Reviews

It has been quite a while since its release, but the first two Jurassic World films were so bad I did not give this one a chance until now.

It started promisingly with the news report and clips of human and dinosaurs interactinng (though mostly negatively) But the first apparance of Blue, the velociraptor, watching over the house looks a bit too unrealistic and staged. I know that Jurassic Park III film showed the velociraptor to be nurturing parents, but it looks a bit out of place interaction when you saw Blues baby in the school bus (and exactly what amateur drew the cgi here? Baby looked like the plastic Godzilla hand puppet I had as a child the cgi was that bad) all the baby dinosaurs were as badly drawn and looked too fake.

From there the film seems to have two different storylines, Owen and Claire from the Jurassic World films follwoing an almost Taken storyline to find the girl and baby velociraptor, all it needs is Liam Neeson.

Then Alan and Ellie from the Jurassic Park films following the trail of a swarm of genetically mutated locusts.

Both storylines lead them all to biotech where rather predictably for this trilogy, Dr Wu is using genetic engineering to help the bad guys, although maybe not as willingly.

They seemed to like bringing back old charaters.

First is the man who helped Owen train the velociraptors in Jurrasic World.

Then we learn Biotech is run by Lewis Dodgson (the man who wanted to steal the dinosaur embryos from Jurassic Park in a can of shaving cream) and ironically this is the only film since then to feature Dilophosaurus (the dinosaur that that killed Dennis in the original film and lost biotech the embryos).

Ian Malcolm also appears here, almost looking like he is an inside agent for Ellie but really it is a legitimate job for him.

The united group then return to Biotech to rescue baby raptor, activate the security ststem to protect the airspace (how that works is beyond me?) and escape

The scenes of Ian directing Ellie by radio to a control panel was a bit of a flashback to Jurrasic Park (the whole idea of sending Ellie to reactivate the system was very much similar) And sending Alan with Owen to save the baby velociraptor was a flashback for Jurrasic Park III where hes really studying raptor behaviour.

The final escape ended much like previous films, with the group caught between a Tyrannosaurus and Gigantosaurus squaring up. No surprise Gigantosaurus won.

In a very Jurrasic World scene, the Gigantosaurus turned on a Therizinosaurus, allowing the Tyrannosaurus to get back up and the two could attack it together and win, with the pair then celebrating the victory together rather than continuing to fight until only one survived as you would expect from wild animals (I suppose at least this is the first Jurassic World film that did not end with a real dinosaur fighting a genetically engineered dinosaur)

The film ends predictably almost as it abegan with scenes of nature adapting to live with dinosaur (with a little or no humans) and Owen and the girl returning the baby velociraptor - this too was too cringey as baby looks back at Owen and the girl often almost in thanks, then to really ruin the scene Blue shares a look and a nod of appreciation with Owen before running away.

And Dr Wu finally redeemed himself, releasing a plague to kill the mutant locust swarm (the point of which was never really explained?)

So in summary I'm gonna have to say, this is probably the best of the Jurassic World films, but considering how much I dislike the first few films that's not saying much, and because there is very little focus on genetic alteration of dinosaurs, but in an ideal world for me there still would be no Jurassic World trilogy to ruin the originals.

Dawn of the Nugget was quite a good film, it does not live up to the original (but then what sequel does)

It was a good story, the idea that they had built a better chicken farm as though going from the experience from Tweedys farm. The heightened security was particularly funny thinking back to the breakout attempts of the original film.

And moderising the food items produced - chicken nuggets instead of chicken pie - was a good move given the worlds fast food culture.

It is a shame Mr Tweedy did not make anappearance, even if it has only been a minor role it would've been good to see the character again.

The ending was very much what I had hoped, going to other films to free chickens, and possibly opens the door to a further sequel.

I do not think it was necessary having so much CGI, the original film was classic Aardman and I do not see anything wrong with staying true to that?

They kept several of the original voice actors (Babs, Mac, Bunty and Mrs Tweedy) but I cannot say I agreed with the choice of changing actors for Ginger, Rocky, Fowler or the rats.

