An adventure above and below the ocean’s surface, Aquaman is one of the best DC films made to date. Jason Momoa first portrayed the character in Justice League and the wait to see him really strut his stuff was well worth it.

Aquaman is a pretty goofy character on paper, after all, he can talk to fish. There have been many good comic book runs for him over the decades and there’s a reason why he’s a longtime member of the Justice League: the guys a hero. It’s been a long time coming for Arthur Curry to get his own movie and the technology to make his world believable is here alongside director James Wan to give it much needed flair. Aquaman runs the fine line of being weird but not too over the top and serious without taking itself too seriously.

I think this movie succeeds in all the right areas. The introduction to the main character’s background is well done and paced well. Half human and half Atlantian Arthur grows up without his Atlantian mother because she broke the rules running from Atlantis and falling in love with a man from the surface. She must leave her young family to keep them safe and when Arthur finds out she was executed for her “crimes” he becomes bitter to the world. Not to say he doesn’t succeed and grow up with his father but it makes a lasting mark on his psyche. While he does accept training from an Atlantian named Vulko when he discovers he has extraordinary powers, Arthur is pretty reserved when it comes to helping others. He’s not one for the spotlight despite his boisterous personality. And then Atlantis comes knocking on Arthur’s door when a war on the surface is called by his half-brother King Orm. Having sworn off having anything to do with Atlantis, as heir to the throne Arthur is forced to act.

And the globe trotting adventure begins! An eye popping film, Aquaman is vibrant and beautiful in every scene. James Wan dances with the camera during action scenes and I lost count of how many stunning poster quality shots there are. There are some sections that look like they were torn right out of a comic book. Seeing Black Manta in his full comic book outfit fighting Aquaman in real life was an absolute trip.

This movie could have been a complete disaster if the SFX were done poorly. Plenty of time for pre and post production was clearly given as I can’t complain about any of it. The underwater visuals are done fantastic and that’s about half of the movie. There are some odd looking things here and there but for me that’s nitpicking. I believed what I was watching and that’s all I need.

I feel like this movie was the perfect length, even if parts of it feel rushed. There’s a lot of quick setups just to get to the next scene and how Arthur and Mera travel the world with seemingly no resources is never considered. But I liked the overall story arc, watching Arthur basically grow to become a hero for everybody. When he dons the classic yellow and green suit it feels earned and amazing. I think my only big knock on the movie is the odd music choices that don’t fit the mood or the action of the movie.

Aquaman is a great example of getting the right people on a project. A lot of love and care was put into making this and it shows on screen.

With this third film, the John Wick franchise continues to be the best American action film series, hand down. While there are a few contenders for the crown (the last Mission: Impossible comes to mind) the level of creativity and execution is nearly unmatched.

The first John Wick released in 2014 and took everybody by surprise, I don’t think many people even knew it was being made while in production. Until then, Keanu Reeves action resume basically revolved around the Matrix series where we all saw his level of dedication (along with the rest of the cast) to fight prep. The Wick series is his continuation of that crazy work ethic. Gunplay far beyond what we saw in the Matrix movies married with intricute fight choregraphy and brilliant stunt work filmed from a distance with long takes. Usually you have to turn to Hong Kong cinema to see that. We all rejoiced to see John Wick get revenge on the punks who killed his dog.

While I’m in the middle of the road for part 2 (I think the original is a better watch) Parabellum is a sight to behold. The plot, John Wick desperately trying to survive a massive bounty on his head after killing a high ranking assassin on sacred ground in part 2, is just there to stitch the action scenes together.

And these action scenes are nuts. Right away, we are treated to a monstrous one on one fight in a library. It just explodes from there, with the first half hour of the movie being almost entirely action. Fights with I think every kind of weapon in existence. Small fights with one or two people, huge fights with waves of baddies and everything in between. Different locales all gorgeously lit and framed. The dance of violence in this movie hasn’t been done since The Raid and The Raid 2 (and the first two John Wick movies).

I’ve seen a ton of action movies so I thought I’d seen it all until Sofia (the fantastic Halle Berry) hits the scene with her two trained German Shepard attack dogs. I think the fight scene with those dogs is somewhere around 8 minutes long and I have no idea how they did it. I mean they had these dogs doing insane stunts, mauling dudes left and right like they were made of Snausages. Some of the most riveting action and stunts I’ve ever seen.

Odds are if you are into action movies, you’ve already scene this so I’m preaching to the choir. This whole thing is just a long way of me saying I love Keanu Reeves and I love John Wick.

Another great speaking event in the books!

These are so much fun. Meeting people who took the time to read my work and talking about the in and outs is a special experience. It also helps the ego when a room full of people tell you that they like what you’ve put so much hard work into.

There were a dozen women in this book club and they had their questions prepared and ready to go. So this time, I kept my introduction briefer than I did before. Talked about the genesis of the novel (which actually answered a few of their questions) and then I went right into Q and A. I did my best to keep eye contact with everyone (seating was arranged in a circle) and I made a conscious effort to move on when I noticed people losing interested. It’s very easy for me to give a long-winded answer to a question.

The hour went by fast, the conversation was easy and the questions were good and spurred conversation about the world and society (which is what the book is about). That was really exciting to see that my main message is getting across and it makes people think. A few women talked about their own blackout experiences. Two women there became close friends years ago because the power was out for days and they met and bonded at a community relief center!

I sign a bunch of books and one woman was a standout, she was really excited to meet me, talk, and was first in line to get her book signed. It reminded me of when I’ve gone to a signing and watching others be so happy to meet that author/artist. An honest and real excitement to meet a creator. That’s a trip.

The sale of Fox to Disney has changed the media landscape. Among those changes is a DC property not existing on a now Disney owned channel. So Gotham was brought to a close in a shorter (12 episodes) fifth season. When the show started I had an idea of how it could best end and that’s pretty much what happened.

Gotham wasn’t about Batman which is what many people wanted from the start. It put that first tent pole into the ground right from the start, that they’d show how Bruce and Gotham came to need Batman.

Over the years I’ve enjoyed Gotham a lot. I liked seeing the new angles of established characters and lore along with new characters. The big highlight was always the casting, which was near perfect. The standouts for me are Sean Pertwee as Alfred, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma, Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, Benedict Samuel as Jervis Tetch, Anthony Carrigan as Victor Zsasz, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, BD Wong as Dr. Hugo Strange and Cameron Monaghan crushed it as 3 eras of Joker. The Batman universe has many colorful characters so quality character actors were needed. I also appreciated the effort into making Gotham look like its own city (looking at you with the side eye Christopher Nolan). The production value on this show was always tops.

The series started rough. The tone of the show swung wildly from scene to scene. The first major trouble maker was a guy who tied giant helium balloons to people’s legs and they’d float away. It’s pretty absurd and goofy looking. In the next scene, you’d see Penguin in a blackout rage shank a guy in the neck with a broken beer bottle. From there the show found its groove, leaning onto the darker side of things. I guess being consistent helps keep you on a path, the show was never afraid of offing someone on camera and they stuck with that. The villains on this show were committed to being awful people in their own ways.

The other problem was that the writers tried to do too much. Batman has a huge rogues gallery that is stuffed with characters that fans love. It seemed like they wanted to get every one of them on screen come hell or high water. Being a prequel, some characters wouldn’t fit in the timeline so they’d age the character down. Every season there was a major villain introduced and things got crowded real fast. From the start they stuck with Riddler and Penguin and that worked the best. The two main mob boss families had great roles too.

There must have been a mandatory minimum of 6 active villains at once because if one went away they’d be immediately replaced. I mean, they managed to get Solomon Grundy on here. They did some great starting stuff with Scarecrow, but that fizzled out and disappeared. The worst was Ivy. The case of de-aging the character might have seemed like a good idea at first, making her a friend to a young Celina Kyle, but the writers had no idea what to do with her. She was never more than a cameo and they changed actresses I think twice, making her look older, to try and use her but that didn’t work well either. She might look older but that’s still supposed to be a teenager. While she ended up having an impact on the show in a late Celina plot, she was never truly Poison Ivy. The approach from the start didn’t work and that cut off any avenues of growth. Ivy becomes Poison as an adult, that’s something that couldn’t be shoehorned into. She had specific life experiences that got her there.

