Titans "Hawk and Dove" Review

Well then DC fans this was something that I never saw coming and even until today never even planned on doing but yes I will now be bringing you weekly reviews of Titans and since this is now weekly my score for episode one is a 7.5 out of 10 and now with that out of the way here is my review of episode two Hawk and Dove.

The plot of episode two is Dick is taking Rachel to stay with some old friends of his in the meanwhile a new threat comes after the duo. This episode was really lacking in terms of plot for me the previous episode did a good job of setting up the story for the season and this episode really could have added to it but no instead they choose to add in a rather weak story and also apart from Dick and Rachel none of the other Titans appear in the episode.

Like I just said there was no Starfire or Beast Boy in this episode at all so instead starring in the episode is Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson , Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth , Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk , Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger / Dove , Jeff Clarke as Nuclear Dad , Melody Johnson as Nuclear Mom , Jeni Ross as Nuclear Sis and Logan Thompson as Nuclear Biff. The acting from the two main series leads is better in this episode then it was in the first but it's still not as good as it will be come the series finale as for the other actors they do a fine job but tho I was just surprised that Smallville's Aquaman was in this show to really take note of his acting.

For a show based around the Teen Titans there was no other future Titans in the episode and that's something that I can really see hurting the show in the long run since from what we got in episode 1 at least three of the titans will have interesting stories and I was really surprised that they didn't feature Beast boy at all in this episode given how little screen time he had in the previous episode I like many of you thought they were saving him for this weeks episode but nope.

This was the first appearance in live action form for The Nuclear Family and I have to say they came of as really terrifying in this episode and that's something that I prey to god continues throughout the rest of this first season just seeing the family interact before there mission and comparing it to how they are during it makes them seem really creepy I'm not going to give away the end of the episode but the family does something you'll know about if you know the history of Hawk and Dove that's all i'll say.

If you guys follow me on Doctor Who amino you'll know that I do weekly reviews for each new episode and while I have reviewed other shows in the past i've never done a weekly review of a superhero show before so i'm still trying to work out what things I can find in the episode to talk about so don't expect this to be like my Doctor Who reviews were I go into alot of detail because that's a different show and how that shows works allows me to do so but even with this episode i'm struggling to find something to talk about.

What really confused me last week and as well this week is that for some reason the show opens with the intro that plays infront of any DCEU film this show as far as we know is not set in the DCEU so it makes no sense what so ever to have that intro playing in this show why couldn't they have made an intro for all DC Universe shows kind of like how Marvel have one for the MCU and one for Marvel Television come on DC and Warner Bros. get on it.

What was really cool tho is the fight scene that takes place near the start of the episode i'm not going to say who takes part in it because it's something you have to see but if that is the type of fight scenes we can expect to see in this show then i;m happy but I will admit that the choice to have a possibly metal version of "Kids In America" play over it was really freaking weird.

Overall this second episode had a really weak story as well as lacking the other two main characters but it was also alot of fun and it makes interested in where next weeks episode will go so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

   

Why A Tom And Jerry Live Action Movie Is A Bad Idea

Now I consider myself to be a fair man any movie has the chance to be good regardless of who is involved with it creatively but when I found out this morning that that guy behind two Fantastic Four movies was going to direct a live action / CGI hybrid Tom And Jerry movie I knew instantly that this movie was going to suck and here's why.

Their History With Big Screen movies Isn't Good

To most main stream movie goers Tom And Jerry have only had one movie and while that is true they have only had one theatrical movie they have had dozens of straight to DVD movies but tho sadly it's the big screen one we have to talk about and sadly that movie has proven that the characters cannot work on the big screen now the director of this upcoming movie has said that the characters won't talk which is a good sign however given the characters past history with the big screen one cannot help but have a degree of doubt.

Their Latest Movies Aren't So Good

I'm not sure who to blame for this one but the fact remains that the latest Tom And Jerry movies wasn't that good so shouldn't the studio instead be more focused on fixing the brand rather then pushing the duo into another movie that would seem to make sense since the duo did survive for a long time without being in movies.

The Characters Don't Really Lend Themselves To Live Action

I'm not saying that the movie or it's director can't make them work for live action but if you've seen even a few of the shorts then you'll notice that the characters don't really lend themselves well to live action heck even picturing there most well known designs in live action would be enough to give people nightmares and sadly it's those designs that the studio would have to go with because those are the designs that people reconise the most.

There's Not That Much Time Being Given To Get It Right

This point is being aimed more at the studio then it is the actual film but the fact is the studio isn't really giving the film makers enough time to get it right they've announced the film in October and there aiming to film it in 2019 that's not enough time to get things right these are cartoon icons at the earliest you shouldn't be ready to film it until 2020 and the fact that Warner Bros. is getting ready to film it in 2019 says that they care more about money then they do making a good film.

