Wrestlemania 31: A last minute save

  Every pro wrestling fan knows that World Wrestling Entertainment hasn't exactly been on the top of their game, mainly due to simple mistakes and not listening to the loyal fans that literally chant what they like and dislike at live events on live TV. Too the shock of most wrestling fans WWE's yearly spectacle didn't fall flat on its face but actually turned to be pretty damn good. 

  Starting off with a Pre show four way tag team match for the tag titles didn't get the reaction the higher ups hoped for seeing that most of the teams that are supposed to be good guys are being booed and the champions that are bad guys being being cheered. This match was accompanied by a huge battle royal in memory of the legendary Andre The Giant, to be honest even I didn't care who won this one because the match was pushed to the pre show instead of being the main event (typical really)

  The actual event started off strong featuring a huge ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, this match had almost all of the mid-card roster and a few stars like Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose. The match ended with Bryan grabbing the title and becoming a grand slam champion. As awesome as it was to watch a sea of humanity chant for Daniel Bryan, its sad that due to injury and lack of faith from the boss that we'll never see Bryan in the main event picture like last years wrestlemania, even though that was the fans want (badly). 

  The next match on the card was Randy Orton vs Seth Rollings in grudge match. This contest was perfectly built up and it didn't disappoint, Orton played the anti hero role well and Rollings timing was perfect and he worked the crowd well as a villain. The ending couldn't have been done any better with Rollings being flipped in the air and then being hit by Ortons RKO finish to win. This match was almost like a proving for Seth Rollings, having the ability to keep up with a seasoned performer like Orton revealed how good Rollings actually is. 

  Triple H vs Sting was the match that most of the fans came to see, the match as a whole was great it was just the damn commentary. The amounts Michael Cole stated that Sting had never seen a crowd the size of Wrestlmania was down right irritating and JBL constantly saying "we won the Monday night wars" was genuinely making me want to punch him. It was extremely awesome to see DX and The NWO in the same ring as Triple H and Sting stared each other down after H picked up the victory official "Killing the last soldier of WCW", all in all seeing Sting in a promotion that isn't TNA was enough to put a smile on my face. 

  The next contest was a tag team Divas match between the Bella Twins and Paige and AJ Lee, with all of the pressure on the main roster Divas since the women of the developmental show NXT have been performing them. The match as a whole was a good showing with the finish of Nikki Bella tapping out to AJ Lee's black widow submission hold. Sadly due to all the flack the WWE Divas have been getting lately the match wasn't really promoted well and the crowd didn't get involved enough to have the impact the match intended. 

  After the Hall of Fame ceremony and a poor performance from Skylar Grey, Travis Barker and Kid Ink we had the United States title match. John Cena and Rusev a match that WWE wanted to work so badly but still didn't have the desired effect, to start Rusev's character is a walking insult to Eastern European culture (even if Russia is being a dick to everyone) which is disappointing due to the amazing talent that Rusev has. John Cena got nothing but boos and "Cena sucks!" chants even though he was supposed to be the American hero who will bring the US. title back home, this just goes to show how much John Cena's character has descended just to sell WWE merchandise; remember Cena is just doing his job its the higher ups that make the decisions. Even though Cena won the match its self was just a rehash of their match last month at WWE Fastlane. 

  
  To everyone's surprise the event had a really entertaining segment with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, The Rock and UFC womens champion Ronda Rousey. The segement began with Stephanie and Triple H gloating about themselves then The Rock came down to the ring and did his classic insults and trash talking, Stephanie slaps Rock but because he won't hit her, instead he finds Ronda in the crowd and she challenges Stephanie and owns her completely. 

  The match between The Undertaker and Bray Wyatt couldn't have been done better, with the fact that Wyatt had his ankle in a cast up till he told to make his entrance an still performed flawlessly is down right amazing. Sadly the match's atmosphere was completely different to what it usually is, due to The Undertaker being undefeated there was always that unnerving risk that he'll defeated, and because he lost to Brock Lesnar at last years Wrestlemania that match edge was gone. 

  The WWE Heavyweight title match was literally how everyone predicted how it was going to be, Brock Lesnar beating down Roman Reigns. With Lesnar owning most of the main event, Reigns didn't look like an underdog but more of a punching bag, all of the fans were counting how many time Lesnar suplexed Reigns and the crowd still didn't get behind Reigns no matter how much Vince McMahon demands them to. 

