Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Reviewing Marvel's Defenders and Two Old Pals Return to the Pokemon Anime


You have to admit Marvel seems to be king of Superheroes in live action. While DC has had some good Batman movies and I still love the Flash they seem to be struggling to create a universe that lives up to the legacy set by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU isn’t just movies either it has expanded into TV shows and more recently Netflix. Netflix has given some minds at Marvel the chance to build another universe within the MCU starting with Daredevil, starring Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock a blind lawyer who dons a mask during the night due to his enhanced other senses allowing him to kick butt as the Daredevil and basically see without really seeing.

Daredevil released its full first season on Netflix on April 10th, 2015. Following Daredevil was Jessica Jones, starring Krysten Ritter as a former superhero turned detective with a bad case of PSTD as a bad memory returns from the past in the form of Kilgrave, played by the awesome David Tennant, this show as released on November 20th in 2015. Another season of Daredevil was released in March 2016 followed by Luke Cage, starring Mike Colter as a former convict turn crime fighter when he is given superhuman strength and unbreakable skin, this show was released on September 30, 2016. Iron Fist was the last series to release earlier on this year (March 17th) starring Finn Jones as Iron Fist a billionaire Buddhist monk and martial artist who gains powerful chi and is gifted with the mighty iron first power. For some reason out of all the previous shows which were critically acclaimed Iron Fist received mostly unfavorable reviews.


Finally all of these shows have come together in the miniseries Marvel’s Defenders continuing the plot from Iron Fist with some elements from the other four shows (Mostly Daredevil) coming into play. I actually have to admit I have not seen, for the most part, the other four shows as of watching this show which was probably not smart on my part but for some reason I just never got around to watching the shows, especially after I wasn’t too fond of the first Daredevil season so my expectations weren’t very high.

Marvel’s Defenders takes place after the events of the previous 4 shows and continues the evil antics of “The Hand” as they continue to seek everlasting life, their search takes them to New York City, home of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. 

From Alien Hunter to Almost Immortal Villain

The Hand is made up of 5 leaders (5 Fingers) who are Alexandra played by Sigourney Weaver (Alien), the brilliant mastermind in charge though has some vulnerabilities that are poked at throughout the series.  


Madame Gao, played by Wai Ching Ho who made appearances in Daredevil and Iron Fist. She makes her return in Defenders as one of the 5 fingers and seemingly the voice of reason.


Sowande played by Babs Olusanmokun, the head of the cleanup crew seemingly for The Hand. Sowande is the influence Luke Cage needs to get involved in the resistance against the Hand.


Ramon Rodriguez as Bakuto a former sensei of Colleen Wing who fights with the Defenders.


Finally Murakami played by Yutaka Takeuchi, not much is revealed about him throughout the series but he seems to be the most bloodthirsty one of the lot, especially in his introduction scene which is unnecessarily gory in a way I’m not sure adds anything to the plot.


Joining the hand is Elodie Yung as The Black Sky, an amnesiac resurrected Elektra Natchios after her defeat in Daredevil, which is actually spoilers and I should of watched the first two seasons of Daredevil before this as well as possibly Iron Fist.


Marvel’s Defenders actually starts off a bit slow with a confusing premise of a first Episode but come Episode 3 the plot of the miniseries started to become clear which made watching a little more enjoyable for me. I feel events really begin to pick up with the introduction of Stick played by Scott Glenn (Famous for Urban Cowboy) who is the man who trained Daredevil and a blind warrior himself, also he pretty much kicks ass in most of the shots he’s in, or heads at least. 


Stick appeared in both Daredevil seasons as a premise to Daredevil’s training so it was cool to see him make a return in Defenders. Despite this I’m not sure how I felt about the ending I feel like the plot twist towards the end Episodes kind of fell flat on its face with the ending feeling almost rushed in a way.


The relationships between the four Defenders as they come from vastly different lives to a rocky start of a team is actually one of the great parts of this series and brings a much more down to earth and realistic relationship in comparison to the Superhero team ups of the CW Arrowverse, Legends of Tomorrow included. (Not saying I don’t love those shows.) Luke Cage and Iron Fist’s relationship is probably the strongest in the series and my personal favorite. The team has some bickering among themselves as do all teams when they first gather together but everything as I said feels realistic and down to earth despite all the supernatural occurrences.

The soundtrack for this series was good, some of the soundtrack like the Defenders opening theme were outstanding but some of the other choices of music felt out of place in a way. The sound effects however I found to be subpar to an almost atrociousness, the impact sounds, the punches and the kicks sounded so fake and out of sync with the rest of the show, they could of possibly lowered the sound just a little but even then the actual effects sounded like someone was just dropping a book on a table. Even worse the explosion sound effect in the final episode was broken and just a plain mess compared to how an explosion of that kind would actually sound, or at least sounds in better movies.

