Avengers: Infinity War, Reviewed

Spoiler-free, or your money cheerfully refunded!

By now, you have probably already made up your mind about seeing Avengers: Infinity War, the nineteenth Marvel Studios film set in their Cinematic Universe. Since you are reading this, you are either 90% likely to see it, or you are my mum. (No worries, Mum! I should have a post with your granddaughters in it within the week.)

The purpose of this review is not to convince you whether or not you should see it, but to share my impressions of it without giving anything away, and perhaps give you some idea of what to expect.

Well, first of all, it's big. I mean, really big, and not just the 2.5 hour running time. It is epic in scope and scale, from the varied and often cosmic settings to the levels of world-shattering power displayed. It's a lot of movie, a veritable Ten Commandments of superhero flicks, and there are places where it feels overstuffed. I wouldn't mind seeing a directors' cut that tucked in maybe another 20 minutes.

But there are still a couple of quiet moments, which I appreciated, and the Russo brothers make great use of one of the greatest casts ever assembled for an action/adventure movie, both in quantity and quality.

Most (but notably: not all) of the MCU gets dragged down into a knock-down drag out with Thanos and his Black Order. Thanos, whose direct participation in the MCU has been negligible (with the exception of the first Guardians of the Galaxy). The Mad Titan wants to mount all six impossibly powerful infinity stones into a gauntlet, and if he does it, he intends to randomly wipe out half the life in the universe in a skewed effort to restore balance and preserve resources.

Despite how busy the film is, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have given Thanos enough scenes and dialogue that he is not simply a malevolent, scenery chewing force of nature. He is still monstrous, but strangely accessible, and almost sympathetic in a way that his comics iteration never has been. Josh Brolin's motion capture performance is magnificent and nuanced, perhaps providing some competition to Andy Serkis' Gollum for the first time in over a decade.

Don't hold your breath waiting for a scene like that great circle shot in the first Avengers movie - the story is just too big to keep them all contained in one place. While this does limit some of the combos you might have hoped to see, the Russos certainly make great use of the ones they have. Costumes, equipment, weapons and powers are all used to their maximum extent, but you are never sure if they will be enough to stop Thanos, or powerful Black Order members like Cull Obsidian or Proxima Midnight.

There is a ton of fan-service contained in the film: Thanos creatively disposes of two foes in a manner drawn straight from the Infinity Gauntlet comic book, and although they are never named, I am convinced that Dr. Strange brings the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak into play during the climax. The interactions between the Guardians and the other Avengers is not only entertaining to watch, but it successfully knits together the Cosmic and terrestrial sides of the MCU, opening the door up to even more stories and characters.

In terms of criticism, there is not much to offer. In all honestly, I liked Black Panther better, and consider it a better movie, too, but it is an unfair comparison. Black Panther didn't have 60+ 'main' characters to deal with, and had only limited ties to the rest of the MCU. Infinity War is the capstone (or at least part of the capstone) to a ten year shared universe project involving 18 other films. Complaining that there is just too much movie in here is akin to complaining that caramel is sweet.

The cool coin we got at the fan event tonight (eventually).

For a summer tentpole movie involving massive intellectual properties owned by some of the largest media consortiums and entertainment companies in the world, Infinity War is a bold, bold, film, willing to take risks and even willing to risk the goodwill of its fan base by moving away from the status quo. Comparisons to The Empire Strikes Back are inevitable, and there are certainly structural similarities there.

And in some places, it is legitimately heartbreaking to boot. (I didn't weep, and as many of you know, I am an easy target for that sort of thing, so I am almost a bit disappointed that I didn't. But it was a near thing, let me tell you.)

Let's take a moment and express some appreciation for the efforts that Marvel, and the directors and cast, have all put in to keeping the movie's surprises surprising. The hashtag #ThanosDemandsYourSilence is a good one, the PSA where the stars refuse to give anything up is hilarious, and the fact that the Russos went completely dark on social media yesterday shows me a loving commitment to letting this immense story unfold where it should: on the biggest screen you can manage. I also respect how the filmmakers subverted expectations by having at least one scene in the trailers that does NOT appear in the movie at all; bravo, sirs!

C'mon, if you have seen even half of these movies, you are going to want to check this one out. Go see it quickly, without spoilers and with an open mind. Untitled Avengers Movie won't be out until next May, and we will have plenty to talk about and speculate on until then.

Same Ingredients, New Recipe - Stranger Things Season 2, Reviewed

Against all reasonable judgement, Glory and I watched the second season of Netflix's nostalgia/horror pastiche Stranger Things in its entirety this weekend. For a lot of people, that will be unsurprising, but it's been a while since any of us had done binge-watching that seriously, we didn't start until suppertime last night, and we still got the shopping done, homework finished, yard raked and Christmas lights put up as well.

Audrey and I came to the Stranger Things party late last year, so there was little point in reviewing it then. In fact, I'm pretty sure 90% of the people reading this who might be interested have probably already watched it, or at least committed to doing so. But for anyone remaining on the fence, allow me the indulgence of sharing my observations and impressions (spoiler-free, natch!).

The story picks up a year later, three days before Hallowe'en 1984. Things have returned to normal in Hawkins, Indiana: Chief Hopper is maintaining order, The Party is still tackling middle-school adversity together, and a new crop of secretive government types have repopulated Hawkins National Laboratory. But a lot has changed too; Mike still pines for the return of Eleven, Joyce Byers has a new fella (played by Sean "Goonies" Astin!), and a mysterious stranger has taken the high score on Dig Dug at the Hawkins arcade.

Obviously it does not take too long for things to go off the rails here, and the Upside-Down slowly and insidiously makes its presence known is a series of odd feelings and agricultural phenomena. Will's connection to this hellish other dimension asserts itself as anticipated, and soon everyone is battling evil from within and without.

If I have a complaint about the second season, it would be that the story itself hasn't changed a lot from the first season, and a lot of the same beats repeat themselves. Are our young heroes still tormented by bullies? Yes, and then some. Are there a couple of gory surprises in store? You bet. And is anyone surprised when the Byers house begins to look a the art installation of a crazy person? Not particularly.

Having said that though, season 2 is still a worthwhile endeavour for those of us who came to care about these characters a little over a year ago. Most of the components have stayed the same, but the Duffer Brothers have them interacting together in different combinations now - it's like taking the same flour, eggs and milk, but making cake with them instead of bread.

Eleven's primary dramatic foil is Chief Hopper, who we saw leaving Eggos at a dead drop in the woods in the epilogue at the end of last season. Not to take anything away from Winona Ryder and her well-deserved resurgence, but Millie Bobby Brown and and David Harbour provide almost all the thespianic chops this season, and there is powerful emotion in their interactions.

Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), who appears to be a member of the only black family in Hawkins, gets quite a bit more time to shine this season, not only in his scenes with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) (now with incisors!), but also with his younger sister. Most significant though is what happens when new student Maxine (Sadie Sink) enters the mix, especially when the other principals are 1 year further into puberty.

All the nostalgia is still there, and we children of the 80's will have a lot of fun struggling to recall all the soundtrack artists (so happy to hear Oingo Boingo onscreen again that I don't even care that the album came out a year after Season 2 is set!), remembering the arcade games (hell, remembering arcades), and marveling at the styles of the decade.

Likewise the nerdy references, ranging from movies, to scientific terminology, to, in one notable case, a full screen close up of an entry from the original AD&D Monster Manual (glee!).

Scenes are spread around a bit more equitably this time around, resulting in maybe a sliver less exposure for the young lads on their bikes, but its probably better to have too little than too much. Plus, having established themselves in the first season, there is a little less need to have them prove themselves when the weirdness shifts into high gear.

Still, it's strange that nine episodes in, my favourite character is probably high school senior and reformed douchebag Steve Harrington (Joe Keery). He doesn't really steal the show, but he is possibly the second most progressive minor in the show, and the reasonableness of some of his responses make them all the funnier.

