Agents of SHIELD: Providence Review

Again following the aftermath of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, "Providence" continues to prove that Agents of SHIELD is a worthy addition to the Marvel canon.

*Warning massive spoilers are ahead*

After the massively unexpected reveal that Ward is a HYDRA agent, Coulson and SHIELD are trying to pickup the pieces in wake of the HYDRA insurgency. For starters, Grant turning all BA as he frees Raina and gives her the flower dress she is so fond of. Seeing the character return now knowing that Garrett is technically the Clairvoyant (more on that later), and that she has been working for HYDRA all along, was a great tie-in. If she can get these enhanced soldiers working, maybe they will make a brief appearance as enhanced HYDRA soldiers in Age of Ultron or Captain America 3 as cannon fodder for the heroes to fight.

One of the biggest parts of the these last two episodes is that the identity of the Clairvoyant has been revealed, kind of. Basically, Garrett is technically the Clairvoyant since he coordinated all of the plans but he is ultimately working for HYDRA. *Winter Soldier Spoilers* After watching the movie, it is clear that Zola and his algorithm is behinding predicting the future and the actions of the team, thus making him the true Clairvoyant. *End Spoiler* 

One of my favorite parts of the episode is when Coulson tells Skye, who is a lot more likable of late, to erase all of the data about them that is on the web. *Winter Soldier Spoiler* If you watched The Winter Soldier, you know that Natasha released all of SHIELD's information for the world to see, which includes all of the information about the team that Skye deleted. Also, this somewhat explains how Cap would still not know that Coulson lives. *End Spoiler* After Coulson told Skye to deleted everything, she said "What are? Agents of Nothing?" and that is exactly what I was wondering after watching The Winter Soldier. "Providence" was a lot about Coulson convincing the team that they are still SHIELD agents, even if SHIELD has fallen. His speech in the middle of the episode was especially great. That is exactly the type of thing that Coulson would say. SHIELD is the world's shield and now it is broken. Also getting to know that Coulson was recruited by Fury when he was young is a nice look into his character and how much he owes Fury. 

In terms of quality, Providence is yet another one of the series' best. Clark Gregg was particularly excellent with his performance as he starts to fall apart along with SHIELD. But possibly my favorite part of the entire episode has to be Patton Oswalt. While I have only seen him in a few minor roles, in the geek community, he is well known for hilariously detailing his plan for Star Wars: Episode 7 and the Marvel crossover (video below) in Parks and Recreation (haven't seen the series). He is also a geek, and he was hilarious in the episode. His interaction with Coulson was a lot of fun. Jacob, in particular, liked the Call of Duty reference and that Coulson actually plays Call of Duty.

*The Winter Soldier Spoilers* Thankfully, Coulson was not kept in the dark too long with Oswalt's character informing him that Fury is, in fact, not dead, which was hilarious thanks to Oswalt's delivery. As expected, Coulson is not too keen on not letting the team know that Fury is still alive, and I can definitely see a problem arise if Ward managed to discover the truth and report back to HYDRA. *End Spoilers*

The scenes with Garrett and Ward working for HYDRA and "raiding the Fridge" was a lot of fun in an evil kind of way. Also, the scenes with the over zealous HYDRA agent was funny. Ward betting Garrett that something else was under the floor was also great, and now HYDRA has the Gravitonium and Ian Quinn is back. Going back to Ward specifically, this episode answered one of my biggest questions about why Ward acted so selflessly with the team if he is a HYDRA. Like he said to Raina, "I am everyone's type." According to him, he planned out all of his selfless actions to further develop trust with the and he "strategically" decided to have a "relationship" with May to keep her from being suspicious. This explains why he killed the fake Clairvoyant as well. Another aspect of Ward being an undercover agent of HYDRA is that it explains why he is kind of a "boy scout" in terms of personality, which is a problem a lot of critics had, myself not included. I really hope the series goes the darker route instead of the cliched route with Ward's character. Hopefully he will not just return to the team in the next couple of episodes, but instead sacrifice himself to save Skye, which would be a much more Whedon type move, or Coulson or Skye will have to kill him. Now that Triplett is unofficially apart of the team, with Simmons vouching for him to stay on the bus, I can see him replacing Ward as the "Specialist" of the team. Thus far, he is a very likable character that now reminds me of the Falcon from the Winter Soldier. 

