Gotham Season One: Penguin's Umbrella

The episode begins with Fish finding out that Cobblepot is still alive and ordering her men to get Gordon, meanwhile at GCPD Gordon is punched by Bullock for letting Cobblepot live and refuses to help him against Falcone. He then goes to his apartment and knocks out two of Fish's men who held Barbara hostage and then makes sure she got on the next bus out of Gotham. Fish then expresses her displeasure at Falcone for Cobblepot still being alive and Gordon's betrayal but Falcone says he will let Victor Zsasz (Anthony Carrigan) handle Gordon. Zsasz later arrives at the GCPD with two hitwomen and the other cops abandon Gordon, a shootout follows; Gordon is injured but is rescued by Montoya and Crispus however Zsasz then kills another cop and marks the kill on his body.

"Time for my debut"

While Gordon gets treated for his wounds at a university Fish visits Maroni to convince him to hand Cobblepot over but is unsuccessful. In retaliation one of Fish's men block one of Maroni's shipments however Cobblepot says he knows how to hit back at Falcone, Gordon later visits Bruce to say sorry that he could die before finding his parent's murderer. Cobblepot later leads Maroni's men on a raid at one of Falcone's places (also killing one of Fish's allies) and then kills one of Maroni's men who never liked him much. Falcone and Maroni then meet and agree to stop the fighting and Falcone even allows Maroni to keep Cobblepot, Gordon is then preparing to arrest the Mayor and Falcone and Bullock even arrives to help.

Honestly why does Fish have to be there

Gordon and Bullock apprehend the Mayor and then goes to Falcone's manor to arrest him however Falcone reveals that Zsasz has kidnapped Barbara. Bullock thinks he is lying but it turns out to be true but then, surprising everyone, Falcone allows the three of them to live believing Gordon will one day realize that he is right. The next day Cobblepot meets with Falcone who says everything has went as planned. In a Flashback it is revealed that on the day Cobblepot was to be shot by Gordon, he and Falcone made a plan for him to be a spy in Maroni's family after Cobblepot revealed Fish is making moves against him.

"It would be cool if I had a gun in this umbrella"

Finally we have Cobblepot's master plan revealed, I just knew it was something more than siding with Maroni, and that he is working with Falcone all along. It was all really clever and shows just how smart Cobblepot is with people; how he knew Gordon would most likely let him live, the best ways to earn Maroni's trust and bribing Maroni's men to kill to one who hated him. I guess everyone saying that Falcone is getting weak has just been proven wrong since the reason he always acts so calm is because of his plan with Cobblepot. I hope that since Falcone is actually aware that Fish is plotting against him all along that he and Cobblepot will take her out soon. Speaking of Fish she was alright that past few episodes but this one really just made me hate her again. I don't know why she thinks she should be the next Don because in my opinion she just acts like a damn child with her outbursts and she isn't as smart as she thinks either when showing how eager she was to get Cobblepot. Plus her stupid voice and expressions are back during the part when she threatened Cobblepot; I really hope that they kill her off soon and that Cobblepot beats the hell out of her or stabs her a lot.

"If we are going to die I'm getting laid first"

However the best part of the episode was the arrival of Victor Zsasz and the shootout that followed. Zsasz's introduction was by far the strongest out of all the comic characters and I am really liking the casting as well. Anthony Carrigan nailed the creepiness of Zsasz and he really, really looks like a younger version of him and I am glad they kept his habit of tallying his kills on his body. The shootout between him and Gordon was awesome too because it was so intense and he had Gordon on the ropes. I definitely want to see more of Zsasz in the series and his two hitwomen sidekicks as well, those two where a pretty cool addition.

Wow, there was a time Zsasz only killed twenty - eight people?

Other quick mentions is that I am glad Montoya and Crispus have sided with Gordon and if they keep this up they could become alright characters. I also liked Gordon's determination in this to seek justice even though the odds are against him and the cops abandoned him (kind of shows how cowardly the police are in Gotham) and I'm glad that Bullock joined him; like I said I am sure that Gordon has grown on him. Barbara is getting to become a good character now because even though she was used against Gordon by Falcone I will say it was brave of her to try and pled with him however I just hope they just stay away now from the Barbara/Montoya because that was just stupid. The moments when Falcone said he had Barbara was done well because I honestly thought he was bluffing until he showed her. Despite kidnapping Barbara I keep hoping that Gordon will soon see that Falcone is the lesser evil in Gotham because unlike Fish and Maroni he honestly seems to care more for peace, order and business.

Yeah the Penguin rules these streets!

Last thing to mention is that something that annoyed me (besides Fish) is that there is going to be no big mob war anytime soon. There was quite the build up to it for ages now but Falcone and Maroni seemed to have made peace and Gordon has now backed off. Gordon obviously isn't going to stop but I don't think he is going to try anything like this drastic for a while and Falcone isn't going to go to war when he has a mole with Maroni.

Overall this was a great episode and a real standout with the great arrival of another comic villain and that Cobblepot and Falcone seem to be playing everyone.

