Daredevil #14

/ / Comics

Daredevil #14 comic reviewWell, it looks like Daredevil is going to have something new to feel guilty about (like he needed something else to brood about). This new volume of Daredevil continues to lead the Man Without Fear down an increasingly hopeless path.

“Dark Art” concludes with Daredevil’s protege in the clutches of the mad artist Muse whose real life art consists of the blood and corpses of his victims. This arc has been brutal and horrific at times and the final issue is no different. Stretching his senses to the limit Daredevil will be able to locate Muse and Blindspot, and save hundreds of intended victims, but not without a cost.

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Sing

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sing
  • IMDb: link

Sing movie reviewIn a year without a true standout animated feature it seems fitting that Sing, an animated film as average as they come, closes out 2016. With a paper-thin plot to allow various characters multiple opportunities to perform popular songs and dance around, Illumination Entertainment offers up a film version of American Idol by offering one lucky contestant fame and fortune. Of course the fact that the person offering it can’t actually deliver does through a wrench into the plans of the would-be stars.

With an impressive cast including Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, and Nick Kroll, directors Christophe Lourdelet and Garth Jennings deliver a film that is neither more nor less than you would expect. When the story allows the characters to burst into song the movie works well enough. However, when there are stretches without musical performances, where the real-life troubles (family issues, boyfriend issues, daddy issues, money issues, and so on) of the individual performers get in the way of training for their big night, the movie stalls.

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Assassin’s Creed

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Assassin’s Creed
  • IMDb: link

Assassin's Creed movie reviewStop when this gets too silly for you. For hundreds of years a creed (which is the franchise’s term for ill-defined shadowy group) of assassins has been in a secret war with the Knights Templar over control of a divine object know as the Apple that has to power to remove free will from all humankind. The Templars wish to use it to subjugate the human race. To find the lost artifact, the Templars steal a career criminal (Michael Fassbender) from his execution and hook him up to a machine which reads genetic memories from his code so he can relive his ancestor’s experiences while jumping around tied to a giant metal arm with those experiences manifested around him as ghostly visages.

Still with me? In charge of the project is a die-hard believer (Jeremy Irons) and his daughter the scientist (Marion Cotillard) who needs a blood descendant of the last person to have the Apple to lead the Templars to it (on the assumption that no one could have possilby found and/or moved it in more than half a millennium). The only way to find the Apple is to have these decedents of various assassins relive the experiences (gaining knowledge, purpose, and murderous skills which, of course, will eventually backfire on the evil corporation).

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The Most Overrated Movie of 2016

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Jackie
  • IMDb: link

Jackie movie reviewThe goal of a biopic is to offer insight into its subject, to explore the life of an individual and share something new or interesting about its central character. By that definition Jackie is a complete failure. The only takeaway from director Pablo Larraín‘s film is that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was upset by the assassination of her husband. That’s hardly worth the price of admission (let alone the film’s $9,000,000 budget). Natalie Portman may shine in the role, but to what purpose?

Oscar-bait, the film is notable only for its recreation of the time period and for Portman’s peformance. The problem with the former is the glamour is wasted as window dressing on a film without a reason to exist (other than grab Portman some statuettes). The problem with the later is Portman’s performance is undercut by both a questionable accent and Noah Oppenheim‘s script which is never sure who Jackie was, as it jumps from portraying a vapid creature out of touch with reality (as seen in the flashbacks) to a woman of cunning and guile completely controlling an interview with a journalist (Billy Crudup) looking to find the real Mrs. Kennedy.

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Red Hood and the Outlaws #5

/ / Comics

Red Hood and the Outlaws #5 comic reviewContinuing the comic’s opening arc, Red Hood and the Outlaws #5 mainly centers around the Red Hood fighting for his life against the Black Mask controlled Bizarro. Unwilling to let Jason fend for himself, Artemis returns to help even-up the odds allowing the Red Hood to distract the super-villain while Artemis attempts to control his super pawn (easier said than done).

I’m looking forward to see how this plays out. As we’ve seen hinted at in the prior issues Jason is tempted to choose a more permanent solution to Black Mask, but instead chooses to keep his word to Batman. No killing (even if doing so here would have freed Bizarro and taken an unstoppable weapon out of the hands of a sociopathic gangster).

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