MAYvel Phase 2; The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: The darker side of the MCU

While it's hard to argue against Marvel's dominance at the box office thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men movies and the original Spider-Man trilogy, their endeavours into the small screen have been... mixed at best. While there have been standouts, it's hard to compare those standouts favourably when compared to the competition like Batman the Animated Series, and this is just me comparing the cartoons. However, there was one that many consider equal to the likes of Justice League, and the DC Animated universe, though the problem was a restructure of the plan, to bring the shows more in line with the MCU.

MAYvel Phase 2; Ant-Man and The Wasp: Still the best use of product placement I've seen in a series of movies.

So while giant spaceships were falling out of the sky and most of the heroes were either off-world or in Africa, it would appear that Ant-Man is having issues with ghosts and the government, and sadly not the ghosts of all the heroes. Time to return to the size changing shenanigans with Ant-Man and The Wasp.

MAYvel Phase 2; Avengers Infinity War: One week after it's sequel came out. Perfect time to review it!

Put it this way, to those who hated Captain Marvel, the same rule holding it to 2020 is the rule that kept Infinity War to today.

Welcome to MAYvel Phase 2, the one-month marathon that goes into two months because of how much media Marvel has put out that doesn't include the actual comics. Unlike last year where almost all of Phase 3 was reviewed, from Ant-Man to Black Panther. This year, only two MCU movies are being reviewed, Infinity War, and the Ant-Man sequel. Two shows are going to be reviewed as well, along with a list marking almost every MCU movie from worst to best. Endgame won't be on that list because I don't want to spoil the Endgame. So don't worry, there won't be any spoilers of the movie in this review, and in the Toybox reviews this month, which will be reviewing the Avengers Endgame sets. So then, before you go to see Endgame, even though you probably already have, let's look at its direct lead-in, Avengers Infinity War.

Deadpool 2; Super Duper Cut (and Once Upon a Deadpool): Time to beat the dead horse that's beating several dead horses again

See, I was tempted to make a joke in the title about this being a "family picture", due to one of the opening lines of the movie saying it was, but the X-Men Origins review got enough comparisons to the Nostalgia Critic, even though I reviewed the first three movies before he did, that I'm not going to take one of the jokes he actually came up with that isn't just making a mockery of something in the movie itself.

Time to wrap up Marvel catchup month once again, by looking at another one of Fox's successful movies with mutants, Deadpool 2. I'll be reviewing the Super Duper cut of the movie, but I also want to at least address Once Upon a Deadpool, a toned down cut of the movie that was released... even though I haven't seen it myself. I've seen the Super Duper Cut, it's why that's the one I'm officially reviewing, but you'll see why I want to address it later.

Spider-Man; Into the Spider-verse: Spider-Man 4 as you always imagined it.

Alright, let's start from the beginning one last time. My name is Liam Sanders, I wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the last five years, I've been making content for this site. I hope you know the rest, but probably don't, but even still I'm not continuing on with this joke.

Logan: Watch as a group of kids are more violent then any of the X-Men could be.

It's nice to see a movie come around that goes so far against espectations that it can't help but be admired. As I said before, I had lost interest in the X-Men movies as they went further on, and I think I'm not the only one who wasn't expecting much from Logan. Origins was awful, The Wolverine was ok at best, and while this had the advantage of being rated higher compared to them, thanks to the success of Deadpool, no one thought this was going to be as good as it was. How did this happen? How did a trilogy that started off so badly stick the landing this perfectly? Well I think one reason is going to be repeated this Wednesday when Endgame comes out here. For now though, let's look at Hugh Jackman's last run as Wolverine.

Venom: We... are getting motion sick

And you thought Bayformers was hard to keep track of...

Ahh, Sony. Always one for jumping on bandwagons, yet always getting cold feet when doing them. You do love you Symbiotes don't you? Like I said at the end of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 review, I wanted Venom to fail. Not because it looked bad, because the trailers only looked unfinished, even to the point of showing scenes before the CGI was even implemented. The reason I wanted Venom to fail is that Sony has a habit of overdoing things when it comes to this style of movie making. Why just make one movie that might not be a success, but you can plan out the next 20 cause the character means it will be a success. Yes, that is the MCU formula now, however, there is still a set standard of quality, and with Sony, that quality isn't there. To use a gaming comparison, EA can make all the claims in the world that they're getting better, I'm not going to believe them until they show consistent quality. Excuse me if I sound bitter about this, but because this was a hit, I now have to keep an eye on a Kraven the Hunter movie, a character who I honestly question if anyone cares enough about to warrant a solo movie, but then again we are getting Dora the Tomb Raider and "Not The Killing Joke in live action", so what would I know?

The Wolverine: I hope you can understand Japanese

While I won't be going into them this year, as it will be better to them all next year, Fox's timeline for the X-Men took two distinct splits. The Wolverine trilogy, which is being covered this year, set in the same time as the original trilogy, and a second timeline with almost a whole new cast. Why? Because I'm guessing X-Men Origins: Jimmy did well enough to try and keep this thing going, which leads us to The Wolverine. Is it better than Origins? Yes, but that ain't saying much.