The Duo Don't Work That Well With A Plot

Sadly tho since this is a movie that means there's going to have to be a plot and that's one of the things that Tom And Jerry don't really work well with the first movie found that out the hard way but that movie also had them talking and singing and being friends heck even the original shorts didn't give each short a plot all you got was the set up and then six minuets of violence which is good a short cartoon but not for a movie.

Now i'm not saying that this movie cannot be good far from it infact I hope it's not because Tom And Jerry deserve there time to shine but the fact is live action films based on cartoons havn't been done that well most of them miss what made the original so good in the first place and that's not something I want for this movie but given what the director has said it does look like this could be a decent movie and it does help that the director was a fan of these beloved cartoon icons.

Doctor Who "The Ghost Monument" SPOILERISH!!!!! Review

Welcome back Doctor Who fans boy oh boy what an episode episode 2 i'm going to full on warn you right now there will be spoilers in this review hence why it's in the name of the review there won't be spoilers in every review but anyone who's seen this episode will know that there's a few things in this episode which we have to talk about so here is my review of episode 2 of series 11 The Ghost Monument.

The plot of the episode is The Doctor and friends find themselves stranded on another planet and they have to try and find there way of it. That is honestly the best summery I could come up with and I think for a Doctor Who plot it really does work and there is a few callbacks to last weeks episode which I really enjoyed there's really nothing wrong with the episode at least plot wise.

Of course starring in the episode are Jodie Whittaker , Bradley Walsh , Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill and since we are only a few episodes in i'm not going to comment on there performances just yet but I will say that out of those four the performances were pretty spot on. 

Joining them for this episode was Susan Lynch as Angstrom , Shaun Dooley as Epzo and Art Malik as Ilin and I have to say that for a while I thought that Shaun was the same guy who played Roses dad in the first few series of the reboot sadly he is not but that would have been awesome and it's with these guest actors that I personally felt that the acting was a little bit lacking they weren't bad at all but they could have been better.

There you go you have been warned because for the next few paragraphs there will be spoilers but tho don't worry because this spoiler doesn't spoil the main plot of the episode but i'm in two minds about the new opening title sequence on the one hand it does look really beautiful but on the other hand it just doesn't scream Doctor Who to me if anything it screams something like Game Of Thrones and if I wanted to see something like that I would watch an episode of Game Of Thrones  but I will admit that i liked the new theme it has kind of an 80's Doctor Who style to it.

Now this is something that I was hoping they would do just because I couldn't work out how they would do a full series of Doctor Who without it but they do bring the TARDIS back and it's really relevant to the plot since it's the titular Ghost Monument which I thought was a really clever way of bringing it back to the show and as you can no doubt tell by the picture above we get a new redesign and like the opening credits i'm in two minds about it because it does look really great and it looks like it could suit this doctor but it doesn't look alien to me.

Now if you didn't want anything spoiled then welcome back because from here on out it's going to be spoiler free or as spoiler free as I can make it and I have to say that whoever made the call to film in South Africa then I hope that person got a raise because the country looks really stunning heck it looks so stunning that for a while I thought they went and filmed it in Spain everything about the South African landscape to me perfectly suits an alien planet.

Overall this was a solid episode with one or two issues but it's not a perfect episode by any stretch of the imagination so it gets an 8 out of 10 from me.

Titans "Titans" Review

Dc fans Marvel has been killing it with there Netflix shows and DC have decided to throw there hat in the ring kind of by launching there own streaming service and the first episode of the first original show has been released and so here is my review of the first episode of Titans which is also called Titans.

The basic plot of this episode is Rachel Roth (Raven) sees her mother get killed right in front of her and so she goes to Detroit to find Dick Grayson (Robin) all the while a young woman (Starfire) wakes up in Austria with no memory and is determined to find Rachel. For a first episode I pretty much got what I expected out of it story wise but even I was shocked at how basic the story for the episode is but like I said for a first episode it gives you the amount of story that you pretty much need.

Starring in this episode was Brenton Thwaites as Richard "Dick" Grayson / Robin , Anna Diop as Kory Anders / Starfire , Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth / Raven , Lindsey Gort as Amy Rohrbach and Sherilyn Fenn as Angela. Yes Ryan Potter does make an appearance in this episode but it's right at the end like literally before the credits start playing they introduce him so if your wondering why I didn't credit him it's because he's in one scene and has no lines of dialog as for the the cast I have credited they do a fairly decent job it's a pilot episode so of course you can't expect the acting to be perfect right of the bat.