Overall I believe if you’ve watched the previous four shows that Marvel’s Defenders is worth a watch but it wasn’t too bad coming into the show with no previous knowledge; past events were explained as the series progressed. It’s flawed I can’t deny it and I felt as if Luke Cage was kind of shafted to the status of a Side Character instead of truly feeling apart of the central characters, which is a shame because Luke Cage was probably my favorite character out of the whole series. Marvel’s Defenders felt like a wrap up to Daredevil and Iron Fist while giving them open doors to new chapters as well as a new future for Jessica Jones, who while wasn’t involved in the plot really shone brightly in this series as my second favorite character next to Luke Cage. Krysten Ritter really pulled off that snarky, sarcastic yet good hearted badass female hero to a key and I’m interested in diving into her own show because of the awesome character that she is. There are also two side characters that shined to me as well such as Simone Missick as Misty Knight a badass police detective from Harlem who seems to be building up to be a major character in Luke Cage season 2 and Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing a former member of the Hand first featured in Iron Fist and is a katana swinging badass lover of Iron Fist himself. Anyway this series as well as the previous four shows are all available to watch Via Netflix so go give them a watch! (There's a Stan Lee cameo but it knocked me on my butt laughing when I spotted it.)

You can sign up for Netflix at http://netflix.com.

Also before I move on Wonder Woman is now on iTunes! You can check that out by clicking the link below.


Moving on I got some major news for Pokemon fans and fans of the original first few seasons of the Pokemon Anime! Two lovable and memorable characters that were major parts of my childhood are making their return after years of being absence in upcoming Pokemon Sun and Moon Episodes! The kick butt, water loving, psyduck owner and tomboy Misty and the ladies man Brock are both returning for two Episodes of the Sun and Moon anime this September 14th and 21st! (In Japan, not sure when it’s releasing outside of Japan dubbed yet) The announcement came in the newest issue of the Telubi-Kun magazine in Japan.


For those not aware Brock and Misty were Ash’s traveling companions throughout his Kanto and Johto adventures, with Brock continuing to travel with Ash through to the end of his Sinnoh Journey. Both Misty had returned to take over the Cerulean City Gym full time and Brock had left to become a Pokemon Doctor. While I can’t say I dislike any of Ash’s traveling companions and I’ve been an avid watcher of the show throughout the past 20 years Brock and Misty are by far my favorites and I mean these guys were the original crew that I grew up watching in over 5 movies and many Episodes so it’s tp be expected.


I can’t express how ecstatic I was to hear this news. Apparently Ash, who’s now attending Pokemon School (Which he accidentally got signed up for) in between his Alolan Island Challenge is returning home to Kanto for a special class. He meets up with his old pals and it seems they stick around for some adventures but here’s the awesome part… Brock and Misty both have Mega Pokemon now. Oh boy yes these two have been busy improving as Gym Leaders (Actually I’m not sure if Brock will be a gym leader in this I assumed he was still a Doctor.) as both Misty’s Gyradose which she caught after leaving Ash in Johto and Brock’s Steelix (Which evolved from his trusty Onix from the first few seasons) are both mega evolvable. Ash will actually be battling both of these guys! Yeah Ash here’s your chance to actually earn those Gym Badges you were graciously given.

These two Episodes are enough to make up for my disappointment regarding the upcoming new Pokemon movie Pokemon 20: I Choose You so I can’t wait to see the original crew back together at least for two Episodes. Now all we need is for Team Rocket to follow Ash back to Kanto (Which they will) and for Gary to come back and it’ll be perfect, oh and Charizard you can’t forget him. I actually feel like a little kid again, excuse me.

Now I may be pulling off a crazy and mad theory but does this also hint towards a possible presence of these two in the games? Giving them Mega Stones makes me suspicious and maybe a little too hopeful for a Pokemon World Tournament to return in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

I thought I would add that I’ve actually really come to love the new art style in Sun and Moon (Even though Ash has noodle arms.) it’s so much more fluid than previous seasons and adds a more cheerful mood to the more comedic season that Sun and Moon is and really I feel it’s proven to be great so far despite being different.

Speaking of something related to Nintendo… Remember back in 2015 Nintendo held the World Championships? (Arin from Game Grumps was there, if that rings a bell) Which was a revival of something they did way back in 1990? Well get ready because the Nintendo World Championships is returning once again this year! (I would have announced this sooner but I had no idea it was happening.) 


