Showing posts with label Marvel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marvel. Show all posts

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 45, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 19 and Marvel's Spider-Man Finale

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET



 Yes, after several unexpected downtime I'm finally back to streaming on Saturdays. Though after getting some much needed feedback I've decided to make a change or two. First I've gotten a new headset since my old one died, it happens and while the audio quality may be different its just something we'll have to adjust to. Second, I'll just try to keep my streams to under 2 hours, minimum 1 hour, at best 1 1/2 hour, 2 tops. This will help me personally since I need to devote some time to my other projects and 4 hours for streaming does seem excessive.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 41 & 42, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 15 & 16 & Marvel's Spider-Man Part 8

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET




 Hey yeah sorry about the delay from last week. There's been quite a bit on my plate lately and I'm going to need some time to get everything back on track. In other words, its summer, vacation time is here and I need one. Especially after dealing with the nothing that Zi-O and Ryusoulger's given me to work with! But at least we have the City that Never Sleeps campaign to; ironically help me sleep sounder at night knowing that better content is out there.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Monday, July 8, 2019

Movie Review: Spider-Man Far From Home: The end of Phase 3 (No Spoilers)

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET
"I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque." 
 Summer is here and after the events of Endgame it looks like the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is looking for a little bit of R&R. But sadly no matter what universe it is Peter Parker needs to suffer, c'est la vie. This suffering comes in the form of Nick Fury highjacking his class' European trip to have him help a new hero called Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who is totally a survivor from another universe hunting down four elemental monsters to prevent the destruction that his world suffered from occurring in Peters. Of course Peter doesn't want any part of this, but after the events of Endgame the world is looking for the next Iron Man, and since Peter is technically Tony's apprentice and the only active Superhero he's basically guilt tripped into helping Mysterio. So will Peter be able to live up to Tony's expectations or will the four elementals have their way with this Earth?

 Short version of this movie, it's really good, better than Homecoming, and a decent sorbet course to wrap up Phase 3 of the MCU. But it does also help to explain how the world of the MCU adjusted to the people who were snapped out by Thanos returning like nothing had ever happened and having a little fun with it with a pretty funny gag at the start. In the case of education; the kids who "blipped" as they called it (I see what you did there, and I'm still bitter) just had to repeat the year that they were in from the start while their friends and family who weren't blipped moved on with their lives without them. Like for example your younger brother who was three years younger then you is now two years older. The only way your family tree could be even more insane was if you were from the planet Jurai or your last name was Joestar/Kujo.

 But the biggest gaps to fill is the lack of Superheroes, sure there's Dr Strange but he's dealing with cosmic threats. Falcon, Bucky and Wanda are most likely on the run thanks to the Sokovia accords and T'Challa has a kingdom to run. No idea where Bruce Banner is, Thor is in space with the Guardians, Carol is protecting the Skrull and the rest of the cosmos, Cap took the long way home and is in no shape to do anything like he used to, and as for the guys like the Defenders, Inhumans and any other groups from the T.V series? They're more akin to local protectors than facing threats head on unless they're right in their neighborhoods (literally in the Defender's case.) So everyone looking to Spider-Man to fill Iron Man's boots makes sense, but on the other hand Peter's a Teenager who skipped 5 years and is dealing with the fact that his mentor/father figure is literally plastered all over the place as if in constant judgement of him for not living up to his example.

 But at least since Aunt May, Ned and pretty much everyone important in his life knows he's Spider-Man anyway he at least doesn't have to worry too much about the secret identity thing. That's something I do give the MCU Spidey credit for, throughout the life of 616 Peter Parker his secret identity issues has given him absolutely nothing but grief and plot contrivances, thankfully the writers recognized that and at least took measures so that MCU Peter doesn't have to worry about his loved ones. I do want to talk about Mysterio, butter those who've never heard of him before I'll keep my trap shut. All I'll say is that Jake Gyllenhaal's performance makes this character, this really is Mysterio. As for the ending, all I'll say is that I was desperately waiting for a certain character to say this line when he showed up.


 But now that Phase 3 has ended, it's time. As before when Phase 1 and 2 ended its time for me to go down the list of them and list the best to the not as good. Though make no mistake Phase 3 had no movies as bad as Iron Man 2 or Thor the Dark World, at worst they were just fun and with the main MCU Achilles heel holding them back (the boring antagonist).

#1 Infinity War (The big show stopper and finally worth it to see Thanos get his big purple ass off that chair and wreck all of the ass, just to take in that sunrise on that farm.)

#2 Captain America Civil War (This was the movie that Age of Ultron should have been.)

#3 Avengers Endgame (This really needs to be seen back to back with Infinity War to get the full effect, also never just insert Time travel, ever!)

#4 Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (Another great Guardians movies and thank Yandu's beautiful blue mug that James Gunn is back on track for Volume 3.)

#5 Black Panther (Poignant social commentary with one of the best villains of the MCU despite said villain overshadowing most of the cast.)

#6 Thor Ragnarok (Definitely what Thor needed after the Ragnarok that was Thor the Dark World.)

#7 Spider-Man Far From Home (For better than Homecoming and helps establish the new status quo after the Snap.)

#8 Captain Marvel (Cool 90's throwback, a great female lead; though not as good as Wonder Woman but that's a high bar to reach so, fair's fair.)

#9 Doctor Strange (A good Phase 1 movie and amazing visuals but the villains sucked. Yes, an MCU bad guy was lame color me shocked too.)

#10 Spider-Man Homecoming (The plot was just there and mostly inconsequential. Though it did introduce some of Spider-Man's rogues gallery that never got decent live action incarnations before and Michael Keaton killed it as the Vulture.)

#11 Ant-Man and the Wasp (Most of the same complaints as Homecoming but with a weaker villain with Ghost. But at least she had Lawrence Fishburne backing her up so she's at least better than Kamen Rider Ghost.)

 With that list done we move on to Phase 4. Maybe later on I'll do an overall list of MCU movies from top to bottom, we'll see. But this movie does raise a rather important question that needs to be answered. Now that the founding members of the Avengers are gone (Except for Thor but he's in space so whatever.) Who will rise up tot take their place as Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

 Will it be a family of 4 with Fantastic powers? Will it be a group of young people using the powers they were born with to protect those who hate and fear them? Or will the Defenders get upgraded to the main movies once they ditch Iron Fist? That remains to be seen, but rest assured we'll be there to see it. But as for me, I've run out of excuses, it's time for me to finish Heisei Generations Forever once and for all, this is gonna suck.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is owned by Sony Pictures Releasing, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures and Colombia Pictures
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z abridged and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 38, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 12 Marvel's Spider-Man Part 5

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET



 Well for once Zi-O managed to give a decent tribute episode with Kagami finally becoming Kamen Rider Kabuto as he wished for in the first episode. Ryusoulger however gets really stupid with a pointless filler episode that finally introduces Gaisorg after his appearance in the Super Sentai Saikyou special. But boy, things sure escalated quickly in Spider-Man. After finally defeating Mister Negative we find that he was just the appetizer for the main course that is the Sinister Six. Now not only do we have to deal with all of the Rykers escapees but also the Silver Sable forces who have turned New York into a police state.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Friday, June 7, 2019

Personal Post: Marvel's Spider-Man: Taskmaster

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET


 Sorry guys, been too busy working on Persona Q2 and I have a new idea for a Let's Play in the works so I figured I share my fight with Taskmaster on my Stream off hours.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 37, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 11 Marvel's Spider-Man Part 4

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET



 Ok we're back no track for this week. For Zi-O we have the return of Toku's favorite Uke and Seme and some actually interesting things happening with Tsukasa and some words from Kagumi. With Rysoulger we get a brand new mech and Kou proves that he's at least better than Right, Takaharu and Lucky. But I'm also back in the streaming saddle with 5 full hours of web slinging action and holy Moses do things get dark. Not just from Black Car but also Mr Negative declaring war on Norman Osborn but we see Otto getting funding from A.I.M so that can only lead to good, right guys?

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 35, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 9 & Marvel's Spider-Man Part 3

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET



 Sorry this took so long the scheduling for this week was a pain. Would have had this out sooner but life happened and all that. So we have Zi-O and Ryusoulger where both groups are comprised of idiots. But no matter how bad they have it at least they're not Peter Parker. It's not much but hey at least that's better than nothing, right Peter?


Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 34, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 8 & Marvel's Spider-Man Part 2

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET



 So Kyosuke is the new Hibiki, I can hear the fanbase screaming themselves hoarse after that scene. Honestly I don't think I've seen such fanbase betrayal since Spider-Man cut a deal with Mephisto. Ryusoulger is starting to test me with them continually pulling new powers out of their butts. Though speaking of Spider-Man his game continues to be a shining gem from last year. After clearing out the last of the Kingpin's operations Peter starts the main plot after getting a very awkward snack break with his ex Mary Jane.

 Why's it so awkward, the short order cook, Excelsior.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 33, Power Rangers Beast Morphers Ep 8, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 7 & Marvel's Spider-Man Part 1

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET



 Zi-o has reached the Hibiki arc, may Madokami help us all. Beast Morphers seems to be handling the 8 episode break well and wrapped up the first story arc with a decent introduction of the Battleforce Gold and Silver Ranger. Ryusoulger gets a new General after the show blew its load with the first guy. But enough of that, time to start playing though one of the best Super hero games of 2018, Marvels Spider-Man! After being rescued from the unholy tendrils of Activision; Insomniac (the Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank guys) took over the propriety and basically did for Spidey what Arkham Asylum did for Batman, at least this will tide us over till Far From Home comes out.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Monday, April 29, 2019

March to Infinity: Avengers Endgame: Go time (No Spoilers)

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET


 11 years, that’s how long the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going on. 22, that’s how many of the main movies there are. All this time, all this preparation, all of this calculated planing, gambling and downright prayer and has been leading up to this movie. And after a brief detour in how the strongest being in the MCU made her debut in the 90's we come back to the present day where her old pal Fury is quite literally dust in the wind and she wants to know whose ass she's gotta kick to the edge of the universe. Yes as Dr Strange said, we're at the endgame; at the end of the day we must ask the question, does it live up to the hype? In someways hell to the yeah, others however I felt were better handled in Infinity War

