Comic Review - Fearful Asymmetry (Part 1 - Marvel)

This post focuses on characters that look a bit off and imbalanced (and I'm not referring to psychos like Typhoid Mary). Anyway, they just look odd. Have a look and see what I mean.

I first came across Warlock in the New Mutants way back in the 80's when I was subscribing to the series because I was a big fan of Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz (anybody remember him?). It was during their run that the alien Warlock (not to be confused with Adam Warlock) was introduced.
Typhoid Mary, I guess (OK, looks like I'm inviting some negativity here...) was the template for DC's Harley Quinn. The psychotic female. A constant thorn to Daredevil. 


Jack of Hearts. I like this guy quite a bit ever since first seeing him battle Iron Man in 103 (1976?). I guess many don't like him because of his really dorky looking costume, but that's just my theory.

Domino, from X-Force, Well, she was introduced during the Rob Liefeld era and up till today, I have NEVER liked anything by Rob Liefeld. 'Nuff said (OK, to be fair, I have not given the Savage Dragon a try yet).

Raza (of the Starjammers)
As I had been a massive X-Men fan for over 20 years, I had been reading almost EVERY X-Book Marvel was churning out since the Claremont/Byrne issues. So I really liked the Starjammers (the description for this group is kinda very similar to how you'd describe the Guardians of the Galaxy - a rag-tag team of unknown D-Listers in a cosmic jalopy and having all kinds of cosmic adventures.)

Ex-Nihilo - if you recall, I had written about him in my earlier post. I have not read anything new with him in it since that post so, I don't really have new to add. However, he does qualify for this post as I'm sure all of you would agree.

Thanks to the aforementioned Guardians Movie, now people all over the world knows about Nebula, Daughter of Thanos.
Nick Fury (well, the black version anyway) is another one of those characters who's received a lot of recognition by the public thanks to his portrayal by Sam Jackson.

Odin is yet another one of those characters who's received a lot more recognition by the non-geek populace, thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe Films.

Deathlok - Remember this name as he's gonna be big! Geeks like me know him from waaaay back in the early 70s as he's the original template for characters like Robocop and DC's Cyborg. With his appearance in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD TV Series not too long ago, he's gonna be a household name like how the Guardians are pretty soon (provided they don't screw it up). Mark my words.
Cable (Scott Summers' son from a possible future) from X-Force, He, along with Domino (see above) was introduced during the Rob Liefeld era. I'm not gonna repeat myself here. Malekith the Dark Elf is yet another one recognisable from the MCU (Thor 2, just in case)

Movie Review - I'll Follow You Down

Movie Title
I'll Follow You Down
Year
2013
Genre
Sci-Fi, Mystery
Story

Brilliant Princeton professor of Quantum Physics, Gabe (Rufus Sewell), flies off for a weekend conference and meet with his dad Sal, (Victor Garber, whom I remember from the TV Series Alias) who is also a Physicist.

 

Both his wife Marika (Gillian Anderson) and young son, Erol (Haley Joel Osment) were waiting for his scheduled return flight but Gabe didn’t arrive. Gabe was presumed dead.

For 12 years Marika struggled daily to cope with this reality and eventually, the burden takes its toll on her and her life. Erol, as equally gifted in Quantum Physics as both his dad and grand dad, talks with Sal, who has a theory that the Gabe's disappearance may have been the result of a scientific experiment with a Time Traveling machine in an attempt to meet Albert Einstein.

Erol’s research eventually led him to believe that Gabe’s failure to return to the family 12 years ago was because he fell victim to a mugging incident that left him dead.

 Erol is determined to locate his dad to save his family, even if it means going back in time.

Acting

Haley Joel Osment. I think for some you of - you might say “hmm, the name sounds familiar”. That’s because he was the boy in 1999’s Sixth Sense! Well, for me, I had been wondering what he’d been up to recently and then , there he is.

 Of course, I didn’t actually quite recognize him. This was mainly because he’d all but grown up and the physical proportions aren’t quite the same as I’ve remembered him. Plus, I think he’s shorter than Tom Cruise.

 Anyway, speaking of the acting, of course, HJO delivers but then, his talent did not shine as brightly as before ‘coz I guess real acting chops from a 10 year-old kid is way more impressive than a 24 year old young man.

 

Gillian Anderson will always be beautiful to X-Files fanatics like me. So, although her role didn’t really give her many opportunities to shine, she was adequate. However, she on-screen time was really limited and was cut-short half-way thru’.

Overall
After Gone Girl which was my last post, I thought that there were a lot of similarities between these 2 movies. Of course, Gone Girl's pacing was much better and more gripping. However, if you are a little patient and let the story unfold, you'd get the pay-off here as well despite the end being a little predictable.

I'd definitely watch this movie again in a few years.

6.5/10

Movie Review - Gone Girl

Movie Title
Gone Girl
Year
2014
Genre
Suspense, Thriller

Story
Gone Girl is David Fincher's adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s New York Times Best Seller of the same name. A friend asked me to describe the story and the only way I could've described it without spoiling the plot was to say "the possible hazards of getting married".
 
The movie starts off innocently enough with vignettes of how Nick (Ben Affleck) courts successful children’s book writer Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike, whom I must say looked pretty good in this movie!). They had just moved from New York into the small Missouri community of North Carthage where he runs a bar with his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon).

On the 5th anniversary of their wedding, Nick returns home to find Amy missing from their home, with signs of a violent struggle.
 
As the police start to investigate the case, viewers begin to see the differing views of Nick and Amy’s marriage. It was not such a blissful one as we first believed and Nick is now the prime suspect because many darker events point to the fact that their marriage had been in turbulence for some time already since they had more or less used up all of their financial reserves (mainly from Amy’s trust fund and insurance) and worse, Nick is having an affair with a much younger former student.
 
With is life turning out to be a national media circus, Nick then had no choice but to engage the help of star lawyer Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry) to help him with his case.
 
This is when audiences begin to wonder whose side to root for.
 
Acting
Both Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck turn in excellent performances despite my personal bias against Ben. After watching this movie, I guarantee that you’d NEVER look at Rosamund Pike the same way again! For some of us, maybe even our spouses .
 
Overall
I would highly recommend this movie to anyone. The movie, despite being almost the same length as the Hobbit movies, kept me on the edge of my seat every single moment. Totally engaging and there’s always a surprise waiting to be uncovered (eg: Amy’s ex-boyfriend played by Neil Patrick Harris.)

7.5/10