The Cyber Spectre #1 Review

 

The Cyber Spectre #1
Writer and Creator: Richard Emms
Artist: Ale Garza
Edited by: James Pruett
Published by: Scout Comics

What it’s about…

In a world run by super-computers and where the judicial system is purely digital, there is no human error, just a singular artificial intelligence that calculates the outcome of every possible crime. From murder to drug deals, the computer determines the fate of all humanity. But there’s a crime that seems to have slipped through the cracks- Who or what is the Cyber Spectre?

What I thought about it…

Cyber Spectre #1 is one of those comics I wasn’t planning on buying during my last visit to my comic show. But since I had a few extra bucks to spend, I figured why not check out an indy book? and what better place to start than with issue #1. Although I just notices there was an issue #0, but oh well.

Annywho, from what I’ve learned, Cyber Spectre was Kickstarted by the creative team of Rochard Emms, and Ale Garza. I’m not too familiar with Emms work, but I’ve always enjoyed Garza’s art on books like Gen¹³, Zero, E.V.E. Protomecha, and Batgirl. So I knew at least the art in Cyber Spectre would be solid, and it was.

The story in this issue is good, but we really don’t get any answers as to what is going on with the lead character. The setting too is vague, but everything in this futuristic city looks really cool. The overall premise is creative, and the idea of justice being decided by a mechanical judge could lead to many other stories.

Ale Garza’s artwork is the strongest asset in the comic. His style is good and lends itself well to a world set far in the future. Oracle Colors does some solid work in this issue too. Every scene, and character pops with amazing bright coloring.

Cyber Spectre #1 was a solid start, and the series has a ton potential. The story can only get better from here, and the art is perfect for this type of book. Issue #1 may not deliver a lot of answers, but the comic left me wanting to see what happens next. So all in all, this comic was worth picking up.

The Cyber Spectre #1 score: B+

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I really like podcasts (again): Film Guff

Until a couple of weeks ago, I was in a slump in my never-ending quest to discover new and exciting podcasts to listen to. I tried some comic book related shows, and a couple of tv ones. However, none of them really clicked with me and I decided to move on. But luckily my good buddy, Laneit had me covered.

Laneit is a podcast consuming machine. I seriously don’t know where he finds the time to listen to so many podcasts. He’s a strange duck, so some of his listening choices are not in my wheelhouse, but occasionally he gives me a good suggestion. For example, Laneit said I should listen to a show called Film Guff.

I had not heard of this podcast before, but I do like shows about movies, so I decided to look it up. According to Film Guff’s website, the show format goes something like this:

There are literally thousands of Film related podcasts out there that cover the new, the now and the shiny. Our hosts Ali & Cev on the other hand, are quite happy to leave those podcasts to it while they go and rummage around the bargain basements and lists of the long forgotten favourites.

Join the duo on their hunt for diamonds in the dirt, but don’t expect to walk away with a degree in film studies from it…

Film Guff sounded interesting, so I started listening to their episodes from the beginning, and as of this morning I am all caught up. Film Guff comes from across the pond in merry ol’ England, and hosts Ali & Cev keep the proceedings lively and fun. Some of my favorite episodes include episode 12 “Oscarbate,” and episode 08, “Films of 2017: Heroes & Villains.”

But they are not my favorite episodes because TNU’s own Laneit was a guest on them. They’re just good episodes worth listening too. Though it is strange listening to Laneit not swear every other word. I’d give him more credit, but when the conversation turned briefly to James Bond in one episode, did Laneit mention me? Noooooo he did not. I mean hello, major Bond fan over here!

Anyways, Film Guff is an excellent podcast that I’m now a regular listener of. Not only do Ali and Cev discuss blockbusters, but they also talk about some movies I haven’t heard of. The show is fun an informative, and if you’re a movie fan like me, you should check out Film Guff.

 

I paid to see that: Virus

Ever have one of those Saturdays when you can’t think of what to do?

Yes, you know you’re bored, but it’s infuriating when you can’t think of a way to fix the problem. It’s as if no ideas are allowed to enter your head. That’s exactly what happened to me one Saturday in January 1999. I had lunch with my buddy John, who I hadn’t seen for a while. After a lot of driving around, he suggested we see a movie.

Since this was back in the dark ages when you couldn’t look up movie times on your phone, I stopped at a Tedeschi’s convenience store and bought a newspaper to see what was playing. Our options were “Varsity Blues,” “Patch Adams,” “Virus,” and “A Civil Action.” Two of those I had seen, and neither one of us had an interest in “A Civil Action,” and so we decided to see “Virus.”

