“Ponies of Dark Water Part 1” The Ponies go on an adventure to a newly erupted geyser. After some fun playing in the water, the ponies begin to act a bit strange, perhaps even… sinister? What happens when good ponies turn bad?
Writing
The mane six have gone evil. This results in some very interesting aspect of the character’s personalities coming to light. Applejack cares more about business than family, Twilight Sparkle crowns herself an empress, and Rainbow Dash just keeps making noise to annoy people.
Some may argue this plot borders on fanfiction territory but this is negative thinking. Seeing characters go evil every so often is something which happens to every great hero (it even happened to Captain America recently…Too soon?). Fans were apprehensive at first to the story line of “Nightmare Rarity” but since then the character seems to have been welcomed warmly by the fandom. Plot details which come out of nowhere and make now sense is when your in fanfiction territory but writer Thom Zahler made sure to explain why all this is happening. If this story had moved into pure fanfiction territory when, the characters would have become evil without any reasonable explanation and just because they snapped from all the stress in their lives.
Artwork
The artwork is at the perfect mixture of comedic yet emotional the comic has become known for. Tony Fleecs really knows how to draw the characters in a way which results in the right amount of comedy for the reader. Though it’s hard not to question the collar and tie Applejack wears once she is evil to look more professional. It makes her look too much like Yogi Bear. The tie is even green.
Conclusion
The first part of a storyline which will feature the heroes going bad and causing trouble for their family and friends is off to a great start. Fans will really want to check out this issue to make sure they are ready for what is going to come next. Here’s a small spoiler, it involves a reference to a certain clown prince of crime.
ALL HAIL OPTIMUS — part 5! OPTIMUS PRIME orders all all-out siege against the DECEPTICONS… leaving himself wide open to a counterattack by the human forces. Which is just what GALVATRON wanted all along…
Writing
The battle from the previous issue continues as things don’t look good for the team. Luckily, the the good guys are able to turn the fight around and find a way to push back Galvatron’s forces. Just as you think it’s going to be a standard battle with the good guys winning in the end, writer John Barber pulls a fast one.
It’s hard to talk about what happens in the issue without giving away a major spoiler, but this much can be said. It makes the issue a necessary read and also shows just how far in advance Barber was thinking when he worked on this story arc. This one is a game changer folks and you’ll need to pick up the book to check it out.
Artwork
Andrew Griffith’s art in this issue really helps to make the battle more intense. Compared to the previous issue this work is much more detailed and visually darker. The gritty and harsh lines and colors really help to make the issue feel much more intense between pages. This what the art with an intense battle needs to feel like. Griffith needs to be on this book full time instead of doing the artist rotation the studio keep utilizing but the use of this method is obviously to prevent an artist from burning out. Basically, he needs to take enough breaks to keep this level of quality while still being able to do the book every month.
Conclusion
Between the shift in the art team and the new revelation which this issue drops, this book is definitely one fans will want to check out. The All Hail Optimus story line just hit its peak and what a peak it is.
Strawberry Noire! A smooth-talking salesman tries to convince Strawberry Shortcake her café needs an overhaul and the Berry Bitty baker tries to sort out her decision in dreamland in the midst of a tense mystery. Detective Shortcake and her able assistant Orange Blossom are hot on the case!
Writing
The blurb isn’t wrong about this issue. Strawberry falls asleep and has a dream about being an old fashioned gumshoe detective. Her friends are recast as persons of interest in her investigation. It’s a fun little issue which really shows an inventive use of the comic book media and offers a story which wouldn’t have made it into the actual series. Writer Georgia Ball is telling the best kind of stories when it comes to books based on a franchise.
The comic also provides a backup story by Kristen Gudsnuk. The story features Sour Grapes and Sweet Grapes and Sour realizes even though she has a twin doesn’t mean she can’t still have individuality. It’s a good lesson which doesn’t get told enough to children.
