TITLE: Wrath of the Titans
STARRING: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Édgar Ramírez, Rosamund Pike, Toby Kebbell
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Liebesman
STUDIO: Legendary Pictures, Thunder Road Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 99 min
RELEASED: March 30, 2012

By Stephen McCarthy
Staff Writer, Evil Genius

Clash of the Titans was confusing mess of a movie. It was simple to follow, sure, but the people making it were confused as to if they wanted to remake the beloved classic or do their own thing. Gone was the whimsy, magic and creativity; replaced by angst, seriousness and pointless action. The adventure and magic had left and it was bad movie. I think I would have been fine with the movie if it had tried to do its own thing and divorce itself from the original instead of trying to do both.

Enter the sequel, Wrath of the Titans.  Now they can do whatever they want without trying to be true to a sequel since the original never got one. While there is no whimsy, there is far less angst and the seriousness has been toned down to allow for a more adventurous feel, but that isn’t to say this doesn’t have some big problems that hold it back from just being a fun adventure.

Sam Worthington is back as the half god Perseus, the son of the Zeus. Having inexplicably defeated the Kraken and Hades within minutes, he opted to reject becoming a god and has settled down into a simple fisherman’s life with his son. Things seem to be going tough but good for the life he chose, until Zeus appears and explains that the gods are losing their powers and that soon they will not be able to hold back the Kronos, a mythological Titan. If Kronos is unleashed, then all of the gods and all of humanity will be obliterated in an instant. Perseus tells Zeus to go away, Hades betrays Zeus, things start to go bad and now the adventure begins.

It is now time to venture off, meet new people and save the day — the typical formula; they play it as just that but fall short. I always felt like everyone was just playing their basic role with a few lines of exposition to explain who they were so we can quickly move on. No one spends enough time to just talk to each other, so we can get to know anyone. No one asks Perseus about his son and if he regrets the life he chose. It doesn’t have to go on for ten minutes, but a little something extra would be nice. Instead, it is all about going from point A to point B and each person serving their role and nothing more.

And when they get to point B, they have to have a fight with some mythological creature that audience already knows about. This way they can keep the movie moving without taking much time to explain anything, hoping the audience fails to notice that this movie still can’t really decide between serious or fun adventure. National Treasure isn’t an overly fantastic movie and follows a lot of these same mechanics, but it was mostly fun. I cared about what was happening to Nic Cage and the people around him and wanted to see him win.  I didn’t care if Perseus won or lost for the most part.

For as much as I am punishing this movie, I did enjoy most of it until the end. It kept a fast enough pace so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about what was going on, plus it wasn’t annoying me like the last go-round. Unfortunately, the ending sequence features one of those CGI armies that has become so overused that it is boring. I wish they would have ignored the massive stupidity of humans thinking they could stand up to anything Kronos could dish out and just focused on Perseus solely.

Ultimately, I think the movie, much like the last one, needs to pick a side.  Be serious and give us good characters to care about or make it a fun adventure were we actively want to root for the obvious good guy and get invested in the fun.

RATING: 5/10

Note: I did not see this in 3D and I really don’t think I was missing much by seeing it for cheaper in 2D…I made the right decision.

Front page image and interior stills from collider.com.

ARTIST: The Mars Volta
ALBUM TITLE: Noctourniquet
RECORD LABEL: Warner Bros. Records
RELEASED: March 26, 2012

By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

Back in 2005 I remember that I had enough. Nearly every website I frequented kept talking about this Mars Volta band, and how amazing their latest album was. I decided to see what the fuss was about, not knowing anything about the band, and checked out Frances the Mute. My progressive rock upbringing probably influenced my reaction, but I suddenly saw why people wouldn’t shut up about the album. From there, I had Frances and their first album in constant rotation all summer long. I became a Mars Volta fan.

I have followed the band ever since that summer, though not nearly as hardcore as some of their most devout fans can get. Although I never heard anything by them quite as good as Frances the Mute, I have to admit that vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist/director Omar Rodríguez-López are quite the pair. I appreciate their experimental approach to music, too. There aren’t many bands anymore that sound like The Mars Volta.

With Noctourniquet, the formula has once again been shaken up, but those familiar with the band will notice a bigger departure this time around. The most notable difference is that the songs are much more compact than usual. The longest track clocks in at about seven and a half minutes, and the rest are about the average length of a more conventional song. I’m not complaining , because for the most part the band’s complex nature of songwriting still shines as bright as ever, and it’s refreshing hearing what The Mars Volta can do without venturing close to or over a double digit track time. For example, it was nice to hear a brief droning synth effect instead of one that lasted a few minutes in length. I’m not saying that the departure totally transforms the band. If you played this for me years ago, even without Bixler-Zavala’s distinctive vocals, I would have been able to identify the band.

Speaking of which, I have to say that Bixler-Zavala’s vocals has always been used very effectively as an additional instrument. With this album, he mixes with the rest of the band better than ever before. I particularly loved the way he sung in “In Absentia.” I also liked the heavier use of electronic elements in Noctourniquet. While I thought the opening track “The Whip Hand” was a bit of an odd one to start out with, I was pleasantly surprised with the fact that a buzzing electronic sound took most of the attention during the chorus. From the get-go, I can almost hear Rodríguez-López saying that this is going t be a different album.

