Reaction & Review | Batman Ninja

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be closing out this edition of "Tales of the Longbox" by taking a look at an animated film from 2018. That movie is "Batman Ninja".

Now, I know two things about this movie. The first thing I know about it is the overall premise. Basically, it's what would happen if you take one of DC's top characters, and it's villains, and you set it all in ancient Japan? Well then, you get this movie. Now, I originally thought that this might've been an Elseworlds Tale, but that thought got shot down for two reasons. The first one being that the Elseworlds imprint was discontinued back in 2005. And the other reason is that there is a manga adaptation of this very story that was released in the same year that this movie came out. Now I have not read the manga itself. However, if this movie is any good, I may have to track down the manga and give it a read at some point.

Now, the other thing I know about this movie is something that people have commented on a lot about, which is the animation. And a lot of people have said mixed things about this movie's animation. They either say that it looks ugly and janky as shit, or they say that it's a rather unique style of animation that is breathtaking and help's enhance the movie quite a bit. Now, I remember seeing a trailer for this movie a couple of years ago, but I couldn't really tell you if I liked the animation or not. I was more focused on the content of the movie itself, and it made me kinda interested in checking it out.

Well tonight, I finally get my chance to see whether or not this thing is actually any good. I'm hoping that it is, because I generally like a lot of DC's direct-to-video animated films. Well, most of them anyway. But I'm not gonna get into that here. I'm just curious to see if this movie is gonna take a rather odd premise and make it work. And the only way I'm gonna find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Batman Ninja.".

12 minutes later

Guys, I am really liking the set-up for this movie. The fact that Batman's villains have become feudal lords of ancient Japan and are trying to unify the land together is really sorta interesting. I'm kinda hoping that this movie will be able keep this story interesting for the remainder of it's run.

3 minutes later

Whoa, wait a second here! So Alfred was in the Batmobile before Grodd's time travel machine sent everyone back to ancient Japan? I'll ignore the fact that Alfred's been, possibly, wearing the same outfit since being time-traveled into ancient Japan. But what I want to know is what the fuck was Alfred doing in the Batmobile to being with? Did Bruce bring it with him when he went to confront Grodd? Or was it just sitting at the Batcave the entire time while Batman was away? I'm really curious about this, guys, and I'm hoping that this movie will attempt to explain some of this.

5 minutes later

Holy shit, is that Bane?! And he's also a freaking sumo wrestler in this universe as well. That's actually really cool! And it kinda fits Bane's character, seeing as how he's tied into wrestling and all, what with him originally being presented as a luchador. Nonetheless, I really like the attention to detail with what they're doing with Bane here. It really is cool.

16 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm really digging the art style for this movie. Just about every character looks really good here. The one character, though, that I'm very conflicted on is Gorilla Grodd. I think it's because of his fur. Something about it just doesn't look right to me. I'll try to answer that when I eventually review this thing. But for now, I'm just gonna have to get use to his questionable design. Perhaps maybe it'll grow on me, but I'm not sure if it will.

14 minutes later

OK, I have a REALLY dumb question here. And I know it's a very trivial thing to be bringing up, but I have to ask this. Why does Poison Ivy have pink hair? If memory serves, her hair is usually red. So why does she have pink hair? Did she have always have that before she was sent back to ancient Japan? Or is it because when she got sent back to ancient Japan, her hair turned pink during this era? Again, I totally understand it's a really stupid point to bring up, and it has nothing to do with the overall movie, but it's just something that I'm curious about is all.

16 minutes later

So, all the bats have formed together to become an even giant version of Batman. Admittedly, I don't think it's as impressive as the giant monkey I saw earlier. But still, it looks pretty cool. I'm kinda impressed by that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Batman Ninja". Let me go ahead and shut the film off...OK. I kinda how like the movie ends with these pretty cool-looking comic panels. I'm going to assume it's the aftermath of what happened after everyone got back to their own timeline. But anyway, as for the film itself, I'm...kinda surprised. I actually wound up really liking this thing. I wasn't sure if I was going to, what with the premise and the animation, but I actually did quite like it.

So now, I actually have to talk about this movie. Let's start this off with the writing. As I mentioned before, the premise is, basically, what would happen if you take Batman and his gallery of characters, and you set them in ancient Japan. And admittedly, I wasn't really sure if this premise was going to work. The reason why I say that is because I remembered one other movie that featured both time travel and the setting being in ancient Japan. That movie was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3". And, well, let's just say that it didn't exactly work with Turtles 3. Now, you're probably wondering why I brought up the time travel bit? Well, that's actually part of the framing device for this movie. Because Grodd ended up creating a time machine that was able to send everyone that was involved in this movie back in time to ancient Japan. And for Grodd's reasoning that doesn't get explained until much later on in the movie, he wanted to, pretty much, take over Japan and rewrite history with apes taking over instead of humans. Now how exactly he's going to accomplish this is something that I won't spoil for you guys here. But that is one part of the story that is being played here. As I mentioned earlier, the other Batman villains have taken over certain areas of ancient Japan as part of a feudal war that went on back during that era of Japan. And of course, Batman ends up meeting his other comrades such as Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, Catwoman, and Alfred. Alfred is the only one that looks the same, save for a small ponytail he adopted on the back of his head. Still not totally sure WHY he was in the Batmobile before he got sent back into ancient Japan, but whatever. It's not a huge deal, overall.

Since I just mentioned Alfred, why don't we get into the characters. And I want to start with Batman. Because in this movie, he has to learn on how to adapt with the times. And what I mean by that is when he first gets into an encounter with the Joker, his gadgets are not as effective in combat. Such as when Joker was controlling his robot known as the Arkham Castle, he's able to crush Batman's gadgets, and even the Batmobile that was made during this time. And later on, Batman realizes that he has to become this legend that the ninjas, during this era, hold him up to, which is pretty much a god. Yeah, in this movie, there is a ninja clan that resembles Batman, and they need him to lead their clan in order to save ancient Japan from evil. And Batman definitely gets the most development in this movie. The supporting characters here are also pretty decent, too. Unfortunately though, most of the villains get the shaft in this movie. The only villains who get the most screen time are Joker, Harley Quinn, and Gorilla Grodd. Anything involving the other villains is sort of a missed opportunity. I mean, you got villains such as the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and even fucking Deathstroke. I really thought that this movie was gonna explore more on these characters, seeing as how they are stuck in ancient Japan. But unfortunately, they are, pardon the pun, criminally under-used here. And they don't really have much screen time in this movie. Most of it, like I said, is focused on Joker, Harley Quinn, and Grodd. Grodd was a pretty good addition to this movie. However, unsurprisingly, Joker and Harley Quinn are the two characters who mostly outshine Grodd. And yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those who's getting sick and tired of seeing those two in everything nowadays. However, I am not here to bitch about that. I will say that both of them are very effective in this movie, I just sorta wished we would've gotten to see more of the other secondary villains in action. At least we got to see Bane in this movie. Though admittedly, I'm questioning why he was even in this thing to begin with? Since he was never brought up from before the time travel story began, nor is he ever even mentioned again after his short fight with Batman concludes. Which makes me wonder if even got back to the present at all, or if that was just his ancestor or some such shit?

