Tag: Marvel

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

andertoons2 Comments

As mentioned previously, I’ve been a little under the weather lately. So to pass the time I’ve been playing my PSP quite a bit.

During my year-end Let’s Avoid Taxes By Buying Boatloads of Stuff period (AKA LATBBBoS) I picked up a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Now I’m not a huge gamer per se, and generally these sort of RPG things where you increase your striking power by +5% when the moon is full and you’re wearing Haggar slacks leave me more than a little confused. Add to that the generally poor quality of super-hero games historically, and even I wondered what I was doing.

But this thing got some great reviews, and the X-men titles I’d played were a lot of fun, so I took a chance.

(This is for Mike Lynch) WOWEE-WOW-WOW!

Take a look at this YouTube vid:



OK, the quality is nowhere near what you see on the screen, but I think you get the idea.

I’ve been having the time of my life with this game. Right now my team is Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America and Spider Woman. And I’m kicking some butt on the Easy level.

The thing is kind of a button masher, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Add to that the ability to team up with other players, track your stats and progress, and chat online, and you’ve got a pretty cool package.

Here’s my villain scorecard as of now:

Villian Scorecard

And some of my current stats:

Stats



OK, I know pretty much every 8-year-old in America can kick my butt up down and sideways on this game, but I don’t care; it’s accessible enough that I can play however I’d like.

So, there you have it. I blogged about it, so it’s a write-off! ‘Nuff said!

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Dark Tower Comics

andertoons8 Comments

Darktower

I ran across a poster for this at Wizard World Chicago, and I gotta say, I’m intrigued.

This from the Marvel site:

World Fantasy Award-winning writer Stephen King, long acknowledged as the master of modern horror, and Marvel Comics join forces this spring to launch a ground-breaking new comic book series adapted from King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower.

The comic series will mark the first time Stephen King has produced original content for an ongoing comic book project. The series will expand the saga of King’s epic hero, Roland Deschain, whose quest to save the Dark Tower is captured in seven best-selling novels published over the course of twenty-five years. King’s unparalleled storytelling power will inform new stories that delve into the life and times of the young Roland, revealing the trials and conflicts that lead to the burden of destiny he must assume as a man, the last Gunslinger from a world that has moved on. The comics will work in conjunction with the novels, further supplementing and defining the saga’s mythology under the direction of the acclaimed author himself.

I’m a big fan of King’s Dark Tower stuff, although I’ve found it hard to find the time to read the last three or so. I’m really curious to see how this pans out.

Link…

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“Blade – Trinity” – Review

andertoons1 Comment

Blade - Trinity

Margie’s YHGTBKM Rating:

YHGTBKM!YHGTBKM!YHGTBKM!YHGTBKM!YHGTBKM!YHGTBKM!

Policeman to Blade – “You can keep doing your song and dance as long as you want, Blade – It’s not gonna play.” (Oh I do so love being able to use a quote from a movie to begin a review!)

Blade – Trinity is an unfortunate mishmash of film styles, genres, and clichés that ends up neither laughably bad (Catwoman) or simply boring (Elektra), but instead is just a garden variety piss poor action movie.

The idea here is that the vampires have decided they need Dracula’s blood for some reason or another. They find him hiding spider hole style in Iraq and talk him into killing their hybrid nemesis, Blade (Wesley Snipes).

First, the good guys: Snipes is OK, but you can sense that even he knows Blade is now more caricature than character. Jessica Biel (Abigail Whistler) is pedestrian, but adds a nice bit of babysitter next door meets Mia Hamm athletic sex appeal and a pointless slow motion shower scene. Ryan Reynolds (Hannibal King), while the least action-oriented, is probably my favorite of the trinity and occasionally lends a nice comedic touch.

Now the baddies: Dominic Purcell (Dracula) is boring from beginning to end and played the vampire patriarch with more of a 70’s open shirt macho than the metro vibe I think would have worked better (Goyer, gimme a call next time!). Parker Posey (Danica Talos), completely wasted as she continues to try to find her way in non-Guest vehicles, plays the pouty bitch-pire with fangs in her naughty bits. (Yes, you read that correctly.) You can tell she’s waiting to cash her check.

The film steals blatantly from a number of movies including The Matrix (‘come and get me’ hand wave close-up and general soundtrack timbre), Predator (Dracula’s jaw), and Alien (extra thing attacks from inside bad guy’s mouth). I was initially surprised it didn’t try to lift anything from AVP, but if you’ve seen AVP you’d know why.

There’s plenty of slow motion walking to rock music, meaningless multi-angle explosions and trite semi-ironic dialogue to keep your average Bruckheimer-ite remarking “Dude, that part where the guy blew up the thing was so freakin’ wicked!” for a good week or so, but not much else.

The DVD apparently has two discs, although after watching the first I think I’ll pass on the additional behind-the-scenes tripe. The movie disc has two commentaries, one of which I can only hope is the cast and crew chanting “we’re sorry” Gregorian style.

Blade – Trinity is just a shame. The franchise seems to have followed the Wachowski trilogy model and, in the end, bites the hands that feed it, and bleeds them dry.

(Note – For clarity’s sake, I reviewed the theatrical version on the DVD, not the extended version; a fact that I was later very pleased about.)

Military Marvel

andertoons

Marvel Military

The United States Department of Defense has teamed with Marvel Comics to create a comic book for U.S. troops.

According to the New York Times (sign in required)…

“…the story features the Fantastic Four and the New Avengers on a mission to discover the origin of an ancient spacecraft found in Louisiana.”

Over one million copies will be printed and distributed to troops as part of the D.O.D.’s “America Supports You” campaign.

Why do I see Operation Clobberin’ Time in our military’s future?