Power Rangers Month - Ranking the Seasons Part One: #17-14

Welcome to the beginning of Power Rangers Month, where I'll analyze every season, ranked from worst to best in my own opinion. Since we're at the bottom of the list, let's try to get through these. And it should be no surprise what's up first.

17. POWER RANGERS MEGAFORCE (2013-2014)

Adapted from Tensou Sentai Goseiger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger

Neo-Saban Era

Man, f*** this season.

I've given my thoughts on this before, but allow me to sum up my previous post about this season: With lazy editing and tons of plot holes, this season lures fans in with nostalgia but puts little to no effort in the final product, despite having years to plan. Hell, they were too lazy to even edit out Sentai teams that weren't adapted into Power Rangers!

Since my reactionary post though, I have had some time to reflect and new thoughts I'd like to share.

First off, I'd like to apologize for blaming the Saban company as a whole for Megaforce and apparently not caring about how the franchise is run anymore. The blame lies with then current show runner, Jonathan Tzachor. Since then, he has been replaced as of Dino Charge, most likely and justly fired after Megaforce.

Secondly, I have forgiven the re-use of the original "Go Go Power Rangers" theme for both Megafoce and Samurai. Samurai was the first season Saban produced since getting the rights back from Disney, so they were trying to invoke the same feeling of Mighty Morphin'. With Megaforce, it was the anniversary season, so it also makes sense. I'm just glad that Dino Charge's theme song brings something new.

While I said before that the show had no interesting character or development, I was wrong. Two do stand out. The first is Robo Knight, who filled the sixth Ranger spot for the first year. He's a robot whose mission is to protect the environment, so basically a mix of Robocop and Captain Planet. At first, he works alone and doesn't care about working with the Rangers. But over time, he begins to work more with the team as well as understand what it means to be human, eventually giving up his own life to save the Silver Ranger's.

On the villain side, there was Vrak, who was more or less the main villain for the first year of the show. While the show had too many villains that were generic and evil for the sake of being evil, Vrak did stand out because he had some charisma. He actually lasted the longest out of all the villains and was able to give the Rangers the most trouble and their devastating blow, cutting them off for a time from their Super and Legendary powers and being responsible for Robo Knight's death.

Still, two stand-out characters in two years of a series doesn't help when everyone else is two-dimensional. Hell, Gia the Yellow Ranger didn't get a single focus episode!

I think I may know the main root of Megaforce's problem is. With Saban's deal to air the show on Nickelodeon, they are only allowed 20 episodes to a season, as opposed to an average 40 of past seasons. For that reason, Saban has had to use the same Sentai footage for two years of Power Rangers in order to complete a series that before would have been done in one. Samurai (adapted from Shinkenger) was on for two years, Dino Charge (adapted from Kyoryuger) is currently on it's second, and I assume this will be the norm from here on out.

With Megaforce, however, the decision was made to use two different Sentai for each year. The first year was based on Goseiger while the second was Gokaiger, Super Sentai's 35th Anniversary season. There in lies the problem. They had to condense a Sentai with nearly 50 episodes down to 20 for Power Rangers. That begs the question, can an adequate Power Rangers season be done in just 20 episodes? Possibly. For the first year of Megaforce based on Goseiger, I found it was almost on par with Samurai. If it had stood on its own, it may have worked. But when things went Super into the Gokaiger footage, that's when things fell apart.

Now, what would I have done: skip Goseiger and adapt Gokaiger for two years. I heard somewhere that Saban's prohibited from skipping a Sentai series due to contract, but I'm calling bull on that because they skipped over Go-Busters to adapt Kyoryuger into Dino Charge and are planning to skip over ToQger to adapt Ninninger for the announced 2017-18 series, Ninja Steel.

As for story, here's my pitch: the Zangyack Empire has sent an armada led by Prince Vekar to conquer the Earth. Lord Zedd after being turned good by the Z Wave has become the wizard Gokai, similar to how Rita became the Mystic Mother in Mystic Force. Setting up a headquarters in a nexus point of the Morphing Grid on Earth, Gokai is able to channel the powers of Rangers from the past, future, and other realities (explaining how they'd use SPD and RPM). Gokai recruits Troy, Noah, Gia, Jake, and Emma to fight the Zangyack by becoming the Megaforce Rangers, using their new powers and zords, as well as those of the past Rangers.

Throughout the season, past Rangers would guest star in episodes dedicated to their seasons (and I mean EVERY season) and give guidance to the new Rangers. However, they wouldn't be able to use their own powers because they're currently tied to the Megaforce, and as established in past seasons, a duplication of Ranger powers causes a strain on the Morphing Grid and harm those involved.

As opposed to how it was actually done, the Silver Ranger would be from Earth and be someone who has studied Ranger exploits since he was young and the original Mighty Morphin' team arrived. Impressed with his bravery to help the Rangers without powers of his own, Gokai gives this person the Silver Ranger powers and the ability to become past Sixth Rangers.

As the show would near it's end after Vekar is killed, his father Emperor Mavro arrives to finish the job, and he is revealed to be Zedd's/Gokai's brother. While the Rangers are distracted in a battle that destroys the rest of the armada as well as their own Zords, Mavro attacks their headquarters, killing Gokai and stealing the Ranger Keys. Using the Ranger Keys and the Morphing Grid, Mavro kidnaps all the past Rangers and forces them to battle the Megaforce. After freeing the past Rangers from his control, Mavro summons one last large army of X-Borgs, and thus begins a true Legendary Battle. We would see teams work together that hadn't before, like RPM and in Space or Jungle Fury and Lightspeed Rescue. Turning their attention to Mavro, the Rangers use their team finishing moves to destroy him. And all the while, the extended version of "Go Go Power Rangers" would be playing in the background.

Now I know this Legendary Battle would be mostly just stuntmen in the suits, but even if they did have short cameos, it would have been fine since they would have proper screen time in a previous episode. Hell, even if they just got Tommy to guest star and speak on behalf of all the past Rangers, it would have been fine.

Honestly, I think I just put more thought into how Megaforce could have been than Jonathan Tzachor. If anyone knows of a way to reach him, please share this with him. Show him how it's done.

But I guess I've dwelled too long on what could have been and what we actually got. On to the next season.

16. POWER RANGERS OPERATION OVERDRIVE (2007)

Adapted from GoGo Sentai Boukenger

Disney Era

Man, f*** this season. 

Okay, I promise that's the last way I start these analyses, but both Megaforce and Operation Overdrive are the seasons that I just straight up hated. I cut Overdrive some slack because of Megaforce, because they at least put effort into it. Or at least tried to. Boy did they try.

I guess I should have been tipped off by how this season would go by the theme song. I mean, did you watch the video I posted? There's a reason Power Rangers is supposed to have rock themes. It gets you pumped up! Overdrive's? What am I supposed to do with that?

I think what really clinched it for me that this was the worst season at the time was the episode, "Out of Luck". When the Red Ranger is cursed with bad luck by a monster, it gets to near Looney Tunes levels with how much bad stuff happens to him. Hell, a boulder comes out of nowhere and runs him over! But if that wasn't bad enough, the other Rangers give him their good luck charms to try to help, and we get...this:

I mean, my God. I know this may sound dramatic, but this moment actually made me question my love for this franchise.

When it comes to the Rangers, they're really not that likable. Most of the time, I found them whiny, selfish, dumb, or jerky. I do admit though that unlike Megaforce, the Rangers here do have some personalities and go through some development. Out of them, the only ones I believe worth talking about are Mack the Red Ranger and Tyzonn the Mercury Ranger.

Tyzonn fills the Sixth Ranger role this season and is an alien from the Planet Mercuria and the last remaining member of a rescue team that were killed by the Fearcats, one of the villain factions of the season. While his introductory episodes give him a tragic background, for the rest of the season, he doesn't get much focus or development, and without spoiling anything, even his character arc gets resolved pretty lazily. Orion, the Silver Megaforce Ranger, had a very similar background to Tyzonn's, and gets about the same treatment, if not worse.

Mack is the son of billionaire adventurer Andrew Hartford, who creates the Overdrive powers and recruits the Rangers to fight this season's villains. While initially reluctant, Andrew doesn't want Mack to be the Red Ranger but approves once he proves himself. Later on, we get big twist this season where Mack finds out he's actually an android built by Andrew. When I first saw this, I just hated it and fueled my rage for this season. But now, I can at least say it's something original and did create dramatic tension between father and son, though it would have helped if there had been more build-up. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that after finding out about this revelation, Mack becomes down right suicidal during missions because he feels expendable for being a machine. It doesn't make him heroic, it makes him look like an emo brat.