You can be a part of this competition by taking part in the qualifying rounds which are happening exclusively at Best Buys around the world… Okay it’s only in the country apparently and only in New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Dallas, Seattle and Miami but if you can reach these areas click this link here for more info: https://nwc.nintendo.com/! The big event will be happening in New York City October 7th, 2017. Apparently the qualifiers are using Mario Kart 7, which is pretty awesome to see the 3DS Mario Kart get some love again.

On a more negative note (Is there too much negativity in this blog today?) it appears come November 7th the Miiverse will shut down on both 3DS and Wii U. Miiverse was a pretty cool social network for Nintendo players to share thoughts and artwork on and this removal is also negatively impacting some major games in a way that is completely ridiculous on Nintendo’s part. First up is Mario Kart 8 which will disable the ability to upload videos to Youtube (Have you guys seen the new Youtube logo? It’s pretty modern and snazzy.) which seems unrelated to the removal of Miiverse. Tournaments are also no more in Mario Kart 8.

Splatoon will no longer feature messages and drawings among Inkopolis but you still have the miiverse like feature in Splatoon 2 thank goodness.

Super Mario 3D World while subtle and not affective of the gameplay will no longer has messages from Miis from the Miiverse floating around the hub worlds.

Super Mario Maker is losing a pretty vital feature for sharing levels with others. No longer will you be able to share levels to Miiverse and comment on levels. You can still upload levels but this is a huge bummer for those looking for feedback on their levels.

Super Smash Bros for Wii U will now have an entire stage completely useless and broken, the Miiverse stage. No longer will those hilarious and sometimes stupid messages pop up in the background from Miiverse. The Tournament feature will also be removed, which I never managed to ever get into a tournament that was active so I’m neutral on that.

Xenoblade Chronicles X’s BLADE report feature is gone, but I’m not sure what that is as I’ve never played that game.

Finally Mario VS Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is basically useless now. You will no longer be able to play other’s levels or upload your levels. You can still complete the 88 levels in the main game but that’s basically it.

I won’t rant on any longer but I have to say this is a bad move on Nintendo’s part; it wouldn’t have been so bad if features in the actual games weren’t breaking because of this. You can read more at: http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27329/~/miiverse-service-discontinuation-faq. Oh yeah and the Wii U home menu is basically going to be a wasteland now, thanks Nintendo. Next time try to make features in your games implemented in ways that won’t break when you shut down certain services. I’m hoping the servers for Wii U and 3DS online games won’t be shut down any time soon unlike the Wii and DS.

Let’s talk about something more positive, pasta! Yes remember that delicious looking Pasta and Salmon meal I had a week ago? Well Mum took that same formula and reworked it, this time with some Spinach Fettuccini instead of Linguine and instead of Salmon some delicious Pork Scaloppini with mixed cheese. 


We got ourselves some Romano cheese and oh my lord it has added a new depth of flavor to our meals besides the parmesan we usually use. You really should try this meal out, you can read the basic ingredients and how it’s all cooked on the end of this blog, it’s the same just we added more butter this time round and different pasta: https://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/08/solar-eclipse-movie-news-pasta-knitting.html.

For today's free knitting pattern feature I'm going to be sharing something real quick but it's an awesome pattern regardless. This is the "Knotted Cables Washcloth" by KnitPicks.


This looks pretty cool actually especially for someone like myself who seems to love cable knitting. I'm not sure how difficult it will be but it looks like a fun challenge regardless of how hard it is, a pattern worth knitting indeed. Looks almost like some sort of fancy architect in a way, knitting architect.

You're going to need US 7 (4.5 MM) needles and some worsted weight yarn of about 100 yards to complete this pattern which you can check out here: http://www.knitpicks.com/cfPatterns/Pattern_Display.cfm?ID=55932220&media=FBK&utm_source=media&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=FBK

(For those read this blog before it got updated, sorry about not including a knitting pattern at first.)

I’m going to leave you guys for the day, hope you enjoyed the read! Don’t forget to check out the new ZAK Entertainment Redbubble where I have some ZAK Entertainment merchandise as well as an awesome 1957 Chevy illustration I did available to purchase on apparel and other merchandise, you can check that out here: redbubble.com/people/zakentertains. Also don’t forget to support me on Patreon so I can keep ZAK Entertainment going. For now however…

This was ZAK Entertainment!

See you on Friday!

Today was a busy day, not going to lie.

[Photo Credits: Marvel, Netflix, ABC, Serebii.net, Telubi-Kun Magazine, Nintendo, ZAK Entertainment, Knit Picks]

No comments:

Post a Comment