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Ant-Man and the Wasp, trailer 2

Just when my nerd adrenaline was starting to level off after Avengers: Infinity War we got a fresh new trailer for Ant-man and the Wasp ( a link to my thoughts on the last trailer here; AntMan and the Wasp trailer ). First, disclaimer, I’m not a huge Ant-Man fan when it comes to comics. That being said I love the move. Wasp’s costume is really badass and I’m thrilled to have her in the MCU. I’m also glad we get more Giant Man stuff which is always cool. As for the villain, I think Ghost’s outfit looks like a Destiny costume but I think she’ll be awesome enough to ignore that. I’m really excited for this movie and I can’t wait to see it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ultimate Fantastic 4: Fantastic / Doom

It’s weird to say anymore, considering how bad the movies and more recent cartoons failed and the comics ceased a few years ago, I’m a big Fantastic 4 fan. Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing are a dysfunctional family that go on crazy ass adventures and have cool powers.

Ultimate Fantastic 4 begins all the way at the beginning with a kid named Reed Richards, a brilliant kid in a home that doesn’t understand him, except for his only friend Ben Grimm. Because of his genius, he gets recruited into a special program at the famous Baxter building, under the tutelage of Dr. Storm along with his own children Johnny and Sue. Reed is partnered with an exceptionally gifted young man named Victor Van Damme, there task: create a portal to another dimension. They pull together, explorers into a new world but what happens is beyond there comprehension. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben are exposed to a strange energy from the other dimension; Victor seemingly disappears in the wave. The four begin to display drastic changes. Reed stretches, Sue keeps turning invisible, Johnny keeps bursting into flame, and Ben becomes a monster made of rock. They all react differently, unaware of a disgruntled Dr arranging his own plans for his old boss’s daughter; Moleman wants to mate with Sue to create the perfect being, creating horrible mole creatures in the meantime. The four must ban together, fighting the hordes of genetic experiments and take down Moleman in front of all of New York…but the Four’s troubles are just beginning. Victor is alive, left deformed and angry by the blast, living amongst a convent as he works on ways to get revenge on Richards. Enter: Dr Doom.

The first 2 volumes of Ultimate Fantastic 4 are pretty entertaining and the origin is done pretty well. While I’m not thrilled what Ultimate Doom begins as, his debut story is cool enough to enjoy. If you like Sci-Fi or wanted to try Fantastic 4, the first two volumes of Ultimate are pretty cheap and solid. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Ultimates

the ultimates

Since we still aren’t totally done with the Marvel haul for the year as far as cinema goes, let’s talk about the Ultimates, the book that kick-started Marvel’s Ultimate universe as well as influenced some key factors of the MCU, while also giving us movies like Amazing Spider-man and Fant4stic as well as an entertaining but watered down animated adapation called Ultimate Avengers.

Ultimates begins in WW2 as the war seems to be coming to a head. Captain Steve Rodgers faces off against a seemingly unkillable Nazi that has been feeding them really advanced alien tech. Seemingly, Cap defeats him but appears to have died saving us from a deadly missile. He survived but finds himself frozen, kept alive by the serum in his blood. Pretty much, the end of Captain America: the First Avenger Awake, walking amongst us, he is hit with the conclusion that Nazi dude still ain’t dead and ain’t even human to begin with. Nick Fury, head of S.H.I.E.L.D searches out the mysterious Iron Man, delusional protester “Thor”, disgruntled scientist Hank Pym and his way more awesome mutant wife Janet, as well as recruiting agents Black Widow and Hawkeye, fickle aid from the mutant duo Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and lovers gone cold Betty Ross and a sedated and tortured Bruce Banner. They hardly make a team though. Between the disastrous ego of Pym, Banner’s inner demon coming to almost be a bigger threat than the aliens, and Fury’s secrets, can these rejects come together and beat an old evil?