When it comes to the villains of the season, there's a lot of them, but not as many as there were in Megaforce. It makes them easier to keep track of but they're also not very memorable or have much motivation other than being evil. That's all there is to say pretty much on that front.

If there's any likable character, it would be Spencer, the Hartford family butler. He's funny, gives advice, and even helps the Rangers out in the field.

Now I can't talk about this season without bringing this up. 2005-2008 is what some fans call the Kalish era of the show named after the showrunner at the time, Bruce Kalish. One of the aspects most infamous of his seasons are the overuse of explosions during fight scenes, earning the name Kalish-splosions. For most of his seasons, the explosions ranged from minimal to moderate use. But with Overdrive, he really kicked it into high gear. With the number of explosions happening during this season, I remember being bored out of my mind, usually working on something else while watching the show. It's as if Michael Bay got control of Power Rangers. On that note, for the love of God, don't let Michael Bay anywhere near the new Power Rangers movie!

If there's anything that helps this season, it's the 15th Anniversary Special, "Once a Ranger". When Rita and Zedd's son Thrax unites the villains and cuts the Overdrive Rangers off from their powers, past Rangers return to help. Adam as the Black Mighty Morphin Ranger, Tori as the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger, Kira as the Yellow Dino Thunder Ranger, Bridge as the Red SPD Ranger, and Xander as the Green Mystic Force Ranger.

While it does make the past Rangers look better than the new ones, this is actually my favorite anniversary special. It was just so nice to see competent Rangers this season. In fact, it made me wish that these were the Overdrive Rangers recruited (save for Bridge since he's from the future). Adam and Kira would still be Black and Yellow while Xander and Tori become Blue and Pink. Mack and Tyzonn could stay on. And when it came to the anniversary special, first, have it set between "Face to Face" and "Man of Mercury" before Tyzonn officially joins the team. Thrax would unite the villains and kidnap the veteran Rangers, leading Mack to put out the call to other past Rangers to help. My picks would be Tommy as the Red Zeo Ranger, Carlos as the Black Space Ranger, Dustin as the Yellow Ninja Storm Ranger, Ethan as the Blue Dino Thunder Ranger, and Vida as the Pink Mystic Force Ranger. They save the Rangers and we get a team-up fight where all the colors match.

It's a bad season, but no longer the worst. If you had the choice to watch Operation Overdrive or Megaforce...well let's just not pick either. We got 15 more seasons to cover more worth watching. Well, not by much with our next season, but I digress.

15. POWER RANGERS TURBO (1997)

Adapted from Gekisou Sentai Carranger

Saban Zordon Era 

When I was a kid, I liked Turbo. But growing up and looking back, it was quite clear the writers were having trouble with what to do with the franchise. What resulted was the season that nearly killed Power Rangers, and no other season has ever earned that title.

Though I guess the problem I had with the show as a kid was with how much they were changing things, seemingly just for the sake of it.

The first was the replacement of Rocky with Justin, the first and only child Ranger in the whole franchise. Behind the scene, Rocky's actor, Steve Cardenas, suffered a back injury and had to leave the show. A similar reason was used within the series. I used to think it was cool to have a Ranger who had my name, but little did I know later on that Justin is one of the most hated Rangers of the franchise. To be honest though, I thought Blake Foster, Justin's actor, did alright with what he was given to work with, especially for a kid actor. He wasn't terrible, but I think people were just annoyed by the idea of a kid Ranger.

Following that though, Zordon and Alpha 5 left to go home to Eltar, replaced by new mentor Dimetria and a new jive-talking Alpha 6 (who said "Yo, yo, yo" instead "Aye, aye, aye"). Dimetria was okay, but I hated Alpha 6 even as a kid. I'm just glad he got a new more tolerable voice the next season.

But then came the biggest change the franchise had up to the point. Tommy, Adam, Tanya, and Katherine all left the show with the two parter "Passing the Torch" and their powers were given to newcomers TJ, Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie. Now this, isn't the first time actors have left and replaced by new ones, but it happened gradually and had some build-up. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha had a few episodes helping the Rangers as civilians before taking on the powers from Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kimberly. With the Turbo Ranger, Carlos and Ashley were shown for only a few episodes beforehand, and TJ and Cassie actually debuted IN "Passing the Torch". It's all too much change at once! To be fair, the new Rangers were fine, but the shadow of the previous Rangers was always there and I didn't really accept the four until they became the Space Rangers in the next season. But there was enough to keep me watching, such as the Phantom Ranger storyline and the introduction of the Rescue Zords.

Then you have the villains, and boy are they an unimpressive bunch. Elgar was an idiot, Rygog did nothing (since his costume was so bulky), and Porto created/recruited monsters. And of course, probably the most annoying villain in the show's history: Divatox. Sure it makes her memorable, but not in a good way. She was just so whiny and hardly did anything herself. I mean, at least Rita and Zedd cast spells a lot; Zedd even fought Tommy once. There was one episode where she even had Elgar and some Pirhanatrons rob a bank. (You're an evil alien! Why are you doing the most cliche bad guy thing by robbing a bank?! What value does human currency even have to you?!) And in probably the most infamous episode, "Trouble by the Slice", she loses her memory and ends up working in a pizza parlor. That story lasts half the episode, but the second half of it is actually so bad, it's good. A monster tries to bake the Rangers into a giant pizza, and we get this gem of a line.

You are no doubt laughing your ass off at that line or trying to wrap your mind around the context of it.

By the way, the robot here is Blue Senturion. I haven't mentioned him because I really never cared for him.

Back to Divatox though, as bad a villain as she was, she is actually responsible for the most devastating defeat of a Ranger team in any season. Their zords were destroyed, headquarters brought down, and they were even cut off from their powers. There's quite a feeling of hopelessness. Still, the fact that it was Divatox that achieved this feat makes me chalk it up to pure dumb luck.

However, this is what I think is the biggest problem with this season. Coming off of Zeo, they went to using the Zeo Crystal, the most powerful object in the universe...TO FREAKING CARS...with little to no explanation!

So what would I have done? Continue Zeo for a second season, retaining those suits while using the zords and monsters from Carranger. And in conjunction, Rita and Zedd return as the main villains after blowing up the Royal House of Gadgetry (who presumably go off to get repaired afterwards) in the finale of Zeo. The monsters of Carranger would certainly fit their style, and with Rita's new powerful wand she got in the Zeo two-parter "Rangers of Two Worlds", they would be much more powerful than previous ones. I mean, it's not like they weren't already filming new footage of the villain's headquarters or the Ranger fights with Pirhanatrons (which they could have still used and say Rita and Zedd remodeled them after leftover Cogs). Hell, they could have scrapped the Turbo movie and used that budget to film more new footage.

Story wise, here's how it would go. Rita and Zedd set up shop again and send a new monster to Earth. Though the Zeo Rangers put up a fight, both Zeo and Super Zeo Megazords are destroyed. Rocky is also injured in the battle and is replaced by Justin. Not out of the fight though, Zordon reveals to them the new more powerful Turbo Zords, developed by Billy before he went to Aquitar. After that, the story can remain the same. Zordon and Alpha 5 are replaced by Dimetria and Alpha 6, the Blue Senturion comes from the future, TJ, Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie become Rangers, the Phantom Ranger comes to give them the Rescue Zords, and Rita and Zedd destroy everything the Rangers have before being called away by the Dark Specter, which would lead to the next season. And as a more aesthetic choice, the Power Chamber would keep the Mighty Morphin's suits on display, as they were for no reason replaced in Turbo for five tubes with the Rangers' colors. I mean, during the destruction of the Power Chamber, just imagine them going out of their way to destroy the suits, which would be hurtful to both the Rangers and the viewers.

Of course, Turbo didn't kill Power Rangers, as it continues to this day. But for a time when it seemed like the series truly was over, it came back with our next season.

14. POWER RANGERS SAMURAI (2011-2012)

Adapted from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Neo-Saban Era

At first I felt I was being generous by placing Samurai this high, but it does sit well here. This was the first season Saban produced in about 10 years after acquiring the rights back from Disney. You would be right to they'd be a little rusty, and it shows. Again though, I should be specifically be talking about the then-current showrunner Jonathan Tzachor. This is why I cut Samurai a little slack (Megaforce doesn't get that luxury since Tzachor had at least three years to get his s*** together and the quality actually got worse).

The show takes on more a light-hearted tone similar to when Mighty Morphin' first started, even using a remix of "Go Go Power Rangers" as shown above. This leads to some pretty silly moments throughout the season, though it rarely got unbearable. But if anything really drags this season down, it's the acting. It's pretty wooden, and not just live action, but in the voice acting as well. It just didn't feel as natural as previous seasons.

Don't get me wrong though. Samurai isn't a horrible season. It's not that great either. There was potential for a good show and I could see there was one trying to get out. If there's one word to describe this season, it would be mediocre. 