To DC's credit they really have gone all out in terms of promoting this thing and that's something that Netflix very rarely do they release one maybe two trailers and that's it but this show had several trailers and spots released as well as countless images and to me that says that DC knows that this is an important show for them because if this things fails then so does there subscription service.

What I thought was a brave move was the fact that they have pretty much made Rachel aka Raven the main character this series I say it's a brave move because not a lot of people know about the character so it would have made sense from that point of view to make Dick the main character but that goes to show you that DC Universe is being put together to please the fans rather then the average Joe and as to be expected they don't go to much into her backstory which im sure will be explored in a later episode.

Now in my intro for this review I said that they are kind of throwing there hat into the ring with a streaming service and that's because while they have launched DC Universe here in the UK for some reason Netflix UK is picking up the streaming rights for Titans which to me is really dumb on Dc's part since Netflix is there main competition so giving them your flagship show is like your giving them all your money but your trusting them not to spend it but deep down you know they will.

Now I know that this show already had it's haters even before it even premiered and sadly alot of the hate was aimed at actress Anna Diop the actress got so much hate that she had to leave social media and I fell that now is the right time to bring this up but if your a fan of something then please do not hate on the people who make the thing that you say you love by giving someone alot of hate then you make the rest of the fans who actually give a damn about whatever it is there making look bad and even more so when the reason your hating on them is because the actress is black that's just wrong on so many levels.

Speaking of Starfire while she does get a decent amount of screen time they don't really do that much with her in the actual episode I think she's in three scenes which do last a decent amount of time but alot of the time in those scenes is her asking people who she is and there's only so many times you can do that before it starts to come across as boring I mean granted this is only the first episode but even so this is our first time seeing the character in live action give her more to do and give us a reason to care about her.

Again this show got a lot of hate for being to dark and gritty which to me is freaking funny because there is a show out there which is just the opposite of this show and you know what it's called Teen Titans Go! if you want to watch something that's more lighthearted then by all means watch that show and complain how lighthearted it is to me the people who were saying it's to dark are people that cannot be pleased if anything they should have issues with the overall quality of the product and not the tone.

I'm not going to make any comments about the costumes because to be honest the only one we see in this episode is Robins which even then it's in the dark but I can say that based of the released images Robins costume does look really awesome altho i'm left wondering a few things after watching this episode first of did he ever become Nightwing? and second of why wasn't this show set in Bludhaven since Robin lives there it would make sense to set the show there but nope they have the series take place in Detroit and they don't even mention Bludhaven in this episode.

For a superhero show we shockingly had very little action which given that this is a superhero show I guess does make sense but still it's a superhero show we want to see our heroes fight in fact we only had two or three fight scenes and one of them featured the same character but I will admit that the first action scene we got was really freaking cool i'm not going to say who it includes but when you watch the episode hopefully you'll think it's cool as well.

Overall this first episode really wasn't that bad it gives you the things that you expect from a pilot episode altho I will never understand why the name of the first episode is also the name of the show and if i'm still watching this show by the time it ends it's first season then yes there will be a full review and since this is a pilot episode i'm not going to give it a rating but I will say that it's out now on DC Universe in the USA and Netflix UK if your in the UK I have no idea about the rest of the world sorry.

  

Doctor Who "The Woman Who Fell To Earth" Review

Doctor Who fans series 11 has just started airing and that means these weekly reviews are back but unlike The Doctor i'm now not a woman so after all the hype and all the build up was it worth it well find it in my review of episode one of series eleven "The Woman Who Fell To Earth".

The plot to this weeks episode is there is something terrifying the people of Sheffield and it's up to a newly regenerated Doctor and some friends to find out what's going on and put a stop to it. Story wise the plot is most likely the weakest aspect of the episode for me personally it's not a bad story at all but at the same time I feel like this is a story that would have been better suited in the Steven Moffat era.

Of course this is the debut episode for all of the main cast and so I won't pass judgement on any of them until at least episode 4 but if this episode is anything to go by then we have some truly great performances to look forward to. The guest cast for this episode is made up of Sharon D. Clarke as Grace , Samuel Oatley as Tim Shaw and Johnny Dixon as Karl and I have to say that I really did enjoy Sharon I thought she was really funny and she had me laughing out loud a few times the rest of the guest cast were solid as well.

Not only is this the debut episode for new show runner Chris Chibnall as well as stars Bradley Walsh , Tosin Cole , Mandip Gill and of course the full series debut for Jodie Whittaker but it's also the first time in the shows revived era that the show will now air on Sundays and since there is a time change that will also effect when these reviews can go out so don't expect to see them the day of the actual episode but I will do my best to get them out by no later then Monday or Tuesday.

