Voltron: Legendary Defender Review

As someone who grew up in the 80's I was a bit afraid to watch Netflix's version of one of my favorite cartoons ever. Still, I knew that Netflix has yet to let me down so I sat down and watched the first episode. A few hours later I was done with the entire season. I don't usually watch full seasons of a show in one day, but Voltron: Legendary Defender was just THAT good.

The first season of the show explains everything that we would need to know about the show and its characters. The update to the story is great and it does not feel as if it was written for kids. I think it is safe to say that the show is not only for kids but also for adults that enjoy good science fiction. Legendary Defender is pretty much a show for kids of all ages.

The only complaint that I could have is that we did not get more time exploring the villains. There are hints as to what some of their background is, but nothing that is so memorable that we would be talking about it. More villain development would probably make this show a serious contender for the best animated show ever.

That is not to say that we did not enjoy Voltron: Legendary Defender. Even with that flaw it is still one of the top 5 animated series that we have ever seen. Yes that means that it is better than the original series and those that were fans of the cartoon like we were will be pleasantly surprised.

We also loved the way the protagonists were portrayed and how they wrestled with the decision of becoming a Voltron Paladin. They have their lives and families to think about and they know that they miss that, but for the most part they understand that their mission is more important than themselves. Voltron is described as the most powerful weapon in the universe, but that does not mean that it is invincible. The weapon that is the giant robot is only as good as the people using said weapon and the paladins are a bit green so they do suffer some defeats.

Overall Volron:Legendary Defender took us back to our childhood and did it with great art, writing and a lot of fun. We are giving this Netflix series a 4.5 out of a possible 5 stars rating. Well done.

El Cielo En Tu Mirada (Heaven In Your Eyes)

El Cielo en tu Mirada is a movie that I watched while traveling in a bus. I am always willing to give movies a chance and I should be watching more international flicks anyway.

This movie follows the story of Jose who dies and goes to heaven. Jose in life was a singer and after his sudden death is given a chance to come back to earth and complete his life purpose in 2 weeks. His life purpose is of course a girl named Abril who is engaged t a doctor that looked familiar when I saw the movie. Turns out that the doctor is the same actor who plays Joey in Agents of SHIELD (Juan Pablo Raba).

Now as far as the movie goes, it is a bad one. That is why I don't always watch international cinema, movies like this. It is a tired plot of the guy who dies and comes back to try to get the girl who is dating someone else at the time. It is as predictable as a movie can be, full of bad acting, and it will make you regret wasting the time that you used to watch the movie.

It is clear from the very beginning that Mane DeLaParra was only cast in the lead role because of his looks and not because he has any talent in front of the camera. The same goes for most of the cast with a couple of exceptions. It felt like I was watching a movie version of a really bad Mexican soap opera.

How bad was the movie? I was regretting the fact that during my trip I lost my headphones and that did not buy another pair before getting into the bus. I know some people walk out of the movie theater when a movie they don't like is playing, and “El Cielo en tu Mirada” made me think that I should walk out of a moving vehicle in the highway. Even the little twist at the end was not a surprise... yikes.

This movie has a bad story, bad acting and is really predictable; It is not a movie worth watching and we are giving this turd a half star from a possible 5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Review (MINOR SPOILERS)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is out and it is time to give you our thoughts on the movie. There will be minor spoilers here, but we will try to keep them to a minimum.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is the sequel to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 2014. This movie is all about giving the fans of the 90's TV show something that they have been waiting for now for over a couple of decades. We saw characters that we did not think that we would see on the screen like Beebop, Rocksteady and Krang. All of those characters looked surprisingly good on the big screen,

Other characters included were the returning April O'Neill played by Megan Fox, Vernon Fenwick played by Will Arnett, Brian Tee playing Shredder, Tyler Perry playing Baxter Stockman and Stephen Amell playing Casey Jones.

The movie is not necessarily for most adults. We think that this is mainly a kid's movie with nothing but one of the jokes about certain mutants' junk aimed at adults. The movie also makes no sense, but in reality we kind of knew that it was not going to the moment that we checked out the trailer. There was some good action but surprisingly none of it came from Shredder. That we think was a missed opportunity.

As much as we love Stephen Amell, he was a miss as Casey Jones and it felt as if he was not into wearing tat hockey mask. The same can be said about the part that April O'Neill plays in this movie. The truth is that this franchise is suffering fro the same problem that plagued X-Men Apocalypse. They cast a star in this case Megan Fox, and wrote the movie around her.

So those are the negatives for us, now the positives are that this movie is entertaining and it focuses a little more on the turtles and Beebop and Rocksteady. Those two characters for the most part were a highlight of the movie. It was also pretty cool to see the Technodrone almost complete on earth, and although Krang had a very small role, he reminded us of the arcade game which is a huge plus.

