Author: Chris S.

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Finale

Welp.

Yeah, we had a regeneration.

Yeah, Billie Piper is (possibly?) the 16th Doctor.

The bigger surprise to me, and one of my favorite moments of the Doctor Who finale, was the return of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor.

The biggest problem I’ve had with this series as a whole is the writing.

Every actor who’s played the Doctor in nuWho have been brilliant IMHO, as have most of the companions.

Eccleston, Tennant and most of Smith’s runs had, for the most part, overall better written stories than Capaldi, Whittaker and Gatwa’s runs.

  • The Impossible Girl storyline just went on too long, and the whole Danny Pink plot felt too forced for us as fans to care.
  • The Flux storyline and the Timeless Child idea seemed not fleshed out enough, as did the Fugitive Doctor.
  • Space Babies.  ’nuff said.

Bringing back Jodie actually made me smile and tear up, she was wonderful in this short appearance.  That one exchange:

Thirteen: I should say that to Yaz.
Fifteen:  You never do.  But she knows.

Wow.

As for the Billie Piper thing, the credits simply said:

Not ‘as The Doctor’ as they usually do.  Is this a fake out?  Will she go by another name, like… Bad Wolf?

Of course the other question is how long until the next series, or if we’re even getting another series?

In any case, this finale, to me, was the perfect end to Gatwa’s short run as the Doctor.

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Ohana Means Family

It’s been some time since I last watched the original animated film, which is hands down my favorite modern Disney animated film, with Sleeping Beauty my favorite classic.

I’ve only seen Aladdin as far as Disney’s live adaptations.

I really enjoyed the new Lilo & Stitch movie.  It hit all the right notes that I expected, with the most unexpected thing is the concert t-shirt that Nani was wearing (Prince – Purple Rain Tour).

I was surprised at one of the voice actors (Hannah Waddingham) and had no idea that Tia Carrere was in the film, she who originally voiced Nani in 2002.

I was most impressed with the kid who played Lilo, Maia Kealoha.  She really brought that character to life in live action in both her look and her portrayal.

And of course I absolutely loved Stitch, who I’ve called my true spirit animal since those original pre-release trailers, wreaking havoc in various Disney movies to AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’.   The live-action version made me smile whenever he appeared and did… stuff.

And I almost cried when he gave the Ohana speech at the end.

While the theatre was maybe half full, it was mostly families and kids, and the group of moms sitting near me laughed along with me during parts that were callbacks to the original.

I think I enjoyed this one more than I did Mission: Impossible 8 the night before.

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The Final Reckoning

I love the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Ever since the first one in 1996, and particularly the 4th, 5th , and 6th films, these have been a helluva ride at the movies.

That said, this last film in the franchise was… not great.

It reminded me of most of the 2-part episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation when the first part was really good, and then the second part… isn’t.

Many of the action sequences were unnecessarily looooong, even for an M:I film.  It was more over the top than any other film in the franchise.

There was a character reveal that served no purpose, though if I had paid attention to the character’s name I would have expected it.

There was the return of a character that elicited a large laugh from me and maybe one other person when they first appeared, just because.  If you’re a long time fan of this series, you’ll know.

And I didn’t know Rebecca Walton could pull off an American accent, which was a little jarring to be honest.

But overall I felt it was disappointing conclusion to this franchise.  I didn’t hate it, it wasn’t as bad as the last season or so of Game of Thrones, it was just… okay, as action movies go.

At least I get to see Lilo and Stitch on Friday.  Plenty of families at the theatre for that film, and maybe I should have seen that tonight as well.

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Andor Season 2

I almost want to put Andor ahead of Rogue One on my list of favorite Star Wars projects, but as I still leave the original 1977 film at the top because everything afterwards came from it, we don’t get the Andor show without Rogue One.

That said, Andor‘s two seasons was an amazing piece of Star Wars storytelling.

And as awesome as the third arc (Episodes 7-9) was, this fourth arc was quieter but told as good a story.

The backstory of Luthen, the rescue of Kleya, the final chapter all hold up to the rest of the series.  And while I expected some bittersweet endings, there were some moments of satisfaction with the fate of certain characters we’ve followed since Season 1.

As for that final shot, that was probably the most satisfying of them all, as a couple of characters who I was most concerned about were shown to be at peace and safe.

When the series ended, Disney+ popped up ‘You may also like: Rogue One‘ and I immediately pressed play to start watching what’s jokingly referred to as the 2 hour 13 minute post credits scene to Andor.

I got about a third of the way through before it was about bedtime for me, but I also decided that instead of finishing the film soon, I’m going to watch the entire Andor Saga from Season 1 to Rogue One, probably over the rest of the month, and then celebrate the anniversary of Star Wars on the 25th with a viewing of the first film.

As for my overall review of Andor Season 2, I’ll just say that it joins Season 1 as the best Star Wars content since The Empire Strikes Back.

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Episode 6

As I type this, it’s been maybe a couple of hours since I finished watching Tales of the Underworld, the latest animated offering from Star Wars.

And I’m still a bit of a wreck.

The first three episodes featured fan-favorite Asajj Ventriss, while the last three episodes featured another fan-favorite, Cad Bane.

All the episodes were good, but when I got to the final episode and realized what they were doing, I simply could not believe it.

Minor spoiler here, but basically they were paying tribute to High Noon.

Which is one of my Dad’s favorite movies.  The one that both of us would stop what we were doing and watch if we found it playing on some TV channel.

There so many scenes in the episode that echoed the movie.

By the end, I was tearing up, but smiling, and about an hour later, thinking back on the episode, I began to sob and totally lost it.

Dad’s death anniversary is a week away, a day before Mother’s Day this year, so that combo would inevitably do me in emotionally, but of course it triggered a week early because of Star Wars.

While watching a reactor’s first viewing of the original Star Wars today, I was reminded of something I asked my Dad when I was 10:

“What was your favorite part of Star Wars?”

Dad told me that he liked the part where Luke blew up the Death Star.

I think he would have liked this episode of Tales of the Underworld, even though he didn’t watch much of the animated shows.

And to be totally honest, I felt him there, watching that episode with me, as we always did with High Noon.

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Thunderbolts*

This one felt more like a Marvel film that most of the recent Marvel films.

I liked it, it was much better than Brave New World.

The characters were good, the plot was good, and the villain was better than Sidewinder and Sterns.

For me it was worth it JUST for the post credits scene, which was hinted at if you paid attention to the MUSIC part of the credits.

My nephew said that he wouldn’t mind another stand alone movie/Disney+ special with this team, but we both know that that’s not going to happen.

It was a fun time at the movies, even with the heavy themes they hit throughout the film.

Thumbs up!  Go see it!  In the theatre!  Or wait for streaming!

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Brave New World

Overall, I liked it.

It was not a bad movie, nor a great movie.

It felt to me like a bunch of set pieces/action scenes that were put together around something of a plot.

Anthony Mackie was great as Captain America.

Danny Ramirez was okay as Falcon.

Nothing really jumped out at me as significant, but like others have said elsewhere, this feels like it set up so much for the next few movies, and at the same time it tied up a bunch of loose ends in the MCU, dating back to 2008.

What did stand out (and I may be biased) was Harrison Ford taking over the role of Thunderbolt Ross from the late great William Hurt.  He and Mackie carried the film.  A lot of the supporting characters seemed flat to me, including the main villain.

There were a couple of cameos that surprised me, though on reflection they shouldn’t have.

This film was better than a majority of Marvel films that came out after Endgame, which isn’t saying much, of course, but I would rank it above Eternals, and I actually liked Eternals.

Here’s hoping Thunderbolts* lives up to it’s hype in May.

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#prepare4launch

It’s no secret that Superman and Spider-Man are my top 2 superheroes from DC and Marvel, respectively.

But in the early 80s, when Marvel stopped publishing The Micronauts, of which I had a subscription, I chose to get the Fantastic Four as a replacement title in the mail.  And the reason for that was because I loved the late 70s Fantastic Four cartoon, which introduced H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot.

This was just as John Byrne started his run on the book, and I loved everything about the look of his Fantastic Four.

I had a mail subscription for a few more years, and then started getting the book monthly along with a bunch of other books from a comic book store.

I gave up on comics in the mid 90s, and I think I stopped getting FF shortly before that.

Flash forward to this morning, and I waited that full hour until the actual trailer was shown.

Annoyed as I was with the stupid countdown and the overly drawn out interviews, the trailer was awesome.

The Thing looked like the Thing I’ve always known.  Johnny, Reed, and Sue all looked great, to me.  As did Galactus’ shadow and helmet.

The whole retro vibe of this movie feels so right for the way the MCU works and how the FF needs to be brought into Phase 5.

I may be more excited about this movie than I am about Gunn’s Superman.