Mark Espinosa

The art for my season 2 review of THE FLASH.   (Art by Duke Yanagi)

Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!

It is impossible to accurately review this movie.

There is too much to talk about.  There are way too many perspectives to consider. The conversation goes far beyond, simply, 'is it good' or 'is it bad.' What are the criteria for determining such a thing? What is the example by which this movie is being compared? Other comic book movies? It's source material? Cinema as a whole? Marvel? How does it measure up as a comic book adaptation? To the DC animated movies? How objective am I supposed to be? Am I just coping out with this tactic? Should I completely shit on it for its sloppy story structure?  Was it the most comic book movie ever made? Should I worship it for perfectly transitioning images from the comics to the screen? I could talk about Zack Snyder's strengths and weaknesses as a director? What can I say that isn't already being said somewhere else? Should I feel guilty for liking this movie? Should I feel bad that I was bored at times? Did I mix too much gin in my diet Sprite?

Seriously.  What am I supposed to talk about? Should I talk about how I am tired of people praising Christopher Nolan's BATMAN movies like they are the second coming? Can I talk about how everyone keeps referring to this movie as a sequel to MAN OF STEEL?  Isn't it fairly obvious that this is a BATMAN and SUPERMAN movie that takes place in the same world as MAN OF STEEL? What about the reoccurring issue of 'God vs Mortals vs God vs Devils vs Mortals vs Gods?' I could just go off on a nerdy tangent about how the time traveler warning Bruce of future events could be from a movie as far off as JUSTICE LEAGUE 2? (Was that the Flash?) Which would lead to a conversation about how much I liked all the little hints of things to come in their blossoming cinematic universe. The writers clearly know what's coming and they are setting things up accordingly. Or should I be more political and focus on the diversity of the cast? An issue I feel incredibly passionate about. Perhaps I should deconstruct how women were portrayed in this movie compared to the men? That topic alone could be a cinematic thesis and goes much deeper than just one movie. Both issues deserve more attention and care than I am able to provide. What about religion?  Social media? Civil disobedience? Protest? Human nature? Conservatives? Liberals? Could a 'Superman' exist in our society? What would we do to such a person? Psychologically? Physically? What would they do to us? I could just focus on how modern movie marketing has created a trend that has resulted in the entire plot being revealed in the trailers? Tell me. What the hell do I write about?

I am a Nerd.  Perhaps I should keep my review nerdy? Okay. Then what? We could start with how people are going to dig out their 'Death of Superman' comic books thinking they are finally going to be worth something? (They will never be worth anything.  Ever.)  How long do you think SUPERMAN is going to be dead for? I could talk about how I should turn in my 'nerd card' because it took this movie for me to realize that 'Martha' was the name of both Bruce and Clark's mothers? We should talk about how the FLASH television show is creating the idea of a 'multiverse' that allows for both the TV shows and movies to exist? Was this movie an improvement or disappointment compared to MAN OF STEEL? We could just talk about Batman? How did Ben Affleck do as Bruce Wayne? Were you able to forget that it was Ben Affleck? Did he feel more like a Bruce Wayne than any other actor? Did he properly represent the duality between Bruce Wayne and Batman. Are you more excited or less about SUICIDE SQUAD? What would Batman be like after 20 years of being Batman? Was this Batman too violent? Too emotional? Was he enough of a detective? Let's talk about his 'visions.' Who is giving them to him? Someone is clearly mentally manipulating him. Who would do that? Besides Luthor. Do we talk about how Lex Luthor knows the secret identity of every hero in the Justice League? Or about how I liked this version of Lex Luthor? (Luthor, you poisonous snake!) Would Luthor be able to manipulate Batman and Superman so easily? What about Wonder Woman? How heavily was this Wonder Woman influenced by the events of her upcoming movie? Was she a strong female role model? That look after Doomsday knocks her back. The arrogance of this foul beast! Should we talk about her music? Would Wonder Woman ever turn her back on doing the right thing?  Would she ever walk away from a fight? She fought aliens before?  When?  Will we see that in her movie? AAHHHHHHH!

Art By Vincent Kukua 

‘Why does this stupid station play nothing but reruns?’

After the fall of London during its ‘Second Blitz’ in the year 2166, Rip Hunter pleads with the Time Masters for permission to take his ship, the Waverider, back in time to prevent the immortal Vandal Savage from ever conquering the world.  Rip (with the help from his artificial intelligence navigational system, Gideon) travels back to the year 2016 and recruits a team of ‘superheroes’ to help him on his mission through time to set right what once went wrong. Am I moving too fast?  I hope not because this all happens in the first five minutes of the pilot episode of Legends of Tomorrow. Cut the check!

When I first saw that the name of this episode was ‘Pilot:  Part 1,’ I suspected that most of it would consist of Rip Hunter assembling (Marvel doesn’t own that word) his team and thoroughly explaining who each character was to the audience. After establishing his mission and getting everybody on board, the episode would end with everyone all amped up to travel through time and ‘Marty McFly’ the hell out of Vandal Savage.  Nope.  Rip Hunter has them traveling back to 1975 almost immediately.  When I saw the trailer and the characters featured in this show, I knew that Rip was conning them into believing that they would eventually become some of the DCU’s most impactful heroes. C’mon! There’s no way that Captain Cold and ‘Prison Break’ would ever become ‘Legends.’ I expected this subplot would linger for most of the season and Rip would accidentally let slip that they were only chosen because of their lack of significance to the future. Nope.  They drop this nugget in the first half of the episode.  We all assumed that Rip was lying and that his ‘kicking ass and chewin bubble gum’ mission through time wasn’t actually approved.  How many episodes until the Time Masters send a temporal bounty hunter after Rip to stop him from completing his mission? How long until he reveals his deception to the rest of the team?  Only one episode, apparently.   This show sure doesn’t waste much… time.

I appreciate how fast Legends of Tomorrow got right to the awesome.  It tookArrow a little bit longer before it had me quivering (hehe) in my pants.  It took the Flash considerably faster (hehe) to get on track. Supergirl started up with a mucher clearer agenda and now we have friggin J’onn J’onzz flying around like it ain’t no thang. I forgot to make a Supergirl pun. Legends of Tomorrow went into their pilot episode and immediately nailed our asses to the wall. Did they move so fast because they assumed that if you’re watching this show, you’ve already seen every imperative episode of Flash and Arrow? Who cares, it’s awesome.  Everyone on the team was immediately down with the idea of time travel and I’m down with everyone being down with it so quickly. They were so cool with it, in fact, that they decided to sneak off the time ship and grab a couple of brew dogs in 1975. What if they got ‘nasty in the pasty’ and eventually end up becoming their own grandparents? Who cares, it’s amazing. Hawkman and Hawkgirl are a couple of winged beings that perpetual reincarnate and continue their war against Vandal Savage and no one bats an eye when their ‘old man’ son from the past recognizes them as their former selves. Who cares, it’s awesome! I’m happy to see that Barry Allen’s future creation of Gideon is still floating around out there in the timeline. I thought it was a little weird that Professor Stein had to drug Jefferson to convince him to go on an adventure through time.  The Atom is kind of bumming me out.  I’m digging the chaos that Cold, Canary and Wave add to the show.  Rip Hunter has a laser shootin’ six gun! I am all in for this show. I’m ALL IN. Now, give me Jonah Hex, Booster Gold and some vague references to Batman and Superman!

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN Review by Mark Espinosa http://neverendingradicaldude.com/2015/12/victor-frankenstein-movie-review.html

Here’s whats been missing from the internet, a link to a NERD ranting about STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS.  I just so happen to be that Nerd.  http://neverendingradicaldude.com/2015/12/nerd-rants-marks-star-wars-the-force-awakens-reactions.html

Uhhhh. Spoilers.