Sunday, April 30, 2017

Supergirl Season 2 Episode 18 "Ace Reporter" - Recap and Review

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Jack Spheer (Rahul Kohli), an old flame of Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) arrives in National City. His company is launching a nanotechnology based solution that can cure any known human afflictions.

Lena attends the launch function with Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist). Kara tries to grill Jack on the safety standards of the product.



After the function is over, Kara is approached by Joe (Andrew McNee). Joe is a whistle-blower and tries to warn her about the lack of records about the human trials that were supposed to have been completed before releasing the product. Even as he is providing her with the details in his car, a swarm of nanobots attack the two and the car goes up in flames and Joe is killed.

Kara realizes that something is seriously amiss with the way Jack has developed the product. Snapper Carr (Ian Gomez) meets Derrick Simmons (Johnny Ghorbani) who had volunteered for the human trials but was never actually tested. Once again a swarm of nanobots attack them but Supergirl saves Snapper but Derrick is gone.

Driven by guilt over her failure to save two lives, Kara desperately tries to warn Lena about Jack and gatecrash Lena's dinner with Jack. Mon-El steals Jack's security badge and subsequently he and Kara obtain data from Jack's laptop at his office.


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The video shows Jack performing the tests on himself. This explains the lack of records in the company archives regarding test trials. Kara shows the video to Lena and pleads with her to stay away from Jack.

But Lena being a Luthor does exactly that and confronts Jack. Turns out that it is Beth Breen (Claudia Doumit), the company's CFO, who has got total control over Jack after his body has transformed after the tests. She made him commit the murders.

Beth once again takes control of Jack and forces him to kill Lena. Supergirl arrives in time to save her but is overpowered by Jack. Lena has no choice but to shut down Jack permanently.

A subplot involved the tension between James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) and Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) over the unnecessarily brutal tactics adopted by Lyra Strayd (Tamzin Merchant) when she roughs up a kid while helping James in his vigilante work as Guardian. Finally, things are patched up between James and Lyra after she agrees to his rules.


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This was a good episode. Most of the focus was on the friendship between Kara and Lena. Katie McGrath is good as Lena and shows spunk. Katie and Melissa share an excellent chemistry.

Melissa seems to have regained some of her enthusiasm for the role. She also showed good chemistry with Chris Wood and Ian Gomez as Mon-El and Snapper respectively.

Speaking of Snapper, his comments about the new generation of reporters using social media really tickled the funny bones. Ian Gomez brings some much needed humor to the show. Hopefully we will see more and more of him in the future episodes.

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Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) and Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) were absent for most of the episode. With Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) also gone, this episode showcased the new set of actors delivering some solid work. Let us see if the show can maintain this tempo.

And the excellent Teri Hatcher makes a brief cameo in the closing scenes to make an offer to Lena. In an earlier scene, Lena confesses to Kara about her fears of going bad like her more famous brother: Lex Luthor. Lena's character arc shows a lot of promise.

Recommended watch to fans of DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network (The CW)

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Supergirl Season 2 Episode 17 "Distant Sun" - Recap and Review

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This review contains spoilers. Readers who are yet to see the episode are recommended to skip this post.

Supergirl/Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) and Mon-El (Chris Wood) are still together much against the wishes of his parents: Lar Gand (Kevin Sorbo) and Rhea (Teri Hatcher). Supergirl runs into an alien destroying National City and subdues him.

Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) then informs her that he is one of the bounty hunters out to get her for a princely sum has been offered to anyone who takes her out. Mon-El suspects his parents as the ones who ordered the hit. They deny the accusation.

J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood) and Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) request Supergirl to lay low till they figure out who is after her life.


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A secondary plot involves Alex running into Emily (Hayley Sales), an ex-girlfriend of Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima). Maggie tells Alex that she and Emily had a bad break-up. Alex is shocked to learn from Emily that it was Maggie who was cheating on her during their relationship.

The next bounty hunter is an expert in mind control and he uses Mon-El to attack Kara. Kara is hesitant to attack Mon-El who is unable to resist the alien's control over him. Finally Winn brings the fight to an end by using a stapler.

