Now Playing: Fortnite
Now Listening: Game of Thrones Aftershow podcasts
Now Watching: Avengers Endgame
Now Reading: Now Writing: Dakotah Slade Paranormal/Investigator
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Geekly News Headlines:
April 26th:
➤ Avengers post credit sound apparently Stark building Mark 1 in Iron Man 1... I didn't notice.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/25/18514483/avengers-endgame-after-credits-scene-sound
➤ Epic releases challenge for steam
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/25/steam-epic-games-store-revenue-share-sweeney-challenge/
➤ Bacteria scares the crap out of me. Let's learn more about it.
https://www.livescience.com/51641-bacteria.html
➤ Acting in a Marvel movie apparently the most frustrating experience you can imagine.
https://news.avclub.com/captain-marvels-post-credits-scene-was-way-cooler-to-wa-1834307878
➤ Smash bros ultimate hasn't just outsold the last smash bros on WiiU, it also outsold the WiiU.
https://screenrant.com/nintendo-switch-super-smash-bros-ultimate-comparison/
April 25th:
➤ Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland new scifi YA movie deemed unreleaseable. If that was an option, how did Fifty Shades of Gray end up in theatres?
https://io9.gizmodo.com/daisy-ridley-and-tom-hollands-sci-fi-drama-chaos-walkin-1834250904
➤ Spoiler free Avengers review
https://io9.gizmodo.com/avengers-endgame-is-overwhelmingly-epic-and-immensely-1834240218
➤ When someone rage quits online in MK11, they literally explode
https://kotaku.com/rage-quitting-is-appropriately-bloody-in-mortal-kombat-1834253279
➤ Amazon and Facebook most dangerous places to work?
https://gizmodo.com/amazon-and-facebook-listed-among-the-dozen-most-dangero-1834278212
➤ Watch out for preservatives.
https://gizmodo.com/a-common-preservative-in-cheese-and-bread-could-negativ-1834278066
➤ Xbox game pass takes as much as it gives.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/24/18514699/xbox-game-pass-april-2019-leaving
➤ Avengers doesn't have a post credit scene, but does have a sound cue? I'm guessing something like the emperor's laugh at the end of the new Star Wars trailer.
https://screenrant.com/avengers-endgame-post-credits-scene/
➤ Super Mario maker 2 will release in June.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/24/super-mario-maker-2-nintendo-switch/
April 24th:
➤ Science on quarks
https://www.livescience.com/65295-what-is-strong-nuclear-force.html
➤ New Joss Whedon show coming to HBo. Casts lead female
https://news.avclub.com/laura-donnelly-to-play-peak-joss-whedon-heroine-in-new-1834245970
➤ DC universe streaming service now has every DC comic. Swamp thing season 1 shrunk from 13 episodes to 10. Similar to Titans, which it should be noted turned out good in the end, despite disappointing finale. Expect the same here.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/23/dc-universe-whole-comics-library-available/
➤ Finn possibly done after Star Wars 9. But I doubt it.
https://screenrant.com/star-wars-9-john-boyega-finn-future/
➤ Female Doc Ock main villain of planned Spider-verse series?
https://screenrant.com/spiderman-spider-verse-doc-ock-sequels/
➤ Earth quake on mars. Marsquake.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/04/listen-up-weve-detected-our-first-marsquake/
➤ Fortnite developers in never ending crunch?
https://screenrant.com/fortnite-employees-work-100-hours-week/
April 23rd:
➤ Mortal Kombat 11 releases and is good, apparently!
https://screenrant.com/mortal-kombat-11-review-roundup/
➤ Samsung Galaxy fold gets delayed after people find their phones only actually bend once.
➤ Fortnite is getting a crossover with the Avengers Endgame
https://screenrant.com/fortnite-adding-avengers-endgame-content/
➤ Avengers endgame early showing reactions are in.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-spoiler-free-first-reactions-to-avengers-endgame-1834217337
➤ Planned series Mouse Guard by Fox gets cancelled. Based on awesome graphic novel, it's a shame.
