The CW’s superhero drama, Arrow, starring Stephen Amell as the titular character, has an ever expanding universe of characters. The creators and writers are very adept at introducing and developing adapted characters from the comics in a very unique and well paced manner. Since season 1, we have seen Team Arrow grow from Ollie/The Arrow working by himself to half a dozen characters/heroes that help him in his quest either by his side or working from his lair. Throughout the course of 2 seasons, it’s been surprising how quickly they develop characters and ultimately, how many characters have learned Olliver Queen’s secret identity. With so many new characters constantly being introduced, other characters have to take a back seat sometimes, and with many knowing his identity, it only makes sense that a couple of them either die or be killed off at some point or another, as happened with a member of team Arrow in the Season 3 premiere. At the end of the episode, a fan favorite character was shot with 3 arrows on a rooftop by a mysterious archer and fell to their death. I’m sure it will take quite a while to reveal the identity of this assassin, but it’s always fun to speculate. Below, I’ll run through each possible character and why I believe they could have or could not have done the deed and why it does or doesn’t make sense, as well as a couple of more out there theories that I’m actually hope end up being true. SPOILERS AHEAD (FOR THE FIRST 3 EPISODES OF ARROW) Continue reading
Author Archives: Mo W
Ghostbusters Reboot: A Mixed Reaction
When Ghostbusters opened in 1984, it was an instant success. Not only did it hit comedy gold, but it cemented itself as a box office success and broke all kinds of records at the time, in fact it still sits at #91 on the top 100 Domestic Box Office Gross list (Box Office Mojo). It was obviously successful enough to garner a sequel which ultimately wasn’t quite as good, or successful, but still a box office hit. Since then, Sony has been trying to make a sequel with several start ups that never came to fruition lead by Dean Aykroyd. A large part of it possibly had to do with the fallout between Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, but regardless, nothing has gotten off the ground until now.
Back in January, Variety reported that Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat) was being courted for the Ghostbusters 3 directing and producing gig after Ivan Reitman dropped out shortly after Harold Ramis’s passing. And more recently it was reported that Feig was re-teaming with “The Heat” writer Katie Dippold for an all female cast reboot of Ghostbusters. Upon hearing this news, it’s tough to describe my feelings as I’m overwhelmed with intrigue, excitement, disappointment, and overall confusion.
How to Be a Villain and Win the Day the Cosplay Way
Even with a 4 day pass, you’re guaranteed to miss something at Comic-Con, the nerd culture event of the year. There are so many panels, celebrities, comic books, events, video games and fun to get to, you’ll never have the same Comic-Con experience twice. In years past, I had done the panels, waited in line for autographs, won contests and even scored the best free swag. The one thing that I felt I had not fully experienced was cosplaying at Comic-Con. Cosplay is short for costume play which is the act of people called cosplayers dressing up to play as or represent a particular character, fictitious or not, and sometimes you make child’s day.
Super Heartbreak in Hall H (Or How Warner Brothers Still Hasn’t Learned to Hype Their Heroes)
Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Image
As I walked to the Hall H line on Friday night, I was still hopefully optimistic to be able to get in to the one panel I’d been dying with anticipation to see, Warner Brothers. This was mainly due to the fact that Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is less than 2 years away, and there were some heavy rumors that came out regarding the DC Cinematic universe in the prior weeks before the Con. These included a potential release slate for WB for the next 8 years with titles such as Shazam, Man of Steel 2, The Flash and Green Lantern movie, as well as actors quite heavily hinting at characters they are playing such as Jason Mamoa as Aquaman and The Rock as Shazam. With all these rumors floating around Warner Brothers and their DC lineup, announcements were surely to come in Hall H Saturday morning at the Con.
MediaBrewPub Watches Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier promotional poster from SDCC 2013.
We can’t stop talking about the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier and we’ve had universal praise for the new movie.
Jun our resident movie expert opens up the discussion giving some very high praise:
Exhilarating. Mature. Morally complex. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is, hands down, the best entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet. Combining bone-crunching action with astute (and relevant to boot) political thrill, the film establishes its titular superhero as the most sympathetic character in its universe thus far, while also making its heroes incredibly vulnerable to defeat and failure. It hardly takes a wrong step, too; the humor is spot-on and never excessive, the cast is terrific all around, and the way it builds its world is first-rate. The effects of its story alter the MCU’s very landscape, from the films – past, present, and future – to the ongoing television series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Did you hear that, DC? That was the sound of Marvel throwing down the gauntlet.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
How I Met Your Mother Finale: Love, Happiness and Moving On
When How I Met Your Mother debuted back in the fall of 2005 it stood out for a few reasons. One of the major distinctions of the show was it’s most unique and utilized tool, the flashback and flash forward. It wasn’t a revolutionary idea by any means, but when you pair that with the fact that HIMYM was a multi-cam show that did not shoot in front of a live audience, it made the show a bit more unique. On the surface, that was the most distinct feature of the show, but not the most important. From the beginning, creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays have written a show that, as silly and off the wall as it got at points, was always grounded in real ideas and life lessons. Of course there were over the top moments and relationships and ideals that were completely romanticized such as Ted’s grand romantic gestures in any of his relationships, or Robin’s Canadian back story or any of Barney’s tall tales, but as an audience member we’re willing to go along with all of it because the story is being narrated from the future and the assumption is, over time stories are embellished. Each story though, had a sense of realism and emotion to it behind all the gags, flashbacks and ridiculously funny antics. Some stories within HIMYM did it better than others, but most episodes or story arcs or seasons were able to bring their antics back down to earth and remind people that, at the heart of the story were people with real emotions who were just trying to navigate their way through life and find happiness and love. Though the finale had a lot of twists and turns and changed the character paths of growth and development for a few characters, (ultimately resulting in alienating a lot of fans and receiving a lot of backlash), it stayed true to it’s core by depicting real people with real life problems still navigating their way through life, trying to find love and let go of the past.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Community: VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing
The combination of another round of great guest stars (Alison Brie, Vince Gilligan, Spencer Crittenden, Paul Willams and Gina Gershon), Abed & Annie being overly competitive over Pile of Bullets, a VCR board game and the rest of the group involved in attempting to sell a stash of drugs textbooks they found while organizing the storage room, made for a very solid episode filled with a few outrageous moments as well as some very sweet sentimental moments of growth for Abed.
Community: App Development and Condiments
As a die-hard fan of Community fan, I thought it would be fun to write short reviews on each episode after it airs.
One thing that sets Community apart from other, more classically structured sitcoms on network television, is the way in which Community frames its stories. Harmon and Co never seem afraid to try something ridiculous and bold whether it be parodies, animated episodes, stop motion, or an array of homages to various movies, directors or pop culture references. Quite often these extremely bold episodes that set out to pay tribute to some form of pop culture are among Community fanatics favorite episodes, whether it be D&D in “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”, a brilliant Law & Order spoof in “Basic Lupine Urology”, or everything from war movies, cowboys and Star Wars in any of the paintball episodes “Modern Warfare” and “A Fistful of Paintballs/For a Few Paintballs More.” Occasionally though, when you shoot for the stars, you only hit the moon, as was the case with this week’s slightly disappointing, “App Development and Condiments”.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD