The Supergirl Episode "Damage" Burns Down The Second Season.

The Good: Decent performances, One or two moments of character
The Bad: Destroys most of the positive elements from the second season of Supergirl, Painfully obvious villain, A lot of details "read" as wrong
The Basics: "Damage" tears down many of the lingering elements from the second season of Supergirl.


One of the advantages the DC Television Universe has in the marketplace is that it has Kevin Smith as a recurring director. Say what you will about Kevin Smith, the man loves comic books and as a former comic book writer, he has the credibility to pull off sequences in Supergirl and The Flash in a way that both respects the scripts he is given and the fans of the comic book source material. The latest DC Television Universe episode Smith directed is the Supergirl episode "Damage." "Damage"

"Damage" picks up where "The Faithful" (reviewed here!) left off, with Alex and Maggie's relationship hanging by a thread. The episode picks up the lingering thread of Morgan Edge from the third season premiere, as Edge was a new industrialist in National City who wanted to buy CatCo. Lena Luthor bought CatCo out from under Edge so he could not use the media empire for his anti-alien agenda and, as one might expect, "Damage" creates repercussions for that move.

A prison bus is getting hijacked when Supergirl and Alex stop the criminals who tried to take it. At the Luthor Children's Hospital, Morgan Edge has a press conference revealing Lena Luthor's role in stopping the Daxamites with the lead bomb. Alex and Maggie break up over Alex's desire to have children and Luthor confronts Morgan Edge, who attempts to save the lives of the children who have led poisoning from the L Corp tech that Lena developed. Lena steps aside. But, at her press event, Lena Luthor is shot at and James Olsen is hit with a bullet.

When Kara visits Lena Luthor at Samantha Arias's home, Luthor gets drunk and Kara stays with her, researching the lead poisoning in National City while she's unconscious. When Arias returns home, the pair soon realizes that a food truck from National City's Octoberfest might well be the common element in the lead poisoning cases. Investigating a public pool near the Octoberfest site, Kara finds the source of the lead poisoning.

The first incident in "Damage" is an annoying headscratcher. Instead of the return of Guardian or anyone else who might have authority in a prison bus hostage situation, Alex Danvers is involved in the situation. The bus situation does not seem to have anything to do with the DEO, so why Danvers is giving Supergirl backup makes no real sense.

In many ways, "Damage" works to wrestle with the consequences of the second season finale and it makes rational sense that a lead-based device would poison humans as much as Daxamites. "Damage" tries to reconcile the basic science of a lead-based bomb with human biology and the explanation is not terribly satisfying.

Also unsatisfying is the sense of inevitability to the "burn it down" conclusion to Alex and Maggie's relationship. As lame as it might seem, Supergirl telegraphed the destruction of the relationship the moment the third season began when Floriana Lima was not added to the cast. So, the sudden "Alex wants desperately to have children and that's a dealbreaker" character aspect is disappointing, but plays out to its conclusion in "Damage."

The second season of Supergirl worked hard to establish Lena Luthor as an unlikely, but consistent, good character. In fact, most of the second season was spent with a "will she or won't she" go over to the Dark Side. It was immensely satisfying that Luthor did not live down to her family's worst characteristics. So, Lena Luthor's pity party in "Damage" and her drawing a gun on Morgan Edge is a huge character shift for Lena.

Morgan Edge begins "Damage" as smart and resourceful, but he quickly is turned into a generic villain. And Edge is not particularly smart as he is very quickly tied to the chemicals that are poisoning the children.

Kevin Smith and the episode's two writers make a bold move having a female shooter in "Damage." Thus far, while women can be anything, none have yet chosen to be shooters in mass public events. Smith's direction is generally fine, save that a key murder is shot in such a way that the gun angles make no sense in the real world.

"Damage" isn't bad, but it feels obvious in most of its big moments and troubling in many of its specifics. While the episode's final moment is a good revelation that feels like a decent comic book style reveal. But right before that, Kara comes up with a solution for Alex's broken heart . . . which makes no real sense for the character of Alex. While Kara loves her adoptive mother, Alex has a much more turbulent relationship with Eliza.

It is details like that, which make "Damage" less than it could have been.

For other DC Television Universe works directed by Kevin Smith, please visit my reviews of:
"Distant Sun" - Supergirl
"Supergirl Lives" - Supergirl
"Killer Frost" - The Flash
"The Runaway Dinosaur" - The Flash

5.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

"Distant Sun" Restores Supergirl To The Role Of Obvious Hero.

The Good: Some fun lines, Special effects are all right
The Bad: Very predictable plot, Melodramatic character moments, No stellar acting moments
The Basics: "Distant Sun" is an unremarkable Supergirl episode that is set up obviously and develops predictably.


When Supergirl moves to the CW, many people were very exicted because that meant it would be much easier (from a production standpoint) to do crossovers between Supergirl and other DC Television Universe productions. Unfortunately, most of us who were excited had no idea just how intrusive those crossovers might be to the continuing narrative of Supergirl. Every now and then, a Supergirl episode will have an entirely tacked-on ending that is incongruent with the rest of the narrative (and sometimes even the spirit of the show!) before Kara Danvers makes an appearance on (so far) The Flash. "Distant Sun" begins after one such lousy episode end.

"Star-Crossed" (reviewed here!), which preceded "Distant Sun," ended without explanation or relevant information of how the Earth-1 Music Meister appeared on the Earth of Supergirl. For those who only watch Supergirl and did not follow her to The Flash episode "Duet" (reviewed here!), Kara Danvers was last seen in Mon-El's arms, having just been apparently hypnotized by a metahuman and casting Danvers into some form of hallucination where she was stepping up to a microphone to sing. "Distant Sun," however, begins with Kara back on her Earth, having already forgiven Mon-El for his lying to her.

Kara wakes up to Mon-El making her breakfast, though she gets out of bed before he can deliver it to her. Before Kara can eat, however, an alien attacks National City. President Marsdin asks J'onzz for details on the Daxamite ship in orbit and orders the head of the DEO to not engage the ship. On the street, Alex and Maggie run into one of Maggie's ex's and Danvers invites her to dinner that night. At the DEO, Schott discovers that the alien Kara incapacitated is an alien bounty hunter and the bounty on Supergirl's head is incredibly high. Mon-El calls his parents down to Earth and confronts them with the accusation that they put the bounty on Kara's head. They deny his allegations and commit to waiting as long as they need to for Mon-El to return to them.