While Noctourniquet finishes strongly with “Zed and Two Naughts,” the album did kind of lose steam towards the end for me. In fact, as much as I enjoyed this album, I can’t help but feel that there is something missing in general. Again, I appreciate the different approach to the album and the shorter track lengths, but something is just off. However, I also felt disappointed with the last couple of albums at first, but they eventually grew on me, so maybe this is the same type of deal.

I will admit that most of this stems from the fact that I am very hung up on TMV’s first two albums. I really hate saying things like that because even before being a hipster became a thing, far too many people would say something like I just said (i.e. “I only liked [band]‘s first album) just to sound superior. I guess my situation is kind of like a fan following a long running television show. When you first get into it, everything seems to fresh and magical, but eventually you get used to how things work. Eventually, you realize that no matter what, nothing can replicate that feeling of freshness and you can either choose to let it ruin your experience or accept that the creators are at a different place than they were years ago.

In terms of how this relates to Noctourniquet, I do realize that The Mars Volta’s earlier works is many years behind them. This album was still an enjoyable experience for me, but I also yearn for how earlier works were put together. If you’re a huge fan, you’ll love this album like the rest of them, but if you are more like me, you might be left feeling a little conflicted after the final song stops playing.

RATING: 7/10

Front page image and interior photo by Eliot Lee Hazel, courtesy of Warner Bros. Records.

TITLE: Avengers vs. X-Men #0
AUTHORS: Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron
PENCILLER: Frank Cho
PUBLISHER: Marvel
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASED: March 28, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

How awesome is this? I’m not the biggest Marvel geek you’ll ever find, but even I can’t help but geek out about this story. Yes, the Avengers and the X-Men have duked it out before, as far back as 1968 and as recently as last year. But with this story the idea is really getting the gigantic scope it deserves, and there’s a charming simplicity to the set up here.

The premise for this book is that the Phoenix Force, which most comic book fans are at least vaguely familiar with, is returning to Earth and coming for Hope Summers. The Avengers want to take Hope into custody to prevent her from coming into contact with Phoenix. The X-Men, thinking the Phoenix will bring about the dawning of a new age for mutantkind, want her to remain free. Long story short, it’s the Avengers fighting the X-Men with the fate of the Phoenix Force hanging in the balance. It’s easy to grasp on to.

In this prologue issue, we see Scarlet Witch, Magneto’s daughter and the woman who single-handedly reduced the mutant population from millions to hundreds in House of M, as she fights M.O.D.O.K. and a crew of goons. She bumps into Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman, who convince her to return to Avengers mansion to try and reconcile with the group, including her estranged husband Vision. Meanwhile, Hope and Cyclops argue about how protective the team is of her. She gets into an impulsive fight with the Serpent Society, leading Cyclops and Emma Frost to wonder about her future.

Marvel readers know that this story will mark the first time Hope, the so-called mutant messiah, will cross paths with the woman who decimated mutantkind, Scarlet Witch. The ramifications of such a confrontation are obviously high, particularly with the Phoenix Force getting closer. The point of this issue is to give us a glimpse into the psyches of both women before the big throwdown. It does its job fine, portraying Scarlet as the isolated outcast and Hope as the frustrated, rebellious teenager. You really can’t ask much more from this issue, especially when you consider issue #1 comes out next week.

 The stakes are high for AvX, both for the characters and the publisher. Here’s hoping we get a battle for the ages.

 Front page image courtesy of Marvel.

TITLE: Red Robin: Seven Days of Death
AUTHOR: Fabian Nicieza, J.T. Krul
PENCILLERS: Marcus To, Georges Jeanty
COLLECTS: Red Robin #18-21, #23-26, Teen Titans #92
FORMAT: Paperback
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $19.99
RELEASED: March 21, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

I’m almost sorry I read this book, not because it’s bad, but because it reminds me of how bad a creative plunge the Tim Drake character has endured since the New 52 started last September.

The Red Robin ongoing series was never great per se, but it was consistently very good. It showed us how tenacious, passionate and determined Tim could be, as he insisted that Bruce Wayne was indeed alive following Final Crisis. The stories challenged him as both a detective and a fighter. Later, he took a more proactive approach to his quest for justice, not only creating a “hit list” consisting of bad guys that needed to be  taken down permanently, but creating a foundation to help at-risk teens in Gotham. In Seven Days of Death, Tim continues his proactive approach by journeying into the Unternet, a virtual world that’s basically group mind dial in for supervillains to share their ideas. But the Unternet also causes its users to lose their inhibitions, which makes it quite a hostile environment. His investigation eventually sends him after the Calculator, with help from his old buddies the Teen Titans. By the end of the book, Tim has a chance to kill Captain Boomerang, the man who murdered his father. But can he bring himself to break Batman’s cardinal rule?

I found the Unternet concept is a little tough to wrap my head around in terms of how it works, who runs it, and what causes certain things to happen. Eventually I got it down enough to decide that it’s a fairly interesting concept, but not the most enjoyable one this book has given us. Unternet Red Robin has an alternate costume, sort of a blend between Nightwing’s costume and his own, which some fans seemed to enjoy. Personally, I’ll always be a fan of the Alex Ross Kingdom Come costume he typically wore in this series. Though I’ll gladly take the Unternet suit over that gaudy monstrosity he wears now.

