Destiny 2 Beta: Eyes up again Guardian, it’s time to checkout this sliver of light

The first day has passed on the Destiny 2 beta, and everyone is rushing out to give their first impressions. At the time of writing this, the beta has been out for twenty-three hours, and while I imagine someone has been playing non-stop since the launch on PS4, the first platform to get Destiny 2, Xbox fans are surely excited for their guardians to step into the now nearly light-less beta and explore the small but interesting offer that Bungie and Activision have given us. Sorry PC gamers, you have to wait until August but rest well and assured in your delay as let’s be honest, your game should look better than us console peasants.

Back to the task at hand though, and that is my impressions of the Destiny Beta so far. In the shortest answer, I am having a pretty good time. There are issues for sure, but I think there are a bunch of good-to-great segments and improvements they have shown to leave me with a pretty positive impression of what the full game could look like.  Let’s grab a few new guns and dive in.

Right out of the gate, let’s take a moment to appreciate the load screen music. Destiny has always had some pretty great orchestral music mixed with the choir as part of its background tracks and Michael Salvatori, the game’s composer,  really crush’s this opening theme. It instantly get’s you back into the Destiny frame of mind, taking notes from the original game, yet blends them into something, in my opinion, more powerful and passionate. If this opening theme is the bar in which we have to set the rest of the game’s music from, then I think we are in for an ear full of greatness.

Continuing on the audio train, let’s talk about the general sound of the game, from the hoarse bark of the pulse rifle, the thunderous clap of the hand cannons and the oddly heavy footsteps of your guardian as you rush your way to the ‘B’ flag or to the next jumping portal in the strike. First and foremost, we have to talk about the combat audio. Each weapon has a pretty damn satisfying growl, snap or bark associated with it and it help’s you not only pin down what class is shooting you from behind, because your teammate cannot seem to put up their damn blast wall while capturing the point, but also gives you a feel for where their attack from, whether it’s you being shot, or your squad mates firing from around the corner to let you know the fight is on its way to you.

The audio design, for these few pieces of content we are able to play, is a step above Destiny 1, as it’s much clearer to hear fire fight’s from farther away and the grenades clink’s & clanks as they bounce off the wall. These audio cues really play in as a secondary radar to players who are tuned in and listening, as the clarity in which you hear the sound of lightning, fire, and iron usually indicates how close you are to getting beaten about the head and neck by a roaming super.

Sweeps, our beloved sweeper bot

Not all of the audio is on point yet though as I found that footsteps varied greatly in their quality, not only from a “wow that’s loud in my ears when I walk” standpoint but also how it doesn’t seem to follow the same rules as weapons and grenades all the time. While it does seem like different surfaces produce different levels of ‘clack’, there doesn’t seem to be the same level consistency here which can really mess with you, especially when in some of the more cramped and multi angle of attack points, such as the B flag on control or the indoor’s bomb plant point in countdown. Nothing says “stop throwing your boots voice” like being shot from the side when your radar say’s they are in front of you, but the audio makes it sound like they are behind you. The other audio issue I have is actually enemy weapon fire. I think part of the issue is that the queue’s we came to know and understand in Destiny 1 are not quite the same/completely new so that learning curve is there obviously, however, there are still times where I am being shot/damaged and no whine of a flayer rifle or chunky metal pang is there to notify me that someone is, in fact, trying to give me a third eye in the center of my forehead.

A quick note on the voice work. While we don’t get a ton of dialogue throughout each of the activities,  what we do get is good, as the main cast from the original game makes its return and continues to deliver a pretty strong performance. If I had to gripe, I would say Ikora’s voice actor, Gina Torres, get’s a weak line to “get angry” about and it feels slightly out of place compared to the rest of her, and the others dialogue. While I am no vocal coach, nor a voice actor it seemed like there could have been a bit more power or slight distortion to her voice as she powered up a nova bomb and leaped onto a Cabal aircraft. Ghaul’s voice was particularly good in its deep, omnipotent feeling bass, almost like time slows as his presence and voice become the single focal point of the scene. Out of every voice heard, I have issues with two of them. These are not issues as in “wow these are terrible” but more along the lines of “I don’t have the context for why they are there, and thus they sound really out of place”. Firstly is Failsafe another AI, I presume, who seems to be part of the general overwatch for missions. Much like characters and/or your ghost make comments as you progress through a story mission or strike this new character chimes in with a modicum of frequency, usually to harass/make fun of your ghost throughout the Strike; Inverted Spire. What throws me off about this assumedly female character is that the play between her and the ghost has no context yet, so seems very random and often very crude. The other voice is in control and is only heard if you capture all three points at the same time. It’s an audio clue that seems so out of place both in tone and message for this mode, as Lord Shaxx has always been our announcer/encourager of Guardian murder. This may be a place holder voice, or again like Failsafe, it could just be we don’t have the context for why it’s there and as such, think it’s odd.

If you have not played Destiny 1, either in a very long time or at all, Destiny 2 may look like it’s the same game with some new guns and I don’t think anyone could blame you. Before actually getting hands on time with it, I also thought the game looked pretty much like the original, but once you sit down and start playing the game you start to notice the, mostly, positive changes and upgrades they have made all across the design and gameplay fronts of this game.

Right away I noticed the colour palette and while I, again, understand why some may not see it, I found the world to be a lot lusher and full of deep colour versus Destiny 1’s seemingly dry palette. There we get a very bright, sharp and cold game, where in the sequel we get a much warmer and vibrant set of colours to work with. Cloth and other fabric’s look like they have substance to them, while plate armour retains that bulk look and feel, but doesn’t feel as lifeless as many of the original games heavy gear did. Level design also feels the impact of colour saturation and emulates the same lush look and feel that cloth armour portrays. This gives your story mission the brooding darkness that inky shadows and dancing fire of a wrecked room that is appropriate, while it keeps the control map looking bright and well-worn as light grey stone absorbs all the light around it, with shaded alcoves and underground tunnels stay properly dark and subtle wet appearance.

Colour also plays a big part in your enemies, whether it’s the harpy laser beam, soldier’s blasting boulder size arc shotgun rounds from their weapons or the Cabal leaders blasting off with Inferno coloured jetpack’s and a shimmering fire shield to match, colour plays very well with your PvE experience. The Inverted Spire, the strike playable in the beta, uses both colours, the darkness of caverns, the shadow’s created by flickering flames, and ambient lighting from lights or energy sources to give you a real sense of size and depth as you traverse your way through the level. Even outside, pock-marked earth and craters break up the landscape in multi hued browns and greys, then sprinkled with a few tiny bits of fire like one of the developers was that salt the steak guy and wanted to add a bit more flavour to the level. The boss of the strike encapsulates this with the rotation of elements as you whittle down his health by chunks, not only changing tactic’s as part of its three-tiered battle but also its aesthetic, as you take on harpies and a giant void damage beast first, only to have the floor disintegrate beneath you to fall into a nearly obsidian colour room and be besieged by the oddest game of the floor is lava since that stupid meme first started. Finally, after one more fall, you are bathed in the light, but not the kind you want as it’s merely Vex milk and Lord Bag-o-bolts is throwing lightning at you like its name was Storm and this was a try out for the Xmen 2018 movie.

When it comes to the design of the characters themselves, I find them to be actually quite pleasing to look at. I am not sure if it’s a trick of the eye or my mind playing tricks on me, but I feel like all of the Guardians are slightly taller, giving them a lankier look, then adding in their respective armour set’s to fill out the ‘bulk’ of the character. Titan’s, pictured above, feel like they take up more room sideways than in the previous title, while Warlocks and Hunter’s retain their slim/wiry nature, but have a bit more diversity in their silhouettes are different both in body type and movement. While obviously, a giant cloak will give the hunter a unique form, it just feels like the armour for each class has been tweaked slightly more to give it that extra oomph.

One thing I have noticed is that weapons look great in your hands. There are lot’s of little tweaks to weapons we already know, like the Shotgun, Fusion Rifle and Scout Rifle to make them look neat, and the new weapons like sub machine guns and grenade launcher have a similarly sleek design, but there is an oddity when looking at someone else holding a weapon. That oddity is that it doesn’t seem to stand out as much as I thought it would. This could be because of how most weapons are held close to the body, or because Bungie wanted to not have “rifle peak” be an issue they had to worry about, who can say. All I know is that you know what weapon is shooting you when it starts firing, unless it’s a hand cannon, as that seems to be the only weapon that stands out, in an almost cartoonish nature. Manufacturers are back, and we get to see various weapons from the no name smiths of the vanguard and crucible, as well as Omolong, Hakke, Suros and a newcomer to the gunsmith world: Veist. The Veist weapons look like cousin’s to the weapon’s from the last expansion, Rise of Iron, in Destiny vanilla, as they are not that appealing to look at and feel almost like a kitbashed version of the weapon group it is a part of. The weapons themselves are perfectly fine, minus the side arm which is a dumpster fire in the palm of your hand, they offer some unique multi purpose perks that other weapons do not, at least as far as I have found so far. As with the original, Destiny 2’s weapons have multiple perks that allow you to tweak the weapons and offer the same infuse function as before, along with a skin mod slot, for that all pink weapon set. The real question will be how the elemental mod’s for secondary weapons work if you lose them on replacement and if other mods can be put in, so you have two kinetic weapons but one has more perks because of the mod.

 

While it is always fun to ‘gun’, the armour you don as part of the ‘run’ portion of that phrase is a unique bag. Currently, we only have a couple sets of armour to base opinion off of, and each class set’s focus on resilience, mobility, and recovery. Using a Titan as an example, we see that the main focus of the base set is resilience, which seems pretty reasonable. Going into the details of the armour you see that, much like weapons each armour piece has an infuse, shader mod and empty mod slot. At this time we don’t have any idea what type of mods can be used in armour, but I hope some of the mods include things like cooldown reduction for grenades, melee, and power, super or otherwise. The other aspect of armour is their perk set, again mirroring what Destiny 1 did in spirit, but altering in execution. No longer is Strength, Intellect, and Discipline there to help you manipulate your cooldowns and turn you into a Voidwalking dispenser of death or a Striker Titan with more charged strikes than Thor the god of Thunder but more on that in a moment. The perk tree for each piece of armour has, currently, two options which help you shape the basics of your character. Staying on the Titan, your basic armour starts you off with a very high resistance, but extremely low mobility and low-moderate recovery. If you go into the details of your armour you can change its perk from regeneration to mobility, much like the expanded sub-class tree from Destiny 1. I am not sure if the same values, such as max armour, in Destiny 2 function the same as the previous game, I am not a numbers guy and don’t fully grasp how to properly test and articulate those types of results, however I am sure we will see a numbers video by someone like Skillup or Datto sooner rather than later.

