So, I just got home from seeing Warcraft. In short, it was awesome! Some spoilers ahead, so reader beware.
Story-wise, even though I knew how it would turn out, and what the big twists would be, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Well paced, with a good mix of action and dialogue throughout. It definitely got the tone right, of there being good people on both sides, but little twists of fate keeping them as enemies.
The main characters were all awesome. Lothar, Khadgar, Medivh, Garona, Durotan, Orgrim, Blackhand, Gul'dan... all portrayed extremely well. Top marks to all the actors.
The aesthetics were really good. I was initially a bit disappointed in Karazhan's portrayal, but that was redeemed by the end of the film. I also loved the flyover shots of the big cities, Ironforge and Stormwind. Shown as much bigger than in WoW, with all the recognisable landmarks there... as well as a few which I expect to be destroyed by WC3 times! The Dark Portal looked great. Blackrock Mountain's little cameo in the background was great. It felt like a fleshed out version of the world I know and love.
The music, I have mixed feelings on. In general, it was really good - but, close to the start of the film, we see Stormwind for the first time, and the first few notes of the epic Stormwind Theme play... only to peter out into a different theme. That was my only real frustration. On reflection, the music seems familiar, yet more primal. Like it's from a different period of history from the world I know and love.
A few disappointing things - not entirely sure what Medivh's fel-possessed form was supposed to be. He looked a bit like a twisted Illidan with spikes. The Draenei and the Night Elves and High Elves looked pretty tacky, though they all only had tiny parts. I would imagine a future film featuring Malfurion, Illidan, Kael'Thas, Maiev, etc, would have elves looking better. The orcs looked awesome, though, so it was clearly just a matter of focusing effort. In general, the fact that the other races of the Alliance only got bit parts was a bit disappointing. I don't even remember seeing a single gnome! But that's to be expected, given the story's "Orcs and Humans" focus.
There were so many little nods and references to fans of the series. Character and place names seemed to be mentioned regularly, to make a fan like me go "yup, I know exactly where that is on the map". Plus, of course, the funniest moment of the film, Khadgar casting a very familiar spell in the dungeon!
There's probably way more to talk about which I've forgotten already, and I deliberately didn't talk too much about the main plot!
That was my first film review on this new blog, and it was a good one. The best film I've seen in the cinema this year! (ie, better than Batman v Superman, and Civil War... not too hard!)
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
What I will be writing about
So, I haven't written about anything since last Wednesday, when I restarted my blog. That's partly due to not being in the habit of writing blog posts, and partly because I was ill at the weekend. So this post will be a quick summary of what I've been doing for the last 6 days, and the kind of things from that period I would have ideally liked to write about!
First, comics. I read the rest of my purchases from last Wednesday. A couple of Vertigo books, 2 Marvel Star Wars books, and a bunch from Image, IDW, Valiant and other publishers. Ideally, I would like to do a DC comics post each week, as well as either a "non-DC" post, or smaller posts per publisher - depending on whether there's much to talk about!
Since last week, I bought and read the whole of Watchmen, after missing most of the references in DC Rebirth! That kind of thing is definitely something I would like to write about - reading the whole of a classic series. Although, that's not likely to be very common. In the last year or so, I finished reading the whole of the Valiant backlog, and the Mignolaverse backlog, and I'm already caught up with DC, and all of the non-DC comics I read, so it's unlikely I'd be reading many backlog comics - until I get round to my grand plan to read as many older DC books as I can! Something which has been on the back burner for about 5 years...
On a related note - manga. I'd ideally like to put a post up each week about that week's Weekly Shonen Jump issue. I read all the series in there except Yu-Gi-Oh, with varying levels of interest. I'm also reading a couple of Crunchyroll Manga series, reading a few series by slowly buying the volumes, and reading a few series as the volumes come out in english. I'd ideally like to do regular posts about a bunch of that stuff!
TV shows, including anime. In the last couple of years, I've had phases of watching a bunch of anime shows each season, but I think I've pretty much settled into just watching a few which get highly upvoted on reddit. It's also just after the end of the US TV season, so that's also very dry. I'll probably only write about a handful of TV shows, rather than writing about everything I watch.
Movies. I bought an unlimited cinema card, to incentivise me to go to the cinema more! In the last few months I've been to see Batman v Superman and Captain America Civil War. Tonight I'm going to see Warcraft, and tomorrow night I'm going to see X-Men Apocalypse... after watching the entire 8 film franchise over the past week and a half - most of them for the first time! I'll try to see more films at the cinema, and to write a post about most of them!
