Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Is it as good of a video game film as the first one, or does it fail to match its predecessor?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Directed by Jeff Fowler

Written by Pat Casey (screenplay and story), Josh Miller (screenplay and story), and John Whittington (screenplay)

Starring Ben Schwartz (Sonic), Jim Carrey (Dr. Robotnik), James Marsden (Tom Wachowski), Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski), Natasha Rothwell (Rachel), Adam Pally (Wade Whipple), Shemar Moore (Randall), Lee Majdoub (Stone), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (Miles "Tails" Prower) and Idris Elba (Knuckles)

Synopsis: After settling in Green Hills, Sonic is eager to prove that he has what it takes to be a true hero. His test comes when Dr. Robotnik returns with a new partner, Knuckles, in search of a mystical emerald that has the power to destroy civilizations. Sonic teams up with his own sidekick, Tails, and together they embark on a globe-trotting journey to find the emerald before it falls into the wrong hands.

WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW

STORYTELLING SUBJECTS

STORY: B+

Picking up from the last film, this movie jumps straight into "How is Robotnik coming back to Earth?" He manages to get out of the mushroom planet with some help from Knuckles, who is searching for Sonic for reasons that, naturally, get explored as the film progresses. Long story short, the Echidna tribe that was hunting Sonic and Longclaw in the first film was doing so to obtain the Master Emerald. Longclaw was part of a group of owls feuding with the tribe Knuckles belongs to and has hidden it on Earth, which is why she suggested Sonic go there, so he could take on the burden of protecting it. Knuckles also thinks it is his destiny and responsibility to obtain it. Meanwhile, Robotnik is just looking for the power itself and revenge on Sonic, who is struggling with a sense of responsibility in a different right, wanting to be a vigilante ("Blue Justice") and needs to learn how to be a true hero, rather than just use his powers for kicks. Oh, and Tails is there to...well, cause it's Sonic 2 and you need Tails, so he just popped up, mostly. He's the second-weakest part of the film, with the worst being the side plot about Rachel's setup for a wedding to Randall—a government agent tasked to infiltrate the family to see what's going on with the Wachowskis and Sonic.

For the most part, I think this is rock solid. My only suggestions would have been to trim the entire bar sequence and dance number, as that just slowed the pacing down to a halt and achieved nothing that the Sonic/Tails relationship couldn't have accomplished elsewhere, and to outright nix the wedding subplot. I know that was likely cooked up in part to excuse why Tom and Maddie aren't going on the journey with Sonic from the start and to quite literally give Rachel "something to do", but nobody is going to this movie for that plot. In fact, in the theater I was watching it, someone outright booed one of the scenes.

It's a logical progression to go for the Knuckles story and to, as Tom says it, give Sonic some friends he can identify with to round out this family. Since the first movie did the heavy lifting for a lot of the character-work, this one could simply hit the ground running. Overall, I enjoyed this story even more than the first.

And like everything that is mentioned here, keep in mind that this is not some Oscar-caliber film, but that's okay. A movie doesn't have to be in The Criterion Collection to still be a fun flick, especially when it's primarily for kids and fans of the franchise to just shut off their brains and have a good time. 

CHARACTERS: B

All the previous characters return in the same form as before. If you liked them the first time, you'll like them here. I do think Rachel's character was funnier the first time around, as she was written in a way most sequels suffer, wherein they amped up her "cooky factor" and went overboard, though.

Knuckles was a treat. Writing him as a super serious character to the point where he's almost dim from narrow-mindedness (lines like wondering what a baseball did to become his enemy and why he should hit it when they're just playing a game, for instance), was a lot of fun. His lines were easily my favorite of the movie.

Tails, unfortunately, was not. "Only Sonic the Hedgehog could (insert something normal)" Yeesh. I've always liked the Tails character in theory, but he definitely falls into the annoying kid sidekick trope in that practically everything he says or does comes off either too hokey or, well, childish. But hey, I'm in my 30s and this is a kids film, so maybe kids identify with him. He's supposed to be the younger brother archetype in a sense, who hero-worships Sonic, which is translated, but I just found the actual dialogue to be a little spotty.

As stated, the subplot of the wedding was a low point. Shemar Moore is great in a lot of things, but his whole "Actually, I might have fallen in love with Rachel on this assignment" trope was so eye-rolling Hallmark-esque bad. He served really no purpose and a tighter movie without that would have been better. I have some suggestions I'll get to later of how I would have potentially fixed this, with the benefit of hindsight.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: B

ACTION: Solid action. Better than the first film, for sure.

DRAMA: The melodrama is still there, with lines coming across a bit too "after school special" in some ways, but for kids, it works.

COMEDY: This definitely isn't a movie that would make everyone laugh, and some jokes just fell entirely flat as they were purely "Hey, that's the thing!" type references, or just a little too juvenile for my tastes, but I did chuckle here and there.

ROMANCE: Nix the wedding angle, entirely. Other than that, there is no romance, but that's not what this film is going for, so that would have been okay to cut that and have zero romance angles.

TECHNICAL SUBJECTS

ACTING: C

Everyone is hamming it up. Some dialogue comes off stiff because of how Lifetime the melodrama can be. But everyone works to get the point across and Jim Carrey is the show-stealer once again.

Part of me thinks Jason Momoa, the original choice for Knuckles, would have been better. We'll see if he voices Shadow and if it doesn't sound like Idris Elba would have been better for that as a reversal.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): C+

Overall, the visuals are better this time than before, but there is still a bit of a disconnect for me with Sonic blending into the real world. Whenever he's interacting with something and they've made a CGI photo-realistic version of it (like the underwear in the first one), you can just tell something looks a little off.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): A–

So many missed opportunities. Tom Holkenborg has done some great stuff, but I would have loved to hear orchestral blends of previous tracks in the environments inspired by levels from the games. How is Sonic snowboarding and we're not hearing a symphony belt out Ice Cap Zone?!

EXTRA CREDIT

MARKETING / TRAILERS / POLITICS / SERIES DIRECTION / ETC: A

References are key here. We get Super Sonic, the Chaos Emeralds, the little hologram of Sonic makes the annoyed waiting animation, "Mean Bean" is the coffee shop as a reference to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Sonic drinking the air bubble under water, the red airplane, and so on. Those are the moments that made the dedicated fans pop with joy, and that's what this was all about.

MISSING ELEMENTS, ALTERNATIVE IDEAS & SONIC 3'S FUTURE

One thing that was missing from the film that I feel should have been in it is Casino Night Zone. Why not have Tom and Maddie go to Las Vegas, rather than Hawaii, and you could tie that into there? It's not as if that doesn't have famous architecture that would be interesting to see characters zip around. Maybe say that they "won" an all-expenses paid trip there, if you want to get them out of the film, and have it turn out the government set that up to try to spy on Sonic without their involvement. Hell, you could even still play into the idea of a government agent trying to work his way into learning something with the family by having him pose as a random person who bumps into Rachel and works his magic with her, and they have an impromptu Vegas wedding, if you want the gag with the rings. Just a thought.

No love for Marble Zone? Disappointing.

I've always been fond of Nack the Weasel (aka Fang the Sniper...not sure why he has two names, when they could have just called him Fang the Weasel if they didn't want "Sniper" to be part of it). Maybe he can pop up in #3?

I think they missed an opportunity to have a robotic Sonic created by Robotnik. Have it start off all silver and then look more like the Mecha/Metal versions that are more blue and such.

