The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi  is definitely in the running for best Star Wars movie. While  Rogue One may, arguably, be the most original movie yet, this was the most original of the so-called "Skywalker Saga" to date and truly believe that's what really matters to general audiences. (I did not hear the line "I have a bad feeling about this." the entire movie. I wonder if that elicited nerd rage?)  I loved how Rian Johnson combined elements of  Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, the prequel trilogy (Luke actually referred to Palpatine as Darth Siddious! Suck it nerds!) I love how the new Big Three of Rey, Poe and Finn aren't straight adaptations of Luke, Leia and Han. Hell, all three remind me in some ways of Han. Was he the most relatable original character? I already noticed this about Rey in  The Force Awakens  but this movie definitely added at least some more depth to Poe and Finn. After The Force Awakens , two big questions that

Checking my Facebook Memories this morning, it is apparently the anniversary of my review of Jessica Jones .  In many reviews of  The Punisher ,  Jessica Jones  is the pinnacle all other Marvel Netflix (or in some cases, Marvel shows on any network but that's a post for another time...) must be held to. I'll tell you straight out, I personally enjoyed both seasons of  Daredevil  more so... (Hell,   The Punisher   had a less annoying support cast...) For reasons I didn't consider back then and don't care about now, comic books in the '90's saw the creation of more violent  characters to presumably dispel the notion comics weren't just for kids. Ironman, Thor, Captain America and, perhaps ironically, Batman got more gritty counterparts and the Punisher (and Deadpool) was created. Like most superheroes, Frank Castle's origins begin with the death of a family member; in his case, ALL OF THEM. In comics, it was due to be caught in the crossfire of a mo

Wonder Woman   filled me with new optimism that DC might have finally figured out what they were doing. Justice League doesn't reach that level of goodness but, for me, wasn't a huge letdown either. Combining different heroes into a team in live action was done with The Avengers so this movie had the opportunity to fix the flaws. Some they did, some they didn't. One of the things I got tired of in Avengers  was the constant fighting amongst the team. "Hey! I see super-powered person! Let's fight!" Zack Snyder, or someone, realized he'd better get that out of the way and made  Batman v. Superman  first which is certainly one way to go.  In   Justice League itself, most infighting started because Aquaman is an ass. (Having Alan Ritchman play the character on  Smallville  then voice Raphael and now be cast as Hawk on  Titans  tells at least me something.) Now that I think about it, the team was comprised of "Daddy," "Mommy" and

Marvel screwed the pooch with the Thor   franchise from the beginning. They took the more modern notion that the Asgardians are aliens not gods. In itself, that's fine but I can't help but think that just made it more complicated not less. ( Wonder Woman   just killed them off which is better but that's still a big nitpick from me about THAT movie...) I stopped regularly reading comics  after I graduated college in the early part of the century so I don't know when secret identities became passé but I think this also hurt the franchise. Originally, instead of dropping Thor on his head and giving him amnesia, Odin put him the mortal body of Donald Blake and then Eric Masterson. (Was that a complaint about Ghost Rider ? Same concept really...) In Thor: Ragnarok, to me, this '90's era of the comic where Eric Masterson WAS Thor was the best run of the comic and there were many Easter eggs from that period from Thor's Earth garb (with Mjolnir disguised as an

It's all come down to this. The Defenders event series did what they purported to do. Introduced 4 separate characters and successfully combined them into fight a bigger evil. Or did they? The Hand was an obvious choice of a villain given their history spans time and their reach spans the globe. One thing I had trouble with at first was The Five Fingers of The Hand was comprised of a North American, South American, African and two Asians. Why no Europeans? It seriously did not occur to me the two "Americans" probably left K'un L'un prior to the discovery of the New World until later. I'm disappointed in myself... (Incidentally, these original creations are the closest Marvel equivalent to DC's Ra's Al-Ghul or Vandal Savage I can think of which I find a bit mind twisting...) There's a debate going on just how much of the previous series you actually need to see to understand what's going on. Just  Daredevil  season 2? Both seasons? Both season

Spider-Man: Homecoming finally brought in  an actor in Tom Holland who could actually convincingly play a high school student AND could play the guilt-ridden yet wisecracking during battle Spider-man we all grew up with. Both factors in to my dubbing thee Sir Best Spider-man Film Ever... Composer Michael Giacchino incorporating the 1967 theme music into the score was awesome and better than when Sam Raimi randomly placed it into his movies. It occurred to me having Robert Downy, Jr. reprise his role as Tony Stark could be interpreted as an unintentional homage to  Spider-man and his Amazing Friends since the character appeared in the pilot of that show... I'm of two minds when it comes to them skipping the origin. I mean we've seen it. Twice. But...it was weird that the only real reference was when Peter acknowledged that Aunt May was having a rough time lately. May seemed to straddle the line between "having a rough time" and being the cool single aunt with mo

