Fantastic Four 2015 trailer: Why the hate?

This reboot is completely your fault

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new superhero discussion. Today. I talk about the new Fantastic Four trailer: My feelings on it, and why it got the response it's gotten. Now when it comes to this movie, I had been hearing and reading news on it and it seemed every time new news was dropped, it just kept sounding worse and I simply stopped caring.

Now not all of the news I heard was bad. I was on board with Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm as I thought he would do a great portrayal of the cocky, showboating Human Torch. The cast was eyebrow raising because of their young appearances and of course the Sue/Johnny controversy, but hey, it'll be fine as long as they stay true to the characters, right?

But when I saw that trailer, it was pretty much everything I feared it was going to be: Dark and gritty. Now I won't get on a soapbox and proclaim I know everything there is to know about the Fantastic Four, quite frankly outside of their names and catchphrases I know nothing. But even I could tell from that trailer that the movie that was being promoted WASN'T the Fantastic Four. It just seemed like a generic movie. It looks like a generic Dark and Gritty superhero reboot and a generic Sci-fi movie. But as I watched the trailer, there was only ONE thing I could put the blame for this on. No, it wasn't Fox, it was one man: Christopher Nolan.

You see, when the Dark Knight came out in 2008, it was praised and loved by critics and audiences everywhere. But most importantly, it made a lot of money. Because of this, the big suits saw this and decided: "Hey! Let's make EVERY Superhero property dark and gritty!" And after that a trend started. Suddenly we saw more comic book mediums that tried to "Push the envelope" and try to copy the Christopher Nolan style without understanding WHY Nolan's Batman movies were loved among fans (I can't judge 'em. Haven't seen them in their entirety...nor do I desire to).

Nolan's Batman films, while they weren't comic book accurate, still stayed true to the core of Batman, and still respected the source material in spite of doing its own thing. That's something that people who are pissed at the fans who don't like the Fantastic Four trailer aren't getting. There's nothing wrong with straying from the source material of a comic book as long as you can tell that it's still the same superhero we know and love, just told in a different way.

Loved it or hated it, you never questioned whether or not The Amazing Spider-man 2 was a Spider-man movie.

If you took The Thing and Johnny Storm's Flame on out of that trailer, could you honestly sit there and tell me that this was a Fantastic Four movie? It's why the fans want the rights to the Four to revert back to Marvel Studios, because they know that they'll at least treat the FF the right way, with respect.

After seeing the FF trailer, I wasn't going to make a post on it because quite frankly, I didn't care. I had no interest in watching it before, I have no interest in watching it after the trailer, and I'm not going to hate watch it because if I don't want something as horrible as this getting sequels, I'm not gonna give it any more attention. This post was quite simply to rationalize all the hatred and why this reboot is indeed bad. If there are any FF fans reading this: If you don't want this reboot getting sequels, don't give it hate tweets, don't go to forums on it, and don't spend your money watching just so you can nitpick it. Bad Publicity is still publicity and you're only helping the movie that way instead of hurting it.

Till next time, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: PLEASE don't let this film be the one to send Superhero movies back to the Dark Ages

Take Care...

Royal Rumble 2015 Talk

I give the WWE the benefit of the doubt and they pull this sh*t.

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I the Shaman of Animation back again with another wrestling review. Today's subject: The Royal Rumble...oh who are we kidding, besides the last two matches on this card, no one could give two sh*ts about the Royal Rumble. So let's just talk about those two matches.

Lesnar vs. Cena vs. Rollins

This match was easily the match of the night, these three guys were going back and forth and it was pretty hard hitting. I have to give props to WWE for really showcasing Brock as this unstoppable monster as he kept taking everything Cena and Rollins threw at him and he still came back for more. Plus that double German Suplex was AMAZING!. But to be frank, we all know who the real MVP of this match was: Seth Rollins! The reason he was in the match in the first place was to mix things up in the Cena/Lenar match/feud and he definitely did so. He and Cena had great in ring chemistry going into this match and he also made Brock look impressive. Not to mention, he was doing his own thing in the ring and it was fantastic to see! Seth had the two biggest spots in the match: The first being his splash to Lesnar through the Spanish announce table and the second was the Phoenix splash dive he performed on Cena near the end of the match. Quite frankly, this match cements Seth Rollins's position as one of the guys that will carry the WWE forward heading into the future. And now...let's address the giant ass elephant in the room...The Royal Rumble match.

