Netflix Catch-Up: Arrow Season 1

Courtesy of CW

Arrow is a new and interesting take on the Oliver Queen - Green Arrow story.  For this iteration Queen was stranded on an island for five years after the yacht he was on with his father and others went down.  His time on the island changed him; from the vapid, partying playboy he was into a dark, vengeance seeking night stalker.

The show, in and of itself, has intriguing stories that happen along the way.  Seeing Queen leaping around, shooting arrows by the dozens with precision and accuracy is neat - those moments are like the comics come alive (without the boxing glove arrow - I know, it was my favorite too dammit!).  But the majority of the show leaves much to be desired.

My biggest issue with the show is really two issues - first: the cast; it's way too daytime soap drama acting with the pouty faces and furrowed brows.  Then there's sub-plots.  The overall story makes sense: Ollie's dad was in with some bad people who were doing to do bad things to the city - he leaves Ollie a list of names to guide him on his quest to right past wrongs.  The sub-plots with all the "romance" and "character growth" is bad, just...bad.

Courtesy of CW

I realize that it's hard to write a show that's one-hundred percent about the hero character doing hero stuff (I remember Lois and Clark) but being a CW show, Arrow goes too far in the opposite direction.  Additionally, it's like the writers oftentimes were trying to inject some "comic style writing" into the show with cheesy one-liners and bad puns but they just fall flat and make the show look like it's written for children.

Those things being said - the show is entertaining and one thing the writers are really good at is leaving you at an episode ending cliff-hanger.  The end of season one's final episode is the culmination of it all.

This isn't a show I would seek out and watch religiously on a weekly basis but as a Netflix binge-watching show it suits a lot of needs.  It's worth checking out; if only to watch Emily Bett Rickards in hot nerd glasses talking all techy.

When season two is posted I'm sure I'll watch; hopefully the acting improves with time...but I don't have the highest of hopes. For now, watch a trailer for Season One here and see for yourself:

Movie Review - Guardians of the Galaxy

Courtesy of Marvel

 Marvel has done an interesting thing in the last 15 years or so of movie making - they've gotten a lot of things right.  In the comic book movie making business; that's a rarity.  From the terrible, and I mean god-awful, made-for-tv Justice League movie with the FAT doctor from M.A.S.H. as the Martian Manhunter, to just plain awful television programs (The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Flash) the comics industry has tried and failed on many occasions to bring their product mainstream.

There are the occasional success - mostly in the form of animation (Justice League, Teen Titans, Spiderman, X-Men) but it wasn't until the Brian Singer X-Men movies (despite the terribleness of the third installment) that the industry turned a corner.  Then Sam Raimi's Spider-man came along and everyone sat up and took notice.

It was as if everyone had forgotten after 1983 that nerdy movies could be mainstream cool.  Do you honestly think the "cool" kids didn't see the Star Wars movies?  Of course they did, EVERYONE SAW THOSE MOVIES!

But what Marvel has done so successfully is take ancillary characters (such as Blade) and make successful, interesting, money-making movies.  Thus we have: the Guardians of the Galaxy.

I've been reading comics since the early 90s and I can honestly say I've never read a single Guardians story.  I like space, Silver Surfer is my favorite character - but they didn't cross paths a lot.

The characters aren't known.  They aren't Wolverine or Professor X.  They're gritty.  They're criminals.  They use a lot of guns and they kill a lot of people.  But that's not why this movie is so good, that's not what makes it worth seeing.

It's what the characters ARE that does that: they're interesting and they stay true to who they are.  Giving yourself over to the suspension of disbelief - being an outer-space movie where a central character is a gun-toting, talking raccoon - there is a true sense of believability about these characters.  They have history.  They have emotion.  They've all felt the depths of pain that loss at a core level inflicts on a person.

Courtesy of Marvel

I could sit here and write a detailed account of the movie and the twenty-seven reasons why you should go see it (the soundtrack would EASILY make the top five of that list by the by) but that's not what this is about - this article is to help you understand why this movie is so important.

We are on the cusp of the greatest five-year stretch of this generation's movie-making history (with Avengers 2, Batman v Superman, Star Wars VII, Captain America 3, JLA "possibly", and others) and it's movies like this that will help bring in that broader audience.  Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana - these are actors people like and are willing to go outside their comfort zone to see...and that's the hook.

We are entering a golden age - look back at the late 70s early 80s with Star Trek and Star Wars enthralling audiences worldwide.  The industry has struggled, filler movies like the Matrix trilogy has tried to filled the void, but now we've survived the paltry portrayals of our beloved characters and ascended to a place where the right people (JJ Abrams) is looking out for the interest of fans - and we can all be thankful for that.