STRANGE LOG: Smashing Archerina

Yes, we have yet another Strange Log, in this blog I'll be summarizing my thoughts on "Superman", "Fantastic Four: First Steps", now I'll only be seeing "Superman."...I'll be reading the spoilers for "Fantastic Four: First Steps"...shoot me later. I'll also be talking about "Daredevil: Born Again" and a few other things, please bare with me, let's dive in;

Let's start with "Daredevil: Born Again", I was skeptical at first...I mean, this is Disney we're talking about, BUT I'm happy to say those fears were put to shame. Despite a shift in the cast (Kirsten could have easily been Karen), the series was good. It takes a minute to get going and for Matt to actually Daredevil up, but when he does, it's quite good. Kingpin takes a while to Kingpin, but when he Kingpins, it's smashing (you'll get that when you watch it). Charlie Cox and John Bernthal continue to have excellent chemistry as Daredevil and Punisher, and when they're together, it really is the highlight of the series. One issue I had with the series is the handling of Muse and the finale. I won't spoil it, but I'm slightly disappointed in both, I say only slightly because...I see where the series wants to go...or at least where I think it wants to go, and I'm onboard. Another highlight was Michael Gandolfini, who plays an original character named Daniel Blake. Michael, just like his father James, plays underhanded very well, looking forward to seeing more of him. Hoping season two delivers on its promise.

He has that dead-eyed, uninterested stare his father had

I haven't watched "Dexter: Resurrection" yet, but from a clip I saw earlier, once again, the "Dexter" writers manage to hand-wave away a serious offense of Dexter's in killing Sgt. Logan, bear in mind, this is why Harrison shot him, because Dexter killed an innocent man. As it turns out, Angela Bishop recanted, accusing Dexter of being the Bay Harbor Butcher and exiling Dexter from Iron Lake, all in return for helping her find Iris's killer and the killer of all the runaways, Kurt Caldwell. While that makes some sense, how did Angela Bishop get beyond the death of Sgt. Logan, I understand she ruled it as self-defense...but...Logan was a good man and a well-respected member of the community, and Dexter was...well...her boyfriend. Despite the fact that Dexter did put a lot of cold cases to bed, this excusing of Dexter's bad behavior is just frustrating, to say the least. Like I said, I haven't watched any of "Resurrection" yet, but I'll get to it eventually.

So Dex, you ever butcher people at the Bay Harbor?

Let's talk about "Mortal Kombat II". This trailer looks like absolute shite. Acting withstanding, Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, I didn't wanna believe it, but I believe it, and he looks great for the role, so take that past Ugo. However, I already reviewed the first movie, and honestly, aside from the horribly inaccurate lore in that movie (and it was horribly inaccurate), it was boring. I LOVE "Mortal Kombat", You all merely adopted "Mortal Kombat", I was born in it! Molded by it! So I wasn't excited for the reboot movie, and after seeing the cast for this movie, I wasn't excited, and after seeing the trailer, I am still not excited. 

So Karl Urban looks like a wonderful Johnny Cage, not really bringing the snarky Johnny Cage energy, but that MKX Johnny Cage energy, which I really liked MKX Johnny Cage. Let's start with the obvious, and if you're a lore-whore as I am, then you know Johnny Cage has the ability to summon a green halo. This wasn't explained in the original canon, but in 1st Reboot, this was explained as Johnny Cage being a descendant of a Mediterranean Warrior Cult, which in "Mortal Kombat" lore checks out. In the previous film, it was established that the characters get their powers from The Arcana...a dumb as sh*t idea that basically randomizes their powers and gives it to them by...having them fight each other...that's how Kano gained his laser eye...eye as in only one f*ckin' eye has a laser beam! So I guess someone is gonna punch Johnny Cage a bunch until he develops The Shadow Kick...whatever. Furthermore, there are supposed to be other characters in this movie, but I'll be damned if I saw them. Jade is supposed to be in this movie...and I didn't see her at all. It certainly wasn't Home Girl with the strong They/Them Energy. Fan boys can hype up the violence all they want...this looks like shite.

I honestly don't know where they're trying to go with this "franchise" because ultimately it doesn't look or feel like "Mortal Kombat" AT ALL, nor is it going along with any established "Mortal Kombat" lore, and I should know since I know the lore backwards and forwards. I really wish studios would stop screwing up video game movies just because they're video games. And I can already hear the people in the comments saying, "It's a fighting game, who cares about the story!?", and to that I say, "I do.". It's the reason why I love "Diddy Kong Racing" and "Mortal Kombat" because there's actually established lore other than let's get a bunch of characters and have them race ("Mario Kart") or let's have a bunch of characters fight, FOR NO F*CKIN' REASON OTHER THAN "COOL!". Why do people act like fighting games having lore is stupid or unnecessary? All games have lore! There's just good lore and bad lore. I'm not well-versed in "Street Fighter's" lore or "Tekken's" lore. I know enough of "Soul Calibur's" lore, but damnit, lore is good for games! Most racing games, as much as I don't like them, HAVE LORE, very loose lore but lore nonetheless. It's this ignoring of lore from fans that we find ourselves in predicaments like this, where just because Scorpion says "GET OVER HERE!" we're supposed to fork over our hard-earned money...yeah, I'll hit the skip button on this and watch this on HBOMax when it's available...for free.

Shifting gears, let's talk about anime. In a time period where isekais rule the roost, I was looking for an anime that really seemed to offer mystery. "The Eminence In Shadow" is great, don't get me wrong, but I wanted an isekai that was different. Enter "Oshi No Ko", now granted this is NOT an isekai, and Truck-Kun actually comes in the form of a murderer. "Oshi No Ko" is a difficult anime to describe, and that's why I find it so alluring. "Oshi No Ko" tells the story of a doctor, Goro, who meets a patient, Sarena, who is obsessed with an idol named Ai Hoshino. When Sarena dies of cancer and Goro is murdered by an Ai stalker, both are somehow reincarnated as Ai's children, retaining their memories of their previous lives. This is exactly what I want out of an isekai, a story where the main character has all their memories and therefore can act and function as an adult even while they're a baby. Goro, now reincarnated as Aquamarine Hoshino, goes on a crusade because this story, oddly enough, is a tale of revenge. I was very surprised by how much I'm interested in this story and how much I wanna see. "Oshi No Ko" is unconventional and definitely scratches my itch for stories that are strange but grounded. I will definitely be checking this one out as soon as I can get my hands on it.

So damn cute...

Now that that's over, let's talk about the post-credit scene of "Fantastic Four: First Steps". Despite Marvel's massive pivot from Kang to Doctor Doom, the MCU has now introduced Franklin Richards into the mix, a child who, in the comics, has massive reality-warping abilities. Considering Galactus's desire to obtain Franklin, this is more than likely the case here in the MCU, and considering Doom wants Franklin. I'm really hoping Doom and Reed's prior relationship is intact because that's a huge part of the film, and without it...well...Doom is kinda just a villain, and since the post-credit scene in "First Steps" had no dialogue, this is the ONLY build-up to Doom we got...just a scene of him kneeling before Franklin with his mask off and back turned to the camera...so we don't even know if that was RDJ *sigh*. "Avengers: Doomsday" is looking like a cluster f*ck, and I'm all here for it. That film is gonna be one of the weirdest films to ever be released.

Still one of the biggest WTF?! Moments in Comic Book movie history...

*SPOILERS FOR "SUPERMAN"*

So after seeing "Superman" and summarizing my thoughts on it, I had fun and overall I enjoyed it, but I don't think James Gunn was the proper person to helm this project as the humor didn't stick, and I'm not saying a "Superman" movie shouldn't have a few laughs but in this case the laughs were at the expense of certain moments. So let's get into some spoilers. I have a few gripes with the movie, mostly 3, and these aren't hanging offenses, but some glaring issues that were difficult to ignore. The first and biggest gripe I have is freakin' Krypto. James Gunn has talked about having a rambunctious terrier that'd terrorize him, and he decided to insert his issues with his dog in this film...and...that doesn't work. For starters, Krypto has always been shown as a buff white Labrador, not a scruffy terrier, and furthermore, Krypto has always been shown as loyal and intelligent...this Krypto would literally kill people if he caught sight of a little boy throwing a ball. Understand, Krypto broke Superman's rib jumping on him...imagine what he'd do to a little boy.

Krypto really ground the movie to a halt and made me roll my eyes every time he was onscreen. Nobody's dog in "John Wick 4" is how Krypto should have been: disciplined and loyal, that'd make sense because a dog with Superman's powers would need discipline otherwise...as the film has shown, every time Krypto sees a flying orb he'd just instantly attack it...and for him being the primary obstruction to Lex Luthor's plan in the grand finale was eyeball rolling. Sidebar: Superman has a considerable lack of memory, as he could have easily laser-eyed the cameras. Krypto aside, let's talk about another gripe, and that's the maligning of Superman's parents. "Smallville" did this to an extent, with Brainiac lying about Jor-El's behavior toward his descendants. However, in this reimagining, Jor-El and Lara-El did intend for Superman to rule and conquer Earth, making Superman essentially Brightburn. Now, just because that was The House Of El's intention for Superman, doesn't mean that he's actually going to do it..BUT if you're The Government, you'd be hard pressed not to consider that there might be a trigger to activate Superman's murderous intentions, thus they have every right to be scared. Either way, I am not down with the maligning of The House of El.

Nicholas Hault killed it as Lex Luthor, however, just when he's about to be scary, in comes Kyrpto to freakin' maul him and Superman basically acting like a parent with no control over their child. My gripe with Lex Luthor is that he's basically shouting command codes like he's playing a video game to the obvious Superman clone, Ultraman. Lex's cover for this is that this clone is stupid, however it'd have been awesome if Lex Luthor is actually wearing a suit that manipulates Ultraman's movements, ergo, Ultraman's body, Lex's actions and instead of Krypto disabling cameras, Superman or Mister Terrific can hack into the system and sever the link between Lex and Ultraman. That'd have been more compelling than Superman calling Krypto. That aside, again, it's not a hanging offense. The Engineer could have easily been replaced by Lex Luthor. I'm not saying Lex should have been filled with nanites, but I am saying that the hacking could have been done by Lex Luthor himself. Likewise, if Ultraman is a Superman clone, why not just have Ultraman kill him, and if The Engineer could've easily killed Superman by flooding his lungs with nanites...why not do that right away? It just raises too many questions. Overall, decent introduction to Superman...but James Gunn was not the right guy for this film, Superman needs some hope, and this movie didn't really feel hopeful...it felt...fun...and sure, fun is a part of it, but I wanna leave a Superman film feeling inspired, not amused.

*SPOILERS FOR "SUPERMAN" OVER*

Anyway, that's about it for me, gang. I'll have some other blogs coming down the pike, a new "Project Canceled," and a few random blogs hither and thither. Until then...there really isn't much to report on, I could talk about the new "Silent Hill" but there really isn't much to discuss yet aside from the trailer looking absolutely insane. Here's a GIF of the only thing that can give us a better DC Universe, until next time.