My Review of Joker (2019)

Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Directed by Todd Phillips

Arthur Fleck: "For my whole life, I didn't know if I even really existed. But I do, and people are starting to notice."

Has there been a film in recent memory that has really stoked this much controversy over nothing? For months, it seems that certain segments of the media have had some of the most hysterical, overreaction takes on this movie and to be honest, it's given this whole thing more power than they intended.

Now I'm going to break this down in simple terms. This isn't a movie for incels or one that encourages violent behaviour but neither is it a movie that's as deep or as profound as it would like to be. It certainly tries as but much as co-writer and director Todd Phillips insists otherwise, this is a comic book movie through and through, albeit a rather dark and grim one but given the subject matter in question, that's hardly an issue for me.

It's 1981 and Gotham is on the brink of poverty. Mentally ill Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is struggling in every aspect of his life. His comedy career is a non starter and mostly sees him as an object of ridicule while his delusional and emotionally abusive mother, Penny (Frances Conroy) obsesses over billionaire Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) and would be love interest Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz) is more terrified than charmed by Arthur.

This is a movie with a macabre sense of humour and an overall bleakness that doesn't let up from start to finish. It's largely anchored by a masterful performance from Phoenix, who encapsulates this more grounded take on a classic villain but make no mistake here, Arthur is a villain and this is a villain origin story from start to finish.

Yes, Arthur is beaten down (figuratively and literally), lied to, rejected, humiliated but he snaps long before then when he kills those businessmen in the subway station and then his mother out of anger when he learns the real truth about his heritage really showed that it didn't take that much for him to snap altogether.

The movie teased the idea of doing something really controversial by making Arthur and Bruce Wayne half brothers, but ultimately balks at the end as we get a more damning insight into Penny's delusions and to be honest, she's one of the few victims of Arthur's who I felt no sympathy for, especially as Arthur learns about her past.

I did however feel sympathetic for talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert DeNiro) getting gunned down on live television as well as the unsettling (but off screen) fate for poor Sophie. Not to mention that Arthur's inadvertent call to arms resulting in a certain boy's destiny being changed forever.

However the last couple of minutes of the movie did make me wonder how much of what we saw actually happened. Arthur's a very unreliable narrator throughout the movie but the last few minutes even more so. The end scene, I can't decide whether it was a satisfying or a frustrating way to end this whole thing but the moment he really became the Joker was an obvious highlight from the whole thing.

- Despite Phillips insistence of not being a comic book fan, there did seem like there was some shades of The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight in this movie. DeNiro's role is a clear nod to The King Of Comedy as well.
- There's rumours of this movie being the start of a DC Black Label movie franchise and despite it's success, they'd be unwise to do another villain origin story.
- There's some rather obvious music choices in this movie (the use of Smile for example) but the best music is from composer, Hildur Guðnadóttir who absolutely deserves to get the chance to compose another DC movie.
- Chronology: 1981 in Gotham City.

Joker is an oddity of a movie. I knew I wasn't going to be madly in love with it when I went to see it but I also knew that I wasn't going to loathe it either. The script itself feels a tad self-indulgent and it's largely Phoenix's performance that anchors the whole thing as no-one else is really given the chance to shine. It is however an engaging movie but one that needs to remain a one-off in it's own little world for it's own sake.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Titans 2x05: "Deathstroke"

Written by Bianca Sams
Directed by Nick Gomez

Deathstroke (to Dick): "Always the hero, but you're not gonna dictate how this will go."

I guess we really did go all Death In The Family on this one, didn't we? After pausing the story last week to give us an Aqualad flashback, this week we were brought back into Jason Todd being kidnapped by Deathstroke and Doctor Light and everything going to hell in a hand basket by the end of it.

Do I believe that Robin 2.0 just died and we're about to get Red Hood for the remainder of the season? It's probably likely to happen though next week's episode is also finally getting around to the Conner Kent and Cadmus arcs of the season. Here though, Jason proved to be a rather chatty captive before he plummeted to his doom.

It was believable to see Jason's captivity divide the gang as it reinforced to Hank, Dawn and Donna that Dick was wrong for re-opening the Tower again as they came to blows over trading Rose for Jason. Even Gar and Rachel came to blows in this episode and the latter nearly killed Rose as well, which does show it's going to take more than a few pep talks from Kory for Rachel to get full control over her powers.

Kory's return to the gang was a highlight in this episode. She had great moments with Dick, Donna and Rachel and more than got the better of Slade during the final fight sequences as well. Dick isn't wrong about her being a natural leader and it's pretty clear that Kory has no intention of returning to her home world any time soon.

As for Rose, she was largely unsympathetic towards Jason being captured by her father but her fear certainly kicked in when both Hank and Rachel tried to stop her from leaving the Tower. I felt a little bad for her in that moment but mostly she seems unwilling to help the team and I'm not sure they can sustain that for too long with the character.

The best bits of the episode were obviously Jason's scenes with Doctor Light and Deathstroke and of course, the confrontation between Slade and Dick. Hopefully there's more on that score to come in the remaining eight episodes as there's still more history (especially with Jericho) that needs to be explored, even if we do have another arc and slew of characters to meet up with.

- Doctor Light pushed his luck in this episode and wound up being killed off Deathstroke. I can't say I'll miss the guy tbh.
- It's amazing that essentially removing Batman/Joker and replacing them with Dick/Slade has actually given us a great live action take on a classic storyline.
- I was surprised we didn't get a direct follow up to that Dick and Jericho flashbacks but I imagine we will soon though.
- 22 minutes since the end of Ghosts.

Easily the best episode of the series so far. I loved Deathstroke from start to finish and there wasn't a dull moment though. Every character had their moment to shine, Slade continues to impress as the baddie of the piece and it really has been hammered home how much better the whole series is. I really hope the Cadmus arc is as compelling as this one has been.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of How To Get Away With Murder's 6x02: "Vivian's Here"

Written by Michael Russo

Directed by Mike Smith

Vivian (to Annalise): "Who the hell did you piss off this time?"

Well, as the title revealed - Vivian is in fact here but we knew that from last week. This week though, our main players are privy to her presence and are largely convinced that she's working with the FBI. In reality, she's mostly here to get Gabriel back and go over some old wounds with Annalise, the latter of which she was more successful at doing.

I did enjoy the scenes with Vivian and Annalise as both women went over their history with Sam and the fact that latter was the other woman in the trio. Of course, I'm getting the impression that despite airing their issues, Vivian will continue to be a problem for Annalise and the Keating 5 and perhaps Frank should've let Annalise deal with Vivian when the latter had the chance.

Of course when we weren't going over the issues of Sam, Annalise also dropped the bombshell to Vivian that Gabriel killed an ex-boyfriend named Paul. I have to admit I must have zoned out during the time when Gabriel mentioned that to Michaela but no doubt that little revelation is also going to put their relationship at odds too.

Speaking of Michaela, this was a bit of a big episode for her. In the flashfoarwards she seems to be in the frame for Annalise's "murder" with her fingerprints found on the murder weapon in question while in the present she's furious with Annalise for not revealing about knowing her father and in the present day, Michaela's anger only intensified all the more when it turned out that her father died a year ago.

While this does provide a motive for Michaela to be a suspect, I really don't think it'll be her at all. Then again, I'm still largely unconvinced that Annalise is actually dead but it's still interesting enough to see every week what motive other characters will have for "killing" her though.