Whatever. Point is, the under-utilization of the villains are definitely the weakest point of this movie. Beyond that, however, the writing here is still pretty good. And I still really liked how they were able to incorporate the Batman universe within the time setting of ancient Japan. So overall, I really liked this story, minus the villains being sorta weak here. What isn't weak, however, is the acting. The acting in this movie is stellar. Like, everybody here turns in a really good showing. Several mentions that I want to bring up are Roger Craig Smith as Batman, who also voiced him in Batman: Arkham Origins. Grey Griffin, who I believed also voiced Catwoman in Batman: Arkham City. And the other honorable mention I want to make is for Tom Kenny. Tom Kenny is, pretty much, a voice acting legend. He voices the Penquin in this movie. And it's also the exact same voice he provided back when he voiced him during "The Batman" cartoon from the mid-2000's that ran during the Kids' WB era. Personally, I always really liked Tom Kenny's portrayal of the Penguin. It's just kind of a pity that he doesn't have very many lines here. However, that isn't really his fault. Still though, overall, the acting here is great. I can't really pick out a bad voice actor that may have phoned it in. Which is a good thing, even if some of their characters didn't get enough screen time to shine. So yeah, the acting here is really solid from the entire cast.

Now let's talk about the animation. And this is, at least to me, definitely going to be the deciding factor for anyone who's curious about this movie. I said at the start of this that there are those who really liked the unique style of animation in this movie, and there are those who completely despise it. And for the latter response, I can totally see why you would think that. Because the animation is in no way perfect. There are certain moments where the animation is kinda janky. Now mind you, I personally think that the animation looks really good for this kind of movie. Most of it is done in CG, and about 15% of the movie has 2D animation. I'll talk about the 2D animation in a bit, because I have something to say about that. But for the most part, the CG models on most of the characters, and their movements, look really solid. The only one that looks really questionable is Gorilla Grodd. I hinted at it earlier, but there was something off about Grodd's fur that didn't entirely sit right with me. And after really thinking about it, I believe the problem with his fur is that it's overly detailed. And it kinda comes off as rather chunky and kinda shit, really. And I compare that with his appearances in the "Justice League" animated series. Where he was all 2D, and he looked great there. But in this movie, not so much. Now admittedly, I did start to get use to his character model later on as the movie continued, but it is something that will definitely throw you off, especially if you're not comfortable with this style of animation. That being said, there are a few moments where the animation looks a little bit wonky, such as when some characters are talking to each other. One example I can think of is with Grodd and Joker as they were talking with each other at one point, which definitely looked the worse out of the bunch. However, I will say that the CG animation for this movie is miles better than the crap that was shown in the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy. Where those movies had to mix in both traditional animation and the cell-shaded CG, and they looked HIDEOUS, mostly the latter than the former. However, this movie is mostly just working in the CG, and it does look really good.

There is one more thing that I want to comment on in regards to the animation, which is the usage of 2D animation. As I mentioned earlier, this movie has very little usage of 2D animation. Again, I would estimate about 15% of it is 2D animation. In most cases, it's used for background characters moving, and a close-up shot of Joker and Harley Quinn. And that stuff is mostly fine. But then, there's a scene in this movie that changes the animation style we'd seen up to this point into something that was rather...bizarre. Now, I will not spoil this scene for you guys. I will say that it involves the Red Hood, Batman, and two characters who look very much like Joker and Harley. So, what exactly is my issue with the animation during this scene? Well, have you guys ever seen or heard of a movie from Studio Ghibli called "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"? It's based off a REALLY old Japanese story called "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". The movie itself was odd, to say the least, but that's not my point. My point in all this is that I want you to imagine the art-style and animation from that movie, but it's incredibly rougher and somewhat out of place in this movie. Now the character models are perfectly fine in this sequence, but the animation just looks awful. Now admittedly, maybe it's because I was one of those that wasn't a fan of the art style from "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya". But at least the animation for it was still pretty good. But for this scene, the implementation of the animation just looks really rough. And it's mostly on the characters who look like Joker and Harley Quinn. Their animation during this bit just looks bad with their movements, and I had to question why they chose to do this style of animation for that sequence? Was it because of a stylistic choice? Was it because someone in the animation department was a really big fan of "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" and they wanted to work in some of that kind of animation for this sequence? I don't know, but it just doesn't look right to me. Now I know some people will disagree with me on this part, but I just found the animation during that sequence to be pretty bad for the most part.

Sound-mix here is mixed perfectly fine. The score here is also pretty good. And seeing as how this movie is set in ancient Japan, it would make sense to have some music that would resemble this era in history. And they got that down in spades. Now mind you, none of it is amazing, but it definitely works for this movie. So, I can say that the music here, overall, is pretty good.

So, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Batman Ninja"? I'm able to say yes, provided (and this is a BIG provided, mind you), that you are able to get into this style of animation. Because that's really the big deciding factor, overall, for this movie. If you are able to get into it, then what you have is a pretty cool story with superb acting. However, I cannot guarantee that you will like the animation, or even the art style. And if you're not able to, then it's best that you avoid this thing the best you can. It's not often I'm able to recommend a movie or not based solely off the animation, but given how much people have talked about it, it's really hard for me to not make it the deciding factor. Myself personally, I was able to get into it for the most part. But again, that's just me. If you are a fan of DC Comics, and you want to see an animated movie of theirs that's something a little different, then I would probably recommend this thing, at least for a single viewing experience. And if you liked it enough, then I would be able to recommend buying it on DVD or Blu-ray. As for myself, I really did enjoy this thing. And I'm probably gonna be watching it again at some point. So yeah, this thing is definitely going into my DVD collection where it's going to join a bunch of the other DC animated films that I have lined up next to each other. And speaking of which, I'm gonna go and watch one of them right now. I think I'll go and watch "Batman: Under The Red Hood". It's been a while since I last watched that one, so I'm gonna go and do that next.