While I said this season is more light-hearted, there does come some dark elements, especially on the villain side. This season features a demon race known as Nighlocks. As I'll remark in more season analyses, demons are actually my favorite variety of Power Rangers villains. The main villain is Master Xandred, but there's not much to him. No, the three worth talking about are Daiyu, Dekker, and Serrator as they're all entangled in a tragic backstory.

Daiyu and Dekker were once a human couple and a housefire nearly claimed their lives, fatally injuring Dekker. Serrator came to Daiyu and offered to save him, but for a price. Dekker's life is saved and both become Nighlocks, but Dekker has no memory of his human life.

For most of the season, Dekker is obsessed with fighting the Red Ranger, wanting to face the best opponent he can, which makes for pretty good fights. Aside from her backstory and bit of a rivalry with Mia the Pink Ranger, Daiyu doesn't do much during the season other than helping Master Xandred able to attack the human world leading to the finale. Serrator however was a pretty freaky dude. Like some villain generals of the past, he has his own agenda against the main villain, even coming close to destroying the human world with his own plans, which makes him more interesting than Xandred.

When it comes to the Rangers, I feel there's three worth talking about.

We'll start with Mike the Green Ranger and Emily the Yellow Ranger. Compared to the others, they're the ones with the most development as they're not as well-trained in their Samurai skills at the beginning. Mike is more laid back and it takes awhile for him to take training or missions seriously, but he usually comes through. Emily is the youngest of the team and is actually only there because her older sister, who was supposed to be the Yellow Ranger, had become seriously ill so Emily had to step in. Emily was bullied in childhood as well and coupled with having to fill her sister's shoes as a Ranger, she has a lot of self-doubt. In the episode "Stick and Stones", this self-doubt actually makes her immune to attacks from a monster that can physically harm people with insults. Despite this however, she still does her best in both her training and fighting monsters.

I group these two together since they have a budding relationship throughout the season, getting together in the finale. There was some subtle build-up, but the wooden acting may make it hard for some to spot. I noticed at least.

Then there's Jayden, the Red Ranger. For the most part, he actually is a bad ass. What makes him interesting is that he initially works alone and has a hard time accepting working with a team, but eventually thrives as a leader. It's worth mentioning that this is one of two seasons where we have a "Chosen One" prophecy revolving around the Red Ranger. In this case, Jayden is the one who must become strong enough to seal the Nighlocks away once and for all. This puts a lot of importance on Jayden, especially to the other Rangers...which gets to unbearable levels as the season reaches its conclusion. I won't spoil the circumstances, but it's all "Everybody looooves Jayden" and "Jayden's sooooo awesome". You know how some fans or Rangers swoon over how great Tommy is? The love Jayden gets on the show is worse than that and in my opinion, hurts another character who gets the most decent acting on the show.

Despite the "Chosen One" thing, it actually does take a team effort to defeat the main villain, which happens in the other season this applies to as well. 

One more character worth mentioning is Mentor Ji, trainer of the Rangers who actually raised Jayden after his father's death. The only thing I really want to talk about is his name. Mentor Ji. Not Master or Sensei. Mentor. And that's what he's referred to most of the time as well. Not sure what they were thinking of with that name.

Something to note this season is that since there were plans to refilm Megazord cockpit scenes, they decided to give the Rangers a Mega Mode, armored versions of their suits, mostly included to help toys that looked similar.

I was not a fan. Though to be fair, the Gold Ranger's Mega Mode is pretty awesome, replacing the regular gold and blue with black and a more metallic gold with some armoring. It reminded me of the Gold Zeo Ranger and made me wish it was his regular suit.

In addition, the Rangers also acquire a Shogun Mode while controlling the Bullzord, giving them more of a traditional armored samurai appearance. While each Ranger has one, it's Jayden that usually uses it, which I think fits with his "Chosen One" destiny, especially since he does use it outside the Megazord as a sort of Battlizer against Xandred in the finale.

I keep mentioning the finale, named "Samurai Forever" so I'll talk about it more in depth. It's pretty action heavy, which is fine considering all the build-up it had in previous episodes. The battles are pretty impressive, between the final Megazord and the Shogun Mode battles, as well one where the Rangers fight unmorphed against an army of Moogers.

Samurai isn't the best season, but I find it more worth watching than the previous three seasons I talked about.

That's all for now. Come back next week as the countdown continues with #13-10.

Movie Review: "Batman: Bad Blood" - Expansions and Downsizing (Minor Spoilers)

A complaint I've had about the previous animated Batman movies is how little Dick Grayson/Nightwing has on the plot and that he's really just there to act as a contrast to Damian/Robin. Well apparently the producers were listening, as while we get multiple heroes, "Bad Blood" is really Dick's movie.

While "Bad Blood" is mostly an original story, it is partially based on many elements of Grant Morrison's recent run of Batman books. Specifically this includes "Batman R.I.P." (attacks on Bruce's mind), "Batman Reborn" (Dick becoming Batman and working with Damian as Robin), and "Batman Incorporated" (the expansion of the Batfamily and Talia's plans to take over the world). In addition, Talia also has ninja henchwomen dressed as nuns using guns and swords (or in Dick's words, "nunjas"). Much like the Ape-Bat from the "Son of Batman" movie, nunjas are really something you'd expect from a Morrison work.

As I've said, this is really Dick's movie. When Bruce goes missing, Dick's forced to take on the mantle to preserve Batman's presence in Gotham. In addition, when Damian, staying at the monastery from the end of "Batman vs. Robin", learns of his father's disappearance, he returns to Gotham and we have our new Dynamic Duo. The "Batman & Robin" comic featuring Dick and Damian was my favorite DC book before they rebooted and had him become Nightwing again. The light-hearted Batman and gritty Robin was entertaining and so different from past Batman and Robin dynamics. Hell, I think the concept would even work as a live action series. It's just as entertaining in the movie as well.
Character wise, we get a little look into Dick's thoughts about Bruce and wanting to get out of his shadow. I kind of think Dick is remembering things things a bit more harshly than they were, but some resolution does come in the end. I guess it works though because for a time in the comics, this was how Bruce and Dick were. Dick didn't want anything to do with Bruce or Batman and Bruce wanted to respect that, which lead to Jean Paul Valley/Azrael becoming Batman after Bane broke Bruce's back. However, I've always found the whole thing ridiculous. Yes, Dick moved on from Robin to become Nightwing, but no matter where he goes, he'll always be part of the Batfamily, and he is Bruce's heir apparent to the Batman identitiy.
As always, Damian, being the ninja trained 10 year that he is, entertains. But one moment of note in the film is when he attempts to save the life the villain Tusk. In past films, he's always had an internal conflict on whether or not to kill an enemy as Robin. This time, he has no hesitation. His journey and character development as a member of the Batfamily is complete.

In addition, we have two new additions to the Batfamily: Batwoman and Batwing.
A re-imagining of the 1950's character, Kate Kane debuted in 2006. I'm going to be honest and say I don't follow the character that much in the comics but at least know some of her story. That said, Batwoman does make a good addition to the movies.
We are also introduced to Luke Fox, son of Lucius. After his father is injured during a battle, Luke "commandeers" a new flight enabled Bat-armor, calling himself Batwing, to help Dick and the others fight Talia and her group of villains. I'm gonna put it out there too: his suit is basically an Iron Man armor with wings, ears, and a visible mouth. Hell, when Luke puts on the suit in a very Iron Man like way, there some guitar rifts happening in the process. Kind of expected them to go full-on Black Sabbath. While I joke, the inclusion of Batwing actually brings in some entertaining airfights, which is something we haven't seen in an animated Batman movie before, with Killer Moth and Firefly.
In some way, I believe the two new characters bring more of a human side to the Batfamily. Both characters have had military experience and have at least one parental figure in their lives. When we look at Bruce and Dick, they've had years to deal with the trauma from the loss of their parents as well as training. And Damian's been trained by the League of Assassins since he was born. Kate has some tragedy in her background, but it doesn't seem to consume her like the others. Luke is probably the most well-rounded character of the bunch.

If there's anything that really hurts this movie, it's the use of the villains. I've talked before about how these animated movies deliver some unimpressive villains, with the exception of Talon in "Batman vs. Robin". That's not the issue here. My problem is how so cavalier the film is to kill off pretty much everyone in Talia's group. Now most of them are indirectly killed instead of being straight-up murdered, but the issue remains. I mean, I wouldn't had mind if it had been just C/D listers like Killer Moth and Electrocutioner, but they actually kill off some well-known villains like Firefly and Mad Hatter. On that note, I really like this version of the Mad Hatter. He's written as crazy like by Jeph Loeb or in the Arkham games, but more of a tech genius like in The Animated Series. It's such waste to lose him. But even the villain with the most potential in the movie, the Heretic, is killed about half-way through. Hell, when Penguin showed up as a cameo at the end of the movie, I thought "Well, wonder how he's gonna die."