Now the Rumble started off pretty good, with a surprise return from Bubba Ray Dudley making a surprise return along with returns from DDP and...The Boogeyman? And Bray Wyatt looked really strong early on in the Rumble. But then, everything took a turn for the worse when Daniel Bryan got eliminated. That alone told everyone who was going to win; and that winner was...Roman Reigns

Most of you don't think I deserve to win but...Oh F**K it...

Of course when this happened the internet took this about as well as they take everything...that is, not well at all, the backlash was so bad that Cancel the WWE Network was Trending on Twitter...twice. The two most frequent arguments on Twitter I've seen defending the fact that Reigns won the Rumble were: 'You wanted Reigns to win last year but you're mad he did this year' and 'Why are you guys mad, this is what you wanted: A fresh, young talent to get put over.'

1) The only reason Fans wanted Reigns to win last year was because they didn't want Batista to win and Reigns was the only guy they could latch on to in hopes of that NOT happening.

2) I said this on Twitter and I'll say it here: There's having a fresh young talent getting a push and winning the Rumble and then there's having someone who CLEARLY isn't ready for the main event spot and FORCING him into that position. Roman Reigns is the latter: His mic skills aren't up to snuff, his in-ring work needs some more fine tuning, and his character has just been handled BADLY; and while he did show improvement in the last two or three weeks, it's nowhere near enough to warrant this Rumble win. He needed another year before this jump.

And it's not just the fact that Reigns won that's bad about this, it's just the poor way this Rumble match was executed period. This match, excuse my crudeness here, made every face besides Reigns a little bitch and it pissed on EVERYTHING the WWE had been doing with their "big" faces up to that point. Again, Daniel Bryan, he came back from this life threatening, career ending injury and made this vow to win the Rumble and what happened? He was eliminated early in the Rumble in an anticlimactic manner. It's like they KNEW what was going to happen and try to get it over with as soon as possible just to make Roman look good.

But it's not just about Bryan, it's about Ziggler, and Ryback, and hell even Dean Ambrose. You had the Authority fire Dolph and Ryback, then you bring them back the Raw before the Rumble and THEN you made them compete in matches just to get in the Rumble and what do you do with that? You have Ryback eliminated by some nobody and then you have Dolph get eliminated a minute after he enters the Rumble. If that was what you were going to do, then what was the point of having Bryan come back? What was the point of Ziggler and Ryback coming back if you were just going to have them be throwaways in the Rumble match? And then you had Ambrose get bitched out as well By Kane and Big Show only to have Roman go and eliminate both of them at the same time!!

Then, you have Show and Kane after getting eliminated and start beating up on Reigns and who comes out to help his little cousin? The Rock. Of course, being the Rock, he got his pop from the fans when he showed up...and then the fans went right back to Booing Reigns. 

It was this moment here when The Rock realized...the WWE F**ked up...

So yeah, if you couldn't tell, I'm not happy about this Royal Rumble. Aside from the Triple Threat title match, it was a train wreck. The only positive I can think of besides that match is that Billy Gunn's still got it. I hate to sound like one of those guys but, the wrong guy won the Rumble.

And the worst part about all of this? This isn't Roman's fault, this is the WWE's fault for forcing him into this terrible position he's in. This is Vince McMahon's fault, for being out of touch and letting his ambitions get the better of him. Because of that, not only did a lot of faces look bad last night, he might have also put the nail in the coffin of Roman Reigns before he got the chance to improve and get to the level I know he can be at.

But that's all I have to say about this. Till next time everyone, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: CM Punk must be at home laughing at this. 