Seeing Tim interact with the Titans again is cool, especially since this was during the brief period where Damian was along for the ride as Robin. There’s a scene where Superboy is telling Tim about how he’ll always be his Robin, and Tim comes back with a lovely, “And you’ll always be my clone boy.” However, I’m still not a fan of the Calculator in the insane supervillain role, and as such I’d have preferred this little reunion occur under different circumstances. As some of the events of this book can also be seen in Teen Titans: Team Building, Seven Days of Death also includes the severe roster misstep I alluded to in that review.

The high point of the book sees Tim travel overseas as he traces an assassination attempt on Bruce Wayne. This leads to the resurfacing of plot threads from earlier in the series, a reunion between Tim and Cassandra Cain (a.k.a. Black Bat), and believe it or not, an attempted rape of our hero by a woman with ties to Ra’s al Ghul. The story leads Tim to think about where his path as Red Robin will take him and what kind of adult he’ll become. It’s a fun story that sees Tim cross paths with a several interesting characters.

The confrontation with Captain Boomerang is very abrupt, especially when you consider the story revolves around Tim trying to find a loophole in Batman’s no-killing rule. That’s a big enough idea to spread out over several months, if you want to. Here it’s done in a single issue, hastily paying off a tease from earlier in the series. Granted, Red Robin #26 was the final issue in the series, so they were likely trying to go out on a high note. Tim comes up with an elaborate plan to take Captain Boomerang out for good, but eventually things break down and they go to blows themselves. Again, this story leaves readers asking what would happen if Tim decided to stray from Batman’s set of rules and start playing by his own. That could have been fantastic grounds for a new direction for this series. Sadly, it’ll never take place.

Red Robin was a book that featured a cool, resourceful young hero in a cool costume with a complex backstory, getting into adventures around the world as well as at home. Some issues were better than others, obviously. But all in all, it was a fun book to read. The Tim Drake we’re seeing in Teen Titans seems to have lost some of the depth, and even maturity, that his pre-New 52 counterpart had. And yes, I’m still mad about that new costume. Red Robin didn’t go out on the high note it should have, but I still miss it.

RATING: 6.5/10

Front page image from xmanscomicblog.blogspot.com. Image 1 from furnettidccomics.blogspot.com. Image 3 from readsreads.com.

Check out the entire Red Robin series, reviewed here at Primary Ignition!
Red Robin: The Grail
Red Robin: Collision
Red Robin: The Hit List
Also, check out Red Robin in Batman: Judgment on Gotham. 

TITLE: Justice League: Doom
STARRING: Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg, Nathan Fillion, Carl Lumbly, Michael Rosenbaum, Bumper Robinson
DIRECTOR: Lauren Montgomery
STUDIO: Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Premiere, DC Comics, Warner Home Video
RATING: PG-13
RUN TIME: 77 min
RELEASE DATE: February 28, 2012

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

I’m just going to go out and say that I’ve always been kind of iffy when it comes to the Justice League, and after watching this film, I’m pretty sure that that was the final nail in the coffin for me. It’s not that the film is inherently bad, but just the whole idea of the Justice League kind of always has nagged at me a bit, and that was partly due to the fact that they just don’t work on a practical level for me.

I know, I know. I’m getting off to a bad start by bringing up the realistic applications of a squad of superheroes that exists solely to protect the world from danger, but hear me out. For me, I’ve been able to accept most of the DC heroes on their own, even the most ridiculous of them. And I don’t mind the ridiculousness of it all, I really don’t. But for whatever reason, once you put them all in the same sandbox together, it becomes painfully clear which ones will be pulling the most weight, due to them having to work together in a sense. That being said, if everyone’s living in a world with a Superman, well what’s the point of even trying?

There really isn’t one. That leaves comic book authors with the unenviable task of trying to come up with creative ways to disarm the most powerful man in the universe, or at the very least, ways of dividing and conquering the opposition. Because, let’s face it: if you’re living in Superman’s world — theoretically speaking — the only way that you could attempt to get the upper hand on him is to have multiple scenarios distracting him, as he can’t be in two places at once, as well as a good, strong amount of kryptonite. Both things are exactly part of the plans entailed in Justice League: Doom.

Based on Mark Waid’s excellent “Tower of Babel” story arc from the JLA comic a little over a decade ago, Doom is the story of how a Vandal Savage-led Legion of Doom gets the upper hand on the Justice League, and forever changes the relationships between its members. One of my biggest issues with the film, however, was not the fact that it was a story dealing with the Justice League. It was that the story itself was changed to the point that its original premise is still intact, but the rest of specifics were changed. Some were done so for the best, but many were left looking worse.

See, “Tower of Babel” functioned more or less as a Batman story that happened to feature the Justice League as supporting members. While they weren’t really the main focus of the story, their presence held just as much weight as if they were, but it was the way that they were balanced that made it such a page turner back in 2000 when the story was originally published. Long story short, the story detailed how Ra’s al Ghul was able to infiltrate Batman’s base of operations and steal files that Batman had on each and every member of the Justice League. In these files were contingency plans that Batman had compiled, should the moment ever arise that he would need to incapacitate one (or all) of them. Considering that he is the only member of the Justice League without superpowers, this is a logical — albeit slightly cold — way of thinking, but it’s something that makes sense for the man who has a plan for everything to take into consideration.