  

  Reigns did get one chance to mount come back of sorts and in the process piss off the fans even more. Once again its not Roman Reigns' fault its that Vince wants make him the next John Cena and the fans don't want another John Cena they want something new. Luckily the main event was saved last minute by the most unlikely of superstars; none other than Seth Rollings ran down to the ring cashed in his money in the bank contract and make the singles match into a three way fight and pinned the unconsciousness Roman Reigns whilst Lesnar recouped from Reigns spearing him. 

  To put it simply Seth Rollings has been playing the bad guy persona to perfection for almost a year, his earlier match with Randy Orton proved he can run with the veterans, so having him snatch the biggest championship in WWE from the two top guys was a genius way to end the show and save the main event in the process other wise it would have fell flat on its face. This was the first good decision made by the WWE higher ups since last years Wrestlemania.

To be The Crow for a day

  Since I left secondary school I've always been a devoted fan of The Crow. What started out as simple love for the film evolved when I first read the graphic novel, that the 1994 classic was adapted from. Simply put The Crow was piece of both artistic and philosophical genius created by the under appreciated author and artist James O'Barr. 

  The comic book was not only inspirational but life changing for me, it helped me understand story telling on a whole new level. The 1994 movie The Crow starring Brandon Lee gave me a whole new appreciation for film and TV.

  For the past three years I've attended the legendary gathering nerds known as Comic Con. For the most recent event I cosplayed Eric Draven, donning the infamous black and white paint of tragedy and black leather with help from my family.

  Putting the outfit together was no easy task, trying to find a way to transform my dirty blonde hair to pitch black was the toughest obstacle, but black hair spray sorted that out quickly enough. 

    I had to order the leather trousers from China, about four reels of black electric tape was used to create the infamous black bandages seen both the comic and film, the face paint was simple pound shop face paint and eye liner and donated leather trench coat to complete the ensemble. 

  Of course I received dirty looks from people who didn't understand but it didn't matter because I was able to walk amongst hundreds of people in a huge hall that knew who I was (so screw 'em). 

  The awesome pictures you see above were taken and made to be badass by Andrew Bonnell (that surname is kind of familiar).

Comic Con 2015: Day of the Nerd

  So it was that time of year again where every Geek, Nerd, Otaku and Weeaboo comes together to dress up, wait in long queue, take pictures, meet new people and of course buy awesome merchandise. 

  This was my third time going to Comic Con and it was just as good as the first two times, once again donned a costume and join the many hundreds that attended the event as my all time favourite comic book character The Crow (and I totally got into character).

  Like usual with every Comic Con all of the pictures that were took told a story, the picture below features the traditional queue, it wouldn't have been a true Comic Con if you didn't have to wait half an hour to get in.

  After the long wait me and good nerd friends finally paid the toll and entered the hall of wonder, to see endless stall of merchandise consisting of comic book, manga, games, clothing, bags, figurines and other random stuff. 

  As I looked around the stalls and debated what I would buy, I met the most excited Trekky at comic con who asked for my picture.

 Then there was this guy who came out of know where, but I didn't mind because he was a fan of The Crow (but I forgot to take off my glasses for this picture, whoops). 

  This lady was the first person who agreed with me that the new Crow movie coming out is a good thing, and she even said my crow costume was best one there, so win win. 

  This cool guy dressed as Green Hornet actually got to meet the Author of the Crow comic James O'Barr and told me some awesome stories about him and what kind of person he was. 

  This radical dude was my friend Samin Islam who I met last year at Comic Con, he's major Otaku and the first thing he asked me was where the Hentai stall was located (what a legend).

  As I traversed the huge hall of stalls I had to get a picture with this awesome female Captain Ukitake cosplay, she even got the bankai swords right (it was shame her boyfriend was to the left of me).

   At Comic Con there were plenty of Yuno Gasai cosplays but this girl's was the closest to the actual anime Future Dairy, so it was must to get a picture. 

  If you find two of the Avengers, you just have to get picture with them it what Comic Con is all about plus I wanted one of the shields. 

  Lets all be honest The Crow versus The Joker would be awesome, and that simply why I just had to get a picture with the romance of madness.

  I had to get a picture with this impressive Kill La Kill cosplay, simply because how she got Senketsu's eye right on the Kamui outfit. 

Rorschach was there, I wasn't getting a picture with him, he was getting picture with me (bad joke I know). 

  I'll be honest I still don't know what anime her cosplay was from but it looked so badass I had to get picture anyway. 