When Mon-El returns to Kara's apartment, he is taken over by a telepath. While Kara attempts to incapacitate Mon-El without damaging his body, Schott finds a way to incapacitate the telepath. Back at the DEO, J'onzz telepathically strips the information out of the alien who placed the bounty on Kara's head. Mon-El's parents are implicated, but J'onzz refuses to authorize an attack on the Daxamite ship in orbit. When Mon-El and Kara confront Mon-El's mother, Queen Rhea, in the Fortress Of Solitude, Rhea attacks Kara. Lar Gand seems legitimately shocked to learn that Rhea placed the bounty on Kara's head. When Mon-El makes a sacrifice to save Kara's life, Kara becomes determined to save him.

"Distant Sun" is the episode of Supergirl where fans are pretty much forced to ask, "What the hell happened to J'onn J'onzz?!" David Harewood's J'onzz is in "Distant Sun," but he is a virtually unrecognizable character in the episode. J'onzz is kind and soft in "Distant Sun" and while his character has been somewhat underused in the second season, the transition to an easygoing, kind guy feels unfortunately abrupt. David Harewood plays the emotional range of J'onzz well, but it does not feel like one is watching the same character in "Distant Sun."

Throughout "Distant Sun" there is a subplot involving Alex and Maggie and Maggie's ex-girlfriend. For a change, Alex's relationship subplot feels very forced and tacked on as opposed to engaging and organic. It is not until late in the episode that Alex and Maggie share a moment that is genuinely realistic and romantic. But, for much of the episode, Maggie lies yet again to Alex and Alex doing her own investigation feels more melodramatic than engaging.

Kara and Mon-El's relationship appears fully healed in "Distant Sun" and it is hard not to feel cheated by that. "Star-Crossed" might have had a painfully melodramatic fall-out for Mon-El's lies being exposed, but it was executed in that episode. So, the easy resolution of that emotional rift getting healed on The Flash cheapens the overall arc.

Lynda Carter is painfully underused in "Distant Sun." Carter's President Marsdin appears for only two scenes that does little other than set-up J'onzz being powerless to interact with the Daxamites and then punish the head of the DEO. For viewers too stupid to recall or too unobservant to notice from the first episode that Marsdin was in, "Distant Sun" provides a fairly pointless revelation of the character's true alien form. Given that Supergirl has not done any sort of compendium of alien races and that "Distant Sun" did not include a White Martian shapechanging, the revelation of Marsdin's alien race lacks real impact. Marsdin being an alien was already established; seeing what kind of alien she is without knowing what that means is fairly pointless.

"Distant Sun" is the latest episode directed by Kevin Smith and it is also the most problematic to date. For sure, there is a delightful Star Wars reference, but some of the direction is just terrible. When Teri Hatcher's Rhea takes a swing at Melissa Benoist's Supergirl in the Fortress Of Solitude, the shot is easily one of the most fake of the series. Some of the shots are truly baffling; J'onn J'onzz is stabbed while in another form and the fact that the weapon does not break his skin makes no sense. The Martian Manhunter does not have impenetrable skin. The episode climaxes with one of the weakest, most telegraphed, death scenes in recent memory and the net effect is a fairly painful anticlimax.

Ultimately, "Distant Sun" is an unremarkable script for a series of predictable or obvious events that the characters more or less trudge through; it is hardly the high point of season two of Supergirl.

For other episodes of television featuring alien bounty hunters, please check out my reviews of:
"Colony" - The X-Files
"Bounty" - Star Trek: Enterprise
"Dead Or Alive" - The Flash

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Supergirl - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the Kryptonian superheroine here!
Thanks!]

3.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

"Supergirl Lives" And Kevin Smith Returns!

The Good: Decent performances, Good direction, Most of the character arcs
The Bad: Somewhat simple plot, Schott's arc is somewhat unsatisfying
The Basics: Supergirl returns with "Supergirl Lives," which further expands the DC television universe and introduces and revives menaces for all of the heroes!


While The CW doing is massive 4-episode crossover in November, Supergirl was put on hiatus and feels like the neglected step-child of the Berlanti DC Comics Television Universe. While the other three television shows set on Earth-1 were each given episodes after the crossover event, the last Supergirl was seen was on Legends Of Tomorrow's "Invasion!" (reviewed here!), leaving Earth-1. So, when the mid-season premiere of Supergirl was announced to be "Supergirl Lives," the natural assumption was that there was some form of time-lapse on Supergirl's Earth and that her time on our Earth was noticed. "Supergirl Lives" pretty much neglects that idea, though it does allow Supergirl to have some lingering psychological effects from stopping the Dominators.

"Medusa" (reviewed here!) preceded "Supergirl Lives" and it is tough not to discuss the new episode without some references to where the show was right before it. After all, "Medusa" brought Supergirl into the crossover event as something of an afterthought in that episode; the bulk of the time was spent with Cadmus's latest scheme, Guardian was starting to fight crime, Kara was training Mon-El, J'onn J'onzz dealing with the effects of getting a transfusion from a White Martian and Alex Danvers continuing her coming out process. In other words Supergirl had quite enough going on without a major crossover event.

Supergirl is flying after a van full of criminals when some of them escape. Guardian steps in to catch the fleeing jewel thieves and Winn helps him. Kara returns to the DEO where she is feeling underwhelmed by fighting street-level crimes. Alex is thrilled to have Maggie around in the morning, while James and Kara have a disagreement over the impact of Guardian with CatCo's editor, Snapper Carr. A woman comes in to CatCo looking for her daughter, Izzy, who has gone missing and missed her birthday. Kara pledges to help the distraught mother by getting her story out, but runs into resistance from Carr. Kara takes a break to get a drink at the alien bar and runs into Mon-El, who is now working as a bartender there. Maggie arrives at the bar with Izzy Williams's file and reveals that there have been a number of random people in National City who have gone missing recently.

Schott realizes that all of the missing people had bloodwork done right before they went missing and Mon-El and Kara visit the facility where the bloodwork was performed. There, they meet a doctor who has a portal that Supergirl travels through to try to find the missing people from National City. The doctor has a portal generator, which he activates and Kara leaps through to try to find the missing people. On an alien world, Supergirl finds herself under a red sun and powerless. Mon-El follows to rescue her from the lizard-man doctor. Meeting an indigenous person on the moon, Kara and Mon-El learn they are on the Slaver's Moon and the missing humans have been sold into slavery. To get to the slaves, Supergirl surrenders and she finds Izzy . . . and Roulette, behind the abductions. While a DEO team makes a trip through the portal, Mon-El and Kara stage a prison break.

