Even though I watch a couple of movies a week, I don’t watch enough
of them. Lemme explain that. The movies I tend to watch are ones I’ve
already seen and fall under the same umbrella; sci-fi, horror and
action-adventure. So while I might stop and watch Suicide Squad on TNT if I’m flipping around the dial, that also means that I’m not
watching other movies of different genres I haven’t seen yet. Other
people might go out to the theater and expand their filmic horizons every week, but at best I might venture out to checkout The Predator or stay at home and watch Star Wars for the 900th time.
Regardless, here’s every new movie I saw in 2018.
The Cloverfield Paradox ⭐⭐
Cloverfiend Paradox
In an era when surprise in pop-culture is practically impossible because of the internet and social media, the release of The Cloverfield Paradox on Netflix was a pretty big surprise as the movie was first advertised
on the Super Bowl last winter and premiered on the streaming service
immediately afterwards.
Mute ⭐
Mute
Mute, by writer/director Duncan Jones, takes place in the same cinematic universe as his wonderful Moon film. But whereas I greatly enjoyed Moon, I thought Mute was a bit long and overly serious.
Black Panther ⭐⭐
Black Panther
I dug Black Panther if I didn’t see what all the hype was about. It seemed to me Black Panther was a well-constructed Marvel film that I enjoyed, but I didn’t think
it was much different then what had come before. But I was in the
minority as the film went onto become one of the most successful movies ever earning more than $1.5 billion at the box office.
Avengers: Infinity War ⭐⭐
Avengers: Infinity War
I liked Avengers: Infinity War but found it hard to take
seriously. I mean the movie (spoilers) features half of the universe
being wiped out when evil villain Thanos get all the power in the
universe, snaps his fingers and literally makes it so. But does anyone
really believe that when the sequel is released next summer in theaters,
that by the end of that movie all of this will be undone with order
restored with the good-guys winning?
Deadpool 2 ⭐⭐⭐
Deadpool 2
The movie I had the most fun at last summer was Deadpool 2.
While I didn’t think it was as good as the first one, I really dug this
sequel that introduced a few of my favorite characters to the Deadpool
universe, namely Cable and Domino.
Solo: A Star Wars Story ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Solo: A Star Wars Story
My favorite movie of 2018 had to be Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Derided before it was even released, this movie that follows a young
Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) as he goes from street urchin to
intergalactic smuggler is a lot fo fun. Solo is the one movie this year that I’ve actually seen more than once.
Ant-Man and the Wasp ⭐
Ant Man and the Wasp
I really liked the first Ant Man movie, but I really disliked the sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp. There were so many plot-holes here that things started to get to MST3K territory. In fact, I got so sick of this one that towards the end I started fast forwarding just to get through it.
Annihilation ⭐
Annihilation
The movie I was most disappointed with this year was Annihilation. It was written and directed by Alex Garland who also wrote the brilliant 28 Days Later and both wrote and directed Ex Machina, as well as being based on a series of interesting novels by Jeff VanderMeer, I found Annihilation to be dull and confusing. So much so that I didn’t even bother fast
forwarding through this one, I turned it off before making it to the
end.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout ⭐⭐
Mission: Impossible: Fallout
Another fun movie was the sixth, and so far most successful, Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
I’ll admit this one doesn’t have much going on in the story department,
I saw it in the theater and four months later can’t remember the story,
but the action scenes in Mission: Impossible – Fallout are worth the price of admission alone.
The Predator ⭐⭐
The Predator
Here’s what I tell anyone thinking about seeing the latest movie in the Predator franchise — if you’re into sci-fi and movies that feature the Predator, you’re probably going to dig The Predator. If you’re not, then you might want to steer clear of this one.
The fall movie season is a bit of an oddity these days. Ever since the movie studios found out they could make billions off of superheroes and Star Wars, first the spring movie season started filling up with movies that would feel more at home during the summer, then the winter season as well. But the fall season has been relatively untouched with these kinds of movies as that was always the time of year that films were released with higher expectations than making wheelbarrows full of money, these were Oscar hopeful movies. While there are still a lot of movies due out that have Academy Awards on their minds this fall, there’s quite a few as well that feel more like summer blockbusters than award winners.
The Predator – September, 14
The Predator
What was originally due out this summer before being pushed to the fall, the third film in the Predator franchise, unless you count those awful Aliens vs Predator movies of a few years ago and who wants to do that!? The Predator marks the return of Shane Black (Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) to the sci-fi genera. Black co-starred as Hawkins and did some on-set rewriting on the first film. The Predator looks to move the action from the jungles of Central America in Predator and Los Angeles in Predator 2 to a rain-soaked little town where the only thing standing between the population and total destruction are a rag-tag team of special forces soldiers being carted off to prison.
