Tag: Commentary

In the Hall of the Mountain King with LEGO NInjago: Masters of Spinjitzu

After watching this latest Ninjago season, it’ll be up to the Ninjas to unite the people to bring villainy down. The spirit of LEGO is never far.

LEGO NInjago Universal LogoSpoiler Alert

Television networks in North America are very behind in keeping pace with the animated LEGO Ninjago property. In Asia, Master of the Mountain, season thirteen of the Masters of Spinjitzu series, is now available. It may well head west, to broadcast in Europe next before crossing the Atlantic for the Americas.

In SDCC@Home’s programming lineup, I hoped the LEGO Company would make some mention. No recent announcements were made since season twelve is now broadcasting in the States. Whatever the reason is for the delay, fans will have to wait or subscribe to  foreign streaming sites to watch this latest chapter.

The series is showing no signs of slowing down. A new direction for the boys (and girl) in red, white, green, blue and black is to see them leave the Ninjago kingdom and explore another. Perhaps this time much further away. They’ve done the trip to other dimensions enough times. These other realms are simply representations of other cultures or are aspects of the paranormal.

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Enter the Jayster in LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire

LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire is a tribute to everything I love in video games.

LEGO Ninjago Prime Empire PosterEpisodes 1-6 available through Cartoon Network app / on demand

Airdate:
North America – July 19, 2020
Other Territories – Repeat

TT Games can learn a lot from Prime Empire, the latest season of LEGO Ninjago finally airing in North America. I’ve played enough of their products to see their licenced products from this toy line have hardly ever changed. The platform puzzle solving coin gathering engine rarely includes concepts unique to each franchise. For the most part, players are blasting or punching enemies in a non-violent manner rather than fully reliving highlight moments—ranging from racing simulations to martial arts fighting—from their favourite movie.

The story for season twelve offers a lot of ideas I wish to see in a game and in a TRON: Legacy sequel. Unagami is essentially MCP. He’s a self-aware program created by Milton Dyer to deliver players the ultimate experience and he’s also feeling very confused. He wants to find his creator and go mono a mono.

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Unravelling All That is … Frankenstein Undone #2

Frankenstein Undone #2Available Now
Dark Horse Comics

Spoiler Alert

In the last issue of Frankenstein Undone, the beast swore to be consumed by fire not as an act of cleansing but to be rid of those dark impulses which defined him. In the second issue released this week, we look at the creature’s life turned around at an isolated Eskimo-like village. He’s at peace, and there’s people here who won’t judge him by his looks and now demure nature.

The human he rescued is a shapeshifter. Though they share a mutual bond, the question of whether his name, Arobas, can be etymologically traced to Ouroboros  (where life can be seen as cyclic) was being considered in the back of my head. When these two are seeking redemption from their past, the cues are certainly there.

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The Days of Future Past with Terminator: Dark Fate

Terminator: Dark Fate reveals a new threat, an AI with an ominous name of Legion.

Terminator: Dark Fate Movie PosterThe meaning behind Terminator: Dark Fate may well on how destiny can’t be changed. Sarah Connor tried to keep her young son John safe and in the future, the elder version reprogrammed a T-800 to prevent his death. When Skynet can mess with the past by sending a bunch of robot assassins to various moments in time, the inevitable has to happen and the question has to be asked, do they go Back to the Future?

A lot of questions are raised in light of the grander picture. Time travel stories are always going to be a head scratcher because of the effects of Schrödinger’s cat in the timeline. Robert Zemeckis’ film (and Legends of Tomorrow) explains that alternate time-lines can be shut down so long the heroes act fast enough before the effects become permanent. That way, only one continuity exists. James Cameron (who’s taking far too long to make sequels to Avatar) returned to his seminal creation to say everything we saw that he wasn’t involved in is all alternate universe material.

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Is Garmadon the Oni One in Season 10 of LEGO Ninjago?

NinjagoBy Ed Sum

(The Vintage Tempest)

It’s an end of an era for LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu Videos. March of the Oni, the latest season, is essentially a movie split into four episodes. It brings the Oni arc (which started in Sons of, season eight) to an end. In what keeps me coming back, despite a retcon of this villain is in how the good guys value brotherhood above all else. Bad guys rarely give their fellow warriors their due and, as a result, consistently fail in a fight.

Jay, Zane, Nya, Cole, and Lloyd have seen how brothers can turn upon brothers in season four, Tournament of the Elements. With season six, Skybound, the pirates whom the Djinn Nadakhan enslaved were not truly honour bound. Even the serpents, skeletons and ghosts they faced had snide remarks amongst the ranks. Even when Lloyd was trying to do bad things, the Serpentine clan recognised problems and did little because of a misfired attempt by the leader to hypnotise the tyke.

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All The Legends & Lore That Inspired Shazam

Ninjago

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Amongst Baby Boomers, The Adventures of Captain Marvel defined the pulp-action superhero who would later be known as Shazam. For Gen X’ers, The Shazam/Isis Hour was a maligned television show of the mid-70s and it has its cult appeal. Jump to 1981, The Greatest American Hero showed how Stephen J. Cannell developed a fun, purposeful superhero sporting a different kind of symbol who wants to do what’s right in a cop buddy sitcom formula. The problems the character faced as the series progressed include learning how to use his powers, talking to the aliens in why he was selected and trying to keep those he loved safe.

To bring all those previous iterations of a superhero sitcom movie, Shazam, took several decades of storytelling in the television world to experiment with and the payoff is terrific. Ignoring the troubled property when it was first introduced in the ’40s to its reinvention by DC Comics, this 2019 movie borrows on many comedic tropes from the small screen as Billy Batson (Asher Angel) tries to figure out what being a superhero means. He has no book to guide him. He only has a comic book superhero obsessed foster brother Freddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) to offer tips and his own moral compass to keep him pure. The only misfire is in how nothing new is added to make it stand out.

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