April 22nd:
➤ The Game Boy and Yoshi turns 30 apparently. Big month for Nintendo.
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Geekly Blog:
All right. I promised to write words about Avengers: Endgame and I've given it a couple days to stew in my brain and for the details to get really fuzzy cause I smoke too much pot, so here we go. Avengers Endgame is a good movie. If you wanna stop there and go see it, then go ahead. What follows will be spoiler light, (I'll try not to give any specifics on who dies, or specifics of the final fates of anyone... but don't expect the line to be lower than that). This review probably wouldn't pass Disney's bar.
The movie is good, but it's not as good as Infinity War. And saying that the movie didn't blow my mind and have me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, that the movie wasn't the best movie ever, isn't necessarily bad praise. The biggest issue in this movie is the way in which it plays around with the audience's expectations. It is perhaps the movie's only real flaw. I can see a lot of similarities between this movie and The Last Jedi, and I imagine people's reactions to be just as divisive.
A good example of this is the way they handle The Hulk. We've been building up through all these movies what seemed like a need for symbiosis. For Banner and Hulk to come to terms with each other, talk to each other, and work together. Similar to the sort of arc we're getting on Doom Patrol with the guy in bandages. The thing is, this movie just throws that all out the window for a hilarious reveal and a fun comedic relief for the rest of the movie. And it's great! But it's not set up, or really talked about at all. Same with Thor. I suppose that one is set up and talked about, but it's still blatantly for the reveal, and then oh hey it'll add to all these moments too. They are mostly great, and completely forgivable, if there weren't so many of them. If that wasn't basically the entire movie in a nut shell. "You're expecting this? Well you're getting this instead!"
And that doesn't make it a bad movie. Just leaves a lot of people exiting the theatre scratching their heads saying "That's not what I came here to see." This movie is everything Infinity war wasn't It was slow, it took it's time building up emotion with it's characters, gave them time to feel. For all the things it didn't bother to set up in it's ample 3 hour run time, the movie never felt slow or meandering, or rushed and stuffed. Instead it seemed wholly invested in allowing its characters to live in the moment, and that is where most of it's run time goes. Which is commendable and you really feel invested in the main team. Again, this is in no ways a bad movie.
And the last half hour brings a huge battle that's everything we wanted to see. It embodies the idea of a comic splash page better than Infinity War ever did. So it does eventually get around to taking Infinity War's big battle thing and doing it up. But it takes so long to get there. And there's so many stand out moments and great scenes throughout the whole movie. And it's fun. It's perhaps the least jokey Marvel movie, but I've seen people surprised at how funny it is, which never ceases to surprise me. Every Marvel movie has you laughing from beginning to end. We have to be used to this by now. It's a formula people. If we weren't laughing the whole way through, these movies wouldn't be making half the money they make.
There is one moment in the battle that's particularly eye rolling. You see this battle has everyone. Every character that's ever been in every movie, every leads. Heck even Nick fury, but I personally didn't spot Maria Hill. And, side note, one of the most commednable things about this movie is perhaps the way it pays off every other movie. It touches on, lovingly and with respect, every single movie in the franchise. there are references and allusions to not just all the captain america movies, but Thor the Dark World is revisited in a major way. The kid from Iron Man 3 returns in a blink-or-don't-you'll-still-miss-him kind of way. So they do such a great job of paying of the franchise. But anyway there's this one moments when someone needs to get something somewhere during the battle, and he's being overwhelmed, and cries for help.
"Is there no one that can help me?"
