If you want a quick study of the evolution of horror, watching every kill by Jason Voorhees is the way to go. CGI! We don’t need no stinking CGI! Practical effects all the way!
Since 1981 filmmakers have created 199 death scenes at the hands of Jason. Thanks to Friday the 13th The Franchise for stepping up to be the death accountant.
The Friday the 13th franchise has earned $380 million over 12 films. ‘Freddy vs. Jason’ is the highest grossing film involving Voorhees, banking $82 million in 2003.
Kevin Bacon is the most famous actor to be killed by Jason.
The clip below is 20 minutes long, but I could only make it through five. How many death scenes can you watch?
If you don’t want to watch the video we have an infographic.
Well, we’re getting there. Part one of The 100‘s season three finale, ‘Perverse Instantiation’, purports that this episode will contain strange or abstract intimations of reality and maybe even coming to the realization that what we’ve been shown isn’t all that it seems. In what has become the unfortunate truth of the season, this is all a shiny intellectual facade over a reality that has lost its way.
Part one begins by trying to place its characters in their final positions for ‘Perverse Instantiation: Part Two’ and the ending of this episode brought us to that point with very few detours or surprises that would grip an audience. Now, I say this understanding that…
SPOILERS
… we found out that Jasper has been chipped and Ontari winds up braindead on the top floor of Polis, leaving our heroes with no cognizant Nightblood to accept The Flame. But are those really surprises? Sure, maybe Jasper’s turn will stun many (including me) but there absolutely had to be a road block in Raven and Monty’s path toward helping Clarke and co. at Polis. That’s how this season has worked: one step forward, three steps sideways, fall down. All I’m saying is that the surprises came at expected moments. It’s an algebraic equation at this point and we’re starting to figure out the value of ‘x’.
Roan even makes an unsurprising return, saving a helpless Clarke and immediately relieving her of The Flame and her firearm (seriously, Clarke? Just give it to him, why don’t you?). Bellamy then saves the day and they take Roan hostage and hatch the brilliant plan to infiltrate Polis and excise the chip from Ontari and implant The Flame in her spine.
Except A.L.I.E. has a spy in their midst. We’re led to believe it’s Roan only to be stabbed in the stomach just like Monty as we see it’s truly Jasper who has taken the chip. It was a sincerely touching moment to see Jasper and Monty bro it out again and to feel like Jasper had finally come full circle from his grief. This would have been a nice conclusion to his season arc but it’s stripped from us as he’ll now have to deal with City of Light postpartum disorder assuming he survives. It’s actually a nice story touch and was the most earnestly surprising moment of the episode, even if it was structurally telegraphed a mile away.
Jasper ruins the plan for Raven to receive the kill code from Ontari once she’s been implanted with The Flame by destroying their communications.
Except this was a stupid f*&#ing plan in the first place. Clarke, Bellamy, Roan, Octavia, Miller and Bryan enter Polis already figured out by the enemy but would it have been any different if they weren’t? The episode sets up the disconnected communication like so many episodes in the past but completely fumbles the necessity of the communication in the first place. Why would Clarke and Roan believe they’ll be led right to Ontari in the first place, able to get the drop on her and do their business? How would Bellamy and co. have been able to help from the shadows?
In another strange choice, once Clarke is kidnapped and Roan is shot by Kane (The City of Light’s version of The Winter Soldier, apparently), A.L.I.E. thinks the wisest decision is to physically torture Clarke to get the entry code for The Flame. All of the chipped characters know by now that torture isn’t the way to get to the root of the problem. All they would need to do is threaten a loved one and voila! Immediate acquiescence. Instead of threatening Abbey like before*, they go after Bellamy, who isn’t even in the room with Clarke, Abbey, Jaha and A.L.I.E. In the end, this thread actually goes nowhere as they end up threatening Abbey when the abduction of Bellamy ultimately fails when Murphy, Indra and Pike show up to save the day. In what was a cool rescue, it all felt like plot events that needed to happen instead of events that would’ve happened.
