Merry Christmas From One of My Favorites!
Merry Christmas, everybody! And Happy Holidays to those who don’t celebrate! I’m off with my family for the next few days, so there won’t be as many posts, and my Hench-Sized Reviews won’t be nearly as long as usual. But I’m grateful that artist Mike Maihack is always there to provide some Christmas cheer!
Thanks, Mike! Your comics are always a treat!
————–
The 6 Silliest Spin-Off Reindeer
When was the last time we had a new Christmas special that stood the test of time? Why is it that only classics like the Rankin Bass movies or A Charlie Brown Christmas are upheld as annual traditions? Maybe because today’s modern entertainment is all substance and no soul, with crappy computer animation substituting actual effort? Nah, that can’t be it.
But it hasn’t stopped people from trying!
Their union is terrible
There is a never-ending list of treacly, worthless Christmas specials churned out in the past few years. And a startling number of them star spin-offs of Santa’s famous reindeer team. That’s right, spin-offs. Instead of awesome stories about the reindeer we already know and love, most specials give them bastard children or introduce Mary Sue reindeer to suit their own flimsy desires. And seeing as how Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is my favorite Christmas special from when I was a kid, I decided to put together a list of the silly spin-off reindeer that populate these silly Christmas specials.
Seriously, Santa’s reindeer were having lots of kids!
Cinema Sins Weakly Flails at Guardians of the Galaxy
Look, we all love Cinema Sins. They’re fun people and they do good work. But Guardians of the Galaxy was perfect.
Although I suppose they have a few funny nitpicks. I guess. If I want to be fair. But I don’t! That movie was awesome!
————
Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Count me among the people who regret that The Hobbit films were stretched out into a trilogy. There is so much unnecessary filler and extra nonsense in these movies, and in The Battle of the Five Armies especially, that this third movie is all third act. There’s not enough material for The Battle of the Five Armies to stand on its own, with nearly everything – especially the emotional impact – tied to the first two films. And since an entire year has passed, none of that emotion or interest has carried over.
The Battle of the Five Armies is entertaining at the barest, baseline level, because it’s still a well-made film telling a story that I like. But The Hobbit trilogy has been stretched too thin, like butter scraped over too much bread.
Movie Review: 5/10 – Alright.
I suppose in one long, 9-hour viewing, The Hobbit as a whole might be a good movie. But who has the time or energy to watch that sort of thing? Who could have the desire? I’ve never read any of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s original works, so I don’t speak from a literary perspective. As a movie-goer, as someone who loves The Lord of the Rings movies deeply, I feel that The Hobbit was just too jammed up with nonsense. Fights were long, characters were uninteresting, story arcs were uninspired, and nothing hit with the same impact as The Lord of the Rings. Director Peter Jackson tried to make too much out of too little, simple as that.
Personally, I’m more than willing to blame the studio, which probably pushed for the trilogy in order to make more money. Cynical things like that definitely happen. And I suppose Jackson and his team of writers, actors and producers did their best to make this trilogy work. But The Battle of the Five Armies is a slog. They don’t even try to make it it’s own movie.
Join me after the jump for the full review! There will be SPOILERS from The Battle of the Five Armies!
Let Them Fight
A couple Internet geniuses put together this rather awesome fake trailer for a Marvel vs. DC movie! It’s making the rounds on the Internet today, and I thought I’d share.
Quality work by Alex Luthor. There’s some great editing, and matching various scenes together. It all works pretty spectacularly.
DC wishes they could make movies the Marvel way though.
————-
Henchman-4-Hire 