And with that, guys, we come to the end of this edition of "Tales of the Longbox". Overall, not too bad, all things considered. But next month is gonna be even more interesting, seeing as how I'm gonna be starting a brand new themed marathon entitled "Full Moon vs. Troma". And that one's gonna be unpredictable, to say the least, because I have no idea of what I'm getting myself into for most of those movies. But anyway, guys, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Iron Man 3

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2013. That movie is "Iron Man 3".

Now, a couple of years ago, back when I first did "Tales of the Longbox" for this series, one of the movies that I ended up reviewing was "Iron Man 2". Because while I had seen the first "Iron Man" movie many, many times, I never got around to watching the sequels. So, I decided to give "Iron Man 2" a shot. And after watching "Iron Man 2", I thought that the movie was...average, at best. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. And since reviewing "Iron Man 2", I had long since traded in my copy of that movie because it wasn't worth watching a second time.

Which then leads into the third installment of this franchise. And...I have very mixed feelings going into this movie. You see, I skipped out on watching this movie last year, mostly because I wasn't ready to cover it yet. Part of the reason was because "Iron Man 2" was incredibly average, at least to me. But the bigger reason why I haven't seen this movie yet is because of it's reception. I have heard nothing but mixed things about this movie. People have either said that this thing is a great movie, and that everyone who is a comic book fan should go and watch it. Others I've heard say that this movie is a huge disappointment. Or at worse, they'll say that the movie is a huge pile of shit. And that's mostly why I avoided it up until now. But you know what? Seeing as how this movie has been considered a mixed bag from a lot of people, that makes my job here much easier. Because now, I can finally go into this thing with a fresh viewing experience and find out how this movie deals with me.

Now, while I have made it pretty well known that I'm not a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I do admittedly have a soft spot for Iron Man. Because the first "Iron Man" movie still stands, at least to me, as the best movie from the MCU. And while "Iron Man 2" was incredibly average, I still kinda liked it. So, I figured, you know what? I guess it's finally time to see if this movie will end this trilogy on a high note. On a side note, however, I already know what happens to Tony Stark in future installments of the MCU, mostly "Avengers: Endgame". How do I know this? Because we live in an age where retards and dipshits have to go out of their way to dig through spoilers and leaks, so that way they can ruin it for everyone else because nobody has any real patience for anything anymore. Mind you, I had no interest in watching "Avengers: Endgame" to begin with, but still, fuck every one of them who does this. Those people are some of the worst on the internet.

Anyway, I guess I should finally stop stalling here and see if this movie is any good or not. Mind you, I'm not expecting this thing to be as good, or even better than the first "Iron Man" movie. But I am, at least, hoping for this movie to end this trilogy on a high note. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Iron Man 3".

1 minute later

So, guys, do you happen to remember the previous two movies having awesome songs in their soundtracks? Well, this movie is starting off kinda poorly on that end with "I'm Blue". You know, that Euro-Pop song by Eiffel 65? Granted, I did like that song back when I was a child, but I eventually grew out of that song pretty quickly. And to have it start off an "Iron Man" movie of all things is almost making dread the rest of the soundtrack. Mind you, we still have the rest of the movie to go, so it has plenty of time to change that. But right now, this first impression of the soundtrack is not making me a fan of it.

20 minutes later

Well, guys, even though I don't have a whole lot to comment on right now, I will say that the dialogue banter in this movie, at least so far, is a hell of an improvement over "Iron Man 2". I'm hoping that it continues to be this way, because if it doesn't, then I'm gonna be sorely disappointed.

2 minutes later

Wow, I didn't even know that Iron Man suit was still operational, even after Tony was dicking around with it earlier on. I'm gonna tell you, guys, that there was a little bit creepy. I'm not gonna lie there.

12 minutes later

OK, that was sorta cool. I kinda liked how Stark was able to get an Iron Man suit onto Pepper through...magnetic force, I guess, before they collided on impact with a wall. That was sorta awesome.

16 minutes later

Christ almighty...guys, I'm already getting sick and tired of this fucking kid, Harley. I wish he would go the fuck away right now so I don't have to deal with his irritating ass for much longer. Just saying, not a huge fan of Harley at this point.

8 minutes later

OK, that was the funniest way you could tell off a kid who's guilt-tripping you. Hopefully, this will be the last we see of Harley, but I gotta say, I may actually have to try Tony's method one of these days in case an annoying kid ever tries to guilt-trip me. Just thought I'd share that with you, guys.

2 minutes later

All right, guys, I feel like now is the time to bring this up. I'm actually really liking what they're doing with the Mandarin here. Do you know what would make it more convincing? If his acting wasn't so wooden. Seriously, guys, this is some of the most stilted-wooden acting I've ever heard coming from the Mandarin. It's actually kinda sad when you really think about, too. And I'm gonna have to get use to his horribly-stilted acting from him throughout the rest of the movie. Who knows? Maybe I'll eventually get use to it. But somehow, I kinda doubt it.

17 minutes later

So, guys, I'm just learning about the Mandarin's origin...and I cannot begin to describe how utterly stupid this origin is. I really don't have any other words to describe it without spoiling it, but fucking hell, this origin sucks!

19 minutes later

You know, I was gonna make a snarky reference to Sonic Heroes, but I don't think anyone would get it. But I will say that I wasn't really sure that Stark's plan of having all the people that fell out from Air Force One catch each other like a barrel of monkeys was actually gonna work, but somehow, it actually did. I'm a little bit impressed by that, honestly.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Iron Man 3". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So...what the hell to even begin with? Well, I might as well get this question out of the way, first. Is this movie good? Yes. Compared to "Iron Man 2", this film stands head and shoulders above that movie with relative ease. In fact, I will go on record to say that this movie is almost great. Like, compared to the handful of movies I've seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this thing certainly tops a whole hell of a lot of them. Now I will say that this movie will still never top the first "Iron Man" movie, because I am that biased towards it. But still, for what it is, it is a really solid movie.

Now that I've shown my hand a bit early, let's actually get into this thing by talking about the writing. And I want to start with a topic that I've brought up quite a few times beforehand, which is the movie's humor. If you're a new viewer reading this, one of my biggest complaints that I've had with the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies is the fact that they love to shoehorn in humor for a lot of their movies. Most of the time, it is completely unnecessary, and a lot of the humor just comes off as overly forced and not very funny. It was a problem I had with "Guardians of the Galaxy", for example. Because most of, if not all of the humor in that movie was just painfully unfunny. Especially towards the end of it, which I thought was fucking terrible, as well. It was also prevalent in "Iron Man 2", where the dialogue banter between characters was just awful, and almost none of it felt natural. And the biggest problem with the MCU's inclusion of humor is that almost none of it is balanced. Mind you, I've still only seen a handful of the MCU movies, but from just the few movies that I've seen, I almost never got a laugh out of any of them. The only ones that were able to do that were the first "Iron Man" and "Ant-Man" movies. But aside from them, almost every other movie I've seen falls flat on it's face when it comes to humor.

However, when it comes to "Iron Man 3", this movie is definitely taking it's story more seriously. And while the humor is still present here, it's mostly taking a backseat to the story. Which I definitely appreciate, because we definitely have a solid story here. The dialogue banter isn't too bad either, and I did legitimately get a laugh out of a couple of things from this movie. And that's fucking surprising, because I really didn't think I would get a laugh out of anything in this movie, but they actually managed to get the humor right. It's not overly forced, and there's almost never a time when any character has to shoehorn in a joke for the sake of humor. When it happens, it's mostly just one and done. This movie shows you how to do humor correctly, and I wish more movies, specifically the MCU movies, would take note on how you work in humor. Because this movie definitely nails most of it down. Now mind you, not every joke here is funny, but most of it still works. And that's a huge positive from me. Because if this thing tried to force itself to be humorous for no actual reason, then it would've brought this story down almost to a halt. Which was exactly what brought "Guardians of the Galaxy" down for me, but again, I won't try to make this a tirade against "Guardians of the Galaxy". My point is, the humor here mostly works well enough to a point where it doesn't interfere too much with the story.

As for the story itself, it's very solid and mostly well written. Like with "Iron Man 2", it continues the saga of Tony Stark. And I actually feel like they made progress with Stark here, because he started off as a guy who liked to party, to a guy who's taking his work seriously to a point where he actually ends up getting anxiety. And that kinda plays into a part of this movie, especially after his home gets destroyed, because he was stupid enough to give out his address to the Mandarin, who has been responsible for causing terrorism throughout the entire world. I'll talk more about the Mandarin in a bit, because I have quite a bit to say about him. But anyway, after Tony's home gets destroyed, he ends up somewhere in Tennessee, in which he befriends a kid named Harley, who tries to help him fix his suit. It's a bit of a long story there, which I won't get into here. And Tony's anxiety mostly kicks in, because he fears that he won't be able to protect Pepper, who might be in great danger. Admittedly, anxiety is the one thing that I didn't think Tony would ever have, but what do I know? I will also say that, without giving away spoilers, the movie also gives Tony Stark a proper ending. I believe that if this was the last movie to ever feature Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, then I think that this film would've been a great end to a trilogy, and we would've given Tony a proper sendoff. Unfortunately, seeing as how Disney and Marvel Studios is still milking this tired Cinematic Universe, that obviously doesn't end up happening. And considering what happens to him in later installments thanks to retards spoiling everything, I'm not really missing a thing with what happens to him. So in my mind, this was a perfect ending to Tony Stark/Iron Man. And I'm gonna stick by that statement no matter what.

Now, since I spent that time talking about Tony Stark, let's get into the characters. Like I just said, Tony Stark is the one who gets the most development. But then again, he's had 3 movies to work with, so that definitely helps things. Pepper is mostly just the same character, with some minor adjustments here and there. Rhodey has taken the role of the Iron Patriot in this movie, and he actually ends up being the second-most likable character in this entire movie. Which then leads into the only other character worth mentioning, which is the film's villain, the Mandarin. Oh dear heavenly fuck, the Mandarin...now, when I first laid eyes upon him early on in the movie, I actually really liked what this movie was doing with him. In fact, it's something that I wanted the villain from "Iron Man 2" to be, but didn't end up happening. Because throughout a good portion of the first half of the movie, the Mandarin has been giving out threatening messages in a very terrorist-like fashion. And we see a bunch of towns and cities being blown up while Mandarin is continuing his speeches. And most of that was great. Because it felt like he was a genuine threat to the U.S., and you would be wondering how in the hell Stark would be able to combat this? Well, all of that gets kneecapped for two reasons. The first one being the origins of the Mandarin. My god, guys, I'm still not over on how badly the Mandarin was revealed here. I won't spoil it here for those who haven't seen this movie yet, but it is such a fucking disappointment, that it actually is the worst part of the entire movie. Granted, I understand that Iron Man's gallery of villains are kind of limited. The only ones I can think of are the Mandarin and Ultron. And I'm not gonna count Thanos, because he's more of a centric Marvel villain. Hell, I think of him more as a Deadpool villain, but that's just me, personally. Point is, this movie could've done something really cool with the Mandarin. And it was sorta cool at first, but then once you know more about him in this movie, well, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. That's all I'll say without giving away too much.

But since I'm still on the subject of the Mandarin, let's get into the second reason why the Mandarin ended up sucking in this movie. And that's gonna transition into me talking about the acting. Before I get into that, though, I will say that the writing here is mostly good, save for the stuff involving the origins of the Mandarin. And speaking of which, I can easily say that Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin fucking sucks in this thing. And it was right around the second speech in which I was able to pick up his acting, and, oh my god, it is terrible. It sounds horribly stilted and wooden, and it just comes off as very unnatural. And even with the reveal, his acting was still terrible. So really, you're gonna end up getting horrible acting from him in this movie no matter what. And the worst part about this is that the kid who plays Harley in this movie actually ended up turning a better showing than Ben Kingsley did. And that's kinda sad when a child actor was able to outdo a character that's suppose to be one of Iron Man's top villains. But regardless, Ben Kingsley turns in the worst showing in this entire movie. Everyone else, though, did a really awesome job. Most of the returning actors such as Robert Downey Jr., Gwyenth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle, reprise their roles, and they feel very natural in their roles, because they've been playing the same characters from the past 3 movies. Well, except for Don Cheadle, who took over as Rhodey in "Iron Man 2" after Terrance Howard didn't come back from the first movie. Now aside from the main cast, the supporting characters did a pretty decent job, too. In fact, almost everybody here turned in a really good showing, minus of course Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. However, I've already said what I needed to say about the Mandarin, so I'll just leave it as is. The acting here is mostly really solid.

Special effects in this movie are fantastic. And I'm talking about everything involving CG, blue screens/green screens, and the Iron Man suits looking really cool, along with the Iron Patriot. But then again, this is a big budget film from Marvel Studios. So to have them fuck up on something that was already prevalent in the first two movies would've been a fucking crime if they had gotten anything wrong here in terms of special effects.