Artwork
The art by Amy Mebberson is still very expressive. It allows the characters to be very comical at just the right moments in the story. The quality of her work hasn’t diminished a bit between issues and here’s hoping it will stay at this level of excellence.
The backup story, drawn by Nico Pena has a bit more of a subdued style to it. Not as energetic or comical as Mebberson’s work but at the same time has its own distinct feel. Her work helps to tell a more serious story and it would be interesting to see her draw an entire issue like this. An issue of Strawberry Shortcake with a serious story sounds like something issue fans would love to see down the line.
Conclusion
This book is starting to show a level of consistency which makes it worth noticing for a distinct demographic. Once the first trade comes out it will be a great book book to give to young readers to see if comics will help them to improve their reading skill. For now, try picking up an issue and giving it to a younger reader who you think would enjoy the wonders of reading comic books.
Video game studio Rocksteady today released a teaser trailer for a new Batman video game. This will be a PS4 exclusive, utilizing virtual reality technology. Allowing the player to immerse further into the world of the Dark Knight of Gotham. The title is Batman Arkahm VR, and is in an art style similar to the previously concluded Arkham series.
Little information is out on the story, but there is a high indication the Joker will play a major role. The plot will be a story driven murder mystery, allowing actual detective work over constant fighting.
Given Batman’s reputation as the World’s Greatest Detective, I personally find this welcoming news. Despite his fighting prowess, his intelligence defines much of who he is and why he walks this turbulent path.
Until the official PSVR release, there is no word on if this game will be in its own continuity, or if it is in the previous Arkham world by Rocksteady. Though I’d put good money on it not being a follow-up to Arkham Knight.
In conjunction with Telltale’s take on the Batman mythos, it will be very interesting to see the dichotomy of their respective interpretations. Especially since both companies are focusing less on action and more on story and critical thinking. How either company will approach this concept will definitely be on the minds of many fans.
Rocksteady plans to release the game in October of this year.
PEACE IN OUR TIME! STARSCREAM and WINDBLADE have given everything to bring together CYBERTRON’s Lost Colonies into a Council Of Worlds. But when the increasingly brutal tactics of STARSCREAM’s secret police increase tension among the former DECEPTICONS… how long can the Council maintain this fragile peace?
What? Another Transformer series? After the success of the Transformers and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, IDW has decided to add a third series to the list. It seems as if each of the current series being published will help to tell a separate side of the larger Transformer universe. Transformers (no longer using the Robots In Disguise subtitle thank to the recent cartoon series) will focus on Optimus Prime and his team on Earth, while Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye continues to tell the story of the mismatched crew of the Lost Light. Where does this leave Transformers: Till All Are One? It will take place on the planet of Cybertron and looks at the shaky peace held between the Autobots, the Decepticons, and everyone in between (usually referred to as the Badgeless).
The introduction of the new series follows Ironhide who is now running a private security firm. He gets pulled into help investigate a string of Decepticon murders. Elsewhere, the Combaticons are working with a mysterious being who is helping to supply them with the means to stir up trouble to get revenge for their lost comrade, Swindle.
The story is a little slow at first. Sure it’s helping to establish the new story line and where the book is going but this book is a break off from two already established titles. Was there really such a need to take so long to introduce everyone? Mairghread Scott, the writer has made the book a good starting out point for newer fans but as far as first issues go it is a bit slow.
The art by Sara Pitre-Durocher is very suitable for the story. She draws the characters very energetically and full of expression. It helps to convey the emotional aspect of what these characters are going through. Ironhide himself is drawn as stoic but seems tired. This fits his character, a soldier who has been fighting for a long time but wants to find a peaceful ending to it all.
The third installment of the Transformer comics has a slow start but has potential to tell some great stories. If it follows the pattern which has been happening lately, this first issue will be bit slower but will be saved by a fantastic second issue. This has been a trend with many books from IDW Publishing. So here’s hoping this series will kick into gear with the next issue.
To anyone who stayed to watch the post-credit scene in X-Men: Apocalypse, you would have seen some mysterious men putting samples of Wolverine’s blood in a briefcase saying Essex Corp. Comic-book fans will know this is a reference to Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister. This makes it very likely that Mister Sinister will appear as a villain in the X-Men movies sooner or later.
Mister Sinister is a scientist from Victorian England and a contemporary of Charles Darwin – becoming obsessed with his Theory of Evolution. He is an amoral scientist who experimented on mutants to bring on the next stage of their evolution. Mister Sinister himself is genetically altered, giving him a healing factor, prolonged longevity, super strength and in the animated series the ability to blast energy beams. He manipulated Scott Summers/Cyclops since childhood, and he has a particular obsession with the field leader of the X-Men and his partner Jean Grey.
There is a lot the creative forces of the series could work with: they could make Mister Sinister a man contracted to make super-soldiers (a plot thread that was used in Deadpool) for himself or the government, work with Magneto who sees Sinister as a means to an end or maybe force Xavier and Magneto to fight together to stop a greater, remorseless threat to the world.
Considering his English background and being in the social circles of elites (he even attended Charles Dawkins’ funeral) the actor require should play him as a refined Englishman. So let’s look at some actors who would be the best fit to play this villain.
Sharlto Copley
Since starring in the hit sci-fi movie District 9, South African actor Sharlto Copley has had a meteoric rise to fame. His work has been with Neill Blomkamp and he was a scene stealer as Kruger in Elysium – a relentless, sadistic killing machine and Jodie Foster’s personal attack dog. He was a terrific villain and should have had more villainous roles.
Besides from his work with Blomkamp, Copley was the best actor in The A-Team movie – being a funny and manic presence as Howling Mad Murdock and he has had a mix of roles in Hollywood and independent movies since District 9.
Copley’s attempts at an English accent is hit-and-miss: he was awful as the villain in the 2013 remake of Oldboy, playing a fey and non-threatening English businessman. But he had a lot more fun playing a range of British stereotypes in Hardcore Henry –playing a World War II army officer, a punk and doing his best Jason Statham impression.
Copley would have a blast playing a supervillain.
Colin Firth From Pride and Prejudice to Bridget Jones’s Diary, Colin Firth has been a heartthrob in the UK – who in recent years changed from romance lead to the critically acclaimed actor. He has won an Academy Award for his role in The King’s Speech and has starred in a number of dramatic roles since. He gave dark turns in the bio-pic The Railway Man and British thriller Before I Go to Sleep and stole the show in Kingsman: The Secret Service – the action scene in the church was bloody awesome.
Firth has all the virtues needed to play Mister Sinister – the experience in costume dramas and romance movies shows that he can be a prim and proper Englishman, do the cruel and remorseless villain and handle the action scenes. It would be a big coup for the X-Men movies to have an actor like Firth became a part of the series. Maybe Matthew Vaughn could have a word with him?
Hugh Grant
Like Colin Firth, Hugh Grant has gone through an acting metamorphose – from being the stable performer in rom-coms to be now being a more adventurous actors. Grant broke the mould when he join the ambitious Cloud Atlas where he played a variety of various roles including a corrupt industrialist and the leader of a tribe of cannibals. He also played the head of U.N.C.L.E. in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and was able to go toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep in the dramedy Florence Foster Jenkins.
Even when Grant was a rom-com lead he did a sleazy side – in Love Actually he was the Prime Minister of Britain trying to get with his tea lady, a self-centred man of leisure in About a Boy and was a Simon Cowell parody in American Dreamz. Combined with his performance in Cloud Atlas and Florence Foster Jenkins – where he was underhanded – Grant could play a Machiavellian supervillain, and a role like Mister Sinister would be the ultimate sign of his acting redemption.
Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie has come a long way from playing a loveable dimwit in Blackadder to being a highly versatile performer on film and television. Born in Oxford and educated at Cambridge University, Laurie comes from an elite background, perfect for playing Mister Sinister.
American audiences know Laurie best for his lead role in House where he became the highest paid actor for a TV drama and won two Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Award. As Dr. House Laurie was an arrogant, intelligent doctor with a superiority complex – again perfect for the supervillain role.
Laurie also earned a lot of praise for his role as an arms dealer in the BBC miniseries The Night Manager – starring opposite Tom Hiddleston. Plus he has played a posh and pompous MI6 officer in two episodes of the British spy show Spooks.
Laurie has been linked to superhero movie roles before – he was cast to play Perry White in Superman Returns before having to withdraw for his House role and the villainous CEO of OmniCorp in the 2014 RoboCop reboot. Singer should put in a call to his old House star.
Jude Law
If Fox wants to go for a big name star to play Mister Sinister, then an actor like Jude Law would be a good one to go to. At 43, Law is at the right age to play a supervillain like Sinister and he has a long and varied career, starring in sci-fi, crime, historical dramas and comedies.
Law was considered to play a supervillain once before – Bryan Singer wanted him to play General Zod in Superman Returns, but Law was not interested. Law had for a long time shied away from starring in action movies but that has changed in recent years. He has starred alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Warner Brothers’ Sherlock Holmes, being the straight man to Downey’s eccentric Sherlock. Law played one of the most competent versions of Watson, having strong deduction and fighting skills of his own and being a part of a great double act. Law also played a Bond spoof in last year’s Spy and is set to reunite with Guy Ritchie for Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur.
Law has played villainous roles before – he was a charismatic conspiracy theory blogger in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller Contagion and was a truly monstrous and sadistic hired killer in Road to Perdition – a man who gleeful enjoyed taking pictures of people he killed. Law could easily transfer these traits to play the evil scientist.
Matthew Macfadyen
If Fox and the filmmakers behind the X-Men prefer a more understated version of Mister Sinister then Matthew Macfadyen may be the actor for the role. Macfadyen is a successful TV actor in the UK. He has starred in the first two seasons of Spooks (MI-5 in the USA) – the only two seasons worth watching – the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorritt, the Victorian police drama Ripper Street and Dark Age epic The Last Kingdom. Film fans will properly know him best for his roles in the 2005 version Pride and Prejudice and Paul W. S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers.
Macfadyen can certainly pull off the Victorian gentleman look for a prologue scene or flashbacks; he’s already done it on TV. He has plenty of experience playing characters in high-powered positions and from upper-class backgrounds, so can give Sinister a level of menace. Macfadyen could easily make Sinister be a man from another time who has high-end interests while he plays to dominate humanity.
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is one of the nearly men in Hollywood, an actor who was expected to be a big action star – he was the fans’ favorite to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond before Daniel Craig was cast.
Owen is a talented actor who has starred in many great movies like Children of Men, Inside Man and Gosford Park. He won a BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Closer and was nominated for the Academy Award.
Owen has shown an intense darkness in some of his roles – in the aforementioned Closer he showed a bitterness when he found out his partner played by Julia Roberts had cheated him, tried to kill Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity – was a thug with a heart of gold in Sin City and went on a personal crusade in the drama Trust.
Owen currently leads the historical drama The Knick as surgeon John W. Thackery, so has experience getting his hands dirty and prefer medical experience.
Becoming a supervillain might be a good way for Owen to reinvent himself.
Andrew Scott
Irishman Andrew Scott is an actor already well-versed with playing villainous roles – he is Moriarty in the BBC’s Sherlock and being a Bond villain ally in Spectre. He has already played one of the most famous villains in literature, so could easily set in the shoes of a supervillain. Scott has a distinctive look that would be a strong fit for Mister Sinister – he just needs to bulk up and have his skin painted white.
Scott has had a successful career on stage; he has even won the Laurence Olivier Award and he can Sinister that grandiose theatrical style that a supervillain should have. He could also play Sinister as a very charismatic, persuasive figure who can convince mutants to join his cause and give them stronger powers.