This bounty hunter refuses to name his employer(s). Martian Manhunter uses his powers of telepathy and forces the failed assassin to reveal that it was Mon-El's mother, Rhea who ordered the hit.

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Supergirl and Mon-El meet Rhea to sort out their differences. Rhea is hell bent on destroying Supergirl and wounds her using a Kryptonite weapon. Mon-El agrees to leave Earth with his parents in order to protect Kara's life.

But Kara decides to rescue Mon-El from his parents. J'onn J'onzz is initially hesitant to this idea as he is under orders from the President Olivia Marsdin (Lynda Carter). Olivia is actually an Durlan alien masquerading as a human being.

J'onn finally relents to help Supergirl. Seeing his son in love with Kara, Lar lets him stay with her on Earth. But this proves to be a fatal mistake as Rhea murders him shortly thereafter. She promises that she is not done with our planet yet.


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Acting wise, Teri Hatcher was good as the determined lady out to achieve her goals at any cost. She was having fun playing the antagonist and the episode benefited a lot. Kevin Sorbo was just adequate looking either sad or lost for the most part.

Melissa Benoist has been giving a distinct impression of being disinterested in her titular role. Chris Wood is wooden as Kara's love interest. The two have nearly no chemistry together. Thankfully, Chyler Leigh and David Harewood are professionals and save the show again and again.

Most of the humor comes from Jeremy Jordan's Winn Schott. He manages to bring two pop culture references. First was the Star Wars reference through the Stormtrooper comment from Mon-El. The other was the reference to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. The way Winn fooled the mind-controlling alien into submission by using stapler was a nod to Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) using the same instrument to force Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to listen to his plans for Gotham.

My one complaint would be that Martian Manhunter continues to be de-powered significantly just to let Supergirl save the day every time. I am all for female superheroes ruling the roost and I think it can be done without making Manhunter weaker in comparison.

Recommended watch to fans of DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network (The CW)

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Trailer - Review/Reaction

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The second trailer for the first solo MCU Spidey movie is here.

Directed by Jon Watts, the movie features Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, Michael Keaton as  Adrian Toomes/The Vulture and Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan.

Check out the trailer below:


This looks like the first dud to come out of the Marvel assembly line. The only redeeming feature is Robert Downey Jr. No wonder the studio has marketed his presence so much.

I was not a fan of the Andrew Garfield version but did like the Tobey Maguire movies from Sam Raimi. Despite being a bit old to play Peter Parker, Maguire successfully played the webslinger in two great movies and one OK movie.




Tom Holland is the latest actor to portray the character. And I am not sure about his performance. I have not see Captain America: Civil War in its entirety, but have seen the airport fight scene in which Spider-man makes his debut in the MCU Universe.

While that fight scene was superbly orchestrated and Spider-man was definitely a highlight (the other being Black Panther), it was just Tom Holland's voice-work that was in the scene. This trailer is the first time I have seen him as Peter Parker and the performance was just serviceable.

The reason we root for Iron Man/Spider-Man/Hulk is because we are invested in the particular actor's performance as Tony Stark/Peter Parker/Bruce Banner. And in this aspect Tom Holland seems to be more in the Ben Affleck/Henry Cavill/Andrew Garfield mold rather than being as memorable as RDJ/Tobey Maguire/Ed Norton.

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Speaking of RDJ, he is as good as ever as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Looks like age is catching up with him or may be it is deliberately pronounced to showcase Tony as an elder mentor to the young Parker.

Marisa returns as Aunt May. It is not clear if the Daily Bugle will be part of the movie. Perhaps, Parker would join the company at the end of the movie or in a mid-credits scene. If that does happen, it will be interesting to see who gets to play J Jonah Jameson. J K Simmons played the role with aplomb.

Speaking of Simmons, he has jumped ship and is playing Commissioner Gordon in Justice League. As if to counter that, one-time Batman and recent Birdman, Michael Keaton is playing the bad guy in this movie. But even he does not leave much of an impression.



Marvel has not delivered a dud so far. This movie may not bomb but does not look like it will get the critical acclaim that people lavished on The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.

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Image Sources: Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital (as LSC Film Corporation, LLC), Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Studios (in association with), Pascal Pictures