Adaptations are a difficult thing to do. Especially when you are adapting a thing that everyone views as one of the most important things in its genre. However the people at DC Animated Universe are pretty solid at keeping the viewers happy when faithfully adapting comics to animated films. They have pretty solid track record with such films as "Batman Under the Red Hood," "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox," "Batman Year One," "All Star Superman," and especially part one and two of "The Dark Knight Returns." This year the offshoot studio of DC took on the biggest and most controversial project to date with Batman the Killing Joke. It was there first film not only to be played in theaters but also garnered the R rating for some of its more graphic moments.
If you are unfamiliar with the premise of this comic it is quite simply the closest thing to an origin story that we get for the Joker. It follows Batman attempting to track down the clown prince of crime again. While doing so Batman finds out that after breaking out of Arkham Asylum Joker has broken into commissioner Gordon's house, shot his daughter Barbara AKA Batgirl and taken Gordon somewhere unknown. The film culminates in a showdown at a twisted amusement park and the two having a moment that can be left up for discussion for years to come.
The film stars the original voices of Batman the animated series. Both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are back in spectacular fashion to play Batman and the Joker. Hamill is especially brilliant finally getting to play the character in the part that is perfect for him. Nothing short of brilliant for this character and even though the art is different from the animated series days there is no mistaking Hamill's laugh and why he is in the conversation as one of the greatest Joker portrayal's of all time.
Now this film is amazing well adapted and its hard to say anything bad about the way they did it. However the opening 31 minutes of the film are no where to be found in the Killing Joke. Nearly the entire first half of the film is something that was created to add time to this film. When you really get down to the Killing Joke part it only clocks in at 45 minutes and that's not nearly enough to ask for ten dollars a person to come sit for such a short film. So they writers concocted a story about Batgirl helping Batman stop a robber named Paris Franz. He slowly becomes the obsession of Batgirl's and throw in the fact that Batman and Batgirl sort of end up fucking. Yes I said it I don't like it any better then you they fuck and its awkward as fuck. The first 31 minutes aren't painful to watch but you sit there for most of them asking when the hell are we going to get to the actual Killing Joke. It is insanely well done once you get to the main story you are happy its just that opening that throws you off but hey maybe that's what they needed to do so none of us ever knew what was going to come next.
Charlotte vs Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch WWE Women's Title Match Wrestlemania 32:
2015 was the kick off to the women's revolution in WWE. Two of the best matches from the company came from NXT one was an Iron Woman match which needs to be seen to be believed. New and diverse talent was brought into the company. However in 2016 they kicked it up a notch by having the four biggest names in NXT make their way to the main roster and at Wrestlemania 32 three of the four took the grandest stage of them all threw aside the butterfly diva belt and competed for the newly minted WWE women's title. The three competitors featured in the title all had been on a role and in some way or other had a legitimate chance and claim to the title. The three would meet at Mania in a absolutely show stopper of a match. If the Intercontinental title match was the most fun thing at Wrestlemania this year then Women's match was certainly the most well worked match of the year.
The match opened with all three getting in some great take downs. The match moved on from all three to two working while one would be out and then a change up. A few great moves include Sasha putting both of the others into the bank statement. The match also had a fourth competitor in the form of Ric Flair Charlotte's father. The dirtiest player in the game would give assistance to his daughter and even take a bump from Lynch. Spot of the match goes to Banks for her top rope frog splash to break up a possible submission or possibly Charlotte's moonsault from the top rope from the inside of the ring to the outside. It is a very well wrestled match with a decent ending that makes you feel good about where the division is going. I really enjoyed the passion that went into this match and how much the three work well together. It's very impressive and I feel this is the first of great Wrestlemania matches for these women.
American Horror Story:
American Horror Story has good years where it blows your mind and makes you want more then in gives you in terms of episodes. Seasons like Coven and Freak show are in this category. Then there are other seasons where you bray that the next episode is going to be the last in the painful anthology series. Seasons like Asylum and the first part of this season fall into this category. The first half of season is a very messy problem that throws its audience off and made us realize something was very different this season. For one the show was being shot like a reality ghost hunter show. The second thing was the actors and real people were being shown so much it became tedious. third it didn't feel like we were getting anywhere with this season.
All of these complaints were finally settled when episode six came about and creator Ryan Murphy flipped the script and showed us the real side of the reality show. We got to not only meet the real life characters but the people playing them as well. We got a very cheeky look into the way Hollywood acts. Its a pretty incredible and bold decision by the creator to bank on half of your season being one thing and the other half being something else. The best thing about this season is how they faked out the audience with so many fake trailers and misdirection to this season. It is not something that worked all the time but once the second half of the season was underway it became like the seasons you couldn't wait to watch. It all in all was just an OK season but made my list because of what a shocking improvement the second half of the film was.
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