Pixar Playlist #6 - The Incredibles

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

The Incredibles represented a unique challenge for Pixar, as the first film that had leads that were all human, and an entirely human set of background characters, requiring new techniques for animating clothing, muscle and hair but this film presented unique challenges in animating fire, water, air, steam, explosives and dust. It had quadruple the number of the locations of other Pixar films and at the time had the longest run-time. Topping all that off, the writer and director of this film, Brad Bird was pretty new to the CGI game. His previous film was The Iron Giant, which did utilise CG, but not to this extent.

With all that in mind, it’s amazing this film ended on a $92m budget, $2m less than the much less innovative and shorter Finding Nemo. The film went onto making $633m at the box office and continues Pixar’s streak of critical hits with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating. But where does it rank on the Pixar Playlist, let's take a look

Praise4Media #60 - Rampage

Video Game Adaptations are rarely good. You can get films which are super unfaithful and stupid as hell, like the Super Mario Bros. Movie or you could get ones that are faithful, but are equally as underwhelming, like the Ratchet and Clank movie turned out to be. And most of them are financial failures. One that broke that mould, before Detective Pikachu came along was Rampage

Yes, we’re back with The Rock on a video game movie… I’ve never played Rampage… Sorry? But a quick Wikipedia summary tells me you play as a monster and your objective is to destroy the city. OK, a movie would never play out like that, but that’s a fun enough premise to run with, basically a monster movie.

The film made $430m on its $120m budget, although with an additional $140m spent on marketing, it’s unclear whether this actually broke a profit or not. Directing this is Brad Peyton, who’s worked with The Rock before on San Andreas and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. On the writing team we have Ryan Engle, who’s helped write Non-Stop, Carlton Cuse who co-wrote San Andreas, Adam Sztykial, who co-wrote Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, poor guy and Ryan J Condal, who co-wrote Hercules, another film featuring the Rock.

The film had a mixed critical reception, it has a 51% Rotten Tomatoes rating, with an average 5.27/10, but audiences seemed kinder, giving it a 73% rating with an average 4.05/5. So, who’s right in this non-debate? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 Episodes 11-13 review

It’s December, so here are the final 3 episodes of season 2 of Luke Cage, and of Luke Cage in general, spoilers to follow (obviously)

Adaptation Month - Mary Poppins

We conclude adaptation month with a film that’s loved by everyone, except the writer of the book. Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is a children’s book released in 1934 and written by P L Travers, a film adaptation was released by Disney in 1964, with a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, both of whom had previously worked with Disney, in particular in their animation department and had written Son of Flubber. The Sherman Brothers also deserve some credit for the songs in this movie, which they had written.

PL Travers objected to the use of musical numbers and animation, but Disney overruled here, so it’s not hard to see why she was sour on the project. But does it do justice to the book’s story? No, I’m not going to even pretend that it does, so here’s my thoughts on the book just as a book.

The Book

Mary Poppins is a children’s story, it’s filled with a sense of magic and weirdness that kids are likely to be drawn to but lacks any real nuance or narrative, or really much in terms of character for adults to enjoy reading on their own.

The Film

This film does have its problems, in particular in regards to the ending, but I think they did a marvellous job. Considering the technology that made this film possible was very new around this, the animation/live action integration is impressive. The songs are fantastic and the film provides wonder for kids whilst also providing the depth and narrative the book oh so desperately needed to appeal to adults.

Please note, I am only looking at the first Mary Poppins Book, if ideas are taken from its sequels, that’s great but I haven’t read those, so I’m judging this purely as an adaptation of the book it’s named after.

Adaptation Month - 5 Feet Apart

I am not a medical expert, and I’m not gonna rattle off statistics about Cystic Fibrosis. I do recommend checking out cysticfibrosis.org.uk if you’re in the UK or equivalent charities if you live elsewhere.