Either way, this brings me to one of my larger points regarding the episode and the larger season as a whole: the problem with displaying grand gestures whenever a problem arises is that it opens Pandora’s Box for audience expectation. Not only are we numb to the idea of sacrifice here, we’re now searching for the seems because our expectations have already been set in previous episodes when this exact situation has occurred. Then, because Abbey tells A.L.I.E. they arbitrarily need Bellamy, it is actually the plot forcibly stalling movement. Everyone isn’t in motion. A.L.I.E. is waiting for the guards to return with Bellamy. Tension comes from each piece moving independently of each other. I hate always referring to season two but the writers perfected the art there, using the lack of and miscommunication as the device to create tension but keep everything moving forward.
In ‘Perverse Instantiation: Part One”, all other plot threads seemingly stop to allow the others to move forward. It’s not the worst sin, but it makes for a really boring episode of TV. Especially considering we know this is only the first half of the season’s conclusion.
All this said, I can’t hate on every bit of the episode. The 100 truly shows its increase in budget in its production design. All of these sets are gorgeous and are allowed to be photographed without a million lens flares and a sheen of smoke hiding the creases in the frame. There are some truly gorgeous shots and I was taken aback by the level of detail present in every setting.
It was also a lot of fun getting Bellamy and Murphy back together again. Bellamy is also allowed to go all the way in protecting Murphy by killing a chipped soldier when he didn’t need to. Yeah, Murphy was being choked out, but Bellamy has found more creative solutions around killing folks before.
At the end of it all, we’re left with a braindead Ontari and no Nightblood in which to place the chip. Will we see Pike’s death at the hands of a vengeful Indra or Octavia? Will Clarke become Wanheda and Heda through some strange twist? Will Monty have the balls to step out in the hallway and face Jasper mano e mano before he kills Harper?
I’m hoping ‘Perverse Instantiation: Part Two’ provides us with at least an entertaining send off for season three. Let’s just have some fun guys. Please?
“It’s a Unix system, I know this!” – Raven
*And maybe this had something to do with it. Was there a fear of going back to the well with that one?
Check out my reviews of previous episodes of ‘The 100’ here:
Lionsgate released the first trailer for ‘Hell or High Water’ starring Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges from a screenplay by ‘Sicario’ scribe Taylor Sheridan.
A story about the collision of the Old and New West, two brothers — Toby (Chris Pine), a straight-living, divorced father trying to make a better life for his son; and Tanner (Ben Foster), a short-tempered ex-con with a loose trigger finger — come together to rob branch after branch of the bank that is foreclosing on their family land. The hold-ups are part of a last-ditch scheme to take back a future that powerful forces beyond their control have stolen from under their feet. Vengeance seems to be theirs until they find themselves in the crosshairs of a relentless, foul-mouthed Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) looking for one last triumph on the eve of his retirement. As the brothers plot a final bank heist to complete their plan, a showdown looms at the crossroads where the last honest lawman and a pair of brothers with nothing to live for except family collide.
‘Hell or High Water’ gets a limited release on August 12 with a nationwide release on August 19.
After a two-season run, Marvel’s Agent Carter television series has ended its run.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, The ABC network axed the period drama weeks after the second season’s cliffhanger ending. While the show received critical praise, it never gained successful ratings like its fellow program Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agent Carter and Vernon Masters in tense discussion
The Season two’s finale gained a 1.4 rating among adult audiences, but it did receive 4.3 million viewers with DVR. While the it may seem impressive, the numbers were only a fraction of Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D‘s average ratings.
Agent Carter‘s future looked especially bleak after leading actress Hayley Atwell signed on to star in an upcoming ABC series titled Conviction. Despite Atwell’s assurance that she would be able to do both shows, this did little to assuage Marvel fans.