Looking back in the archives, I haven't done a concert review since 2010. To give you perspective, in the review, I mention the opening act has a MySpace page... Last night, though I knew it was coming, I bought my ticket at 4:30pm for the 8:00 show of  Steady On: Lilith Fair at 20  with Sharon Goldman from New Jersey, Lara Herscovitch from CT (Given that she gave Goldman crap for being from Jersey, I'm guessing Hartford area. This song I'm listening to now mentions Litchfield...) and Maine artists Ronda Dale and Lisa Redfern. I was surprised to note I was not the only man that went solo. Turns out, they were the husbands of the artists! Goldman and Herscovitch started this tour after a conversation at a folk festival in Florida. They didn't spell it out but I'm guessing they bring in local artists to join them at their different stops? In his introduction, the head of the venue's board described these artists as "next generation" of artists from t

Wonder Woman  is the first real critical hit for the DC film universe.  It can't be ignored that star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins gave us the Diana we remembered and loved. What's not widely known is Zack Snyder, who directed 2 of the previous 3 DC films, helped write the script. When  Man of Steel  came out, he was not shy in admitting he thought Superman was a really boring character and gave us a version of the character that didn't immediately know what he was doing as he's been portrayed on screen for the last fifty years. From a film perspective, this does make for a more compelling character but from the comic nerd perspective, it still enrages people to this day despite the fact you finally see the vision by the time  Batman v. Superman  came out...  My point is Snyder apparently does not hold the same criticism with Wonder Woman. It is true that, unlike Superman, she's always been portrayed as a bit fish out of water and unsure of her next move.

As I was organizing my thoughts for this review of  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ,  I checked to see if I had written a review of the first one. I had but it was ridiculously short. (Those who know me probably remember I was less than a year out from a horrible month of seizures so my brain wasn't working great...) The first question anyone asks is: Was it as good as the first? To be honest and fully accurate, yes and no.  The "Hey! This is new and different!" mystique is gone but Ego the Living Planet is definitely an improvement as the villain over Ronan the Accuser. Of course, this is partially due to making Ego the father of Peter "Starlord" Quill but this change was perhaps more necessary than  anyone first believed. If James Gunn had kept Quill's father J'Son of Spartax, he and his forces would have been too similar to Ayesha and The Sovereign. Add the Ravagers and it would have been a clusterfuck of alien armies. That's Babylon 5, not  Gu

Late last week, I finally discovered the first season of the X-Men  related TV series  Legion.  The main character, David Haller is told he's a schizophrenic but he later discovers he's a mutant with a very high potential for psychic abilities. On the show, he's shown that he's only slightly more powerful than Jean Grey as he can do things she can't...unless she loses control and lets loose. Haller and his friends face threats on two levels. From a government agency randomly known as Division 3 and a parasitic mutant known as The Shadow King (real name Amahl Farouk.) In my review of X-Men : Apocalypse , I noted the title villain shared elements of this character and actually said: Oscar Isaac was very good as the title villain. To me, the story combined elements of the comic fight with him and also elements with the villain Shadow King, another powerful Arab mutant who will probably never be used on his own, as referenced in Storm's introduction and Xavi

When I wrote my blog post on the previous Netflix series, Luke Cage, I noted it was only about 90% as dark as Daredevil  and Jessica Jones. Iron Fist  is only about 90% as dark as that series. While that does make me question the Mature rating, I have no problem with that. I feel in the mood to structure at least the beginning of this review on my feelings on complaints I've heard 1. The acting and writing: I'm sure my bar is lower than others but I feel people who feel the strongest about this have never watched movies on Lifetime or Hallmark. (Oddly, I read a comment on Twitter from a complainer that he had higher hopes for Cloak and Dagger on Freeform than  Inhumans on ABC. Special effects budget, sure but writing and acting? I think that's an iffy wager at best but I digress.) Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick are great as Danny Rand and Colleen Wing. Danny to me is just as a 25 year old man who spent 15 years cut off from the world as he knew it in a monastery (th

Went to see Logan yesterday. I had already read tweets claiming it was the "best X-men film to date" which, to be honest, is not the highest of bars to leap over.  After seeing it, I would go much further with my praise. It doesn't really have the feel of a comic book film at all. This leaves both Spider-man 2 and The Dark Knight  in the dust in this respect... To me, it feels more like a post-apocalyptic film (a genre that seems to get more critical praise, or at least scrutiny, incidentally.)  You have a small group of people, last of their kind, making the journey to Eden. This is the trope found in that genre. Death and bleakness, found also in Westerns, is evident from the Johnny "Man in Black" Cash songbook and the inclusion of Elizabeth Rodriguez best known from the show Orange is the New Black ! (Sure, possibly a coincidence but if not? Sweet!) Just because it includes characters from comic, I'm pretty sure award voters will not see it in this res

Saw Jackie  this weekend and I have enough thoughts that I required a blog post. I really don't know how much of this story is true or just the screenwriter's imagination. The fact Billy Crudup's character who comes to interview her (which is the framework for the movie) is only known "The Journalist" only confuses the issue... Jackie's efforts to preserve Kennedy's legacy reminded me of Yoko Ono post-assassination of John Lennon. (I'm not sure what the political equivalent of The Beatles would be but I'm fairly confident she didn't break them up...) In the movie, Jackie and Bobby are in the ambulance transporting JFK's body and Jackie asks the nurse and the driver who James Garfield, William McKinley and Abraham Lincoln were. They didn't recognize the first two names which seemingly gave Jackie the idea of copying the Lincoln funeral procession. She even picked the exact spot she felt her husband should be buried at Arlington. I al