All this talk of weapons and armour brings up another interesting, and potentially frustrating aspect of the beta and possibly the full game upon release: the subclass tree. In the original Destiny, there were a ton of options for each subclass, and for the most part, people stuck to one or two builds. Whether that was a PvP and PvE build, or a strike builds versus a raid build, the idea of ‘wow look at all the options I have’ it gives people choice or at least the illusion of choice. In Destiny 2, there is really no choice. You still have your three jump options, which by the way if you’re an Arcstrider Hunter, prepare to get mad as you have no blink, and you still have the three grenade options to choose from. However now your skill tree is restricted, so far in the beta, it could be expanded more in the full version, to two different sets of four abilities. Even within this restriction, players cannot change their skills, though again this may change later on in the beta.  This has been a particular sticking point in some people’s craw due to the seemingly dumbed down nature it presents to the player. It’s not often that you want fewer choices, especially in a game that is trying to re-focus its efforts on making the game more gun/skill focused but also diverse for its base. I am in this camp myself, as I was hoping for a more diverse and unique play style to be added via new and fun talents instead of being restricted like we seem to be. I can, however, understand the other side of this point as not only does it A) make it easier for the devs to work/balance around for both low and high levels of play,  and B) give them a chance to make the talents they are keeping in more flavourable and allow for some new fun ways to combo powers with teammates.

This is a brief snippet of a match I played, and I include it for two reasons. The first is I am vain, and I want to show off something I did, and the second, and more important of the two reasons is to talk about some of the game play elements which is where, in my opinion, the beta starts to have its biggest issues. Fear not, the sky is not falling, as the experience has been mostly enjoyable however Bungie still has issues in this verticle slice of a new game that its previous game had for three years. Let me elaborate;

Like mentioned in the section about sound and audio, most of the time things are spot on. The throaty hoarse nature of the Nightshade pulse rifle fit’s right in with the Phosphorus MG4 sub machine gun as you and a teammate blow some smelly hunter out of existence or the whoosh of eternal flame as the Dawnblade ignites and begins to hunt. The issue, however, comes into play much like every other FPS, Destiny 1 included; “I was around the F*!#ing corner, how did I get shot” or the ever popular “How did I get melee killed, no one was on the radar”. I am sure there are other’s that people find uniquely annoying but these are my personal two hells when playing any FPS, and especially within Bungie’s ten-year trilogy in the making. This problem has persisted in the first Destiny since launch and was one of the major issues I was hoping to have resolved, or at least be so rare in happening, that when it did, I could brush it off as just that, a random rare occurrence.

In the last thirty games I played, I was killed through walls or around corners at least once in every game. Initially, I felt that it had not improved over the first game at all, but after some quick camera work and replay reviews I saw that the majority of my close deaths were “legit”, and I quote that because clearly it’s still bullshit that I died and they didn’t, queue winky face. Another issue I came across and heard a few other, more prolific in the Destiny scene, say was that the auto aim assist seems to be slightly off. I found that SMG’s and Auto rifles had a slightly off lock on as you track a runner and especially noticeable in both hand cannons and slow firing scout rifles. Another minor gripe I have is the ‘double ko’ punch still happens fairly frequently, and there are more times than I care to count of Lining up a charged melee attack, from any class to the back of someone’s head, only to have them turn around and kill me then die from my attack. These type’s of things are not game breaking, but they are frustrating to happen in PvP, especially the new competitive mode where there are only a select amount of revives in the mix, a needless death really start’s too sour your perception. While it doesn’t bother me too much personally, I know competitive players have raised the issue “where has the 1v1 gone”. This is extremely prevalent in Countdown, but I shoot and get shot in duo/triple team’s on a regular basis in Control as well. The lower time to kill, lack of one-shot grenades and shotgun/sniper moved to power weapon slot have pushed the PvP modes into a much stronger partner or 4 man stack queue, as you want people who you can coordinate with on things like grenade spam, super usage, and the aforementioned team shooting.

Lastly, I think there needs to be a long look at the recharge rates for your melee, grenade, class ability and super. While I can understand that in PvP the focus is on gun play skill over grenade/super spam, and the low build/charge rate may seem like it makes these skills more important, it also makes them feel less useful throughout the match, especially grenades and supers. If you miss a grenade you are punished with an extremely long recharge time, even if you are a voidwalker Warlock, the only class currently that has abilities to alter their recharge timers. Super also frequently seems to be frantic in its usage as they only get charged up by the last 90-30 seconds of a match, with some never getting them at all. Back to grenades for a second, with such a long recharge rate, one would assume that grenades are powerful, yet no grenade I have found one shot’s someone from one hundred to zero, and stables like the Lightning grenade, axion bolt and all forms of sticky grenades only severely would their opponents. These two things seperately are not an issue in my mind but when you could them together it makes the ability feel very underwhelming.

That said, these problems are something that does not break the game, and not one that I see causing any real negativity about the game as a whole, they just remain as problems to fix, and hopefully, they make it to the devs plate sooner rather than later. The game looks to have a lot of promise and I am looking forward to sinking time into this game with friends, telling them how bad they are while being killed by an environmental trap and experience a, hopefully, great story with some engaging set pieces. Until the full game comes out, however, I will just go back to throwing a shield at people from across the map, looking for that long-range kill.

Ghost in the Shell Review: The connection to this beautiful network is a bit slow

If I knew how to write the sound of a dial-up modem, I would make a slow connection joke here, but alas I don’t think it would translate as well in text as it does in an audio format. Oddly enough, this issue of translation may be one of the key factor’s that Ghost in the Shell falls short of its animated companion, however before that let’s do a quick dive into the elephant in the room that has been surrounding this movie from the start, just so we can get it out-of-the-way.

Whitewashing; To some, the epitome of evil, to others an annoying conversation they see online every time they open Twitter or Facebook. When it was announced the Scarlett Johansson was going to be playing Major Motoko Kusanagi, there was significant vocal backlash over a white actor playing what many considered to be a Japanese character. Couple this with other movies being called out, such as Dr. Strange for the Ancient one, and the ‘white guys in sand’ movie Gods of Egypt, it’s clear to see that there are some who take umbrage with not casting actors and actresses of their respective nationality in these roles. While I personally agree with these concerns, I cannot overlook the fact that the Major is a cyborg character, and cyborgs CAN be a mismatch of parts, or in this case ethnicity. The director of the original GitS, Mamoru Oshii, made a similar case as well saying “What issue could there possibly be with casting her? The Major is a cyborg and her physical form is an entirely assumed one. The name ‘Motoko Kusanagi’ and her current body are not her original name and body, so there is no basis for saying that an Asian actress must portray her.” Even if her original body (presuming such a thing existed) were a Japanese one, that would still apply.” So while I personally would have liked to see an Japanese actress play the character, I believe this is one of the cases where a dialogue about the ethnicity of the character can be had.

With that out-of-the-way, let’s charge headlong into the movie itself. Right out of the gate, you are hit with a breathtaking view of the city it’s set in, which for the life of me I cannot remember what they called it. As we sail over the city, the cyberpunk aesthetics really show how foreign this world is and lays some of the ground work for the visual buffet we receive in this roughly two-hour movie. It also shows us the attention to detail that the film makers took when paying homage to its animated, and by proxy manga source material.

It is this homage however which might be the movie’s actual undoing. There is no doubt that showing love to your source material is a smart move, especially when it comes to properties from anime, video games and comic books, yet when your focus is primarily on showcasing said love over creating a true adaptation, you start to muddle your over all message and story. I think this is the trap that GitS fell into, as for each scene lifted directly from the animated movie, it misses the deeper meaning and context that these scenes are trying to address.

For example Chin Han’s Togusa is straight up human, no augments what so ever, yet his humanity in this movie is passed over so very quickly, essentially a joke to be played off of another character, Lasarus Ratuere’s Ishikawa, who is an enhancement junkie as he got a new modification so he could drink more. In the anime these theme’s are much more of a focal point to these characters, and give each team member a more flushed out personality. I will say however out of all of the characters in this movie, Batou, played by Pilou Asbæk, is handled with the most respect in comparison to their animated counterpart.

Putting focus on the Major for a moment, I want to talk about her as our vehicle or point of view throughout the movie.  Her development, not only from a character within the movie, but as an analog to themes such as what individualism is in such an over saturated world of technology is, for the most part, done fairly well. She takes many of the traits from the anime and blends them into a decently believable character. However much like the lack of depth found within the movie plot and theme mentioned earlier, Mrs Johansson’s direction and depth are also very surface level. For every great nod to Motoko animated/manga origins we get over simplification of her surroundings or feelings which makes it seem like the movie doesn’t trust its audience enough to understand a more complex story or the more ambiguous character development from its source material.

This might be most apparent in the villain/not villain the film decides to use for the majority of its run time. Kuze is an amalgamation of different antagonists within the Ghost in the Shell universe. A hacker, a cyborg, a victim and a villain all rolled into one, and instead of focusing on one of these aspect’s individually, or straight up lifting a single villain from the movies/series GitS tries to, in an oddly funny way, create a new life out of remains of old ones. In hind sight, this may be actually a very clever nod to the premise of the movie, but it still doesn’t give the audience a character they can become invested in, especially when you take away that character’s agency and threat by hard cutting to the films other antagonist, the Hanka CEO Cutter. Confused yet? don’t worry there are many who are. As a shady CEO, Cutter has been trying to create a new breed of soldier that has all of the benefits befitting a cyborg who has human emotions, yet is completely obedient.

