Sunday was a day for me to catch up on stuff. Well, on some viewing stuff anyway.
I played a couple of games of D&D Atack Wing today, trying out a couple of different legion builds. The one thing I realized is that troops such as the Hobgoblins feel almost useless in battle. I played a 4 member unit and watched them get wiped out in one attack. There could possibly be a way of using them effectively, but I would have to experiment a lot with them to find out, and I’m not sure I have the patience for that.
As for catching up, I finally saw Captain America: Winter Soldier, even after buying the DVD a few weeks ago. I have to say it was not all that bad. I liked what they did with Falcon, and even though I am sufficiently versed in Winter Soldier lore, it was still cool to see it played out on DVD.
I also caught up with Constantine, NBC’s show based on the DC Comics character. In this case, catching up was really only the fifth episode since I power watched episodes 2, 3 and 4 last Monday. I like the show, and not just because they actually got John Constantine right (READ: Not the Keanu Reeves version). Well, maybe because they got the character right. While the first episode was not really as dark as the comic (the original Hellblazer comic was extremely dark), there have been a lot of moments in the later episodes that really come close to matching the comic. It doesn’t hurt that the series has been riddled with Easter Eggs from the dark side of the DC Universe, from the inclusion of the Doctor Fate helmet in episode one to Jim Corrigan showing up in the latest episode. Including elements of the Constantine mythos (Papa Midnight) definitely help as well.
I finally got a chance to check out Justice League: War on DVD, setting back my watching of Game of Thrones Season 3 a little bit. I have to say I did like it, though not as much as some of the previous DC Animated movies I’ve seen. It is still far and away much better than a lot of the Marvel animated projects that have come down the pike.
But, there were a few things in this movie that bugged me. I know that there are always some changes when things get adapted, and I am willing to accept that… to an extent. Some of what changed here seemed… well, I’ll explain.
DVD collection (Photo credit: nickstone333)
Unlike what seems like the rest of the world, I still buy DVDs. Not Blu-Rays, actual, normal DVDs. I don’t stream off Netflix, and really only use Hulu for recent shows. I still like to actually watch movies on DVDs.
Of course, I have a tendency to pick up a lot of DVDs, usually the week they are released to get them on sale. Which means I have a bit of a backlog of DVDs to watch.
Here are five recent acquisitions that I’m looking to watch soon.
Flashpoint Paradox trailer! (Photo credit: 1upLego)
Once again, DC Comics manages to do what Marvel Comics cannot: make a decent direct to DVD animated movie.
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is the first Flash-centric animated movie from DC Entertainment. The story is familiar, at least to those of us who read the Flashpoint miniseries that kicked off the New 52 line.
After the Flash and the Justice League defeat the Rogues (Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, and Zoom the Reverse Flash), everything seems okay. That is until Barry Allen wakes up in a world unfamiliar to him. It is a world on the brink of Armageddon as a war between the Amazons and Atlanteans have destroyed Europe and threaten the world. Worse still, Barry soon discovers that he no longer has his Flash powers. Now he must try to save the world and regain his connection to the Speed Force.
It is an alternate reality story, one that, presented here, is actually quite well done. This new world is a scary. Wonder Woman and Aquaman leads their respective people in a brutal war against each other. Bruce Wayne died in crime alley, making his father Thomas Wayne adopt the identity of the Batman to fight crime in Gotham with extreme prejudice. And Barry must find out how to return to his own timeline, or die in this one.
Do not be fooled by the fact this is a cartoon. It is rated PG-13 for a reason, but all of it shows how far the world has gone wrong from what the Flash remembers. This movie also maintains its focus, not diverging from the initial mini-series into the tie-in series that had accompanied Flashpoint. It is definitely a DVD that you need to add to your DC Comics animated collection.
It seems interesting that for a company that has not been able to stick a landing in the theaters (the Batman movies excluded), DC Comics’ animated DVDs are head and shoulders above the competition (namely, Marvel). Given the choice, I would much rather watch any of the DC titles that have come out on DVD than the few Marvel titles, most of which have just been pretty bad.
For those who are looking for a good watch, and are not sidled with the conception that animation is only for children, I have a few suggestions for you.
English: A DVD that has severely degraded and become unplayable. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I remember a time when if you scratched your album, all it would do is skip. Or if you bought it on a hot summer day and ran a few more errands before heading home, you ran the risk of the album melting and warping into something unplayable. Or, if you drop it on just the right surface, it would actually break.
I remember audio and video cassettes. Leave one of them too close to a magnet, and WHAMO! I had one actually destroyed in a store as I was buying it because the cashier passed it over the same security demagnitizer that the used for the books. Thankfully, they took the return given the situation.
I remember all of this while I set aside my copy of Green Lantern Emerald Knights, a DVD I just recently tried to rewatch, only to be thwarted by a few persistent motes of dust that I just can’t seem to blow off of it.
Comic-Con 2012, Saturday (Photo credit: robjtak)
It took a power marathon of two DVDs and two episodes on Hulu, but I am all caught up with Grimm. And I’m still loving all the twists in this series.
I had a short weekend this week (Sunday only), but somehow still managed to get in a little viewing.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
After a long weekend of thunder storms, trial verdicts, long drawn out baseball games and more thunder storms, it becomes necessary to unwind. This week, it was with three separate movies.
I did not do a lot of movie watching this weekend. Work, Fathers Day and a killer toothache cut into a lot of my time. But I did manage to watch one movie this weekend.WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
My Two Cents 