While I’m not a huge Ultimate fan as I stated in my My thoughts: DC New 52 vs Marvel Ultimate post, I do like a lot of the changes made to some characters. I like that Thor hangs out with hippies, I like the dark, creepy tone of Banner/ Hulk, and while I hate Pym’s character from a standpoint, I love watching him get his ass kicked. Giant Man is a piece of shit in this story but it leads to one of my favorite Cap 1 liners “Get big,” before he beats him into the ground at full size. Cap is a full on action movie hero, not quite the super goodie as before. Aesthetically, you’ll see a lot of where the MCU got inspiration in modernizing the looks of a lot of there characters. It’s an entertaining story and the characters are good but a flaw I felt was that the final boss fight was almost anti-climatic compared to other events in the story. If you are new to Marvel, this is a good place to jump in but remember, this isn’t classic Marvel. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Chappelle’s Show

chappelle's show

In all my years I can say I never encountered anything like Chappelle’s Show: a a sketch show that made you nearly piss yourself laughing but somehow changed the way I thought about comedy. Dave Chappelle got his own show, I didn’t think twice as a kid. Suddenly I kept hearing half my 6th grade class greeting each other with “I’m Rick James bitch!”. Sadly I didn’t get into it until after Chappelle’s Show ended but I’ve been in love with the show ever since. Tyrone The crackhead, Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories, and that crazy ass ride with Wayne Brady are classics but certain sketches like the family with the strange last name and the PopCopy skit are a hell of a lot more cleaver than people give them credit for. In fact, I quote the PopCopy sketch at least once a day at my other job. Chappelle found a way to do racial comedy that was outrageous but not mean spirited and as I got older, I appreciated that. When days get bad Chappelle’s Show reruns make me laugh my ass off even though I’ve seen them 100 times by now. If you haven’t seen it, I seriously recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory, and I end this review with a quote from Chappelle ” Remember, you graduated from Kindergarten and don’t have to take shit from no one.”

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom final trailer

I loved Jurassic Park as a kid; all these years later it still holds up. I was shocked how good Jurassic World was; it was a better, healthier sequel than the actual damn sequels. When I heard World was getting a sequel, I got a little skeptical. I do like the small return to a horror aesthetic, and the creatures look great as always. I’m not really sold on the emphasis on it being about military use dinosaurs but I’d still see what the movie has. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Kin, trailer 1 review

During our outing to see Avengers: Infinity War this was the first of many unexpected trailers we got. In fact, the only trailer I expected was Solo ( Solo Trailer review ). It seems to be the story of two brothers who find some kind of ray gun and get hunted by the government and some kind of weird aliens or robots, or I don’t know while dealing with there hard knock life. I really wasn’t sure how to gauge it so I’ll keep an eye out for trailers to come. May the gaming gods bring you glory..

Avengers: Infinity War

avengers 3

It’s here, the climatic finale to the past decade of building inside the MCU. I’ve been seeing reviews left and right, many calling this film spectacular and some just going meh. We aren’t ruining the film epic so no spoilers here…

Picking up after Ragnarok, Thanos has seized the remnants of the Asgardian people in space and has gone slaughtering his way through them to Thor with his badass Black Order, looking for the Tesseract. Already possessing the power stone, he makes short work of them. The only survivors are Thor and a Hulk who has been sent to Earth, crashing through the Sanctum of Dr Strange while Thor ends up meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Order comes to Earth, searching for the time and mind stones while Thanos confronts the Collector to retrieve the reality stone, leaving a tragic reunion to come to the soul stone. In the End, the fate of existence as we know it comes down to a enormous war in Wakanda and a distant fight against a seemingly invincible Thanos. With the odds so hugely against them, can the Avengers last against the Mad Titan?

I absolutely loved this movie and I recommend it to all. I admit it isn’t perfect, the pacing is funky and you you damn well it’s a long movie; this IS NOT a good entry point to the MCU if you never stepped in before. The movie won me great performances that are surprisingly well shared considering the huge cast list, the effects and scale are mind-blowing, the balance between comedy and drama is well done, Josh Brolin is a great villain as Thanos, and this movie has the balls to take risks. I’m sure I’ll find other knicks in the armor but I’m pretty confident and saying I’m pleased with the result. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Captain America: Civil War (Cap side) Captain America Civil War (Iron Man Side) Doctor Strange ( 2016) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) Spider-man: Homecoming Thor: Ragnarok Black Panther Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Age of Ultron

avengers 2

Avengers 2 was one of those rare movies that when the trailer dropped, I’m think the world stopped for one minute. My phone exploded with texts and calls asking me what I thought, was I pumped, who’s going to die and like 100 other questions. Did it live up to the hype?

