2015 New Years Eve Special - Top 10 worst things I've seen only in review

It’s New Years Eve once again

And rather than doing a top 10 most popular reviews (you can see what they are from the sidebar at any time) I thought I'd look at something different this year

You’ve seen the kind of movies I review. Most of the time it’s action movies, particularly in the super-hero genre, and that’s cemented with my love of comic books and action/platformer video games. But I know this is a shocker… I don’t have the time, or even the money to watch every movie/read every comic book and review that ever existed ever. Sometimes I have to base my opinion on how others have reviewed them. And these are the worst movies I’ve ever seen reviewed. 

To qualify for this list the movie/comic (there aren’t any games on this list because there aren’t a lot of game reviews I watch, sorry Angry Video Game Nerd) must at least be interesting in its title, so bullsh*t like Garbage Pail Kids, Baby Geniuses and Birdemic 2 are off the hook here.

#31 Dragonball Evolution

Oh sh*t

I’ve come across some terrible adaptations in my time and this is not the first time I’ve not had any involvement with the source material. So to clue me in, here’s what a friend of mine told me

People say that not only is this a bad movie, it’s worse than The Last Airbender. I’m not even sure that’s possible. But let’s find out anyway as we dig into Dragonball Evolution

Just to be clear, I’m approaching this from the perspective of someone who hasn’t seen the source material, and am judging it on its own merits. Movies generally have a wider audience than the material they’re adapting, so it should work as a movie on it’s own as well.

Netflix Retrospective: Jessica Jones episodes 4-6 review

Guilty Pleasures #24 - The Snow Queen

Today I’m talking about the Snow Queen

No, not that one

Not that either

How many of these things are there?! No, I’m talking about the BBC 2005 adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s tale. Why this one? Because I own it on DVD and literally for no other reason.

Also bear in mind, I tend to do review summaries as I watch them so I’m good with details, this is the first time in many years I’ve watched this film. So let’s dive in

Netflix Retrospective: Jessica Jones episodes 1-3 review

Sorry it's late, but I can promise it has nothing to do with drink, so let's dive into the first 3 episodes of Jessica Jones

Editorial: The Highs and Lows of Doctor Who series 9

Doctor Who completed it's 9th season and once again it's been a great season...ish, actually a stronger series than series 8. So, join me as we once again look at the top 5 highs and lows of Doctor Who series 9

#30 - Starship Apocalypse

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting… Oh forget it, this isn’t a Christmas review… The next relatively unknown film we’re looking at is Starship Apocalypse.

OK, between this, Antboy and Dragon Evolution (coming soon) I’m not having a great winter. OK, this is a sequel film to another one I’ve never heard of, Starship Rising. Honestly, I was going to look at it when I discovered this but this was so terrible, I couldn’t be bothered to sit through another one just like it. Besides, a sequel should be accessible to those who haven’t watched its predecessor(s)

I did another tweet fest for this one, the highlights of which are shown below

Yes, I’ve blackened out my name on these, sue me

This series is the product of writer/director Neil Johnson, who filmed the entire series in 2012 on his soundstage (and boy does it show, but I’ll get to that later) They were shot in 4k resolution which would be good but I only have an HD TV and I’m watching in SD resolution because I’m using a DVD player via AV cables so I can tell what stage through the movie I am. So let's take a look anyway

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Episode 9 review - Legacy

Well, after that action masterpiece from the last episode we move to the mid-season finale of Star Wars Rebels, what will this episode deliver?

The Flash/Arrow Season 2/4 Episodes 8-9 - Legends of Today/Legends of Yesterday/Running to Stand Still/Dark Waters

We have another Flash Arrow crossover as the setup for Legends of Tomorrow continues, plus we have the mid-season finale of Arrow reviewed by the guy who's only watched 4/9 episodes, fun awaits.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 Episode 10 review - Maveth

We're at the mid-season finale, let's take a look at it

4 issue test #15 - Archie

Following me falling in love with Gotham Academy (which I still love btw, despite some schedule problems in recent weeks) I suppose it’s time to look at another non-superhero title. This time we look at Archie comics and their reboot stories. Archie is an interesting little guy, from stories of his day to life he’s crossed over with some really big names. He’s met the Ninja Turtles, the cast of Glee, and even the Punisher. But all of that’s been cast aside for the reboot, so we’re going to take a look.