With these files, Ra’s was able to plan a series of attacks to take out all of the Justice League members, so that he could enact one of his typical ‘destroy most of the population for the sake of the planet’ plans. Obviously, everything eventually gets resolved, and Batman and company put a stop to Ra’s al Ghul once again, but it brought about a turning point for the league. After that, it found the members untrusting of Batman, and many of them felt betrayed, a sentiment that still lingered in more recent comics. While it wasn’t without its fair share of faults and plot holes, it told a great story and the impact of its events informed the respective characters’ feelings towards the Dark Knight for years to come.

In the late Dwayne McDuffie’s revision of the story, “Tower of Babel” gets a bit of a makeover, which works about half of the time. The immortal Vandal Savage puts together a team of enemies that each have a reason to want to put a stop to one of the members of the JL, and under his direction, they use Batman’s files against them. This, of course, is a distraction to allow Savage to attempt to complete his greater goal, which is to destroy most of the world’s population for the sake of the planet.

While it’s commendable that McDuffie thought that it would make for better storytelling to provide the League with a singular enemy, giving them a more unified reason to stop Vandal Savage, it took much of the wind out of the sails of the original story. Much of Batman’s back story deals very much with personal baggage, and what better way to tell a larger scale story than to use that idea to the max? Because of Batman’s baggage — this time his ties to Ra’s al Ghul — the league as a whole has big problems to deal with. “Tower of Babel” was always a Batman story set under the JLA backdrop, and by taking out that dichotomy, you lose much of the impact that the story has. Plus, it helped to establish Batman as even more of a wild card that should always be feared just a little bit, because he truly always does have a contingency plan. “Babel” only made that point even more crystal clear.

In many ways, I felt that Doom really missed out on some great opportunities to justify Batman’s involvement in the Justice League, and it softened the serious tone of the story by adding some quick-fix elements to it that ultimately feel like more of an afterthought than a thoughtful recreation of a story that really didn’t need fixing in the first place. I’m aware of the fact that some of the heroes were swapped out in order to represent the more current iteration of the Justice League, but it didn’t need to be done so in a manner that flooded an already packed story full of characters that don’t really matter too much in the whole scheme of things (Royal Flush Gang, I’m looking at you…).

From a production standpoint, I thought that the animation style fit the story, but only because much of its content ended up feeling like a stretched out version of one of DC’s many animated half hour series. In that, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. It got the job done, but wasn’t as stylish as I thought that it could have been, especially if the story was considered important enough to warrant release on DC’s Animated Original Movies line. However, if I felt that the story was better portrayed, it wouldn’t have mattered.

This is all a bit of a shame, because while McDuffie’s writing lacked a bit in the general ideas department, the interactions and mannerisms between the characters was wonderfully executed, by both the dialogue and the voice acting. This is likely due to the fact that many of the voice actors from the Justice League TV show returned to do the characters for this film. It was especially a great pleasure to hear Kevin Conroy’s voice once again, after having been absent in the Batman: Year One film.

However, despite the film kind of missing its marks in some areas, the Blu-ray release of the film sort of makes up for it, with a couple of exclusive featurettes. “Guarding the Balance: Batman and the JLA” takes a look at the real-life inspirations for “Tower of Babel” and Doom‘s story, and and “Their Time Has Come: Cyborg and the DC Universe’s New Diversity,” which dives into a number of DC’s more prominent figures explaining why a character like Cyborg deserves to be in the Justice League now more than ever.  “A League of One: The Dwayne McDuffie Story,” a feature that is found on all versions of the release, is an interesting look at the life of Dwayne McDuffie, as well as a profile of his legacy to both comics as well as his impact on media in general. The two Blu-ray exclusives aren’t must-watch material, but it’s hard not to get wrapped up in McDuffie’s story, the one special feature that nearly justifies the release’s purchase.

At the end of the day, Justice League: Doom will probably be remembered by most as a bittersweet final project from McDuffie. It’s a hard thing to attempt to recreate a major story arc like that without leaving fans feeling like something was lost, but sometimes it’s best to just leave well enough alone. Knowing when to do which is the hardest part.

RATING: 6.5/10

Front page image from collider.com, interior stills from toonzone.net.

ARTIST: Abigail Williams
ALBUM TITLE: Becoming
RECORD LABEL: Candlelight
RELEASED: January 24, 2012

By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

When it comes to black metal, I’m not the guy in the front row of a concert being pushed by hordes of fans against a metal barrier. I am more of the dude who chills in the back of the room, silently observing with a drink in one hand and a buddy by my side. I enjoy some black metal that I encounter, but for me it’s all about the music. I don’t care about the content or the origin of a band as long as I like what I hear. I say this because awhile ago Eric, one of the site’s founders, told me that many people dismiss black metal bands that come from the USA. I thought he might be being melodramatic until I was invited to a small party a short while later, because I came across a few people that refused to listen to any music besides overseas black metal, so to speak. When I brought up Abigail Williams to test Eric’s theory, they looked like I spat in their drinks.

It’s a shame too, because I always felt that Abigail Williams has a very solid track record and has only improved with time. Maybe it’s because I am not into the scene like other fans, but I could care less where these guys were born. If anything, I thought their move to ditch the symphonic elements in In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns to go for a more straight up deathcore approach in In the Absence of Light worked better for the band. If you knew me you would call that observation of mine nothing short of a miracle, because I usually prefer it when bands go for a more melodic approach over time, especially in any form of metal.