There are a few changes that occur along the way, but I can't help but feel that in some ways season 2 is clearing the decks for a third season (which the Duffer Bros. say they are already working on), and perhaps beyond. So the bad news is, we may be in for even more of the same.

The good news is, we may be in for even more of the same! And if you liked season 1, you owe it to yourself to check out season 2.

Comin' In From Above - Baby Driver, Reviewed

Two years ago, George Miller made Fury Road, and showed us that a movie can spend most of its running time in chase scenes and still make a brilliant, emotionally affecting motion picture. Now Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim) has made Baby Driver and demonstrated that you can do the same thing with a story built around a reluctant getaway driver. And made it as a genre-mashing musical-romantic-action-heist movie,

In some ways, Baby Driver gets off to a shaky start, dropping us into the first bank job right away. While the eponymous Baby (Ansel Elgort) jams with his earbuds in (his means of combating tinnitus from a childhood accident), his passengers strap up and stride through the doors, stepping in time to the music like a perverse music video. When they come racing back, we are treated to some phenomenal stunt driving, with Wrights assurances that no CGI or green screen was used, only practical stunts. As baby puts the stolen Subaru through its paces though, with all the attendant roaring of engine and screeching of tires you can't help but wonder how he intends to get away. And here's a tip: maybe you would blend into a crowd more if you didn't dress so much like Han Solo?

See, in all the imaginary heists I've ever planned, anonymity is the key to success: a visually nondescript vehicle, perhaps with some extra guts under the hood, but designed to avoid attracting attention.

But what kind of fun would that be? And so, when a fortuitous situation allows Baby to execute a vehicular version of Three-Card Monte, it doesn't feel too far fetched. Likewise when he bops down the street to the coffee shop the next day, lyrics from Harlem Shuffle periodically appearing in graffiti on the walls behind him, in an unbroken shot that took over twenty takes.

Soon afterwards, we meet the mastermind behind the robberies, Doc, played with equal amounts friendliness and ruthlessness by Kevin Spacey. In short order, we discover Baby's indebtedness, as well as the deaf and wheelchair-bound foster father he is attending to, piling caregiver on top of a heap of other tropes, including Mickey Mousing, Indentured Servitude, and One Last Job. And we aren't even into the second act yet!

But that's okay, and I will tell you why: because after it sets the stage, Wright uses all the tools from all the genres at his disposal in a balanced fashion, never playing the grittiness of a classic crime pic at the expense of the magical realism of a musical, and vice versa. Wright ratchets up the dramatic and emotional tension throughout the film, teasing out bits of the backstory, throwing a couple of curve balls in and never making it really clear what the endgame can possibly be. Can we get a happy ending out of this? Mmmmmaybe, but how?!?

Doc changes up the crews for most of the jobs he plans, but Jamie Foxx stands out as Bats, a calculating yet unpredictable career criminal. Any heist film will have its fair share of planning scenes, where a lot of the tension can be allowed to leak away, but this is rarely the case when he and Kevin Spacey are on the screen together, verbally jousting for credibility in front of the others.

Cynical viewers are likely to be left cold by the retro appeal of the diner where Baby meets his love interest Debora, or the cheesiness of having five gunshots timed to the beat of the guitar riffs in Hocus Pocus by Focus, or even Baby's nickname, but it all worked for me. Music and fantasy play key roles in all Edgar Wright's movies, from Shaun of the Dead to this one, and he makes great, confident use of both of them throughout. (And before you ask: yes, of course I have already ordered the 2-disc soundtrack from Amazon.)

Pretty much all heist movies are fantasies; at least Baby Driver is honest about it. What's important though is that the motivations and reactions throughout the film never seem forced or contrived, and the resolutions always feel earned.

Look, I don't know if anyone will ever make a better robbery movie than Michael Mann's Heat anyways, so do yourself a favour and check out Baby Driver in the meantime. The performances, dialogue and dramatic tension measure up with that classic, but the driving and music and imagination are even better.

Marvel's First Misstep? - Iron Fist, Reviewed

Well, it was bound to happen, I guess; Marvel has finally misstepped. Netflix’s Iron Fist is not just a poor comic adaptation, it is pretty poor television across the board.

It pains me to write this, because I was beyond thrilled when a C-level Marvel Comics hero spawned in the 70s was chosen to round out Netflix’s ‘Defenders’ lineup. Because he had the most fantastical origin, which involves leaving the monastery where he was raised in order to battle a dragon barehanded and steal its power, it made sense to leave him until the end of the batting order after Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. But amidst all the hubbub about cultural appropriation and whitewashing, the showrunners committed a far greater sin: they made a boring show. About a comic book character.  And not just any comic book character, oh, no.

You see, when writer Matt Fraction teamed up with Ed Brubaker to create a new book for Danny Rand’s alter ego ten years back, he was asked what makes the character a good fit for comics. His reply was reputedly, “What, are you kidding me? Kung fu billionaire.”

I don't know how you make that boring, but Netflix and showunner Scott Buck? They managed to find a way.

There are hints of a family struggle as Danny Rand (Finn Jones), returning to New York after being presumed dead for 15 years, tries to reclaim the birthright of his father’s corporation from the son and daughter of dad’s former business partner. The fact that he is also the legendary Iron Fist barely comes into play the first few episodes.

Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I did not actually tune into a show about a kung fu billionaire in order to watch protracted scenes of boardroom machinations and familial skullduggery. But for a while, that's what you get.

The family drama is not uninteresting, but takes far too much time to unspool, and worst of all, I found myself not caring too much about any of the characters, including Danny. There are a few unexpected moments that perk things up from time to time, but on the whole, things just take too long to happen, something not altogether uncommon for Netflix’s Marvel shows, sadly.

The biggest problem though, is Finn Jones himself. His Danny Rand goes from Zen-like grace and compassion to a man needing anger management with very little in the way of rhyme or reason (although that may be a factor of multiple writers over the season). He is not a particularly expressive thespian, and spends way too much time sulking pensively.

And, worst of all, he isn't a very good fighter.

Don't get me wrong, dude is fit and all, and some of the blame needs to go to the directors, and I appreciate you sometimes have to spend a little from the Laurence Olivier stack in order to bump up the Jackie Chan pile, but the kung fu is lacking in both quality and quantity. In fact, I think there are some episodes where you get more hands being thrown in the animated opening credit sequence than in the rest of the episode. Seriously.

Now, Jones is an actor, not a fighter, and soft, circular forms like kung fu are much harder to pick up than hard linear forms like karate, but ask anyone who has seen both shows who would win in a fight between Daredevil and Iron Fist, and no one is going to say ‘Danny Rand with a k.o.', I assure you.

There are a few other things that burned me up: inconsistent powers for a major villain, a cell phone plot hole near the end, the lack of comic book influence beyond the title character, and so on.

So why watch it? I mean, besides being a glutton for punishment like me, I mean? Well...

• Colleen Wing, played by Jessica Henwick (a former Sand Snake from Game of Thrones) is absolutely awesome: beautiful, tough, compassionate, complex, and good at kicking ass barehanded or slinging around a katana. 
• Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) aka Netflix’s Agent Coulson returns. She is not only great in her role (as usual) but also gives Iron Fist a chance to pass the Bechdel Test, surprisingly. (Hey, here’s an idea: team up Colleen with Misty Knight from Luke Cage like they do in the comics (as The Daughters of the Dragon), add Claire to the mix and give them their own show. I would watch the hell out of that!)
• The first time Danny summons the Iron Fist, it is actually pretty cool.
• Complex motivations - Danny’s childhood friends, Joy and Ward Meachum, alternate between being his rivals and his allies in his return to Rand Corporation, and are far more than just villainous cutouts or potential love interests. Their relationship with their own father takes a number of twists and turns over the course of the series.
• The episode directed by Wu Tang Clan's RZA, "Immortal Emerges From Cave", is not bad at all, with intriguing opponents, some imaginative production design and set dressing, and a couple of visual nods to Fraction's "Immortal Iron Fist" run.
• About ten seconds of smuggled b&w footage taken by the Chinese military in the 1940s that tease what might yet come.
• They do build a larger story leading up to The Defenders, aka Netflix’s Avengers. Fingers crossed?