2 things to get out of the way first. 1: I’m not doing reviews of the covers, there are 50 million different variants for each issue and I can’t be bothered with it. Second, for the main review, I’m going over the original content. At the end I’ll do a bit of riffing on the old Archie stories but content-wise they won’t factor into my overall results. So with that out of the way, lets take a look

Doctor Who Series 9 Finale Review - Hell Bent

We're here folks, the series finale of Doctor Who, I'll be doing another editorial on the best and worst things about this season soon but until then, here are my initial thoughts on Hell Bent

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Episode 8 review - The Future of the Force

For the third week running, here's a Star Wars Rebels review as we finally get to see Ahsoka in action once again

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 episodes 8-9 review: Many Heads, One Tale/Closure

We rejoin Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as things escalate even further

Editorial - In defence of Arkham Knight's Season Pass

This is an on the fly piece, but since the next review is Agents of SHIELD, which I can't review till Thursday, he's a little piece on the DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight (my main review is here)

Doctor Who series 9 episodes 10-11 review - Face the Raven/Heaven Sent

So, this week we have the episode where Clara dies and the first part of the finale, let's take a look.

Star Wars Rebels season 2 episode 7 review - Stealth Strike

Thanksgiving means I'm delivering yet another Star Wars Rebels review as once again, the Empire has a new weapon.

Sorry it's late, I've had a busy week. 

#29 - Antboy

So, we’re in December, hooray… or something. Or not, thanks to Thanksgiving ruining my schedules this is being pushed forward into November

Time to look at our next lesser known movie

  

Oh f*ck. Ah, Denmark… I know so little about you it’s a little embarrassing. But your nation did create this abomination, so I don’t think I’ll be making a tourist visit any time soon. Filmed in 2012, this film is infamous for a very expensive costume, the costume of the lead. Hell, it was so expensive, apparently Oscar Dietz, the actor who plays our lead couldn’t eat whilst wearing it… 250,000 euros spent on this costume, and good grief let’s just get on with this.

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 episodes 5-6 review: Wings of the Master/Blood Sisters

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 6-7 review - Enter Zoom/Gorilla Warfare

Schedule note: Because of Thanksgiving both The Flash and Agents of SHIELD will not be airing next week, unfortunately that means a triple episode review of Agents of SHIELD when we're at mid-season break. The reviews of Doctor Who and Star Wars Rebels will continue unopposed. 

With that out of the way, let's look at the next 2 episodes of the Flash

Guilty Pleasures #23 - Robot Overlords

To draw this year to the close, I’m going to be looking at 4 lesser known films and 1 big but ultimately sh*t adaptation. The first of these is Robot Overlords

Made in my home country of the United Kingdom (the word British is used by Politicians and Marketing companies, it’s rarely used by English/Scottish/Irish people, at least few that I’ve heard) anyway, this film was released in the UK in 2014 and in the US in 2015

Made with a low $21m budget, it doesn’t appear that film got a wide release, only being in 30 cinemas in the UK, as such what research I found seems to imply that this film did not make a return on that budget. The few critics that rated it on Rotten Tomatoes found in their favour, gaining a 60% rating, but it only rates 23% with audiences. IDMb ranked it somewhere in between with a 4.6/10.

Doctor Who Series 9 Episodes 8-9 review - The Zygon Inversion/Sleep No More

OK, I'll get this out of the way first. This is a review blog. I'm not here to provide commentary on the atrocities that have occurred in the last few weeks (my condolences to anyone who lost someone in any of those attacks). In perspective, obviously my rage of a couple of episodes of a British TV show is relatively small potatoes. But I do so, with some comedic intent, hope it might make someone smile.

With that said, let's take a look at one of the best and one of the worst episodes this season of Doctor Who with The Zygon Inversion and Sleep no more

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 Episodes 6-7 review - Among us Hide/Chaos Theory

Well, I certainly suck at theory debunking.