Compared to the past films, "Bad Blood" is better than "Son of Batman" but not as good as "Batman vs. Robin". Still, I look forward to what comes next, and thankfully we won't have to wait long. In April, we will see the release of "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", which will include returns of both Nightwing and Robin, making it a sort of crossover with the Justice League while introducing the Titans. There was even some build up in "Bad Blood" with Dick talking to Kori, aka Starfire (actually making a voice cameo in the film as compared to "Batman vs. Robin") and references to "the Tower", as in Titans Tower. And considering that we've had the abomination of Teen Titans Go! on TV for 3 years, it'll be nice to see glory return to the Teen Titans.

RATING 7.5/10

Announcement: February is Power Rangers Month

In my time writing this blog, I've only done one Power Rangers focused article with my reaction to the major disappointment that was the Megaforce finale.

But, considering I didn't do as much writing last year compared to the two previous years, I'm itching to make up for it this year. And believe me, with all the comic books movies coming up, I'll have plenty to write about. Until then however, I plan to give my thoughts on each season of Power Rangers, ranked from worst to best, similar to my Linkin Park and Spongebob lists of the past.

Considering I have 20 years worth of a television show to cover, instead of doing it all in one post like my previous lists, I'll be splitting it up out into four posts and published each Friday in February (hopefully without delay).

• Friday February 5th: #17-14
• Friday February 12th: #13-10
• Friday February 19th: #9-6
• Friday February 26th: #5-1

This will be in conjunction with regular postings as well, including my planned reviews of the "Batman: Bad Blood" animated film, the "Ultimate End" comic series, and of course the long-awaited Deadpool movie.

Let me go over how I'll be covering this countdown.

• Seasons that lasted more than one year (Mighty Morphin', Samurai, Megaforce) will be reviewed as a whole.
• Aside from looking at the shows themselves, I will be referencing behind the scenes aspects as well, including references to Super Sentai, the Japanese franchise that each season of Power Rangers is adapted from.
• I'll give my own thoughts on how I would have done some things in some seasons differently.

Finally, I will not be including the current season, Dino Charge. Since I was so burned from Megaforce, it kind of killed my interest in any future seasons. However, I have heard that Dino Charge has been a vast improvement from the last few years. When it's finished by the end of the year, my plan is to binge watch it on Netflix (which may be my process for Power Rangers from here on out). After that, I may review it as a whole and update my list.

And I'm sure some of you are probably wondering why I'm taking a month's time to analyze a kid's show about people in spandex fighting people in rubber monster suits. Because as cheesy as it can be, Power Rangers has indeed grown to handle mature issues (aside from some sidesteps). People can find fault with anything geeky, from comic books to sci-fi franchises. DC, Marvel, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. Some people may like them for reasons others don't like or understand. Power Rangers, while not as popular as it used to be, faces such critics just the same.
What I'm hoping to do with this list is show how good (or bad) the show can be and maybe give people a push to check out some certain seasons, including those who may have watched before but fell out of it.

With that said, I'll see you next week for the beginning of the countdown.

Movie Review: Fant4stic - A 4getable Experiment

Almost immediately after it was announced that Disney bought Marvel in 2009, Fox announced their intentions to reboot the Fantastic Four franchise, to which they own the rights. Years went by without anything moving forward that some may have thought the rights would revert back to Marvel just like when Fox was unable to get a Daredevil film into production. But at what seemed to be the last minute, a release date was announced and things started moving forward with a director attached and castings made. As time went by and more and more about the movie was announced, it showed that they, specifically director Josh Trank, was trying to make a Fantastic Four movie that would bear little resemblance to the comic book it's based on. The director and cast kept using key words like "gritty", "grounded", and "realistic". Essentially they were trying to "Nolanize" the Fantastic Four, which was pretty much the opposite of everything the comic is. As expected, the fan backlash was massively negative with a boycott abound. I took part in said boycott, and I haven't missed a Marvel-based movie in theaters since X-Men. It also didn't help there were constant rumors, which are now believable, of director Josh Trank being intoxicated on the set, trashing equipment and being a pain to work with everyone. Still, a minority of fans still thought there was a chance it could be good. I kind of thought there would be a chance, but I wouldn't support it by seeing it in theaters. And lo and behold the film opened to massively negative reviews and bombed at the box office. It has gotten worse reviews than other despised comic book movies like Batman & Robin, Catwoman, and Dragon Ball Evolution. But out of morbid curiosity, I still planned to watch and review this movie when it was released on home media. And if I had to suffer through it, I'm taking some of you with me. So here we go; this is Fant4stic.

After the opening credits that go by so fast that you think they're trying to rush to get this over with, we open to a grade school classroom where students are describing what they want to be when they grow up. We meet young Reed Richards, who says he wants to be the first person to teleport between dimensions and that he's already built a teleporter. His teacher scoffs at him and tells him to pick something more realistic, because you know, teachers aren't supposed to nurture students dreams, he said sarcastically. But Reed's classmate, Ben Grimm takes and interest in Reed's teleporter and helps him finish it and test it on a toy car. This is a pretty nice scene, with some humor added in with Reed saying "Don't blow up. Don't blow up." The two kids even find out they have harsh family lives in common. Ben comes from an abusive home, where he gets beat up by his brother, who in turn is beat up by their mother. His brother even announces "it's clobberin' time". Keep that in mind because I'll come back to that later. Reed's a little better off with his parents just not caring or understanding Reed's interests or his intellect. I feel this is an example of the grittiness they wanted to bring to the franchise. But the thing is, you don't need to have characters come from harsh backgrounds to be more interesting. The characters never needed that for years, and even here, it's a small aspect of the movie that hardly gets mentioned later.

We cut to seven years later where we have teenage Reed and Ben, now played by Miles Teller and Jamie Bell. I need to talk about Jamie Bell's casting for a bit now. Ben Grimm is supposed to be in some ways, Reed's bodyguard. In the Ultimate comics, which was a big influence on this movie, Ben protects Reed from bullies. I look at Jamie Bell and I don't see Ben Grimm at all. He's not even intimidating. Hell, Miles Teller is even taller than him. I read that they wanted to cast someone small like Jamie Bell because they wanted to emphasize how much of a change it is when he becomes the Thing. I'm sorry, but this is a guy who is irreversibly turned into a rock monster. That's a massive change it its own right that he didn't need to be small to start off with. We already had Hulk for that, and even then there's a big difference in character when Bruce Banner transforms.
Anyway, teenage Reed and Ben present a perfected teleporter at the school science fair and successfully transport and bring back a model plane he borrows from a nearby kid, but the same douchey teacher from before disqualifies them thinking it was just a magic trick. But they are able to get the attention of Franklin Storm, played by Reg E. Cathey, who represents the Baxter Foundation and recruits Reed to help build an inter-dimensional teleporter. Cathey is actually one of the few good actors in this movie and acts as a great father figure to the group and even delivers a good inspirational speech later.

Reed also meets Storm's daughter, Sue, played by Kate Mara. Now, in the comics, Reed and Sue are pretty much the premiere couple of the Marvel universe. In this movie, there is absolutely NO chemistry between Mara and Teller, and honestly, I blame this mostly on Mara, who is probably the worst actor in this whole film. She is just so wooden and I hardly hear any emotion in her voice. She even makes the basic idea of music BORING. Though I guess I can't totally blame her. Apparently, Trank didn't want to cast Mara but was forced to by Fox, so he treated her very poorly on set, which I think showed in performance.

In addition to Reed, Franklin Storm also brings in Victor Von Doom, played by Toby Kebbel who was involved in the teleporter project before but got kicked out for reasons that I didn't quite understand. Now, initial descriptions of this interpretation of the character had him named Victor Domashev and that he was a hacker that blogged under the username Doom. Fans like myself were fucking pissed. Dr. Doom is one of the greatest supervillains of all time, who is able to stand up to multiples heroes at one time, and even in the current Secret Wars even, he is basically GOD, and they made him a damn blogger?!
But of course, when Fox did reshoots, they changed his name back to Von Doom and downplayed the hacker aspect. Now, before watching this, I thought "Okay, maybe that salvages the character a bit", but when he's introduced in the film, he's in a darkly lit room and sitting at multiple computer screens, pretty much what you'd expect from a hacker. Seriously, remember that nerdy guy from the World of Warcraft episode of South Park?