Early in the episode, Coulson is seen talking to a military colonel (or was it general?) named Glenn Talbot. If you are familiar with the Hulk comics, you know that Talbot is General Ross' right-hand man, who often tries to take down the Hulk. He is also known as a tough military commander that is a pain to deal with, which is a notion that Coulson implies with the team's hasty retreat. Seeing yet another comic book character make their debut in the cannon is great!

Overall: 9.6/10- "Providence" is yet another top notch episode from the series that continues to build upon the events of the Winter Soldier.

For another opinion, you can check out Tegan's review by clicking here.

This poster was too cool not to post.

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Gravity Review is Coming and Posting Schedule

Well, I watched the highly acclaimed movie, Gravity, and my review for that will be coming on Wednesday, but I shall be holding my opinion of the film for my full review. In addition to announcing my review, I will be adding a new rating to my review system that I have been planning for a while, as well as maybe changing some other things, all of which will be explained on Tuesday. Later this week I will also be posting some interesting facts about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it will not include any spoilers, as well as a full review for the popular Kill la Kill. Also, I watched Captain Phillips last night and a full review for that will be coming next week.

Posting Schedule:

Monday: Agents of SHIELD: Providence Review

Tuesday: New Rating: Entertainment Value and More

Wednesday: Gravity Review

Thursday: Kill la Kill Review

Friday: Captain America Watches Sherlock?

Below are some reviews for Gravity by fellow bloggers. Please let me know if you have reviewed the film so that I can comment on your review. As soon as I finish writing my review, I will comment on everyone's reviews.
Gravity Review by Jordan at Rath Reviews
Gravity Review by Sarah at How to Watch a Movie

Gravity Review by Daniel at Random Mexican's Movie Reviews

Gravity Review by Rick at Rick's Cafe Texan

Oddly enough, I actually thought about Life of Pi while watching Gravity.

Also, happy Resurrection Day everyone!

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

Attack on Titan on Toonami

The titan sized smash hit, Attack on Titan, will be premiering the English dub on Toonami May 3rd! If you are not familiar with it, Attack on Titan is animated series that aired last year and it was met with widespread critical and fan praise making it the most popular anime in years, as it caught the interest of many non-fans of the medium. As I have stated before, I have been holding out on watching Attack on Titan's Blu-Ray release for my summer break, so that I could marathon the series and watch it legally in HD. With this recent announcement however, I will start watching the when it airs on Toonami and when the Blu-Ray is released, I will probably pick up the series from there. Since, for the first four weeks, I will be watching Attack on Titan on a weekly basis, I will probably review the first few episodes individually if enough readers are interested. Needless to say, I am extremely excited! Also, watching Toonami supports anime in America, which is one of the reasons why I watched Space Dandy on Toonami when there are many easily obtainable pirated versions out there without commercials. It will air at 11:30pm on Cartoon Network during the Toonami block, and if you do not get that channel, be assured that the series will be available shortly after online for those interested in watching it. What are your thoughts of Attack on Titan on Toonami? Are you interested in reading episode reviews for Attack on Titan? Please comment below and let me know.

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

Agents of SHIELD: Turn, Turn, Turn Review

Taking place during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, "Turn, Turn, Turn" gives viewers of The Winter Soldier a necessary and satisfying followup that expands on the aftermath of the film.

*SPOILERS*

Again, do not read more if you have not seen the episode! Now, Grant and Garrett are apart of HYDRA! Completely did not see the twist coming! Bill Patxon has been my favorite part of the series of late, and him turning out to be apart of HYDRA is a little disappointing since I liked him character so much, but Paxton is also an awesome villain as he crews every second of his screen time.

With the fall of SHIELD, Agents of SHIELD is going to have to take an entirely new direction. No longer will we have SHIELD as a big organization that it once was. The possibilities are endless and exciting!