"Don't worry! I'm here." says a woman, I dunno if it was Scarlet Witch or Rescue. Or Okaye, or Shuri. But what starts with one woman grows to be every woman in the MCU, all forming together to escort this mcguffin to the doohickey (I don't know if I'm avoiding spoilers or just really dont remember) and it's, I guess, supposed to be this really empowering moment. Except it sorta comes out of nowhere, is not set up at all. There's no "Only women can do this" everyone was busy and distracted across the battlefield. You'd almost expect Antman to be like "Hey I can help too!" and them be like "No this is our moment!" and push him out of frame. It's just really forced and leaves you wondering "Why is this happening? What is going on right now?" I suppose there's plenty of times were all men show up to save the day, so why not a moment where the women showed up. Except they HAD shown up, and they already were kicking ass (Scarlet Witch even flexes her muscles against Th[-e bad guy] some more which is always great to watch) so it's weird they they were all like "I'm disposed" and every man on the field was like "I'm indisposed." It is potentially the worst part in the whole movie. But I might be forgetting a couple other really cringy moments. That are so few and far between as to not remotely impact the overall quality of the film.
It's said that moment was to balance out the fridging of a character, but I would argue that moment doesn't even constitute as fridging. Fridging implies that the death of the character doesn't serve the plot, that the only purpose of the character even being in the movie is to make a male character feel sad. This doesn't remotely relate to her. And she isn't even killed, she willingly sacrifices herself, and it really feels, the way the movie did it, that it was a coin flip. I heard someone on a podcast saying "I'm not saying women can't die in movies" but I do believe someone calling this fridging doesn't really have a grasp on what the term means, and is likely just wanting to be another voice in this feminist wave. Which I would be furious if someone dismissed me so callously, so maybe I'll just move on.
My favourite moments in this movie are actually all Captain America moments, surprisingly. Namely the "Hail Hydra" scene and the "Hammer" scene. Once you've seen the movie you'll know what I mean. They were also the moments the audience got the most vocal. The only other time was a spattering of laughter at the "Hulk smash" scene. Other than that, they were largely silent, and very silent when the credits rolled. No applause. No cheers. Just silence.
It's not a bad movie. It's a good movie. It's almost a better sequel to the 20 movies before Infinity War, than it is a sequel to Infinity War, Antman 2, or Captain Marvel. I would say those movies are the least touched on or paid off in these movies.. which is great, they are also the only three I didn't manage to get to before seeing this movie. If you are a marvel fan, and you've seen every other movie, go see this one. Obviously you will love it, but I doubt you need me to tell you that. I can't imagine what it would be like seeing this movie having not seen the other ones. That person would probably think super hero movies are really full of themselves. In some ways this movie is absolutely marvel sucking their own D. They are snorting their own Kool Aid and asking us to go on a fantastic voyage of love with them through their decade of filmmaking. And that's just fine. Just don't watch this movie until you've seen all the others... in order! The ride will at some points be more enjoyable than the destination, but it's never a dull moment.
AVENGERS ENDGAME: ****
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Geekly Weekly TV Rankings (➤ for new) (
I live tweet shows on twitter, but try to keep those spoiler-lite @AndrewGeczy)
- Game of Thrones *****
Great episode this week. A lot of people, including myself, were hoping for some action this week, and on my glance this episode doesn't have any. But that's not completely true. Arya gets some action, if you know what I mean. Her scene with Gendry was awesome. In fact, practically every scene was awesome. I was on the edge of my seat squeeling like a little school girl at lines of dialogue. I love this show so much. Only 4 episodes left :( and I'm really afraid about how there was so much of a focus who would be in the battle, and who would be in the crypts with the children, women, and elderly. If the theory that the Night King might raise the dead in the crypts, it could be a blood bath of their most vulnerable people! I'm almost certain that's how next week will play out. That Tyrion will survive, but what he sees will be so horrible that it'll lead him to make a horribly fateful choice at king's landing to kill everyone in the city before they can be turned into an army against him.
- The Flash *****
Hey! The flash beat Killing Eve this week. And what a great episode it was. Some fans of the Flash, the ones complaining when things got dark in season 3, might hate this episode. It was a lot of drama, but what impressed me was how good the drama was written. The argument between Iris and Barry felt so real, and treated their relationship with more maturity and respect than I might have ever seen on TV. This is all we want, Relationships don't have to be boring. They are constant work, and this episode did a great job of actualizing that. I also really enjoyed Thawne, just more and more every episode. I've been really confused by him, unsure what to think of him. Has he changed? Is he manipulating her? DOes he have an agenda? Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but by the end of the episode I agree with Iris, I think he actually cares about her. I think he sees her as family, and it's his love for her and the affection she gives him in return that broke him free from the anger of the negative force.