Then there's the Laurel segment of the piece. After my review for last week's premiere went up, it was announced that Karla Souza had left the series, so whatever is going on with this really does need to be resolved. At this rate, I think Laurel just took her son, legged it and took the evidence that Wes had in that safety deposit box for her own protection. I'm hoping this plotline will finish up soon so that Frank can have another purpose this season.

- Tegan, Connor and Asher worked on the main case of the week involving an immigrant boy being mistreated by ICE. Connor gave one hell of a passionate speech in court.

- If we're going down the Nate vs. Tegan path, then I'm on the latter's side. Oh and Bonnie lost her job this week.

- Apparently Viola Davis wrote the last scene that Annalise and Vivian shared this week. I wonder if there's a chance that she can write an episode for this last season.

- Chronology: A few days after the events of the first episode of the season.

Vivian's Here mostly felt like a filler and it did seem rather unsatisfying to have Michaela's father be dead off screen but the Connor scenes as well as Annalise's moments with both Vivian and Tegan certainly elevated the episode a little though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Story: 1984 - Slashdance

Written by James Wong
Directed by Mary Wigmore

Montana (to Richard, re Brooke): "Why haven't you killed her yet?"

Well, I was expecting some twists and boy, did this episode manage to pack about three really good ones into the mix, so let's prioritise them, shall we? As in from most to least interesting of what we learned tonight about three of our main players.

First of all, it seems that Nurse Rita isn't actually a nurse or even Rita. Nope, instead she's a woman named Donna Chambers who briefly worked at the asylum that was holding Benjamin Richter and was also the one responsible for getting him back into his natural habitat in some over complicated attempted to see if he could be redeemed.

I'll admit the villainous turn wouldn't be where I would've gone with the character but Angelica Ross certainly played a blinder here when she allowed Donna's mask to slip and Brooke found herself being injected with some horse tranquilizers for good measure. Donna didn't just stop there though. We saw in flashbacks that she was keeping the real Rita (Dreama Walker) hostage but the latter's rescue was shortlived when Mr Jingles put an oar to deadly use.

The twist with Donna/Rita was easily the best moment of the episode but it wasn't the only one to pack a punch. Yup, it seems that even Montana as well is evil and she's been working with the Night Stalker all along. Now, that I didn't see coming but why does she want to kill Brooke? Maybe she's connected to the latter's former fiancee and is out for revenge but either way, it's going to be fun watching Billie Lourd be all evil in the next few episodes.

As for Ray being such a coward that he caused the death of a pledge and was willing to let an impaled Chet bleed to death, it wasn't that shocking as his cowardice has been ever present since the season started. However he did pay for it then when Mr Jingle actually chopped his head towards the end of this episode. Too bad that Ray didn't survive but we were due at least one main-ish death and it seems the rest have more to offer the show for the time being.

Speaking of the rest, both Trevor and Xavier somewhat went up in my estimation. Xavier still feels remorse for his agent's death and was more than willing to help save Chet while Trevor also expressed concern for Margaret and Bertie as well. The two of them along with Chet also managed to live another day but whether they make it out of the season alive is another thing.

- Of course we'd get a bunch of idiots scaring our main characters by impersonating Mr Jingles. Some of them however were killed by Benjamin throughout the episode, which they had coming.
- Margaret was the only regular to sit this one out but going by the trailer for next week, it seems like we'll be getting a reunion with her and Mr Jingles.
- Standout music: Daryl Hall & John Oates Maneater was used rather aptly this week.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off as well as a week before the events of the series.

Slashdance certainly didn't hold back on the twists and they were certainly satisfying ones as at least half our main cast members are killers or enablers while the other half are just about surviving. The Donna/Jingles and Montana/Night Stalker team ups are interesting but it's hard to tell who our protagonist is at this rate. Brooke isn't proactive enough in the role so maybe either Trevor or Xavier is who we should be looking at right now.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 (2013)

Written by Bob Goodman
Directed by Jay Oliva

Bruce: "I spent ten years looking for a good death. This will be a good life."

The second part of a film that also feels like a film of two parts. The first part of course involved the Joker (MIchael Emerson) awaking from his catatonic and fooling his gullible doctor into making a live appearance on television, resulting in a lot of death and a rather easy escape for the older Clown Prince of Crime.

Once the Joker is on the loose, it's up to Batman (Peter Weller) and Robin (Ariel Winter) to locate him and soon enough, they get a clue when an older Selina Kyle (Tress MacNeille), now an escort madam finds herself at the mercy of the Joker as one of her girls also gets a Senator to make a rather public announcement.

Now, I'm a big fan of Catwoman and Selina in general and this without a doubt is one of the worst depictions of the character I've seen of her. In fact it almost borders on character assassination and absolutely wastes her altogether. I almost would've rather Selina had sat this particular story out that the crap material she's given here.

That frustration to one side, at least the final battle scene with Batman and Joker is decent enough. Given the general mindset that Batman seems to be in here in his post retirement, it's not too shocking that he actually followed through and killed the Joker, even if that made him a criminal for an overzealous Yindel (Maria Canals-Barrera ) to put behind bars.

Then there was the second half of the movie where Batman and Superman (Mark Valley) came face to face and yeah, while it was better done in Batman V. Superman three years after this movie's release, again it led to some decent action sequences and the fake out for one of the heroes to continue their work under the guise of them being dead.

The end sequence with Bruce, Carrie, the Sons of Batman and an older Oliver Queen (Robin Atkin Downes) all working together was a nice way to end a two part movie that overall had a nihilistic feel to it. I also liked that Superman seemed to be aware of what was going on at the very end along with his confession to Gordon about not knowing what his relationship with Batman truly was.

- There's a DVD that combines both films together if you fancy watching this whole thing in one go. I was tempted to do that, review wise before deciding to split it.
- The President in this movie is clearly based on Ronald Reagan.
- I noticed The Killing Joke allusion there, during Batman and the Joker's final confrontation.
- Chronology: From where the first part of this movie left off. Definitely seems to be set in the 1980's though.

The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 is a solid enough conclusion to this whole saga, despite my hatred of the way Selina was treated in the movie. I did like the Joker and Superman bits and the ending saved it for me as well. The animated could've been a bit better but other than that, it's a decent adaptation of a much loved comic book.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Titans 2x04: "Aqualad"

Written by Jamie Gorenberg
Directed by Glen Winter

Garth: “No, I want my Dick Grayson acapella birthday serenade!”

Arguably the only disappointing thing about this episode is that the birthday boy didn't get his serenade from Dick Grayson, at least not onscreen but other than that, this was certainly an episode that really explained a lot when you think about.

We've had flashbacks episodes in the past, notably the Hank & Dawn one from last season and this episode's focus on Aqualad (Drew Van Acker) certainly confirmed a theory that most fans had already worked out. Yup, by the end of this episode, Deathstroke had murdered Garth in front of Donna and following Dawn's advice, Dick channeled his inner Batman in order to get revenge on Slade.

Befriending Jericho (Chella Man) would've seemed like an innocent act if we didn't know that Dick was out to avenge his fallen Titan and of course, if Jericho wasn't hiding with his mother from his assassin father to boot. We already know that Jericho is going to be a goner but unlike Garth, at least we're going to see him for one more episode.

Getting back to Garth, Drew Van Acker did a good job of bringing the character to life and he seemed like a natural fit in the Titans with Dick, Donna, Dawn and Hank. This episode alone is making me hope for some pre-Deathstroke flashbacks again as they're an enjoyable team to watch between taking out thugs and celebrating Garth's birthday.

