2.5 Razors

Pro-MEH-theus

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Prometheus
  • IMDB: link

prometheus-posterIf all you want out of Prometheus is a great looking sci-fi adventure that asks big questions about the history of life on Earth (without the slightest interest in answering them), has a couple of disturbing Alien sequences the series is known for, and shows us where Aliens come from, well this movie was made just for you. If you wanted something more than the bare minimum, like an engaging story that doesn’t feel the need to talk down to its audience every step of the way, well, then this probably isn’t the summer flick you’ve been hoping for. But, hey, at least it’s better than Alien 3.

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Chronicle

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Chronicle
  • IMDB: link

chronicle-blu-rayI like super-hero movies but I’m far from fond of found footage films which present events from the perspective of characters documenting their own adventures. Chronicle stars out with a really good idea as it shows us what might happen if three high school misfits (Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan) found themselves with super-powers. However, the execution and thinly written characters produce mixed results for a movie that should have knocked my socks off as the shaky-cam pseudo-documentary style narrative is far from the film’s biggest problem.

The action sequences are impressive, especially the final battle between two of the super-powered teens, and the realistic way in which the kids used their powers (basically to screw with people and for their own enjoyment) worked well, but every time the film attempted to put the super-human powers on hold in favor of high school drama the film stalled.

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Batman Annual #1

/ / Comics

batman-new-52-annual-1For the title’s first annual as part of the New 52, writers Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV give us a new origin story for Mr. Freeze. Honestly, Freeze isn’t my favorite Bat-villain. I’ve often thought of him as a less interesting Captain Cold (who got his own reboot a couple months back). The only version of the character I’ve really cared for was the version from Batman: The Animated Series which balanced the tragedy and nobility of the character so well.

After Freeze escapes from Gotham he heads right to Wayne Enterprises for his revenge. Victor Freeze blames Bruce Wayne for shutting down the cyrogenics experiment which was his only hope of ressurecting his wife Nora and which caused the accident which turned him the man he is today.

I’m not fond of the idea of putting Wayne right in the middle of Freeze’s obession to the point where he personally shut down the project and was present for the accident (he is, after all, a very busy man), but the choice to change Nora from Victor’s wife into an unknown woman with whom he’s become obsessed is interesting.

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Gone

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Gone
  • IMDB: link

gone-dvdOne year after Jill (Amanda Seyfried) was kidnapped by a serial killer her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham) disappears without a trace leaving the excitable young woman to believe the kidnapper has returned. The police (Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter), who could find no physical evidence to back up Jill’s story of the first kidnapping once again believe the young woman with a history of mental illness is simply letting her imagination get away with her.

For Gone to work both stories need to be given equal weight, but despite Jill’s increasingly erratic behavior (which only grows because everyone refuses to help her) we know something has happened to her sister and Jill isn’t simply imagining the situation. The film follows the same movie logic of plenty of thrillers where dumb movie cops aren’t able to solve a crime for an entire year but one woman with no training is able to track the killer back to his lair in a single day. She also proves to have a remarkable ability to elude detection when an entire city’s police force is looking for her.

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Batman: The Dark Knight #9

/ / Comics

batman-the-dark-knight-new-52-9-coverI wasn’t a fan of this Bat-tile before the New 52 reboot and I’ve given the new volume a pretty wide berth. However, the latest issue had three points of interest to make me pick it up.

First, Judd Winick was guest-writing and although his his latest work hasn’t been his best, he’s produced good stories in the past. Two, the cover showcased Red Robin on the cover (who only appears in one panel, isn’t connected to the story at all, and doesn’t utter a word). Three, it was a Night of the Owls crossover.

The problem with this issue, as has been the trouble with almost all of the Night of the Owls crossovers, is that once again the focus here is on a villain, another Talon, instead of the comic’s main character. This issue is all about Alton Carver, the Talon sent to kill Lincoln March, and his history with the Court of Owls and Batman.

The focus is all wrong, the character teased on the cover isn’t here (I was looking forward to a Bruce/Tim team-up), and there’s just not enough here to justify picking up unless you simply want to grab all of the Night of the Owls issues. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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