OK, I’m cheating a bit on this one, but in my defence, I only just worked that out. 5 Feet Apart the book was released in November 2018, with the film being released in March 2019 in the UK. Rachael Lippincott handled the novelisation of a screenplay written by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis. Because of this being a novelisation tying into the film, it’s already pretty guaranteed to be a very loyal adaptation but sometimes changes happen that affect the film, but not the novel, will this be the case here? Before we get into it, here are some thoughts on the book and film as individual entities.

The Book

Rachel Lippincott utilises a dual-perspective narrative, with the two leads taking alternate chapters like in Allegiant. It works better here because our leads have more distinct personalities and individual conflicts outside of the one driving the main narrative. It’s well enough written but suffers from the same limitations the plot of the film has

The Film

From a filmmaking perspective, I see why this film was made. Setting it during a hospital stay (and what a lovely hospital, expensive I’d bet) means the film takes place in a relatively small number of locations, and without any major Hollywood actors, it kept the budget down. The characters are likeable in their own ways and I enjoy their performances. The story is little on the dull side, sadly, it could’ve done with some meatier subplots. With regards to the portrayal of CF, I find it hard to believe they’d even allow 6ft if they were high risk like these guys.

On the subject of the film, wtf were they thinking with that Instagram marketing campaign! They asked for stories of long-distance relationships and tried to equate it to living with Cystic Fibrosis, that’s all kinds of offensive and shame on them for doing that.

Adaptation Month - The Golden Compass

This one is an infamously bad adaptation, but is it as bad everyone claims it is?

Northern Lights was written by Phillip Pullman and was released in 1995, being an adventure story aimed at Young Adults, of course it was part of a trilogy, named ‘His Darkest Materials.’ The US name for the book was the Golden Compass, hence that being the name of the film adaptation.

Handling the adaption to screen, in both screenplay and directing is Chris Weitz, at this point in his career he’d written Antz, Nutty Professor II and About a Boy and this is his first project as a director without his brother, Paul helping him along. They also tended to work together on the screenplay side too.

The book had its share of controversies and they were carried over into the adaptation process, with criticism from both sides leading to the studio demanding massive changes in post-production. This is rarely ever a good sign.

The film had a $180m budget and made $372m at the box office, a strong international performance saving it from a dismal $70m performance in the US. The reviews were mixed, the film has a 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 5.61/10 score, and audiences gave it a 51% rating with a 3.22/5 average score.

Before we start, my thoughts on the book:

Adaptation Month - Mortal Engines

A wrinkle in time was the second biggest box office disaster of 2018, but now we look at the actual biggest, Mortal Engines.

Mortal Engines the book was released in 2001 and the first of a quartet written by Phillip Reeve. The film rights were purchased in 2009 by Peter Jackson, best known for the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy and the dull as sh*t Hobbit movies. He’s no stranger to adaptations is all I’m saying. He’s among the writers for the screenplay along with Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens, both of whom also worked on the aforementioned trilogies.

Directing the movie is Christian Rivers, who has experience in quite a bit of film-making, having met Peter Jackson at 17 and worked with him on various projects. This is his first stint as a full on director though. Not exactly encouraging for a project with a budget of up to $150m. It really backfired, earning $83m at the box office. And it didn’t do great with audiences, 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average 4.9/10 and an audience score of 50% average 3.17/5. Before we get to adaptation, here are my brief thoughts on both.

The book

Ignoring the premise that is ludicrously absurd, the book does a decent job of tying it to something resembling reality… Until a moment right near the climax of the book which is so ludicrous it takes me out of the story and into the next galaxy. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book written from a third person perspective. It’s probably for the best since we follow so many characters in this.

The Film

It’s a very pretty movie, and I’m afraid that’s about as far as I can go when it comes to compliments, I guess it’s self-contained which is something. It’s blatantly clear that Christian Rivers’ skills aren’t in directing, as this film isn’t the best acted. I can’t really talk too much about the plot but there are tones of holes in it. I can see why Peter Jackson made little effort when promoting this.

