Gotham: Mr. Freeze: Victor & Nora Fries Cast & Thoughts on the Show

Thoughts on Freeze

     Nathan Darrow is pretty decent on House of Cards, and they can't do any worse than what DC Comics did to my Mr. Freeze than they did with his New 52 incarnation.  They took a compelling villain and made him mundane.  Hopefully my taste for Gotham as a series will return (more on that below), so I can return to this show and fully enjoy my favorite Bat-villain again.
     At least they kept his story sound according to Bleeding Cool News:

     "Victor begins as one of Gotham’s preeminent cryogenics engineers. Though ferociously smart and eminently capable in his work, Victor struggles to make meaningful connections with others. The one exception is his wife, Nora, who has tragically fallen ill with a terminal disease. Victor’s love for Nora knows no bounds, and as her condition worsens, he goes to extreme measures to figure out a way to freeze her before she dies."

     As much as it will be awesome to see Mr. Freeze on television again, I think the show needs to cut back on the ever-growing cast size.  I think it would've been cool to have him be a small consultant doctor on a case for Gordon.  Nothing super overt, just a guy doing his job, placed in a role for the fans to spot as an Easter Egg.

     UPDATE: Today marks the announcement of two additional new cast members.  The first is the awesome B.D. Wong (Jurassic Park and Jurassic World) as Hugo Strange, and Kristen Hager (Being Human) as the tragically-fated Nora Fries.

     At least she's going to have a compelling story (via Comicbook):

     "Thanks to her smarts, sincerity and a lighthearted sensibility, she’s the only person who’s managed to connect with the otherwise emotionally cold cryogenicist. As her condition worsens and her husband becomes more desperate to save her life, Nora must make the ultimate choice: play the willing participant in Victor’s mad plan or sacrifice herself to stop the monster inside of him." 

Thoughts on Gotham

     I've been a less than thrilled with Gotham.  Before it aired they were touting it as the story of a crime-riddled Gotham City long before Batman with Jim Gordon working against the odds.  What we got was an angsty show overloaded with all the people that we know from the 'now" all crammed into an impossibly connected world.

     It really bothers me that all these backstories are so conveniently tied to each other.  Why couldn't they make it a tightly knit story of a handful of crime families and the police force interwoven in a way that when someone weird does come along it signals something big?  Nope.  Of course they need to make everything tied together.  We have to deal with constant reminders of all the future criminals when they are young and are being force-fed their origin stories.

     It would make more sense, and in my mind a much better tale, that when Batman finally starts showing up, there's wouldn't be much in the way of strange super villains.  His appearance would serve as a beacon to draw the evil oddities out of the woodwork and bring them to Gotham City.  Hell they could even play it so you never see him in the very last season.  Keep him as a legend in the shadows, and only leave his rumors to be told by those that have encountered him.

     Think about how awesome it would be if a young Bruce Wayne only appeared maybe twice.  And then leave him away, he has his own story that comes much later in life, in a more interesting time of his life.  We don't need his whole damn childhood, and we don't need a kiddie Catwoman, or pint-sized Poison Ivy- Gotham would be much better as a straightforward crime series.  Maybe having the merest weird things, like a precursor to Black Mask with the Sionis family, along with Cobblepot and the Falcones.  I think a smaller story would do wonders instead of smashing together every damn character possible into one mess of an origin story.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire Launch Trailer

     Bioware's unparalleled Star Wars game, the MMORPG The Old Republic, has released it's fifth and newest expansion's trailer- the narrative heavy Knight's of the Fallen Empire.

     Players get to take part in a new non-canon story in the Outer Rim facing Sith Emperor Valkorion and his Eternal Empire.  As a continuation of their Knights of the Old Republic, anyone that enjoys gaming and Star Wars should check this game out.  Bioware has made a great name in creating content worth player's time.  They've built a an in-game Star Wars Universe that has great depth with plenty of room to get even bigger.

Jump straight into a deep and personal BioWare-style story where you’ll travel to the Outer Rim of the galaxy to come face-to-face with a new threat, Emperor Valkorion and his Eternal Empire. Your character will start its journey to becoming the Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War, as you discover that the Eternal Emperor’s dark destiny is tied to your own. 

Choose your path, recruit Companions into your Alliance, and make choices that have power to change destinies, all at the center of your own personal STAR WARS™ saga!

Best of all, Knights of the Fallen Empire is free to all Subscribers and every Subscriber also receives a free Level 60 character.

     Knight's of the Fallen Empire is out today.  It has raised the level cap from 60 to 65, with the nice bonus of giving current subscribers a level 60 character as a thank you for the support.

     To Play [ Star Wars: The Old Republic ]

Gravity Rush 2: New Combat Information & Trailer!

     During their Paris Games Week presentation Sony has given us a nice new chunk of information for the highly anticipated sequel to the single greatest PS Vita game created, Gravity Rush.

     What we get in this trailer is to see the world will now have 2 alternate modes of combat to expand her normal gravity altering fighting ability.  Lunar Style, making Kat lighter and swifter, and then Jupiter Style increasing her weight and subsequently her attack power.  There's also a nice tease towards the tag-team play with the AI controlled secondary character.
   
     The creative team has really been putting a lot of effort into giving players new options for the action portion of the game.  Apparently there's more than one way to combat skinning a gravity defying cat.

     Gravity Rush 2 will be out some time in 2016 exclusively on PS4.

     Gravity Rush Remastered will be available Feb. 9th in North America
          (Exclusively via the Playstation Store for $29.99)

     Source [ Playstation Blog ]

Suicide Squad: Empire's Jared Leto Joker Cover

     There's been quite a controversy over Jared Leto's Joker in the months since they released the first images of his physical appearance for the David Ayer directed Suicide Squad.  Much of the criticism has been about the ridiculous tattoos all over his body.  And I have a feeling this new cover image for Empire Magazine is going to relight some of those fires.

     Leto said of his portrayal, "I always get the sense that The Joker may be much older than people think. It's something different. If you don't break rules, you're not going to strike new ground. I think I'll be cooling down for the rest of my life."
     And Ayers explained about the way Leto's version will differ from other portrayals of the Clown Prince of Crime, "The Joker is the third rail of comic book movies. There's a power to that character, and by some freaking miracle, through the incredible things Jared has done and the photography and all the other millions of things that went into it, we've cooked up something transcendent. He's scary."

     To be fair, his acting- in the brief trailer moments- is spot on, but that look that he has seems to be off kilter.  He's what I imagine a bunch of goth-hipsters working in a Hot Topic might design him to look like.  Arkham sweatpants (patient bottoms), barefoot, with a leather coat and cane.  That dichotomy seems to really push the opposing forces and idea of insanity in his mind, and it isn't even the strange choice of wardrobe that still bothers me- it's those damn tattoos.

     This is one of those times where I feel that he is definitely playing a Red Hood/Jason Todd in the role of the Joker, and the torture scene from the trailer might be Harley Quinn.  It feels a lot like a cheap ploy.  Granted, it could very well be a completely new take on the iconic Joker, but it still appears like something is "wrong" with him as a character.  At least with Ledger, everyone that complained about him shut the hell up when they saw him in make up and costume, that is not the case here.  The only image I don't hear any complaints about is the one where he's sitting in a straight-jacket with Harley.  I'll have to wait and see as more information comes in.

Another look at The Joker via Empire #SuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/InVBvICRls

— Christopher Marc ΩU (@_ChristopherM) October 26, 2015

    Source [ ComicBookMovie ]

Star Wars: Cancelled Darth Maul Game May be Re-Awakened

     In a recent Reddit AMA Red Fly Studios CEO/Owner Dan Borth has said that they are hoping to "resurrect" the game from it's cancellation from LucasArts' closing its doors.  To do so the studio is working in their off time on a next gen demo to showcase the Sith Lord's abilities. (The video below is from the old gen systems)

     The game is described as taking place in Maul's pre-Phantom Menace time and would give us a great example of the path to the Dark Side through our own actions as Maul.

Young Maul age 9 or 11 to right before Episode 1.

We wanted to show what he went through to become a Sith. Showcase the torture the Emperor put him through. Show how you as the player would have made the same mistakes and ended up a Sith.

The Jedi are incredibly flawed in their opinions on not getting involved but getting involved and spying on people and using their abilities to get what they want. They are just like the Sith but don't admit it - the Sith admit it.

      With all the Star Wars stuff flooding the market, we could use a game like this.  The card game is boring, Uprising was alright, and the new update for Knights of the Old Republic looks great, plus Battlefront will be out soon enough, but we need something more along the lines of The Force Unleashed- so hopefully EA will see the merits of a game like this and support it.  Maybe they'll also consider bringing Star Wars: 1313 back into production as well.  I don't really want a Boba Fett game, but it'd sell and I'd sure as hell buy it.

     As a fallback plan, Borth mentioned, "Hopefully EA will see the value in us re-skinning our combat mechanic to be more in line with what they are thinking for Star Wars if they are not interested in Maul."  The fans want some in-depth 3rd person action games, and this makes sense as Maul has been confirmed to still be alive.  They could even cut in portions of his post Obi-Wan fight, and up to the more modern times to explain how he survived.

     To show our support Borth has asked us to go on Red Fly's Twitter (and other social media outlets) and let Disney and EA know we want this with the hashtag #WeWantMaul.

Jessica Jones: New Official Full-Length Trailer

     In the second of many Marvel and Netflix team ups, Jessica Jones' new trailer gives us a ton of great information.  We see the limits of Jones' powers, her alcoholism, the way she struggles with the torment Killgrave inflicted, and even the extent of how awful of a person he can be.

     Jessica Jones will premiere in entirety on Netflix November 20th.

The Last Witch Hunter: Review

     The Last Witch Hunter is soaked in convenience and cliche, but the visuals and fun factor keep it together just enough to allow it to remain enjoyable entertainment.  Vin Diesel stars as the titular witch hunter, cursed with immortality and currently protecting the regular humans from those that might do them harm with magic.

     All the actors struggle to make the roles work, even the great Michael Caine is left in a role that was wanting.  Vin Diesel plays his usual one-dimensional self, with no emotional range- in a tonally flat performance.  Rose Leslie plays a young witch/love interest complaining of the plight of her people (despite most witches here living in much better standards than damn near any of the regular humans in the film) who just so happens to have a hidden power to help the quest along, and Elijah Wood is a priest tasked with taking over the chronicles of Diesel's character.

     What the film has going for it is the visuals.  Not the CGI exactly, because there are times when it is laughable, you'll know it when you see it.  The Sentinel is the one magical creature that looks super alien and creepy and could've used more screen time.  The magic looks very spectacular at times, in particular there's a scene with a bunch of magical butterflies that is quite neat and the flaming sword was very cool.
     The set design is also tremendous, from the swanky witch nightclubs to the plague tree, they are all interesting locations and offer an oddly large feel to this cinematic world.  Of course, the pace of the movie is so great it doesn't matter as you'll be pulled right from one place to another.  Unfortunately, the camera work at times is so shaky, combined with consistently choppy editing, that it becomes a huge annoyance to track what's happening and it ruins the magic of those scenes.

     An unoriginal, but potentially interesting idea isn't enough to save The Last Witch Hunter.  The plot and story are dismal, supported by equally appalling dialogue in an effort to merge an ancient fantasy with the modern day world in a way that just doesn't fit right here.  Everything is telegraphed so far in advance that the trailer should be enough to accurately guess the end.
     In the hands of a better team of writers and directors, this could've been a truly amazing film with some real depth.  There are genuine moments that really do work, but they are few and far between.  As it is, it's merely an amusing modern day equivalent of a B movie- it feels like a film made by children trying to mix old genres and emulate the best of the old masters of fantasy and horror to create something new and interesting, and what resulted was this jumbled mess instead.  They have all the right pieces, it's just haphazardly piled together.

*I saw and reviewed this movie with screener tickets.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Thoughts on the Evil Luke Skywalker & Kylo Ren Theory

     I keep seeing these stupid posts concerning Luke Skywalker from The Force Awakens claiming Kylo Ren is actually Luke Skywalker. (1, 2, 3, etc.)  Seriously?  This is demonstrably untrue!  Luke IS in the trailer, and he has a whole voice-over in a nice calm voice.  Sure, he is wearing the dark outer cloak, but the under cloak appears to be the typical old Jedi garb that his own mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, wore.  And it might take place with his, or Han and Leia's possible children- but I think it's Rey and Finn he is talking to, but I can't discount the fact Kylo might be a child hearing it from him either if it is from the past.

     Should I also mention the fact there's been plenty of pics of Kylo Ren without his helmet, showing Adam Driver's visage?  And for the people thinking Luke might be evil because he isn't on the poster forget that Obi-Wan was NOT included on the A New Hope posters.

     I can't say that he won't be a villain in some capacity, but he is certainly NOT Kylo Ren.  Personally, I think Kylo Ren is of the Skywalker bloodline, more probably a Solo, being Han and Leia's child. (also note the first part of his name Kylo- S-KY-walker + So-LO... just saying...)  It would make sense in the Star Wars film saga being a chronicle of the Skywalker legacy to have him be one.  I mean, I also think that Rey might even be a Solo as well, but that's another story.

     Back to Luke- I think he has gone into self imposed exile as a way to preserve the Jedi.  Following in Kenobi's footsteps, maybe he's gone to guard something.  Or I've also thought that maybe, being the only true remaining Jedi as well as being the son of the most powerful Jedi that ever lived, he may have gone into hiding to protect others from an almost uncontrollable amount of Force power.  (Note: Disney scrapped the Expanded Universe, and in Aftermath Luke is mentioned as being possibly the only one left)

     As for Kylo, he clearly is following in the path of Vader.  He's already trying to imitate him with the mask and suit, but what training does he have?  Pretty much nothing.  What if Ren is a wanna-be Sith?  He doesn't have anything other than the stories of Vader to go from.  No master to follow.  He has a small grasp of the Force and built his lightsaber to emulate Vader's- Or from Vader's dropped lightsaber, as my friend suggested- to which I responded that would be a great mirror to seeing Luke's old saber (also from Vader/Anakin) from the trailer as well- but it looks like it might not be quite right and he hasn't got an instructor to guide him.  It has a weird unstable appearance, which makes me wonder if the hilt is actually an exhaust of some sort.  Like Ren couldn't get it to work properly and made due.

     However...  with those ideas, I don't discount the idea that Luke may have turned towards the Dark Side.  That is always a possibility, no matter how doubtful it may be.  Though, I also think that if Luke and Kylo fought each other, I fully believe Luke would crush Ren without a problem.  Ren appears to use fear to his advantage, whereas Luke at the end of Jedi was not only a competent Force user, but a confident Jedi Master and would see Ren as a minor threat.  The equivalent of Luke from A New Hope going up against Vader right away in the first film- it wouldn't even be a close fight.

     Overall, I think Luke is the new Obi-Wan, serving as a mentor to Rey and Finn, to combat Kylo Ren.  He may even become the new Yoda- the teacher for a future generation of Jedi.  Which might be a very important thing here.  These new Force users have no teachers outside of Luke, either good or bad.

     Sorry this is very rambling, but you get the gist of it.  

Back to the Future 2: Today is the Day Marty & Doc Arrive in the Future...

     It's been 30 years since I saw the first movie as a kid, and since then I've hit 88 mph, visited the past, eliminated the need for roads to arrive in the future, and now I'm waiting to see some of the "serious shit" Doc Brown was talking about.  

     I've seen the good things from the series, like the very well done video game- and the amazing relief from the news that there will be no remakes- and can only hope the creators keep the Back to the Future franchise on good grounds with the new IDW comic book series.  The fact it launches on the the exact day Marty arrives is quite a nice marketing tie-in.  Well played IDW, well played.

     As a life-long fan of the series, I've never thought the vision of the future was going to be realistic, albeit it is one I'd hoped might create hoverboards or flying cars in.  I mean, I've put a LOT of thought into the flying cars issue- and it is honestly a great thing we don't have them.  Considering the fact there is still well over 30,000 vehicle-related deaths annually in the us, it's a tremendous feat to keep that number lower.  Adding a third dimension (as opposed to the regular side-to-side and forward/backward of normal cars) to an increasing number of highly-distractable drivers' awareness field might result in a huge increase in fatalities.  But then, I suppose we'd need to create a pilot's license specifically for "flying cars."

     Anyways, until we have self drying coats, self-tying shoes, and hoverboards- Marty McFly's future of 2015 will always remain a future to me in some other parallel world.  The series opened the idea of time-travel possibilities for me, and will remain a pivotal mark in cinematic history.  Regardless of the accuracy of the future it thought might come or not.  Somewhere right now, a Marty McFly is walking around wondering what the hell happened to us between his departure from the past and today.  Perhaps Biff Tannen has something to do with the current ridiculousness the world finds itself in...

Hocus: An Escher-esque Puzzle-Solving Short Review

     Hocus immediately grabs players' attention due to its extremely minimalist design using impossible geometry of the M.C. Escher variety.  It's presented in primarily grays creating a stark contrast with the only two colored items in the game, which are the red cube you maneuver and red goal you must reach, creating an easy visual cue for where to begin and where to end.  That is the whole game, you start the game, solve 50 (currently) puzzles, and then you are done.

     The game is a great in attempting to navigate the illusionary pathways forcing players to adapt to perceptually connect planes that could never do so in physical 3 dimensional reality.  The game gives players a wonderful perspective-warping path to finding solutions equivalent to traverse a Penrose Triangle.  Unlike games such as Monument Valley or Echochrome, the puzzles in Hocus are static.  You can't rotate or alter them to find another solution.

     Music in Hocus is a sublime set of strange chimes that really give off an ethereal ambiance to the game's paradoxical architecture.  The gradually increasing difficulty offers a mediocre challenge to go with the soothing sounds and aesthetically pleasing visuals making the game feel almost like an achievement in zen gaming.

     The game truly focuses on combining the simple mechanics, spacial reasoning, and relaxing sounds in a way that is so well done that it is more than enough to make Hocus a great purchase, and subsequently it offers a brief respite from the more action oriented titles that fill the app stores nowadays with a small dose of tranquility through its gameplay.