Wednesday Sounds - Dethalbum II

Dethklok are back. With a album that doesn't pack quite the same punch that their debut album did. There are no 'Thunderhorse's here nor there are 'Go Forth and Die's or even something like 'Dethharmonic', so the epic level of this disc isn't even close to the one of the first one. Still, songs like 'Cyborg Slayers' and 'Comet Song' brings us the intense metal all the Dethklok fans craved for. Still, it's a shame the aren't more voice changes like there was in 'Hatredcopter' here. A little disapointing but still hugely brutal.

6/10

Monday Matinee - Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie is back! Maybe it was Madonna, maybe it was a midlife crisis, but whatever it was is long gone. The good movies from him appear to be back. In this very different version of the character from the one we are used to, Robert Downey Jr. gives us another brilliant performance in the role of a not so political correct and often nasty detective. The misterious story is pretty entertaining through and through, with good action moments and a lot of laughs. And let us not forget about Mark Strong's great portraial of a villain. A great movie that has the capacity to bring us many sequels if that is Ritchie's plan.

9/10

Friday Comics - Fall of the Hulks: Gamma

Good grief. It's hard to defend the work of Jeph Loeb these days. It appears that all he can do now in a comic is bring shock and awe with the death of a main character and an unexpected and mostly unexplainable twist. This issue is a big proof of that. With another flashback narrated by Samson, where a center character to the Hulk series dies in a questionable way, followed by the funeral of the same character, who I'm not divulging to avoid spoilers. Finally we see another dead big character return to the book and a twist ending that looks completely out of character for Bruce Banner. Perhaps we will get explanations in the following months, but after Loeb's latest books I highly doubt it. But even if the story, although very entertaining, doesn't make much sense the art is top notch, as John Romita Jr is able to give us great scenes, giving the characters a great depth. A not great but fun read.

6/10

Monday Matinee - Avatar

Cameron is brilliant. Not many directors in Hollywood nowadays are able to assure producers that millions of dollars spent in their movies will assure an astonishing win at the box-office, he is one of them. Avatar, much like Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss is spectacular to watch, and this time with 3D screenings that spectacle is brought to a whole new level. This time the action takes place in the moon Pandora, where an ex-marine in a wheel-chair, Jake Sully, takes his dead twin's place in an experiment to create a diplomatic relation between humans and aliens in that planet. What ensues is a bit clichéd, something we had seen before in Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas, but this time in a more deeper level. Cameron is able to come up with a story that creates metaphors that successfully attacks racism, terrorism and ecological destruction, at the same time that it makes us remember the importance of nature. It will undoubtelly go down as one of the films of the decade.

10/10

Monday Matinee - Ninja Assassin

The Wachowski brothers always bring us spectacular entertainment. Sometimes the story isn't the best, but you can always count on amazing visuals or astounding action scenes. Ninja Assassin is another of those movies. The story is a little questionable, but the action is all-out. The movie of Raizo (Rain, who had starred in the Wachowki's adaptation of Speed Racer before), a boy raised by a Clan of ninjas that sees his part coming back for him while a couple of Europol agents try to uncover the Clan's secrets upon finding out about higly well-paid murders. The story is a bit clichéd, the dialogue isn't going to win any Oscars but the action is frenetic and exciting and reason enough to watch this movie. Not their best but surely one not to be missed.

7/10

Friday Comics - New Avengers Annual #3

There is no denying that New Avengers is the best Avengers comic right now. It's a little silly that we have three Avengers book about now, with Dark and Mighty and not counting Initiative. New Avengers balances perfectly the action and story, giving us a fun to read comic. Now, the story takes place right after the events of Dark Reign The List - Avengers, with Barton in Osborn's possession after being apreended. With Spider-Man and Bucky out of town, it's the ladies time to save the day, and so Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, Mocking Bird and even Jessica Jones team to rescue Clint. This issue gives us more of what we've seen in the past, the Dark Avengers missing the New ones by a second and battle never taking place, but the rescue scene compensates for that. The ending is not only great as it also brings back a face fans have been waiting for years to return to the Avengers books. Solid story, beautiful art and an epic ending, we just can't ask for more.

