This episode of Steven Universe presents a classic troupe and unfortunately finds a way not to improve on it. Come on Steven Universe, you are one for blowing tropes away, why not here? We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, let’s start at the beginning.
Connie’s father, Doug Maheswaran, works as a security guard. Apparently, unlike her overprotective mother, Connie’s dad enjoys hearing his daughter tell her stories about fighting alongside the Crystal Gems. This is a major change compared to the rest of the residents of Beach City who seem to ignore the fact Gems exist in this world at all. From here the episode explores the trope of one character being jealous of another character’s adventures and wanting to show there life is interesting as well. It’s a standard plotline but sadly the show doesn’t do anything to expand on it. Also, despite having an interest in her stories once Connie mentions elements like mutants and Home World Gems, Doug seems a little overwhelmed by the entire experience. If you can’t stand the heat Doug, stay out of the fire.
It’s nice to see Mr. Maheswaran as it seems like he hasn’t been around for almost two full seasons (which could be very possible). Still, it’s a minor character getting a lot of attention when the show should be working towards working towards whatever major story they will be addressing next. There is a small hint at the end of mysterious characters entering into the picture but unfortunately this happens for less than a few seconds and doesn’t really help to hint about what is coming down the road. Luckily there are a few more new episodes arriving this week. Also, can someone in this series get Onion a babysitter? The kid runs around far too carefree in a town which has killer monsters which can show up anytime they want.
May 16th can not come soon enough for DC fans. The release of ‘Injustice 2‘ is getting impressive amounts of hype, partially due to an impressive marketing campaign from Netherrealm Studios. This hype also comes from the impressive resume of games based on DC Comics including the Arkham series and the first Injustice game.
With the latest trailer for ‘Injustice 2‘ dropping, it seems like the marketing campaign wants to capitalize on that gaming hype. The video below dives in an extensive amount of information about the stories, characters, and gameplay features.
“Every Battle Defines You”
All of the characters featured in ‘Injustice 2‘ is a great fan service and adds a lot to the fighting game genre. There’s so much the game creators can do based on the DC multiverse. Seeing Swamp Thing and Poison Ivy use plants to battle it out sounds like an amazing prospect. Netherrealm Studios took what they perfected in ‘Mortal Kombat X‘ and applied it to this. The Multiverse concept is similar to Faction Wars but it allows for all the DC fans to connect in a fun battle.
Other than great gameplay, the story for the games is striking. The first game ‘Injustice: Gods Among Men‘ had such a powerful story that it seemingly inspired aspects of ‘Batman v Superman‘ and the DC Extended Universe. Playing on the Batmans vs Superman concept is used again in this game but the battles are getting bigger. More characters are joining the fight than ever before and everyone plays an important role.
New additions to the game include Swamp Thing, Captian Cold, Robin, and much more.
‘Injustice 2‘ releases on May 16 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS, and Android. Ultimate Edition comes with the first bundle of DLC characters in the package, which includes Red Hood, Starfire, and Sub-Zero. Pre-orders include the playable character Darkseid.
May is a fantastic month for stand-up comedy on Netflix. Last month, when I saw the line-up, I knew it was stacked, but the one item that stuck out to me most was the new special by Norm MacDonald: Hitler’s Dog/Gossip and Trickery. Long-time fans of Norm MacDonald likely know him from Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, his brilliant movie Dirty Work, and trying Conan O’Brien’s patience Lately, he’s been busy writing a comic novel mislabeled as a memoir, hosting online talk show Norm MacDonald Live, and trying Conan O’Brien’s patience.
As seen in the clip above, Norm loves to muse on the absurdity of the English language. He also looks at aging, death, and other aspects of human existence through such a clear and individual lens that he is able to fashion lines that will make you laugh at things that might otherwise leave you cringing in despair: Hitler, surgical mishaps, and the sadness of the guy who had to stay in the shuttle while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were frolicking on the surface of the moon.
Norm has a deadpan delivery and sarcastic style that has been evident his entire career. His comedic fluidity is another aspect that always impresses. At times he seems to be a very wise man, able to understand the world in its truest form. Moments later he is utterly devoid of common sense, without the least knowledge of metaphors or Claude Monet.
So before the cold specter of death finds you, take an hour and check out this special. MacDonald’s comedy will leave you chuckling about things like world war and “gossipy small-town whores”. It will also make you ponder these things, which may be the best part.
Norm MacDonald: Hitler’s Dog/Gossip and Trickery is available now on Netflix.
