Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

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An action film featuring one of the world’s most iconic characters is usually a memorable experience, but here it’s mostly forgettable and quite boring at times. The plot is fairly irrelevant because it’s basically what every film in the franchise is: A bad guy wants the get his hands on a powerful and ancient artifact and Indiana Jones and his sidekicks try to stop them. Normally, this is all pulled off with some fantastic stunts, fun character interactions and other wild moments. Here, all that stuff is in short supply. The action sequences are bland, the characters just don’t have much chemistry and there’s not really any moment good or bad people will associate with the movie. (Except maybe the much-hyped opening sequence featuring a de-aged Harrison Ford. It looks good overall, but between the CG-trickery and the flashback nature of it all, I found myself repeatedly pulled out of the scene.) Other than that, large chunks of the film drag way too much, the CIA subplot adds nothing to the plot, the mysteries are usually easily solved, and there’s some pretty noticeable plot holes. One saving grace is the final act that tries to be pretty epic in scope. Unfortunately, they really don’t quite take advantage of the sequence and it wraps up rather unsatisfying.

*1/2 out of *****

TV Review: Gotham Knights (Season 1)

**This review contains minor SPOILERS**

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“Gotham Knights” was a show that nobody asked for. With a premise that sounded like a lesser version of the video game with the same name, a cast of made up of primarily unknown actors playing obscure DC characters (and others created for the show), and a yet another universe centered around a Batman that takes a backseat, this season had failure stamped on it before it aired. Yet somehow, this motley crew of characters that I couldn’t care less about began to grow on me, and even with the subpar plot I found myself a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t see what happens next when the series ended after just this one season.

The plot just what the trailers told us it would be: Batman was murdered, and a group of kids are framed and must try to clear their names and find the real killer. It wasn’t too surprising to find the Court of Owls revealed as the ones behind it, but selling the idea that these teenagers could succeed where the World’s Greatest Detective failed seemed pretty implausible. It didn’t help that none of these characters were well-known comic book characters and that the lead was the newly created adopted son of Bruce Wayne. Making things worse is that fact that the show takes place in a new universe with its own Batman mythology. (Harvey Dent still hadn’t become Two-Face, and it was unclear if Carrie Kelly was the first Robin or if the other Robins already came and went.) Despite the deck being stacked against the characters, the writers made it almost plausible that they could take on the Court and win.

As far as these characters go, if any of them were killed off in the first few episodes they wouldn’t be missed. Turner was the probably the most generic character in the show. He’s just some rich kid that had a deep, loving relationship with Bruce Wayne. And considering we never actually get to see this and had to take their word for it, it’s hard to swallow. As the show goes on, Turner begins to indulge his dark side a bit, and he ended up at a point where he could’ve either turned into an interesting character or stay around as a clique’. Stephanie Brown also fell short, never quite becoming more that the team’s hacker, and still being a long way from possibly becoming The Spoiler. Harper Row was fairly grating at first and came off as just the “tough runaway” stereotype. However, as the character began to bond with the rest of the team, her vulnerable side was revealed and gave her more dimensions. While her brother Cullen really didn’t evolve much throughout the season, he did have his moments to shine. Meanwhile, Carrie Kelly/Robin is the closest thing the team had to an actual superhero. While her gadgets and expertise helped her standout early, she seemed a little redundant once everyone else started to level up their various skills. A bit more of a wildcard was Duela. Initially coming off as just doing an imitation of Alice from “Batwoman,” she also benefits from letting her guard down. While her unpredictable nature and over-the-top antics often make her feel like the most expendable character, she does earn her place in the end. But the show’s biggest A-Lister is Harvey Dent. He’s given an odd mix of baggage and tragedy in his backstory and doesn’t come off as anything more that an above-average DA for most of the season. It’s only in the back half that we finally start seeing the “real” Harvey start to make himself known.