"Supergirl Lives" is what happens, apparently, when Kevin Smith is given a budget to work with. The episode opens with a big special effects-driven, stunt scene which is pretty cool. And Smith and his team make their own Guardian Of Forever for "Supergirl Lives" and it is pretty cool. The episode looks good and while Smith was not credited with any part of writing "Supergirl Lives," there is a "Kevin Smith feel" to some of the dialogue as characters react to one another. "Supergirl Lives" might be one of Smith's most ambitious directing projects to date!

"Supergirl Lives" does a good job of bringing fans back to the characters of Supergirl following the hiatus. Alex and Maggie are a lot of fun together and the early parts of their relationship are filled with charm. "Supergirl Lives" accurately characterizes the beginning of their romantic relationship and Chyler Leigh and Floriana Lima have great on-screen chemistry. When Alex pushes Maggie away, the reaction is horrible and realistic, which fits Alex's character perfectly! Danvers has been a pretty miserable character in Supergirl, so her arc in "Supergirl Lives" makes perfect sense and works out with a pleasant amount of realism in the episode.

The dialogue between Mon-El and Kara is a lot of fun. Despite their horrible situation - being trapped off-world without a way to get home - Mon-El and Kara have great back and forth lines that are often funny. The two are something of an odd couple and that is played out well in "Supergirl Lives." Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood continue to develop well their on-screen chemistry in "Supergirl Lives."

One of the real winners in "Supergirl Lives" is Winn Schott. Schott is in the field aiding the Guardian at the outset of the episode and he is wounded. Even getting a black eye has a fairly profound effect on Winn, who has been a technical support genius, but not a field agent. Scott tells off Olsen, telling the Guardian he does not want to go into the field again, before he is dragooned into going off-world with Alex and the DEO team. Schott's arc is delightfully realistic in an episode that treads toward the fantastic. In fact, arguably the most disappointing aspect of Schott's arc in the episode is that he gets punched in the face multiple times and becomes less scared about going out into the field!

The crossover event is not truly forgotten in "Supergirl Lives," either, which is nice given that it was pretty much neglected in Supergirl. Beyond the psychological effects for Kara being bored by having small crimes to thwart, "Supergirl Lives" features a Dominator and the reference is completely lost on viewers who skipped the crossover event.

Kevin Smith uses "Supergirl Lives" as an opportunity to cast his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, as Izzy and she is fine in her scenes. Smith rises to the occasion and her father makes sure to put her in frame for extra shots, doing a decent job of giving her exposure. But Izzy is a supporting character and despite the scenes that are seeding future plotlines for Supergirl, most of "Supergirl Lives" is very simple on the plot front. Kevin Smith does a decent job with "Supergirl Lives," but it is an insular, focused hour of television that oddly mixes realism and obvious comic book style heroism (for all of the characters) and villainy.

Fortunately, though, "Supergirl Lives" is enough to restore faith that Supergirl can be much more than just a supporting character in the DC Television Universe!

For other midseason premiere episodes, please visit my reviews of:
"Potential Energy" - The Flash
"Aftershocks" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Planet Of The Dead" - Doctor Who

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Supergirl - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the Kryptonian superheroine here!
Thanks!]

8/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Exploit Stupidity: Yoga Hosers Is Awful.

The Good: Production design, Competent supporting performances
The Bad: Terrible characters, Astonishingly horrible plot, Most of the special effects, Lackluster acting, Exploitative quality. Most of the film is not funny at all.
The Basics: Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers clogs the cinematic marketplace with garbage based on name recognition instead of anything approaching quality.


It used to be, as a cinephile, that when there was a new film written and directed by Kevin Smith, it was an event. Smith had a very interesting (as it turns out now, early) career arc as a darling of indie cinema and he hit a creative peak with Dogma (reviewed here!). But, when film distributors wanted to make more than ten million dollars at the box office for an opening weekend and Smith went commercial with Cop Out (reviewed here!) (it's funny how few people ever consider Mallrats a sell-out, as it was just a Kevin Smith film with an actual budget!), Smith quickly eroded his street cred. By the time he switched his storytelling focus with Red State (reviewed here!), he could barely open a film in wide release cinematically and he pretty much milked to death the cottage industry surrounding his name recognition (i.e. public appearances and DVDs of his public appearances talking about his past works). Around the time Red State was released, Kevin Smith publicly talked about how he was pretty much done with writing and directing - he announced that he had a "hockey movie" and Clerks III he wanted to do and then he was hanging up his spurs. His plans changed, apparently, and Tusk, various episodes of The Flash and Yoga Hosers were the result.

Yoga Hosers is a Kevin Smith film - written and directed - that serves as a vehicle for young actresses Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith (Kevin Smith's daughter) to break out on their own . . . while still surrounded by the famous actors, directors, and other creative types who make the viewer care at all about giving these young actors a chance to dazzle us. Unfortunately for everyone involved - and those who bother to view Yoga Hosers - there is nothing dazzling about Yoga Hosers. Instead, Yoga Hosers implicitly makes the potent argument that Kevin Smith has already given us the best he had . . . and he has nothing significant left to give.

Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie work at the Eh-2-Zed convenience store in Canada, when they are not so busy on their phones taking pictures with Instacan 2.0 and rocking out in the store's back room. They are excited when one night seniors from their high school, Hunter Calloway and Gordon Greenleaf, visit the Eh-2-Zed and invite them to a grade 12 party. Colleen McKenzie is allowed to go to the party if she takes her mother's switchblade, The Moyle, with her for protection. Colleen Collette wants to go to the party, but the day of, her father's girlfriend Tabitha decides to take off from work, with Bob, forcing the Colleens to work that night.

In the days between, the Colleens attend Terry Fox Preparatory school where they learn of the Canadian Nazis, led by Andronicus Arcane. After briefly losing their cameraphones and meeting the ridiculous author Guy Lapointe, the Colleens go to work the night of the "grade 12 party." When Hunter calls McKenzie, the Colleens invite the seniors to the Eh-2-Zed to party and are surprised when the guys take them up on the offer and only the pair arrive at the convenience store. They are quickly put in mortal peril when it turns out the boys are Canadian satanists who want the Colleens for virgin sacrifices and then the store is besieged by a small army of sentient Nazi bratwursts who want to kill them.

Yes, Kevin Smith's latest magnum opus centers around fifteen (and a half) year-old girls fighting off Bratzis in between reminding viewers just how unpleasant and superficial teenage girls and their cameraphones can be.

Immediately, I had high hopes for Yoga Hosers in that five production companies were credited at the beginning with working together to produce the film and my thought was "even Kevin Smith couldn't bamboozle five companies to throw money at absolute shit" and there are a couple of funny lines in the film right up front. I was wrong. Kevin Smith must be the world's most convincing huckster in his spare time to have gotten so many people to fund this absolute piece of shit (and how is it that Terry Gilliam still cannot get the funding together for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote?!).

What Smith gets right in Yoga Hosers is the production design and the casting. Fans of Kevin Smith's View Askew productions will see a lot in Yoga Hosers that creates a similar sense of reality. Yoga Hosers is packed with visual gags - the cereal boxes and product designs for products on shelves at the Eh-2-Zed and similar iconography at The Gimli Slider, etc - that make the film feel like a Kevin Smith film. The supporting cast of Yoga Hosers is well-cast, though the film feels like a series of obscure cameos before the plot actually bothers to hit its stride and start going anywhere.

But therein the fun ends.

Yoga Hosers is populated by unlikable characters who are virtually impossible to empathize with. Smith makes a smart statement implicitly through the beginning of the film, that the current generation of young people is self-absorbed and caught on their phones rather than truly ever interacting. But, Smith undermines his own point by underlining it and making it explicit with a tirade from the physical education teacher, Ms. Wicklund. In a similar fashion, the Colleens are learning yoga from an incompetent poseur, Yogi Bayer, which is delightfully satirical until the Colleens mouth off to Ms. Wicklund about the yoga she is trying to teach in school. But unlike something like Clerks II (reviewed here!) where the protagonists transition out of their stagnating lives to make fundamental changes, Yoga Hosers simply glorifies the stupidity of the protagonists and invites the antagonists to buy into their ridiculousness. The Canadian Nazis want nothing more than to get their photo into the same stupid tabloid the Colleens love (does the Instagram/Facebook generation even know what magazines are?!) and the schlock horror of the Bratzis comes far too late in the film to be even remotely interesting.

And there is an exploitative quality to Yoga Hosers. Right after the 2016 Presidential election, Harley Quinn Smith went out protesting and Kevin Smith wrote a beautiful disclaimer when he shared photographs of her protesting via social media. Smith wanted to remind people who were going to react to the photos he posted that his daughter is a seventeen year-old minor and he was sharing the pictures because he was proud of her activism. When I read that, I applauded it; the last thing a seventeen year-old needs is death threats or to be exploited/commented upon for how she looks. Kevin Smith had the right idea with trying to remind his fans that his daughter is a minor who does not deserve to be exploited or be subjected to vicious comments.

But, it does not take long into Yoga Hosers to notice that Harley Quinn Smith is being exploited in a way that Lily-Rose Depp is not. Harley Quinn Smith is outfitted in short skirts and midriff baring costumes for the bulk of Yoga Hosers. And Harley Quinn Smith is outfitted in the low-cut shirts that showcase her breasts. Outside a single shot where Lily-Rose Depp is laying on her back after a battle and her shirt rides up to expose her stomach and one mid-yoga strech shot that is hard to see as anything but an ass-shot of a girl in tight yoga pants, Depp is fully covered the entirety of Yoga Hosers. Smith is, noticeably, not. For girls who share everything, the contrast between Depp's yoga stretch pants (black) and Smith's short shorts (white) is painfully obvious and more disturbing than Kevin Smith attempting to elicit humor by moving around the moles on Guy Lapointe's face (didn't a Rob Schneider flick do that already?!) between shots. For someone who works to protect his daughter in the one context, Kevin Smith seems very willing to exploit his daughter in the other.

And therein lays the problem with Yoga Hosers on the acting front. Harley Quinn Smith is not given any big opportunities to showcase any performance talents in Yoga Hosers. Kevin Smith is adept at presenting (in script and on screen) big, deep, compelling human moments - Alan Rickman's Metatron talking to Bethany about having to be the voice of god to talk to the confused, hurt, child Jesus in Dogma perfectly illustrates that! - and Yoga Hosers is noticeably lacking in any such depth. As a result, Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp pal around playing exactly what they are; teenage girls doing stupid teenage girl shit. There is little real acting involved and whatever differences between the performers and their characters is not substantive or interesting in a way that allows either to plumb any sort of acting depth.

The visual effects in Yoga Hosers are pretty horrible; the Bratzis are not integrated into the main photography well (and the physics of some of their movements are obviously off) and the explosions are supposed to be comical, but they look cheesy (not even campy). On the visual effects front, Kevin Smith aspires to get to Sharknado quality CG effects. The golem looks awesome and gross, but by the time it comes into play, most viewers will already have tapped out.

Yoga Hosers is the second in a new trilogy of Kevin Smith films and viewers can only hope that his Canadian horror trilogy remains only three films (the View Askew films began as a New Jersey trilogy, but expanded beyond the three movies!) before Kevin Smith either calls it quits or creates a sequel to Dogma that rises to the level of greatness Smith has been shown to be capable of. But for those expecting anything of that quality of Yoga Hosers are only setting themselves up for disappointment.

For other works with Natasha Lyonne, please visit my reviews of:
Antibirth
Orange Is The New Black - Season 4
Orange Is The New Black - Season 3
Orange Is The New Black - Season 2
Orange Is The New Black - Season 1
Blade: Trinity
But I'm A Cheerleader

1/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

"Killer Frost" Returns! Alchemy Is Revealed! Kevin Smith Delivers On The Flash!

The Good: Decent performances, Wonderful character development and arcs, Engaging villains
The Bad: Moments of special effects (moments when Savitar does not move realistically), Some simple problem/simple solution elements to the Wally subplot
The Basics: "Killer Frost" reveals a number of horrific post-Flashpoint truths to The Flash and Cisco, cutting a swath of destruction in her path!


The Flash has been having an awkward third season and the truth is, when "Killer Frost" was announced, it was tough to believe that the season would get better right away. After all, Killer Frost was a character potentially built into The Flash when Dr. Caitlin Snow first appeared in the pilot as part of the S.T.A.R. Labs team. But, she was not part of the original dark matter disaster which turned her fiance into half of Firestorm and in the second season, Killer Frost was introduced as the Earth-2 incarnation of Dr. Snow. So, as The Flash attempts to make sense of the universe Barry Allen has altered as a result of the events of "Flashpoint" (reviewed here!), the show is struggling to integrate Killer Frost and make Dr. Snow's sudden transformation into her make any rational sense. "Killer Frost" manages to find the right balance in developing the character, though.