I'm not giving up on Iron Fist yet, I have too much invested in the character and there is sooooo much good stuff to be wrung out of the comics: the legends and legacies of the many Iron Fists that preceded Danny! The Steel Serpent! The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven! The Immortal Weapons Tournament! Fat Cobra!

Whoever is running The Defenders gets another stab at the character before any decisions get made about a second season, and hopefully that sets Iron Fist back on course a little bit. If a second season dos get greenlit here are my suggestions for having the Living Weapon of K’un L’un get his mojo back:

• New showrunner- sorry Scott Buck, I just don't think you get it. Is Steven DeKnight free? Could RZA run a show if Jeph Loeb reined him in a bit?
• Yeah, you guessed it - MORE KUNG FU
• And better kung fu, for that matter. Get Yuen Woo-Ping and his wire wizards from The Matrix on the case. Use slow mo creatively, strive for longer takes, get some wild angles in there.
• Improved Iron Fist f/x: and I'm quoting here: “until that hand begins to smoulder, to glow, and to harden...until it becomes...LIKE UNTO A THING OF IRON”. Make the glow bigger, make it hotter, give it a sound effect, make it a bigger deal.
• The Costume: use it, man, use it. Let comic shows look like comics for pity's sake.
• And this goes for the rest of the Netflix Marvel crew as well: try to smile just once in a while, huh? Surely there is some joy to be had in being a super-powered so-and-so? I mean sure, Daredevil has his guilt, and Jessica Jones has her PTSD, but Danny Rand? Kung fu billionaire? Can we make him just a smidgen more fun to be around?

Luke Cage? Don't change baby, just get out of jail and bring some righteousness to The Defenders; they might need it.

Wolverine's Sunset: Logan, Reviewed

(I've taken care to make this review as spoiler-free as possible!)

Ironically, for an R-rated comic book movie about mutants, Logan possesses a tremendous amount of humanity. Its languid pace, tragic undertones and the way its characters pursue redemption and freedom make it one of the best X-Men movies to date, and a fitting swan song for Hugh Jackman's 17 year performance of an iconic character.

I mean, honestly, think about it: Sean Connery played Bond in 6 films over 11 years, Roger Moore 7 times in 12, but if you count the cameo in First Class, Jackman has portrayed Logan 9 times since 2000. That is more than 17 years of physically demanding and emotionally committed acting scrutinised by some of the most critically observant and opinionated fans in the world, and he has pulled it off with considerable aplomb. It was gratifying to see him bring the story to a close with such a well-crafted film.

Mark Millar's comic "Old Man Logan" about an even more aged Wolverine living in a dystopian future ruled by supervillains, is touted as an influence on this movie, but only in tone, and that is probably for the best. Director Joseph Mangold and Jackman both wanted a movie with elements of Shane, The Wrestler, and Little Miss Sunshine in it. Both the pace and the look of the movie are reminiscent of the '70s, despite the fact it is set in 2029. Even the IMAX poster evokes this period:

In 2029, there are nearly no mutants to speak of in the world. Logan keeps Prof. Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in hiding at a remote location south of the border because his aging mind can no longer control his immense psychic powers. Logan himself no longer strides with confidence onto the screen, but walks in obvious discomfort and stiffness, both his healing factor and his joints corrupted by his adamantium skeleton, now slowly poisoning him from within. There is friction between the two men, reminiscent of any child caring for an aging parent, but also complicated by hints of a tragedy that Charles may have caused.

Logan's plan to buy a boat and head out onto the ocean with Xavier is compromised when he meets Laura (an amazingly intense 11-year-old Dafne Keen), a young mutant who is regarded as property by the research firm who essentially created her. The movie shifts gears smoothly from western to road movie, as Logan, Laura and Xavier make a desperate flight to a potential sanctuary, and as Logan discovers the truth about his connection to the child he now finds himself caring for.

Richard E. Grant and Boyd Holbrook provide the villainy of a smarmy scientist and his hired muscle, but their brutal cynicism and almost complete lack of humanity somehow keep them from devolving into tired tropes.

Like all the best X-Men comics from the glory days of Chris Claremont, there is action galore, but brilliantly underscored by quieter moments; watching tv in a hotel room, sharing a family meal, a childish prank trimming Logan's beard into his signature muttonchops. But in this first R-rated Wolverine picture, the violence, when it comes, is sudden, brutal, relentless and savage.

Surprisingly, I think Mangold shows a fair bit of restraint when depicting the results of fighting an unstoppable berserker with a fistful of unbreakable ginsu knives, but while he doesn't drench the screen in gore, assailants do have extremities lopped right off, are stabbed through the head, or slashed across the face to devastating effect. And with Laura possessing her own claws and even less restraint than the titular character, well, I think it is fair to say that this movie is not for the faint of heart.

But Logan does have heart, and in abundance. After a typical family dinner that so many of us experience so often and take for granted, Xavier is profoundly moved. He tells Logan, "This is what life looks like. A house. A safe place. People who love each other. You should take a moment..."

I'm a fan of both the original character and his portrayal by Jackman, and sure, I like a lot of comic book movies, but this is the first time I've come away from one thinking, "we'd better see this one nominated for some Oscars." There is a great story here, well told, about the connections that make us human, that should resonate with most people, despite the sometimes intense violence and fantastic superhero trappings. Logan satisfies as both art and entertainment, and I honestly do not think that Academy nods for Picture, Directing, Screenplay and, yes, Acting for both Jackman and Stewart would not be out of line.

Because Jackman has said that this is his final outing as Wolverine, many, including myself, are referring to it as a swan song, but I wonder if shrike song might be more appropriate. Shrikes are beautiful birds with unsettling eating habits, in which they impale their prey of insects, small mammals and even lizards, on thorns, barbed wire and other spiky terrain. There are many such transfixative moments in Logan, both literal and figurative, but this movie makes its point not by saving the world, but showing desperate people trying to save themselves, and those they care about. And they don't always succeed.

There are some shocking moments which, if you have an appreciation for these characters, you owe it to yourself to be surprised by in the cinema, and to see a brilliant capstone to a 17 year portrayal of a pop culture icon which I'm certain will be unequalled for quite some time.

Seafall: Full Sail or Sea Fail?

Since having Risk Legacy recommended to me a couple of years ago, I have become a big fan of legacy gaming. Legacy games are built around the premise that, instead of starting afresh every game, some characteristics of previous games are carried over. (I suppose this sort of continuity is kind of like the difference between original Star Trek and Babylon 5, if you stop to think about it.)

In the case of Risk Legacy, every game sees some permanent change made to the board, in the form of a sticker denoting the presence of a bunker or ammo shortage which will forever affect that region, or the addition of cities and even the renaming of the continents themselves. After playing even a few times, your legacy board will be entirely unique.

Other forays into legacy gaming include Pandemic Legacy, but just last year a new entry arrived which is not built onto the chassis of an existing game, but designed as a persistent boardgaming campaign from the ground up: Rob Daviau's Seafall.

I read a review of Seafall on Ars Technica, and was intrigued by the premise, as well as the promised narrative. When I relayed it to my family, they were excited enough to agree to my proposal that we all pitch in and make it a family gift to ourselves. We've played three games thus far of the fifteen or so estimated to make the entirety of the campaign, and can finally write a little bit about the experience. Spoiler-free of course, which feels like a weird thing to type in a boardgame review...

Seafall is set on the western shore of a make believe continent with a roughly 17th century level of technology. Each player takes the role of a leader of one of the five provinces depicted there, each with its own sigil. Each province has a brief description of their past and culture, but neither the land nor the leader begin with a name; the player needs to supply both. You even select a portrait card depicting your leader, writing their name on it, and noting the space left for the addition of an eventual appellation like "The Wise" or "The Daring".