4 issue Test #14 Cyborg

Half man, half machine, all awesome. Cyborg is a character worthy of his own title. No background for this one, let’s just dig right in

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Episode 4 review - Brothers of the Broken Horn

Well, the last episode showed promise, let's take a look at the next one and see how they follow that up

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 4-5 review - The Fury of Firestorm/The Darkness and the Light

Just as a point of interest, I saw Arrow's crossover with Constantine and have kept enough of an eye on the story that I could follow it. It was good, I'm not overwhelmed but it was good. Constantine needed to be a bit more a b*stard if they wanted to fully embrace his character but his presence added to the more light-hearted tone they've been going for. Yes, I will be reviewing both halves of the Flash/Arrow crossover that's imminent plus I'm told the last 2 episodes of both shows will lead into Legends of Tomorrow, so I'll be reviewing both of those as well. I'm not watching Gotham and I'm sorry that Supergirl has also been shafted.

With that all said, let's dig into the next 2 episodes of The Flash

4 issue Test #13 - Batman and Robin Eternal

The weekly miniseries is something DC brought back in 52, an excellent title written by 4 renowned writers focusing on the minor heroes in the DC Universe after the big 3 were taken off the table thanks to infinite crisis

Then came Countdown, an awful work head-written by great writer Paul Dini and a load of crappy writers intended to set up an event it didn’t set up, kill things without mercy and push tie-ins wherever it could. It was awful and killed the miniseries off for a while. With the New52 came 3 new mini-series. Future’s end, Earth 2: World’s end, neither of which I’ve read but I can’t say I’ve heard great things about, and Batman: Eternal, intended to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of Batman, which I did a 4 issue test of in January despite the fact issue 4 came out in April of the previous year.

Batman: Eternal was reasonably well written and successful enough that a 26-issue second mini-series Batman and Robin Eternal, this time celebrating the 75^th anniversary of Robin. I don’t like to give too much background as I feel a new title should provide that anyway. But it’s best to know that during the Batman story endgame. Batman and his long-time nemesis the Joker ‘died.’ James Gordon became a fully police sanctioned Batman with a robotic suit as he lacks the skills Batman had. Bruce has since returned, but with no memories of his time as Batman and lacking the skills.

I hate the idea of Jim Gordon as Batman, I’ll just go out and say it. I haven’t been picking up titles with him as the focus because Jim Gordon to me is the legal centre of Batman. He’s Batman’s ally in the police and the main difference between him and Batman is that he is a firm believer in the law. Becoming a vigilante is backwards for his character, and I hate the ro-bat suit. One other thing. Dick Grayson revealed himself to Robin, Red Robin, Batgirl and the Red Hood to be alive after his ‘death’ in Forever evil and becoming a super-spy (see my 4 issue Test of Grayson for more info)

OK, let’s take a look.

Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 7 review - The Zygon Invasion

Well, who would’ve thought arranging a peace treaty between humans and Zygons would end in disaster

Ah, yeah…

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Episodes 2-3 review - Relics of the Old Republic/Always Two There Are

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 Episodes 4-5 review - Devils you know/4722 hours

Doctor Who Series 9 Episodes 5-6 review - The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived

The Flash Season 2 episodes 2-3 review - Flash of Two Worlds/The Family of Rogues

So, I've calmed down from my ranting of 2 weeks ago, and now I bring you more fair reviews of the following 2 episodes, until something else bugs me

4 issue Test #12 - JLA (Justice League of America)

So, time for another continuity bubbled Justice League. The regular continuity with the Justice League titles is one giant clusterf*ck. The way I see it, Geoff Johns’ League is a pre-convergence story, since it features Bruce Wayne as Batman and a fully powered Superman (although I haven’t seen him do his super-solar flare (yeah, that was added recently because if there’s one thing Superman really didn’t need it’s another new power)) this I can only imagine takes place in the 5 years between the opening Justice League story, and the second, that’s a 5-year gap, give or take.

How does this story hold up? Let’s take a closer look

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Episode 1 review - The Lost Commanders

Star Wars Rebels is back and that's really all I have to say, let's see what the season opener has to offer

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 Episodes 2-3 review - Purpose in the Machine/A wanted (inhu)man

When we last left we saw desperation hit many of our main characters as they deal with the fallout from the finale to season 2, let's take a look at how that fallout begins to take shape

4 issue Test #11 - Martian Manhunter

I know, I'm using issue 2, but my photo-editing skills are limited and this one was easier, kay?