 But I can’t help but think it was by design, Infinity War being the set up for Thanos and Endgame being the big popcorn blowout finale. Now I will be doing my duty and avoiding spoilers for the major plot points of endgame. (Even ignoring that we already know that Spider-Man: Far from home is only a few months away taking away some of the gut punch that was the end of Infinity War.) I'll just say that this like Kingdom Hearts 3 and MGS4 Guns of the Patriots in that this is a sequel in every sense of the word with call backs, follow ups on previous movies and just general fun for those that have been paying attention tot he previous installments in the franchise. But I know that this review needs some meat to it so I'll merely recap the events that lead up to this movie (ignoring the continuity stuff from the T.v series and Netflix shows.) For years now Thanos the mad titan has been working behind the scenes to uncover the 6 Infinity stones, 6 objects born from the creation of the universe that each contain incredible powers.

 The Mind stone was hidden in the Scepter that was given to one of Thanos’ pawns; Loki in an attempt to conquer Earth to claim more of the stonesIt was later repurposed to give life to the A.I Ultron and was in the head of the android named Vision. The Space stone was hidden in a device called the Tesseract, originally located in Asgard it was moved to Earth where it was uncovered by Johann Schmidt during World War 2 but was lost during his confrontation with Captain America, later it was eaten by Goose, puked back up, was in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D and taken back to Asgard. The Time stone was inside of the Eye of Agamotto which was kept safe by the sorcerer supreme; Dr Stephen Strange in his sanctum in New York. The Power stone was hidden in an Orb on an ancient temple on the planet Morag, until it was uncovered by former Ravager Peter Quill. Eventually it was placed in the custody of the Nova Corp. The Reality stone (not really a stone but shut up) was kept in a sealed chamber in Asgard, but was uncovered and was given to a being called the Collector in his eponymous collection in the mining world of Knowhere. 

 The last stone, the Soul stone was enshrined on the planet of Vormir, according to its enslaved keeper  the previously mentioned Johann Schmidt, the stone could only be claimed by someone who sacrifices a loved one by tossing them off the cliff where the stone was sealed, a soul for a soul. But eventually they would all be recovered by Thanos and used to achieve his ultimate goal, kill half of all sentient life in the universe in a painless way. However the survivors were kind of pissed off at this psychopath's genocide so now they're dead set on finding him, killing him and hopefully reclaim the Infinity Gauntlet to restore his victims to life. So to recap, their plan is to track down the big purple alien who has the power of a god who previously kicked all of their asses even without the full god powers, steal the source of his powers and restore half of all life in the entire universe without being destroyed by said power.


 But that's as much plot as I feel safe to disclose. As for the technical and production aspects I feel this  once again the MCU at it's best. The CGI is still spectacular, the fights are well choreographed and what happens to the characters after Infinity War is in some parts interesting while others are hard to watch and not for the reasons you're thinking of. It's not like "oh god why did they think this was a good idea" it's more like "oh wow, how the mighty have fallen". Also definitely keep an ear out for certain references that those who even know a little bit about the comic book source material will definitely get a chuckle out of.

 I honestly wish I could say more but this is just one of those movies that you have to see. Endgame is one of those rare movies that every, and I do mean everyone is talking about, for better or worse. in layman's terms; go see Endgame you dingus'! Though be sure to come back in July. Where we not only talk about Peter Parker's school trip to Europe but we finally end Phase 3 and I give my countdown of the best and worst movies from Phase 3, from Civil War to Far from home.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Avengers Endgame is owned by Walt Disney Studios motion Pictures and Marvel Studios Based off the original comics Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Ghostbusters (1984) is owned by Ivan Reitman, Coulumbia-Delphi Productions, Black Rhino and Columbia Pictures.

Monday, April 1, 2019

April fools Post: Tokusatsu Memes 2019

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Once again April fools is upon us and now to avoid the usual fake posts by putting up this years crop of memes. Which you would have already seen if you're a regular viewer of Toku Riffs live with the RVT crew. In case you're not aware Toku riffs is Ez Rider, Shades, Spade Ace and Matty J and a whole group of fans getting together to riff MST3K style on the latest episodes of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Ultraman that we can get our hands on. We also riff on classic series as well. We also riff tokusatsu movies when they're available for fansubs so we have a lot of fun, laughs and just a general good time.

 During the intermissions we submit Tokusatsu memes to try to make the four headed jury laugh and show our creativity. So if you see this post follow the link to the RVT twitch page. Toku riffs is on Sunday at 7:00 PM or 6:00 PM depending if there's a marathon going on. Here's the link to the RVT twitch page and then the memes, use as you see fit.

https://www.twitch.tv/rvtentertainment







This one got me a button.




Personal favorite of mine.

Would have gotten me a button if the others weren't called that night, oh well.



I got the button for this.






Monday, March 11, 2019

March to Infinity: Captain Marvel (Marvel): Watch out for Goose.

