How I got banned from All Things Horror

NOTICE: This is the post too controversial to be posted on other websites. So I’ll post it here. Enjoy.

Just weeks after being banished from Facebook’s ‘Everything Horror’ group, I’m now also on the outside looking in for one of its competitors, ‘All Things Horror!!!’

And that marks yet another Facebook group that’s not down with the Dick.

Last month, I had recently come into one of them Facebook groups with a horror theme known as “Everything Horror.” I had a little fun by “confusing” Jason actor Kane Hodder with WWE Superstar Kane. The joke was at my expense, and most users were having fun with the post — but it got me quickly banned moments later.

I’m now in a similar situation, this time with “All Things Horror!” The difference here is that I’d been a member of the group for a much longer time. I would regularly “like” and comment on various posts rather frequently. I was what you’d call a “productive” member of the group.

Still, I’ve always got that bizarre sense of humor swirling around in my brain, just clawing to get out. So I figured I’d make an ass out of myself again to the delight of the All Things Horror!!! crowd. At first, I took the same approach as before, comparing WWE wrestler Kane to Friday the 13th star Kane Hodder. Apparently, these guys have admins watching in the weeds with sniper rifles, because the post was shot down instantly.

But, that’s fine — sequels are always terrible when they’re just carbon copies of the original, are they not? So, this time, I thought I’d change it up a bit. Noticing that early 90s WWF wrestler The Warlord has a very loose resemblance to “Savini Jason” from the Friday the 13th video game, I knew what I had to do. First, it involved posting this photograph:

All it needed then was a caption. Again, with only myself being the butt of the joke, I feigned confusing the wrestler with Savini Jason, even suggesting that ol’ Warlord here was our friend Kane Hodder.

As expected, the regular users in the group were having fun with it. It was gathering lots of “Haha” reactions, and the comments were starting to grow. But admins on the internet love to flex the authority that they have nowhere else in life, so the next thing I knew, I no longer had access to the group.

This means that I am now once again a free agent in the Facebook horror group world. Interested in bringing me on? Send offers to my agent, and I’ll be confusing horror stars with WWE wrestlers in your group in no time.

J. Dick’s Netflix – “You’re Next” – Movie Review

Always on the hunt for new and interesting horror movies, You’re Next caught my eye way back when they were airing the trailers for it on TV.  I have always loved the thriller concept of trapped survivors being stalked by unknown assailants (Assault on Precinct 13 always comes to mind).  The animal masks certainly sealed the deal, offering creepy-looking and unique killers that I thought looked awesome.

Fast forward to the present day, and You’re Next has finally made its way to the New Releases section on Netflix.  As soon as I noticed the title on there, I had to play it.  Remembering the excitement I had when I saw the trailer (between work and family life, I rarely actually make it to the cinema anymore), I was happy to now be able to watch the flick with the weird animal masks.

You’re Next actually got off to a slow start, making me question my choice of movie after a few minutes into it.  All of the introduced characters seemed kind of bland, and as a result, I had trouble connecting with any of them right away.  I decided to let the film continue so I could get to the killer sheep guy and see what he was all about.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait for too much longer before the carnage began.  All of the characters, a large family, had gathered at a vacation home where tensions began to mount at the dinner table.  Just as soon as you get to know who everybody is, let’s just say the house is attacked and the unseen killers quickly claim their first victim.

Again reminding me of Assault on Precinct 13, everyone alive in the house scrambles to get away from the windows to avoid any flying projectiles being shot at them.  When the body count continues to rise, I surely felt an extra sense of horror with the group of victims being a family.  It’s certainly horrific to imagine those you especially care about dying in such graphic ways right in front of you.

The suspense starts to build as the group desperately tries to come up with a plan for survival, after realizing their cellular phone signals have been blocked with a jammer.  That means that these people, whoever they are, know exactly what they’re doing.  Once I realized that the attack wasn’t random, I knew that there had to be more going on here, which made some of the later twists a bit more predictable.

The killers themselves did, in fact, look pretty creepy at first.  Unfortunately, they lost some of their mojo with things like visible bald spots and some not-very-tough reactions to the pain they receive when the survivors begin to fight back.  They start to come across more like the Wet Bandits from Home Alone, trying to sneak in and kill those inside, including one person who is surprisingly a much better fighter than any of them.  Literally, some of the very same booby traps are even used.

You barely get halfway through the movie before you even see the faces of the killers and hear them talk, revealing who they are and their motives for being there.  The mystery is completely gone by that point, but at least they didn’t save the big twist that came with that reveal for the end, since I had already predicted it in my head.  Sadly, even with the cool masks, the killers were also no longer scary by now, especially since it seemed like they didn’t even stand a chance against the survivor who chose to fight back and had been doing a hell of a good job at it.

I also just couldn’t help but bury my face in my palm at the stupidity of the murderers.  Even after their faces have already been seen, and their entire plan has been openly talked about and known by the survivor who is fighting back… THEY STILL CONTINUE TO WEAR THE ANIMAL MASKS AS THEY SEARCH FOR THEIR VICTIM.  These bulky masks with very-small eyeholes, that have only served to hinder their every attack, were still being worn by those idiots, even though they had zero reason at that point to conceal their faces anymore.  Shit, being that stupid, they deserved to fail.

The ending threw in a couple more twists for us, one of which I predicted and the other I hadn’t.  It just didn’t matter anymore by that point, because while I was entertained enough to wait around and see what happened at the film’s climax, the suspense had fleeted long ago.  I was happy to see cute animal masks being used by horror movie villains, but I feel that they lost much of their mojo once their faces and plans were revealed.  While the movie was surely better than many of the cheesy horror titles you’ll come across on Netflix, it’s probably not good enough to warrant a re-watch and at the end of the day, I’d just give it 3 stars out of 5.

J. Dick’s Netflix – “Super” – Movie Review

When I was browsing Netflix today, looking at the newly available titles, I was seeking another horror movie. I don’t get as much time as I used to for watching them having a toddler at home, so I usually go for something violent to off-set the Yo Gabba Gabba marathons I’m accustomed to.  This time, I seemed to be having difficulty finding a horror title that really caught my attention.

After I switched gears and started looking at the action-oriented films, it didn’t take long before Super caught my eye.  The cover poster, plot description and ‘R’ rating gave me the impression that this would be a mature dark-comedy which is a film genre that’s totally up my alley.  It sounded pretty similar to Kick-Ass, which was a movie that had a novel concept but failed to deliver when it just tried way too hard to seem edgy.  Super seemed to take that similar concept of an everyman turned vigilante superhero but appeared to be more entertaining.  I decided to give it a try.

The film starts off with Rainn Wilson playing the part of a loser husband without any control of his life.  Wilson was always funny on The Office and in The Rocker, so I was happy with the casting choice.  Within the first few minutes, I was already laughing quite a bit, thanks to Wilson’s delivery of some surprisingly well-written dialogue.  Rounding off the rest of the cast of main characters were Kevin Bacon as the drug-dealing heel and Liv Tyler as the wife with substance abuse issues, each of them playing their respective parts well.

My favorite addition to the cast, however, was definitely Ellen Page.  I’m used to Page portraying characters I hate, usually having that annoying, sarcastic attitude that can get to be nerve-grating.  In Super, she’s a comic book nerd who reveals herself to be even more mentally off-balance than Rainn Wilson’s character, but somehow it just adds to her charm.  All too eager to join the Crimson Bolt (the titular superhero) as his sidekick, Boltie, and even more so to maim those she considers to be “bad guys,” I just couldn’t help but completely love Ellen Page in this movie.

It certainly helped that she looked hotter than ever, especially during her attempts to seduce the resistant Crimson Bolt.

The Crimson Bolt was perfectly portrayed by Rainn Wilson, but the character does go too far sometimes.  This would include nailing a woman in the head with a wrench and nearly killing her simply because he was pissed about her friend “butting in line” at a movie theater (I always thought the term was “cutting”).  While it had been easier to empathize with the wannabe hero through his personal struggles prior to moments like these, something like whacking a lady in the head because her friend ditched a line made it harder to root for him.  Maybe the point was to demonstrate how wrong the Crimson Bolt could be, no matter how desperately hard he tried to be right, but I did find some difficulty staying in his corner until the end.

The movie was most certainly enjoyable, with a plethora of hilarious parts and some spot-on acting from those portraying their characters.  However, there was just something that seemed to be off about it.  It did feel like the style of the film continuously changed throughout, splitting from ridiculous, over-the-top action and comedy, to attempts at serious or thought-provoking drama.  Unfortunat

ely, I just don’t think it all gelled together as well as the filmmakers would have hoped, and by the end I just wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

I would say that the first half of the movie should be considered a very strong, funny comedy, but starts to falter as the plot continues.  I think there were some writing mistakes that I won’t get too far into so as not to give out spoilers, and the un-organic way the movie continuously switches genres can sometimes be more distracting than entertaining.

At the end of the day, I’d say Super is far better than the movie it reminded me of, Kick-Ass, but probably just slightly better than mediocre on its own.  In other words, it will surely help entertain you for an hour and forty-five minutes, and it is a worthy add to your queue if you’re into dark comedies and/or superhero films. But, it’s not the kind of movie you’ll watch more than once, so you could probably just give it a watch on Netflix and save your money with the DVD.

I’d give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

J. Dick’s Netflix – “The Expelled” – Horror Movie Review

I get an enjoyment out of watching mostly unknown horror films.  It has been this way since years before Netflix when my friends and I would rent the cheapest looking scary movies we could find at the local video stores.  Sometimes, you could be pleasantly surprised by coming across an indie classic such as Session 9 or The Signal.  Other times, you wind up with pure schlock.  The film that I watched today surely winds up in the latter category.

The Expelled (originally titled F) is a British horror film whose campy poster caught my eye as I scrolled through the new horror releases on Netflix.  The plot sounded interesting enough; hooded youths attack a school after hours, terrorizing the students and staff inside.  Reminding me of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, the concept was great, but the movie failed to deliver on pretty much every level.

For starters, the characters and their writing are all so bland that you’ll find a lot of trouble connecting with any of them.  Every line of dialogue is specific to the bare-bones plot and there is zero development with anyone.  You won’t want anyone to die, but you’re probably not going to care when they do.

Of course, another big part of the reason you won’t feel so sympathetic when characters are bumped off is because you won’t actually see any of those deaths.  It turns out that every single kill in this horror film features a cutaway death.  That is, most of the time, the hooded-sweatshirt wearing teens will simply surround their victim before the film cuts to the next scene.  I noticed pretty quickly their insistence on cutting to something else right before every kill, and it wasn’t long before it became a running joke in which I would laugh at each time they continued to do this.

There is a complete lack of suspense throughout the entire movie.  Again, the plot concept seemed like it’d make for a great thriller, but the filmmakers failed so badly at the execution that I couldn’t help but facepalm.  The hooded teens were unfortunately not scary at all, and only looked ridiculous whenever you saw them crawling on the top shelves like the creatures from Aliens.  It also didn’t help that every death scene pretty much went exactly the same, with a character being surrounded before those dreadful cutaways took us to something else.

Nothing any of the characters did made any logical sense.  For example, there are many times where characters will have access to a phone, but will either not call emergency services, or if they do, they don’t stress the fact that the school is being attacked by murderers.  You also have the security guard who has been running from the teens for more than a half hour, but is somehow unable to find an exit in the building in which he works for (yelling at somebody who just walked inside moments earlier to help get him out of there, meaning they had to have been right next to an exit).

And then, after someone actually does call the police, nobody shows up but a single cruiser carrying two officers.  Despite the fact that these cops were responding to suspicious reports of a disturbance at the school, and the security officers were missing, the two of them immediately separate and look around casually as if nothing is wrong.  They don’t even think of touching their guns, with one of them ridiculously standing there and watching as one teen runs up to him from far away with a melee weapon.  I just couldn’t help but find that as being completely unrealistic given how trigger happy the police are these days (then again, this movie didn’t take place in America).

If you’re a glutton for punishment like I am and you find yourself sticking around until the end of the movie just to see the conclusion to all of this madness, well, prepare to be even more disappointed.  There is literally no ending for this movie.  I surely hope it wasn’t written this way, and maybe the filmmakers simply ran out of money and called a wrap on this abysmal production, but the movie ends so abruptly that they might as well have cut to black in mid-sentence while someone was speaking.  I can’t tell you how pissed I was after suffering through this film out of sheer curiosity to see how it ended, only to discover there was no actual ending.  Nothing is explained and you’ll realize that the movie never did have any sort of specific goal.

I cannot recommend this flick to anybody in good conscience, not even other horror nerds like me who can get a kick out of cheesy films.  There is simply nothing redeeming here to make The Expelled worth watching.  One of the most dull movies I have ever seen, I’d probably give this one nothing more than one half-star out of five.

Somebody Found Robin Williams

In mid-August of 2014, Robin Williams took his own life.  As one of the most well-known and beloved celebrities in the world, the news was devastating for so many of us.  While famous people are certainly prone to suicide, Williams’ death still came as a shocker for his legions of fans who just couldn’t believe that such a vibrant, funny man could be capable of committing such an abominable act.

Immediately, all of us start looking for an explanation.  That expression of, “Why?” prompted the emergence of bringing attention to depression and how it can majorly effect people, even someone like Robin Williams who seemed like such a happy, fun-loving person.  The star of World’s Greatest Dad (which I recently caught on Netflix and found to be amazing) appeared to be the last person in the world who would be battling a severe depression, but as fans, we only ever saw him when he was “on” and in character.  Mostly all we knew were just his fun, upbeat characters.

That brings me to the part about this unfortunate event that bothers me more than anything.  The respected actor hung himself with a belt, and somebody found him that way.  Somebody saw Robin Williams hanging. I can’t even imagine the sight no matter how hard I may try, but it was a visual that somebody will no doubt be haunted by forever. 

When I think of Robin Williams, I think of so many different things.  I think about his goofy comedy roles in films like Flubber, Mrs. Doubtfire and Jumanji.  I think of his stand-up which was fantastically hysterical.  I even picture his breakout role as Mork from Mork & Mindy and his Rainbow Randolph character from Death to Smoochy.  To put it another way, I can only ever see him smiling, laughing, jumping around at a mile a minute cracking joke after joke, making silly face after silly face.

And then, somebody found him, dead.  Hanging by a belt.  Staring back with cold, dead eyes with no expression at all on his face.

I just can’t even picture it, so I still don’t believe it. 

R.I.P., Robin Williams.

Blogging Dead: The Walking Dead, Episode 414 ‘The Grove’

Holy shit.

I am nearly speechless after watching The Grove, which could easily be the best episode of Season 4 unless the final two episodes end up being super-awesome and incredible.  I mean, wow.  Just, wow.  This could end up being the Season 4 equivalent of Clear.

After the past few installments of the season, I was starting to get tired of the bottle episodes, clamoring for Rick and Michonne to return.  This is one of those moments where I realize that I should’ve just held my tongue.  I wouldn’t trade in this episode for anything and I’m so glad this story had its own full hour in which to develop.

This episode had it all and it’s really what The Walking Dead is all about.  It had amazing character development for both the adults and the children.  The acting and writing was all incredible.  The entire episode kept me in suspense, and even when the group found what seemed to be a good shelter, it always seemed very dark with a constant feeling of impending dread.  I just knew that there was no way things were going to end well.

Carol, Tyreese, and even Lizzie and Mika were all fantastically developed in this episode.  Their respective actor and actresses all did incredible, I thought, especially Melissa McBride who delivered one of the best television performances I have seen.  You could practically feel Carol’s heart breaking and I felt myself hurting with her.  Chad Coleman also delivered in such an incredible way that I’m now a much bigger Tyreese fan than I was before.

I also liked hearing the characters talk about the ones they’ve lost, such as Carol remembering Sophia and Tyreese talking about his nightmares about Karen.  I like when the deaths of characters actually mean something, so it was nice to see Carol and Tyreese express their hurt over the ones that have died.  It was like when Daryl talked about Merle in his bottle episode with Beth.  Those other people may be gone but it’s nice to see that they’re not forgotten.

I have to admit that Lizzie killing Mika might not have been as surprising for us fans of the books who might have been expecting this to be the TV version of a similar event from the comics.  However, I say that this is one of those rare times when the TV show managed to pull off a comic book scene much more efficiently— and don’t get me wrong, I loved the similar storyline from the comic.  But, the characters involved on the show were developed so much better, and Carol’s discovery of the scene and subsequent actions were far more emotional and heartwrenching than what happened in the other medium.

I didn’t realize at first that Carol was taking Lizzie outside to execute her.  I thought she was serious about her plans to just run off with Lizzie, keeping her away from all other people.  But I think Carol realized that Lizzie was simply too far gone and was psychologically never coming back.  Trying to keep Lizzie hidden from the world for the rest of their lives was simply not a good life to live, especially when you consider it was probably just a matter of time before Lizzie got herself devoured by the walkers she loved so much.

This way, Lizzie can go quickly without even realizing it, the final thing she sees being something pretty.  Lizzie, in her sick mind, thought she was doing something good for her sister, so now she won’t have to deal with the realization that she murdered Mika and that Mika would never come back.  She won’t get bitten and slowly die from the fever.  She won’t be munched on to death.  She got to look at the pretty flowers in the grove before moving on to the next life.

I will say that the scene reminded me of George and Lennie from Of Mice and Men.  The obvious difference, though, is that Lennie wanted to tend the rabbits while Lizzie wanted to skin them.

Blogging Dead: The Walking Dead, Episode 413 ‘Alone’

The fragmentation of the prison group has continued to result in episodes focusing only on certain characters as we bide the time until everybody can regroup.  While it has opened the door to provide further character development for certain characters, such as Daryl and Beth in the previous episode, I think it’s starting to get a little annoying.

Rick and Michonne were nowhere to be seen.  Judging from the next episode’s previews, it seems they won’t be around then, either.  I get that they’re already heading to Terminus and the story wants to show us how everybody wound up on that same path.  However, so many episodes without Rick seems like a bit much, and I’m definitely ready to get everyone back on track.

I didn’t care as much for the Beth and Daryl storylines in this particular episode, despite having enjoyed Still the previous week.  I think that was the problem, in fact.  We had just spent a full hour on the two of them, getting to know them pretty well, and their scenes in this episode didn’t really further their story.  We can see that they’re getting along much better now, but other than Beth getting kidnapped in the end, I don’t feel like it really added much to the show.

Speaking of the kidnapping, what the hell?  Was that house a trap house?  If so, how did the kidnapper know that only Beth would escape to the road without Daryl with her?  I wonder if the kidnapper is taking her to Terminus.  Terminus is constantly referred to as a sanctuary, and there was a crudely painted cross on the back of the car, so it seems possible.  But would this mean that the people at Terminus are indeed messed up people?

It’s interesting to see Daryl join up with another group, this time a heel faction.  What the hell else is he going to do with everyone else gone?  I can only imagine this is going to come to a head when this group eventually comes across some or all of the other survivors from the prison.

I liked the flashback at the beginning with Bob Stookey.  At first, I didn’t realize it was a flashback and thought he had maybe gotten separated from Sasha and Maggie.  I liked when he ran into Daryl and Glenn and was asked the three questions.  It was a very nicely done flashback, I thought.

The most suspenseful part of the episode was probably when Maggie, Bob and Sasha were back-to-back in the dense fog, hearing the groans of the walkers all around them but not knowing which direction they’d be coming in from.  I thought about how scary it would be in that situation, and holy hell, how terrifying!

I was wondering why nobody had thought to leave a note or something similar at the signs leading to Terminus.  I would want to put up a sign or something saying, “Hey, I survived the prison assault!  Might try this Terminus thing.”  Then, just as quickly as I had wondered why that wasn’t being done, Maggie gets the bright idea to create a giant note written with blood that couldn’t possibly be missed.  Smart move, Maggie!  Now Glenn is going to be able to track her.

Honestly, though, that kind of scares me.  It’s starting to seem too obvious now that Glenn is going to find Maggie, which is scaring me into thinking that it won’t happen.  I’m sure the higher-ups at AMC are going to want a big moment for the end of the season, at least something to top Hershel’s death, and they might want to sacrifice another major character… someone like Glenn or Maggie.  It’s going to be that much more devastating knowing they came that close to meeting back up if one of them dies either right before or right after a reunion.  I feel like Maggie’s a goner, but I really hope I’m wrong on this one.

It’s just that a happy reunion between the two seems unlikely given the overall lack of happy endings in the Walking Dead franchise.

I’m happy to catch up with Tyreese, Carol and the kids in the next episode, although as I said, I’m not happy that there seems to be no Rick.  It seems like so many episodes in a row without the former King County policeman, but then again, maybe I just feel that way as he’s my favorite character.

There are only three episodes left, and with the next one probably focusing only on Tyreese and crew, I’m betting the final two are going to be incredible.  All of these fragmented episodes have got to be leading to something big.

Blogging Dead: The Walking Dead, Episode 412 ‘Still’

Still is the 12th episode of the 4th season of The Walking Dead and, like the 12th episode of the previous season (Clear), it’s a self-contained “bottle” episode.  Considering the high praise from fans and critics for Clear, Still had a lot to live up to in that regard.

While not quite as good as Clear, it was a pretty good episode.

The most suspenseful moments of the show were in the very beginning when Beth and Daryl Dixon were trapped in the trunk of a car, desperately trying to stay quiet as shambling walkers bumped against the vehicle.  No music was played, no dialogue was spoken between the two of them.  All we could hear was the sounds of the walkers and all we could see was the terror in the faces of the two survivors.  It was pretty riveting stuff, even if I was sure they’d make it out, being the beginning of the episode and all.

I liked Beth’s quest for her first taste of alcohol.  Her father’s gone, everyone else might be as well, it’s probably just a matter of time before she is, so… why the hell not?  Drink up, Beth!  At least it gave them a temporary goal, something to do other than just sitting and rotting in the middle of the woods.

Could you imagine if Beth wound up with Bob the drunk instead of Daryl?

It was interesting to see Daryl and Beth explore two very different locations, one being a country club for richer folks and the other a run-down house of a dirty redneck family.  In a way, it kind of mirrored the two of them and their very different upbringings and personalities.  Beth represented the fancy, high-income folks at the country club, which could explain why Daryl was so hostile towards her as she represented the things he used to hate about society.  Daryl felt right at home in that old, beaten-down shack, so if not for the end of the world, people like Beth and Daryl probably never would have crossed paths.

Now, all they have is each other.

Some people are already “shipping” Daryl and Beth, clamoring for a romance between the two.  Personally, I don’t see it that way, and I don’t think Daryl would, either.  I think the two of them merely arrived at having a much greater respect for one another.  I feel like Daryl is so introverted with women and sex or a relationship wasn’t even on his mind.  I think he really just wants to look after Beth and he’s becoming more of a guardian for her rather than a lover.

I liked the symbolism of burning down the house in the end.  In the episode, we learned that Daryl was still somewhat clinging to his troublesome past, such as instinctively gathering money and jewels as if that junk was still valuable.  Burning down the house that reminded him of the abusive and terrible lifestyle he had always lived could only be therapeutic for Daryl and help him continue to evolve into the much better man he has become.

I think it was good for the show to give Daryl and Beth both some much-needed character development.  I found myself caring about each of them so much more by the episode’s end.  I’m ready to hook back up and touch base with everyone else now, though, and hope we all can get back together before too long.

Blogging Dead: The Walking Dead, Episode 411 ‘Claimed’

Claimed was a very suspenseful episode of The Walking Dead and a great follow-up to the previous excellent installment before it, After.

All of the scenes with Rick were very good and easily the best of the episode.  Being unarmed and trapped under a bed, hiding from devious intruders, certainly had me afraid for Rick.  I realize that Rick dying in this episode would be highly unlikely, but the suspense was still incredibly high.  Even if they didn’t kill him, I thought he could be hurt or captured, and I was definitely afraid for him.

Rick’s walker bomb idea was genius.  When he opened the door slightly after killing the man he encountered in the bathroom, it didn’t really click for me as to why he did that until the end of the episode when it seemed that the man had turned and attacked the other raiders.  It was also pretty sweet to see Rick as a badass again, showing that he’s still got it with his incredible escape from the house.

I found Rick’s stealthy escape really reminded me of the video game The Last of Us.

The exploration with Michonne and Carl was interesting but I felt that it moved a little slowly.  Maybe a little too much time was spent with Carl grilling Michonne about her child, because we, the viewers, already know this.  We really didn’t learn anything new about him other than his name, Andre (which sounds pretty close to Andrea.. maybe that’s why Michonne bonded with Andrea so easily?)  I do like seeing the two of them bond though, but I also didn’t really care for the cliche line Carl threw out in the beginning, where he says, “I would rather drink Judith’s formula…”

It just seemed a little forced.

Abraham has grown on me a little more since his corny introduction, but I’m still on the fence with Rosita and Eugene.  Rosita has barely spoke or done anything really, other than look pretty in her unrealistic outfit.  I do have hopes for her though, because I am a fan of her comic counterpart, and the same goes for Eugene.  I do dig the Euge in the comics, but so far I’m unimpressed with the TV version.  He’s come across as really weird and kind of annoying, but I guess that’s probably the point.

I do like Tara and I’m glad she’s stayed so loyal to Glenn.  It’s going to be her only saving grace when the group does finally get reunited (assuming they all actually do get back together).  I am sure some of the others will recognize Tara from being a part of the Governor’s militia which brought about the destruction of the prison.  Hopefully Glenn stays in one piece because he’s the only one that’s got her back.

Overall, this was a solid episode, and as I said, the Rick stuff (and thangs) was highly intense and riveting.

Blogging Dead; The Walking Dead: Fall of the Governor: Part Two – Review

I liked the book.

This novel moved at a brisk pace and held my attention a lot easier than the previous two titles (The Road to Woodbury and Fall of the Governor: Part One). Of course, it had the advantage of starting in the midst of the most interesting part of the story– the feud between Rick’s prison group and the Governor. It picks up after the mutilation of the Governor by Michonne, so things have already escalated and continue to do so quickly.

It was very, very interesting to see everything from Woodbury’s point of view during the iconic battle from the comics. I thought Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga did a good job of humanizing the formerly faceless and nameless drones who we only saw absorbing bullets in the other medium. If you didn’t previously know anything about Rick or Michonne, they really would seem like bad guys to the Woodburians. That’s all thanks to the Governor’s mastery at manipulation, of course, which was interesting to see develop.

There was a lot of material that wasn’t shown in the comic books that made this novel a very interesting read. We got to further explore bit characters like Bob, Lilly, Gabe and Bruce. We get a better picture of how the Governor recovered from his injuries at the hands of Michonne. We’re there for a first hand account of every event that occurs during the battle, step by step, just from the other side of the fences. And we also finally find out what happened with Lilly and the other survivors when they wound up trapped inside the prison.

As a hardcore TWD fan that can’t seem to get enough, I ate all of this up. I’m especially a fan of the Governor and prison/Woodbury storyline arc, so that had me even more intrigued. Despite other flaws the novels in this series might have had, the development of the Governor throughout all four books has been incredible, so I was enjoying the ride while I could as I knew this was where his story ends.

However, being the huge fan of the comics that I am, there was something about the book that really, really bothered me. The dialogue spoken by the characters often didn’t match what was printed in the comics. Certain lines had only slight differences, such as a word or two being changed, while others were completely different. Other times, characters would say a line that was spoken by a different character in the other medium.

I thought the novels and comics were supposed to be canon, so shouldn’t the dialogue all have been exact? If it’s different, then wouldn’t this just be a fan fiction, or a reimagining? I forgave the timeline discrepancies, such as the war taking place two years into the apocalypse when it happened much sooner in the comics, but I don’t think there’s any excuse to have different dialogue. Bonansinga would have had the graphic novels right there in front of him, so I don’t get why he couldn’t match it up. Maybe as a writer, he wanted to take some creative liberties and put his own little spin on the story? That’s fine, but in that case, call it a fan fiction, and don’t say that it’s canon to the comics.

I guess I was particularly peeved that Jay Bonansinga even managed to flub the Governor’s iconic line. Yes, the infamous line from one of the most iconic panels in the entire series, with the Governor pointing out from atop the approaching tank and screaming, “KILL THEM ALL!” In the novel, he instead shouts,

“Destroy them all, now!”

It’s such a small change, but for a big TWD nerd like me who had been waiting for that line in particular to be spoken, it was highly disappointing. There was also a discrepancy with the Governor’s demise, which I thought was extremely cheesy;

SPOILERS BELOW

After Lilly blows the Governor’s head apart and kicks him into the zombies, he screams, “Philip Blake lives!!” as they are munching down on him. The line obviously wasn’t spoken in the books, probably because we could see in vivid detail that his head was blown completely apart; there was no way he was going to be able to say ANYTHING, much less scream it loudly enough for everybody left around the prison to hear. I get that Jay Bonansinga probably added the line for dramatic effect, but I thought the suddenness of his death, followed by being completely devoured by walkers, was probably dramatic enough.

END SPOILERS

I understand that things like changed or added dialogue probably won’t be as big a deal to more casual fans of the comics, or to those who’ve never read them. The story itself basically remains unchanged, after all. But, it did bother me, and was probably what took this a peg down from being on par with the first book, Rise of the Governor.

I would still highly recommend this to big comic book fans who have always been curious about Woodbury and their point of view in the iconic war with the prison. It’s fast-paced with a lot of good character development and teaches us a lot of new things we didn’t know about the Governor, Woodbury and the other inhabitants there. For those who wouldn’t want to invest the time to read through all four novels, I’d say you could get by skipping the second and third ones. I still say Rise of the Governor is the best of the bunch, but Fall of the Governor: Part Two isn’t too far behind.