After the smashing success of Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2‘s opening weekend, it’s unsurprising that Volume 3 news has already started rolling in. Director James Gunn recently confirmed that Elizabeth Debicki’s “Ayesha”, new to the Guardians universe in Volume 2, will definitely reappear in Vol 3, according to Dark Horizons.
Ayesha Links Vol 2 Post-Credits into Vol 3
Ayesha appears as the Golden High Priestess of the Sovereign in Volume 2. However, her character has far-reaching connections throughout the MCU. Another version of the character, Kismet/Her, draws a direct line from Guardians to Doctor Strange. The post-credit scene in Volume 2 teases the introduction of Adam Warlock–a character Kevin Feige has confirmed for “phase 3”, but not Infinity War. These connections add a mystic element to the sci-fi vibes of Guardians. As a ‘big bad’, Ayesha ties the Guardians into the future of the MCU.
But even more than that, Gunn says he enjoys Debicki as an actor. “I absolutely plan on bringing Elizabeth Debicki back. She’s actually one of my favorite actors I’ve ever worked with. I think on this movie between her, Pom Klementieff who plays Mantis, and Chris Sullivan who plays Taserface, they really were three of the best actors I’ve ever worked with and were all such a joy on this film to deal with that I would love to deal with them again.”
Don’t tell Pratt and the rest.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 is in theaters now. Based on Marvel Comics, the film and its predecessor star Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Starlord), Vin Diesel (Groot), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Racoon), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Dave Bautista (Drax), and Michael Rooker (Yondu). The second installment introduces Pom Klementief (Mantis), Kurt Russell (Ego) and more.
Currently, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 is expected to release in 2020.
Do you want to know what life was like for Sheldon Cooper while growing up?
CBS is going to give us the untold story, according to reports.
Variety reports the network has given the green light for a Young Sheldon series. The show will serve as a prequel to The Big Bang Theory. Filmmaker Jon Favreau is going to direct the pilot.
Young Sheldon focuses on nine-year old Sheldon as he starts high school while living in East Texas. The show will examine his growth as a prodigy, as well as his family life.
Iain Armitage is playing Sheldon. He’s known for his role as Shailene Woodley’s son in HBO’s Big Little Lies. The rest of the cast includes Larry Barber, Montana Jordan, Zoe Perry, and Raegan Revord.
Big Bang actor Jim Parsons will provide narration for the series. He’s also serving as a producer.
Chuck Lorre and Steven Molara came up with the concept for the series, and Molara wrote the pilot script. Lorre, Molara and Todd Spiewak will executive produce the show.
Young Sheldon will air sometime in the 2017-2018 season.
On May 16th, Tracy Morgan proves he still has it with this new Netflix Original Comedy Special. In ‘Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive‘, the comedian brings his unique brand of comedy to real issues. For those who don’t know, Morgan was in a serious car accident that nearly claimed his life but came back with a passion. Expect nothing to be held back in this hilarious but personal comedy special.
Check out the trailer below:
“He’s back! Tracy Morgan proves a coma can’t keep a good joke down in “Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive.” The hilariously bawdy comedian wastes no time taking on the car accident that nearly claimed his life, leaving a sold-out crowd rolling with laughter at the landmark Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ. Morgan cleverly tackles recovery, the trials of family and getting a second shot at life and marriage.”
Will you be checking out the Tracy Morgan comedy special?
Let me know in the comments below!
‘Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive‘ debuts for Netflix on May 16th, 2017.
Ode to The Fifth Element,
SciFi cult classic from Luc Besson. Monkeys Fighting Robots wants to say,
How much we love your crazy ways
Happy birthday 20 years ago this day.
For those who haven’t seen The Fifth Element, I suggest you stop reading and go watch. The science fiction film centers around a great galactic threat that’s heading towards Earth. A species of robots, charged with stopping the great evil, is mostly wiped out before they can get their plans into motion. The weapon against the great evil is a young girl who’s the perfect human. But she needs one thing to make her unstoppable, and that’s where cabbie Korben Dallas comes in.
Watching the FifthElement today you’ll notice just how flawless and vibrant the effects remain. Every penny of the 90 million dollar production is well-spent. Costumes (from legendary designer Jean Paul Gaultier), ships, weapons, creatures, cityscapes, and sets are richly detailed. There’s nothing here that screams “I want to be like Star Wars.” If you know Director Luc Besson’s work, he doesn’t imitate or copy. Certainly, Fifth Element is inspired by science fiction before it, but it’s mixed with an attitude and style that’s rare. FifthElement is as fresh and diverse a film today as it ever was and will likely be so for a long time.
