Arrow’: ‘Who Are You?’ Review

Arrow returned tonight to follow up on the big aftermath from last month’s mid-season finale, with the aftermath of Prometheus as well as the return of Laurel Lance. The episode opens up with Laurel explaining to Oliver and Felicity how Sara used time travel to save her without causing an Aberration. Laurel has a lot of things to catch up on since her death, but Felicity arranges a party for the next day to celebrate her return.

During the celebration of Laurel’s return, Felicity was trying to get Laurel’s DNA to run analysis on to make sure that this is really her. But Felicity gets reminded that there is an evil version of Laurel on this Earth, but it’s too late as Laurel unleashes a sonic scream and it’s revealed that it was Black Siren this whole time. Prometheus broke her out from Star Labs without Team Flash noticing it because the alarm never went off.

Oliver refuses to give up on this Laurel as he failed his Earth-1 version of her several times, but Felicity refuses to give her a shot. When Siren offers to help Oliver to stop Prometheus, Felicity makes Team Arrow attack her as they manage to capture her. During a conversation with Siren, Felicity makes the power go off in the building so Laurel can escape as she was planted with nanites. The team tracks her down where Siren is ready to fight and so is Prometheus.

While Oliver tries to talk sense to Laurel as she is ready to kill Felicity, Siren won’t hear it as she gets ready to take them both down, but is stopped by Mister Terrific. Siren is sent to ARGUS so that Oliver can keep her close as he isn’t ready to give up on this Laurel. Oliver also decides that he needs to honor his promise to Earth-1 Laurel by finding a new Black Canary. Meanwhile, at a club in Hub City, a mysterious woman takes down two cocky men by unleashing…a sonic scream.

A lot went down in tonight’s packed mid-season premiere so we got a lot to discuss. So hit the next button below and let’s go through some of the highlights and important moments of the Arrow Season 5 episode: “Who Are You?”

#5: Diggle’s Fight For Freedom

#4: Russian Flashbacks With Talia Al Ghul

#3: The Return Of Laurel Lance

#2: Enter Tina Boland

#1: Verdict & Other Thoughts

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’Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’: ‘Wake Up’ Review

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. focused heavily on Agent Melinda May as she continued to try and escape from Doctor Radcliffe’s prison, but it ends up being trickier than she expected. The episode opens up with a flashback to where we see how May got captured to begin with by Radcliffe and AIDA. We also get a quick recap of her attempted escape from last week. The episode then cuts to where May is now as she tries to escape once again, but it’s becoming clearer that things isn’t what they seem. May is still determined to escape from her prison, but after her attempt last week, Radcliffe figured out how to put her into the perfect simulation for her.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is dealing with Daisy getting ready to sign the Sokovia Accords which everyone is having different opinions about as well as concerning about Senator Nadeer. During the hearing, Nadeer is giving Daisy a hard time as she questions Quake’s actions in the past couple of months. While Coulson and Yo-Yo attempts to plant surveillance cameras within Nadeer’s office, they end up getting caught by Nadeer’s people. Coulson begins to suspect that there is a leak in the organization.

“May”, who discovered last week that she isn’t human, decides to go and confront Radcliffe about what is going on. She tries to take him down, but her programming doesn’t allow “May” to hurt her creator and she starts to realize the bigger issue. Radcliffe manipulates her by trying to distract her with the feelings “May” have for Coulson. However, they get interrupted by Coulson, Fitz, Simmons and other agents who break into his home and arrest him for being the leak. Later on Fitz interrogates Radcliffe, but starts to realize that he is talking to a Life Model Decoy. The real one was with Senator Nadeer the whole time.

#5: S.H.I.E.L.D. Vs Senator Nadeer

#4: May Fights For Her Freedom

#3: “May” Deals With The Painful Truth

#2: The Ending With Radcliffe

#1: Verdict & Other Thoughts

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’The Flash’: ‘Borrowing Problems From The Future’ Review

The Flash is finally back as the show kicked off the second half of the third season with Barry Allen determined to prevent the future from happening where Iris West dies at the hands of Savitar. The episode opens up with Barry having a nightmare of what he saw in the future and tries to shake it off. Wally suits up as Kid Flash for his first day and helps Barry with a fire that is in progress. However some of the cops at CCPD aren’t impressed with the newest speedster.

H.R. and team are continuing to work on the big opening of Star Labs Museum, but things aren’t going as smoothly as he had hoped, which annoys the team. The opening ends up being a flop, but later that night, Barry tells Iris about what’s been going on with him. He explains how he got sent to the future and saw her die. Iris insists that they tell the whole team which they do, but they all agree to not tell Joe for the time being.