- ➤ Doom Patrol **** 1/2A great episode of Doom Patrol. The focus on Vic was the only real drag down, and his plotline is irksome to say the least. I'm sorry but I care less and less, and every direction the story takes just makes me care less about him. His motivations and actions are just all so dumb, and I just don't care. And he was a large portion of the episode, but everything else was great, if equally slow. I loved the moments Matt Bomer had, and Robot man had some great scenes too. Also slow. This was a slow episode, that let us just steep in the emotions of the characters and it was plenty strong. While Killing Eve below might be on the lower end of four and a half stars, this show is probably closer to four point nine.
- Killing Eve ****1/2
It was a fine episode of the show. One without a lot of stand out moments. It might even be one of the weaker episodes of the show, which means absolutely nothing at all, and I'm still tempted to give it five stars. I love every second of this show. I was disappointed last week with the return of Konstantin, but he was great this week and I enjoyed his inclusion a lot. I enjoyed nearly every scene with Villanelle and can't believe what she's been doing to Eve's husband, the poor guy. Villanelle sure knows how to stir shit. I just hated the whole "They were sooooooo close but no cigar!" thing. I want them to interact, to work together. To fall in love and be together forever. To make out and sleep together, have a crazy night of passion. Which is likely wishful thinking, but I can dream. That razor in the lipstick though, harsh.
- Legends of Tomorrow ****
Fun episode of Legends of Tomorrow that also strangely pushed what I thought was the main storyline forward as a subplot in the episode. Like this episode told 4 stories, and Neron's arc was just one of them, given barely equal time. Now Constantine's boyfriend is free from his possession, and it felt a little rushed, but I can't really complain because everything this episode was fun. There were great moments throughout, and Ray is just too much fun. This whole season he's both been one of the show's greatest joys every time he's on camera, but at the same time his character has had absolutely nothing to do. He has no where to really grow, he is who he is and he's happy with it. And it's fun to watch, but it must be frustrating as an actor and I've been fearing his departure from the show. I think adding his wife to the cast was a way to make the show more fulfilling for him, so maybe he's in for the long hall. If Neron doesn't kill him first.
- ➤ Cloak and Dagger ****This episode was fine. Another fine episode of a great show. Maybe it's just settling into a rhythm but it does seem as strong as it was for a while, but it still has powerful moments, and maybe I've just been jaded lately. I really enjoy Bridget/Mayhem, and Tandy had an interesting arc this week. I felt Tyrese's arc dragged a little and sorta went in circles but there were powerful moments in there too. T His is a great show, even if it's having another middling episode.
- American Gods ****
Fun focus on Mads Sweeny for the entire episode, though you could pretty much tell from the beginning where the episode was headed. It was a fitting send off, I suppose, and interesting despite my lack of much interest. I almost gave up on this show this week, but I'm happy I stuck around, especially if there's just one episode left.
- ➤ Brooklyn Nine Nine ****
Funny episode of the show with a great premise of a hacker breaking into the 99's servers. It was also fun the way they synronized the timer with the lasagna, giving the episode two ticking clocks. Of course I find Sully and Hithcock a little tired so I didn't find the lasanga throughline as funny as I think the show wanted me to, but I still chuckled a few times. Also it's possible the final show was an allusion to The Avengers and the Shwarma scene. My favourite characters were Rosa and Amy, they had small but hilarious and endearing rolls, and continue to be two of my fav characters. Also shout out to Sean Asten as the hacker. I figured out he was the bad guy about halfway through the episode.
- ➤ The Big Bang Theory **** Good episode with a strong focus on Lenard and Penny, and giving lenard some character development. As a fan of Lenard and Penny, and their relationship, I really enjoyed this episode. It wasn't so great at bringing the comedy, but I think the work it did on character development and portraying the ongoing saga of a successful and happy relationship was worth more than laughs.