The voices just sdidn't seem to fit the characters (particularly in Fowlers case) The rats also were quite a funny duo in the original film, but in this one I thought they just didn't work well together.

I have been rewatching the Pirates of the Caribbean films and felt I needed to update my review.

The next pirates of the Caribbean film Salazar's Revenge, it was an ok film.

Salazars's Revenge gave a back story to Jack and in particular his compass.

The film had one oddity, Jack Sparrow seemed to be continually demanding tribute from his crew. This could have been a character trend of Jack Sparrow however it is something never mentioned in the previous four films. It only came about in this film, which meant poor planning or a poor writing. The idea of giving tribute was given a history in the flashback scene to Jack fighting Salazar into the Devil's Triangle.

This film looked back to the Turner/Swan trilogy as the story also a followed Henry Turner, the son of William Turner and Elizabeth Swan, as he looks for the Trident of Poseidon, which can end the curse that keeps his father captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Leading them to the Trident of Posidon was Carina Smyth an astrologer was also was revealed to be captain Barbosa's orphaned daughter, whom he sacrifices himself for to kill Salazar.

There were too many similarities to the Turner/Swan trilogy for my liking, it felt like they were backpedalling to undo how that trilogy ended so they can bring the characters back.

I have been rewatching the Pirates of the Caribbean films and felt I needed to update my review.

Following the end of the Turner/Swan trilogy, the next pirates of the Caribbean film, On Stranger Tides, saw a change back to the Royal Navy as multiple parties sought the Fountain of Youth.

Captain Barbosa, having stolen the Black Pearl at the end of the previous film, now works for the Royal Navy as a Privateer after losing the ship, and his leg, in battle with the Queen Anne's Revenge and rather than seeking the Fountain of Youth in the name of England, as the King believes, he seeks the Fountain only because it is where he will find and kill Blackbeard, Captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

I thought it was a good story, but there were plot holes.

First I want to know whats the significance of the preacher man? For all I could see his only contributions to the whole voyage were showing the zombie lieutenant that the mermaid needs air to breathe, and they faked his death to extract the immortality tear.

And he obviously wasn't that crucial for these either, because they had him on the dinghy as live bait for the mermaids?

Next is the goblets, what was the purpose of those? Any cup can hold water?

Which leads me to gripe no 3, the entrance to to Fountain of Youth - Jack Sparrow, Blackeaird and co went through a cave and have to read a password off the goblets to find the Fountain. Ok its a secret place, but then comes Barbosa and all of his men, did they go through the entrance in the same way, and then form up ranks before approaching? It looked as through they were already there waiting for the others, so did Jack Sparrow let them in first and reseal the entrance before taking the goblets to Blackbeard?

Also how did the Spanish arrive? Certainly not admiited by Jack Sparrow!?

I have been rewatching the Pirates of the Caribbean films and felt I needed to update my IMDB.

On its release in 2003 Cure of The Black Pearl was an 'ok' film on its release, maybe a 6-6.5 for me, a stand-alone pirate film it was entertaining to watch with a decent story (if a little predictable) But now rewatching the films in 2023 with a whole series of films at its back I am a little more dubious about it.

In 2003 as I said this was a stand-alone film, however it isn't anymore with the sequels Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End (I don't know the official name for this trilogy so I just refer to it as the Turner/Swan films as they were the main protagonist of the trilogy) I issue now with COBP is that there is no complete continuity between it and it's sequels (the sequels continue on from one another and form a storyline easy to follow, but COBP doesn't fit in - my only guess is that this trilogy wasn't envisioned before writing the film)

The most obvious detail is the Caribbean being controlled by the Royal Navy, however during the events of Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End the Royal Navy is not present, instead the East India Company in the main force in the Caribbean.