Michael Sheen
Welshman Michael Sheen is known as an actor for having a chameleon-like ability to become his characters – he has played Tony Blair three times, soccer manager Brian Clough and the journalist/TV host David Frost. He has also been able to play his roles as deadly sinister with an underlying menace to being overly theatrical: as he was in the Twilight Saga and Tron: Legacy – so can give the filmmakers options on what type of villain they want.
Sheen would able to make Mister Sinister a physical being – he has got into sharp focus when he played Lucien in the Underworld series. He would easily match the board frame Minster Sinister has in the comics and be an imposing presence.
David Tennant
To most audiences David Tennant is best known for playing the Tenth Doctor, but he is also a prolific actor on TV and the stage. Tennant earned a lot of praise and fandom for his role as The Doctor, getting the right balance between humorous and dramatic – he is my personal favorite out of all the New Doctors. He oozed a darkness of the pain and guilt The Doctor suffered for being overly grandeur – find features for any villain.
Since leaving Doctor Who Tennant’s film career has been lackluster – the only roles have been in the remake of Fright Night and a few small British movies. He has been more successful in Broadchurch, a TV adaptation of Macbeth for the BBC and plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Tennant is a talented actor; his English accent is faultless, and he deserves to be given an opportunity in a big role in a Hollywood movie.
However, Tennant is already The Purple Man in Marvel’s JessicaJones TV series which leads to two issues – first that he is already playing a comic book villain, the second that is already linked to the MCU.
The Assassin’s Creed folks at E3 showed some new footage from the upcoming video-game adaptation, one which is pushing for respect on a level unfamiliar to these types of movies.
Here is the new footage, which is about enough to fill an entirely new trailer, and some behind-the-scenes glimpses:
When Callum Lynch explores the memories of his ancestor Aguilar and gains the skills of a Master Assassin, he discovers he is a descendant of the secret Assassins society.
Having Michael Fassbender in the lead role is enough to elevate this film beyond any sort of August/September video-game adaptation fodder; not to mention it’s coming out December 21, prime cinema real estate.
Add to that the direction from Justin Kurzel (Macbeth), the inclusion of Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons (though, that whole BvS thing… yeah…), Michael K. Williams, and Brendan Gleeson in the cast, and there’s no reason to think Assassin’s Creed could change the game. This has a chance to finally be the video-game adaptation that is able to escape the mundanity of past attempts, mostly because the source material is a rich and complicated gaming experience with ample room for narrative thrust.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a film ten-year old me couldn’t wait to see as soon as possible. Much hype surrounded Kevin Costner’s adaptation of the swashbuckling hero to the common-folk, because he was (believe it or not) probably the biggest star in Hollywood at the time. Fresh off his Oscar success with Dances With Wolves, Costner would play the titular hero in a big, sweeping, epic take on the classic character Errol Flynn made famous some 50 years earlier.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was sold as a boisterous family adventure full of adventure and “fun.” There was Costner, Morgan Freeman, and the deliciously villainous Alan Rickman. Toy companies released action figures ahead of time, because I remember having one of each. And then, the film started, and almost immediately a prisoner’s hands are chopped off…
Wait, what?
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is one of the weirdest, most mishandled summer “family” films of all time. Mostly because it’s anything but family friendly. For me, my mother never really bothered censoring me because she knew I knew the difference between fantasy and reality. But she had to be a little confused when the prisoner’s hands were chopped off, when an evil witch spit into a plate full of blood and bones (and later caught Morgan Freeman’s helicoptering, gigantic blade in the chest sending her hurtling back through the air), and when Maid Marian was being sexually assaulted near the film’s climax. Tonally, Prince of Thieves wanted the best of both worlds, and didn’t really get either right.