"Shade" (reviewed here!) leads into "Killer Frost" and it is hard to discuss the new episode without some references as to where the prior episode went. After all, "Shade" was something of a cliffhanger with Wally West getting cocooned by Alchemy's magic stone and Ramon had just seen a vibe vision of himself and Killer Frost in open conflict, which gives the new episode an inherent sense of conflict at the outset. As well, the introduction of a new Speedster at the climax of "Shade" puts Barry in the middle of a conflict at the outset of "Killer Frost!"

As The Flash is attacked by Savitar, who claims to be the god of the Speed Force, H.R. and Iris implore Ramon and Snow to step into the field of battle to stop Savitar. Dr. Snow is concerned about Ramon, herself and the cocooned Wally. Joe West is frustrated by Wally being trapped in the cocoon and he leaves to interrogate his captured Alchemy acolyte. But his interrogation is interrupted by Dr. Snow, who comes in to find Alchemy's location. Snow takes Julian Albert hostage, as her powers begin to take her over. Found by H.R. and Ramon, Barry intercepts Dr. Snow before she can harm Albert after he designs an algorithm that allows them to find Savitar and Alechemy's acolytes.

With Dr. Snow slipping into her villainous metahuman persona of Killer Frost, the S.T.A.R. Labs team and Joe try to locate the acolytes. When Snow is told her future by one of Alchemy's acolytes, she is shocked and she squares off against Cisco Ramon and The Flash. After she is captured, seeing how she is transforming leads Joe to cut Wally out of the cocoon . . . with disastrous consequences!

"Killer Frost" has Joe West doing actual detective work and in some ways, the brief moments of his interrogating the acolyte are the closest the show has come to a DC Universe version of NYPD Blue. Teaming up Joe and H.R. leads to yet another intriguing couple of scenes between Jesse L. Martin and Tom Cavanaugh. Beyond that, Joe is the victim of his own hubris motivated by the love of his sons. Trying to save Wally is a very human mistake.

H.R. continues to define himself and actually prove his worth by helping the S.T.A.R. Labs team realize they have ways that they can find The Flash. H.R. develops well by actually standing up to try to protect Wally West. He even tries to be a friend to Joe and when he inspires Joe, it is well-executed.

Dr. Snow's descent into Killer Frost is well-handled by keeping in character. Saving Barry pushes Snow over the biological threshold into becoming Killer Frost and that starts to twist her perspective. Danielle Panabaker steps up through the process of the transformation as Snow brutally reveals the truth of Dante and the post-Flashpoint death of Ramon's brother. Dr. Snow drops some of the harshest truth bombs of the season and Barry Allen is characterized as an additional antagonist in "Killer Frost." Allen's prior screw-ups come back to haunt him in "Killer Frost" and Dr. Snow seems surprisingly reasonable in the episode as she gets angry at Barry.

Barry and Cisco's relationship is almost entirely destroyed in "Killer Frost" and the episode's climax promises big changes for The Flash. Kevin Smith gets one of the best scripts of the season and he manages to direct the hell out of the episode in such a way that it shines. One has to believe that the effects for Savitar cost more than the entire budget of one of Kevin Smith's earliest movies, but Smith proves once again that he knows how to take a good story and make it into an impressive cinematic work. "Killer Frost" uses the whole cast well - despite the predictable motivational speech from Iris to Barry mid-episode - and it does a decent job of developing villains who are now surrounding The Flash and the S.T.A.R. Labs team!

For other works with Danielle Panabaker, please check out my reviews of:
The Flash - Season 2
The Flash - Season 1
Piranha 3DD
Friday The 13th

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into The Flash - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Kevin Smith Remakes "Emissary" For The Flash With "The Runaway Dinosaur!"

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of performance, Special effects
The Bad: Banal plot, Awkward cuts, Some terrible acting, Derivative and inconsistent writing
The Basics: Kevin Smith directs the return of The Flash with "The Runaway Dinosaur," an unfortunately derivative episode.


There are very few directors whose works I tend to follow and actually get excited about. Kevin Smith is, as unlikely as it might initially seem, one of them (and no, I haven't yet made it through Tusk!). So, when I saw that he was directing the latest episode of The Flash I was even more initially excited about the episode than usual. And Kevin Smith does fine with "The Runaway Dinosaur," but it is hard not to see it as being incredibly derivative of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's pilot episode "Emissary" (reviewed here!). "The Runaway Dinosaur" personifies the Speed Force in a way that is reminiscent of the wormhole aliens (Prophets) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Smith even uses similar lighting for them at key moments, which makes the comparison especially apt.

"The Runaway Dinosaur" follows on the events of "Rupture" (reviewed here!), which makes it impossible to discuss without revealing some spoilers about where that episode ended. After all, with the apparent death of Barry Allen and Zoom terrorizing Central City and Earth-1 effectively, there is a massive sense of consequence at the outset of "The Runaway Dinosaur!" And "The Runaway Dinosaur" deals with those consequences and, despite there not being a writing credit for Kevin Smith, there are a number of language changes from the regular speaking voices for principle characters - Iris, for example, uses "hell" as an expletive more often in the episode than ever before - that make the episode stand out as a Kevin Smith work.

With the S.T.A.R. Labs crew reeling from the shock of Barry Allen's apparent death, they are unable to take a beat when Jesse Wells and Wally West are discovered. Jesse's heart has stopped beating, while Wally seems generally all right. While Henry Allen stabilizes Jesse, Iris and Cisco go into the basement morgue at S.T.A.R. Labs to recover Eobard Thawne's notes on Barry's treatment. Barry, meanwhile, wakes up in a nebulous place where he meets the embodiments of the Speed Force. The Speed Force tells Barry Allen that he can go home . . . if he catches the blurry speedster flickering out of his perception in the zone.

In the morgue, Iris and Cisco discover that Girder has been resurrected as a zombie and he mindlessly leaves S.T.A.R. Labs and begins to wreak havoc on Central City. While Allen goes through Thawne's notes, Wells and Ramon attempt to vibe a way to Barry. Barry, however, refuses to leave the Speed Force as his return would be without his powers. While Iris and Joe hunt down Girder, Barry Allen must confront his feelings of loss for his mother and recover his powers.