But let’s talk adaptation

Adaptation Month - A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time was a book released in 1962 written Madeline L’engle. The film rights were acquired by Disney and 2 attempts of an adaptation have been released. One a TV mini-series released in 2003, and a feature film released in 2018. I’m going to be looking at the latter as that’s the most recent and frankly it’s the worst of the two. Handling the adaptation process are Jennifer Lee, a major figurehead in Disney’s animation department with works including Wreck it Ralph and Frozen and Jeff Stockman, who had previously brought Bridge to Terebithia to screen

The film was a box office Bomb for Disney, making a mere $133 million on it’s $130m budget, making the second biggest bomb of the year, we’ll be covering the biggest in due course. It holds a mixed 42% with critics but audiences were less kind, giving it a 27% rating

So quick summary of my thoughts on them as individual entities

Adaptation Month - The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds is the first of a trilogy aimed at Young Adults. Try and contain your shock at that prospect. Unlike successes like the Hunger Games this film adaptation bombed critically and commercially. Is that because of the adaptation? Let’s take a look

The Darkest Minds was written by Alexandra Bracken, handling the adaptation is Chad Hodge, who has worked on adapting a stage play from a musical but this is his first foray into movies, as he’d mostly worked on TV. Jenifer Yuh Nelson is in the director’s chair, and she’s got a decent record, but mostly in animation being responsible for directing the Kung Fu Panda sequels.

I know they really wanted to hype the Stranger Things connection in the trailers but in truth, Sean Levy is one of the producers, he has a decent track record including Arrival, but there’s a limit to what producers actually do for film, other than secure funding and arrange schedules, which is why I generally don’t mention them.

Adaptation Month - Ready: Player One

Ready: Player One is a book written by Ernest Cline, released in 2011, the film adaptation was released in 2018 co-written by Ernest Cline and Zak Penn, who has co-written for Marvel and DC films both good and bad (and in the case of Elektra, terrible)

In the director’s chair is Steven Spielberg, who is no stranger to adaptations and is of course one of the master visionaries of our time.

But how does this fare as an adaptation? Let’s start with a brief rundown on my thoughts.

Ready: Player One the book is a fun read, but there are problems. It’s reliance on 80's pop culture and just the wealth of references to it scattered throughout the book can be a bit much. In addition, the nature of the story requires a f*ckton of exposition. Then we have Wade himself who has problematic moments, including a couple of comments that could be considered transphobic.

Ready: Player One the film is a visual treat as you’d expect with Spielberg and they did well to modernise some of the ideas presented in the book. Wade is less of a problematic character but unfortunately he’s not left with very much character, and neither is anyone else. It does have a similar problem with exposition, its first 20 minutes or so is full of it and there’s a number of major bits of plot convenience but it’s not unenjoyable.

Adaptation Month - Love, Simon

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Adaptation Month

There’s nothing original in Hollywood anymore, is something you’ve probably heard from a lot from people who enjoy film. Of course, there are all smaller indie studios working on original stuff but it’s generally overshadowed by Hollywood Blockbusters, which often adapt either IPs, like Superhero movies, or books, like the ones we’ll be looking at for the month of November

I’m going to try and put my own unique spin on Dominic Noble’s adaptation formula. First off, there’s no exception for ‘In Name Only’ adaptations, and I’m pretty sure there’s at least one in this line-up. But let’s start with one of my favourite films of last year: Love, Simon.

Love, Simon is an adaptation of Simon vs The Homo-sapiens agenda written by Becky Albertalli. Adapting her material are Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who both have experience with TV, but little with film-making. Heading up on the directing side is Greg Berlanti, who is the involved with the DC TV Universe with shows like Arrow, the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

It had a modest $17m budget and made a decent return, gathering $66m at the Box Office and was a success with both critics and audiences, with 92% and 88% Rotten Tomatoes ratings respectively. How does it fare though? Here’s a quick summary of how I feel about each.

Praise4Media #59 - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (A Strange Halloween 2)

Children with powers, a familiar game

But this film does not have an X in its name

They still need a home, one hidden from sight

But all will change on this all Hallows night

A boy in grieving, another cliché

His adventures will help him find his way

We enter the house of Mrs Peregrine

It’s a peculiar night on a Strange Halloween

My, does this feel like a Rage Issues callback. Quite a lot of familiar faces in this one, and a few that will become familiar faces soon enough. Mrs Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was based on a book (I feel like we’re starting adaptation month 2 weeks early) by Ransom Biggs. Adapting it to screenplay is Jane Goldman, who has worked on several projects covered through Rage4Media, including X-man First Class and Days of Future Past (aka the good ones) and the Kingsman movies.

Bruno Delbonnel is the cinematographer and did the same for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and The Darkest Hour. And in the directors chair we have Tim Burton, who you might remember from my early Batman reviews. I’m still not a major fan of Burton’s work, his unique visual style needs suitable projects and they’re not always the projects he ends up doing. I’ll come back to this in my eventual Dumbo review. Either way though, I do credit him for helping revitalise Batman’s image in the 80’s and several of his more independent projects are enjoyable.

Still, the film ended up doing decently, earning just shy of $300m at the Box Office on its $110m budget, although it had a mixed response critically with a 64% Rotten Tomatoes Critic Rating and a 60% audience rating with average scores of 5.93/10 and 3.49/5 respectively. Let’s take a look and see where things go.

Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 Episodes 9-10 - For Pete's Sake/The Main Ingredient

We’re back with more Luke Cage, and things are beginning to pick up. In the last set of episodes, Bushmaster stole all of Mariah’s money and the club, leaving her on the run without a lawyer as he prepares to finish the job. Misty’s head of police but with the station compromised, her only option is to call in a favour from Danny.

Praise4Media #58 - The House with a Clock in its Walls (A Strange Halloween 2)

A clock on the wall is always heard

But a clock in the wall seems rather absurd

The noise it makes will drive you mad

And could be a countdown to something bad

An orphaned child, innocent and bright

Comes into a house on a dark, long night

If the mystery is solved is still to be seen,

But we visit this house on A Strange Halloween

The House with a Clock in its Walls is based on the 1973 novel written by John Bellairs of the same name. I haven’t read the book, but give me a break, I’m going to be doing a bucketload of adaptations very shortly and I’ve got a lot of reading to do as it is. Adapting the film to screenplay is Erik Kripke who’s only film writing credit was Boogeyman, which was lambasted by critics. He’s gone on to help run acclaimed shows like Supernatural, Revolution and Timeless and also the comic series Jacked… I have never read Jacked and the general premise does not appeal to me.

Directing the project is Eli Roth, who has experience as a screenwriter, producer and director of various things, sometimes all at once. The film was financially successful, making $131m on its $42m budget, but was less of a hit with audiences and critics with 66 and 45% ratings and average scores of 5.98/10 and 3.12/5 respectively. So, where do I stand on this? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 episodes 7-8 - On and On/If it ain't rough it ain't right

Well, the last episodes of Luke Cage were interesting, Mariah’s got it coming on from all sides. Luke wants to use Piranha to get the cops involved, Bushmaster wants him to steal her fortune, and Comanche is trying to convince Shades his involvement with her is a bad idea, we ended with Bushmaster cheating in a fight and Luke drowning.

RageLite Review - Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster (Summer) Vacation (A Strange Halloween 2)

After 2 Hotel movies, they’ve run out of steam

And needed the action set someplace pristine

A mockery of sorts to Sandler’s film schemes

He films for a holiday with friends, so it seems

A major departure could shake up the game

New prospects for jokes, that aren’t kinda lame

Only the third film is yet to be seen

It’s a Monster Vacation on a Strange Halloween

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation or Summer Vacation for the Americans reading this was released in 2018 and despite being released in the summer, usually a fairly crowded movie period, it earned $580m on an $80m budget. Why did Spider-verse only make $375m again?

New team of writers, Genndy Tartakovsky, who has experience with CW cartoons including favourites like Samurai Jack, he also directed both of the previous movies so knows this franchise pretty well, Michael McCullers joins him. His most recent other works include Boss Baby, *sigh* and he’s apparently working on Shrek 5, be prepared for when that comes out, eventually. Still, he seems to have experience with comedy which should be good for this, right?