As far as the bad guys go, the Court was just okay. Not having a face to represent them for too long made them feel less of a threat. Once they begin to unmask, things pickup. But there’s a couple twists that don’t quite work, and while it’s cool to see a Talon in action, he just comes off as a generic Michael Myers-type killer. This leads to some fairly stiff-looking action sequences on a show that already was mediocre in the action department.

Ultimately, the premise of kids on the run for supposedly killing Batman doesn’t justify this new universe. But somehow, despite these kids not being up to the task of saving the day or carrying this show, they almost manage to do both.

**1/2 out of *****

TV Review: Superman & Lois (Season 3)

**This review contains some SPOILERS**

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In its third season, “Superman & Lois” continued to have strong stories anchored by a combination of down-to-earth family drama and superhero action. Add in an unflinching look at the real-life threat of cancer, and the leads had plenty to work with. However, the big bad storyline never quite delivered, and was wrapped up too quickly to introduce a new big bad with not enough time for a setup and payoff.

While Superman and Lois are the stars, all the meat of this season went to Lois and Jordan. Each episode dug deep into Lois’ cancer and how it affected her and everyone in her family. All this was portrayed as realistic as possible, and thankfully they didn’t cheapen it by going for some magic/sci-fi solution. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave much meaningful material for the rest of the cast. Superman was mostly there to cheer on Lois and leap into action when needed. (This is taking nothing away from the action, that combined with the chemistry between him and Lois, continues to give us possibly the best version of this power couple.) Despite all the character growth for Jordan so far, this season spent more time taking him back a few steps instead of moving him forward. Every time it looked like he was ready to finally become a full-on superhero, he does something stupid that forces his parents to essentially ground him from being Superboy. Even worse, the back and forth between him and Sara has become too one-note. They’ve been friends, a couple, friends again, a couple again and back to friends. And each time he ends up becoming more unlikable because of how whiny he becomes. (And poor Sara doesn’t have much else going on in her character arc besides this toxic relationship. Even her singing career sub-plot was completely dropped.) This season also introduced the recast Jonathon. Thanks to his similar appearance to the original actor, the new one slips in pretty seamlessly. However, he still doesn’t have a lot to do once again outside of drama with his girlfriend’s dad and a stint at the fire station that ultimately goes nowhere. The rest of the cast isn’t given that much material. Lana as mayor didn’t really add that anything too intriguing to her character. (Not to mention they seemed to drop a storyline about some shady dealings the previous mayor was trying to cover up.) Nat’s relationship arc was fairly interesting, but it came at the expense of her superhero action. John Irons also got the shaft the season, as the Intergang story seemed to be set to revolve around him, but in the end, he got shoved into the background and Superman and Lois took over.

As for Intergang, it felt less like a cartel of super-villains, and more just another untouchable mob boss story. Thankfully, Mannheim is an extremely sympathetic bad guy that is just doing everything he can to save the people he loves. I would’ve liked to see just how much bad stuff he did to earn his reputation and if it all really was just for what he thought was the greater good. In a strange course correction, his story wrapped up with two episodes to go, and we are given a lightning-fast introduction to a new Lex Luthor as he is set-up up as the true big bad. They went an interesting route with the character, making him less the genius that’s always three steps ahead and more of an intimidating Kingpin-like figure. He’s also stripped of his sophisticated style, and given more a biker look, complete with heavy-metal soundtrack.

“Superman & Lois” succeeds in season three as the family stuff and character moments help this show soar. The action is a little limited, but well-done when it’s there. The show pulls no punches in giving a realistic looks at a battle with cancer and doesn’t cheapen it by coping out with a magic cure. The soap opera relationship stuff is overdone at times, and the Jordan/Sara drama has run its course. Mannheim was a decent villain for the season, but his story is cut short in order to shoehorn Lex Luthor into the show at the last minute.

***1/2 out of *****

Video Game Review: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5)

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A strong follow-up to “Fallen Order,” “Survivor” keeps everything that worked, fixes some things that didn’t and adds some cool new features and characters. Unfortunately, multiple glitches and bugs hold the game back as of this writing.

While you don’t need to place the first game in this series, it helps tremendously in understanding the characters and the basic gameplay. Since Cal starts off with most of the abilities he learned in the last game, there’s quite a bit at your fingertips to start off this game. And since the games doesn’t do much to explain all the character relationships and backstories, some of the stronger character moments may be lost on new players.

The story is good, continuing threads from the last game for both the main plot and the character arcs. There’s plenty of twists and some emotional moments as a result. However, the conclusion isn’t all that satisfying and it’s a bit vague.

The gameplay is solid and offers even more variety that the last game. New force abilities have been added to truly help your character feel like an actual Jedi. Lightsaber combat has been enhanced by weapon stances, giving players a choice of five options that fits the most with their playstyle. Players can also customize their experience through the use of perks. The combat is basically the same as the first game, but there is a learning curve for newer players who may want to just run in and hack away at their enemies with a lightsaber, as the gameplay favors defense over offense. Combat can be unfairly balanced at times, with multiple enemies at once attacking up close and from a distance, striking so fast that there isn’t time for the player to heal themselves. Like the last game, dying can be a major setback, as players may find themselves repeating time-consuming and dangerous climbs to get back to where they died. Once all the meditation points and shortcuts are unlocked, this isn’t much of an issue, especially with the new fast-travel feature. While exploration is encouraged, many areas can’t be reached until Cal unlocks certain abilities or equipment, so you may end up in the same locations multiple times trying to find everything. I would recommend not worrying too much about searching for hidden items. Most are cosmetic and at various points later in the game there’s a way to add their locations to your map, saving you the headache of repeat visits. A few of the fights, especially the boss fights, can be pretty tough, but the difficulty can be changed at any time. Probably the most challenging part of the game is the optional Force Tears, which feature combat or extremely difficult obstacle courses. While they can be unbelievably frustrating, the skills you master here make similar parts of the main game a piece of cake.

The game looks great, with well-designed environments ranging from the expansive new planet of Koboh to familiar places like Jedah. Cal’s appearance can be greatly customized. Between lightsaber parts, outfits, haircuts and facial hair, few players will end up with identical looking Cals. The sound design is well done, with in-game sounds and also the game’s score both complementing gameplay and solidifying the Star Wars motif. The voice acting by the leads is great, with the animation capturing the nuances with their performances. (Although most of the NPC acting is mediocre and includes a lot of accents that sound more from Earth than from a galaxy far, far away.)

Despite all it gets right, the game has some serious bugs. As of now, an entire sub-section of the game featuring bounty hunting is either unavailable or can’t be completed due to numerous bugs. This seemed like a fun aspect to the game, and it’s frustrating to just have to wait for a patch.

**** out of *****

Update: A few days after this review, a patch came out that fixed the bounty hunting bug. It ended up not being as interesting as I hoped. A bit repetitive, with the same annoying enemy-types over and over. But it did add some variety to the overall game and it might have been more fun if I could’ve spaced it out with the regular gameplay instead of all at once. (I also thought the new ammo types were pretty helpful.)

Movie Review: The Flash

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A mostly fun ride that could wrap up in a much shorter runtime if not for the almost-too convoluted time-travel/alternate universe aspects. If you’ve seen the trailers and read the “Flashpoint” story that inspired this, then this film is fairly predictable outside of some nuances. The movie has its humor but is shockingly over-the-top silly at times. The action is fine but relies too much on some shaky CG. (And that doesn’t count some of the design choices that lead to some wonkiness in certain scenes.) While the inclusion of the Michael Keaton Batman is pretty cool, it ultimately adds little to the story. The new Supergirl is intriguing but underused, as is General Zod, who is much more one-dimensional this time around. Luckily, Ezra Miller is solid in both the lead role and as the alternate Barry and he really nails the all the important moments that make up the film’s emotional core. There’s a post-credit scene, but it’s not really worth sticking around for it.

**1/2 out of *****