"The Runaway Dinosaur" features a number of weird script problems, outside the change in Iris's narrative voice. Iris runs into the breach room while Cisco is vibing, insisting that Wells is killing Ramon . . . without any basis for that assumption. Similarly, Harrison Wells suddenly has knowledge that he would have no possible basis to possess or assume when he says that Barry Allen in the Speed Force will be able to see and hear anyone in contact with Ramon when he vibes. This is based on what, exactly?! Wells had no known experiences with Vibe on Earth-2 and, unlike Eobard Thawne (Harrison Wells in the first season), has no experiences with being inside the Speed Force (save when he went with Barry and Ramon to Earth-2 through a breach, more than through the Speed Force). Harrison Wells would have no way to make that assumption.

That lack of consistency in the characterization and scientific continuity is paired with poor performance moments and some of the weirdest cuts of the series to date. "The Runaway Dinosaur" was cut down from over fifty minutes to the necessary 42 minute run time and one has to hope there was something cut that makes Henry Allen telling Joe West that his story is going somewhere when Jesse L. Martin is not on the screen emoting anything and there is no Joe West line cutting into Allen's story to justify Henry's otherwise weird line.

While "The Runaway Dinosaur" is being praised in some quarters as the best episode of The Flash to date, it is arguably the most erratic. In order to squeeze in a cameo with Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith admits to the series one of the worst acting deliveries of the series. Mewes is fine, but the woman who accompanies him in his cameo has one of the worst, most awkward breaks in a line that should have necessitated a second (third or however many takes it took to get it right!) take. And, as Barry Allen moves through his trippy timeless zone encountering embodiments of the Speed Force in familiar faces, he is suddenly unable to recognize his own father?!

Girder returns and "The Runaway Dinosaur"'s b-plot acts as an effective sequel to the first season episode "The Flash Is Born" (reviewed here!) and the choice of resurrected metahumans appears more or less random. Girder is utilized to allow Iris and Joe to have a plotline away from S.T.A.R. Labs and because he is one of the few metahumans who is actually outright dead (but, given that Eobard Thawne traded his life away for his own machinations, it seems like a severe deficiency of heroic characters to see if there is no possible way to resurrect him properly and transform him from his zombie state back into a regular metahuman).

Despite some of the guest actors giving cringe-worthy performances, Grant Gustin gives an amazing, emotive portrayal of Barry Allen in "The Runaway Dinosaur." He roots the potentially boring sequences with Barry in the Speed Force.

Kevin Smith does fine with the material he was given - one imagines that for the first special effect sequence of Barry in the Speed Force, Smith might have been heard muttering "We're spending more on this effect than I spent on Clerks!" - for the most part. For the episode's big moments between Barry Allen and Iris West, he gets great performances. The humorous moments of the episode work well and are cut in a way that makes the episode feel even more erratic for the moments that flop.

The result is that "The Runaway Dinosaur" packs a lot in and delivers inconsistently.

For other works by Kevin Smith, please visit my reviews of:
Clerks
Mallrats
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Clerks The Animated Series
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
Jersey Girl
Clerks II
Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Cop Out
Red State
Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie

4/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Best Lego Game? Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Might Be It!

The Good: Fun, Good graphics, Challenging, Cool
The Bad: Some camera perspective issues, I'm not wild about the racing functions.
The Basics: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is fun and cool, though it is not quite perfect given that some of the challenges require outside help and the races have real perspective issues.


This has been a pretty DC intensive week. With the return of The Flash - "Potential Energy" is reviewed here! and the debut of Legends Of Tomorrow, I've been overrun with DC Comics characters. It is probably not helped by the fact that in my off hours, I have been playing LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham on my new Playstation 4. My wife had bought me LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham for the PS3, but because I was committed to finishing Lego Marvel Superheroes (reviewed here!) first, I just did not get to the Batman game before the disc drive on the PS3 died and forced me to both upgrade my system and the software. After a week and a half of pretty intensive gameplay, I - not a gamer - have managed to complete Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham game!

Basics

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is a video game that encompasses most of the essential DC Comics universe. As a sweeping DC Universe game, the players are able to play mainstream characters like Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman and second-string characters like The Question, Green Lantern John Stewart, and Dr. Fate. Fans of DC Comics properties might also be psyched about how villains like Lex Luthor, Solomon Grundy and The Joker are playable and at some key points those characters are essential. The entire DC Comics universe is recreated in LEGO form, with the game starting in Gotham City and moving out to the homeworld of each of the Lantern Corps's. Animated with the joint structure of Lego mini-figures, one or two players team up and run around Gotham City and then space and alien worlds that house the power batteries of the various Lantern Corps. Throughout, players are challenged to earn studs, red bricks, minikits, and exclusive characters.

Almost exclusively focused on the characters of DC Universe, players run around shooting, jumping, grappling, using sonar devices, freezing things, laser eyes and expanding to giant sizes to achieve goals and kill minions being manipulated by Brainiac. With the destruction of each minion, Lego pieces explode and change to coins. Players collect coins to purchase new characters as they are unlocked as the game progresses. By using the green triangle key, one may toggle between the characters they have available and as one becomes more adept in the game, it helps to assemble a team that allows the player to toggle between super heroes, characters with devices, super-strong characters, and diggers. The first time through each level, players are forced to use between one and three specific characters, without the ability to create a team of one's choice.

After the successful completion of a level, the player may replay levels to find minikit pieces and rescue Adam West (who is on each level needing rescue, but is often behind an obstacle for which a different character is required). In the free play mode, the player may wander more and find things at their own pace, as well as enjoy levels outside of the imminent threats which usually keep the focus of the player the first time through.

Story

Set in the DC Comics universe, the essential plot of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham focuses on the heroes trying to stop Brainiac from invading, after Batman cleans up some street-level crime in Gotham that results in Lex Luthor, Joker and several other villains from teaming up. When Brainiac captures the leaders of the Green, Orange, Sinestro, Indigo (etc.) Corps and begins an assault on Earth, the Justice League teams up with some of the villains who have taken the Justice League Watchtower to stop him from miniaturizing various cities on Earth. Batman and Lex Luthor team up to rescue the Lanterns and stop Brainiac!

Game Progression

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is a pretty straightforward video game with a view that is usually slightly back from the character the player is playing. The net effect is that the view is like being followed around by a camera, as opposed to a first-person shooter style game. The perspective issue actually becomes problematic at times when the “camera” does not follow the view of the player. Sometimes, that means that players cannot actually take advantage of the bonuses that come up on screen because the line of sight is blocked by other characters.

