Category: Pop Culture

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Pop Culture

Shell-uloid! A ranking of TMNT movies and tv projects

Greetings! It is I, Josh “Thunder” Shaver, making my return to the printed page. Recently, I watched the new TMNT Mutant Mayhem film and actually loved it. I know a lot of purists out there are mad that things were changed, but when the multiverse is cannon, anything is possible. In fact, there is no actual TMNT cannon, as it changes with every iteration. Sometimes Splinter was previously a man, sometimes he was that man’s pet. In the original comics, April was a living drawing. For this ranking, I’m just looking at the movies, live action and animated, and the TV series too. Here they are in order from my least favorite to my most preferred version of the brothers. Let’s kick it off with the one movie I hate the most and a reminder that these are my own personal opinions.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)– I have so much disdain for this movie, I don’t think I will ever have anything nice to say about it. The boys don’t just look bad, they’re fugly. The story is slow paced and retcons everything to be aliens. I know my whole soapbox is there is no real canon but … Read More

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Entertainment Pop Culture

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Disney+ does it again!

When Disney bought the Star Wars franchise, I was skeptical. Further down the road as I Left my local movie theater on the opening night of The Rise of Skywalker, I had to start reminding myself that I liked Star Wars. I had such a bad experience, it helped me quit smoking cigarettes. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not one of those #notmystarwars people, it just didn’t have the same magic that I’m used to with a Star Wars movie. I had thought that maybe it was just me getting older and more cynical. Then, about 2 weeks later I binged Season 1 of The Mandalorian, and that ended up scratching the exact itch I had. Moving forward, I had trust in Disney once again and decided that after 3 mediocre film attempts (not you Rogue One, I loved you) that a second chance would be granted. Heck, even Donald Glover made Solo somewhat watchable.

So now we get to now. I’ve seen all of Mando, and Cheered at Boba Fett, multiple times but I still wasn’t completely sure about going back to the prequel era for the Disney + Obi-Wan Kenobi Series.  Even Hayden was coming out … Read More

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Entertainment Pop Culture

Andrew’s Angles – Bo Burnham’s Inside & Inside Outtakes – Song Rankings

Note: This article covers a special that covers a wide range of current-day social and mental health issues. While mostly in a comedic sense, please be aware that these topics will be covered in this article. If you need help, please use the contact details on the following website: https://www.oml.world/needhelpnow

 

One of the most unique projects that I feel has come out in the past couple of years is Bo Burnham’s Inside – a 2021 Netflix special entirely made by the multi-instrumentalist comedian Bo Burnham. The special is a rollercoaster – taking you through a wide range of emotions and topics, and takes place in a single room for the full runtime. Despite being a result of the pandemic, it is never at all mentioned once by name throughout the special – instead, the viewer is taken on an often comedic and morbid journey through all of the trends and ills of the world, packed with 20 songs. On 31st May 2022, he released outtakes to Inside on his YouTube channel – coming in at an additional hour, an extra 24 songs were released! As a recent big fan of the special and outtakes, I felt it would be … Read More

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Entertainment Pop Culture

Celebrity Trials: A Look Back

It has been over a week since the verdicts were read at the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial, yet the buzz surrounding the ex-couple has barely died down. Whether you were Team Depp, Team Heard, or couldn’t give a lick, there is no denying the defamation trial against Heard garnered millions of viewers. With those millions of viewers now seeking other means of court entertainment, I decided to take a look back at other celebrity cases over the years. This is hardly the first celebrity trial to capture such an audience; below are a few more high-profile celebrity cases from our generation.
1. O.J. Simpson– On June 17, 1994, former football star O.J. Simpson disappeared for hours after he was supposed to turn himself in for the brutal slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and her acquaintance Ronald Goldman. Simpson then led police on a slow-moving car chase in the now infamous white Ford Bronco. The chase would culminate that evening in Simpson’s arrest in the driveway of his own home. With 95 million people viewing the car chase and Brown-Simpson and Goldman’s murders having been so grisly, the trial was bound to bring attention. Lasting eleven months
… Read More
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Conventions Entertainment Pop Culture Reviews

Pros & Cons: PopCon Indy 2022 Review

Throughout the past weekend, I spent my time in Downtown Indianapolis at PopCon Indy. I cannot believe that PopCon is now in its 9th year as an event as it only seems like yesterday that the Kickstarter for the show was up and running but here we are. Over the last 9 years, PopCon has had its share of ups & downs with, in my opinion, the 2016 edition of PopCon being its best yet. For those that may not remember, PopCon 2016 had everything from a full-on wrestling show, the GFuel E-Sports arena, and also Kevin Smith with his daughter Harley there to attend the premiere of their movie, Yoga Hosers.

I feel that there has yet to be a PopCon that has come close to providing all that amount of entertainment in one weekend and sure, an argument can be made about the prior year with Markiplier coming to PopCon in only their second year as a convention which saw a crazy turnout that not even PopCon themselves expected. Yet here we are in 2022 and PopCon has been trying in some ways while failing in a few others to be as good as they once were.

A … Read More

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Entertainment Pop Culture

The Rising of the Shield Hero: A New Roar

The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 1

Hey there. The first episode of the new season of Shield Hero quickly introduced a new threat, showcased Naofumi’s strength, gave us insight into the new party member, and gave us mystique with that ending. So let’s not waste any time and discuss some of the more noteworthy aspects of the episode, A New Roar.

It was cool to see that Lurolona Villiage, Raphtalia’s home town, is starting to look lively again. Some familiar faces are there to help the rebuilding process and it was a great way to reintroduce some characters. After getting suddenly attacked, Raphtalia and Filo quickly take out the threat. It’s noteworthy here that the bats that came to attack had a turtle shell type thing on their back. It’s a clear nod to the big bad of this season and it was pretty awesome to have that detail into the enemies. It was at this time that a loud roar is heard and the team is left wondering what that was.

After being summoned to the castle to meet with the Queen, we learn that the roar may be coming from the Spirit Tortoise and the Queen is asking the legendary heroes to take it … Read More

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Pop Culture

Scott Pilgrim vs Gen Z : A look at why this story gets so much hate these days.

Once upon a time in a land called Canada, there lived a writer named Brian Lee O’Malley. He wrote a fantastic 6 part series centered around 23-year-old Scott Pilgrim: Rating: Awesome. A movie was made, but it’s more of A-Cliff’s Notes, as movie adaptations usually are. Edgar Wright did his thang here, but as to be expected I highly recommend reading this 6 part opus to get the whole story. There is so much character growth across this series that not a single character is the same person as they are at the beginning, that this should be considered one of the great “coming of age stories”… so why has it been getting so much hate lately?

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (Volume 1) was released almost 20 years ago in 2004. It was a very unknown black and white manga-esque volume that was printed and published by Oni-press. Following that, a new volume was released almost yearly, I’m looking at you 2008. To Reminisce one more time, I remember the movie coming out one week before the last volume, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, and I was hesitant to go see the film on opening weekend, but at the time … Read More

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Entertainment Pop Culture

What I’m Watching During the Spring 2022 Anime Season

Spring 2022 Anime Season
The Spring 2022 Anime Season is Here

Hey there. The Domain’s resident otaku is ready for a new season of anime! Last season had some GREAT shows such as Ranking of Kings (such an amazing story), Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 (action-packed), My Dress Up Darling (guilty pleasure), Love of Kill (intriguing) and 86 (LENA!!!) … just to name a few. I love a great story and there is no shortage of great ones when it comes to anime. Also, I plan on writing up episode reviews as the shows progress so make sure to come back for some deep dive anime content!

So let’s take a look at some of the stories that have caught my attention and will be releasing this Spring 2022 anime season.

The Rising of the Shield Hero 2

I’ll be honest, everyone, I was a bit late to this party. I binged watched the whole first season to get ready for the second and, wow… what a ride! I absolutely love the idea of 4 heroes coming together to take out the big bad (Final Fantasy, anyone?)… but what if you are one of the 4 heroes and cannot choose your weapon/skills? What if you were forced to … Read More

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Pop Culture

Something old, Something New… Part 1

Cobra Kai, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Saved By The Bell, and shit… there’s even a Chucky Tv series right now that I highly recommend. These shows came back recently and they are HOT. Ok, maybe SBTB isn’t as hot as the others, but I accidentally binged the first season last weekend on a curiosity watch. Are these rehashings of our favorite nostalgia-laced memories worth the watch?  Hell yes, they are!  Join me while I talk about the shows that once were and currently are.

First off, I love the Karate Kid movies, all 3 of them, because there are only 3 of them and I’ll fight anyone that says otherwise. I will acknowledge the “reboot” for one sentence only by stating that no jimmies would have been ruffled by anyone if they called it the Kung-Fu Kid because that’s what they practiced.  Now back to the good part, Cobra Kai takes an age-old argument and runs with it. Johnny Lawrence was “not” the bad guy and Daniel was kind of a bully, but the real baddie was Kreese, John Kreese. If you’ve seen the show, it was so good that Netflix had to buy it from another streaming service … Read More