You don't get to choose your title though, as those are randomly handed out and help determine the turn order. They shift at the end of every game based on how well you did, too.

Each province begins the game with two ships, similarly unnamed, and their stats are shown on a provincial miniboard that also shows the lands you control. They also provide areas to put the advisors, treasures and gold you will accumulate over the course of the game.

Now, some Seafall players are going to want to get straight into the buying, selling, exploring and raiding that make up the game itself, but everyone is this household is quite fond of not just naming things, but for those names to have significance to them. So gameplay took a back seat while mobile devices came out and research into history and languages began.

Some players are going to being content to call their land "This Land", led by their leader Bob or some such, and that's fine, but be aware going in that some players are going to give the narrative just as much significance as the gameplay. In out case, there was no friction, but we all acknowledge that our games, particularly that first one, will take a little longer as a result.

For my part, having an icon that seems to depict a grey-coloured phoenix, and a history that included some sort of oppression at the hands of other provinces, I went with Pyravian as my province name, and named my ships the Blackbyrd and the Princess Lillandra in hopes of kicking off an X-Men theme. Istoria, Kennis and Roséus make up the other provinces.

The prologue game gives you a chance to learn the game mechanics without impacting the overall campaign too much, although you will end up naming the four nearby islands before you are done. The idea is that the provinces are only now returning to the sea and exploration after a long absence. Some of the islands have sites where goods may be bought (or plundered!), but most of them are unexplored.

Exploration is handled in an interesting fashion. Picking a site with a target number, you build a pool of custom dice, beginning with the number your flagship has as an Explore value, then adding more dice for any advisors you may have acquired (and who are also named by the players), a supporting ship, or any upgrades your ship may have. After rolling the dice, you count the number of successes you have, and if you meet the target number, you've succeeded. For any success you're short, your flagship takes some damage, and the third point of damage sinks it, sending it back to port to be relaunched later,

Successfully exploring a site leads to The Captain's Booke, a collection of numbered text entries. A map at the front helps you determine which entry to read, and then typically presents you with a choice in a 'choose your own adventure' format. For instance, perhaps the site produces wood, but the natives hold the grove as sacred. They implore you to leave it as is for now, but you can go against their wishes if you like. Your decision determines what entry you read next, and what the results are for you and your crew.

The game doesn't require it, but we have made wearing the captain's hat while reading The Captain's Booke mandatory.

One doesn't have to explore: you can sail about, buying goods and selling them, using the proceeds to buy treasures and gain Glory for yourself, which is how you win the game. However, since you also earn Glory every time you successfully explore an unknown site (or raid a known one to plunder its goods instead of buying them), the merchant path is not the fastest course to victory by any means.

There are also milestones provided, granted if you are the first player to raid a site with a defence value of 6, or be the first to have treasures worth 3+ Glory. These not only provide bonus Glory to help you win the game, but also give you the opportunity to gain other rewards like an appellation for your leader, which is why the leader of Pyravian is currently known as Prince Xavier deGries The Vengeful.

On rare occasions, milestones will also give a player the opportunity to open one of the 8 sealed treasure chests in the game, tiny boxes stuffed with cards, counters and rules which significantly expand the game!

In the prologue game, you are forbidden from attacking each other's provinces, and you won't be given the rules for attacking ships until a later games. You also cannot sail past the fourth island, but eventually a vast ocean will yours to explore, discovering new islands and unravelling a mysterious story only hinted at in the excerpts from The Captain's Booke.

At the end of the game, every player has the chance to upgrade one of their ships and select an advisor to being the game with next time around. The winner can select from a number of bonuses in addition to this.

Three games in, we've been having a great time, exploring, naming, and trading, so this felt like a good time to talk about the pros and cons of Seafall, starting with the cons.

The biggest shortcoming of the game is that when it is not your turn, there is nothing for you to do. Even if your province is attacked, your participation is minimal. It pays to watch the board so you can plan your voyages and have an idea what goods will be on a given island when it is your turn, but impatient types may find the delay between turns interminable.

Games like Risk 2210 have acclimatized many boardgamers to having surprises in store for would-be attackers, so strategists will lament the lack of options for defending against the depredations of other players. As a result, I recommend being the first player to do so if you can, although this is why Baroness Lillian of Roséus now feels tremendous animosity toward Xavier the Vengeful, although Glory herself assures me we are still cool.

Honestly, that's about it for shortcomings, for my part. In terms of elements I appreciate outside of the excellent legacy aspects, foremost would have to be the way they handle aggression by use of something called Enmity tokens.

If you attack a site on the board, you place one of your 8 Enmity tokens on that site, signifying that no other players can raid it until after the next winter, which comes every 6 rounds. After that, the token moves off that site, but remains on the island, and not only makes them more resistant to future raids, but increases the cost of any and all goods purchased from there.

Attacking other players means you have to give them an Enmity token as well, which not only limits the number of times you can attack anyone in a game, but they can also use Enmity tokens to gain a bonus when they attack you later on that game!

During the wrap up, you may have a chance to roll some dice for the opportunity to take back some Enmity, but if you don't, you will add a permanent Enmity sticker to that province or island for all future games!

All in all, Seafall feels a bit more random and bit less strategic than you would expect from a hex-based game with such efforts at balancing included in it, and the final assessment as to whether or not this game is for you rests on a number of non-qualitative factors.

Seafall is probably NOT for you if:

• Winning matters more to you than playing
• You are an analytical player who needs a rationale for every loss
• You have too short an attention span (YMMV)
• You dislike surprises or unexpected turns of events
• You need to know all the rules before you start playing
• It is difficult to get the entire group together regularly

Seafall may well be your cup of tea if:

• You like naming ships, islands, advisors, et al
• You appreciate a game with a built in narrative
• Having your exploring decisions sometimes turn out counter-intuitively is not upsetting
• Your co-players are all swell folks curious to see how things turn out
• 2+ hrs of gameplay is not a daunting prospect

In the end, Seafall is unlike any other gaming experience I've ever had; a heady combination of strategy, trading, exploring, and even a bit of role-play. While the game's ruleset is by no means perfect, it is a fascinating and entertaining step along the way in the evolution of legacy gaming.

A Weird and Wonderful Return to Form - Sonata Arctica's The Ninth Hour, Reviewed

The favourite sons of Kemi, Finland, Sonata Arctica are kind of an odd band, even by the standards of power metal. Defying categorization and reflecting different facets over the years, they started out sounding a lot like their inspiration, fellow Finns Stratovarius. They then moved to a speedy, thrashier sound, then tentatively explored something more progressive in 2004's Reckoning Night before fully committing to thematic explorations driven by keyboards and cinematic sounds with 2007's Unia.

Sonata Arctica are one of my favourite bands, so I am glad they are willing to change, evolve and explore, but the truth is, I found the last couple of albums fairly disappointing; Stones Grow Her Name (2012) was just not very enjoyable and barely got any repeat plays beyond the excellent (if poppy) "I Have A Right", while 2014's Pariah's Child was more familiar in some ways but still felt pedestrian. Neither album had the energy, drive or catchiness that marked their earlier efforts, and I began to wonder if my favourite record, The Days of Grays (2009), would go down as the last great Sonata Arctica release.

I needn't have worried.

The Ninth Hour, released last month, reminds me a lot of Reckoning Night, the first album I heard from the band. SA's ninth studio album is full of ripping metallic anthems and powerful piano driven ballads alike.

I'm not sure if the title refers to this being their ninth album, or a reference to the hour of his crucifixion in which Christ called out, asking why God had forsaken him. It is even more thematic than Reckoning Night, with a lot of songs dealing with the crude way we treat our planet, and yet it never devolves into an environmentalist screed. Instead, there is a hint of cynicism but more a tragic acknowledgment of our species cognitive dissonance at the heart of "We Are What We Are":

We could save our world, but we are what we are
We should love our Earth, but we are what we are
It takes care of our loved ones
But we are what we are…

Something that continues in "Fairytale":

It’s cold and we’re all snowed in
Vote yes for the global warming
Reaping the things the poor are sowing
What then are the polls showing?

Who’ll be the superseder,
The builder of the walls; a great leader
He’ll rape us all and say surprise….
and everything is fine.

(Sidebar: I dunno when he wrote this, but if he didn't base it on Trump intentionally, he may be precognitive.)

The variety of song subjects are still there though, with a tragic love song in "'Til Love's Done Us Apart", another werewolf tale in "Under the Shooting Stars", and best of all (for me anyways) is a full-on heaping serving of optimistic positivism in "Life".

"Life" is the second single for The Ninth Hour, and it is so cheesy it should come with cubes of French bread for dipping, but I emphatically don't care. Look at these lyrics:

Smile
Life is better alive
It is a dumb thing to say,
But the fact won’t wane away
Sing with someone today
When your team makes a game winning goal,
Get ready to sing

Lalalalaa….
With a friend who’s right beside you

Not since Opus' "Live is Life" has there been such a blunt but truthful tribute to the wonder and glory of not being dead. It embraces its cheeriness (and cheesiness) with giddy glee, and draws the listener in with a soaring, sing-along chorus full of actual la-la-las that I would love to hear live. (And they are in town on Nov. 26, so it is not out of the question!) The way I see it, regular metal has drama, death metal has psychodrama, but power metal has melodrama, so there is something for everybody, right?

Tony Kakko is one of my favourite male vocalists and a fine songwriter to boot, despite his occasional struggles with English prepositions and such (I can hardly fault the guy, since I don't know two words in Finnish.). Listening to him wail on the opening track and croon softly on the closer are a real treat, and he balances style and power majestically through this album.

Instrumental variation permeates The Ninth Hour too. Troy Donckley of Nightwish provides his trademark mournful pipes on "We Are What We Are", while the metronomic double bass drums of Tommy Portimo keep up the tempo on "Closer to an Animal". Blistering guitarwork by Elis Viljanen that has the sense and taste to fade into the background at will and solid basswork by Pasi Kaupinnen in his second outing with SA give the album its melodic backbone and power metal pedigree, but piano and soft bass take centre stage in "On The Faultline (Closure to an Animal)". The review by Angry Metal Guy has the right of it, I think: "...if Jim Steinman had been born in Finland, Meat Loaf would have sounded like The Ninth Hour."

All in all, I am having so much fun with the album on repeat that I have almost forgotten the trepidation that gripped me when I ordered the album unheard. Sonata Arctica is back in their sweet spot, with their strongest offering since The Days of Grays.

Sweet Christmas - Luke Cage, Season 1 Part II, Reviewed

Two weeks back, I reviewed the first half of Luke Cage. In the intervening  fortnight, I have watched the remaining 7 episodes, bought the soundtrack, and watched episodes 1-4 for the second time with Glory and Audrey.

Suffice to say, I liked it quite a bit.

Why? Well, there's a few reasons for that. First and foremost is still the cast, a who's who of modern black actors, from Mahershala Ali, Alfre Woodard to star Mike Colter. In this second half we add Erik LaRay Harvey as Cottonmouth's arms supplier, Diamondback. He brings a ruthless, Joker-like combination of charm and unpredictability to the table, grinning like a latter day Tony Todd (Candyman) and pursuing Luke Cage with the singlemindedness endemic to comic book adaptations.

In honesty though, the latter half of this inaugural season is less about Luke Cage, and more about Cottonmouth's cousin, Mariah Dillard. One area where the MCU movies can take notes from the Netflix series is the care and attention they give to their villains, an area the silver screen has flatlined on pretty much since Loki. If part 1 of Luke Cage is about establishing his origin, part 2 is about establishing Black Mariah as a worthy nemesis, balancing greed, vengeance and pragmatism in equal measure, which they do admirably. And she is only one of several smart, strong, female characters of colour. Simone Missick establishes Marvel mainstay Misty Knight to such a degree that many are calling for her to get her own show, which I am okay with so long as it doesn't prevent an ongoing Heroes for Hire at some point.

Showrunner Cheoi Hodari Coker also uses this latter half to establish a little more connective tissue to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rosario Dawson makes a welcome return as beleaguered nurse Claire Temple, the woman we were sure was to become the MCU's "Night Nurse" until it was rumoured Rachel McAdams would play that role in the upcoming Doctor Strange, but then Marvel uberlord Kevin Feige denied it, so now...well, nevermind, it's not important and we can talk about Night Nurse another day.

The important thing is that there is a connection beyond just references to "The Incident" of the first Avengers movie. Frankly I could have done with more allusions to S.H.I.E.L.D. or Tony Stark, but gunrunner Cottonmouth does mention that a lot of his tech comes by way of Justin Hammer, secondary villain of Iron Man 2, Turk from Daredevil shows up, and the downfall of Wilson 'The Kingpin' Fisk from that same show gets a mention, so I am content.

All in all, Luke Cage is a solid addition to the Marvel/Netflix canon, but there are two criticisms that bear addressing. The first is that hey, for a superhero show, there isn't nearly as much action as you might expect, and the fight scenes lack a lot of the panache shown in Daredevil.

There is no denying this; Luke Cage is unquestionably a slow boil that metes out its action sequences like methadone to someone coming off horse. And the fight sequences aren't as imaginative or creative as the hallway fight in Daredevil. You know why?  BECAUSE LUKE CAGE IS BULLETPROOF AND SUPER STRONG, FOOL. He doesn't like to fight, He has nothing to prove. I love the internet commenter who described his fight style as "annoyed". I do love that the people he does hit fly back a significant distance, but the lack of flash is frankly refreshing; a violent vanilla sorbet meant to cleanse the palate just before the flashy kung fu of K'un Lun shows up when Iron Fist arrives on Netflix next March.

The second is that, wow, this may be the blackest comic adaptation to date; one person confided in me that, because they don't listen to a lot of hip hop or have other exposure to black culture, they were experiencing a degree of 'cultural whiplash' they found a little daunting.

Any you know what? That's fine too. You think a lot of young brothers and sisters in areas like the one Luke Cage is set in share our memories of The Facts of Life and M*A*S*H and even Justice League? A little turnabout here is not just fair play, it is long overdue, and all of it, from the slang, to the fact that the episode titles are all track listings from rap pioneers Gang Starr to the whole Harlem Renaissance angle you see in the show, is a critical ingredient. I will go on record as declaring Luke Cage as the most blacktacular show I have ever watched, and anyone who wants to characterize it as being 'too black' (whatever the hell that means), just needs to imagine a person of colour saying the same thing about Star Trek or Lost or Big Bang Theory being 'too white'.

The most telling reflection of Luke Cage in today's world, especially today's America, is a tweet I cannot currently find but in which a viewer said that watching a strong black man in a hoodie get shot and remain standing, literally reduced him to tears.

In short? If you like the idea of  something like a superpowered version of The Wire, a languidly paced potboiler that doesn't talk down to you and tells it like it is in terms of the modern black experience in America, Luke Cage is just the ticket.

And now a word on the soundtrack: this is some great stuff right here. I grabbed it on iTunes the day it became available, and have not regretted that choice.

Hip hop producers Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge have crafted a thoroughly modern and urban score, unencumbered by gratuitous record scratches and cussin', and which still echoes with traces of the jazz and funk that established Harlem as a musical incubator beyond compare.

Better still are the full tracks that we hear as source music in the Harlem Paradise club which is a key setting in the show: The Delfonics, Faith Evans, Raphael Saddiq, and my personal favourite, Charles Bradley.

How in the hell have I gone this long without hearing more about this guy? A man who ran away from a basement bedroom with a sand floor at 14, who worked as a cook most of his adult life, whose first band got drafted away from him to fight in Vietnam, and only started recording with modern soul saviours Daptone Records in 2002, when he was already over 50? If nothing else, I owe the show and the soundtrack for introducing me to this artist, who was tragically diagnosed with stomach cancer earlier this very month. (And check out how young and white his band is in the video; crazy!)

Music plays a big role in Luke Cage, no more so than in episode 12 (my favourite) where a chance encounter with rapper Method Man from the influential Wu-Tang Clan results in him creating a track on a radio show later on called Bulletproof Love.

A satisfying superhero show, with brilliant music, tremendous performances and great insights into modern black culture in America. The best thing about Luke Cage though is that it shows how much great television can be wrung out of a character originally established as a way to leverage '70s blaxploitation flicks, while still respecting the source material and the fans (like me) who love it.

About D*mn Time - Luke Cage Episodes 1-6, Reviewed

It's interesting how things change.

Currently, blockbuster movies are taking a lot of their cues and subject matter from comic books, but in the 1970s, it was the other way around.

Having put most of their romance and western comics out to (ahem) pasture, and after establishing their newer, modern superhero characters in a shared universe, Marvel Comics was looking for new ground.  The first place they looked for inspiration was the movie screen.

Movies like The Omen and The Exorcist prompted a greater pop culture interest in the occult and Satanism, spawning comics like Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night. Kung-fu flicks were the motivation behind Iron Fist and Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu. Eventually, the wheel stopped on blaxploitation, and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire was born.

A man convicted for a crime he didn't commit, experimented on behind bars and who emerged from captivity with tremendous strength and bulletproof skin.

Despite having pretty much the same origin and power set, Netflix's Luke Cage (as played by Mike Colter) bears little visual resemblance to that character (even though the showrunners carefully work in a great reference to his original look during his origin flashback!).

In the comics, Luke Cage has gone from being the brash, confrontational fellow whose loud facade concealed a thoughtful and calculating man, to a quieter, more self-assured one who doesn't raise his voice too often because he doesn't have to. Colter's Cage is cut from the same cloth.

I mentioned how impressed I was with Mike Colter's casting in Jessica Jones, and he brings the same reflective intensity to his star turn here. Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker and his writers have not only brought Marvel's first black superhero to the screen in a big, big way, but they have also given us the fundamentally most decent person to star in a Netflix show yet.

It's a bit of an unfair comparison: Jessica Jones didn't ask be to doubly traumatized, first by her origin and then later by her captivity under the mind control of Killgrave. The plot of Daredevil often seems to rely on Matt Murdock making bad decisions and alienating those closest to him, just like in the comics. Luke Cage is a superpowered hip-hop western, about a reluctant fighter looking for peace. Later on, when he finds himself having to fight more often, it is clear that he will not kill anyone, even though he has the means.

We meet Luke Cage working in Pop's Barbershop, sweeping hair and supplying towels, being paid under the table. Not glamorous, but he's happy to help Pop provide an oasis of sanity in Harlem, a salon and meeting place where youngbloods play videogames in the back, while men play chess and talk basketball up front. The sign on the wall says profanity is NOT allowed, and offenders pay their levies to the swear jar, a battered coffee can on the shelf.

Later on we see that this easygoing social hub is Pop's real mission: a chance for young men to see grown ups working, in uniform, taking pride in themselves.

The blackness of the show is prevalent, without being offputting. The majority of both crew and characters are people of color. Harlem, in all its glory and tragedy, emerges as a character in its own right: inspiring, revealing, and concealing in turn. Every place with a name brings a layer of meaning: Martin Luther King, Crispus Attucks, Jackie Robinson.

This undercurrent of self-improvement and empowerment is the foundation that Luke Cage is built on. Later on, a former ball player laments that he learned the game from his father, and now, no young black men want to play, because the fathers are all gone; bitter stuff.

Others are content to build their progress on the backs of others, like club owner and ganglord Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes and his cousin, city councilwoman Mariah Dillard.

Cottonmouth is played with suave, dangerous tension by Mahershala Ali, who can play the thug with one hand while keeping time as the sophisticated businessman with the other, and all over an underlay of regret as we learn more about his past.

Meanwhile, Mariah Dillard preaches about the Harlem renaissance and the rich, black history of the neighbourhood, pulling funds for an ambitious real estate development from her unscrupulous cousin while telling him she doesn't want to know where they came from. Alfre Woodard brings the same charm and intensity but in inverse proportions and aspect, to amazing effect.

From a comic book perspective, Luke Cage is a bit of a slow boil, with only a little action to begin with, and a main character unwilling to reveal his abilities. Eventually he gets there, but the journey here, at least in the arc that covers the first 6 episodes like a mini-season, is a lot less about defeating the villain, and coming to grips with oneself.

The opening credit sequence is Luke Cage in a microcosm: a punch that takes almost a minute to reach its target, while landmarks and street signs from Harlem illuminate the back and arms of the man punching. The funky breakbeat and guitar give way to the soaring strings from scores like Shaft and Rocky, and horns finish the build as the fist finally reaches its target and debris falls away to reveal the eponymous title. Oh, and let the record state that the moment they release a soundtrack for this show, featuring its hip-hop score and source music with a pinch of jazz, I will be getting it.

I'm 8 episodes in, believe that most high schools would benefit from showing Luke Cage every February, and cannot wait to see how it all turns out, and how it will tie into the next chapters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Netflix, Iron Fist and The Defenders.

Sympathy for the Joker - Suicide Squad, Reviewed

Suicide Squad is not really a good movie, but it is a good time, at least for a comic fan like me.

Oh sure, it's a largely predictable, paint-by-numbers action-adventure movie drawing characters from DC's eponymous comics, and parts of the movie feel as though they were bolted on after the fact, probably after some studio execs saw Deadpool earlier in the year. Despite being lighter in tone than Batman V. Superman in places, Suicide Squad still feels darker and more cynical than a PG-13 movie based on a newsstand comic book really ought to be. And even for a movie centered around fights and setpieces, there isn't exactly a lot of plot cluttering up the scenery.

But for all its flaws, I wasn't completely disappointed with Suicide Squad. Part of that was because Glory and I only paid $7.46 each for our Tuesday tickets, but a bigger part of it was due to moderating our expectations. We'd heard the early reviews, seen the low Rotten Tomatoes score (26%!), but chanced it anyways. Why? Because like it or not, writer/director David Ayers got the greenlight to adapt a great comic, and right or wrong, his movie is the only way to see these characters move and speak on the big screen, at least, for a while.

And for another thing, I have to think that part of the scorn heaped on Suicide Squad is due to the fact that the bar on comic book movies has been raised to ridiculous heights by excellent films, beginning with Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins 11 years ago and continuing through the majority of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We're spoiled.

If Suicide Squad had come out in, say, 2007 (between Batman Begins and Marvel's Iron Man), I think its reception would have been much warmer. This is not to excuse it, and the fact of the matter is that there are enough great superhero movies out there now, that we should demand better of the rest. But when one falls short of the mark like Suicide Squad does, that doesn't necessarily make it an entirely wasted effort.

So, from the perspective of a fan of the source material, what did Suicide Squad get right?

The Comic Esthetic - Without resorting to spandex, SS does a great job capturing the established look of many of the characters. Remember when comic movies did everything they could to avoid looking comic-booky? Suicide Squad, despite its gritty overtones, embraces its four-colour heritage instead.

Deadshot is probably the best example of this, with Will Smith wearing the iconic facemask and targeting eyepiece at various times, as well as the wrist guns I would have thought too improbable for a grounded military fan like Ayers.

Harley Quinn has enjoyed a lot of different looks since her introduction in the old Batman animated series in the '90s, but the facepaint, baseball bat and oversized six-shooter are all canonical. Is the baby-doll hot pants look maybe a bit more titillating than is needed for fighting an army of zombie-types? Probably, but that hasn't stopped a lot of the she-roes that preceded her, so, whatever.

Killer Croc is another triumphant portrayal. The original plan saw the team using King Shark, a, well, shark-man from the current comics lineup, but Ayers' aversion to CGI creatures prompted the change. Practical makeup and prosthetics turn Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Adebisi from Oz, Mr. Eko from Lost) into this fearsome sewer dweller. I only wish they had given him more lines.