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham also have levels where the perspective is back away from the various characters. That causes problems when characters have to move into the background, but there are objects that block the view. On several levels, there are points where one has to try the bomb or throwing object highlights just to see what is on the level! In the free play after the game is complete, the perspective issues become even more troubling on planets like Ysmault and Zamaron where the gravity is slightly different and there are races around the planet.

Effects

The Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham game was designed for high definition systems, like the Playstation 3 (reviewed here!) and Playstation 4. We played it on the Playstation 4 connected to our Sony Bravia HD TV (reviewed here!) and it looked and sounded great. Directions from the annoying Batmite are somewhat helpful and otherwise, the game does not give directions. The game has a pretty linear story to it. The figures have an unsurprisingly blockish form to them, which makes sense because they are Lego renditions of the characters. The backgrounds and buildings, however, are more impressive in the way they are represented. Especially during the battles with Brainiac, the graphics are impressive.

The sound effects are accurate to the sound effects from the DC Television Universe's, including using Adam West and Stephen Amell. When things are destroyed, though they sound like Lego blocks rattling around. Oddly, both Kevin Smith and Conan O'Brien contribute voices and likenesses to the work for information and side missions for the game, despite neither having anything to do with the DC Universe (though they have relationships with Warner Brothers).

Replayability

Because Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham has the linear narrative and the free play available for each level, one has to play each level at least twice and after one has Plastic Man and Brainiac as a character, everything can be unlocked within the game. Even so, there were at least three challenges - outside the races which I am terrible at - that I had to look up guides on in order to pass. On one mission, there is a tiny hole one has to find and go down as a mini-character, but there is no way to know the little black dot is actually a hole (i.e. no character icon comes up when a character is near that hole to indicate there is something to do there). Also, I'm terrible at races, but all of the Lantern planets have races and between the perspective issues and gravity, the game is somewhat frustrating to finish.

Overall

The Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is fun and cool. The game allows one to play in a fun universe and while there are some weird idiosyncrasies - Wonder Woman is a surprisingly un-useful character - the game is worth playing for those who like puzzle games and the DC Universe.

For other DC Comics products, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Blackest Night Larfleeze Action Figure
Super-Villains trading cards
2015 Lynda Carter As Wonder Woman Hallmark Ornament

9/10

For other video game reviews, please check out my Software Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Disappointment From A Previously-Reliable Franchise: Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie!

The Good: One or two jokes, General voice performances
The Bad: Animation style, Plot, Characters, Not funny, Repetitive
The Basics: Kevin Smith cashes in on the love of his two beloved characters Jay and Silent Bob with Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie, a fairly short film that is bound to disappoint even the most die-hard fans of Kevin Smith's works!


Perhaps the first rule of making a film intended for fans of a certain person's works is to make sure that the fans do not already have access to the material. Kevin Smith may have written the script for Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie before handing it over to Steve Stark to direct, but it is hard for fans of Smith's works to call it an original work. Smith uses the opportunity of making a small animated film to take ideas, deleted scenes, outtakes, scrapped lines and commentary jokes from prior works and cobbles them into a script for a film so short it is not even feature-length.

Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie lifts most of its content from the Bluntman And Chronic graphic novel and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (reviewed here!), when it is not making dick, fart, and gay jokes alongside the weakest of super hero comic book (and comic book movie) jokes/commentaries. Despite occurring in Red Bank, New Jersey and including the familiar characters of Jay, Silent Bob and Dante Hicks, Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie does not fit into the canon of the rest of the View Askewniverse. It's hard to say that Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie fits into the Askewniverse when it fails to reference that (in the View Askewniverse), Jay and Silent Bob were already the subject of a comic book and a comic book movie. In other words , if Bluntman and Chronic popped up in the "real world' of the View Askewniverse, the media and residents of Red Bank there would see them as mere copycats of the comic book characters that Banky based on Jay And Silent Bob.

Such analysis is far more high-minded than the content of Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie, a film that once again utilizes Kevin Smith's disdain for movie critics on the internet as an attempt to forestall criticism of this particular film. The truth is, after growing as a writer with some bigger (and better) themes over the course of his last few films, Smith reverts to the most immature, droll and un-funny jokes of his career. Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is notable most for not being funny and for using Jay and Silent Bob in ways they have never expressed in any of their prior adventures. Despite referencing Wolvering in Mallrats (reviewed here!), Jay has never illustrated any interest in comic books or super heroes and from the few lines Silent Bob has spoken, his passion has been for movies of the 1980s, as opposed to comic books or superhero films.

This is germane because Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is essentially a parody of a super hero film wherein Jay and Silent Bob become vigilante super heroes on Red Bank, NJ.

While handing around outside RST Video, Jay laments the plight of the small-time drug dealer as legalized weed becomes more and more prevalent. There, they encounter various staples of super hero origin stories - an alien with a power ring crashes in the parking lot, they squash a radioactive spider in a nearby lab, and they try for eligibility to become super soldiers (but refuse when they have to get injected drugs, as opposed to smoking the serum) - before returning to the Quick Stop with five dollars each. Silent Bob uses the cash to get some scratch-off lottery tickets and he manages to win a million dollars.

They use the money to buy gadgets, costumes, and a lair (the Bluntcave) and they assume the alter-egos of Bluntman and Chronic. When they aren't getting high or spying on local lesbians, they break into local warehouses to get free stuff (under Jay's theory it's what they are owed for being superheroes). In the process, they make a number of supervillains who are broken out of the local asylum by Lipstick Lesbian, a woman slighted by Jay's offhanded remark. This leaves the duo at the mercy of a number of adversaries who they have to legitimately stop to protect Red Bank.

Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is based around a line from Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back that ended up as a deleted scene and while it is a hilarious joke, it is not enough to build a movie around.

The animation in Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is similar to that of Aqua Teen Hunger Force - blending animation with a few live-action elements like explosions. The voice work is fine. Eliza Dushku is decent as Lipstick Lesbian and Tara Strong gives her usual, solid, voiceover performance as Cocknocker. Jason Mewes gives an unremarkable performance for Jay and he's forcing my wife and I to go back to prior View Askew films to see if Jay actually used the word "sir" in talking to Silent Bob as much as he does in this sixty-four minute piece of crap.

At least going back through the other View Askew works is a more enjoyable use of time than considering Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie for even a minute more!

