"Blade: Trinity" Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the premiere of Marvel's What If...?, the season finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the latest episodes of Monsters At Work, Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life, and The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse, and (dear God) the first three trainwreck episodes from the new horrid season of Titans.
Blade: Trinity
I didn't expect to like that much (and I didn't). Don't blame me for being skeptical. I have found sets with as much backstage drama as this did rarely make good movies. There are some good aspects to the film. But I did not watch it expecting to enjoy it. My interest was actually in whether I would take Wesley Snipes or David S. Goyer's side in the ugly feud and meltdown.
The fact that the first words in the movie are opening narration spoken by Ryan Reynolds firmly place me on Team Snipes and everything else solidified that.
Goyer is trying to launch a Blade franchise here. He knows this is almost certainly Snipes' last film, and he sets up Hannibal and Abigail Whistler and the Night Stalkers to take over the franchise via a spin-off. This is all common Hollywood practice nowadays, which is why probably so few people sympathized with Snipes at the time. But that should NOT be standard Hollywood practice. It's wrong. It's thoughtless. This is Wesley Snipes' movie, and they gave all the best lines to Ryan Reynolds, and all the best buttkicking to Jessica Biel. I understand setting up cinematic universes is common and accepted practice these days. I don't care. Blade the franchise begins and ends with Snipes. And Goyer turning him into a guest character in his last film to "pass the torch" to some younger white characters is just hubris and a little bit disgusting. Blade is the first real black screen superhero (if you are kind enough to not count Steel). You can't just set him aside in the last movie on behalf of white characters. It's absolutely tone-deaf.
And Snipes got a lot of backlash for saying so at the time (black men aren't allowed to complain about ANYTHING without white snowflakes saying they are "playing the race card"), but if this movie had been made in 2021, everyone would see Goyer's punk moves for what they were, and we'd all be Team Snipes. Which tells me it's probably a good thing I saw this in 2021.
I am very glad that the negative backlash from Snipes killed the idea of any spin-off. Snipes being pissed off was worth it for that fact alone.
About the best thing I can say for Goyer is he didn't give a sunglasses moment to Reynolds. But he didn't give one to Blade either which is another reason the movie sucks.
Also supposedly at the end the war against vampire never ends. But weren't ALL the vampires killed at the end? Why are they pretending Blade still has work to do? And how did they plan a spin-off with all the vampires dead to begin with?
I mentioned there were individual good elements. I like the tension the movie gave with Zoe's fate. We fear the worst, and we see Drake is actually smart, and has the female vampire use her as a bargaining chip against Hannibal. I love the scene where Drake asks her if she'd like to be Immortal, and that if she could stay a child forever if she wanted, would she take that gift? And she calmly replies that her friends are coming to kill him. I like that because it's the only response worth saying. And it came from a little girl whose blind mother just died which makes her especially fierce. Zoe is my Queen!
Dominic Purcell was an interesting casting choice as Dracula / Drake. People who only know him from Prison Break and DC's Legends Of Tomorrow have mostly seen him as a balding / bald character actor. In his youth (when he starred on the Fox show John Doe) he was very much a young hunk. As such seeing him play Dracula makes sense. Although people who only know the actor as Lincoln Burrows or Mick Rory would never fancast him in that part in a million years.
Unlike the first two movies there were a lot of familiar faces. I couldn't decide if the female vampire was Parkey Posey or Elizabeth Banks dressed like Parker Posey. It turned out to be Parker Posey. Who knew?
Honestly, Snipes got the rawest of deals made even rawer by the fact that the media made him out to be the bad guy for have the nerve to be justifiably pissed at pissy things. I'm as annoyed as he is. **1/2.
Marvel's What If...? "What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?"
That was pretty good. The animation wasn't as off-putting as I feared it was going to be. It wasn't great. But it wasn't terrible either.
I like the amount of MCU actors they got for the voices. Jeffrey Wright makes a good Watcher too.
Promising opener. ****.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch "Kamino Lost"
Great, but imperfect. But truly, NO Star Wars project is perfect, so who cares?!
The great: I thought it was beyond foolish that Omega went back to save AZ, but I like that Crosshairs saved them both. Good pay-off for her saving his life earlier, especially because she didn't have to do it.
The imperfect: It's too cute by half the landing pad the Marauder is on is COINCIDENTALLY the only thing on the planet that wasn't sunken or destroyed. Sure, Jan.
In the middle: I am very glad Crosshairs did not make peace and join the Bad Batch at the end of the episode. Because if they had done that we'd be looking at an upcoming betrayal next season. He'd definitely be a mole for the Empire, and that would be the only reason he'd rejoin. And I'd find that utterly tiresome. Good for the show for not going there (at least not yet). The things Crosshairs has been saying would not ever pass the lips of a person who could possibly be redeemed. He's a sociopathic fascist and the Bad Batch is truly better off without him.
So I liked it. A lot. And parts of it were dumb. And I still liked it. A lot. Sue me. ****1/2.
Monsters At Work "Adorable Returns"
I am glad the series exists if only because the Adorable Snowman is finally unbanished.
And of COURSE it was unjust and Waternoose. Of COURSE.
But Tyler's behavior was not sitting right with me. Adorable clearly knew Mike and Sulley, so maybe Tyler should be trying to get them together, and clearing this up instead of hiding him. And once he learned the banishment was unjust, Tyler took his sweet time changing his mind and helping him. I loved the episode but I decided I don't like Tyler much.
I laughed at Mike's voice after he ate the snowcone.
Good for the show for recognizing the Monsters University continuity that Adorable used to work in the mailroom. Frankly, most of that movie is something I'd rather forget, but it's good that the show has its canon straight. And Adorable being the official Snowcone seller of Monsters Inc is a fitting end to him. Although I DO hope it isn't actually the end, and we'll still be seeing him regularly.
I had misgivings about the first episodes of the show, but if they had been like this I never would have complained. Although Tyler is a jerk, the episode was still great. *****.
Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life "The Jungle / The Flight / Deep Dive"
The Jungle:
Owls are sinister. Chip and Dale are cute. ***.
The Flight:
Interesting idea for a jetpack, although the bottle seemed way too full to be credible (not that any of this is credible).
I also want to give a shout-out to the music on this series. It's kinda weird, spookycool, and funky. ***.
Deep Dive:
The frogs are neat although using them as diving suits strikes me as a little bizarre.
Dale is kind of dumb.
Question: Why would a sunken ship have barrels in it the size of chipmunks? Methinks they got the scale wrong there.
Also cute. This show is diverting enough. ***.
Episode Overall: ***.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Bellboys"
Failing grade.
The cartoon posits a classic Mickey, Donald, and Goofy scenario. And I got really worried when the circus showed up. The stars of these kinds of cartoons are actually supposed to be Mickey, Donald and Goofy. And the circus people were bright and flashy, and driving an unacceptable amount of focus away from them.
In the middle of the cartoon the hijinks resettled with the main characters again. But it was STILL wrong because the characters were mostly on their own instead of brushing up against each other. I seem to recall the characters' had their share of solo scenes in those old cartoons too, but this felt like too much.
All this being said, Bill Farmer's Goofy continues to be the best thing in Paul Rudish's iteration of Mickey Mouse. Tony Anselmo's Donald was the best thing about DuckTales 2017. The Mickey Mouse reboot is Goofy's time to shine. Farmer is a revelation and better in the role than he has ever been.
But on the whole, I still think that was a misfire. **.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "I Heart Mickey"
It's a great premise. But it doesn't start off well. Mickey seems less like a romantic hero and more like an off-putting creep.
But once the hearts escape things turn fun. My favorite bit was Kaitlyn Robrock's amazing fast-paced, Micro-Machines Guy-level confession to Mickey in the sewer. Somehow I don't think Russi Taylor could have done that. If she could have, she would have done it in one of her other roles by now. Let me just say that it turned out Robrock was a wise replacement and leave it at that.
That was cute. ***1/2.
Titans "Barbara Gordon"
I'll give the episode credit for something. Season 2 of Titans started off very misleadingly. The first couple of episodes or so bordered on respectable. Not great, but definitely not terrible like the entirety of season 1. Of course season two wound up utterly blowing up and ruining whatever credibility they were going for, and cemented Titans' place as the worst DC project live-action or animated, and the worst live-action superhero show of all time. Season 3 was kind enough to be an utterly appalling wreck right off the bat. I don't have to pretend to judge a seemingly okay start to the season fairly. This is the horrible show I know and hate at its absolute essence. I will not need any nuance in destroying that.
Before I do I want to point out that this travesty was cowritten by Geoff Johns. And that's why I predict Stargirl is gonna wind up sucking. I don't care how badly he wants to do right by his sister, the fact is he's not merely a majorly untalented writer. He's an actual bad writer. I haven't read any of his comics but I'm wondering if he's coasted through them because standards for them are entirely different. But that doesn't sound right to me either. Good superhero comics DO exist. Is Johns decent at them? If so why does he take to that format the way he does not TV and movies? This is pure garbage.
When Barbara, Dick, and Bruce are having a nice reminisce about Jason and then she turns into Parker Posey from Best In Show I knew I would be giving the episode one star. She's supposed to be there to help comfort Bruce in a time of grief. And she tells Dick that's her way of helping the next kid Bruce recruits. If that's so, why do the pleasant small talk about Jason to begin with? Does Johns have any idea how people behave? Does he have any idea of how they are supposed to behave? Barbara's "I meant to do that," is complete b.s. as long as she starts off the evening making cordial small talk, and only goes off on Bruce when he annoys her. I'm sick of this crap. Who wouldn't be? That's when I knew the episode would get one star.
I knew the episode would get ZERO stars when Bruce whinily asks Dick if he wants to be Robin again. So aside from the fact that Bruce is noticeably balding and has a visible gut paunch, apparently he's also now a whiner. I have previously called Iain Glen the worst Batman of all time, live-action or animated. But even I never suspected he was this bad. He's looking for kids on the internet to recruit? This Bruce Wayne is essentially a creeper perv. Perps have lost their computer access and internet privileges for less. And just to show how much he sucks, he kills the Joker. This show is an absolute trainwreck. And Geoff Johns cowrote this episode. The guy is a legit sucky writer, and I'm not going to let him coast on his sister's grief any longer. This specific episode made me lose all patience with doing that.
Speaking of the Joker, that was like the worst laugh I've ever heard. If they weren't gonna cast a real actor, they couldn't have gone for somebody affordable like Troy Baker who can actually do it? My God, that was the most embarrassing thing I ever saw in this franchise (until Bruce whined that Dick could be Robin again).
It should be noted that the opening scene is the first time in three seasons the characters have actually fought crime. That fact doesn't impress me in the slightest. Also should be noted the writers gave the actual victory over Gizmo to the dog. Do you know when they shouldn't do that? THE FIRST TIME THE TITANS HAVE FOUGHT CRIME ON THE SERIES EVER. Honestly, I'm mad because crap like that should be self-evident. I should not have to complain about it. The writers should already know it.
That was awful. Possibly worse than ever, but I'm not sure. Season 2 was so bad I might have blocked bits of it from my long-term memory on behalf of my sanity. But that was an utter piece of crap. Did I mention this show got renewed while Matt Ryan was fired as Constantine, Pennyworth is on the bubble, Krypton was canceled, and Suicide Squad bombed? Thought it would be nice for me to point out proof that DC can do almost nothing right. It's disgusting. 0.
Titans "Red Hood"
Let's see. On the surface, that wasn't terrible, at least not by this show's standards (although this is the only show I've seen dumb enough to have a superhero accidentally eat dog food). I'm giving it a failing grade for two reasons. A passing grade and positive review would be me handing this show more trust and credit than it would ever deserve. The second reason is that even if the surface areas of the episode didn't actually suck, it kind of did deep down. Surfaces aren't everything. But Jason Todd doesn't have a remotely plausible motive to be doing what he's doing since the short timeframe we've last seen him. One of the show's biggest weaknesses is that it randomly has characters do terrible things without rhyme or reason. Jason turning in THAT after one episode is bad because there is no believable explanation they could possibly concoct that I'd believe would have gotten him there.
Red Hood was pissed Batman refused to kill Joker in the comics, and took it as a personal affront he didn't. Batman here KILLED Joker on Jason's behalf so that motive is gone. Jason had YEARS in the wilderness in the comics to stew in his juices, and Jason here is Red Hood the episode after he was Robin. Worst of all, the death seems random and stupid. There was a kind of twisted logic to Jason being resurrected by Ra's Al Ghul in the comics. What could they possibly do to justify either that fake-out or resurrection? And I think the worst thing of all is saying that at this point in time, Jason Todd is a match for Dick Grayson. Years in the wilderness in the comics made that plausible. Jason was Robin five minutes ago. And a crappy Robin at that, who got his dumb ass "killed" by the Joker. That's insane. Granted, Titans' Dick Grayson IS the worst Dick Grayson of all time in any project. But he shouldn't be THAT bad.
So while no, the episode didn't negatively push my buttons as the show often does. But the storytelling is as illogical as ever.
On the bright side I really dug the pothead Jonathan Crane. Simply because he's unlike any other interpretation. Normally, that's something to frown upon (glares in Iain Glen's direction) but the truth is the dude is interesting. More-so than his name-sakes in Gotham and Batman Begins at any rate.
But no, I'm not dumb enough to give that good review. **.
Titans "Hank & Dove"
I'm supposed to be moved by that and find it heartbreaking. I'm not. It's tiring.
Jason's actions make no sense. Hank going to help Jason after claiming he plans to kill him makes no sense. Dick refusing to deliver the gold bars when he has enough money to simply exchange for them makes no sense. This show is freaking exhausting.
The whole thing with Jason saying he grew past his fear and so did Bruce suggests Scarecrow is the mastermind behind all this. But I just don't freaking care. *.
Blade: Trinity
I didn't expect to like that much (and I didn't). Don't blame me for being skeptical. I have found sets with as much backstage drama as this did rarely make good movies. There are some good aspects to the film. But I did not watch it expecting to enjoy it. My interest was actually in whether I would take Wesley Snipes or David S. Goyer's side in the ugly feud and meltdown.
The fact that the first words in the movie are opening narration spoken by Ryan Reynolds firmly place me on Team Snipes and everything else solidified that.
Goyer is trying to launch a Blade franchise here. He knows this is almost certainly Snipes' last film, and he sets up Hannibal and Abigail Whistler and the Night Stalkers to take over the franchise via a spin-off. This is all common Hollywood practice nowadays, which is why probably so few people sympathized with Snipes at the time. But that should NOT be standard Hollywood practice. It's wrong. It's thoughtless. This is Wesley Snipes' movie, and they gave all the best lines to Ryan Reynolds, and all the best buttkicking to Jessica Biel. I understand setting up cinematic universes is common and accepted practice these days. I don't care. Blade the franchise begins and ends with Snipes. And Goyer turning him into a guest character in his last film to "pass the torch" to some younger white characters is just hubris and a little bit disgusting. Blade is the first real black screen superhero (if you are kind enough to not count Steel). You can't just set him aside in the last movie on behalf of white characters. It's absolutely tone-deaf.
And Snipes got a lot of backlash for saying so at the time (black men aren't allowed to complain about ANYTHING without white snowflakes saying they are "playing the race card"), but if this movie had been made in 2021, everyone would see Goyer's punk moves for what they were, and we'd all be Team Snipes. Which tells me it's probably a good thing I saw this in 2021.
I am very glad that the negative backlash from Snipes killed the idea of any spin-off. Snipes being pissed off was worth it for that fact alone.
About the best thing I can say for Goyer is he didn't give a sunglasses moment to Reynolds. But he didn't give one to Blade either which is another reason the movie sucks.