Victor pretty much looks like that, only thinner and with more hair.
But when he comes back to the facility, he does clean up a bit. Here's the thing though. Kebbell as Victor just isn't intimidating. When the trailer came out, I didn't even realize that was Victor. Honestly, I found Julian McMahon more threatening in the 2005 and 2007 films. Even when he wasn't in a suit, he was such an intimidating character. I don't get that with Kebbell. But much like the older films, they retread the old plots of Victor having an unrequited love for Sue (though not as prevalent here) and jealousy towards Reed because he's apparently smarter than him. I got more to say about Doom as we go on.

We finally round out the cast with the introduction of Johnny Storm, who crashes his car in a drag race. Now I'm just going to address the elephant in the room. Michale B. Jordan's casting as Johnny caused a lot of uproar because he was African American where Johnny is white in the comics. Even before the official announcement of the castings, Jordan had been rumored to play Johnny for months, so when they finally did announce it, I was okay with the idea. Hell, I was more surprised about Bell's casting as Thing. Even after watching Jordan in the film "Chronicle" (also directed by Trank), I saw he had what it take to play Johnny. Now, I don't mind race changes when it comes to comic book movies. Some good examples I can think of are Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Jamie Foxx as Electro, and the West family on the Flash. But the thing is, his casting is controversial because it felt like Fox was pushing for diversity for the sake of it, especially when they kept his sister Sue white. Hell, why didn't they go all out and cast Sue as black as well? And if they wanted diversity, why not do it for Ben Grimm? Terry Crews had some interest in playing the Thing before, and I could have seen it happen before they decided to cast young (oh well, maybe for the MCU). Food for thought.
Anyway, Johnny gets grounded by his father, which brings in some good father issues that don't really get more attention as they should, and is blackmailed into helping build the teleporter so he can get his car back in return. There is an emphasis on how much of a rebel Johnny is in comparison with his humor that stay true to the character, like saying he's "not wearing a lab coat" and saying stuff to annoy Victor.

It's at this point we get a montage of the teleporter being built and I discovered something. The music in this movie is boring, if not non-existent. You know how superhero movies have a main score to get you exicted? Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers. They all had good music. Fant4stic doesn't. Even the scene of Johnny's drag race is kind of boring because of it. And honestly, there were times that I think they actually reused some of the music from the old Fantastic Four movies. Watch and listen for it. Tell me I'm not crazy.

So after the teleporter is built and tested, the teens are disappointed to find out that they wouldn't be the first humans to use it. So what happens then? Reed, Johnny, and Victor get drunk and decide to highjack the teleporter. Reed even calls Ben to come with them just for the story's sake. Maybe this is why you guys weren't qualified for interdimensional travel? Seriously, this is one of the dumbest parts of the film. I mean, do scientists and technicians who build rockets complain about not immediately going into space? No. It's left for TRAINED PROFESSIONALS (unless said scientists and technicians actually do get some training). What they do here makes them all look like IDIOTS. What's even worse is that Sue doesn't even come with them, only coming to the control panel when she finds out what they've done.
Reed, Johnny, Victor, and Ben successfully travel to Planet Zero, which looks like the planet from "Prometheus", and much like that movie, Franklin Storm even mentioned earlier how Planet Zero could potentially gives answers to the creation and meaning of life. And also like in "Prometheus", the intellect of the crew of that movie very much matches the four who teleported here, as when Victor touches the green goo that has no idea what it could be, that's when the ground around them starts to crumble. They rush back to the teleporter, but Victor gets slimed by the green goo and falls to his apparent death (the way I describe it may not seem like it, but I actually felt bad for Victor here). The other three have trouble trying to close their pods when they're brought back by Sue on Earth, which causes a huge explosion that destroys the teleporter and everything around it.

This leads to one of the few good moments of the film, where the four protagonists are discovering what's happened to them (even though I'm still confused as to how and why they got their powers). Reed is stretched out and screaming out for someone to tell him what happened to his friends, which is a pretty emotional moment. Sue keeps going in and out of visibility and lies as wooden as her performance. Johnny is unable to control his fire and you can kind of feel the pain he is. And Ben is breaking out of some kind of rock cocoon to reveal his new form, which actually does look better in action than it does in pictures. Much like the Ultimate comics that was inspiration, the discovery of their powers is downright horrific, which is a lot different from other superhero movies, where the shock doesn't seem as extreme.
Reed breaks out of his room and finds Ben, who's begging Reed to help. So what does Reed do? He completely abandons his friends and escapes the facility they're being held at. Because, yeah, way to make the guy who is supposed to be the essentially main character of the movie and leader of the team they're supposed to be look bad. I mean, they try to excuse this action as him being scared and blames himself for what happened, but that's crap. Reed would never just up and leave.

We cut to a year later, and the government has been using Ben for military applications with plans to use Johnny and Sue as well, under the promise of a cure, while also rebuilding the teleporter to get back to Planet Zero so they can discover how to use its resources for their own uses, including making more superpowered soliders. I have two problems with this: 1. You have the whole "the government's trying to take control of something they don't understand" cliche; 2. One of the biggest issues of the film all together is that they're trying to militarize the Fantastic Four. They even get black "containment suits" that look nothing like the classic costumes. Hell, they don't even give Thing pants. Why did they not give Thing pants? I don't care if he's invulnerable or doesn't have junk, get him a pair of shorts, PLEASE! Now, I know there's an argument that they did the same thing with the X-Men with them wearing black leather suits, but they still looked like the X-Men.

Go on and try to tell me that you can't tell that's Wolverine, Storm, Angel, Cyclops, Beast, etc. Hell, they even still have "X"'s on their uniforms. I mean, you know how far Fant4stic wants to go to try and not be a comic book movie? Sue even describes their powers not as powers, but as "aggressively abnormal physical conditions". Noooo, THEY'RE FUCKING POWERS. You can call them gifts or abilities, but don't spew that long nerdy crap when you can call them something as simple as SUPERPOWERS.
Anyway, they're still having trouble getting the new teleporter to work and they need Reed to help them finish it, so they track him down and send Ben to bring him back. On the trip back, Ben blames Reed, which is understandable. Now I'm torn on this scene. On one hand, this is supposed to be an emotional moment where these best friends have had this tragedy happen to them and it seems it can't be fixed. But on the other hand, Ben is fully justified in being pissed at Reed. He abandoned all of them! He could have stayed with them, helped build a new teleporter and find a potential cure. But noooo, he had to leave, just for the sake of having more drama in the film.

So after Reed takes all of ten minutes to get the teleporter to work, a team of TRAINED PROFESSIONALS teleport to Planet Zero where they find Victor, still alive and his environment suit fused to his skin, and bring him back to Earth. Now, it's been talked about before about how much the Fantastic Four get a raw deal when trying to adapt them to film, but no character in this franchise seems to get it worse than Dr. Doom. I mean, you have this character who dedicates his life to mastering technology and sorcery and even rules his own country, and he just keeps getting screwed over and over in film. This go around, he doesn't even look like Dr. Doom, but more of a charred crash test dummy. Just look at this comparison.

Besides that, Doom is almost a total retread of how he was portrayed in the previous films. He gets his powers from the same accident as the Fantastic Four (which is just lazy writing), his skin becomes metal instead of it being a suit, and he has very vague motivations that make him a very uninteresting villain.
But whereas the '05-07 Doom had more electric based powers (which I hated), this new Doom is extremely overpowered having telekinetic powers, moving things, blowing up people's heads, and creating force fields. Seriously, why can't they just get Doom right?
Victor, now calling himself just "Doom", begins killing everyone in the facility and plans to use the teleporter to get back to Planet Zero and suck Earth up into a black hole. He even kills Franklin Storm. I guess this is supposed to give the main four an "avenge me!" motivation to work together like Coulson's death in the Avengers, but we hardly spend any time on that because they immediately follow Doom through the portal. It's at this moment that you can tell that they're really rushing to finish this movie (especially by how Miles Teller's acting seem to get worse, and he was actually doing well until this point) as we move on to the climactic final battle of the film with Doom vs. the Four on Planet Zero with Earth hanging in the balance.
So what are Doom's tactics to defeat these four heroes? Throw rocks at them. Yeah, I'm serious. He blew up people's heads before, but with the actual superpowered beings that can potentially stop them? Just smash them under some rocks. As the film continues to rush to end, the four quickly forget about finding a cure for themselves, accept their powers, and devise a new plan to defeat Doom: just hit him really hard. Yep, their ingenious plan to defeat the almost god-like being is something Goku from the Dragon Ball Z Abridged series would come up with.

