The Toad's Burrow

      Hey look at me I'm reviewing Geese, how original. Look, while my enthusiasm might seemed subdued, it has nothing to do with how talented I think this band actually is. I quite actually enjoy their music, I'm mostly just baffled by how they managed to become so popular. I don't even think of them as a particularly accessible rock outfit, which makes their rise even more baffling. I mean I don't remember 3D Country  blowing them as much as this album did. Make no mistake, I actually enjoy this band though, even if I do find them a tad overrated. Though I was a Magdalena Bay fan before Imaginal Disk was released so this may just me being a big hypocrite. Regardless, when my friend Omaid recommended this album, I may have groaned a bit because my twitter feed has somehow become filled with Geese fans I never knew existed, but this album is both good enough, and culturally popular enough to be deserving of a more in-depth review. So without further ado, my track-by-...

      No Tim Drake, no Jason Todd, not even any real Barbara Gordon until the very end, but this movie kind of makes it work. I have been so thoroughly underwhelmed with the past couple of DCAMU movies, especially because they were quite Batman-centric. I felt like they didn't do anything interesting with their adaptations, that the movies were honestly kind of boring and didn't do enough to make them worth watching. I wouldn't say this one really reinvented the wheel in any major way, but it was fun, and frankly that's what I was really hoping for. Let's talk about it.     Honestly? This film just makes me want to go back and read Grant Morrison's Batman, especially runs like Batman Incorporated, which I just found to be very fun in general. I mean this film basically bastardizes much of it, especially with Dick Grayson being Batman in the first half with Damian as his Robin, then the Heretic storyline, only for it all to be dropped halfway through. That is not...

      Legitimately such a beautiful film. I had very high expectations for this film coming in, and it did not disappoint in any sense. I don't think it's for everyone, that's for sure, but for me personally I love everything this film tried to tackle, specifically shining a modern lens on religion and family. It had less action than I thought it would, and this film was significantly funnier than I thought it was going to be, but I think Tariq and Co. still made it work. Let's talk about it.     I do not think this film is for everybody. I was looking through comments on Reddit, which I do sometimes before I'm writing reviews to see how my consensus matches up with other people and I was surprised. I will say, I do come from a fairly religious background, I'm not Muslim, but my parents are quite religious so the story about grappling with ones own faith in the face of adversity appealed to me. I think if you have a very hardline stance on religion, or are just ...

      Huh? What? I was ready to give this movie a semi-positive score, not too positive, but just enough for attempting to try new things with a story that I admitted was very flawed. I felt the source material for this movie could have done more, though I'm just not quite sure this movie understood what it should have/was supposed to do. It definitely includes many of the same lines/imagery from the comics, and for that I appreciate it, but I feel like once again they've missed the mark about Bruce and Damian's relationship in these films, and I feel it is much too flimsy for me to care about. Let's talk about it.     First off, let's start with the good. They flesh out the court of owls, ever just slightly, but it's what I asked for. You see them with an actual leadership structure, you see them do more than just sit there and stare at Batman in their porcelain-white masks and they also even talk a little bit. By that same token it probably could have done jus...

      I remember when the Court of Owls was first introduced as a concept. Of course I was nine at the time so I thought it was pretty cool that there was this secretive society that Batman didn't know how to fight because they made up the city he was sworn to protect. Nowadays, whenever they're brought up people seem pretty mixed about them, at least on comic book Twitter. Personally? I couldn't actually remember much, though as a child I do remember looking back at Scott Snyder's time writing Batman quite fondly. As such, with rumours that they might be featured heavily in  The Batman Part II, and it being a main sticking point in Batman vs. Robin , which is my next DCAMU film to review, I thought it would be the perfect time to look back at this arc. Let's talk about it.     Oddly enough, the introduction regarding the Court of Owls is actually split up into two arcs and while I don't hate it, it leaves a lot to be desired. I will say the second half, Th...

      I doubted, and doubted, and doubted, but I have to admit, 30 Rock season two was pretty good. I was concerned it wouldn't really get any better, and since this season was already cut short due to the writers strike, making it only fifteen episodes, it was a real uphill battle. But they did it, the writing felt sharper, it felt like they had a better idea of how to both handle the characters, and balance the main cast so it didn't feel as Jack- and Liz-centric, even if I loved those characters. Let's talk about it.     I feel like the show is really starting to figure out how what to do with the side characters. I will say Dot Com and Grizz have risen up tremendously on my list of favourite 30 rock side characters, even as Rachel Dracht doing random roles has sadly disappeared. Like one of my original complaints from the first season was that they hardly actually did anything with the setting of it being on a show, and while I don't think they've actually d...

      This movie is so weak man. It's not even a good Aquaman adaptation, it's barely a Justice League movie, and they continue to push this unacceptable Superman and Wonder Woman relationship. What do I even write about this movie. It was just extremely underwhelming, and I would not recommend it under any circumstances. It's just a complete waste of your time. I can't believe I'm saying this but I kind of enjoyed the mandatory Batman glaze from this film, which is saying something about how boring the rest of it is. Let's talk about it.     Well first of all despite being titled as a Justice League movie this film could hardly be constituted as such. The Justice League fared significantly better against Darkseid than versus Ocean Master, it was quite pathetic. Not to mention the Justice League hardly even get any screentime together. I understand that there are a lot of characters. Like they made a good point about the league hardly feeling like a league yet, ...

      This is by far, the angriest book I have ever seen from Ursula K. Le Guin, and it kind of works. Don't get me wrong, the Vietnam War allegory is very, very thick. Like almost hilariously so. I'm not even an expert on the Vietnam war, but the "very definitely human" shorter species who live exclusively in forests and fight back using guerilla-style warfare is very on the nose. Yet I still liked it? It felt decidedly significantly less sci-fi than other Usrula K. Le Guin novels, and honestly could have simply been in separate continuity and very little would have changed. Let's talk about it.     Let me get this out of the way very quickly. The noble savage trope is very much well and alive with the  Athsheans, there's no other way to cut it. Their people view Terrans as these backwards creatures, who are oddly hairless, and have no strong connection to the Earth. They have this "mystical" way of dreaming that is so foreign to humans that even th...

    I have finally done it. I've found another sitcom to sink my teeth in, and this time I think it might just be good enough for me to really sink my teeth in. Truth be told, the only reason I did not start this show sooner is because the first time I was watching this show, I actually cut off a small chunk of my fingertip, and so I was so mad with myself for the month or so every time I thought about picking up the show again I'd be reminded of my finger slowly growing back. Then, that list of the top 100 shows was released, and people started comparing this TV show to my beloved Community , which in my heart remains one of the greatest peaks television has ever reached, and I just had to see if it was any good. Let's talk about it.          Off the bat, I will say, this TV show definitely feels like one in its first season. It really does not know/struggles to balance between who are the main characters/who is going to be showcased. You start off th...