2. The Director
During the 80s, French filmmaker Luc Besson put together a robust filmography under his belt. In 1990, Besson made a little mainstream motion with Nikita an action film that’s been remade as a movie once and as a TV show twice since. In 1994, Besson made his big splash with Leon: The Professional. By this time Besson was clearly a visionary director with a clear sense of style and signature.
Besson’s vision included beautifully detailed miniatures mixed with CG recreations and classic practical effects. Three effects teams worked on the production with Digital Domain, James Cameron’s people, working on the CG visuals. Besson also recruited many of the comic book artists whose work inspired him to create designs for the film.
3. The Stars
The 1990s were a good time for Bruce Willis. After starting the decade with Die Hard hits, he parlayed that into dramatic work in PulpFiction and then out into a broad range of work. Willis was perfect as Korben Dallas, a throwback hero in a future world. Willis’ masculinity as a character is further enhanced by the effeminate males that dominate the rest of the film’s characters.
Opposite Willis was Mila Jovovich who had done five films in the years leading up to FifthElement. Jovovich became an action star as Leeloo, a perfect human meant to save the universe from evil. Jovovich became an action star following FifthElement, going on to make the ResidentEvil films enjoyable, Joan of Arc interesting, and Ultraviolet a quiet cult classic.
No great movie works without an extraordinary villain. Gary Oldman slipped into the role of weapons dealer and opportunist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg perfectly. Oldman’s performance is off-kilter, like a ‘roided up version of his character from The Professional. Though Oldman says of the film that he “can’t bear it” his performance as an unhinged villain is one of the actor’s best, particularly in the realm of pop culture.
Providing a heavy dose of comic relief was late 90s “it” comedy actor Chris Tucker. As a celebrity in the world of Fifth Element, Tucker’s Ruby Rhod was caught in the middle of an intergalactic power struggle. His shrieks and delivery are borderline obnoxious, but that’s the point of his character and Tucker pulls it off.
4. The Music
French musician Eric Serra is a longtime collaborator of Luc Besson. Serra creates a score for the FifthElement that both enhances the movie’s darker moods while enriching it with energy that drives kinetic scenes to a fever pitch. The mix of Arabic horns, industrial progressions, futuristic pop, and atmospheric vocals is spot on. In this age of movies without exciting music or thematic chords carried throughout the experience, FifthElement’s soundtrack only gets better.
In this episode of the FilmKind Podcast, Kieran sits down and reviews the new trailer for Blade Runner 2049. The episode covers everything from the first Blade Runner movie to his excitement about the upcoming sequel. Is Denis Villeneuve the right director for this project? Does the cast look good? Find out in the FilmKind trailer review!
The FilmKind Podcast is an awesome new show discussing the latest movies and movie related content. With amazing weekly episodes and detailed reviews!
Listen To My Review Of The Blade Runner 2049 Trailer Below!
Make sure you hit the like button, subscribe and review the podcast! Alternatively, you can subscribe to the Monkeys Fighting Robots newsletter to be notified when new episodes are available, plus amazing content! The FilmKind podcast is available on iTunes, YouTube, and Soundcloud!
Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner who’s been missing for 30 years.
Blade Runner2049 stars Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas, and Mackenzie Davis.
Once in awhile a series will come along and challenges you as a critic. You find yourself unable to enjoy the series and even have personal feelings whether they are negative or positive against the material and wish to channel them in the review. Unfortunately you also to take a step back and realized the show has redeeming qualities and you simply can not tear down the media because you didn’t enjoy it as fully as you could. This is the case of The Saga of Tanya the Evil (Yōjo Senki) a show which was difficult to watch but at the same time did have redeeming qualities.
Story
The anime focuses on a nameless man who upon his death is visited by God. Not wishing to believe it is God, he names it Being X and receives a punishment of being reincarnated into Tanya Degurechaff, a young girl with high level magical abilities. Tanya lives in an alternate world where World War I is being fought with Mages as the weapon which will change the course of the war. Thanks to her great power, Tanya is able to easily obtain the level of Major and now fights for the glory of the Fatherland.