Camerawork here is great. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix here is also perfectly fine. The score here is very typical and is something that you probably would've heard from the first 2 movies. However, that does lead into the only other big problem I had with this movie, which was the soundtrack. Because the past two movies had awesome rock music. While the first movie lacked a memorable soundtrack, it made up for that with an awesome score from the guy who did the music for "Pacific Rim". The second movie had music from Queen, AC/DC, and the Beastie Boys, to name several examples. And most of, if not all of the music for "Iron Man 2" was fantastic. I unfortunately cannot say the same thing about "Iron Man 3", which definitely has the weakest music. Now I should mention, first and foremost, that this movies takes place around Christmas time, and thus we get some Christmas music in this movie. And I would've been all for that, except they got a couple of remixes of classic Christmas songs that really suck. Mind you, I'm not a huge fan of Christmas music, but they could've gotten some Christmas music that actually sounded better. The only other song I can mention is "I'm Blue" by Eiffel 65, which plays only at the beginning of the movie. And unfortunately, that's the only licensed song that I can make note of. And it's a stark contrast when compared to the other two movies, considering that they had great rock music. And the only song that they could get here was some one-hit wonder song that was mostly relevant in the 90's and early 2000's. So yeah, the soundtrack for this movie is definitely the weakest of the 3 movies.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Iron Man 3"? If you liked the two previous movies, then yes. I can totally recommend it, especially if you're someone who's into Iron Man. It's a great movie to end the Iron Man trilogy, and you can easily find all of these movies pretty cheap. Whether it's on DVD, Blu-ray, or even Disney+, it's pretty easy to find all of these movies and give them a watch. So if you are one of those that are interested in getting into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then I could easily recommend the "Iron Man" films as a start. Mind you, I'm basing this recommendation off the trilogy, and not what order of these movies that MCU fanboys will have you start as the start of Phase 1, 2, 3, or whatever. So, if you want to get into "Iron Man 3", then I would easily start with the first two movies first. And if you liked them enough, then you can go right into the third movie and probably have a great time watching it. As for myself, I am genuinely surprised by how good this movie really was. And unlike "Iron Man 2", I could actually see myself watching this again at some point. So yeah, I'm quite happy with how this movie turned out, and funnily enough, it's gonna be the third MCU movie that I'll own on DVD next to the first "Iron Man" and "Ant-Man" movies. And speaking of which, I kinda want to go and watch the first "Iron Man" movie again, because it is my favorite MCU film, and this movie made me interested in wanting to watch that movie again. So yeah, I'm gonna go and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Judge Dredd

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 1995. That movie is "Judge Dredd".

Now, I've mentioned before in this series that I've seen the 2012 "Dredd" movie quite a few times already. I believe that it was a really good introduction to the Judge Dredd character, and Karl Urban was the perfect choice to play as Judge Dredd. And I, like many others who've seen that movie, am very disappointed that we're probably never going to see a sequel to that movie because of how poorly it did in theaters. However, I am not here to bitch about that. Point is, I really enjoyed the 2012 "Dredd" movie, because it's just that fucking good.

Now, while I have seen that movie quite a few times already, I never actually got to watch the other "Judge Dredd" movie that came out in 1995, which also stars Sylvester Stallone. And I'm not totally sure why. I think part of the reason was because, way back in the day, I had heard from other people who said that this movie wasn't very good. So, I ended up avoiding it for the longest time. However, thanks to my repeated viewings of watching "Dredd", I was beginning to draw interest in watching the 1995 movie. The only problem was that I couldn't find a copy of it. Thankfully though, my local video store was actually carrying a copy of this movie on their shelves for dirt cheap, so I picked it up, and the rest is history.

Like I said, the only things I really know about this movie is that it stars Sylvester Stallone. And I also know about certain lines from this movie that people use to quote way back when. I am not going to spoil what those lines are. All I can say is that they had something to do involving the law. That being said, I am curious to find out how those lines fit within the actual context of the movie. I'm also curious to find out if this movie is any good or not. I kinda have my doubts, but who knows? This thing could genuinely surprise me by being really fucking good. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Judge Dredd".

11 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the guns that I've seen this early on in the movie, the one gun I like the most is the one being used by Judge Dredd. Seriously, guys, I would love to have a gun like that in my possession.

19 minutes later

Well, guys...I just find out Dredd's method of towing a car. The answer? Blowing it the fuck up. That was awesome.

6 minutes later

OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here. So, the prosecutor just released evidence that Dredd's gun was used on the day he "murdered" the reporter and his wife. Isn't anyone going to ask what Judge Dredd was doing on the day those people got killed? I understand that his testimony alone probably wouldn't stand up in court, but I still believe that it's worth asking. Especially considering that he's obviously being framed here. Just thought I'd mentioned mention that, because's it's kinda bugging me a bit.

6 minutes later

Wait, so even though Dredd's sentence has been carried out, and his position as a judge has been stripped away from him, nobody bothered to clean out his locker? I admit, I don't completely understand how a Judge works in Mega City, but I'm pretty sure that if you're gone from the force, then that means your belongings should either go with you or be discarded entirely. Just saying, it just seems a little bit odd to me that nobody bothered to clean out his locker.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the plot-twists I was expecting from this movie, that twist was certainly one I wasn't expecting to know about Dredd. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what it is, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.

7 minutes later

Jesus Christ...OK, I was able to tolerate Rob Schneider's character in this movie for a time, but now, he's starting to get very irritating, very quick. And the sooner that he's dead, the happier I will be. Granted, I don't think he's going to die, but it would make me happier if he did.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Judge Dredd". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So, where to begin with? Well, going into this thing, I was expecting this movie to kinda suck. Because, like I said earlier, I had heard a lot of people say that this movie is crap, and that there's nothing redeemable about it other than a few decent lines. Well, after watching it, I actually wound up really enjoying it. I'm actually kinda surprised by that. I wasn't really expecting it, but this movie did just that.

