Sequel Baiting #5 - Ghostbusters vs Ghostbusters II

When there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call?

Nah, not today. Today we’re looking at the originals in this Sequel Baiting Halloween Special

Yeah, it probably is odd that I haven’t done a Halloween special in the past, truthfully, if you’ve seen any of my thriller reviews, you probably know Horror on its own doesn’t interest me. So yes, I’ve not lived with the nostalgia of Ghostbusters, in fact, prior to reviewing this, I hadn't even seen Ghostbusters 2. Both movies enjoyed a certain amount of financial success but it’s clear that the first one was more successful, both critically and financially. Hell, if it weren’t for Linkara saying he preferred the second movie, I’d have called this a foregone conclusion and left it be. But here we are. The rules from the Tomb Raider review apply here, the winner in each of the 6 categories gets a point, with 1 bonus point available for where one outdoes the other most significantly.

TV Retrospective: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 5 Episodes 9-10 review - The Man Who Never Was (+ lost episodes)

We’re back for a final look at the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 Episodes 3-4 review - In the name of the Rebellion

Star Wars Rebels continues to burn off episodes, so much so that I'm rescheduling the next review to next week, covering 5-9, and 7-9 will be covered two weeks after.

Guilty Pleasures #41 - Saban's Power Rangers

We’re on a kick with Power Rangers, aren’t we? And this is what it’s been building towards.

There’s been an odd trend that of Hollywood trying to make uber-serious versions of otherwise silly franchises. The worst of these was Fant4stic which managed to be dark, boring, completely non-nonsensical and somehow dumber than the movies it was supposed be more serious than.

But the truth is, there’s nothing wrong with a light-hearted tone, as long as the serious moments are taken seriously. A good example of this done effectively is Spider-man Homecoming, which I will probably get to next year. Although most of the Marvel movies are a good example of how to do this right.

Here’s the thing though. Power Rangers, in spite of some serious ideas, is an inherently silly show. Especially during the Mighty Morphin Era which this movie is attempting to re-tell. Whilst I can at least understand the potential of a dark Fantastic 4 (that doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea) I don’t really see what can be accomplished with doing the same to Power Rangers.

But here we are, and it’s another of 2017’s franchise ‘failures?’, boy there’ve been a few of those this year. It made only $142m on a $100m budget. Factoring in marketing and theatre cuts that’s a net loss for the studio. Fortunately, the one thing Power Rangers is usually good at is selling toys and it’s no exception here, it’s also apparently made a decent amount in DVD sales. I don’t see a sequel as likely but it’s apparently not beyond the realm of plausibility, unlike *cough*Fant4stic*cough*

But that said, Power Rangers struck an interesting chord with me, I actually kinda liked it, and I’m far from alone, this has a 45% Rotten Tomatoes rating which, whilst far from good, indicates at least mixed reception. So here is my take on the movie.

TV Retrospective: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 5 episodes 1-4 - Sky/The Curse of Clyde Langer

The final series of the Sarah Jane Adventures was tragically cut short after the death of Elizabeth Sladen. They had filmed everything they needed for 6 episodes, Skye, The Curse of Clyde Langer and The Man who never was, each following the usual 2-part narrative. I’ll be covering the first 2 of these stories in this retrospective, in the next I’ll be covering the final 2 episodes and will be analysing some of what the plans were for the rest of the series.

4 Issue Test #42 - The Defenders

Note: At the point of typing the Defenders series hadn’t come out yet.

Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones, together they are the Defenders, a street level Superhero team that deal with things below the pay-grade of people like the Avengers. I’ve reviewed a lot of their individual outings with all but Jessica Jones not meeting the standard I look for in comics.

So, in the writer’s seat we have Brian Michael Bendis. If you ever want the definition of a hit-and-miss writer, look up Bendis. I literally did an editorial on why Civil War II was a piece of sh*t. But Bendis also wrote Jessica Jones which I enjoy and was responsible for all the Miles Morales Spider-man issues, which have mostly been good, so maybe something’s here to enjoy. Let’s find out.

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 episodes 1-2 review - Heroes of Mandalore

Welcome back to Star Wars Rebels. Disney has decided to air 2 episodes each week, back-to-back in 1 hour blocks. I hope it’s not to burn off the episodes but being the last series, I suppose it doesn’t really matter that much. Anyway, let’s look at the first 2-parter: Heroes of Mandalore

Mini Review - Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

Here’s the second of the Power Rangers cinematic outings. But unlike the first one, this is canon to the TV show, essentially a cinematic 3-part opener to the new Power Rangers Turbo series, following on from Power Rangers Zeo. At the end of Zeo Lord Zed and Rita Repulsa had destroyed the Machine Empire and promised a comeback, but we’re not getting that here.

So, this movie holds an abysmal 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is hated by fans and critics alike. So, why is this so revered? Here’s my take on the movie.

Editorial - My thoughts on Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 3

Just a heads up, this is probably the last of these editorials I’ll be doing for Voltron, I’m going to be doing full on retrospectives on a lot of Netflix stuff come the New Year, and of course Voltron is on my list. I may do a s4 but I don’t have it locked in and it may be a while since I’m basically locked in until April at this point. Yes, I do a lot in advance. But since I’m not going to be doing Voltron until the summer anyway, here are my thoughts.

Because of reasons Netflix decided to split the 13 episodes that would've been season 3 into 2 smaller seasons, one of which premiered in August which I’m covering now, and one which will be coming out the day after this review.

4 issue Test #41 - Darth Vader

It’s been a while, but we’re back and it’s time to correct a mistake I made long ago. When I picked up Star Wars, it was great, I did not pick up the Darth Vader series that ran alongside it. I eventually bought it in trades and it’s awesome. But a new Darth Vader series came out recently and I’m going to be giving it the 4 issue test.

TV Retrospective - The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 Episodes 9-12 - Lost in Time/Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith

We continue our look at Series 4 of the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Mini Review - Power Rangers: The Movie

Owing to a busy week, I haven't had time to form my Editorial on Voltron s3, so here's my review of Power Rangers instead

For all my love of action, I’ve never really gotten into Power Rangers. I was a bit young to get into it during the Mighty Morphin era (I was less than a year old) and whilst I did occasionally see ads for its subsequent, I never really thought about watching it. I’ve since caught a couple of episodes just for research and because I was bored. They’re OK, nothing more than OK.

But the ideas are what intrigue me, incorporating footage from a Japanese show called Super Sentai to drive costs down is a good idea, combined with innovative toy designs has kept Power Rangers afloat for 25 years. But what happens when you take away that element. You get the Power Rangers movies.

I’ll eventually be talking about the 2017 movie, but I felt obligated to do some preliminary reviews so I’ll be doing the first 2 outings first. First off is Power Rangers: The Movie. Released in 1995 on a $15m budget it made back $66m, making it financial success. Critically its reception is more mixed with only a 41% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Sequel Baiting #4 - Lara Croft - Tomb Raider vs The Cradle of Life

Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life are movies based on the Tomb Raider video games, both were critically panned but the second one wasn’t profitable enough for the film venture to continue and despite a new actor being announced when Tomb Raider: Underworld came out, no Tomb Raider movie has arrived yet, although a trailer was released for one 2 weeks ago (and in my opinion it just looks like a rehash of the reboot game's story) But which is better. Let’s take a gander. 

And I’m going to change the format a little. Instead of giving each movie a point score out of 5, I’ll grant the better of the two one point. There is a single bonus point available for if one movie is significantly better in a particular category.

TV Retrospective - The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 Episodes 5-8 - Death of the Doctor/The Empty Planet