Games. Most of my posts on this blog in the past were about WoW. I'll probably post semi-regular posts about games I'm playing, and either enjoying or not. But it's a difficult medium to write big posts about!
That should give you an idea of what I'll be writing about. If I can avoid being too tired and lazy, I should have a Warcraft post up tonight or tomorrow!
First, comics. I read the rest of my purchases from last Wednesday. A couple of Vertigo books, 2 Marvel Star Wars books, and a bunch from Image, IDW, Valiant and other publishers. Ideally, I would like to do a DC comics post each week, as well as either a "non-DC" post, or smaller posts per publisher - depending on whether there's much to talk about!
Since last week, I bought and read the whole of Watchmen, after missing most of the references in DC Rebirth! That kind of thing is definitely something I would like to write about - reading the whole of a classic series. Although, that's not likely to be very common. In the last year or so, I finished reading the whole of the Valiant backlog, and the Mignolaverse backlog, and I'm already caught up with DC, and all of the non-DC comics I read, so it's unlikely I'd be reading many backlog comics - until I get round to my grand plan to read as many older DC books as I can! Something which has been on the back burner for about 5 years...
On a related note - manga. I'd ideally like to put a post up each week about that week's Weekly Shonen Jump issue. I read all the series in there except Yu-Gi-Oh, with varying levels of interest. I'm also reading a couple of Crunchyroll Manga series, reading a few series by slowly buying the volumes, and reading a few series as the volumes come out in english. I'd ideally like to do regular posts about a bunch of that stuff!
TV shows, including anime. In the last couple of years, I've had phases of watching a bunch of anime shows each season, but I think I've pretty much settled into just watching a few which get highly upvoted on reddit. It's also just after the end of the US TV season, so that's also very dry. I'll probably only write about a handful of TV shows, rather than writing about everything I watch.
Movies. I bought an unlimited cinema card, to incentivise me to go to the cinema more! In the last few months I've been to see Batman v Superman and Captain America Civil War. Tonight I'm going to see Warcraft, and tomorrow night I'm going to see X-Men Apocalypse... after watching the entire 8 film franchise over the past week and a half - most of them for the first time! I'll try to see more films at the cinema, and to write a post about most of them!
Games. Most of my posts on this blog in the past were about WoW. I'll probably post semi-regular posts about games I'm playing, and either enjoying or not. But it's a difficult medium to write big posts about!
That should give you an idea of what I'll be writing about. If I can avoid being too tired and lazy, I should have a Warcraft post up tonight or tomorrow!
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
DC Comics: Goodbye New 52 and Hello Rebirth
Well, the time of my last post on this blog was April 2011. At that time, I had barely read any comics. Since then, DC rebooted their entire line with the "New 52", and got me into reading comics weekly (followed a few months later by starting to actually BUY them weekly).
This week, DC published the final issues of some of their New 52 titles (highlights being Justice League #50 and Superman #52), and the 80-page issue DC Universe: Rebirth, which is basically a single issue shaping the changes in the DC Universe. So these are my quick thoughts on some of the DC comics of the week! The ones I don't mention - that's purely because they weren't particularly noteworthy in a week with some BIG books - though this is only considering main line DC books. Other stuff may be covered in a later post!
Superman #52
The finale of the "Final Days of Superman" storyline, which has been a storyline tortuously drawn out through 8 parts in 4 different SuperBooks over the last 2 months. In the end, the only thing of note which happens is that New 52 Superman dies, and we get a few teasers about things which will be part of the new status quo, following the "Rebirth" book next month. That's kind of the theme of most of the DC books this week. A final chapter where not much happens except some rounding-off of things.
Overall, New 52 Superman was pretty enjoyable. I'd never read much of him before then, so I wasn't as jaded about the character as I am now. The problem Superman had in New 52, really, was so many different writers taking him in different directions. There was no consistency with Superman, which means I struggle to have much of an overall opinion about him. Some arcs I really loved. Others, I got bored with very quickly. Most were mediocre. I am excited for whatever comes next, though! Of all the New 52 "Big Guns", he's the one who could do with a fresh start the most.
Flash #52
The final issue of the New 52 run. Flash has been consistently "pretty good", but hasn't really been something I've especially looked forward to reading for a year or so. This issue wasn't much to write home about, but it tied things up, which is important given that there will be major shake-ups coming imminently. Like with Green Arrow, New 52 Flash pales in impact compared to the TV show. Though, fortunately, Flash comics never went down the Green Arrow route, of trying to retcon the comics to match the TV Show!
Batgirl #52
Boy am I glad that's over! Batgirl was a perplexing New 52 book. It went from being one of my favourite B-List books, to a book which I am clearly not the audience for, pretty much overnight! I really hope the "Batgirl of Burnside" stuff goes down in history as a failed experiment, rather than as a template for future books. I mention this book purely to mention that I REALLY hope they go down a different direction with her in Rebirth!
Justice League #50
So, Justice League has been a great series in the New 52. It's been THE flagship book since the first week of New 52, which contained only the final issue of Flashpoint and Justice League #1. It's been consistently good quality, and has constantly had entertaining events. The one hiccup (a BIG one) was during Forever Evil, the New 52's one big crossover event. That series was delayed so much that Justice League was delayed as a result of that, meaning that when other series are bowing out with issue #52, Justice League has only reached #50.
This is the final issue of Darkseid War, which was a pretty good event. The important bits here though, are some of the things which come out of this, rather than the story itself. The important story details going forward are that Darkseid's death caused a "ripple in reality" (see Rebirth!), that there's another new Green Lantern (taking us to a current total of SIX human green lanterns in New 52), that there are three Jokers (sure to be a story arc in Batman in the next few months), that Lex Luthor is now in a mech-style Superman suit, and that Wonder Woman has a twin brother called Jason.
Justice League has another 2 issues coming out in June - purely to get the number up to 52, I'd imagine! #51 is an epilogue to this story, and #52 is supposedly a prologue to Titans: Rebirth. Excited to see what happens next, but this is one of the stories which seems like it'll have little effects in a multitude of titles.
DC Universe: Rebirth
The main event of the week. This book follows Wally West, who was erased during Flashpoint, and has him visiting several characters, giving little hints about the future of them, before finally meeting Barry Allen, who remembers him, and brings him back to reality.
I have zero experience of Wally West as the flash. I didn't read DC comics until New 52, and my long-term plan to read everything from Crisis to Flashpoint hasn't progressed much in the last year or two! However, this was a very enjoyable issue. The core issue of big changes coming out of positive emotions rather than negative ones is great to read. It's in stark contrast to the negative headline-grabbing big changes Marvel has done in the last few years, which led to me dropping all their books.
Wally first goes to Batman, who is reading about Superman's death, and gets a report about a seemingly impossible Joker crime, leading to a reiteration of the point that there are seemingly three different Jokers. Wally uses the letter from the end of Flashpoint, which ultimately ends up being a bit of a dead end. I get the feeling it was supposed to be a big plot point in a future event, so they felt like they had to pop it in here, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
We then get a bit of a recap of who Wally is (helpful for me as a Wally noob!), and a summary of Flashpoint, including a barely coded apology from DC about erasing so much Legacy, and the new plot point of "someone we've never met" having stolen 10 years during the end of Flashpoint.
We then visit a few more characters who I know fans have been complaining about.
First, Johnny Thunder makes an appearance, trying to contact the justice society.
Then, there's a blonde woman with a ring with an icon I don't recognise. I know this is a character I should probably recognise from the ring, but I don't. I'll have to look it up later!
Next, the Atom. He's trapped in the microverse, and is sending his assistant in after him to rescue him.
Next, Ted Kord and the New 52 Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes are discussing the Blue Beetle, and we get a retcon of the New 52 story that it was an alien artifact, and Doctor Fate lets them know it's magic instead.
Next, a series of 2-panel cameos. Damian Wayne turning 13. New Green Lantern Jessica Cruz talking to Hal Jordan and asking about Sinestro. Then, a black kid called Jackson tells his mum he's gay (maybe a new Firestorm, based on the TV show version?).
Next, Pandora gets vaporized. She was a character who never really went anywhere in New 52. Good riddance!
After that, we see the aftermath of Darkseid war, with a new baby Darkseid, and a reiteration of Wonder Woman having a twin brother "Jason" who is "out there in the world" and has "great power". Ominous!
After that, we see heroes gathered during the death of New 52 Superman, and Wally remarks about how Green Arrow and Black Canary were an item pre-Flashpoint, but now barely interact.
Next, we see the alternate beardy Superman with his wife and kid, and he meets someone called "Mr Oz" who I don't recognise, who says "you and your family are not what you believe you are" and "and neither was the fallen superman".
Following that, Aquaman proposes to Mera, which gives Wally hope, and that tells him that love and romance is what he needs.