When it comes to critical response, more critics seem to like it than the audience, that isn’t unheard of (see the reaction to The Last Jedi, which I still enjoy btw) but whilst the critic score averages out at 5.45/10, the audience score averages 3.2/5, so is this the best of worst one yet? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 Episodes 5-6 - All Souled Out/The Basement

So, in the last batch of Luke Cage episodes, not a lot happened. I mean a few things happened. Claire left, Misty got over her funk, Luke’s ego has lead him to being served a lawsuit and Bushmaster kicked his ass, but this was nearly 2 hours. I guess Mariah is up to some things too but nothing important, yet.

RageLite review - Hotel Transylvania 2 (A Strange Halloween 2)

A Hotel for monsters, cliché, what a bore

But something about it left folks wanting more

Was it the crisp animation, fluid and quick

Or was it the story, that thought makes me sick

The child of Dracula meets the guy of her dreams

But true love is not always as it seems

Will the sequel zing, a love that is true?

A Strange Halloween: Hotel Transylvania 2

Hotel Transylvania 2 came out in 2015, with much of the same cast and crew as the first one, the only difference I can see is in the writers. Before, Robert Smigel and Peter Baynham wrote the screenplay, based on a story by Todd Durham, and Dan and Kevin Hageman, this time Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel wrote the story themselves.

The movie was successful, making $473m on a $80m budget but that doesn’t mean it faired any better critically, it didn’t.

Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 Episodes 3-4 - Wig Out/I Get Physical

Thanks to the heatwave and several other things going on in my life, it’s been a few weeks since I last talked Luke Cage, it isn’t for you though, so let’s dive right into…

RageLite review - Hotel Transylvania (A Strange Halloween 2)

A Hotel for monsters, a novel idea

Told again and again, for all to hear

Comedians notorious brought into the fray

For a comedy, light-hearted, make of that what you may

3 films have been made, all profitable too

But those that rated it highly were few

So how do they rank among the films I have seen?

Find out as we resume A Strange Halloween

Hotel Transylvania was an idea created by Todd Durham, a comedy writer mostly known for skits and sketches. He created a bible with various idea for characters, plots, theme park rides and such, and sold it to Sony, who saw $$$ in this project and green-lit it. And despite the films themselves getting mixed reception and making but not Disney levels of money at the box office, the franchise, as a whole, has been massively successful, making billions of dollars for Sony.

So, for the first 3 weeks of A Strange Halloween 2 (I’m gonna keep my Luke Cage reviews going for now) we’ll be looking at what goes on in this hotel of Horror. Let’s start with the first film.

Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 Episodes 1-2 - Soul Brother #1/Straighten it out

OK, time to look at the next series along the line with Netflix’s Marvel shows, which has now come to a close. I can’t say I’m disappointed or even surprised about this, but I will say that Luke Cage is the series I dreaded to watch the most. Luke Cage is a problematic character to write, he’s invulnerable to conventional ammunition, and super-strong to boot so harming him by conventional means is impossible. So season 1 took the liberty of creating super-bullets to harm him and having them start to show up everywhere, rather undermining the point. Season 2 also suffered from a weak villain as the show’s biggest asset was tossed aside too early. Still, it’s the show that introduced us to Misty Knight, the NMU’s biggest asset so it can’t all be bad, right? Well, let’s dig into Luke Cage s2 and take a look.

Ratchetrospective - Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

There’s only one Ratchet and Clank Game I never covered during the original Ratchetrospective run, or during sequel month (or a rage review – like with Secret Agent Clank) and that’s Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters. It’s the first of the 2 games heralded by High Impact Games, a team that has previous games covered in Rage4Media reviews such is Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, and Secret Agent Clank. To its credit, Size Matters is better than both of those but we’ve got a way to go to explain why.

High Impact Games was made up of former Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog employees and were tasked to creating games for Sony’s handheld console of the time, the PSP. The problem is that Ratchet and Clank was a title designed for 2 analogue sticks and 8 buttons, and with the PSP you’re down to 1 analogue stick, and 6 buttons (they cheat to make a 7^th one) this is a problem in both Secret Agent Clank and The Lost Frontier as well.

