Star Wars Revelations #1 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

Star Wars Revelations feels like one of those comics you get every now and then that's there to grab people's attention, to give them a taste of the things to come and give a peek at upcoming stories in hopes of grabbing new readers. As such, there's a lot of promise in this book, lots of hints, and lots of things that 'could' happen. I say could, because the majority of the issue is told through Force visions, and we know how the Force can be misinterpreted, manipulated, or just flt out wrong. The fun is definitely going to be in seeing how much here comes to pass.

The book focuses on Darth Vader as he visits the Eye of Webbish Bog, who tells him that something terrible is coming, something that could end the Force, and the galaxy as a whole. Through a series of visions readers are given sneak peaks at what this means, and how each of the Star Wars books will theoretically tie into this story, and how it all began.

We get hints at what's to come with Sabe, including some fancy new armour she seems to be getting for working with the Empire. We see the origin of an ancient droid that led an uprising against organics, and how the Jedi of the High Republic essentially killed them all. We get hints at how Luke and his friends will come up against that droid, reborn in a new body. Valance seems to be on the verge of falling victim to it too, tossed aside by Vader and turning against his hold friends. And we check in on Aphra and her situation with the ancient being currently in control of her.

And we get more information about what Qi'ra is ultimately trying to do in the Hidden Empire event that's about to kick off, utilising ancient Sith artefacts against the Emperor.

There's a lot of tease and set-up in this issue, and if you're already reading all of the Star Wars books it's going to get you excited for what's to come. But I'm not sure how much it's going to be getting new people involved. If you've picked up this book hoping to get a look at what the Star Wars comics are like to see if maybe you want to try them it might leave you feeling a bit left behind. As such, I kind of don't know who this is for, other than existing readers wanting a tease of future stories.

The book has several artists working on it, and whilst some of the sections look great there are others that are less fun to look at. The segments dealing with Valance were pretty poor, to the point where I thought Vader was getting a new helmet design because he looked so weird. The segments with Luke also didn't look great, and it often looked like Luke's face was melting off. I get that it was a bigger issue and they needed more artists, but it felt incredibly inconsistent. 

Overall, the issue was fine, and it was nice to get some teases of the things to come, but it also felt like a lot of this info could have been revealed in comic previews. Is it an attempt to sell an extra book? Maybe. I wouldn't put it past Marvel to try and make a buck off what's essentially an announcement preview.

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Action Comics #1049 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

The previous issue of Action Comics was perhaps one of my least favourites, and definitely the worst entry in the 'Kal-El Returns' story arc. Sadly, this issue has many similar problems, and has left me waiting anxiously for the end of this particular arc.

The main bulk of the story picks up where the last issue left off, with Superman fighting New Gods at Metropolis Zoo in order to protect the Phalosian kids from them. The New Gods want the Fire of Olgrun, and aren't above hurting a child to get it. Whilst Superman fights Kalibak and Orion, the kids help Bibbo to save some civilians, having been inspired to help regular folk by Superman. However, when Desaad tries to pull the power out of him Osul unleashes waves of power that shows he might be more powerful than the New Gods.

The alien gods eventually leave, though they make it clear that their desire to take the power hasn't ended and that they will return at some point. And I don't really understand what the point of this story was. Other than introducing the idea that the New Gods have an interest in Osul, it feels kind of pointless. Nothing much really happens, the action is very uninspiring, and the art looks really bad in several places. The character proportions shift and change from panel to panel, and there are points where they look like their bodies are twisted and broken, their faces wracked in pain or twisted into weird shapes.  Is it possible that better art would have made the story better? Probably not, but there were times the art was so off-putting that it definitely made the entire experience less enjoyable.

The rest of the story focuses on Lex and his plans. He manages to bring Metallo onto his side this issue, by having had his sister framed for murder. Metallo is forced to do what Lex wants in order for his sister to not go to prison, which shows how despicable Lex is, and humanises Metallo a lot more and makes him joining the bad guys feel a lot more realistic.

The final pages also show that Lex has been manipulating Manchester Black, even as far back as his time on Warworld, and that Black is the reason why Lex was able to find the things he took from Warworld. Unfortunately for Black, Lex isn't willing to play nice, and knocks the hero out. It's not clear what Lex is up to, other than his usual thing of trying to kill Superman, and the specifics of his plan are still hidden away. The idea that he was working on this even during the Warworld saga feels a bit retcon-ish, but I'll reserve judgement until I see exactly what he tries to do.

The back-up feature also felt a but of a let down, as it rushes to conclude the story. The fight is incredibly quick, and the whole thing seems to have been done simply to maneuver Chaytly into a position where he can be recruited by another villain. At least the art on this part of the book isn't as terrible at least.

Overall, Action Comics has really started to slip into an un-enjoyable territory for me, and it's starting to feel like this story arc is slowing things down a lot. Hopefully the upcoming big revamp following issue 1050, and the new status-quo for the Superman family will lead to better stuff.

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Godzilla: Monsters & Protectors – All Hail The King #3 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

It’s hard to say if there’s a more iconic a nemesis for Godzilla than the tree headed dragon (wyvern actually, as pointed out in this issue) King Ghidorah. There’s a reason why whenever he turns up in the films it takes several monsters to take him down, whether that’s in the original movies, the US versions of them, or even in comics where it takes costumed heroes in giant robots to help. Godzilla seems to rarely go it alone against the golden Goliath, but this issue of Godzilla: Monsters & Protectors – All Hail The King gives readers the first round of the fight, and lets him do just that.

A lot happens in this issue, and there’s a great deal of time-skipping that takes place. In order to help facilitate this the issue gets broke down into segments where we get a brief introduction from Cederic on his MeToob channel, giving us the pertinent information that we need for each part. For example, the book opens with him telling his viewers (and us the readers) that people around the world have been having strange dreams over the last few weeks. Everyone is dreaming about the same name over and over again: Ghidorah. This acts as a nice segue into us catching up with the Xillians, who are digging deeper towards the slumbering monster. The dreams are happening because the beast is getting ready to wake up, and the Xillians are putting their plan into action.

This kind of structure is utilised more than once, when the next MeToob catch-up lets us know that Ghidorah has been appearing in major cities around the world, causing destruction, then flying away. This issue is covering a lot of ground when it comes to time, and using time jumps in this way is actually a really good way of doing it. We get Cedric telling his audience about what’s been happening in a way that feels natural and true to an internet vlogger, and it means we don’t have to sit through clunky dialogue scenes where characters awkwardly talk through information that they’d already know. It’s not only easy on the reader, but it makes the jumps in time feel natural and even worthwhile, as we don’t have to get bogged down in the less important stuff.

So Ghidorah’s been rampaging across the world – ‘But what about Godzilla?’ I hear you ask. Well, this is addressed quite well in the book as the kids talk about something that tends to happen in almost every Godzilla story but isn’t always pointed out: Godzilla is pretty lazy when it comes to fighting monsters. The monster can be destroying a city, killing thousands, but if it’s on the other side of the world why should he care? Yes, this is different in the Monsterverse movies where he goes out after threats, but here he’s happy to sit back and do nothing until Ghidorah gets up in his business. This also allows for the kids to talk more about the mysterious Kaiju that Karen has a connection with, and how those connections work.

But Ghidorah does come where he probably shouldn’t, and Godzilla takes a dislike to that. A good portion of the issue is given over to the fight that breaks out between them, and this is where the art team of Dan Schoening and Luis Antonio Delgado really shine. The entire book looks great and has tons of personality, but the monster fights are what we’re here to see, and this one is really rather good. The two monsters feel like they’re a challenge for the other, and there’s a decent sense that this isn’t something that Godzilla could easily handle on his own; opening the door for the other Kaiju to arrive next issue.

Speaking of upcoming things, there’s a preview of the next issue cover at the back of the book that gives us a tantalising tease of who the new monster is going to be. I’m not going to say that my prediction in the last issue was correct, but I will say I’m looking forward to seeing it. With only two more issues left the series is looking to be building towards a pretty exciting finale.

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Stargirl: The Lost Children #1 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

I've been a big fan of the JSA, and Johns' run on the series, for more than a decade. I love those classic, golden age characters (and the newer heroes they picked up over the years) and how they fit into the modern DC universe. And their exclusion was one of the big parts of why I dropped off from DC for a few years after the New 52 essentially erased them. So I'm actually really excited to see Johns returning to these characters, and deciding to do more with the Golden Age.

Stargirl: The Lost Children focuses on one of the more popular modern additions to the Justice Society, Stargirl, as she and Red Arrow work a mission to try and find out what happened to a bunch of missing sidekicks from the Golden Age who seem to have been forgotten by the world. Those who read Flashpoint: Beyond will be familiar with some of the names mentioned in this issue, and will probably have a good idea of why they vanished and why people don't remember them; but that's info that Courtney doesn't have.

Instead, we see Courtney trying to juggle her new mission, one no one really believes in, with her personal life as her mother grounds her and tries to stop her from working with Emiko any more. But, Courtney is nothing if not stubborn, and she and her friend head out to the home of a former kid sidekick, Dyna-Mite, whose hero was the first to be killed years ago.

Dyna-Mite has assembled quite the conspiracy theory board full of info on the missing kids, and this gives the two young heroes the information they need to begin the next stage of their journey; heading out into the middle of the ocean where a disappearance happened years before. They're not the only ones heading out there though, as Dyna-Mite has been sailing to the spot. When his boat is destroyed in the storm he swims ashore on an island that shouldn't be there, and finds himself transformed from an old men into a kid once again. But someone on the island attacks him.

The rest of the issue includes some interesting flashbacks to Dyna-Mite and his hero partner, TNT, in the golden age, and shows what life was like for young heroes back in that era. It captures a lot of the fun and feel of the comics from that time, and also shows why the older Dyna-Mite still cares so much, and puts himself in as much danger as he does.

If you're coming to this issue having read the stuff building up to it, hoping that you're going to get some answers, sorry that's not happening. However, this issue does do an excellent job at establishing the mystery for new readers, as well as setting up the kind of tone the book is going to have. It wonderfully captures a lot of the fun and energy of the Golden Age books, and has some fun with the more modern characters. 

The art on the book, by Todd Nauck and Matt Herms, looks great, and the opening pages set in the golden age look really dynamic and colourful, and instantly draw the reader in. The panels where the young heroes go to investigate Dyna-Mite's home are packed full of details, with interesting stuff in there to keep an eye out for. The entire book looks good, and the art style really seems to suit this story.

If you're a fan of Stargirl and golden age books in general this series looks set to be one that's going to be a lot of fun.

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Boom Bandits Volume 2 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Last year Boom Bandits was released, giving comic readers a one-shot comic that took a look at the roles of different groups in society through a sci-fi lens, resulting in an interesting critique of the boomer vs millennial conflict. With the comic presenting a fairly self-contained and interesting story it’s somewhat surprising to see it return for a second issue some eighteen months later, and one that ends with the clear message that more is to come.

The first issue introduced us to a world where the old live in luxury, spending their lives in high-tech towers where their every whim is catered to, and where they quite literally get to live forever. The younger generations are forced to try and eke out a living in the ruins of the old world, the one the boomers literally left behind; a world that sees them suffer, yet one where they get blamed for their suffering. At the end of the previous issue a revolution had begun, a message of hope for a better future was given, and the story seemed to come to an end. But it looks like the story of that revolution isn’t over.

This issue opens with flashback that shows us a little more of what life for the boomers is like, and gives us the origins story for Pixie, the young girl who has become one of the two faces of the revolution. From her humble beginnings we return to the present, where Pixie sits on a throne, her followers cheering for her, as her mechanical monstrosity watches over her, ready to hand out violence. It’s here that we get our first look at the real conflict in this new chapter of the story. It’s no longer millennial vs boomer, as Freydank, Pixie’s older brother, watches on as his sister amasses her supporters, unhappy with what he’s seeing.

With how politically minded the first issue was, and how much commentary on our real world was contained within its pages, it’s hard not to wonder if this might not be doing the same, and if the story of division in this movement (literally in a family) isn’t commentary on how progressive movements seem to often turn on each other. I’m sure we’ve all seen it beforeL communities that start to fight within themselves, calling out problematic behaviours, those coming to defend people that they like, schisms forming and a united community fracturing into smaller groups. The right often like to hold up examples of the ‘warring left’ as a reason that progressives will always fail, because before long they fracture. Is this where this book is turning; is this the point that’s trying to be made, or is Bruno Stahl simply telling a story? Only they can answer that question, but it certainly seems to fit with the themes of the franchise.

The fracturing of the united force leads to a situation that leaves the younger people in a much worse situation than the first issue, and it’s clear that the story isn’t done, especially with the tag line of the next issue being the ‘epic conclusion’. It’s not clear is the first issue was always meant to be a first part of a trilogy, or if the decision to expand and continue the story came later. The end of the first issue could be read either as a conclusion or the beginning, so it’s hard to tell. If it’s always been the intention to have three parts of the story it does raise the question of how long we’ll have to wait for the final part, with an eighteen month wait between the first and second.

The art, by Bruno Stahl, is as good as the first issue, and may even be better. Some of the odd advertisement pages from the first issue are absent here, with more of a focus on the action and the characters, and Stahl is definitely at their best with that. Some of the best moments in the book are the larger panels, where you get to see crowds worshipping Pixie, or when Freydank leaps into battle against mechanical foes. It all looks great, and there’s nothing to be faulted with the art at all, and fans of gritty British comics will be sure to enjoy it.

With it unclear how long we’ll have to wait for the conclusion to the story it’s hard to know how excited to get. The story is decent, and the new elements introduced here are certainly interesting, but it might be worth waiting until the final piece of the story is out before becoming invested in the series.

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Nightwing #98 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

The last issue of Nightwing ended on something of a strange cliffhanger, Nightwing came face to face with Ric Grayson, the person he became when he was shot in the head and lost his memory. How was this possible? How are there two Dicks? Well, that gets answered pretty quickly in the latest issue as we learn that Ric is actually Night-Mite, a new fifth dimensional being with a love of Nightwing.

It was at this point that my heart sank, as I honestly really don't like the 5th dimensional characters. However, this seems to be another example of a comic trope that actually works well and ends up entertaining when you give it to Tom Taylor. Night-Mite is a bit silly, as all imps are, yet manages to never stray into annoying. Instead, he seems to want to celebrate everything Nightwing, as well as letting our hero know of a little girl in danger from the forces of Hell.

Over the course of the issue Night-Mite helps Dick to save the daughter of Blockbuster, who's had her soul sold to the devil, by giving his weapons a boost, and by giving him a new partner, Bite-Wing. Haley is always a character that I'm going to love seeing, and her inclusion in any Nightwing book is always great; but putting her in her own little Nightwing style costume, letting her talk so that she can tell Dick how much she loves him. Yeah, this is how you get me loving the book. And crying.

Whilst in the past other imps have left me feeling bored or irritated this time round it left me with a smile on my fave. Night-Mite feels like he's been thrown in as a celebration of Nightwing, as a way of reminding readers about parts of his history, and why we love the character. My only real criticism is that it feels like it comes out of nowhere, and happens in the middle of another story; but I had that much fun that I honestly didn't really care.

Everything in this issue looked great too, and the art team did a wonderful job. It was a ton of fun seeing old costumes and designs come back, as well as the Batgirl and Nightwing wedding outfits, and the design of Haley's costume. Together with the really fun and tightly written script the issue just felt great.

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Dark Crisis: World Without A Justice League - Batman #1 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

It's a shame that the final issue of the Dark Crisis: World Without A Justice League is possibly the worst one in the series, the one that kind of fails to fulfil the entire point of the series, and the one that fumbles things the most; both because it's the final one, and a bad ending can ruin a series, and because it's the Batman issue, the one people will have been waiting for the most.

The first story in this issue, the one that for some reason takes up 75% of the book rather than it being split equally, focuses on Batman. If you've been reading the main Dark Crisis title (which why wouldn't you if you're reading this book?) you'll have seen a bit of what Bruce's dream world is like; with him as some weird clockwork looking version of Batman.

Here we learn that his ideal dream world is a world where a psychic Joker virus swept across the globe and killed almost everyone alive, transforming them into violent Joker monsters. The last survivors of humanity are held up inside a highly advanced clockwork city ran by the mysterious Mr Wax. By day things are wonderful, but when the artificial sun goes down the less savoury come out to play.

Luckily, there's someone there to stop them doing too much damage, the vigilante killer called The Night. As we meet The Night, he thinks he's tracked down the person who killed his parents, but when it turns out to be a false lead he scans the city for clues and discovers something strange, he and MR Wax share the same DNA. Kidnapping the peaceful ruler of the city, the two men remove their masks and discover that they're both the man once known as Bruce Wayne. Working together, they discover how this is possible, and learn the disturbing truth of their origins.

So, these are supposed to be these heroes ideal worlds, the places where they can find peace and happiness. This has varied from person to person in how happy that can be, with some absolutely wonderful dream worlds, and others that do still see the heroes having to fight crime. But for the most part there are nice things in them that the heroes can find peace in. Not the case for Bruce.

This is a nightmare world. A world where people suffer, where the world is mostly dad, and neither Bruce nor Batman seem to be happy here. The way the story ends, it sees the characters locked in some endless cycle of violence, learning the truth, and losing their memories over and over. I'm sorry, but this seems to go against everything this series is supposed to be about, what these prison worlds are supposed to be. I also refuse to believe that Bruce's ideal world is him murdering people in the post-apocalypse, rather than having a decent life with his extended family. It just doesn't fit the character for me.

Added on to this, the world created here feels kind of bad. There are some interesting ideas, but not many of them seem to executed well. The narration feels like it's trying to seem more impressive than it is by putting intentional vagueness into things and overly flowery language. The designs are mostly dull and uninspired. The plot has some grains of an interesting idea, but just ends up being depressing and dark for the sake of it, with none of these versions of the characters feeling like who they're supposed to be. In short, I absolutely hated this. 

The Zatana story that rounds out the issue is relegated to only getting ten short pages, and in those pages we have no idea what Zatana's dream world is actually like. Zatana has godlike magic powers, and we see her reshaping her world, having a quick chat with Constantine, who's actually her in disguise, then she finds her father, has a quick hug with him, then gets picked up by the League who're escaping these fake worlds. 

What is her world actually supposed to be? It feels like we jumped in right at the tail end of things, right as she was messing with the fake world around her before she left, but I have no idea what this world was supposed to be, unless she was dumped into a void and created it all herself using her magic and was only there for 20 minutes; which if that's the case it doesn't seem to match up with any of the others at all, and makes no real sense.

Sadly, this entire issue feels like the writers either didn't understand what the series was supposed to be about and how the rules for these fake worlds have been working every other time, or simply just didn't care. Maybe it's because the main title is almost done and the series is nearly wrapped up, but it just feels like very little effort was put into this, and that it was essentially just phoned in. A real shame the series ended this way.

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Far Cry 3 – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Far Cry series is one that’s been through some unusual settings over the years. From fairly normal shooter, to dropping the player into the role of a caveman, to 80’s action movie pastiche, it’s done a little bit of everything. But during its early entries it still seemed to be trying to figure out what it wanted to be. The first game put players in the role of a former soldier who gets caught up in a mad scientist’s experiments on a remote island (with the remake having you become one of the experiments), and the first of the sequels putting you in the role of a mercenary in an unnamed African nation in the middle of a civil war, seemingly taking some inspiration from Heart of Darkness.

Despite the tonal differences between the first two games, there was one thing that they had in common: you were playing a character with a history of violence and killing. This seemed to be something that the team behind the new game, Far Cry 3, wanted to explore, as you were no longer put in control of a trained killer, but an ordinary man.

The story of Far Cry 3 places players in control of Jason Brody (Gianpaolo Venuta), who’s on vacation in Bangkok. You get a cut scene that shows Jason and his friends partying, drinking, and having fun, reinforcing that these are just your regular holidaying young adults. When the group go on a skydiving trip they accidentally land on the Rook Islands, a number of tropical islands that are home to a group of pirates led by the vicious Vaas Montenegro (Michael Mando). The group is captured and told that they’re going to be sold into slavery. When they attempt to escape Jason’s brother is apparently killed, forcing Jason to turn to violence to defend himself and escape.

Jason is later rescued by a member of the island’s native tribe, the Rakyat, who sees something in Jason. He gives Jason the Tatau, the tattoos worn by the Rakyat warriors, and encourages him to try and free his friends and stop Vaas. From here players are able to travel across the Rook Islands, taking on Vaas’ men in any way they want, in a journey that will see Jason go from a frightened party boy who fears violence, to a blood-soaked killer.

The story of Far Cry 3 was a big focus for the development team, and they wanted to create an experience that felt different to the previous entries in the franchise. Part of this was done by making the setting much brighter and more vibrant than the second game, more closely resembling the first. The brightness and beauty of the Rook Islands was an intentional decision that they hoped would contrast with the darkness of the story that they were crafting. The team wanted a story that would test the players’ sense of morals, and as such didn’t include a morality system in the game that would chart the players progress, instead wanting this to be something that the player didn’t think about until Jason himself was confronted with it.

There are several times during the game when Jason, who by then will have killed dozens of pirates and killers in order to help save his friends, is confronted by the reality of what he’s doing. His friends will see the transformation in him as he slowly becomes more tolerant of killing, and is even accused of enjoying it. These moments were designed to make the player question the morality of what Jason is doing, and if killing to be a hero makes you any better than the people that you yourself are killing. This story was praised when the game was released, and critics seemed to enjoy the fact that this wasn’t just another shooter that put you in control of a soldier who doesn’t even think about the consequences of their actions, but is directly challenged about them.

To help balance out the questions of morality, the game introduced an incredibly memorable villain in the form of Vaas. Originally designed as a huge, hulking figure, the entire character was redesigned when actor Michael Mando auditioned for the part. Mando delivered such a unique performance that the creative team remade the character to better accommodate him, and his acting. The decision seemed to be a good one, as Vaas quickly became one of the most memorable video game antagonists in history. Not long after the game was released he became instantly recognisable, becoming something of a face of the franchise. A four-part web series starring Mando as Vaas was also released, which only helped to cement his character and performance in audience’s minds.

Far Cry 3 received rave reviews upon release, and had high scores from the majority of publications that praised the story, game design, and experience, saying that it was a huge improvement over the last entry in the series. The game sold well at launch, though Ubisoft would claim that it did not perform as well as they were hoping. Despite this, it sold more than ten million copies, and sat comfortably in the top ten selling games around its release and Christmas.

Thanks to the success of Far Cry 3 the franchise became a hugely popular series, and many of the features that were introduced in this entry would go on to become staples of the series that have been used in almost every game that has come since. Whilst the other entries in the series have done well both commercially and critically, none have really received the recognition and acclaim that this game did, and even a decade later it remains the most memorable entry in the franchise.

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Nightmare at Noon (1988) – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Nightmare at Noon is the latest Blu-ray release from Arrow Video that brings a little-known piece of film history to new audiences, and this time it really does feel like the kind of movie that people perhaps forgot on purpose.

Nightmare at Noon tells the story of the small rural town of Canyonland, an isolated community in the desert of Utah. When the film begins, we witness a pair of mysterious black vans approach the local reservoir, where an albino scientist, played by B-movie regular Brion James, proceeds to fire some kind of glowing green chemical into the water using a fancy gun. Just pouring it in is too simple it seems. Any possibility that they’e working for the water company is put to bed when a local comes along to find out what they’re doing, and they gun him down.

A few days later we encounter a vacationing couple, Ken (Wings Hauser) and his wife Cheri (Kimberly Beck). They are travelling in the area when they stop to pick up Reiley (Bo Hopkins), a hitchhiker. The three of them stop off in Canyonland to grab some lunch, but when one of the local residents attacks the waitress, stabbing her through the hand, Ken and Reiley end up getting involved in a fight that smashes up the diner, and ends up with them literally thrown out into the street. The crazed local ends up shot in the leg, bleeding green, and is arrested.

But this seems to only be the start of the chaos then is to ensue, as other members of the population begin acting violently, attacking anyone they can. Cars crash and explode, parents chase after their own kids with knives, and gunfights break out across town. All of this is being watched by the mysterious albino, who also erects a magnetic field around the town to stop anyone being able to drive out and go for help. As Canyonland descends into violent chaos, Ken and Riley have to work with the local sheriff and his daughter in order to survive the ordeal.

Nightmare at Noon has a fairly simple premise: a town’s water supply is poisoned, and it turns anyone who drinks the water into a violent maniac who has to kill anyone they see.  It’s the perfect excuse for violence and chaos, with action, fist fights, explosions, and guns galore to fill the movie’s runtime. The trailer, which is included on the disc as an extra, seems to sell the movie on this concept, and is packed full of these moments. Unfortunately, whilst the trailer makes the film appear to be a violent action epic, the actual film is much less so. Large portions of the movie are quiet scenes, where the characters talk through their issues and the situation at hand.

This choice of focus ends up being to the film’s detriment, as you end up becoming bored through these quieter moments. None of the characters are particularly memorable or likeable, and the film doesn’t seem to want to spend these moments getting you invested in them. There’s a scene where Ken has to consider killing Cheri, who’s locked in a cell, infected, where he’s breaking down crying at the pressure of the choice in front of him. In most films this would be a harrowing moment, one where you feel truly awful for the character; but here you don’t. It just feels like another scene of padding.

When the action does finally come it often seems little thought out, and other than one or two moments where a fun gag has been included, like a police cruiser crushing a woman, or a flaming man making a van explode, things feel fairly standard – other than every vehicle in town exploding when hit by a slight breeze, that is. This scenario is the perfect opportunity to try something different, to showcase a different kind of action scene, yet it never seems to want to do anything other than play it safe. There are even a few action moments that go on for too long, and begin to stray into boring; something that no action scene should ever do.

Despite the interesting premise, the film fails to really do much, and ends up feeling a lot longer than its 90-minute runtime. It feels as though none of the actors really care about the project, the script is all over the place, and small choices such as turning people green or using a lightsaber sound-effect for a gadget strike as unusual.

The extras on the disc feel pretty bare bones too, and other than the trailer it comes with behind-the-scenes footage, a featurette with the director on the making of the film, and some on-set interviews filmed at the time of production. It’s not very surprising that there isn’t a huge wealth of extra features for a film such as this, but with a lack of commentary tracks or new interviews – as you come to expect from an Arrow release – it feels very light on the ground.

Nightmare at Noon is an odd film that is sure to have an audience out there somewhere, but likely an incredibly niche one. If you’ve been waiting for this film to get a Blu-ray release this is your lucky day, but if you’re an average watcher and are just looking for something to buy from Arrow’s new releases then this might be worth skipping.

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Godzilla Rivals: vs Gigan #1 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The one-shot comic series Godzilla Rivals is slowly making its way through some of the biggest names in the Godzilla franchise, having brought the King of the Monsters up against Mothra, King Ghidorah, and more. This issue it’s everyone’s favourite cyborg space chicken, Gigan!

As with the previous entries in the series, this issue is set within its own continuity, picking and choosing which parts of the Godzilla mythos to include. In this world it seems like the Earth has been relatively peaceful for a while, with no real sightings of Godzilla in decades. It’s in this peaceful world that we meet Nancy, a computer scientist working in cyber security, and her younger brother Joaquin. Whilst Nancy is out working all day her teenage brother seems to spend his time shut away in the house, playing video games.

The quiet night that the two of them have planned is interrupted, however, when they hear news that Gigan is attacking the Seattle Bay area, and that Godzilla is there trying to stop him. The fight comes with an accompanying transmission from some insectoid aliens, who announce that they’re using Gigan to conquer the world. As Nancy watches on in horror Joaquin refuses to care, focusing on his video games. Luckily, together, the two of them might just figure out a way to help Godzilla to save the planet.

Most of the other issues of Godzilla Rivals have offered something unique: the issue with Mothra was a fairly traditional adventure; the Ghidorah issue saw Godzilla battling monsters in an alien arena; and the Battra one had a message about ecological dangers. Each one was trying to be something different to the others, and had pretty clear identities. But I don’t really know what this issue wanted to be. To talk about it in more depth, it will involve some spoilers.

Over the course of the issue, Nancy learns that the aliens controlling Gigan are feeding him combat data from everyone on the planet playing a certain brand of video games; using the online connection to send Gigan fighting moves. She will eventually use this to help win the day, by hacking in from her living room and ruining the system. This is a pretty unexciting story, and watching a couple of people on their sofa typing on a laptop or playing a video game doesn’t add a whole lot of excitement or awe. The fact that it doesn’t make much sense either doesn’t help. Video games have their moves pre-programmed into them, so just the games existing should give Gigan access to the moves. Yet somehow players doing them allow him to, and when no one is playing the game Gigan just stops. I read through this a couple of times, and still don’t understand how this was supposed to work.

The writer seems to try to add more drama into the high stakes finale of not playing a video game, by continually hammering home throughout the issue that Joaquin retreating into gaming after losing a family member in 9/11. Joaquin refuses to watch the news because he doesn’t want to see more buildings destroyed, and focuses instead on his games and keeps playing. So when he has to save the world by not playing a video game it’s treated as some huge moment full of emotional angst, and it just doesn’t land at all. I’m sure the panel of the game controller hitting the floor, discarded, is supposed to be seen as some huge moment, but it feels almost ridiculous. Well done kid, you helped save the planet with the grand task of not playing a game.

The inclusion of 9/11 in a world where buildings are regularly destroyed and broken down feels very weird too, and it almost feels jarring. It’s like the time Marvel Comics had Doctor Doom crying because of 9/11 like he hasn’t killed thousands of people himself. It’s like tonal whiplash that throws you out of the story. Perhaps in a different genre it would work, but in a Kaiju story a building being destroyed is nothing unusual, and shoehorning a real-world tragedy in like that feels so out of place.

Outside of that, the fights between Godzilla and Gigan are the only parts of the book that are enjoyable to read, and the combat between them is done surprisingly well. The creative team make good use of the versatility of Gigan, having him deploy most of his tricks at some point or another. The art team of Sid VenBlu, and Valentina Pinot make it all look dynamic and action packed, and the panel of Gigan squaring off against Godzilla whilst using an aircraft carrier as a shield was particularly cool.

Overall, Godzilla Rivals: vs Gigan was the first real disappointment of the series. The fight between the monsters was great, but the story and how everything unfolded was borderline ridiculous to the point of almost feeling like a bad parody. Hopefully the next issue in the series will be an improvement.

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