The Wolverine: Now with less Japanese

While I won't be going into them this year, as it will be better to them all next year, Fox's timeline for the X-Men took two distinct splits. The Wolverine trilogy, which is being covered this year, set in the same time as the original trilogy, and a second timeline with almost a whole new cast. Why? Because I'm guessing X-Men Origins: Jimmy did well enough to try and keep this thing going, which leads us to The Wolverine. Is it better than Origins? Yes, but that ain't saying much.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Stuffed with content is not always a good thing.

If there's one thing that the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all of its imitators have taught us, it's that rushing things like world building and sequel baiting is never a good idea. There are times when it works, a nod here, a cameo there, but stopping the movie for the sake of sequel bait never works, especially if the sequel isn't in active development yet. Build it up slowly, and people will be willing to accept it because you could tease a movie that is years away and people will happily accept it because they know it's going to happen. But if you, for example, tease the appearance of a team of six villains by forcing three of the potential candidates into one movie, and have scenes teasing the others, including ones that people know can hold their own movies, especially in a sequel to a less then critically acclaimed film... At least this wasn't the Dark Universe?

X-Men Origins: Jimmy. Out of all the names, why Jimmy?

So after the commercial success of the three X-Men movies, a logical thing to do would be to give a spin-off to one of the most recognizable members of the team, Wolverine, giving him a backstory that was barely told in X-Men 2... and jumping the gun a bit here, barely told in this movie as well. People hated this movie, and can't say I blame them, though I at least have a few more personal things to add to the story, such as somehow ending up with a leaked, unfinished version of it on my R4 when I was younger, so I have the distinct "pleasure" of saying I've watched a full movie on my DS... no, I am not reviewing that one. It doesn't need it.

I swear, take the title out of that and I'd believe you if you told me this was a poster for X-Men 3

The Amazing Spider-Man: Some chosen one...

Sony: "You were the chosen one! It was said you would make us money forever, not fail so hard we had to give you up!". Look, I've been wanting to make a parody of that for years, was waiting for the right movie to do it.

With the breakout success if Iron Man, the moderate success of The Incredible Hulk, and promises of movies like The Avengers in the works, it should come as no surprise that both Sony and Fox were intimidated by the sudden competition, and quickly tried to replicate the success themselves. While Fox’s attempts involved bringing the old director back and throwing in time travel, Sony’s was more… destructive. Spider-Man 4 was not turning out the way they wanted and was taking longer to make then they had hoped. As a result, a reboot was in order and once they could finally cancel Spider-Man 4, The Amazing Spider-Man was fast-tracked to better align with Sony’s goals for the IP. How well did it go? Well, Spider-Man is now under joint custody between them and Marvel Studios so you can imagine that it didn’t go well. Welcome to the prequel of MAYvel Phase 2, where we see what Sony has done with the IP post-Avengers, what Fox began doing post-Avengers, and also looking at the movie with some red asshole in it because he won’t shut up… No the Fox one!

Bumblebee: The one movie no one can agree on.

Before getting started, due to the upcoming removal of the Google API, there may be a change in the display names for who wrote the posts. Assuming I'm right, this will be posted under the name "Blaster". It's not a different writer, it's the same person as the vast majority of the content here. It's just that this site is no longer going to be connected to the Google Plus account I keep forgetting is tied to it... Also no, the name Blaster didn't come from Autobot Blaster, I started using it before I saw the Generation 1 cartoon, and that Blaster has not appeared in movies or tv shows since the G1 cartoon.


"It's a prequel!"
"It's a reboot!"
"It's a prequel!"
"It's a reboot!"
"Well, this person said it's a prequel!"
"Well, that person said it's a reboot!"
"I'm not supporting this movie because it's a prequel!"
"I'm going to support it because it's a reboot"
 Bloody hell, we could probably start the Cybertronian Civil War with the status of what this movie is!

It's funny sometimes how closed minded some people can be when it comes to media, and I do count myself in that statement too. So consumed with learning everything there is to know about a movie, going to war over it's importance to a franchise and to the world as a whole, but ignoring other aspects to it, such as differing views for more than just a black and white mindset. I bring this up because, during the marketing push for Bumblebee, everything was picked apart in the debate over what it was, if it was a prequel to the 2007 movie or a reboot due to the diminishing returns on the first five Live action films.

My stance on the matter back then? "It was both, because right now Paramount is looking for a safe revenue generator to let them keep funding movies", and the continued debate on the matter, thanks to conflicting statements (to which I say "Paramount, what are your marketing and PR teams doing? It's their job to keep stories straight), the announcement of both a Bumblebee 2 and Transformers 6, and the (to put it mildly) conflicting reports on the "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" have only reinforced this belief for me. I wouldn't deny any claim that this movie struggled in the production side due to the conflicting story angles. It is very likely that this started life as a proper prequel, but was forced to course correct during development into a hodgepodge of the two, it's a sign that they don't know what to do. However, I'm not here to talk about the production side of the movie. I'm here to talk about the movie itself, the end result of its troubled life. How is it? Well, I'll put it this way, I get the feeling I'm not going to make some friends in the die-hard side of the fandom with this one (but what else is new at this point? Why do you think I haven't tried reviewing another fan game... Sonic Mania technically doesn't count). Absurdly long intro aside...

Young Justice: The less edgy, and better looking Titans

Before anyone tries it, that comment is aimed more at the costume design rather than the casting.

By now it should come as no surprise that, while both have their ups and downs, I tend to lean more towards the animated side of DC's catalogue when it comes to watching shows and movies related to DC, the highs have been higher, and even some of the low points can still loom over parts of their Live action films, and shows at times. One that many held in high regard was Young Justice, a show focusing on a team made up of sidekicks and younger versions of league members handling more covert ops missions, which was at one point cancelled, then brought back on DC's new streaming platform. Was it for a good reason though?

Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World: For when you really don't like knitting

Yoshi's had a weird history when it comes to games, hasn't he? Born into this world as a glorified power-up for Mario in Super Mario World, while he's had his own games, they tend to get lumped in with the Mario Spin-Offs in the eyes of the masses, myself included for a period of time when I was first getting into Nintendo games back in 2007-2008 (I grew up with a PS1 and PS2). What doesn't help either is that his games did have a sporadic release for a long time. I genuinely can't think of a Yoshi game for the Wii, or even the GameCube, the DS game was kind of a remake of the original Yoshi's Island, then there was the "Not a remake" on the 3DS in the form of Yoshi's New Island. It's why Yoshi's Woolly World came out of nowhere originally and felt like an odd next project for the team that worked on Kirby's Epic Yarn (to me at least), but after several delays, the game was released for the WiiU, and eventually got a 3DS port too in the form of Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World, which is the main version I focused on for this review.

Mediaholics Review: Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

Link to video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8hjmLUmjfg

Everyone might be in the game, but we couldn't quite get everyone for the review. Ehh, at least it's the usual two.

Link to the *ahem* "interesting" competitive ruleset: https://twitter.com/ScrubQuotesX/status/1088711432655405056

Kingdom Hearts Marathon; Kingdom Hearts 3.... D; Dream Drop Distance: So close, yet so, so far.

Kind of a low brow moment don't you think? This was the 10th-anniversary game, and to do that painful tease of calling it Kingdom Hearts 3D?

And so, with Kingdom Hearts 3 coming out this week, it's time to look at the game that's closely tied to the events of it, including pulling another Chain of Memories and justifying why Sora's back to Level 1. Kingdom Hearts 3D, the only Kingdom Hearts game on the 3DS, and lost the whole 3D thing when it went to PS4... which would make this Kingdom Hearts 3? It makes more sense then Nomura talking about it like it's 2.6 at least. Welcome to a review of that one game where two guys overdose on sleeping tablets and played Nintendogs a lot (or Pokemon Amie, your choice).

Kingdom Hearts Marathon; Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep: With the exception of Evil Mc Wigglefingers, did anyone want to know the answers to these questions?

As much as that might sound like a joke, the best way to describe Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep's plot is to ask that question because that's all this really is. Like with all the non-numbered games, it exists to answer questions. What doesn't help this though was that it was made for the PlayStation Portable, and until relatively recently, was the only place you could play it (unless it got a PlayStation Vita port on the shop, though considering how well that did, you could make the argument that my point still stands). Thankfully though, there are other ways to play it now. So how does it improve on from Kingdom Hearts 2, and the other handheld spinoffs?

Kingdom Hearts Marathon; Kingdom Hearts 2: What happened to the rails?

One critique often made against Tetsuya Nomura is that while he's great (most of the time) at self-contained stories, he struggles to follow them up with sequels and a continuous narrative. The biggest offender of this? This very franchise, because while the individual stories are relatively strong (provided you like the story structure), trying to piece them together becomes a nightmare worse than figuring out what is and isn't canon in a comic. Allow me to give you a taste of this as we tackle the sequel to Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2...

Kingdom Hearts Marathon; Kingdom Hearts: Time for a trip into absolute madness

My apologies for the sparatic content last month. Work, Christmas, and what happened to my grandfather took their toll on the sites and basically killed DCember 2018. The lesson of the day kids? Make a backlog, something that I will try and commit to this year. In the meantime, with Kingdom Hearts 3 on the horizon, let's begin to tackle a game series that, against all odds, somehow exists. Welcome to the Kingdom Hearts marathon.

Disney, Final Fantasy. Two things that most sane people would not think to put into the same sentence, let alone go the distance and make a game on it, and then to go even further with at least thirteen (oh Arceus I just thought of something about that... more on that next week) games, a card game, manga and novels. along with countless other bits of merchandise. It's honestly quite baffling that this exists, especially when you consider that all of this started cause one guy happened to be in the right place at the right time, yet here we are, with one of the biggest releases of the month being the Third game, while also being the thirteenth game, so long before I get to Kingdom Hearts 3 (as I still don't have the console to play it), let's look at the first game, that's also the fifth game? I think that's right at least... or maybe it's the forth because one of those is just cutscenes based on a mobile game...Kingdom Hearts.