New Years Eve special - Top 5 Rage Issues Cock-ups

OK, this was intended to be done in a lot of stages. I asked for input and nothing came, sadly so I'm having to improvise. But 2016 is over and there's a lot of cr*ppy movies, games and comics to review. 2017 will see me make a start with the Superman movies, hoping to cover 4 of them this year and returns in early 2018. We'll doing a few more DC rebirth reviews and looking briefly at some titles from Marvel Now 2.0, I'll be introducing a new review format which I'll explain later and hopefully I'll be doing a few more crossovers with GregsChan1. I hope to at the very least.

But today is about reflection. So let's take a look at my top 5 cock-ups that I myself have made up.

Merry Christmas

Xmas Special - Arron Redbeard Adventures - The 12 Deaths of Christmas

Christmas has come once again and it’s time to look back at those mistakes you’ve made and work a little course-correction. I’ll try and do more of that with my next segment but for now, it’d be hypocritical if I didn’t once in a while trash my own stories. This is the 12 Deaths of Christmas.

Plug http://awholenewworldofarronredbeard.weebly.com

Let’s start with the title. You can already tell this is going to be depressing. But it’s that and so much worse. Also, it’s a lie, there aren’t 12 deaths in this story. Depending on how you see it there could be a hell of a lot more.

Star Wars Rebels season 3 episodes 9-11 review - The Wynkathu Job/An Inside Man/Visions and Voices

We've entered hiatus period now, we'll down to one review/editorial a week until January. So let's start off with tying some loose ends and reviewing the episodes of Star Wars Rebels I'm yet to review.

Vixen season 2 review (CW Seed)

Vixen, whilst not a perfect series by any means was a good introduction to her character and good enough that she made a few appearances in live action and her mother is now a regular on Legends of Tomorrow. Also, a second series of web-shorts have been released further exploring her character. So, did it offer any improvements, let’s take a closer look

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ghost Rider episode 8 review - The Laws of Inferno Dynamics

#41 Captain Sabertooth and the Treasure of Lama Rama

Remember Dazzler? I do. They’re the distributor who gave us Antboy, the terribly dubbed awfully acted piece of sh*t that stands in my top 10 least favourite things I’ve done a Rage Review on (guess the top 2, go on, it’s not that hard) anyway, I’m doing another review of a movie from that studio… fun times…

Captain Sabertooth is apparently a thing in Norway, with books, stage-plays, theme park attractions and a TV series. Here we have a movie adaptation badly dubbed into English. Yay… Because this is Dazzler media, I have to mention something about cost, this is the most expensive Norwegian kids movie ever made.

Released in 2014 during the massive hiatus of Pirates of the Caribbean due to their various production issues. The film gathered a mixed reception to say the least, it has a 5.7 rating on IMDb and a 0% audience approval rating on rotten tomatoes, although that’s based on just 5 ratings, compared to IMDb’s 406. But let’s see if this movie delivers the swashbuckling action I’d look for in a pirate movie.

Spoilers: No, it doesn’t.

Heroes v Aliens review

So, the 4 DC superhero shows are crossing over this week and they’re fighting the alien despots known as the dominators. This is big, so big I’m coming back for one last review, even reviewing an episode of a season I haven’t been watching.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ghost Rider Episode 7 review - Deals with our devils

I wouldn’t be surprised if next episode is the one that brings us into winter break… jeez, what a lot of material they have for it.

Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End Story mode review

It’s time to have a look at a video game for a change. We haven’t done one since the Ratchetrospective back in March. Let’s have a look at one of the year’s most anticipated games, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s end

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s end was a PS4 release but had a lot of trouble behind the scenes with the resignation of various members of the crew to the point where various parts of the game were completely redone. The behind the scenes ruckus lead to those who headed The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s other hit PS3 game, to head the project and the result the story is significantly changed from its original intent. Hard to say if it’s for the better of the worse, no gameplay or story footage was ever released, just a teaser trailer.