Venom – October, 5
Venom
There’s some confusion with this one. Starring Tom Hardy, technically Venom takes place in the same film universe as the fan-favorite Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, except if reports are to be believed out of the San Diego Comic-Con your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man won’t be making an appearance in this one. And it almost seems as if Sony is positioning Venom, who’s been the nemesis of Spider-Man in the comics for 30 years now and even appeared in Spider-Man 3, to be more an anti-hero than a villain. Think Punisher rather than Ultron and that sounds more in-line with this new movie version of the character.
Halloween – October, 19
Halloween (2018)
This latest version of Halloween will be the TENTH sequel to the original film and will bring back Jamie Lee Curtis in the Laurie Strode role she originated in the first film and has reprised on and off the last 40 years. This new Halloween reportedly ignores everything after Halloween II (1981) — though how can anyone ignore that ear-worm of a song “ten more days ’til Halloween” from Halloween III: Season of the Witch?
The Girl in the Spider’s Web – November, 9
The 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was supposed to be the first of a series of movies taken from the novels of Stieg Larsson directed by David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. But for whatever reason it was decided to cast aside that creative team and start anew this time with director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe) and co-stars Claire Foy and Sverrir Gudnason in the Mara/Daniel roles respectively.
Maybe Fincher’s vision for the Dragon Tattoo sequels was too intense since the movie did decently enough at the box office for something not starring super-heroes?
Alita: Battle Angel trailer
TV
Freaks and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks
Recently, I caught a documentary about the TV series Freaks and Geeks and had some memories of my own to share of this gem of a show.
I remember when Freaks and Geeks premiered it was difficult to see new episodes. NBC seemed to either air a lot of repeats or they moved the show around a lot to different timeslots.
I remember that the episode “Kim Kelly is My Friend” was controversial for its time and didn’t run in my area during the series original run.
In fact, I didn’t see all of the episodes of Freaks and Geeks until Fox Family reran the series in 2000 as there were a few episodes including “Kim Kelly is My Friend” that never aired on NBC.
When Fox Family began rerunning Freaks and Geeks and premiering unaired episodes I started recording the show on my EyeTV which was a device that allowed you to record a cable signal to your computer and save shows as MPGs. While I’m pretty sure I recorded the entire run this way, I’m also pretty sure I never watched them other than maybe the one time since the files it produced them were small and SD cable grainy too.
In 2003 or 2004 Shout! Factory promoted a DVD set of the entire series, urging people to preorder the set since this might be their only chance to own this, then, forgotten series on home media. Of course I ponied up something like $120 for the set.
Who would have ever guessed that a series about the 1980s female TV wrestling program GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling would be so good? The second season of the drama GLOW on Netflix debuted Friday and picked up right where the first season left off. If the first season was about the girls of GLOW lead by Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin banding together to make something out of nothing — even if it’s a women’s wrestling program that airs on local TV — then the second is about what happens when these same girls realize that if they’re all not looking out for themselves, no one will.
The cast of GLOW
The story of GLOW is complex. On the one hand it’s about these wild, over-the-top comic book-esque characters doing all these nutty and crazy things in a wrestling ring. They’ve got names like “Zoya the Destroya,” “Liberty Bell” and “The Welfare Queen” with over-the-top personalities to match. On the other hand these characters are played by “real” people like Ruth Wilder (Brie) an actress who hasn’t quite figured out how to make it in Hollywood and accidentally finds herself at a GLOW audition and realizes this might be her only chance at fame, Debbie Eagan (Gilpin) another actress who did make it in Hollywood for a time before having a baby derailed her career and Tammé Dawson (Kia Stevens) who plays the “Welfare Queen” in the ring but in “real life” has a son who’s attending Stanford and is willing to do anything, even play the “Welfare Queen” on TV, to keep him there.
And these are just a few of the deep and interesting characters of GLOW.
I kind’a sort’a wonder if the second season of GLOW will mark the beginning of the end of the fictional show within-the-show of the same name? While the real GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling turned out to be very influential, it only ran for four seasons and then only in syndication. I wonder if that’s where the fictional GLOW is headed too? The first episode is kind’a setting things up that way with director Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) firing one of the girls for insubordination, Eagan renegotiating her contract for more money and a producer credit on the show and Wilder finding out that her spirit of “all for one, one for all” might be wasted on GLOW.
The fictional GLOW looks like a fun place to visit but it’s a facade, the “real life” place the actors of GLOW live in is just as unforgiving as our own.
Westworld
Westerns and sci-fi usually don’t go very well together. Whenever these genera meet it’s usually not very pretty — Cowboys vs Aliens immediately pops to mind. However, the exception to that rule is the marvelous Westworld series on HBO that mixes both genres together into something both new and familiar that wrapped up its second season last week.
Ed Harris and Evan Rachel Wood
In Westworld, it’s the future at the park of the same name guests can come and interact with the robotic “hosts” in a place that looks and feels like the real wild west. But the guests aren’t interested in playing nice with the hosts, many of them are there play out every dark fantasy they’ve ever had in a consequence-free environment during their stay. Much of the first season of Westworld had a distinctly Philip K. Dick vibe going on and dealt with a software glitch that caused many of the hosts to realize the true nature of the reality they’re trapped in and want to rebel.
The focus of the second season of Westworld is on the rebellion and its aftermath, told in two separate timelines. Here, once meek and mild host Dolores (Rachel Evan Wood) now leads a band of robots doing to whatever guests they find along the way that had been done to them over the years. But they’re not just out for blood, they’re also trying to find the fabled “valley beyond” and escape from the park. In a parallel story another group lead by ex-madam Maeve (Thandie Newton) who can control and reprogram other hosts on the fly searches the park for her daughter while guest William (Ed Harris) is trying to find the real meaning of Westworld hidden somewhere inside its borders. And that’s not even mentioning Bernard’s (Jeffrey Wright) story of, shall we say, “self discovery” in the second season of the show too.
Jeffrey Wright and Tessa Thompson
If the first season was Philip K. Dick then the second was a bit of that along with Solaris with Terminator thrown in for good measure.
I really enjoyed the second season of Westworld if I was a bit confused at finale episode. There were a few too many twists and turns and “is this taking place in the past or future?” in the finale for me to keep them all straight. There were a lot of stories all going on in the second season, probably too many to be neatly wrapped up in one episode which Is what I felt happened in the last one. In addition to wrapping things up and clipping dangling storylines, there was also a bit of new story, getting things ready for the third season of the show due out sometime next year in the finale.
I think it would have made more sense to rather than try and wrap everything up in the finale, to instead only finish some of the storylines and continue others next season.
The Expanse
There once was a time when The Sci-Fi Channel was the destination for quality science fiction programming. In addition to airing lots of classic sci-fi shows, they also aired series like Farscape, Stargate SG–1 and the Battlestar Galactica reboot in addition to doing things like creating mini-series like Dune. But over the years things changed and as The Sci-Fi Channel chased the bottom line into the ground airing things like professional wrestling and cheap-o movies like the Sharknado series while also changing their name to SYFY, fans of the genera slowly began abandoning the channel for other venues. However, a few years back new management seeing how well sci-fi was doing on other venues decided to once again air more original sci-fi programming on SYFY, one of the first shows of this new slate was The Expanse.
The cast of The Expanse
Great from the very beginning, The Expanse is set in the near-future where mankind is living on the Earth, Mars and throughout the solar system and is still struggling with all the things we struggle with today. But when a mysterious alien artifact is discovered that threatens the entire human race, humanity must band together or face extinction. The Expanse was the first show in a long while to return to the genera of “people in big ships zooming around in outer space” and is a show that seemed like it was made for me. Over the three seasons of The Expanse I only loved it more as the story of the series changed and shifted from what started out in the first season to the current third season.
If the first season and second seasons were about the lead-up to war because of this artifact, then the third was about this war breaking out. Which I figured was going to take up the bulk of the third season of the The Expanse. But that’s not what happened. Rather than focus on this war, the creators of The Expanse instead stopped the conflict in its tracks and then jumped ahead many months into the future. Going from conflict to a weird sort of inter-solar system alliance to figure out what happened when the artifact changed into a … something.
The ships of The Expanse
And that’s where the second half of the third season of The Expanse spent its time, trying to figure out what this artifact had become while at the same time trying to keep the conflict that had just been capped from boiling back over into war.
Honestly, the third season of The Expanse was the best season of the show so far, and I was dying to see where the series was going to go from here.
Except that even before it ended SYFY announced that they were going to cancel The Expanse after its third season. Their reasoning was the ratings of the show were never what they wanted and that since the series had convoluted streaming deals in place that didn’t benefit SYFY they weren’t going to commission any more seasons of the show.
Which was a major bummer, but luckily the cancellation was short-lived as Amazon quickly stepped up and picked up the show for their Prime service.
Still, it burns me to no end how much SYFY has fallen from once being the home to sci-fi to the thing it is now. When I want to watch sci-fi I almost never turn to SYFY, I turn to places like BBC America that shows things like Star Trek and The X-Files, pay cable like HBO with Westworld and Fahrenheit 451 and online streaming services like Netflix with Stranger Things and Lost in Space. SYFY? I usually avoid it at all costs — even morso now that they dumped The Expanse.
Ironically, the big new “thing” that Syfy has been promoting as of late is them being the new home of the Harry Potter film franchise. The film franchise that at this point is a whopping 17 years old. The film franchise that has been playing on all sorts of other channels for those 17 years already.
The Expanse is new and fresh and I’m extremely excited that I’ll be able to watch new episodes of it on Prime (hopefully) next year. As for Harry Potter on Syfy? Give me a break.
A new edition of the critically acclaimed and highly influential Lone Wolf and Cub manga series is due out this week. This volume costs a whopping $100 but has reproduced the artwork at its original size and in original Japanese.
Kazuo Koikes samurai epic is a tour-de-force of graphic fiction, and the Lone Wolf and Cub Gallery Edition features selections of the late Goseki Kojima’s spectacular illustration reproduced at original size on heavy-stock art paper to preserve the work in detail as it exists today, as close as one can come to owning these rarest of artworks. Including in its entirety the final titanic clash between ogami Itto and Yagyu Retsudo. This deluxe volume is a must-have for collectors and enthusiasts of the finest comic art ever created.
So SyFy channel cancelled the wonderful TV series The Expanse Friday and I have to admit that came as quite a shock to me. The show which has consistently been the most critically acclaimed series on the channel since Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorites on TV and this season in particular has been the strongest yet. For a channel that’s supposedly devoted to fans of science fiction, their slogan is “It’s a Fan Thing,” for them to cancel the best sci-fi show in years that the fans adore doesn’t make sense. Maybe SyFy was concerned airing something like The Expanse would make room for more airings of their crappy movies like the Sharknado franchise that for some reason people keep watching.
I should’ve known something was up last winter when SyFy didn’t promote The Expanse as heavily they did in years past. For Krypton we got loads of posters and a TV commercial every break promoting that show, for The Expanse there was one poster and just a single TV spot I can’t ever remember airing. I had to find it myself on YouTube.
Now that I think about it, it’s been a while since the last time a show I was into was cancelled like this. To be sure shows I liked have been cancelled in the past, but it seemed as if they either didn’t work from the start and didn’t get a second season, or they were cancelled but given one more season to wrap things up. For SyFy to kill this show in the middle of the third season, which I can only imagine is going to end on a bit of a cliffhanger with no end to the story in sight is extremely frustrating.
The Expanse will join other shows that got cancelled after three seasons like Deadwood, Ash vs Evil Dead and a little show I don’t think many people have ever heard of called Star Trek that were all cancelled after year three.
The one hope for The Expanse is that some other network or streaming service will pick it up and to give it a few more seasons of life or at the very least give the creators of The Expanse a chance to finish the story. I can see this happening especially since sci-fi series are so popular these days and The Expanse already has a built in fanbase and critical acclaim.
I’ve written before about the dreck that SyFy currently airs and their cancellation of The Expanse only solidifies my low opinion of them. Their new series Nightfliers does look interesting, but it doesn’t start up until the fall and I’ll check that one out when it airs. But until then I don’t think I’ll be watching much of any thing on SyFy in the near future.
Upfronts
This weeks marks the beginning of the TV Upfronts, or when all the networks debut what new series they’ll be airing next fall/winter. For the series that are picked up this week it means a lot of work for show creators over the summer getting ready for their series to start airing this fall/winter. For those shows not picked up it probably means a long vacation in Hawaii for all involved before starting the process over again in a few months.
This week is an exciting time for me, it’s always cool to see what new shows I’ll be checking out in a few months and to start tracking them now.
One thing I’ve learned is that even if a show sounds interesting during the Upfronts, it doesn’t mean that it will actually be any good next fall. After the Upfronts last year I was really excited about shows like Ghosted, The Gifted, Inhumans and The Crossing. Yet after having actually watched a few episodes of them I quickly lost interest and moved onto other things.
The Orville
But the opposite is true too. Last year at this time I was lukewarm over the Seth McFarlane sci-fi series The Orville, yet that show quickly became one of my favorites of this TV season and even made it to my “best of” list last year.
While I do get excited over the Upftonts, I honestly don’t watch too much network TV these days. I can only think of a handful of shows there that I watch, Roseanne, The Good Place, the mentioned The Orville… and that’s about it. And don’t get me started on the dreck that CBS airs years after year after year.
For the most part I get my entertainment from cable and streaming services. Those outlets don’t really have big Upfronts like the networks do and instead release series year round. So while I might get excited about some new sci-fi/horror/superhero show that’ll be airing on FOX in October, chances are when that time comes I’ll be much more interested in what’s airing on AMC, or FX or HBO.
I should’ve known something was up last winter when SyFy didn’t promote The Expanse as heavily they did in years past. For Krypton we got loads of posters and a TV commercial every break promoting that show, for The Expanse there was one poster and just a single TV spot I can’t ever remember airing. I had to find it myself on YouTube.
The Expanse will join other shows that got cancelled after three seasons like Deadwood, Ash vs Evil Dead and a little show I don’t think many people have ever heard of called Star Trek that were all cancelled after year three.