- Supergirl ****
Good episode this week, the funnest parts being with Brainy and his little subplot, but the primary story was an enjoyably complex exploration of who Supergirl is and how what she does can cause as much trouble as good. Though it's a topic brought up a lot by villains, I thought when the one guy int hat prison was telling her off, he made some good points. I was almost impressed by the writing of his character, and how Supergirl was continuing to delve into complicated issues, but his character and the depth of the story was undercut somewhat by the extreme contrast between how much he hated Supergirl and how much he absolutely loved Kara Danver's reporting in Catco Magazine. It was cartoonish, to say the least. Also I definintely do not want to see Alex get with James Olsen's therapist sister. I don't want it. I just don't like her.
- Into the Badlands ***1/2
I hate condensed storytelling. We're getting it in Game of Thrones and they're barely getting a pass because they are just so good. But even then I hate the way characters aren't even given time to process revelations. The worst offender of condensed story telling is Dollhouse season two. But also you can check out any CW DC crossover event. It's so much fun when we jump from scene to scene so fast, and we can't even slow down enough to capture people's reactions to things. I swear to god, there's even been CW crossovers where they've edited out the pauses between lines. Like completely. To the point where it was jarring. Anyway, so Into the badlands has been alright, but I'm done giving it a pass. It's grown too ambitious, our awesome main character has done like nothing all half season, this story is way too rushed to make any sense. The battle was actually surprisingly good, in that it was clever all the traps they laid out. The actually fighting felt like all the fighting in the rest of these final episodes. Like the show is yadda yaddaing through the cool martial arts fights to get back to cramming in the plot. I would love for Nix and Tilda to build a relationship, but we don't have time for that. They get a scene. A very confusing scene. Don't get me wrong, this show is great, with stand out moments, and great characters and cool fights of which there was some pretty good stuff here. It's just suffering hard from the good ol' condensed storytelling.
- ➤ Gotham ***A rather meh episode of the show. It had its moments, certainly, but those moments leaned more towards eye-rolling and total cheese. The bat suit looked silly on him, and it was only seen in one shot. the plot was throw away. I don't understand why they wouldn't recast him but would recast Selina, except that we see Selina a lot more. We hardly see batman at all, and we def see no Bruce. But with the new actress, we had no connection. I felt nothing, no sexual tension, no chemistry. Also Penguin looked silly and ridiculous. Joker was meh. The whole episode was a meh series finale. I don't even think I would keep watching if it was a pilot for a batman show. The finale of this show was worse than the pilot of any other show.
- Arrow ***
Rough episode of Arrow this week. I got really excited the moment I recognized Ernie Hudson, which was the moment he walked in the room even though I was high as a kite. I'm like Wait, Diggle, who ya gonna call? It was hard to buy into Diggle's plot of being super mad at Ernie, cause he's just so damn likable. Anyway what followed was what can only be described as a terrible episode. The show really bent over backwards to force a laughable torture scene. The escape was just as laughable. This episode had a really difficult grasp on how technology works. Oh and then they killed off the highlander at the end, in a shitty anti-climatic way that was supposed to make Emiko seem bad ass, but just made me sad we'd be getting no more Adrian Paul. There were some good moments, like the fights were alright, and Ernie Hudson WAS infectious even if it was ridiculous how he was just suddenly in the arrow cave and going back to back with the vigilantes, but then when his team could have been useful in forming a perimeter and stopping that dangerous macguffin from escaping by van, they were like "Nah, we got this." It was so bad it was funny at points, and I suppose that has to be worth something.
Geekly Weekly Talk Show Showdown:
- Vice Special Report: Automation in the Workplace ***** (April 20th)
- Last Week Tonight ***** (April 21st)
- ➤ Vice News Tonight **** (April 24th-26th)
- ➤ The Daily Show **** (April 22nd-25th)
- ➤ The Graham Norton Show ** (April 26th)
- Stephen Colbert ** (April 19th)