But I don’t wish to judge what could have been, I’m more interested in the here and now, let’s start with the plot. Notes, if you don’t know the story of Uncharted 1-3, play them, they’re all good games, also this is spoiler heavy, you have been warned. I've added a few screenshots using the game's photo mode, but I forgot to turn off the ui on some of them, whoops.

4 issue test #32 - All Star Batman

I’m still trying to erase Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder from my memory. Fortunately, despite the similar title, this title has nothing to do with that. All Star Batman

Now, a quick proviso on writer Scott Snyder. He has a lot of well-acclaimed work and most of it is well-deserved but… I think he might be a tad overrated. His Court of Owls work is fantastic and his run with Dick Grayson’s Batman is second to none. But then I have to look at the previously reviewed Batman Annual #1 (plug) and his two Joker arcs, neither of which are that great in my opinion. Not horrible, just not great. I honestly think Snyder is at his best dealing with villains that don’t have a tonne of backstory and character. He can remodel lesser villains but when dealing with the mainstream villains, and yes I’m counting Mr Freeze, his work is less than stellar.

So, yes, it does worry me that his first arc is focused on Two-Face, one of the more high-profile Batman villains. Plus, this title promises to be a villain palooza with villains being chucked in left and right. Batman: Eternal had this but it was a 52-issue mini-series with a number of different writers, this is a 5-issue arc.

John Romita Jr does the artwork for this series. Whilst I do like the artwork of Greg Capullo in Scott’s previous Batman run, John Romita Jr did some great work back during his Dick Grayson run, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he has up his sleeve.

All Star Batman is longer than most of DC comics’ offerings and sports a $4.99 price tag, nearly double what DC is offering for everything else. Padding it out is backup feature. I’ll cover the backup story separately as part of the review but I’ll be judging each issue as a whole when I come to scores.

Guilty Pleasures #32 - Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow

You may remember way back when I reviewed Ultimate Avengers 2, a not particularly well received sequel to a better, though far from perfect movie that was Ultimate Avengers. I’m not going to review that movie. But there is a movie I am going to review and it came in the same collection. Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one so let’s just dive in.

Star Wars Rebels season 3 episode 8 review - Iron Squadron

Now that Star Wars Rebels is done with it's 1 week hiatuses, we can get back to normal, here's my thoughts on the latest episode

Editorial - What I want to see in Young Justice Season 3

Young justice season 3 has been announced!

Young Justice had 2 great seasons which I did retrospectives on earlier this year and yes, I will be reviewing the next season when it comes out, however it comes out.

But before that comes, here's a top 5 list of things I want to see in Season 3

Editorial - What I saw in Batman and Robin Eternal and Star Wars Rebels season 2

Last year I made 2 editorials on what I wanted to see in Batman and Robin: Eternal and Star Wars Rebels season 2, time for the long overdue follow up to that.

4 issue test #31 - Titans

It’s DC Rebirth time again!

The return of Wally West, the ginger haired one not the black one which was introduced in the New52, was one of the most celebrated parts of the rebirth special, but where does he go from here, the one place he will always be welcomed, the Titans.

This story is written by Will Abnett, who had written Titans Hunt, a mini-series coming from the wake of Convergence which shows the group coming back together to fight a threat they’d left behind, it’s a good story and worth the trade in my opinion. The artwork is done by Brett Booth, who tends to be hit and miss but there’s no denying it’s more attune to my taste than someone like Frazer Irving, god his art sucks.

Anyway, but how does this new Titans book stack up? Let’s dig into the Rebirth special and #1-4 and find out.

Mini Review - Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme

Doctor Strange is one of Marvel’s most beloved magical characters, back in January I did a 4 issue test of his ongoing title, now I’m going to take a brief look at the animated title just as the movie reaches its the end of its second weekend in cinemas. Released by Lionsgate in 2007, it has a fairly mixed reception with fans. Let’s take a look.

Guilty Pleasures #31 - The Lego Movie

OK, there’s been a lot of cr*p and slightly less cr*p movies I’ve been watching this year, let’s take a look at something good, the Lego Movie.

I know what you’re thinking. Or at least you were before this movie came out. That sounds like a complete corporate shill, only existing to sell toys and you’d be right but this one actually has effort put into it, and they incorporate a large number of lego characters from throughout the years, for mostly cameo roles and of course as long as Warner Bros owns the rights to them, plus a number of a made up characters for this movie.

Produced on a $60m budget, this movie hit the right notes with people, earning $460m at the box office, 96% on rotten tomatoes and 83% on metacritic, not to mention people were miffed when this wasn't nominated for an oscar. and there’s a sequel and 3 different spinoff movies coming out over the next few years, one of which already has a trailer dropped. What’s made it so successful? Let’s find out.

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Episodes 6-7 review - The Last Battle/Imperial Supercommandos

I know, it's been a while since the last review thanks to hiatuses and such but we've got the next two episodes to cover. Sorry my review of Imperial Supercommandos is a bit short but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 episode 4 review - Abominations

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ghost Rider Episode 6 - The Good Samaritan

#40 Dude, Where's My Car?

Comedy! It’s great, I love slapstick, I love standup, I love visual gags, I love witty dialogue, I love sarcasm, oh boy do I love sarcasm and I love ranting about things that don’t matter. Comedy! What I don’t like is Dude, where’s my car?

Dude, where’s my car came out in 2000 and was greatly successful, earning $73m on only a $13m budget. There were actually talks about a sequel but the scripts were ultimately shot down by Ashton Kutcher, he had such greats as Texas Rangers to be in, what a success that was.

But seriously, this movie was panned by critics at its time, with an 18% rotten tomatoes and a 30 on metacritic but in recent years, and partially thanks to multiple airings on television, it’s gained a bit of a cult following. But don’t think I’m being fooled, I’m going to tear this movie a new one, let’s dive in.

Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 episodes 2-3 - Justice Society of America/Shogun

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 (Ghost Rider) episodes 4-5 review - Let me stand next to your fire/Lockup

Once again we return to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ghost Rider

#39 - Clockstoppers

Last time I did review of the crime against imagination known as the Games Maker. Looks like it’s a theme because here’s another one.

Clockstopers was released in 2002. For the record, let’s take a look at some other movies made in this period

So some good movies...

And some bad movies too, certainly a mixed year for movies

OK, I’ll stop the Spider-man bashing, yeesh

And it’s time to say hello to our old friends, Nickelodeon, the life support Network that can’t let cr*p like (recent – they were both good in their hayday) SpongeBob or Fairly Odd Parents die but cuts the budget of Korra forcing the production studio to cut corners with their animation. Thanks for that. This movie was brought out by Paramount and Nickelodeon movies, remind me, what I was it I reviewed from them before?

Ah. I see. Excuse me one moment

  

Where were we? Oh yes, Clockstoppers. Produced on a $20m budget, it made about $38m back, not really good enough and it holds a pathetic 28% on rotten tomatoes with a 30% audience approval rating. But let’s get this over with and dive in

Mini Review - Cowboys & Aliens

We have an interesting pairing here. James Bond meets Han Solo. This is Cowboys & Aliens

With the star power or Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig you’d figure this movie would be a success, but nope, made on a $160m budget, this movie bad a mere $173m, which by the time you address theatre cuts and promotional expenditure makes this movie ‘one of 2011’s most expensive flops’

But not all movies that are financial failures are necessarily bad movies, but this one seems to have committed a worse crime, being OK, a rating of 43% on rotten tomatoes with an equivalent audience score and average ratings of 5.5/10 and 3.1/5 respectively.