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET


 It's gotten to the point where it just doesn't feel like the year has started till the latest MCU movie is out in theaters hasn't it? It's definitely is going to feel like something's gone once this whole franchise finally comes to an end in like the next 10 years or something but in the meantime we have one of the prequels of the MCU. As of this article Linkara hasn't made a Secret Origin video describing the original first appearance of Carol and I will not be reminding anyone of Avengers #200 so when it comes out I'll edit this article to fill in the details. But for now we have the MCU incarnation to cover.

 Our story starts in 1995 with an amnesiac woman named Vers (played by Brie Larson) on the planet of Hala, the capital of the Kree empire where she under the tutelage of Yon-Rogg (played by Jude Law) serves the Kree leader, the A.I known as the Supreme Intelligence as a member of the Starforce. Her current mission has her working to exterminate the Skrull, a race of shapeshifters who have been at war with the Kree for centuries. However she gets captured on her latest mission and has her memories probed by the local Skrull commander Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn) which, aside from being a massive invasion of personal privacy, triggers her memories of a certain planet that holds the rest of the pieces of her long forgotten past. If you guessed that that planet was earth, then you get a gold star.

 After she lands in a Blockbuster Video she runs across a young S.H.I.E.L.D agent by the name of Nicholas Joseph Fury (played by a masterfully de-aged Samuel L Jackson) who after getting attacked by Talos and his men agrees to help Vers discover what the Skrulls are up to on Earth and what Earth may hold about her past. Now there's nothing but spoilers afterwords so I'll stop right there. Ignoring the spoilers I thought this was another good entry for the MCU. I honestly wasn't expecting this to be a throwback to 90's Buddy cop movies with Superheros but hey, I've seen wielder things happen. Speaking of our duo I think they're both really good.

 Starting off with our title character, I like Brie Larson's Vers, at the beginning we can see that her real persona is breaking through the amnesia but that tends to get her in trouble among her fellow Kree subjects. But when she gets on earth she seems to fit in much better despite the primitive technology and galactic awareness. And as she wanders with Nick and arrives at certain locations she's overcome by something, she can't quite put her finger on it, and then the word comes to her "nostalgia". Aside from just the 90's California aesthetics that is, which there is quite a bit of in this movie as if the Blockbuster Video scene wasn't enough of a nostalgia bomb. Seriously It's been how long since Blockbuster closed down their stores?

 As for Nick, I have to agree with everyone, the de-aging effects on Samuel L Jackson are amazing. Keep in mind the guy is about 70 years old yet he looks just like he did around when they filmed Pulp Fiction, it's amazing. Other then that we see a younger Nick Fury who hasn't become so much of the cynical contingency planer that we see in the other movies. These two working together makes for funny back and forth, a short yet powerful friendship and helps show Fury that Earth has more than just their local superpower wack-jobs to worry about and why he went straight for that pager at the end of Infinity War. He knows that she's the most powerful being on Earth aside from Thor and that she is the last resort since she had her own agenda all this time protecting her people from the end of this movie.

 But as for how I would personally grade it. I don't think this is the absolute worst of anything, especially Brie Larson's acting. Listen people, I know what wooden acting is and this performance was not it. Go watch something like Birdemic or "The Time Machine (I found at a Yard-sale)", Twilight or anything made by David Cage. I dare you to tell me that her acting is bad after you've seen Wooden Rod, 50's Mc Cheerios and Dead Pan Mcgee.

 No, in this movie we see that while she has had extensive training as a Solder she has plenty of one-liners, attitude, empathy and is, shock and gasp, an actual human being with a wide range of emotions! Sorry, sick and tired of the current discourse surrounding this movie and I had to get that off my chest. Back on track, the villains, are at least better than standard Phase 1 fare. We have personal conflict and a legit reason to hate them. Avoiding spoilers but when we see Vers take on the Captain Marvel codename and fights the big bad all I wanted to say was "this is for the science guy!" 

 Though the sequel set up was a bit obvious we do want to see where this goes for the Captain and how she's going to deal with this overcoming threat and how it shapes up the Kree for how we see them in Guardians of the Galaxy 1. Speaking of, yes we do get some cameos from Ronan and his #2 guy, but they're pretty much window dressing right now. The comedy is on par with the MCU as well, well written, perfect tension breakers and help to give dimensions to the characters. The action is cool, diverse, well choreographed and the final set piece where Captain Marvel unlocks her full potential is a sight to behold, as well as a good reason why she was kept out of the movies for so long. She's basically the MCU Superman, if she showed up the conflicts would have been over and down with before Tony Stark finished even one one-liner.

 So like I have to keep saying so long and often I feel that I have to make it my catch phrase, ignore the hype and make the best judgement call around, yours. So now that MCU movie #1 is out of the way for this year time to see Marvel join up with the Avengers and leave a meteor sized fist mark right into Thanos' skull. But not before we see the original Captain Marvel up on the big screen. And from what I've seen of the trailers and how DC's been getting their act together all I have to say is, holy moly.


Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Captain Marvel is owned by Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company. Based on the character created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Tokusatsu Review: Uchu Sentai Kyuuranger vs Space Squad Part 1: Excelsior!