Captain Boomerang has a look in the comic so ridiculous, other characters mocked it back in the '80s, so they homaged the colour and that was about all. Katana on the other hand looks quite a bit like her current incarnation.

A Lived-In Universe - Suicide Squad picks up where Batman V. Superman left off, with the world terrified about when another Kryptonian is going to go rank and decimate a major city or just take over the world. They show some of the Squad getting apprehended by the Flash, or Batman, and create Task Force X with the help of established DC character Amanda Waller.

Just a Shade Lighter - When they show Batman capturing him, he says, "It's over Deadshot. I don't want to do this in front of your daughter." That tiny bit of compassion went a long way towards warming me up to Ben Affleck's Batman, after his ridiculously enhanced recklessness and ruthlessness in BvS. Similarly, Boomerang's a ruthless dickhead, but he occasionally makes you chuckle with his antics, just like in the comics. And even when he's playing a ruthless assassin, you can count on Will Smith's impeccable comic timing.

The Lesser Knowns - Ayers said he wanted to make The Dirty Dozen with supervillains, so its inevitable that you would have a character like Pansy, uninterested in fighting. In this case it is El Diablo, former Latino gangster now haunted not only by his pyrokinesis but his deeds. Jay Hernandez does a great job making someone potentially irredeemable somewhat relatable, and maybe even likable.

What didn't work so well, even (or because) I'm a fanboy? For me, it came down to two characters.

Amanda Waller - In the comics, the head of Task Force X is a tough, tough lady, who makes some hard choices without a lot of support, because a) she works with people who would just as soon kill her as wipe their own noses, and b) she is a woman playing at a man's game, running covert ops with little oversight. She uses the Suicide Squad callously, but not cruelly.

In this movie though, she is so manipulative and ruthless, it is impossible to like her. In fact, I am kinding of hoping that Batman holds her to account at some point, but I doubt that is likely.

The Joker - Well, here is the rub of it. The Joker is one of the best larger-than-life villains of the last century, probably second only to Hannibal Lecter in terms of modern day boogeymen. A lot of weight was put on casting Jared Leto in this role, a gifted character actor, and much to-do was made of his method-actor on-set shenanigans (mailing live rats, a dead pig, and used condoms to his castmates).

But his Joker just didn't work for me. Here's why:

Every other live-action representation of the Joker, from Cesar Romero's greasepainted clowning, through Jack Nicholson's deadpan mugging, to Heath Ledger's scene stealing chaos, have all had one characteristic that Leto's Joker does not.

They were funny.

They were funny in different ways, to be sure. Romero's goofy Joker was there to be laughed at, in many ways, with his infectious, hooting laughter. Nicholson's version actually made some pretty good wisecracks ("Yes, he was a gangster, and a terrorist, but on the other hand, he had a tremendous singing voice..."), while Ledger's ghastly anarchist prompted the kind of nervous laughter you felt guilty about, like in Pulp Fiction when John Travolta shot Phil Lamarr in the face. ("I'm gonna make this pencil disappear...")

Maybe it's the writer, maybe it's the studio interference, I don't know. But watching interviews with Leto, it's plain to me that he just doesn't get the character. His Joker is all menace, and no charm; all chaos and no playfulness. He is brilliantly terrifying, but without any of the depth that 75 years of comics have provided him.

If we see the Joker again, I kind of hope it is with a different actor, but even if Leto gets to reprise the role, my fervent wish is that someone shows him this page from Neil Gaiman's comic, "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?"

Of course, I will also recommend viewing all Mark Hamill's performances as the animated Joker; still the gold standard as far as I'm concerned.

At any rate, if you are a fan of the Suicide Squad comics, or just the idea, or of comic books in general, don't let the bad reviews scare you away. Just be glad we live in an age where we actually have the option to be picky about our comic adaptations, and that so many of them have been done so well.

Not The Final Battle - X-Men: Apocalypse, Reviewed

For the third time in three months, we have a superhero movie that pits those who either had been or will later be allies against each other: Batman v. Superman, Civil War, and now, X-Men: Apocalypse, just in time for a G&G outing to boot!

In the opinion of many fans, BvS lacked the characterization and rationality to be an effective story over all its spectacle, while Civil War succeeded in giving us a tale of internal conflict that also contained tremendous action set pieces which looked and sounded like they were ripped from the pages of the comics that inspired them. On which side does this third of the re-booted X-Men movies fall?

In the middle, kind of, which is all right with me.

The X-Men movies have had two major strengths as a franchise. First, their allegorical elements about exclusion and persecution ring true for anyone who has felt like an outsider, whether they are a black teenager, a first generation Muslim immigrant, or someone questioning their sexuality. The whole premise of the X-Men is an insightful mentor, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) bringing together a group of 'gifted youngsters' to defend the world, human and mutant alike, from the depredations of evil mutants, in the hopes of bringing these two species together.

Playing the Malcolm X to Xavier's MLK is Magneto, portrayed here for the third time by Michael Fassbender, (a most worthy successor to Ian McKellen), who wants to subjugate mankind under the so-called homo superior, after seeing his parents taken away into Auschwitz. In First Class and Days of Future Past, Fassbender walks a tightrope between folk hero and terrorist, but in Apocalypse, he drifts from a wary fugitive to co-opted catspaw of the real villain, the eponymous Apocalypse, with surprisingly little impact.

In the comics, the immortal En Sabah Nur is trying to build a better world for mutants by pitting them against each other, feeling that this conflict destroys the weak and permits only the strongest to survive. As a Nietzschean-style cream-rising exercise in social engineering, I suppose it has its merits, but in the movie, even an excellent actor like Oscar Isaac is stymied at giving any sort of nuanced portrayal of Apocalypse.

Make no mistake, Isaac gives as much gravitas as he can to Apocalypse, but despite the incredible array of powers he has absorbed from other mutants over the centuries (super strength, teleportation, mind control, power enhancement, fusing people into walls, etc., etc.), he comes off as a crowing bogeyman, and about as relatable as the Rhino from the old Spider-Man cartoons. I haven't read too many Apocalypse stories, and his modus operandi of "FIGHT!" doesn't have as much appeal to me as the more political and allegorical X-Men tales, but he has his fans, and I don't know how they will feel about this largely clichéd interpretation.

In fact, once he co-opts four classic X-Men into being his 'Four Horsemen' (Magneto, Angel, Psylocke, and Storm), the action becomes so mutant centric and world shattering that there isn't room for the broader exclusionary tale that has been the hallmark of the best X-Movies, and that's a shame.

But all is not lost.

The second great strength these movies have are excellent casting and characterizations, and while the bad guys may come up short, the good guys more than make up for it, especially for long time fans like myself.

Watching the demonic-looking Nightcrawler try to resist being forced to fight the winged mutant Angel in an electrified cage match is a great treat, and watching a teenaged Cyclops discover his optic blast powers to devastating effect mixes thrills with empathy adroitly. Watching him meet Jean Grey (Game of Thrones Sophie Turner, who, as an actress, is mostly very pretty), likely to become the extra-powerful Phoenix, is bittersweet as well. (Really, Cyclops is the character I feel got the shortest shrift in the first X-Men trilogy, and fervently hope he is given the opportunity to be the brilliant but troubled team leader he is in the comics.)

Since Days of Future Past, Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique has become an inspirational figure for many mutants, a far cry from her detached villainy in the comics, and something her movie iteration wants little to do with, despite her tireless efforts to rescue exploited mutants like Nightcrawler. Nicholas Hoult does a wonderful job as both the studious Hank McCoy and his feral alter ego Beast again, but isn't given much to work with here, because the next fight is always right around the corner.

When the powers are used, they are used imaginatively and effectively, although  actually (pushes eyeglasses up onto bridge of nose), Cyclops' optic blasts do not generate heat the way they are depicted here; they are strictly concussive in nature.