If you go see this movie, you should not be expecting something like Civil War. It is a fun, senseless movie, but how much sense can you expect from a movie that has 4 mutant ninja turtles as the main characters. If you go in not expecting a great movie with a great plot then chances are that you will be entertained. I would say that people who are not familiar with the 90's show or those without kids are not likely to have a great time. So we are giving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows 2.5 out of a possible 5 stars, but that's only because of nostalgia.

Captain America Civil War Review: Non-Spoilers

This is our non-spoilers review of Captain America: Civil War; we will be posting a spoilers review on Friday.

Captain America: Civil War had a lot of very high expectations as a superhero movie this year. Whether directly or indirectly, it was going to be compared to others, especially Batman V Superman. But that was not it. This year it was going to also compete against Deadpool, X-Men Apocalypse, Suicide Squad and even Marvel’s own Doctor Strange. Fear not Marvel fans, as Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers have proven once again that the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are in good hands.

Captain America: Civil War is looking not only like a great superhero movie this year; it looks like

perhaps the best superhero movie ever. Of course there will be debate about that because of the Avengers, The Winter Soldier and The Dark Knight (all great movies), but we are confident in saying that Civil War is as good as any of those movies and the action is a lot better.

I am sure that you have heard about the airport scene from the trailers; that is the best action sequence ever on the screen for a superhero movie and I am having a hard time thinking of an action scene in an action movie that surpasses it. That is not the only great action sequence however. The movie has great action right from the start, giving you a few breaks in between so that you can catch your breath.

It is also not all about the action. The dilemma that the heroes go through on both sides is very much at the center of the movie. It is about friendship, loyalty, reason and a lot of emotion. When the final battle comes, you are fascinated by what you are seeing, and at the same time you are suffering for all characters involved.

Spider-Man is the best Spider-Man that we have ever had which shows how smart the people at SONY were to work with Marvel. Tom Holland has revived a property that was on the decline and now that same property will probably be the hottest in the genre. He is funny as Spider-Man and great as Peter Parker. The Russo brothers also did a phenomenal job introducing the Black Panther and they handled Ant-Man perfectly.

Every character in the movie had the spotlight on them at different times throughout the movie and they all performed as well as anyone ever could. The relationship between Vision and Scarlet Witch gave us a lot of glimpses into the future and it showed us the awesome powers of Wanda. Hawkeye did not get as much screen time, but when he did he was perfect. The same can be said of War Machine. Scarlett Johansen as Black Widow and Anthony Mackey as Falcon were perfect anchors to their respective sides and not enough can be said of Sebastian Stan.

Some have said that Zemo was a bad villain in the movie and while we did not learn much about him, he was there when he needed to be and it gave us a glimpse into the future. Zemo is a character that can easily come back as a villain for any of the Marvel characters or perhaps in a Thunderbolts movie if Marvel decides to go that way.

In the end, Marvel gave us a near perfect movie and a great combination of humor, drama and action. We are giving Captain America Civil War 4.9 out of 5 stars. The expectations were surpassed.

Batman v Superman Will NOT Reach 1 Billion Dollars

I am here to make a prediction today and that prediction makes me sad. My prediction is that Batman V. Superman will not reach the billion-dollar mark. I am predicting this because of several reasons which I will detail here.

2nd Week Drop

Most of us expected that Batman V. Superman would drop around 55 to 60 percent from the box office numbers that it saw on its first week. At the end of the weekend, Batman v. Superman dropped 68.2%. That is a huge drop. Now it is also very likely that the movie will see another drop this week where it could end up making around 24 million at the US box office. That would make it a very tough race between a superhero film that was supposed to be number one for the entire month and a Melissa McCarthy movie (The Boss).

If Batman V. Superman does end up at number 2 this week, then that would be a devastating blow to the future plans that WB and DC have for their cinematic universe. The Boss should not have been competing for number one and yet box office predictions have it right there.

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is another reason why Batman V. Superman will not be joining the billion-dollar club. This is a movie that will eat from the BvS demographic and will absolutely knock it out of first place. Most of the Jungle Book’s footage looks amazing and it will give parents a good option to go to the movies with their families. It is also a problem that by next week that movie will have released though most of the world so that will probably also drop the international numbers for the DC film. The week after that The Huntsman drops and though that movie is getting a negative buzz it still eats from a similar demographic.

Captain America: Civil War

Marvel will be the end of the run for BvS. The United States will have to wait for the Marvel film until May 6, but Civil War will be released in many different countries one week prior to that. You can say that by the end of April BvS will not be making enough money in theaters internationally to keep showing it.

So no, Batman v. Superman will not be a billion-dollar movie. It will get close, but we are predicting that the movie that should have made 1.5 billion will come short by a little over half a billion dollars. This is not a celebration of failure because the movie will still have made a lot of money, but it should have been better and I wanted it to be better. Unfortunately, numbers do not lie.

Who Died in the Season 6 Finale of “The Walking Dead” (SPOILERS)

So AMC and “The Walking Dead” decided to be rude for their season finale of season 6. They took you to the brink and then did not even have the courtesy of telling us who came face to face with Lucille. I am here to help you with the answers so that you do not have to wait 6 months until season 7. The answer to the question of who died at the end of the episode is… Glenn.

I know that you think that Glenn cannot die, after all they brought him back from that swarm of zombies thanks to a dumpster. He also came really close during the Alexandria walker invasion; I think those were done to show that you can only escape death so much. But this is not me just making a wild guess; Glenn is the most likely to have died at Negan’s hands because the scene was taken frame-by frame from the comics.

In The Walking Dead Comics, Glenn dies at the hands of Negan on issue number 100. You may be thinking that the fact that Negan killed Glenn in the comics does not mean anything, until you actually read The Walking Dead 100. Just before Negan ills Glenn he says “you can breathe, you can blink, you can cry… You’re all going to be doing that”. That is exactly what he said during the episode last night just before he picked his victim. In the comic they were also all on their knees waiting for that decision.

So yeah, it was Glenn that took a kiss from Lucille last night, or at least I would say that there is a 90% chance that we saw our favorite pizza delivery man’s death last night. Of course the show does change the events from what happened in the comics, but because the scene was identical I do not expect it to change on the TV show.

So what about the other 10%? I would distribute those chances between Maggie, Abraham, Sasha and Carl. Why them? Maggie was weak, and I do not know that Negan would want a weak person to “work for him. Abraham and Sasha were talking about their future and you know that when that happens in “The Walking Dead” it means that they are destined to die. Then there is Carl. I would think that he is safe, but when Negan said that if anyone made noise that they should take his eye and feed it to his father it could have meant after the eye popped out thanks to his head being bashed in (but that part of the speech was in the comic too).

But it was Glenn. RIP Glenn, we are going to miss ya.

Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice Review (Spoilers)

Batman v Superman was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and I would venture to say that it was one of the most anticipated of the decade. People had been waiting for Batman and Superman to make an appearance in the same movie for 70 years and this past weekend that wish came true. Now the question that people asked was if such an epic movie idea would live up to the hype and the answer is no.

While I do not think that the movie was all that bad (I was entertained for a good chunk of it), I would be lying if I told you that it was one of the best superhero movies ever; it is far from it. In my estimation this movie was even behind the divisive “Man of Steel” movie from a couple of years ago. Sure it is exciting to see Batman going up against Superman for about 5 minutes, but this is a fight that should have gone on for a while longer and that should have occurred on the screen at least one more time.

The motivation for Batman is clear; Superman is too powerful to be left to his own devices. Keep in mind that BvS is a sequel to Man of Steel so the devastation of Metropolis is part of the story. During that fight, Bruce Wayne sees the destruction caused during the Superman vs. Zod fight and that destruction and loss of life is very personal to him. That intro to the movie was fantastic, but that is when the movie takes a turn for the dull.

We were saying that we could have left the theater at that point, come back an hour and a half later and then enjoy the next good part of the movie which is the ending. The 2^nd act of the movie is very unorganized, with moments that have a potential of being great that go wasted. Lex Luthor has files on some of the super-powered beings in the world including Wonder-Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg… and he has them all arranged using their insignias which how the hell does he know them? It was a very cheap way to introduce the members of the Justice League, especially the intro of Aquaman (“I stab you”).

 

The final 20 minutes of the movie are packed with action; and while enjoyable they are not without problems. The fight between Batman and Superman is short and ends with a very dumb excuse about the names of Clark and Bruce’s respective moms. Yeah they were about to kill each other, but their moms have the same name so they can be buddies now?

Doomsday was unnecessary to the movie, but since he was there they should have at least done better with him. He looked like if a troll and Michelangelo from the Ninja Turtles had a baby. Batman did almost nothing in that final fight which kind of hints at the fact that he does not really belong in a team that includes Superman and Wonder-Woman. Maybe if he was getting them towels or massaging their shoulders, but come on man, give him something to do.

Lex Luthor was probably the worst part of the movie. He was distracting, not that menacing and not fun. It felt for a moment that they were using him as comic relief, because he was just ridiculous, but I don’t think that is what they were going for. If they did try to use him as comic relief then they failed.

In the end there is sacrifice in the fight, but the final scene spoils that sacrifice by telling us that the character that sacrificed himself was going to be ok anyway. So yeah there were flaws in this movie but it is not worth the 30% it has on rotten tomatoes.

Batman was a great character and Ben Affleck gave us the Best Batman that we have ever had. Wonder Woman left me wanting more from her and Superman was great, but he needs to be used better. DC and WB need to understand that not every character needs to be The Dark Knight in their DCEU. Superman is not about hope in this movie, but Henry Cavill can and should be that.

While the movie is not great it does set up the DCEU which we are hoping will be better than this. Overall I am giving Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice a 2.7 out of a possible 5.