(episode review) - Peacemaker: Season 2 - Episode 6

The first season of Peacemaker was a surprise because I really enjoyed it. For what it was, it was astonishingly good. I was taken aback because I did not know what to expect from it. The first trailer was interesting, but I only knew James Gunn from the limited films I have seen of his. So, with the restructuring of the DC comic book universe due to having a change in leadership over at Warner Bros. and due to the mentality the leadership at WB had trying to "catch up" to Marvel Studios, James has managed to continue the Peacemaker show and also make it fit within the new regime. With that said, I have been watching this second season, secretly. I say secretly due to not watching it through official channels, although I have the access, but at the same time, there are so many things to watch right now, it has been difficult to focus on the release date and time, so I cannot simply focus on this show, and ultimately, I am being lazy, I'll admit that. So, as this second season has been released and the episodes have come out weekly, I have caught up and I am fully up-to-date, and I am really loving where this season is taking Chris Smith.

Chris Smith, aka Peacemaker, has been struggling all season with being a hero, but everyone pretty much still dislikes him for who he is and his actions in the Suicide Squad movie. Spoiler alert! For The Suicide Squad, he kills Rick Flag, and he has been beating himself up over it ever since season 1. Having saved the world, he thought things might have changed, people's perception of him, but it had not. Whilst having feelings for Hardcourt, he really wants to see where they are going with their friendship and if it could be anything more following an incident which occured between them, and although Chris wants to feel loved and secure, and Hardcourt might be the person to help him with his feelings towards himself knowing someone loves him, and the fact he continues to feel alienated on his own planet, Hardcourt has her own issues and past and ultimately rejects Chris. He then decides to leave everyone to travel to an alternate dimension with a device he has had for years after discovering it in the woods as a kid. This new world seems great and is everything he has ever dreamed of, where people love him, he is adored for who he is there, even that world's version of Hardcourt, but being caught in the bliss of it all, Chris remains ignorant to what lies beneath and by the end of the episode, we find out, where Chris really is.

Leading up to this episode, John was spying on Chris, only to be asked by Rick Flag to find out what Peacemaker is doing, but as soon as Rick becomes head of Argus, Rick wants revenge. The episodes have been really good, and the gradual reveal of what we are getting into with the new world will be devastating for Chris. All the characters are great as they are all unique. Some characters are better than others, but they are written in a way by James Gunn with great dialogue and character interactions. The last episode, surprisingly enough, had me a little emotional because I can identify with a man trying his best and feeling like he is failing in every which way he can to fail and feeling like he is not loved or anything which he does matters. This show shines a light on men's mental health, and one of the reasons why a lot of men do not speak about their feelings or leave the planet. This show gives us Hardcourt, who is also messed up in her own way; they are both broken people for different reasons. One is broken, but sees love in another person, and that person is broken and doesn't know if she can love another person. This episode was the start of the rescue mission, and the next episode is where shit will hit the fan with a devastating, crushing blow to Chris, and a huge fight is likely to occur because of this. Also, Adebayo and Judo Master are definitely not in the best place, so the next episode might pick up with him, and enemies might need to join forces to defeat the evil that is around.

(episode review) - Alien: Earth- Episode 8

 

 

Aside from the fact that this has always been one of my favourite franchises, this episode was spectacular! The inmates are running the asylum. The second-to-last scene (for me) was telegraphed from the previous episode as I knew this person had to be used for the Ocellus, and we were shown in the first episode that Atom was a Synth, but as usual, humans and their hubris are the hand to their own demise, and I absolutely love it. What is that phrase I love so much, oh yes, death by misadventure. This episode is the final episode of the first season, and although there are a lot of threads left hanging, they managed to tie up some things, but left enough to have you wanting more, because there are so many unanswered questions. What happens now, next, in the future (the future we all know), or do we?

First of all, this episode picks up with most of the people together, but slowly, people start to go in their different directions to track down these different people. I am trying to remain spoiler-free and as vague as possible. The fight between those two in the elevator scene was really good, although it could have done with being longer. The monologue was so unnecessary, but that is what people do when they feel they have the upper hand. In the end, I was surprised that they were both still alive, as I thought one would kill the other. I hadn't realised that the communication between the Xenomorph and Wendy is like an echo-location or something, that she could be in one place on the island and make a noise and communicate with the xenomorph, which can hear it from a completely different location on the island, so that was cool. I mean, we had seen it before, but not with a distance so vast. Any scene with the Ocellus is a thing of nightmares, and I always feel uneasy when we are in a scene with it, but the setup was sinister, and the scene was great. There is a moment where Wendy shows up and does something...if you had seen my face, my jaw had dropped open and was open for that entire scene thereafter. Yes, we have seen some things, but this one was elevated and was a truly amazing moment in the scene, AMAZING. It was just something, I guess I did not expect she could do, but it also made sense when explained. Some really great moments had me clapping and cheering, such as the moment where Marcy clicks her fingers, because just when I thought, 'could she not...?' moments later, 'yes, she could'. It was a pre-hit wind-up which teased us to get ready for the moment. And when that ball, hit, I was thinking, "Badass!" This season of Alien: Earth has been great, and I can totally understand that not all questions are answered, and there is a lot of "stupidity" from the characters on the show, and that it has been a slow burn of a show. I cannot think of a reason why they will not do a season 2, but when that does happen (because I am sure it will), it will be interesting as to how this will all go down next season.

(trailer review) - The Mandalorian and Grogu

Since the ending of season 3 of 'The Mandalorian, ' there has been talk of a film, and there definitely were some groans. I mean, when the first episode came out of the first season, everyone gravitated towards this Star Wars project. There have been a few since, and even though I always saw 'The Mandalorian' being about 'A' Mandalorian and not THE Mandalorian (despite the show being called The Mandalorian), I enjoyed the 3 seasons, including season 3, which was not very well received. I believe a lot of the fans felt that The Mandalorian was Pedro Pascal's character and that the show was about him. Also, something about Bo-Katan, and she not being THE Mandalorian. To be honest, I felt The Mandalorian could have been any mandalorian (and at a point whilst watching the show) WAS about The Mandalorian who reclaimed Mandalore and The Mandalorian we follow is the person who started the revolution or got the ball rolling on that or, again, was the person to help bring the Mandalorians together, but...we got what we got. Can you imagine if it were, and all the Mandalorians returned home, but then it ended up being more infighting, leading to another spin-off show just like 'Game of Thrones', but between the Mandalorians and someone trying to sit on the Mandalorian Throne, but again...we got what we got, and to reiterate, I enjoyed season 3. But this trailer, it's really interesting for me to say, I don't care for the movie, but I am also still very interested in it.

Not seeing much from this official trailer, but it looks like 'Mando' will be pulling off an attack on the Empire (or what's left of it) with the help of Ripley and the small guys from another Star Wars project, and I am assuming they will succeed in the end and be the badass hero we have known him to be. You saw that kick, correct? The music is great, and the action looks decent. It actually looks like a film rather than a TV show. The quality is different. But also with this trailer, I am not kidding, but all I saw was puppetry and toys watching this trailer, and during it, my first honest thought was, "Who gives a....who cares?" But immediately said to myself straight afterwards, "looks cool, might watch that". I mean, we definitely did not need a movie of the show, but I guess if they can get something great done, minimal expense and possibly with a great storyline, we are looking at a winner, maybe (I mean, the fans are tired), and maybe they can sell toys and make sequels. Skeleton Crew was good and charming, but is The Mandalorian and Grogu the way to go? Let's await the next trailer to decide. 

(episode review) - Alien: Earth - Episode 7

 

 

This is the penultimate episode, I believe, and in true alien fashion, everything goes to shit and quickly. If you are not up to speed with the show, this might be a spoiler, while I bring you up to speed, so please be warned. I will try to limit the details as much as possible. As we have seen in previous episodes, Morrow is after the specimen for Weyland-Yutani due to the corporation giving him purpose, so he is simply doing his job by any means necessary to stay alive and is using Slightly to achieve his goals. Slightly scared for his family is pressured to carry out a task he does not want to do, which leaves Arthur incapacitated. Arthur was fired because he and his wife want to do what is morally right for the children, but Dame (the wife) goes against her morals just to keep her job, although one of the children flipped out on her a few episodes ago. That same child thought she was pregnant, but Wendy told her what had happened, making Wendy realise she is, in fact, property of The Boy Kavalier and he can do whatever he likes. The Boy Kavalier makes a deal with the Weyland-Yutani Corporation because he thinks he can use the quarantine time to somehow communicate and or use the Xenomorph for his own gains, but Wendy is the only person who can and her brother is trying to get her off the island because he does not think they are safe and this is further proven when Isaac goes into the lab and an accident occurs.

Since we are now up to speed, it was telegraphed in a few episodes prior to the capabilities of Wendy, a tech manipulator, and now she can communicate with the xenomorph, so a team-up was bound to happen, but how the episode ended, wow. Kirsh has been playing 4D Chess, which makes more sense now as the episodes play out episode by episode. It has been somewhat slow-ish, but we have been watching the slow domino effect of one action leading to another and the hubris of humans thinking they are smarter than other creatures. The Ocellus has shown intelligence from the beginning, so now Boy Kavalier is on a quest to find a host for it in hopes of communicating with it, and Wendy wants to save all the children by taking them away from Boy Kavalier with her brother, and Slightly is struggling to fulfil his mission for Morrow. I have no idea what the final episode will be, as I am assuming the island is no longer safe for anyone at present, but the Boy Kavalier is going to try and communicate with the Ocelus, and I assume it will kill him, telling him he is inferior to it. With that said, anything can happen, but I feel like I can guarantee a few survivors like Kirsh, Morrow, Wendy, Hermit and that Ocellus. I mean, what will season 2 look like? It is so hard to say, but maybe nobody will die but a few minor characters, maybe, and season two is when things really get interesting. Great episode of this show...great!

(trailer review) - Marvel Zombies

So, this drops in two weeks time, and I'm guessing this is the trailer to help sell this project to the Marvel fans out there. From what I heard regarding the previous trailer, there are a bunch of people looking forward to this because this does indeed look really interesting and will be somewhat entertaining, but I think, for the most part, this will be fun. I have yet to see the previous episode(s), but like those others, and as I have already said, I am fully invested in this Marvel Zombies four-episode "story".

And with that being said, that beginning shot with everyone standing in some sort of room facing the camera (which might be most of the heroes) is absolutely great. You can make out a lot of the characters we know and love, but there are a few I do not recognise immediately. The number of times I paused, rewound and played to get a better look from these flash images goes beyond the count of the digits on one hand, maybe even two. The inclusion of some characters who are not even in the MCU yet is intriguing, because is that not Storm? Storm from the X-Men? And we have already mentioned Blade, but a Ghost Zombie is absolutely terrifying. I am hoping this will be very chilling and scary, but absolutely fun at the same time. TV-MA over here is a 15, I believe (anything suitable for 15-year-olds and above), so let's see what this four-episode "story" has to say for itself and if it will loosely be connected to the wider cinematic universe or not. If not, it does not matter, as long as it is still fun.

(trailer review) - The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

 

There are several different types of trailers when it comes to movies and gaming, and for those who do not know, this is what you call an 'Announcement Trailer'. It is similar to a teaser trailer, and in some cases, they are one in the same, but this simply exists to let us, the fans, know there is a new movie on its way in the near future. Usually, with a teaser or Announcement trailer like this, we are usually a year away from the film being in the cinema, but depending on when they want to release, I can bet the summer of 2026.