But of course, the four succeed with Ben even saying "It's clobberin' time", which makes me think that him quoting the line his brother used when he beat him up means he has some serious issues to work out, Doom is disintegrated in the portal, destroying it, and the Earth is saved.
Like I said, this is one of the most rushed climaxes I've ever seen in a comic book movie. It's really hard to get invested because it's almost totally computer generated. Between the characters, their powers, and the background, nothing feels real. I think what would have made it better is to show the stakes that are involved. Show the portal sucking up the Earth and that innocent lives are in danger. You think back to other comic book movies and you see there's risk involved if the hero doesn't act quickly. In both Avengers movies, you have the Chitauri attacking civilians in New York, and Ultron threatening to drop Sokovia and its citizens like a meteor. In the Amazing Spider-Man movies, you saw people trying to evacuate as the Lizard planned to spread his mutating serum, and there were the two planes on a collision course because of Electro taking over the power grid. If this climax had anything like that, it might have been slightly better.

So the day is saved, the four get some more freedom from the government to work as they please, and they try to come up with a name for themselves just before they cut to the title screen.

And that was Fant4stic. If ever there was an example of a movie being made just because it had to be, this is the result and it is boring. I mean, I could see where they were trying to go with this movie, and there was definitely potential. If this wasn't the Fantastic Four, it definitely could have worked as an original sci-fi idea, or even a sequel to Chronicle (because I sense a lot of ideas Trank had for one were used in this movie). But when you have an existing property, you have characters people know and love and expect to see them adapted faithfully. Say what you will about the 2005-07 films, but despite their faults, they still retained the spirit and fun of the comics, which can't be said for the new film since they tried to make it so different and gritty from before that you couldn't even recognize who these characters are. Apparently the reshoots made it a much different movie than it was before, but I honestly believe that this film was doomed from the beginning because of how much it was changed from the source.
It goes without saying the film is a failure on every level, and everyone who said it would be is vindicated. But from that failure, there is hope. A sequel scheduled for 2017 has been cancelled, which increases the chances of the film rights returning to Marvel, unless Fox waits until the last moment to try and reboot again. But why would they? For one, the first two movies actually made a profit for them. Also, people are smart and have caught on to things. They know about how Marvel's film rights are spread between studios, which films are set in the MCU and which aren't. If Fox does try again with the Fantastic Four, it can be guaranteed to be another failure. And I've seen some people say "Well what makes you think Marvel can do a better job?" Hell, if Marvel can make a hit out of a talking tree and a trigger happy raccoon, they sure as hell can do justice for their first family. Besides, you want a good comparison of how much better they are at Fox? Compare the 2003 Daredevil movie to the Netflix series. 'Nuff said.
And what of the people who worked on this movie? Well, for Josh Trank, his career is all but over. He was originally on board to direct a Star Wars spin-off film for Disney but was fired due to his behavior while filming this movie (though he'll say he quit). After Chronicle, this guy just obviously wasn't ready for a big time blockbuster with a studio breathing down his neck. If there's ever a documentary about the making this movie, it will probably be more entertaining than the actual film.
As for the actors, Michael B. Jordan has bounced back with "Creed" and Toby Kebbell is signed on for "Kong: Skull Island", so he should be fine. Everyone else, like Teller and Mara, I'm sure will be fine too. Because these people are talented in other things. They were just involved in a bad project. It happens with every actor. They all have hits and misses. If we based our opinions on actors solely on their bad films, then nobody would be considered a good actor.

The best thing anyone can do, between the actors of this film and the fans of the comics, is try to put this terrible thing behind them, and hope for better things to come in the future.

RATING: 1/10

Top 11 Episodes of Spongebob

Whether you love him or hate him, it can't be denied that Spongebob Squarepants is a cultural icon. You may even find yourself talking about the show and quoting from episodes. This is actually how the idea for this post came about. A conversation with a friend at work led to discussing the top 3 episodes of Spongebob. And then I thought, "Why just 3? There's surely more great episodes that deserve recognition". And so I bring you, THE TOP 11 EPISODES OF SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!
Now before I start the countdown, I do want to make things clear.
* This is all personal opinion based.
* I may do a little over-analyzing in some areas and delve into some harsh language (it's my blog I do what I want).
* Most importantly, this list only contains episodes from the first three seasons. It's just how it came about. I'm not saying that later seasons don't have their moments, but much like the Simpsons, the early seasons are definitely considered the best. I would consider doing best and worst lists for modern Spongebob episodes (season 4 and up), but it's not a top priority.
All that said, let us begin.

11. NATURE PANTS

PLOT: Deciding to make his dream a reality, Spongebob decides to leave behind civilized society to live wild among the jellyfish.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: To be totally honest, I never really cared for this episode as a kid. In fact, the aspect I always found weird about this episode was how they tried to cover up Spongebob while he was naked. I mean, he doesn't really have anything. So why does this make my list, albeit at the bottom? Because of the scene where Patrick, distraught from losing his best friend, decides to get Spongebob back by hunting him like the jellyfish he wants to be. "If I can't have you as a friend, I'm gonna make you a trophy! I even picked out this nice jar for you." And even my mom, who hates Spongebob, loved this moment. She'll deny it, but this is her favorite episode of Spongebob.

10. FRANKENDOODLE

PLOT: When an artist at sea drops his pencil into the water, Spongebob and Patrick happen upon it and discover anything they draw with it comes to life. But when a drawing of Spongebob becomes too violent, it's up to the two best friends to erase him.
WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: Did you ever wonder what it would be like if Spongebob was a complete psychopath...before later episodes make him act like a complete psychopath? Add in the violent tendencies, and you would pretty much get Doodle-Bob. To the episode's credit, it does go an interesting path from Spongebob and Patrick using the pencil for hijinks before becoming something of a heroic quest. Plus, it's an creative variation of an evil twin story. Besides that, it delivers some hilarious Patrick moments, from his "Finland!" quote and when he forgets what's going on thinking that they're going to surprise Doodle-Bob for his birthday (which it kind of is) and ends up getting a rock to the head. And I just love the quote from Spongebob when he thinks he's defeated Doodle-Bob. "I AM SPONGEBOB! DESTROYER OF EVIL!" It's such a good episode, you can just ignore why a pencil from the human world has magical properties under water.

9. ROCK BOTTOM

PLOT: After getting on the wrong bus, Spongebob finds himself stranded in the strange town of Rock Bottom trying to catch another bus back home to Bikini Bottom, only have obstacles constantly get in his way.
WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: For the longest time, this was the only other town besides Bikini Bottom that we had seen under the sea, and I think the animators of this episode used this opportunity to get really creative and draw as many freaky fish as they could. I didn't realize it originally, but learning later in school about how some of the uglier fish lived in a deeper and darker level of the ocean, I got why the fish of Rock Bottom were so scary. Having their own *pfft* accent was a *pfft* nice touch *pfft* too. What also makes this episode stand out is that it's one of those rare moments where Spongebob legitimately get angry and pushed to his limits. Who can blame him? I don't remember how many buses stopped and drove off without, but they only waited for half a second. What a punch of douches.

8. GRAVEYARD SHIFT

PLOT: Realizing the potential for more money by staying open, Mr. Krabs decides to leave the Krusty Krab open 24 hours, with Spongebob and Squidward left to work in the dead of night. This excites Spongebob, but Squidward tries to ruin it for him by making up the story of the Hash-Slinging Slasher, only for aspects of his story to mysteriously begin to come to fruition.
WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: Have you ever been so scared that you start to eat your own arms repeatedly and even scream out of your eyes? Keeping with the freaky tone from my last pick, this is probably the scariest episode of the early Spongebob seasons. We know at first that Squidward is making up the story, but when his story starts coming true, you can't help but start to get scared. And when the Slasher finally appears outside the Krusty Krab, THAT'S WHEN YOU START FREAKING OUT! You have no idea what's going to happen to Spongebob and Squidward! And then...the twist ending (which I will not spoil here, even though I'm sure everyone's seen it)! But if there's one lesson to learn from this episode, it's that if the lights start to flicker on and off, it's just Nosferatu.

7. BUBBLE BUDDY

PLOT: With all his friends busy, Spongebob decides to create a new friend in the form of Bubble Buddy.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: On the surface, this is a pretty cute episode and a nice variation of an imaginary friend story. But when you really stop to think about it, this is actually a really dark episode. This is one of those episodes where Spongebob drives everyone in town crazy, but in this episode, it gets to the point of violence and paranoia. One of the fish upset about Bubble Buddy throws out ideas of what he'll do to ruin their lives further. It's like what Fox News does to (insert oppressed minority here). The upset fish even almost harm an innocent lifeguard before Squidward stops them and leads them on a mission to pop Bubble Buddy. Then we get the twist ending that Bubble Buddy is indeed alive and everyone is cool with it. If he was alive the whole time and not Spongebob's imagination, then that just makes it worse. For one thing, he spent two hours in a port-o-potty. What prick does that? But let's not forget the big thing. After burying Scooter in the sand, Spongebob leaves to get snacks and tells Bubble Buddy to dig him up before the tide comes in. What ends up happening? Oh, nothing...except that Scooter DIES!

