1.5 Razors

Convergence: Batgirl #1

/ / Comics

Convergence: Batgirl #1DC Comics sure isn’t wasting much time to turn me off of Convergence. Despite being the exact target audience for this particular issue (It has Stephanie Brown as Batgirl! It has Red Robin in his Dr. Midnight pre-New 52 costume! It has Black Bat! And it even has Catman! CATMAN!) I still walked away disappointed.

First off the reveal of Convergence being nothing more than the unimaginative DC equivalent of Capcom Vs. doesn’t inspire much confidence in the storyline. Yes, it was fun seeing Stephanie back where she belongs, and I like the trio of Steph, Tim, and Cass together but none rang true to me as Steph’s giddy introspection is replaced with mopey narration (and what world is this exactly where Stephanie has never heard of Catman?).

It also doesn’t help that Convergence: Batgirl #1 might be the worst drawn mainstream super-hero comic I’ve ever read. The characters are ill-defined looking more lack slap-dashed artist sketches than a finished product, and the inking and coloring is haphazard resulting in numerous panels that appear out of focus. What the hell, DC? Pass.

[DC, $3.99]

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The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
  • IMDb: link

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel2011’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel boasted a cast that was able to elevate its source material to create a likable, if lightweight, film about a group of elderly travelers finding a second home in India by choosing to stay in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the the Elderly and Beautiful.”

The sequel returns most of the cast, and director John Madden, but almost none of the charm of the first film. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel wastes it cast and beautiful backdrop with enough romcom cliches, misunderstandings, overreactions, and poor judgement to fill half-a-dozen Three’s Company‘s episodes or three Kate Hudson movies.

The drama surrounding the hotel this time around centers around Sonny Kapoor’s (Dev Patel) impending marriage to Sunaina (Tina Desai) and plans to grow his brand with the acquisition of a second hotel. Neither is going as smoothly as Sonny would like leading to the script slowly turning the charming young man into an intensely dislikable character and his bride into a woman too dense to understand the basic nature of the man she’s about to marry.

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Gotham – Rogues’ Gallery

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Gotham – Rogues’ Gallery
  • wiki: link

Gotham - Rogues' Gallery

After being disappointed by the first couple episodes of Gotham I decided to give the Batman-ish show a wide berth. News that Morena Baccarin was joining the cast as Dr. Leslie Thompkins and recommendations of others who thought the show had improved over the first-half of the season brought me back. Catching up on a few episodes I missed, and still quite concerned with a number of characters and plot points, I sat down to watch the mid-season premiere “Rogues’ Gallery.” The episode begins with Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) stationed at the recently reopened Arkham Asylum as punishment where inmate outbursts and attacks on (and possibly by) patients have begun to concern the asylum’s director (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) who holds Gordon responsible for each breach in security.

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Gotham – Selina Kyle

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Gotham – Selina Kyle
  • wiki: link

Gotham - Selina Kyle

Did you ever think there would be a Batman television show so bad you’d rather be watching The WB’s universally derided Birds of Prey? Most of the issues I had with the “Pilot” return here including its inconsistent tone, ridiculous soap opera dialogue, and storylines which do no justice to beloved characters of the GCPD. The episode even includes a bizarre cameo by Carol Kane which seemingly was written and directed by Tim Burton on mescaline.

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Gotham – Pilot

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Gotham – Pilot
  • wiki: link

Gotham - Pilot

Opening on the worst night of Bruce Wayne‘s (David Mazouz) life, Detective Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) and his new partner Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) catch the murder case involving the deaths of Gotham’s most prominent citizens and the frightened young boy who was one of two witnesses to the crime. Desperately trying to create the grim feel of Christopher Nolan‘s recent films while featuring writing, acting, and dialogue better fitting a lazy afternoon soap opera than a much ballyhooed new primetime series, the “Pilot” of Gotham is sadly far, far removed from the far more interesting award-winning comic book tales of the GCPD by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, and Michael Lark.

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