 

If you’re lucky enough not to remember this movie, here’s a refresher course: “Virus” was directed by John Bruno and it was based on the comic book of the same name by Chuck Pfarrer. The film starred Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland, and it tells the story of a ship beset by a malevolent extraterrestrial entity that seeks to turn humanity into cyborg slaves.

“Virus” opens with crazy tugboat captain Donald Sutherland and his crew towing a barge in the middle of a typhoon. This seems more like a job for the Coast Guard, but whatever. The barge is starting to sink, and the crew led by Jamie Lee Curtis and William Baldwin, want to cut it loose before it takes them down too. But the barge means a ton of money for the old skipper, and he’d rather go with it than risk losing it. This whole sequence is probably the only decent moment of the movie.

During the same storm, the tugboat comes upon a drifting Russian satellite communications ship. The same one from the movie’s opening credits, where a space cloud enveloped the Mir space station, and sent a bolt of energy down to the ship’s satellite dish.

This alien energy included a virus that takes over the onboard computers and represents a vast, if never clearly defined, threat to life on earth. And probably the Russians onboard, but I can’t remember for sure because by this point I was contemplating getting a pizza from the concession stand.

Anyways, greedy Captain Sutherland wants to claim the ship for salvage. So he has his tugboat crew board it, and soon are fighting the virus. This was scene was okay I guess, but when one of the characters shouted “The ship’s steering itself!” I knew we were in for a long movie. From there the virus creates robots, and sometimes uses them to snatch crew members one by one and turn them into strange creatures. It’s then left up to Curtis, Baldwin and their red shirt crewmates to outsmart the virus,
and save mankind.

This movie is awful, easily one of the worst I’ve ever seen. But to be fair, none of the problems in “Virus” are the fault of the cast. Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis are good actors, but both deserved better material to work with.

Neither actor was able to add much to their characters. Meanwhile, William Baldwin wasn’t a great leading man, but he tried his best to keep up with his castmates. I think most of the film’s problems are due to a poor script, weak special effects, and a relatively unexperienced director.

It also didn’t help the cast that much of the film is almost unwatchable. For example, the last act of the movie is shot in near darkness. During the last hour, various human and other creatures go around the ship under water and lit only by flashlight beams. This is where “Virus” switched from being a sci-fi movie to a cheap horror flick filled with cheap scares, the occasional bloody limb, and lots of unnecessary screaming.

When John and I left the theater that evening, he looked at me and asked, “What the hell did we just see?” It was a fair question, and one that I didn’t have an answer for. Quite frankly, we should have walked out of “Virus,” and snuck in to “Varsity Blues.” Not that Blues was a great movie either, but at least it had that whipped cream scene.

Your Moment of Zen

There’s only one Solo movie that matters…

X-Men: The Wedding Special #1 Review

 

X-Men: The Wedding Special #1
Written by: Chris Claremont, Marc Guggenheim, and Kelly Thompson
Art by: Todd Nauck, Greg Land, and Marika Cresta
Published by: Marvel Comics

What it’s about…

One of the biggest milestone events in X-Men history is almost here! Kitty Pryde and Colossus are finally about the tie the knot…but what’s a wedding without the respective bachelor and bachelorette parties? Join Marc Guggenheim and Kelly Thompson for two parties that can only be celebrated Marvel style! All this, plus, a Kitty and Colossus story by legendary X-Men scribe, Chris Claremont!!! less

What I thought about it…

X-Men: The Wedding Special #1 is a collection of stories as the team counts down to the wedding of Kitty Pryde and Colossus. A wedding I should add, that does not take place in this issue. I’ve seen a lot of people upset about that, but to be fair, Marvel hasn’t been hiding the fact that the wedding will happen in X-Men Gold #30.

Anyways, the collection of stories in X-Men: The Wedding Special #1 is a mixed bag. Two of the stories are on the verge of bad to awful. I would even say only one of the three stories was what I would call good. That’s not good for a book costing $4.99.

Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont pens the opening Kitty Pryde story. His love for the character shows, but the story is loaded down with text that it takes away from anything Claremont has to say. The amount of text boxes per page is daunting, but at least the art by Todd Nauck is nice to look at.