The sentient bubble just stood there and watched Scooter as he drowned (let's not bring logic into a cartoon about a fish drowning). Bubble Buddy is one cold motherfucker, and he had to get out of town because people were catching on to his act. Who knows what kind of sick crap he did when he left town?
Am I reading too much into this? Probably. But sometimes it's fun to over analyze things. It's still an entertaining episode. Plus, it's because of this episode that we know about Leif Erikson Day. Hinga dinga durgen!

6. THE CAMPING EPISODE

PLOT: Squidward joins Spongebob and Patrick in their backyard campout after a perceived taunt.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: There's two things that make this episode stand out. The most obvious thing is the Campfire Song Song. Let's be honest, we've all tried singing along and either succeeded or failed. The other thing is what I believe to be the only appearance on the show by the believed-to-be mythical Sea Bear (and to extension the Sea Rhinoceros). It's just hilarious to see Squidward get beat up by it no matter what he does. (SQUIDWARD: "What'd I do that time?" SPONGEBOB: "I don't know, I guess he just doesn't like you.") Not much to say about this one, but it's definitely one of the best.

5. CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

PLOT: After being accused of stealing Mr. Krabs' first dime, a fed-up Squidward quits the Krusty Krab. Winding up having a tough time finding work, Squidward eventually ends up staying with Spongebob and takes advantage of his hospitality.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: Squidward always brags about how better he is than everyone. So what happens when he tries to make it out there on his own? He fails miserably. Winding up homeless, this is the lowest we've ever seen Squidward, and you can't help but feel sorry for him. But when he starts acting like his snooty self again and treating Spongebob like a slave, that sympathy is gone. In a way, the roles are reversed in this episode with Spongebob being the one annoyed by Squidward instead of the other way around. This is another instance where Spongebob gets really angry and is pushed to his limits, even more so than in "Rock Bottom" as when Squidward doesn't get Spongebob's hints about getting a job, he screams throws himself and Squidward out the side of his house and drags him to the Krusty Krab. Spongebob even starts choking out Krabs when he won't hire Squidward back initially.

I think in some way, Squidward's situation is relatable in this episode, especially for twenty-somethings coming out of college. Tell me if this sounds like anyone you know: they believe they're meant for something more, but they're afraid nothing will come along and that they''ll be stuck in a minimum wage job. They're also still living with a caretaker who will reach their limit and want them out of their house. Blow your mind yet?

4. BIG PINK LOSER

PLOT: Depressed about never accomplishing anything, Patrick gets a job at the Krusty Krab thanks to Spongebob. But success doesn't come as easy as the starfish thinks.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: When I was younger, I always thought it would make for Patrick to work with both Spongebob and Squidward. Looking back now, this episode explains it wouldn't work. While it would be considered mean anywhere else, it's just hilarious to watch Patrick screw up at each job he does, from eating a customer's order three times to answering the phone incorrectly. (CALLER: "Is this the Krusty Krab?" PATRICK: "No! This is Patrick!") It even takes Patrick over a minute to learn how open a jar from Spongebob. It's even more hilarious to watch Patrick copy Spongebob as much as he can.

Hilarious from start to finish, this is an episode me and friend would reenact all the time back in grade school.

3. BAND GEEKS

PLOT: Wanting to show up his old high school rival Squilliam, Squidward only has days to put together a marching band to perform at the Bubble Bowl.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: Oh we all know why this episode makes the list. Who didn't rock out to the episode's ending performance of "Sweet Victory"? It's so awesome, you just forget that they're playing for a human football game for some reason.

Besides that, this is one of the few episodes where Squidward succeeds at something and put Squilliam in his place, despite having really nothing to do with putting together the band's performance. But I guess many people takes credit for others' work, so good for Squidward. It's just too bad he ends up going back to the Krusty Krab afterwards.

2. CHOCOLATE WITH NUTS

PLOT: Inspired by Squidwards' fancy living magazine, Spongebob and Patrick set out to become entrepreneurs by selling chocolate bars, but don't have the results they expect.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: This is another episode that is hilarious from start to finish. Patrick has his funny moments from telling a potential customer "I love you" and focusing deeply on another. Then you have the really old fish in a wheelchair who remembers "when they first invented chocolate" and that she "ALWAYS HATED IT!". But of course, we all know the best part of this episode. I wouldn't do any justice describing it, so here's the video.

If you don't think of this guy when ever someone says chocolate, you are missing a grand piece of humor in your life.

And finally, the number one episode of Spongebob is...

PIZZA DELIVERY

PLOT: When someone calls the Krusty Krab for pizza, Mr. Krabs sends Spongebob and Squidward to deliver it, but of course it's doesn't go as smoothly as it should.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: I wouldn't go so far as to say this would be everyone's favorite episode of Spongebob, but it should definitely crack their top five. This is an episode I can recite almost verbatim. How can anyone forget the Krusty Krab Pizza song or Spongebob's excitement finding a rock to drive?

But then you have this guy. Probably the biggest jerk in the whole history of Spongebob. The customer who ordered the pizza but wouldn't pay for it because they didn't bring him a drink he never ordered. Something must be seriously wrong with this guy. First off, he called a fast food restaurant for pizza. And does he seriously not have anything to drink in his fridge? This guy is so bad, that even Squidward stands up for Spongebob against this guy. SQUIDWARD STOOD UP FOR SPONGEBOB. I think if there's one thing that makes this episode memorable than anything else, it's that one moment.

And there you have it. My Top 11 Episodes of Spongebob. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

TV Review: Jessica Jones - A Down and Dirty Redemption Story

I'm going to start by saying that before this series, I knew next to nothing about Jessica Jones. When I started reading comics, I knew Jessica as Luke Cage's wife, the mother of his child, a member of the New Avengers, and that she had a crush on Peter Parker when they were in high school. I didn't really have much interest in her backstory either. It's part of the reason that out of the announced Marvel Netflix series, Jessica Jones was my least anticipated. The trailers got me really pumped though. It really showed that Marvel was really amping things up after Daredevil by throwing in characters with actual superpowers in a grounded setting like New York. After six days of watching all thirteen episodes, I believe Marvel has done with Jessica Jones what a lot of people didn't think was possible: it topped Daredevil.

I should start be mentioning that while this is a show about someone with superpowers, this is NOT a superhero show. Jessica may have powers and intentions to help people, but she is a severely damaged person and a heavy drinker. But if you had your life controlled by a sociopath obsessed with you, you probably wouldn't fair much better. Krysten Ritter delivers an amazing performance as such a character that while sometimes coming off like a bitch, has true compassion for others despite her past.
Jones isn't the only superpowered non-superhero in the show however, as Luke Cage is also a part of the series as Jones' potential love interest. A lot of people wanted someone like Terry Crews to play Cage, but in my opinion, Mike Colter totally embodied the character, another example at how well Marvel does with their casting.
Another prominent character is Trish "Patsy" Walker, Jessica's foster sister, who in the comics (and possibly in the future of this series) is the superhero Hellcat. A former child star with a showbiz mother who controlled every aspect of her daughter's life, Trish was able to break free and hosts a radio show. Out of everyone, Trish is the person Jessica trusts most. And I think that when it comes to an abusive controlling relationship, Trish can understand Jessica more than anyone. Much like her relationship with Luke, Jess's friendship with Trish is a driving force of the series and is just as prominent as Matt and Foggy's in Daredevil.

Malcolm Ducasse, an original character created for the show, is probably one of the best aspects of the series. For one reason, he is acted amazingly by Eka Darville, who some may remember as Scott Truman, the Red Ranger from Power Rangers RPM (brief sidenote: this is the second former Power Ranger actor to be in a Marvel series, the first being Nikolai Nikolaeff from Power Rangers Jungle Fury in Daredevil; makes me wonder who will be the next former ranger Marvel will cast). Back on topic, what also makes Malcolm a great character is the best embodiment of the show's theme of redemption. While Malcolm has his life greatly disrupted like Jessica's, he wants to use the experience to try and better himself and others that have been affected. Even while others begin to give up hope, Malcolm still tries to help the best he can. Without spoiling much, it makes me look forward to his position in the next season as Jessica's assistant.

To round out my thoughts of the "good" characters of the show (there are others but don't have much to say about them), I feel I need to talk about Robyn and Ruben, twins who live together in the same apartment building as Jessica and Malcolm. Ruben is kind of an awkward guy who has trouble standing up to his sister and has a crush on Jessica, especially when he stands up to Robyn for him. While not an important character, he's still likable. Robyn on the other hand is just a crazy psycho controlling bitch. Trust me, that description is sugarcoating it. I'm guessing the intent was to make her so unlikable, but I was hoping for some kind of glimmer of humanity in her by the end of the series. There are moments where we're supposed to feel sympathy for her (that I won't spoil why because it's kind of major), but even when they try, she does something that's reminds us that she's a bitch.

While not technically a villain on the show, we are also introduced to Will Simpson, who in the comics is the supervillain Nuke, a product in an attempt to recreate the Super Soldier serum. A seemingly nice character at first, as well as Trish's love interest, but when he gets the red, white, and blue pills, he starts to get bat-shit crazy. It's entertaining as hell, and we are left wondering where he'll show up next in the MCU.

Now the coup de grace of the character analysis, Kilgrave, the mind-controlling supervillain, played by the always brilliant David Tennant. This year, I began watching Doctor Who and became a big fan of the Tenth Doctor and Tennant altogether. As Kilgrave, Tennant once again brings enough charm to bring such an entertaining villain. As the Doctor, I'm used to seeing Tennant in a heroic role. As a villain, to put it lightly, Tennant is fucking scary! With his ability to control minds, you never know when he's using somebody or even what they might do (particularly when it's self-mutilation and trust me there's a lot of that). Compared to other villains of the MCU, Kilgrave is definitely the scariest one to date, not because of his powers but because of his motives. He doesn't have a quest for power (like Loki and Red Skull) or some perverted sense of making the world better (like Ultron and Kingpin). He's a complete sociopath who is obsessed with Jessica, taking control of anyone he likes to do whatever he wants with tasks ranging from mundane to lethal. He's the kind of villain that makes you think that they'll never be able to defeat. He doesn't even see himself doing anything wrong because he's not the one doing the deed or claims that he's makes people do things because he doesn't know what the want (an excuse he uses for his rapes of Jessica and Hope). He wants sympathy because of what his parents did to him and didn't do for him, but it's really hard to feel any for him, though it's most likely an excuse for him to do what he wants. But overall, Tennant's Kilgrave is a gem of the show and he'll stand alongside Loki, Ultron, and Kingpin as the best villains of the MCU.

As for the action of the show, it does feel very similar to Daredevil in that it's very down and dirty, but there are moments where I feel it shouldn't be. Considering Jessica, and Luke for that matter, are super strong, I can't help but think that they should be able to knock somebody out with one punch, which would really help when it comes to mind-controlled slaves. It's not something that really hurts the show, but just something that was in the back of my mind.
As I mentioned before, Jessica Jones really amps things up from Daredevil. Specifically, I mentioned before in my Daredevil review at how there were moments in each episode that made me go "OH! I can't believe they just did that!" that earned the show its TV-MA rating. Jessica Jones definitely has those moments and at a greater volume. Because of a villain like Kilgrave with mind-control powers, you never know just how far he'll make someone go. There's also Simpson's moments of psychosis that had me scared of what he'll do next if someone pisses him off.
I don't necessarily mind Marvel going this dark because with Netflix, they can use this as an outlet to tell stories that wouldn't work for the movies as well as expand the MCU further. I just hope that they're not going so far for shock value. Though maybe I'm just surprised at how far this particular show went. I mean, with Daredevil, you'd expect a lot of grittiness. But since I never had much investment in Jessica Jones in the comics or thought of Kilgrave being such a major villain, I might just not have been expecting what we got. I guess I'll have to see what Daredevil Season Two does next year to see if I actually had an argument.

To wrap things up, this show gives me some new respect for the character in the comics and how much she went through to get to where she is. I can only hope that her MCU version can find real happiness in her future. I have no doubt she'll show up in Luke Cage's Netflix series next year and it'll be nice for their romance to grow some more.
Overall, with great characters, a terrifying villain, and many shocking twists and turns, Jessica Jones offers something new for both the MCU and fans of superhero shows, especially for those wanting something a little less super-heroic (if that makes sense). Just be prepared to see David Tennant like you never have before.

RATING: 10/10

TV Review: "Guardians of the Galaxy" Animated Series Premiere - A Movie Cash-In Done Right

I don't think I would face much disagreement when I say Marvel hasn't had a great animated series since "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" and that since "Ultimate Spider-Man", their animation department has gone down in quality. While "Ultimate Spider-Man" has gotten better over time, that series and "Avengers Assemble" are mediocre with a few high points compared to their predecessors. I didn't even bother with "Hulk and the Agents of SMASH" because 1. it's boring to have a team of heroes who have the same power set, and 2. the "Real World" aspect of the Hulks living together and filming confessionals just shouldn't be an aspect of a superhero show.
With Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" film being the surprise hit of 2014, an animated spin-off was fast tracked. Compared to the other recent Marvel animated shows though, I was actually excited for a Guardians cartoon because it would be the first of its kind and not have anything to compare to. Now that the series has begun, I can safely say that Marvel has knocked it out of the park this time around.

I don't really want to say much about the plot of the premiere, other than that it's good set-up for the basis of the season and that it involves characters from multiple sides (Guardians, Ravagers, and Thanos at this point) in pursuit of a powerful artifact (and no, it's not another Infinity Stone).
In my opinion, the best thing the show has going for it is the characters. Between the action and the dialogue, I wouldn't find it hard to see Chris Pratt and company actually acting this show out in real life, as it definitely feels like a continuation of the movie, which is saying something compared to what Marvel's tried to do with "Avengers Assemble". On that show, the characters are really two-dimensional and really immature (especially Hawkeye) and fight over things like cookies and video game controllers, which makes it hard to see the movie versions of the characters being the same on the show. The only ones who seem to stay faithful to their characters are Captain America and Black Widow, but that's not saying much. My point is, the heroes we see on "Avengers Assemble" aren't as ideal or well-rounded as they are in the movies. "Guardians of the Galaxy" doesn't have that problem though. They can get away with not acting like ideal heroes because they're not. As Quill said in the movie, they're "something good, something bad, a bit of both". There's more depth to them as well, acting like strong characters while still dealing with issues from their past. Quill has a carefree personality but still feels pain from losing his mother and anger at Yondu for abducting him. Gamora is trying to redeem herself from her past actions working under Thanos. Drax is still the strong silent type but we see his softer side a few times when he pulls out a holographic image of his late wife and daughter. Rocket's still a wiseass and trigger happy but his soft side shows as well when he has to replant a damaged Groot in a pot of soil for him to grow (again). And of course Groot is...Groot. Their personalities which made them so memorable in the film are retained for this series.

Another aspect that carries over from the film to the series is the use of classic music. I thought that since animated series don't really include actual songs like live action movies do, that an "Awesome Mix" wouldn't be part of the show, but apparently the producers worked hard to get rights to some songs to use. It's also exciting that they're compiling the songs they're using on a "Cosmic Mix" soundtrack, which will be released in a few weeks. I'll be getting it, and I'm sure other Guardians fans will as well.

If there's one blemish on the kick-off of the series though, it's actually Thanos. We all know that in the MCU, he's being built up for the "Infinity War" 2-parter that will most likely bring both the Avengers and the Guardians together. It should be worth mentioning that while the Guardians animated series acts as a continuation of the film, it is NOT part of the MCU canon. Despite that, I think it was a bad idea for Thanos to actually battle the team in the final act (more specifically Drax, who apparently didn't learn his lesson about jumping into battle without a plan from his fight with Ronan). Thanos has also been used recently this past season on "Avengers Assemble" and I'm sorry to say that I don't like how he's being portrayed in these animated series. In my opinion, he just seems like this overpowered brute, and his voice actor doesn't help. I know it's been stated that Thanos is the main villain of the series, but I'm really hoping they save him for the first season finale. Thanos is a villain that can't be just used willy-nilly. He needs to have build-up, working from behind the scenes until he's ready to put his endgame into action.

As much as I enjoyed the Guardians' series premiere, I can't help but wonder if this is a sign of better things to come in other areas. Part of me thinks it's clear that Marvel does listen to its fans. By Ultimate Spider-Man's third season, the cutaway gags and fourth wall breaking that plagued the first two seasons had been drastically cut down to where they don't make the show unbearable to watch. At this point I can only hope that with Ultimate Spider-Man's fourth season and Avengers Assemble's third, the quality is going to be kicked up a notch compared to Guardians. It may also be a plus that it seems like Ultimate Spider-Man Season 4 may be more Spidey-focused with rumored appearances by Kaine and Gwen Stacy. I'm getting off point though.

Taking the two-part premiere as an indication, if you're a fan of the film, I have little doubt you can experience that same enjoyment with the "Guardians of the Galaxy" animated series from the start and what they have in store as it continues. You could say you'll be...hooked on a feeling (come on, you know I had to throw that line in somewhere).

SCORE: 9/10