So, let's get into this thing by talking about the writing. And I'm gonna start in a way that I normally don't ever touch upon when discussing writing for movies. I want to start with the film's campiness. You see, guys, a lot of action movies would swing in one of two directions. It would either be completely serious with little to no humor whatsoever. Or it could end up something like the 1994 "Street Fighter' movie, where it ends up being cheesy as hell, while also telling a story that takes itself seriously, but not too seriously. And in the case of "Judge Dredd", this thing certainly leans towards being the latter, where it's just cheesy as all hell, and it has a lot of charm to it as well. Mind you, I personally wouldn't put this thing above the 1994 "Street Fighter" film, but even then, this thing is able to stand it's own as just being a lovable cheesy action movie. And I mostly enjoyed that aspect. We have ridiculous one-liners, acting that is just hammy and laughable, and sometimes over-the-top action sequences that definitely makes this movie worth watching. And that's something that was sorely missing from the 1989 Punisher movie that I covered several weeks ago. Where that thing ended up being another plotless action movie with little to no substance, this movie is going in the opposite direction. Where it has both a story that is mostly easy to follow, and it doesn't end up taking itself too seriously in the process. Mind you, not all of the campiness in this movie works, but my point in all this is that this movie knew what it wanted to be. And for the most part, it totally works.

Our story here is mostly easy to follow, but there were a couple of issues that struck out at me. So, I mentioned earlier that Dredd was standing trial in a murder that he never committed, which was him supposedly killing a reporter and his wife. Basically, Rico, our villain for this movie, was dressed up in Dredd's gear and ended up killing the couple. And while Judge Hershey did bring up the possibility that someone could be posing as Dredd, and they did the whole weapon analysis involving a Judge's weapon, nobody ever bothered to ask what Dredd was doing on that day when the reporter and his wife got killed. I'm going to assume that he's been on duty 24/7, so why did nobody at that tribunal asked him what he was doing during his shift that day? In fact, if memory serves, he was busy training new recruits at the Academy. So why didn't any of the rookies speak up about this? I mean, they're technically witnesses, so why didn't they get a chance to speak out? It just seemed kinda off to me, really, because it seems like that there should've been more to that scene. And I was hoping that by the time the movie ends, we would get some closure in regards to him being framed for murder. Well...a bit of a spoiler here, that plot-point NEVER gets resolved. Instead, after Dredd is being sent to Aspen along with a bunch of other prisoners, Judge Hershey instead goes to his locker to find out more about his past, which then leads into spoilers that I don't wanna get into here. So anyway, to have an important subplot like that just drop, and to have no real payoff whatsoever feels a little bit cheap to me.

Now besides that point, I want to get into the characters. And I'm gonna start with the man himself; Judge Dredd. Now without delving into too much here for the sake of spoilers, I will say that I'm kinda split on the plot-twist involving Dredd. On one hand, it's a bit silly and sorta stupid. But on the other hand, it's a bit of an interesting comparison when compared to the 2012 "Dredd" film. Because in the 2012 "Dredd" film, it was less about him and more about his sidekick Cassandra. You never got to learn about Dredd's character in that movie, and it could be seen by some people as a missed opportunity to expand upon that. Mind you, I am still perfectly fine with how that movie turned out, but I'm just saying that it's something the movie could've expanded upon if they wanted to. But anyway, in this movie, they definitely fleshed out Dredd's character, and it mostly does work, as long as you're willing to accept the plot-twist for what it is. What doesn't work, however, is his companion, Fergie, which is Rob Schneider's character in this movie. I stated it earlier, but I wanted his character to fucking die by the hour mark of the movie. I didn't mind him at first, because he wasn't in the first part of the movie for that long. And I didn't mind him teaming up with Dredd after they were able to escape from some cannibals. But the moment they come back to Mega City, I wanted his character to fucking die. He added almost nothing to the movie itself, other than being worthless comic relief. Which this movie didn't really need, because it was already campy by itself. But adding in Rob Schneider to this movie kinda brings the humor down a bit when he's on screen. However, that's just me delving into acting, which I'll get to in a sec. The only other character worth mentioning is Rico, our villain. On certain occasions, he is there to chew up the scenery. And that could be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you view his character in this movie. Myself personally, it kinda works. I won't lie by saying that I did get a few laughs out of his lines, aside from the obvious 'law' line that he's most infamous for. But again, it really depends on view his character in this movie.

Aside from all that, the writing here is pretty good. It feels like a comic book movie that knew what it wanted to be, and that's always a plus in my book. Whether it's accurate to the comics or not is something I can't say. However, like I said earlier, this thing is able to stand out on it's own, and I am totally happy with that. Now as for the acting, well, it ranges from either being incredibly hammy to just being laughable on certain occasions. The two actors that fit this bill are Sylvester Stallone and Armand Assante, the latter playing Rico. Both of these actors are the epitome of hamming up their lines, and it is hilarious to watch these two act. Like I mentioned a moment ago, Rico likes to chew up the scenery and act as goofy as possible, whenever he gives out his dialogue. And Stallone is doing what he does best here. He's also hamming up his lines. And along with his catch-phrases such as "How do you plea?" and "I knew you'd say that", it makes his character stand out in a really lovable way. What doesn't stand out, however, is, once again, Rob Schneider. In almost every scene that he had screen time, part of me wished he would just shut the fuck up while Stallone did the dirty work. And the longer that he was in this movie, I wanted him dead, because aside from his character contributing almost nothing to the actual film, his humor almost brought down the entire campiness of this movie. And to me, it just didn't work. He didn't do a horrible job, mind you, but it's just that his character in this movie was completely unnecessary. If he was in the movie for, like, the first third of it, then I wouldn't have had a problem with that. But since he was in this movie for almost the entire run of it, well, humor kinda dies with him in it. Aside from him, though, the acting is OK from everyone else. The one who turns in the best showing, was Diane Lane as Judge Hershey. And that's mostly because she didn't try as hard to ham up her performance in this movie. Then again, I don't think she could ever out-ham Stallone and Assante, even if she tried. But anyway, regardless of all that, the acting here is fairly decent, save for Rob Schneider being incredibly annoying.