COBP has a long storyline of plots, agreements struck etc. Leading to lifting the curse on the crew of the Black Pearl - this is as I can see the only solid link to the sequels as they refer to the pirate Bill Turner who they supposedly killed by dropping him into the sea attached to a cannon, only to then realise he is needed to end the curse (Bill Turner is later found in Dead Man's Chest as a crewman on the Flying Dutchman where he talks about being dropped to the bottom of the sea, unable to die due to the same curse, and so willingly joins the Flying Dutchman as an escape)

COBP also introduces Will Turner whom through the course of the film becomes a pirate himself as he is lead by pirate Captain Jack Sparrow to save Elizabeth Swan (whom the pirates of the Black Pearl believe is the child of Bill Turner and so can lift the curse, only to discover HE is the child of Bill Turner and can lift the curse.) The back story given to Will is useful to the plot of COBP, as a child coming to the Caribbean to unsuccessfully find his father then making a life for himself in the Caribbean then to descend into becoming a pirate as he discovers the truth about his father and the curse of the Black Pearl, however this could have been done differently saving time in the story and linking it more the the later films. He could easily have been depicted as a pirate from the start (equally estranged from Bill Turner) and become entangled with Captain Jack Sparrow to lift the curse.

I think if thy had planned from the start this was to become a trilogy, they would have rethought the story of COBP, so looking at them as a whole it would show a complete story rather than an unhinged beginning to the solid film duo that followed.

And for that reason I am changing my rating from 6 to 5.

I watched House of the Dragon because my parents said it was good. I enjoyed Game of Thrones (until series 8) so I had high hopes.

Honestly I was dissapointed, my parents called it a 'slow burner' but I say its more like an extinct flame.

It seems like most episodes are 99% talking - either in ye olde English or Valyrian with subtitles that disappear as quick as they come.

Its all polotics with endless boring small council meetings, plotting and scheming with policial alleigances through marriage and births.

And a few overly graphic birthing scenes.

I was confused by the opening credits, a stream of blood over rock that kept dividing and sinking emblems as it went. I eventually had to Google it to find the meaning. And even then it didn't truly makes sense as I did not recognise any of the sigils anyway.

Thats another point against it, there no logical explanation to it, at least in GoT it became recognisable as depicting a map of Westeros with locations currently in the programme.

It may have been more recognisable for those who have read the books, but not for me.

With all the time jumps I can recognise the adults ok but the children are somewhat a mystery and takes me a while to recognise that that 20-something year old is the baby in the last episode.

When suddenly they did a very long time jump in episode 8, there suddenly was a tall, mature Targaryen prince with an eyepatch calling the dark haired prince's "nephews" I spent most of the episode thinking, who is this new uncle that we have never seen before? It took most of that episode before I realised that he was the young boy in episode 7 who got his eyes slashed, and that biologically he IS their uncle not thier cousin.

There were of course a few things I enjoyed watching, but they were quite few and far between and nothing lasted long before it went back to more talking and politics.

A few spoilers.

The fight for 'The Step Stones' in Episode 2 was the first good part of the series but it didn't last very long. It ended with the potential of a good fight that was ruined by the arrival of a dragon, then an epic fight in the cave that was never shown. Even the good episode ended in disappointment.

The only other real action from then until epsiode 7 was Damon killing his wife in the Vale.

The burning of the former Captain, and secret father of Rhaenyra's children. More on the paternity plot that was an endless topic of conversation that was little more than talk.

Damon refusing to kill his second wife in childbirth - ironically choosing the opposite action (or inaction) to what his brother did, only for her to commit suicide thereby killing herself anyway and the baby, so it had the exact same outcome.

There was some excitement finally in Episode 7 with the boy taking the dragon and the ensuing childrens fight (the aforementioned eye slashing). Then the assasination of Rhaenyra's husband so she could marry the uncle (quite a sickening marriage to me)

Its otherwise been quite dull to watch so overall not inpressed

My parents told me episode 10 was a very good one, but in truth it was more of the same talking and scheming - finally, at the end, there was some action as the boy and his uncle with the eyepatch were both trying to convince the same man to join their side, resulting in the dragon chase that ended with the young boy being killed, and his dragon half eaten and torn apart (which I personally think was entirely the young boys fault as he attacked the far bigger dragon which made it angry and disobey it's rider)

I am not sure if there will be a series 2, but based on this first one, I will not be bothered with it.

Watched Black Panther Wakanda Forever Without doubt Spider-Man is my favourite superhero in Marvel, but in the MCU films Black Panther was the the best, a brilliant film, I was very sad when Chadwick Boseman died that we would not see him in any more films, and it's MCU tradition it seems not to recast a role (big respect for that) well except Howard Stark that I know of

I though the film did great respect to Boseman, no doubt they had to totally rethink the plot after the tragedy but they did it well and respected his memory.

The opening credits were especially good for this, no sound in respect for the scene before it, and featuring only clips of Boseman as they had done in Captain Marvel when Stan Lee died.

I do not think however it's better than the first Black Panther film, it's like they were doing too much, making it seem not like a continuation of Black Panther and Wakanda, but a 'stepping off' film for the new hero's the film introduced - Midnight Angels and Iron Heart.

Of course they have done this before, Captain America Civil War was the 'stepping off' film for Spider-Man and Black Panther himself, but thier roles blended into the story and did not overtake it as happened here.

I didn't much like The Godfather Part III, I remember watching it many years ago and disliking it, I don't remember why, and I haven't watched it since that first viewing in 2014.

In 2014 I gave Part I and Part II a 10/10 rating on IMDB but only 7/10 to Part III.

After rewatching Part I and Part II this week I still agree with my ratings for these, but the last film of the trilogy is not the same film now that I saw back then.

For its 30th anniversary in 2020, writer/director Francis Ford Coppola released a newly editted version of The Godfather Part III tiltle The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone.

With editted scenes, a change of musical cues and a new beginning and ending, this new release is closer to the original script envisioned by Coppola and Mario Puzo.

I don't remember the original film that I saw back in 2014, so now its like watching a totally unseen film with fresh eyes and no preconceptions.

TBh after watching it I wasnt't impressed, it lacked the speed or momentum (whatever you want to call it) that Part I and Part II had, and it had a few different story-lines that I found difficult to follow as I didn't always recognise who was on whos side - maybe another viewing is required?

I think it showed a change is Michael Corleone, not in him trying to make his business legitimate, but the fact that he was willing to let his family change - Anthony becoming a musician rather than a lawyer to serve the family, and how he tried to reign in Vincent to stay away from his old life. On the subject of Vincent what was that nonsense about his incestuous relations and between him and his cousin Mary?

There was also sign of his own weakness showing - his diabetes and finding health, plus the fact that he was torturing himself with what he had done to Fredo which almost seem to aggravate his health condition

That's just wrong and unneccesary to the story.

I think this will stay as 7/10.

I thought it was a good series, seeing Obi-Wan 10 years on from Revenge how he was surviving living in hiding. I liked it.

I have not read any Star Wars books or comicbooks on this period but it makes sense that some surviving Jedi would turn to the dark side to save themselves, and become inquisitors hunting the ones that did not turn. Given that it especially made sense how 'Third Sister' was very confused about herself, the Force and her feelings towards the Sith.

The series did focus too much on Leia and hardly at all about Luke, who Obi-Wan was supposed to be watching over.

I was disappointed by that. But it does help the story of A New Hope how Leia was so keen to enlist his help.

I think the series was very important to link Revenge to A New Hope.

Obi-Wan blamed himself for Anakin turning to the dark side and killing the boy he knew, but this helped us see him let go and become more like Alec Guiness's Obi-Wan.

Knowing what Anakin had become (the black armoured machine) is no longer a surprise to Obi-Wan and it makes sense how Alec Guiness was able to tell Luke so much about him.

Then there was Vader himself saying that Obi-Wan didn't killed Anakin, he did.

And Obi-Wan began referring to him as 'Darth' rather than Anakin.

There was also the nice 'easter egg' of the Imperial shuttle toy Obi-Wan got from the Jawa and eventually was allowed to give to Luke (the same one Luke was shown playing with in A New Hope when he was cleaning the droids)

In A New Hope Luke clearly knew Obi-Wan (Ben) and not the brief "hello there" at the end of the last episode, I hope there will be a season 2 so we can see them interact more.

Watched Lightyear last night, not bad but It does not make me want to go out and buy a Buzz Lightyear toy like I did when Toy Story first came out (although I was 7 at the time)

I noticed they copied quite a few lines from the original Toy Story film, word for word, and there were a few aspects of the film that I remembered happening or being commented about in Toy Story for Toy Story 2.

I'm a bit relieved they did not go down the Toy Story 2 "I am your father" route with Zurg as I disliked that Star Wars Empire Strikes Back twist in Toy Story (although I don't know if I prefered what they did do)

Having the kids cadet team seemed a bit unnecessary to me, maybe good for comedy but I thought this was more of an action film?

And the clumsy mistakes of the characters just made me cringe.

It seemed a bit of a convoluted story having old Buzz and young Buzz and essentially a Back To The Future time travel past meets future routine. For a film aimed at the younger generation this might be a little too confusing.

This film was supposed to be the hero Buzz Lightyear that inspired the toy in Toy Story. But he wasn't a hero.

He failed his first mission, spent the majority of the film failing his new mission, resisted arrest, stole a ship and stoped his future self from completing the mission that he couldn't. He's the villain!

An easier to follow option would have been to keep the current Buzz as the OCD "I've got to complete the mission" as he had been throughout the film (until the Zurg ship) and have HIM discover the traveling back in time thing then successfully complete the mission himself.

Buzz hasn't resisted arrest, or stolen a ship, and he's redeemed himself. NOW he is the hero of the film!

Also I'm a bit disappointed they did not have Tim Allen doing the voice of Buzz, it is after all the film that is supposed to have inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy in Toy Story so Tim's voice would have been a good link to the film Not that Evans didn't do a good job.

I watched the Spider-Man film last night, and it was really good.

I especially like the fight between Holland and Doc Ock when he first appeared on the bridge. And how Holland was able to take command of Doc Ock's mechanical arms after they absorbed some of the nanotechnology from Hollands suit.

I really liked the interaction between the villains when they were trapped in the dungeons. Especially those from Maguires films who knew each other and their fate.

It was a little confusing to see Sandman and Electro - Dr Strange said that villains entering thier universe knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man, however neither of these two knew his true identity prior to this film?

I have read online reviews about Electro giving a fairly reasonable reason but have found no reason for Sandman?

I think they should've brought in Harry Osborn as he knew Spider-Mans identity and it would've been interesting seeing Father and son together (but as a little family twist they should have used the Harry from Garfield's films)

I was wondering if it would be an issue that Maguire's Spider-Man was based on the cartoon whereas Holland and Garfield's Spider-Man was based on the comic book, but it wasn't as the trio only playfully talked about thier differences (and Maguire showed off a bit)

Aunt May getting killed was a bit of a surprise, I did not see that coming (I think it really helped the three Spider-Men to bond though as it gave Holland something more to help him relate to the other two) How are the trio then learn to work together to defeat the villains was very cool, seeing them learn to work tohgether when Spider-Man usually works alone.

I think it was very true to Spider-Man's character that they tried to save these villains, most of whom would die if returned to thier own universe as they were, and the fact that Holland was able to save Doc Ock before the others turned on him gave Spider-Man and unexpected but very welcome ally.

It was a good throwback to Iron Man that Holland was using Stark Industries technology to build the devices to save the villains, and especially the miniaturised arc-reactor that powered it (and later super powered electro) - judging from the look of the arc-reactor it looks to be the one Tony created in Iron Man 2 when he rediscovered the new element his father had designed?

That said I think they need to move Spider-Man away from Iron Man, he has now had two films since Tony's death and they have established Spider-Man as a new superhero, enough leaning on the past (a thought that I think is shared following the end of film which saw everyone forget Peter Parkerm, including his friends whom he walked away from)

I will say this wasn't as good as the first Venom film, but I did really like it how Eddie and Venom were continuing to try to live together and Venom was rebelling against Eddies rules, there was good comedy between them and chemistry.

The story of Frances and Cletus was interesting however not knowing her from the comic book I was unsure how Francis has these powers and they didn't do anything to explain it (I will say they are reminiscent of Bashee in X-Man, perhaps a sign the X-Men world is going to be brought into the MCU?)

I also felt the backstory behind Eddie and Cletus was unclear, unless I missed something I was totally unaware they were connected until (when they found the bodies of Cletus' victims) it was said that Eddie and Cletus were childhood friends.

I thought it was very clever how they introduced Carnage into Cletus, I do not know how symbiotes are created in the Marvel comic books but it was clever how he 'evolved' from Eddies blood (which contained Venoms DNA, and Cletus even recognised it was not ordinary blood) I though Venoms reaction to Carnage was funny, retreating into Eddie because he recognised that Carnage was stronger based on his colour. And although he is the 'good guy' it seemed right that, in the end, Venom was losing the fight until Francis' scream tore Carnage from Cletus (and Venom from Eddie) and Venom could eat the Carnage Symbiote before it bonded with Cletus again.

The ending in the middle of the credits with Tom Holland was an exciting prospect - from the opening credits of Venom 1 and 2 these films are not part of the MCU (as Tom Holland is) but from what I've seen of the upcoming Spider-Man film, No Way Home, it is tapping into the Marvel multiverse, so the series of Venom films could be in another branch of the multiverse that is brought into the MCU (and how the world suddenly lit up around Eddie/Venom and they were suddenly somewhere else would support that) It will be interesting to see if Venom plays a part in the new Spider-Man film, or if Tom Holland is in a third Venom film?

So after the failure of 'The Farce Awakens' and 'The Lost Jedi' I never watched this film on its release, but due to pressure from my family (who think this is the best trilogy) and not wanting to let down my readers here we go. Episode IX The Rise Of Skywalker.

The film starts unlike any other in the Star Wars series, whereby after the opening monologue it doesn't stay in space but immediately cuts to a battle with Kylo Ren on a planet where he gets a wayfinder that leads him to Palpatine.

Palpatine was my favourite character of preceding films, but I'm not familiar enough with Star Wars cannon to know how he escaped death (I'm sure it's covered in there somewhere) so I can't hold that against the film.

The film is very much about how the Resistance can find him to stop him because after he reveals himself to Ren suddenly everyone knows!?

I'm glad to see Lando again, but the whole scene feels familiar; Lando in a costume on a desert world, followed by a fighting scene on a floating barge (I'm talking of course of Jabbas palace on Tatooine in Episode VI and the groups preceeding execution and escape) The stormtroopers on jet packs I thought is just a throwback to Jango Fett.

The whole thing however shows yet further weakness in Palpatine (the initial weakness coming in Episode III when he rushed to Mustafar to save Anakin after his fight with Obi-Wan - a true bad guy would see that Anakin was of no further use and let him burn!) So now we have Palpatine clearly having loved someone enough to have a child with them (ok he ordered that child killed but he wanted his granddaughter brought to him safe and sound for her to take her inheritance as Empress) not a strong look for supposedly the most evil man in the galaxy!

I wasn't surprised to see ghost Luke - after ghost Yoda and ghost Obi-Wan in the original trilogy, then ghost Yoda returned in 'The Lost Jedi' I expected it. And I wasn't overly shocked by Luke's old x-wing being risen up out of the sea (and given that people can interact through the force as they have, why not let ghost Luke be able to catch the lightsaber!?)

So about now we get a scene of Rey fighting a dark side version of herself, a kind of hint at her own heritage (very reminiscent of the cave on Dagobah in Episode V when Luke fights and defeats Vader, only to see himself under the mask)

I didn't see it coming about Rey's true family. It made more sense after seeing her use force lightning and her power with the force (no one has demonstrated the ability before to heal wounds with the force, is Rey using the dark side without realising it we wonder? The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be unnatural) How she interacts with Ren seems farfetched, they've shown in the past you can communicate through the force or generate a ghostly image of yourself but how are they able to affect each others surroundings when they aren't together (breaking the bag of food or the plinth with Vader's helmet) and they can take objects from one another (Ren snatching the necklace from Rey or the two trading the lightsaber) I get the irony too that now a descendant of Skywalker is the bad guy and a descendant of Palpatine is the good guy.

And on this subject did everyone know Rey was a Palpatine? Luke and Leia said they knew all along and never told her (I'm reminded of an old quote "what I told you was true, from a certain point of view")

So if the star killer base wasn't enough, they now have a fleet of star destroyers with planet killing weapons that's somehow Palpatine had constructed and hidden on the planet no one can find. This is maybe different from what I expected, but it's hardly original - Episode VI was just a similar but a stronger Death Star than in Episode IV, so now this weapon is similar but stronger than the one in Episode VII (ok not stronger in the usual sense, but there's more of them making a bigger threat to the galaxy)

The final battle sounds very familiar. A ground team sent to destroy the tower that helps the star destroyers navigate off the planet, thus allowing the fleet to destroy them while they're stranded. Anyone see the link to the shield generator on Endor? And as the Resistance fleet fought against the Final Order, Palpatine and Rey watch from the planet and he tries to make her kill him to turn her to the dark side.

It was a bit unexpected how Ren appears on the planet (the one they kept saying that no one can find without a wayfinder, and he's not even in his own ship that could be argued had recorded the route) Ren then joins forces with Rey but the two are immediately defeated, thier joint power used to resurrect Palpatine completely, and Ren is pushed into a chasm. Rey they uses the two lightsabers to turn Palpatine's lightning on himself and kills him (an odd effect as the last time this happened (in Episode III) all it did was sap the strength from him and turn him into the shrivelled prune you see in all the later films)

I don't understand why Rey took the Skywalker name at the end? Unless there's unseen animosity towards the Palpatine name the only purpose I could see is so they can keep calling the entire Star Wars series the Skywalker Saga For this reason I rename this film 'Rise Of Craptalker'

So in conclusion the film is better than I had predicted it to be, and had some unexpected twists, but I wouldn't say it was a great film and as Episodes VII and IIX were too similar to Episodes IV and V, this had too many similarities with Episode VI.

It has been a while since it's release and I'm ashamed to say this was my first viewing of Creed II, but I thought it was great.

In reviewing Creed I commented "I do hope they make sequel, but maybe lighten up on Rocky's character" which I think they did greatly as he was no longer a feeble old man with cancer going through chemotherapy. They kept the parts about visiting Adrian and Paulie's grave, and Rocky not being fully able to manage the physical parts of Adonis' training, but those aspects were never an issue and quite natural for the character.

At times it did strike my like redoing parts of past films: Adonis winning the heavyweight championship, getting married and having a baby was all Rocky II. How he went to the desert to 'recreate' his fighting style was also reminiscent of that film.

Rocky declining to train Adonis for the fight against Viktor then he got knocked down was Rocky III (the only difference was that Adonis didn't lose the fight or the title as Viktor was disqualified)

The whole event surrounding the Drago's was unavoidably Rocky IV, and they cashed in on it by showing Ivan had been waiting specifically for Adonis to win the championship, but then going to fight in Russia was too close for comfort - at least in Rocky IV they had a valid reason for going there.

So it had its flaws, but it was a great film

I thought the old Doctor Doolittle films weren't bad (although Eddie Murphy should have reconsidered his sequel) this film though was a bit rubbish.

I liked Robert Downey Jr in other stuff I've seen - the Marvel films, Sherlock Holmes, US Marshals. But I thought he honestly didn't do a great performance in this, the accent just sounded wrong and somehow seemed unnatural to be coming from him (he did a great English accent in Sherlock Holmes, why couldn't he do that, after all Eddie Murphy is great at voices but even he stuck to his own voice for Dolittle)

And while the story itself sounded good it was not very well executed, it felt at times like I was watching something a cross between Polar Express and Narnia. I get that Dolittle is a man who can talk to animals, but how can he talk to multiple creatures at once, and they can communicate with each other? That's just wrong even in this context

There was a lot of humour which sometimes was funny but frankly most of the time was just cringy.