So I give their newest album, Becoming, a spin, brace myself and get…a slow, ominous opening to an infinitely more atmospheric Abigail Williams. Granted, the pace does pick up with massive amounts of intensity, but this isn’t what I was expecting at all! Color me impressed.

However, there is one thing about Abigail Williams that never sat right with me, and it doesn’t change here. Over the years I have gone from the point of absolutely hating harsh vocals to embracing a good majority of them. Having said that, I still can’t get behind shrieky vocals at all. To me, it’s plain distracting. While I feel that Sorceron’s vocals in this album are mixed into the rest of the music in a much more balanced way and there are sections were the shrieking isn’t as bad as previous albums, I still can’t get past it.

Speaking of mixing, I also appreciate the way Becoming was mixed in general. It sounds like a black metal album that was recorded quite some time ago without really losing a huge amount of quality. I don’t major in music creation or anything, so I have no idea whether the mixing style was done on purpose or not. It’s just something I feel that more old school black metal fans might enjoy while pumping this album through their speakers.

As for the music itself, as I said previously, Abigail Williams has gone with a slower, more atmospheric approach. But what do I mean, exactly? Well, parts of it reminds me of Agalloch if they made some sort of harder hybrid of Ashes Against the Grain and The Mantle. Becoming also sounds slightly influenced by Wolves in the Throne Room. People who were expecting the band to up their sound in a similar direction of their last album might be disappointed, but I feel this new approach separates them from many bands who simply get in a dick measuring contest to see who can be the loudest. Before, I felt Abigail Williams was going in a more deathcore/metalcore direction — like I said earlier — which may be fine for some bands, but this one is better off leaving that traveled road behind.

What really sold me on Becoming was the final track, “Beyond the Veil,” an ambitious seventeen and a half minute masterpiece that leaves the band off on a high note. If anything, the only negative feeling I got was me wishing the rest of the album sounded like this, but I totally understand why the band would want to save this one for one long track. Metal bands have supported their music by using classical string instruments before — in this case a violin and cello — but the way they are incorporated throughout this song sounds like they were designed just for something like this. The middle section sounds absolutely astounding as they lead the rest of the band. It’s kind of like watching a couple of experienced classically trained dancers of very different backgrounds tear up the dance floor together. Throw in the chilling end section and you have a song that should earn the respect of just about any type of metal fan, if they knew what’s good for them.

Despite my minor grievances with Abigail Williams, Becoming is the breath of fresh air the band needed. They could have gone the easy route and repeated past efforts or mistakenly get caught in the “make harder music every album” trap. I absolutely love it when bands throw me a curve ball and challenge their fans by urging them to follow a different sound. Whether you were already a fan of Abigail Williams or were as dismissive as the people in the story I told at the beginning of this article, definitely check this one out.

RATING: 8.5/10

Front page image/interior photo from theageofmetal.com.

TITLE: The Hunger Games
STARRING: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland
DIRECTOR: Gary Ross
STUDIO: Lionsgate, Color Force
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 142 min
RELEASED: March 23, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

The moral here: 95 percent of the time the book is better.

Set some time (several decades, perhaps?) after a not-specified apocalyptic event, the nation of Panem, which was once North America, is divided into 12 districts. Every year the tyrannical, oppressive Capitol picks two teenagers from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, a barbaric competition that sees 24 youths tossed into a hostile environment and forced to not only survive, but kill each other until only one remains. When her younger sister is chosen for the games, 16-year-old Katniss Everden (Lawrence) volunteers to take her place. Now Katniss, a skilled archer and hunter, must fight for her life alongside her fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson). But will Peeta prove to be a friend or an enemy? And can Katniss survive the horror that awaits her?

The Hunger Games is not a bad movie at all, but it sits in a precarious position. It’s based on the best-selling young adult novel by Suzanne Collins. The majority of people going to see this movie will have read the book. While many of those people are adults, you’re looking at a lot of young teenagers too. The problem is that it’s a book about teenagers killing each other in violent ways. A plot like that obviously lends itself to an R rating so that you can effectively convey the barbarism that’s present (though not necessarily used for exploitation’s sake) in the story. Such a strategy would certainly steepen the drama and the suspense of the film, conveying the idea that not only can anyone die at any time, but they can die so horrendously. But when your movie already has a built-in younger audience, a PG-13 rating makes sense for the sake of letting the kids enjoy the movie they brought to the big screen with their love of the book.

Both routes have their advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the day, The Hunger Games went the PG-13 route. To compensate for the violence, we’re given shaky cameras and quick cuts. This tends to be frustrating, as it makes it very difficult to see what’s actually happening during a fight sequence. The best example is the sequence that takes place at the start of the games, when all 24 tributes are standing in an open space scrambling for weapons. A bunch of people die during this scene, but we can barely make any of it out because everything is so quick and wobbly. This scene is supposed to be important because we actually get to see the consequences of failure in the Hunger Games, and what awaits all but one of these kids. But we don’t get that moment, because they’re trying to cover up the fact that this mass murder occurring in front of us is actually violent and bloody.