But enough preamble, let’s take a look at Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

RageLite review - Ant-man and the Wasp

Ant-man was one of Marvel’s more modest hits when it was released back in 2015, making around $520m on around $120m budget. A sequel was ultimately inevitable and Marvel did increase the budget for it, putting it around $190m. Peyton Reed is back directing but we have an all knew writing team including Chris McKenna, who wrote the Lego Batman movie and Spider-man: Homecoming, Erik Summers, who also worked on Homecoming and the previously reviewed Jumanji sequel, Andrew Barrer, who’s last work was on the 2014 film Haunt, Gabriel Ferrari, who was producer of Haunt, and Paul Rudd himself, who had helped write the screenplay for the original Ant-man.

The film had the blessing/curse of being released between Infinity War and Endgame, anticipation was high, and turnout was OK, it made around $620m, again a modest success for Marvel. Critically it did well, an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating but with an average of only 6.97/10, Audiences gave it a 76% rating with an average 3.76/5. How did I find it? Let’s take a look

#73 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 3)

Oh goody, Heroes in Crisis, time to put this garbage to bed. Here’s a recap of what I’ve covered so far: A bloody massacre as occurred at the strange and stupidly run facility known as the Sanctuary, tapes that shouldn’t exist were leaked to Lois Lane and rather than giving essential evidence to the Justice League, she wrote an article.

Superman makes a statement to the press rather than actually looking for the killer. That honour goes to Booster gold, who after claiming innocence under the Lasso of truth, something I will not drop btw, is pursued by Harley Quinn and Batgirl who still think he’s the murderer for some reason. On his side is Ted Kord, who has donned his pre-new 52 appearance because Tom King and Jamie S Rich don’t know jack about DC continuity. And most of you are probably still wondering why I spent half my first review giving you the backstory of Wally West when he’s been dead the whole time. But don’t worry, answers will follow. Also, this is all that’s happened in 5 issues.

#72 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 2)

OK, we’re back to this, and there’s a lot to cover, so there isn’t gonna be a long preamble like last time

Previously on Heroes in Crisis: Writer Tom King destroyed the premise of his own story by starting with a massacre at a trauma centre known as the Sanctuary. Booster Gold and Harley Quinn fought, both blaming the other for said massacre. And that’s it.

Once again, trigger warning, I’m going to be describing offensive scenes and not all of them from Heroes in Crisis. Violence, death, suicide, mental health and sexual assault/rape may be covered in this review.

#71 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 1)

I was originally gonna wait on this one, but with my schedule originally there wasn’t gonna be another Rage Review until at least December, so I’m rectifying that now. Heroes in Crisis is the worst comic story I’ve ever read. I’ll make no bones about that, it’s worse than the stupid Mr Freeze retcons, worse than the revamped origins written by Scott Lobdell, worse than Felicia D Henderson’s Teen Titans rune, worse than Cry for Justice and its follow-up mini-series and worse than Secret Empire.

To understand exactly why this story p*sses me off, we need to examine a couple of mental health related issues, so trigger warning. This review, and the onecs that follow will discuss death and suicides in relation to mental health and how this story does all of it a complete disservice. Also, I’m not a doctor, most of my analysis is based on common sense and minor bits of research. If I make a mistake, please point it out to me, I do not want to be giving out inaccurate information.

                                                                                        

Before we begin we must also look at the story of Wally West, so many spoilers to follow. 

Praise4Media #57 - Avengers: Infinity War

It’s time, after a decade’s worth of buildup we begin the most ambitious crossover Marvel has ever put into film with Avengers: Infinity War

Infinity War is a movie adaptation of an event comic, not exactly the one it's named after but the concept in general. And not a personal, small story like Heroes in Crisis (come back next week for that) but a grand scale epic saga that brings together characters from across the universe. And it’s been building for a while, with the idea of infinity stones introduced properly in Thor: The Dark World (I know the tesseract predates, but this was the film where they were officially referred to as infinity stones) referenced in Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange and expanded on in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Thanos was introduced as early as the Avengers, making his official debut in Guardians of the Galaxy, where his two ‘daughters’ had become prominent characters. There’s usually build-up to event comics too. Infinite Crisis built off Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, The Omac Project, Villains United, pages of Justice League, Superman and Teen Titans and the Rann/Thanagar War. Secret Empire built off a crossover called Pleasant Hill, and the events of Captain America

The Infinity duo of films will draw off just about every film in the MCU but here are some important things you could do with knowing before jumping in.

