I've mentioned more than a few times here, I try really hard to not have regrets in life (okay, I've probably mentioned it several times... give me a break, I've been blogging for over 20 years!). It's just not worth it to pine away over something you did or didn't do, something you said or didn't say, or somewhere you went or didn't go. Just be happy with what you got out of this life and not worry about the rest. It happened. Or didn't. What more can you do without the ability to travel in time?
That being said...
This is not to say that there aren't things I wish could have happened or not happen for one reason or another. Missed opportunities, if you will.
As an example... I really wish I had visited the Aspen Hard Rock Cafe when it was open. It would have been so easy to do. So easy that I kept putting it off so I could hit the more difficult ones in foreign countries. But then the cafe closed with little warning and my plan to visit every US cafe evaporated. That really sucked. It haunted me for years. Now-a-days, when I've pretty much given up on visiting Hard Rock properties, it's like... meh.
As another example... I really wish that I had visited the infamous "Star Wars Hotel" (AKA Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser) at Walt Disney World in Florida. I'm a huge Star Wars nerd, and the immersive properties of the hotel seemed like something I would have enjoyed. But it was ungodly expensive, and I just couldn't afford it. My plan was to wait until the newness wore off and the price would (hopefully) drop a bit when Disney needed to draw in more visitors.
Except rather than lower the price when they weren't getting enough visitors, Disney CLOSED THE HOTEL! I was bummed. Just like the Aspen Hard Rock, I had missed my opportunity forever.
And then I saw this video by one of my favorite YouTubers, Jenny Nicholson, detailing her totally fucked and busted experience at the doomed attraction. It's four hours, but time well-spent...
Holy shit!
Thank God I didn't have thousands of dollars to throw away on this awful experience. Knowing my luck, I'd end up with a worse stay than Jenny, and it's not like Disney is going to give you your money back if they failed to accomplish what they promise. At least I assume that's the case. If you go to one of their theme parks and an attraction you were dying to ride is broken down, you don't get part of your ticket price back. Unless you're an influencer with huge social media reach, apparently.
So, yeah, absolutely no regrets when it comes to Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.
As it should be.
My obsession with Star Wars is approaching 50 years (in 2027). The original film is a defining childhood experience for me, and I've been reading the books and comics, watching the movies and shows, and playing the games ever since.
Being a Star Wars fan can be a frustrating ordeal because there has been so much shit shoveled on top of the franchise over the years. But even so, my love of it all triumphs, and I can never get enough of the stuff. Tomorrow being "Star Wars Day" means that I will spend a good chunk of it revisiting things. This year I've decided it will be the five chronological films running from Solo through Return of the Jedi. I had already watched the sequel trilogy back in March. If there's time tomorrow, I will watch the good moments from the prequel trilogy as well (that'll take about 15 minutes).
I also decided to revisit my Star Wars movie ranking chart. But there really wasn't a need, because only one film really needs to be moved...
And here's a new run-down of my thoughts on all the movies above...
Solo: A Star Wars Story When I first saw the film, I thrilled to see Daniel Glover's exceptional take on Lando Calrissian... but not much else. The story was too convoluted and was, for the most part, unnecessary for Star Wars as a whole. Yeah, we get to see some of the throwaway stuff from the earlier films, but did we really need to see it? But over the years my opinion has changed. I was able to appreciate it as just a fun story that happened to be in the Star Wars universe as opposed to judging it solely as a Star Wars movie. There's some really cool action sequences and interesting ideas which make it a worthwhile addition to the franchise.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Given the mess that went on behind the scenes, it's a miracle that this movie worked as well as it did. Lucasfilm/Disney wasn't thrilled with what Gareth Edwards had done and brought in Tony Gilroy to rework it. Entire sequences were added, deleted, and changed. The result is not without problems, but it's a great film and incredible Star Wars. The Battle of Scarif... both on the ground and in the space above... is peak Star Wars for me. Every time I see the movie I go running to YouTube to find the fan edits which focus only on the space battle to disable the shield gate. Amazing, amazing stuff. As if that weren't all enough, you get to see the ultimate Darth Vader sequence and a poignant ending which was a huge punch to the gut that sent Star Wars in a direction that made it something... more.
Star Wars IV: A New Hope The movie that melted my brain as a kid doesn't really hold up in several areas, but is still a landmark movie that I love to an irrational degree. After rebelling against the Special Edition forever, I mostly watch that version now because cleaning up the special effects is just too important to ignore. I am still hoping that one day a version of the film which only cleans up the special effects of the original cut is released in 4K... jettisoning the stupid shit like Greedo firing first and Han meeting with Jabba. That's the dream. I don't for the life of me understand why Disney just doesn't fucking do it already. No need to respect George Lucas's wishes after he's talked shit about them... so just give everybody what they want.
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back The greatest Star Wars movie in existence by a wide margin, Empire was a serious take on sci-fi fantasy that Irvin Kershner managed to complete before George Lucas fucked up the franchise by making it about selling kiddie toys instead of being about Star Wars. Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan took Lucas's story idea and made it a mature, smart, nuanced screenplay that worked so beautifully that you got a serious taste of exactly what Star Wars could and should be. Easily in my top five movies of all time, this is what I think about when I think about Star Wars.
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi Here we go. The first step in George Lucas utterly shitting on everything Star Wars which came before. It's all about kiddie toys now, which is why we get nonsensical teddy bear Ewoks and other unnecessary character additions... plus a long slide into stupid shit like burp and fart jokes. I'm assuming all the coolest stuff... like the final battle between Luke and Anakin, and that epic space battle... were all thanks to Lawrence Kasdan's effort to make something Star Wars fans would actually want to watch, but who knows? While I still love this film simply because it's Star Wars and completes the trilogy, I also loathe it for how it took an unfuckable franchise and so thoroughly fucks it up. All because George Lucas had an agreement to keep all the money from the toy sales, and he wanted money instead of good movies. Which brings us to...
TIME PERMITTING, THESE PREQUEL SCENES...
Duel of the Fates from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace Look, I'm just going to come out and say it... the prequel trilogy fucking sucks. Stupid, boring ideas revolving around political shenanigans. Groan-inducing, horrific dialogue. Pathological abuse of green-screen. Catastrophic avoidance of practical effects. These are bad fan films, not Star Wars. That being said, there are moments that you love to see. The battle between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul is fun to watch, so instead of torturing myself by watching the entire movie, I usually fast-forward through Anakin's insufferable journey (YIPEEEE!!) and, God help us, Jar Jar Binks, so I can just watch the moments that don't suck. Of which there are precious few.
Bounty Hunter Chase and Yoda vs. Dooku from Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones Everything that sucked about Phantom Menace is in full effect here. Plus... they sabotaged both Padmé and Obi-Wan by making them plain stupid. For the longest time I put a lot of my loathing for this film on Hayden Christensen's crappy, whiny Anakin Skywalker... but after seeing his subsequent appearances in the Obi-Wan and Ahsoka series, it's VERY clear that it wasn't his acting ability that was lacking... it was the shitty script he had to work with. That being said, that thrilling bounty hunter chase after the attempt on Padmé's life through the skies of Coruscant... and that amazing (and unexpected) fight between Yoda and Dooku... both were =chef's kiss=. This movie is filled with so much "if only" that it's almost criminal. The biggest being that we finally had an opportunity to see the Jedi at the height of their power and abilities in the Battle of Geonosis... only to get this massive wet fart of a "fight" which was just Jedi using "force push" a lot and waving their lightsabers in the most boring fucking way possible. I was expecting to see Jedi antics that made it vividly clear why they were so feared and respected. What I got was literally the opposite of that. Boring.
Palpatine Rescue from Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith Despite an abundance of stupid shit and bad ideas, I regularly rank Sith above Jedi because at least the burp and fart jokes were on the decline here. And that opening where Obi-Wan and Anakin rescue Palpatine in the middle of a massive space battle was almost too good to be true. Everything after that was a bit of a mess. Sure we got that infamous fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin, and there was also Yoda vs. Palpatine, but by that point it was really too late to save this movie, which ultimately added nothing we needed to see to the Star Wars story.
WATCHED ALREADY BACK IN MARCH...
Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens The sequel trilogy actually got off to a fairly good start despite some major missteps and too many retread moments from the original trilogy. I liked Rey quite a bit. I loved BB-8. Starkiller Base was a nice escalation of the Death Star. The action sequences weren't spectacular, but were fun to watch. This wasn't a great movie, but it was a good one that I enjoyed. I just wish it were smarter, as too many things about it were weak.
Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi It's just... why? Rian Johnson is a very capable writer and director. He had a golden opportunity to do something interesting with Star Wars. But this is what we got? This? With the exception of that wonderful sequence where Holdo uses hyperspace as a weapon, the only things I remember from the film are all bad. Poe's child-like defiance. Kylo and Rey's horribly-choreographed battle in the throne room. Luke Skywalker being wasted then discarded for nothing. That stupid-ass casino heist nonsense on Canto Bight. Snoke being thrown out like garbage as if he wasn't originally orchestrated as this massive threat. And, worst of all, stupid fucking SPACE LEIA?!? And then... then... that final sequence with the little boy and the broom completely tossing everything we know about Jedi training in the trash. It's all just so awful.
Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker While this was an improvement over the previous flick, it still wasn't a very good movie. The whole MacGuffin chase for the Sith Wayfinder nonsense made for a mediocre plot. Palpatine's return and revelation that he's Rey's grandpa were plain stupid (assumably since Snoke got killed off last film, this was the best they could do for a villain?). The death and return of three separate characters (Chewbacca, C-3PO, and Rey... and an argument could be made to toss Palpatine, Leia, and Luke in that mix) made it look as if J.J. Abrams didn't have any ideas left. In the end too many moments were fan service instead of story service. Plus there's the relative simplicity that the whole evil plot is wrapped up (not to mention the stupid way it was accomplished), and this was a relatively anticlimactic end to an anticlimactic trilogy that didn't really give us much new to justify it happening in the first place.
And that's that for my big Star Wars plans. At some point I really want to re-read some of the best Star Wars books (starting with the Thrawn Trilogy). I definitely want to rewatch the incredible Andor first season before the second season arrives (seriously, if that show were a movie, it would rank right up there with Rogue One for how incredible it is. I think I'd also like to run through the LEGO Star Wars games.
In any event, May the 4th be with you.
The new Star Wars series Ahsoka has done something I never thought possible.
Needless to say, this is going to be a spoiler-soaked post, so keep that in mind if you're one of the few people insane enough to have not spent your valuable time watching this excellent series.
You have been warned.
Actually, I lied. The series managed to do two things I didn't think possible.
Taking place before the rise of The First Order, Ahsoka dips deep, deep into Star Wars lore in order to explain how The First Order could even happen given that The Empire had just been defeated. Along the way we get Zombie Stormtroopers, C-3PO, and Anakin Skywalker in a time period after he became Darth Vader, but who is actually in flashback form prior to that when he was training Ahsoka during The Clone Wars.
There's also plenty of delicious sci-fi battles with starships, blasters, and lightsabers galore. All very, very cool to watch. It makes me thrilled for Star Wars in a way I haven't been in a while.
Unfortunately there's also a race of turtle people that are every bit as annoying as Ewoks. And the whole Zombie Stormtroopers ordeal was absurd.
But anyway...
One of the best surprises for me was how delicious Baylan Skoll was utilized as a villain despite his limited screen time. He's an entirely new character for the series brilliantly played by the late Ray Stevenson, who tragically passed away after filming (he also played Volstagg in the Thor movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). The fact that he won't be able to appear in future Star Wars projects is a gut-punch to be sure. It sure looked like his story was going somewhere interesting considering those were statues of The Ones at the end.
But Thrawn was the villain of the day, and he was everything you could hope for. Cool, calculating, and oh so deadly. I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly nothing this amazing. His history in the Star Wars universe is crazy long and deep. I've read many of the novels, comics, and saw him in the animated series... but I'm acutely aware that I don't even know the half of it. Fortunately I didn't really need to, and knowing the stuff that I do just made him a more realized villain for me. Whatever Dave Filoni has planned for his feature Star Wars film will very clearly involved Thrawn, and I cannot wait for that.
And speaking of...
