Hypocrite

I know this picture's already made the rounds on the internet but what a hypocrite this guy is when he thinks no one's looking. 

He's a complete joke and we should stop listening to what he has to say. 

Return of the Shadow (Re-read)

In the 5th book from the History of Middle Earth series, things finally begin to pick up. This time Christopher Tolkien turns his sights on the most popular era of Tolkien's career, The 3rd Age.

This tells of the development of the Lord of the Rings novels and gives drafts of earlier editions. Jus to give you an example here are some of the interesting ideas Tolkien explored when first writing out the novels:

Bilbo was at first celebrating his 71st birthday in the beginning of the book.

Instead of Frodo, Sam, Pippen and Merry it start off as Bingo, Frodo, Odo and Vigo. Then before "Merry" was Marmaduke and later Vigo is replaced with Folco while Sam is added as a 5th hobbit to the party

Instead of Strider it was Trotter.....get it? No joke. 

Gandolph was originally featured in Bree with the Hobbits at first. He tells them he escaped the prison of Treebeard. Treebeard would later capture Frodo and friends until Tolkien made a note about turning him into a good guy. 

Pretty interesting stuff.  Well worth the read!

Have a good weekend folks!

The Lost Road and other writings (Re-read)

The 5th book in the History of Middle Earth deals with a lot of the same. More Silmarillain drafts and a few notes on the peoples of middle earth.

One interesting thing is at the beginning where it talk about Tolkien's attempt to write a "space travel" novel. Being influenced by CS Lewis when he was writing his Space Trilogy, Tolkien attempted to do the same.

The result was....different.

With only a few chapters ever written the story follows a boy named Albion who, from what I understand, studies the languages of ancient Middle Earth. The story is set in the modern day however.

It's weird. Tolkien is truly a fish out of water, writing in a genre outside his expertise. The story really doesn't know what it wants to be. Fantasy? Sci-Fiction? Both? It's an odd mesh where nothing feels particularly fleshed out.

Of course it's easy to pick the story apart due to Tolkien only writing a short draft of the idea and nothing more but I don't see where that novel would've ended well. Good thing he dropped the idea and went back to middle earth instead.

Overall, the book's ok but so far the underwhelming in the whole scope of things.   

The Shaping of Middle-Earth (Re-read)

The 4th book in the History of Middle Earth deals solely on the 1st age. Not the most interesting but this book will surprise you!

Most of the novel is about Tolkien's rough draft for the Silmarillion. It's not as boring as you'd think! The book gets even better later on when it starts discussing and showing maps of Middle-Earth from back in the 1st age.

In addition to that, there's a few timelines shown that give you an overall depiction of where all the written events take place in the story line. I have to admit, it's pretty good. Even ending with Morgoth's defeat and Sauron's rise to power.

I remember my first time through I didn't think much of this one. But now thanks to the re-read, I have a much greater appreciation for it now!

Lays of Beleriand (Re-read)

Book 3 in the History of Middle-Earth is filled with prose and poems of almost every story from the Silmarillion. It's because Tolkien wanted to make sure he had them available if he needed a character to recite something from the first 2 middle ages.

Amazing work. THIS is why Middle-Earth is so deep. Another interesting thing contained in the book is that C.S. Lewis reviewed and critiqued some of them with his own story of a group of professors analyzing the Lays of Beleriand. Incredible!

I mean, it is prose and poems, so not the most interesting but it's a quick read with an enjoyable surprise from Lewis. Worth my time. 

Book of Lost Tales 2 (re-read)

The 2nd novel in the History of Middle Earth series is much like the first, recounting previous tales but with in depth commentary on how Tolkien's stories came about. I find it fascinating that a lot of what he wrote was handwritten and not on typewriter.

Incredible to see the amount of effort he put in to making the history of middle earth work so well! And I LOVE the look of these novels. Simple yet eloquent. I don't know why he didn't decide to refer them all as "Lost Tales" but this is the last one that would bear the name.

Funniest thing I've seen all month. 

