The Toad's Burrow

      This may be a controversial take, but I think The Penguin  is only okay at best? Part of the reason it took me so long to watch this show despite it being so critically-acclaimed is that I just had other things going on at the moment. I have a bit of a love-hate relationships with non-sitcom TV. Sometimes I'm really into it, other times I watch so many eight-episode limited series that just leave me feeling kind of meh. Sadly, I think The Penguin  is that kind of show. I remember an acquaintance telling me how much they loved this show, that really to them it was like a great mafia/crime show, just that it happened to take place in the same universe as The Batman . Let's talk about it.     I don't hate this show? I'm just kind of lukewarm on it. Maybe the issue is that Lanterns  is going on at the same time, and so I can't help but compare them and feel just utterly blown away by Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre. Maybe part of it is also I jus...

      I was originally going to watch Good Will Hunting  with my sister, but I sadly I'll have to save that for another day. Instead, I get to watch what was for the most part quite a wholesome rom-com. I can see why this movie is rated pretty highly. I must admit the movie did get a nice big grin out of during the ending. However, it's hard not to feel a little cheated. Not in the sense that I think the film was bad or anything, but in the sense that I almost think it came out with the wrong message? I think part of it might just be the different age we're in, but another part of me thinks they might have gotten it wrong. Let's talk about it.     I'll start with my nitpicks with this film, which aren't many. First of all, I think the showrunners needed to organize William Thacker's life just a little bit more. My sister and I were both confused about his friend/family dynamics, and who was related to who/dating who when we first met them all. Eventually it...

      What? What? What? I don't think a green screen has ever been stretched to these levels before, and I'm just kind of in awe that in the end they made a functioning movie. This movie is far from flawed, frankly I'll say it straight with my chest that it gets kind of boring sometimes. But when this movie finally hits its stride and starts rolling like a giant ball of snow, it never really stops. The odds were completely against it. This movie has no dialogue, it's black and white, it relies almost entirely slapstick comedy, yet it works. Let's talk about it.     Now don't get it twisted, I think this movie has its flaws. First of all, I know it's kind of funny that they don't do any sort of introductory credits until 30 minutes in, but regardless of the gag it takes them way too long for the introductory credits to begin. Certainly, there's some real novelty to the beginning of this film. They sing a surprisingly good song, there's this funny ...

      You know, the older I get the more I appreciate alternative art styles when it comes to comics. I don't think it's the deciding factor but it can really help. Which is funny because I basically said Asterios Polyp  was too weak outside of it's art style. Even still I must admit as a lifelong superhero's fan there's something about Avengers: Twilight  that just scratches that right itch. I mean it's not anything that's never been done before, but it does make you feel a little bit of something, and it maybe, just maybe wants me to believe in Chip Zdarksy a little bit. Does this mean I'll check out Avengers: Armageddon ? Eh probably not these events take like a year to finish so you always have to wait a while to fully read them all at once, but this comic was good at least. Let's talk about it.     When you first read this comic there are a couple comparisons that come to mind pretty immediately. The Dark Knight Returns  and Kingdom Come , bo...

          I'll be the first to admit, I came into this comic very skeptical of it all, and frankly I can't say it wasn't unearned. I mean I only read this comic because I saw some goofy panel of someone posting it, only to learn the premise of this book was basically a light-hearted Game of Thrones  style fantasy involving most of your favorite characters from the DC Universe. It's quite corny to be honest all things considered. Oddly enough, I think I enjoyed the spin-off companion comic books quite a bit more, whether it be the Aqua-man themed one or the Deathstroke-centric one. In fact, I might even say that Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter is kind of easily the best comic here. Let's talk about it.     I'll focus on the original 12-issue run first, Dark Knights of Steel  by Tom Taylor and Yasmine Putri. I will say at the very least for the first comic you need to be able to not take these characters too seriously. I would consider th...

    I'm finally glad to have watched Supergirl , not in the sense that I was super excited to see this film, but I like most other people was inundated with so much discourse surrounded by this film while it was coming out, about how it's the worst film of all time, so many stupid, pointless culture war talking points and how it had one of the worst superhero needle drops of all time. And to that I say, some good points were made, but some of them were overblown, and while this is a very, very underwhelming film, I would say it's far from franchise-altering and I don't think the DCU needed Supergirl  to do super well, even if I wanted it to do that. Let's talk about it.     I never actually wrote about Woman of Tomorrow  though I was debating it so it'll be fun to talk about both that comic, how it compares to this film, and what I liked about each. I will say, for all the crap this film got about it's horrendous needle drop at the end, and I do mean horren...

     I'll be the first to admit I'm not the biggest Guardians of the Galaxy fan. When the first movie came out I didn't watch it, then when the second movie came out I started seeing all of this baby Groot merchandise and it ardently annoyed the moody teen inside me. But people just kept on talking about how great the movie was, so I watched it, and felt it was fine, but cringed pretty hard at Chris Pratt's Starlord doing a dance-off. Yet, I have been in a comic mood, and I'm much more accepting now as an adult I'd like to think. I'm trying to be more accepting of pieces of media that are just earnestly themselves, as cringe as they might be, because I'm pretty sick of self-referential media that just has characters self-deprecate for 80% of the dialogue. So let's talk about this game.     I will say this immediately off the bat, not in a bad way, but just so you understand what you're getting into. This is basically just an amped-up version of a...

    It has been five+ years since I've last watched this film. Admittedly, for a film with as much cultural impact as it had, I only found out about it/watched it because it was mentioned in a  MoistCr1TiKaL video (yes I am willing to admit that even I listened to Mr. Fencesitter when I was a teenager). It was during COVID though, and I remember being thoroughly confused about it. But now, with a repaired attention span, and just general knowledge of what was supposed to happen, I was hoping that my perspective on it would change significantly since it was showing in one of my local movie theaters. Let's talk about it.     Plot-wise, I will say Akira  is a little confusing. Like I really did not remember much from my first viewing, because watching it for a second time I can say I understood it a significant amount more. Whether it be all of the layers between the rebels or the strong political undertones. The sort of symbolism/relationships between all of ...

      I will preface this review by saying this is a very long run, so expect maybe a semi-long review? It has a bunch of little arcs and such, and I've read through it plenty of times. I also have to admit that reading this Green Lantern run was what originally started getting me into comics as a child. I vividly remember watching Comicstorian's (RIP) videos on this Geoff Johns run and being amazed at how cool all of it sounded, whether it was Brightest Day, Blackest Night, the Sinestro War all of it. I also distinctly remember my mom getting mad at one of the books I borrowed from the library from this run because the cover had different GL members hung up like they were being crucified. All of this to say, with Lanterns  going on as well, I had an itch, and so I returned to the run that really made me a big comics fan. Let's talk about it.     There are some genuine criticisms of the run so I'll get those out of the way at first. Yes, it does become a li...