This series has absolutely no character development. Tanya is the same character she was in episode twelve she was in episode one. The only things which change are her military rank and awards. Otherwise she is a evil sadistic character who cares nothing about anyone else. Her entire purpose in life is to find a way to kill Being X for trapping her in this world. Except, the world has magic, she can now fly, and thanks to knowledge from the previous life is aware of what will happen for the most part in the course of the war. How exactly is her life so terrible?
Tanya is the only character who gets much screen time other than her subordinate Viktoriya. She is the standard the cute innocent character but she has nothing of personality. Viktoriya is just a soldier and her being naive makes you question how good she would really be at her job. She does nothing to stop Tanya from carrying out cruel and unspeakable acts instead admiring her superior and following her without questioning orders. It wouldn’t be surprising if this eventually lead to her death.
The rest of the team barely get more than names. Even then they all follow orders and think Tanya is a genius which gets old fast. The higher military brass are mouth pieces for exposition and world building but provide nothing else. There is something of a plot as Tanya does have an opponent who appears more than once to take her down but he doesn’t appear enough to leave much of an impact.
Animation
Unfortunately this show does have redeeming qualities. The art is pleasing to look at and has a nice mixture of CGI and character animation which is often hard to do. Just go ask Hand Shakers. The CGI here is employed to showcase when the characters use their magical spells. It helps to know when things are going to be kicked up into high gear.
The characters designs leave a bit to be desired though. Tanya does have a distinct and catching look with her piercing eyes and bright hair but other characters leave something to be desired. Other than Tanya, Viktoriya, or the higher ranked officers the rest of the cast is bland and don’t really stand out. Still, the military elements are highly detailed. Why couldn’t they just skimp on the quality?
Music
The music is also relatively entertaining. The opening by opening by Myth and Roid is pretty catchy and has a good “getting ready for battle” hint to it. The ending by Aoi Yuki though is basically Tanya’s theme as she orders her troops into battle. The last thing she needs is a rallying cry for all her fans to get behind (more on this later).
Conclusion
As a critic sometimes it’s hard to separate your personal feelings from the media you review. This series is a great example of it. The writing and characters are on a level of annoyance which does nothing but aggravates me but the same time the show has redeeming elements with its art and music. So unfortunately I can’t give it a rating which makes it the worst show I’ve ever seen. At the same time with the overall content and my distaste for it as a whole it still will find a place my worst animes of 2017 list.
Just rubs salt into the wounds, many people have been smitten by Tanya and are willing overlook the fact she has no development as a character. She is currently high on Newtype’s monthly top 10 list for female characters. This means later in the year many people out there will be putting this series on their top 10 best anime of the year lists. If you are one of those individuals who has nothing but overwhelming respect and admiration for Tanya, you may need to take a step back. Seriously she’s a sadist loli devil. You deserve better than worship this kind of atrocity. Tanya is a terrible character who doesn’t change at all.This series is average at its best and fans need to see it for the insipid show it really is. The least I can hope is others will read this review and not put Tanya on a pedestal to adore. Because she is truly evil incarnate.
Archie Andrews wants to make his songwriting and rock and roll dreams a reality! But it won’t be easy. Can Archie get himself (and a band!) together in time? Will anyone even show up to audition? And what happens when the music dream starts affecting his relationships and his friends? Can our beloved Riverdale gang survive long enough to play one song, let alone an actual band?
The Archies One-Shot Written by: Alex Segura and Matt Rosenberg Art by: Joe Eisma, Matt Herms, Jack Morelli Cover by: Jaime Hernandez
Published by: Archie Comics
The new modern Archie continuity finally gets one of the most classic and recognizable concepts added to its pages. Lo and Behold we have The Archies finally taking the stage! How does it play out? Like a number-one hit! Read on for 11 Reasons it’s time to stand up and dance for The Archies One-Shot!
“I’m thinking hologram, Tupac style.” (Seriously Jughead gets all the best lines here!).
The fourth-wall breaking narrative by Archie. Having Archie address readers really connects you to him.
The story really captures that unique feeling of playing music with friends. It will especially resonate if you have even done so once in your life
Like all great Archie tales, it’s a testament to the power of friendship, but this one now also adds the power of music.
With its layout and panels structure, the final pages really do capture the exuberance of a live, small, intimate show.
Ok folks, there you have it! The Archies one-shot is a total must read for both classic and modern Archie fans. The book is just a delight to read, and Segura and Rosenberg are quickly becoming one of the most special Archie collaborators we have had. Pick The Archies One-Shot up when it comes out May 24th!
Ayesha appears as the Golden High Priestess of the Sovereign in 
The Archies One-Shot
