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Blade of the Immortal

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Blade of the Immortal
  • IMDb: link

Blade of the Immortal movie reviewBased on the Japanese manga of the same name, Blade of the Immortal is bloody affair from director Takashi Miike. The story centers around the cursed samurai Manji (Takuya Kimura) who cannot die. Approached by a young girl (Hana Sugisaki) who reminds the samurai of his lost sister, our hero reluctantly agrees to help her get vengeance on the swordsmen who killed her father and their leader Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi).

In terms of action and body count, the movie doesn’t disappoint. However, adapting two books from the series into a single film proves to be a bit awkward at times. There’s a completely unnecessary subplot of a group of mercenaries killing off the same samurai as our hero which only bloats the film’s already considerable running time. Also troubling is the script’s inability to decide how great a swordsman our protagonist truly is. In the opening and closing scenes our hero is unstoppable, taking down an insane number of enemies. However, in pretty much every scene in-between, in one-on-one combat with Anotsu’s lieutenants, his skill is highly questionable. The result is an interesting, if uneven, action film.

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Legends of Tomorrow – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legends of Tomorrow – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4
  • wiki: link

Legends of Tomorrow - Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4 TV review

The four-part crossover concludes with the death of one of the Legends (helping the show write off the character of Firestorm which it never learned to use properly), the arrival of the other Legends (better late than never), and our heroes’ return to Earth-One for a final confrontation with the Earth-X invaders. Keeping half the Legends in reserve until the final episode does help boost our heroes numbers in the final episode, but is a disservice to Ray (Brandon Routh) who, given his tenure in the Arrowverse, certainly draws the shortest straw this time around. The death of Stein (Victor Garber) is hardly surprising, but how he is kept alive from his critical wounds at the beginning of the episode, and his sacrifice, both work well.

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Legends of Tomorrow – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4 Read More »

The Flash – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Flash – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3
  • wiki: link

The Flash - Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3 TV review

Things are looking pretty bleak for our heroes at the beginning of “Part 3” (and aren’t a whole hell of a lot better by the end). Most of our leads are captured and imprisoned on Earth-X, the Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh) is preparing to carve out Supergirl‘s (Melissa Benoist) heart, and Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), and the Arrow B-team are trapped in the particle accelerator. Enter Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller). Well, a new version at least (complete with his comic book trademark glasses the previous Earth-One Cold was too cool to wear). We also get a new hero in the Ray (Russell Tovey), a grizzled General Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan), and a last-ditch plan for our heroes to make it back to their Earth before it is too late.

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Arrow – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Arrow – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2
  • wiki: link

Arrow - Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2 TV review

“Part 2” of the four-part crossover focuses on the fallout of Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris‘ (Candice Patton) wedding and the explanation of who the villains from Earth-X are and what they want on Earth-One. While our heroes manage to push back the Nazis in “Part One,” the second episode offers a counterpunch from the evil dopplegangers (whose identities seemed fairly obvious to everyone except, apparently, our heroes). Heavier on action than the first episode, there are still smaller conversations shoehorned in here and there to give those not in the fray something to do. “Part 2” also offers small cameos to Arrow‘s B-team who arrive to provide support against the Nazi horde.

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Supergirl – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1 television review

Unlike last year’s crossover, which tailored each episode to that particular cast, “Crisis on Earth-X” begins in earnest with jumping us right into the action and introducing (nearly) all our characters at once. This time around it feels much more like a cohesive crossover (and Supergirl gets to be in the action from the beginning). The focus on “Part 1” is primarily to get all our characters to Central City in time for Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris‘ (Candice Patton) wedding. We get their wedding reception, various drama between Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and Jackson (Franz Drameh) and Stein (Victor Garber), and wedding crashers in the form of the crossover’s big bad villains – Nazis from Earth-X.

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