He then visits his pre-Flashpoint girlfriend, Linda Park, professes his love for her, but she doesn't recognise him.
We get little snippets of other scenes. Two dark figures I don't recognise in Gotham saying the bat-signal is "not for us. not yet". Then, Constantine and Swamp Thing discussing trying to save Abigail Arcane. Snippets of Captain Boomerang, Cyborg, and Dick Grayson holding his Nightwing costume.
After that, we get an "explanation" of the fact that there's a black Wally West in New 52 continuity. Apparently they're cousins, named after the same person. Continuity error fixed!
Then, we have a conversation between Wally and Barry, bringing Wally back to reality. Followed by them wondering about what caused the New 52 after Flashpoint. Meanwhile in the background, Batman discovers a yellow smiley face badge with a splash of blood on it. The image I recognise from a series I've never read, Watchmen! And also because that minor detail was spoiled for me in advance. The epilogue has a mysterious figure named as "Adrian", which I assume is another Watchmen reference, but I'm not sure.
Overall, the fact that I wrote so much about this issue should let you know how much I liked it. I'm very hopeful about the future of DC comics. I love "jumping on points" like this, which let me read everything without feeling in any way lost!
This week, DC published the final issues of some of their New 52 titles (highlights being Justice League #50 and Superman #52), and the 80-page issue DC Universe: Rebirth, which is basically a single issue shaping the changes in the DC Universe. So these are my quick thoughts on some of the DC comics of the week! The ones I don't mention - that's purely because they weren't particularly noteworthy in a week with some BIG books - though this is only considering main line DC books. Other stuff may be covered in a later post!
Superman #52
The finale of the "Final Days of Superman" storyline, which has been a storyline tortuously drawn out through 8 parts in 4 different SuperBooks over the last 2 months. In the end, the only thing of note which happens is that New 52 Superman dies, and we get a few teasers about things which will be part of the new status quo, following the "Rebirth" book next month. That's kind of the theme of most of the DC books this week. A final chapter where not much happens except some rounding-off of things.
Overall, New 52 Superman was pretty enjoyable. I'd never read much of him before then, so I wasn't as jaded about the character as I am now. The problem Superman had in New 52, really, was so many different writers taking him in different directions. There was no consistency with Superman, which means I struggle to have much of an overall opinion about him. Some arcs I really loved. Others, I got bored with very quickly. Most were mediocre. I am excited for whatever comes next, though! Of all the New 52 "Big Guns", he's the one who could do with a fresh start the most.
Flash #52
The final issue of the New 52 run. Flash has been consistently "pretty good", but hasn't really been something I've especially looked forward to reading for a year or so. This issue wasn't much to write home about, but it tied things up, which is important given that there will be major shake-ups coming imminently. Like with Green Arrow, New 52 Flash pales in impact compared to the TV show. Though, fortunately, Flash comics never went down the Green Arrow route, of trying to retcon the comics to match the TV Show!
Batgirl #52
Boy am I glad that's over! Batgirl was a perplexing New 52 book. It went from being one of my favourite B-List books, to a book which I am clearly not the audience for, pretty much overnight! I really hope the "Batgirl of Burnside" stuff goes down in history as a failed experiment, rather than as a template for future books. I mention this book purely to mention that I REALLY hope they go down a different direction with her in Rebirth!
Justice League #50
So, Justice League has been a great series in the New 52. It's been THE flagship book since the first week of New 52, which contained only the final issue of Flashpoint and Justice League #1. It's been consistently good quality, and has constantly had entertaining events. The one hiccup (a BIG one) was during Forever Evil, the New 52's one big crossover event. That series was delayed so much that Justice League was delayed as a result of that, meaning that when other series are bowing out with issue #52, Justice League has only reached #50.
This is the final issue of Darkseid War, which was a pretty good event. The important bits here though, are some of the things which come out of this, rather than the story itself. The important story details going forward are that Darkseid's death caused a "ripple in reality" (see Rebirth!), that there's another new Green Lantern (taking us to a current total of SIX human green lanterns in New 52), that there are three Jokers (sure to be a story arc in Batman in the next few months), that Lex Luthor is now in a mech-style Superman suit, and that Wonder Woman has a twin brother called Jason.
Justice League has another 2 issues coming out in June - purely to get the number up to 52, I'd imagine! #51 is an epilogue to this story, and #52 is supposedly a prologue to Titans: Rebirth. Excited to see what happens next, but this is one of the stories which seems like it'll have little effects in a multitude of titles.