The second story in the book is easily the weakest. The Las Vegas setting for Colossus’ bachelor party is cliched, the plotting is slow, and the resolution is somewhat confusing. Not to mention it led to an issue of X-Men Gold that came out a week earlier. Yet, all of that could have been forgiven if the art was good, but Greg Land’s art doesn’t look good at all.

I don’t know what happened to Greg Land’s work over the years, but here it’s quite bad, even ugly at times. It seems Land can no longer express motion or emotion with any of the characters he draws. That’s a shame, because he was a good artist. I particularly enjoyed his run on Nightwing in the late 90’s to early 2000’s.

The final story is the best of the three. I don’t know if I would call it great, but it definitely had one moment that I loved. The premise is that all the X-Ladies go to a karaoke/strip club for Kitty’s bachelorette party. That sounds like the second story in this book, but what made this one stand out was the scene between Kitty and Rouge.

I always enjoy seeing the X-Men just talking to one another as friends, and the scene between Kitty and Rouge delivered on that. This conversation is about not being afraid to fall in love, and it was the one memorable moment in the issue. I like this these two as friends, and wouldn’t minds seeing their friendship fleshed out more in the X-Men books

X-Men Wedding Special #1 was a lackluster one-shot. I guess it’s an okay comic if you’re a diehard X-Men fan, but if you’re new to the comics and were curious about the upcoming wedding, I seriously doubt this over prized special did anything to make you want to buy the next issue of X-Men Gold.

X-Men: The Wedding Special #1 score: D

 

Deadpool 2 Review

Possible spoilers ahead!!

“Deadpool 2” kicks off with Wade Wilson doing what he does best: swearing and killing. But things go south pretty quick for old Wade, and suffering a personal tragedy, he reluctantly joins the X-Men as a trainee under the leadership of Colossus (Stefan Kapicic). Also on this team are Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) and her girlfriend Yukio (Shiori Kutsuna).

During Wade’s first mission with the X-Men, the team comes across a 14-year-old mutant by the name of Russell Collins (Julian Dennison), who calls himself Firefist. Russell is trying to escape from the orphanage he lives in, and many lives are at stake. Here, Wade is forced to make a tough choice that forever changes the course of his life.

To make matters worse, a time-traveling mutant named Cable (Josh Brolin), arrives in the present with the sole mission of assassinating Russell. Hoping to protect Russell, Wade and his friends Weasel (T.J. Miller) and Dopinder (Karan Soni), assemble a mutant team consisting of: Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), and the non-mutant Peter (Rob Delaney).

Deadpool calls his new team, X-Force and together they embark on a mission to save Russell from Cable. However, even with a team of his own backing him up, it’s unclear if they are enough to stop the man from the future.

Like the first Deadpool movie, “Deadpool 2” has a strong emotional plotline running throughout the film. But instead of goinf with another romantic story, the sequel focuses on theme of family. The film explores what it means to be a family, not just by blood, but by choice. It’s a lot for a movie Like “Deadpool 2” to balance with superheroics, but it works!

The film builds up each character’s arc in a way that you as the viewer feel invested in when everything hits the fans. Whether it’s Deadpool, Cable, or Russell, you know what the motivations for their actions are. And even if you disagree with how they go about things, all of it makes sense in the end.

But don’t worry. There’s plenty of Deadpool’s signature crude humor, fourth wall-breaking moments, and references to everything from fellow X-Men movies to the MCU and beyond.  Some of the jokes are better than others, but I did enjoy the one-liners only comic book fans will understand.

As usual, Ryan Reynolds is firing on all cylinders in this movie. Not only is he better than ever in the action scenes,  he also appears to be having a blast with the role. It is clear Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool.

As for the new cast members, Josh Brolin delivers another stand out performance as Cable. While the character doesn’t get a ton of character development, Brolin still manages to make him a sympathetic mutant. Hard to believe Brolin had given fans two unique, bad ass characters within a month of each other. Seriously though, I never realized what a great actor this guy is.

Meanwhile, Zazie Beetz as Domino stole much of the movie for me. Although I will say her character was less developed than even Cable and Russell. I also still wish she looked a little more like the comic, but regardless of my minor complaints, Domino won me over.

Beetz was a scene-stealer in “Deadpool 2.” She was funny, tough, and awesome in the action scenes.  Especially in a chase sequence where she’s the main attraction. If there is an X-Force movie or another Deadpool movie, I hope we get to see more of her, because there’s definitely potential there.

If I had one complaint about the cast, it would be that Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) didn’t have much to do. She was one of my favorite characters from the first movie, and I wanted to see more of her in the sequel. Especially now that she’s got a girlfriend in Yukio (Shiori Kutsuna).

I do have one more minor complaint about the movie: I didn’t care too much for this version of X-Force, or what happens to them. As a fan of the original team, it seemed pointless to me to introduce X-Force, only so they can be a punchline. I’m a little surprised the filmmakers went this route, and a little shocked Rob Liefeld was okay with it.

All in all, “Deadpool 2” was a highly enjoyable sequel that advanced the main character, and also had a lot of heart. Ryan Reynolds is great again, and Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz are welcomed additions to the crazy world of Deadpool. And despite the fact that some of the jokes don’t stick the landing like they should, and that a couple of scenes go on a bit too long, this is still everything a Deadpool movie should be: a fun ride from start to finish.

“Deadpool 2” score: B+

 

 

Movie Flashback: Chicago

On a Sunday afternoon in late January 2003, yours truly and his band of merry friends (or Nerds), headed to the movie theater to see the film “Chicago.”

But convincing certain friends to go see a big screen musical wasn’t an easy task. Neither was getting to the theater that day, which turned out to be its own adventure.

“Chicago” was the film based on the famous stage-musical of the same name, and it was directed by Rom Marshall. The film stars Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly. The plot centers on Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Zellweger), two murderers who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago.

Seems like a lifetime ago now, but “Chicago” was a big hit. Audiences loved the film and critics raved about it upon its release. The movie went on to win six Academy Awards in 2003, including Best Picture. “Chicago” became the first musical to win Best Picture since “Oliver!” won the award way back in 1968. But enough about the movie, let me tell you about the day we saw “Chicago.”

I had wanted to see the stage musical for a long time, but was never able to find tickets whenever the show came to Boston, or during any of my visits to New York. It appeared the closest I would ever get to see the famous musical would the movie adaptation of “Chicago.” But I didn’t want to go alone, and most of my friends seemed eager to see the movie.

The only friend who agreed to go with me was the then girlfriend of my bes friend Laneit. She managed to convince our other friends John and Kee, that they too should go with us. Then came her toughest job: convincing Laneit that it would be worth his time to go see “Chicago” with the rest of us.

The day of the movie, I picked was supposed to pick everyone up at Laneit’s house, the time had come to find out if he was going with us. The first person I saw was his girlfriend, and our conversation went a little something like this…

Me: Did you talk to him?

Her: Yup, he was really happy when I told him we were seeing this today.

Me: Seriously?

Her: Yes. He said he’s been waiting for this to come out.

John: Did Laneit hit his head?

Me: He knows what “Chicago” is about?

Her: He knows its about a murder.

Me: But does he know its a musical?

Her: Umm, I think so.

John: So he won’t be shocked when the actors burst into song?

Her: I hope not!

 

When our other friend Kee arrived, he suggested he should drive since he had a bigger car. At the time, Kee was driving a Mercedes Benz, it wasn’t a new car by any means, but it was a nice roomy car. Kee however, doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to driving the group, and this day would ne no different.

On the way to the General Cinema in Framingham Ma, we hit a ton of traffic near what is commonly known as the Braintree Split. This is where two major highways intercept, and at certain hours could be a real pain to get through. We lost a lot of time there, and Kee drove over the speed limit the rest of the way. Traffic was lighter once we got on route 9, and we really were making up for lost time. And then it happened.

I was in the back seat with John and Laneit’s girlfriend, so I didn’t see the giant Coca-Cola vending machine laying on its side in our lane. The other person who didn’t see it was our driver Kee, who slammed the Benz right into it. No worries though, everyone was fine, no injuries to report. The front of the car was destroyed though, and the vending machine was sadly empty.

We had to wait for the police to show up, and Kee had to fill out a bunch of paperwork. By the time that was all done, we had missed the movie. I think we ended up seeing it that Tuesday night, and I eventually saw the movie again, with my mom and grandmother.

I ended up loving “Chicago,” the cast was perfect and the idea of having most of the performances taking place in Roxy Hart’s imagination was brilliant. Even fifteen years later, this movie still holds up.

The next time I saw Kee he apologized, but he didn’t need to, it was an accident after all. He said the police found out the vending machine had fallen off a truck, and the driver hadn’t noticed. Kee’s car however, was never seen again. Guess he had it coming.