the movie, and while it insults fans without mercy, I found it ok, by no means a good movie, but... I was young, maybe I should give it a rewatch at some point.
I was glad to see I was not alone in disliking this piece of sh*t series... I've only read issues 5-9. which is more than enough for me. I've heard enough about issues 1-4 that I know that it was a piece of sh*t then too, not helped by Jim Lee's slow artwork slowing the already slow pacing of the book. Linkara is going to be reviewing issue 9 very soon, and I'll be interested to see if I missed anything. Frank Miller has had some great work, but... his writing abilities have plummeted in recent years. Holy Terror is an unholy mess full of bigoted racism, religious hatred, and Miller's usual brand of sexism. The artwork is sh*t, and I gathered all of that from Linkara's 300th episode. There are rumours circulating about a new sequel penned by Frank Miller and Scott Snyder, give Scott Snyder the reins, he has his flaws, but he's 1000 times better a writer currently than Frank Miller. Issue 9 is really the best issue of the series, it's still terrible, but it's almost funny in how bad it is, because it features no women, it can't objectify them.
So, in the run-up to my Last Airbender reviews, I did retrospectives on each of Avatar: The Last Airbender's 3 books, interesting that Book 2, which I still consider the best of the 3 books is up here in the top 10. whilst Books 1 and 3 are not. This is the Book where we get a proper introduction to Azula. Wonderfully voiced by Grey Delisle she is clever, manipulative, and powerful, whilst also being young enough to be relatable and to present a personal threat to the antagonists. It is worth noting that Azula is the only young villain (Mai and Ty Lee notwithstanding and not including Zuko given his arc) in either of the Avatar series.
These top 3 have been changing in their orders for a while now, until the one which is now number one got a boost. What can I say about this cartoon, I'm still watching it, and it still sucks. It's trying to an infinity Gauntlet arc, with Thanos as the main villain. And I'm fine with that, but it features stupidity like a fight scene underwater where physics seem like they're on dry land... More horrendous dialogue. Surtur shows up for 5 seconds. Yeah, it still sucks.
Having only recently got into Star Wars with the original trilogy, I decided to dedicate a theme month to it (even if half of it was still Legend of Korra reviews) I knew I had to use my longer reviews for the prequels (the original trilogy got mini-reviews) but boy is episode II bad, the dialogue is atrocious, the pacing is insipid, and just how must CGI is really needed here. This is still my least favourite Star Wars movie, and I don't care that Jar Jar Binks had a far reduced role from the Phantom Menace.
Star Wars Rebels is another sort of controversial show, given it was replacing the spectacular Clone Wars series (but seriously, 121 episodes, it had a good run) and it looked like the animation was a downgrade. But there are some advantages. A smaller cast gives more time for character development, the structure of the story is linear, rather than jumping about from time to time, and it's a bit more light-hearted and enjoyable (which some may see as a negative) without it feeling too dumbed down. Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion accomplished what was required of it, introducing characters, giving us an idea of their character, and giving us a decent story to make the show memorable. There are some obvious drawbacks to this animation but it's not so bad that it's unwatchable. I am surprised this has become my most popular review, but, freedom of choice will out.
Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2015 treats you well.
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Images used in this review are from Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman, Doctor Who, The Last Airbender, All-Star Batman and Robin, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Marvel's Avengers Assemble, Star Wars Episode II and Star Wars Rebels and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.
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