DC Universe: Rebirth
The main event of the week. This book follows Wally West, who was erased during Flashpoint, and has him visiting several characters, giving little hints about the future of them, before finally meeting Barry Allen, who remembers him, and brings him back to reality.
I have zero experience of Wally West as the flash. I didn't read DC comics until New 52, and my long-term plan to read everything from Crisis to Flashpoint hasn't progressed much in the last year or two! However, this was a very enjoyable issue. The core issue of big changes coming out of positive emotions rather than negative ones is great to read. It's in stark contrast to the negative headline-grabbing big changes Marvel has done in the last few years, which led to me dropping all their books.
Wally first goes to Batman, who is reading about Superman's death, and gets a report about a seemingly impossible Joker crime, leading to a reiteration of the point that there are seemingly three different Jokers. Wally uses the letter from the end of Flashpoint, which ultimately ends up being a bit of a dead end. I get the feeling it was supposed to be a big plot point in a future event, so they felt like they had to pop it in here, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
We then get a bit of a recap of who Wally is (helpful for me as a Wally noob!), and a summary of Flashpoint, including a barely coded apology from DC about erasing so much Legacy, and the new plot point of "someone we've never met" having stolen 10 years during the end of Flashpoint.
We then visit a few more characters who I know fans have been complaining about.
First, Johnny Thunder makes an appearance, trying to contact the justice society.
Then, there's a blonde woman with a ring with an icon I don't recognise. I know this is a character I should probably recognise from the ring, but I don't. I'll have to look it up later!
Next, the Atom. He's trapped in the microverse, and is sending his assistant in after him to rescue him.
Next, Ted Kord and the New 52 Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes are discussing the Blue Beetle, and we get a retcon of the New 52 story that it was an alien artifact, and Doctor Fate lets them know it's magic instead.
Next, a series of 2-panel cameos. Damian Wayne turning 13. New Green Lantern Jessica Cruz talking to Hal Jordan and asking about Sinestro. Then, a black kid called Jackson tells his mum he's gay (maybe a new Firestorm, based on the TV show version?).
Next, Pandora gets vaporized. She was a character who never really went anywhere in New 52. Good riddance!
After that, we see the aftermath of Darkseid war, with a new baby Darkseid, and a reiteration of Wonder Woman having a twin brother "Jason" who is "out there in the world" and has "great power". Ominous!
After that, we see heroes gathered during the death of New 52 Superman, and Wally remarks about how Green Arrow and Black Canary were an item pre-Flashpoint, but now barely interact.
Next, we see the alternate beardy Superman with his wife and kid, and he meets someone called "Mr Oz" who I don't recognise, who says "you and your family are not what you believe you are" and "and neither was the fallen superman".
Following that, Aquaman proposes to Mera, which gives Wally hope, and that tells him that love and romance is what he needs.
He then visits his pre-Flashpoint girlfriend, Linda Park, professes his love for her, but she doesn't recognise him.
We get little snippets of other scenes. Two dark figures I don't recognise in Gotham saying the bat-signal is "not for us. not yet". Then, Constantine and Swamp Thing discussing trying to save Abigail Arcane. Snippets of Captain Boomerang, Cyborg, and Dick Grayson holding his Nightwing costume.
After that, we get an "explanation" of the fact that there's a black Wally West in New 52 continuity. Apparently they're cousins, named after the same person. Continuity error fixed!
Then, we have a conversation between Wally and Barry, bringing Wally back to reality. Followed by them wondering about what caused the New 52 after Flashpoint. Meanwhile in the background, Batman discovers a yellow smiley face badge with a splash of blood on it. The image I recognise from a series I've never read, Watchmen! And also because that minor detail was spoiled for me in advance. The epilogue has a mysterious figure named as "Adrian", which I assume is another Watchmen reference, but I'm not sure.
Overall, the fact that I wrote so much about this issue should let you know how much I liked it. I'm very hopeful about the future of DC comics. I love "jumping on points" like this, which let me read everything without feeling in any way lost!
Neil's Blog - REBIRTH!
Recently I was re-reading some manga series, and getting a lot out of them. Then in the last month or so, a bunch of TV shows have had their season finales. Then today, DC Comics released "DC Universe Rebirth" - the launching point of their line-wide soft reboot. All this, combined with the fact that I don't really have anyone in my daily life to discuss this stuff with has left me with the desire to restart my blog! Even if I only end up shouting into the void (or, judging by my post history, making one or two posts after this "back to the blog" post, then leaving it gathering dust for a year), it'll be good to get some entertainment thoughts down somewhere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)