Also supposedly at the end the war against vampire never ends. But weren't ALL the vampires killed at the end? Why are they pretending Blade still has work to do? And how did they plan a spin-off with all the vampires dead to begin with?
I mentioned there were individual good elements. I like the tension the movie gave with Zoe's fate. We fear the worst, and we see Drake is actually smart, and has the female vampire use her as a bargaining chip against Hannibal. I love the scene where Drake asks her if she'd like to be Immortal, and that if she could stay a child forever if she wanted, would she take that gift? And she calmly replies that her friends are coming to kill him. I like that because it's the only response worth saying. And it came from a little girl whose blind mother just died which makes her especially fierce. Zoe is my Queen!
Dominic Purcell was an interesting casting choice as Dracula / Drake. People who only know him from Prison Break and DC's Legends Of Tomorrow have mostly seen him as a balding / bald character actor. In his youth (when he starred on the Fox show John Doe) he was very much a young hunk. As such seeing him play Dracula makes sense. Although people who only know the actor as Lincoln Burrows or Mick Rory would never fancast him in that part in a million years.
Unlike the first two movies there were a lot of familiar faces. I couldn't decide if the female vampire was Parkey Posey or Elizabeth Banks dressed like Parker Posey. It turned out to be Parker Posey. Who knew?
Honestly, Snipes got the rawest of deals made even rawer by the fact that the media made him out to be the bad guy for have the nerve to be justifiably pissed at pissy things. I'm as annoyed as he is. **1/2.
Marvel's What If...? "What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?"
That was pretty good. The animation wasn't as off-putting as I feared it was going to be. It wasn't great. But it wasn't terrible either.
I like the amount of MCU actors they got for the voices. Jeffrey Wright makes a good Watcher too.
Promising opener. ****.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch "Kamino Lost"
Great, but imperfect. But truly, NO Star Wars project is perfect, so who cares?!
The great: I thought it was beyond foolish that Omega went back to save AZ, but I like that Crosshairs saved them both. Good pay-off for her saving his life earlier, especially because she didn't have to do it.
The imperfect: It's too cute by half the landing pad the Marauder is on is COINCIDENTALLY the only thing on the planet that wasn't sunken or destroyed. Sure, Jan.
In the middle: I am very glad Crosshairs did not make peace and join the Bad Batch at the end of the episode. Because if they had done that we'd be looking at an upcoming betrayal next season. He'd definitely be a mole for the Empire, and that would be the only reason he'd rejoin. And I'd find that utterly tiresome. Good for the show for not going there (at least not yet). The things Crosshairs has been saying would not ever pass the lips of a person who could possibly be redeemed. He's a sociopathic fascist and the Bad Batch is truly better off without him.
So I liked it. A lot. And parts of it were dumb. And I still liked it. A lot. Sue me. ****1/2.
Monsters At Work "Adorable Returns"
I am glad the series exists if only because the Adorable Snowman is finally unbanished.
And of COURSE it was unjust and Waternoose. Of COURSE.
But Tyler's behavior was not sitting right with me. Adorable clearly knew Mike and Sulley, so maybe Tyler should be trying to get them together, and clearing this up instead of hiding him. And once he learned the banishment was unjust, Tyler took his sweet time changing his mind and helping him. I loved the episode but I decided I don't like Tyler much.
I laughed at Mike's voice after he ate the snowcone.
Good for the show for recognizing the Monsters University continuity that Adorable used to work in the mailroom. Frankly, most of that movie is something I'd rather forget, but it's good that the show has its canon straight. And Adorable being the official Snowcone seller of Monsters Inc is a fitting end to him. Although I DO hope it isn't actually the end, and we'll still be seeing him regularly.
I had misgivings about the first episodes of the show, but if they had been like this I never would have complained. Although Tyler is a jerk, the episode was still great. *****.
Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life "The Jungle / The Flight / Deep Dive"
The Jungle:
Owls are sinister. Chip and Dale are cute. ***.
