2.5 Razors

Doctor Doom #1

/ / Comics

Doctor Doom #1 comic reviewDoctor Doom, reinstated as the absolute ruler of Latveria (although not for long), gets a new comic as Doctor Doom #1 opens with Doom’s vocal opposition to using a black hole on the moon as a means of cooling the Earth and dealing with climate change. Ridiculed for his dissenting opinion, Doom is once again cast as the villain when all evidence to an attack on the station points back to Latveria and Victor von Doom.

Casting Doom as a victim wouldn’t be my first choice, and the miserly grumpiness of the character (really his defining characteristic here) leaves something to be desired. The thread of Kang, who is apparently tied to Doom on some level, is one of the issue’s bright spots foreshadowing something larger on the horizon.

…

Doctor Doom #1Read More »

Doctor Doom #1 Read More »

Nancy Drew – Pilot

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Nancy Drew – Pilot
  • IMDb: link

Nancy Drew - Pilot television review

Our introduction to Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann), the title character in The CW’s new series which takes its name from the well-known kid detective who has remained popular and in print since her first appearance in 1930, isn’t solving a case but hooking up with a boy she barely knows in a garage. It’s here that the show’s creators break from the tradition of the cute and precocious Nancy Drew template and offer an older, although not necessarily wiser, version of the character. McMann turns out to be a fairly good choice for this version of Nancy who, in the first episode, deals with a murder, a ghost mystery, the lasting effects of her mother’s death on her life plans, and the supernatural. It’s the last of these that becomes the hardest two swallow, especially as it becomes increasingly clear just how much of ghosts and things that go bump in the night the show’s writers are prepared to accept.

…

Nancy Drew – PilotRead More »

Nancy Drew – Pilot Read More »

Aladdin

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Aladdin (2019)
  • IMDb: link

Aladdin DVD reviewThe 2019 live-action remake of Disney’s animated film of the same name is a mostly harmless, and mostly pointless, endeavor that adds little (if anything) new to the tale (other than giving the Genie a girlfriend). As in the previous remakes, the plot and songs are brought in from the original (although this version sadly lacks Robin Williams‘ madcap antics that helped elevate an otherwise pedestrian story).

Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott star as street thief Aladdin and Princess Jasmine with Will Smith stepping in as the Genie and Marwan Kenzari providing the most bland version of the villain Jafar possible. Although there’s certainly money spent on CGI for the project, the film lacks any of the magic of the animated feature.

…

AladdinRead More »

Aladdin Read More »

Men in Black: International

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Men in Black: International
  • IMDb: link

Men in Black: International Blu-ray reviewOther than its existence, the most shocking thing about Men in Black: International is that it isn’t a complete dumpster fire and does deliver some enjoyable moments over its uneven 114-minute running time (although, in the end, the entire enterprise is largely forgettable). The movie franchise dormant for seven years is reawoken by bringing in Thor: Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as the primary agents. Thompson is cast as the young woman smart enough to uncover the existence of MIB while Hemsworth is the weary agent who has been skating on his reputation for years.

The plot is more complicated than it needs to be as Agent M (Tessa Thompson) is sent to London by Agent O (Emma Thompson) who suspects something foul may be happening on the other side of the pond. M soon hooks up with Agent H (Hemsworth) only to bungle their assignment and end up on the run with a valuable piece of alien technology that a race known as the Hive are desperate to get there hands on.

…

Men in Black: InternationalRead More »

Men in Black: International Read More »

Carnival Row – Some Dark God Wakes

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Carnival Row – Some Dark God Wakes
  • IMDb: link

Carnival Row - Some Dark God Wakes TV review

The best word to describe the first episode of Amazon’s new series Carnival Row is awkward. Attempting to blend fantasy, sci-fi, and a kinda-sorta (but not really) steampunk ascetic around a winding story lacking a true focus offers some interesting ideas but really shows no intention of heading somewhere interesting (at least until its final few minutes). Before we even get to a single scene, a dump of narrative exposition informs us about three different races, a war, refugees, and human smuggling across borders. In the first few minutes we also get refugees fleeing an occupied land and a shipwreck. None of this, however, takes place in the show’s primary setting. Here the shift focuses away from the faerie lands of Tirnanoc to the far more human lands of The Burgue where Inspector Rycroft Philostrate (Orlando Bloom) is searching for a serial killer. Th premiere also offers glimpses at the charged political climate of the land (a not-so-subtle allusion to the U.S. and its current views on immigration) and, for good measure, throws in the proclivities of a politician’s son frequenting faerie whorehouses.

…

Carnival Row – Some Dark God WakesRead More »

Carnival Row – Some Dark God Wakes Read More »