CROWING COMMANDOS

Walking Dead “Not Tomorrow Yet” Opened with yet another jaunty tune, and a fun little montage of Carol combining both her current life as a badass, and past life as a home maker. As a story telling mechanic I have rally grown to enjoy these little peeks into the characters’ lives, this one did a great job of showing us who carol had been, coupled with who she has become. This leads us to an interesting question of who exactly is carol, and where does she fit into the Alexandrian way of life? Could she be a housewife, staying at home baking and helping take care of the community, a skill she has shown that regardless of past events she still has in spades. Or should she be Rick’s soldier, his secret weapon that can be deployed to destroy an entire base of the enemy both dead and living. Before this half of the season premiered I stated to friends that I felt like Carol has outlived her character arch, and that it is time for her to die as there is not much else the character can do in order to make her interesting again, that she had lost the humanity she had. I was wrong, Melissa Mcbride has demonstrated to me that Carol still has places to go, and just perhaps that humanity is not lost as evidenced by the fact her human kill count of 18 causes her sleeping problems. This actually worked really well as one of the b-plots in this episode was Glen would be forced to take a human life.

         Making Glen a killer I think was a poor choice by the writers and producers, Glen is the character who can always find the best in people our connection to a pre-apocalypse era. I felt like the scene with him and Heath was needless, Sasha and Abraham could have easily flip flopped the roles making Glen’s first human kill more accidental and justified rather than stabbing two men in their sleep like a stone cold killer. Having him kill the man then not forcing Heath to do it at least saved the scene a bit in my view, as this is Glen wanting to help another survivor from having to take the plunge into darkness. I really like the look the two men shared after gunning down the Savior crowd on the way to the armory, especially that they hesitated to shot the downed Savior showing that while they may have killed, they have yet to lose themselves in the act like I feel Rick has.  I think that if you wanted to make Glen a killer, then do it after Maggie has been captured. Put her life on the line as well as his unborn child and make him need to kill a person in that situation. Would have been a better choice I think but we will see how the story develops over the next few episodes.

The Assault on the Saviors base seems like it went off without a hitch, everyone played their part and the day (or should I say night) was won. About halfway through the raid I started wondering what was going on as Rick and crew were just mowing through the Saviors, I was wondering how this could possibly be Negans base of operations when the answer suddenly occurred to me. In The comics Negan mentions that his men have out posts, an important point for the all-out war story arc as different characters need to attack these outposts in order to weaken the Saviors. The base that was attacked last night was simply a satellite (Sorry I couldn’t resist) of the main Savior camp, close to the hill top and a place they can use as a staging ground or fall back point should things go sideways. This was simply the first volley in the war between Rick and Negan, a conflict that is going to get very interesting very quickly and may just cost us the head of one of our heroes.

So here is the basic recap of “Knots Untie” Jesus convinces the gang to head on out to his home the Hilltop. Along the way they save some more Hilltop community members (what will we call them hilltopians, Hilltoppers?) Meet dick bag Gregory, kill a couple Hilltoppers (I like that one and plan to stick with it) who make an attempt on Gregory, and then accept an assassination mission in exchange for an RV load of food. During all this Abraham is considering settling down but cannot decide whether to play the safe cards with Rosita or try for something more with Sasha.

After watching AMC’s The Walking Dead episode “Knots Untie” I realized something I think I knew, but did not want to accept about our heroes, Rick and company are a close knit, tactical gang of thugs who have abandoned their idealism and embraced the whatever it takes mentality of the new world. Need evidence of this? Look no further then Rick showing that he is a cold blooded killer quizzically asking “What” after killing a hilltop resident during a brawl (Also as my wife pointed out showing he is the most brawliest brawler I have ever seen on TV).  This is further cemented when to climax the episode our group takes a huge haul of food, or as Jesus points out more than even Negan initially took for brokering a hit mission on the Saviors leader. For me this kind of works, Walking Dead has always played fast and loose with morals of society, having quite a blurry line for our characters makes us question whether they truly are the heroes sometimes which truly makes them much more interesting to watch as a villain can toe the line and come out ahead, whereas when a hero toes the line of villainy they lose what makes them a “good guy” in the audiences eyes.

Hats off to the location scouts and set designers, Hilltop looks like it was ripped right from the books and Barrington house is simply exquisite, this is a local that I will not be sad to see in future episodes. The denizens on the other hand left much to be desired though, with the star exception being Jesus who I am still on the fence about as making a good addition to the group (I may still harbor resentment towards him though as I blame his comic version for the death of my favorite walking dead character). Xander  Berkeley does a wonderful job of bring Gregory the treacherous slime ball to life, somehow making me dislike his TV iteration even more then the comic one (in the most wonderful of ways). His interaction with Maggie was downright disgusting and should his story play out like the comics I will take great joy in watching his character arc over the coming season(s).B-Plot wise this one really took a very understandable course showcasing Abraham trying to decide if he could settle down, and should he break his "Perfect" relationship with Rosita in order to take a chance with Sasha? I am not sure if this is the best thing for our boy Aby-Baby as Sasha does not seem to want to with him that way, even switching patrols leaving him with Eugene.

Let me start this by saying I do not hate Deadpool, I do strongly dislike him. I feel that the reason is he is like a dirty Spider-man with the wisecracks, and as a jokster he is trying to steal Spidey’s schtick. Maybe it is because my hero does not like him and has biased me towards the character, or possibly I have just never read the “killer” book that makes me want to dive on in. Ignoring my personal feelings for the character I decided to see the film because what kind of commando would I be if I was not on the front lines of geekdom for you guys. So pop on your crocks, warm up a chimichanga, bust out the dish soap, and throw on the golden girls for background noise as we are going in!

Spoiler free I will say that I really enjoyed the film, it was funny, raunchy and most importantly embraced the crazy to make a fun film. The story was tight and well written, casting was fantastic and somehow they even made me like TJ Miller (on paper this film was rough to me on so many levels) Another perk this movie had is it clocks in at about 1 hour 47 minutes meaning it has to be quick to tell its story, and let me tell you the pacing is spot on. The film made excellent use of montages to advance the story (including one that really helps earn that R rating), couple that with the comedic timing of the cast and you are looking at a movie that really cooks. It also uses the great device of opening in the middle so we get our action appetite sated early and are willing to settle in for some exposition before really stepping on the gas to finish the film. To be honest with you I really do not have any problems with the script or story, I was able to sit in the theatre and really enjoy myself for about 2 hours.

Character wise Ryan Reynolds may be the living embodiment of Deadpool. His walk, talk, and mannerisms are what I would expect of the character and much like I felt 16 years ago when watching the first X-Men film I think another Canadian (Anti)Hero has stepped of the page. This is the movie Reynolds deserved, and the character he teased at the beginning of the Wolverine origins film (not the nightmare he became in it). You can see the fun Reynolds had in this film, his face during his not prosthetic scenes is joy and he really runs with the everything he has been given. Using Colossus (my second favorite mutant) as the straight man was genius and he looked damn good on screen, it is a shame that for some reason the screenwriters chose to keep him in metal form though as I think the armor plating moment would have been cool to see. He also sure as hell lived up to the name, towering over the rest of the cast. Add to that he is true to comics as mentor, always trying to help others reach their full potential as heros and I was sold on the big silver stud. Negasonic worked well as well, I would have picked Cannonball for the film but adding an angsty teen to the film is an actual stroke of genius, allowing for some fun banter that fits.

In light of the recent kickstarter I thought I would take a moment and review one of my favorite tabletop games Sentinels of the Multiverse from Greater than Games. This is the game that really brought me into the tabletop game hobby, I had randomly invited some people over to my place for a boardgame night and randomly discovered one of my co-workers was a a huge board gamer. He brought a few games over one of them being Sentinels, told me it was a superhero game so we decided to give it a shot. I played as Mr. Fixer a kung-fu mechanic, we fought Grand Warlord Voss and I can say that I truly fell in love with this quirky game by the end of my first turn. It consisted of original heroes but each was obviously a take on classic well established characters, Legacy is a Captain america/Superman hybrid, Bunker is Ironman, Wraith is Batman the list goes on and on. The art is a little goofy but in the best possible way, it reminds me of a caricature of comic book art, something that may not sound great but works really well for me. The game also features a huge cast of heroes and villains ensuring each playthrough is different. Basically Sentinels was created so that the creators could finally play the superhero game they wanted to, different heroes fighting a villain (or team of villains depending on the expansion) in one amazing co-op experience.

Gameplay is pretty simple your team of 3-5 heroes takes on a villain or team of villains in one of the various environments the game offers. The villain leads with the first turn playing a card from their deck, follow the cards instructions end the villain turn and do anything the needs to happen to end the villain turn. The heroes then get a chance to fight back play, power, draw in that order. Play a card from your hand, this can be attacks, equipment to buff powers, or something that will search the deck for bigger and badder cards to hit the baddie with. Use a power, each hero card has a base power or various cards allow the hero to use different powers with varying effects. Finally end the turn by drawing a card from the hero deck (or two cards if you decided to forgo your hero turn) End the round with the environment, which can range from downtown city blocks all the way to a mars base or different plane of existence.