Ending the series as a cliffhanger is hardly surprising. We knew that a movie would come next. We knew that this was an appetizer for the main course. And yet... still kinda shitty. Although... Ezra's reunion with Chopper and Hera crushed me a little bit. It was so simple and understated that it caught me in all the feels. They could have dragged that shit on for ages, but short and sweet was brilliantly played. I loved that.
No word on if we're getting a second season of Ahsoka once the movie is done. But Lord I sure hope so, because this is absolutely everything you could want out of Star Wars and the best Star Wars Disney+ series by a mile. The Mandalorian faltered a bit in its third season. Boba Fett rang a bit hollow, and Obi-Wan could have been better story-wise, featuring plot-holes big enough to fit the Death Star through.
And now I'm going to resist the urge to watch the series all over again because I think it will hit sweeter if I hold off for six months.
Be thankful that's all over... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• GoTGHS. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special was absolutely bonkers. I couldn’t have loved it more. Very interesting how they dropped a very important couple pieces of information in advance of
Really sad that James Gunn is heading up the DCU now, because he gave us something completely new in the MCU, and that's getting increasingly rare.
• The Star Wars. If I had to wager a guess, my favorite TV show of 2022 will be Andor. The show is spectacular. The best Star Wars to happen since The Empire Strikes Back. It's just so... real. And smart. And entertaining. And brilliant. But let's get back to the part about it being real...
Now that the final episode has aired, all I want to do is go back and watch it all over again. How's that for an endorsement?
• Into the Abyss. It's really tough to diminish the movies that James Cameron has created... though people are always trying. When you take a look at the major films in his writer/director oeuvre, of which there are currently just seven, he really doesn't falter. They are all mind-blowing, fascinating entertainment. So to hear him run through it all is kinda a different level of fascinating...
If I were to rank his movies, it would go something like this...
And of course Avatar 2 is coming very soon...
Given his track record with sequels, it's bound to be a darn good film. And considering it needs to gross $2 billion to break even, it had better be.
• Be Hated. Okay... of all the movies and TV shows I've seen this year, The People We Hate at the Wedding is the one I laughed at the hardest...
If you've got Amazon Prime, it's worth a laugh.
• Lisbeth. David Fincher's brilliant take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of my all-time favorite films. I was all kinds of mad that he never got to complete the trilogy. Sony instead cheaped out and "re-booted" the series with The Girl in the Spider's Web. I finally got around to watching it, and now I'm mad all over again. Lisbeth Salander is one of the best and most iconic fictional female characters ever created... nuanced and complex, using her smarts to outwit and outplay truly awful people. But now? It's just balls-out vanilla action hero that's been done dozens of times before (and done better... by Yu Shu Lien, Charly Baltimore, and many others). It would be comical if it weren't so sad...
If this is what the books are like after Stieg Larsson's original works, I am beyond thankful that I never bothered to read them. I mean, okay, the movie is a nice distraction (by a director who is obviously trying very hard to be David Fincher), and Claire Foy is not bad as Lisbeth. But this isn't Lisbeth Salander. It's a pale shadow of what she is... and should have been in this film.
• Beyond the Obvious. NEWSFLASH: Eli Lilly CEO says insulin tweet flap “probably” signals need to bring down cost. — PROBABLY?! YA THINK?!?? YOU CHARGE $250 FOR SOMETHING THAT COSTS $5 TO MAKE, ASSHOLE!! What good are all these "new and improved" drugs if only people with money can afford to buy them? Big Pharma has been lining the pockets of politicians for decades to not do anything about their price gouging. Washington State Senator Patty Murray has probably piled up a half-million dollars by now to keep Big Pharma profits at absurd margins. Little Timmy may not be able to afford insulin to keep him alive, but hey... Eli Lilly just bought another private jet for their CEO, so it's all good. Great job, Patty! Fuck.
• Steve! Even though I was way, way, way past the intended audience for Blue's Clues, I was a fan. I watched the show. I had some of the toys. I even had a "Handy Dandy Notebook" laying around. It was just such a pure explosion of creativity that I couldn't look away. And Steve Burns being so invested in his character was part of the reason why....
He's still got it.
Until next week then.
