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The Flash

Is The Flash the final nail in the coffin of the current DC Cinematic Universe or could it have been it’s savior?

The folks at Warner Brothers were kind enough to send us a copy of The Flash for the purpose of our review. If you are looking for the spoiler free version of our thoughts head on over to our parent site and read it there or to make it easier- here. To start I will say that if you don’t want to see any spoilers then get over to the all ages/parent site. Still here? Good.

Seriously though, last chance. Are you good to have major points in the movie spoiled for you? I have given you multiple chances now, the rest is on you for staying.

The Plot/Story

Barry starts the film trying to get to work on time for once and after receiving a call from Alfred he joins Batman in saving the civilians at a hospital that is starting to collapse. Batman chases down the criminals and is joined by Wonder Woman. Later, Barry meets with his dad and upset over the lack of evidence to help clear him, he goes for a run, pushing himself further than ever before. Doing so he learns he can run back through time. Looking at the implications and what could happen he finally decides to risk it all and save his mother. Finding what he believes is a loophole in the time-space continuum he ends up creating a branching reality. This reality brings a safer Gotham and a retired Batman. He finds an 18 year-old version of himself on the eve of getting his powers and helps him become a hero. Ultimately this works because his mom is still alive.

Due to the new reality Superman never arrived to Earth, Aquaman was never born and Barry almost didn’t become the Flash. Zod arrives but instead of hunting Clark, he’s hunting Clark’s cousin Kara. In search of Clark Barry finds Kara and saves her from a prison with the hopes of working together to stop Zod. The two Barry’s use their powers to stop Zod’s army but not before losing Kara and the classic Tim Burton Batman played by Michael Keaton. Using their ability to runt through time they keep trying to change the outcome but ultimately find that no matter what they do, Zod still wins. Classic Barry decides to undo the saving of his mom and new Barry tries to stop him while also trying to save everyone in the new timeline. While fighting each other and messing with time they witness a bunch of timelines converging on their point and eventually classic Barry wins and undoes his damage, most of it.

The Good, The Bad and The Barry

The overall story was fantastic. The analysis of how changing anything in the past creating alternate timelines and how they can spin out of control was great. It’s rare to see an explanation of the risks of time travel done in such an intelligent way. Dumbing it down with a pasta analogy by Batman made it understandable for the viewers that are a bit on the dim side.

The animation was mixed in quality. When Barry was fighting and running or the special effects were amazing. However, the quality of the animated timelines looked like something out of a cheap superhero game on the Xbox 360. What made up for it was some of the cameos in these timelines, namely Nick Cage’s long haired Superman fighting a giant spider. I didn’t bother to look to see if he was credited but the likeness was close enough he should have been paid for it if he wasn’t.

Did I mention how bad the animation was for the timelines as they were speeding to crash into the current line? Some were so bad they belonged in a knock off animated film you’d buy for $2 at Walmart! Holy shit. Whomever was in charge of approving that might need to go through training again.

What about the casting? I need to know, how the hell did Ezra Miller still keep this role and yet Johnny Depp was fired from The Secrets of Dumbledore? Ezra is a problematic hire that did not allegedly do the bad things he was accused of but Johnny’s reason for getting the boot was. How is that right? I admit Ezra’s performance was probably the best of his career but he should have been replaced by Grant Gustin or a new actor entirely.

Final Thoughts

Despite the problematic casting, the film was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t want to enjoy it, in fact with all the changes to the cinematic universe plans I wanted it to be bad to justify the changes. I can’t argue with how great the film was and I won’t. Let’s hope Blue Beetle is half as good as it looks. Maybe the writers and most of the crew involved will find a place continuing with the DC universe but as of now time will only tell.

A Tale of Two Blasters… A Star Wars Holocron Series Review.

Star Wars Holocron

A Tale of Two Blasters… A Star Wars Holocron Series Review. Check out this 1 of 1 Star Wars Art Card!

The Urge to start this review with a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… or some sort of play on words is strong with this one. We officially made it through 2020! We got to finish Season 2 of the Mandalorian and now we are quickly wanting to scratch our SW itch. So, what do we do? Watch the episodes in order of gross sales at the box office, to change it up? Ole Jack here will tell ya what you all should be doing for the next few months while we wait for the next product/series to come out. In Targets nationwide you have a series called STAR WARS HOLOCRON SERIES 2020 Blaster Box and you should be getting every single one you can get your hands on.

The Specs

This is a 2020 Topps Company product, distributed from Scranton PA.
10 packs plus one commemorative patch card. 61 total cards.

Parallels

Green, Foilboard, Orange, Purple, Black, Red, Printing Plate(1 of 1)
Adventures of Han Solo (has same parallels except green & foilboard)
Lisghtsabers of the Jedi (has same parallels except green & foilboard)
Charting the Galaxy (has same parallels except green & foilboard)
Autographs, Parallels (Green, Blue, Orange, Purple, Black, Red and Printing Plate)
Dual Autographs, Parallels (Purple, Black and Red)
Triple Autographs, Parallels (Black and Red)
6-Person Autographs Personal Note: F Me! I want one)
Sketch Card- (1 of 1) Autographed by the Artist

The Story

While visiting a long time friend of mine in Fort Worth, TX recently I decided to hold onto the two I could find in stores and open them together. So let’s see how one box to the other matches up.
Disclaimer** So, Ole’ Jack can’t guarantee you will hit a super rare card, this is just what we had pulled out of two boxes.

Box 1 Jack’s Box

3- Charting the Galaxy, no parallels
4- Adventures of Han Solo, no parallels
3- Lightsabers of the Jedi, no parallels
1- Orange /99
4- Green Parallels
5- Foilboards
1- Patch card (Porg)

Of Course I pull the Porg patch…
Orange Parrallel /99

Evaluation- Not bad, Not Good. I would think this is about a “standard return”

Box 2 Wang’s Box

3- Charting the Galaxy, no parallels
3- Adventures of Han Solo, no parallels
4- Lightsabers of the Jedi, no parallels
5- Green Parallels
5- Foilboards
1- Patch card (Ewok)
1- Sketch Card (See Pics)

one of one…
I have no clue who the Artist is.


Evaluation- Clearly Wang got the better of Ole Jack on this one! He literally now owns a one of a kind star wars memorabilia card!
So for a $22 out the door purchase it is hard to say at this point that these boxes aren’t worth it. The amount of potentially cool SW cards to be pulled are high and not available until this year to be owned. The odds to pull them are “industry standard”. The nostalgia factor is high. The only thing I can really hope for is finding more!