At the end of the day, Ghost in the Shell is a love letter to fans of the anime and manga. It’s stunning visuals bring you into a world that is full of wonder, but that wonder sit’s on such a flat surface it drains much of that vibrant colour, not only from said world, but from the characters who are inhabiting it, in favour of a safe story that doesn’t challenge you, the audience member, in any real intellectual way. This lack of intellectual honesty mean it suffers from what many video game movies have trouble with; Not fully embracing the source material in a proper way.

As with all of my reviews I am using a -10 to 0 score where a -10 is utter garbage and a 0 is as close to perfect as you can get.

Final Score -3.5

Venom, Black Cat and the Silver Sable: The potentially R rated universe we aren’t sure we want

Currently there is a triple threat match taking place in the world of superhero movies. Marvel is our titular hero, with its high flying moves to wow the crowd and the years of experience it has behind it to land these tried and tested crowd pleasers. Their opponents are veteran of the pen & paper ring making their relative debut to live action in DCEU, and a fighter of fluctuating skill in Fox. But wait! What’s this! A new challenger in the Cinematic universe fight of the century; SONY!

To be fair, all of these companies have been in the superhero business for a while now, but it is only in the past five years when we are seeing the cinematic universe race pick up its pace, and Sony, the focus today, does not want to be left behind. Currently they are in conjunction with Marvel over the use of Spider-man in the MCU, and while Sony still owns the rights to the character, Marvel is directing the ship anytime Spider-man appears in their universe. So the obvious choice is for Sony to start their own cinematic universe without this Spidey AND kick off their universe with a Venom character right. . . . right?

Snark aside, Venom seems to be front and center in this new Sony Cinematic universe and for better or worse it looks like they are going for an R rating, making the Symbiote a starkly different character compared to their other properties. Couple this with the announcement of both a Black Cat and a Silver Sable film, or a Black Cat/Silver Sable, as it is not very clear at the moment, Sony is looking to build this universe from the ground up on secondary and tertiary characters, many of which are obscure to even some comic book fans. I will talk about the ladies in a moment, but first let’s focus on the main aspect of these announcement’s; Venom, and what/how he could be brought to the big screen.

I have been seeing three big story idea’s being thrown around for the Venom movie, all of them with some, in my opinion, serious merit. They are the Horror angle, as the image above suggests, a new Spider-man separate from Tom Hollands character in the MCU and an Agent Venom story line, where Flash Thompson receives the symbiote after losing his legs in war.  Out of the three, the Agent Venom potential story arc intrigues me the most but let’s break down what each of these could actually turn into.

With the Horror genre really getting its groove back over the past couple of years, it makes a lot of sense to take a character who can be creepy as hell and put him in that genre. Not only does the symbiote take over a person, so sit’s comfortably in a body horror skin, pun intended, but is also stands in the shadow of movies like Alien as a creature that can hunt it’s enemies. Think of how Spider-man cannot ‘spidey sense’ Venom, and apply that to a group of military personal who are trying to capture the symbiote. Having to use tech like motion sensors, sonic weapons and fire to battle a horrific creature could be a really compelling movie. This is also where I think the R rating stands at its strongest. Horror almost always benefits from this rating as it allows the film makers to explore the harder hitting nature of violence, mature subject matter, and gore.

The second option seems to revolve around a new Spider-man within the Sony universe. Many put forth that Miles Morales would make a great addition to their roster, not only as he is a great character, but also gives us another multi-cultural character to enjoy. Whether or not you care about that personally, it is a big issue in the movie world, and as we have seen with movies like Ghost in the Shell, people want to see more diverse characters in their movies, and not always default to “the white person”. While I don’t know much about Morales personally, as I don’t follow Spider-man much, I do know he is a beloved character, so any of his story arc’s would make a great backdrop to spin Venom into, but I imagine they would take a hard look at adapting the ‘Venom Wars’ story arc.

The last option many people are talking about, and one that I am personally the most excited for, is the Agent Venom angle. This puts Flash Thompson, a character from Peter Parker’s Spider-man past, in the role of our anti-hero. After losing his legs in the Iraq war, he is bonded the symbiote so he can continue to serve in the military. The bond between man and monster can only be short-lived, as Venom looks to take over his human host and wreak destruction once he has control. I like this idea for two major reasons. The first is the fact that a action-horror military movie could be really awesome as the supernatural elements, in terms of strength speed and resilience of Venom vs regular military personal, would create a cool dynamic as they have to control not only the creature, but the message about how it is being used.  The other aspect is that you could tie Silver Sable into this movie as an introduction to the character and the general movie going public before her solo outing.  She is another military style character, so her expertise could be used to either try to contain the symbiote fueled Flash, or as the hunt squad needed to bring it back under control.

The other two movies Sony has touched on are the aforementioned Silver Sable, and Black Cat. I will fully admit I don’t know much about these characters, as Silver Sable has never seen a huge arc come to fruition in the comics and Black Cat, as well as Catwoman from DC, have never interested me much due to their character design and, in my opinion, lack of interesting story lines. It might also be my age, but I am really tired of “My super power is a low-cut costume and flexibility”, but that is a different story all together.

Silver Sable, as I mentioned above could fit very nicely into an Agent Venom story, to then spin-off into her own movie. Her outfit, the Wild Pack, is a mercenary group who hunts war criminals and while one of her main rivals, Doctor Doom, is out of the picture at the moment due to rights issues, there are a ton of smaller characters that can be drawn upon for her and her group to battle against. This would give Sony a, if done correctly, strong female lead who has the team dynamics of say a Cyclops or Storm, with the grit and guns of a Punisher, Deadpool or Grifter, minus the healing factor or other mutant abilities of the latter two. If Sony and Marvel could make another trade of minor characters, we could potentially see a Baroness Zemo as a Villainess to Sables hero in her own standalone.

As to Black Cat, I think my bias to this character comes out to strong, much like my dislike of Catwoman. I think there is potential if you are doing something like a heist movie, in a similar vein to Ant-Man. I also think her movie would be ripe for cameo’s from other hero’s in the universe, in a sort of backdoor announcement, much like Luke Cage was in Jessica Jones. However I am truly at a loss for what would make this character stand out enough to warrant their own movie. If you guys have an idea let me know.

As the months roll on, I am sure we will hear more about these movies, their potential franchises and other characters Sony wan’t to add into their universe. Do we hear about the Sinister Six, the Green/Hob Goblin’s, or any myriad of other characters Sony can pull from to be the fourth pillar in this Superhero cinematic universe showdown.

Destiny 2 Trailer: Snark, Splendor and the CGI cut-scene that gives us some direction for the future fight against Gary

Bungie and Activision have finally dropped their official announcement on Destiny 2.  They started off with a very clever teaser trailer that focuses on Cayde-6, drinking in a bar with our boy Sweeps, the sweeper bot from the tower, as he recounts his heroics in battle, which presumably took place just moments before he poured his drink.  His self bravado get punctuated by a high velocity round blowing out the side of the building he is in as Sweeps, my own name as I do not think any of them actually have names, looks up in shock as a new mess is made and goes to start cleaning up while Cayde picks up his pistol and starts to make his way towards the still ongoing fight further up the road, while commander Zavala yells at him over the com. Extremely well done and sets the mood for their full trailer reveal.

The full trailer gives us a much better picture of what is going on. The Traveler has taken a beating, and is potentially dead, our ghosts are nowhere to be found, and the bloody Cabal have invaded the last city of earth, destroyed the tower and blew up all our stuff! This heinous act of is perpetrated by none other than. . . . GARY!, no wait. GHAUL! A Primus, at least, of the Red Legion is the antagonist we have to face off against, and he brings with him a seemingly host of new enemies to battle. While only a CG trailer, we do see some sort of reptilian dog creatures and some huge melee based warriors who wield two large cleaver’s charged with energy. We also see variations on more traditional enemy units like the Cabal Phalanx, as their traditionally ‘iron slab’ shields have been changed to an expanding energy shield.

Visually this trailer looks pretty awesome, there is no denying that, however it doesn’t actually give us a ton of concrete information, and there is just a lot of speculation as to how the story will unfold. If, like me, you enjoy the lore of Destiny I highly recommend checking out a gentleman named ‘My Name is Byf’ on YouTube as he does an incredible job of deep diving the existing lore, and extrapolating on new lore that is still being released.

We do know some information however, as places like Gamestop and Amazon have revealed, we know that there is a character named Hawthorne, who has survived outside the city and without the Guardians protection for many years. We also know that we are on the hunt for new weapons, and humanities scattered heroes thanks to the flavour text in the Destiny 2 collectors edition.

Here is where the speculation aspect comes in, as everything from this point onward is me spit-balling and sharing my wants over what a new Destiny game should be. On the subject of reuniting humanities scattered heroes, I think this is a nod to all of the characters we hear about in the lore. Characters like Efrideet, Tolan, Osiris, Eris Morn, The Awoken Queen Mara Sov and maybe even the Nine. Finding characters like these could be the single player campaign not only gives you a solid foundation to build your story upon, but a great way to include the lore directly into the story, and make many of their player base happy with the lore integration. The fact that Destiny’s lore was on a website and not in the game rubbed many the wrong way, as it is fun to read about what the hell is going on.

Putting aside the trailer though, what really does Destiny 2 need to accomplish, to not only fix the mistakes made on the first game, but to set themselves up for success over this games, presumably, three-year life cycle. It’s first major hurdle is Bungie’s continued adamant stance that it is “like an MMO”. This continued perception not only makes their positives seem muted; such as great gun play, which is a strength of this franchise, gets relegated to a lesser position in the conversation because the empty world, poor story telling and generally un-fulfilling loot grind overshadow it; and its negatives, as previously mentioned, get thrust into the limelight for everyone to criticize. Destiny 2 should be looked at as a Drop-in/Drop-out co-op action adventure game that happens to have hub stations to meet up with more people than you can fit in a team.

