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DVDs/Blu-rays TV

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season” 4K, Blu-Ray Review

 

While it will forever be known as “that show with Baby Yoda,” The Mandalorian has become much, much more. And that became especially clear in the show’s second season, which went even deeper into Star Wars lore, Mandalorian culture, and the aftermath of the Empire’s fall.

Well, now you can enjoy all of it, and without the fear of it being delisted or glitching out, thanks to Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season (4K, Blu-Ray).

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DVDs/Blu-rays TV

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Complete First Season” 4K, Blu-Ray Review

 

When the original Star Wars came out in 1977, some people really hated C-3PO. That is, until Return Of The Jedi was released, and then they hated the Ewoks. Which, of course, lasted until The Phantom Menace, at which point people hated Jar-Jar Binks.

So you can imagine that the people behind The Mandalorian were bracing for the worst when The Mandalorian — a live action show in which one of the main characters is cuteness incarnate — premiered on Disney+ at the end of 2019.

But a funny thing happened: that scamp — called “Baby Yoda” by everyone who saw him unless they worked for LucasFilm, Disney, or their subsidiaries — didn’t become the next big thing in Star Wars to hate. People loved the little guy, no matter how cynical or dead inside they may be.

Now, thankfully, people can enjoy the joy of Baby Yoda, and the rest of the gang, even when their Internet goes out, courtesy of Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Complete First Season (4K, Blu-Ray).

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

“WandaVision: The Complete Series” 4K, Blu-Ray Review

 

One of the many highlights of The Marvels was getting to spend more time with Monica Rambeau, the grown-up version of “Lieutenant Trouble” from Captain Marvel. But it wasn’t the first time we had the pleasure, as the adult Monica was actually introduced in the Disney+ show WandaVision.

Newly available on 4K and Blu-ray, WandaVision: The Complete Series presents all 9 episodes of this engaging and inventive show, as well as some cool extras. Which makes it as good for people who loved it on Disney+ as those who haven’t had the pleasure.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

“Loki: The Complete First Season Collector’s Edition” 4K, Blu-ray Review

 

It’s always interesting when someone makes a big story out of a small moment in another story. Like how Rogue One: A Star Wars was born from Vader mentioning that the Death Star plans were stolen. It’s also how we got the first season of Loki, the Disney+ TV show that follows the titular Asgardian after he grabbed the Tesseract and disappeared in Avengers: Endgame. Or, how it shall henceforth be known, the show on the 4K and Blu-ray collections Loki: The Complete First Season Collector’s Edition, which follows the titular Asgardian…well, you know.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

“The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is The Blood Of The Baboon Heart” Review

 

If I had a dollar for every TV show that was unceremoniously cancelled, and with a cliffhanger no less, I would start my own network and give all a reprieve. Or at least a satisfying conclusion. But no abruptly cancelled TV show hurt as much as The Venture Bros., the irreverent and intelligent Adult Swim ‘toon that came to an unexpected end in 2020. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one bothered by this, as fan outcry led Adult Swim to give the show the send off it deserves in the form of a finale movie, The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is The Blood Of The Baboon Heart, which has just been released on Blu-ray and digital. And while it didn’t make me okay with the show coming to an end, at least it gets to end, and in an interesting way.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

“The Venture Bros.: The Complete Series” DVD Review

 

While a lot of people were upset when The Venture Bros. was cancelled in 2020, there were also a lot of people who asked, “Who the hell are the Venture brothers?” It is for those people — and Venture Bros. completionists — that we now have The Venture Bros.: The Complete Series DVD, which presents every episode of the TV show…well, sort of.

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews TV

“Aquaman: King Of Atlantis” DVD Review

 

For years, some comic book fans regarded Aquaman as a joke. Heck, there was a whole Robot Chicken DC Comics Special about it. But then they cast Game Of Thrones‘ Jason Mamoa to play the man from Atlantis, and now no one is laughing at Aquaman. Well, almost no one. As a companion to Mamoa’s Aquaman, that movie’s director, James Wan, executive produced a three-part animated miniseries for HBO Max called Aquaman: King Of Atlantis that presented a rather silly take on the fish king. But while fans of the sea man will enjoy this animated romp (which has since been reconfigured into a movie) on DVD, they’ll find the disc is rather lacking in the extras department.

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” DVD Review

 

Like people who prefer to listen to music on CD, or still subscribe to cable TV, people who buy movies on DVD often feel like they’re an afterthought or second class citizens. Which may not be the intent, but it’s hard not to sigh loudly when one of your favorite band’s new album is only available digitally, one of your favorite shows has a new installment only available on a streaming service, or your favorite movie of the last year is released on home video, but the DVD version has fewer extras than the Blu-ray and 4K editions.

Which is where standard definition fans of Spider-Man: No Way Home find themselves: sighing hard. While the Blu-ray and 4K editions come almost fully-loaded, the DVD has just two of the sixteen available extras.

But while it may not be fair, for people considering buying Spider-Man: No Way Home on DVD — especially if they only want it for the movie — this isn’t a bad way to watch Spidey’s new adventure, all things considered.

Spider-Man No Way Home
For those who didn’t see it in theaters,

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up right where Spider-Man: Far From Home ended: With Mysterio outing Peter Parker as Spider-Man, and laying the blame for the crimes he committed in the previous movie right at Spidey’s feet. In an attempt to rectify the situation, our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler does what anyone would do: He asks his local wizard to mess with the fabric of reality. But wait, hang on, don’t mess with M.J.’s memories. Or Ned’s. Dang it, now you’ve done it; the barriers between our world and parallel ones in the multiverse have been weakened. And here come the bad guys.

As you can probably guess if you’ve seen any Marvel movie since Captain America: Civil War (save for Eternals), Spider-Man: No Way Home is an exciting, clever, smartly written action movie that just as easily could’ve been called Avengers…something. The Avengers In The Multiverse Of Madness — that has a nice ring to it. And it would explain why the aforementioned wizard is Dr. Strange, and why his and Peter’s co-stars include Strange’s pal Wong, Happy Hogan, and some super people I won’t mention.

That said, Spider-Man: No Way Home does do right by some of the super people I’d rather not mention: the aforementioned bad guys. (Suffice it to say, the rest of this paragraph and the one that follows come with a SPOILER warning for people who managed to not have this movie’s secrets spoiled.) While Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of the Green Goblin is as solid as it was in Spider-Man, Alfred Molina does an even better job of bringing Doctor Octopus to life than he did in Spider-Man 2, and the same can be said of Jamie Foxx’s take on Electro, which didn’t work in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but does here.

As for the super heroes who aren’t bad guys, like Dafoe and Malina, Andrew Garfield is still a rock solid Spidey, while Tobey Maguire, who always felt off when he put on the onesie, works much better here, in part because — like Harrison Ford in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and, uh, Ford in Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull — Maguire doesn’t try to pretend to be as young as he was when he first donned the suit.

(End of spoilers)

As good as the returning players are, though,

the real stars of Spider-Man: No Way Home are the current Spidey and his pals. Tom Holland remains the best Spider-Man by far, and he’s clearly met his match in Zendaya (M.J.), Jacob Batalon (Ned), and Marisa Tomei (Aunt May).

In fact, one of the many highlights of Spider-Man: No Way Home come when M.J. and Ned have to work together, and in service of Spider-Man’s quest, but without the titular superboy at their side.

All of which puts Spider-Man: No Way Home on par with the previous Spidey movies, Homecoming and Far From Home, and the best Marvel movies: Iron Man, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, and Captain Marvel.

As for how Spider-Man: No Way Home looks and sounds on the DVD, well, not as bad as you might expect. Especially if most of your experience watching standard definition stuff on a high definition TV is limited to when you accidentally DVR Rick & Morty from the wrong version of Cartoon Network. Sure, the image isn’t as sharp as it would be in HD, but it is clear and not at all fuzzy. And the sound is even better, especially if you have a home theater that supports surround sound.

More importantly, the Spider-Man: No Way Home DVD presents the movie with the original letterbox dimensions, not full-screen, pan & scan, windowboxed, or pillarboxed.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the DVD version of Spider-Man: No Way Home is rather lacking when it comes to the extras. Unlike the 4K and Blu-ray editions, the DVD only has 2 of the 7 behind-the-scenes featurettes (it’s missing “Action Choreography Across The Multiverse,” “A Multiverse Of Miscreants,” “Enter Strange,” “Realities Collide, Spiders Unite,” and “Weaving Jon Watt’s Web”); neither of the two roundtable panels (“The Sinister Summit, Villains Panel with Dafoe, Molina, and Foxx” or “A Meeting Of The Spiders, Heroes Panel”); none of the “Stories From The Daily Bugle,” whatever those may be, or any of the “Stunt Scenes Previsualizations” featurettes for the “Apartment Fight” or the “Shield Fight.”

Though what they did include…

on the Spider-Man: No Way Home DVD — “A Spectacular Spider-Journey With Tom Holland” and “Graduation Day” — are good.

In the former, Holland, his No Way co-stars, and the filmmakers talk about his time as Spidey, with footage from both Holland’s auditions and the set of the new movie.

Then, in the latter, Holland, Zendaya, Batalon, and Tony Revolori (who played Flash Thompson), discuss working on all three Spider-Man movies, and what it, and No Way Home, mean to them personally and professionally.

Neither of which will shock you, of course — they’re making-of featurettes on an officially released Sony product, after all — but they do provide interesting insights into the stars of the movie.

Though why they didn’t include something about the actual making of the movie — or even the main conceit of the film, the multiverse aspects — is beyond me.

It’s also beyond me why, with all the extras they did include, the 4K and Blu-ray versions of Spider-Man: No Way Home are apparently incomplete as well. For starters, they don’t have any kind of running commentary. Not being able to hear Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon wax philosophic while Cumberbatch verbally shakes his head at these damn kids is just tragic; as is not being able to hear the same from Holland and two of his other co-stars I promised not to spoil.

And none of the versions — not the 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD — have the movie’s trailers, which is especially annoying given that it does have the ones for some unrelated movies. Though they do have some that are relevant as well; specifically, Morbius, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Holland’s Uncharted movie.

Spider-Man No Way Home

Obviously,

DVD is not the best way to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home if you can help it. And for people who do prefer this format, or have no choice, this DVD should’ve been much better. But if you’re just getting this DVD for the movie — the excellent movie — and maybe one more chance to hang out with Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon until the inevitable fourth film (Spider-Man: Home For The Holidays? Spider-Man: Home Alone? I got a million of them), the DVD of Spider-Man: No Way Home is a solid way to enjoy this exciting, engaging, and hopefully not spoiled superhero action flick.

SCORE: 7.0/10

 

 

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews

“Catwoman: Hunted” Blu-ray, 4K, DVD review

 

One of the many highlights of the anime Batman: Ninja was seeing his coworkers get a proper Japanese makeover. And now, in what I hope is the first of many, Batsy’s gal pal Catwoman is getting her own anime with Catwoman: Hunted (Blu-ray, 4K, DVD), a rather fun and quippy tail, er tale.