Kevin Costner is woefully wrong as Robin of Locksley. Not because he’s a bad actor – I particularly enjoy his dry delivery in most settings – but because his accent is so insanely uneven, disappearing and reappearing from scene to scene. Rumor had it that director Kevin Reynolds and Costner had arguments back and forth about Costner’s English accent and whether or not he should bother using it. Reynolds probably realized, when Costner employed the Brit cadence, that he sounded ridiculous. As a form of protest, Costner would use the accent when he and Reynolds were arguing, which was apparently often, and he would just use his own voice when they weren’t in a squabble. Sounds incredibly mature.
Aside from his shifting accent, Costner’s capable when it comes to the action, though he and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s Maid Marian have little to no chemistry. Their scenes are wooden and burning with all the desire of a visit to the DMV. Then there was Christian Slater’s “pre-emo” Will Scarlett, a whiny bitch of the highest order. In fact, the Merry Men never seemed merry or particularly inspired by Robin’s leadership, because Costner’s Robin was a limp leader of men.
On top of performances coming from every which direction, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is an ugly movie. It’s drab and murky, and everything looks sickly and wet. This is a story adapted time and time again, and is often a high-flying adventure film full of colorful characters. Reynolds and Co. were clearly going for a more realistic take on the legend of Robin Hood, but sometimes too much reality is a bad thing. This era in the UK certainly was a drab and unforgiving environment, but in a summer blockbuster aimed at children and families, perhaps a little more vibrance in the settings and a little less darkness and macabre art direction would have been a better move.
Not all is lost with Prince of Thieves, however, because of Alan Rickman. Rickman turned down the Sheriff of Nottingham role a few times before he was finally granted carte blanche to interpret the character in any way he wanted. And boy, did he have fun with it. Here is one of the pinnacles of gleeful scenery-chewing performances, as Rickman seems almost unable to contain himself from moment to moment. His manic performances goes over the top, then find another top above that to go over. It’s wonderful to just watch Rickman seemingly try and steal the movie from everyone around him, and for the most part he succeeds in doing just that. He damn near saves the movie singlehandedly.
There are a few things that work in this incredibly weird Robin Hood tale, but more things that fail in profound ways. Prince of Thieves was a pre-packaged summer flick that delivered on none of its intended promise, and screamed of disagreements and troubled production, something that would sadly become commonplace with Costner in the mid-90s as his star began fading under the weight of increasingly costly failures. But hey, we’ll always have Alan Rickman.
Visionary horror director Rob Zombie is once again making Halloween the scariest time of the year. The musician & filmmaker released the trailer for ‘31‘ on his Facebook page early Tuesday morning.
‘31‘ is about five carnival workers are kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned compound where they are forced to fight for their lives in a twisted game. The goal of which is to survive twelve hours against a gang of sadistic clowns. Think ‘The Most Dangerous Game‘ but created by the guy who made ‘House of 1000 Corpses‘.
The film stars an assortment of talent ranging from legendary actor Malcolm Mcdowell to Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie. I’m personally a huge fan of all the people involved with this film so I’m looking forward to the bloody mayhem.
The film is scheduled for a VOD release on September 16, and a theatrical release on October 21.
After the success of the first South Park RPG game, South Park: The Stick of Truth, fans were told a sequel would be coming. Though their was a small teaser before, game studio Ubisoft’s new trailer gives fans a better idea of what to expect.
Swapping out their medieval garb for their superhero alter egos, the kids of South Park are working on a way to launch their own in continuity universe much like Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately not everyone is on board with the idea of Cartman’s character, The Coon being the first movie to come out of their new franchise. This leads to a divide in the team and a Civil War breaks out between the kids as they argue about who’s movie should be made first.
Much like the previous game, players will be able to create their own South Park character and have them choose whether to side with either of the two factions. South Park: Fractured But Whole will be available for PS4, XBOX ONE, and PC on December 6th, 2016. Pre-orders are already available for the game on Amazon.
Are you excited for the release and looking forward to exploring more of the town of South Park? Are you grabbing the PS4, XBOX ONE, or PC version? Leave comments below and let us know how much you are looking forward to more South Park RPG.
