After kicking sufficient Skrugg ass to save his grandmother from their warpath of destruction last episode, Joey and company return to the supposed safe haven of the city's school hall which is now doubling as a shelter, only to find out that not only Will but also Professor Denton have disappeared and wandered off to do their own thing.
In the case of Will and his friend whose name I always forget, their decision to try and play at being heroes themselves soon gets them into trouble, as they sneak into the alien base in the hope of stealing their weaponry only to end up captives of the Skrugg. Given said aliens aims of destroying the human race to take over the Earth you would assume that capture would also mean instant death, but predictably it looks as though that won't be the case here.
Meanwhile, Professor Denton is trying to make sense of another Skrugg weapon retrieved from Heroman's battle outside his lab - An intellectual battle which Denton unsurprisingly loses, while Joey refuses to allow him to dismantle Heroman in the name of his research. Any such thoughts are soon put on the back burner however, as the Skrugg decide it's time for a good old-fashioned game of pinball, using the surrounding landscape as their table while singing along to Pinball Wizard. Okay, I might have made part of that up, but either way it's up to Heroman and Joey to save the day before this giant sphere crushes the building houses those sheltering from the invasion.
I have to confess that after finding the last couple of instalments of HEROMAN rather exciting, this episode fell a little flat, while descending even further into that predictable Saturday morning cartoon" mode of operation that I keep mentioning with regard to this city. Sure, this episode was as polished as ever in terms of presentation, and we saw Heroman himself get another deus ex machina-esque upgrade, but fighting against a giant marble just isn't all that interesting, while Will's dilemma is similarly hard to get caught up in any excitement about. Hopefully this is just a temporary blip before we get back to some more heated action, but this episode does back up my concerns that any interest in HEROMAN might prove to be short-lived if it can't shake things up a little more from time to time.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
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3 comments:
Is it too early to say, "Tolja?"
Don't get those hopes up, man. I just bought 4 more boxes of Cap'n Crunch.
You're underselling this episode, Hanners - I actually think that it successfully mixed things up a little. If this was a traditional SatAM cartoon Heroman would have hefted that sphere like a shotput and crushed the alien base with it with one toss - as it is, though, the Skrugg really have scored a minor victory - while they didn't grind all the evacuees to paste, the spheres are still rolling about flattening everything in their path and Heroman doesn't look as though he's in a fit state to fight them anymore. The heroes certainly don't seem to have the aura of invulnerability enjoyed by other cartoon heroes, so it's an interesting development.
Yeah it was interesting as for as shows like this can be interesting. It's met and at times exceeded all my expectations for it, that's for sure! But I keep my expectations appropriate for something like this. This is not FMA, it's not trying to be like it. It does what it does and it does it very well. So I find it a great show. I really REALLY like the animation.
But, plot-wise, all Heroman has to do is keep evolving like a pokemon and make everything alright. Or maybe like they pull some amazing "Enduring Friendship" card and lecture everyone about the real meaning of Christmas.
That's honestly what I think will happen.
Now, I'll be very surprised if someone besides "Soldier A" actually dies. Or at least if someone gets like, put in a coma or something. Preferably Joey. Heroman only reacts to him. Riiiight? :)
Heroman could have a serious weakness that can be exploited in a variety of ways that make for nail-biting "Oh, crap!" moments.
However, I don't believe any of this is actually going to happen. This series keep platforming like Mario until we get to the Skrugg King's castle, run under him and hit the button that makes the bridge collapse.
And I love Mario too. :)
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