Altered Carbon is rated TV-MA and may not be suitable for everyone. Please use discretion when choosing to watch this episode or series.

 

Netflix’s new show, Altered Carbon, is based on a 2002 book by Richard Morgan. This is the first book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. The other two novels are Broken Angels and Woken Furies. Fun fact, Richard Morgan wrote two Black Widow graphic novels - Homecoming (2005) and The Things They Say About Her (2006), wrote for the video games Crysis 2 and Syndicate. So he has a little nerd cred in addition to these sci-fi books.

The story is set in a dystopian world that felt similar to the cyberpunk style we see in Blade Runner. It’s very easy to see that Morgan’s vision in this show pulls heavily from what we get from Philip K Dick and Ridley Scott. At least that’s what we get on-screen. I can’t attest to what the books are like, but I would imagine something similar.

The first episode, titled “Out of the Past” starts with a body floating naked in a vast ocean and quickly cuts to someone in the shower. The fact that there is nudity - although at this point barely any - isn’t surprising given the rating.

What we realize eventually as the story is played out is that the body floating in the ocean and the man in the shower are the same person, Takeshi “Tak” Kovacs, even though they physically are not the same. This is due to an advancement in technology that makes the body what it really is: a shell. People are “re-sleeved” - given new bodies when they die unless their “stack” is destroyed. The “stack” is basically a chip attached to the top of a person’s spine. We see Tak get killed, along with his partner in a raid by a group of military sentries.

250 years later, that floating body is pulled into a medical bay and unzipped from a bag filled with some sort of goop that I suppose is a holding tank for an unused body. This one, though, happens to be the new sleeve for Tak, as well as the former body of a convict.

As Tak is essentially reborn and given the rundown of his current circumstance here, we get to get some flashbacks and not-so subtle exposition about the world Altered Carbon is set in:

Tak is a highly-deadly, highly-skilled, and highly regarded assassin known as an Envoy.

To truly kill someone, you have to destroy their stack.

When it comes to religion, sleeving is, as you would imagine, frowned upon. (It’s essentially reincarnation, but with someone else’s body.) The idea of sleeving being a bad thing is shown when a 7-year old girl comes out to see her parents, but she’s in the sleeve (body) of a middle-aged woman. The parents, of course, are unhappy and are told that if they want a better sleeve they’ll have to pay for it instead of getting it for free from the government.

We also find out the reason Tak has been re-sleeved: a rich man by the name of Laurens Bancroft wants him to solve his (Bancroft’s) murder because he doesn’t remember what happened. The explanation here was interesting to me. As we’ve watched Tak make his way through this new-to-us world, it’s shown that just because you’re re-sleeved, it doesn’t mean you lose any memories. Tak has flashbacks over and over again, as well as hallucinations. Bancroft explains that his stack was destroyed, but he has a backup copy uploaded to a satellite every 48 hours. This enabled him to not just be re-sleeved, but essentially reborn from true death.

Tak isn’t interested in helping Bancroft, even though the man has promised him everything from unlimited money to a new sleeve of his choice. Instead, he decides he would rather “go back on ice”. This leads him to buying a ton of drugs from a guy on the street, getting high,

This past weekend millions of people chose to watch two sports teams duke it out in hopes to take home some jewelry. I personally don’t pay any attention to sports of any kind - although I do wish dodgeball was a national past time - but I do know that the first Sunday in February means it’s time to watch some commercials. Particularly those that are TV spots for upcoming movies. For the first time ever in the history of Geek This, I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on what was shown during the Big Game.

You may not be familiar with my “One Trailer” rule. This is something I personally enacted three or four years ago when I realized that there are literally dozens of trailers and TV spots out there for upcoming movies. My theory is that if you put them all together you’ll end up with at least half of the movie and that ultimately means it’s spoiled for you before you ever set foot in a theater.

That said, I’m going to dive into the trailers from the Big Game!

RED SPARROW

Red Sparrow is based on a best-selling novel by Jason Matthews and this teaser feels a little like something we might see from a Black Widow movie. In this movie, a ballerina by the name of Dominika is recruited by a Russian intelligence service and forced to use her body as a weapon after she witnesses something she wasn’t supposed to. The teaser doesn’t give much and it doesn’t really lead to any kind of anticipation. I think I’ll pass.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM

In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) are trying to rescue the island’s remaining dinosaurs after a volcano becomes active. Also, there’s a giant, genetically-engineered velociraptor on the loose.

Since I was a little kid I have loved Jurassic Park. That was the only film of the franchise I can honestly say I like. And then they release this second trailer for Fallen Kingdom. I was sucked in as soon as it started. The creepy toy piano and the claw? Yes please! I’m always leery, though, when there is a Jurassic Park sequel because none of them have lived up to the magic (for me) of the first one. Fingers are crossed here.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Solo: A Star Wars Story chronicles an adventure featuring everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder. In this teaser, we hear Han registering for the Imperial Navy as a pilot, we get to see Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, the Millenium Falcon in its youth, and of course, everyone’s favorite Wookiee.

If I were to have a man-crush on a character it could easily be Han Solo. As a kid I was fascinated with him and in many ways tried to emulate him daily. I even read the now non-canon Han Solo Trilogy by AC Crispin and became an even bigger fan. What’s great for me in this teaser is there are nods to that trilogy. The fact that Han is registering to be an Imperial pilot? Check. Possibly telling the story of winning the Falcon? Check? What I’d love to see is Han Solo not being called “Han Solo” for part of the movie. Maybe I’ll have to re-read the books and talk about them in a later episode. I’m really excited for this one.

SKYSCRAPER

Yeah… there was nothing here. It’s simply Dwayne Johnson talking to a group of executives about how they’ve built a 3500 foot tall skyscraper and how it’s probably not safe.

I love The Rock. I’d watch him in almost anything, so there’s a good chance I’ll be seeing this some time. Whether it’s in the theater or at home in my underwear, I haven’t decided yet. Maybe that’s the point: “Can we sell a movie just having Dwayne Johnson talk?” We’ll see.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force return to save the world again after a mission gone wrong.

Jerry Seinfeld is a household name thanks to his TV  show, Seinfeld, that ran from 1989-1998 on NBC. The show, if you haven’t seen it is about… nothing. Well, kind of. It’s based on a somewhat fictional version of Jerry and his friends, Elaine, George, and Kramer. There isn’t an overarching theme throughout the show, other than the gang finds themselves in some hilarious predicaments. It’s one of those things you just have to watch to understand.

Well, anyway, thanks to the huge success from that show, Jerry’s well-known. Oddly enough, he didn’t really do a lot of well-known work outside of his stand-up career and guest appearances on shows like Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. And then came Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee in 2012.

The show was produced for the streaming service Crackle originally and has since been moved to Netflix, where every single episode is now available to watch and there is a new 24-episode season scheduled to release sometime in 2018.

If you’ve never watched a single episode of Comedians In Cars, it’s a pretty straight-forward concept: in each episode, Jerry (who is a major car enthusiast) picks up a comedian in a car - usually a fancy, expensive classic - and they drive through New York, Los Angeles, or wherever the comedian is from, and they get coffee while talking about anything and everything.

It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but there’s a level of “realness” in the conversations Jerry has with his guests. I think that’s due to the fact that there isn’t this huge production going on like a traditional talk show. They are literally sitting in a car, talking. It’s simple but brilliant and allows the guests to be honest and communicate on a more personal level.

Since this is a show about comedians, an obvious topic to cover here is, “How funny is it?” To be honest, it’s genuinely funny the majority of the time. What’s great about it, though, is it’s not some scripted television show and no one has lines. It absolutely wouldn’t work that way. The humor is genuine, so like stand-up, there are going to be moments and guests that you’ll want to go back and rewatch, but there are some misses.

I think it would be extremely easy to say that I didn’t like some guests simply because I’m not a fan of their style of humor, but I really did try to be open with each new episode. Garry Shandling and Ricky Gervais aren’t comedians I would put on my Top 10 list if you were to ask me, but they happened to be great episodes because of their banter with Jerry. And there were times when guests you expected to be good just weren’t. (Sorry Jay Leno and Brian Regan!)

Also, one thing I noticed toward the end of the available episodes was how Jerry became more and more crotchety. He was a little more mean during that last collection and a half. Still, it made for a fun show.

As far as favorite episodes go, that’s really a tough one. There are currently 59 episodes on Netflix to watch and at 15-20 minutes on average, it’s easy to forget some that were absolutely stellar. But, if you were to stick me in a sweet classic car - oh man, those Volvos! - I’d have to say my top five were:

* Jimmy Fallon

* Stephen Colbert

* Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks

* Robert Klein

* Don Rickles

* David Letterman

I know that was 6, but come on! There are so many great people. Again, what was fascinating to me is that, yes, they were funny, but to learn more about what makes them tick? That’s the reason I love character so much. People are interesting, even if they are famous and slightly out of touch with the real world.

If you can’t tell by now,

If you’ve listened to Geek This since the podcast started in 2012, you may have noticed a trend: we have rarely talked about DC Comics and DC Entertainment. It’s been brought to my attention by myself that maybe, just maybe I hate them. In fact, my loathing for DC has been brought up a couple of times with friends and I’ve never truly been able to explain why I might hate them. So, on this episode I want to explain my point of view and how I’m going to remedy the issue.

I was born in 1987, so my childhood took place in the 1990s. What I find wild about this era is that when it came to comics themselves, while I wasn’t very interested, there was a boom going on. With it, though, came the rise of comic book cartoons. These were my jam. Since that was the case, it was easy for me to become familiar with characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. Marvel cartoons were just more prevalent, which meant the superhero toys I had were primarily Marvel.

I had watched and re-watched the Michael Keaton Batman films a lot of times, but any other character outside of those I was oblivious to. It wasn’t until sometime later that I discovered Batman: The Animated Series. Still, I didn’t understand the concept of a shared comic book universe, so I had no idea Superman, The Flash, or any other DC Comics character outside of that particular show even existed. Once Superman: The Animated Series was on, I watched it, but not with the interest that I did Batman. (Still, to this day, Superman isn’t as interesting as Batman to me. But that’s another episode.)

As I grew older, comic book characters and superheroes faded away. They didn’t hold much value to me once I became interested in books, music, video games, and movies. When I was a teenager, the only person I knew that liked comics was my older cousin. Then, in 2002, a certain web-headed hero was brought to theaters. After that, I started to read some comics, namely Ultimate Spider-Man. In 2007, after another Spider-Man movie, I stumbled upon the Civil War event. It pulled me in, leading me to today, where I still love everything Marvel.

As you can see, I didn’t have a lot of exposure to DC Comics outside of Batman. My parents didn’t have an opinion one way or another when it came to comics. In fact, the only ones they ever bought me were a Marvel Comics adaptation of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and two issues of a Christian series called Archangels: The Saga, which I liked enough to spend my hard-earned money to buy every single issue until it was discontinued. (I still have them, by the way.)

So it isn’t that I hate DC Comics, I’ve just never given them an honest chance outside of Batman. Here’s the deal, though. In an effort to become a more well-rounded person, I’m going to start reading a non-Batman DC Comics series. I want suggestions from you, though. What is a good series to start with if I’m just dipping my toe into the latest books? And, yes, I’ll even read a Superman book, but I still need someone to help me understand the appeal.

All of this is in my quest to understand the world of comics and truly appreciate what’s out there, even if it is unfamiliar.

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Previously, in episode 77, I made a list of 12 pop culture things I wanted to check out in 2018. One item on that list was to read more comics that were not part of Marvel or DC. I was given several suggestions from you and I’m taking the time to dig into these books.

Reviewing comics is one of the hardest thing for me on the podcast because, generally, people don’t have the access to comics the way they might a big-budget movie. I actually have to get my comics digitally because the closest comic shop is nearly an hour away from me and, sadly, they don’t always carry everything. That said, there are going to spoilers. There’s really no other way around it, especially for this series. Sorry.

Today I’m covering Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan. This series (which is still ongoing at the time of this recording) debuted in October 2015, so I am absolutely late to the party here and I’m so sorry that I am.

The first issue begins on Halloween 1988, where four 12-year old girls meet each other on their paper route and get sucked into a plot that is so much bigger and twisted than they (or the reader) realize. The vibe has been called “Stand By Me” meets “War of the Worlds” and I think it deserves that comparison. When it was recommended to me, it was along the lines of “Stranger Things,” which is also a good comparison.

When I started reading this series, I had no idea what I was walking into. I didn’t read any of the plot or even a summary of that first issue. I just picked it up and ran with it. The 80’s feel was spot on and that is really what sucked me in at first. And then all of the weird sci-fi stuff started.

But let’s back up.

Our protagonists are, like I said, four 12-year old girls doing their early-morning newspaper deliveries. They’re spunky. They have attitudes. They aren’t the typical girls written in comics and that makes them more special and more interesting. Erin is the newcomer to the group and bumps into Mackenzie (the tough leader), Lindsey (the tough girl’s best friend) and KJ (the tomboy). Vaughan makes it plainly clear that the 80s were tougher than we would like to believe.

Unlike a lot of female protagonists, these girls are capable of handling things themselves. That’s shown at the beginning of the first issue, when Erin has to deal with a dirtbag teenager harassing her. Mackenzie, Lindsey, and KJ roll up to stop him, regardless of them knowing this new girl. Vaughan doesn’t mess with cliches here.

In addition to the Paper Girls meeting each other, they get sucked into a weird sci-fi adventure when someone steals one of Lindsey’s prized walkie-talkies. They decide to chase him down, which leads them to an abandoned house, where they find what looks like a lunar module in the basement.

After a flash of light and a loud hum, the girls return outside to see that the sky looks different and things just don’t feel right. They find the walkie-talkie thief, who is revealed to be someone from the future. It’s also revealed that the girls are in 2016, not 1988.

This is where things get weird. This is also where we are constantly reminded that we aren’t in a time-travel story. But maybe we are? (As I’m recording this, I’ve not read the most-recent issue, so things are still developing and still a little foggy.)

At the end of the first volume, the girls run into Erin… as a 40-year old woman. Later we meet another version of Erin that is from the future, but is still 12 and speaks the same language as the Elders, who seem to be the antagonists in the story. And they ride these pterodactyls who fly in the sky. When Erin shows up from the supposed alternate universe, she brings back giant tardigrades who start fighting Godzilla...

Back in episode 59 I gave my initial impression of YouTube’s premium “YouTube Red” service. Overall, I wasn’t impressed, but after a year and 20 episodes - and getting access to a new 3-month trial - I wanted to revisit the service and see what had changed and if it would become a regular part of my cord-cutting utilities.

What is YouTube Red?

To put it simply, Red is a premium service created by YouTube in order for them to do more specialized content with some of the top creators on the platform. It costs $10 per month. With that $10 per month, you get benefits, like absolutely no advertisements, access to their Red Originals programming (which I’ll touch on more later), total access to Google Play Music - which is on par with Spotify Premium, and the ability to download videos and playlists.

Ad-Free Watching

We watch a lot of YouTube in my house. In fact, I think I personally watch more YouTube than I do Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Video. It’s the first thing I turn on when I want to watch TV at the end of the day or on the weekend. When you watch that much, ads can be frustrating. That’s why I love the idea of cord-cutting and pay extra for Hulu’s Commercial-Free package. (Although that’s not 100% accurate. Thanks, ABC…) Netflix doesn’t have ads, either.

The problem with YouTube ads is that there is one in front of every single video you watch unless it’s one that is not being monetized, which, if we’re honest, is a rare thing. Having YouTube ad-free is a fantastic perk, but I’m not sure if it’s worth $10 per month.

Let’s continue and see if this pans out.

YouTube Red Originals

I love seeing creators get the chance to make something they’ve always wanted to make. This is the idea behind Red Originals. From what I understand, the way it works is YouTube selects several of the top creators on the site and given them an injection of money to make “that thing”. For instance, when Red launched in October of 2016, PewDiePie, Rhett & Link, Lilly Singh (AKA Superwoman), and Joey Graceffa, among others, released new premium shows. These were only accessible behind the Red paywall, but the first episode was free as a teaser.

When I originally looked at YouTube Red, there wasn’t a lot of content there. There was even less that I felt deserved my time or money. In the end, that was the number one thing that made the service unappealing.

A year or so later, there have been additions to what is available and some of it is definitely worth your time. My favorite shows have to be Rhett & Link’s Buddy System and Mind Field by vsauce. One of the hardest parts about the Red Originals is that I don’t know a lot of those creators. That didn’t stop me from checking out some of the shows.

I watched both seasons of Joey Graceffa’s Escape the Night, a murder mystery reality show, which has some good ideas, but overall fails in its “reality show” style. They were obviously acting…

Anyway, there is much more to sink your teeth into here. In addition to the YouTube creator programming, the service is bringing in other talent and trying to position itself as a competitor to Netflix and Hulu. This time around, there is plenty to choose from.

One nit to pick: it’s hard to find the Red Originals unless you’re using a mobile device. At least that’s my experience. Unless you’re subscribed to a YouTube channel with Red content, you’ll have to hunt it down through searching for “YouTube Red Originals”. I think there should be a button in your Subscriptions that will take you right there. Just a thought.

Google Play Music

This is an underutilized feature of my subscription. I don’t listen to a lot of music unless I’m working on something that needs my full focus and I can...

NBC's Hannibal is based on the character Thomas Harris created in his novel, RED DRAGON. You probably recognize the name Hannibal Lecter from the classic 1991 film, Silence of the Lambs, which starred Anthony Hopkins in the iconic role and Jodie Foster in the role of FBI agent-in-training, Clarice Starling. This show and the movies (Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, and the 1984 film, Manhunter) all share the same inspiration.

Now, I’m still working through the movies and I may touch on them later this year, but today I want to focus on the television show. In a review for Silence of the Lambs I wrote on the website Letterboxd, I ended that review stating that the movies and this TV show were different animals. That is a word of caution before you dive into this world, or even if you have already been a part of it, but haven’t sat down to watch the most recent take on these characters. They do not work with each other at all.

For a series on network television, HANNIBAL is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic and absolutely pushes the envelope on the typical formula for shows. There is plenty of gore and nudity, though it is blurred.

The story focuses primarily on the relationship of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter. Will is an empath. He has the ability to essentially experience the murders that he investigates and reconstructs them in his mind. All the while doing damage to his own psyche. That is where Hannibal comes in. He is a psychiatrist who is contracted by the FBI to work with Will and his team, run by Jack Crawford (played by Laurence Fishburne). In addition to working with Will to help break down each murder, he also sees him as a patient to check on his mental health.

The show is extremely well-written and acted. It is also a good mix of drama, horror, procedural, thriller, and mystery. It’s what stood out to me when I watched the first episode. It was like nothing I had seen on TV. It was unique and Bryan Fuller, the show runner and producer, knew that. He took risks, especially making the psychology as big a character as Will, Hannibal, or any of the other characters that showed up. Some of it went over my head, which I actually loved. That gives me a reason to rewatch it.

I can't spoil any part of this show. There’s too much contained in the three seasons that I couldn’t focus on anything in particular. What I will do is talk about characters. (You knew it was coming!)

As I mentioned before, Will Graham - played by Hugh Dancy - is an empath and put himself in the figurative shoes of the killers. His ability to empathize so strongly gives him a supernatural insight into these things and impoverished the course of the show does damage to him. Will is the “us” guy. We get to feel what he feels through every moment in each episode. Even though he is the hero, there at moments when you have to wonder.

Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal Lecter is absolutely fantastic. He has this calm, unflappable demeanor throughout the entire show that is chilling. He is essentially a dead soul, but he’s interesting all the time. I kept finding myself asking, What is he thinking? What is he planning? Every single time, I was surprised. I might have even rooted for him a little? Maybe?

The only thing I remember seeing Laurence Fishburne in before this was The Matrix, but that was ages ago. His role, Jack Crawford, fit perfectly with Will and Hannibal. In fact, the opening credit sequence contains those three characters because their relationships feed off of one another. He pushes Will a little more in every episode, in spite of the toll it could take on him. At the same time, he is manipulated masterfully by Hannibal. Again, these three characters work so well together.

Last week on the show I shared a list of 12 pieces of entertainment I want to experience next year. This week I want to reflect on 2017 and share some info with you.

Episode 76 Feedback

First off, though, I want to share a little bit of feedback from episode 76, “12 Things for 2018”. David Arington, who inspired last week’s episode and also hosts Helix Reviews wrote in to respond:

I just listened to your 12 Things episode and I have a few suggestions for good comics outside of Marvel  and DC. Paper Girls is a cool sci fi comic somewhat in the vein of Stranger Things (I think you may have talked about this on the podcast before, so you may have already read it.) Lazarus is a fascinating read. It’s about different factions of a future society and a class system and the lead character is nigh unkillable, so that’s pretty cool! Another one I love is Plume. This is a funny, fantasy Western, adventure series about a young lady and her magical sidekick searching for her father.

It is a Kickstarter project, and the fourth (and final I think) volume is on Kickstarter now. Also anything by Bryan Lee O'Malley is great (Scott Pilgrim, Lost at Sea, Seconds, even Snotgirl is pretty fun!)

Check them out if you want to, I know I enjoyed each of them. It was a good episode and I look forward to hear what you think about these things in the future!

Thanks for the recommendations, David! I highly encourage you to check out Helix Reviews. David has a lot of energy and is definitely excited to consume geek culture over there.

That right there is really what the heart of this podcast is: connecting with people and introducing things you geek out about with them. That’s a big reason that I started the podcast 5 years ago, to find people that were genuinely geeks and fans of anything and everything. (Yeah, if you can believe it, Geek This officially turned 5 this year. You can go back and listen to the very first published episode. I don’t necessarily recommend it, but you definitely can if you want a nice chuckle.)

So, yeah, this year was kind of big for me as far as the podcast goes, so I thought I would peel back the curtain a little and share some info that you may or may not be aware of. Here we go:

Bringing Back the Podcast

In June 2017, after a 6 month hiatus, I pulled the podcasting gear out of hiding and recorded episode 60. To be completely honest with you, I was very close to putting an end to the show. I have a Facebook Messenger group with David, Adam, and Mike - the other hosts of the podcast - and drove them nuts going back and forth on when and if I was going to figuratively and literally pull the plug. Scheduling four people to record is not an easy feat, I promise!

We Got A Sponsor

Five consistent episodes later, we got our first sponsor with Geek Fuel. I am still floored that something like this even happened. As a hobby podcaster, for a brand to email you and say they’re interested in sponsoring you… yeah, that almost never happens! I’m extremely thankful to Matt Quiett over at Nerds Domain for helping out with the logistics of that. Please go check out his podcast network, especially if you’re into role-playing games. He’s doing some great stuff over there.

Making GEEK THIS Better

This next one is a little mix of personal and podcast-related, but I won a contest and earned myself a year-long membership to Daniel J Lewis’ Podcasters’ Society. If you’re not familiar with Daniel, I like to call him my officially unofficial podcast mentor.

As you well know, New Year resolutions rarely hold up after the first month of the year, if that. Instead of making a list of unrealistic goals, I thought I would steal an idea from David Arington over at Helix Reviews. OK, maybe “steal” isn’t the word I want to use. I’m adapting the idea. How’s that?

For the past couple of years, David has made a list of things he wants to experience before his next birthday. There are a total of 12 items on the list to represent the 12 months in a year. (Makes sense, right?) None of the things on the list have to be done; this is more of a wish list of movies, television, comics, and maybe even games I’d like to check out by the end of next year.

All right. This list is in no particular order, by the way.

Enough explaining. Let’s get to it!

*

Re-watching the MCU

* After the release of the Infinity War trailer, someone posted an image stating if you watch one MCU movie every week, you can get them all in before it hits theaters in May. Challenge accepted. The bonus challenge is watching them all with my wife. She’s missed most of them, but is extremely excited for Infinity War. (She’s great, isn’t she?)

*

ALIEN Franchise

* As a kid I wasn’t allowed to watch horror movies, so I’m making up for lost time now that I’m 30. Alien is a much talked-about franchise, not just in horror, but in science fiction. I’ve watched the first two films and seen Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. The challenge here is to finish the rest of them. Should I throw the Predator films in here, too?

*

Begin reading a new comic publisher regularly (Valiant, Image, Dynamite, etc)

* Over the last year I’ve seen that I am stuck in a rut when it comes to reading comics and I want to break out of it. I find that my collection - physically and digitally - is 85% Marvel and 15% DC. I want to expand my knowledge of publishers and read something outside of the Big Two. What would you suggest that I start with?

*

American Film Institute Top 100

* I would love to call myself a film buff, but I’m not. I’m a fan of film, but unfortunately since starting the podcast I’ve fallen into primarily watching and anticipating superhero movies. We’re about more than that here! Over the next year I want to begin watching the AFI Top 100 movies. I see this as challenge because there are films on here that I probably wouldn’t watch otherwise. I believe this will give me a better grasp and appreciation of the film industry and what it has to offer. As an exception, though, I’m going to skip anything I’ve already seen. (Seems obvious, right?)

*

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

* For whatever reason, this keeps coming up in various movie lists I find on the internet. I know absolutely nothing about it, so it’ll be a nice surprise for me. It’s streaming on Amazon Video right now, so I’ve decided it has to be a must-watch for me in the coming year. Who doesn’t like Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer, am I right?

*

The Exorcist

* I’m already terrified of Linda Blair even though I haven’t seen this. I’ll save this for a day when I don’t have to sleep for a month.

*

The Shining

* This one is a little of a cheat. I’ve actually watched part of this movie, but never finished it. (I know! Shame!) That’s the challenge in 2018: finish The Shining.

In the latest installment of the DCEU, Zack Snyder brings Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg together to take down Steppenwolf before he can bring an end to human civilization.

The general consensus of Justice League has been, “It was better than I expected” and “Not a great movie, but not terrible.” I don’t have an opinion that differs from those thoughts. While walking out of the theater, those were the exact thoughts I had. Sorry. I enjoyed Justice League much more than Batman v Superman, so that’s a plus!

This movie picks up not long after the events of BvS and it is highly evident. Black flags draped over buildings, huge newspaper headlines, in some ways, though, it was overkill for those of us that sat through the previous film. It also gave away a big moment that came later.

Snyder suggests through these visuals that the world hasn’t been the same since Superman died. While that might be true, there isn’t a good portrayal of the chaos that he wants us to believe is going on. We only see something is wrong when Batman encounters a parademon in Gotham City. Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio don’t give us a reason to care that the world is in danger, outside of this movie’s villain

Speaking of our villain, I have to say that he is biggest glaring issue with Justice League.

Sure, Steppenwolf was going to take over the world, but he didn’t really have the presence you’re looking for in a villain. I didn’t have a reason to be worried about who he was. In fact, his comic book origin is much more impressive. There should have been more of a play at bringing Darkseid into the DCEU, too. Granted, that would feel like a rip-off of Marvel bringing in Thanos, but it would have at least gotten us excited for what is planned. (And to top it off, making him a 100% CGI character was a terrible idea.)

Now that I’ve started talking about characters, it’s time to examine who we got in this movie.

Batman

The idea that Batman needed to put together a team of meta-humans seemed lost. Did Superman sacrificing himself in BvS really affect him that much? If so, it wasn’t that obvious to me. It served the general plot, but it was hollow. I happen to like Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the character, but I do have to agree with the opinion of Ben DeBono from The Sci-Fi Christian: he has nothing to do in this movie. Yes, he assembled the team and felt the need to sacrifice himself (which was not needed, period), but that was it. He was there to bring in people who were unfamiliar with the rest of the team.

Wonder Woman

I know a lot of people raved about her solo debut into the DCEU, but I wasn’t blown away. It was the best movie so far in the franchise and it did a good job introducing her while showing the strength of women. It just wasn’t a fantastic film. That said, I really do enjoy the character of Wonder Woman. For me, she’s the real glue that holds this movie’s team together. I vote she’s the leader and I really hope Gal Gadot returns to the role.

Aquaman

Aquaman is the first character in the film that we don’t get to meet beforehand. That, unfortunately, makes character development difficult. (That’s also an issue I have with the next two heroes.) While I haven’t seen Jason Momoa in much other than his stint as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, I did enjoy the majority of his depiction of Aquaman. The worst parts were the “surfer dude” persona that seemed to seep in every once in awhile. I’d like to see an Aquaman solo film to flesh out the character more, though.

The Flash

Obviously he was written to be the comedic relief for the movie.