Despite the cancellation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has been renewed for another season, and a spin-off titled Marvel’s Most Wanted in the works.
He’s back. After a week of new episodes back in January, the show once again went into another hiatus but has returned with a 4 week event called “In too deep.” The event begins with two new episodes. In Super Watermelon Island, Malachite (the fusion of Jasper and Lapis Lazuli) has returned and it’s up to the Crystal Gems to fuse together to stop her. In the second episode, Gem Drill, Steven and Peridot have no choice but to dig towards the huge weapon known as the Cluster in hopes of finding a way of stopping it from destroying the Earth.
The two episodes deliver lots of action, some satisfying and some not. Fans have been waiting for a while to watch Malachite return and use her destructive power against Steven and the team and they will not be disappointed (providing they didn’t watch the sneak preview clip for the episodes weeks ago). The action with the Cluster thought is a bit of a let down. Instead of getting the great destroyer of worlds which was built up for several episodes, Steven finds a solution and the danger is fixed relatively easy. Maybe the Cluster will find a way to be a threat in later episodes but for now it’s fixed in a neat and proper way tied up with a bow.
The two episodes do dig into some creepy territory with the images they portray. First it’s revealed the Watermelon creatures were selecting one amongst them, dressing it up to look like Steven and making sacrifices to Malachite in an effort to keep her from rampaging. This is followed up by Steven having a mind trip as he gets closer to the Cluster and begins to see the screaming faces of the souls of the gem fragments which seem to talk in unison through lens flare. It’s moments like this which make is hard to believe it’s supposed to be a kid’s show.
There is a lot to be enjoyed here for fans but overall this was a bit of a disappointment. Hopefully with Lapis Lazuli back and Jasper still out there, the other three parts of the event will be more entertaining. For know though, it might be better to not watch anymore previews or risk spoiling the best parts of the episodes.
Following the events of last week’s release of Captain America: Civil War, Coulson and his team determine what place SHIELD will have in the world now that, under the Sokovia Accords, super-powered individuals must be registered with the UN. Like one of my previous articles said, Agents of SHIELD has been building throughout Season Three towards a civil war of its own, turning Daisy against Coulson and the team. A few characters that had been relegated to the back burners reappeared in “Emancipation,” and we saw the creation of a new form of Inhuman life. Let’s have a recap …
“Emancipation” – The Recap
May walks in on Coulson catching up on his news in the upper-floor bar facade of SHIELD HQ. The two discuss the Sokovia Accords and such topics as the death of Peggy Carter(Agent Carter‘s titular character), Captain America’s resistance to the accords, and the end of SHIELD as they know it. Coulson tells May that desperate times call for desperate measures and suggests she leave before General Glenn Talbot of the ATCU walks in.
Talbot and Coulson exchange a tense greeting and sit down at a nearby booth. Talbot tells Coulson that the Sokovia Accords are now law and that President Ellis believes Coulson has super-powered people working with him in SHIELD. As such, Talbot has been sent to take inventory of SHIELD’s superhuman assets and report back to the President. Talbot claims registration is the price of SHIELD’s re-legitimization but Coulson won’t bite. He reminds Talbot that while the Avengers work in the spotlight, SHIELD has always worked in the shadows. He tells a confused Talbot to buckle up as the booth they’re sitting in descends toward SHIELD HQ.
While Coulson gets his assets checked, a brainwashed Daisy hacks into the SHIELD HQ security systems while having her blood drained. Daisy’s able to check on Lincoln, still being held while he recovers from his immunodeficiency, before being locked out again by Fitz, who’s playing hacker defense. Hive mentions that Daisy’s former teammates have caused a number of delays in his plan and tells Daisy that if they offer any more resistance, he won’t forgive them. A jumpy Radcliffe checks in on Daisy and tells Hive that they now have enough blood for their initial test and that all they need are some volunteers. Hive tells Radcliffe that he is in the process of recruiting some very special ones as a present to Daisy.