The movie was directed by Jon Favreau, who had just come off of Iron Man 2, intriguingly another movie that has the same audience approval rating as critic approval rating on rotten tomatoes. Robert Downey Jr was originally intended to play the lead but dropped out owing to the filming of Sherlock 2. Probably for the best

What do I think of the movie, well let’s take a look?

Guilty Pleasures #30 - Ratchet and Clank

Video Game adaptations are a cursed breed, aren’t they? If they’re not critical failures they’re commercial failures, and that’s why it’s heart-breaking as a fan to see that Ratchet and Clank was a critical and commercial flop. Produced on a $20m budget, it made back only $13m, it would’ve needed to have made nearer $50m to be classified a success. The critics lambasted it and holds a staggering 16% on Rotten Tomatoes.

So are the critics right? Why did this movie fail? I have a few theories but there’s start by looking at the plot.

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Episodes 4-5 review - The Antilles Extraction/Hera's Heroes

Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Episode 1 review - Out of Time

Legends of Tomorrow is back!

Season 1 was a mixed bag in my opinion; it was more fun than its sister series(es) but leaned on the same element of stupid both of the other shows were suffering from. Cap that off with a villain who wasn’t compelling and the season fell short of my expectations. Having said that, it was good enough to be put on a trial run for the second season.

I’ll be definitely reviewing this up until the mid-season break (including the 4-part crossover coming) Should it excel, I’ll continue it for the rest of the series. If it doesn’t, I’ll see what I can do with Riverdale instead.

So, with that all out of the way, let’s take a look at season 2’s premiere, Out of Time

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 Episodes 2-3 review - Meet The New Boss/Uprising

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. Ghost Rider continues with a week's break between episodes, here are my thoughts on episodes 2-3.

Editorial - my thoughts of various things

I decided to make an editorial on various topics I'm unlikely to cover in full or at least not any time soon. I will brief and relatively spoiler free for this so let's dive in

#38 - The Games Maker

What do you think of when you hear a title like that? I think of creativeness above all else. Too bad this movie really doesn’t do it for me. The Gamesmaker was released in 2014 and has 40% rotten tomatoes rating with a 47% with audiences.

We have another Signature one here, man do they keep cropping up. Such gems as Debug, Norm of the North, Kung Fu Rabbit, Barely Lethal, Robot Overlords, Time Runners (coming next year), and a fair few others owe their existence to signature. I don’t know whether to send them flowers or a hand-grenade, although I’m veering toward the hand-grenade.

But their last movie with a child protagonist, Robot Overlords was my favourite of the ones I’ve watched. (I’ve seen enough of Norm of the North to know it’s my least favourite – might’ve made my top 10 if it were last year) so without further ado, let’s give them a shot.

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Episode 3 review - The Holocrons of Fate

Thanks to the delay of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Star Wars Rebels has returned a week early. Here are my thoughts on the latest episode, the Holocrons of Fate

4 issue Test #30 - Captain America: Steve Rogers

It was only a matter of time before we got to this one, although it took nearly 2 weeks for the final issue to arrive. This comic eared significant controversy over things I’ll discuss in depth. Nick Spencer does not strike me as an idiot, but it would be idiotic to assume this twist could escape controversy. For many outside of comics, Steve Rogers is Captain America so him coming back and reclaiming the mantle was inevitable and it happened during the Assault on Pleasant Hill crossover. A lot of the crossover did help set up this title, but I’ll give details as they happen. Let’s take a look and see if this infamous book offers something to soothe the burn.

DC Rebirth review - Nightwing/Justice League

Time for me to review an insane amount of comics all in one go, again. Let’s skip the intro and get on with it

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Episodes 1-2 review - Steps into Shadow

Star Wars Rebels is back

After a hell of a finale last year, the show is back and ready to introduce us to more amazing things. Let’s see what the opener, steps into Shadow has in store

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 Episode 1 review - The Ghost

Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back baby!