When H.R. begins to explain through dominos how they could possibly alter the future by changing certain events, but they have to be careful about it. Barry and Cisco take a trip into the future through Vibe’s powers and they begin to note down the headlines that they saw on the news coverage, including the capturing of Plunder. They also discover that H.R. is standing on the roof with a big gun, meaning that the future has already changed. Once back in the present, the speedster duo takes Plunder down by having Kid Flash be the one to stop him rather than Barry.

Caitlin is struggling with her cuffs that hold her powers back and asks Julian for help in hopes that he can help her get rid of her ice abilities. She also asks him if Julian would like to join the team, but he isn’t fond of that idea. However, he comes around in the end and accepts her invitation, although had to get the approval of the other team members at first. The episode ends with Team Flash going to Barry and Iris’ house-warming party. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman appears out of a portal and is here for a very specific reason: H.R.

A lot went down in tonight’s big episode that we want to discuss. So hit the NEXT button below and let’s go through some of the important moments and highlights of The Flash Season 3 episode: “Borrowing Problems From The Future”

#5: Caitlin Tries To Lose Her Powers

#4: The Star Labs Museum

#3: Kid Flash On His First Day

#2: Team Flash Learns About The Future

#1: Setup For Next Week’s Episode

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’Supergirl’: ‘Supergirl Lives’ Review

Supergirl is officially back from its winter hiatus and it returned with a bang as Kara investigates the disappearance of a young girl, Izzy, but gets trapped on Slaver’s Moon with Mon-El. The episode opens up with Kara trying to stop a couple of criminals, with Guardian joining her in stopping them.

A woman shows up at CatCo, asking for help to find her missing daughter Izzy and Kara promises to find her, which annoys Snapper. When Supergirl starts the search, Mon-El decides to join her, but their investigation gets them trapped on Slaver’s Moon where several humans have been taken to. What Kara wasn’t prepared for was that there is a Red Sun on Slaver’s Moon which means she and Mon-El are powerless against Roulette who is working with the Maaldorians as well as the Dominators. Roulette explains that after their first encounter, she was forced to go into slave trade.

Winn confesses to James that after almost getting killed the other night, he can’t go out there again. Alex later shows up and asks if they have seen Kara lately as she isn’t able to reach her. When the D.E.O. discovers what happened to Kara, they go on a rescue mission which Winn gets recruited to. Meanwhile, Kara stands up to the foes and a battle takes place between the humans and the Maaldorians. Once reunited with Alex and the D.E.O., they return to Earth as Kara destroys the transmatter portal.

A lot went down in the big mid-season premiere of the show which also gave us a few new mysteries to chew on in the second half of the season. So let’s go through the top 5 highlights and important moments of the Supergirl Season 2 episode: “Supergirl Lives”

#5: Winn’s Struggle On The Field

#4: Alex & Maggie

#3: Visit To Slaver’s Moon

#2: New Pieces To The Mon-El Mystery

#1: Verdict & Other Thoughts

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’Gotham’: ‘Smile Like You Mean It’ Review

Gotham returned last week with teasing the coming resurrection of Jerome Valeska who have since his debut in Season 1 been teased as the potential candidate that will end up becoming Batman’s greatest foe, The Joker. This week’s episode picked up right where we left off as Dwight collected Jerome’s body and began the attempt to bring him back. Dwight takes the body back to the factory and begins resurrecting Jerome through an electric machine which doesn’t seem to work at first.

When Dwight start freaking out that he has a promise to keep to Jerome’s followers, he begins to cut Jerome’s face off so he can wear it himself. Jerome’s body is eventually taken to the Gotham City Police Department and Leslie exams the body. However, we see his hand twitch as we learn that the machine worked: Jerome is alive and ready to terrorize the city again.

Bruce and Alfred get a visit by Cole who wants $200 000 because of Maria’s debts which Bruce agrees to in order to help the Kyle family out. However Selina later discovers that Maria and Cole had planned this the whole time as they are working together. Selina gets furious with her mother and tells Maria to never contact her ever again. But things get tense between her and Bruce as he admits that he pretty much knew that Cole and Maria were working together this whole time.

Mayor Oswald is paying the consequences for his meltdown on television last week as his public image was destroyed. Barbara “helps” Oswald while secretly trying to destroy him with the help of Riddler. When Oswald gets a phone call from Tommy Bones who threatens him that if Oswald doesn’t resign as mayor, Nygma will die. What Oswald doesn’t know is that this is all part of Nygma’s big masterplan.