Back at SHIELD HQ, an uncharacteristically bossy May tells Lincoln to get his act together, actually using the phrase, “Straighten up and fly right,” at one point. She threatens to turn him over to Talbot and leaves. In the server room, Fitz works diligently to keep Daisy out of SHIELD’s systems while Simmons looks on and lends moral support. They discuss Mac’s injuries inflicted by Daisy and remark that the majority of the damage was done to his “spirit.” Fitz and Simmons are about to embrace when May walks in and the two awkwardly push away from each other. May wants them to forget about Daisy and concentrate on determining Hive’s endgame.
While Coulson and Talbot walk the halls, Coulson asks Talbot to leave SHIELD’s Inhumans off of the books, saying some battles require “Secret Warriors.” Coulson introduces Talbot to Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez, who demonstrates her special ability by stealing the service ribbons off of Talbot’s chest without him noticing. As Rodriguez walks off, Coulson tells Talbot that most Inhumans are regular people who want to have regular lives. Talbot replies that the Inhumans’ names would be on a protected list, and reminds Coulson that he’s on one as a member of SHIELD. Coulson says that’s why he knows registration is a bad idea: in his experience, people misuse lists and those lists frequently end up in the wrong hands.
Cut to a combat training facility for the Watchdogs, who appeared in “Watchdogs” earlier in Season Three. Two of the Watchdogs discuss the Sokovia Accords, one saying they’re a joke and that he prefers the Inhumans’ extermination. He hands his Watchdog pal a picture, unseen by the viewer, of an Inhuman and says they’ll make an example of this one.
Back in Lincoln’s isolation cell, we see him look up at a camera and then start whispering to Daisy. A nearby monitor switches channels and shows a scroll across the bottom, “I’m here … I’m listening … ” Hacking SHIELD’s security system further, Daisy is able to create a video loop (à la Speed) of Lincoln lying in bed. Daisy and Lincoln catch up as the loop plays. Lincoln tells Daisy that he’s been locked up because the team doesn’t trust him. He tells her that he wishes they could be together without Hive or SHIELD, and Daisy breaks off the connection just before Coulson and Talbot enter Lincoln’s cell.
The registration debate plays out between the three as one would expect: Talbot tells Lincoln that registration is necessary to ensure the public is protected from super-humans and Coulson argues that SHIELD is uniquely qualified to facilitate this protection. Lincoln makes things interesting when he agrees to be registered in exchange for his immediate release from his SHIELD holding cell. Giving no answer to Lincoln one way or the other, Talbot and Coulson leave the cell.
Talbot asks to see “the ugly,” having seen the good and the bad. Coulson takes him to Lash. Talbot goes on a folksy tirade when he sees Lash, using terms like, “God’s crusty pie,” and, “out-of-control freak-show.” Coulson assures Talbot that Lash is the final surprise on their tour but Talbot demands to see Daisy. May says Daisy is on assignment but Talbot knows better, having satellite imagery of her walking around with Grant Ward, presumed dead. Talbot asks what’s at stake that would make Coulson lie to his face. Coulson tells him the world is.
Rodriguez and Mac talk in the kitchen. She wants to know why Mac is acting withdrawn and says she wants to help Daisy. Mac, clutching his injured ribs, says they can’t help Daisy and doesn’t want Elena to be brainwashed. Mac gets pretty maudlin, describing Hive’s plans as “end-times evil” and Rodriguez prescribes a beer and some faith. Mac wonders if faith is just something people talk about when they know there’s no hope, but Rodriguez reminds him, “Evil preys on the weak because it fears the strong.”
We see the Watchdogs all pumped up and ready to kidnap an Inhuman. They roll up on their target, seemingly cornering him in an alley. As the Inhuman takes off his hood, we see that the Watchdogs’ target is Hellfire who, using a chain from a dumpster, makes pretty short work of the five canine-themed fanatics. Hive appears and says he wants the Watchdogs to become what they hate.
