Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice

For the year of 2016, it appears there has been universal disdain on the DC side of the lucrative comic book films market. I have heard countless criticism and flatout hatred towards the first DC film this year from Warner Bros. and the subject of today’s blog, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Do not let the order of the title mislead you, this is a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel. Both films are directed by the controversial Zack Snyder. Snyder has been coming under fire for his darker takes on Superman and Batman, and the uncut home video release of Dawn of Justice dubbed ‘The Ultimate Edition’ (trailer) raises the stakes by adding in an extra half hour of footage that the MPAA deemed worthy of upgrading the home video version of the film to an R rating. The film has been receiving a lot of backlash from fans, and I appear to be in the minority that absolutely loved it, so bear with me as I try to break down why Dawn of Justice worked for me on so many levels.

We are only four years removed from the last Batman film, Dark Knight Rises, but this is the first DC movie to feature Batman in DC’s connected film universe and so now Ben Affleck takes the role of the Dark Knight. Instead of spending the first half hour of the film going over Bruce Wayne/Batman’s origin again BvS wisely gets it over and done with during the opening credits in a nicely done sequence that actually foreshadows a major turning point during the film’s final act. I also really appreciate how the film shows Wayne’s alternate perspective of being on the ground amidst the chaos during the epic clash of Superman and Zod from the end of Man of Steel that goes a long way at establishing a building block as to why the Batman automatically has it out for Superman (Henry Cavill).

On the flipside, a reason why Superman is not a fan of Batman is now because with Batman getting up there in years he has decided to add an edge to his form of vigilante justice by ‘branding’ his prisoners with a Batman icon. Regardless of the crime the criminal committed, the film determines that if a criminal is branded that it is a huge taboo among the prison populace and as a result the inmates do not last long in prison. There were a few extended/new scenes in the Ultimate Edition I noticed that helped explain this element of the bat branding, but even then it did not convince me of being something that Batman would actually do. Superman agrees with me too as this would play a factor on why the two would inevitably fight it out.

One element of the film that initially did not sit well with me in theaters was how the heroes two main hometowns, Gotham and Metropolis, are literally right across a lake from each other to explain why both caped heroes interact with each other so frequently. I am not a super loyal reader of the comics, but read enough of them to recall that was never the case in the books and I was pretty reluctant to accept this. Upon this second viewing though the plot eludes to this a few times so it made a little more sense the second time around. Another thing I was able to accept on the second viewing was Batman using guns in a couple scenes. If Batman used a gun in the comics, it was quite rare and there was a damn good reason for it, so to see him do it here out of nowhere was definitely surprising. I only came around on it here because it was more of a defense mechanism of the Batmobile when it was under heavy automatic weapon fire and came off as a last straw defense measure.

I still do not know what to make out of Dawn of Justice’s take on Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). Kevin Spacey’s version of Lex in Superman Returns is vastly superior. Eisenberg does a great job with the material he is given, but it still does not come off like a genuine portrayal of Luthor to me, and the film tried to make him a little too much like The Joker to by making him a bit too zany for my tastes. Even though Luthor is the antagonist, a lot of Luthor’s scenes are responsible for most of the film’s moments of levity. There are a few nicely timed sprinkled moments of dry humor from Bruce Wayne and Superman’s mom (Diane Lane) of all people that had me cracking up, but those jokes are few and far between. I heard a lot of backlash for this film not having enough laughs and being too dark, but I feel Dawn of Justice and Man of Steel are perfect counterparts to the Marvel films that tend to ride that line of overdoing it on the amount of lighthearted zingers. Dawn of Justice has just enough that makes their occasional joke go a long way and mean more.

Yes, Dawn of Justice is a dark film, and I would not have wanted it any other way. Of the new and extended scenes I was able to make out, it did not seem like it was enough to push it as R rating, but it still comes off as a hard PG-13 if that makes sense. I absolutely love the score that assists in complementing the nature of this film that is dominated by a heavy bass sound for the epic moments throughout the movie, and very brief but effective use of electric guitar when certain villains appear. The big build going into this was that Batman and Superman are going to fight, and going into the film I could not help but wonder if the filmmakers are going to deliver a convincing fight of Batman standing a chance against the invincible ‘Man of Steel’ and would Dawn of Justice make sense of what it took for these two heroes to come to blows. The answer is a resounding yes on both fronts. There is a lot more than what I already mentioned that leads to both icons squaring off, and it surprisingly came off plausible and made total sense to me and not in a cliché ‘he was mind controlled’ sort of way. The fight scene itself also lived up to the hype with Batman coming up with several unique ways to stand his ground against Superman and made for an intense encounter that did not underwhelm.

As you can tell by the box art of the video Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is also a featured player in the film. Even though she is front and center on the poster, she is not featured that prominently throughout the film as Dawn of Justice plays the role of introducing her to the DC Cinematic Universe much like how Civil War introduced Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As I said in the intro, Dawn of Justice is a Man of Steel sequel first and I can explain it better that 60% of the film revolves around Superman, 30% Batman and only 10% Wonder Woman. However, that 10% is incredibly effective because it establishes that Wonder Woman as a badass warrior that plays a key role in the final battle.

Just a few other quick tidbits here because this is already running really long. Ben Affleck delivers as Bruce Wayne and Batman and I was ecstatic to hear he got slotted as the director for the next Batman solo film. Props to Jeremy Irons for nailing the role of Alfred, and as much as I liked Michael Caine’s portrayal of Alfred in the Dark Knight trilogy, Irons is far more diverse in and believable in what Alfred is able to do to be Batman’s mentor/technician/butler/wise man in the film. I will also give props to Callan Mulvey’s role Knyavez, aka Lex Luthor’s heavy. Whenever Knyavez appeared he somehow accomplished the unbelievable feat of being able to hang with the heroes and not come off as meaningless cannon fodder. I was glad to see Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Percy White (Laurence Fishburne) be a little more featured this time around. Lois has a few scenes showcasing her ace investigative journalism talents, and Perry has a few defining moments of his own that rivals J.K. Simmons performance in the Spider-Man films as being the newspaper editor you do not want to cross.

The final battle with Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman all teaming up to take on Doomsday is right up there with the climactic battle against Zod in Man of Steel. There are plenty of adrenaline-filled big moments in the finale that had me bopping. If you know the story of Doomsday then you have a good idea on how this plays out, and I am surprised Warner Bros. went here this soon in the grand scope of the newly connected DC Cinematic Universe when it felt like they could have done one more movie before telling this pivotal moment in Superman’s history. Regardless, I think Snyder did a tremendous job at detailing the aftermath of this altercation and how serious of an affair it turned out to be. Experiencing this film again, and piecing together the other subtle and not-so-subtle hints it lays out for future DC films made it come together far better this time around. While I could not pinpoint every little scene that was part of the new 30 minutes in the Ultimate Edition, I imagine there must have been enough additional/extended scenes that help tightened up the overall plot of the film.

There are 11 extras totaling two hours of special features to consume. Extra feature junkies like me devoured every single minute of them. There are individual features devoted to breaking Dawn of Justice’s depiction Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman and how the film brings out all their unique characteristics and gadgets/weaponry. If you want to save some time you can skip over Accelerating Design, unless you are a gearhead because it spends nearly a half hour going in-depth about all the nooks and crannies of this version of the Batmobile. I was a big fan of Snyder’s ‘Maximum Movie’ enhanced video commentary he did for Watcmen and Man of Steel and was a little bummed there was not a version of it here. However, there are already so many other extra features to compensate for it, and I would not be too surprised if Warner Bros. eventually releases another special edition of the film containing that feature.

The individual character features are all good and worth watching, but there are three other features I would give a nod to more. Uniting World’s Finest is a 15 minute look at establishing the new DC Cinematic Universe and previews other characters it introduces in Dawn of Justice. Gods & Men is an entertaining look at the history of Batman and Superman squaring off in the comics over the years. Finally, Warrior, Myth, Wonder is an expansive, 21 minute look at the background of Wonder Woman and how her character drastically evolved over the decades and establishes how she was one of the pioneer female protagonists and how she has maintained relevance over the years and why she will be play a pivotal role in the future films.

If you managed to make it to this final paragraph than thank you for bearing with me in this insanely long entry. I felt like I needed to explain why this film won me over, and in the grand scheme of things I am giving an oh-so-tiny nudge for this being my favorite comic book film of the year thus far. Marvel does great work, and I enjoyed the heck out of Civil War, and yes while I do have some qualms with Dawn of Justice, it ultimately had higher highs for me and helped encapsulate a nearly perfect depiction of how I wanted DC Cinematic Universe to play out.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VI
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Batman: The Killing Joke

I know, I am as shocked as you at the timeliness of today’s entry being only a couple weeks after the release of the direct-to-video DC animated movie, Batman: The Killing Joke (trailer). Both DC and Marvel have been releasing straight-to-video animated films aimed at older audiences, and while Marvel usually has stellar buzz for their theatrical releases and DC gets more of a mixed critical reception for their theatrical efforts, the opposite is true for their animated home video releases.

I read the graphic novel version of 1988’s The Killing Joke earlier this year and absolutely loved its dark and twisted Batman/Joker clash for the ages, and was delighted to learn about it getting announced for the DC animated treatment a short time later. Expectations were so high for the film that DC brought in the most fan requested voice actors from the acclaimed 90s animated series and award winning Arkham games with Kevin Conroy returning to voice Batman and Mark Hamill back to voice the Joker. To top it off, The Killing Joke had a special one night theatrical engagement for superfans who wanted to see it in theaters a couple weeks before it hit video, and I almost did myself, but wanted to avoid the premium ticket price they were asking and thought it made sense to hold out for the video.

For those unfamiliar with this critically acclaimed book, Batman (Kevin Conroy) wants to sit down and have one last heart-to-heart talk with The Joker (Mark Hamill), only to find out he has escaped Gotham and kidnapped Commissioner Gordon (Ray Wise). This leads us to Batman and Gordon both having to overcome a host of obstacles the Joker has in their way. Interspersed throughout this tale we get to discover the Joker’s origin story through a set of flashbacks. The Killing Joke finishes off with an unorthodox ending that goes against the norm of what I grew up with on an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, and I instantly became a fan of how it caught me off guard and loved how it played out.

I was curious to see how this got adapted into the home video format because The Killing Joke is not all that long of a graphic novel compared to most and can easily be finished in one sitting. Sure enough, the producers decided to pad out the length of this feature by adding in a bonus story arc featuring Batgirl (Tara Strong) and Batman tracking down an on-the-rise gangster by the name of Paris Franz (Maury Sterling). This is an entertaining side story with Batgirl and Batman and it plays out separately on its own before getting to the source material, but the whole time as it rolled along I kept thinking, “when are we going to get to The Killing Joke part?” Finally, 28 minutes into the feature the Batman/Batgirl/Paris story arc wraps and then it cold cuts right into The Killing Joke. There is not really any kind of a sensible transition into The Killing Joke arc, but the first half hour can easily stand on its own. I understand why DC did it this way, or else we would have only had a 40-45 minute long feature that would have felt too short.

Once we cut to the source material of The Killing Joke, it plays out nearly panel-for-panel verbatim from the graphic novel. I would not have wanted it any other way and loved how it stayed on point with how it originally played out in 1988. As I mentioned in the intro, this graphic novel is one of the darker and grittier takes on The Dark Knight, and it is worth mentioning that this is the first DC animated film to get an R rating. Do not take it to heart too much though, because it is more of a soft R due to the animated nature. There are several expletives throughout the feature, and a few suggestive photos and couple intense moments brought on by the Joker, but it never felt too overkill. That said, I would not let a child watch this, but if they are just entering their high school years, I would say this would not be pushing the envelope that hard.

There is a hearty amount of extras on the disc, nearly an hour and a half of extra content. If you are not that familiar with the DC animated movies, there are trailers to the last few installments and a sneak peek at the next upcoming feature. There are two behind-the-scenes features. Madness Set to Music is 12 minute piece that interviews the composers on scoring a few vital scenes in the film and getting thoughts from the two main voice actors, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Origins of Joker is an 18 minute extra that discusses the graphic novel’s take on Joker’s origin and other anecdotes from the book and how it got adapted into the feature. Both features I would recommend giving a watch to get a lot more out of how this film came to be. Finally, you heard me rave here before about the 90s Batman cartoons I grew up with and now you can get a chance to witness it yourself if you have not already. There are two episodes from the vault included as bonus materials (they are only in their native standard definition however) featuring a Christmas themed episode with Joker crashing the fun and another episode featuring the origin of Nightwing.

If you have not read The Killing Joke before, than this is a faithful translation of it. Just be forewarned there is an enjoyable side story arc with Batgirl and Batman preceding it for the first 28 minutes that may throw you for a loop like it did for me. I have seen several DC animated features, and this is easily one of the stronger installments. Having a couple of the classic cartoons tacked on as a bonus is also quite nice. If you are unfamiliar with the DC animated universe, this is a good place to start!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VI
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Superheroes: Pioneers of Television

Earlier this year I reviewed Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle on here. That DVD was actually part of a two pack that went along with another PBS 2014 documentary that is the subject of today’s blog, Superheroes: Pioneers of Television (trailer).

The theme for Pioneers of Television is that it documents five of the original live action TV series that were a nationwide hit back when there were only a handful of TV stations available in all homes. Ryan Seacrest narrates this feature that is just under an hour as the documentary shifts from focusing on the following series: Adventures of Superman (1952-58), Batman (1966-68), Wonder Woman (1975-79), The Incredible Hulk (1978-82) and Greatest American Hero (1981-83).

I knew of most of these shows, but probably never seen more than several of them all together when stumbling upon them channel surfing. The TV series that stuck out the most to me was Batman as I recall being perplexed watching it as a kid when the campy nature of the show went right over my head. The feature tracks down several cast and crew members for memories including star player, Adam West and his sidekick Burt Ward. The feature made sure to mention how quick the rise and fall of the show was and the cast and crew even talked a little trash on the behind-the-scenes drama between West and Ward.

I do not recall watching any episodes of the old Wonder Woman show, so it was a very appreciated learning experience hearing interviews from star Lynda Carter and other cast and crew members. It seemed like it borrowed a lot of the campy nature of the Batman series, but also paved the way as one of the first shows with a strong female lead. I do recall seeing a few episodes of The Incredible Hulk as a kid and recall being petrified of Banner going green and morphing into the Hulk. The documentary pulls archived interviews from the late Lou Ferrigno who portrayed Hulk, and Bill Bixby who was his lesser half, Bruce Banner. They share some interesting anecdotes on how they got casted and production problems that lead them to rely on Ferrigno’s natural strength instead of Hollywood effects.

I am only familiar with Adventures of Superman because of the series being a vital part of Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the show’s star, George Reeves in the film, Hollywoodland. The documentary makes sure to chronicle Reeves’ personal demons that affected him behind-the-scenes as the series went on and how everything leads up to his controversial murder/suicide. Greatest American Hero was the only show covered hero I have zero memories of all together and had no idea of its existence until it was covered here. It was more of a light-hearted comedy with the premise being of an ordinary man played by William Katt stumbling upon a supersuit without instructions so he is discovering his powers as the show progresses. Katt and other crew members provide insight on how they became disinterested with the show as it went along and had to take orders from the studio to transition it into more of a campy comedy like Batman.

