2 Razors

Rio 2

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Rio 2
  • IMDb: link

Rio 22011’s Rio was a colorful (if mostly by the numbers) film featuring a domesticated Spix Macaw (Jesse Eisenberg) who finds himself stuck in the wider world in your basic fish (or in this case bird) out of water storyline. The sequel doesn’t stray far from the original as Blu (Eisenberg) once again is put in uncomfortable new surroundings only to eventually prove he has what it takes to survive and thrive.

After the discovery of other Macaws, Blu and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) head into the Amazon with their children (Rachel Crow, Amandla Stenberg, Pierce Gagnon) where Blu finds it increasingly hard to fit in (and that’s before meeting Jewel’s disapproving father). Once again the movie gives us both human and bird enemies, unnecessarily returning Jemaine Clement as the vengeance-obsessed Nigel, along with the supporting cast of the first film and a few new faces (most notably Kristin Chenoweth as a poisonous tree frog) as well.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
  • IMDb: link

Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesDirected by Jonathan Liebesman (Battle Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans) and produced by Michael Bay, it’s not really a surprise that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t a good movie. What is surprising is the fact it isn’t mind-numbingly awful, and at times it even borders on even being dumb fun and mildly entertaining.

Taking more than a few liberties with the comic, television, and toy franchise, the script by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Evan Daugherty offers an origin story for our four amphibious heroes (who are mistakenly referred to as reptiles), their first meeting with Channel 6 reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox), and the start of their battle against the Shredder (Tohoru Masamune).

Highlighting the fact that Leonardo (Johnny Knoxville), Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), and Donatello (Jeremy Howard) are mutant teenagers, and downplaying he fact that they’re actually ninjas, the film makes some bizarre casting and script decisions that remove much of the oriental influence of the franchise.

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Lucy

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

LucyFalling back on a long debunked myth Hollywood fell in love with years ago that somehow a person only uses 10% of their brain, the latest movie from writer/director Luc Besson casts Scarlett Johansson as a completely unexceptional young woman whose mind is opened up by a designer drug allowing her to access more and more of her “unused” brain. The result feels very much like a script where only a fraction of 10% of a person’s brain power was used to write it.

Unapologetically becoming more and more like The Matrix as Lucy’s intelligence grows and gives her access to the hidden code of the world (which is never adequately explained despite the narration by Morgan Freeman‘s character) and various super powers, Besson’s story never differentiates between the ability to absorb knowledge and knowledge itself. Just because Lucy suddenly has a bigger brain doesn’t mean she still wouldn’t have to learn the knowledge or skills (including advanced computer coding and foreign languages) to properly use them.

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She-Hulk #6

/ / Comics

She-Hulk #6She-Hulk #6 continues, and eventually stalls, the Blue File storyline. While offering glimpses worthy of note including resurrecting properties of Angie Huang‘s pet moneky Hei Hei and the fact that She-Hulk is not immune to the mind control involved in making both heroes and villains forget whatever happened in North Dakota (which only kicks in now?), the issue brings the investigation to a halt along with tons of new potential clients for She-Hulk as the comic (apparently) has decided to shelve the storyline (for now) and more in a different direction.

I was less-than-thrilled with switch to Ronald Wimberly’s art beginning last issue, but the Blue File storyline offered an intriguing mystery I wanted to see through. Since that isn’t going to happen any time soon, and the art is even more jarring this month, I’m sad to say I’m probably done with the title. I think Charles Soule has introduced several intriguing ideas for the new series including Jennifer’s Walters’ unorthodox staff and offices catering to super-human characters, but despite my appreciation of the character there’s simply not enough here to bring me back month after month. Pass.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Robin Rises: Omega

/ / Comics

Robin Rises: OmegaHow much you like Grant Morrison and his work on Batman over the past few years will certainly temper your response to Robin Rises: Omega #1 which launches the storyline which will likely bring Damian Wayne back from the dead and re-install him as Robin once more. Much like Morrison’s own work, Robin Rises: Omega #1 is overly-complicated, clunky, and unnecessary long winded (can’t they just throw the kid in a Lazarus Pit and be done?).

The $5 comic features an extended highlight reel of Damian’s story up to this point which leads more than a little like writer Peter J. Tomasi’s Morrison fan boy wanking. With a fifth of the comic taken up with the prologue, the story finally offers us into the main conflict by introducing Glorious Godfrey and Apokolips into the question coming between the conflicted sides of Batman and Ra’s al Ghul‘s forces. Stealing Damian’s body for a magic crystal hidden inside (because why?), Batman looses the villains when the Justice League shows up (unnecessarily) and forces them to flee back to Apokilips – with Damian’s coffin.

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