Ward's action scene was great, although compared to the incredibly superior ones that I witnessed several hours earlier that day in The Winter Soldier, it is not the most impressive. But in terms of TV action scenes, I have yet to one better this year.

Not surprisingly, May says that she was working for Fury to keep an eye on him in case he figures out how he came back from the dead. However, the tension of knowing that HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD made the scene more suspenseful nonetheless.

My only issue with the episode is that one scene with Skye and Ward when Ward finally admits that he loves Skye. While it was a nice character moment, it was a little cliched in terms having a romantic moment during a dangerous situation.

As for the utterly shocking ending with Ward killing Hand, that was completely unexpected. Not only did one of the top agents in SHIELD go down, Ward is the one that did it. However, Hand handing over the gun to Ward for him to shoot Garrett did not make the most. I know she wanted to dispose of him, but that seemed a little out of place. My only concern is that Hand and Ward set the whole thing up to trick Garrett, but considering what happened in the most recent episode, that is unlikely. On a side note, in retrospect, the series seemed like it was stalling until The Winter Soldier was released so that it could enact its true plan of chronicling life after the fall of SHIELD. Coulson's secret of how he survived was given resolution and we did have the awesome Asgardian crossover, but there were some generic network TV type episodes in-between, which added little to the overall story. Fortunately, with the Winter Soldier is finally giving Agents of SHIELD an important purpose in the Marvel universe. Also, you gotta like Garrett referencing Sitwell recruiting HYDRA agents in SHIELD, and how the picture above basically symbolizes how SHIELD is broken.

Overall: 9.9/10- With yet another incredible episode, Agents of SHIELD fully displays how great the series can be as it points towards an exciting new direction that series is taking with the Fall of SHIELD. One more thing, "Hail HYDRA!"

Note: I have already scene the most recent episode and my review for that will be coming Monday.

For another opinion, you can check out Tegan's review by clicking here.

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

Turn Season Premiere Review

Turn a revolutionary war series based the real story of America's first spy ring, and it comes from AMC, the channel that has brought us classics such as The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad.

Historical fiction television series such as Turn are among my favorite genres of TV, and my first impression of Turn is that it is going to be a great series with this first episode delivering on what you would expect.
Jamie Bell (King Kong, Adventures of Tintin) stars in the series and having movie quality acting is more than welcome. His performance is one of the strongest aspects of the pilot. He plays real life Revolutionary spy Abe Woodhull, and this first episode basically sets up what will happen for the duration of the series as Abe is recruited into Colonial ranks as an undercover agent.
As much as I like the historical fiction genre, movies are rarely given enough time to tell the story properly; however, a television offers ample time, which is why I have high hopes for Turn's future quality.

Plot: 8.4/10- As stated above, Turn's plot follows Abe Woodhull, and this pilot does a adequate job of setting up for the remainder of the series. The characters are introduced, and by the end of the first episode, we basically know all of the character's motivations. Some reviews have described the pacing of the first episode as slow, yet my brother and I never once thought of it as slow. From about 15 minutes into the story, I was hooked. However, when it comes to historical series or TV in general, I tend to be a little more patience than most. Considering that this pilot ran 63 minutes in length, opposed to the typical 45 minutes, it allowed for more story progression and development.

Acting: 9.2/10- Turn has an overall very strong cast with a few movie actors including Jamie Bell, Kevin McNally (Gibbs in Pirates of the Caribbean), Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises, Pacific Rim), as well as some newcomers. All in all, the acting is top notch.

Production Value: 9.5/10- I love high quality historical sets and costumes, and not surprisingly, Turn does not disappoint. In many respects it reminded me of the often underrated John Adams HBO series in terms of quality. While not mind blowing or epic by any means, it looks just as you would imagine the era would look. It is dirty and grimy, not like the usual glossy look of network TVs; it is AMC, why would anyone expect anything less?

Overall: 8.3/10- While not groundbreaking, Turn is a very strong pilot that makes me interested to see more, and with the absence of my favorite series, Turn will likely be an adequate replacement until October.

Have you seen the series? Are you interested in seeing it? Please comment below and let me know.

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If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.