Much has been made about the doctor now being a female and with that there has also been alot of hate aimed not only at the show but also the people supporting the decision to cast a female doctor well I hope that all of those haters are now eating some sweet sweet humble pie because a female doctor is just the breath of fresh air that the show needed heck they even make a joke about it very early on in the episode.

Speaking of The Doctor being a woman i'm glad that the show didn't take to much time talking about it like I said they only brought it up once or twice in the whole episode which even then it's used as a joke and that's about the only way the show really could have talked about that subject since if they went to far either way then they would have risked loosing there audience.

When they first released the images of Jodie in the costume I wasn't the biggest fan but after seeing it in the show itself I have to admit that the costume does suit her and I really like the long overcoat she has on but tho with that said I wish that they had given her something that screamed Doctor Who to wear since to me this costume screams Woodstock to me.

I was going to post a picture of what the monster looked like but I thought that might be two much of a spoiler but I will say that this monster looks like nothing we have seen before in the shows recent history and that to me adds to the creep factor not to mention what he does to his victims which for some reason reminded me alot of Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre so if your a horror fan then you'll be be golden.

I have no idea who's doing the CGI so I have no clue if The Mill was brought back or if they looked else where but either way the CGI used in this episode I thought was really good and there are times where you can't tell if they did it for real or if it was done in a computer and that's how the best effects should always be.

For the first time since 2005 we don't have a score by Murray Gold this time doing the music is Segun Akinola and while we don't get to hear his take on the classic theme his music I thought was pretty decent but it's no where near the quality that we were used to listening to but hopefully as the series does progress we'll hear better music.

Overall this was a really solid start not only to the new series but to the new era and for the new doctor it made the series fun again and that's what Doctor Who should always have a degree of and if you like the Thirteenth Doctor then starting in November there's a Thirteenth Doctor comic book coming out and if you guys want me to review the first story arc of that book then let me know and this episode scores an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

Star Wars Resistance First Impressions

Star Wars fans there is no doubt that in terms of out put we are living in a golden age weather or not everything the franchise puts out is good is really up to you but the brand has made lots of solid TV shows in the past and it's launching a new one and i'm here to give you my first impressions of the show so here is my first impressions of Star Wars Resistance.

Since this is a first impressions post and not a full on review i'm not going to going to look on Wikipedia to get the story instead i'm going to look at the first three episodes and try and work out what the story could possibly and from what i've seen the story could be Kaz is sent by star pilot Poe Dameron to be a spy for the resistance. 

There might be more to it since there's only been three episodes released tho that's the best I can work out and I have to say that that set up isn't that bad since it does open the show up to plenty of fun situations but it doesn't feel like a Star Wars story it instead feels like something you'd see in a bad Star Wars rip off.

Starring in these episodes is Christopher Sean as Kazuda Xiono , Bobby Moynihan as Orka , Suzie McGrath as Tam Ryvora , Scott Lawrence as Jarek Yeager , Myrna Velasco as Torra Doza , Josh Brener as Neeku Vozo , Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Freya Fenris and Lex Lang as Major Vonreg. Please note that the actors i've listed are all playing new characters since I want to talk about a few other actors next up and I will say that the new cast do a fairly solid job in these episodes it's hard for me to fully judge the actors since there's only been three episodes released but so far they are doing a good job.

This series does have a few guest stars with two appearing in the series first two episodes so returning from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi is Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron and Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma but also joining them is Frodo Baggins as Jace Rucklin and according to Wikipedia Kylo Ren will also show up in the series. I have to say it's freaking cool as hell hearing new dialog from both Oscar and Gwendoline since we have well over a year before the next movie comes out so hearing something new from those characters is truly a good thing and it helps that there performances are honestly really decent.

Now then there's a chance that the animation for the show was done by either Polygon Pictures or Lucasfilm Animation since both are listed on Wikipedia but only Lucasfilm Animation is listed on IMDB either way tho the animation is fairly decent i'm not a big fan of what looks like cell shading to me it just doesn't fit in with other Star Wars TV shows but at the same time we do have alot of nice fluid movements and the animation does help sell some of the comedy.

This show was sold on the premise of it being "anime inspired" which to me says it's going to look like an anime not only is that not the case but outside of the way the comedy is done in these episodes I can't really see any anime inspiration at all if anything it looks to be inspired by other western animated shows like Avatar and Korra that's not a bad thing but when you say something is going to be anime inspired then that needs to show in the episodes.