Then there's the romantic angle with Garth and Donna. All of it felt textbook to be honest - the flirty moments, Donna being unsure whether to pursuit a relationship with Garth and considering going home, the actual sex scene itself, Donna changing her mind before Garth was killed by Slade. Now, while it might have all been predictable, that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable to watch. It just meant that nothing really surprised, scene wise.

As for Deathstroke, killing a Titan member showed that he meant business and once again with the lesser scenes he had, the character was still a lot more engaging to watch that Doctor Light, who even in flashbacks is a bit of bore, character wise. Now following the events of last week's episode, it seems that Aqualad won't be the only Titan member to suffer a nasty fate. Oh, Jason, you're so screwed.

- Dick and Dawn being a couple in the flashbacks threw me off and it shouldn't have. I liked Donna's Amazon adviser, Jillian. I hope we get to see her again.
- While Garth was enjoyable, I'll admit the effects for his abilities didn't look quite as impressive as they could've done. He was 22 when he died as well and had fancied Donna for a decade.
- Rachel, Kory, Gar, Rose and Jason all sat this episode out and much as I like them, the episode worked without them, which shows that the show can juggle/bench out some of it's main characters and do well.
- Chronology: Five years before the events of this season.

Aqualad certainly wasn't a damp squib of an episode. In fact, it's a series highlight and despite everything in it being widely telegraphed, it only made the episode a lot more enjoyable. Saying that, I do hope the show ditches Doctor Light soon as he's the weakest part of the season so far and I'd rather more scenes with Deathstroke and for the Cadmus plot to kick in as well.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of How To Get Away With Murder's 6x01: "Say Goodbye"

Written by Sarah L. Thompson
Directed by Stephen Cragg

Annalise (to Sally): "My name's Annalise Keating. People think I murdered my husband. I didn't but I helped cover it up."

When it was announced a few months ago that the sixth season was going to be it's last, it felt right. The show has been a fun, madcap ride since it's debut in 2014 but the time has come for the show to end and if this opening episode is anything to go by, this is going to be a messy last season.

Is it a shock that perhaps Annalise wouldn't survive this season? Maybe not in some ways, considering the messes she's been cleaning up and getting into since the beginning but the opening and last scenes certainly were a little bit surprising in a way.

This episode alone Michaela made a veiled threat to kill Annalise after it was revealed that the latter knew the former's birth father but I can't see Michaela being the one to actually kill Annalise. Assuming of course that Annalise actually dies and there isn't some twist along the way, undoubtedly. It can't be that simple really.

Annalise did spend a good portion of this episode in a fancy rehab, working on her demons after spiraling from the news of Emmett's death and Laurel's disappearance. The rehab scenes are done reasonably well enough with Annalise contending with a rather annoying roommate in Sally, though the latter did get a little more interesting when she confessed to hating her children. Other than that, I'm glad that she was a one off character, well at least I hope she was.

As for Annalise - rehab was a good way to get her to exorcise some demons and she even turned it around by getting Connor, Oliver, Asher and Michaela to effectively do the same thing and essentially forget about Laurel. I was hoping this episode would give us something on Laurel's whereabouts but it didn't and even Annalise herself seems to have given up on Laurel for the time being.

As for the rest of the episode - we got some sexy times with Connor and Oliver as well as Michaela and Gabriel, Asher doled out some decent love advice, Frank and Bonnie were trying to keep things together in Annalise's absence and Nate turned his attentions on to Tegan and the fact that Emmett's body was taken away to London and his results came back with no foul play. Nate versus Tegan might be interesting to watch for a while.

- It seems that Gabriel's mother is going to be another problem for Annalise to deal with as she's spying on her son.
- Aside from removing Emmett, there aren't any major regular cast additions this season.
- Laurel's voice was heard but she wasn't physically in the episode. I hope they don't drag her disappearance out for too long.
- Chronology: Not long since the events of the previous season finale.

Say Goodbye certainly seems like it's preparing us for the end but I can't help but shake the feeling that we've got an obvious twist awaiting us. I'm not convinced that Annalise is actually dead but I am intrigued enough to see what will lead to that funeral sequence though. I'm also hoping the Laurel bit isn't dragged out as well but other than that, a great start to the season.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Story: 1984 - Mr Jingles

Written by Tim Minear
Directed by John J. Gray

Jonas: "Ghosts aren't real."
Margaret: "There are ghosts in the bible and you're here so they must be real."

Yeah, we're exploring ghosts again. It was obvious from the moment that Richard tried to bump off Jonas the hitchhiker that something was amiss and at least the episode didn't waste time explaining what.

Jonas being a spirit that cannot move on from his guilt over Mr Jingles camp slaughter does make me wonder if he's the only we're seeing this season. I don't think Margaret is a ghost but the episode certainly upped her darker side with her brazen dismissal of Hopple's warning about Jingles being on the loose as well as her questionable alliance with the Night Stalker to boot.

Is it wrong that the best moment from this entire episode was seeing Margaret and Richard - both God and Satan's overt advocates chatting like they were best mates as the former cleaned up the latter and sent on his way to kill Richter? Maybe but it doesn't stop that scene from being highlight of the whole episode as we got a little insight into Ramirez's past which Margaret had zero problem using to her advantage as well. Of course this is an alliance that will probably go south very fast by next week.

Keeping with the revealing stuff, I was a little surprised that Brooke's backstory included a wedding that turned into a bloodbath, courtesy of a psychotic would be groom. Still though, it was an amusing flashback not too dissimilar to something we saw during Scream Queens second season and it's nice that while Brooke might be testing everyone else's patience with her crying about killers that Montana seems to be mostly on her side.

Then there was Xavier. I didn't make a note of the threatening phone call from last week but here it was quickly resolved as it turned out that he has a history in gay porn, despite being straight and the only way to get Blake off his back was to get a replacement for the latter's movies. Of course Mr Jingles somewhat saw to Blake but in a surprising move, Xavier seems to be rather regretful when he discovered that Blake had been murdered.

As for the rest of the episode when the Night Stalker wasn't trying to finish Brooke and getting irritated with Jonas not dying, you had Jingles dispensing of some bodies with two groups in two different cabins, looking for keys and awaiting a rather sinister presence knocking on the doors. Aside from Rita nearly getting killed, I don't think any of the regulars (or even Ray) are likely to die this early in the season just yet.

- Chet admitted to taking steroids and despite the press releases, it seems like the show might be honing in on Brooke being pairing with Ray instead. Montana clearly fancies Brooke though.
- Amazing it took just two episodes to slip in a Ghostbusters reference, courtesy of Margaret mentioning Dan Akroyd.
- Standout music: Nice Day For A White Wedding, anyone?
- Chronology: From where the premiere episode left off as well as a flashback to Brooke's wedding in 1983.

Mr Jingles didn't really explore much with the title character but he certainly added to his body count while the Night Stalker and Margaret provided the best scene of the whole episode. I liked the character bits we got here and certainly didn't mind the episode being largely set at night. Overall, a little better than the opening episode.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 (2012)

Written by Bob Goodman
Directed by Jay Oliva

Batman ( to Mutant Leader): "You don't get it, son. This isn't a mud hole. It's an operating table. And I'm the surgeon."

Split into two movies, this is another one of those animated adaptations of one of the more vital Batman comics out there as we move into a world where Batman (Peter Weller) and Commissioner Gordon (David Selby) find themselves not being able to embrace the idea of retirement while Gotham finds itself at the mercy of the Mutants and their not so bright Leader (Gary Anthony Williams) as the latter plans to destroy the city.