SCORE: 8/10

Highlights: Reveal of Cobblepot and Falcone working together
                   Victor Zsasz
                   Some great shootouts

Let - Downs: Fish
                      Seems to be no gang war now after so much build up

The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;

 

 





http://screencapped.net/   

Film Review: Resident Evil Retribution

The most current film in the Resident Evil film series, lets get to it! SPOILERS

Retribution takes place after an uncertain amount of time from the events of Afterlife and Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been captured by the Umbrella Corporation. She finds herself in a special Umbrella facility deep under the ice in Russia that is under the control of the revived Red Queen and has simulations of major world cities. However a strike unit has been sent to free Alice under orders from Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) and consisting of Ada Wong (Li Bingbing), Leon Kennedy(Johann Urb), Barry Burton (Kevin Durand)  and Lurther West (Boris Kodjoe). However the Red Queen is prepared for intruders as she has hundreds of monsters at her disposal while her human clone forces are led by Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory).

Place your bets on who to win

Once again this is directed by Paul Anderson and even though it is obvious at this point the film is again an entirely original plot not based on any of the games however it draws inspiration from 5 and 4.

Your still as great as ever Milla!

I want to talk about the story first before getting in to the characters because I really want to say that it story might actually be one of the weakest in the series. Overall I did enjoy watching this film however it just nagged me with how many similarities it had with the first one. For example the Red Queen A.I. is back again and running Umbrella but there is no explanation as to why she is back when she was fried at the end of the first film, we already had her as a villain I just don't get why she had to come back. Also even though it is set in a massive underground testing facility it again felt too similar to the setting in the first film because once again the characters have to escape from it because of a time limit. Lastly I do not get why Wesker is suddenly helping Alice and humanity because he just seemed to want to destroy both in Afterlife, I know he might have a secret plan to be revealed in the sequel but still I just don't get it. However I did find the whole cloning aspect in this interesting and all of the simulated environments that they have.

"Who wants to experience ultimate pain first?"

Once again we have Alice back and she is just as great as ever with a cool new costume and kicking some zombie ass. For other returning characters we also have Lurther and Wesker; Lurther, like in Afterlife, is a great character but he doesn't feel as significant in this one but I'm still glad he is in it but I really wished that Wesker had a larger role because he is only in it for a few scenes. We also have Jill Valentine and I am so glad she has returned because I really liked her from Apocalypse and she is more like her 5 version here. Whatever problems I have with 5 I liked Jill in it because she was like some unstoppable killer; pulling off some great moves and in a skin tight purple outfit I might add and its all been adapted perfectly here.

"Who shall I get to push me?"

For other returning characters we have Rain (Michelle Rodriguez), One (Colin Salmon) and Carlos (Oded Fehr) and it was a surprise because they are all dead but that is where the cloning comes in. Seems they where cloned after death to be Umbrella soldiers and characters in a simulation so we have good and bad versions of Rain and Carlos. I really liked that they did this because Rain and One at least got to have a larger role in the film series now overall and its always great to see Carlos back. Also Rain fighting along side Jill at the end is one of the best moments in the film and is just as good (actually probably better) than the Wesker fight in Afterlife.

"Who wants to mess with this badass team?!"

Now for the new characters and I have to say that we have got some great choices and casting. I'll start off first with Johann Urb as Leon and he is a great character and its good they are using one of Resident Evil's most known protagonist but I kind of felt that he didn't have that much of a presence in this. As for Ada, Li Bingbing really nailed it as her because she looked exactly like her and I liked all of the scenes she was in. However my favourite was Kevin Durand as Barry because firstly I feel like I am seeing Kevin Durand in a lot of films lately (he is on The Strain right now) and he is such a great actor but I am also just really glad that Barry is in the films. Barry is a great character in the games but so, so underused (like Billy and Rebecca) since he has never been a playable character and hasn't had a large role since 1 (unless you count the cameo in 3). But in this film Barry was awesome, he was great in all of the action scenes and his death scene was so badass the way he shot One. Sure he died in this but I think he has had a better role in this than the games have been giving him!

I thought this in the games and I am thinking this now: That red dress isn't practical field gear!

Now on to the monster which is the biggest weakness of the Resident Evil films and that is because we barely get any. First we have the zombies but they are actually the best monsters in this film because they where awesome. They are like the military ones from 4, 5 and 6 in which they use guns and vehicles and I thought I wouldn't enjoy it much because in the games I prefer proper zombies. However in the scene where they are all attacking Barry, Leon and Lurther in the Russia simulation was so cool and they even had a chainsaw wielding one that looked damn creepy. This film failed though in bringing back the Executioner and the Licker from the previous films and I just wonder why? We have already seen them couldn't they have given us something else? I don't care if there where two Executioners and a giant Licker I wanted Hunters or Bandersnatches or one of the bosses.

Best character in the film

Overall this might be the weakest entry in the film series however I still enjoyed watching it because it had some great action scenes, some new characters from the game and the ending implies a pretty badass finale to the series.

SCORE: 6/10

Highlights: Great action sequences (Alice fighting the zombies, Russia attack, final fight)
                   More characters from the game (especially Barry!)

Let - Downs: The plot felt too much like the first film
                      Not enough variety of monsters (again)

You can find all of the great screenshots I used right here;

http://ladymanson.com/ShadowofReflection/home.php