A lot happened in this week’s episode of Gotham that we want to break-down and discuss. So hit the NEXT button below and let’s go through some of the highlights and important moments of the Gotham Season 3 episode: “Smile Like You Mean It”

#5: Leslie & Gordon

#4: Maria Kyle’s True Motives Revealed

#3: Riddler Vs Penguin – Chapter 2

#2: Selina & Bruce Conflict

#1: The Return Of Jerome Valeska

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‘XXX Return of Xander Cage’ Movie Review: Vin Diesel Resurrects Xander Cage And The ‘XXX’ Franchise

It has been 12 years since the last entry in the XXX series, which featured Ice Cube in the title role and the absence of Vin Diesel as Xander Cage whose last time in the role was 15 years ago.  In XXX Return of Xander Cage the series goes back to the roots and brings back Xander in a new mission.  The likelihood of a sequel to this series was seemingly slim, but after many years they decided it was the right time to bring it back. With such a huge time gap  it would be difficult to jump back into the franchise so with all of this at the front of my mind the question is does this movie do the series justice and is it any good? The answer to that question is it is an enjoyable mixed bag.

The plot of the film revolves around Pandora’s Box.  A military device with the ability to control satellites that are currently orbiting the planet. This device could be used to cause devastating attacks, so the XXX program is brought back again to stop it. Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), who was thought to have been dead is currently residing in South America until he’s brought back into the fold to find Pandora’s Box and stop it from falling into the wrong hands. With the help of a crack team, Xander goes looking for the villain Xiang (Donnie Yen) who stole it and discovers that there is much more to this than meets the eye.

The first thing that is worth mentioning in this is that it’s an action film from beginning to end. The things that work best in the film is getting to see the main characters use weapons as well as the Martial Arts Talent on display. With as much technical skill as they always have Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa shine as some of the most thrilling performers in the film. Their talents are on full display here in some really intense and impressive sequences. They are really the best elements of the film. The rest of the cast including Vin are good at doing these action sequences as well and every character gets ample time to join in on the fun.

While the action may be a lot of fun the film has a good amount of weak elements. The  weakest of which is the script. The dialogue in the film is extremely poor and contains some of the silliest lines in an action movie in recent years, but this is very similar in the ways in which the first two films were written. A lot of these moments of dialogue are laughable with some of that being intentional as well as unintentional. In addition to the dialogue being poor the acting from some of the characters is weak and the plot is very standard action film territory. It almost feels like a throwback to the late 90s action films and how formulaic they were. There is nothing spectacular or extremely original about the characters or the plot itself.

Another part that is actually fun is that it feels like the culmination of the XXX series. I recently saw the first two films and going in having it be so fresh in my mind allowed me to enjoy the return of certain characters and plot elements that were established in those films. The return of Xander to the series feels right, which makes the film the best of the series.

Overall I still found myself enjoying the film.  It was a blast to see the returning characters as well as the fun martial arts and action sequences. It’s by all means a bad film technically, but an entertaining one at that if you enjoy ridiculously silly action films. If you enjoyed the other films in the series I highly recommend you see this because it is the absolute best out of the three and you will not be disappointed.

Score: 6.5

So what do you think of the series? Let us know in the comments!

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’Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’: ‘The Patriot’ Review

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. focused the majority of this week’s episode on the character of Director Jeffrey Mace as we learn more about his mysterious background. The episode opens up with Mace holding a press conference to celebrate the reinstatement of Daisy Johnson to S.H.I.E.L.D. However a shooter disturbs the event that ends up getting taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Radcliffe has to restructure his plan to get a hold of the Darkhold when S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to eliminate his access to the base. However, later on, May wakes up at Radcliffe’s place and tries to escape. However AIDA arrives and almost kills her until Radcliffe walks in and tells her to keep May alive. May eventually gets sedated by AIDA and gets put back in her prison. Radcliffe figures out why his previous methods weren’t working on May and figures out a new way to keep her down.

During a travel with Coulson, Mace and Mack, their Quinjet suddenly goes down and crashes. Luckily Mace, Coulson and Mack are all alive. Mace gets concerned when he can’t find Agent Burrows who had his mysterious briefcase that he must have at any cost. However, they discover that ex-Hydra agents have gotten a hold of it and when Mace tries to take it back, he gets injured.

As the two agents begin to understand what is going on, so are the people back at the base as Simmons finds out about a mysterious project called “Project Patriot” that only a handful at S.H.I.E.L.D. have access to. Simmons demands that Glenn Talbot explains what it is all about. Mace was never an Inhuman and because the President wanted to have an enhanced director of the organization, they were forced to create one when they didn’t find a worthy candidate.

After saving her fellow agents, “May” discovers at the end of the episode that something isn’t what it seems. Mace explains further to Coulson why he decided to let himself be used for Project Patriot. A lot went down in tonight’s episode, so there is a lot to discuss about. With all of that said, hit the NEXT button below and let’s go through some of tonight’s biggest highlights and important moments in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 episode: “The Patriot”

#5: Fitz Refusing To Give Up On AIDA

#4: Jeffrey Mace’s Secret Revealed

#3: Mace & Coulson’s Heart To Heart

#2: “May” Learns What She Is

#1: Verdict & Questions 

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