Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This movie is an incredibly original and creative concept. Its a really great combination of romance, comedy, and cerebral science fiction that makes an impressively well made movie. I think a good explanation for the type of movie this is: think about if Being John Malkovich had a baby with, Memento, and the Notebook. It's a strange comparison but watch all those movies (with the "exception" of the Notebook they're all phenomenal movies anyway) and compare them with this movie, you'll have an awesome baby that is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I don't usually talk about the cinematography of movies because A. I'm not an expert on cinematography and B. if a movie can tell a story really well I shouldn't worry too much about the cinematography. That being said, this movie is beautifully filmed and just the way its shot is so creative and actually mind blowing.

The movie follows the story of Joel (played by Jim Carrey). The beginning of the movie really starts at the end of Joel's relationship with a woman named Clementine (played by Kate Winslet). Joel is so torn up by this break up and he soon realizes that Clementine has gone through a special procedure to have all memory of him erased from her memory. So Joel decides that's what he wants too. The movie takes place mainly over the course of one night following Joel in his mind as he sees his memories of Clementine disappearing before his eyes.

Its really fun to see an actual earnest dramatic role portrayed by Jim Carrey. While I love him as a comedic actor and I think that's where his talent is, it really shows his talent as an actor when he can play the role of an incredibly introverted man struggling with the aftermath of a breakup.

Believe it or not, Carrey is very subtle in this movie. And he does it well. He plays a very introspective man who is traveling within his mind and struggling with the emotions that come along with the memories disappearing before him.

Kate Winslet gives an incredibly solid performance. Clementine is crazy in this film. That's not really an exaggeration. Clementine has some emotional issues and is very attached to Joel from the very beginning. You can see in their first interaction in the film that once she spies something she likes, she pounces on it and never lets it go. The first thought I had when observing Winslet's character is, "My god, she's insane."

I think that's the reaction the movie was expecting me to say. But beyond all opinions of mine, Carrey still finds something in her that he absolutely falls for.

The memories being erased pull a Memento and start from the end and go all the way to the beginning of their relationship. Like any other relationship, things end worse than they begin. And that's done on purpose. It allows for Joel to realize exactly what he's giving up by agreeing to this memory wipe.

The fascinating thing about this movie is that while I thought Kate Winslet's character was justifiably insane from the moment she's introduced, she's the right kind of insane for Jim Carrey's character. It compliments his introvertness and the two create a couple that really extenuates the love story. I could see this being the hipster's Notebook.

The other characters in the movie are the people wiping his memory throughout the night. The first one is Elijah Wood who steals the memories of Joel and tries to use them to woo Clementine. The other characters are Kristen Dunst who plays the Secretary of the main Doctor, (played by Tom Wilkinson) Mark Ruffalo is also in this movie... which is always a good thing.

The movie has a cult following along with its already established mainstream success. And I get it, its a romantic movie with a couple twists and turns that really make the story more romantic. There are a bunch of hipster girls who don't connect to The Notebook and see this movie as their muse.

I liked the story, I liked every character, I liked Carrey and Winslet's performances. There are very few things I didn't like.

The one problem I have with the movie is that its message can get a little confused with the actions of the movie. I have a little bit a problem that this couple actually does have some problems that are clearly illustrated in the movie. They definitely explain the situation in which they break up and the dynamic of the relationship leading up to that breakup. This isn't a case of misunderstandings, these two definitely have problems. And yet there comes a point where Joel doesn't want this to happen anymore and he wants to go and get Clementine back.

I won't say if he does or not but the movie kind of puts the audience in a constant state of what How I Met Your Mother would call, Graduation goggles. Its the phenomena most commonly seen when you graduate from Highschool. Its when something or someone is leaving or will be lost and you go and remember all the good things even if they weren't that good.

Because the movie starts at the end of their relationship, it gives the picture of things starting out horribly and then becoming better and better as the movie goes on. They kind of mention that in the end but unfortunately, emotionally fragile women (and men) may see this as a sign they should stay in a relationship that isn't healthy or get back together with someone they should just not be getting back together with.

Maybe I'm just extrapolating on personal experience, I just know I had a girlfriend that I shouldn't have been with for as long as I was. Had I seen this movie when I was with her and considering breaking up with her, I may have thought sticking it out would be a good idea and second guessing thoughts to break up with her.

Luckily, that may just be me worrying about my own fabricated consequences.

The movie does give a good message about breaking up. That while losing the companionship of another is hard, you did create memories that changed you and they are things you should hold onto and cherish.

Moral of the story: If you find a company that offers to wipe someone from your memory, don't do it!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a solid movie and quite the cerebral adventure. Its not your run of the mill romance movie and that's a great strength the movie has.

So have you seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Did you like it? What's your favorite cerebral movie? Any and all are good to mention, I may need a recommendation.

I'll leave you with this. Only because Elijah Wood was in this movie and I find that funny. So here's him laughing.

Saving Mr. Banks

I was going to write this review later but I thought I'd get it done now. There's a couple movies on my Netflix list that are going to be leaving Netflix at the end of the year and so there are going to be a lot of reviews in the next few days. Along with that I still need to see The Desolation of Smaug, Anchorman 2 so there are going to be a lot of reviews in the next few days before the year is out. Get excited!

That being said, a review of Saving Mr. Banks needs to be done because it is a solid movie.

Saving Mr. Banks is the story of how Disney got the rights to Mary Poppins and made it into the movie it is today.

I grew up in a family of three sisters, three sisters that loved Disney movies and one in particular that loved Julie Andrews and Mary Poppins. With that knowledge, of course I've seen Mary Poppins. I don't have the emotional connection to it that my sister has but I'm still pretty familiar to the story and the connection of nostalgia I have for it.

I have not read the book but it was a book before written by British novelist, PL Travers.

Saving Mr. Banks follows P.L. Travers as she takes on the wooing of Walt Disney as he attempts to get the rights to Mary Poppins and turn it into the Disney classic we know today.

Emma Thompson plays P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney. This was the big selling point for this movie. To have Tom Hanks, a man considered in many circles to be one of the greatest actors of our time play an iconic historical figure was just too good to turn down.

And while Hanks gives a phenomenal performance and is a very large part of the story, he's actually not what the movie is focused on.

The story actually is more about P.L. Travers. Not only her struggle with her objections to the movie but also the way that Mary Poppins is really apart of Traver's childhood.

Traver's childhood is really where the movie tugs at the heartstrings and makes this movie a great candidate for an Oscar. I don't think it'll win best picture but its definitely going to be in the running in my predictions.

P.L. Travers grew up in Australia and the flash back story focuses a lot on her relationship with her father and without giving too much away, it really is a center piece to the entire movie. Colin Ferrel plays her father and he's just phenomenal in the movie.

Another great strong point of the movie is the dynamic between Walt Disney and P.L. Travers. They are just two very different people, Travers being an uptight British woman, very humble and protective of the creativity she basically sees as her baby.

On the other hand you have Walt Disney, who at this point is just an American superstar. He's outgoing, he's kinda pushy, and he has this vision for Mary Poppins he won't say no to.

The dynamic between the two is phenomenal and its not too far off from reality.

In real life, the two most likely hated each other. You can see in the movie that Travers is hard to work with in the reading of the script with all the changes she wants to make. And Disney has this vision he doesn't want to ruin. However, the liberties the movie takes is when they make the connections between the two because they do have a lot of similarities despite their differences. And regardless the reality of their relationship, the movie illustrates a really compelling relationship between the two and really delves into the beauty of storytelling. A theme I can really get behind.

There's a lot of good elements of this movie that I haven't mentioned and that's because its really a movie you should see. Its just heartwarming, emotional, and definitely made me cry.

Not too many movies can do that. I would give Saving Mr. Banks a huge recommendation.

So have you seen Saving Mr. Banks? What did you think of it? Let me know.

There are a couple of youtube videos I could leave you with, one of them being Mary Poppins shaking a baby. I didn't really think it appropriate for this review, especially since its a solid movie. So I'll leave you with this and another Merry Christmas.

A Christmas Carol (Doctor Who)

So... I just finished The Time of the Doctor. I thought about doing a review of that, but I'm not quite sure how I feel yet. I'll be sure to mention my feelings on the episode in that review that will most likely come tomorrow after I watch it without distractions or commercials.

But, since it is Christmas, I thought I'd do a review of something Christmas-y and the first thing that came to mind was the Christmas Special at the end of the 5th Series of Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol.

Though this special came out in 2010, I didn't see it until this year. There was huge hype over the current Christmas Special that they made lists of all the Christmas Specials of the rebooted series and this was near if not at the top of all of those lists. But it didn't look familiar to me. I soon realized, its not on Netflix. Why? I have no idea. But it took me a while to find this one and I'm really bummed I am only now finding it.

I love the story of the Christmas Carol. I think this is mainly due to my love and childhood nostalgia for The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Its pretty obvious the premise, its the classic Charles Dickens story but with the muppets, and Michael Caine.

This really started my love for the Muppets, Michael Caine, and the entire story of Ebeneezer Scrooge being haunted by three ghosts in order for him to realize the importance of Christmas.

If I have time tonight, I may review the Muppet Christmas Carol. But in the case I don't get to it, the short review is, its REALLY good.

Now it's tradition for the Doctor to have his very own adventure on Christmas.

Probably because I hadn't seen this special, I hadn't seen Matt Smith in a full fledged Christmas Special. Yes I saw him in the other ones like The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe, and The Snowmen, but I never felt as though Matt Smith was in a complete Christmas Special, (in my opinion) until I saw him in A Christmas Carol.

The story starts with Amy Pond and her newly wed husband Rory on their honeymoon, on a large spaceship crashing through the atmosphere of a different planet. The Doctor soon shows up and figures out that the atmosphere they are falling through is a special crystalized atmosphere that is preventing them from landing safely. It is controlled by a rich man named Kazran Sardick who refuses to help because he's too busy and greedy even in the Christmas season.

The Doctor then conducts a reenactment of A Christmas Carol with his own little twist. He manipulates Sardick's past, giving him new memories in the hope of making him a less spiteful man.

This is in the running for one of my favorite Christmas specials of Doctor Who and of all time.

It loosely follows the story of the Christmas Carol to give it the familiar feeling but at the same time it has its own Doctor Who feeling to it that completes the piece of art you watch.

Matt Smith is phenomenal in it. While Amy and Rory are stuck on the ship, he is able to interact with new "companions" in Sardick and the woman they awaken from a frozen sleep.

In the story, The Doctor goes back in time to a young Karzan Sardick to help him enjoy a childhood that was taken from him from his strict father. While it starts with investigating flying fish, it soon develops into a beautiful love story. They find a woman, frozen in a box, named Abigail. After a wonderful Christmas eve adventure observing the fish in the sky, young Kazran gets the Doctor to come back every Christmas Eve and bring him and Abigail on an adventure.

The Doctor intends on making young Kazran see the beauty in Christmas and something he can enjoy. However the Doctor doesn't realize that Abigail is dying and every Christmas Eve they spend together is draining the days she has left to live. Unfortunately, Kazran falls in love with her and is heartbroken when he finds out she only has one day left.

This makes him the bitter once again and the Doctor doesn't realize that by bringing Abigail into his life, Kazran is haunted by the inevitability that she will die and he must choose the one day to spend with his beloved. This was one of the best themes I've ever seen done and Michael Gambdon does it brilliantly.

Yeah, Dumbledore is in this episode. He was good as Dumbledore but I don't think that part gives Gambdon enough credit as an actor. Kazran Sardick is such a complex character that I got more out of him than I did of 8 (or is it 7? 6?) movies of Harry Potter.

Anyway, not only does he struggle with the loss of his beloved Abigail but he struggles with the fear of becoming his strict and slightly abusive father. There's a fantastic scene where the Doctor brings the young Kazran to see the older one just as he is so angry he says he doesn't care about the people on the ship that will die if he doesn't do anything. This scene is just too great to explain but it brings me to tears every time I see it.

And I think that's the great thing about Doctor Who. The storytelling in one hour is so fantastic that it not only brings its viewers to tears, but it's able to give such a connection to the characters and the story in such a limited time.

The Doctor is such a likable character that he's really someone you want to root for. And the more you watch the show the more attached you get to the character.

I have my opinions about The Time of the Doctor and the regeneration but the time of Matt Smith has a special place in my heart. I think each actor who becomes the Doctor brings his own spin to the role and I think the Christmas Carol is a fantastic testament to Smith's contribution to the role and the entire show of Doctor Who.

So if you're a Doctor Who fan and you haven't seen A Christmas Carol, you really should. You probably have but you should if you haven't. If you're not a Doctor Who fan, I would think its a good transition into the show. Maybe not the best introduction to the character but its a great example of the heart of the show and the likable characters it creates in such a short span of time.

So what do you think about the episode A Christmas Carol? Don't worry I will do a post on The Time of the Doctor so don't post anything about that yet. But what's your favorite Doctor Who Christmas Special? Furthermore what's your favorite Christmas story, book, movie, TV special, anything, let me know.

I'll leave you with this. Not really related to Matt Smith, but still related to Doctor Who and its pretty funny. Merry Christmas.

I've Made A Huge Mistake: Conan the Barbarian

So I originally intended to do a review of both Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan and the new Conan. But then I realized that Netflix does not have the original Conan... only Conan the Destroyer. And I don't start with sequels, that's just stupid. So I am just doing the new Conan...

With the first scene... I realized, I don't have alcohol for this...

I am just baffled by the amount of this incredibly simple plot I did not understand. It was just amazing how complicated but just overall stupidly simple this plot was.

I mean, I guess I knew what I was getting into when I first started this movie. I mean the movie is called Conan The Barbarian. Does that scream really good movie? Does a remake of a shitty Arnold Schwarzenegger movie say, This is a good movie? We should remake this?

So Conan the Barbarian is the story of a guy from a village, I guess of Barbarians. He's the son of Ron Perlman and his name is Conan. Well Conan grows up and basically becomes a sociopathic killer. Seriously, they're doing some weird ritual with eggs and they get attacked by other barbarians for no reason whatsoever. So Conan goes and just demolishes these guys and brings back their heads to his father. Great start for a hero we're suppose to root for. Well soon... other barbarians? come and attack the village. It's a very predictable story, bad barbarians kill Conan's father, he swears revenge.

Well all the while Morgan Freeman narrates (yes... Morgan Freeman is pseudo in this movie) that there's this mask that was fragmented into pieces and if the pieces are put together someone can be super powerful with this mask. So Stephen Lang wants to get this mask so he leads the bad barbarians around killing other barbarians, like Ron Perlman for their pieces. But even though the mask is complete, he can't use it for another 10 years or so... for some reason... something about a pureblood woman I guess.

So Conan grows up he's tracking Stephen Lang down, Stephen Lang is tracking this girl down (played by Rachel Nichols) and of course Conan finds the girl first. You know where this is going and if you don't you haven't played a video game or seen an action movie.

This movie was just so stupid. It was predictable, it was sappy, it felt like all the actors were just dressing up and LARPing the entire time.

I think this movie was made by a person who has played too many video games. Now I have seen movies that are pretty much just video games and they're done well. Perfect example: Taken.

 Now Taken is by no means a phenomenal movie. However it does what it wants to do absolutely perfectly.

Think about the plot of Taken. It's a guy going to Paris in order to find his daughter. What's the conflict? A bunch of bad guys. So what does he do? He kills them and gets his daughter back. There's not really a twist in Taken, its just Liam Neeson kicking ass and getting to his objective.

Taken does a really good job at sending a guy through a world of conflict and getting him to the end. Its a very straightforward movie and while it may not be an Oscar winning movie, it entertained the hell out of me.

But the reason it was so entertaining was because Liam Neeson's character was relatable. While the movie didn't have that many twists and  an incredibly complex story, it did have a compelling protagonist. Along with being a badass, you wanted him to succeed, you wanted him to find his daughter.

With Conan, I just didn't care. Conan wasn't relatable, he wasn't compelling, he wasn't even that interesting. He was just the least evil guy with a sword.

Most of the time I analyze each character and their contribution to the film. I will try with this movie but its going to be hard.

I'll start with Jason Momoa as Conan. Now Momoa is not a stranger to the Barbarian role. He was phenomenal as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones but this role is nothing like that.

You'd think that with a title like Conan the Barbarian he'd be more Barbarian like. But instead Momoa was just a guy with his shirt off. He didn't strike me as a barbarian, just a psychopath.

And honestly, neither strike me as a character I would root for.

I mentioned this already but Conan's an asshole. He's not a good guy. Sure he'll fight people that are worse than him and he is the "hero" of the movie, but sometimes he's just as bad as the guys he's fighting. Unlike Liam Neeson's character in Taken who I was introduced to as a good guy with a bit of a dark streak within him, the first real scene with Conan he dismembers the heads of his enemies and brings them to his father. If I didn't know he was going to be the "protagonist" I would have thought that Conan was the bad guy in this film.

Does that mean Momoa was bad... ehhh, no.

I still haven't seen enough to show me that Momoa is a good actor but this movie I will chalk a lot of it up to bad writing. Are there bad actors in this movie? Oh yes there are. But the script is just awful.

The female lead... was hot.

Her name is Rachel Nichols and the only thing I've seen her in besides this movie is the 2009 Star Trek as the Green Alien Kirk bangs then dies in the following battle.

And unfortunately, Nichols didn't do much in this movie. I don't care if this is a reboot of a movie from the 70's and a time when women couldn't do anything, we live in the 21st century.

I'm usually not a huge feminist but the estrogen in my body hurt when I saw the uselessness of this character.

This one again I will chalk up to bad script but I will be surprised if Nichols has an incredibly successful career ahead of her.

Stephen Lang... I don't even wanna look at him. I want to like him so much and I do but then I see shit like this...

Now I think what happened with this movie for me was that I am angry that this was such an awful movie, not because I'm necessarily mad at the movie, but more that I'm mad at myself for spending two hours of my life watching this movie. I think this is a common feeling among movie viewers and we often blame the movie or movie theater. In short, it is nobodys fault but my own that I wasted time on this movie

But there's another reason I guess I watched this movie.

Momoa is now in talks for a part in the Man of Steel sequel.

Its not really clear what part he's going to be but people are speculating he's going to be Martian Manhunter, Lobo, even Doomsday was thrown out there.

Now on face value, not knowing who he's going to be. I'm psyched. Momoa looks like a villain but that doesn't mean he couldn't play a good guy. But the more and more I think about it, the more and more I'm iffy on this decision.

First off, the pile of shit I just watched was just sad. And while I did chalk it up to script issues, I'm worried I might be wrong about that and Snyder just threw in a large guy to play a large role. Because there's no reason why Momoa won't be given a large part regardless of whether or not its a good guy or a bad guy.

The second part of that is the concerns I have over Man of Steel 2 already. I'm not worried that its going to be overcrowded, I get that movies have a lot of characters in them. But I've said this before, Zack Snyder needs to focus on Batman and Superman in this movie. You've heard my rants on Wonder Woman but I'm still pretty psyched. I'm just worried they're going to cast Momoa as another member of the Justice League, like Martian Manhunter or hell I'd be cool with him being Aquaman. But if that's his character, I'm a little more concerned about the film. Cause while a movie can't be overcrowded, other characters can take away from the real purpose of developing the two main ones if its too convoluted and Snyder doesn't care. Now from everything I've heard, Snyder does care and I still have no doubts about that.

But like I said, Momoa looks more like a solid villain for a Man of Steel sequel. But is it the villain we want for Man of Steel 2. Maybe I'm just took hung up on seeing Lex Luthor and a more subtle but commanding villain.

Granted I don't know the background of Lobo but from what I've played of him in InJustice he's menacing but not a lead villain. But maybe they can do it.

Perhaps I'm just caught up with an image of Momoa and Lobo I can't picture in Man of Steel, however maybe that's why I'm not writing this movie.

I went kind of off on a rant totally unrelated to Conan The Barbarian but that movie was just...

You know what, I'm done.

So, what do you think of Conan the Barbarian? Have you seen it?

I'm so sick of thinking about this movie that I am going to give you a video totally unrelated but it made me laugh so here you go.

The Wolverine

Well I finally gave in. I decided I was going to have to see The Wolverine sooner or later so I sucked it up and found a free version of it online. I am staying true to the claim I made that I would not pay money to see just another mediocre Wolverine film.

Now that was my thoughts before I saw the movie. 

Now that I've seen the movie... its still kind of a mediocre Wolverine film. I think its miles and miles better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But it is done a little bit better. 

The Wolverine follows up with the man himself after the events of X-men: Last Stand. There's not much of an explanation as to how much time has past, but to me that doesn't really matter.

Logan is living a life as a hobo, living in the woods of Canada where he hangs out with bears and sees visions of Jean Grey. He obviously regrets killing her in Last Stand and he's kind of gotten to a point where he doesn't want to be a hero, he just wants to be left alone. 

Well he's picked up by a Japanese precognitive mutant, Yukio (played by Rila Fukushima) who works for an old acquaintance of Logans. A Japanese man by the name of Yashida (played by Hiroyuki Sanada). Logan met Yashida in World War 2 when the US dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Logan saved him from dying and Yashida calls Logan to Tokyo because he is dying and he wants to say good bye. But when Logan gets there, Yashida says he has the means to rid Logan of his regenerative powers and allow him to die if Logan wants to. Well Wolverine thinks about it but he says no mainly because Yashida lets him know that he would take that ability for himself. Logan mainly refuses because he doesn't want Yashida to go through the same hell he's going through by not dying.

So Yashida dies but there's shady dealings going on with his business and the Yakuza and another shadow organization that seems to be lead by the doctor of Yashida, a crazy snake, viper lady (played by Svetlana Khodchenkova) and the Japanese version of Hawkeye. The granddaughter of Yashida (played by Tao Okamoto) is attacked and Wolverine takes it on himself to save her but soon realizes, somehow his regenerative powers are gone... and there's the premise. Not the entire movie.

Because truth be told... the story was actually really good and you should probably see it yourself.

I don't really know why I was so hesitant to see this movie. I guess I'm just not the biggest Wolverine fan. I love Hugh Jackman, I love superhero movies but I just think Wolverine is a little overrated in my book. I still do enjoy his character, especially in this one because you get to kind of dive into his personality and his struggles a little more in this film.

But I just don't see why they had to give him another standalone film. In this end, I don't know how much this movie is going to affect the entire X-Men universe being created by Fox Studios, but maybe it will. Or maybe it won't.

Regardless, the story is good, the characters are good, the action is good. There are just a lot of good things about this movie. Is it the best superhero movie ever made. Not at all. But its still entertaining and I guess a good bridge between X-Men: Last Stand and Days of Future Past.

This is the only spoiler I will give because it relates to a bigger purpose than this movie's story. So here it is, the post credit scene of The Wolverine.

Logan returns to the United States, he's going through the airport and he sees a commercial for Trask Industries. Then some metal starts movie and Magneto is right behind him. This makes Logan angry for a little bit but Magneto says, Calm down, I'm looking for your help. If you don't trust me, here's someone you may trust. And Professor X rolls in and they say there's a bigger threat they need to stop.


Though its not the post credit scene I wanted. I would have definitely preferred Tony Stark coming in or Nick Fury showing up at the airport being like, Logan, come with me. We need to talk about The Avengers.

But I've come to the sad conclusion that that is never going to happen and I will take what I can get.

But this post credit scene was no surprise. Days of Future Past had already been announced before The Wolverine came out and Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart were already signed to the movie. For me, it wasn't a surprise that Charles Xavier was alive or Magneto had his powers. It was cool to see it, however it wasn't incredibly shocking.

The good thing is, it sets up pretty well for Days of Future Past, which I am very, very excited about.

But back to the film. I just don't know. I liked it but I can't say it was a very memorable movie. Half way through the movie gets kind of slow. The action was good but at no point did I feel any sense of urgency for Logan to win. If he loses, the world wasn't going to end, the bad guys would win but I didn't feel as though them winning was a horrible thing on a large scale. Of course I don't want the bad guys to win but beyond the lives of the characters, not much felt at stake.

It was a more personal story for Logan as a character, not a story of him saving the world. I can respect that, and its part of the movies charm and what makes it different, but I just wasn't expecting it. Its not a bad thing, it just didn't feel as though the stakes were high enough for this movie.

Hugh Jackman, is amazing. How he can continue to be this character for over a decade, that is impressive. Tao Okomoto, playing the granddaughter of Yashida, was pretty good. Nothing phenomenal but pretty good. Yukio was alright, kind of a fun sidekick for Wolverine, although she didn't do too much overall.

Dr. Green or Viper was a very unsettling villain. She knew what she was doing, she had a plan and she knew how to get it done. Beyond working for Yashida there's not much known about her.

And Kenuichio Harada, the Japanese Hawkeye was pretty cool. I looked on wikipedia and it turns out in the comics, Harada is actually the Silver Samurai. In the movie, they make a giant Silver Samurai mech that Wolverine fights. If I was a huge comic book fan I might feel kind of cheated by this, I mean look at how comic book fans handled The Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

But villains aside, The Wolverine was alright. Again, its not my favorite superhero movie and I'll probably forget a lot of it tomorrow. I think the best takeaway from it was the post credit scene.

If you're a Wolverine fan, you'll like this movie. I think anybody might enjoy this movie I just don't feel its that memorable. Incredibly better than Origins, but still, not very memorable.

So that's my thoughts on The Wolverine. What did you think? Let me know, lets chat about it.

I'll leave you with this.

Pilot: Arrow

I'm not much for CW television. Any channel that shows Gossip Girl... I just don't do it.

Arrow is the story of Oliver Queen, created by some of the same writers from Smallville. Oliver Queen is the secret identity of the Green Arrow, the DC superhero.

Now I'm not a huge fan of Green Arrow, I don't know too much about him though. I knew he existed but the first big exposure I had of him was in Injustice: God's Among Us.

Now the story doesn't really develop Queen as a character but talking from a video game stand point, he's a really cool character. Fun controls, funny remarks. I mean the guy shoots arrows. Not what you would expect but surprisingly awesome.

Arrow is very similar.

Arrow actually delves into the backstory of Oliver Queen and how he dawns the green hood and becomes the Green Arrow, a masked vigilante set on fighting crime and promoting justice.

What I found interesting about the show was how it was set up.

The show starts off with Oliver Queen signaling a fishing boat from the island that he's been stranded on for 5 years. The show mainly focuses on Queen's adjustment back into his luxurious lifestyle as a billionaire with a few allusions to what happened to explain how he was stranded and what happened before he got onto the island.

Now as far as action in a pilot, this one has a lot. The more I think about it, its very an introductory episode. The Green Arrow has a list of people. The first name he crosses off the list is a rich guy stealing money from investors. By the end the money is discreetly sent out to those people via Green Arrow. He soon becomes a Robin Hood sort of figure in the city he returns to.

The plot of the pilot is very simple but hard to explain fully. In short, I thought it was really really well done.

I'll explain the characters and hopefully explain the plot and set up as best as I can.

1. Oliver Queen - Obvious one. He's the main character. Now of course its only the pilot, but I really like this version of Oliver Queen. From the beginning, you know not all is right with Oliver Queen. He's been stranded on an island for 5 years, all his family thought he was dead and he has to react to the changes that happened while he was gone. Before he left, you can tell Oliver Queen was a playboy asshole. He comes back now, he's more reserved, at least at first. He uses that badboy ploy as a cover so nobody suspects he's the green hooded vigilante. But my god, for being a superhero with no super powers, he was a badass.

THIS WAS AWESOME!

Queen is played by Stephen Arnell... I don't know who the hell that guy is but I like him. In fact I don't know any of these actors except the guy who marries his mom, (he was in a Doctor Who episode... so that's cool). Do I think he's the best actor ever... well no. But he's good in the show and I enjoyed the hell out of him.

2. His family - Queen has an interesting family. He's got a mom who by the end you figure out has some mysteries of her own and may not be the straightest... arrow as it were... (sorry) He's got a sister who is probably the most affected by Queen's sudden return. While everyone else had someone to comfort them, his sister didn't really have anyone and she ended up turning to drugs... so you know thats going to be a thing. While the whole sister on drugs wasn't incredibly fascinating, I enjoyed the relationship he had with his sister.

3. Friends and former lovers - These two connect because its revealed that his best friend is giving it to his ex girlfriend, whose sister he cheated on her with on the boat he was on right before he got shipwrecked. Laurel, the ex girlfriend, is a do good lawyer. And Tommy, the best friend... he... well I don't know what he does but he's the best friend that is suspicious of Queen immediately.

There's a couple other characters, like his body guard, his step father (Dr. Moon for all the Doctor Who fans out there) The police detective, who I did recognize, (played by Paul Blackthorne and Roger Cross). They have roles ranging from small to small but will eventually be bigger I think.

Just over all I finished the pilot of Arrow really looking forward to it. I haven't really delved too much into the world of DC television (or any television regarding superheroes quite yet) and I'm interested to see where it takes me.

As for being a CW TV show, I was actually quite surprised how much I couldn't tell. It was a little cheesy but not too bad at all. I have to give Arrow a hand, it was pretty well done.

Another part I liked about this was that it didn't waste anytime. Basically the first day Queen gets back, he starts fighting crime. He doesn't have a lost period where he doesn't know what to do, no he comes back to the real world knowing he's going to fight crime.

I did not expect this. I didn't expect the island marooning but I didn't expect that he would come back and know exactly what he was doing, have a plan to be a vigilante and just kick some ass right away.

Now my next question is to ask whether or not this version of Green Arrow exists within the universe created by Man of Steel.

My initial reaction is, why not?

I mean if Agents of Shield can do it with The Avengers, why can't Arrow do it with Man of Steel? I mean we know these Agents are never going to show up in future Marvel movies but its building off of a universe that can be bigger.

I certainly don't want this Oliver Queen showing up in Justice League, and certainly not Man of Steel 2 (did I mention enough that I want that movie to just focus on Batman and Superman?)

But why not capitalize on a base of fans that may be looking for a little bit of a nod to their favorite TV show.

It's just a smart move. What is more likely is that this Oliver Queen exists in his own universe, similar to how the Clark Kent of Smallville existed in his own universe. It wasn't a prequel to the Richard Donner movies, it was its own universe that wasn't cannon. Well chances are that's what's going to happen with Arrow.

Which is a shame.

Again, I have no interest in seeing this Oliver Queen in the Justice League and even if you wanted to put Green Arrow in the Justice League, (which would be a bad idea) why start from scratch?

It also allows DC to expand on characters that they don't want to invest entire movies for but still want to explore. Flash is a perfect example of this. Commissioner Gordon in regards to the new Gotham TV show.

I just don't see any down side to not connecting the universe.

Granted, its not going to make any difference whether or not because again, I don't think it'd be a good idea to have Oliver Queen in the Justice League movie, but why not capitalize on the universe sharing idea you already want to create.

Regardless, I'm going to continue watching the show. It may be the winner of the contest... but there is only one season on Netflix, that'll be easy to get through right?

So have you seen Arrow? Do you think the universes should connect or is it better they're separate?

I'll leave you with a somewhat related note. Here's Batman vs. Superman how it should happen.

Wonder Woman!

Wonder Woman is going to be in Man of Steel 2... interesting

Warner Brothers announced last week and said that Gal Gadot would be playing Wonder Woman in the Man of Steel sequel. Now I haven't seen Gal Gadot in anything. I haven't seen the Fast and Furious movie she's in, I haven't seen her in general. I don't know anything about Gal Gadot.

As far as appearances go, I do know she's on the skinnier side. I don't know how that's going to look especially since Wonder Woman is not a skinny woman at all. However I'm not one to judge and say that totally disqualifies her from the part. Maybe she can bulk up, maybe by the time the movie shows she'll look exactly like Wonder Woman.

As far as acting goes, again, I don't know Gadot. That may be a bad thing but they had to have seen something in the audition. This movie is too important for Zack Snyder to just give this role to anybody. There must have been a reason. My only word to Snyder is...

I said this about the Batman casting and I'll say it about this one. You had better be going somewhere with this Snyder. I am putting so much faith in you right now. You had been not fuck this one up.

It's one thing to screw up one of the most beloved Superheroes like Batman. It's another thing to screw up one of the most beloved FEMALE superheroes, that has never been on film before.

And there's a reason. Wonder Woman is a hard character to portray.

Wonder Woman is an Amazon Queen. In the context of the superhero world, the only comparison I can draw is Thor. Granted, they did a good job with Thor but if you've seen my Thor: The Dark World review. Thor is kind of a wild card. I'm never really sure if its going to work. Luckily I'm always wrong but that's the question for Wonder Woman. Will it work?

I may have mentioned this before but I'm not totally clear on the back story of Wonder Woman beyond the Amazon warrior bit. But I'm not quite sure who her alter ego is. I guess Diana Prince worked for the UN but she's similar to Superman in that she's Wonder Woman first, being born to Amazon Warriors and enters the world, hiding her identity behind the Diana Prince alter ego.

Whereas Spider-man was Peter Parker's alter ego, Wonder Woman's alter ego is Diana Prince. Does that make any sense? DC tends to go from a top down aspect with Superman and Wonder Woman. Instead of Peter Parker putting on the mask to become Spider-Man, Kal-El or Superman puts on the mask when he's Clark Kent.

Which makes me wonder how they're going to incorporate Wonder Woman into this Man of Steel sequel. And this is the part that concerns me the most about this news.

When I first heard the news, I was very excited. I thought, the more superheroes I see, the better the movie will be right?

And then I thought, this movie is suppose to be about Superman and Batman. I'm still okay with Wonder Woman being in the movie, but I don't want her to reveal herself as Wonder Woman yet. On one hand, I don't want her to be Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow in Iron Man 2 because frankly, there was no point to her accept to allude to the Avengers. That among, other things, made Iron Man 2 suffer and I don't want this to be just a set up for the Justice League.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for the Justice League more than anyone, but I want it to happen naturally. I want to see a movie developing the relationship between Batman and Superman. I want to see them come at odds and then ultimately decide the world is better if they team up.

So that's why I don't really want to see Wonder Woman actually show up in this movie. I'm fine with Gal Gadot performing as Diana Prince. I'm fine with her being a UN member, reporter, frankly, I don't give a shit about her role as long as she's developed and I get excited for a movie where she is actually Wonder Woman.

There are two ways I could see this movie going that I would be okay with. Neither of which I think will happen.

1. The War Machine Approach - This is probably the most preferable for me. This is the approach where Diana Prince knows she is Wonder Woman but she doesn't appear quite yet. She knows she will have a role in the future and possibly right before the big battle she sees a whip, or a sword and she's tempted to go out there and get involved, however she has something important to do, with her civilian job, and she can't join the fight quite yet. This was an awesome teaser in Iron Man and I think it could be well done in the case of Wonder Woman. As said before, this movie is about Superman and Batman. They are the ones that should be fighting and Wonder Woman should not be taking away from that. It serves the purpose to let the audience know for sure that Wonder Woman will be in the Justice League movie. I think this version allows to properly introduce Diana Prince, it allows for character development (if done right), and it gets audiences excited for the Justice League, and possibly a standalone Wonder Woman Movie.

2. The "Amnesia"approach - I don't like calling it the Amnesia approach cause that sounds stupid. While this approach isn't exactly how I would like it, its my second favorite approach. This is the approach where Diana Prince doesn't know she's Wonder Woman. She goes about the movie with no hints of her knowing she's Wonder Woman and its not till the end of the movie, like a post credit scene or something, she discovers this. Whether is Superman revealing it to her, or her discovering it herself.

Again, I think this would be a great way to allude to future movies. I think this version would also set up for a standalone movie. Possibly a prequel showing how she came to get that memory loss.

Again, the amnesia route is kind of going down a road that X-Men Origins took. It didn't work for Wolverine, why would it work for Wonder Woman? Granted, there were other problems with that movie and maybe it could work for a standalone movie for Wonder Woman.

And then there are approaches that I wouldn't like that much.

1. Justice League prequel approach - This is an exaggeration but I'll say it again, I don't want Wonder Woman to take away from Batman and Superman!

I want to see these three fight together. Look at my past posts, I am more than excited for a Justice League movie.

But it has to be done correctly.

The reason the Avengers was so popular was not just because Joss Whedon just threw in a bunch of superheroes, he did a good job at it! He developed each character (or the important ones) in their own movie and when they finally joined forces and the Avengers happened, it was so epic!

I know we all want to feel that feeling again, but its not going to happen if this Justice League movie is rushed.

I don't think they should make an individual movie for each superhero but I think they should do at least one more standalone after Batman and Superman. I've heard rumors its going to be a Flash movie... and if its done right, well alright. But I would much rather see a standalone Wonder Woman movie!

2. The Post Credit Scene - I don't totally loathe this idea but I don't like it too much. This is the approach where the movie is about Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman appears at the end, possibly a post credit scene.

If you've seen my post about post credit scenes, a part of me is really hoping that DC switches up their movies, making them different and make their teasers in different ways than the status quo of Marvel.

In short, I'm not opposed to DC going with post-credit scenes but it would be more impressive for DC to find a new way to tease their future movies like subtle hints within the movie, like the LexCorp tanker and the Wayne Enterprises satellite in Man of Steel.

But if they were going to go with the post credit scene in Man of Steel, don't have it be a Wonder Woman reveal if she hasn't been in the movie yet.

This doesn't allow for any development for Diana Prince/ Wonder Woman and unless you give her a standalone movie (which I don't think is going to happen before the Justice League movie) you're just throwing in a random cameo. That's not a good set up for Justice League. Maybe a standalone, but not a justice league movie.

Having Wonder Woman in this movie is a huge deal!

It's a big deal when any super hero is brought to the silver screen, but this is fucking Wonder Woman! This is one of the most recognizable female superhero. And if you've watched female superhero movies, they suck!

Catwoman! Elektra! Supergirl! Barb Wire! All terrible movies.

It's different than Black Widow because nobody knows who Black Widow is! In my opinion, Black Widow could have been given a different name and it wouldn't have changed her character at all. I don't think people would have care that much.

Black Widow is also not going to get her own standalone movie. She's important enough to get thrown into a Captain America movie but again, you're not going to see Marvel make a movie solely on Black Widow.

Wonder Woman is very different. There are going to be a lot of people pissed if Wonder Woman doesn't get her own standalone movie, whether its before or after a Justice League movie. The point is, this needs to be done right.

Now, going back to the start of this blog, if I haven't said this enough, I don't know that much about Gal Gadot. I don't know if she can have her own entire movie to herself. That will be something to consider. And while my jury is still out on whether or not Gadot is a good choice for the role, having Wonder Woman in this movie must be done right in order to give her a good footing for future movies.

So in short...

So what do you think? Do you think Gal Gadot was a good choice for Wonder Woman? How do you think Wonder Woman should be utilized in this new Man of Steel movie? I'm interested to find out what other people think, especially in terms of what role Wonder Woman should have in this new movie.

I will leave you with this. This was a short film teaser trailer that some people whipped up a while ago. A lot of people said they wanted this Wonder Woman, what do you think?