Fitz and Simmons explain that Hive should now be able to make brainwashed Inhumans using Daisy’s blood, saturated as it is with GH.325 and Hive’s parasites.
Back at Hive’s laboratory, the Watchdogs who were forcibly volunteered for injection of the Inhuman compound are shoved into a shipping container while Hive waxes poetic and tells Daisy that the Watchdogs’ emancipation is a gift to her. Radcliffe voices some concern about the ethical implications of using unwilling victims to test the compound but is quickly silenced by Hive. He releases the compound into the shipping container and they wait for terrigenesis to occur. Daisy tells Hive that she has hacked SHIELD’s security systems and, after thanking her, he tells her to rest in case they need more of her blood.
Daisy working remotely with Lincoln is able to break him out of his cell while Talbot and Coulson debate sending the US military in to deal with Hive. Fitz asks Talbot to tell them what Hive stole from the ATCU but before Talbot can answer they learn that Lincoln has escaped from his cell and go investigate.
Terrigenesis complete, Hive and Radcliffe check on their new batch of Inhumans. Radcliffe is disgusted by his super-strong creations, describing them as abominations. Hive, though, views the experiment as an unmitigated success and demands that Radcliffe make more of the brainwashed mutants. Hive shows Daisy his newly minted Inhumans and tells Daisy that they’ll require all of her blood to make more.
Talbot tells Coulson he’ll have to alert the President that Coulson has lost two Inhumans and Coulson asks for some time to re-capture Lincoln, still at large in SHIELD HQ. Eventually Lincoln makes it to the hangar, knocks Mac out, and escapes in a Quinjet. As Lincoln takes off, the rest of the team show up to help Mac, and Talbot tears a strip off of Coulson. But, the whole thing was a setup. The team knew that Daisy had infiltrated their security systems and made it look as though Lincoln had escaped in order to join her. In fact, the man in the Quinjet is a very hungry Lash looking for a good Inhuman meal. Won’t Hive be surprised!
Hive V. Lash: Dusk of Inhuman Injustice
Cut to Hive’s laboratory and the fight we didn’t realize we’d been waiting for, Hive V Lash: Dusk of Inhuman Injustice. Lash pushes Hive down and then literally tears a strip off of him. Hive’s new batch of Inhuman mutants attack Lash but the five are quickly dealt with. Daisy attempts to stop Lash but is too weak from loss of blood. Lash kneels over Daisy, forms an aura of energy around her, draws something out of her, crushes it in his hands, and tells Daisy that she’s free now. He carries her to the Quinjet and, after putting her inside, gets a flaming chain, the preferred weapon of Hellfire, through the heart. The doors close, Lash dies, and Daisy comes home.
A welcome wagon is there to meet Daisy who reports that Lash died saving her, but was unable to kill Hive. A quick blood analysis and brain scan reveal that Daisy is free of Hive’s infection, what several characters call “the sway” throughout the episode. The good news dispensed with, Fitz tells Coulson and Talbot that Hive likely plans to infect “a significant percentage of the human race” with his new Inhuman compound. Fitz and Simmons go on to say that all Hive needs is a delivery method that will disperse the Inhuman compound into the upper atmosphere. Talbot admits that this is exactly what Hive stole from the ATCU, a fully operational warhead.
The final scene was kind of an odd one between Elena and Mac. She gives him a gold crucifix on a gold chain and tells him to keep the faith.
“Emancipation” – My Critique
“Emancipation” was a relatively good Agents of SHIELD episode. First and foremost, “Emancipation” dealt in espionage! Huzzah! What a concept for a show about a group of super-spies! Rather than just being a vehicle for special effects, a show about Marvel’s most elite spy group should involve familiar spy themes. “Emancipation’s” inclusion of the team’s secret plot to make it look like Lincoln was betraying them was a juicy bit of espionage in a show that’s barely featured any.