That diss at me on Smackdown was cute Dolph. I'll just be over here training for UFC and writing for Marvel while you go job out at the Rumble.

Take care...

Shaman's Fave Four to win the Royal Rumble (2015)

For someone who calls himself The Shaman of Animation, I do a lot of wrestling related sh*t...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation back with a new wrestling topic! Well, The Royal Rumble is right around the corner, and with the main event being turned into a triple threat match, it gives me more room and ideas for the four superstars who I think have the best shot at winning the Royal Rumble match. Now, these choices are based on what the WWE has laid out as far as story goes, who has the best story heading in to Wrestlemania, and my own personal preferences. So, without further ado, let's kick things off with a bit of a curve ball.

4. Roman Reigns 

I know some of you think I don't deserve to win the Rumble but to those people, F**K YOU!!

Now I know some of you who have read my blog before might bring up my previous wrestling post where I stated that Roman SHOULDN'T win the Royal Rumble. I stand by that word and I still don't want him to win... But let's be realistic, what I want is completely different from what the WWE wants; and we ALL know they want to do big things with Reigns in the future. If we were to look at things from a kayfabe perspective, Roman's been more successful match wise compared to Dean Ambrose when you compare their win to loss record. Plus, you have great scenarios for whoever wins the WWE title match on the PPV. If Seth Rollins wins, you can run with the angle of two former brothers in The Shield who have grown into their own (One's grown more than the other of course) and are now heading into the Wrestlemania main event. John Cena's and Brock Lesnar's scenarios both boil down to the young, hungry, up-and-coming star wanting his shot and he's ready to take it. The scenario would probably work better with Cena since it has been foreshadowed that the two would eventually have a match at some point down the road. Once again, I don't want Reigns to win the rumble, but just because I don't want him to doesn't mean I should rule him out as an option.

3. Dean Ambrose

Unstable and Ready to win a Rumble

Dean Ambrose, is simply great. When he was in the shield, and even when the shield initially broke up, I was among the many fans that thought that Dean Ambrose would have the most trouble finding his niche and connecting with the fans. But, I was proven wrong as Dean is one of the most popular faces in the company at the moment. The unpredictability of his actions have made him so enjoyable to watch on T.V. and this is only assisted with his impressive skills on the mic. He definitely has the character that could be a top guy and main eventer, and that's why I think he has a great chance at winning the Rumble. Not to mention you have two awesome situations if Dean were to win. First off you have the obvious choice and have him take on Seth Rollins. With the way their Hell in a Cell match ended, it's obvious that the story of that feud hasn't ended just yet and Wrestlemania is the perfect stage to bring proper closure to Rollins/Ambrose feud. Now that leaves Brock Lesnar, if you ask me, he's also a great opponent for Dean. I picture their match being something Akin to Undertaker vs. Mankind in a Hell in a Cell. Where you have Brock Lesnar, this unstoppable monster just beating the living hell out of Dean throughout the match, and Dean, being the lunatic we know him as, just keeps coming back for more with a smile. Only unlike Taker and Foley, there won't be a guy falling off a fifty foot high cage...or however tall the cage is. 

2. Dolph Ziggler

I got no catchy phrase for Dolph

Dolph, Dolph, Dolph. For years, fans, myself included, have been saying: "Push Dolph Ziggler!" Or: "This is the year where Dolph Ziggler's gonna get that push!!" Well I say 2015 is the now or never year for Dolph Ziggler. In the latter half of 2014, we've seen a massive upswing in his character. Starting from him winning the Intercontinental Title to his much known Survivor Series victory where he was the sole survivor and of course, he's been recently fired by the Authority. All these things indicate some type of big payoff for Dolph and what better payoff is there than to see Dolph winning the Royal Rumble match; and with his current predicament I know the perfect scenario for him to be in the Rumble match. Now let's say tonight The Authority decides to bring back the members of Team Cena they fired for the Rumble only, and the only way they can get their jobs back for good is if one of them wins the Rumble. Dolph Zigger, continuing the never say die character the WWE has recently built for him, Dolph has been pitted in the number 1-3 spot of the match and has to fight through everyone else and he somehow manages to outlast everyone. Now you have a great pathway set up for Dolph. The Authority, pissed that Dolph actually won, decides to put him in a Ric Flair like situation where every match he's in up to Wrestlemania, he must win or he's fired again; and when it's time for him to face the champ (It can be any champ you prefer really), you have him up the ante by saying if he wins the title, The Authority must bring back the rest of the Team Cena Survivor Series team. And now last, but certainly not least.

1. Daniel Bryan

All I can say is: YES!

Now to some, this choice might be obvious, and in my opinion its the best option the WWE has and it's the one that makes the most sense. Think about it, Daniel Bryan never lost the title in a match. So what better way to go about things than to have the guy who never lost his title come back from a near career ending injury and win the Royal Rumble? But, if Bryan does win, in my opinion, he can't face either Rollins (It'd more or less be a rehash of last year's Wrestlemania build with Bryan taking on The Authority) or Cena (It'd be a rehash of their Summerslam feud). He HAS to face Brock; from a booker's standpoint, it makes sense to me. People love Daniel Bryan because he's the underdog, the guy who against all odds has overcome the obstacles in both his professional and personal life. With that in mind, you pit him against the biggest obstacle the WWE has currently: Brock Lesnar, the guy who conquered the Undertaker's streak and beat the dog doo out of John Cena on Summerslam and conquered both him and Seth Rollins. Plus, with a master of the mic like Paul Heyman, you can build the match up to be about Brock Lesnar and how he's legit hurt people on Wrestlemania and bring up not only the Taker match but bring up Kurt Angle and how he had to get neck surgery after facing Brock on Wrestlemania 19. That way, with Brock built up high into the sky, it'll make Daniel beating him, that much sweeter.

But those are my four picks for the Royal Rumble. If you have anyone that should win, feel free to let me know. Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation signing off. Take care... 

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis Review

This is a sweet ass picture!!

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new review! Aquaman: For decades, he's the superhero that's been the butt of a lot of jokes in the general media outside of comics thanks to the bad rep he has as being 'That guy that talks to fish.' But in recent years, the people at DC have been doing their damnedest to make Aquaman a credible hero and I would say that he's been a bit of a hit among comic readers, but he still lacks that general audience appeal. So with Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, the latest entry in DC's animated movie library, you'd think that a lot of time would be taken into making the best movie possible for what could be a brand new introduction to Aquaman.

Let's jump into Justice League, Throne of Atlantis and see where this movie goes wrong...

Synopsis:

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight...

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is an animated adaptation of the comic book story line with the same namesake. It takes place some time after the last Justice League animated movie: JL War. After Darkseid's invasion, the king of Atlantis has been killed, and the Atlanteans ain't taking that sitting down. Thus they begin a war, headed by Ocean Master to get revenge on the people up on the surface for doing this. Meanwhile, the Queen of Atlantis (along with the Justice League) must track down her son Arthur Curry, who we all know as Aquaman, so that he can take his place on the throne. 

The Good: The action, nothing makes my inner kid happier than seeing Superheroes punching things, and boy do things get punched. With Aquaman characters being introduced in this movie, you have very cool fight scenes that involve water and aquatic life, special mentions goes to Aquaman and Mera. Mera's fight scenes herself felt a lot like I was watching a water bender from Avatar: The Last Airbender; and there's one scene with Aquaman where...it's too awesome to say it here in this blog.

Also, Atlantis itself looks gorgeous. There are a couple of times in the movie where there's a wide shot of the city and it looks great. It has that perfect underwater city look that Atlantis should have. I hope when the future live action Aquaman movie comes out, they take notes from this movie.

The Bad: I believe one of the biggest faults of this movie was that Arthur (A.K.A Aquaman) wasn't the central character in this movie. To those confused by this, let me further elaborate. Despite what the title of the movie and the trailers would have you believe, Aquaman doesn't really add much. He's more a background/secondary character and the League is pushed to the front, and in my opinion, it should have been the other way around.