To be honest, I don't greatly care for the Mutants stuff, having watched it on Gotham's fifth season and that one episode of The New Batman Adventures (which lifted a particular scene as well) but it's diverting enough stuff as an not so retired Batman battles with them, initially loses but at the same gains a new Robin (Ariel Winter) in Carrie Kelley and also his own group of vigilantes not so imaginatively named Sons of Batman for good measure.

The Mutant Leader does make some kind of a threat by killing off the Mayor as well as causing some initial injury to Batman before their muddy final battle but even in this one, the Mutants are characters that somewhat play a smaller fiddle to the other baddies we're more familiar with.

First of all, there's Harvey Dent (Wade Williams) - he's seemingly free of his Two Face persona with a surgery that has him fixed cosmetically but mentally he spirals in a big way, unable to rehabilitate himself and it's pretty tragic to watch play out as Batman realises that his former friend is too far gone for redemption.

Then there's the Joker (Michael Emerson). He's not in many scenes in the movie, but he's locked away at Arkham in a catatonic state before the resurgence of Batman in the public eye managed to trigger him back to life. Keeping him in a smaller role was probably a good thing, considering how big his part in the second movie will be.

As for the main focuses - both Batman and Jim have some interesting moments as they talked about retirement but neither able to commit. Alfred (Michael Jackson) mostly kept in a role of trying to get Bruce to be sensible while Carrie made a decent impression as the new Robin, earning her stripes throughout the movie.

- Not surprisingly, Bruce is estranged from Dick and he was rather clinical about Jason's death as well in this movie.
- Gordon's replacement was Ellen Yindel, who seemed to be more critical of vigilantes. Lana Lang popped up as a support for Batman's actions while Dr Wolper was the opposite.
- Some nice visual nods to the likes of Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Swamp Thing.
- This movie came out around the same time as The Dark Knight Rises while the second part of this movie was released a year later.

The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 is a decent set up for what should be a better second half, even if the Mutants weren't that interesting as baddies. In another universe we would've gotten a live action version of this comics, despite many elements that would pop up in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Titans 2x03: "Ghosts"

Written by Tom Pabst
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen

Donna: "You know I love you and I want you to be happy but there's ghosts in this place. They should know that."
Dick: "They know enough."
Donna: "You wanna teach them to be better than us? Tell them what happened."

I think by the next few episodes, Dick isn't going to have to tell the new gang about the old gang's former screw ups because the end of this episode certainly implied that they'll get a first hand demonstration thanks to Deathstroke stepping out of retirement.

It wasn't too much of a surprise this week that Doctor Light and Deathstroke were actually working together and it's almost a good thing too as the former is not the most compelling of baddies here. While he initially outsmarted the original Titans halfway through this episode, he allowed himself to be outsmarted a lot by Jason until Slade appeared at the end to even the baddie score.

Then there's Jason. He's been a loose cannon since his introduction and this week he lost his patience with Rachel (though in his defense, she did nearly kill him) and even butted heads with Jason before getting Gar to help him locate Doctor Light. There's been a theory looming around for a while that Jason's Red Hood arc might be at the hands of Deathstroke instead of you know who and after this episode, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's the direction the show decides to go.

As for Rachel, it's nice that she can talk about her dark side and here she was able to give Kory a bit of a rundown about it while bonding with Rose over bad fathers. The scenes with the female characters, including a brief one Kory had with Donna have been fantastic this season, though Dawn hasn't interacted too much with Rachel and Donna and we do need Kory back in the mix.

Speaking of Kory, her captor turned out to be former lover and bodyguard Faddei and their scenes were decent enough. We got a bit of an insight into Kory's relationship with her family, notably her sister Blackfire, who we'll be seeing later in the season before she managed to give Faddei the slip and not a moment too soon as well.

As for the boys - well, Hank went from being annoyed with being drawn back into the Titans circle to actually bonding a little more with Dick. He's still not a fan of Jason, which is amusing but at least Jason does seem to have a friend with Gar though. Like Dawn, I find that Gar has been a little underused so far this season but hopefully that will change soon.

- Good training session with Dick and Rose in this episode. Hell, her swordplay gave Dick some neat batons but he's being a little too willing to trust her.
- It seems that Rose's brother, Jericho (Chella Man) is dead and there's an implication that Aqualad (Drew Van Acker) is dead too. We're seeing both characters in the next episode.
- Jason was the only one to get into costume this episode. The show does need to start having the characters suit up more.
- Chronology: From where Rose essentially left off.

Ghosts wasn't my favourite episode but it's another strong contender and with so many character moments, it's fantastic to see how much the show has greatly improved. For a villain who hasn't essentially done a lot in the current time, the show is really selling Deathstroke as an effective threat to the gang, both old and new.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Story: 1984 - Camp Redwood

Written by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk
Directed by Bradley Buecker

Mechanic (to Brooke and company): "Turn around, go back to the city. They never should've opened that place again."

Ah yes, the cryptic warning from a random stranger that our protagonists naturally chose to ignore for reasons or whatever. After four seasons of present day and near future mayhem, it was time for the show to go back to the past and given the title of this season, I don't need to tell you which era, huh.

Taking in and shamelessly ripping off the likes of Halloween, Friday The 13th and I Know What You Did Last Summer (90's but who's really counting), this opening episode sees naive Brooke Thompson (Emma Roberts) survive an attack by Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa) before joining new friends Montana Duke (Billie Lourd), Xavier Plympton (Cody Fern), Chet Clancy (Gus Kenworthy) and Ray Powell (DeRon Horton) into becoming counselors at Camp Redwood.

The main action of this season will be a summer camp, an idea that previously was going to be used as the backdrop for Scream Queens second season before the idea was scrapped for it's hospital setting instead. Whether or not the camp and the overall slasher idea can be maintained for the remaining nine episodes of the season remains to be seen but so far, it's off to an interesting enough start.

It's a little bit of a relief to see Emma Roberts not play a bitch for once though I'm not sure if Brooke's naivety won't grate as the series goes along. As for the rest of the younger group and this is a very youth oriented season, I found them rather polarising to be honest. Montana has a bit of spark about her and I didn't mind Ray but both Xavier and Chet somewhat grated in parts of the episode, even if the latter was given a bit of an interesting backstory, tying into Kenworthy's real life profession. His acting wasn't as bad as expected but he's still the weakest of the younger cast though.

As for the older cast - former Pose actress Angelica Ross stood out the most for me as Nurse Rita Chambers and she's a character that I'm hoping doesn't turn out to be evil or die during this season. I did like the backstories given to main villain Benjamin Richter/Mr Jingles (John Carroll Lynch) and surviving victim Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) as the latter reopened the camp and Jingles found himself escaping a mental hospital to finish his previous work as Brooke found herself reunited with the Night Stalker by the end of this one.

Last but not least, there was also former Glee actor, Matthew Morrison being cast as the horndog activities director, Trevor Kirchner. He got a memorable hook up scene with Montana but like Chet, I found him to be one of the weaker characters of the episode. I did like Chef Bertie (Tara Karsian) as well as doctors Art (Mitch Pileggi) and Hopple (Orla Brady) who reminded me of certain characters from a movie I mentioned earlier in this review.

- The title sequence is already one of my favourites and I loved how they really embraced the 80's aesthetic for it.
- Brooke is clearly named after A Nightmare On Elm Street protagonist Nancy Thompson and the aerobics scene with the gang was a shout out to Perfect, though that was released in 1985.
- Standout music: For me, the use of Bananarama's Cruel Summer stood out the most but this season is going to have the best soundtrack.
- Chronology: Summer of 1984. Mr Jingles original attack on the camp took place in the summer of 1970.

Camp Redwood isn't the strongest opening episode we've had for the series but it's a good one to kick off this slasher themed series and I can't help but get the impression that we're going to get a Roanoke style mid-season twist. The absence of certain cast members is noticeable but not to the point that it took me out of enjoying the episode. The potential for this to be one of the best season is definitely there.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Titans 2x02: "Rose"

Written by Richard Hatem
Directed by Nathan Hope

Rachel (re Rose): "Face it, Dick. You can’t resist a bird with a broken wing."
Dick: "I wouldn’t say I can’t."
Rachel: "C'mon, you helped me, you helped Gar."
Dick: "I didn't help Jason."
Rachel: "Can anyone help Jason?"

Well, no, not really as Jason is kind of a law unto himself but at the very least this season so far has slightly tempered down his more annoying qualities as he spent most of this episode either training Gar, being encouraged by Dick to be his better self or quickly figuring out that soon to be new recruit Rose (Chelsea Zhang) is actually Slade Wilson's daughter.

I like that this episode didn't waste time with that reveal and it made for a satisfying end scene around the same time that Dick had actually managed to talk Rose around into joining the Titans at the same time that Doctor Light (Michael Mosley) attacked the pair of them. Yeah, needless to say this episode wasn't sluggish at all in things going on.

Rose is one of a few new characters we've yet to meet and like her father in the previous episode, she made an interesting enough impression. I don't know for certain if Rose is being sent in as a Trojan horse for her father's revenge plan or if she is genuinely in need of getting away from her father or someone more dangerous, but either way, the character is off to an interesting start.

Also interesting is the Titans 2.0 or Next Generation set up here. It's not surprising that Dick's methods for training Rachel, Gar and Jason would be met with some commentary from his new recruits but I did like Jason and Gar's training scene and the fact that Dick treats Rachel like an equal during their coffee run as well. With Rose in the mix and former members slowly coming back int the fold, this dynamic is going to be fun to watch over the course of the season.

The old members in particular haven't been shy about wanting to return to the Tower. Maybe not Hank as he genuinely seemed to have found a niche in helping kids stay off drugs but Dawn certainly had no problem suiting up in order to take down some meth dealers and the more said on the buddy cop team up with Kory and Donna, the better.

Seriously, Kory and Donna are an excellent pairing as the two of them spent of this episode trying to track down Shimmer and while it took a while for it to happen, the end result was satisfying. I have no doubt that Donna will be seeing Shimmer again while the episode also saw someone from Kory's home world snatch her in the middle of the street. Hopefully this will be also quickly solved as well as Doctor Light is posing a problem for both generations of Titans at the moment.

- Roy Harper got a nice mention in this episode, courtesy of Donna. With Arrow ending this season, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him in Season 3 of this show.
- Bruce Wayne made another appearance in this episode when Dick needed advice about Rose. Still not sure on Iain Glen but he does play off well enough with Brenton Thwaites.
- We were in San Francisco, Chicago, Wyoming and Gotham City this week, location wise.
- Chronology: Three months since the events of Trigon.

Two episodes in and there's a noticeable change for the better with this show. The writing is so much stronger, the characterisation, especially for characters like Jason and Hank has improved for the best, the pairing of Kory/Donna is a great choice and Rose did a great job of introducing the title character and in some ways felt a little more like an opening episode than last week's effort.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Titans 2x01: "Trigon"

Written by Akiva Goldsman & Geoff Johns & Greg Walker
Directed by Carol Banker

Jason (on the news): "Titans are back, bitches!"

Well, after a first season of meeting these characters, having them come together for the Trigon storyline, I think it was a bit overdue that we'd actually get the team and get them properly but before all of that, we had an ongoing problem of demonic proportions to deal with.

After his far too late introduction at the end of the first season, Trigon (Seamus Dever) had to be dealt with rather abruptly but before Rachel got to send him back to the same dimension she pulled him out of, Trigon did his best to possess the rest of the main characters and even came close to having poor Gar killed off for good.

The possession scenes were pretty good in this episode. We got to see both Dick and Jason duke it out in a rather impressive fight sequence while Kory came close to killing Rachel as Donna confronted a childhood tragedy and Hank and Dawn lost themselves in hedonism. Gar was the only one not influenced by Trigon and therefore was the very one to pull Rachel out of the darkness after her heart broke and daddy darkest gave her some cool new powers to boot.

It was great to see Rachel be the one to save Dick, send her father away and break the spell that everyone else was under but there's no denying that the first half of this episode was a slightly rushed wrap up to the first season and Trigon storyline altogether. I'd complain about that, but seeing as we've got better stuff on the horizon, I'm not going to.

The better stuff being the arrival of Deathstroke (Esai Morales), who thanks to Jason's big mouth on live television has now come out of retirement and it's pretty obvious that he's got the Titans in sight for his next big mission. The version of Deathstroke hasn't done anything yet and already he seems like he's going to a great antagonist for Dick and company to contend with this season.

Speaking of contending, with Deathstroke looming about, the Titans have essentially reformed with Dick taking Rachel, Gar and Jason under his wing in a familiar location while Donna, Kory, Hank and Dawn have gone off to do their own thing for a while but they'll be back sooner than later as will a few other new faces not introduced into this one.

One face we did see in this episode, albeit briefly was Bruce Wayne. Iain Glen is without a doubt a good actor and probably the most left field casting for Bruce since, well, ever and while I did like that Bruce and Dick cleared up some past issues, I'm not sure I buy Glen as Bruce at all. At times his accent slipped a little and I don't believe that he would intimidate anyone as the Caped Crusader. Maybe other appearances will change my mind but for now, I'm not really feeling him in the role.

- The title sequence is still the same and there was a tribute to Warren Appleby (1974-2019) at the end of this episode.
- DCUniverse really need to start properly promoting their shows better than they are as there's still no promos for the next episode.
- Next week's episode will debut Rose Wilson/Ravager with Superboy, Krypto and Jericho coming soon after that.
- Chronology: From where Dick Grayson left off.

Trigon is somewhat rushed conclusion to the previous season and more of a prologue to this season than an actual premiere, but episode wise, it's hard not to see the clear improvement the show has had since it's rocky debut last year. The characters are definitely stronger, the team has come together, we got glimpses of the past and we have a great new villain. It might have taken longer than the writers hoped but the show seems to have found it's groove.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Superman/Shazam!: The Return Of Black Adam (2010)

Written by Michael Jelenic
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos

Superman: "So you're what this is all about."
Shazam (re Black Adam): "I'm his replacement."
Superman: "Then let's replace him."

First of all, I was a little surprised by how short this movie was. I assumed like most DC Animated features, it was around 70-80 minute mark but coming in at 25 minutes, this little feature had a lot of ground to cover and managed to do it rather neatly.

We meet young Billy Batson (Zach Callison) living on his own, feeding rats, being nice to neighbours and getting his ass kicked when trying to defend a homeless man (Kevin Michael Richardson) from a group of punks and that's all before meeting Clark Kent (George Newborn) for breakfast as the latter is writing a piece to help Billy out of his dire situation.

As Billy mused over how being good hasn't particularly paid off for him, Black Adam (Arnold Vosloo) arrives on the scene, knowing that Billy has been earmarked by the Wizard to be his successor and naturally Black Adam isn't happy with that prospect, so he tries to kill Billy while also dealing with Superman for good measure as well.

Of course given the length of this movie, it's a little surprising that we have to wait until the last ten minutes before Billy encounters the Wizard and becomes Shazam (or Captain Marvel) but when it happens, it's a rather glorious moment as Shazam proves himself as a hero even though it takes Superman to make sure that he doesn't stoop to the same levels as Black Adam.

Black Adam's defeat is also done rather as well as he succumbs to old age rather than allowing Mister Tawky Tawny (the homeless man in disguise acting as Billy's guardian angel) banish him for another couple of thousand years. The movie then ends with a nice moment where Billy also got to get his own back on the bullies that beat him up to begin with.

- I noticed two of the Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony and Lust are replaced with Selfishness and Injustice.
- It seems like Billy doesn't even have Mary or Freddy in this universe as neither of them were mentioned at all. We do know that his parents are currently dead.
- The title of this movie is a homage to Superman and Shazam's first crossover series.
- Chronology: I'll assume it was 2010 given when the film was released.

Superman/Shazam!: The Return Of Black Adam is a solid romp with the title characters getting a fun meeting and Black Adam being utilised pretty well. Now, I do wish it had been a bit longer and that we had met some of Billy's foster family but other than that, this was a lot of fun to watch.

Rating: 7 out of 10

The Monsters Are Gone For Now

It's been over a month since my last TV Jumble Blog, so here's a look at some of the stuff I've been watching over the last while.

Catch-22: This miniseries came to a satisfying conclusion as Yossarian's repeated attempts to get out of service saw him hiding out briefly in an Italian village before he finally managed to get one over on his superiors. The show has been a good vehicle for actor Christopher Abbott, who definitely should land some bigger roles after this one and while George Clooney wasn't quite as utilised as the adverts would've implied, he had some decent moments as the somewhat antagonist of the piece.

Jessica Jones: The MCU Netflix has finally come to an end and the last few episodes of this show were certainly a mixed bag. I do think Foolkiller was a decent choice for a main baddie but he was mostly in the shadow of Trish, who felt like she was largely character assassinated for her main plot this season. A part of me would've loved a fourth season of this show (same with Daredevil) but given the sluggishness in parts, perhaps it's a good thing that the Netflix era of Marvel shows have now come to an end. At least Disney+ will have the sense not to have too many episodes for their upcoming shows.

Orange Is The New Black: Watching the seventh and final season, it feels right that the show is ending. The first seven episodes seems to be a good mixture of stories with Piper adjusting to the outside world, Taystee getting her fight back, a change in leadership in the prison, Alex and Daya running their own hustles in Litchfield Max, Aleida getting sent back to prison, the ICE storyline involving Blanca and Maritza and the dementia plotline with Red. There's certainly plenty of interesting plots at the moment and I can't wait to see what the remaining six episodes will do to conclude the series.

Pennyworth: If Krypton was a prequel idea too far, then this show will either be a frustration or an intrigue for you or very likely, both. The first five episodes have seen Alfred Pennyworth (lead actor Jack Bannon doing his best Michael Caine impression) working with both Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane, a few shadowy agencies looming in the background, a love interest dead and the old guard somewhat discarded but not totally gone. Paloma Faith hams it up a bit as Bet Sykes but she's arguably the best thing about the show that's fine but far from remarkable, though like Gotham it's penchant for gory violence is something to behold at times.

Stranger Things: I have absolutely loved the third season of this show and the more I think on it, the more I think it might be the show's best one yet. The second half was brilliant with it's individual team and even better when said teams banded together to save Hawkins yet again. It also had a much welcomed departure for Billy (even though this season did humanise him a little more) and perhaps Hopper. Nope, I don't believe Hopper is properly gone at all but damn if that letter scene with Eleven wasn't a teary moment. Then there's Robin, who was the best new character of the season, had a fabulous rapport with Steve and one of the best coming out scenes seen on recent television.  I'm assuming it's be 2021 before we get the fourth season of the show at the earliest.

Swamp Thing: It's a shame that this show has come to an end because the last few episodes really did up the ante big time with the main characters. I was hoping that maybe HBO Max would step in to save the series but it seems like this really was a one and done kind of show and that's a big shame. The cast had great chemistry, the horror element was fantastic and I would've liked to have seen Alec Holland go up against the Rot in a big way and even seen a formation of Justice League Dark. Alas, these things won't happen now.

The Good Place: I've really enjoyed the second season and after the events of this finale, I'm hoping that yet again, E4 don't wait too long to air the third season of the show. Sending the characters back to Earth is certainly an interesting move, even if the focus has initially been on Eleanor and her failed attempts to better herself as a person. I have also enjoyed the evolution of Michael and Janet's characters, the introduction of Hydrogen, the Tahani/Jason/Janet triangle and even Chidi making the odd assertive move here and there.

- Both Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford will be departing Legends Of Tomorrow midway through it's fifth season. Ramona Young will also be leaving the series.
- Krypton has been cancelled after two seasons by SyFy and the station won't be going ahead with their plans for a Lobo spin-off.
- Disney+ will be doing shows for She Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight as well as the five shows they previously announced.
- Mitch Pileggi has joined the cast of American Horror Story: 1984
- The third season of American Crime Story, entitled Impeachment will air in September 2020 on FX and will focus on the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal with Sarah Paulson,  Beanie Feldstein, and Annaleigh Ashford announced as main cast members.
- The 100 will end with seven seasons on the CW.
- Now Apocalypse has been cancelled after one season on Starz.
- Viola Davis will play Michelle Obama for Showtime's First Ladies show.
- The L Word: Generation Q will premiere in December on Showtime while the NBC streaming service will air the reboot of Queer As Folk.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar has joined the pilot for FOX series, Other People's Houses.

My Review of Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis (2015)

Written by Heath Corson
Directed by Ethan Spaulding

Orm (re Atlanna's murder): "I am your king...! I did this for YOU!"
Aquaman: "Is this the king you want, Atlanteans? A coward who lies to you? You need a light to guide you in the darkness, people of Atlantis. My people."

Following the events of Justice League: War, it was time for the Super Seven to get a name change and a new member and with this movie, both of those things happened without too much resistance. Based on the comic with the same title, this would be a rather suitable origin story for Arthur Curry (Matt Lanter).

In the present day we see Arthur get into a bar fight over a lobster while Mera (Sumalee Montano) observed from afar at the behest of Queen Atlanna (Sirena Irwin) as the latter decides that her estranged son is ready to rule Atlantis over her more volatile other son, Prince Orm (Sam Witwer) who has formed an alliance with Black Manta (Harry Lennix) to declare war on the surface world.

Orm and Manta's union seems to be more on an equal footing compared to the 2018 live action Aquaman movie, at least until the final reveal that Manta was pulling the strings all along, manipulating Orm into going to war as well as putting Stephen Shin into Arthur's sight before Shin himself was killed.

Arthur's journey here isn't quite as compelling as the DCEU equivalent but it's still executed rather well as Mera introduced him to his homeworld before the League members themselves made their presence known to aid Arthur and Mera in taking out Orm and Manta, which naturally happens as Arthur then becomes King of Atlantis while Orm finds himself encountering Lex Luthor (Steven Blum) at his prison in Belle Reve, clearly setting a further movie down the line.

The Aquaman storyline is the main focus of the movie but there are still other moments for the League themselves. Shazam and Cyborg's friendship is still rather endearing to watch as well as the latter getting a love interest with STAR Labs scientist Sarah while Superman and Wonder Woman also get romantically involved, which I was a little keen on. Then there was Batman and Green Lantern who spent most of the time bickering while Flash didn't do too much but was still entertaining enough to watch.

- Nice cameo from Steel as a steel worker during the big battle sequence. Lois also managed to get in a sneaky comment about Clark and Diana's date.
- Atlanna was not a part of the comic this movie is based on but the movie also excluded several characters who were.
- There was also a brief cameo from the Scarecrow during the first scene with Batman and Green Lantern but that story was abandoned as well.
- Chronology: Not too long since the events of the last movie.

Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis is a solid opening for Aquaman and his underwater world. While some League members could've gotten some better storylines, they're all reasonably utilised and both Orm and Manta are satisfying villains in this one. Not my favourite of the animated movies but still a good one though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Justice League: War (2014)

Written by Heath Corson
Directed by Jay Oliva

Shazam (to the US President): "That's right. You can call us the Super Seven."
Superman: "Please don't call us that."
Cyborg: "The Super Seven?"
Shazam: "What, you don't like it?"

Eh, it's not a bad title but considering that you would have more members, it might be a bit limiting though. Based on the Justice League: Origin comic, this one is a pretty simple adaptation as we see seven of our heroes take on Darkseid (Steve Blum) and do their best to stop him from taking over the planet and so on.

Things break off into some interesting rapport. First of all, there's Batman (Jason O'Mara), Green Lantern (Justin Kirk) and Superman (Alan Tudyk) who quarrel for a bit while intially fighting Parademons who are stealing people for Darkseid. One of the ongoing jokes in this movie is other heroes being surprised with Batman's existence, which I kind of found a little odd but fortunately, it's a joke that doesn't wear too thin though.

Of course while those three are getting to know each, Wonder Woman (Michelle Monaghan) has a meeting with the President and a group of protesters not happy with her attire to contend with as well. I'll admit that bit of the movie (along with the confession of one of the protesters being a cross dresser) did throw me off a little, but I did enjoy her brief scenes with Steve Trevor (George Newbern) and a little girl over an ice cream.

Then there was Victor Stone (Shemar Moore) and Billy Batson (Sean Astin). Their scenes were a highlight of the movie and it was nice to see a bit more of a friendly comrade as some of the other pairings were a bit too competitive at times. We got a good origin story for Victor as Cyborg along with his relationship with his father, Silas (Rocky Carroll) while Billy was more hostile with Freddy and Darla as well as being reluctant to tell the other team members that he was in fact, Shazam.

As for The Flash (Christopher Gorham), he kind of popped up towards the second half of the movie, seemed a little surprised too with Batman's existence and also clashed somewhat with Green Lantern but all seven of our heroes were instrumental in taking down Darkseid nonetheless by sending him back to Apokolips and breaking the hold he tried to have on Superman.

In terms of baddies, this was a solid use of Darkseid along with his Parademons and the sadistic, Desaad (Bruce Thomas) as all of them proved to be strong threats for the Seven before they were respectively defeated. The end scene with them all getting thanks for their heroics was a nice touch as the group reluctantly came together. They might need another name though.

- The post-credit scene showed Ocean Master with a dead King, setting up Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis.
- Really hated that loud mouthed protester calling Wonder Woman a whore.  I also noticed the Titans reference for Victor's football team.
- Thomas Morrow also briefly popped up in the movie, though his role was fairly small here.
- Chronology: Seems to be set in the present day for our main heroes.

Justice League: War isn't the strongest of the DCAU movies but it's a rather decent one nonetheless with some nice character moments and a good use of Darkseid. It does feel a little small scale, despite Darkseid being the main threat of the movie but that's not a bad thing and I did like the set up for the next movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)

Written by Jim Krieg
Directed by Jay Oliva

The Flash (re Nora): "I just wanted to save her."
Professor Zoom: "Her hero; how noble. Oh, wait! You didn't stop JFK from getting assassinated or make sure Hitler stayed in art school. You saved your mommy. You missed her. And in a supreme act of selfishness shattered history like a rank amateur, turned the world into a living hell moments away from destruction and I'm the villain?"

Probably the most infamous storyline with The Flash and the one that some fans have wanted to see in the DCEU despite the franchise having yet to do even a more straightforward Flash movie while also being something that CW would attempt to cover with The Flash TV series during it's third season. Of course the animated movie universe got in there earlier and with better results.

The general gist of the story being that Barry Allen (Justin Chambers) was haunted by his mother's murder (Grey DeLisle-Griffin ) at the hands of Reverse Flash (C. Thomas Howell) and did something rather reckless that would result in the world around him being changed in the most dramatic of ways. Namely being that saving his mother from death would cause everything else to go to hell.

Barry created a world where Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) would die and his father Thomas (Kevin McKidd) would be a far more brutal version of Batman while Martha herself would become the Joker. We see very little of the latter but the former becomes a grudging ally as Barry attempts to regain his powers in order to correct his biggest mistake.

It's a world where the biggest threats outside of Thawne are also Aquaman (Cary Elwes) and Wonder Woman (Vanessa Marshall), both of whom have become power mad dictators, killing at random anyone standing in their way and eventually going to war themselves, following Mera's decapitation after the latter had discovered the affair between the Atlantis and Themyscira rulers.

Seeing the brutal versions of Wonder Woman and Aquaman certainly made them bigger threat as we also saw the likes of Captain Atom, Steve Trevor, Lex Luthor, the Shazam family and even Lois Lane (Dana Delany) all suffer at the hands of both rulers but on the other side of the coin we also had the Flash, Batman and Cyborg (Michael B. Jordon) rescue Superman (Sam Daly) before the big confrontation between Barry and Eobard.

As for the rest of the movie, it plays out close enough to the comic with some alterations, including the method in which Eobard is slowed down but the result is the same with Barry correcting his mistake, moving past his guilt for Nora's death, talking to Iris and Batman in some rather poignant final scenes.

- Nice selection of Rogue members with Captain Cold, Heatwave, Top and Captain Boomerang all posing problems for Barry at the start of the movie.
- Harley Quinn went by Yo-Yo in this movie as well in the new world. It was also nice to somewhat see Deathstroke and Lex Luthor somewhat try to save the day, even if they failed.
- Sam Daly who voiced Superman in this movie is the son of Tim Daly who voiced the character in Superman: The Animated Series.
-We got a post credit sequence where some Parademons were coming to Earth, leading to the next film, Justice League: War, which I'll review soon.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox does a good job with taking the origin comics and unlike some other animated movies, the changes are minor and don't jar the original source material. It's definitely one of the best DC animated movies out there.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Wonder Woman (2009)

Written by Gail Simone & Michael Jelenic
Directed by Lauren Montgomery

Wonder Woman: "You should have saved the world, instead of me."
Steve Trevor: "Maybe I figured the world's not worth saving if you're not in it."

Prior to her live action debut in Batman V. Superman back in 2016, Diana Prince (Keri Russell) did of course have another movie debut, albeit in animated form back in 2009 and after watching this film, it's easy to see what her 2017 live action adventure and what it decided to ditch and the results are rather interesting.

Things open with an ancient battle with Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) and the Amazons, led by the rather fight happy Artemis (Rosario Dawson) going up against the God Ares (Alfed Molina) and his son, Thrax (Jason Miller) and it's a pretty bloody start until both Zeus (David McCallum) and Hera (Marg Helgenberger) intervene and the best punishment for Ares becomes bondage as the Amazons forge a new world on Themyscira and Hippolyta herself becomes a mother to Diana.

As the movie quickly progresses, Diana has grown up, become able to easy take on Artemis in gentle sparring but has the desire to leave the island and search the world for adventures. The opportunities arises for that when pilot Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion) arrives on the island and Ares having taken warrior Persephone (Vicki Lewis) under his influence manages to escape from his prison and seek out both mankind and the underworld in his quest for revenge.

It's here that Diana proves herself in combat, gets the signature costume and heads to New York with Steve Trevor to hunt Ares down and while Diana's fish out of water experiences aren't as endearing as the 2017 movie, there are some nice moments in seeing her teach a young girl to sword fight and take on some muggers while Ares tried to keep Diana and Steve distracted with the brief appearance of Deimos (John DiMaggio), who is a little too easily taken care of here.

Then there's the trip to the underworld where human sacrifices are made and Ares managed to get his uncle Hades (Oliver Platt) to remove his bonds so that he could unleash his own hell on Earth. The fact that Hades so brazenly brandished Thrax as a servant gave Ares some pause for concern while also hinting at the fate that Ares himself would endure upon his inevitable defeat at Diana's hands.

The final battle itself is the clear highlight of the movie with Diana, Steve and the Amazons against Ares, Persephone and the army of the undead. It's gloriously shot, especially as fallen Amazon Alexa (Tara Strong) factored into saving the day while Ares defeat really did come at a rather humiliating cost. Then there was the fact that following the mission, Diana craved to see more of the world with Hippolyta realising that the Amazons could do with an ambassador outside of Paradise Island.

As for Diana and Steve - their scenes are a lot more caustic, especially with the latter's more blokey qualities being on full display but the rapport with Russell and Fillion is decent enough and by the end of this movie, they've settled into a rather nice form of domestic bliss.

- The movie ended with a nice cameo from Cheetah. We also got a rather bitchy version of Etta Candy in this movie, though her screentime was short.
- Rosario Dawson who voiced Artemis in this one would go on to play Diana in later DCAU movies, including the upcoming Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.
- We nearly got Lynda Carter in this movie as Hippolyta but due to scheduling conflicts she declined the part.
- Chronology: Seemed to be modern day America.

Wonder Woman is a strong animated debut for the titular heroine of the piece and while I do think the live action movie of the same name that debuted eight years after this one is the better movie, there's certainly a lot to enjoy with this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Titans - Season 2 Trailer & Release Date Confirmed

With Swamp Thing now concluded, the DC Universe have focused their attention back to their first live action show Titans as yesterday saw a release for the trailer of the upcoming second season and we've got a lot too look forward to.

The Dark Knight Appears: In the first season we got the classic "Fuck Batman" line and when I say classic, I mean it became an instant meme as well as a misplaced attempt on the show's part to be a bit too gritty for it's own good. In the first season, Batman did appear in Dick Grayson's (Brenton Thwaites) nightmare world, courtesy of Trigon (Seamus Dever) but this season former Game Of Thrones actor, Iain Glen will be playing the older Bruce Wayne and it looks like we'll see his relationship with Dick onscreen. Whether or not we'll see Glen don the cowl remains to be seen though.

The New Titans: As Jason Todd (Curran Walters) seems to be rather proudly declare on live air - "Titans are back, bitches!" and he's not wrong. Even though there's still a Trigon sized cliffhanger to resolved (and he was nowhere to be seen in the trailer), we did see Dick inform Rachel Roth/Raven (Teagan Croft) that they're a team and there's a few nice shots of our main players, including Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) and Starfire (Anna Diop) getting into some scraps this season.

The Original Team: One of the standout moments of the trailer was the costumes and unlike last season where they seem to be sparingly used, this season might be a little different on that front. We got some I assume flashbacks to the original team with Robin I (Thwaites), Wonder Girl (Conor Leslie), Aqualad (Drew Van Acker), Hawk (Alan Ritchson) and Dove II (Minka Kelly) and with Donna, Hank and Dawn all getting bigger roles this season, it's nice that we're getting to see Garth as well, though I am hoping we'll see him in the present day as well.

Newbies Galore: The most noticeable thing about this upcoming season is how much larger the cast will be. Coming back from last season are Robin I, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy while the likes of Robin II, Hawk, Dove and Wonder Girl are getting rightly expanded upon. We can also add Joshua Orpin's clone, Conner Kent/Superboy and Krypto into the mix and even then there are still more names that can be added to the roster for this season.

Meet The Wilsons: In terms of big bads, this show still has the task of putting the Trigon plot to rest and it seems like it'll be done rather quickly as one of the greatest assassins - Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (Esai Morales) will be making his presence known, and he'll be joined by his kids - Joseph/Jericho (Chella Man) and Rose/Ravager (Chelsea Zhang) as we got to see the three of them make an impression on our main cast in the trailer. On top of that and tying in with Superboy's presence on the show, we've got Cadmus to contend with this season and on that front there's Lex Luthor's right hand woman, Mercy Graves (Natalie Gumede) to deal with along with scientist Eve Watson (Genevieve Angelson). Whether or not Lex himself will materialise later in the season remains to be seen.

For a minute long trailer, they certainly packed a lot in there, went with a thankfully less angsty tone than the first season and with the amount of characters being added into the mix, it appears that Titans means business for it's second season.

Season 2 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qofev0x_wJo

Titans second season will premiere on DCUniverse from September 6th.

The Nevers - Joss Whedon's Upcoming HBO Series Cast Revealed

I haven't really talked about this show and with it unlikely to air on HBO until 2020, the full cast for Joss Whedon's Victorian sci-fi drama, The Nevers.

Billed as an epic science fiction drama about a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world, former Outlander actress Laura Donnelly will take on the lead role of Amalia True, a reckless hero who would die for the cause and kill for a drink among other things. Of course and full credit to Whedon here, he's got a hell of an impressive cast for this series as yesterday unveiled the other roles on this show.

Olivia Williams (who previously appeared in Whedon's Dollhouse) will play Lavinia Bidlow while Tom Riley (DaVinci's Demons) will play her nerdish brother, Augustus who has a thing for the main heroin of the piece. Grantchester's James Norton will play pansexual character, Hugo Swan while Red Rock's Ann Skelley will play Penance Adair, a dear friend of Amalia's and an inventor in her own right too. Then there's Ben Chaplin as gruff Detective Frank Mundi while Pip Torrens will play Lord Massen, a character who may fall on either side between the Touched (the base of these gifted women) or the Empire itself.

Rounding off the cast for this series include Zackary Momoh as Dr Horatio Cousens, Amy Manson (Being Human) as Maladie, a woman committed to an asylum by her husband as she comes to grips with her abilities, Nick Frost as the Begger King, Rochelle Neil as Annie Carbey aka Bonfire, Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark) as Mary Brighton, a woman dealing with career and romantic disappointments as she discovers her newfound abilities while American Horror Story's Denis O'Hare will play Dr. Edmund Hague - a brutal American surgeon.

I got to admit that this sounds a little similar-ish to Dollhouse and thematically, this feels a little too typical of Whedon but with an impressive cast, the prestige of HBO, it could end up being a pleasant surprise. Whedon will also be bringing in former Buffy The Vampire Slayer writers/producers such as Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie as part of the staff for the series.

Character Details: https://www.spoilertv.com/2019/07/the-nevers-olivia-williams-james-norton.html

The Nevers is currently filming and will air on HBO and SkyAtlantic in early 2020.