  The most awesome Starship Trooper outfit ever. Would you like to know more? 

  I am a huge fan of the Fallout game franchise, so when I saw these two guys in their awesome post-apocalyptic gear a picture was needed. 

  Every year at Comic Con, there is always that one anime you see being cosplayed the most. Last year it was Attack on Titan and this year it was Tokyo Ghoul, there were many people in different variants but this pair stood out to me the most, and plus I think The Crow would fit in really well in Tokyo Ghoul. 

  Once again another year passes and for one day nerds all around the world can come together be a little crazy, wear costumes and be accepted for it. The beauty of Comic Con is that no matter where you are from or what you do, you be yourself and meet new people that will probably become your future friends, also you can buy tone of awesome shit. 

Why Jack Huston will save The Crow legacy.

  Since the very notion of a Crow reboot began, the biggest question was who would claim the mantle of the dark avenger: Eric Draven. In a previous post I gave many names that could do the character justice but now relatively unknown actor has emerged and has officially landed the leading role, this actor's name is Jack Huston. 


  Many will wonder why has he been chosen above all other possible candidates. Jack Huston may appear as a new comer but he's actually been plenty of well known movie and TV shows. His first well known movie was playing the warrior Ulfric in the Sci-Fi Viking fantasy Outlander with Jim Caviezel and Ron Perlman, He also starred in American Hustle alongside Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as the rich playboy Pete Musane, and of course he played the disfigured Richard Harrow in Boardwalk Empire (to the right) the role that revealed how versatile Huston can be. 
  

  Too truly capture the spirit of The Crow the director Corin Hardy must have the right vision to perform this action, this entails translating the poetic symbolism to the big screen and this can only be achieved by having an actor that can portray the character of Eric Draven. the main character in The Crow comic is a living metaphor of the author James O'Barr's negative emotions when he was going through his turmoil's. Eric Draven is basically a walking mess of emotions and the only thing keeping him going is to bring vengeance to the group of men that took away the one thing mattered most to him; his beloved fiancée Shelly Webster. 

  The good news is that Jack Huston has proven that he can perform in different surroundings and styles,Huston's performance in Outlander shows that he's not afraid to do something radical and be able to flourish in it, even with a huge chunk of metal on his face his acting in Boardwalk Empire made him the secret hero of the series and had every fan rooting for him (including myself).  

  Don't misunderstand me, i'm not saying Huston will out perform Brandon Lee's performance, but we're actually talking about two very different movies, the 1994 rendition of The Crow was a rushed production that was filled with issues, time constraints and the writers were forced to change the script so much that it didn't really follow the comic book, but what the movie writers did was grab the best parts of the comic and make a damn good movie out of the parts. 

  Corin Hardy has stated that his Crow Reboot will follow the source material to the best of their abilities and stay true to spirit of James O'Barr creation, and by hiring Jack Huston the Hardy has a damn good chance at performing such a feat. 
  

Why the ending to Mass Effect 3 is actually awesome.

  When it comes to a sci-fi RPG video game series you can't get any more perfect than Bioware's Mass Effect Trilogy. Taking inspiration from almost every Science Fiction Movie and TV show there out there, this game series features elements that resemble Battlestar Galactica, Starwars, Firefly even Space Above and Beyond. not only are these game graphically superb, they contain a rich tapestry of lore that backs up an epic story line with diverse and amazing characters that make the journey of Mass Effect that more enjoyable. 

  The first Mass Effect game was released in 2007 and received massive amounts positive feedback, the game was awarded a 9.4 by IGN and won the Game Critics Awards' Best Role-Playing Game and many other for graphics, game play and soundtrack. 

  Mass Effect 2 was released in 2010 and received Best Game at the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. The game was also given high praise for it extensive voice acting and interactive storytelling. it also featured the ability to transfer you saved data from the last game so that all of the choice you made in the first game had consequences in the sequels.

  Mass Effect 3 was released in 2012 and once again received high praise and was the quickest to produce due to it being the last chapter in the trilogy (or so we thought). But soon the game began receiving negative feed back on how they ended the game. This apparent controversy was so damning that Bioware had to add free extra content to the ending to make up for their "mistake". 

  To explain why Mass Effect 3's ending is actually genius you need to know the story of Mass Effect. 

  The term Mass Effect was explained by the game series' Project Director Casey Hudson: 

"Inside the game universe, mass effect is a newly discovered (for humans) physics phenomenon that has properties along the lines of other physics forces such as gravity and electromagnetism. It's what physicists in real life are currently calling "dark energy", as an explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe — which has only recently been discovered and flies in the face of the previous notion that the universe’s expansion should be slowing down because of gravity."