The other integral thing Bungie needs to get right is their story. Let’s be blunt here, they fucked up. Their original story was good or bad, no one outside their team knows, and they decided to change it last-minute into some sort of disjointed Frankenstein narrative. It was like Zack Snyder was cutting this game together. Visually looked great, but you could barely connect two plot points together without spending twenty minutes looking through grimoire cards to figure out what was going on. If Destiny 2 is going to continue to earn any good will back, some earned via the Taken King and Rise of Iron, then their story has to be on point. In my mind a 40-60 hour story arc, as a single player campaign, is the time-frame to try to hit. This gives your casual players a good amount of content to go through and experience and allows your hardcore grinders a solid experience they will still rush through but, hopefully, keeps them engaged longer in strikes, dailies and the like on top of their PvP and Raid schedules.

Lastly, something I would personally like to see is the advancement of gun and armour. The infusion system introduced in the original Destiny was a really great step in the right direction, but I personally would like to see more done with this aspect. I look at games like Mass Effect Andromeda, and how as you gain levels you gain access to build/research second, third, etc tier weapons which make them slightly better. If you coupled this type of mechanic with Destiny’s weapon/armour attribute system, not only would this flush out the armoury, it would allow users to really invest in their equipment and gives us, the players, a chance to really look and feel different from the thousand other players.

That said, we have to wait until May 18th to see some actual game play for the game, and that game play will help us really get a grasp on what we should be expecting in Destiny 2.

Justice League Trailer: Atlantian muscle & Batman cracking jokes to review and react.

Over the weekend dropped one of the most anticipated trailers of the year in the form of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Giving us a longer and more detailed look at the main cast of the movie, along with a bit of the action pace, world settings and overall tone the JL trailer came out of the gate swinging with super strength.

It’s prudent to talk about the positive nature of this trailer, not only because it is a well done trailer, but for the potential easter eggs and hints at plot threads being spun throughout the movie itself.  Firstly though, let’s break down the character sections, as it serves as a reminder to who we are seeing, and let’s us see them in their element.

Aquaman is our first look at the team, and putting my man-crush on Jason Momoa side, the man is a giant. The way they portray his size and height make him feel like such a foreign character compared to the rest of the team as they are all, in comparison, small to average size people. This size difference, in my mind, speaks to the ‘silhouette’ nature many comic book characters have. If you put most Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Cyborg behind a sheet and lit it up so only their shadows came through, you could pick each character out clearly due to their unique profile. Fast forward to this movie, and I think that still holds true not only because of their body types, but also their respective armour/suits which add the respective visual flair we want.

Cyborg is next, and while I realize that his CGI is still being worked on, it is a bit disappointing to see HOW unpolished it looks still. Whether or not this is just old footage they have been holding onto for this particular trailer doesn’t take away the fact that he has a lot of great scene’s though. Shoulder tackling a flaming Humvee or going full Ironman mode with a mask to cover his face and head while flying, the mechanical nature of Cyborg has me excited to see the crazy pyrotechnics he will bring to the table. Not to mention the Boom tubes, which I will touch on later.

Lastly, we get to see the Flash doing flashy things, pun intended, as his ‘ride the lightening’ routine look visually amazing in this trailer. It will be interesting to see how Barry Allen’s powers are going to work from a visual standpoint. Is it always lightening streaks everywhere as he moves? Or maybe its only that way when viewing the scene from  his perspective, as he is so fast that to everyone else he just appears in the spots he chooses to. I also have to take this opportunity to eat a little crow here as I was not big on Ezra Miller’s flash on initial reveal and his bit spot in Batman V Superman left a bad taste in my mouth. However seeing how his powers are going to be visually conveyed and the somewhat playful nature he still has even in a fight takes many of the concerns I had and calms them a fair bit.

We obviously cannot forget about the two founding members, as they also get their time to shine in this trailer. Bruce Wayne/Batman are in the running to steal the show, only rivaled by Aquaman’s on point one liners and physical acting. Unlike the first couple of teaser trailers, the Flash is put to the side for the teams humour minus a brief physical gag that harks back to the Justice League TV animated series. What is interesting about how Batman is portrayed in this trailer is not only does he crack jokes; when asked by Barry what his super power was again, Ben Affleck turns and says “I’m Rich” which made me laugh out loud, as I was thinking it just as he said it, but he also has levity in his interaction with Commissioner Gordon, which by the way is fucking awesome!, and it shows the dry-wit that many iterations of Batman have had over the years. Wonder Woman also get’s some action scene’s to flex her physical acting muscles, and while I personally dislike the “slow mo” action scene’s that seem to proliferate her screen time, I think she still looks amazing as Wonder Woman. I am also incredibly happy that in many instance she is AT LEAST on par with her male companions, but in many cases in a leadership or front-line fighter role. While this may not make much sense to some, Wonder Woman, when written well, is an aggressor in combat and does not shy away from leading the charge or tackling the biggest enemies, so the brief shots you see of her in these types of scene’s personally makes me very happy.

If I had to point out any negative aspects of the trailer, I would say it is still incredibly dark and feels like perpetual night is going to be the main backdrop for the movie. While the beginning shows us a brief period of daylight, we get smothered by that inky, metallic darkness which suffocated much of BvS. To play devil’s advocate however, we do see that our hero’s are on a different world due to the terrain, many assume it to be Apokolips, so that could be the design of the planet. I am just personally wanting to see a bit more variation in the movies overall visual theme. I am also not 100% sold on Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. While she definitely looks the part, and the brief moments of her in BvS as WW were fantastic, her dialogue was very limited in that movie, and extremely short in this trailer. I may be nitpicking here, but her accent from BvS, to Wonder Woman trailers, to this are all different, with varying inflections of her natural Israeli accent, mixed some sort of Celtic or Norse inflections to make the Themysciran dialect unique. Either way, it’s her acting ability when it comes to talking that concerns me, as she seems to have the action aspect down pretty well. I will admit, I would have prefered her to pack on another ten to twelve pounds of muscle, just so she would have a physically imposing presence to go along with the attitude, however I understand that most don’t want that and that for her, as a model turned actress, packing on that kind of muscle would be very hard for her, and add nothing to the movies overall.

Three things I want to leave you with as questions to a trailer I really enjoyed as I think DC and Warner Brother’s are finally getting savvy enough in their trailer making to get people talking about the possibilities of future projects while clamoring for their current ones.

1) Do you think the shot (below) of the thick icy glacier is a nod, or possible actual shot of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude

2) We see both Mera with a couple/ Atlantian guards, and a huge army of Themysciran warriors for the briefest of moment’s in this trailer, so how much time do you think the respective races have in the movie? I am thinking a small amount of time for Mera, maybe five to eight minutes, while the Amazon’s will get roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes throughout the movie, as they show them mobilizing and as part of the final battle.

3) Lastly, the question everyone is asking, when do you think we will see Superman. I have heard some say half way through the movie, while others say the last ten minutes. Myself, I am putting my money on fifteen to twenty minutes in total, some of it just flashback/indirect discussion about him then his resurrection near the end of the movie to go toe to toe with Steppenwolf.

Hopefully some of these questions will be answered over the coming months in news releases and future trailers, until then stay super friends.

The Forge: Putting up something Fantastic as we look at the possibilities for Marvel’s phase 4

Every fan of the comic book genre has their particular hero or heroine that they cheer for or want to see make the jump to the silver screen. For me I have Thor, who is one of my favourite characters in all of the Marvel comics, right beside Wolverine. Over in DC I am a huge fan of Wonder Woman and Big Barda due to their warrior nature, much like that of Thor. Alas, for each of these characters I get to enjoy on-screen, minus Barda obviously, there are five I personally want to see on the big screen in the upcoming phase four of Marvel’s cinematic universe. We will also take a quick look at some potential TV shows that, in my mind, would make for excellent stories to spread out over eight to thirteen hours.

Before jumping into what we want, lets first look at what we have, because it is a lot. Marvel has been steadily ramping up their production and we are getting three movies this year, next year, and potentially three movies for the foreseeable future. Add to this fact that phase three looks to be the first phase that gives us more than six movies, as the first and second rounds of the MCU were both six films apiece. With this in mind, lets look at what I believe will be the line up for this stage of Marvel’s world domination. Some of these are at the end of 2019, which I think will fall into phase four, and add them to my speculation section.

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Spider-man: Homecoming
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Black Panther
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Ant-man and the Wasp
• Captain Marvel
• Untitled Avengers Movie*

Eight movies over the next two and a half years is quite the tall order. We have the potential for universe ending devastation in Guardians, Ragnarok AND both Avengers films, not to mention any potential inter-planetary conflicts from Captain Marvel. We also have smaller scale conflicts in Black Panther with potential war in Wakanda along with the big, or small depending on how you look at it, hi-jinks that Ant-man and the Wasp get into. Oh, and Peter might lose his homework while swinging across the city to school, but that’s a low-key problem. Those of you who know the current announced line up might notice that I have not included Spider-man: Homecoming 2, and that’s because I think it is going to be the start of phase four, and the start of the fallout from the Untitled avengers movie. That being said, with all of these great films to look forward to already, what six movies could possibly be waiting for us in the waning light of 2019? **Potential spoilers for infinity war as my knowledge of the comic’s will come into play a bit here**

Spider-man: Homecoming 2

To me, this just makes perfect sense, as we are coming off the hard-fought victory over Thanos, spoiler alert the MCU doesn’t end in 2019, and now the repercussions of that fight, any potential deaths, or changes to reality due to the infinity gauntlet’s power and the person/persons who wield it. Bringing the universe point of view back down to a very personal level with Peter Parker also allows the rest of the movies in phase four to get the reset they need. It’s hard to care when the world/universe is always the macguffin to save.

The other reason I think this is likely is that we get to see Peter either in his final year of highschool, or his first year of college, which adds a whole new dynamic to the character, as his greater work load will affect his superhero life and vice versa. I also personally hope the story line they go with is the Kraven the Hunter arc: Kraven’s Last Hunt.

Fantastic Four

Yes I am one of those people. While it may be a long shot, especially with the rumours of a second one being developed by Fox, I still have faith that the lack of interest in their studio’s attempts will make them give up any plans they might have, and allow the rights to revert back to Marvel. Fox’s repeated mishandling of the First Family has been nothing short of disastrous, and if they could get back into the hands of the MCU I see great things able to happen.