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

In memory of Stanley Martin Leiber Aka Stan "The Man" Lee
 December 28th 1922-November 12th 2018
 Now before I talk about this movie there’s a recent event that needs to be addressed. Mr Stan Lee was an icon, whether through direct creation or with assistance from his various collaborators such as Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko he helped create some of the most iconic and long lasting characters in comics. From Spider-Man to Dr strange to the X-men and the Fantastic Four Stan’s influence can be seen not just in Marvel but all modern comics. For today’s purposes he was the man responsible for Super Sentai as it is today. After Marvel collaborated with Toei to produce the Spider-man Tokusatsu series Toei drew inspiration from that show, namely Spider-man’s giant robot the Marveler and borrowed the concept to revive the Sentai series after JAKQ Dengektai was cut short due to executive meddling due to Parent Watch groups complaining about the show’s more “graphic” nature.

 Originally Toei was going to adapt Captain America but that project was recycled for the Sentai project now rebranded as Super Sentai to differentiate it from Himitsu Sentai Goranger and JAKQ since they were created by Shotaro Ishinomori and thus under his name. But Stan’s influence on Sentai doesn’t end there, we could have gotten Sentai adaptations here in the states before Saban got lucky with Power Rangers. Originally Stan was trying to get either a dub or adaptation of Sun Vulcan but was rejected. So yes, without Stan Lee we wouldn’t have Super Sentai or even Tokusatsu as we know it today for good and for ill, and if people had listened to him we could have had much more Sentai content to inspire and entertain then we do today. So Stan, no matter what anyone says, you were the true believer and made true believers of us all, in that anyone can be a hero, all of humanity is equal and that righteousness and justice will always triumph over those whose hearts are only filled with evil, hatred and bigotry, to you we say, excelsior!

Well enough of the good stuff time to talk about a rookie legacy hero dealing with a group of 11 morons being dragged down by an even bigger moron who would most likely be the exact opposite of Stan’s super hero ideology. Though not right away as we open on another of the 12 Apostles of Genmaku finalizing his plan to the big boss, Fumein.


Who honestly looks like a more mobile and combat focused Alpha 5.
 However his plans are intercepted by Ninja Jiraiya (last seen looking like a dumbass with the Ninningers) and Space Sheriff Shaider. Before the two can put the Space Shinobi down he jumps through a dimensional hole and begins his plans to conquer an alternate universe. (Even though the movie keeps saying Galaxy it's really an alternate universe, that's the level of dumb we're dealing with here people, they can't tell the difference between a Galaxy and a universe.) Specifically the universe of the Kyuuranger, since it's been established that Kyuuranger takes place in an alternate universe keeping the main universe safe from Dumbluck's stupidity.

 Speaking of said universe the story picks up 4 years after the defeat of their big bad Don Armage. Everyone seems to have moved on with their lives and are enjoying the piece. Including the former Houoh Soldier Tsurugi Ohtori who's now the president of the new Galactic Federation and introduces new devices called NeoKyuutamas to a press conference which is basically a limitless Deus Ex Machina device. Which means it's perfect for an evil faction to steal the four prototypes for their malicious purposes, oh look, someone working for an evil organization stealing them for malicious purposes. But the thief is confronted by Spyro the Dumbass Dragon who reveals herself to be Yera Allon who only gets away because Spyro threw out his back after tripping on the unconscious guards, our mentor ladies and gentlemen!

 We then cut to Dumbluck meeting back up with Robo Bison before his 999th total defense match where the two catch up on how everyone's doing. While Dumbluck has been ignoring his duties as a king and has spent the last four years traveling (like the irresponsible moron that he is!) Leman Russ has a wife and kid meaning that his species won't go extinct so great for him, Sasuke Clone #3472 and some of the others are working with Spiro's organization Rebellion keeping the good fight going while Luigi Mario's restaurant chain is taking off like a rocket.  But while they start talking about Yera the news comes on about how she stole the Neo Kyuutama, so yeah awkward. But not as awkward as Tsurugi giving Sasuke Clone, Kurumi and Pine Tree (Koguma Skyblue) orders to bring her in so he can her her side of the story.

 But unless that story starts off with "this evil Space Ninja forced me to help him" I doubt you've got that much a defense case since we then see Yera giving Demost the NeoKyuutamas. So what does he do now that he has these incredibly powerful devices? He uses them like the Deus Ex Machina orbs that they are and resurrect four powerful General grade villains (at least two of which should be impossible). He brings back Mele from Gekiranger, Basco from Gokaiger, Escape from Go-busters and Juzo from Shinkenger.



 Ok, starting from the top, one they're in an alternate universe where these guys never existed so how the hell was Demost able to resurrect them? Two, Mele and Rio were heavily implied to have reincarnated after they were killed by Long at the end of Gekiranger so how the hell did she come back? I mean yeah she showed up for the Legendary War at the opening of Gokaiger but so did every other dead ranger so I guess God gave them a one time revival to take part in that war or something, best explanation I could come up with. Third, Escape has no soul to revive, she's an AI created by Messiah, and Messiah and the Vaglas aren't like the Geth from Mass Effect or Reploids from Mega Man X where their AI has progressed to the point of actually being mistaken for human, in other words these units do not have a Soul. Basco and Juzo I don't have an issue with though mostly because I never saw Shinkenger and thus don't know how things went with Juzo but I am not substituting what happened with Decker in Power Rangers Samurai for obvious reasons. But in short, less than 8 minutes in you've shat the bed movie.

 Also theses choices of revived bad guys make very little sense as apparently the spell only works on souls who have some form of lingering regret like the Revival Jutsu from Naruto but again these four make no sense. Maybe Basco and Juzo since Basco's a fun loving anarchist and Juzo is a bloodthirsty maniac respectively so maybe they just want more fun and carnage. But again Escape is an AI with no actual humanity. Hell even Mele points out that her resurrection makes no sense since she only cares for earning the love of her master Rio, but Demost fixes that with a good old fashioned brainwashing spell and sends the five on their way to attack the Kyuurangers.

 Basco starts off by attacking Sasuke Clone, Kurumi and Pine Tree claiming that he's working under Yera's orders, and they believe him like the morons that they are. Because this obviously untrustworthy Jack Sparrow knock-off looks like he would definitely be telling the truth about something like this, even though they fought beside each other and have known each other for at least 5 years and thus should know better, everyone in this movie is an idiot I thought you should know. While Escape launches a similar attack at Luigi Mario's restaurant Dumbluck and Robo Bison make tracks back to Earth to check in with Tsurugi and learn more. Along the way they run into a certain pervert in navy blue as well as Mele. As for Bootleg Spock and Josuk3PO they actually run into Yera but before they can talk Juzo covers her escape and duke it out with the two.

 The villains and Yera retreat but not before the perv, though the power of sexual assault and being a major grade A creep manages break though Mele's brainwashing just a bit before she withdraws as well. The perv introduces himself to Dumbluck and Robo Bison as Karasuma Shuu aka Space Sheriff Shaider which Dumbluck recognized after remembering his encounter with Geki. Proving that the two are friends Dumbluck takes Shuu with him to see Tsurugi. The group finally meet up and compare notes, though to make things complicated Bootleg and Josuk3PO arrive with a recording of their fight with Yera, Demost and Juzo; Shuu recognizing the Space Ninja from before. Knowing that Yera appears to be collaborating with a notorious criminal Tsurugi does the regrettable yet correct thing of putting an APB for her arrest.

 But of course since we can't have logic be a thing Dumbluck objects. Now normally he'd be right but the evidence is clear cut, now while they don't know the context behind this situation the facts are that she's infiltrated a government research center, stole four prototype power sources, has been seen collaborating with a notorious criminal and attacked her former comrades without any explanation. As for the defense all Dumbluck has is "don't you trust her you traitor?!" Not exactly an ironclad defense. Besides as Tsurugi points out a former hero turned criminal and the newly elected president who was her comrade not trying to stop her would undermine the new government that the people have placed their futures in after living under the tyranny of Jark Matter.

 Now anyone who's seen Gurren Lagann would point out that this sounds similar to the second half of the show where the Anti-Spiral attacked and Nina awoke as their harbinger. In that show, Simon later was arrested by Rossiu to quell the population after the initial Anti-Spiral attack to prepare the Ark Gurren for an emergency evacuation of the planet. The difference between then and now is that Simon went along with it; even agreeing to fight the Anti-Spiral with bombs installed into Gurren Lagann because he had to make sure that Rossiu's plan worked since he knew what was at stake and could see the bigger picture. Dumbluck by contrast can't see farther than his nose because he's a self-righteous moron who doesn't know the first thing about responsibility. Remember that he's apparently a King, yet he spent the last four years after Jark Matter's defeat wandering around space like he did when the show started, so in summation Dumbluck, you're a fucking moron!


 But because stupidity is contagious Robo Bison and Pine Tree go with him. So the muscle bound moron robot who exercises (even though he's a robot just like in Headmasters) and the pre-teen kid are the only ones on Dumbluck's side. If that doesn't tell you how wrong this putz is I have no idea. So after all of this idiocy I need a break. Come back next week as we skip past the fight scenes and learn why Yera is even working with Marvin the Ninja in the first place, spoilers it's really stupid.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Metal Heroes is owned by Toei Company.
Nostalgia Critic is owned by Doug Walker and Channel Awesome.
Star Trek The Next Generation is owned by Gene Roddenberry, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Television Distribution.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

March to Infinity: Top Villains of the MCU Movies Part 2: The top of the pile.

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 Here we are with the top of the MCU villain pile. Now before I go on here's my traditional link to the previous review to get everyone up to speed.

https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2018/10/march-to-infinity-top-villains-of-mcu.html

 With that here's my count of the top 9 MCU villains.

#9 The Winter Soldier from Captain America The Winter Soldier.
 Sure while the Solder himself wasn’t the big mastermind in his own movie he was still the major threat and provided a great personal conflict between him and Cap. Normally while I’m against characters that have little to no agency in their own story in this case it’s an exception since any self agency he had was striped away by Hydra. Steve’s one time best friend turned into a cold, emotionless killing machine, striped of his memories and free will and replaced with every form of killing known to man made for a fantastic conflict for Cap, trying to save thousands of lives while trying to free the man trapped inside the monster. If his internal conflict wasn’t enough to captivate you his relentless and deadly fighting prowess will certainly do the job. Thankfully Bucky was saved eventually, only for Infinity War to happen, but still whether he’s Bucky Barns, The White Wolf or the Winter Solder he’s a man you don’t want to find his cold Robot hand on your throat.

#8 YellowJacket from Ant-Man
 Ok now why is this guy so high up on the list when when you break it down he's just another asshole in a suit like he rest of the Iron Man villains. Well aside from the awesome costume I feel that there's more of a personal antagonistic connection between Darren Cross and Scott Lang compared to the previous examples. While Scott was personally trained and earned the trust of Hank Pym Cross on the other hand may have been taught by the man he was basically seen as the failed son due to a combination of Hanks ego and the lost of his wife Janet causing him endless grief. The result was a man who had absolutely no scruples in selling this dangerous technology to the highest bidder, in this case being remnants of Hydra. I kind of see the relationship between Cross and Lang in a similar vain of Gene and Big Boss in Portable Ops, both were in someway shaped and influenced by The Boss but where one has actually earned the respect of their mentor all the other inherited was a hollow shell of a legacy.

#7 Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron
 On paper this guy is a genuine threat. An AI granted sentience and consciousness via the Mind Stone having the persona of Tony Stark, full access to all information on the internet and able to transfer his consciousness to any Wi-Fi signal on the planet, all wrapped up in a super powerful metal body with a God Complex, odd daddy issues and a pretentious comeback to any argument you can label against him. That's not even taking the fact that he's also a one man army and an army of one since he can control multiple bodies simultaneously and even transfer his consciousness into them when his main body is too damaged. This guy nearly managed to destroy the entire earth and even though he ultimately failed he set the stage for the events that would tear the Avengers apart. Now if that doesn't make an interesting villain I don't know what to tell you.

#6 Vulture from Spider-Man Homecoming
 Now aside from the aesthetics and design of the Vulture suit; which are still awesome there's some things about this incarnation of Adrian Tombs that I really do like. For one thing this isn't just some asshole billionare with delusions of grandure or a powerful alien with a god complex and a magic stone, he and his crew were just a bunch of blue-collar Joes trying to put food on the table whose operation just kept getting more and more out of control. Trying to make a living is one thing, but reverse engineering alien technology and selling these weapons to criminals, yeah a few sparks is all it takes to set the whole forest ablaze. This coupled with the charismatically threatening performance of Micheal Keaton makes this version of the Vulture one of the highlights of an otherwise ok Marvel movie. I doubt that this is the end of the Vulture however considering the ending and loose plot threads of Spider-Man Homecoming maybe he'll be back for an actual Sinister Six movie.

#5 Ego the Living Planet from GOTG Volume 2
 First of all I was honestly surprised that Marvel even could use the this guy in GOTG Vol 2 in the first place considering the then rights issues between Marvel and Fox who owned the Fantastic Four movie rights which Ego fell under at the time. But what they came up with when all those issues were cleared up was worth the headaches in the end. Diverging from his comic book counter part this Ego is the father of Starlord and planed to terraform several planets into versions of himself to satiate his loneliness and the key to all of this is with the power of another being like himself, thus he tried to create many children but they were incompatible with his power, all except for Peter Quill. I mean that alone would make him a sizable threat, a monster who was this close to destroying most of the galaxy but what really places him here was that he was the one who gave Peter's mom the Cancer that killed her. I believe that Peter's real daddy said it best about him, "That guy was a jackass!"

#4 Helmut Zemo from Captain America: Civil War
 "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again, but one that crumbles from within, that's dead, forever." This one sentence sums up the impact, motivations and menace that drives this former Sokovian solder. After Ultron launched his attack on Sokovia he thought that his family would be safe, at least until he found their bodies, and where were the Avengers? He knew he could never out power Earth's mightiest heroes, so he waited until the time was right, acquired all the pieces he would need, set up Cap's best friend Bucky for the murder of King T'Chaka and just sat back and watched them tear each other to pieces. Zemo might not have been the most powerful or the most cunning villain, but he did what no other villain could do, he broke the Avengers.

#3 Loki from.. just Loki
 What else is there to say about Loki? He was the break out villain of the MCU and Tom Hiddleston brought this petulant, mad trickster god to life. From his first appearance in Thor where he was the well meaning but misguided prince of Asgard to the would be despot of the first Avengers movie Loki was the one who drew those butts to those seats. Much like the God Dan Kuroto Loki started off as pretty standard bad guy and while he can come off as scheming and mad he mostly became the focus of really good comedy. Though considering what happened in Infinity War I doubt he'll be making any more mischief for the Avengers; for for the trickster god that made the MCU we have one thing to say.



#2 Erik "Kilmonger" Stevens from Black Panther
 If you haven't noticed with this list most of the top ones are characters that I can empathize with or detest the most. The former were misguided but you could see how their circumstances lead them to become the antagonists that made our heroes lives that much worse while the later is often too big of a threat to just ignore. These two views can't be intersected more than with Erik Stevens Aka Killmonger. Born the son of Wakandan Prince N'Jobu Erik having lost both of his parents; plans to continue his father's plan by taking over Wakanda to conquer the world by giving their advanced weapons technology to oppressed Black people all over the world, leading to his own brand of conquest, violent revolution and vengeance. While his grievances against both Wakanda and the western world is more than justified; he plans to just continue the cycle of death and madness just with a different hand on the trigger.

