Netflix Retrospective: Stranger Things Season 1 episodes 3-4 (A Strange Halloween)

In the Town of Hawkins there's plenty to see

But at the centre lies a dark mystery

A boy has gone, into the unknown valley

And a girl is pursued without mercy

The mother, distraught, she can barely cope

His brother, a photographer, holds onto hope

His friends hold too, and begin their search

But for a girl named Barb, things have got worse

Love, at the centre, Nancy and Steve

A dope, a bully, his nature deceives

But the scariest things are as yet unseen

We'll see Stranger things on a Strange Halloween

Guilty Pleasures #47 - IT part 1 (A Strange Halloween)

Tracking its pray like a well-oiled machine

IT is coming on this Strange Halloween

How better to compliment a series about kids going up against a monster than another one. This is IT, and it’s seriously it, because we’ll be doing all of it over the next 3 weeks.

The popular Steven King Novel has received 2 notable adaptations, before we get to the movie, let’s start with the mini-series. And it’s a long one so we’re going to be doing it in 2 parts. The disk I have is double-sided, we’ll do each side separately. Unlike with the Secret Empire review though, I think it’s fairer to grade them separately. You’ll probably see why in part 2

But enough of the chit-chat, let’s start this ITrospective

Netflix Retrospective: Stranger Things Season 1 episodes 1-2 (A Strange Halloween)

Evil lurks in a realm unseen

In Stranger Things on a Strange Halloween

Stranger things is a series on Netflix, and has run for 2 seasons and 17 episodes, we’ll be looking at all of them over the months of October and November, but where better to start, than the beginning. Just a head’s up. I have only skimmed through this series before so there may be some errors in the descriptions. With that said...

#66 - Happy Death Day (A Strange Halloween)

The worst of evils are as yet unseen
But they come to light on a strange Halloween

This thing made over $100m on a budget of kitty litter (around $5m, kitty litter by Hollywood standards you understand) for example

Let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender season 2 episodes 10-13

We’re back exploring s2 of Voltron (1 day late)

Guilty Pleasures #46 - Justice League

Over the course of 10 years and over a dozen movies, it’s all been building up to this, this is… wait no, that was Avengers: Infinity War, let’s take a look at Justice League

DC comics do not have a good track record with movies. Since launching the DC Cinematic Universe, only one of their movies has a been a critical success. But most made money at the box office, here we’re looking at DC’s first bonafide flop. The movie was a bit of a mess behind the scenes thanks to Zack Snyder quitting the project and being replaced by Joss Whedon, who rewrote parts of the script and that entailed intensive reshoots.

For the record, I hold no ill will to Zack Snyder for his decision to step down. The loss of a loved one, especially under those circumstances, is a horrible thing to go through and I totally understand his decision to step aside. Then studio then mandated the film be under 2 hours long and wanted it released by the end of 2017 so executives could get their bonuses before the merger of WB and AT&T, this in spite of some hiccups in post-production.

The extent of the reshoots brought the budget up to $300m, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. It made $657m at the box office; once marketing was factored in that lead to an estimated $60m loss for the studio. So, where did this movie go wrong? And did it deserve to fail?

Guilty Pleasures #45 - Spider-man: Homecoming

Time to go back to Spider-man in his third iteration of the 21^st Century. I took issue with the Raimi Spider-man stories, mostly because of the dialogue which has aged terribly. I also don’t like the direction they went with the relationship between Peter and MJ (although it’s a million times better than selling their marriage to the devil)

The Amazing Spider-man movies are less cringeworthy when it comes to dialogue but have issues when it comes to storytelling and tone, with the second movie in particular being too busy setting up multiple plotlines and attempting to establish an expanded universe, rather than being a smaller self-contained story.

Sony were knocked back by the ‘poor’ performance of the Amazing Spider-man 2, dropping its sequels and I have no idea what they’re doing with Venom. They made a deal with Disney to incorporate Spider-man into the Marvel universe. My understanding of it, beyond merchandise which is another can of worms is this: Spider-man can become a part of the Marvel cinematic universe. Sony are still responsible for making (and financing) the movies, but with Kevin Feige, overseeing it as producer, as he is with all MCU movies. Sony do not have to pay Disney for any MCU characters they use, but at the same time, Sony do not get paid when Spider-man appears in any other Marvel movie. 

So, after making his debut in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Spider-man would be in his first MCU solo movie with Spider-man: Homecoming.

The movie was well received with a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (average 7.7/10) and made $880m on a modest $175m (well, modest by Marvel standards) budget. Is it deserving of all that praise? Let’s take a look