While to some, it might make sense for F4 to be the first movie of phase four, I think it actually makes more sense for them to come second, as they can expand upon the multiverse nature of the MCU, and gives them a brand new foothold to branch off from. Whether it’s knowing the characters in a different light, or simply meeting heroes who were never in their version of earth leaves open a lot of story options. Frankly if this does happen, I put money on the Hulk being their nemesis for the first movie, to mirror the times in the comics where they have fought.

Nova/Nova Corp

This might seem like an odd choice, as many don’t know who this character is and the Nova Corp only played a small role in the initial Guardian’s movie. As a intergalactic police force, they serve as a great backdrop to any of the Marvel movies which take place in space, and the character of Nova in particular can be portrayed, and often was, as a “John McClane in space” kinda guy. His power set, and the exotic nature of foreign planets and species allows for a huge host of villains to fight.

My bet would be a story loosely based on the Annihlation story arc, which has a ton of characters in it, many of which Marvel can’t use one being the actual main villain, Annihilus. However a minor change to your antagonist, or if Marvel does get the rights back to this character it would make an incredible visual spectacle along the lines of the best parts of Guardians, and the incredible nature of Guardians 2.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

This is a no brainer in my opinion. Not only has James Gunn said that Guardians 3 is on the docket, the likelihood of Guardians 2 being bad is about as likely the sun exploding by Christmas. With a growing cast of characters, GotG 3 will likely be another smash hit simply due to the cast’s excellent chemistry and the bombastic and fun nature that these movies portray.

I couldn’t even guess at what stories they would go forward with, as I don’t know the Guardians from the comic’s all that well, though if my speculations hold true, there could be a significant chance that Nova plays an integral part in their movie.

Black Widow

This is another movie which I think is a no brainer in phase four. As, currently, the biggest female hero within the Marvel universe Black Widow has been dying for a movie as she is a kick ass character who has so many stories to tell, not only from her past, but from any point throughout the latter two Captain America movies.

Personally, I would love to see her solo, but I would also be jazzed for her and Hawkeye as both actors have fantastic chemistry on-screen, and in my mind the back and forth they had when they were assassin’s seems like the best story to tell, as it finish’s with them both in S.H.I.E.L.D.

Namor the Submariner 

This is my ‘long shot’ prediction, and I swing for those underwater fences because Namor is a FANTASTIC asshole character. Smug, narcissistic, and has little patience for idiots, Namor to me is a character that needs to be made. This also gives Marvel their analog to DC’s Aquaman, which is a character that is seeing a revival in popularity.

The problem with this, however is no one seems to know where the rights to Namor lay. It seems to be in limbo with Universal, Lionsgate and Marvel all somehow holding a piece of him. I will admit, I have no idea how this will get resolved, however when you’re wishlisting for a movie to get made, you try not to worry about these things.

Talking TV

While the movies are great, and any or all of my speculated movies being added to the slate would be fantastic, there is another place where we can get our Marvel fix. That comes in the form of MTVU or Marvel TV Universe and the Netflix universe. While Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D. is hit or miss, I personally like it, it is not the biggest market for our TV heroes. Netflix is where we see the biggest market with two seasons of Daredevil, a season of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. While Iron Fist was the first real stumble, we still have the Defenders coming as well as the highly anticipated Punisher series. Two other series, which I am not actually sure who is publishing, is the Cloak and Dagger series, and the Inhumans series. I believe Inhumans is ABC, but C&D is a series “cloaked” in mystery. Haha, terrible jokes are terrible. That said, Here are two series I would love to see, both preferably on Netflix or HBO simply because that affords them the budget and ability to show more mature subject matter.

Moon Knight

While the allusions to Batman are very strong, Moon Knight is a brilliant character to bring to the small screen. Whether it sticks strictly with the origin of Moon Knight, or blends some of his later story arcs where his mental instability has started to come through. Unlike Deadpool, Marc Spector, the characters real name, is much more troubled which adds such complexity and depth to his character. In my mind The Bottom arc should be the material taken from.

This series not only deals with mental illness, but violence, hatred and how madness can slowly seep into a person, especially when being pushed to the limits, both mentally and physically, by their villains. The fight scenes in a series like this could be legendary.

The Ghost Rider

To me, the Ghost Rider is a must have and the longer they take to get his project off the ground, the more time they spend not making all of the money. While I am a fan of the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider, I have been hearing a lot of great things about the new ghost rider, who appeared in Agents of Shield, Roberto “Robbie” Reyes. With a new look, new ride and a fantastic story to kick off on, Robbie could make the Netflix Marvel Universe a much more hellish place for the better. While this may seem trite to mention, it also goes to continuing the diversity of the marvel Netflix cast as a Latino-American actor would be a welcome addition.

What Ghost Rider brings to the table, besides the crazy visuals, is a story of vengeance turned to hatred to an eventual deal, begrudgingly, to work together with the demon inhabiting his body, the promise to kill and sate a thirst for murder, albeit only to kill the those who do evil and punish those who deserve it.

While this is a lot to consider, I think it is pretty safe to have some trust in Marvel, be it the movie arm or the tv arm, as they are both producing quality products more often than not. Some of these choices, like the new Guardians and Spider-man movies are pretty safe bets, but sometimes it’s fun to put your speculative hopes out into the universe, just in case it’s listening. Or it’s the Beyonder and he is shaking his head saying “Sir, you are higher than a Super Skrull on Helium if you think that is happening”. Either way, cannot wait for the present movies and TV, let alone the future.

The Forge: Looking forward at the second phase of the DCEU & what can help shape the universe

“I am sure you’re wondering why I have all gathered you here. As you can see on the monitor, we are experiencing some significant turbulence within this time line, and are looking to the future thanks to Boomtube technology to give us an idea of how to fix this problem”

Fun Justice League scene aside, many fans are always looking to the future, whether it is the next movie for a particular character like the recently announced Man of Steel II, or the latest movie to shed light on the universe as a whole such as the soon to be released Wonder Woman and potential juggernaut in Justice League later this year.

Before we can even get into phase two however, we have to take a look at what is actually announced for phase one, if it is actually going to stay in this phase and if phase one will actually end as new movies seem to be getting announced every week. Currently according to IMDb, which I realize is not the be all and end all of information, has phase one of the DCEU as the following movies.

• Man of Steel
• Batman v Superman
• Suicide Squad
• Wonder Woman
• Justice League part 1
• The Flash
• Aquaman
• Shazam
• Justice League Part 2
• Cyborg
• Green Lantern Corp

Automatically we know that The Flash is in major trouble, with multiple director changes and multiple script rewrites. The Shazam movie is at the moment vaporware with the Rock attached to play Black Adam, yet Black Adam is also supposed to have his own movie? Cyborg may get folded into a Teen Titans movie and the Green Lantern Corp may or may not be getting screen time in any of these movies already mentioned. Couple this with talks/announcements of The Batman, Man of Steel II, Bird’s of Prey and the Justice League Dark Universe; a magic and supernatural side of the world; we have to wonder what is actually being made and if they are going to keep it in all in phase one or spread it out. For the purpose of this piece I am going to make some assumptions on the newly announced movies and hedge my bets on them being part of the second round of DCEU shows. Here are the six movies I think are going to be the start of Warner Brothers follow-up to phase one.

The Batman

I think everyone realizes that this will be the first salvo used in DCEU’s next phase as it’s their primary character and Warner Brothers and DC seem to be unable to have something NOT loosely affiliated with the Dark Knights universe. With Ben Affleck stepping down as writer and director on this movie, it opens up a lot of potential for a new vision, not only for the movie itself, but for the potential direction of their cinematic universe. The interesting aspects of this movie is what story arcs will it take from the comic books, if it does at all.

In my mind, I see someone like the Riddler or the Penguin as the main villain as they challenge Batman/Bruce Wayne in a way that the other villains in these past four movies have not. The Riddler brings forth the capacity to have the detective nature of Batman come out. We can have deadly traps and queries meant to push our hero to the limit. On the flip side the Penguin is a strong opponent because you could play him as a rival business man to Bruce Wayne, while his criminal element causes strife for his alter ego.

Man of Steel II

This is the other sure-fire movie to be at the start of phase 2 as it has been pretty terrible of Warner Brothers to keep this movie out of the lime light. Man of Steel was the best movie, in my opinion, from the DCEU and their mishandling of their other properties from a critical viewpoint have made pushed this to the forefront of development.

What is exciting about a new Superman movie is we have a ton of places we can take this story. Do we take queues from the Justice League movies and expand from there, or do we introduce new villains like Mongul, Metallo or Cyborg Superman to challenge our hero on a more physical level compared to a mental one. In my opinion it would be to soon to bring in Braniac as his villain due to the fact that both he and Darkseid are similar ‘god tier’ opponents.

Birds of Prey/Gotham City Sirens

There has been a lot of talk lately about these movie, partially due to how well Margot Robbie was received as Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad and partially because any time some notes something positive DC has to rush off and announce it’s in talks for a green light. Snark aside, I think there are a lot of positive aspects to a Birds of Prey or a Gotham City Sirens movie. We get to see Harley again, hopefully some cloths that cover something (didn’t like the look, sue me), and a potential cast of Bat Girl/Oracle, Huntress, Black Canary, Catwoman, Hawkgirl, Posion, Ivy, Wildcat and of course Batman.

The potential issues with this series though is what villains do they use and can they find a script which doesn’t paint these women as catty, or inept, or boring. Each of their personalities are drastically different in the comics and if they don’t capture that diversity of character it could leave a real sour taste in people’s mouths.

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold

This is a personal wish of mine, above and beyond its actual potential to be made. This is the buddy cop movie of the DC universe which will help diversify their roster, and their emotional palette. These two characters together have such great chemistry in the pages of comics, that two action driven comics could be a perfect on-screen. Think 21 Jump Street but in space.

The hard part here is how to introduce these characters, as in the cinematic universe we are nowhere near these characters being revealed and depending on the path WB and DC choose to take for the rest of phase one, we may be a long ways off from getting to them. Still, snarky robots and buddy space cop comedy sounds like an instant hit.