In the year 2183 humanity is now a technologically advanced enough to travel the galaxy due to finding a beacon on Mars left behind by an ancient race called the Protheans. The discovery helped Humanity discover the Mass relays, giant space stations that slingshot ships across the galaxy.

  Even with great lengths that humnaity has come they're sti treated as a young race amongst the more experience races like The Asari, The Salarians and the Turians. In some cases Humanity have gone to war with them, this occurred with the Turians in what is now known as the "First Contact War" (Star Trek reference). There are many other races like The Volus, The Quarians and The warmongering Krogan, even with all of the differences they are all apart of The Alliance, a republic that is headed by a council of the three most experienced species and their elite soldiers known as Spectres (Jedi with guns). 

  The first Mass Effect begins on a starship named The SSV Normandy and Commander John/Jane Shepard are sent on mission to stop a rogue Turian spectre called Saren Arterius that is leading an army of sentient robots known as The Geth to bring the Galaxy and the Alliance to it knees. Whilst pursuing Saren Shepard gains new crew members most of them being alien like Garrus (Turian), Wrex (Krogan), Liara (Asari) and Tali (Quarian), all of them with own backgrounds and missions to complete and gain their loyalty. Soon Shepard learns that Saren is actually a puppet under the control of Sovereign, the vanguard of the ancient robotic race known as the Reapers. Soon its a race against time to stop Saren from taking the galaxy's hub The Citadel. Shepard and the crew of the Normandy defeat Saren and stop Sovereign from opening a wormhole and bringing the entire reaper armada through. Commander Shepard is hailed a hero and gets a human on the Alliance Council. 

  Mass Effect 2 is set two years after the events of ME1. Whilst on routine search for Geth stragglers the SSV Normandy is attacked by an unknown ship of colossal size. All of the original crew make it off the ship expect for Shepard, thought to be dead everyone moves on but actually Shepard's remains were picked up by a pro-Human paramilitary organization called Cerberus and they literally rebuild him from his remains which takes two whole years to perform. Cerberus informs Shepard that entire human colonies are going missing, they discover evidence pointing towards a species called Collectors (or Chigs). Shepard hesitantly teams up with Cerberus with suspicion due to their murky background, and because the Alliance have cut him loose he needs a new crew and ship. Garrus and Tali return to crew but the others ME1 characters do not and new characters like Miranda, Thane and Mordin join to fight the Collector threat. 

  Cerberus rebuilds the Normandy and they travel into the Terminus system (outlaw space) to hunt the Collectors and save the colonies. It soon discovered that the Collectors are actually Protheans that were transformed by the Reapers. The Collector command centre can only be reached by going through the Omega 4 relay which allegedly destroys anything that goes through it, Shepard and the crew survive the trip through the relay and mount a mission take the Collector base and destroy it or control it pending on choice of ending. Before they leave the Reaper controlling The Collectors states the Reapers are coming purge the Galaxy or intelligent life. 

  Mass Effect 3 opens on Earth with Shepard being detained for working with Cerberus, but the Reaper threat is imminent and only Shepard has a chance at stopping them. Earth gets hit by the Reapers and Shepard is ordered to go to the council to get help for Earth and unite the races to fight the Reapers. With all out war on various planets Shepard comes across Cerberus on various occasions causing problems and killing innocent live in the name of humanity. Shepard and his new crew featuring characters from both ME1 and ME2 travel the galaxy to gather a force big enough to retake Earth. The crew learn of a weapon that can destroy the Reapers in one move, but to build it they need "The Catalyst" which is soon discovered to be the Citadel. The battle for Earth is waged on two fronts one on the ground and the other in space. 

Whilst an epic space battle ensue around Earth's orbit Shepard meets the ground forces and prepares the final push to reach the Citadel and activate "The Catalyst" and destroy the Reapers. Shepard manages to get into the Citadel but suffers serious injuries in the process, whilst trying to find the "The Catalyst" Shepard instead comes across a hologram that tells Shepard that the Reapers were built to bring order to the galaxy when the current species become too advanced in fear of them destroying themselves and the galaxy with them. The Hologram gives Shepard a choice to either destroy, control the Reapers either way (spoiler alert) Shepard dies. But if Shepard chooses to destroy the Reapers all of the races live and a clip at the end shows an old man telling a child the story of "The Shepard".

    Now that we've got an idea what Mass Effect is about we can now get onto the controversy. When ME3 came out we all knew it could possibly be the last one and their would be an epic conclusion that would tie all of the loose ends which is standard in most epic story telling. The premise of Mass Effect is about how the choices you make effect the future games, ME3 did manage to answer all of the vital questions but the ending apparently didn't. 

  Many fans complained that ME3's ending didn't give you a choice (or an option to live), but the ending couldn't have been more perfect. ME1 was about exploring the Galaxy and stopping an evil alien from conquering the Milky Way, ME2 was about being screwed over by the Alliance and fighting for those who have been forgotten in the dangerous side of the galaxy and ME3 is about full scale war with billions of casualties, and that every decision you make could change an outcome in a battle. 

  Mass Effect 3's ending does in fact give you a choice, the genius of this is both choices are the right choice. If you control the Reapers they will destroy the most advanced races but they will leave the galaxy intact for future generations, but if you destroy them then its completely unknown what will happen but that's point, you can save the other races so that they have the chance to learn from history and work together. This choice is only possible because Shepard proved that a species can put the Galaxy before themselves and make the right choices that save the most lives. 

  The ending to ME3 couldn't have been more well thought out and that simply because they had damn good writers that know how to take ethics and morals then add severe consequences to them. The Mass Effect series as a whole is by far one of the best Sci-fi RPG's to date. Being a badass commander with a an awesome ship and going round the galaxy shooting up synthetics aliens and then getting down and freaky with you fellow crew members (heh, heh). I personally believe that so many ME3 buyer were annoyed with the ending simply because they couldn't understand it and didn't take the time to try. 
  

  

Bootleg's Power/Rangers taken off YouTube

  Since first appearing on the internet, the more gritty and violent take on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has created even more controversy with the original creators of the franchise Saban Entertainment. For some messed up reason (that I will get into later), they have decided to remove the fan film of YouTube (sigh).  

  Since the fan films inception the Power Rangers fan base have been split right down the middle over their appreciation of the short movie, many of the original actors for the series weighed in their opinions on the matter. 

  The Green Ranger actor Jason David Frank addressed his fans via video log, and said that he was originally approached by Bootleg but he turned them down due to other commitments, he felt the show was too dark and gritty for a main stream audience which is fair for him to say seeing that the show was originally tailored to a young audience ranging and as a cautious father he would not let his daughter see the movie.  

  The original pink and black rangers put their opinions forward, both Amy Jo Johnson and Walter Jones thought the fan flick to highly entertaining and a unique way to look at the Power Rangers, Johnson even posted the video on her Facebook page before it got mercilessly taken down. This just goes to show that even the original actors even think that the film has a positive effect on the franchise and fans. 

    To begin with Adi Shankar got the idea to create the short movie simply because he had a revelation on the original show and asked the question what if the Power Ranger grew up, how would they live their lives and would the past catch up with them. This revelation was then brought to life through the genius that is Joseph Khan's mind. 

  Joseph Khan has been very vocal about how Saban is treating their film and how they are amking it their mission to bury it, they started with Vimeo and now they have taken down the YouTube link. Adi Shankar was not happy with this had very meaningful words for Saban Entertainment and they should listen because he has a damn good point. 

"To Whom It May Concern:

Today, I was deeply disappointed to learn that Saban Brands decided to attack my Power/Rangers “Bootleg Universe One-Shot” film. To all the viewers that enjoyed this film, I consider this an outright infringement on freedom of expression and individualism. I set out to make this film because I am a childhood fan of the Power Rangers.
As children our retinas are burned with iconic images and as we grow older these images come to represent crucial moments within the trajectories of our own lives. This film is a homage to the original creators of the Power Rangers, and a parody of a television series we all grew up loving. Films like my Power/Rangers “Bootleg” are vital expressions of creativity in our troubled world. If we suppress this creativity and become passive participants in the consumption of the culture we live in, we implicitly allow a dangerous precedent to be set for the future of the internet.

Warm Regards,

Adi Shankar

P.S. Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for hosting Power/Rangers and taking a stand.

https://www.facebook.com/theadishankarbrand" 

  This whole situation is all about the old guard versus the new guard, Saban doesn't want their original franchise being "tainted" by a more realistic and risky concept that has the balls to take an over used product, breath a new life into it and make it relate-able to an older audience. 

  And to Saban Entertainment, the picture below sums up everything I feel.