I know that there technically is some controversy surrounding this show and if you don't know what I mean the voice actress for Leia (who doesn't speak a word in these first three episodes) did something bad on twitter i'm not going to go into detail as to what but lets just say that it's led to people to start petitions for her to be dropped and for the role to be recast. 

Do those people know how freaking hard that would be since the actress in question most likely has the whole first season recorded and the animation done to her mouth movements so to recast the role would cost Disney and Lucasfilm a lot of money in making corrections to the animation i'm not saying that she should go unpunished far from it but it has to be a punishment which not only makes sense but also doesn't cost either company alot of money.

If your sick of the girl centric short series Forces Of Destiny and the way that it pushes the girls to the front at the expense of telling interesting stories or focusing on why the female characters were great to begin with then you'll be happy because here while there are female characters they have equal screen time with the male characters and they aren't force to be center stage either since the focus is more on telling an interesting story then shoving the female characters to the front and yes I am a fan of Forces Of Destiny but even I have to admit that it gets a little hard to watch at times.

The first episode was forty four minuets long and I saw no reason what so ever for that to be the case  there was no reason why episode one couldn't have been twenty two minuets i'm not a script writer so i'm not sure what you could have lost in that opening episode but it stands to reason that if your opening episode is an hour long special then there needs to be something in there to justify that choice otherwise what's the point.

You might have noticed that several times during this review i've said the word episodes well that's because hours before the series was due to premier on Disney Channel the company released the first three episodes on the Disney App because caring about ratings is dumb but tho it also meant that this first impressions could be brought out a lot quicker then what it would have but it's odd that Disney Channel would be airing this series instead of Disney XD which will be getting the series but at a later date.

I'm not 100% sure on this but this show does contain music from Michael Tavera who's done plenty of work on other animated projects but this is his first project that has anything to do with Star Wars and I have to say that his theme to me doesn't scream Star Wars for example when I hear the opening to Rebels I know i'm watching a Star Wars product here tho the theme sounds like it belongs on a kid friendly sitcom then it does Star Wars.

Overall these first three episodes were really fun and I hope that the rest of the series is fun but unlike both The Clone Wars and Rebels this one isn't going to have direct involvement from Star Wars legend Dave Filoni since he was working on the final episodes of Rebels and is now working on the final season of The Clone Wars and yes I will do a review of this series later on into it's run and i'm not going to give it a rating.

What I Think Of the Harley Quinn Teaser

Yes I know this is weird me doing a post on a teaser that was no more then fifty seconds long well it's my life and I can do what I want and since I don't people talking about the teaser I thought that I might as well do it and fair warning this post won't be as super detailed like the rest of my posts are because like I said it's a fifty second teaser.

I have to say that right of the bat I loved the tone this teaser was taking it reminded me alot of the first Deadpool movie which for me is a very good thing since that was a great movie to me the tone set in this teaser is pitch perfect not only for the show but for the character of Harley Quinn she would make jokes about the fans and she would make a joke about things being dark and gritty to me that is Harley.

For me the only bad thing about the teaser is Kaley Cuoco she's not a bad actress but to me her voice just doesn't fit the character which is a shame because we just had a movie which had a great voice actors for Harley in Kaley's Big Bang Theory co-star Melissa Rauch despite what people thought of Batman And Harley Quinn to me Harley was cast great in that film so why they didn't get her back for this series is beyond me.

It's really hard to cast Harley in my opinion because she has to be crazy but not to crazy and in most cases she also has to be in love with a mad man so finding someone who can portray all of those emotions is going to be hard no matter what the media is and maybe Kaley's voice will sound better in the actual series but in this teaser it just doesn't match up with the character.

One of the things I wasn't expecting from this teaser was for it to take shots at the Deadpool animated series which got canned when that came up I was like "dang talk about shots fired" because that is something you'd expect Deadpool to do not Harley but I guess it kinda makes sense since they are both adult cartoons with insane characters so having Harley poke fun at Deadpool for his getting canned does seem oddly fitting what will make it better tho is if Ryan Reynolds films a scene for the PG13 re-release of Deadpool 2 where he fires some shots back you all know that would be awesome.

The animation for a teaser was pretty decent I don't really think the show is going to look like the teaser in anyway since this looks like stuff that was just done to be in a teaser trailer and not the actual show itself so I can't really make a comment on if the show's animation is better then the one seen here but based of this teaser the animation looks to be decent and for DC's first animated series for there streaming service that might not be good enough.

Overall the teaser did what it set out to do and give us a tease of what's to come and what was in this teaser is anything to go by then I expect the show to have over the top violence and hopefully alot more Deadpool references because the more Deadpool the better and no Deadpool totally did not force me to write that and he totally doesn't have a gun to my head right now.