Action

Justice Society: World War II

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Justice Society: World War II
  • IMDb: link

Justice Society: World War II Blu-ray reviewAfter some lean years where DC Animated had decided to explore the clusterfuck that was the New 52, things appear to be getting back on track. It’s amazing how easily and well DC can do when they make the Flash (Matt Bomer) the heart of the story (see Justice League: The New Frontier and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox). And, thank god, the creators of the film knew enough to keep the character’s gorgeous simplistic design rather than the eyesore DC has been pushing on readers for nearly a decade now.

While fighting Brainiac (Darin De Paul) with Superman (Darren Criss), the Flash accidentally races so fast he enters the Speed Force and winds up in Germany. During World War II. On an alternate Earth. On this world, alongside the Allied troops, a group of heroes is fighting off the Nazis including another Flash (Armen Taylor), Wonder Woman (Stana Katic), Hawkman (Omid Abtahi), Steve Trevor (Chris Diamantopoulos), Hourman (Matthew Mercer), and Black Canary (Elysia Rotaru).

…

Justice Society: World War IIRead More »

Justice Society: World War II Read More »

Supergirl – Fear Knot

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Fear Knot
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - Fear Knot television review

The final episode before a three-month hiatus sees the team head into the Phantom Zone to rescue Kara (Melissa Benoist), over and over again. The concept is easy to guess during the first vignette, but basically it boils down into each member of the team becoming trapped in a prison of their own fear and living out a series of events in their mind while only a handful of minutes actually pass aboard the Martian’s flying library ship (seriously, where did this come from?). While each mini-episode offers a look at how a certain character sees things going wrong, it does quickly fill up the running time so that the actual rescue of Supergirl is a mere afterthought (the team doesn’t even get a proper introduction to Kara’s not-so-dead father). Still, despite the awkwardness of its conclusion, the episode works fairly well by shining the spotlight on the various characters including letting us know what kind of helium-filled monstrosities haunt Brainy‘s (Jesse Rath) dreams.

…

Supergirl – Fear KnotRead More »

Supergirl – Fear Knot Read More »

Supergirl – Prom Night!

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Prom Night!
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - Prom Night! TV review

“Prom Night!” leaves Supergirl (Melissa Benoist, who doesn’t appear in this episode) trapped in the Phantom Zone in favor of a whacky time-travel episode as Nia (Nicole Maines) and Brainy (Jesse Rath) travel back to the 90s looking to secure a biological sample from Kara’s past in hopes of using it to find her in the the Phantom Zone. So quickly following The Flash‘s recent 90s time-travel episode doesn’t help the premise, nor does the sitcom-ish humor stretched to an hour’s lenghth, but it does allow the show to bring back the younger actresses for Kara (Izabela Vidovic) and Alex (Olivia Nikkanen) one more time. As expected, the pair’s mission goes wrong leading to them interacting with Kara and Alex and accidentally changing past events causing unknown repercussions as the episode comes to an end with the two time travelers captured by aliens who were originally caught by the DEO.

…

Supergirl – Prom Night!Read More »

Supergirl – Prom Night! Read More »

Mortal Kombat

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mortal Kombat (2021)
  • IMDb: link

Mortal Kombat movie review

The 2021 adaptation of the Mortal Kombat video games has a higher budget, better special effects, and a cast at least as talented as the 1995 film. So why is it less entertaining? It probably has something to with the flaws of the earlier film feeding into joys of a B-movie, while the more serious approach this time around is just flawed. Oh, and if you are going to do a Mortal Kombat movie, you may want to include a Mortal Kombat tournament in it.

The entire film takes place prior to a tournament and involves the minions of Shang Tsung (Chin Han) being sent to kill the warriors of Earth despite the fact that all evidence suggests Earth has no chance in winning the tournament. However, there’s a prophecy that a descendant of Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada), who we see murdered in the opening scene, will prevent Outworld from winning Mortal Kombat.

Our heroes are former MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) who turns out to be a poor substitute for Liu Kang as the hero of destiny, and Special Forces officers Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee).

…

Mortal KombatRead More »

Mortal Kombat Read More »

Mortal Kombat

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Mortal Kombat (1995)
  • IMDb: link

Mortal Kombat movie reviewThrowback Thursday takes us back to 1995 to the first attempt to adapt the Mortal Kombat video game into a feature film. Director Paul W.S. Anderson‘s Mortal Kombat is a flawed, but nonetheless enjoyable, B-movie. The story involves former Shaolin monk Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Hollywood action star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), and Special Forces officer Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) being chosen by Thunder God Lord Raiden (Christopher Lambert) to defend Earth against an evil dimension in a tournament known as Mortal Kombat.

Each fighter has a different purpose for entering the tournament. Cage wants to prove his ability as a fighter (in a secret tournament no one will know about?), Kang is after revenge for the death of his brother (Steven Ho), and Sonya is chasing another competitor in the mercenary Kano (Trevor Goddard). The story is simply a loose structure to fit the various fight sequences, locations, and set pieces. An unapologetic B-movie memorable for Lambert’s mugging and some not too shabby special effects for the time, the film works as a tribute to the video game series without anyone in front, or behind, the cameras, or in the audience, taking the very ridiculous premise seriously.

…

Mortal KombatRead More »

Mortal Kombat Read More »