3.5 Razors

Moon Knight #9

/ / Comics

Moon Knight #9 comic reviewFace-to-face with all three of his separate personalities, Marc Spector confronts each of them in hopes of regaining his sanity and taking full control of his life once more. While some go quietly, such as the strange futuristic version of himself obsessed with werewolves, others are less willing to simply fade from existence. All the battles in this issue occur internally in the odd Egyptianized landscape of New York (which is still unclear as to how much of this is real and in Marc’s imagination).

“Incarnations” concludes here with a Moon Knight on firmer ground than we’ve seen him in this series. Finally in control of his own mind, our hero can look to external threats such as Khonshu.

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Scorpion – Wreck the Halls

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Scorpion – Wreck the Halls
  • wiki: link

Scorpion - Wreck the Halls television review

Scorpion celebrates Christmas with some wilderness misadventures when an attempt to get the team together outside the city for an electronics-free holiday is hijacked by a group of gunrunners and their intended victim who they had planned to bury in the woods not far from Team Scorpion’s retreat. Using whatever is at hand, the group works to subdue the criminals Home Alone-style and rescue Ralph (Riley B. Smith) who is taken hostage.

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Jessica Jones #3

/ / Comics

Jessica Jones #3 comic reviewLife gets no less complicated for Jessica Jones. After being abducted by the Spot, Jessica awakes in a dingy basement, shackled to a chair. Following a little verbal sparring with the super-villain, Jessica is allowed to meet the woman in charge who doesn’t threaten her. Instead, “Alison” admits to working behind the scenes to procure her release from prison and then offers Jessica a job. For a mysterious figure working for questionable sources, she does make a fairly good argument.

With both Detective Costello and Luke Cage looking for her, Jessica’s sudden disappearance doesn’t go unnoticed. However, the pair are really in the issue only as window dressing. The real focus of the issue is Jessica’s new job over.

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La La Land

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: La La Land
  • IMDb: link

La La Land movie reviewI enjoyed La La Land; it’s fun, light-weight entertainment with likable stars and straightforward (largely predictable) storyline. It doesn’t ask much of the audience other than to enjoy the ride. During the award season release of heavy dramas, the film works well as a palate cleanser. However, I object to the growing consensus that it’s one of the year’s best films.

Writer/director Damien Chazelle‘s film is a nostalgic throwback to the golden age of the Hollywood musical, with a decidedly post-modernist slant. As a love story to Hollywood the film works well enough, as a musical the film runs into a few issues beginning with the choice to cast its stars based on their acting, rather than singing, ability.

In pretty much the most cliched set-up possible, we’re introduced to barista and aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and promising Jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who meet cute, dislike each other, and eventually fall in love. Along the way there will be singing, dancing, the inevitable rough patch, and a questionable ending (not unlike Woody Allen’s Café Society) which ends the movie on a sour note.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  • IMDb: link

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie reviewThe first of the standalone Star Wars movies, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set just prior to the events of the original Star Wars as a struggling Rebellion learns about the newest Imperial weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. Just as memorable for what it keeps from the Star Wars template as what it chooses to change about the formula, Rogue One offers no opening crawl, no screen wipes, and the unnecessary need to name every planet shown on screen in subtitles (something George Lucas’ original films allowed the dialogue itself to deal with).

For as much as it leaves behind, however, Rogue One recycles plenty of Star Wars ideas including an orphaned hero (Felicity Jones) reluctantly called into the service of the Rebellion, a soldier of questionable character (Diego Luna) and his lumbering sidekick, a funny robot (Alan Tudyk), an impossible mission, strange aliens, and a Rebellion (albeit a less united one than fans will remember from the previous films) focused on taking down the Galactic Empire. Along with new planets such as Jedha, Wobani, and Scarif, there’s plenty of familiar sights including Yavin 4 and, of course, the Death Star.

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