I will also say that the sets here look really good. Especially, again, compared to the 2012 "Dredd" movie, Mega City looks incredibly futuristic, and also really 80's as well. Granted, I understand that this thing came out in 1995, but I feel like that this movie was trying to capture that 80's look, as well. We have guns that are ridiculously big and chunky, costumes on extras that look like they came out of the 80's, and I feel like that this movie was probably unintentionally trying to pay homage to the 80's. Who knows, maybe it WAS intentional. But regardless, that's the feeling I got while watching this movie. The costuming on the Judge costumes look really good, the muzzle flare on the guns are decent, and the blood effects are also pretty good as well. And the animatronics on the robot that follows Rico looked pretty good, also. Overall, this movie looks pretty good for a movie that came out in 1995, even though it might've been paying homage to the 80's, intentionally or not.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit pretty well. The sound-mix here is mixed fine. And the score here is not too bad, either. It isn't great, mind you. But for an action movie, it definitely works here. So, I would consider the score and music to be a positive for this movie.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Judge Dredd"? If you are a fan of the Judge Dredd character, then I would say yes. If you are a fan of cheesy action movies, then absolutely yes. This thing, like I said, is almost on par with the "Street Fighter" movie from 1994. The only thing that kinda stops me from putting it above that movie is mostly because of Rob Schneider. If Rob Schneider had less to do with this movie, then I think this thing would've rivaled the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie in terms of campy, cheesy goodness that this movie oozes from. Mind you now, what is here for campiness is still really good. And like I said, if you like cheesy action movies, then you are probably going to end up adoring this movie. As for myself, I was kinda surprised by how fun this movie really was. Now obviously, I would never say that this movie would be as good as the 2012 "Dredd" movie, but still, I really liked this thing enough to hold on to. And I'm definitely going to be watching it again sometime in the future. Now...as much as I'd like to watch "Dredd" next, unfortunately, I seemed to have lost my copy of it. So, I'm gonna go and try to find that movie somewhere and give it a watch. And if I can't find it, I'll probably just end up watching the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie instead.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Jonah Hex

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a Western from 2010. That movie is "Jonah Hex".

So, last year, during my previous "Tales of the Longbox" marathon, I reviewed an animated anthology film called "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam". And of those four animated shorts that were in that anthology film, one of them focused on the character known as Jonah Hex. And I really enjoyed that short film. So much so that it ended up being the best part of that anthology film for me, mostly because of my love for Westerns. And I stated back then that if DC and Warner Bros. ever wanted to make an animated movie based on this character, I would watch that in an instant.

Well, shortly after I wrote that review, I found out that Warner Bros. actually put out a live-action movie based on Jonah Hex. And when I found that out, I wanted to find a copy of it so I could it cover for this year's "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. Well, I found a copy of it, so now all that's left is to watch the movie. Now, I don't know what the plot is to this movie, because I didn't do very much research going into this thing. I'm going to assume that it's an origin story about Jonah Hex. And if that's the case, then I'm perfectly fine with that. Because I am curious to see how you could pull off a live-action take on this character.

Now, while I didn't do a whole lot of research going into this thing, I did find out a couple of things about it. Not great things, mind you, but they're still worth mentioning. The first thing is that this movie didn't do very well in theaters. Now, I don't know if it was because of a lack of advertising, or if the movie itself wasn't really that good, I don't know. Honestly, though, this is a very minor nothing. Because I've seen plenty of movies that didn't do well in it's theatrical run that I still ended up enjoying. The other thing, though, could be seen as a bit of a red flag. Because one of the stars of this movie is Megan Fox. And Megan Fox, to a lot of people, is known for being a terrible actress. Now admittedly, I haven't really seen a whole lot of movies involving Megan Fox. The only things that come to mind is when she starred in the first 3 Michael Bay "Transformers" movies, and the Ninja Turtles movie from 2014. Now admittedly, it has been a long time since I last watched those movies, so maybe if I watched them again at some point, I might end up seeing for myself how bad she really was in those movies.

But anyway, guys, I'm getting WAY off track here. Point is, she could be seen as a bit of a detriment for this movie. Now, I don't know how much of a role she really has in this movie, but regardless, I am hoping that this movie is still gonna be really fun. And being that it is a Western, it certainly does have that chance. I don't know if it's gonna end up being any good, but I am gonna found out soon enough. So the only way I'm gonna out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Jonah Hex".

5 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm kinda liking how they're explaining Jonah Hex's backstory through these cutscenes that are done entirely through the style of motion comics. I don't know what it is about it that I like, but it certainly is a nice attention to detail. At least, to me, it is.

3 minutes later

So, Jonah Hex uses machine guns as his weapon of choice. That's fucking awesome! And I'm also kinda shocked that his horse is able to hold that weight, considering that his machine guns are on each side of the horse. Still though, that is fucking cool as hell.

14 minutes later

Guys, I'm just gonna say this right now. So far, the acting has been pretty good from just about the entire cast. The one exception, though, is Megan Fox. OK granted, I wasn't really expecting miracles from her, but I was sorta hoping that she was gonna at least try in this movie. And so far, she really hasn't done that. I'm kinda hoping she'll improve within the next hour or so. Well, depending on how much time she has in this movie anyways.

17 minutes later

I just saw some pistols that were also equipped to look like mini-crossbows. I know I haven't seen these these things in action yet, but is there any way I can get some of those in my possession? Because that just looks both kinda stupid, and yet sorta awesome at the same time. I am curious, though, to see how these guns function in action. Who knows? Maybe they might really suck, or they could be really awesome. Either way, I want those fucking guns.

4 minutes later

Well, guys, I think just reinforced my own point about wanting these guns, because they carry dynamite as it's ammunition. And the way that Jonah Hex is firing them is a thing of beauty. Again, guys, I WANT those fucking guns. They are awesome.

11 minutes later

Well, guys, I just learned something new about Indian medicine. Apparently, if you're someone like Jonah Hex, a crow will come out of your mouth and you'll be all better. I never would've known that, but now I do. It was kinda sick, but still something worth noting.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Jonah Hex". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So, what to begin with? Well, earlier I was curious to see how exactly a live-action "Jonah Hex" movie could work. And you know what? It turned out to be pretty good. I wound up enjoying this thing quite a bit. Mind you, this movie does have some problems, but I'll get into all that momentarily.

Right now, I should probably start this review off by talking about the writing. Our story here is pretty much what you would expect from a lot of comic book movies. In which this movie is an origin story for our titled character. And it's a really solid backstory, which also ties into our main plot. Basically, Jonah's family was murdered by our villain, Turnbull. Who use to be Hex's commanding officer, who wanted Hex to burn down a hospital. However, things turned badly for Turnbull, as Hex ended up killing Jeb, AKA Turnbull's son, who use to be a friend of Jonah Hex during the war. Which in turn, causes Turnbull to track down Jonah's family, and ended up killing his family by setting Hex's house on fire while also leaving a burn mark on Hex's face. And after being saved from near death by some Indians, Jonah ends up getting supernatural powers in which he can talk to the dead. And afterwards, Jonah ends up on a quest to track down Turnbull and get his revenge. The only problem, though, is that Turnbull ended up killing himself, thus stopping Jonah from getting his revenge on Turnbull. Now admittedly, I haven't read the Jonah Hex comics, so I have no idea how much of this is accurate or if it's even loyal to the character, but I will say that what is here works pretty well. And you do end up caring about Jonah Hex in this movie, in which you would hope that he does end up getting revenge against Turnbull and finally avenge his family. And then you later learn that not only is he out for revenge, but he also has to stop Turnbull from being able to use a super weapon that was never actually finished, which would end up destroying America. So, plotwise, it's a really fascinating story that I really ended up liking for the most part.