  I also have a good rule for villains, any standard villain can easily oppose the values of the protagonist but a great villain is also one that the hero can learn from. If not as a cautionary tale but by acknowledging that while their cause is justified their actions or motivations are just as abominable as the ones they're trying to oppose. T'Challa by fighting and learning of the plight of Killmonger knows that Wakanda can do real good for all the people of the world, not just for those of African descent. Of course this would be for nothing without the excellent acting of Michael B. Jordon, this coupled with the upcoming Creed 2 means that yes, we can let him off the hook for Fant4stic. I could go on but if I did I'd just be plagiarizing Wisecrack so I'll just cut out the middle man and point you to their video on why Killmonger is the best villain since Heath Ledger's Joker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUgO7NtgNF0&t

#1 Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War
 Here we are at last, the absolute best villain of the MCU, Thanos the Mad Titan. Now while Killmonger is the most empathetic and understandable Thanos not only has the same empathy and understanding behind his actions, he also has the power to not only make things hard on earth but the entire universe. Now like everyone I got more than annoyed when for all of his talk Thanos just did little over the course of the MCU past Avengers. Sure he may have backed Ronan and Loki but other then that he really didn't have that much of a direct presence. But as soon as he got his big purple ass off of that chair and we saw him hovering over the Asgardian escape vessel that was when we knew that he was here to play, and he came to win!

 Just like Killmonger Thanos' actions while abominable are actually understandable and most horrifyingly, logical. Having seen his home planet of Titan destroyed by overpopulation Thanos made it his goal to insure that no planet had to suffer that same fate, by wiping out half of the populations of the planets he conquered to save them from themselves. However he eventually realized that going planet by planet wasn't enough so he sought the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of the sentient life in the universe. The worst thing about this is that he succeeded, but not without cost, for him to get the final Infinity Stone he had to kill the one person he truly cared about, Gamora.

 Now I know that eventually this outcome will be undone because how could Spider-Man have a sequel if he's a pile of dust; but when we were watching this movie and we saw Thanos snap those fingers all we could think about was "Mr Stark, I don't feel so good." What really sold me on this version of Thanos aside from the scene were he acquired the Soul Stone was the last scene where Thanos sat down on that porch on that farm and had that look on his face that said "I did it". To be honest only one other movie has made me feel this way and hit me that hard watching a villain take this somber victory was when Homura was taunting Sayaka at the end of Madoka Magica Rebellion. Both Thanos and Homura overcame terrible hardships, made unconscionable decisions, gave up everything that they cherished all to achieve their goals, for Thanos to save the Universe, for Homura, to give the one person she loved a chance to be happy, the price was the uprooting and destruction of everything.

 Thankfully they changed his motivations from his original comic book incarnation. Where there he was a nihilist who literally wanted to court Death only to fail and be upstaged by a murderous Canadian tumor. Here, he's fully aware of how monstrous his actions are but feels that it's his duty to cary out this horrible task, even if he's only remembered as a demon. That kind of conviction coupled with his goals actually being based on something that happened to him and not just some hypothesis or theoretical outcome not only justifies his crusade but actually gives him a sympathetic perspective as he genuinely hates himself for killing Gamora to acquire the Soul Stone. Of course he's nothing without the acting of Josh Brolin, his acting coupled with the brilliant script makes a giant purple emo into a powerful, terrifying and nuanced character, in a word, Fantastic.

 So there is my list of the top Villains of the MCU. If you feel like anyone was shafted "cough Kilgrave cough Kingpin cough cough" just let me know in the comments. Well with the year almost done I feel the need for a quick break, you know holidays and all that. But before I do I feel the need to play catch up. So next time I'll get started with the reviews of the Space Squad movies. Starting with Girls in Trouble then Dekaranger Gavan Space Squad wrapping up with, ugh Dumbluck and his gang of idiots one last time, though first Luigi's Mansion for the 3DS, Happy Halloween!

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Captain America The Winter Soldier is owned by Marvel Studios  and The Walt Disney Company. Based on the character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Ant-Man is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures. Based off the comic book character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby.
Avengers Age of Ultron is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and is written by Joss Weadon. Based off the Characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Spider-Man: Homecoming is owned by Sony Pictures Releasing, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures and Colombia Pictures
Guardians of the Galaxy is owned by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Motion picture studios based off "Guardians of the Galaxy" created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.
Captain America Civil War is owned by The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Studios and is based on the Comic "Civil War" Written by Mark Millar
Marvel's The Avengers is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige. Based off the comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
One Piece is owned by Eiichiro Oda, Toei Animation, and Viz Media
None Piece is owned by PurpleeyesWTF.
Black Panther is owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Marvel Studios and Ryan Coogler. Based off the character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Avengers: Infinity War is owned by Walt Disney Studios motion Pictures and Marvel Studios Based off the original comics Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby