The Nerd Thinks: Death to Kryptonite!

The recent release of the "Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice" trailer sparked the age old debate of who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman, which I've already discussed. The most common defense for Batman, aside from prep time, is that Batman could just use Krytponite to weaken Clark and ultimately kill him. Now Superman could easily fly away at mach 5 and blast Batman from a safe distance, but it highlights one of the most overused, and quite frankly stupid, weaknesses in all of comics: A green space rock.

How many times has Superman gone up against a villain ( or hero) that had no business being in the same room as him but because of Kryptonite they are an actual threat to him? We are talking about a man who at one point in his career moved entire planets, punched dimensions apart, can bench press the weight of Earth for days and goes up against the likes of Darkseid and Mongul. How is it that his weakness is so abundant and exploitable? I mean Batman pretty much stockpiles the thing and always keeps it on him just to give him a chance against Supes and that it just totally contrary to the character of Superman; he is supposed to be the best of us, the most powerful of us, yet he can get

You thought I was kidding about the gum

taken out by Kryptonite gum and be reduced to a sniveling pansy. He needs to create special suits just to avoid the radiation from green K but can survive being at ground zero of an ATOMIC EXPLOSION, do you see how wildly inconsistent that makes him appear to be? Superman should be able to shred the likes of Metallo, oh but wait he has a Kryptonite heart so now he's a threat. Regular non powered Lex Luthor would get killed faster than Batman..no wait..he has a Kryptonite powered suit, he can now match Superman blow for blow. I know a lot of people will say "but without it he's too powerful" and I would be inclined to agree...if he didn't also have another weakness.

Kryptonians are super powerful beings but even they have weaknesses aside from a green rock. For starters, if they are deprived of yellow sunlight for too long then they are no stronger than a regular human, same goes for being under a red sun...it makes them basically human. The biggest non Krytponite related weakness is an aversion to magic. Beings like Captain Marvel and Shazam ( and even sorcerers) present a challenge to Superman because they are based in magic. It does a whammy on them that is akin to a slow poison, much like krytponite, and is a much better way of giving a character a weakness that something as abundant as Kryptonite. There are not many magical beings or magic users that could harm Superman but there are enough to where he isn't a totally unstoppable foe and it gives the added bonus of giving whomever uses magic against him some cred; it would be much more acceptable to me if Batman learned some spells to incapacitate Superman rather than throw a green rock at him because one way shows that the character has the discipline to learn and that should be rewarded by him bringing the big guy down; the other shows just how lazy writers can be since they can just write themselves into a corner, throw a rock at Supes and suddenly have instant drama/danger.

Look, I have respect for classic things in comics ( I dig that the Flash show basically has a cosmic treadmill) but Kryptonite is a remnant of bygone era where the cover pages were full of exposition and the writers could get away with characters with as much depth as a kiddie pool in the Sahara. Nowadays we are able to craft wonderful stories and characters with strengths and weakness befitting them so why should Superman be beholden to such an archaic weakness? Green Lantern has no issue against wood, Martian Manhunter got over his fear of fire ( well at least until the retcon but at least they tried to get away from it) so why not just get rid of Kryptonite? And before anyone complains about him being op, let me remind you that Wonder Woman got powered up to the point where she is an actual god and I don't hear any complaints about that. Bottomline, having a character as powerful as Superman have such a ridiculous weakness totally undermines the character and allows for writers to be extremely lazy when it comes to putting him in peril. Take that away from them, force them to write characters that pose a real challenge to both  Clark Kent and Superman or maybe..just maybe...create new characters that can be a physical challenge for him. He is an alien after all, maybe explore more races that could kill him? I mean you really have your pick of the litter here but get red of green K, DEATH TO KRYPTONITE!

The Nerd Reviews: Batman vs Robin

The latest entry into the new DCAU  ( NuDCAU...that's a thing right?) comes to us in the form of Batman vs Robin, another Robin centric film that happens to have Batman in it but this time having Robin as the focus doesn't help the film; that's right, it's that kind of review.

I want to start off by saying that I wanted to like this movie, like really I needed to like a DC animated film after the new direction but this was probably the least I've enjoyed a DCAU..well anything. The plot meanders along until the death of Dollmaker, a D list villain at best, leads Batman and Robin to the Court of the Owls but there is a lot more meandering in between for all you fans of meandering ( it's a funny word isn't it? Meandering). Wanna see Damian and Bruce argue the majority of the film like they did in the last one? Gotcha covered. Oh you want to see some "father and son bonding" moments? We got that too sorta, spoiler alert they watch a movie together! What's that? You wanna see Nightwing? Well hell yeah he's in it but in an even more reduced role than ever before. Watch as the first Robin gets beaten not only by the current Robin (for the 2nd time) but also by newcomer Talon, makes you wonder just what the hell he's been doing since going solo. Speaking of Talon, wow did they ruin this character. Talon, in the comics, is introduced as a mysterious character we know nothing about and builds up that mystery for quite a while, it's actually pretty

At least the fight scenes provided some enjoyment 

important to the plot of the story-line; this version Talon is not only not undead, he's basically Jason Todd if he never got picked up by Bruce and is ultimately presented as a possibility of how Damian might end up.

The voice acting in this was really flat, no one aside from maybe Alfred and Damian even sounded like they wanted to be in the recording booth. Jeremy Sisto's Talon tries to be menacing but comes off as petulant and brash, not befitting for someone who is a top level assassin. O'Mara just doesn't have the gravitas to pull of the Batman grim darkness, he sounds like an old man even though Bruce is supposed to be in his early 30s. Nightwing is as wooden as they come but the biggest sin is that they actually had Kevin Conroy in the cast and wasted him as Thomas Wayne. FREAKING THOMAS WAYNE! YOU HAVE THE BEST GODDAMN BATMAN VA AND YOU DON'T LET HIM BE BATMAN?  I heard Thomas speak and instantly felt both joy and sadness that he was in this movie....don't do this to yourself Kevin, you at least have the Arkham series.

I know this sounds like a bunch of nitpicking, it probably is, but I had such high hopes for this film. Why you may ask? Because this was the story that could have really elevated the current crop of DCAU films to that of the glory days ( I'm talking JL: Doom, Under the Red Hood, Flashpoint). The original Court of Owls storyline was magnificent, it perfectly played upon Bruce's arrogance and introduced an enemy too powerful for Batman to take on by himself; in fact he had the whole Bat Family help him in the fight for the soul of Gotham. The film completely ignores the other members and reduces the threat and magnitude of the Court..I mean seriously, once you realize Talon's motivations you'll wonder why he even went through all the trouble in the first place. God, this could have been epic, they could have did it in 2 parts like TDKR with the first film being the set up and the second the epic pay off but instead they opted for a poor adaptation of a fantastic story all just so they could force Damian in the mix. Hey DC/WB, I thought I was getting a Batman film not Robin ft Batman and hey look there's Nightwing being useless. Sigh...I can't believe that this is the quality of films the company that made Flashpoint is putting out now.

Basically unless you are a die hard Batman/ DC fan ( and maybe even then) I would suggest skipping this film, you are not missing out on anything I promise.

*Seriously Nightwing is so completely useless in these films, what gives? He adds nothing to the story other than the tired "shadow of the first" trope and what the hell decade is he in dressing like that?

** Also I know O'Mara was  Batman in Under the Red Hood, didn't like his voice then and still dont but the film itself was atleast good.

Should you watch Netflix's Daredevil?

So you should definitely be watching Netflix's Daredevil because it's exactly what you wanted when it was Ben Affleck under the hood; a dark viligante with so much guilt you'll wanna do 50 hail Mary's after episode one. Right off the bat the atmosphere is something you wouldn't expect from the current MCU ( Marvel Cinematic Universe for the uninitiated) as it does away with the bright colors and light shows in favor for a less aesthetically pleasing display; and it absolutely helps set the stage for a superhero like our good friend Daredevil. Charlie Cox does a great job playing the charming yet guilt ridden Matt Murdock and an even better job as Daredevil; I know they are the same person but they are representative of two ideals that Matt holds, Murdock  being legal justice and Daredevil being justice the Hell's Kitchen way, and Cox does a really good job displaying the conflict those two sides create within himself. Elden Henson took a character I really didn't care about, yes I know Foggy Nelson is an important support character but so is Aunt May and I don't care about her either, and made him into someone I genuinely liked. His portrayal of Foggy seems believable, as does his relationship with Matt as Elden and Charlie have such on screen chemistry that it's easy to believe

Vincent D'Onfrio as Wilson Fisk

that they have been friends a long time. Karen Page does come off a little bit damsely at first (which given the situation is totally understandable) but quickly becomes her own character and a good addition but Vincent D'Onofrio once again proves that he is chameleon as he is barely recognizable as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of organized crime of Hell's Kitchen. Vincent delivers a very different take on Wilson as he is willing to be vulnerable and in control yet has a quiet rage that violently explodes and he let's his emotions cloud his judgement; he is a walking contradiction and that uncertainty is what makes each time he is on the screen have that much more impact, you really never know if he is going to make the logically play or go completely off the rails...it's good stuff.

If you've seen Agents of Shield or really any Marvel film then you will be very much surprised at how much it is unlike anything that Marvel has done before and that never becomes more clear than during those glorious, well choreographed fight scenes. Gone are the pretty beams and PG-13 blood, this a show unafraid of showing what a real fight would do to a body; Matt gets the hell beaten out of him while doing the same to the bad guys and it is so refreshing to see broken bones and blood fly around, gives the fights a since of weight and gravity that you wont get in any other Marvel film (we got close with Cap 2 but like..he's a supersoldier and even getting shot in the gut didn't do much to him). I mean just look at the video on the left, do you really think you're gonna see an Avenger do that? Not only are they gritty they also play around the fact that he doesn't see things how we see things, so we don't see fights how we typically would; sometimes its a straight up brawl, some times the action happens off screen and we just hear it, other times the camera moves in a rather disorienting manner, the fights just never really look the same and you can tell they are having fun playing around with a rather unique superhero.

It is pretty obvious that I totally love this show and if it's any indication for the type of quality that Marvel is gonna produce on Netflix, then I cannot wait for the other shows to come out and get that Defenders tv movie..thing...going. The pacing is slower than what you'd expect but it fits with the show and it's never so slow that you get pulled out of it, it builds each episode and does a good job exploring each character without giving you a giant expository episode. The acting is solid, the action is so very kickass and it's one of the few MCU things that focuses on "street level" threats which gives the MCU a whole new world to play in. Go watch Daredevil, its out right now, watch it and love it and totally forget that whole Ben Affleck Daredevil thing ok? Seriously that was like 12 years ago, the world was a different place then, leather was in. This more than makes up for that old film so don't hesitate, watch it.

Why The Deadpool Film is Kinda Important

I want you to think back on all the comic book films released within the last...say 5 years or so, how many of them had an R rating? Kingsman and that's about it right? Don't you think it's time for the comic book genre to grow past the "family friendly" audience and give us more adult material? Deadpool looks to give us just that has it has been confirmed to have an R rating, making it the first Fox comic book film to receive such a rating. It is common knowledge around here that I like Fox as much as Nick Fury loves being transparent but I have to give them credit for having the guts to put out an R rated comic book film, especially one based on a Marvel character since Marvel's Cinematic Universe is a PG-13 zone strictly ( not saying that Marvel is producing Deadpool or anything). Normally I'd think nothing about this other than a "I'll probably watch it", but if this film does well it could have huge ramifications in which rating future films will get. Deadpool is a character that does not shy away from violence and foul language and in order to capture him truly there is no other rating they could possibly have than R; now imagine having a Wolverine film where Logan can completely eviscerate his enemies is a glorious fit of berserker rage, or better yet an X-Force film where we have an elite mutant hit squad doing the wet-work to save their kind. Do you see what kind of doors this opens up? And it's not only for Fox either, DC and Marvel could also take a page from them and give their characters much needed justice like a Daredevil R Reboot, a Deathstroke film, and maybe...idk...A REBOOT TO THE BLADE SERIES THAT I'VE WANTED SINCE BLADE 3!

The test footage that started the buzz

Fox has been relying on the X-Men franchise to stay relevant in the comic book movie world and they really need to keep it fresh and I believe this is one way to go about it. Having Deadpool in their universe and having his film being rated R opens up different avenues to be more true to the more violent mutants (The Wolverine films would have been way better if Logan was allowed to slice people up on camera, just saying). Not only that, but if it does well and Marvel and DC copy them, we could be looking at a much needed breath of fresh air in the overly saturated PG-13 fest that is comic book films. Kingsman needs some company and I am totally for more films like that because did you see that church scene? Every comic book film needs a scene like that and guess which films would do it best? That's right...R rated comic films.

Bonus:

I cannot believe I am saying this, but I am excited for a Fox produced superhero film, excuse me while I go check for airborne pigs.

Deadpool Rating

I was very apprehensive about this film seeing as once again Fox ( and you guys all know how much I love Fox) would be at the helm, but this video did a lot to quell my complaints; ok so not like 100% quell them but hey there's cursing and its gonna be R so I can at least be promised they will deliver on the gratuitous violence and I want that because the last violent superhero film was like Punisher Warzone...nuff said.