Michael Collins-er-Peterson, everyone!
It was also good to see Lash do something in “Emancipation” since he’s been sitting on the back burner for so long. I was a bit concerned that, like the Kree and Deathlok, Lash would be yet another Marvel property tossed away after only a couple of uses.
It was also good that the thing Lash did in “Emancipation” was beat the tar out of Hive. Before “Emancipation,” Hive essentially had no weaknesses, having been able to stand up to Kree, Inhumans, and any SHIELD agents thrown at him. Hive’s weakness to whatever blue energy Lash shot at him in “Emancipation” is good news on a couple of fronts: (1) any villain or hero becomes more interesting once his or her weakness is revealed, (2) if Hive can be destroyed then Brett Dalton may be leaving the show at the end of Season Three.
‘Supergirl’ season two was up in the air due to productions, but CBS’s sister station The CW has renewed the show and as reported earlier will move production to Vancouver, according to Deadline.
The show averaged 10 million viewers an episode, which bests are CW superhero shows.
The CW now has four DC Comics properties with ‘Supergirl’ joining ‘Arrow,’ ‘The Flash,’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow.’ With all shows produced by Greg Berlanti.
The CW did not announce the premiere date for season two and or Supergirl crossovers with the other shows. ‘Supergirl’ stars Melissa Benoist, Calista Flockhart, David Harewood and Chyler Leigh.
How did a fortune 500 company lose $800 million overnight?
While this question could be ripped from any newspaper in the United States, it’s at the center of Money Monster, directed by Jodie Foster, in theaters May 13th . This film plunges into the world of financial investing. Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the host of a TV show called Money Monster where he dishes out advice in a smug and bull-headed manner; think Jim Cramer from the show ‘Mad Money’. Patty (Julia Roberts) is the show’s producer and appears to be the only person who can control Lee and tone him down. During a live portion of the show, Patty notices a delivery man in the back of the stage holding boxes. In mere moments, it is apparent our delivery man is a disgruntled fan of the show who took Lee’s stock tip and it cost him $60,000. Kyle (Jack O’Connell) starts firing shots inside the T.V. studio and takes Gates hostage forcing him to strap on a bomb vest.
Money Monster is Jodie Foster’s first foray into directing thrillers and it’s quite a contrast from some of her earlier directing work like Home For the Holidays,The Beaver, and Little Man Tate. Foster certainly has proven her worth as a director in past but why did she want to tackle a fresh genre of films now directorially? Perhaps the topical nature of the plot attracted her.
Lee represents “the haves,” and appears to lead a comfortable lifestyle. Kyle symbolizes “the have-nots” and views what Lee and others have as unfair. He feels that Lee and people like him (CEO of Ibis Clear Capital) are in on this elaborate system of cheating out investors out of their hard-earned money.
Foster also touches on the impersonal nature of the financial system. Lee mentions to Kyle that, at one point, going into a local bank and asking them to open up their vault to show where the money sat were a normal occurrence. Now banking is a game of speed and profit margins. As long as the investors are continuing to make profit margins, no-one asks questions, and everyone is happy. Kyle goes to extreme measures to get Lee’s attention so that he can feel the massive hurt that he felt after losing his $60,000 investment.
While Foster gets it right when these themes play a fundamental role in the film, the problem is Money Monster only touches on each theme cursorily. If the movie had focused a little more on Kyle (Jack O’Connell’s) background (we do find out he has a girlfriend and a baby on the way), it would have created more buy-in from the audience.
The impersonal nature of the financial system is an enthralling aspect of this story line that deserves loads more attention in the film. Instead of spending time on how appalling life is because of losing $60,000 on a bad stock tip, why not spend it on those who were at the heart of this fraud? The CEO of Ibris Corporation is absconding with $800 million, using it to buy mines in South Africa and all that is worth is a mention at the end of the story? What motivated him to take all that hard earned money (including Kyle’s 60 grand) and made that investment just for his gain? Why does the system reward this type of behavior?
