TITANS Official Trailer DC Universe (SDCC 2018)

Friends.... I had to break my blogging hiatus to share just how craptastic this Titans trailer from SDCC is. In case you were out of the loop this is like the big showpiece for the new DC Streaming Service "DC Universe". It looks so bad. Like whoever wrote it came up with that "Fuck Batman" line and then worked backwards from there.

There's a lot to unpack here and I don't really have the time to do it justice. I'll just summarize all the points I don't have time to make: You can make a show about serious issues and drama without all the grimdark nonsense the film version of DC/WB is obsessed with (See any of their successful TV shows). If any property deserves that sort of serious but fun treatment it's the Teen Titans. Muddying it up and having Dove, the character who is supposed to be the pacifist ying to Hawk's violent Yang, slashing bad buys ankles with her wing knives is just ridiculously poor taste. Have fun DC, good luck with this nonsense.

Mission Report

Childish Gambino - This Is America

Well now, here's a music video that's going to be talked about and examined A LOT this week/month/year. This isn't exactly a song I would crank up in the car on a road trip, but the video, as a piece of art, is really powerful. At least it seems powerful to me, I guess that's for people smarter than I am to debate for eternity. I will say it's nice that we can talk about something in hip hop and politics other than Kanye.

Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and The Wasp - Official Trailer

Would you look at that long ass post header that doesn't all fit on one line and looks terrible. I copied that directly off the youtube page, it's way too long and it still doesn't tell you that this is the 2nd Ant-Man and The Wasp trailer, really it's the 3rd if you count the teaser, which we should.

It's a good trailer, almost too good. I'm getting this feeling they're a bit nervous about following up Avengers: Infinity War with this so they're showing you ALL THE CGI they can. I would not be surprised if you walk out of the movie having felt like you've seen all the best parts already. Or maybe not, I could be wrong. I usually am.

However I will toot my own hort (TOOT TOOT) and say that I guessed pretty much all the major Avengers: Infinity War plot points. I mean my son is pretty much my only witness but trust me I nailed it. I had the opening scene figured out, several plot points along the way and the end scene all nailed. It was a good movie that I would have enjoyed anyway but man watching it all come together just as I had imagined really filled my smug meter, which felt fantastic.

Kids Try 1980s Technology

Here's a cute video Ars Technica put together of a bunch of kids trying out old tech like polaroid cameras and record players. I wonder how my kid would do at this. I'm guessing 2 minutes in he'd be asking to look up instructions for the record player on youtube.

Also we had to get a new roof on our house. Did you know roofs are expensive? Like brand new Honda Accord type expensive. At least that's how expensive they are when you also need new skylights and a bunch of repair done to your attic. It's fine, my kids were probably never going to college anyway. I mean they can't even get a record player to work right.

I'm all in on The Meg

DUDE...

I mean like DUDE...

If you were to ask me about my perfect dream movie, I probably wouldn't have ever said Jason Statham vs a giant shark, only because my small brain could never imagine something so glorious and perfect. This is easily my most anticipated movie of the summer now, sorry Avengers. Deadpool who?

Reminder, Sinclair Broadcast Group is bad

If you've been on the old internets over the last 48 hours you've probably seen this video of a bunch of Sinclair Broadcast Group newscasts reading the same memo about "fair and balanced" reporting. It's super duper creepy, like if you saw it in some sort of David Fincher horror movie you'd be like "come on David, tone it down just a bit why don't you?"

Anyway, John Oliver and his wacky news crew saw the same video and addressed it on last night's Last Week Tonight. As viral as the video has been it sucks that this story isn't being reported on more. It might just be the most important new story going on right now because the ramifications are nearly infinite. Politicizing the news isn't anything new, the difference here is that thanks to decades of deregulation, a single group can now control hundreds, if not thousands, of different outlets.

We're like 7 years away from having just two news choices, the Democratic news channel and the Republican news channel. And of course it won't stop there, those same two channels will own all the radio stations and newspapers in town. With net neutrality roll backs, just wait until Comcast starts offering the "Real America" channel and internet package, with unlimited access to The Blaze and Breitbart.com! Sorry, Huffington Post is going to cost an extra $19.99 a month.

Basically we're all screwed.

Don't Look At Them

Delayed Links

Here's What Protects Shipwrecks From Looters and Hacks. Cool article on Shipwrecks and what the federal government has done over the last few years to keep salvage teams from damaging them. Or maybe it was just cool to me because I've read WAY to many Clive Cussler books.

‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ Pushed to 2019; ‘New Mutants’ Delayed Again. Well, this isn't good. New Mutants was originally supposed to come out this april now it's been pushed all the way back to August 2019? It's crazy, that movie was done filming and everything. Word is they're doing a bunch of reshoots even going so far as to add a new main character. I don't really know anything about the details of Disney buying Fox and how that would impact these two movies but maybe there's something there? I don't know, I'm just a guy hoping New Mutants doesn't turn into the "Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" of superhero movies.

THE LAST SCAN: Inside the desperate fight to keep old TVs alive. I subscribe to the retrogaming subreddit and it's funny whenever you see people super excited they found an old Sony Trinatron. Old CRTs are in a really weird spot right now, they're either completely useless and no one will take them or they're highly sought after and people will pay "top" dollar for them. What a time to be alive.

Far Cry 5 review: Five steps back. This is disappointing to hear. I was actually thinking about finally getting in on this series. Steam had a bunch of the older titles on sale last week and I was "this close" to pulling the trigger. Instead I installed Borderlands 2 and started replaying that game. Man what a great game. Easily one of my favorite FPS from the last 10 years.

Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War - Official Trailer

This has to be the last Avengers: Infinity War trailer, right? I feel like there've been a hundred of these things at least. The Thor: Ragnarok blu-ray had a boatload of behind the scenes stuff too. It's like I've seen half the movie already.

Anyhoo, it looks really good. I saw some site already talking about how before watching it you HAVE to watch Guardians of the Galaxy again. I guess they're right in a way. I mean I'm crazy well versed in comic book nonsense so I think I take for granted the fact that there are some details about Thanos in the movie that are kind of important to know. The kinds of details that are easy to forget in a 2 hour movie where the Racoon and the Tree steal the show.

I'd recommend going back and watching all the Marvel movies that feature the Infinity Gems Stones. So we're talking: Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor
The Avengers
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Thor: Ragnarok

Although looking at that list you could probably easily remove Thor, Winter Soldier and Civil War. The Stones aren't a big part of those movies, if pressed for time you could lift Captain America: First Avenger out of there too. The Tesseract (which hold a stone) is also heavily featured in The Avengers so you don't really need to double dip. Here's what I'd watch for sure:

The Avengers
Thor: The Dark World
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Thor: Ragnarok

If you watch all those, you'll know where each stone is currently in the MCU. Honestly, it's probably not THAT important to enjoying Infinity War that you even know that, they'll probably recap all of it at the start of the movie but hey, you could do worse with 14 hours of your life.

ECCC 2018 Friday Cosplay

This ECCC cosplay video by Chong Ahn is really good. Like almost Sneaky Zebra good. It's all the more impressive when you realize they edited and uploaded it in like 2 days.

I saw quite a few of these in person, I really wish I had gotten a picture with the Hulkster and Rowdy Roddy. As some of you are aware, ECCC is a 4 day event now. I had 2 passes for all 4 days but on Friday I couldn't find anyone to go with so I went by myself. It wasn't the first time I'd been to a comic book convention by myself but it was definitely the biggest convention I'd ever been to on my own. It was fun but it was also pretty hard on my wallet. For some reason when you have no one other than strangers to talk to you end up just shopping the entire time. The whole day I think I went to one pannel.

2018 Emerald City Comic Con: The Reviewing

So if you follow me on social media (or were the one friend that wasn't busy this weekend) you'll know that this last weekend was Emerald City Comic Con. I had a great time, right up to the point on Sunday when I threw my back out tying my shoe.

Last year was the big 15th Anniversary for ECCC, I felt like there was a lot of pressure to make it the biggest show ever. This seemed a bit more relaxed. You could tell the show floor was a bit less crowded, I don't think there were quite as many "big name" nerd celebrities and the schedule of events didn't feel as busy. I thought it all made for a better overall show. I made a bit of a rookie mistake by thinking my kids would be well behaved on Sunday and that we'd have a bit more time to do a few things I wanted to do... LOL. Even typing it out now I see how foolish that was. Really, that's my only regret. In a 4 day show I put off seeing and buying a couple things until the last day and then poof, it didn't happen and I'm all like "whaaaaa?"

I'll try and pictures from the show as soon as I can, so you know... 10-20 days?

The Biggest Cheater in Gaming History? (1700+ Scores w/ no Evidence)

Check it out yo, straight out of King of Kong this due with a billion records on video games from 40 years ago that almost no one plays, or really ever remembers playing, cheated his way into the record books. It wasn't even a creative cheat like what's going on with Billy Mitchell right now, where he's being accused of setting Donkey Kong records with a modded machine, he was just making up scores and for whatever reasons people believed him.

I'm a pretty big dork and I'm not afraid of boasting some pretty stupid accomplishments (for instance, setting the high Score on Karate Champ at the Hotel in Virginia when we went on the class trip to Washington DC or having a 16-0 record on the original NBA Jam at the Arcade by my friend Brian's house) but what on earth are these guys gaining by cheating and lying their way to the top? Are they inexplicably just swimming in pussy? Is there a King of Kong 2 in the works I just haven't heard about yet?

Cobra Kai Teaser

Here we have a first look at Ralph Macchio and William Zabka in the newest Karate Kid sequel, the Youtube Red webseries Cobra Kai. Honestly none of those things I just typed make a damn bit of sense in the year 2018 but I'll be damned if I don't give this at least a try. It's written and produced by the guys that did Hot Tub Time Machine and the Harold and Kumar movies so I guess it's going to be a comedy? I don't know, it's either going to be fantastic or awful. I can't imagine a middle ground with this one.

Start Practicing your crane kicks now, this comes out "soon".

Deadpool, Meet Cable

New trailer for Deadpool 2 hit the interwebs this morning. This one highlighting everyone's favorite gun toting mysterious mutant from the future, Cable. It's pretty funny, I mean I don't necessarily think a superhero saying Fuck is funny in itself but the bit with Cable's CGI gun is kinda cute.

I liked the first Deadpool WAY more than I thought I would, I'm really hoping that the sequel lives up to the hype. Especially because they've expanded the cast to include quite a few of my favorite X-Men from the 90s.

As long as we're talking R rated fare, the big news yesterday was Disney signing the producing team behind Game of Thrones to a 3 movie deal for a new Star Wars spin off. Internet reaction was pretty mixed. I didn't realize it but I guess a lot of fancy nerds have already turned on GOT, especially after those two producers were tapped to make that weird "Civil War but the South Won" series for HBO. Personally, I'm fine with it. Those two have proven they can adapt a really dense story to the small screen, It sounds like they're going to take a crack at the previously scrapped Star Wars Expanded Universe, and man you want to talk about dense...

As long as they keep the movies PG and PG-13 I'm down to see what they make. I really don't want to have to go off again on how Star Wars is for kids.

Solo: A Star Wars Story: A Trailer

So yesterday during the Superb Owl, Lucasfilm debuted a teaser trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. After feeling the pressure from the Cloverfield guys who don't even release trailers anymore they just beam the movies directly into your brain without warning, they went ahead and released a full length trailer. It looks fine, I'd probably be a bit more excited about it if the guy playing Han looking even the least big like Harrison Ford, or better yet showed just a fraction of his charm.

I'm sure a lot will be made about the rocky road of filming this movie; Rewrites, fired directors, additional scenes filmed after wrap. Honestly I don't really care how the sausage was made. Rogue One supposedly had all sorts of problems and it turned out fantastic. Personally, I'm more interested/concerned with how this movie is going to fit into existing Star Wars cannon.

For an obsessive nerd like me, one of the worst sins of the prequels is that they contradicted the original trilogy at every turn. Rogue One was able to avoid most of those pitfalls by having a new cast of characters and then killing them all off. They put in some hard work to make sure Rogue One transitioned into A New Hope seamlessly. That's going to be a lot harder with a prequel that's all about a couple of the main characters.

For whatever it's worth there probably isn't a bad review on earth that's going to keep me from seeing this in the theater, I'm definitely not going to be dissuaded by a luke warm trailer. Heck, the movie will probably be worth it just for the speeder chase we see a couple of seconds of. As bad as Episode I is you can always put on the pod race and I'm still happy as a clam.

Dental Plan

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP - Teaser Trailer

I wasn't expecting a trailer for the next Ant Man movie, Ant Man and The Wasp, today but here we are. I wonder why Marvel didn't just premier it with Black Panther, that movie comes out in like 2 weeks. Or maybe they did last night (at the Hollywood premiere) and they're just worried about getting an official version on line before someone posts shaky cell phone footage.

Wordburglar "Boombaparang"

Wordburglar has a new video out, you should watch it. Then you should go to bandcamp and download the album Rapplicable skills. Then you should eat a healthy breakfast and call you mother, she worries about you.

Marvel Funko Presents: Submarine Showdown

So Marvel is doing little animated advertisements for their Funko dolls. I guess that's cool? Funko sells like a billion dollars worth of these little plastic dolls. Isn't that kind of amazing? At every comic book convention with a Funko booth they have a lottery and people line up for hours to try and get con-exclusive variants of their favorite dolls. Whenever I go to ECCC I'll see people with these huge bags just full of them. At only $10 a pop I can see how people can get sucked in really quick. It's just the right amount that you don't feel bad about blowing on a whim, but before you know it your spare room is full and you've spent a few grand and your wife is taking the kids to her sisters.

Too Funny To Fail: The Review

Last night I watched the Hulu original "Too Funny to Fail: The Life and Death of the Dana Carvey Show" and wooo-doggie, I can't recommend it highly enough. Between this and "Batman & Bill" Hulu is really killing it with these pop culture documentaries. I hope they keep churning them out, I'd watch a billion of these.

For those not in the know The Dana Carvey Show was a sketch comedy show that ran on ABC for all of 7 episodes. It was a spectacular failure, especially when you consider all the talent that worked on the show: Steve Carell, Bill Chott, Stephen Colbert, Chris McKinney, Robert Smigel, Louis C.K, Charlie Kaufman, Jon Glaser, Spike Feresten, and Greg Daniels. Colbert, Carell and Louis C.K. would go on to be big stars in front of the camera but almost everyone involved with the show have had tremendous careers. Charlie Kaufman has been nominated for 4 academy awards for pete's sake.

While the documentary certainly paints the participants in a favorable light, it doesn't pull any punches as to why the show failed. Odds are anyone that remembers the show remembers how weird the skits were. The very first skit on the premier episode featured Bill Clinton breast feeding a baby and a bunch of puppies and kittens with a row of prosthetic teets. Even today a skit like that is going to get you relegated to 12:15am on Adult Swim. Imagine that in 1996, right after a very special episode of Home Improvement?

This is definitely a must watch for any comedy nerd or for anyone looking for some quick 1990s nostalgia.

Your Password Is Too Weak

The X-Wing v Tie Fighter Sequel That Never Was

A couple years ago a studio video game studio Double Damage pitched EA on a new Star Wars space combat game in the same vein as classic PC games X-Wing and Tie Fighter or X-Wing vs Tie Fighter. It went nowhere, I'm guessing because EA already has all their Star Wars eggs in the Battlefront basket a game that already lets you fly Tie Fighters and X-Wings for a bit. Think of all the microtransactions they would have lost by splitting the audience!

It's too bad space combat games have been dead since the Wing Commander series went out with a bang with Wing Commander: Prophesy. That was about 20 years ago now. Do you know how long it's been since I had to complain about an escort mission? It's a criminal when you think about it.