Black Adam

Black Adam is one of two movies I am suggesting that falls into the ‘Logan’ style of movie. A strong, potentially R rated movie about a character who struggles with who he is, his abilities and the morality of being such a powerhouse character.

My idea is to take the story arc from 52, where Black Adam is actually a hero at first, but has his family killed by the 4th horsemen of Apokolips Famine, and he goes berserk. His turn to anti-hero and eventual villain at the end of the movie then sets him up as the bad guy in a Shazam movie whether that means its a prequel or sets him up for a future movie is moot. You get fantastic character development, and gives The Rock a great surface to flex his acting and physical muscles on.

Hawkman

This is the other anti-hero character I think would fit well into the DCEU universe. He brings a bit more of the fantasy aspects, ala Wonder Woman or Marvel’s Thor to the universe, but also brings a darker, grittier world as Hawkman is much more of a troubled and violent character, when written well, than the rest of the JLA.

Interesting plots could be a twist on the Thanagarian War, which could introduce Hawkgirl into the DCEU. It gives us some great battles, incredible visuals and an interesting story line where the heroes finally know their team’s real identities, besides of course Batman, as he already knows. Another potential multi-movie plot could involve the Rann-Thanagar War, leading into the Death of Hawkman storyline. This doesn’t account for any one of my favourite fights in comics which is Superman & Batman vs Hawkman and Captain Marvel which would make for an epic second-to-third act battle.

 

DCTV

I have been an off again on again watcher of the DCTV universe. I liked Arrow season one and two, and disliked season three and four. I have been entertained with Flash, though my major problem with all of these shows is most prevalent on this series and that is the “CW romance, but I can’t say what I feel or do the right thing because it’s a twenty-three episode show” troupe. Legends of Tomorrow is wacky and entertaining, and while I haven’t seen the second season yet I actually had a really good time with Supergirl.

While the CW shows are great, I have always been a fan of the freedom that Netflix, Amazon and other services of the like have when making their shows. You see Preacher on AMC, Game of Thrones on HBO and Marvel characters on Netflix seeing good to great success because they are allowed to tackle more mature themes and stories, it also doesn’t hurt that we can see the trinity in effect; Swearing, Violence, and Nudity. If I could pick a property I would want to see, it would defintely be the following.

Etrigan the Demon

One of my favorite “oddball” characters, Etrigan the Demon could be a crazy fun trip through the ages. A demon tied to a hero of ancient time, Jason Blood, Etrigan represents the possibility for deep story and character driven development in the for of Jason Blood as they tell his story and how he ended up being bound to the Demon, as well as some fantastic fights scenes and special effect laden battles when Etrigan comes out to play. Also the struggle of these duel personalities makes for a great secondary macguffin.

Along with the clear horror ties this character has, he could also backdoor in others such as Swamp thing, Constantine and Deadman.  We would also be able to run the gambit of fantastical villains as we traipse through multiple timelines and era’s.

While I have my own wants and potential stories to be told, I would be interested in hearing what others want to see, and what the movie universe holds in store for you if you were in control.

Review of The Iron Fist: Better than Kung Fury, but it ain’t no Enter the Dragon (Spoilers)

I want to preface this review with a bit of information. I am not very knowledgeable on Iron Fist from the comics, so there are nuances to the character I may not know/understand. I am reviewing this based on the merits of the show itself and the strengths of its actors and actresses. This is a spoiler review.

Netflix has been on a pretty positive roll with their Netflix series set within the Marvel universe. Daredevil has been touted across the board as excellent, while both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have been critically well received with positive fan feed back along side them. Characters like the Punisher and the team up of the Defenders, which includes our titular character Danny Rand, are in the works or finishing up their production for us to consume. On top of already announced projects, fans are speculating about other potential heroes to join the Netflix roster such as Moon Knight, The Demon Etrigan or Constantine, I personally want to see Etrigan as I like fantasy shows and a demon who rhymes is just cool.

With all of the positive momentum that Netflix and Marvel have garnered so far however is marred by the internet having issues with its latest series. The “controversies” like white washing in other movies made their way into Iron Fist, which in itself is comical, as this character is actually white in the comics as well, but I digress. Couple these casting discussions with the fact that many outlets that got the first six episodes of Marvels new Netflix series were not as entertained as they had been with previous entries. Whether it’s too high of expectations, or Marvels legitimate first major misstep, everyone was talking about it. To add fuel to this fire unfortunately the main lead, Finn Jones, made some less than, lets call them, “well thought out” comments about peoples negative reactions. However we are now a few days past the release date, and those of us who want to be part of the conversation have binged the first season of Iron Fist, so lets actually talk about it.

The series opens with our introduction to Danny Rand, the Immortal Iron Fist, listening to some old school hip hop as he wanders down the street. Clad in ratty cloths, and an old backpack, he enters his father’s office building, only to be promptly kicked out. To be fair, if you went into the offices of a place that knew you, but you have been presumed dead for the past fifteen years, being kicked out seems pretty reasonable. Undeterred however, Danny tries to enter a second time and we get to see the teachings of K’un Lun in action. . . . and they are not very impressive. The unfortunate nature of either how these were shot or the actor himself does not lend any sort of weight or mysticism to this brief encounter against the security guards. This ‘soft touch’ or ‘half speed’ nature that many of the fights have are, in my opinion, one of the main reasons Iron Fist suffers, however I will discuss that later.

Danny makes it up to the top floor to see the Meachum siblings, Joy and Ward, and as you can imagine everyone is confused and scared because a homeless looking man is in their office building. This is not a beat by beat recounting, I just wanted to bring these three characters in at the beginning because they are the primary trinity that we revolve around, which in itself causes issues with the story. Both actors Jessica Stroup, Joy, and Tom Pelphrey, Ward, are actually solid actors in this series. Mr Pelphrey actually being one of my favourites in the series due to the constant outside forces pushing against him. Ms Stroup does a good job of being the both the hammer and the sickle when needed in their business life, and on the occasion in their personal life. Out of all the characters in this series though, I have to say that Finn Jones was the actor who struggled to make an impact in my book the most.

Whether it was from poor direction, poor script, or the actor was just the wrong choice the role if Iron Fist never feels fully fleshed out. The first episode to the last keeps the character circling the same few plot points over and over again, and each time there is a clear path to expanding upon his character they choose to avoid that off ramp and stick to their circle. This is disheartening to say the least, but frustrating in part because each of these potential divergent character flaws or branches of growth would have done the one thing Danny was sorely missing, and that is the aforementioned fleshing out. While it’s made clear that he has psychological problems due to the trauma of his parents dying in the plane crash at the beginning of the series, and a point we continually go back to in flash backs, they never allow the character to grow up. His mentality, maturity and overall morality system are based off of this one incident, which again would be fine at the beginning of the series, but not at episode thirteen. Couple this fact with that those said personality traits mentioned above radically change every couple of episodes at its best or multiple times within the same episode at worst, and you have a character that feels like a collection of idea’s and not a singular being. Not all is negative with Jones however as he does try, or at least seems like he does, to give his all for each scene. He feels honest in the quieter moments of each episode, and even though some of the lines are brutally bad, I can appreciate the effort. His spats of rage/flashback induced fear also seem to be pulled out from him well, as his physical acting in these parts match’s what someone might do or feel.

The rest of the cast is pretty good as well, much like the Meachum sibblings they all give solid performances. Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing is one of the seasons strongest actors, as she supports Iron Fist throughout the majority of their time on-screen. I personally dislike how it seemed to go from “oh you’re a guy” to “I am infatuated with you because you know kung fu” over the course of. . . well I don’t actually know when, I can’t seem to find the actual transition period when going back, as it just seems like she goes from the Daughter of the Dragon to the girlfriend of the Iron Fist in the blink of an eye. It should be known I am not a fan of romance subplots, as to me they are not usually done well, though I am prepared to be told I am wrong here. If I had to pick standout actors though it would be Harold Meachum’s David Wenham, Faramir from LotR for those sweaties in the crowd and Wai Chng Ho as the always impactful Madame Gao. David’s portrayal of a man pinned into a corner but is always working the angles gives you an ally and villain you can get behind throughout the course of the show. On that same playing field is Madame Gao, much like Rosario Dawson’s character Claire, helps bridge the gap between each of the Netflix shows as part of their connective tissue. Her soft but menacing touch to every scene she is in makes her such a fun character to watch, and as events unfold you see how well she weaves her webs of deception and lies to great effect. I have to mention one more character as a personal favourite of mine as he brought the level of action up for a brief moment to where I had wanted it all season, and that is Lewis Tan as Zhou Cheng a Zui Quan, or Drunken master style, martial artist. He was only in Iron Fist for one episode, but I found him to be entertaining to watch in the fight, philosophically on point to his oath/word and brought a dry humor to the scene which was needed.

Speaking of fighting, let’s get into what should have been the crowning achievement of this series, but ultimately fell flat in the overall picture. The Iron Fist is supposed to be a martial arts master, a point which is reinforced through exposition throughout the series, yet watching Danny Rand fight felt like watching a group fighting in water. Besides a few of the scenes I will discuss in a moment, every fight felt light, and did not have the impact one would expect coming from a martial arts-centric series. Punch’s are floaty, kick’s limply impact their opponents and throws feel like everyone is landing on pillows. There are exceptions to this however, and I think they need to be pointed out as what the standard SHOULD have been. The first one to really grab my attention was the first and second time Colleen Wing entered into an underground fighting ring. You can see her unshackle herself mentally as the rush of combat over takes her. Each blow feels like a fight is happening and the more visceral nature of these cage fights show off how Iron Fist can get their trade craft done right. The aforementioned Zhou Cheng fight two-thirds of the way through the season is another fantastic fight to draw inspiration from. This, out of all fights in my opinion was the closest thing to a “Full on Daredevil Fight” we saw, as the impact of blows to body and face looked and felt like they were happening, instead of the worst episodes of the CW’s fight scenes we were normally treated to. The second most “Daredevil fight” was when they fought Ramon Rodriguez character Bakuto in the elevator hallway. This extended fight once again felt impactful and real, as silly of a term that may be, compared to the rest of the episodes.

