Author Archives: Sean Ian Mills
First Gotham Trailer Full of Promises
The first trailer for the TV show Gotham debuted last night, and it’s full of promises for all sorts of Batman-related stuff – just none of the stuff we want to see.
I wrote about this show a few weeks ago, and I think this trailer just embiggens everything I was worried about then. Look at them tease all of the individual villains, the ones promised in that leaked script that the people at io9 didn’t like. But other than that, I suppose it looks OK. The show has been picked up for at least 13 episodes, and you better believe I’m going to watch them. But I remain slightly hesitant.
Of course, I’m still watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I’ll give anything a chance.
Why Don’t They Just Use Darth Vader?
With yesterday being the Fourth of May, the fine folks at Star Wars released the first trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels cartoon. I was probably unnecessarily mean towards Rebels in a recent article, so why don’t we check out the trailer and decide for ourselves?
Eh, I’m not convinced. I’ve been catching up on Star Wars: Clone Wars recently, the show that was cancelled to make way for this one. Clone Wars is good, and stars popular characters. Whereas I keep feeling like Rebels is a made-by-committee Star Wars show. All of the characters are carefully crafted into perfect cliches. And they don’t even use Darth Vader as the villain! The show takes place in the time period where Darth Vader is active, arguably the greatest super-villain in the history of fiction, but they don’t want to use him? What sort of sense does that make?!
Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
We all know that Peter Parker never has much luck with the ladies, but on the big screen, his love is smoldering! Who would have guessed that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a romantic comedy? The second entry in Sony Pictures’ second Spider-Man series is all about the love shared between an arachnid boy and his high school sweetheart. Sure there are a couple of super-villains thrown in for good measure, but that’s just what you have to deal with when you’re dating the Amazing Spider-Man!
Movie Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
I don’t mind at all that Sony Pictures wants to make a mega-franchise out of their Amazing Spider-Verse. As far as I’m concerned, director Mark Webb and actor Andrew Garfield absolutely get Spider-Man. They get the humanity. They get the drama. They get the pure thrill of being Spider-Man. They seem awkwardly obsessed with Peter Parker’s dad, but that can be forgiven when the rest of their movies are so good!
I loved the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, and praised it for the nuanced, personable portrayal of Peter Parker. The same focus on Peter returns for the sequel, and once again I have to point out that the young Andrew Garfield is light years beyond Tobey Maguire in not just his skill as an actor, and his range, but just in how he embodies the character. Garfield easily carries the film, injecting Peter and Spidey with the right amount of humor and love for his family and fellow man. He’s joined by a returning Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, who just lights up the whole film whenever she’s on screen. The chemistry between the two actors is some of the best I have ever seen in film or television, and they really do make this movie into more of a love story than a superhero flick.
But it’s also, definitely, a superhero movie. And while those elements aren’t the strongest part of the film, they are still highly enjoyable. Like I said, Garfield is fantastic as Spider-Man, especially in costume. Not only is he legitimately funny, but he has such a great rapport with pretty much everyone he meets. The special effects are also top notch. The web-slinging is wildly fun and the fight scenes are pretty epic, but I would have to say that the movie’s trio of new villains – Electro, Green Goblin and Rhino – don’t live up to expectations. All three are solidly portrayed and fulfill their roles in the film, but they never amount to much themselves beyond giving Spidey something to do in costume.
But even if the villains are kind of clunky, and even if this film uses one of my most hated fiction tropes of all time, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 succeeds on the strengths of Spidey and his love story alone. Who would have thunk it?
Join me after the jump for the full review! I will try to keep SPOILERS to a minimum!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 5/3/14
What a week to be a Spider-Man fan! Not only is Amazing Spider-Man 2 in theaters right now, but Amazing Spider-Man #1 hit the stands this very week! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone planned it that way. That was pretty clever of them.
I’ll get my movie review posted on Sunday, and for now, lets take a trip to our local comic book shop. Amazing Spider-Man #1 wins Comic Book of the Week. It’s a fun issue, and it’s great to have the real Peter Parker back, but Marvel overloaded the thing with back-up material. That would have weighed the comic down too much for my liking, but one of the back-ups is an epilogue to Scarlet Spider, so that pleased me greatly. Other comics this week include a new Silver Surfer, my return to All-New X-Men and the long-awaited conclusion to J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman story. I also picked up The Flash Annual for the heck of it, but I was not pleased.
At least Spider-Man is still a ton of fun.
Panda-Mania: the best new character find of 2014!
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #26, Amazing Spider-Man #1, Batman Eternal #4, Batwoman Annual #1, Flash Annual #3 and Silver Surfer #2.
Internet Spider-Man Medley!
There’s a new Spider-Man movie coming out this weekend, and I plan on seeing it one of these days. So to get us all juiced up, how about a medley of mockery? I’m, of course, talking about Cinema Sins hitting us with Everything Wrong With the original Spider-Man trilogy!
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Good times! I hope you all enjoy Amazing Spider-Man 2. I’ll have my review up on Sunday, I think. See you then!
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