The Flight:
Interesting idea for a jetpack, although the bottle seemed way too full to be credible (not that any of this is credible).
I also want to give a shout-out to the music on this series. It's kinda weird, spookycool, and funky. ***.
Deep Dive:
The frogs are neat although using them as diving suits strikes me as a little bizarre.
Dale is kind of dumb.
Question: Why would a sunken ship have barrels in it the size of chipmunks? Methinks they got the scale wrong there.
Also cute. This show is diverting enough. ***.
Episode Overall: ***.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Bellboys"
Failing grade.
The cartoon posits a classic Mickey, Donald, and Goofy scenario. And I got really worried when the circus showed up. The stars of these kinds of cartoons are actually supposed to be Mickey, Donald and Goofy. And the circus people were bright and flashy, and driving an unacceptable amount of focus away from them.
In the middle of the cartoon the hijinks resettled with the main characters again. But it was STILL wrong because the characters were mostly on their own instead of brushing up against each other. I seem to recall the characters' had their share of solo scenes in those old cartoons too, but this felt like too much.
All this being said, Bill Farmer's Goofy continues to be the best thing in Paul Rudish's iteration of Mickey Mouse. Tony Anselmo's Donald was the best thing about DuckTales 2017. The Mickey Mouse reboot is Goofy's time to shine. Farmer is a revelation and better in the role than he has ever been.
But on the whole, I still think that was a misfire. **.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "I Heart Mickey"
It's a great premise. But it doesn't start off well. Mickey seems less like a romantic hero and more like an off-putting creep.
But once the hearts escape things turn fun. My favorite bit was Kaitlyn Robrock's amazing fast-paced, Micro-Machines Guy-level confession to Mickey in the sewer. Somehow I don't think Russi Taylor could have done that. If she could have, she would have done it in one of her other roles by now. Let me just say that it turned out Robrock was a wise replacement and leave it at that.
That was cute. ***1/2.
Titans "Barbara Gordon"
I'll give the episode credit for something. Season 2 of Titans started off very misleadingly. The first couple of episodes or so bordered on respectable. Not great, but definitely not terrible like the entirety of season 1. Of course season two wound up utterly blowing up and ruining whatever credibility they were going for, and cemented Titans' place as the worst DC project live-action or animated, and the worst live-action superhero show of all time. Season 3 was kind enough to be an utterly appalling wreck right off the bat. I don't have to pretend to judge a seemingly okay start to the season fairly. This is the horrible show I know and hate at its absolute essence. I will not need any nuance in destroying that.
Before I do I want to point out that this travesty was cowritten by Geoff Johns. And that's why I predict Stargirl is gonna wind up sucking. I don't care how badly he wants to do right by his sister, the fact is he's not merely a majorly untalented writer. He's an actual bad writer. I haven't read any of his comics but I'm wondering if he's coasted through them because standards for them are entirely different. But that doesn't sound right to me either. Good superhero comics DO exist. Is Johns decent at them? If so why does he take to that format the way he does not TV and movies? This is pure garbage.
When Barbara, Dick, and Bruce are having a nice reminisce about Jason and then she turns into Parker Posey from Best In Show I knew I would be giving the episode one star. She's supposed to be there to help comfort Bruce in a time of grief. And she tells Dick that's her way of helping the next kid Bruce recruits. If that's so, why do the pleasant small talk about Jason to begin with? Does Johns have any idea how people behave? Does he have any idea of how they are supposed to behave? Barbara's "I meant to do that," is complete b.s. as long as she starts off the evening making cordial small talk, and only goes off on Bruce when he annoys her. I'm sick of this crap. Who wouldn't be? That's when I knew the episode would get one star.
I knew the episode would get ZERO stars when Bruce whinily asks Dick if he wants to be Robin again. So aside from the fact that Bruce is noticeably balding and has a visible gut paunch, apparently he's also now a whiner. I have previously called Iain Glen the worst Batman of all time, live-action or animated. But even I never suspected he was this bad. He's looking for kids on the internet to recruit? This Bruce Wayne is essentially a creeper perv. Perps have lost their computer access and internet privileges for less. And just to show how much he sucks, he kills the Joker. This show is an absolute trainwreck. And Geoff Johns cowrote this episode. The guy is a legit sucky writer, and I'm not going to let him coast on his sister's grief any longer. This specific episode made me lose all patience with doing that.
Speaking of the Joker, that was like the worst laugh I've ever heard. If they weren't gonna cast a real actor, they couldn't have gone for somebody affordable like Troy Baker who can actually do it? My God, that was the most embarrassing thing I ever saw in this franchise (until Bruce whined that Dick could be Robin again).
It should be noted that the opening scene is the first time in three seasons the characters have actually fought crime. That fact doesn't impress me in the slightest. Also should be noted the writers gave the actual victory over Gizmo to the dog. Do you know when they shouldn't do that? THE FIRST TIME THE TITANS HAVE FOUGHT CRIME ON THE SERIES EVER. Honestly, I'm mad because crap like that should be self-evident. I should not have to complain about it. The writers should already know it.
That was awful. Possibly worse than ever, but I'm not sure. Season 2 was so bad I might have blocked bits of it from my long-term memory on behalf of my sanity. But that was an utter piece of crap. Did I mention this show got renewed while Matt Ryan was fired as Constantine, Pennyworth is on the bubble, Krypton was canceled, and Suicide Squad bombed? Thought it would be nice for me to point out proof that DC can do almost nothing right. It's disgusting. 0.
Titans "Red Hood"
Let's see. On the surface, that wasn't terrible, at least not by this show's standards (although this is the only show I've seen dumb enough to have a superhero accidentally eat dog food). I'm giving it a failing grade for two reasons. A passing grade and positive review would be me handing this show more trust and credit than it would ever deserve. The second reason is that even if the surface areas of the episode didn't actually suck, it kind of did deep down. Surfaces aren't everything. But Jason Todd doesn't have a remotely plausible motive to be doing what he's doing since the short timeframe we've last seen him. One of the show's biggest weaknesses is that it randomly has characters do terrible things without rhyme or reason. Jason turning in THAT after one episode is bad because there is no believable explanation they could possibly concoct that I'd believe would have gotten him there.
Red Hood was pissed Batman refused to kill Joker in the comics, and took it as a personal affront he didn't. Batman here KILLED Joker on Jason's behalf so that motive is gone. Jason had YEARS in the wilderness in the comics to stew in his juices, and Jason here is Red Hood the episode after he was Robin. Worst of all, the death seems random and stupid. There was a kind of twisted logic to Jason being resurrected by Ra's Al Ghul in the comics. What could they possibly do to justify either that fake-out or resurrection? And I think the worst thing of all is saying that at this point in time, Jason Todd is a match for Dick Grayson. Years in the wilderness in the comics made that plausible. Jason was Robin five minutes ago. And a crappy Robin at that, who got his dumb ass "killed" by the Joker. That's insane. Granted, Titans' Dick Grayson IS the worst Dick Grayson of all time in any project. But he shouldn't be THAT bad.
So while no, the episode didn't negatively push my buttons as the show often does. But the storytelling is as illogical as ever.
On the bright side I really dug the pothead Jonathan Crane. Simply because he's unlike any other interpretation. Normally, that's something to frown upon (glares in Iain Glen's direction) but the truth is the dude is interesting. More-so than his name-sakes in Gotham and Batman Begins at any rate.
But no, I'm not dumb enough to give that good review. **.
Titans "Hank & Dove"
I'm supposed to be moved by that and find it heartbreaking. I'm not. It's tiring.
Jason's actions make no sense. Hank going to help Jason after claiming he plans to kill him makes no sense. Dick refusing to deliver the gold bars when he has enough money to simply exchange for them makes no sense. This show is freaking exhausting.
The whole thing with Jason saying he grew past his fear and so did Bruce suggests Scarecrow is the mastermind behind all this. But I just don't freaking care. *.