There is not a whole lot in the way of extra features on the disc, with only two bonus scenes of interview snippets from Adam West and Burt Ward. It was enlightening learning some more info on a lot of these shows I was only faintly familiar with as a kid, but obviously I probably would have gotten more out of this if I was a generation or two older and grew up with these shows. Since it attempts to cover several shows in under an hour there is only so much detail they dedicate to each series, but the time allotted to each show seemed about right with my familiarity with the series covered. Pioneers of Television is a nice supplementary piece that came packaged with A Never-Ending Battle, and all together made for a nice bundled value of the $20 I believe I paid for it at Target.

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
2015-16 TV Season Recap
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 8
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 7
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Seinfeld Final Season
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle

Wrestling's Greatest Factions

Today’s wrestling themed blog goes hand-in-hand with the last one I covered, True Giants. As a matter of fact, it came out within a few weeks of it in 2014 and follows the exact same formula too. That release is called Wrestling’s Greatest Factions (trailer) and much like True Giants it covers a ton of ground on almost all of the noteworthy factions in pro wrestling history.

23 groups are featured in Wrestling’s Greatest Factions, three of which are exclusive to the BluRay. As previously mentioned, it follows the same design as True Giants with a short three-to-five minute documentary on a group, followed up by a match with the featured faction. The DVD is seven hours, while the BluRay clocks in at eight. I do not blame you if that sounds like too much to take in, and if that is the case then the WWE Network has you covered with its abbreviated two hour version that focuses on just several groups like Nexus, DX, Four Horsemen, Evolution, Hart Foundation and Straight Edge Society.

The same pros and cons also apply to Wrestling’s Greatest Factions. The mini-spotlights fly by before you know it, but at least the producers of these bios tried to cram as many tidbits in about each group within the time limits they are restrained to. I got the feeling these bios were not top priority with the interview subjects featured throughout for memories and recollections on a lot of these groups with Renee Young, Alex Riley, Justin Roberts and Curt Hawkins being among the most featured in the mini-documentaries.

For newer fans these mini-documentaries are a great way for a quick history lesson throughout the decades of wrestling on the many factions in the business. For hardcore wrestling fans that probably know of most of these groups, a reason to own this is because this will probably be the only home video release that puts out a documentary of any kind on factions featured in here that did not make it as big. Some of those groups are the PC-watch dog group, The Right to Censor, the affable male cheerleaders, The Spirit Squad and even the group that jammed out with the Insane Clown Posse on their way to the ring, The Oddities are featured here.

One last similarity with True Giants is that the good-to-bad match quality ratio in Wrestling’s Greatest Factions is not the greatest. Of the 23 matches on the BluRay I only marked down nine of them as being must-see. I am a fan of elimination tag matches if done right, especially the old-school Survivor Series matches, but there are quite a few on here since that is a specialty match with larger groups and they got monotonous rather quick. I am also not super big into the WCW War Games double-cage matches as they tend to drag out as the ring gets cluttered with more participants and there are two of those on here that you can save some time and skip right over. There is a match featuring Randy Orton’s faction, The Legacy that is so-so at best but I would have to say to stick with it because in its final moments it features one of the best near-falls that had me and nearly the entire crowd fooled.

Of the more positive matches though, it was a blast reliving the DX/Corporation mini-Royal Rumble as it transpired at the apex of the ‘Attitude Era’ and featured a hot crowd that was popping for everyone. A surprisingly good bout between the Brood and Al Snow’s short lived group, The Job Squad was a fun match with many standout moments. Evolution has a good six-person tag bout where they run rampant over the Dudleyz. Make sure to check out the Four Horsemen match of Arn/Tully/Flair against Luger/Windham/Sting. If you know your Horsemen history that selection stands out because at one point Luger, Windham and Sting were all members of the illustrious group, and this match took place with a crowd on fire and absolutely eating up every moment of the match that made it irresistible to get reeled into the action. The final match on the BluRay is the Shield’s debut match in the WWE at the TLC 2012 PPV in a TLC match against Daniel Bryan, Kane and Ryback. Kane and Ryback take some expected naps in this bout, but that is ok because this match has a great story that is all about Daniel Bryan delivering adrenaline-filled comebacks throughout that had the crowd on his side the entire time.

Despite its aforementioned shortcomings, I will give Wrestling’s Greatest Factions a mild recommendation. Again, for newer fans this is a great history lesson throughout wrestling. For more ardent fans like myself, I have to admit it was kind of fun reliving some brief memories of groups I have not thought of in many years. For newer fans who dug some of the more prominent featured groups like the Shield, Four Horsemen, DX and the nWo make sure to look through WWE’s home video library as they have put out dedicated releases to each of those groups.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
RoH Supercard of Honor VIII
RoH Supercard of Honor IX
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
Wrestlemania 31
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016

WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016

I am a little late on this one, but I really wanted to sneak in my monthly wrestling entry on the last day of July. Rest assured, I am working my way through another mammoth WWE Home Video release also, but finding the time to get through it along with the weekly first run WWE television content along with all their exclusive network content sometimes makes it difficult to make time to plow through their eight-to-nine hour video collections in a timely fashion. With that out of the way, let us take a look at the original content on WWE Network that hit in the first half of 2016.