This announcement shows Mario sleeping under a tree as we follow a butterfly flying in the world. We get to see the underground creatures seen in the games (I believe they are from a game, but I cannot remember which one - the original Mario Kart, I think), and we get to see the infamous fish that always jump up to bite you. And consider where we see the castle in the background, and we follow the butter, there is some teleportation because the princess's castle is a lot closer to the lake. We see some toad characters, and the butterfly flies into space, and a star comes shooting down with a "Let's go!" Yeah, let's go! But I'll wait while they prep to go...until they release the next trailer. Sidestep, isn't the music a different-sounding version of the music in Super Mario World? I've not played Galaxy, so I have no idea.

(trailer review) - Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

 

Murder mysteries have been interesting since the dawn of time. Who done it? Rian Johnson has injected new life into that genre, and the Knives Out franchise has become a franchise that has had a great story with great dialogue, wit, charm and dark comedic ingredients all baked into it. I remember watching the first 'Knives Out' and really enjoying it. The second one was also very enjoyable, although maybe not as great as the first, but still really good. This trailer for the third Knives Out movie looks darker in tone and enjoyable simply by the sheer history of the franchise and direction, but with that said, I really hope it does not go down the paranormal route, as I have heard (and possibly incorrectly) 'Death on the Nile' did, but I have yet to confirm.

So, a vicar dies on the premises of a church in a small box of a room in 30 seconds after entering it, whilst several people are around, and Benoit Blanc tries to investigate, and figures out there is a possibility of foul play. So during his investigation, he tries to find out how a murderer killed a priest who was in a room by himself with no other entrances to commit the impossible crime, and I am sure, everyone has a reason to commit the crime, so the death will remain a mystery until it is solved.

(episode review) - Alien: Earth- Episode 6

 

This show just seems to get better and better, and honestly, this is peak sci-fi. Aliens, Robots, Cyborgs, Hybrids, Alien: Earth has it all. And it is not all just action-based, there is actual science involved, the watching and testing of specimens, whether it be Aliens, Robots, Cyborgs or Hybrids. And like I said before, it could be my personal bias talking here, but this show is just that good, because whilst Alien was great and Aliens was different but better (in a different way), this show manages to juggle the two (with a bit more of Alien), so that this episode has turned the villain on its head. What I mean by that is that there is an argument to be had that the main villain of the Alien franchise is the Alien organism, the Xenomorph, but if you have watched any of the movies in the franchise, it has ALWAYS been Weyland-Yutani. Moreover, Weyland-Yutani is human, so this episode shows us how it is not just one corporation or two (or all for that matter), but humanity is the problem, humans have always been the problem, and Wendy explicitly states this.

Last week, we got the flashback that humanised Morrow; this week, we further understand his motives that make him a multilayered person. We also get Kirsh, who seems to be up to something because some of the children want to remain as children but are being forced to grow up, and some seem to want to prove themselves to a point where an "accident" occurs due to a timely knock on the wall. The Boy Kavalier simply does not care and is onto the next best thing, the Alien that Weyland-Yutani are after, even setting up a deal with the Weyland-Yutani corporation, but this is likely to go badly for him, not to mention Slightly, who is under so much stress with Morrow being on his back about the specimen. Wendy sees firsthand what Boy Kavalier is capable of, and her brother Hermitt is going to do whatever he can to save his sister and get off the island. Nibs is not in a good place right now, and Arthur, the only person who seems to be a good person, just got fired.

(trailer review) - House of Dynamite

 

Ok, first off, Rebecca Ferguson looks weird. Seeing her with blonde hair is absolutely throwing me off, as I did not really recognise her in normal clothes. From Doctor Sleep, Mission Impossible and Dune, a phenomenal actor, might I add, but at first glance, my brain was doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out who I was looking at. That aside, and the fact I really wanted to watch the film 'Civil War', this teaser trailer is giving me tense "this could actually happen" vibes I am not fully comfortable with. And a heads up - I saw the thumbnail to this and because it had the Netflix logo next to it, I read the name and disregarded it (mostly because Netflix only has a few great films), but to realise Rebecca is in this, I am actually intrigued.