The movie also has to leave out a few important supporting character moments that would have added to its overall drama. The best example lies with a 12-year-old girl named Rue, the youngest competitor in the Games and a character fans of the book grew very fond of. She befriends Katniss and they become allies. In the book we’re given a chapter and a half to watch the friendship between these two characters grow. We learn about Rue and become more fond of both characters by watching them interact. In this movie we only get a few lines of dialogue, and the only real investment we have in Rue is the fact that she’s so young. Thus, what ultimately happens to Rue isn’t nearly as impactful in the movie as it is in the book. This is obviously an issue of time constraint that to an extent can’t be avoided, but even a few additional lines for Rue would have helped.

All this being said, the movie is very well acted. Jennifer Lawrence hits all the right notes as the tough, yet still vulnerable and nurturing Katniss. Though he likely has less than 10 minutes of screen time, Liam Hemsworth is very memorable as Katniss’ best friend Gale. Elizabeth Banks gives a delightfully peppy performance as Effie Trinket. Lenny Kravitz is perfect as the supportive fashion designer Cinna. Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta’s mentor in the games, will be a bit different from what readers remember, but is still solid.

Josh Hutcherson is likable and sympathetic as Peeta. His only problem is he’s stuck with some cheesy romance dialogue. A few of his lines got some unintentional laughs from my theater, which is never the reaction to look for.

Katniss narrates the entire book, so all of what we read is from her perspective. As such, the movie has to show us things that Katniss simply told us about in the book. The movie accomplishes this by sometimes switching to either the Gamemakers’ perspective, or news coverage of the games led by Stanley Tucci’s wonderful performance as Caeser Flickerman. The games take place inside a battle arena that the Gamemakers can manipulate at will. Think The Truman Show, but deadlier. We see them watching the games through cameras littered throughout the arena, and occasionally throwing in a hazard. The news coverage segments come off like CNN converge meshed with live sports commentary. In addition, at one point we get a nice riot scene from one of the districts to help illustrate Katniss’ frustration with the Capitol. Most of it is very nicely done.

Fans might scowl at me for saying this, but The Hunger Games is obviously intended to be the next successor to the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, i.e. young adult books turned into multimillion dollar movies. This film is entertaining, and lays a solid foundation for two sequels. But it could have been significantly better. I guess that’s the price you pay sometimes to get your fans into the theater, and keep your run time at a decent length.

RATING: 7/10

Front page image and interior stills from rottentomatoes.com.

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

TITLE: Super Crooks #1
AUTHOR: Mark Millar
PENCILLER: Leinil Yu
PUBLISHER: Icon
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: March 21, 2012

Oh boy! It’s time for another go-around in Millar World! Where both good guys and bad guys use naughty words, and we don’t dare paint our walls white because of all the friggin’ blood.

In Super Crooks, the team that brought us Superior presents a world where apparently most American cities have several active superheroes. When we open the book we meet Johnny Bolt, a super criminal who’s just committed a robbery alongside a gang of thugs. He’s stopped and sent back to prison by a foul-mouthed brute called the Gladiator. Meanwhile, in Vegas an elderly super criminal who used to be called The Heat gets busted for trying to cheat at a casino in Vegas. As punishment, the higher ups give him a month to produce $100 million dollars as payback. He seeks out the recently released Johnny and his girlfriend Kasey (a former super criminal), and it looks like we’ve got a super-powered heist story on our hands. Seeking an environment away from all the heroes, our criminal protagonists are on their way to Spain!

Under Marvel’s Icon imprint, Mark Millar writes the kind of comics I think I would have really enjoyed back in that 5th grade/early middle school period, when I had a secret porn stash and I did things to piss my parents off for no apparent reason. They’re often intentionally edgy and vulgar, seemingly just for the sake of being edgy and vulgar. That’s not to say they don’t have good stories and wonderful art (they especially have the latter), the novelty wears off after awhile. I can still enjoy the books, but I find myself rolling my eyes a bit more.

I can appreciate the appeal of Millar writing a heist story, though. The in-your-face characters he tends to write are well suited to that kind of idea. I also like the idea of America seemingly being overrun by superheroes. Look at the sheer volume of heroes at Marvel and DC. If all those characters, and teams of characters, actually existed, they’d practically be tripping over each other. I’d try my luck elsewhere, too. Maybe The Riddler should give Spain a try. Take a few Spanish classes and see how it goes…

This is also one of those stories where the heroes and villains don’t seem to act that differently. In addition to the Gladiator being a glorified thug, we see a hero called the Praetorian being acquitted of charges relating to authority abuse. We also get a throwaway line about Praetorian telling Kasey he’d let her off if she gave him a blowjob. Yep, this is a Millar comic, alright…

While I can appreciate the story that’s being told here, and Leinil Yu’s art is always lovely to look at, I don’t have a great desire to move forward with Super Crooks. I know Millar has a devoted group of fans who will hang me for saying it, but the charm of his writing style is wearing off for me. Maybe I’ll come back for Hit Girl or Nemesis 2, and see how I feel.

***

TITLE: Justice League #7
AUTHOR: Geoff Johns
PENCILLER: Gary Frank
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASED: March 21, 2012

Confused?

Starting this month, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, the team behind Superman: Secret Origin and the upcoming Batman: Earth One, will be introducing the New 52 version of Shazam via back up stories in Justice League. So while this isn’t a first issue, it’s the first appearance of this re-imagined character in his own story.

It should be noted that the character is now officially called Shazam as opposed to Captain Marvel, thanks to a copyright issue with Marvel Comics. Long story short, it was just easier, and if you believe the folks at DC, more fitting to call him Shazam.

We start our 12-page story with a man recounting how he was somehow mystically summoned to a mysterious fortress, where he was interviewed by a man with a shaggy white beard. Captain Marvel — er, Shazam-fans know this fortress as the Rock of Eternity, and the man as the Wizard Shazam. Dozens of other people across the world have had this same experience, and a Philadelphia scientist named Dr. Sivana, who is determined to unlock the secrets of magic to save his family (from sickness?). Meanwhile, young Billy Batson is having a charming little meeting with a prospective foster family. But when they leave, he reveals his true sour attitude. Little does Billy know that he’s about to be given the power of Gods…

Though we only see one shot of the Shazam costume in this issue, we can see it’s been tweaked, most notably with an added hood. I’ll need to see more before I give a verdict on the change. I don’t see the hood hurting the character’s look, but I don’t see it being a tremendous improvement either.

I like the idea of a bratty Billy Batson, who’s made his way through various foster homes over the years. Captain Marvel’s reputation is often that of a naive, white bread do-gooder, even more so than Superman. DC has tried repeatedly to relaunch and revamp this character over the years, and give him just a fraction of the success he had in the golden age of comics (at one point he outsold Superman and Batman), but it’s never quite worked out. Giving the character more of an edge and playing up the mystical elements of his character might allow them to take their best shot yet. Geoff Johns certainly has a good track record, so Cap should be in good hands with him. Toss in Gary Frank’s stellar artwork, and this idea definitely has potential. Attaching it to the Justice League book is a good way to ensure people see it. Let’s see if Johns can work his magic again.

Front page image from cosmicbooknews.com. Super Crooks interior from ghettomania.blogspot.com. Shazam interior from newsarama.com. 

TITLE: Silent Hill HD Collection
PLATFORM: PS3, 360
DEVELOPER: Team Silent, Hijinx Studios
PUBLISHER: Konami
ESRB: M
RELESASED: March 20, 2012

By John Flickinger
Staff Writer, Coffee Fiend

The Silent Hill HD Collection combines what many consider to be two of the best games in the series with improved visuals and new voice over work. The content of the games themselves remains unchanged from the original versions, so I thought it might be good to share my first impressions over what was changed in this release instead of an in depth review of both games.

For a little background, I own both Silent Hill 2 and 3 for the PC and there are high resolution options which I’ve used, so I was curious to see what the games looked like with new high resolution textures instead of the upscaled versions of the current ones that I was used to. I am playing the Playstation 3 version of the HD Collection, and that is the version I will be referring to. To be perfectly honest it is an improvement, but not a drastic one. There were points where they used the same textures on creatures, walls, and ceilings which were probably done to save space on the original discs, however in the HD version the producers said that they made new textures where the reused ones didn’t make sense, or didn’t look right.

In places like the well-lit mall in the beginning of Silent Hill 3 it’s easy to see that the graphics are indeed much better. The majority of the time, the improved graphics are covered up by darkness, fog, and film grain which obscures their clarity and almost makes it pointless. Shining the flashlight on objects and enemies often has them looking a lot less muddy than in the original versions.

One nice improvement with the visuals is that they are now set up for widescreen without stretching the aspect ratio out. They even brought in artists to fill out the sides of fullscreen puzzles that no longer fill the screen in the new wider format. The puzzles themselves and difficulty levels remain the same.

The audio has improved, and it’s all in Dolby 5.1 surround sound which is a key part of the games’ atmosphere and a very welcome improvement. Another new change that may not be as welcome is that there are re-recorded voices in both games which some fans have already spoken out against in online forums. Silent Hill 2 gives you the option to use the original voiceovers, but Silent Hill 3 doesn’t give you that option and you must play with the new voiceovers (unless an update changes that at some point).

The voiceover preference is really up to the individual, and it does feel odd playing a familiar game with a familiar character that has a new voice. It’s like watching Bewitched with the new Darrin. To me the new voices seem like they were trying to add more personality to the characters, but I kind of liked how almost detached and distant the original voices made them feel. Harry Mason was the same way. The only thing that really bothered me is that the new voice for James sounds very strange when he is winded from running. I kept thinking that there was some new monster or something around me, but as it turns out, James just wheezes in a new and creepy way with the new voice option. Other than that I didn’t mind the change, though I also feel as though it didn’t add much to the experience either.

It would have been nice if they let you swap between the old and new voices in-game, so you could try the new ones to see if you like them and then switch back if you chose to, but that isn’t an option. You only get the choice before you start your game, and again Silent Hill 2 is the only one that gives you an option to use the original voices as an alternative.

A few other changes worth noting: there is a noticeable drop in frame rate when running in a wide open area in both games. It’s not a huge drop, but it feels a bit odd to see the PS3 lag on a game that’s over 10 years old, even with the graphical improvements. In Silent Hill 3 you have the option to turn the noise filter off which does make it look better, and makes the graphical update clearer, but that may take away from the atmosphere a little bit. Also, for some reason in Silent Hill 2 pressing select pauses the game and start brings up the menu, but in Silent Hill 3 it’s the opposite. I’m not sure why they would switch that, and it’s a minor detail, but it feels odd nonetheless. Finally this wasn’t a change as much as a general observation, but using L2 to move the camera behind the character may actually take some getting used to as most modern games tend to use the second thumbstick to rotate the camera. That’s the way these games have always been, but for players used to newer games it may throw them off at first, and take some adjustment.

All in all these are the same great games from the Playstation 2 era with some minor enhancements or updates. As long as you don’t go in expecting drastic changes you won’t be disappointed (unless you don’t like the new voice acting anyway). The combat is still stiff, you still need to hit X over and over walking near items to pick them up, and the gameplay itself is just as it was.

It would have been nice to see Silent Hill: Shattered Memories included in this collection because then the first three games would have been represented. The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection included Peace Walker, so Konami does have the ability to bring those PSP titles up into HD, but for some reason they didn’t include Shattered Memories, which is a bit of a letdown. It also would have been nice to see some concept art or other bonus content added for fans, but this is just a port with a few updates.

It should also be noted that while the focus of this overview was on the graphical and audio changes made to these games, but that’s far from the reason why fans play these games, including myself. The stories and atmosphere are what set Silent Hill apart from other survival horror games, and they remain intact in these titles, even if the improvements were minor and if they feel a little bit dated. The classic moments are all there, the beautiful piano soundtrack is there, and all the emotion that made them special remains intact. Despite the lack of improvements, these are excellent games, and if you’re a Silent Hill fan, you’ll probably enjoy this collection. That being said, if you think the new voices may bother you, it might be a good idea to visit YouTube and listen to them for yourself because you may be better off visiting Ebay and buying the PC versions to play in a higher resolution.

Screenshots courtesy of Konami.

TITLE: Jeff, Who Lives At Home
STARRING: Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer, Rae Dawn Chong
DIRECTORS: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
STUDIOS: Paramount Vantage, Right of Way Films, Indian Paintbrush, Mr. Mudd
RATING: R
RUN TIME: 82 min
RELEASED: September 11, 2011 (Toronto), March 16, 2012 (limited USA release)

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Jeff, Who Lives At Home is the kind of film that viewers with a either short attention span or a need to see explosions and fake-looking CGI will find terribly boring. But if you can stomach a movie about regular people with flaws, insecurities, fears and regrets, then you’ll likely enjoy Jeff tremendously.

Jeff (Jason Segel) is a 30-year-old unemployed man who lives with his mother (Susan Sarandon). Jeff is constantly looking for signs from the universe to dictate his actions. In contrast, his older brother Pat is married, fairly well off financially, and living with his wife in an apartment. While Jeff is very emotional and sensitive, Pat is materialistic and at times abrasive. One day, fate brings the two together just in time to find out Pat’s wife is seemingly having an affair. As the brothers try and uncover the truth, they’re both forced to take a long, hard look at their lives. Whose approach to life has ultimately gotten them farther? How did their family deteriorate so much? And can the universe truly dictate our actions if we simply see the signs?

This film has a raw, naked humanity about it that’s quite moving. These characters feel very real, and very flawed. The entire movie rests on the worn family dynamic between Jeff, Pat and their mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon). Since Jeff and Pat’s father died several years earlier, the family has grown apart, and they seem to maintain their ties out of obligation more than anything. There’s a tragic reality to that scenario that can really hit home, even if you don’t come from a broken household. Families grow apart as our individual obligations pull us away from one another. But at the end of the day, your family is (almost) always there. They’re a part of who you are, no matter how alienated you become sometimes. Perhaps the most powerful line in the entire film is when Jeff yells at Pat: “You and mom will never understand me. And you’re all I have left.”

At the end of the day, you love each other. That’s really what Jeff is about.

The biggest problem with Jeff is that it doesn’t necessarily have a lot of substance to it from a storyline standpoint. Jeff and Pat spend the majority of the movie staring at this big elephant in the room, the affair Pat’s wife appears to be having, and they circle it for awhile. They get into a hijink or two, they plan, they argue, but the story doesn’t necessarily move forward for awhile. Imagine if in Star Wars (that’s my best frame of reference for everything, of course), after the Death Star plans were stolen, Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin ran around trying to come up with a plan to get them back, but rarely did anything about it. That’s what a large portion of Jeff consists of. Thankfully, we’re so invested in Jeff and Pat that we care about their anguish. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have much of a film at all.

There’s also a subplot with Sharon, who at 60-something years old, apparently has a secret admirer in her office. Though it consists of a lot of instant messenger conversations and walking around cubicles, Sharon’s skepticism and obvious insecurity about the whole thing is enough to keep us interested. The resolution wasn’t at all what I was expecting, and I mean that in a good way.

From a performance standpoint, the person I left the theater thinking about was Ed Helms. He’s not his usual good-natured “Aw, shucks” character in this movie. The Pat character is actually a jerk when we meet him, and that’s not something we’re used to seeing from Helms. He makes a much better bad guy in this movie than he did in The Lorax, though things obviously aren’t that melodramatic in Jeff (that movie also sucked, but I digress). The title role is tailor-made for Segel, who turns in his typical heartfelt softie performance. Susan Sarandon is lovely as the vulnerable Sharon, and Judy Greer is very effective as Pat’s wife Linda.

It pains me to say that Jeff, Who Lives At Home isn’t for everyone, because in a perfect world it would be. But realistically, some viewers will find it too boring, specifically viewers who aren’t quite old enough to grasp the message. But for those of us who get it, it has the potential to touch your heart.

RATING: 7.5/10

All images from rottentomatoes.com.