Tag Archives: Science Fiction

My Top Five Favorite TMNT Rip-Offs

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In case you didn’t know and were a bad bad fan boy, Saturday March 19th was Ninja Turtles day. To celebrate the four heroes in a half shell, I compiled a list of my five favorite TMNT wannabes. Remember in the mid to late eighties when every studio wanted their own Transformers, GI Joe, and TMNT series to collect the sweet sweet dollarydoos from kids? Then suddenly the mid-nineties came and everyone wanted their own Power Rangers? Well, once the nineties popped around every studio or company had heroes that were either created by mysterious ooze or were anthropomorphic talking animals with attitude.

Here are five of the best in a decade filled with some pretty awful ones, altogether.

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Five Marvel Characters Who Should Fill Iron Man’s Shoes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

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With the news that we likely won’t be getting an “Iron Man 4” and increasing rumors that Robert Downey Jr. might end his run as Tony Stark and Iron Man for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, director Joe Russo explained that if Downey Jr. leaves the series, Iron Man might go away for a while. Iron Man experienced a huge comeback in the early aughts thanks to John Favreau bringing him in to a very successful and excellent live action film. Iron Man then became the foundation the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe was built upon, spawning the seeds for the Avengers movie, and then opening the door for a wave of Marvel superhero movies we see now.

With the potential departure of Downey Jr. and Iron Man, it would present a good opportunity to bring the Marvel Cinematic Universe in to a new era, and offer up some new dynamics and interactions between their superheroes. Many forget that once upon a time Iron Man was considered a fourth tier superhero. Before being rebooted in 2008 and transformed in to an icon, Iron Man was quite unpopular for a very long time, and even mocked by many comic book fans. The nineties saw Marvel trying to reboot the character repeatedly with no success, even bringing in a teenage Tony Stark to take over for adult Tony Stark. With Iron Man receiving his proper fame and admiration, since he is one of the early Marvel titans and one of the founding members of the Avengers, should Downey Jr. exit the series, it’d be a great chance to pass the torch on to another hero.

Here are five other Marvel characters who could and should fill Iron Man’s shoes if Iron Man is not included in future Marvel and “The Avengers” films.

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Animated Spider-Man Ranked from Worst to Best

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If you’re like me, you saw the second trailer to “Captain America: Civil War” and you were very shocked and incredibly excited to see Spider-Man appear before the clashing of titans to give us a trademark quip before stealing Captain America’s shield. It’s only a three second clip, but it says a lot about what Marvel is planning to do with the character, and how it promises to be every way superior to Sony’s previous cinematic efforts. The Marvel Cinematic Universe almost feels complete. Now if someone can twist the arm of FOX with “Fantastic Four”… I digress. In either case, the welcome presence of Spidey had me thinking about his animated presence on television and how some studios have gotten him all wrong, while others have gotten him just right. Here are the animated versions of Spider-Man ranked from the absolute worst to the absolute best.

What is your ranking for your Friendly Neighborhood Wallcrawler?

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Species II (1998) [Blu-Ray]

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Director Peter Medak follows up the somewhat tolerable original “Species” with a sequel that ups the ante in the narrative but doesn’t improve the story all that much. This time around Medak and co. completely abandon the idea of a genetically altered alien this time around for a much more traditional yet sexually charged alien invasion. When Commander Ross returns home from a space expedition with other astronaut explorers, the highly decorated man is revealed to have been taken over by an alien being. Said alien being is based around procreation. As Commander Ross slowly transforms in to an alien being, he begins scouring the city for sexual mates and turning them in to breeders for his army of off spring that begin populating the landscape.

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Disturbing Behavior (1998) [Blu-Ray]

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I’d be hard pressed to call “Disturbing Behavior” a stellar horror film, but as an artifact of the late nineties teen horror boom, it’s a worthwhile effort by an “X-Files” creative mind. “Disturbing Behavior” fosters a fascinatingly looney tone that works in favor of the premise, even when it strives for inadvertent camp. James Marsden plays Steve, a newcomer to Cradle Bay who has just move in with his family and little sister. Steve is instantly accepted in to the reject crowd of the school, as led unofficially by Nick Stahl’s character Gavin. Despite the strange rift between cliques in the local high school, Steve writes off the separation as simple pack mentality, but is told by Gavin that the popular crowd also known as “Blue Ribbons” are actually more sinister than they seem.

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Darth Maul: Apprentice – A Star Wars Fan Film (2016)

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As a Star Wars fan, one of the biggest disappointments of sitting through 1999’s “The Phantom Menace” was watching the creation of one of the most amazing villains of the “Star Wars” cinematic universe, only for him to show up for about five minutes, be killed, and then never spoken of again. This character that was on mugs, and t shirts, and posters was almost non-existent in future films. “Apprentice” is a fantastic and dare I say perfect, fan film that shows what would have happened if George Lucas subtracted twenty minutes of screen time from Jar Jar Binks in favor of more emphases on the sheer danger and threat that was Darth Maul. Maul should have been the recurring villain in the prequels and could have salvaged the otherwise terrible films.

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Plan 9 (2016)

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There’s a huge problem when it comes to sitting through “Plan 9.” It’s essentially a remake of the infamous but hilarious Ed Wood disasterpiece “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” While Ed Wood never intended his film to be considered a comedy it ended up being accidentally one of the funniest movies of all time due to the ineptitude of its production. So how does a filmmaker with arguably more resources approach a remake of “Plan 9”? Basically director John Johnson tries to have his cake and eat it too, giving us a movie that’s literally all over the place. Sometimes “Plan 9” is a straight faced zombie movie with real stakes. Sometimes it’s a meta-remake with dark comedy. And other times it’s a pseudo-remake tha acknowledges the original film from Ed Wood exists in this universe. The latter idea makes no real sense when you consider the ideas presented in “Plan 9.”

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