The original Iron Fist season got a lot wrong, it was focused on boardroom politics too much, it had too many unlikable characters and, bizarrely, had few martial arts sequences and ones they did do were often poorly done. So, Season 2? Massive improvement so far. Better fights, more fights, and practically no scenes in Rand Enterprises at all! While it’s not perfect, it far better… so let’s take a look at the first half! (it’s only 10 episodes this time…)
Dragon Ball is iconic, inspired so many Shonen manga that came after it, and is one of my favourite shows of all time, but I’ve ranked it only #4 in this list?! Yeah, well, this is top debut arcs, and although this has some good, funny moments, it has some pretty unfunny ones as well… Not enough to knock it off the list entirely, obviously, more good than bad and all that. Anyway, it’s also another debut arc that doesn’t actually represent what the show would become, though it took a lot longer to end up more action focused this time. So let’s take a look at what is actually my first Dragon Ball review for this blog, despite 101 reviews elsewhere!
We reach the 1930s in my “10 Decades” etc. marathon (just look at the thumbnail for the full title!) and while I could have gone with one of the Universal horror films that straddle the line into sci-fi (apart from Frankenstein, as I’ve seen it already) I’ve gone with Island of Lost Souls for the simple reason that I’ve seen it parodied so many times I feel it’s only right to watch the original (a common theme in this marathon, it has to be said!) So let’s take a look at this extremely early H.G. Wells adaptation, that he himself… strongly disliked. Ah well…
The second two episodes of River Song Series 4 are vastly different, one being an amusing take on the murder mystery genre, and the other being a straight up Doctor Who “universe is ending” epic. Thankfully, what they both share in common is that they’re both good! Not amazing, but good, and the interactions between River and Tom Baker’s Doctor are worth the price of admission alone. Let’s take a closer look!
Now here’s a conundrum, what constitutes a wrestling game? WrestleMania: The Arcade Game is actually a VS. beat em up in the vein of Mortal Kombat, complete with crazy moves, effects and digitally captured sprites. I went back and forth as to whether or not include this in the Wrestling Game Rundown but in the end it feels like part of my wrestling game history (due to how disappointed with it I was at the time…) so I’ll be including it and its sequel. With that said, how does WM:TAG stand up? I went into it this time with a fair idea of what it was, rather than the immature “hatred” like my past self, so…
Although I haven’t gotten around to covering Series 2 or 3 yet, I’m not going hold off on reviewing a new release! Plus, who can wait to listen to the Fourth Doctor interact with River Song? Well, all of us, because that doesn’t happen until Episode 4. Still! The first two stories of this set actually work well as both a set up to the rest of the story, and as a little mini arc all by itself, thought differ wildly in quality. Let’s have a look at the debut of the Discordia then, a race that sounds like it was taken straight from the Russell T. Davies book of mythical race naming!
Raine Creevy was supposed to be the companion that replaced Ace in the now mythical “Season 27”, and although that never came to be, here she is! Crime of the Century was the second story in the Seventh Doctor Lost Stories, and although the original pitch has been changed to include Ace, it’s safe to say if this aired on TV in 1990… Yeah, the series wouldn’t be as well received as most of Season 26 is, let’s put it that way…
We kick the Shonen Jump! 50th Anniversary Debut Arc Top 5 with Yu Yu Hakusho, an influential series for sure (none more evident than in another series later on in the list…), that probably would have been an even bigger hit had it not been published / anime adapted during the peak of Dragon Ball popularity in Japan and, ironically, localised in the US on the back of Dragon Ball Z’s popularity, meaning it also fell in its shadow too! So the debut arc, known as the Spirit Detective arc (or Saga, because that early FUNimation buzzword!) really goes all the way to Episode 25, but its clearly split in half by a “lead protagonist returns after a length of time training” break, so I’m classing the first 13 episodes as the debut “arc” here. Much like other titles on and off this list, the first bunch of episodes doesn’t really represent what the story would become down the line, which makes it a fascinating watch, retrospectively. So… let’s look at it, retrospectively!
Criss-Cross introduces us to the Sixth Doctor’s latest companion Constance Clark (though this was technically the second release featuring her…), a pretty tough, by-the-book WREN from WW2. The actual story has a pretty standard “foe”, but is also rich in Second World War spies and espionage plots, including the Doctor himself working and staying in Bletchley Park for some time. Let’s take a closer look…
Okay… here we go. Now, I’m going to put my hand up right away and say I’m not the biggest fan of silent films, or indeed much that was released in early cinema in general, but at least this film I felt I needed to see (where as the next two in the marathon are pretty much just so I can have 10 decades and 10 films…). I also have to say that while I found it visually impressive and amazing to think of that fact that it was created before even World War II, in general I also found it to be far too long. Now, it’s such an influential film that, as big of a fan of the Sci-Fi genre that I am, I’m glad I’ve watched it but some things said in this review might make certain film student types go crazy… All that being said, let’s have a look!
Hogan Reviews 