Shadow isn't a character I'm all that interested in. The same goes for Silver. That's all from a generation that is beyond me. I'm less excited about the third film than the second, but I'll still be seeing it.

By the way...what is up with those hunters? We didn't get any explanation for them that I missed, right? Weird. Maybe that should have tied more into the animated show's robots, instead.

FINAL GRADE & ASSESSMENT

GRADE: B+ (Pass)

You know what you're getting into with this movie. If you liked the first film, I can't imagine you're going to dislike this one. To be honest, I liked this one better, in a lot of ways. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in checking it out, as it is one of the best video game films out there. It's not going to win any Oscars, but that's okay; especially when you think about the last Academy Award winning movie that you truly wanted to watch a second time.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FILM?

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for the latest DC film and sequel to Suicide Squad, oddly enough entitled The Suicide Squad (2021).

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Written and Directed by James Gunn

STARRING: Idris Elba (Robert DuBois / Bloodsport), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), John Cena (Christopher Smith / Peacemaker), Joel Kinnaman (Colonel Rick Flag), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Daniela Melchior (Ratcatcher 2), David Dastmalchian (Polka-Dot Man), Peter Capaldi (Thinker), Alice Braga (Sol Soria), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Michael Rooker (Savant), Nathan Fillion (T.D.K.), Pete Davidson (Blackguard), Sean Gunn (Weasel / Calendar Man), Taika Waititi (Ratcatcher), Flula Borg (Javelin), Mayling Ng (Mongal), Dee Bradley Baker (Sebastian), and Sylvester Stallone (Nanaue / King Shark)

WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW

STORYTELLING SUBJECTS

STORY: B

Considering the general premise of the Suicide Squad team is always "Task Force X is made up of a bunch of villains and antiheroes who are sent on a deadly mission and let's have fun watching them take out the bad guy or achieve their goal", you know what you're getting into when you see this film. It's not the most intricate story in the world with a complex weave and tons of twists.

With that being said, that's not to say this was bad on a story side of things. Again, I knew full well what I was getting into and it served its purpose well.

I do deduct some points for copying a similar story to what Deadshot had with Bloodsport. It sort of feels as though Deadshot's character was meant to return, Will Smith didn't/couldn't, and instead of recasting the role and getting backlash, they just did a "replace all" in their Word doc and changed the character name, added one scene of "He's a jerk to his daughter, though" and said "Good enough." That part of the story was weak for me.

The overall redemption arc for the characters works. The mission for Starro is good enough, even if the villains leave much to be desired. It's a solid B.

CHARACTERS: A–

An ensemble film like this lends itself to having tons of characters—some of which are great, others are just okay.

The least of the bunch would be Mongal. She contributed nothing, wasn't memorable and I doubt anyone would consider her a better character than even Milton.

The core cast and some of the supporting ones, though, are great. Peacemaker was definitely my favorite character of the bunch. Ratcatcher 2 was surprisingly endearing. I liked Rick Flag better this time around than last time. Harley Quinn is always a win. King Shark was awesome. Polka-Dot Man stole the show in many scenes.

Alice Braga's character? Pass. The temporary team like T.D.K. were great for their bits. Weasel, too. It was good to see Captain Boomerang back, but I think he was a bit wasted and mostly just brought in for a surprising kill.

Again, points taken away for the villains. I couldn't even tell you any of their names.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: A–

ACTION: Great action sequences that were fun from start to finish. Solid A.

DRAMA: This film doesn't take itself too seriously, so the dramatic elements aren't as strong as something that's a legitimate drama. If you judge it based off that, it's about a C.

COMEDY: Absolute A+. This was the film's strength, to no surprise.

ROMANCE: While it doesn't technically classify as romance in a traditional sense, I think the Harley love sequence stuff went on a little bit too long for what it was worth and the father/daughter relationship between Bloodsport and Ratcatcher was fine, but a bit forced.

TECHNICAL SUBJECTS

ACTING: B

Everyone nails their parts. I just can't score it higher because there aren't any Academy Award performances in this film.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A

All the characters looked great. The practical effects were impressive and the CGI wasn't wonky. Nothing at all to complain about. King Shark was delightful. Starro was cool.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): B–

Some of the placement of the songs was fantastic, but I can't tell you many songs that stuck with me beyond the music that played when King Shark was looking at the other fish in the fish tank. I'll be grabbing the score at some point and I might end up changing this rating based on listening to it outside of the film itself, and upon a rewatch of the movie.

The audio itself, I saw no problems with. Then again, I know nothing about sound design/mixing, so unless it's bad and problematic, I just write it off as a good thing.

EXTRA CREDIT

I hate the title. You shouldn't have two films where one is the same title but with just "The" in front of it. It should have been called something else with a subtitle (just not "Suicide Squad: Reloaded")

The marketing was very faithful to the movie. It didn't disappoint or paint a dishonest picture.

FINAL GRADE & ASSESSMENT

GRADE: A– (Pass)

This movie was a TON of fun. It's overall less structured of a film than the first one, but it has much better execution. I can definitely recommend it, even if you disliked its predecessor. As long as you go into it knowing it's goofy and you're ready for that kind of atmosphere, you're going to love it. That's where this film's strengths are and if you think it needs to be a serious movie like Batman v Superman or The Dark Knight, you're going to be disappointed.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FILM?

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for possibly the end of the DC Animated Movie Universe, entitled Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, based on The Darkseid War storyline. Is it worth the watch, or should it be skipped?

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
Directed by Matt Peters and Christina Sotta
Written by Ernie Altbacker (screenplay) and Mairghread Scott (story)

STARRING: Jason O'Mara (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Matt Ryan (John Constantine), Jerry O'Connell (Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman), Taissa Farmiga (Raven), Stuart Allan (Damian Wayne / Robin), Tony Todd (Darkseid), Rosario Dawson (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Shemar Moore (Victor Stone / Cyborg), Rebecca Romijn (Lois Lane), Rainn Wilson (Lex Luthor) with Nathan Fillion (Hal Jordan / Green Lantern), Sean Astin (Billy Batson / Shazam), Jon Bernthal (Trigon) and many, many more

STORY: C–

So here's the thing. There isn't all that much actual story here. It's just that everything went to hell and they have to reboot the universe.

With that being said, it's still fun and interesting to see a world where it all ends and they can reset those dead characters and such. We rarely get a chance to watch characters meet their maker and progress in different ways.

As a story itself, it's lackluster. As an end to this series, it's okay. As a one-shot story board, in some sense, it's lots of fun.

CHARACTERS: B–

Most characters are on-beat from what they should be. I'm a fan of Damian Wayne turning into the new Ra's al Ghul, for instance. Batman overcoming his corruption was another noteworthy touch that had to happen. Even the idea that Lex Luthor would be working both sides is the way to go.

But it was still odd to see how so many characters, for the purpose of this story, had to stop acting like themselves. That throws things off a bit. Lots of people who should have put up better fights were nerfed. For instance, why did the Green Lantern Corps take 2 years and an attack on Oa to get off their asses?

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: A–

ACTION: Rock solid. Much more brutal than I anticipated.

DRAMA: You can't go wrong with the end of the world as far as stakes go.

COMEDY: No real chuckles, but that's not supposed to be the case with this movie.

ROMANCE: Lois and Clark had the proper relationship going.


ACTING: B+

Tony Todd is an underwhelming Darkseid to say the least. That voice just doesn't suit that character for my tastes. Everyone else was pretty spot on.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A

I'm a fan of this visual style. I've repeated that over and over again. No complaints.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): B

Nothing memorable. Nothing stood out as great or awful. It was what it was.