Don't worry about Christmas coming early... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Rebel Rebel! Finally got around to watching E10 of Andor. Holy crap! The quality of this series is unreal. Serious talent and money were put into it every aspect of the show, and it's all on screen. There's nothing currently on television that can touch it. The series transcends Star Wars to become something more... a gritty, surreal form of entertainment that will haunt you for a bit...
Two episodes to go in the first season.
• I'm Batman! I was saddened to learn that Kevin Conroy died. Batman: The Animated Series endures in a way that the Batman movies struggle to do. A big part of that was the voice of Kevin Conroy. Another series that I remember him from was Tour of Duty where he played Captain Rusty Wallace, a character that helped define the first season...
He truly will be missed. Rest in Peace, sir.
• SOCK-LIGHT?? My new light switches do not have dimmable controls, which means I have to have dimmable lights. Which is not a problem, as I found pretty good pricing on Philips Hue can lights. Problem is... one of them I got had the clips bent and A DIRTY SOCK IN THE BOX! And it's like WTF? Returns are not inspected for this kind of gross crap?
Every time something like this happens when you are purchased a "new unopened item" it feels like merely replacing it is not enough. Not only am I losing time, but I'm also having to literally deal with somebody's dirty laundry.
• Whoopsies! Couldn't happen to a nicer piece of shit company raking in huge profits over a drug which the inventor meant to be free. He famously sold the patents to the University of Toronto for $1 saying “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.” But of course Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi couldn't let that stand when there are billions to be made...
Insulin should be manufactured and sold at cost. It needs to be a function of government for the public good... not Big Pharma's balance sheet. It's disgusting that this isn't the case.
• The Merchant Tribe mourns. This past week Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened up. I found out that last year Dorothy Steel died at 95 years old, and this was her final acting role...
I remember reading an article when the first Black Panther was released about how she started acting at age 88. Which just goes to show that you're never too old to chase your dreams!
• Ribbit! The Red Wave that wasn't has come and gone. It would appear the Democrat's strategy of not doing a damn thing about preventing the things their base cares about getting destroyed (like codifying Roe) so they can scare people into showing up to vote actually worked. It's like "Oopsies! Sorry you lost the right to choose, but we needed a way to survive the midterms, so we let you lose it so you'd show up." An incredibly fucked-up strategy, but there's no denying the result...
I COULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT IF NOT FOR YOU MEDDLING KIDS!
Wonder what they'll be throwing away next so that they have a chance in two years?
Time to make the chimichangas...
Now that I've been cutting streaming services left and right to save money for fixing all the stuff going wrong in my home, I'm confining myself to the few streaming services that I still have left. Which is Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Discovery+, and YouTube. Some of these were pre-paid for a year... but Netflix will be rotated with with Hulu and Paramount+ and Peacock so I can keep up with all the shows I watch.
Since I missed a week blogging, I thought I'd list out some of the stuff that I've been watching.
I've watched the Season Finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law three times, but have held off talking about it because I wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to see it. There's a lot to love about this series (starting with Tatiana Maslany), but if I had to pick one thing that absolutely thrilled me... it would be seeing Matt Murdock happy. Unlike the dark, dour, depressing Daredevil in the Netflix Universe, which was amazing... the MCU version is the complete opposite and amazing too. Hats off to Charlie Cox... only an actor with some real talent has the chops to pull off both versions of the character. What's so hilarious to me are all the people going on and on about how She-Hulk RUINED THE CHARACTER! No... they didn't. That version is still available to watch if that's what you want. If nothing else, the action was on-point...
In all honesty, I think that the reason people are pouring so much hate on She-Hulk is because it confronts toxic masculinity head-on. Oh well. Stay mad about it, I guess. I thought the series was entertaining as hell and really want a second season.
I'm not done raving about Andor yet. That show is remarkably well thought-out and realized. And the acting is just beyond. Diego Luna is incredible (as expected) but there's nobody falling short of his example, and it's amazing to watch. The eighth episode is fantastic in that you can see they are actually building towards something, and nothing that's come before was by accident. Four more episodes of the first season to go, and I am betting they will just keep amping up as we hurl towards the finish line. Must watch television.
I've been heavily invested in the Netflix series From Scratch with Zoe Saldana. I am fully aware how the show ends (it's based on a true story), but I didn't realize just how heartbreaking they would make it out to be. It's one thing to know something... it's quite another to see it play out with such nuance. After the fourth episode, I only have the heart to watch them one at a time. The problem is that I thought there were six episodes... there are actually eight, and I still have the last two to go. Well worth your time if you're in the mindset for it...
Just have a box of Kleenex ready.
And speaking of knowing how the show ends... I finished the first season of House of the Dragon. Since I've read the book on which it's based, I know exactly what it's all leading to, but that hasn't dampened my appreciation for the show. It reminds me of the early seasons of Game of Thrones. But since the showrunners won't have to make up their own ending, I think Dragon has a much better chance of having a good ending (unlike Thrones which was a complete shit-show)...
Apparently they have the book broken down into four seasons. So three more to go to find out if it actually lived up to its potential, I suppose.
And I'm going to end with this YouTube video of Wayne Brady talking about one of the most hilarious sketches ever to appear on television. This is a deep dive that peels back the curtain in a very interesting and important way...
My weekend has been spent sick from wildfire smoke, again. But that won't stop me from blogarizing... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• LEGO The Office! I wish that I had more money than I know what to do with. Because one of my immediate purchases would be a pre-order for the LEGO set of The Office. It looks so good! But the fact that you can reinact Kevin's chili accident is the real reason to get this one...
But it's ONE HUNDRED TWENTY DOLLARS!! And, I gotta say, for that kind of money I'd almost rather have the DUPLO animals set, which looks amazing...
=sigh= LEGO has lost none of its charm on me.
• Razor! And do you want to know how I know LEGO has lost none of its charm on me? I want to sell my spleen so I can afford to pay $600 for this amazing LEGO Star Wars Razor Crest...
Complete with Grogu (AKA Baby Yoda)...
TELL ME THAT'S NOT WORTH $600!!!
• Tour! The logistics of major tour planning are fascinating to me...
They should really have a television documentary series that follows huge tours around the country showing stuff like this. And they can start with Pink! And Taylor Swift.
• Signs! I'm certain that I've shared this wonderful short film here at least once. But even though I've seen it a dozen times now, I stop and watch it again every time I think about it, so I'm going to share it again...
The simplicity of the idea married to actors who absolutely know what to do for their characters make this infinity watchable.
• Thrones! I've made no secret of how much a detest the final season of Game of Thrones. If David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wanted to "get it over with" and move on to other projects, they should have turned the show over to other people to finish it. But they love money, so they took the paycheck and just farted out a shitty endgame that completely betrayed every character involved. If you had told me that there was a way to salvage the finale, I'd have said you were nuts. But I was wrong, because somebody actually managed to do it. Is it perfect? Oh hell no. But does it at least provide a satisfactory explanation for how things unfolded? Yes. Yes it does. Maybe one of these decades George R.R. Martin will complete the final two books in the series. But until then? This is better than nothing.
• Crash! Is everybody ready to see DART crash into an asteroid tomorrow? Yeah. Me too. If you want a preview... just Google "NASA DART"
I take my leave of you dreaming for breathable air.
I stayed up last night to see the first episode of Andor on Disney+... and immediately wanted to watch the other two episodes that were unleashed at the same time. Except I was way, way too tired to attempt it thanks to being more than a little wiped out by the booster for my booster's COVID booster. At least I'm guessing that's the reason. I had a fever for about a half-hour, then my arm was sore... and that was the end of it. Which is weird because I was warned that the side-effects would be worse than previous boosters.
But anyway... back to Andor...
I finally got around to watching Episode 02 and 03 today... and they are epic.
Cassian Andor is easily one of my favorite characters in all of Star Wars, and it was a forgone conclusion that I would enjoy this series if they A) They didn't change the character for no reason, B) They had a story to make it worth my time, and C) They spent some money to make it actually feel like Star Wars.
Thankfully, Disney+ put their money and talents where their mouth is and completely crushed it. Especially in that mind-blowing third episode! And enough can't be said about Diego Luna, who is talented to begin with... but really bought his A-game to this series. It's like he knows that his character is beloved and wanted to give it everything he got.
And we have nine more episodes to go.
Another year of waking up, realizing it's 9/11, and knowing that it's the Last Night of the World all over again. I'd stop and think of something more to say, but I don't have time... because an all new Disney D23 Expo Edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• D23! Every year Disney holds its D23 Fan Club Expo where they talk about all the new things that will be coming up. Ever since they bought Star Wars and Marvel Studios, it's been a much more important event to me than it was prior...
• Thunderbolts! It's a Marvel Studios reunion! Florence Pugh returning as Yelena Belova? Sebastian Stan returning as Winter Soldier? David Harbour returning as Red Guardian? Hannah John Kamen returning as Ghost? Wyatt Russell returning as US Agent? Olga Kurylenko returning as Taskmaster? SIGN ME UP! In the comic books, Thunderbolts are a team of villains pretending to be a new team of heroes in the MCU. You don't find out who they actually are until the last page. This looks to be the same type of thing, except it's going to have a very different dynamic since the element of surprise is completely missing. If people are familiar with the MCU, they already know who these actors are playing. It would seem that this movie is going to have a Russian plot since most of these characters (except US Agent and Ghost) having ties to there. Well, whatever the case, this cast is very exciting, and I'm really looking forward to this one.
• Invasive! I didn't know exactly where they were going to go with Secret Invasion since the comic book series relied on a huge amount of backstory that simply doesn't exist in the MCU. Or does it? I mean, there is a number of interesting people in the MCU who could have been swapped out by the shape-changing Skrulls... and first on my list would be Sharon Carter, Agent 13, whom we lost saw as a bad guy (bad gal?) "Power Broker" in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I hope that there's some major names that got replaced and not just some background characters (how cool if Tony Stark was replaced and it was a Skrull?)...
Olivia Colman?!? What's she doing there? It looks like Rhodey might be a Skrull in the trailer, so anybody could be. Which is the entire premise, I suppose.
• ARMORRRR! And speaking of Rhodey, Marvel Studios says that Secret Invasion will lead directly into his own series, which would be Armor Wars. Other than Ironheart, we don't know whether the concept from the comic books will make it to the series, but it should prove interesting if the Stark armor gets out and the series is putting the genie back in the bottle. No trailer and no idea of an air date.
• WHAT??! Surprise! I had no idea that we were getting a Werewolf by Night Halloween Special on Disney+...
Gael García Bernal?!? That's quite a get for the character. Not exactly sure how this ties into the bigger picture... but something I'm excited to see given the grind house aesthetic that's going on. Interesting to note that Man-Thing is going to be in this as well.
• Andor! I'm one of those Star Wars fans who didn't like everything that came after The Empire Strikes Back except for Rougue One and Solo. Fortunately, The Mandalorian came along to revive good Star Wars for me. Then we got Book of Boba Fest, which was good. Then we got Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was also good. And next up? Andor, which is coming out of Rogue One...
This looks so good. And I couldn't be happier, because his character is fantastic. Fingers crossed it lives up to my high expectations.
• Mando! And speaking of The Mandalorian, heeeeeere comes Season 03...
Awww... baby Grogu is still adorable. He never gets old.
• Oh Percy! Is it too much to hope that Percy Jackson and The Olympians doesn't suck?
While the movies were far from terrible, they weren't what I was hoping for either because they didn't follow the books (WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?).
• Treasures! I am a big fan of the first Nicholas Cage National Treasure movie... and thought that the sequel was okay too. Now they're releasing a new television series based on the movies (with Harvey Keitel and Justin Bartha providing a link between the two)...
Catherine Zeta-Jones is a good choice for a villain, but I find it weird that they have made the show to be some kind of teen adventure version?
There was other stuff that got discussed (Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and Indiana Jones 5 to name a few), but that info hasn't been released to the general public yet. Probably eventually though.
September 21st.
Cannot possibly enunciate how badly I want to see this series. I haven’t loved many of the Star Wars movies after The Empire Strikes Back... but Rogue One is definitely a huge exception, and Cassian Andor is a big part of the reason why...
No K-2SO in the poster. I'm guessing that he comes along shortly. Or at the end of Season 01...
Apparently there are three planned seasons... ever-escalating quicker until the series matches up to Rogue One.
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