The Time Stone is part of Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto

The Space Stone/Tesseract was supposedly on Asgard when it was destroyed, we see Loki gaze upon it briefly when he was enacting the plan, and it's safe to assume he took it.

The Power Stone is on the Nova Corps home world of Xandar

The reality stone/Aether is with the Collector on N.O.W.H.E.R.E.

The Mind stone is currently in the head of the vision, he laments that he still doesn’t know what that is

During the events of Civil War, Thor and the Hulk were absent as Tony Stark, Rhodey, Vision and Spider-man fought against Captain America, the Scarlett Witch, Black Widow, Ant-man and Hawkeye, the latter half are now wanted fugitives, with Cap giving up his shield after his fight with Iron Man.

Black Panther had a role in Civil War but uncovered the manipulations and ultimately agreed to help Cap with Bucky Barnes. With help from his sister, Shuri, Bucky has recovered from his mental conditioning and is now living in Wakanda

With the people of Asgard having escaped the destruction of their home and heading to Earth, Thanos’ ship shows up right behind them.

With the departure of Joss Whedon after the hell that was working on Age of Ultron (I imagine working on Justice League was just as pleasant) the Russo Brothers have stepped up as director. They directed both Winter Soldier and Civil War, showing they have a good grasp of believable action and can handle a large cast with multiple plotlines.

Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFreely are writing the screenplay. They also have done a number of Marvel projects including all the Captain America films and Thor: The Dark World. Some of the best and worst of Marvel then.  But here it’s do or die time, so let’s take a look at Avengers: Infinity War.

Praise4Media #56 - Malibu Rescue

OK, so I was going to do a mini review of Inferno but it’s come off Netflix and I don’t have a copy so I’m gonna need an emergency backup. Something dumb but not insulting, relatively harmless but with enough characters that I have things to say about them and most important of all, it’s got to be short.

Sounds perfect.

Malibu Rescue is a Netflix attempt at a live action sitcom aimed at younger audience. Think Even Stevens or basically any Disney sitcom. They’ve released a season of 8 episodes, and man is it stupid, but today we’re gonna talk about the 1-hour Netflix film that kicks it off.

RageLite review - Star Trek Beyond

Captain’s Log: Star Date... I think we’re in August now, this is the voyage of the Starship Enterprise and the story of how when we explored the final frontier, we delivered a Box Office bomb.

Star Trek Beyond is the third and currently final instalment in the Star Trek reboot series. The series would still have a future in its series on streaming but the adventures of Captain Kirk would seem to be at an end for the moment, with Chris Pine becoming Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman, and somehow will be in its sequel despite being dead and all.

When it comes to the writers we’re out with the old and in the with the Simon Pegg, who has certainly written stuff before but is mostly well known for comedy. Doug Jung joins him and his experience is mostly in TV. JJ Abrams has stepped back into a producer’s role, with Justin Lin taking over as director.

Released in July 2016, just 2 months off the series’ 50^th anniversary, made on a $185m budget, the film underperformed, making just $314m at the box office. Having to compete with Ghostbusters, Jason Bourne, and Suicide Squad, 2/3 of which are terrible, and the other only slightly less terrible, didn’t help, attributing to a 63% drop in the box office on the second Friday, and lead to an estimated $50m loss for the studio.

The series continued to get critical praise, with an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an 80% audience rating with averages 7/10 and 3.88/5 respectively. So, what happened here? Let’s take a look

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 6 Episodes 5-7

Well, some major revelations happened in the last episodes, we have 3 more episodes of the season, let’s see how they capitalise on this.