The main plot of this movie revolves around the problems in Atlantis and where the underwater city goes heading into the future, and it tries to make Arthur out to be this bridge between the people on the surface and the Atlanteans, but it fails at doing so. It doesn't really take the time to fully establish Arthur as a character, instead it just sums up his origin in a few sentences and one pointless scene. If you ask me, the first scene of this movie should have been Arthur's dad meeting his mom, then we get a fast forward of her leaving Arthur and his dad, then we get some time later where Arthur slowly discovers his powers. 

Instead, we get two useless scenes that develops the forced relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman...

Speaking of forced relationships, Arthur and Mera. In the movie, Mera just LOOKS at Arthur once and suddenly she's all: "Yeah, I'm in love with this guy." and by the end, they're more or less a couple and she has no problem with being his queen. I'm sorry, but I don't buy it, but that's only a small nitpick in a larger pool of problems.

The cast from Justice League War is gone and replaced with a new cast, and if you ask me, this was a change for the worse. Almost EVERYONE in this movie sounds completely devoid of life, it's like they're just voicing characters just to pick up a paycheck.

The plot of this movie is also VERY generic. The plot can be summed up perfectly like this: 'Bad guy wants to destroy the world. Heroes have to stop him. The end." Which I'm sure everyone reading this will be saying something along the lines of: "Isn't that what ALL superhero stories are at the end of the day?" To which I say yes you're right, but this movie's plot feels just so bland and rushed, there's no character that really stands out, and that is especially the case with the villain of the movie. I even called out some of his actions before he even committed them in the movie. 

Conclusion: Before I started this review, I was going to say that Throne of Atlantis was more of a generic movie than a bad one. But as I sit down and really reflect on it, it kind of is bad, The story isn't all that great with pointless subplots that don't really add anything to the movie, the villain's generic, the voice acting is really phoned in, and the guy that SHOULD have been the main focus was relegated to being nothing more than a glorified sidekick. It's a real shame, because I was actually looking forward to this movie, but it was just disappointing. I went in this knowing next to nothing about Aquaman, and I'm going out pretty much the same. To all those reading, don't watch Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. Just read the comic story line, that's what I'm gonna do...eventually, and eventually in my time is like three years from now...

Till next time Ladies and Gents, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: STOP REUSING YOUNG JUSTICE MODELS WARNER BROTHERS!!!

Every time I think I'm over YJ getting cancelled, you guys re-open the wounds!!!

Take care...

    

  

Does Roman Reigns Suck?

L'Oreal, because he's worth it...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation with a brand new wrestling topic. Today, I'm here to talk about someone that has Internet Wrestling Fans split down the middle: Roman Reigns. It seems since his return people, maybe even longer, some people have been anti-Reigns. When you look down in a YouTube comments sections, the comments that spite Roman usually are along the lines of "Roman Sucks. He hes no moves, he cant tlak on the mc, en his Cena 2.0" (And they're usually spelled just like that). But what I'm here to do today is try to break down why fans feel like this and what WWE can do to fix Reigns heading into the future.

What a lot of fans think is the WM 31 main event

Now I will come out and say it: I like Roman Reigns. He's got the look of someone that will become the next guy, the look that WWE looks for in a top star; and I like his main move set (Clotheslines,  Samoan Drop, apron dropkick, Superman Punch, Spear). But ever since I'd say, the weeks building to Summer Slam, I, and probably a lot of fans also, have had the feeling that WWE is forcing Roman into a position that he's not ready for. Look what happened the months after the faction the Shield broke up: He was spearheaded into two title matches, he was in constant main event spots on Raw (Which isn't a bad thing mind you), and the biggest indicator of this was when he won the WWE Slammy for Superstar of the Year.

Some may not think I deserve this, but to those people...F**K YOU!!

People have gotten that vibe that WWE is trying to tell us: "Get use to Roman Reigns. He is the next face of the WWE. NO ONE ELSE!!!". There's also a large number of people that think that Roman is the favorite to win the Royal Rumble this year and take on Brock Lesnar and win the WWE Title; and because of all this the oh so dreaded "Hipster Effect" has taken its toll and a lot of the hate that Mr. Reigns is getting seems to just be people just hating Roman Reigns before the "Roman Reigns Sucks" bandwagon can really take off just so they can be at the forefront of it.

Then again, I said a lot of the hate was just people starting a bandwagon. Some of the people that chastise Reigns do have a good reason. This reason comes from his very poor Mic skills. This plays into the "WWE forcing Reigns into a position" argument I laid out earlier. WWE wants Roman to be able to cut the big long promos like John Cena or his cousin The Rock, but when he tries to do said promos, he comes off as SUPER corny. Like last night on Raw when he compared himself to Superman, or those interviews he had when he was injured.

I will never forget this: THIS was just awful.

Now all this comes back to the question this post was birthed from: Does Roman Reigns Suck? In my opinion: No. He doesn't. I think people are forgetting something when it comes to Roman: He's still VERY young into his career. He's been in the main roster for two years and he's only been a singles competitor for less than four months (If you count the time he started single and the time he was injured). This fact seems to have been overlooked because of the way he's been booked by WWE and the way they may or may not book him in the future, he hasn't had time to find his niche, unlike the other two former members of the shield who have been in lower card feuds to help find their gimmicks. So now the question becomes: "How do we fix Roman going into the future?" Well the answers are simple:

Book him smartly

I find it really Ironic when people say Cesaro should be pushed instead of Roman when in reality, they BOTH suffer from the same problem: They aren't being booked to their strengths and instead WWE is trying to make them what THEY think they should be. There was a reason Goldberg was so popular in the days of WCW and it sure wasn't because of his mic skills. He was more or less WCW's version of a circus act; he would come to the ring, dominate his opponents and would spear the sh*t out of whoever looked at him across the ring and the crowd just ate it up. WWE needs to take notes from that.

People liked Roman Reigns when he was in the shield, that was because he was the cocky, strong, and silent type. He'd say a few words and then would proceed to kick someone's ass. That's the Roman Reigns that we need to see. I see glimpses of it every few weeks, but then WWE goes back to trying to make him that generic babyface character, in turn ruining what made people like him in the first place. What WWE needs to do is go back to Roman's shield days. Have him go straight to the point with short and sweet promos and then watch him cause mayhem in the ring with a Superman Punch. One of the best examples of this is the Monday Night Raw he came back. The only line he had was when he told Big Show: 'Get in this ring and you're gonna get punched in the mouth' and then Superman Punched Big Show. Do this and you'll have people back on Roman's side here.

Now that leaves what to do with Roman in the Royal Rumble. It's simple: don't let him win. Give the win to Daniel Bryan. No. Not because he's "a little indy god" like the douchebag Roman fanboys say to defend him (There's a difference between a "fan" and a "fanboy"people). I say Daniel needs to win because there's more of a story to tell with him winning the Rumble than there is with Roman. What Roman needs is to come second in the Rumble go on to WrestleMania and challenge for a mid card title (Preferably the US title since there ain't jack sh*t going on with that title) and from there he could grow more into the top guy spot WWE expects him to be in. Then when the 2016 Rumble rolls in, you could make a storyline around the fact that Roman's come close twice to winning the Rumble, but couldn't get it done. THEN he could win the rumble and become champ.

To bring this whole thing on home, whether people like it or not, Roman Reigns (along with guys like Rollins, Ziggler, Bryan, and Ambrose) IS future in the WWE; and whether he becomes the next guy or the next jobber is something that we need to wait and see him actually develop before we all sh*t on him. The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin didn't become the legends we know and love them as overnight. It took time for them to become who they are, something that Roman also needs now that he's a solo guy. I say give him till Wrestlemania time, if he hasn't shown improvement then, THEN we can rip on him. Until then, just enjoy the ride. Because I'm sure Mr. Reigns won't sink like you guys expect him to.

Till next time everyone, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying:

Take Care...