Movie: Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

Much Ado About Nothing
Comedy, Drama, Romance

There's a few reasons I watched this. One, it's Shakespeare and I'm an English major. Two, it's a Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, The Avengers) film and I love him. And three, it has a brilliant Whedonesque cast. I also heard it was filmed entirely at Joss' house and who doesn't want to get an inside look at that? Beware, it is a Shakespeare play so the dialogue is archaic and you really must pay attention. It is also filmed entirely in black and white but I think it works better that way.

I spent a lot of time star spotting in this movie. The two verbally dueling leads are played by Amy Acker (Dollhouse, Person of Interest) and Alexis Denisof (Angel, The Avengers) and they are backed up by an amazing cast including Nathan Fillion (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Castle), Clark Gregg (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods, Donnie Darko), Sean Maher (Serenity) and Tom Lenk (Transformers, Argo). I spent more time pointing out actors to my husband than listening to the first half of the film.

I didn't mind it. Like I said, I didn't pay a lot of attention at first but then by the second half I was into it. Maybe it took a little while to get used to the Shakespearean. It was quite funny in places as well. I will probably rewatch it somewhere along the line as part of my study.

3 out of 5 Whedons...

TV: Agents of SHIELD SE1 EP6

Agents of SHIELD
Action, Drama, Sci Fi

I'm hearing along the grapevine (aka the internet) that I am not the only one disappointed in this show. They made this huge deal about it; this great new sci fi spin off of The Avengers. Sounds good on paper, what could go wrong? You would think with the combined genius of Joss Whedon (Buffy, The Cabin In The Woods) and his brother Jed Whedon (Dollhouse) together with the amazing world of Marvel with access to god knows how many actual superheroes would give us a freaking awesome show!... but no, not quite. The potential is there but it seems like they're falling short.

I was excited to see Cobie Smulders in the first ep, but not too excited because I had heard she wasn't a permanent fixture to the show. Maybe she will join after How I Met Your Mother finishes later this year? Then there was that two minute cameo by Samuel L Jackson (Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction) which was pretty cool. On the superhero side of things there was J. August Richards (Angel) with his climbing/jumping stuff (woo) and then Scorch (Louis Ozawa Changchien). Now we have Asgardian artifacts which has potential too...

Even with all this potential and the occasional minor super power, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his pretty stereotypical team seem to be just another glorified black ops group. Even though they keep mentioning the portal opening in New York and gods, aliens and people with powers, they just don't seem to play a major role in the show. I was kind of hoping for a Dark Angel or Dollhouse kind of thing. There is the mystery surrounding Coulson's death... 

I will give it a season and see how it plays out, but honestly, I expected more... is it just because I haven't read any of the comics?

2 out of 5 crappy superheroes...