9/10

Thursday's Shows - Metalocalypse - Dethmas

Metalocalypse is a lot of fun. And this episode is no exception to the usual chaos of this series. In this episode we get Muderface trying his best to get the approval he needs for his Christmas Special - "The Christmas Spirit", a family friendly show where a spirit kills children. Things go wrong and the show ends up being supported by the Church, which doesn't please the rest of the band one bit. On the other hand the mothers of the Dethklok members have arrived and want to spend quality time with their sons, ending up giving them an helping hand with their special, in one particular case in a quite literal sense. Funny and nonsensical this is a show that doesn't dissapoint.

8/10

Monday Matinee - Thirst

Chan-wook Park's movies aren't for everyone. If some, such as me, consider Oldboy a work of art, others deeply hate it. Thirst falls on the same type of film. Entering the vampire mythos, Park brings us his personal twisted version of the bloodsucking drama. It is all about a Priest (Kang-ho), who volunteers for an expirement in virus vaccination, who ends up defeating the desease but getting sick with vampiristic needs. While drinking blood he remains healthy, stronger, more agile and faster, when he does not do so the desease returns, marking his body. Obviously he ends up corrupting a woman (Ok-vin) who doesn't show the same respect for human life come the blood need. I will not spoil the ending, but it is the kind of brilliance and emotion this director has used us to. Bringing the personal and social drama to a movie about the supernatural is something that we've seen many movies fail at (Twilight, I am looking at you), but here Park is able to really show us the difficulties the characters are going through with their new status in life, and the way that crossing their moral standards affects their behaving. South Korean film-making at its finest.

9/10

Friday Comics - Supergod #1

Warren Ellis is a genius. I have said it before and will probably say it again. I have yet to read something from the mind of that man that I did not like to read. Supergod does not disapoint. The story is narrated from a apocalyptic destruction setting in the future, where an old man makes a call telling how it all began. How humanity started creating their own divine creations. We are given a look at many a characters with superhuman powers conceived by scientific genius, based on religious concepts, like Krishna, the indian supergod. Ellis does a great, and usual, job at keeping the reader attached to the story the whole time without questioning the concept by giving all the necessary scientific tidbits that make this story sound real. Obviously, things go wrong and we get a look at the destruction and death these creations create themselves, ending the issue with a frightening look at America's very own nuclear superbeing. A great concept very well develop ed that could lead into an epic storyline.

9.5/10

Thursday's Shows - How I Met Your Mother S5 E9

After such a great episode as "The Playbook" it's hard to find another episode as funny as that, specially one that lacks Barney Stinson's awesomeness moments. But still, "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap" is able to keep as humored through its 20 minutes. What it does lack in Barney it gives more than enough in hilarious Marsh moments with Lily and her father, specially when it comes to his games. Obviously the center of the episode is the 4th slap which, in the spirit of the thanksgiving spirit, Marshall decides to share with Robin and Ted. Unfortunately those two don't share the same spirit, and that slap takes its time to arrive, for Barney's torture. Finally, a little treat at the end with the Slap Bet game for children commercial gave me the couple of laughs that were missing. While tackling the emotional side of the story a little more than the funny side of it, this episode is still a good one, but unfortunatly it kinda fails to deliver a reason to make sense in the context of the show - the series of events that led to Ted meating his future wife.

7/10

Wednesday Sounds - This is War

I'm kind of disapointed. I'm not the biggest 30 Seconds to Mars fan, but A Beautiful Lie was a great album. Now comes This is War, and what I loved about ABL isn't here at all. The hard rock tracks, the fast paced lyrics from, for example, Battle of One, aren't here to be find. Maybe I still have to grow on this album, very much like I had to with Arctic Monkeys' Humbug. When an artist tries something new, and I don't mean something worse, it sometimes brings those that wanted a little more of the same down. But good for them, because an artist can only trully grow with a vast experience of sonorities. And that, that we get here. Kings and Queens is a great track for example, more slow paced than we are used to from 30STM. And something we get plenty through the whole album is chorus and more chorus during the songs, which is great at first, but rapidly become tiresome. A good attempt but not their best.

6/10

We Care A Lot - Iron Man 2

Since, I've been unable to catch on the reading, I bring Iron Man 2 news instead of Tuesday Titles.

The movie, to be released on May 7th 2010, has finally its own poster.



We finally get a glimpse at War Machine. And if you want more visuals to take here is the concept art



and an image from the footage shown at Comic-Con this year



But all of this begs the question: When do we get a proper trailer? Rumor has it that said trailer will arrive in the premiere of Sherlock Holmes, towards the end of December. Let's hope those rumors are true, because May is still a while away and I can't wait to see that armor in action.