#they are both colourful and teen main characters and cool fighting scenes

[abbeyofcyn]

Spiderman across the spiderverse was AMAZING.

I loved it so much. They upped the artistic/ creative 2d/3d parts and I didn't know that was possible and BOY was it good.

Honestly, the colours and action in the rottmnt trailer was what made me watch rottmnt the movie and I think I just love color for someone who wears black 9/10 times and has no idea how to colour.

But that's totally unrelated. Watch spiderman if you can!!!

[constantlyirksome]

Are you Cool Enough to Join the Umbrella Academy? (Season 1, no spoiler review.

Have you heard the one about the astronaut, the talking monkey and the violinist? Last week Netflix released it’s newest superhero offering, “The Umbrella Academy,” originally an indie comic written by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance fame. Published by Dark Horse Comics, this is one of the first adaptions from an independent publisher, untethered to the Marvel or DC cinematic universe. Publishers aside The Umbrella Academy has enough unique style and story element to attract anyone suffering from SHFF (SuperHero Film Fatigue.) The story revolves around a family of six siblings, born across the globe to mothers who weren’t pregnant the day before, who all possess certain super human talents. Brought together by a careless billionaire scientist who wanted to build an army of super children, the now estranged siblings have to come together once again when their dear old dad kicks the bucket. As family secrets are revealed, tensions between the group become palpable, as they struggle to deal with past traumas, while trying to come together to save the world from a deadly fate. For the most part the six siblings are all very unique, from both each other and a lot of the other types of heroes you’d see from the Big Two studio. There’s Luther (Tom Hopper), an astronaut with super human strength. Alison (Emmy Raver-Lapman) is a glamorous movie star, who has built her life using her power to persuade others to do what she wants. Diego is an expert knife thrower who still moonlights as a vigilante. Klaus (Robert Sheehan), the family’s black sheep, is a drug addict who can talk to dead people. Vanya (Ellen Page) is the only sibling with no evident superpowers and is told by her father often and at length that she is nothing special. Number 5 is a time and space traveller who disappeared when the group were little, and he reappears in the present, looking just like the 13 year old who disappeared decades earlier. There was a seventh sibling, Ben (Justin H. Min) who died mysteriously while 5 was absent, and is now a ghost who can only talk to Klaus. He was the strongest, able to conjure ancient beasts from his skin to smash up bad guys. The central plot revolves around an upcoming apocalypse prophesized by five to happen in one week. Sometimes this main plot point becomes a little thin in early episodes as the siblings are distracted with their own troubles, and a clear way forward isn’t really established until mid way through. The second half pushes forward hard and fast as the apocalypse approaches, and relationships begin to splinter. While the first few episodes lack clear purpose they act as a good six origin stories, which help the season feel like both a beginning, there’s enough action and intent to make it a possible stand alone if there are no more seasons. As superpowers go the group have a pretty stacked deck. In a team there are usually a few cool powers and a few trained assassins, or a super genius. The members of the Academy however are all strong, powers honed by their strict father to be the perfect weapons. Super strength isn’t anything new but Luther makes up for it with a super ego and a super sense of self-importance. Diego is the Hawkeye of the group power wise personally if I had siblings who could conjure the dead or teleport, throwing knives would seem pretty lame. Each sibling carries on their own side story, the outlines how their powers have in some way or another ruined their lives. Obviously Ben had it the worst because he, well, died but most of the others have highly compelling stories. Alison used her powers on too many wrong people, leaving her personal life in shambles. Klaus, so haunted and terrorised by the dead, had to take up drugs to drown out the noise. Number 5 was ripped away from his family and spent, let’s just say, a lengthy amount of time trying to get back, and is now being hunted down by time cops Cha-Cha (Mary J Blige) and Hazel (Cameron Britton.) Diego and Luther however lack any sort of story worth getting teary over. Perpetual man children who never grew out of wanting to be the hero, they spend much of the season bickering, swinging their metaphorical dicks around and generally not helping the situation. While David Casteñeda does an admirable job of injecting Diego with some much needed heart, Luther’s character falls flat in almost every category. You almost want to root against him the way he mistreats people and feels sorry for himself. (Fake looking muscles and a weird sub-plot with incestuous undertones don’t help at all. Technicalities or no, the uncomfortable relationship between Luther and Allison is creepy and makes both characters slightly off-putting. While Aidan Gallagher plays Number five with a perfect mix of teenage snark and a world weariness that comes only after you’ve seen some shit, it’s Page and Sheehan who carry much of the seasons emotional heavy lifting. Sheehan, known mainly for his roll as the scene stealing Nathan from the show Misfits, once again steals the show as Klaus. Kooky yet troubled, hilarious yet haunted, the actor is mesmerising as he stumbles, high usually, through life. Without knowing his full backstory you can tell, through glances or certain lines, that this character is deeply disturbed, and not just a token junkie. He also is one half of the most touching, if not woefully under-developed, relationships toward the end of the series as Number 5’s time hopping shenanigans start to affect his siblings. Ellen Page, (think Juno) as Vanya is the character most grounded in reality, having grown up “normal” Page is perfect as a tired, shunted sister, the perfect person to stand in the middle of some of the seasons juicer plot points. Having written a book about her mistreatment as a child, Vanya is alienated from the rest of the family, is while sometimes morose also very raw. Page wearily moves through scenes with characters that are far whackier, but still holds her own. When the main story focuses, and Vanya takes centre stage, her inner turmoil and fractured relationships make for some of the seasons most gripping scenes. The world in which the siblings live is bleak, grimy and wild. Most scenes take place in run down diners or hotels, or in the decaying facades of the family mansion, with just enough colour and intrigue to keep the show from becoming depressing or drab. During flashback scenes the group, as children, wear matching school uniform in a kooky, Tim Burton like house. There are scenes on the moon, in glamorous Hollywood events, and gnarly apocalyptic wastelands that keep the settings fresh. The influence of comic writer Gerard Way comes through in the children’s uniforms, the matching black umbrellas and the architecture of the mansion, you can sometimes see how the comic was created by the same man who sang the Black Parade. Costuming does an excellent job chiselling out the identities of the siblings. The glamorous Allison in her red carpet dresses, the unassuming Vanya in her drab denims, and he badass Diego who wears all black. However, Klaus beats them all, as in every scene he’s wearing a new whacky ensemble, perfectly matching feminine and masculine, none of the pieces like skirts, flowy jackets or crop tops seemingly go together, but it works. Cha-Cha and Hazel steal their costumes straight out of Fortnite, the contrast between their cop uniforms and their giant animal head helmets is hilarious and unsettling. While the plot sometimes stretches a little thin between characters, The Umbrella Academy succeeds in breaking the traditional superhero tropes by imbuing the characters with more depth, personality beyond gruff tortured crusaders, and individual styles that both ground them, and elevate them so that they remain sympathetic. Not out as actual heroes since their teens, their humanity makes every fight or drama more climactic. As the apocalypse comes closer and the tension builds, it’s never actually certain that the siblings will actually win against whatever or whoever causes the apocalypse. The future of the show, whether it will get renewed or not, and the future of the world may remain uncertain it’s definitely worth exploring the futures of each of these characters. How will they and their powers grow? Will we ever find out how Luther got to the moon? Why was their dad such a dick? Watch this new season and you will definitely want to find out. Also their butler is a talking monkey named Pogo.

[hellyes-tommccamus]

Mutant X [TV] (2001-2004)

S01E16 “Interface”

[spoilers]

Sci-fi/action

Tom McCamus plays a main role in season 1

The episode opens with Emma fighting GS Agents in a shopping mall. Shalimar drops in to help and the two of them kick ass without losing any of their shopping. I initially thought this scene was filmed at The Eaton Centre but it is actually the Cineplex on the other side of Yonge Street.

The establishing shots for the safe house look like they were done at a TTC station. Brennan and Jesse are investigating after the GSA broke in and took some of the New Mutants who were staying there. They wonder why suddenly they are getting better at breaking into their safe houses.

Mason reprimands Mr Delay (Chris Owens), naturally his newest second in command, for the shopping centre debacle. He begins to congratulate him on the successful raids on safehouses, but Michelle Bigelow (Danielle Hampton) walks in and rightfully claims the credit for herself. Mason asks her what her career goals are, and she answers as any interview candidate wishes they could, that she wants his job. If we didn’t already expect guest stars to not last the episode, we would straight away know that she has no chance.

Emma checks the CCTV footage from the safehouse and sees that her old school friend Michelle is working for the GSA. Adam discusses Emma’s friend with Jesse. He says she is a psionic telecyber, who can interface directly with computers. Adam says he was involved in some experiments splicing DNA with computer chips. And we thought Adam claimed to have not been aware of being involved in anything dodgy at Genomex? Or has he given up being in denial by this point?

Emma goes looking on the internet for info on her old friend. Thankfully her school was super high tech for the time. I’m guessing Emma is supposed to be in her early twenties so would have graduated a couple of years ago. So her school had a website in 1999? I guess with the other technology we see in the show maybe it’s supposed to be set in the near future. Emma finds an old photo of her and Michelle and decides to go and meet her.

Michelle’s boss comes and tells her off for making his look stupid in front of his boss. Just when I was complaining during the last episode that there is no visible chain of command at Genomex! I guess nobody is surprised that they are slave drivers when Michelle mentions that she is working the evening. She demonstrates her power by diving into the computer. It’s definitely an interesting power. As technology evolves we are becoming closer to machines, and perhaps soon we will all have the power to directly control computers, either transferring our consciousness into them or allowing them into our minds.

Michelle is interrupted by an instant message from Emma. I must say I don’t recall using instant messaging when the show aired. It’s commonplace now, but back then it was all chatrooms and message boards and emails. Instant messaging apparently existed for a long time before this, and with both Mutant X and Genomex being far ahead of the curve, of course they would have it.

Emma is at an internet cafe, remember those? I always thought they were uber cool and modern, but never actually used one as I was lucky enough to have home access to the internet earlier than most people. Michelle seems happy to hear from Emma and invites her to webcam chat. And I have to mention that these were the days when webcams were poor quality, bulky cameras that we had to perch precariously on top of our old CRT monitors. Flat screens weren’t commonplace then.

Brennan laughs at the thought of connecting to a computer mentally, but Jesse likes the idea. But their conversation goes no further a GSA agent (Bradley James Allan) infiltrates the safehouse again. The martial artists/stunt people playing nameless GS Agents really deserve some kudos. The simulation dissolves and we find ourselves back in Sanctuary.

Emma is harassed by a complete stranger and tells him she isn’t alone but waiting for someone. She’s just about to leave when Michelle shows up onscreen. Michelle isn’t keen, but Emma convinces her to come and meet her.

Jesse complains to Adam about the simulations not preparing them for real life fights. Adam reveals something worrying: he has programmed the simulations with free will. Which is kinda neat, but is it morally right or safe? Adam guesses rather smugly that Jesse had trouble playing video games as a kid. Which is kinda surprising, I guess you expect computer whizzes to also be master gamers.

The shocks keep coming. Our good girl Emma is actually a thieving manipulator. She meets with Michelle and they talk about how Emma used to use her powers to steal people’s coffee then Michelle would turn off the lights so they could escape. Apparently they did this all the time and didn’t get caught. And they do it when they meet up this time. It’s not particularly surprising that a couple of New Mutant teens would mess with people like that, but seeing her do it in the present is a bit out of character. Sure, Mutant X are far from being whiter than white, but petty theft seems just unnecessary. Then she has the nerve to look down on her friend for joining “the dark side”.

Brennan and Shalimar have a conversation about simulations. Brennan is reading a GSA training file on a device that looks like a modern cell phone in a flip case. It’s odd how with time science fiction technology moves into being part of normal life.

Michelle and Emma have an interesting conversation about the morality of Mutant X and the GSA. But then some more GS Agents show up and take Emma away.

Jesse and Adam talk about studying and tests. Adam reveals he went to college at 12. The fact that he was a child genius probably comes as a surprise to no-one, and with the ages of some of his test subjects, he would have had to start working at a Genomex at a very young age. Perhaps even before he graduated. I don’t believe he’s ever actually called doctor at any point, but I think we can assume he has at least one doctorate.

Shalimar and Brennan set off to rescue Emma. Adam makes a good point in telling them to find out where she is being held before they go in. Genomex is a large place, and too often we see them run in there and conveniently end up where they need to be. There is far less wandering down random corridors than there would be in reality. Meanwhile Adam is looking at Michelle’s DNA somehow. When exactly was he supposed to have taken a sample? And he says it is going through a shift - an emotional one. Sorry Adam, DNA doesn’t actually contain emotions. Those are definitely stored in the structure of the brain.

Michelle marches Emma through the corridors of Genomex while Emma tries to change her friend’s mind about working there. She suggests Michelle has a look at what is in the computers. As if she wouldn’t have already looked. If she’s quite happy to use her powers to steal, why would she not? I think they forgot to book extras for this shoot because the place is absolutely empty.

For some reason they have to actually sneak into Mason’s office for Michelle to get into the computer system. Couldn’t she do it remotely? Michelle mentions that Emma broke into the dean’s office and stole his furniture. So her past was as a kleptomaniac with no reason? For some reason Michelle has to unlock the door. It’s usually open. In a place you’d expect to have high security, it actually varies between none and some that is easily broken into. Mason’s touchscreen iMac was pure science fiction in those days, but again, would be considered ordinary now. I recall seeing being amazed at seeing demonstrations of touchscreens for the first time around the time this series first aired. Michelle sees something shocking on the computer, we don’t get to find out what.

The girls are spotted by a lab technician. Usually the corridors are full of them (for no good reason other than to make the place look extra sciencey, like the test tubes full of coloured liquids). Emma thinks they’re in trouble. Probably they would be fine. In a large company, most staff do not know or particularly care who is supposed to be where. Michelle deactivates Emma’s sub dermal governor, which is always accompanied by some sparks, and she makes the solitary lab tech think he has seen nothing. Which is more like casting an illusion than messing with emotions, but I think we’ve already been there.

Emma calls Adam. And as we’re on the topic of science fiction tech becoming ordinary, the commlink rings work in a similar manner to Bluetooth headsets or the Apple Watch. Surprise surprise, Mason appears as they try to leave. Actually accompanied by three security guards this time. They let themselves be taken away. Where to, we don’t know. There is so much seemingly pointless walking in Mutant X. Is it supposed to give the impression that the story is moving quickly? There’s seriously few scenes where people have a conversation while standing still. They use the same trick as in the coffee shop and disappear. The dialogue is quite embarrassingly bad in these scenes. It sounds like a first draft that they never rewrote to sound less like a bad comic book.

In the next scene we see Jesse and Adam having coffee. And the cups are obviously empty from the way they hold them. I find that quite funny as I now know from experience how easy it is to forget how to convincingly use everyday objects while on camera. Michelle arrives at Sanctuary. Adam is concerned that they may have been “tinkering with her DNA” at Genomex, despite the fact that that is what he did and continues to do. He makes a terrible social blunder in suggesting she may have emotional problems. I think that is about the worst, most insulting thing you can say to someone’s face. But she says that she has no emotions and is turning into a computer. Then she uses a new power we’ve never seen before to knock Adam off his feet. So many New Mutants seem to have whatever power plus extra bonus telekinesis!

Then in what is most definitely the worst example of CG in the show so far, she transforms into a computer woman. Emma fights her by mentally forcing emotions on her. They could have actually made this into a touching scene if they had Emma mentally remind Michelle of their friendship. But never mind. Somehow she loses her clothes in her transformation.

Mr Delay (whose first name we never learn) disturbs Mason who is having a nap at his desk. Well, who is going to tell him not to? He reports that they have lost contact with Michelle. Mason tells him he can keep his job for a little while longer. Wouldn’t that be his cue to run, now? Surely he must have heard that nobody is merely fired from the GSA?

Adam has done some nonspecific permanent fix to Michelle’s DNA and all is fine now. Emma makes up with the team and they all have sushi. I would have liked to see more of Michelle’s power. It seemed a bit of a waste to only see her using it to turn out lights and hack into computers.