• Why is Batman in his blue cape and cowl?
• Doomsday/Parademon hybrids? Yeeeesh. Aquaman cut in half? Damn. Of course J'onn gets caught on fire. He always does. Cyborg always loses limbs, too. Didn't expect that with Diana's arm, though.
• Batman converted into a new Metron of sorts? Cool idea. Also glad they alluded to how Lex Luthor would've been another option.
• "Oh for fuck's sake." - Raven getting an F bomb. Wow.
• I guess Luthor is more of a Desaad?
• Some good cameos in the Stryker's Island fight scene.
• "King Shark is a shark." - Are you just trying to be Groot?

GRADE: B+ (Pass)

As stated above, this is far from the strongest movie by itself, but it was an interesting end to this series. I'm a big fan of how they ended it with a new Flashpoint, as these types of reboots should always end in a Crisis type Flash reset of sorts. That was a good nod. I'm excited to see what this team works on next, if they decide to keep making animated films outside of the same running continuity.

The latest in the line of animated DC direct-to-video films is Superman: Red Son. Is it worth the watch, or should it be skipped?

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

Superman: Red Son
Directed by Sam Liu
Written by J.M. DeMatteis (screenplay), Mark Millar (graphic novel), Dave Johnson (graphic novel), Kilian Plunkett (graphic novel)

STARRING: Jason Isaacs (Superman), Amy Acker (Lois Lane), Deidrich Bader (Lex Luthor), Vanessa Marshall (Wonder Woman), Phil Morris (James Olsen), Paul Williams (Brainiac), Greg Chun (Ambassador Lee), Phil LaMarr (John Stewart), Jim Meskimen (John F. Kennedy), Sasha Roiz (Hal Jordan), William Salyers (Joseph Stalin), Roger Craig Smith (Batman) and Tara Strong (Young Superman)

STORY: B

I had never read the comic before, so this was all new to me. The concept, in general, is a very good one. Not only is the title a good pun, it's also a nice job of flipping the script of the usual Superman story but holding true to some of the ideals from various incarnations.

Admittedly, I do think it probably works better as a graphic novel than a movie, though. There were parts of this that I felt jumped over details that could have been more interesting to dive deeper in, but only in a medium that would allow for it. Actually, it could work as a multi-episode TV show.

CHARACTERS: C–

Maybe C- is being a little generous. Most characters have no depth to them outside of what is face value and what they bring to the table with what you already know about them.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: B–

ACTION: Meh, it was okay. There wasn't a single sequence that stands out to me, but they weren't bad.

COMEDY: None of this was funny that I can recall, but it wasn't supposed to be.

ROMANCE: Outside of Lois saying the sex is great with Lex and Diana turning down Superman, there wasn't any romance in this. That's okay. That wasn't the focal point.

DRAMA: On the political drama side of things, that is where this film's strengths are.


ACTING: D

The voice acting for the kids bit in the beginning was cringy. Then, many characters didn't get any better throughout the rest of the film. Yikes. That accent just comes off fake to me and even the Americans felt off. Deidrich Bader as Luthor...I don't know. It's not the worst we've had, but it still was strange.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): B

For the most part, the character models were pretty good. JFK looked awful, though.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): C–

The music was generic enough that I didn't register it. The sound design was okay for my ears.

• Svetlana Lang? Ha.
• Oh damn, Superman straight-up murdered Stalin. I didn't see that coming. 
• Bizarro. Okay.
• Old Wonder Woman gave me serious Linda Hamilton vibes for some reason.
• Nice touch with Superman not aging the same as everyone else.
• We took care of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern...curious where Flash was during all this.
• Luthor not turning out to be evil is astounding.

GRADE: C– (Pass)

There are far worse entries in these DC animated films, but there are far better ones, too. This is an interesting story that I feel is probably much better in its original form rather than this film. I'd recommend it to people who are big fans of the characters, but not the average person—especially not those who are younger and/or only interested in action, as that's not the target audience. For a one-time viewing, I enjoyed the concept more than I enjoyed the movie itself. I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think I'll ever revisit it.

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for Zombieland: Double Tap—the sequel to the 2009 zombie comedy that I surprisingly enjoyed quite a bit, despite not being a fan of the zombie genre.

Zombieland: Double Tap
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Written by Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

STARRING: Woody Harrelson (Tallahassee), Jesse Eisenberg (Columbus), Emma Stone (Wichita), Abigail Breslin (Little Rock), Zoey Deutch (Madison), Avan Jogia (Berkeley), Luke Wilson (Albuquerque), Thomas Middleditch (Flagstaff) and Rosario Dawson (Nevada)

STORY: B+

Simple and effective. Let's progress the relationship between Columbus and Wichita, give Little Rock the position of the child Tallahassee lost in a way, and advance the zombies to a more threatening level while still poking fun at how some of them are Homers.

CHARACTERS: A

The four lead characters from the last time are all the same, which is exactly what I (and I'm sure most people) were hoping to see. They didn't deviate from the formula that worked before, which allowed this movie to be a true sequel and not something different.

HUUUUGE fan of Zoey Deutch's Madison. She was such a pleasant surprise for this movie and a great extra character to throw into the group to test their reactions. It was also fun to see her kind of replace Little Rock, as she's the worst part of both movies, and putting her on the sidelines to make room for Madison was a big step in the right direction.

I also loved Flagstaff and Albuquerque as the doppelganger versions of Tallahassee and Columbus. That was a true highlight part of the movie.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: A

ACTION: Rock solid. The zombie killing scenes were over the top, frenetic and fun.

COMEDY: My girlfriend and I seemed to be the only ones to really seem to get all the jokes in our theater, for whatever reason. I laughed. She laughed. Lots of other people seemed to just sit there. Thumbs up in my book.

ROMANCE: There isn't really "romance" per say, but the love interest aspects of the movie are what they're supposed to be for this type of film.


ACTING: B+

Zoey Deutch kills it. She's the best of the bunch. Everyone else reports and does their job perfectly well for what is fitting. Nobody will get an Oscar nomination, but that's totally okay.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): B+

The zombies look realistic and there's a consistent look throughout both movies. All the scenery seems justifiably beaten down. Everyone's grungy enough (minus Madison, which is the point). Solid.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): Satisfactory

I don't really know how to grade this, as for some reason, I'm drawing a blank on any specifics. I know Elvis was a part of the film with the plot and all, but I'm not a fan of Elvis, although that's not necessary or should weigh into the whole grade. Since I don't remember anything bad nor anything great, I'll just say that this was a satisfactory thing, without an actual grade to tie it down into something more specific.


MARKETING / TRAILERS / POLITICS / SERIES DIRECTION / ETC:

+ Nice choice in naming the film Double Tap.
+ LOVED how Flagstaff had commandments instead of rules. That whole bit was one of my favorite parts of the film.
+ Big fan of how they didn't kill anybody off. Had they done that, I think it would have been a mistake. Who knows if they'll make a third one of these or not, but at least now they have the option.


GRADE: B+ (Pass)

Exactly what I was hoping for. If you're a fan of the first film, you're going to enjoy this one, too. In an era where lots of sequels can be massively disappointing and go in the direct opposite of what they should be, it's nice to see someone wait 10 years and actually deliver.

The latest in the line of animated DC direct-to-video films is Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. Is it worth the watch, or should it be skipped?

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines
Directed by Justin Copeland and Sam Liu
Written by William Moulton Marston (Wonder Woman created by) and Mairghread Scott (screenplay)

STARRING: Rosario Dawson (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Jeffrey Donovan (Steve Trevor), Marie Avgeropoulos (Vanessa Kapatelis / Silver Swan), Adrienne C. Moore (Etta Candy), Kimberly Brooks (Cheetah, Giganta), Courtenay Taylor (Doctor Poison), Constance Zimmer (Veronica Cale), Nia Vardalos (Julia Kapatelis), Cree Summer (Hippolyta), Ray Chase (Lead Bandit), Mozhan Marnò (Doctor Cyber) and Michael Dorn (Ferdinand the Minotaur)

STORY: C–

This started out great, but quickly turned into something I couldn't get invested in. Trying to track the journey of Vanessa Kapatelis as a side character for such a generic plot that has nothing to sink your teeth into just wasn't enough for me.

CHARACTERS: C

Diana was great. No complaints there at all.

Steve Trevor was good, but maybe a little bit too jokey.

Etta completely stole the show, although there were times where I felt as though they went over the top with making her the one with all the great beats.

Cheetah, Giganta...do-nothing. Ferdinand felt like an odd inclusion just for the sake of it.

Doctor Poison and Doctor Cyber were awful. They were more like G.I. Joe villains from the cartoon series and way too over the top.

I was never familiar with Silver Swan and I guess her arc was okay, albeit contrived and forced to an eye-rolling level.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: B–

ACTION: Solid action. The best part about this.

COMEDY: Etta and Steve had some lines. This isn't supposed to be a comedy, so that was good enough.

ROMANCE: For the most part, Diana and Steve are only a couple because they're a couple. There isn't much chemistry to build on, beyond just knowing the source material.


ACTING: C

All of these things can be earnest or over the top. For Rosario Dawson, for instance, she was great. For the whole Doctor Poison character, it was too campy for my tastes.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A

For an animated film like this, it's pretty much the art style. Every movie in this DC universe from the past few years that follows the same continuity is all pretty much perfect as far as character designs go, so I'm a big fan of that presentation.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): C+

Nothing memorable, but no complaints.

• I loved Diana's steadfast heroism in the opening. All too often, she has to take a backseat to Superman in Justice League material and by default, must be somewhat of an antagonist who is rough around the edges compared to his boy scout attitude. Here, she's 100% full-force hero. Very good.
• It took 18 minutes to get to the credits? Points deducted.
• I think there's something to this version of Etta, where she's more capable and has more agency. I do think they went over the top in some regards, though, so if they toned that down a bit, I think it would be a pretty fantastic new iteration of a character I've never had much fondness for.

GRADE: C (Pass)

This film was fine, but I'm never going to watch it again, nor would I recommend it as anything close to something like Batman: Hush or some of the better ones. It needed more meat on its bones and a better overall story.

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for the film Ad Astra.

Ad Astra—directed by James Gray; written by James Gray and Ethan Gross; starring Brad Pitt (Roy McBride), Liv Tyler (Eve McBride), Ruth Negga (Helen Lantos), Tommy Lee Jones (Clifford McBride), Anne McDaniels (Shunga Hologram) and Donald Sutherland (Colonel Pruitt).

STORY: B+

This was simple, yet effective—a three-pronged story of someone dealing with the repressed feelings of losing his father, along with the search for life to justify our existence and the secrecy that goes along with how the government would handle these major issues.

As it isn't super complicated, this isn't something that I feel needs to be broken down and studied by every angle. If you like the sound of those themes, then you get what you're looking for.

CHARACTERS: C–

There really only is one character, who is essentially devoid of emotion. It's hard to really break down the cast that are there for just a handful of scenes. I did like the transition of Roy from entirely mute to someone who can feel again, but that isn't something I can give a B or anything to.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: A–

ACTION: The lunar chase and other moments are tense (and I'm not a big fan of tension movies). This isn't an "action film" selling itself like a new Fast and Furious film, so this suffices.

COMEDY: There aren't really any jokes here, but it's not a comedy, so...

ROMANCE: For the most part, the "romance" of the film is an underlying soft one and not a focal point the way it normally would be in some other dramas. I think it's still very effective.

Basically, this is a drama that has a bit of mystery and philosophy intertwined, which is what I was looking for, based on the trailers.


ACTING: B–

I bought it. Everyone felt like real people. There are no Oscar-guaranteed performances or anything, but rock solid performances to go around.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A

Wonderful scenery that showed the vast emptiness of space and really made me uncomfortable, yet at the same time, in awe of its beauty. Equal to that, every set felt real and at no point were they on a different ship or in a room that didn't seem logical and functional.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): A–

Sound design in a space movie is all about using silence. They pulled it off super well.


MARKETING / TRAILERS / POLITICS / SERIES DIRECTION / ETC:

Bonus points for the overall message. We may be alone in the universe (we may not, as only part of it was explored) but even if that's the case, it's not as if love and the human condition isn't already so wonderful that it can't be celebrated. There's something to be said about missing out on what's right in front of you while searching for more.


GRADE: B (Pass)

This is not at all the type of movie I will be begging to sit down and watch again, but that's because of how heavy it is. It's a one-time think piece that I'm very glad to have seen and would recommend to others, but only when they're in the mood for some existential exploration. I can't imagine someone trying to decide on a Saturday night whether they want to pop on an Avengers film, a Judd Apatow movie or Ad Astra, as it's an entirely different animal. But it was certainly good and if you're on the fence about it, check it out!

The latest in the line of animated DC direct-to-video films is Batman: Hush, based on the comic by the same name. Is it worth the watch, or should it be skipped?

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of a movie and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

Batman: Hush
Directed by Justin Copeland
Written by Ernie Altbacker, Jim Lee (comic), Jeph Loeb (comic)

STARRING: Jason O'Mara (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Jennifer Morrison (Selina Kyle / Catwoman), Jerry O'Connell (Clark Kent / Superman), Maury Sterling (Thomas Elliot / Hush), Rainn Wilson (Lex Luthor), Rebecca Romijn (Lois Lane), Geoffrey Arend (Edward Nygma / The Riddler), Sean Maher (Dick Grayson / Nightwing), Peyton List (Barbara Gordon / Batgirl), Vanessa Williams (Amanda Waller), Jason Spisak (The Joker), Hynden Walch (Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn), Bruce Thomas (Commissioner Gordon), Stuart Allan (Damian Wayne / Robin), James Garrett (Alfred Pennyworth), Sachie Alessio (Lady Shiva), Adam Gifford (Bane, Clayface), Tara Strong (Reporter)

STORY: A

Hush is an amazing story. Admittedly, they trimmed this down by cutting some plotlines, like Jason Todd, Two-Face, and making it so Tommy Elliot isn't actually Hush. But you know what? Those things happen in adaptations, and if I wasn't aware of the original story, I would think that this was almost entirely a fully realized story, with the only oddball part of it being The Riddler's nearly random introduction with the Lazarus Pit having virtually no setup ahead of time, rather than Lady Shiva's quick aside. However, I'd argue that in some ways, that's better, because we as a viewing audience shouldn't be aware of all the omniscient aspects of a mystery if we're on the same journey as the protagonist, since that spoils it. There's no way Bruce would know every little thing (even though he's The God Damn Batman), so it's nice to see a mystery that can't be guessed ahead of time because we're lacking information, like every other character would be missing.

It's a great story of Bruce and Selina's relationship and how that works, more than anything else.

CHARACTERS: A+

Look, I've said it a million times before, Batman (Bruce Wayne) is my favorite character of all time in any form of fiction.

Catwoman was sexy and the right balance of villainous and heroic, and the standout of the story.

Even the side characters were translated perfectly, like how Bane wasn't just a mindless brute and they wrote that off as a side effect of the venom. Fantastic characterization for Damian. I loved Barbara having a serious vibe of intelligent sass to her and Dick being cocky and humorous.

Luthor being helpful, but in the most pain in the ass way. Joker being obsessed with Batman and finding humor in a situation where he's getting his ass kicked and he's innocent from killing Elliot, and mentioning that he wants Batman to break his code, but for something he did. Poison Ivy being flirtatious and nasty. All great stuff.

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: A+

This had the right balance of action, comedy and romance for what these movies should have. It was adult enough for a wide target audience wherein kids can take it at face value without looking deeper, while adults can take more out of things like the struggles of relationships and even knowing that friend of yours that would act the way Dick does with Bruce. This was really done well, and it makes me want the team behind this to do more of these.


ACTING: B

Voice acting on these are all pretty much top-notch for the main characters. I'm always going to say that Kevin Conroy would be better, but Jason O'Mara is probably my #2 favorite Batman voice actor by this point.

Vanessa Williams immediately lands as Amanda Waller, for instance, as she commands respect and authority with every syllable.

I'm not fond of Rainn Wilson as Lex Luthor, though, and I think they always downgrade when it comes to The Joker if they don't have Mark Hamill or Troy Baker doing the voice.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A+

This may be the absolute best animation out of any of these films. Perfect. The costumes for all the characters were realistic, the cityscape was fitting. Awesome job.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): A–

It's hard to give this a really strict grade, as it's just pretty much good enough to be in the background without being distracting. The music wasn't memorable in the slightest bit, nor was any of it distracting. The sound design was rock solid.

• The little kid kicking Bane and calling him an asshole.
• "Okay you crazy plant bitch, it's on." - Catwoman
• Selina's cat is named Eartha. Amazing.
• Vesti La Giubba! Great touch!
• "Who's Robin these days?" - Joker. LOVE IT. Very subtle Jason Todd thing (although where's Tim Drake in all this? It kind of proves to me my theory that Drake is a one-trick pony only useful for getting Batman to stop being upset about Todd's death, and that Damian is almost a better method to do that)
• I absolutely LOVE that Selina asks Batman "Wait, are you sure?" when he's going to reveal his identity. That right there is all you need to know about Catwoman as a character in terms of her alignment.
• "Who's Damian?" / "Robin. His.......son....." - LOL
• Points deducted for the design of Mr. Freeze.
• Wait, so are they implying that Gordon knows Bruce is Batman? I dig it. I always like my Jim Gordon to be a good enough detective in his own right to have figured it out but never wants to officially confirm it because he wants plausible deniability.

GRADE: A+ (Pass)

Amazing. I can't recommend this enough. Definitely see it, don't skip it. This may be my favorite of these animated films yet.

Toy Story has always been one of my 3 favorite Disney films (the other two being Aladdin and The Lion King—lucky me for this year's film slate, right?) and the trilogy is pretty much one of the only examples I can think of wherein the third wasn't a disappointment, or the series didn't take a dip in the middle, or take the first film to get the ball rolling.

All three films were great, so when Toy Story 4 was announced, I was equal parts hesitant to trust that it was a good idea, and confident they'd be able to pull it off. Now that I've seen the film, though, how does it hold up? What am I thinking about it?

My normal methodology is to do a Reviewpoint podcast for these sorts of things, and I even set up all the templates ahead of time, but I found myself wanting to write a review of this instead, for whatever reason, so we're going to do things a little differently here.

First, I'll hit you with a spoiler-free quick breakdown of my thoughts, followed by the more in-depth analysis that dives into the spoiler territory.

It's not as good as the previous three, but that doesn't mean it's a bad film. It isn't. I just feel like this wasn't all that necessary, and the series ends on a note that I'm less comfortable with than if it had been left alone with Toy Story 3. Some of the characters come off hollow compared to their previous roles in the franchise, to make room for new stars, and I can't shake the feeling that there's a built-in game plan to turn this into something that can result in different spin-offs for Disney+. That in itself isn't a bad idea, but if that happens, I'll feel like it was somewhat cheap to use an underwhelming movie to drive attention to what probably will be the degradation of what was a pretty much perfect franchise. Still, it's not bad, and I enjoyed most of it, so if it looks interesting to you, you should see it.

With that in mind, let's get into some more specifics with the return of a review format called Making the Grade, where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang embark on a road trip with Bonnie and a new toy named Forky. The adventurous journey turns into an unexpected reunion as Woody's slight detour leads him to his long-lost friend Bo Peep. As Woody and Bo discuss the old days, they soon start to realize that they're worlds apart when it comes to what they want from life as a toy.

STORY: C–

Realistically, this is always a story of toys that go on an adventure of trying to get back to the rest of the toys. It's happened enough times that it's the basic template. However, this time around, it's mostly a story of Woody going from being a toy that Bonnie enjoyed, to a sideliner, which he can't quite cope with, as he still even misses Andy.

This is good in the sense that it's true to his nature from the first film of wanting to be the star player and feeling jealous of Buzz Lightyear, but also having grown over the years that he isn't feeling vindictive and spiteful toward Jessie or, eventually, Forky.

But here's where things go a little off for me. Forky is introduced as Bonnie's new favorite toy, and Woody wants him to do his job, as he realizes how important he is to Bonnie, which is why he goes to retrieve him when Forky exits the RV. Then, even though the movie is technically supposed to be about "let's get Forky back to Bonnie", it never really feels like that anymore, to me.

There are too many side plots and not enough focus on just a fewer amount of them. We have Forky's struggle in learning he's a toy and not trash (which is brushed aside too quickly, and, I feel, could have been the entire premise of the movie) along with Gabby Gabby playing the villain role of wanting the love and affection of a child so much that she is willing to do terrible things to get it, and Bo Peep being a representation of lost toys making a future for themselves, and Buzz learning about his inner voice (which is SUPER thin), and Bunny and Ducky wanting a kid, all along with Woody's existential crisis. Oh, and the other toys are just there, waiting.

It all feels like setup. It seems like they want to do spin-off shows for Disney+, where Gabby can be followed with her kid, there's a team of Woody/Bo/Ducky/Bunny/Duke/etc who will have their carnival adventures, and Bonnie will have her team of toys, and there will be tons of different stories that they introduced with plotlines that they'll drive into the ground.

Am I somewhat downing the movie based on future predictions? Admittedly, yes. But even if that doesn't happen, that's the impression I got from the film, which means I wasn't fully satisfied with any of those plot elements.

I think I would have rather enjoyed a 30 minute short story of Forky than a feature film about 6 stories that try to get patched together. Again, a short story about Buzz playing with his voice control to act as his inner voice would have been great, and the jokes were funny, but I wanted more. It feels like this was every lingering idea they had for a potential sequel all thrown together like they had to rush a final season of a television show when they found out it wouldn't be renewed for another year.

At the end, having Woody choose to leave Bonnie and go with the others was a downer in a different way from Toy Story 3. I felt like the first Toy Story ends with it just being a good movie about friendship and the world is open. Toy Story 2 ends with a realization that Andy will grow older, but the toys will still be with each other. Tory Story 3 is a logical conclusion of that point and the acknowledgment from Andy that those toys were special to him, but they will mean more to a new kid than sitting in his attic, and the toys understanding that their purpose is to do that.

Even though I know the takeaway from this is that Buzz and Jessie have it covered for watching over Bonnie, and Woody feels he'll be more useful trying to apply his skills to others, my own psychology of it felt like that was more upsetting than hopeful. I don't think you're wrong for loving it, as everyone has their own thoughts and feelings on those types of things depending on their emotional spectrum, but since there's a variety of different opinions on stuff like that, I acknowledge that it didn't resonate with me the way I wanted it to.

For another example, if you liked the movie The Watchmen, and how it ended was amazing to you, I can't say that you're wrong. All I can say is that it felt nihilistic and depressing to me, and like the writer had a different goal in mind than what I would have liked to experience as someone going to be entertained. This sounds super dramatic, and it's certainly not the end of the world, but I almost feel like Toy Story 4 ends in a way that makes me feel sad and less content about the series as a whole now, rather than if it had just ended with Toy Story 3, as I was more than fine with that for the past few years, and I don't think the positives we got out of the film were necessarily worth it. But that's just me.

ACTING: A

The acting is rock solid all around. A+ on that, as expected.

CHARACTERS: A

Basically, if you loved the previous movies, you gotta love the OG gang.

Woody is such a bro, helping out all the time and all. The man.

Buzz has always been a bit blissfully ignorant, and I liked the whole inner voice thing a lot.

Bo Peep was repackaged as "bad ass female warrior chick" and I kind of feel like that was manufactured, but I didn't hate it. At least she was back. Having her missing the previous one felt awkward.

Forky was the star. That little spork was amazing, and again, I think I would have liked this way better if it was just a series of shorts, wherein one of them revolved entirely around Forky and it didn't deal with this antique shop and getting back to Bonnie. Just a story of Woody trying to turn Forky around from being trash to a full-on toy.

Ducky and Bunny were funny, but not the standouts, to me. The same went to Duke Caboom, which was good for a joke or two, but a little lacking.

Gabby Gabby was effective as a villain for like two scenes, and the rest felt rushed.

Giggle McDimples was fun, and I loved some of the random extras like the Combat Carls (particularly the one who didn't get the high-fives until the post-credit scene).

Hamm has always been great. He got nothing here. The same for Mr. Potato Head, but that was understandable, as Don Rickles had passed away. Still, it's a shame, as those are great characters who I wouldn't have been tired of seeing more of. The same for Rex and Slinky Dog.

Jessie, I've never been the biggest fan of. Meh.

Buttercup was a standout, and I think it's crazy how many name actors are in this that I didn't even realize, like Bonnie Hunt, Betty White, Bill Hader, Timothy Dalton and so on.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A

They know what they're doing.

MUSIC & SOUND: C

No memorable song, but you can't get more memorable than "You've Got a Friend in Me". Sound was no problem, though, so I'll give this the middle range to balance it out. Nothing was bad.

TONE (ACTION, ROMANCE, COMEDY): B–

ACTION: Good action, but nowhere near as good as the previous movies. Again, a little hollow.

COMEDY: Forky was the best. I laughed at almost every character at least once, and it did its job there, especially with some surprises like the unicorn. However, the bittersweet nature of it all downgrades this to me.

ROMANCE: I do like that Woody and Bo are still a thing, as that was present from the very very beginning of the first movie.

FINAL GRADE: B–

Ultimately, I liked the movie, but I feel like it was unnecessary. Everything was done better in previous movies, and it felt like too many stories to properly serve any of them. Maybe another pass of the script would have made all the difference of going from a "good" movie to a "great" movie like the other three.

It's still good. There are still positives in it, and I still enjoyed it, but if I'm honest, I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping I would.

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the five major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for the premiere episode of the television series Marvel's Inhumans, entitled "Behold...The Inhumans" and "Those Who Would Destroy Us"

STORY: C

Inherently, the Inhumans have always been one of the exemplary things that I'm not the biggest fan of in comics. They're kind of up their own ass, in a way. Everything reminds me of the fantasy genre, where there's tons of reliance upon a caste system, it's all very regal and traditional, and part of the kitsch value is that you're supposed to find it fun that there's a teleporting dog and a guy with hooves.

I don't.

I've always considered the Inhumans to be a poor man's Mutants, and since Marvel doesn't have the rights to the X-Men franchise, this is their "next best thing" so to speak.

I don't fault them for trying to go this route, and I probably would have tried a very similar thing if I were given the keys to the kingdom, but just because it's Marvel and the majority of what they do is amazing doesn't mean everything is a home run, and this is just boring and cheesy.

As far as this individual pilot goes, the first few minutes of it were really bad with exposition and much of what followed ended up being the same.

I also got no sense that this is in the same universe of the films, nor even Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Netflix shows. I guess they just don't give a shit, which is a shame. It isn't like the movies aren't doing a bang-up job of keeping continuity. They're even figuring out ways to do things like retroactively say Peter Parker was the kid in Iron Man 2 while this feels like it's more on par with Legion and what I'm assuming The Gifted will be (which I'm not looking forward to, by the way).

In theory, the idea of a brother becoming treasonous and overthrowing his king to usurp the throne and all that stuff is fine on paper, but it's not the best story for my personal tastes, and all the surrounding material just feels like hokum.

CHARACTERS/ACTING: D

Acting is a simple judgment: they're all pretty bad. That isn't just the main cast, but the extras and supporting roles as well. Everything just feels like the worst examples of CW acting.

Character-wise, we have such bland people in this first episode that I can't even explain much about what their traits are.

Crystal is dumb and hot, I guess? Karnak is the smart guy? Lockjaw is a fucking dog. Louise is the human counterpart and definitely nothing more than a writer's tool they realized they needed for future episodes to have the royal family connect to regular people. Medusa is...uh....something. Gorgon is just the tough guy.

Oddly, Black Bolt is the hero with the most character to him, in my mind, and he's a mute who doesn't even change his facial expressions.

Maximus is definitely the driving force and at least his #2 is hot.

Random note: what's with the rock wall dude who reminds me of Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple?

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): D

Wow does this look fake. It's not the worst thing ever, so I can't give it an F, but it's pretty damn bad.

Attilan is so clearly CGI that it's like the transitioning shots of Gotham, which I've always hated.

Medusa's hair??? Did the same people work on that as the people that did the green screen effects for that one shot in The Defenders with the elevator?

Then there's Lockjaw...

Yeah, this is a fail, especially since they were supposed to be making this an IMAX gorgeous looking thing.

MUSIC & SOUND: C

To be honest, I didn't notice anything other than their use of "Paint It Black", which was interesting, but not as good as how Westworld did it.

TONE & ATMOSPHERE: C


ACTION: Why was everything so slow and choreographed? That was laughable. None of it had me on the edge of my seat. None of it was innovative or even standard for television action.

COMEDY: I didn't laugh once. Not even a chuckle or a smirk.

ROMANCE: So Medusa loves Black Bolt "because" and, well, I guess that's it.

FINAL GRADE: D

I thought there were problems with Iron Man 2. I think Thor: The Dark World is probably the weakest of the Marvel films (check my running ranking here). I was wrong in my prediction that Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man would be problematic, thankfully, as those movies are very fun. I didn't love Agent Carter and there are problems with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that bug me. The Netflix shows have been letting me down (particularly Iron Fist and The Defenders).

However, this is Marvel's first flop. This is genuinely BAD with few, if any redeeming qualities. I hate rooting against something, but I hope this doesn't last past its 8 episode breakdown, as I don't think it deserves to even go past that point just for an experiment.

I've had my fill of the Inhumans in general, but this was an opportunity to make me change my mind and be so good that it would convince me that we needed even more, and instead, it did the opposite. Now, I'm worried that The Runaways and Cloak and Dagger are going to be just as bad and just as unconnected.

I'm not sure which is a worse reasoning for how bad this is: that they might not have put any effort into it because they didn't care and they're resting on the laurels of the MCU's success, thinking they can just hit the snooze button and people will love it, or if they genuinely tried their hardest and it still came out this bad.

If it's the former, well, the critical response proves them wrong. If it's the latter, please don't hire any of these producers, writers and directors to work on anything else in the MCU ever again.

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the five major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for the new NBC television series Powerless set in the realm of DC Comics.

Oh boy...where do I start? As a big fan of the superhero genre, I really, really disliked this show. In fact, there was only one thing about the entire episode that I actually enjoyed, which was the following line of dialogue:

"Gone are the days of a man in a bandit mask stealing a ruby from a museum. Now, it's all just supervillains trying to destroy the earth and superheroes fighting one another for vaguely defined reasons."

That is the type of meta stuff that I was looking for, not the schmaltzy unfunny wretch this thing is.

STORY: A

On paper, this idea is fantastic, but the execution of it is terrible. Marvel's Damage Control series had more potential behind it than this because their track record with comedy is so, so much better, whereas DC can't figure out what it wants to be.

Charm City? Really? They couldn't even be bothered to give it one of the real cities in DC Comics? I know we already have Gotham and Metropolis all over the place, Central and Keystone are covered with The Flash, Star City is on Arrow, Coast City wouldn't work as you'd need Green Lantern, but why not Fawcett City, even?

Everything about this screams ABC, not NBC. In fact, if you saw the series A to Z, this not only has one of the same cast members who I assume is a carryover from that contract, but I had the exact same "wrong network vibe" about that as I do with this and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they repurposed much of the same sets and such for this.

CHARACTERS/ACTING: D

Boy, everybody here is truly giving it their all, but the material is just crap. "They're very talented, but they're just missing a 'you' to motivate them." is a line from the show and it applies here. Admittedly, I haven't seen much of Vanessa Hudgens, but what little I've been exposed to makes me think she's not bad. Alan Tudyk has charm, Danny Pudi is great (makes me miss Community) and there's a certain dryness to Christina Kirk that I enjoy. The dialogue they have to say and the presentation of it all in its complete package is horrible, though. A bad actor can screw up a good script, but a great actor can't make a bad script any good. Also, I know Jennie Pierson's character is supposed to be super funny and I can't stand her, which irks me to no end.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): F

Holy hell is this all awful! I mean, this makes the jets on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. look realistic in comparison. NONE of this looked like it was anything but crappy TV CGI from the 90s.

Why is every set filled to the brim with primary colors? There seems to be a specific effort to make sure every scene has yellow, red and blue to punch up the background while our protagonist has a bright green shirt to break up the sea of blinding white furniture and such. This is the type of set design you'd see for a McDonald's PlayPlace. I certainly didn't want everything to have the dark and gritty feel of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice but I never would have signed off on them putting the film through a Skittles filter, either.

MUSIC & SOUND: C–

I honestly can't remember anything about this, so I have to give it a default mid-range score.

TONE & ATMOSPHERE: A

ACTION: This isn't supposed to be an action-based show, so I can't judge it in comparison to something like the CW programs. That being said, their idea of action was so lame that it made me wish they just had none at all so I wouldn't have noticed how bad it was.

COMEDY: Good God. These were jokes? I mean, the show itself is a joke, but the "humorous dialogue" was supposed to be laughed at for real? Like, as in the same manner as actual funny shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Modern Family? For fuck's sake, I just watched the season premiere of Superior Donuts which I didn't even bother to review here on Fanboys Anonymous and that show made me chuckle more than this and I'm the target audience because I absolutely love DC and Marvel stuff!!!

ROMANCE: For a pilot episode, this didn't dive into any romance angles, which is fine. Eventually, they'll be going down that rabbit hole, but I'm not going to be there to witness it.

FINAL GRADE: D

I can only see you liking this if you prefer the extremely campy version of comic books. If Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series was too dark for you but you thought Batman: The Brave and the Bold was great, then give this a shot. If you're like me, though, and you prefer the more serious stuff or at least the type of atmosphere the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes for where they keep things lighter but the jokes are actually funny because the writers are good, then you should stay away. This feels like it was written by someone who doesn't actually know anything about any of the comics whatsoever, but wanted to try to give off the impression that they did. This type of show had so much potential to be hilarious, poking fun at the genre and being a fundamentally good show even if you aren't privy to all the inside baseball stuff, but as both a DC fan and a fan of just quality television in general, I hated it all around.

What the hell, DC? You botched some aspects of Batman v Superman, you botched Suicide Squad, you just had to announce that Ben Affleck is not directing The Batman anymore, you want to do a standalone Black Adam movie before you do a Green Lantern one, you killed off Green Arrow's primary love interest on his show just to placate the squees of fangirls who geek out over the #Olicity relationship and your whole Gotham show revolves around basically having a Batman show without Batman, and then you create this hot garbage. So disappointed.

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the five major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for the new CBS television series Training Day based off the 2001 film of the same name.

STORY: C

I like that this is a spinoff of the film and not a reboot, and I like how the very end of this episode put a twist on things by saying our protagonist Kyle Craig is going to put our resident jerkass Frank Roarke through the training to become a better person, but outside of that, this was incredibly basic.

Have you seen Rush Hour or Lethal Weapon or any other cop shows? That's this one. There will be a case of the week and they'll solve them while little threads for the overarching story will be told piece by piece until a big blowoff for the mid-season and season finales. This isn't breaking any new ground whatsoever and I already watch enough shows similar to this that are frankly better.

CHARACTERS/ACTING: C–

Bill Paxton as Frank Roarke is far too likable of a guy to be anything comparable to Denzel Washington's Alonzo Harris, who was just a reprehensible asshole in mostly every regard. I don't know if that's a flaw in his acting, the writing, or both, but for this to be a show about him being a bad person and for the first episode to make me think he's on par with every other "lovable douchebag" on television means they failed to accomplish what they were going for.

Strangely enough, I like the Kyle Craig character as being the moral high ground a lot more than Ethan Hawke's character Jake Hoyt, but Justin Cornwell doesn't strike me as leading man material to pull off the role super well. He seemed very wooden in every scene. Every other character was completely forgettable. Katrina Law being cast as "obligatory strong female with a bitchy attitude who can totally take care of herself cause we need to check that off our diversity list" is just blah. Lex Scott Davis as Kyle's wife was pretty charming and Julie Benz as a queen of the prostitutes (okay, technically a "madam" but I think my term is funnier) was probably the standout and I can't imagine she'd be more than a special guest star now and again. Who was the random other white guy hanging out with Katrina Law? That guy was pretty pointless and not worth any screen time. Also, please don't ever bring that monkey back to any scenes as that thing was annoying as hell.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): B+

Nothing to complain about here. It's a television show, so you can't expect movie budgets, so everything looked fine for what it was.

MUSIC & SOUND: C–

Meh. Nothing stood out to me negatively or positively. This was just generic filler background noise, so I can't really give it a horrible rating for being "bad" but I certainly can't give it a positive rating for being "good" as it was neither. It just simply "was" and that's C- worthy.

TONE & ATMOSPHERE: C

ACTION: Out of these three categories, this was the best one, but it wasn't anything special.

COMEDY: Too much comedy for something based off this source material. I wanted this to be dark and gritty, which would let it stand out from so many of the other shows that have come and gone. Maybe instead of CBS, this would have worked better as a show on Netflix.

ROMANCE: Kyle already has a wife and if she gets too involved into the plot, it will seem like it's forced. Frank flirted a bit with Julie Benz's character, but I don't really want to see a romantic substory going on.

FINAL GRADE: C–

I normally give shows at least three episodes before making a decision to continue watching it or not, but I was so unimpressed with this that I doubt I'll give it another viewing. If I hear amazing things about it picking up the pace and getting better, I'll retroactively go back and watch from episode 2 onward. Somehow, I don't think that will happen. As a mid-season show, they probably knew this was a risky series to try to bank on after seeing how the pilot turned out, which would explain why there doesn't seem to be a big order of episodes for it.

Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the five major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for the new television series Lethal Weapon, based on the film franchise of the same name.

But first, a little backstory...

I was first introduced to the film franchise with Lethal Weapon 4, oddly enough. Anybody who knows me knows that I am a bit of a stickler for watching films in the proper order, making sure I don't miss even the first 30 seconds of a movie or a television episode the first time I'm watching it, and so on. In 1998, however, a friend of mine wanted to go to the movies and we hadn't decided on what to see, but at the last minute, he pitched the idea of Lethal Weapon 4. Being 11 years old, I hadn't seen the previous films as I just didn't get around to it, but I naturally wasn't going to protest, so I saw it and it was just okay. For years, I had ingrained the idea in my mind that I disliked the movie and thought it was a generic action film, so I put off watching the other three in any capacity as I thought I would hate them and equate them to things like The Transporter and The Fast and the Furious as just mindless action nonsense. Thankfully, I sat down one day a few years ago and watched the first Lethal Weapon and enjoyed it so much, I watched #2, #3 and #4 within the next 48 hours. It surpassed my previous generalizations and assumptions by a long shot, and now I hold it in high enough regard that when I heard the TV show was happening, I was skeptical for a number of reasons. One of the biggest reasons was because I just went through this with Minority Report and Rush Hour—two shows that I thought sucked hard even though I really enjoyed the movies they were inspired by.

Is this another one of those, or is it on par with the original film franchise? Let's start the review of episode 1, "Pilot".


STORY: A

Thankfully, the story is the same. Roger Murtaugh is a veteran cop who is too old for this shit (although they have to avoid saying that, since it's on network television, which sucks) and he's paired with the loose cannon Martin Riggs, who is suicidal after losing his wife and their unborn child. The two form a bond and eventually, Riggs finds a new family in Murtaugh's. Also, they're cops, so they take down bad guys, if you didn't figure that out already.

In theory, if I liked the originals and their story, I can't dislike this. It's the same thing. The only thing that will play a factor is how they pull it off. So far, this feels rushed because they only had 45 minutes to do what the first film did in 110 as well as three more films afterward.

CHARACTERS/ACTING: C

So here's the thing—I can't dock the show points for most of the characters, as the ideas are the same. However, I do have some bones to pick.

First, why are certain characters given new names? Martin's deceased ex was Victoria Lynn, but now she's Miranda? I'm totally okay with Floriana Lima being cast in the role, as she's beautiful and she quickly was able to make me feel sympathetic about her character's death in one scene, but there's nothing that prevented her from being named Victoria Lynn Riggs instead of Miranda Riggs.

The same applies to Jordana Brewster as Dr. Maureen Cahill. She's a beautiful woman, a good actress, and I like her character—yet she should have been named Dr. Stephanie Woods, which was the department's psychiatrist in the four films. They can adjust some character elements (like possibly having more of a romantic relationship with Riggs in the television show than in the movies), as they need to stretch some things out, but I can't see a benefit of changing the name. That would be like making Roger Murtaugh's family not being Trish, Rianne, Nick, and Carrie—wait a minute, Rianne is now Riana, Nick is Roger Jr, and Carrie went from being the oldest to a newborn baby with no name?

The acting is something else that doesn't quite click. I do enjoy Keesha Sharp as Trish Murtaugh quite a bit, but I think she might be the only improvement to the originals. Damon Wayans is a good actor, yet he's no Danny Glover as Murtaugh. I know nothing of Clayne Crawford, but he's no Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs.

We don't have Leo Getz yet, but that might be a good thing, so long as they find someone to properly portray the character and fit into the show down the line at some point. Scorsese seems to be filling part of that vibe right now, and I'm not digging him yet, nor do I really have an opinion one way or the other about the captain or chief or whatever his ranking is. He's just a guy.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): B+

It's a television show, which means it's not going to look as good as a movie, but it's also a 2016 show, which means it's not going to look as bad as a film from 1987. These things basically balance each other out. It's fine for what it is and hopefully the production quality doesn't downgrade after the pilot.

MUSIC & SOUND: C–

Boy do I miss Michael Kamen's score. Do yourself a favor and listen to the soundtrack from the films rather than the generic placeholder music here from Ben Decter and Josh Kramon. "It's Probably Me" by Sting and Eric Clapton is one of my favorite songs, and I didn't expect that to be anywhere near this show, but the main themes should have carried over as they had such versatility. Here is the song "In Memoriam Victoria Lynn" which shows how sad Riggs' theme can be, while this version is happier but keeps the same character beats.

This show had nothing of the sort, and everything was just bland. There wasn't anything offensive or "bad" about it, but seeing how they already had a great score to work with and chose not to is disappointing. Change is only good when it improves upon what came before it, not when it makes it worse.

TONE & ATMOSPHERE: A

ACTION: They had car chases, a sniper scene, some shootouts, and a hostage situation. Yup, that's on par.

COMEDY: There were mainly two sources of comedy from the films, which were 1) the relationship between Riggs and Murtaugh, 2) Leo Getz. Since we don't have Getz on the show yet, it all falls on the principle premise of the show, and it worked rather well. It still felt like the chemistry between the two was nowhere near as good as the film, but maybe it'll get there eventually. At the very least, it still works conceptually, even if the execution needs tweaking.

ROMANCE: The nature of the series is pretty much a 50/50 split between Murtaugh's solid marriage and Riggs' complete void due to his depressing circumstances. That carried over well in the pilot and it looks like they understand the tone they should be going for. I'm curious to see if and when they introduce Rika Van Den Haas (side note: Patsy Kensit sure was hot, wasn't she?) and Lorna Cole (side note: Renee Russo sure was sexy, too, wasn't she?) for Riggs in the future. I'd love to see that happen down the line maybe in season 2 and 3 if the show gets that far.

FINAL GRADE: B

I thought this was going to be much worse than it was, but I was also hoping it would be much better than what the final product turned out to be. If this had a different name attached to it, I wouldn't have given it a chance. The downside when it comes to carrying on the legacy of something that came before it means that I also compare it to the films and it doesn't measure up. Basically, I have to imagine if you liked the films, you should give this a chance because you might like the show as a sort of "parallel universe" version that might be watered down and not as good, but it's still better than watching a straight ripoff. I'll be giving it a few more episodes before I choose whether or not to keep it on my weekly viewing list. There's definitely potential, although I'm not sold quite yet...and now, I just want to watch the movies and listen to the soundtrack.