I have no idea what is happening, but I know from the back of this trailer, seeing Rebecca Ferguson (even with blonde hair), seeing Jason Clarke, the wonderful Moses Ingram and that guy from 'Night Agent' (he fits right in here), Gabriel Brasso, this is definitely a film to watch. The narration/narrative and visuals are giving me political, World War 3 is imminent, kind of vibes, but the narration is giving me alien invasion, likely not, but it did cross my mind. I guess they are both the same, depending on how you view it, as they will both cause mass panic and pandemonium, but whatever this movie seems to be about, the first official trailer will let us know, and I am not sure if any of us will be prepared for it.

(episode review) - Alien: Earth- Episode 5

 

Considering how the last episode ended, things have got a little crazy. Kirsh seems to be "plotting" something, Morrow is sinister as hell, the octopus eye alien is WILD! The whole sheep situation could not be any more disturbing, but most of all, the snake charming at the end is where we ask, "What is happening?" It is one thing for the hybrids to believe they are human, or at least some of them, one of the hybrids to think, "well it happened to Mary, it could happen to me, and in fact, it has", another thing for Morrow to be IN THE HEAD of little boy Slightly, but to have Boy Kavalier try to come between the Hermit and Wendy and the sister being able to charm the snake, this show has stepped up the levels and although there isn't always a lot of action, what we do get is beyond great, especially the use of orifices. The Alien franchise never disappoints when it comes to an alien getting into a human.


And just when you thought we would pick up from the last episode, this episode throws us into the ship we saw in the first episode, where we get to spend more time with these characters and what happened, leaving Morrow to seal himself inside the control room. For how Morrow has been acting throughout these past episodes, this episode gives us some of his backstory, in which I feel humanises him. He had a child, and he was only on the ship as chief security officer, and he just wanted to do his job, but when you are surrounded by imbeciles and a person who decided to take the ship into their own hands under a promise that may not even happen, Morrow is pushed to make challenging decisions. However, with all the engineers, biologists and others on the ship who wind up getting picked off, one-by-one, by making human mistakes off the back of dumb ones anyway, it is not just the Xenomorph loose running rampant on the ship when the testing of these aliens go wrong, it's a combination of a lot of things, but having a Xenomorph loose defintely does not help.

(trailer review) - Marvel Zombies

What is interesting is that I do not really care for Zombies. I like Zombies in film, Zombies in TV shows, and to an extent, Zombies in gaming, but as for animation, I do not really care for it. I mean, it's cool and all, but maybe it's the context of this that does not necessarily grab me. Even the Marvel Zombies in the 'Marvel's What If...' series episode, or episodes (I cannot remember how many there were), those episodes were ok, just ok. You get to see some cool 'mash-ups' of characters or team-ups that you would not normally see in film, or we haven't yet seen in film. But with that said, this looks absolutely great!

I'm not sure what it is, and this could actually wind up being trash, but having the Red Guardian, Black Widow 2, Ms Marvel, Spider-Man (because, of course...), Shang-Chi and Blade (fused with Moon Knight, maybe) is absolutely crazy and I love it. I do not remember the last time I rewound and paused a trailer just to see something again and for clarity. The first was the arrow through the 'TV-MA' sign because I did in fact, blinked and missed it, but the tram part where a zombie (I thought the zombie was Bucky) reaches out to grab (I am assuming Ms. Marvel), the introduction of Blade Moon Knight (like, is that meant to be Blade? Oh wow, he has fangs, its Mahershala Ali's Blade, THAT'S INTERESTING), a Zombie Ant-Man getting sliced in half and one of the coolest shots of Spider-Man using his webbing to rip off all the heads of the Zombies, is an absolutely great frame. But the money shot (or moment) is the action scene they conclude with in the trailer, and that's Khonsu Blade (Moon Knight) fighting someone with a sword and absolutely slices and dices the zombie up in true Blade fashion, phenomenal. Sold! Give me more action like that, cool lines, great mash-ups and team-ups, and I'm good. I just hope it is any good, sorry, any great.