Last year’s season had a strong first half and a second half that proved kinda lacklustre. But we have an interesting premise. Ghost Rider. I’m not all that familiar with the character from the comics and ultimately delving into the mystical elements of the Marvel universe with a rag tag team of mostly normal people kinda worried me. Were my worries justified? Let’s take a look

DC Rebirth review - Action Comics/Detective Comics/Batman/Superman/The Flash/Wonder Woman

So DC has decided to relaunch all their titles with new creative teams and is attempting to bring legacy back into the DCU. This is a very good idea, legacy is one of the greatest assets DC has over Marvel, which has almost all of its heroes operating in the current day. Another interesting part a number of series are now biweekly, and since the Hiatus combined with how many titles I’m covering make it impossible to do 4 issue tests on all of them I’m going to review the bi-weekly titles in 2 reviews. The first will cover the titles that first came out in June, and the second will cover those that came out in July.

As usual, I’ll cover the first 4 issues of the relaunch, plus the rebirth issue if there is one. But bear in mind that I won’t be covering them in as much detail as I would a regular 4 issue test because I’m covering several comics at once.

Mini Review - Lockout

So, after some goodish movies, some terrible movies and some head scratching movies, how about we round off with a dreadfully boring movie.

Too bad, this is Lockout

Mini Review: What we did on our holiday

I had to get to this one eventually. Comedy is not something I tend to cover very often. You can’t really make jokes about a good comedy without just repeating the jokes the movie makes, conversely there are only so many times you can say…

Regarding a bad comedy. But there are times where a line is crossed. Sometimes you can make great jokes out of it. Shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy use this tactic with mixed success (I never want to see clips of herpes ever again, Family guy) here, there are some serious issues being tackled as well. Cancer, family rows, divorce proceedings, the death of a loved one and others, but I’m sad to say it doesn’t work very well here.

What we did on our holiday was released in 2014 in the UK and 2015 in the US and made a modest return on its £3.5m budget. It was produced by the BBC and features some great British talent including former Doctor and crazed mind-controlling psychopath David Tennant; Rosamund Pike, who was nominated for an Academy Award in her next movie, Gone Girl; Ben Miller, who in the same year starred in my least favourite Doctor Who episode of that year (Robot of Sherwood), and one of Scotland’s comedic icons Billy Connolly.

Can this drama/comedy work, let’s take a closer look.

Guilty Pleasures #29 - The Hunters

Next up we have a subject I’ve not covered before, failed TV pilots turned into TV movies.

OK, I’m maybe being presumptuous. It’s never outright stated that this was a TV pilot, however it’s presented like a TV show, paced like a TV show, leaves out a lot of detail that would presumably fill future episodes, ends with teasers for the potential rest of the season and it aired on TV Network rather than going to cinema. I think that’s a fair case.

The Hunters received mixed reception by the audience, 5/10 on IMDb, but let’s take a closer look.

Mini Review: Spy Game

I’ve got to admit, I disagree with the majority on this one, but we’ll get to that, Spy Game was released in 2001 and starred Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. It made some money, not much, only $143m on a colossal (for this kind of movie) $115m budget. Bearing in mind that theatres take a cut of that and any promotional expenditure, I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a loss for the production companies.

The movie met with reasonably positive reception, a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 7/10 on IMDb and 63% on MetaCritic but as my first statement told you, I’m not going to be one of those people. Why not, well, let’s take a look?

#37 - Batman: Bad Blood

Oh boy, we’re back to the New-52verse

You may recall my 4^th rage of this blog was Son of Batman. In it Damian Wayne was forced into Batman’s hands and got the role as Robin. You might want to check out that review, because the plot is ongoing. I also did a review last year of Batman vs Robin, the slightly better sequel. Today we look at the third in the series, and it’s bad, really really bad. This is Batman: Bad Blood. Insert obvious Taylor Swift Joke here.

What we’re looking at is a mish-mash of various bits of Batman history (so what else is knew?). But the biggest influence I can see is Batman Incorporated where Batman assembled a team of not Justice Leaguers to combat a sinister threat. It’s classic Grant Morrison being equal parts awesome, stupid and confusing, especially when Fraser Irving did the art for one issue (rule of thumb, if Frazer Irving did the artwork, it’ll be cr*p) but I suppose I should mention our 2 breakout characters in this.

First we have Kathy Kane aka Batwoman – she was a breakout character from the awesome miniseries 52. In the New 52 continuity, there were plans that she and her long-time girlfriend would get married but the rug was pulled out from under the creative team at the last minute (because, apparently Bat-family characters can’t have happy lives) which lead to the resignation of the creative and the book’s eventual cancellation. She’s currently getting a starring role in Detective comics, I’ll let you know how that turns out in September.

Secondly we have Luke Fox aka Batwing II, the original guy was from Africa, I really have nothing more to say about him because I was not reading Batwing.

With that said, let’s take a look at this piece of trite and see what went wrong.

Guilty Pleasures #28 - Pacific Rim

So… I’ve just finished watched a show where giant robots were fighting off an alien invasion. Voltron: Legendary Defender the new Netflix Dreamworks series that tries to be Avatar: The Last Airbender in Space. I’ll save my thoughts on the show for another review but what am I watching today.

A movie where giant robots are fighting off an alien invasion. I was going to reference how both of these shows seem to have a very Power Rangers feel to them but then I found that Voltron actually pre-dates Power Rangers. But then Super Sentai, the Japanese show that Power Rangers uses stock footage from predates GoLion which Voltron used stock footage from so… I’m going off topic here.

Pacific Rim was released in 2013 making $411m off it’s $190m budget being successful enough for a sequel to be on its way, it’s been in development hell for some time. It’s received reasonable reviews with a 64 on MetaCritic and 71% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Well, this seems good, let’s take a look.

#36 - Batman and Robin

OK, before we start time for some house-cleaning. It’s become apparent that this meme

Is massively overused so I’m starting a coin jar. Every time I’m tempted to use the clip, I put a coin in the jar, this will last until the end of the year and any money in it will be donated to charity. (I’m all heart, I know)

That’s for the time I used it just now. So with that out of the way, Batman and Robin

I think I might need more change

Oh good grief, this is when Schumacher went too far. I have my issues with Batman Forever but ultimately, I enjoyed it more than I did the Burton movies. Sure, it was over the top but it did have quieter moments and focus was where it should be, on Batman!

In terms of success, being more kid-friendly than the Burton movies helped as it made it more marketable. I doubt they lost any fast food tie ins with this movie. But, this movie’s success was questioned from the start. The movie was fast-tracked into production by the studio after the success of Batman Forever, meaning there was a rushed feel to it, even from the beginning. Making it worse is toy companies coming in during pre-production, adding a commercial feel to proceedings. Chris O’Donnell has said that filming Batman and Robin felt like a toy commercial

Because of scheduling conflicts, largely relating to the fast tracking of the movie, Val Kilmer couldn’t return for a second shot as Batman and so George Clooney was hired instead. Also, with some insistence from Schumacher himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast as Mr Freeze, one of the main villains of the movie, and they were planning to base his origin on the vastly popular episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Heart of Ice. So, yes, I’m doing yet another terrible attempt to replicate it (you might remember the awful attempt to retell Mr Freeze’s origins in Batman Annual #1)

A lot of people in production don’t have nice things to save about this movie, I’ve mentioned Chris O’Donnell’s thoughts. George Clooney said he’d offer refunds to anyone who saw it in theatres (I did not, being the ripe old age of 5 when this came out) and Joel Schumacher himself apologised for it. 

  

Produced on a $140m budget, the movie made back its money with a strong overseas performance but it was lambasted critically, holding a mere 11% on rotten tomatoes, 28% on metacritic and a 3.7 on IMDb.

So, now we’re past the longest intro ever, let’s dive into the sea of sh*t that is, Batman and Robin.