For other works by Kevin Smith, please visit my reviews of:
Clerks
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Clerks The Animated Series
Jersey Girl
Clerks II
Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Cop Out
Red State

1/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Not Even For The Nostalgia: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 25th Anniversary Collection Flops!

The Good: Moments of concept, TMNT is not terrible, Moments of performance
The Bad: Terrible writing, Repetitive plots, Often atrocious effects, Inconsistent acting/casting
The Basics: The four-pack Blu-Ray Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 25th Anniversary Collection illustrates just how bad comic book-based movies can be.


When the woman who would become my wife came into my life, nothing drove home the difference in ages between us to me like her affinity for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Some of my peers were into the animated television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but by the time the live action films had begun, most were beyond that. My charge when babysitting, however, was a huge fan. So, it turns out, is my wife. As a result, for one of our anniversaries, I picked her up the boxed set Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 25th Anniversary Collection, a four DVD set that compiles the four live action/CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.

Those who have a nostalgic attachment to the franchise, these films might be gold, but it is hard to imagine who exactly might get good mileage out of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 25th Anniversary Collection. This film “saga” it that bad.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 25th Anniversary Collection is a simple compilation pack of:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles In Time
TMNT
with no additional discs or bonus features than on the original DVD/Blu-Ray release. There are, however, booklets, cards and other collectible swag in the pizza box collector’s edition of the films.

For those unfamiliar with the franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are, as their name suggests, four turtles who were mutated through exposure to a green mutagenic goo that made them giant, bipedal, and exceptionally smart. Trained by a rat with similar size and intelligence, Master Splinter, the four turtles – Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo – train to become powerful vigilantes. However, because they have the mentalities of teenagers, they crack wise, eat lots of pizza and make a mess of things about as much as they actually protect people. Aided by the intrepid reporter April O’Neil and the slacker Casey Jones, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fight crime in the form of the evil Shredder, his mutants, and similar villains.

After a couple turns with Shredder, the Turtles return for a time travel adventure, before a stylistic overhaul for the final installment. This makes for an exceptionally erratic viewing experience. When the first three films are basically live-action actors running around in foam rubber suits (albeit, by the third they had the technical details of the suits worked out better than the first two installments) and the final movie is a computer generated animated work, it is hard to watch them one after another and feel like one is watching something set in the same universe.

The acting throughout the series is homogenously bad, though for TMNT, the voice actors are of a caliber that makes the film viewable, at the very least. But, more often than not, the fights look cheesy by any standard, the actors miss eye-lines and have awkward line deliveries, which makes the movies less campy and more terrible.

The plots are pretty obvious, repetitive heroic plots, with a little bit of teenage/group dynamic angst thrown in the last three movies to make a pass at character development. It is, however, only a passing attempt and these films are much more about fights and zany one-liners that the producers hoped would make it onto merchandising. For serious cinephiles, this is a set that may be easily passed by.

For other film collections, please visit my reviews of:
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Harry Potter Saga
The Back To The Future Trilogy

2/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Reworking And Rebooting TMNT Makes For A Better Franchise Outing!

The Good: Voice acting, Animation, Moments of story
The Bad: Predictable plot progression, Light on character development, Attempts at humor
The Basics: After reuniting, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles must fight an enemy that is bent on world domination after three thousand years.


With the impending cinematic reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles taking a lot of flack for the rumored reworking of the origin story of the Turtles as aliens, I thought it was worth throwing my two cents as a reviewer out. The idea is not an inherently bad one. In fact, the idea of almost entirely reworking the origin story and franchise to make something new, but with familiar elements, might be the only real chance for success that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cinematic franchise has at this point. One need look no further than TMNT to see the crux of this argument. TMNT was a continuation of the character arcs of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles redressed in a CG animated presentation.

The result is less of a rebooting and more of an awkward progression than both fans and the general moviegoing public were able to accept. The reason for this is surprisingly understandable in rational terms: TMNT failed to engage its audience because it was too concerned with maintaining fidelity to the original, as opposed to working out the kinks from the prior live action films (outside the obvious issues with having live-action giant talking turtles). TMNT has the same weaknesses of character and dialogue as the prior installments, though it is more interesting in plot and form than the prior three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. If the movie had had the courage to strive for originality instead of trying to keep the lame humor of the original franchise, it might have actually worked. So, with the impending reboot, perhaps a radical change of direction is what the franchise actually needs.

That said, TMNT is more average than either extraordinary or awful.

After a primer that describes the story of an ancient warrior who opened a mystical gateway, in the process encasing his generals in stone, the present finds strange things happening in New York City. At night, an armored vigilante (Nightwatcher) works to save ordinary citizens and mysterious creatures are glimpsed. In Central America, April O’Neil hunts down Leonardo, who she fills in about the state of her friends. The other teenage mutant ninja turtles have gotten jobs or are, apparently, loafing about. O’Neil convinces the leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to return to New York City.

There, the tycoon Winters has assembled all he needs to utilize the stone warriors left behind three thousand years ago. He begins capturing the mutant creatures around the City that will allow him to open the magical portal. While he seeks to assemble the thirteen monsters that might break the ancient curse, the villainous Karai wants to use the portal's power to gain more power, possibly enough to dominate the world. As the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come back together and train, they become the fighting force needed to take on their new enemy.

TMNT abandons the live-action format of the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films in favor of a sophisticated computer generated animation style similar to The Clone Wars (reviewed here!). In its plot progression, TMNT feels quite a bit like Gargoyles, albeit with the “gargoyles” not utilized as the main characters.

In every way, TMNT is an average fantasy action film and there is an appropriately epic sense to it. The mood of danger and importance – enhanced by a decent score – is diminished by the dialogue. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are ridiculous protagonists and their use of humor diminishes the serious tone director and (bafflingly, because he seems to be working at cross-purposes) co-writer Kevin Munroe otherwise creates.

On the acting front, TMNT succeeds where the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films failed simply through amazing casting. When the vocal talents of Laurence Fishburne, Patrick Stewart, and Mako are employed, it is hard to argue with the results. In fact, no matter how bad the dialogue is at various points, the voice acting – even by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who voices April O’Neil – is expressive and well-defined. It is not the fault of the performers that they are given often inane lines to read with characters that are hardly distinct or entirely compelling.

On Blu-Ray, TMNT comes as a “movie only” option, though it looks great in HD. Regardless, it is a very average film.

For prior installments in the series, please check out my reviews of:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles In Time

5/10

Check out how this movie stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page for a listing of every film I have reviewed, from best to worst!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |