Everything Wrong With the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Finally, after a couple of weeks, the Cinema Sins people have done all three Lord of the Rings movies! They’re just as much fun as you could have hoped!
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Return of the King
The Internet can be such a fun place sometimes. We’ll probably do it all again next year when The Hobbit: There and Back Again comes out!
My 6 Favorite Things of 2013
Welp, 2013 is over, and I don’t think I accomplished any of my stated goals for the year. I’m still fat, I’m still broke and I still haven’t been discovered by the comic book industry and handed the reigns of Spider-Man. But why dwell on the negatives when 2013 was arguably a pretty great year all around? At least when it comes to geeky stuff!
From reddit
I don’t normally do these sorts of lists because I have a terrible memory and I don’t know what I was enjoying last week, let alone last March. But I wanted to see if I could pull this off, because there were a lot of great things this year, and I’m a member of the Internet, so of course I’ve got to do one of these lists. They’ll withdraw my membership card if I don’t, right?
Join me after the jump for my six favorite things in pop culture from 2013. And please feel free to share your own favorite things in the comments below!
2013: The Year of Iceman
Websites across the Internet are all doing their year-end wrap-ups right about now, and while mine is coming, I wanted to first take a special moment to praise the standout comic book character of the year: Iceman!
There were a ton of great comics released this year, and I’m sure everyone has their favorites, but I don’t think any comic book character had a better year than this frigid freedom fighter!
Watch out for that bridge!
I have always been a huge Iceman fan, and there have been times when the character was just flat-out ignored for some reason or another. But ever since the early 00s, Iceman has been a tried and true background member of the X-Men. And all of that hard work and effort paid off in spades this year. Iceman appears in almost half of the various X-books, and while he’s usually still just a background supporting character, he has become the go-to guy for light-hearted humor and character.
The X-Men are serious business, but Iceman always keeps things chill.
Join me after the jump for some of Iceman’s finest moments this year!
Review: Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #2
When this issue came out on Wednesday, writer Brian Michael Bendis made a plea to reviewers on the Internet not to spoil the ending. And as much as I want to follow his wishes, the ending is the only thing in this issue worth talking about. Plus, it’s been a few days now, and I don’t think Bendis reads my blog (but if he does, ‘Hi!’). I’ll spoil it when we get to it, just know that the ending says a lot about Cataclysm, and not in any way that I like.
Cataclysm Spider-Man #2
Based on this issue, it looks like Cataclysm is probably changing whatever plans Bendis had for Miles Morales’ story. And that’s a damn shame.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
Of course, this is still a Bendis-penned Ultimate Spider-Man comic, so it’s still entertaining. But this issue is one big generic tie-in fest. Nobody in the world of Ultimate Spider-Man is going to stop Galactus, so this would be an opportunity to show Miles and his cast responding to the end of the world. It’s like that, in a way, but not in any sort of meaningful way. There’s nothing overly touching or very deep in the issue. It all just kind of happens.
Fortunately, the characters remain entertaining and worthwhile. We also get flashbacks to what they were all doing during the last Ultimate Universe catastrophe in Ultimatum, not that any of them were doing anything very interesting. But then was anybody doing anything interesting in Ultimatum?
As I’ve said before, Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man is just too good to be interrupted by a story like Cataclysm. This issue is my evidence why.
Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
We all knew a cliffhanger was coming, but this was a bad one. The theater I was in erupted in groans, and I can’t say as how I’ve ever seen that happen at a movie before. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a nearly three-hour film, and it would be inappropriate to start talking about the ending first. But I can’t help it. As much as I enjoyed 99% of the movie, that cliffhanger overshadows everything. It deserved every groan it got. Even though director Peter Jackson has been dealing with this trilogy thing for several movies now, he picked the absolute worst time to leave us hanging.
At least the rest of the movie was very good.
Movie Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
Much was said during production of this Hobbit sequel that Jackson and the studio decided to stretch two films into three, and while I’m not complaining, because I like spending as much time as possible with these movies, the stretch is obvious in The Desolation of Smaug. We’ve been in this situation before, with The Two Towers in the middle of the Lord of the Rings, but The Two Towers had a proper ending with its own closure. There was Sam’s big speech to Frodo about hope, and the entire battle for Helm’s Deep. The Desolation of Smaug ends with a battle against the titular dragon, but the film cuts off before the battle is over, robbing us of closure and excitement. Not only that, but the movie shoots itself in the foot by foreshadowing the stilted ending, turning the movie’s climax into an effort in futility.
Fortunately for all of us, by this time next year, we’ll get The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and this cliffhanger ending will be a moot point.
The Desolation of Smaug is a movie for LOTR fans. To really enjoy this film, I would recommend knowing the characters, knowing the world and knowing the adventure, because this film is mostly ‘more of the same’ of the previous films in the franchise. It’s got exciting, CGI’d fantasy action, a rich mythology and the comedic stylings of a band of dwarves. The characters all carry over from the first film and remain largely the same, which isn’t a bad thing. Most of the dwarven band remain anonymous, and the few standouts continue to carry the film – though none of them are as heroic or memorable as Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas from the first trilogy. Gandalf seems to get a reduced role, but he has his own fun adventure. New characters, like Smaug the dragon, Tauriel the she-elf, Bard the human and a guest-appearance by Legolas are all strong, especially Evangeline Lily as Tauriel, who gets the best sub-plot in the film.
The real standout remains Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit. He’s clever and heroic, and the influence of the One Ring starts its mind-boggling effects on the poor guy in this film. Freeman handles the acting challenge well. He’s a very different sort of hobbit from Frodo, even where the ring is concerned, and it’s rather cool.
Join me after the jump for the full review. There will be SPOILERS, so tread carefully.
Henchman-4-Hire 