The most important character in the film is Kyle, whose purpose is to represent the “common man” who buys into these get rich stock tips but loses it all. What’s unfortunate is O’Connell’s portrayal is more whiny than that of a man at the end of his rope. Kyle grumbling draws attention away from the nefarious acts the CEO committed and has the audience rooting silently for the S.W.A.T. team sniper to get a clean shot at him . The lack of believability in Kyle’s plight turns his character from one audience can empathize with to one the could care less about.
Julia Roberts and George Clooney areboth equally excellent in Money Monster. As Lee Gates, Clooney is commanding and manages to sell the T.V. finance guy persona perfectly. Gates can command any room, even a room where he is a hostage.
Roberts portrays Patty in a very grounded almost motherly sort of way. Patty cares about all the members of her production team but has a special place in her heart for Lee Gates, no matter how much he annoys her. When the crisis reaches its breaking point, she exhibits a take charge mentality as everyone is trying to get out of this situation alive. She’s the best part of the picture.
While this film had great intentions, the final product is far lacking the credibility needed to tackle such weighty subject matter. Clooney and Roberts make this movie reason enough to see it in the theaters.
As we march closer to Summer, the films get bigger, and our favorite shows reach for the sky. EJ and Matt chat about the Kevin Smith directed episode of ‘The Flash’ and try to figure out how to watch ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ and not compare the movie to ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.’
Bonus conversation: ‘Game of Thrones,’ and our review of George Clooney’s ‘Money Monster’
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Never heard of Matt Sardo? For starters, he made the Kessel Run in less than 11 parsecs. Prior to that, he gave Doc Brown the idea for the flux capacitor and led the Resistance to victory over SkyNet – all while sipping a finely crafted IPA. As a radio host, he’s interviewed celebrities, athletes and everyone in between. He’s covered everything from the Super Bowl to Comic-Con.
Who is EJ Moreno? Is he a trained physician? No. Is he a former Miss Universe contestant? Possibly. But what we know for sure is he’s a writer, filmmaker, and pop culture enthusiast. Since film school, EJ has written & directed several short films. He’s used his passion of filmmaking to become a movie critic for MonkeysFightingRobots.com.
The newest sneak peek of Scooby Apocalypse, DC’s reimagining of Scooby Doo, is out and it’s easy to see how the Mystery Gang has changed drastically from their original conception. Now, before I continue, I have to let it be known my thoughts on Mr. Doo and his affiliates. I never liked Scooby Doo. Not when I was a kid, not when I was a teenager, and especially as an adult, I…well, I didn’t like that dog and let’s leave it at that. Not even the hormonal depravity that was puberty made me want to watch those shows, and that’s saying a lot.
Credit: DC Comics
But, I like what I saw in the comic’s preview so far. I liked it a lot. In fact, I was laughing at all of the jokes in there, which is an incredible compliment to the writers, since I couldn’t stand the humor of the original series. Fred, who was my least favorite character and never felt a connection to, almost feels like my own doppelganger within the character interactions. Daphne has some personality to her and isn’t simply there to bring in fan boys. And…I liked Shaggy. I can’t believe I wrote those words. But it’s true, these guys made me like him. I appreciate how he wasn’t “like” in every sentence and he had a relaxed vibe to his character.
Credit: DC Comics
Velma wasn’t given too much screen time, per se. So I can’t give a real honest impression for her. And I feel she’s going to become a exposition distributor, which can hamper chances of witty and funny dialogue. However, I could be mistaken. I mean they made Shaggy likeable, so anything’s possible at this point. No character’s integrity was compromised in their new incarnations,
When I first heard what DC was planning to do with Scooby Apocalypse and other Hanna-Barbera properties I had major reservations on how this was going to turn out. So to find myself enjoying the first couple of pages was a real treat.