That being said, since I just talked Jonah Hex's character, let's talk about the biggest problem with this movie's writing. Which would have to be the character of Lilah, who is Megan Fox's character in this movie. Her character in this movie is completely pointless. In fact, you could've cut almost any scene involving her and you wouldn't have missed a thing. She's suppose to be Jonah Hex's love interest in this thing, but it doesn't really work because these two barely interact with each other. They interact with each other when Megan Fox is first on screen, but then they don't meet each other again until after she gets kidnapped by one of Turnbull's henchmen towards the end of the movie. And I would probably end up caring more about this, if she had more screen time in this movie, and was given proper character development. But that doesn't end up happening. Part of the reason for that is because of the film's runtime. You see, this movie only clocks in at about an hour and 22 minutes long. Well, technically speaking, it's about 75 minutes worth of film, and 7 minutes worth of credits. Which is surprisingly short for a Western. Now, to give you a bit of a comparison, most Western's would usually average between 90 minutes to 2 hours, sometimes longer than that. There are also examples of shorter Westerns, such as John Wayne's earlier films. Most of those which I haven't seen yet, but still. Anyway, this movie is fucking short as hell. In fact, it's about as short as most of DC's direct-to-video animated films. Which makes me think that if this thing were an animated film like I was hoping for, then it would probably still have the same problems as this movie did.

However, I will say again that what does work here for our story is still pretty good, so I'm not gonna harp on the writing too much here. Our characters in this movie, minus Lilah, are very well developed. Most of that development centers around Jonah Hex and Quentin Turnbull. Those two are the only ones that matter, and it works very well between the two. In fact, if this thing were just a straight-up revenge Western film, and the stuff involving Megan Fox's character was cut out, then this thing would've been fucking great. It would've been even shorter than it already was, mind you, but it still would've been a really solid movie. Or if they absolutely needed Megan Fox's character in this movie, then what they should've done was work the relationship between Liliah and Jonah at the start when they first meet each other, rather than have them automatically know each other from when they first meet. Because then, it would give more of a reason to care about Megan Fox's character as the film went on. Instead though, she only had about two pointless scenes before she ended up getting kidnapped by one of Turnbull's henchmen. And again, I would probably care more about Megan Fox's character, if the movie actually wanted to give the viewer a reason to care about her. And unless you like eye candy, then there's no reason to care about Megan Fox's character in this movie.

And since I just mentioned Megan Fox, let's get into the acting. Now, I have a bit of a theory as to why Megan Fox wasn't in this movie for very long. I mentioned it earlier, but Megan Fox's acting in this movie was terrible. I was sorta hoping she would get better as the film went along, but she didn't. She easily turns in the worst showing out of this entire cast. She phones it in, and she phones it in really poorly, too. Josh Brolin and John Malkovich, however, turned in really good showings. In fact, most of the entire cast turned in really good showings. It's just that Megan Fox is, like, the lowest point of this entire movie. And it's kind of a double-edged sword in this case. On one hand, since her character wasn't really given much to work with here, she could only do with so much with the script that was given to her, thus was the reason for her lackluster showing. On the other hand, since her acting was terrible in this thing, I feel that if she was in the movie for much longer, her acting probably would've brought this entire movie down to a screeching halt. So again, it's kind of a mixed bag here. It really just depends on how much you can tolerate Megan Fox in this movie. Myself personally, I didn't really care about her performance here. However, since she wasn't in this movie for very long, I can still overlook most of it, because the acting and the story here is still really solid. So while the acting from her is bad, it's not gonna bring this entire movie down for me. But that's just me speaking personally.

Now let's talk about the special effects. And here is something that I am rather disappointed with, mostly when it comes to the makeup effects. So for those of you who may not know, one of the most noticeable features about Jonah Hex is that half of his face is horribly burned, as I mentioned earlier when talking about his backstory for this movie. And one other thing that is most noticeable about his face is that he has a scar around his right eye. Which is something that this movie, unfortunately, skips out on. OK yes, it is cool that they got most of this burnt face to be spot on. However...his eye, in this movie anyway, looks perfectly fine here. Which is really a shame, to be honest, because you would think that, with half of his face being horribly burned, we would get to see his eye kinda popping out in a way that makes it look rather creepy. Unfortunately, they don't do that here. And it's a very missed opportunity as well. I mean, hell, they made it work with Harvey Dent in "The Dark Knight" when he ended up being Two-Face. So why this movie couldn't work in that amount of effort is something that I'm not gonna understand here. But regardless of my gripe with that, the special effects for everything else involving blood is fine. The CG is passable, but it's nothing amazing. The pyrotechnics work here really well, especially the stuff involving the cannonballs that center around the super weapon that I briefly mentioned earlier. So for the most part, the special effects are fine, but the stuff involving Jonah Hex's face is mostly a disappointment for me.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is fine. The sound-mix is mixed perfectly. And the soundtrack and score here are pretty good, too. So really, the technical stuff here works fine. But then again, this is from Warner Bros., and it was working with a 47 million dollar budget. So them fucking up on the technical aspects would've sounded like a fucking crime if they got any of that wrong.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Jonah Hex"? I would say that if you are into Western's, then yes, I would say give this thing a watch. However, if you're not into that sort of genre, then you can probably skip this. Like I said, this thing is not a great film, and compared to the other Western's that I've seen, it's certainly not going to set the world on fire. However, I am someone who is a little biased when it comes to Westerns, so I mostly ended up really enjoying this, and I'll probably end up watching this movie again at some point. Even with the shit involving Megan Fox is not as bad as I was thinking it was going to be. Mind you, she is still terrible in this movie, but it's thankfully rather limited. So, I can still overlook her, regardless. But overall, I still wound up enjoying this movie, and I'm definitely going to add this thing to my DVD collection along with my other Western movies that I inherited from my Dad. Speaking of which, since I mentioned the Jonah Hex animated short earlier, I'm gonna go and re-watch "Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam". Mostly for the Jonah Hex story, but I'll still end up watching the other stories that were a part of that anthology, as well.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.