Justice League: War

  • Title: Justice League: War
  • IMDB: link

Justice League: WarBased on DC Comics’ New 52 reboot and the first arc of the current Justice League series by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, Justice League: War isn’t as awful as I suspected. It’s not actually a good movie, but most of the issues here have to do with the source material itself rather than any mistakes in the adaptation into the film.

Replacing the missing Aquaman with Captain Marvel (Sean Astin), who I still refuse to call him Shazam, the storyline is basically intact as the various heroes of the Justice League come together to defeat Darkseid (Steve Blum) and the invading armies of Apokolips. As with Lee’s original designs, everything looks and feels too muted including the super-hero costumes, particularly those of Superman (Alan Tudyk) and Wonder Woman (Michelle Monaghan), that lack any pop. And although (thankfully) the film chooses to stay away from that awful yellow piping on the Flash‘s (Christopher Gorham) costume we saw at the end of The Flashpoint Paradox, Green Lantern (Justin Kirk) is still stuck with the unnecessary light-up pieces of his costume.

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Psych – The Breakup

  • Title: Psych – The Breakup
  • wiki: link

Psych - The Breakup

After eight years the doors of Psych are closed in the series finale which features Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dulé Hill) working one more murder case while Shawn struggles to tell his best friend that he’s decided to move to San Fransisco to be with Juliet (Maggie Lawson). While offering a typical wacky adventure, “The Breakup” makes several nice nods to the show’s past while showcasing that Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) is in good hands without Juliet, Shawn, and Gus as Betsy Brannigan (Mira Sorvino) proves more than up to the challenge of solving crime without the use of a fake psychic (and her choice of Junior Detective is a nice touch as well).

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Uncanny X-Men #19.NOW

Uncanny X-Men #19.NOWWhile Cyclops and his team head out into the field to find a new mutant, Hijack gets a visit from S.H.I.E.L.D. who is ready to charge the mutant as a terrorist unless he provides information about Cyclops and the location of his team.

It turns out Hijack isn’t the only one in trouble as Cyclops and his team walk into a well-designed trap involving killer Sentinels and a power-dampening field that nearly gets them all killed. The group is only saved thanks to Magik‘s showcasing what Doctor Strange has been teaching her in the past.

Although highlighted by some fun small comedic moments (such as Goldballs discovering his powers work again) Uncanny X-Men #19.NOW is certainly one of the darker issues of the series so far (which is saying something for a comic that gave us a multi-issue arc in a Hell dimension). In that same vein, the latest issue also touches on events in Madripoor answering a couple of lingering questions concerning the fate of the real Dazzler and the source of Mystique‘s mutant growth hormone. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Mind Games – Cauliflower Man

  • Title: Mind Games – Apophenia
  • IMDB: link

Mind Games - Cauliflower Man

A disgraced researcher and failed whistleblower (Marcus Giamatti) hires Ross (Christian Slater) and Clark (Steve Zahn) to convince his former colleague to use his access to come public about his former employer’s dangerous product. However the man’s wife has a different story to tell including her husband’s history of alcoholism and crazy behavior which got him dismissed from his job and makes everyone but Ross to doubt their newest client who (despite the burgeoning success suggested at the end of last week’s episode) is also their only client.

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Noah

  • Title: Noah
  • IMDB: link

NoahObsessed with the story of Noah since he was 13 years-old, writer/director Darren Aronofsky finally sees his vision of a quasi-fantasy/religious take on the biblical tale of the Genesis flood crash into the big screen today like a tidal wave. Sadly, as the characters of Aronofsky’s films usually learn, obsession leads to trouble.

Noah is certainly a labor of love and quite a bit of talent went into the creation of Noah, the ark, and the flood which washed away the sin of man from the face of the Earth. Equally certain, despite the skill on display both in front and behind the camera, is the fact that Noah is a mess on the level of Waterworld. Its grand expectations and epic scale simply can’t find a way to balance its stark character study of a man fighting to do the will of his God against the film’s more fantastical and sci-fi elements which include fallen angels in the form of giant rock creatures, the existence and use of magic, and never-ending storyline that keeps going long after it’s jumped the rails and taken a nosedive into the watery abyss which consumes so many (nameless) characters.

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