Martian Manhunter is one of the characters most shafted in the New52. Once a high profile member of the Justice League, he was initially reduced to a member of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm team, Stormwatch which had been integrated into the regular DC Universe with very limited success. He then became a member of Amanda Waller’s JLA until the Trinity War and subsequent Forever Evil lead to the team being disbanded.

He then joined the JLU and has been part of their adventures. I believe they’re still ongoing but this title is his first solo outing since the New52 and another part of the DCYou lineup. How does it hold up? Well, let’s take a look.

Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 4 - Before the Flood review

Ah, Moffatt era, your isms are all over this episode, don’t ever change, not that you ever have before.

The Flash Season 2 Episode 1 review - The Man Who Saved Central City

So, The Flash is back for its second season. And it's first season was really good, so we should hopefully expect the same from the second

Apologies to my readers this is going to be less of a review and more me ranting about a plot point.

4 issue test #10: Robin - Son of Batman

Just a heads up, initially I had planned to review Justice League of America next week, but as the 4th issue has been delayed to the 14th October, after I plan to put out the review, it'll have to wait till the week after, instead Martian Manhunter next week, but for now

Damian Wayne, now this is a character with some history. Which I’m gonna briefly overview just to make things easier

Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. After events Damian ends up rejecting his mother and joining Batman’s side as Robin. Talia creates a clone of Damian called the Heretic that ends up killing him in a bloody battle. In what I’ve got to confess I haven’t read but sounds like the most ridiculous moment in comics Batman travels to Apokolips to try and revive his fallen son. He does so, temporarily granting him super-powers although though they wore off before this issue.

A lot has changed in the Batman books recently. In a final battle with the Joker, Bruce died with his long-time adversary. Whilst both will be back eventually we currently have Jim Gordon Bat-Bot in Gotham (I’m currently not collecting any bat-titles aside this one and Grayson until it’s resolved) and Robin off on his own. Let’s dig into Robin: Son of Batman and see whether or not it’s worth keeping this book.

Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 3 review - Under the Lake

It’s time for Moffatt to explore a more horror element, and this is where he tends to excel, are we in for something interesting here.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 episode 1 review - Laws of Nature

Agents of SHIELD has returned for its third season. When we last left the gang May had taken time off, Coulson lost his hand, Ward was manipulated into killing his own girlfriend and is building a faction of his own in HYDRA and of course the terragen crystal that creates inhumans dissolved into the ecosystem and is slowly spreading across the world. What’s next for Marvel’s premier superhero show?

Vixen (CW Seed) review

So, with the Flash and Arrow successes for the CW, they decided to take on another DC property, Vixen. Now Vixen isn’t really all that active in comics as of the New 52. She had a brief stint in the Justice League International where she was rendered comatose and her most recent mention was as potential recruit for the main Justice League. I’ve been reading the league since the DCYou and I can tell you she’s not currently a member as they’re more interested in other elements such as the dynamic with Lex Luthor as a member, the ongoing war between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor and the various players assembled for that, not to mention the new Power Ring.

But I’m going off track. What I’m saying is, Vixen is not a high profile character among the likes of Green Arrow and the Flash. So this may be an odd choice but her power-set is largely magic based, a portion that has not really been explored before, so there’s opportunity for it. This is done is animation as opposed to live action and it’s honestly not something I have a problem with. Given Vixens power-set of calling upon powers of the animal kingdom it would take a lot of special effects to put this into motion in live action, and whilst they have managed to do a lot with the special effects in the Flash, Vixen is a different game entirely.

But of course animation isn’t cheap and the CW knows that Vixen doesn’t have the fan-base of Green Arrow or the Flash. So these animated shorts provide a sort of test run for the character, giving the basics of the character, adding some cameos from Arrow and the Flash whilst also providing a decent flowing narrative.

Because of the shorts only being 5-7 minutes long, I didn’t see the point in reviewing them individually. So let’s dig into Vixen and see whether the CW really has something here.