Ultron picks up where Winter Soldier primarily ended, the Avengers closing in on perhaps the final and most crucial Hydra base containing Baron von Strucker, Loki’s scepter, and the Maximoff twins: Pietro (Quicksilver) and Wanda (Scarlet Witch). The Avengers crush Strucker’s forces but the twins cause a problem, but otherwise they were victorious. With greener pastures on the horizon and life wearing all of them down, Stark and Banner have an idea: create the ultimate Avenger so they can live normal lives again. Enter Ultron. Corrupting Jarvis and getting life from the scepter’s power, he realizes how much devastation the Avengers cause, he turns on them. Joining with the disgruntled twins, Ultron evolves and sets to destroy the Avengers and kill humanity with his ultimate creation, the vision of perfection ( wink wink) Can the Avengers stop these mounting threats as tensions rise to destroy them?

Ultron is a really good movie but it does drop the ball in some spots. The cast, effects, and general story are damn good. What kills this movie for me are the quips and forced comedy. I’ve read a few Ultron comics- Ultron is cold, angry, and sinister. When the script allows, James Spader does fantastic as Ultron but I hated the damn puns, on top of how much they bitched him down, much like a huge issue I had with X-Men: Apocalypse . I love the twins and especially Paul Bettany’s transition from Jarvis to Vision, who stole the show for the finale. I feel there was some bloating but nowhere near DC level bad. Also, as a minor grip, I wish they kept Hank Pym as the creator of Ultron instead of Tony Stark but I can get over it. In the end, it’s a good sequel and a good movie but it had so much more potential. Below I’m giving a phase 2 watchlist as well as the trailer that had us all frantic. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Iron Man 3 (2013) Thor: The Dark World Captain America: Winter Soldier Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Avengers: Age of Ultron Ant-Man

Aliens: Dead Orbit

alien dead orbit

Happy Alien Day once again my friends from Savior and I. I bought the latest Dark Horse graphic novel just for this special occasion. I’m going to start by saying I’m admittedly not a huge fan of the Aliens comics for one reason or another and I never read a book, though I do want to someday. I’m happy to say, Dead Orbit is exactly what I wanted in a Aliens comic.

Dead Orbit is the ill fated story of Wey- Yu station Sphacteria coming across a derelict ship in the middle of deep space. Inside the ship are three people in cryo-sleep, all of which get horribly burned when the pods malfunction leaving the crew in a desperate panic to save them. As they try finding out what the deal is with the crew, why their ship was so destroyed inside and why their is only 3 seemingly on board out of 8, the moment comes when they realize the answer. Though sedated and violently charred, two of the bodies start writhing in agony as there chests break open and the Aliens emerge. With no weapons on board, the crew faces madness as the last survivor reveals the truth, and hope becomes lost…

James Stokoe did an amazing job with this book; without a doubt it’s my favorite Aliens comic to date. Artistically it captures the run-down look of the original film while adding a strong manga flair which beautifully fit. The story is short, self contained, and frenetic as hell and doesn’t have huge action scenes as the Aliens title would have you think but is far more claustrophobic horror as the first film. If you love the series or want a good horror comic, this book is a must read. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Happy Alien Day!

Happy Alien day everyone, the second best holiday in my year ( yep, I’m that kind of nerd.) If you have followed us for a while, you’ll know how huge of a Alien fan I am. Aliens was the first or second movie I ever watched, scarring the hell out of my psyche but inspiring me for decades to make my own monsters and pay it forward as the saying goes. Later today, I’m covering Aliens: Dead Obit, the latest Dark Horse graphic novel and at the bottom I’m listing links to every, yes EVERY Alien post I’ve ever done so please check them out and may the gaming gods bring you glory and spare you from the wrath of the perfect organism…

Alien Aliens Alien 3 Alien Resurrection Prometheus Alien: Covenant

Aliens- the evolution and variances of Xenomorphs H.R. Giger : master of nightmares

Alien and Predator: Fire and Stone

Alien Trilogy Alien Resurrection: the game Aliens Vs Predator (2010) Aliens: Colonial Marines Alien: Isolation