Swerved: Season 2 – The first season of Swerved, WWE’s Punked-inspired prank show, was not a mega hit with me. It redeemed itself with season two though with the theme this season being the wrestlers messing with the fans. In this case most of the fans were little kids!!! A bunch of grade school New Day fans were stoked to try out the latest New Day inspired food items that left them spitting it out in disgust. Dean Ambrose dressed up like a white-collar know-it-all and hustles a fellow contestant in a mall quiz show! The best gag is this one poor rugrat who is hanging out with AJ Styles and Ryback backstage who both convince the kid to make such disparaging signs as “AJ Styles has Ugly Hair” and “Ryback’s Bald” only to have the other wrestler walk in on the kid and witness the kid crap his pants. Not all the gags are a hit, but the ratio is much better than last season.

Camp WWE – WWE really hyped up their adult-oriented, original animated series for the WWE Network that sees children-age versions of wrestlers at summer camp with evil Vince McMahon as the head of the camp. Only McMahon, Ric Flair and Sgt. Slaughter provided their voices while the rest of the cast is comprised of mostly awful sound-a-likes. The adult-oriented humor misses on most marks with such featured jokes as an episode building up to Mark Henry eating too much molten lava cake and “delivering” a cake baby, Ric Flair humping a tree and extended Vince McMahon fart jokes. I was not surprised to see this show last only five episodes and I hope it does not return for a second season.

Ride Along – I am down with the premise of this show and surprised WWE did not do it earlier. As the name implies, it is the wrestlers in a car travelling between towns and the WWE cameras bouncing between a couple different vehicles of the talent sharing old road stories and life in and out of the ring. Not a whole lot to this show, but I am down for being a fly on the wall as the superstars talk shop and we learn more about them. Some of the talent featured in the first batch of episodes includes New Day, League of Nations, the Usos, Shield and the Bellas.

Unfiltered With Renee Young: Season 2 – After taking nearly half a year off, Renee Young came back in June with the second season of her show that specializes in brief-yet-detailed one-on-one interviews. She mixed things up a little bit in her season two episodes by introducing little other backstage antics before the interview to give the show a little more depth. Rest assured, the interviews are still the main focus point and Renee is terrific at connecting with most of the talent and talking to them like a person and getting them to seem like themselves in front of the camera. Season two interview subjects thus far include Charlotte, Dean Ambrose, Paige, Cesaro and Roman Reigns.

Table for 3: Season 2 – After taking a few months off, WWE came back with five more episodes of Table for 3. Like Ride Along, Table for 3 is a low-budget, yet extremely entertaining series where all there is to it is placing a couple cameras in front of the wrestlers in a certain setting and watching them talk about their craft and lives for about a half hour. In this case we accompany them for dinner. The first season had a good mix of current and past stars while the second season focuses exclusively on legends. One episode reunites Edge & Christian with their favorite commissioner, Mick Foley as they reminisce on many vintage moments of awesomeness. Another episode reunites the Outsiders with X-Pac and another has three of the original Four Horsemen (Flair, Arn & Tully) reuniting for the first time in many years. High recommendation to jump right into any episode in this series, especially with your favorite adult beverage!

Edge and Christian Show – Along with Camp WWE, The Edge and Christian Show was the other main series that WWE heavily promoted in 2016 as their top tier of original content. The Edge and Christian Show is actually kind of decent and not a complete flop like Camp WWE turned out to be. It is a variety/sketch show with Edge & Christian doing all sorts of sketches and bringing on other WWE stars and legends for cameos. The first episode is a bit of a rough watch, but within a few episodes of the 12 in the first season you can tell they start to hit their stride. They somehow managed to bring in past WWE stars I have not seen featured in any WWE content in many years, and they even track down such unique interview subjects like the “Just Say Yes” fan from Wrestemania XXX. I do not want to overhype it too much, as about only half the sketches and gags really hit home with me while other just went over my head or were among the groan-inducing variety. I think I heard this will be returning for a second season next year, and the first season trial run left me optimistic that Edge and Christian were able to shake off the cobwebs and will return with a much improved second season.

Steve Austin Podcast – Stone Cold is still hanging around the WWE Network with monthly installments of his hit podcast. Like Renee Young, Steve Austin has a pretty good rapport with his interviewees and he has a great mix of questions centered on the talent’s career, and usually sneaks in a couple hard-hitting questions too. Highlights from 2016 so far include trading many old war stories with Ric Flair, Big Show and Mick Foley. The AJ Styles interview is especially revealing as he has some uncomfortable childhood memories I did not expect him to go into much detail on, but that interview is also noteworthy as being the first time on any WWE televised content where they openly discussed TNA wrestling for more than 10 seconds as that promotion was a big part of AJ’s past and they make sure to talk a lot about AJ’s 12 year run there.

Miscellaneous – There are a couple new episodes of Legends with JBL in 2016. It was a delight hearing him hook up again with his longtime tag team partner, Ron Simmons in a very candid, emotional interview. Also make sure to check out JBL’s interview with Michael Hayes as that man is a big player behind-the-scenes and JBL makes sure to pick his mind and holds nothing back discussing a few big controversies Hayes was part of over the years.

There are also a couple new installments of WWE 24, which is high-budget half hour documentary series that goes behind-the-scenes of WWE. 2016 so far saw three installments and all are well worth going out of your way to see as they spotlight behind-the-scenes of Wrestlemania 31, backstage with Daniel Bryan on the day leading up to his shocking retirement announcement and a compelling look at Seth Rollins’ recovery from his title reign-ending injury last November. Finally, Mick Foley subbed in for Stone Cold to host a podcast to interview Shane McMahon shortly after he made his surprise return to the WWE. Shane kind of danced around some of the harder hitting questions from Mick, but it is definitely worth checking out to see Shane’s side on what lead to his near-decade long sabbatical from WWE and what he made of his jaw-dropping match against the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 31.

What’s in Store for Second Half of 2016 - As of this writing we are already a couple episodes into the Cruiserweight Classic tournament on WWE Network, which is a tournament focused on purely in ring competition featuring cruiserweights of all styles from around the world. I will make sure to go into far more detail on that here when that wraps up in my end of the year WWE Network blog. Also, I am hopeful that Holy Foley is not a bust, as this Osbournes-meets-the-Foley-family hybrid looks like it could be a winner. The only other programming I am aware that is coming soon is a second season of Jerry Springer’s Too Hot, which I am not as hopeful for. I guess they cannot all be winners. Overall though, I would say this was mostly a positive first half of the year for original WWE Network programming. I have no idea how I managed to keep up, but with RAW, Smackdown, NXT and soon two PPVs a month on the horizon along with all this original content and a regular slate of home videos still hitting stores the WWE easily has you covered with far too much content to consume.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
RoH Supercard of Honor VIII
RoH Supercard of Honor IX
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
Wrestlemania 31
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015

The Condemned 2

WWE Studios’ waited eight years to follow up on the sequel to 2007’s twisted reality show survivor flick, The Condemned. Steve Austin is busy taking in the riches of podcasting though and was unavailable for the sequel. Instead we get WWE Studios’ back-up veteran, Randy Orton. He has experience in the direct-to-video sequel market after his lead performance in 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded, and now he and also 12 Rounds 2 director Roel Reine team up once again for 2015’s The Condemned 2 (trailer).

I was actually a fan of the original Condemned film and its premise where it stuck eight convicted felons on a remote island in order to fight for their freedom. The sequel switches things up a bit. Randy Orton portrays Will Tanner, who leads a team of Bounty Enforcer Agents (wait a sec, is this actually the follow-up to Bounty Hunters?) in a routine mission that terribly goes awry. Tanner winds up shutting down the bounty hunter team and attempts to live life on the straight and narrow with his dad (Eric Roberts).

After several months go by a former foe by the name of Raul (Steven Quezada) comes up with a plan to exact revenge on Tanner. Raul accomplishes this by kidnapping family members of his former squad mates and forces them to kill Tanner within a certain time window or else their loved ones bite the bullet. To make Raul extra slimy, he is filming all this live with the latest hi-tech drones broadcasting to an ensemble of fellow criminals to make bets on the winner, complete with customized betting felts with all the squad members’ names.

The first film was such a disaster in theatrical box office that it lead to WWE’s film division becoming a direct-to-video outlet ever since 2007. Part of me is surprised they are still churning out two-to-three films a year, but since DTV production values are typically much lower than theatrical productions I imagine WWE must be turning in enough of a minimal profit on each film to still keep its film division chirping along. With that said, I will give WWE credit for not simply rehashing the exact same plot as the first film. Like 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown last month I went into this without watching a preview and was thrown off yet again when WWE retooled the premise for this film.

I do not think Reine was going for unintentional camp in this action flick, but there are several moments of unintended levity that got me cracking up for the wrong reasons. I like the concept of the drones being constantly on the prowl to track Tanner’s every move, but whenever the camera cuts to a shot of the drones and attempts to make them look ever-so-menacing I could not help but get flashbacks of those awful CGI birds in Birdemic which resulted in the same effect here where the drones looked more laughable than sinister. Additionally, there were far too many shots of the criminals looking extraordinarily criminal-ly placing bets on that silly makeshift gambling board. Whenever Tanner would manage to bide some more time and escape a deadly encounter there would be another ironic shot to the criminals slamming their fist down and screaming expletives. I have no idea how the betting system for this game Raul is hosting works, but in a cooky-DTV-B-action movie way it delivered on all ironic fronts. Also, props to Raul for working in a throwaway line of dialogue that officially linked this film to the story of the first Condemned.

Campiness hijinx aside, I did not mind how this sequel played out. Each former squad mate Tanner encountered kept me guessing if they were going to make a run at him or ally up with him to fight off Raul. One part that bugged me was how a lot of the squad mates other than the first did not seem all that conflicted about their loved ones being targeted and were going after Tanner against their will. A lot of them just came off as instant-bad guys when I felt like things should be a bit more heated in their rivalry. Not to spoil too much (read ahead to next paragraph if you desire), but some of the squad mates are shown in the film’s aftermath sharing a hearty laugh with Tanner and his dad when I could not help but wonder ‘why are they not out looking for their kidnapped loved ones?’ The film treats this big impetus for the squad mates as an afterthought throughout and forgets about this big plot point altogether by the film’s end.

Minus the nice looking overhead drone camera work, you can tell The Condemned 2 wears its DTV budget like a badge of honor. There are some nice shootouts and explosions, especially some nice sniper skirmishes, but overall they pale in comparison to the first film that is nearly a decade old. There is a short extra feature detailing the special effects that went into the drone camera work and after watching it I could not help but think that is where half the budget went into. There is one other short extra feature about the fight choreography and that is it for extras on the BluRay.

The former squad mates and Raul leave a lot to be desired and all come off as DTV caliber veterans who are all around decent, but nothing spectacular. The only standout performance is by Eric Roberts, who is exponentially better than the rest of the cast in his supporting role as the judgmental/concerned/supporting father. Randy Orton is OK as Will Tanner on the WWE actor grading curve, and is about as effective as he was in 12 Rounds 2. The same can be said for The Condemned 2 as a whole, where like 12 Rounds 2 it is OK overall, but nothing remarkable and nowhere near as good as the first. If you have been jonesing for another Condemned fix all these years like myself, than go ahead and rent this and throw back a few Steve-weisers beforehand and you will be all right, everyone else need not apply.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VI
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

2015-16 TV Season Recap, Part Four

Major props if you made it to the fourth and final installment of my 2015-16 TV Season Recap blogs. This part is all about superhero shows. If you have yet to catch up on my other installments of the TV season, check out the following links:

Part 1 (South Park, Simpsons, Family Guy, American Grit, 30 for 30)
Part 2 (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Jamz)
Part 3 (Game of Thrones, Leftovers, Ballers, Agent Carter)

Gotham (light spoilers) - In my TV Season recap last year I mentioned how Gotham surprised me a few times with its unpredictable nature by taking a few unexpected twists and turns. They do the same thing again this season, especially with the villains involved. In this season’s early episodes they tease a young version of a very anticipated Batman villain, but then FOX pulls the rug from under us and instead Theo Galavan (James Frain) is revealed as the mastermind of a new group of villains underneath him, including one Barb Kean (Erin Richards). The theme of this season of Gotham is ‘rise of the villains’ and that slogan does not disappoint as one Hugo Strange (BD Wong), the head honcho of Arkham Asylum is up to all kinds of vile science projects and is responsible for unleashing several major and minor villains in the second half of season two.

Given the all-star roster of classic Batman villains I was intrigued and not let down by most of the contemporary takes on the villains that Strange unleashes this season. Minor spoiler ahead, remember how much I detested Fish Mooney’s (Jada Smith) character last season, well they bring her back for a few episodes this season and they are easily the least enjoyable episodes in season two. Penguin (Robin Taylor) and Riddler (Corey Smith) both make up for the Fish’s drawbacks with their own far better arcs this season. In season two, they both get too over their heads and wind up with the cast of misfits in Arkham Asylum where they wind up part of all kinds of fun projects. I really dug Penguin’s arc the most this season as he spends the last several episodes trying to change himself for the better, but of course realizing he was being played and embracing his inner darkness in the most vile ways that resulted in my jaw being dropped in a moment that I was surprised made network television.

For the protagonists or more like shades of gray characters leaning heroic, Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue are terrific reprising their roles as partners Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock, respectively. Bullock seems to take a backseat in more of this season which is unfortunate as I really dug his character, but he does have a few moments to shine. Gotham debuts a new sheriff this season with Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis). As much as I loved Chiklis in one of my all time favorite shows, The Shield, he is not so affable here. Barnes sets Gordon up with his own squad of rookie cops early in the season and makes them come off as this new serious force not to be taken lightly, but the rookie cops wind up tying Tommen and Rickon with my award as dopiest characters in from the 2015-16 TV season and I am certainly not going to miss any of them. Luckily, Gordon overcomes that lackluster arc, and clears his name of corruption charges after a few intense episodes he spends in Gotham Prison that lead up to a great season finale.

Props to David Mazouz for a much improved performance as Bruce Wayne in season two. Young Bruce Wayne last season probably would get my most dopiest character award, but this season he develops an edge while roaming the streets with young Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova). His standout moment is a long coming face-to-face encounter with the hitman who gunned down his parents at the beginning of the series. I am knocking off points for making me suffer through a few more episodes of Fish Mooney and a few episodes of incompetent rookie cops, but other than that this is a big improvement over the last season of Gotham. Kudos to FOX for having the show to stick to its dark, gritty nature and pushing the major network restrictions to their limit.
Grade: A-

The Flash - Flash was the catalyst last year that lead to me watching an ungodly amount of CW programming this past season. Season two retains its perfect lighthearted-yet-serious balance that won me over last season. Grant Gustin did another superb performance as Barry Allen, and the producers behind the show came up with a more lethal season long foe for him to tangle with in the form of Zoom (Teddy Sears). This season the DC TV universe debuts the beast that is Earth-2 in The Flash, and by time traveling to an alternate reality, the cast meets alternate versions of themselves and past villains. It is too bad most of alternate reality doppelgangers also get worthy honors of my ‘biggest dopes’ of the season and I felt absolutely zero remorse that most met an early demise.

I did however dig new, not-so-evil Earth-2 Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) as he proves to be a useful and trusting ally for Star Labs. Last season there was a little too much emphasis on the token ‘villain of the week’ that were throwaway foes that served just to fill in TV time while we got nuggets of the Flash’s bigger rivalry against Reverse-Flash last season. Season two is a little better paced, with more episodes having a slightly bigger focus on Zoom, and fewer episodes with cannon fodder villains of the week. It sucks when they do rear their ugly head from time-to-time, but it is at a far less frequent rate.

Like last season, there are quite a few powerful feel good and equally heartbreaking moments throughout the season. A lot of them involve Barry’s adopted dad, Joe West (Jesse Martin) because the man is a master at wearing one of the most emotional faces in all of TV as the West family has some major moments that occur this season. The Flash gets my nod as top CW show of the three this last year. I will rank it just a notch or two under the stellar first season because things get a little off the rails with too many Earth-2 doppelgangers running amok for a few episodes, but by and large this was still a very enjoyable season of television.
Season Two Grade: B+

Arrow - Last year I raved about how much I loved The Flash. Naturally CW showcased some corporate synergy by having the Arrow cast crossover on a few Flash episodes last season and vice versa. I liked the Arrow crossovers so much I fell right into CW’s trap and wound up binge watching all past three seasons of Arrow in time for the start of season four. There is a silly revelation in the series’ premiere where Arrow (Stephen Amell) officially changes his name to his proper name in the comics, The Green Arrow, and I loved how the rest of the cast constantly poke fun sporadically throughout the season.

Season four has some highs and lows, but I still liked it for the most part. On the low end of things, the main plot is Arrow, AKA Oliver Queen decides to run for mayor. Knowing the series past for mayor and everyone who throws their hit in the ring for it, that is where you do not want to be, and I kept hoping each episode would conclude this mayor arc, but it is there for most of this season. Each season usually has a good set of flashbacks filling in the gap when Oliver left town for a few years and returned as the Green Arrow, but this season’s set of flashbacks were super weak as it features Oliver returning to the island he escaped from and infiltrating the ranks of a mercs operation. It sounds good on paper, but plays out incredibly weak, to the point where I got the feeling the producers treated it as an afterthought and only devoted what seemed like less to a minute to each flashback scene, and even skipped a few episodes of flashbacks that center around a supernatural artifact that looks like an oversized kids toy.

The artifact falls in the hands of this season’s antagonist, Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), who is the head of his own the mind-controlled goons called HIVE. After witnessing The Legend of Chun-Li, I can appreciate McDonough excelling at the art of camp, and he somehow manages to make the campy villain work wonderful in the otherwise darker Arrow series. He has a few intense encounters with Team Arrow throughout the season. Halfway through the season, Arrow teases a big death among the cast, and sure enough they deliver with yet another major cast member biting the bullet. Of its four seasons, Arrow has killed/wrote off four major characters, but somehow manages to accomplish that hard storytelling feat of it being a meaningful death and that the character did not pass without great sacrifice. It reminds me a lot of the impact of Charlie’s death in Lost, and for Arrow to somehow manage to accomplish this feat in each season is saying something on why this show has staying power. This season is not as good as the first two seasons of Arrow, and while the flashbacks are definitely a struggle to get through, they are very brief and there are enough other positives going for season four to help redeem this season’s shortcomings.
Season Four Grade: B

Legends of Tomorrow - CW expanded their DC Universe shows with a third series debuting after the midseason break with Legends of Tomorrow. It features eight past supporting heroes and villains from Flash and Arrow like Atom (Brandon Routh), Leonard Snark (Wentworth Miller) and Sarah Lance (Caity Lotz) coming together as a team to travel through time to restore past timelines with their leader, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill). I thought this season was going to be a quick eight or ten episodes, but Legends of Tomorrow only took one or two weeks off and managed to pump out nearly a full season of 19 episodes.

Even being an hour long show with trying to squeeze in nine total cast members in each episode, it proves to be too much. CW kind of remedies this by focusing on groups of heroes each getting their own arc in an episode so it turns into arcs for three or four groups of characters instead of nine individual arcs. Even then, it is easy for at least a couple characters to get lost in the shuffle. It does not help that one of the major story arcs that involves a love triangle between Atom, Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) and Hawkgirl (Ciara Renée) is a total wash and painfully drags on for nearly the entire season. Those gripes aside, the episodes were kind of hit and miss for me, with each episode having a theme of embracing the decade they time traveled too. Most of the early episodes did not cut it for me, minus a couple that featured some really good all out superhero clashes, but I do recall the series picking up for an impactful final few episodes that helped saved the season for me and ensured that I will give it another shot next season.
Grade: C

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 8
Angry Videogame Nerd Vol 7
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Seinfeld Final Season
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle