True Reviews, Updates and Common Sense Opinions
Wonder Woman 1984 is the highly anticipated sequel to (2017) Wonder Woman and the third film in the DC Comic franchise for the Israeli actress Gal Gadot.
Continue reading “Wonder Woman 1984 | I wonder where the action is (review)”
At the start of the season finale, Eva is wearing a special suit to help her stay in her physical form outside of the Mirror-verse. Mirror David Singh is still doing her bidding.
Continue reading “The Flash: Success is Assured | 6 x19 (season finale)”
Cisco, Ralph, and Barry flip the switch to the artificial speed force, and it fails. The three of them look at each other with disappointment as the title sequence starts.
Continue reading “The Flash: Liberation | 6 x17- review”
The episode begins with Mirror Iris acclimating a newly formed Mirror Kamilla. They meet with Eva, who has found a way to talk with them without Iris hearing. Their mission is to recover Eva’s invention, the Prismatic Refractor, so that everyone can escape the Mirror Realm.
Continue reading “The Flash: The Exorcism of Nash Wells | 6 x15 – review”
After Iris was abducted by a mystical mirror…
Continue reading “The Flash: Love Is a Battlefield | 6 x11 – Review”
The Flash is back for the second half of the season. After the events of the crisis, Team Flash is ramping up its operations again.
Continue reading “The Flash: Marathon | 6 x10 – review”
Finally, the Crisis on Infinite Earth’s special continues on The CW after a month-long hiatus. Please feel free to catch up with the events of the crisis by clicking here (for part 1 and 2) and here (for part 3).
Continue reading “Crisis on Infinite Earths, Pt. 4 & 5 | The Flash / Arrow (The CW)”
I had two thoughts while I watched the first episode of DC Universes’ new Harley Quinn series.
Continue reading “Harley Quinn based on one episode: (DC Universe)”
After Barry lost his mental battle with Ramsey in the last episode of The Flash, Cisco devised a plan to defeat Ramsey and save the city. He explains his idea to shoot Ramsey with radiation and stop his ability to infect the citizens of Central City because at this point he is creating Blood Brothers and Sisters.
Continue reading “The Flash: The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 2 | 6 x08 (the CW)”
Last week I finally got around to watching Shazam! It was an entertaining movie that had its campy moments, but overall it was a solid story with pretty good character development. Especially with the main character, Bill Batson.
Click for the full review here
After I watched Shazam! I started thinking about if Billy Batson joined the ranks of Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, and all of the other DC Legends. It would be a great way to get more out of the character Shazam! were a television series.
Think this over with me.
Character Development
In my movie review, I expressed that young Billy Batson was more interesting than Shazam Billy Batson. In a TV series, Billy could evolve as a teenager as he adjusts to life with his new family. The story could pick up where it left off at the end of the movie. It may be a could idea to retcon his siblings getting powers or just making them dormant until the season finale. Concentrating on Billy’s character would be the best.
From the superhero perspective, Billy could learn the ropes of what it means to be the savior of his city. Especially since apparently, he knows Superman now. It wouldn’t be so unbelievable that Shazam would know the Flash and the other just like in the comics.
Comedy
Most of the CW shows have some form of comedic relief in them. Billy Batson as Shazam and his brother Freddy brought a lot of funny moments to the movie. It would be a waste not to put them in more situations together.
The adventures that he’d be able to go on with his brother as a superhero and as his teenage self would give episodes of entertainment.
Gimmick Suit
If Shazam is a television character, I think I would be able to get around the suit. I was critical of the suit in my review of the movie. I felt the suit looked very campy and bulky off of Zachary Levi. However, he could get away with that suit if it was a television production.
This could be a stretch, but honestly, I think that the Shazam character could benefit from having weekly episodic adventures. The Flash has a new lifespan due to his TV run on the CW. Weekly stories would allow us to get to know the other siblings better, flush out Billy Batson as a character, and build his story for a new audience.
The season finale of Swamp Thing was good. It left me curious. How could you cancel the series but leave the season with a cliff hanger?
I think there will be another season at some point. Whether it will be on the DC Universe streaming service or another network remains to be seen. But, if DC does not follow up on this show, they will be making a mistake.
But I digress.
In the previous episode, a lot of things happened. Daniel Cassidy transformed into the Blue Devil to save Abby and Liz, Maria was committed to a psychiatric hospital, and Caroline Woodrue overdosed on her medication because she couldn’t remember if she took it or not. Most importantly Swamp Thing and Abby found out that Alec Holland died during the explosion in episode 1.
This episode was supposed to sum everything up. However, I think this episode left more questions than answers.
Spoilers ahead
Jason Woodrue is unstable at this point due to his fixation on the mysterious healing properties of Swamp Thing due to the mutagen mixing with Alec Holland’s blood earlier in the season.
Caroline is in “locked-in” syndrome due to the overdoes and Jason is now using the specimens he took from Swamp Thing to try and heal her. But he decides to experiment on himself first. Recall, he extracted Swamp Things’ heart and lungs. So he decides to cook up the heart and eat it. Eating the heart causes him to seize up and pass out in front of a helpless Caroline.
“… a thing born from his death.” – Swamp Thing
Meanwhile, the Conclave is still determined to capture Swamp Thing and use him for the “good of humanity”. But, he is uninterested and vows to take the fight to them as they invade the swamp.
The Conclave’s representative Ellery sees Avery on the swamp site and kicks him out tell him that basically because of his wife’s shenanigans and his mistress trying to kill him, the Conclave sees him as a liability. Avery sets off on a mission to clear up his affairs so that he can rejoin to Conclave and finish he’s life work to use the swamp to his advantage.
This leads him to Delroy’s bar where he finds out Matt is in the hospital. He goes to the hospital and pleads with Lucile to get back with him and start fresh, but she is not interested and threatens to kill him if he comes near her or Matt again.
Matt is still unconscious, but when he wakes up he somehow knows Avery came by. Matt and Lucile make up (sort of) and he tells her to go home to rest. However, he unknowingly sent her to her assumed death. Avery broke into her car and waited for her. He then stabbed her in the stomach and drove her car to the swamp. He dumps the car in the swamp just in time for Lucile to regain consciousness and drown in the trunk of her car (so I think).
Always check the back seat folks!
After watching Lucile drown, Avery coughs up a swamp leaf. Perhaps he’s suffering effects from the treat Swamp Thing gave him when he was injured.
Daniel Cassidy is being haunted by the Blue Devil since activating its powers last week. Liz catches up with him just in time to see him off because he can finally leave Marais. He speeds down the highway and past the ‘Welcome to Marais’ sign. Where is he going?
“A peace from which you may never return.” – Ms. Xandou
Ms. Xanadu made an appearance in this episode. She visited Maria who was committed to the psych ward by Avery. While in the ward, she began to have episodes that made her condition worsen due to the dabbling she did with the dark swamp spirits to see her daughter, Shawna. Ms. X offers to ease her pain and puts her into a hypnotized state where her daughter is with her. I am assuming she’s going to stay that way forever.
Abby arrives just after the hypnosis and Ms. X directs her to see Avery. I guess she hoped to find Avery and Jason Woodrue together because she goes to visit the Woodrue home. However, she found him in a heightened sense of awareness with the nature around him and planning to shove the Swamp Things heart in his wife’s mouth (she’s still unable to move, but her face says she’s terrified).
Luckily, Abby called 911 and they arrive in time to save Caroline and arrest Woodrue (who has crazy strength now after eating the heart).
“Alec holland is gone, the question is who do u wanna be” – Alec Holland’s ghost
Back at the swamp, Swamp Thing has massacred the entire Conclave unit expect for Ellery. He leaves him alive to go tell the story of what happened and hopefully convince anyone hunting him to back off.
After he finishes his attack, Holland’s ghost appears and asks him to decide who he wants to be now that the truth is out. Swamp Thing wants to go deep in the swamp, but can’t bear to leave Abby behind. As a result of his feelings for Abby, he stays.
Abby meets up with Swamp Thing at Holland’s old cabin and tells him that she’s not going anyway and they can face the future together. So I guess they are in love and now they are together, but I’m not sure.
End Credits and Season 2
During the end credit scene, Matt arrives at the police station to find it covered in plants and vines. He also notices Tyler (a fellow officer) down on the scene. Moments after a tree man rises from the ground and introduces itself as Jason Woodrue.
Jason transformed into this Tree Thing because he ate Swamp Thing’s heart. However, he is not friendly like Swamp Thing and attacks Matt Cable to end the scene.
This is why I am expecting a season 2 at some point. The episode is called Loose Ends but it didn’t wrap anything up.
Jason Woodrue is now a threat in Marais, Avery is still around after killing Lucile, and Daniel Cassidy’s fate is unknown. And let’s not forget that the Conclave probably won’t stay away from the swamp.
Episode 10 of Swamp Thing did not close all of the storylines. If anything it opened new ones. The rumor is that Swamp Thing was canceled due to financial costs. I say DC needs to invest in this story. It’s unlike anything that is available right now and this could be a great way to set themselves apart from Marvel.
Swamp Thing is different in a good way and needs to be invested in.
I’ll tell you a key reason why I usually watch movies, television, and anime without reading reviews or checking hashtags for opinions.
Sometimes those opinions can turn into your own. If you watch something for yourself, you can have your pure thoughts on whatever it is you are watching.
Unfortunately, I didn’t watch Shazam! July due to other people’s criticism. That’s why I waited so long to watch it.
Shazam! came out in April 2019 and guess what, it was good!
Sure, I was more interested in the young Billy Batson’s progression versus his escapades as Shazam. But, his entire story arc was good.
We meet Billy in a very vulnerable state. He’s looking for his mother, he doesn’t trust anyone, and he’s thrust into a new environment when child services catch him in Philadelphia following a lead on his mother.
From there we meet the best part of Billy, his foster family. Most specifically his brother, Freddy. The chemistry between Freddy and Billy is great. They came off as bonded friends throughout the movie.
And the family’s positive and welcoming behavior throughout the movie made it easy to believe that he would trust them at the end of the movie to become his partners and fight the supervillain.
Speaking of the villain, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana was creepy and the 7 deadly sins were well designed. Plus, it was nice to see Philadelphia used in this type of film. You never really see it.
This movie had a lot of funny moments. However, the suit was not one of them. It threw me off. At one point it seemed like the writing poked fun at the suit.
There’s a moment where Billy is at the dinner table with his foster family and a comment is made about the suit Shazam is wearing. Billy responds that the superhero may not have had a choice in his outfit.
That is a funny way for the writing and directing staff to poke at itself. But seriously, you’re in a franchise where Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman have sleek, shiny suits. Shazam needs a better look in the sequel.
Besides the suit, I enjoyed the movie. I wish I hadn’t let people tell me it was too campy. Because it wasn’t. It was funny at times and heart-warming at other times. And it’s worth a watch.
Previously on Swamp Thing, the bad guys came out on top. The Conclave, Jason Woodrue, and Avery Sunderland abducted Holland from the swamp and moved him to a mobile lab in Marai.
Abby was left out in the cold with no idea about her status with the CDC or the whereabouts of her friend Dr. Edwards, and it looked like all hope was lost.
Now, all hope is definitely lost because everything we’ve known up to this point is a lie!
Spoilers ahead
It’s important to remember that Jason Woodrue has a wife named Caroline and she is suffering from an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. In this episode we see Caroline get progressively worse even while taking her medicine. Because she’s getting worse, Jason is motivated to experiment on Holland to develop a miracle cure for her.
As a result of Woodrue’s desperation, Holland is abducted from the swamp, placed on a table with power damping technology, and in a medically induced coma for exploratory surgery.
“You’re not a man at all. You’re a plant that thinks its a man.” – Jason Woodrue
At some point during this surgery, he wakes up. Despite expressing that he can feel everything Woodrue proceeds taking out organs, yanking them at points to observe them.
Woodrue concludes that Holland is not the man on the table. The man on the table is a memory shell made up of the plants from the swamp. He suspects that during the explosion at Skeeter Cove, Alec Holland died. However, due to the mutagens in the water affecting the plants, his DNA mixed with the mutagens and the plants formed this body and tried to replicate the human condition, specifically Holland’s memories.
WHAT!
So Woodrue’s theory is that the Swamp Thing is not Holland after all!
“I don’t care. I’m not giving up on Alec.” – Abby Arcane
While all of this is happening, Abby asks Liz to help her find where they are keeping Holland. At the same time, Daniel Cassidy wakes up at the hospital and finds the swamp stranger (the one from the movie set) at his bedside.
The swamp stranger shows him a vision of a possible future of Liz and Abby getting shot up via the Conclave while looking for Holland.
What is the swamp stranger exactly? He just comes out of nowhere when he feels like it.
Anyway, Cassidy fights the urge to be Blue Devil and save Liz and Abby but eventually, he succumbs to either temptation or guilt and goes to help.
In real-time, Abby and Liz find out about Caroline’s condition and conveniently about the mobile lab. So they go to the lab and almost get shot up, but this time the lights go out, the Blue Devil tears all of the Conclave soldiers to shreds, and then runs away after he’s spotted by Liz and Abby.
He must have passed out because he wakes up later in the episode in human form and sees all of the carnage he has caused.
Abby and Liz make it to Holland in the lab and watch him regenerate after being cut to bits. Then he stands up and says that he has to go back to Skeeter Cove to see if Woodrue is right. Abby follows him and Liz goes to investigate the group we know as the Conclave.
Meanwhile, Avery has Maria locked up in a psych ward because she tried to have him killed. Matt Cable gets drunk in a bar and then crashes into a pole while driving.
Don’t drink and drive folks.
“This ‘thing’ is what I am, Alec Holland is …” – The Swamp Thing
Abby and Holland make it to Skeeter Cove and Holland dives into the water. He slowly rises with a rotting skeleton in his arms. The actual corpse of Alec Holland. He died in episode one and was replicated due to the mutagen in the swamp.
How bazaar!
I think this is the biggest surprise of the season. Especially when you think back to Holland and Abby having the moment in the swamp where the Swamp Thing looked like Holland due to the pheromones he released.
How will they wrap up this season?
Will Avery get away with everything or is he in trouble now that Swamp Thing has escaped? Or will he have to answer to the Conclave?
What will Abby do now that the truth about Alec’s death is out?
Can Daniel Cassidy leave Marai now since he saved Abby and Liz?
Is Maria stuck in the hospital forever?
Is Matt Cable dead from the car accident?
Will Jason give up now that Caroline’s condition is worse?
And most importantly, what will the Swamp Thing do now since he’s not a real person?
I can’t wait until the season finale!
Previous episode – Swamp Thing S01 E08: The Long Walk Home (review)
I sat down to try something I hadn’t watched before. As much as I’m enjoying Swamp Thing over on DC Universe, I decided to try some other DC shows that are available right now.
I’ve never watched Krypton before and I haven’t heard much about it. Going into the show, I only knew that it is a prequel to Superman, sort of.
Krypton follows the grandfather of Superman. So technically he has to father a baby and then that baby needs to grow up and have Superman.
Okay.
I started at season 2 episode 1. Being a television series on Syfy I was lucky enough to catch a recap at the beginning of the first episode.
However, after three episodes I found that I was lacking interest. Don’t get me wrong, the set design is great. The fight sequences are high paced and hard-hitting. Plus Brainiac looks completely creepy and Doomsday had a great design too! They have the best design on the show.
Not to mention General Zod is played by Colin Salmon, one of my favorite special ops soliders “one” from the first Resident Evil (2002).
But I think it’s because I didn’t start from the beginning of the series that it missed the mark. I started the second season so I was low-key lost. And then I also didn’t connect with any characters.
Seg-El seemed a little oblivious to me. I mean he had his moments where he looked cool and completely showed out, but other than the powers he developed on Brainiac’s planet, I didn’t connect.
Then I got confused because he was dating Lyta-Zod but then actual Zod came from the future and took over Krypton. And even after Adam Strange warned everybody (including Lyta, Seg-EL and everyone else important) that Zod was up to no good, Zod’s plan still succeeded.
Episode 3, the last one I watched as of this writing, had Strange and Seg-EL stuck on Brainiac’s planet captured by one of the only habitants left and Seg-El’s powers are overwhelming him. While a bunch of other people are planning a resistance.
I can’t say whether Krypton is a good show or not. Maybe I did the show a disservice by joining in on the second season. But then again, I’ve started shows late in the lifecycle before, enjoyed some and even went back to the start for some.
I should be excited to start from episode 1 in season 1. I don’t want to force it. I’m sure Krypton is a great show. But after 3 episodes, I stopped. Maybe I’ll get it another try later.
I keep asking the same question every week regarding Avery Sunderland.
Why do people trust this man?
His face doesn’t even come across as caring or trustworthy. Not to mention that he has betrayed or threatened almost every person that we’ve met during this season of Swamp Thing.
This week it became apparent that most of the people involved in the conspiracy in Marai are either greedy or naive and that is how they keep getting taken advantage of.
Spoilers ahead
Even though Lucille shot Avery twice with a shotgun before he fell in the swamp water, he only had a knee injury. He wandered the Swamp grounds and experienced hallucinations of Lucille and his father until Holland found him.
Now here’s the thing. At this point, Holland knows that Avery gave the order to kill him. He says as much when he’s talking to Avery. Yet, as soon as Avery promises to make him human again, he drops all angry and believes him.
How naive could you be?
This man tried to kill you! I can understand Holland is the good guy in this situation so he doesn’t retaliate, but you know Avery is not a good person. How could you believe him?
“The swamp would of let you die. I couldn’t. ” – Alec Holland
Now, I’m not sure if Avery had a change of heart after Holland saved him. But, he offers to bring Dr. Woodrue to the swamp to go over the options and see if his miracle serum (the one that nearly turned Daniel Cassidy into Blue Devil permanently) could help.
The Conclave already got to Dr. Woodrue and offered him a new lab, funding for research, and unlimited resources. So he’s pretty much been bought. So when Avery asks Woodrue to help, Woodrue talks him into capturing Holland instead.
Holland doesn’t know much about Woodrue, but he agrees to meet them and it ends up getting him shot three times with a shotgun (at the hands of Avery) and frozen in cryo-stasis!
Father vs. Sperm Donor
Matt and Lucille Cable are trying to keep up appearances around town because they know people will start asking questions about Avery soon. However, Matt is more focused on finding out Avery was his father. In his anger, he blames his mother for pushing away the man he knew to be his dad due to her obsession with Avery.
However, they don’t know that Avery is still alive and knows some information about Maria’s involvement in the plot to kill him.
“…your patient Alec Holland.” – Nathan Ellery
Meanwhile, the Conclave is running wild. They’ve followed Abby to Atlanta to have her talk Holland into coming to their lab. Of course, she refuses. But not before she tells her best friend, Dr. Edwards (the one that got the green flu a few episodes back) about Holland and his condition.
The Conclave representative, Nathan Ellery, tells Abby that Dr. Edwards went to Bangladesh, but I’m sure they just abducted him and he’s probably in danger. Hopefully, for convenience, he’s being held at the same facility they take Holland to. That way everyone can link back up easily.
After finding out that the Conclave knows where Holland is, Abby goes back to Marai only to find evidence of foul play.
With two episodes left for the season, how will they wrap this story up? It seems like things are getting more convoluted.
Questions:
Where is the Conclave lab that Holland is being transported to?
Is Dr. Edward dead or just in captivity?
How will Abby figure out where Holland went?
What will happen when Maria, Matt, and Lucille find out Avery is still alive?
When will Daniel Cassidy make another appearance?
The last Batman movie I watched was a Nickelodeon special called Batman vs. TNMT. It is a very family-friendly, kid-safe movie. It was funny and I enjoy my time watching it for the most part.
However, Batman: Hush is a different story. This is 100 percent adult content. It shows Bruce Wayne/Batman in a new light that I don’t even think I saw in Batman: The Killing Joke.
It had all of the favorites make an appearance. We see Cat Woman, Harley Quinn, the Riddler, Bane, Scare Crow, even Poison Ivy made an appearance and I rarely see her. That was a cool surprise. Plus, the Joker was amazing. Even though his showing in this film was brief, it was entertaining and true to form.
Nightwing (Dick Grayson) was around and so Robin (Damian Wayne). Damian by far had the best conversation with Bruce Wayne! The father-son dynamic there was hilarious.
Even Supermans appearance was cool. I will always have a little bit a problem with him though. He’s so over powered. I’ve mentioned this before in my opinion piece about Aquaman being the best DCEU character right now. Superman’s abilities allow him to do almost anything and yet he’s bamboozled, undercut, and vulnerable a lot of the time. I’ll never understand the logic. You’re super, be super!
But back to the movie.
Batman: Hush touches on adult subjects like drugs flooding into Gotham City, i.e. heroin. This movie heavily deals with death as well. And Batman even fails to escape routine obstacles that he encounters during this movie.
Routine for Batman I mean.
I won’t spoil it, but there is a point in the movie where Batman is doing a routine activity and he ends up getting massively hurt. I wasn’t expecting that. It catches you off guard, but it motivates his character as Bruce Wayne to make changes in his life and seek out a substantial relationship with Catwoman.
Hush was an anomaly for most of the movie. It’s a huge surprise when you find out who he is. I will admit, I didn’t read the book, so I didn’t know anything about the story. I thought I knew the villain’s secret identity from the start and I was completely incorrect. But, when the actual villain was revealed I was a little let down due to the circumstances. I just thought it was sad.
Overall, it is a great movie and I suggest you see it when you can. It’s available on DVD now. It came out on July 20, 2019. It’s a thriller and if you are a Batman fan, I think you will appreciate this tone.