Book of Lost Tales 1 (Re-read)

Back to re-reading the History of Middle Earth series and kicked things off with the first book which focuses on stories already covered in the Silmarillion.

With the success of Unfinished Tales, it became evident that fans weren't growing tired of Middle Earth, so Christopher Tolkien put it upon himself to bring out everything and anything he had left from his father's works. And this was the first part.

The most interesting thing about it is the notes and commentary Christopher Tolkien gives in-between the story. It's pretty interesting to read about him digging through and comparing his dad's notes of different stories.

Firefly: Ghost Machine Review

James Lovegrove KNOWS how to write Firefly. His trilogy of novels so far have been fantastic. This book takes place between the series and movie, where Book and Inara have already left the crew. Jayne sneaks contraband aboard without Mal's knowledge for a little extra profit on the side.

Little does he know the contraband is a lot more dangerous than it looks!

If you love Firefly, do yourself a favor and read these books! Highly recommended!

The next book is written by Tim Lebbon who I've already one once....and he sucked. Fingers crossed his novel lives up to the greatness of these...

JoJo Rabbit

Got to see this last month with my brother. It's about a kid who's imaginary friend is Hitler....yep...it's great.

I really really surprised by this movie. It cinematically beautiful and even has some touching moments throughout. In fact, I was expecting a quirky comedy and instead got a story with heart.

Highly recommended if you're looking for a good flick.

Justice League vs The Fatal Five Review

Just think about how excited I was to be able to see the latest installment of the DCAU that came out only last year!

And how sad it was to realize the story line involved the Legionaries. The less interesting people in the DC Universe.

Well, the antique Justice League have to face villains of the future....that we really don't care about.

Kind of disappointing they thought this worthy of making a movie out of. It plays more like an extended episode of the Justice League show than anything else.

Worth watching I guess if you loved the TV show but not really worthy of it's own DVD release.

Better luck next time DCEU.

Batman/Harley Quinn Movie review

AAAAAAnnnd welcome back to my DCAU reviews!

Today I'm giving my thoughts on the 2017 Batman movie.

First off, it's so much fun to return to the Batman era. Easily the best the DCAU had to offer. This one has Nightwing, Batman and Harley Quinn teaming up against Poison Ivy and some other DC villain I can't remember right now....seriously....just finished 5 minutes ago and don't know his name....kinda looks like swamp thing........

Anyway, the gang is out to stop them but they need Harley's help to locate Poison Ivy.

Realistically this wouldn't happen. Batman's not teaming up with Quinn. The world's greatest detective should have no problem finding Poison Ivy on his own but the excuse they use is some what believable, that due to the time and the danger Ivy's represents (releasing a virus on the world....COVID-19 anyone?) Batman can't afford the time to track her down.

It's good. VERY funny however a little hokey in parts. Nightwing is too juvenile and does some silly things I might could see as Robin but not as the seasoned superhero Nightwing.

There's also a scene at the end of Batman going soft on Harley but I'll forgive it since the movie was entertaining.  As for the ending? Well....it ended....weird. Like, you know they beat them in the end but the story skips over that part. Based on the movie being a little campy, I didn't mind it.

There's also a nice nod to Adam West Batman that I absolutely loved. All in all, this movie's worth your time. Happy to add it to my collection!

The cure

Hey hey! Monroe just got shipped some trial versions of the vaccine as a part of their "final" round of testing. 

If successful, it could come out to everyone as early as October. 

I know folks will be happy to see their beloved football season come back. Though I could care less about it. I have a feeling things will be back to normal earlier than projected. 

#busted

Looks like some testing areas have been reporting false inflated numbers of the virus recently. A lot in Texas and Florida have been caught. 

Makes you wonder why.... oh wait....nevermind. 

Run. Panic people. That's what they want. 

The Zeta Project Review

The last remaining cartoon series from the DCAU I watched was a spin off from an episode of Batman Beyond.

To be honest, I have no recollection of the episode but it's based off a robot trying to win freedom from his programming. It has an interesting arc, the characters are a little one dimensional though. Also, the animation is pretty poor in season one but is pretty good in season two.

Sadly, this show has no ending, though it makes you think so in the last episode. There's no ending but a mild cliffhanger. Disappointing to see.

I don't know of anyone who's watched this series before but since I was determined to go through the entire DCAU I decided to give it a shot. I watched it so you won't have too.

Even though Batman does appear in one episode, overall it just isn't worth the watch.

Have a good weekend folks!

Static Shock Cartoon review

Watching through the DCAU took me through Static Shock. I remember it being on TV back in the day but I never knew it was connected to the rest of the DC Universe and I never would've watched it if I'd known either. It just didn't interest me back in the day.

But with Superman not being that bad and hearing 2 friends tell me this was good I decided to check it out.

Mmmmm.....

Season 1, is horrible. The art, the story, everything. It looks like a cheap 80's cartoon. It's really bad. And while Season 2's artwork improves it's barely a step in the right direction. With the exception on the Batman crossover, it's really not worth watching.

In Season 3 the artwork is finally where it should be. He crosses over with Batman and Superman but the story of the "big bang kids" has run it's course by now.

Let me explain: In season one Static gets involved with a gang war between two warring factions on an dock outside of town. During the fight the police arrive in helicopters and accidentally ignite some unexplained tanks that have a gas that gives you super powers.....yep....that's it.

So why isn't everyone using this gas? Why was it created? Why was it just sitting there on the dock? NONE of these questions are answered. All we know is Static barely escapes but takes in enough gas to get super powers. Then for the rest of Season One he goes around capturing the members of both gangs who were around that night.

Yet in season 2, people who weren't even shown on the dock all of the sudden have super powers too. All they do to explain this is say that all those kids were somehow at the dock on the same night of the incident.

Why were they there? Why didn't we see them? NONE of this is explained. I guess just every high school kid in Dakota (the fictional town) was there that night because future episodes continue to introduce kids who have powers due to the "big bang"

Was every frigging kid from the high school there that night?!

Again, the crossover episodes are enjoyable. The 2nd Batman crossover might be the best and the Superman crossover ties up a story from the Superman series.

So back to Season 3.....Richie (Static's best friend who was shown to NOT be at the docks that night) NOW HAS SUPERPOWERS!!

Why??? Well....they explain it in one sentence when Static says "You must have got it from my clothes that night"

Uh...what? If that's the case then why doesn't his whole family has powers?!? The creators said they did it because they couldn't think of ways to keep Richie involved in the stories so they decided to make him a super hero as well.....wow....good thinking guys. You're whizzes when it come to story telling.

Season 4 has a Batman Beyond crossover where Static gets shot to the future but the problem with that is it totally destroys any tension in the finale when they're worried about losing their powers for good. (Static knows in the Future that he's a powerful member of the Justice League and that his buddy Gear is still around)

There's a Green Lantern crossover which is ho-hum but the finale has the gas finally wearing off and everyone from the series losing their powers. BUT WAIT!!

There's one more small can of gas (why is not explained) that can rejuvenate their powers! So the villains go after it and in the end the last two (main villains) receive a heavy dose of it so that they form one giant threat. By the way, Static's arch-nemesis Ebaum is hardly showcased in the series and you forget he's supposed to be the big baddies for Static. Complete miss on that.

So anyway, Static is able to unlock the door (where the last canister exploded) and breathe in enough fumes for he and his buddy Gear to get their powers back. They defeat the villain and as they fly off Gear says he'll concoct a mix that'll ensure they keep their powers....which we now know are artificial.....which makes the characters appear extremely petty and vain....

....this show is an embarrassment to the DCAU. Skip it.

Top 5 chips

Because...why not?

5) Oh yeah! When in doubt, I always grab a bag when having company over for game night. It's the chip everyone loves and so do I!

 4) Don't know how common these are in other states but if you've never had these before, you should try it. I think they're absolutely amazing! Anytime a restaurant in town has these, I always pick up a bag.

 3) Oddly enough I don't get these enough. But when making this list I remembered they are pretty tasty!

 2) Any flavor just about. These things are addictive. Who COULDN'T eat a whole can in one sitting?!

1) The absolute BEST. And to be honest, the walmart brand is even BETTER! Mom got them for us a few months ago when we came over for dinner and now I buy a bag whenever we go shopping....I also eat the entire bag in one sitting each time.....worth it.

That's my top 5, what's yours?

Superman: Brainiac Attacks

At the end of the final season of the Superman cartoon there's an ad for the upcoming direct-to-DVD movie that I decided to watch. I never heard of it before and don't recall anyone ever talking about it.

Funny because most of the Batman movies from the animated series of some of the best stories told! So I was excited to see this one....and now I know why no one ever talks about it.

First off, look at that cover....ugh! No effort put in to make it look half way decent. And that should give you a good idea of how well made this movie is.

It's bad. In fact, it's worse than any single episode of the series. Let me break it down:

The Good

Superman and Brainiac REALLY duke it out in this movie. In fact, close a quarter of the movie is just them slamming each other around. I mean, it's a beat down. At one point Superman is just chucking missals over and over on brainiac's head. It's pretty awesome and brutal at the same time. 

The Bad

It's pretty evident that the writers never watched the TV series before making this movie. Brainiac shows emotion (unlike the show) and Lex Luthor acts down right stupid at times. A complete 180 to his calm cool collective self. It was strange to watch.

Also the movie hints that Brainiac and Luthor have never met before? They don't come out and say it but it could be taken that way. Which is weird because in the TV series they have a rivalry. Now it could be explained that when Brianiac dies (in the begining) and is reborn by Luthor that Brainiac's memory was missing too. Entirely possible. And that Luthor took advantage of that and formed an alliance with him. At least that's the best I can explain it.

The Ugly

So Superman and Lois both suffer kryptonite poisoning by Brainiac. Superman finds the cure in space, collects a sample in a vile for Lois but has another huge knockdown drag out fight with Mega-Brainiac (who is in a robot the size of King Kong) and is getting bashed around town with it in his back pocket and it doesn't even break?

Oh but when he gives it to Lois Brainiac (who we thought was dead but isn't) swipes it from Superman and throws it on the hospital floor where it shatters into a million pieces.....what?!

But don't worry because Superman has another way to cure her....ready for this? With a kiss.

No joke. Total Snow White ending.....wow.

Oh and in the movie Superman self-destructs his fortress of solitude....I guess with all the near extinct animals in it? Dang! Really wish the writers would've watched the TV series instead of looked at the cliff notes of the show on wikipedia. 

Overall, a pretty underwhelming movie. If you loved the TV series....I wouldn't bother watching this one.

Superman Animated Series Review

At long last I finally got to watch this series. I've heard so many good things said about this series that takes place (and cross over's) with the Batman Animated Series that I just had to give it a shot.

I hate Superman. He's a dumb superhero, which is why it's taken me so long to watch this show but now that I have, I like it. Even bought a copy for myself.

The same team from Batman is involved and you can tell because the stories are very rich in character portrayals and story arcs. Though Batman is the better cartoon I would recommend you checking this one out. Especially if you like Superman.

Best episodes? Too many to name but I think my favorite is the one where a criminal figures out Clark Kent is Superman....right before dying in the gas chamber for the death penalty....yeah. No joke. That happened in this series. Seriously dark.

Love. It.

One thing's for sure, they don't make cartoons like this anymore!

Bye bye Crook!

After many long years, our corrupt Mayor has finally been ousted and I'm over the moon about it! Under this evil man crime flourished in our city and corruption was rampant in our Police force. 

We have the #1 most crime per captia in the US and it's no thanks to this man. The Police here are a joke! They don't care about this town and never lift a finger to help anyone who the mayor doesn't want them to. 

I pray our new mayor makes huge changes within the system to correct this. Our town can be so much better than it is and without this crook in office and with Friday Ellis becoming our NEW mayor, I have hope for change to FINALLY come around!