(Ahem) Sorry, where was I? Right, the powers: Nightcrawler's teleportation is shown as being as dangerous and unpredictable in close quarters here as they were at the beginning of X2, but are described in a manner that suggests limitations ("As far as I can see, or any place I have been to before."). Storm's flight is less like Superman and more like a wind-rider (as is appropriate!), and her lightning bolts are just as devastating as they should be. And being set in the 80s, her mohawk look here is completely on-point and well pulled off to boot.

Once again though, Quicksilver steals the show.

Evan Peters has come such a long way from Kick-Ass's friend Todd, and he gets a couple of brilliant setpieces in which to display his speedster abilities. The first does so in a non-fight (a pleasant change of pace!) that mixes humour and heroism delightfully well, while the second, well, let's just say even the strongest villain should probably refrain from picking a fight with someone that fast, and leave it at that. The quips fly just as quickly, but since the last film though, he has figured out who his father is, which adds just a hint of emotional complexity in a movie sorely needing some.

The word 'apocalypse' comes from the Greek and means 'to uncover or reveal', which is why the Biblical book of Revelations is also called the Apocalypse of St. John. So what is revealed in X-Men: Apocalypse, and who should go see it?

Well, if you don't like superhero movies, this one won't change your mind they way something like Winter Soldier might have, so dragging along an unwilling companion is probably a non-starter. But there is much more to like than to dislike, all in all, and even if `the third movie is always the worst' as Cyclops asserts while the young mutants walk out of a screening of Return of the Jedi, this film is a far cry from the mess that the first X-Men threequel ended up being,  Best of all, despite being a complete story, the stage is now set for a great lineup of newer X-Men in the next film, likely set in the 90s.

If you like well-depicted comic book action in general, or this big slate of legendary mutants in particular, or are even just a fan of 80s nostalgia, X-Men: Apocalypse is a fun way to spend a couple of hours, even if its message of acceptance and bravery is just a smidgen more understated this time around.

Brother Against Brother - Captain America: Civil War, Reviewed

Depending on how you choose to look at it, Captain America: Civil War is the third Captain America movie, the thirteenth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or Avengers 2.5, given the overlapping ensemble of characters. With such a pedigree, and being helmed by two brothers better known for television comedies than action spectacles, a person could be forgiven for being hesitant to commit two and a half hours to viewing it.

The good news is that those brothers are Anthony and Joe Russo, who also directed what many consider to be Marvel's best film to date, Captain America: Winter Soldier, and they display the same excellence in form and clarity here, in the most ambitious comic book movie to date. Civil War is a movie that boasts excellent fights and thrilling chase sequences, but never loses sight of the human cost of internal conflict.

Following its namesake comic event in only the broadest of strokes, Civil War opens with Cap (Chris Evans) leading an Avengers strike team in Nigeria in hopes of stopping a ruthless bank robber who turns out to be the former STRIKE/SHIELD commander Rumlow from Winter Soldier. First of all, let's take a moment to observe how cool it is that, although it is only a 4-person squad, Steve Rogers is the only white male in it, and they still kick ass on a wholesale scale. Unfortunately though, the collateral damage that ensues is yet another black eye for the World's Mightiest Heroes, and the United Nations want the Avengers to submit to their oversight, and 117 countries are getting behind something called the Sokovia Accords in order to bring them to heel.

While this has the immediate and anticipated effect of putting Captain America and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) on opposite sides of an ethical issue that has both pros and cons, the real wedge comes when Cap continues his hunt for his former war buddy Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), now the cryogenically preserved and brainwashed HYDRA assassin, the Winter Soldier.

With everyone else hunting Bucky for his crimes, Rogers remains focused on saving his friend, and with so much of Captain America's character tied into his loyalty, it is a matter of when, not if, a line is going to be crossed, and just about all the major players are going to have to pick a side. While it is easy to peg Cap as a libertarian who doesn't want constraints, his concern about the agendas of the various signatories to the Accords makes sense too, even more than the battle around secret identities which was the crux of the comic version of Civil War.

Internal struggle is a great foil in the hands of capable writers, and Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely do a great job giving just about everyone a reason for behaving the way they do, and the choices they make are consistent with what we know about these characters. They even give us an insight into the guilt Tony Stark feels about a lack of closure with his parents due to their deaths, and the sense of betrayal he feels when facing off against his comrade Captain America feels justified. The hurt and regret and inevitability are crystallized in two simple lines of dialogue delivered mid-struggle:

Steve Rogers: He's my friend.
Tony Stark: So was I.

In fact, as good a job as the Russos do with the action sequences (and make no mistake, they have set the bar pretty high for any team-on-team superfights coming down the pipe after this), the most impressive thing to me is how much less overstuffed this film feels than Age of Ultron. Despite having all those characters except Thor and the Hulk (rumoured to be appearing together in Thor: Ragnarok next November), they bring Ant-Man on board, flesh out the Vision in both his mindset and his powers, introduce the Black Panther, and bring Spider-Man into the MCU for good measure!

The filmmakers do a grand job orchestrating an intimidating suite of motivations, characterizations, powers and abilities,and nowhere does it show better than in the airport set piece so prominently featured in the trailers. A dozen costumed adventurers, six to a side, squaring off without pairing off, and despite the chaos, the clear direction and consistent rhythm of the various beats and gags keep it from becoming overwhelming. Better still, neither side is trying to maim or kill the other (well, except the Black Panther), so there are lots of lighter moments, especially those involving Spider-Man in his youngest incarnation yet (Tom Holland, at 19, is the first person to play Peter Parker on screen while still literally a teenager).

Considering that Black Panther was only written in when it appeared that the deal with Sony Pictures to bring Spidey into the MCU was not going to happen, it is amazing that the two of them receive such excellent introductions. Holland's Peter Parker is intimidatingly smart but a little naive, and has that undercurrent of responsibility-inspired sadness so critical to the best iterations of the character. And if you've seen the trailer, you already know how brilliantly evocative of his roots the costume is: brightly coloured, dauntlessly unarmoured, and even possessing eyes that can change size and expression so reminiscent of the sixties cartoon, it flies directly in the face of competing trends to darken and dull the palettes of these comic legends. I really enjoyed the first two Raimi films with Tobey Maguire, but for my money, this is the best movie version of Spidey to date, and I am eagerly anticipating the solo Spider-Man movie, Homecoming, next July.

T'Challa, the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), has a similar burden to Parker, which he likewise receives earlier than anticipated, but he displays none of the joy and exuberance of his arachnid counterpart. Initially driven by his own need for vengeance, he eventually displays the perception, judgement, poise and soulful dignity befitting the ruler of Wakanda. When his stand-alone movie comes out in early 2018, I will be there too.

Despite being the first film in 'Phase 3' of the MCU, Civil War does not come off like a trailer for the next film in the series (cough-Batman v. Superman-cough). They resolve the story, although they do leave threads hanging for others to pick up and explore. They play with the status quo, but not in a way that should impact Doctor Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. In fact, with the next Avengers movie still two years away, I wonder where the impact fallout from the events in this movie will end up being seen?

It's astonishing to think that Civil War is only six minutes longer than Age of Ultron, but on the whole, it is a far more satisfying experience, and that's speaking as someone who generally enjoyed Joss Whedon's swan song for Marvel. With his departure, the Russos are the de facto architects and caretakers of the MCU, and are on tap for the two Avengers Infinity Wars movies in 2018 and 2019 which will cap off Phase 3.

With eight other movies between here and there, it would be understandable to have some concern about anyone having the ability to weave so many characters into any kind of coherent story with some actual emotional content to it. Having seen Captain America: Civil War, I am confident that the Russos and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige get it: that beneath the masks, behind the shields, and under the armour, these larger-than-life heroes are still human, with human flaws, and needs and foibles. These imperfections and 'hang-ups' are what made the Marvel Universe so intriguing in the comics over a half -century ago, and seeing these interactions played out on the big screen continues to be a treat.