In the end, I had a lot of fun with this show. I think it gave a lot of people a kick to their careers because there’s some fantastic acting work here. While there are bumps for sure, nothing knocked me off the show and I watched every week. I love this universe and I’m happy with the end product. The final season was really tight too, so that helped. The writers knew how much time they had left when starting this final season and that enabled them to write a series finale that stuck the landing.

A brief pause for the Batman universe as Epix has a Pennyworth show airing soon, Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix comes out this October, and the next solo Batman movie helmed by Matt Reeves for a summer 2021 release is starting to take shape.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a kid in a red suit granted super powers by an ancient wizard! It’s Shazam!

This DC character dates all the way back to 1939 and while he’s had his own TV show and cartoons over the years, he’s been more or less a background character in the DC line-up. He’s even a Justice League member but the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Superman always take up more attention. It’s with this movie that he gets put front and center.

Billy Batson is a 14 year old foster kid who’s been bouncing around the system since his single mother disappeared when he was around 6 years old. Billy understandably has a hole in his heart from this traumatic event and when we meet him, he’s run from a foster home in search for his mother. He gets caught and is once again sent to another foster home, this one with a young couple and 5 other foster kids aged 7-17. Billy is pretty stand-offish in this environment and one of the kids, Freddy, does his best to bring Billy into the family fold.

At the same time, the Wizard is looking for his Chosen One, a person pure of heart to absorb his amazing powers and defend Earth from the Seven Deadly Sins. He discovers Billy and it changes his life (understatement of the year).

A combination of Superman and the classic Tom Hank’s movie, Big, Shazam! is a ton of fun. It’s a good mixture of humor, action, and drama that uses the superhero mythos to wrap the story in adventure and character development. Along with Superman, there’s a side dose of Spider-man. An average person becomes extraordinary after one chance event. For every problem he has, he can practically punch his way through it now. And for someone dealing with anger and abandonment, that’s an even greater challenge to manage. These powers, as Billy quickly finds out, are dangerous. When he says “Shazam!” and transforms from kid to super being, it’s a lot of responsibility.

There’s a lot of kid fantasy going on this movie. If you could fly, had incredible strength, and could fire lightning out of your hands, what would you do? Freddy is next to Billy through all of this and together they figure out what Billy can do. Freddy has to watch on the sidelines though, watching his new friend flounder and struggle with these abilities he would love to have. They argue too after Billy inadvertently causes more harm than good and gets the attention of a supervillain, Dr. Sivana, who has become obsessed to claim the powers of Shazam after the wizard denied him the chance decades years ago.

There’s a lot to like in Shazam. It looks fantastic, the special effects are all around very good. There are some killer hero shots spread around (my favorite being when Billy jumps off an apartment roof and transforming just as he starts to fall and flies off like a boss to save the world) and the action scenes, while rather infrequent, offer something different each time. I really like Dr. Sivana, his set up is pretty dark and motivation works well to me. I was really suprised at how intense the movie got, there’s some scary imagery for the younger set to witness here. The movie walks a line of showing that there are big stakes at play, but it never gets gruesome. The humor balances things out as well too, the entire cast (especially Zachary Levi as Shazam) looks like they had a lot of fun making this.

My only complaint is that the beginning drags a bit. It’s an origin story so there’s a lot of set up and if you’ve seen the trailer you basically know every beat. But once it really gets going, the last half really flexes and the movie never looks back. I think all the build up has a great payoff at the end as the finale surprised me in it’s direction and was a lot of fun to watch.

Finally, kudos to the writer for taking an interesting and rather daring take on family. Billy’s history is an example that very few get born into what I will–for the sake of convenience–call a normal family. Some never know their mother, their father, or both. They may be raised by grand parents or people they have no blood relation to. And then there is life itself which throws more at you than you can ever imagine along the way. It’s Billy’s quest to find his family that sticks with you most. Your family doesn’t begin and end with the one you are born into, it expands into the one you make when you open up your heart to others.