As I reflect back on season one of Iron Fist, my biggest negative take away is how much the main character didn’t follow any of the story arcs they brought forth in the scene/episode before them. It may seem like I am harping on it, but the inability for the character to grow out of his adolescence mentality doesn’t suit the their overall universe and, in my opinion, makes Danny Rand look like a poorly constructed character. His lack of character development is countered however by the rest of the cast being pretty on point for the most part and makes up for many of the short comings the season was hampered with. The ending of season one leaves the door wide open for much better story telling, significantly better fighting sequences and hopefully a worthy successor to this character, as it’s not quite limp, but it certainly isn’t an Iron Fist.

As with all of my reviews (going forward) I am using a -10 to 0 score where a -10 is utter garbage and a 0 is as close to perfect as you can get.

Final Score -4

Horizon Zero Dawn Review: The Dinobots, a Red Head and fantasy wonder set in a future world

Creeping through the brush, a young woman survey’s her surroundings. Lumbering through the canyon is a creature of gargantuan proportions, its head swaying from side to side as it scanned the area for intruders, heavy weapons twitching and re-aligning to acquire their next target. Scurrying at its feet are a pair of Watchers darting to and fro as they supplement the giant creatures cones of vision and protect its flanks.  A sharp whistle breaks the silence and a Watcher shoots up, immediately on guard and begins to pace cautiously towards the brush the sound came from. As the slender creature steps into the girls hiding spot, a flash of silver lash’s out and pierces the robotic throat, silencing any chance of alarm and putting the first part of her plan into motion. The Thunderjaw circles around a pillar, leaving the second Watcher alone, trailing its alpha predator, and once more a shrill whistle echo’s out to catch the creatures attention. Unlike its partner, this Watcher becomes an ally as its programming is overridden and the pale blue light of compliance wash’s over the machine.

As our heroine lays her trap-wires and resupply’s her quiver, the methodical pounding of the hundred ton machine becomes clearer as it rounds the corner once more, ever vigilant over its territory and both it and the, now turned ally, Watcher process their perspective new threats. The hunter stands, and raises her bow with two arrows knocked, the thrum of two Terrablast arrows send gentle vibrations up her arm. The snap of a bow-string turns into the whine of arrow heads spinning up to blow away armour chunks and the whirl of aggression from the mechanical creatures leaping towards each other. Heavy weapons are rent like so much iron and fall to the floor, forcing the gargantuan beast to move into melee range, its rage focused on the hunter who has damaged it. As she flee’s through her carefully laid gauntlet of traps the Thunderjaw is hammered by explosions and lengths of wire laid to set all who touch it ablaze, all the while being savagely attacked from the rear by our Watcher companion. Arrow after arrow are fired from every angle quickly give way to heavier weapons as supplies run low and a vicious tail swipe makes short work of the diminutive flanker. As she doges charges and blaster fire, our hunter spots the back-mounted weapon she knocked off earlier in the fight and makes a break for it. Ground shaking steps close in on her, and with a final dodge the creature crash’s through a huge stone and couple of tree’s momentarily disorienting it. This window allows for her to not only pick up the weapon, but to turn and unleash the beasts own destructive power upon it, and as it is hammered back farther and farther, metal shrieking and armour plates twisting and rending off under constant barrage, the disheveled monster finally falls, an explosive round hitting it in the side of the head in a glorious display of explosive pyrotechnics. . . . . . .  and that was the first time I fought a Thunderjaw.

If you indulged me my little story I, one appreciate it and two want to use this as the foundation for my review of Horizon Zero Dawn. Made by Guerrilla Games, the developers known for the Killzone series, and published as an exclusive on the PS4, Horizon is quickly becoming another developer who went from ‘good’ to ‘great’ when they took a chance and made something outside of their wheel house. This is a boon as they can be considered in the same pantheon as ID, Naughty Dog and CD Projekt Red for blowing the doors off of what people are expecting in a game. However lets talk about the game instead of the people behind it.

From a cynical point of view, Horizon Zero Dawn does “nothing new”. There are similar quest structures in games like the Witcher 3, crafting systems like in Farcry or Fallout. Bow combat from multiple different games and an open world story that blends Uncharted type acting with the ‘do anything you want at any time’ of today’s open world genre. If you ARE a cynic, then this might be a good place to stop for you as I am going to delve into why Horizon DOES do something new, and that new thing is how it marries all of these idea’s into a beautifully polished package, a feat that none of its comparisons have accomplished yet.

The first thing anyone notices about Horizon Zero Dawn is its beauty. The game is gorgeous and, in my opinion, doesn’t have an equal on console, as well as rivals some of the best looking games on PC at the moment. Whether its sneaking through the brush, luring your enemies to their death or pounding the trail on the back of a mount racing through a nest of Glinthawks, the game just flows like warm maple syrup. Everything feels like it is in its right place, as I enjoy the mundane aspects like climbing, because it feels good to do, as much as battling a pack of Scrappers or Ravagers. Simple aspects like running both look and feel solid, while leaping off of a boulder or performing a drive-by on the back of a Strider flow from beat to beat with rarely a stutter. Watching the fog in the forest burn away as the sun comes up and you catch glimpses of the wild life scurrying away from you or catch the faint glow of a machine on the distance.

While it has many virtues to its looks, there are some clear downfalls to be seen throughout the entire game. The primary source of these complaints come from the facial animations in the cut scene’s and dialogue interactions. While they still look great, characters mouths don’t quite line up with what they are saying, and their eyes and head start to turn/shift in odd ways as you learn more about a quest or receive thanks from a stranger you have helped. What makes this small gripe so noticeable is the fact that the rest of the experience is handled with such polish that it stands outs so starkly. There are also instances of ‘glitchy dead’ or corpse dancing, though for myself it has only happened once and while you get smooth animations as you one hand vault over a piece of debris, you occasionally see the floating head of a Carja guard as you are approaching. Again this isn’t a major gripe, but it is noticeable so should be mentioned.

Looks aside, I think it is important to move directly into combat, as they have a stronger relationship in this game that most. Out of every aspect in Horizon Zero Dawn that we typically judge a game on, the combat is the crowning achievement you should walk away with. As a third person action game, the shooting mechanics, primarily bow, are second to none. As you upgrade Aloy’s abilities you can gain the ability to knock multiple arrows, to help apply status effects, or the time dilation while jumping to line up that perfect head shot. You can slow time down naturally while aiming without jumping to help you time your shots on charging or flying targets and use the brush to silently kill enemies you lure towards you. Couple this with the ability to set up trip wire traps, tether creatures to the ground and set up individual traps all over to foil enemy flanking attempts and you have a robust combat system to play with over the 30 plus hours you can spend in-game.

What makes these systems so praise worthy is just HOW fun it is to use them. I spent twenty hours in the starting area, running around killing creatures in different ways. Watching the previously mentioned beauty as Watchers twist as they spin up their leap attack, or dodge and loose a pair of arrows into the side of a charger as it barrels past are simply pure fun. As you progress in creature size and complexity, you upgrade your weapons and get new ones that allow you to change the way you play like using the slingshot for area denial or large group damage. You can hide and corrupt a herd of creatures and watch them battle each other to the death, then stroll in to collect the loot, polishing off any stragglers. Lest we also forget that you can actually override creatures, so gain your self a battle companion which aids you in any nearby combat that happens.

I could extol the virtues of the combat all day, but there are negative aspects. From a general perspective, I have friends who don’t like the fact there is no lock on functionality. As a primarily ranged game I personally think that this would hinder the system, but eye of the beholder and all that as I see the rare time you should be relying on your staff you are already kinda boned. Also in the potential negative camp is how the game deals with large groups of mechanical enemies. It is easy to get overwhelmed if you’re not paying attention which can lead to some frustrating deaths, though again this is more of a personal problem and not one I truly consider a game fault.

One aspect that I do find true fault with is battling against human AI. The issue doesn’t stem from the ability to “whistle-kill” an entire camp from the front door, though that is silly, but in the fact that human on human combat seems so lack luster compared to battling even the most basic of the robotic inhabitants. The human AI in general seems to be incredibly dumb as they will run through open fields to attack me in melee only to turn around and run back to cover, all the while I am shooting them in the face, neck, and chest with arrows. When enemies do get into melee range of you, or used specialized arrows you should look out. I have been taken for seventy-five percent of my health by one specialty arrow, and trying to duke it out in melee with even one brawler can result in huge chunks of your health disappearing much quicker than you would expect.

Like with all games, there are two other important factors to consider, the audio and the story. While story is important and I will get to that at the end, I feel that the audio in Horizon Zero Dawn really stands a cut above. Whether you are running in the open planes, your feet thudding against the hard packed dirt, or the hard jingle of Oseram Arrow Breaker Heavy chain mail and plate as you leap through the forests dodging Ravager fire the sound always plays as a companion to your story and fights. The throaty grumble of a Snapmaw you may not have seen in the water beneath you saves you from an untimely death, while the whir of a corrupter allows you to dodge attacks from behind as you fight it’s companions. Combat aside, the musical scores that come filter in from the villages and towns brings a haunting serenity to your travels, sometimes hearing nothing but your own labored breathing from a long run, other times being engulfed in the chants of a congregation as they pray to their god. And sometimes as you check your phone for Facebook or Twitter, because we all do it, your head starts to bop as you are entertained by a nightly band that has just started its set from the local inn.

The meat and potatoes though is the story. While I know what happens, I have not personally finished the story on my play through, as I am going for the platinum trophy. That said, I will not be spoiling the story as the game is still relatively new. What I will say about Aloy, and her journey is that it is both incredible and subdued. We play as a young woman, who is strong, resourceful, witty, empathetic and funny, YET it doesn’t feel like someone is blatantly saying “Hey your playing as a girl”. This point may seem odd, but its hard to ignore in todays games media, or any genre culture media, the push for diversity in both character lead and stories told for. Much like The Last of Us dlc Left Behind is one great example of how diversity and progressive story telling can be done, and the way Aloy unfolds as a character keeps you engaged with her and her story and her story is an interesting one. The trailers say as much but you are an outcast, raised by a fellow outcast Rost, who teaches you the way of your people, and your adventures stem from those teaching and the questions you have from the time you were a small child.

I also found myself really engaged with side characters you meet, some near the beginning of the game, others near the end, which again I won’t spoil.  I engage and learn to love them because of how the developers tackle the issue of race, religion, sex and status by not really addressing them. Aloy is part of a tribe that has matriarchs, yet there is no hate or vitriol to be had from that scenario. Other tribes take societal, religious and physical appearances from all over the map.  I have seen Celtic, Norse, Native American, Aztec, Japanese, Zulu, Arabic, and Mongolian influences from the real world, with Dwarven and Minotaur traits pulled from the fantasy world. We cannot forget the druidic and shamanistic natures which many cultures have shared. This world feels like it has been lived in for a thousand years, and that has given us a rich pool to wade into and experience.

A small but important note is all of the images you see here, are taken on the regular PS4, as I spent a good five or six straight hours just finding great shots.I truly fell in love with this game, something I have not done in a long time and I think this last shot above is a perfect summation of why. In Horizon Zero Dawn you are a tiny vessel in a world of metal wonder and whether its delving into its valleys, or climbing to its peaks, the Horizion is really the limit.

As with all of my reviews (going forward) I am using a -10 to 0 score where a -10 is utter garbage and a 0 is as close to perfect as you can get.

Final Score -0.5

Logan Review – Regenerating a love for the Berserker in all our hearts (Spoiler)

It is odd for a movie, especially one in the comic book genre, to leave you both fiercely grinning and wiping a tear from your eye. It evoked images of every Berserker rage we should have seen in previous movies past, along with the incredible compassion Wolverine has with younger female characters, a trait we have seen often. With our, seemingly, last snikt to be had, let’s get into a review of Logan.

Wolverine as a character has always been at odds with its movie counterpart. As a PG13 rated series in the X-Men, we have never really seen the animalistic nature of the Weapon X project in full swing until this movie. As a personal fan of the character since my real introduction to him in 1991, I have always wanted to see the rage and sorrow that good writers brought to the character, and while previous movie entries have tried, none have succeeded like Logan.

The first five minutes of the movie show how broken down and beaten our Old man Logan really is. Relegated to a limo driver to stay alive and support Charles and Caliban as they hide out, he has to do everything possible to protect his livelihood aka the limo. Que the group of scumbags and a bloodbath ensues. Even in the minor rage we see towards the end of the fight, it is ever-present that there is something wrong with our anti-hero. This fight also shows us the brutal nature of the R rating, which pulls no punch’s as men are dismembered and disfigured with absolute authority.

Putting aside the violence for a moment, it has to be said that Hugh Jackman crush’s it in his portrayal of Logan in this movie. Taking bits and pieces from the Old man Logan comic book and mixing it in with ideas of family, self loathing, depression and the faint rays of light known as happiness play themselves out across the world-weary brow of Logan. Throughout this movie there is an underlying pressure which bubbles to the surface that causes not only Wolverine, but Charles, Caliban, Laura, and the villains known as the Reavers to shift violently into this movies R rating. This shift is not only what keeps the movie on its relatively quick pace but also helps you grow with the characters as they struggle with their life choices and battle their own demons. Putting aside the few instances in which the movie slows down, which I will talk about in a bit, the movie flies by for just under two hours and twenty minutes.

While it is easy to extol virtue onto Hugh Jackman for this, in my opinion, Oscar worthy performance one should not sleep on the rest of the supporting cast. Patrick Stewart as Professor X gives not only the best performance of the character to date, but also manages to make the use of fowl language both funny and meaningful. You never think of that character as one to lower themselves to such a vulgar level, yet the first F’bomb you hear him utter not only makes you laugh, but gives you a moments pause to consider the situation they are in for that relationship, one of father and care taker of a troubled youth turned into one of bitterness, regret and strained loyalty.  His death scene in particular shows the terrible burden he realizes he did but also on how Logan took the burden of that travesty upon himself to spare his mentor the pain and anguish.

While he had a small role, I think it is worth talking about Stephen Merchant as Caliban. He had a small amount of screen time, even less than the villains of the story, but I feel his presence was akin to the ‘voice of reason’ for Logan’s perpetual darkness that he drudged through. This is plays again in the fact that he is ultra sensitive to sunlight, so his light in the darkness role plays twice in a somber yet humorous nature. The motif of shadow and light play in one final time due to a taunt thrown at him by the Reavers leader upon capture, and utters as a final defiance before his sacrifice to try and aid Laura and Logan in any way possible with “Beware the Light”.

Before talking about the incredibly talented actress in Dafne Keen, I want to touch on the villains of the movie. As mentioned before, our bad guys consist of a enhanced para military type unit called the Reavers. These cyborgs don’t sport all the modifications from their comic book representations, but hey we can’t always have a guy with tank treads rolling around now can we. Special mention should be given to Boyd Holbrook however as he walks the difficult line that all villains of this genre have to walk. His character, Donald Pierce, does an excellent job of being menacing, smart, and sophisticated without being cheesy, bland or overbearing. His understated animosity and aggressiveness towards, coupled with his brief star struck nature meeting Logan when looking for X23 is just one example of how a constant pressure applied to a wound, in this case Charles, Logan and Laura on the run, make for a great villainous intent that doesn’t need an overbearing nature we would expect from other comic book movies. He may not be Loki, but Donald Pierce might be one of the best villains in a movie with super powers.

Now to talk about the woman who stands toe to toe with our failing berserker, the incredible Dafne Keen. The short version of her character is she is a clone of Wolverine, made with his DNA in a lab somewhere and as a new version in the weapon X program, x23 to be exact, she was supposed to be a new weapon to be manufactured. For every inch of height disparity between Laura and Logan, Mrs. Keen makes up for in pure savagery when she unleashes her own brand of fury upon her enemies. It would be easy to think that a tiny girl would be dangerous, yet ultimately ineffective against men thrice her stature and estimated skill level, yet nothing could be further from the truth as not only is she a trained killer, but for someone so young she couples her brutal efficiency with her speed, agility and penchant for groin/near groin shots puts her high on the little murder girl spectrum.

For most of the movie X23 says nothing, instead preferring to communicate in pensive or glowering stares to all but the Professor. Her attitude give her a larger than life body in which we see her slip in and out of. On the one hand, the aforementioned murder girl vibe sits comfortably within her character as not only a clone of Logan, but as a defensive mechanism that any kid may try and reenact when treated as poorly as she has been. The other side of that coin falls into her softer side, the child peaking out of the animal that is caged within said child. A perfect example of this is her riding the mechanical horse and as she grows frustrated with the ride ending, and not understanding how to make it work, she resorts to a nature she knows works, violence. Que Logan with a quarter and stern gaze, and we see Laura’s demeanor switch back to that pensive stare to Logan and back again to the child, enjoying a ride on a mechanical horse.

Thankfully James Mangold, the writer and director was not content to make a tiny ball of rage be the only side we see from Dafne Keen’s performance. Once she starts talking, you feel the passion of a character looking for love, being scared, and trying to understand why a man, who feels like her doesn’t love her. If that doesn’t stab you through the heart then you could be a Reaver.

As both simultaneously wind down the story and ramp up the violence, I think it is apt to actually touch on how violent this movie is. At an R rating, the fowl language is one thing, but rarely have we seen the R rating bring us the level of pin point carnage we see in Logan. The image above is actually one of the more tame images to choose from as we see the skull get pierced, slashed and eventually blown away, not to mention the copious amount of limb rending, flesh tearing and flurry of bladed blows to the face neck and chest of this movies more regenerative characters.

As stated in the first sentence of this review, I was grinning from ear to ear in every major fight, as I found Logan’s use of violence to be so inline with the character and the story that I couldn’t contain my happiness and excitement to see what unique way a man would die next. Morbid as it may sound, the brutality not only shocks you but it deepens the stakes we see as the movie progresses. Whether its Logan struggling against the telepathic outbursts of Charles Xavier, punching his claws into the wall as some sort of makeshift climbing pick only to stare into the eyes of men he killed or the fury and rage of a juiced up Logan in the forest frantically running and murdering yet still looking to protect the children he would as a member of the X-Men.

None of the violence hits quite as hard or bloody as the set pieces with X24. This clone of Wolverine is a pure ball of rage, akin to the escape of Logan when his moniker was Weapon X. The battle between new and old reads like every fight between Sabertooth/Deadpool and Wolverine  we want to see. Another reference that came to mind, and one that has been echo’d online quite a bit, is Terminator 2 which I think is incredibly accurate. In the last duel between them blood spills in the liters as both man and clone rend flesh from each other, one spending the last of his rage and anger to save a small girl and her friends, while the other seethes an unstoppable aura of rage and a regeneration factor to match, its clear the outcome is not in our heroes favour. Much like the performance he gives, Hugh Jackman’s death, and subsequent salvation are masterfully executed and just add to the prestige of the actor and the character. His salvation, comes at the hands of Laura, his daughter with an adamantium bullet he meant for himself, and while she robs him of a demise he thought he wanted, she gave him a peace he would have never found. The love of a child and the weight of despair lifted from his shoulders due to that love. Talking about his death chokes me up a little even now, as I have been invested in this character and mythology for over twenty five years now, and I personally find it to be the cap to a story I have been experiecing since I can remember. The final cap drives home the finality of these characters with Laura quoting the movie Shane, which she and Professor X watched in a hotel room. As she mimicks the speech that Alan Ladd’s character says to a small boy as a funeral speech, you see the similarities between new and old, not only with the movie’s character reflecting upon Logan, but upon how Logan reflects and influences Laura. As the children leave one final homage to the heroes she believed in, the X-Men, she turn his cross on the side to something simple and pure, an X

Logan in my opinion is the movie to beat this year. Not just from other comic book movies, but from films in general. It will be hard to beat the gut punch you receive as you sit with these characters, and there is a good chance the action will not be matched for years to come. As with all of my reviews (going forward) I am using a -10 to 0 score where a -10 is utter garbage and a 0 is as close to perfect as you can get.

Final Score 0