I loved the last Jumanji film and this sequel didn't disappoint. Carrying on from the last one, albeit a few years on, it was a great story how and why they re-enter the game, the history between Danny DeVito and Danny Glover was a good side story. I was curious how they'd get on with the body switching as the players become thier avatars, as they've already done it all in the last film, but it worked really well as only Martha/Ruby was the same as in the original and we got the fun of the others being in different bodies - and DeVito and Glover being sucked into the game added funny complications.

How everyone had added skills or weaknesses really worked well, and kept to the original idea that Jumanji is a computer game and additions like that are common in game sequels. As are the addition of new characters - specifically Ming and the pegasus

Rhys Darby was as great in his role as before!

Overall a brilliant film and one I highly recommend

For the first hour or so, its like Sly had seen Taken and thought "I could do that, but to make it a Rambo film we'll go to Mexico where everyone has guns" It was sad when the girl dies, and you'de expect some retalliation, but it seems the film here turned to a blood lust horror movie.

Gut wrenchingly brutal, uneccesary violence for the sake of gut wrenchingly brutal, uneccesary violence which by the end had no sense of retribution for the girls death.

A horrible film and wholly unworthy of the films that came before it

Technically the last film of 'Phase 3', Spider-Man Far From Home is the start of a new saga for the MCU. I thought the start seemed weird as you have Cline Dion playing over the opening credits, and then the pictures of Tony Stark, Captain America, Black Widow and Vision, but they made it out to be a tribute video in Peter Parker's school which made more sense.

I thought it was a much better film than the preceding two; Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame were rather big let downs for me so this is a strong start for this second saga.

I liked how Mysterio played Fury and Spider-Man to get Stark's tech, and his consortium of fellow spurned Stark Industries employees was very clever, getting one-up on thier former boss and plagiarist. Using each of thier talents to create these incredible illusions, but also able to choreograph the fighting with the simulated Mysterio and causing the relevant destruction.

I think the events with Mysterio was the push Spider-Man needed to become a proper Avenger; before he was a bit immature, not totally dependable and thought of himself as just a 'friendly neighborhood Spider-Man' (although it could be argued that that last one is what Stark told him to be?) And by his own admission, he only went to space with Stark 'by accident'.

You could see the pride in Happy when Spider-Man took command in the jet in the Netherlands using Stark's own designs to build a new suit but also to customise it to the situation. The Back In Black soundtrack was a great throwback to Stark's old workshop.

I think this film was a great hand-over (at the end of Avengers Endgame the elderly Captain America gifted his shield to Falcon), and now we have Stark gifting his greatest tech to the next generation. With a final typically Stark joke - EDITH, Even Dead I'm The Hero.

How the story starts with Elton in rehab then goes back to the beginning as he tells his story was a similar style of storytelling to Bohemian Rhapsody which started and ended at Live Aid. I felt that the the storyline itself seemed a bit manic in places, but I think this helped portray the drug and alcohol problems that plagued him in those days.

I liked how they linked the songs to the story, though they were not strictly in chronological order for Elton's life, they helped capture the events and feelings of what was happening on screen - although I think it seemed out of place when others joined in singing lines of some songs, as though they were written from their perspectives as well as from Elton's. I liked throughout the film how they recreated Elton's outlandish costumes, showing clips at the end alongside real images to show how similar they truly were.

I especially liked how they recreated the music video for I'm Still Standing with Taron Egerton at the end.

For a film called Rocketman I had expected them to make a bigger deal of its namesake song, but as I left the cinema it was Yellow Brick Road playing in my head.

This definitely is not a documentary of Elton Johns life, but I think it does capture what he was like back then, the trials he had to go through personally and professionally and while the film was not as good as I was expecting, it was enjoyable.

The final episode started as I expected from watching 'The Bells' last week; Danny was becoming an evil woman bent on controlling the world with her Dothraki and Unsullied army, Tyrion stepped down as Hand of the Queen and John decided she should be stopped.

It was fitting that John killed Danny, not Arya as I has suggested in my review of 'The Bells', she had already killed the Knight King so she can't get all the glory. The dragons reaction was unexpected; showing no anger towards John and just flying away with Danny's body.

I think it is good how they elected a new King, 'breaking the wheel' as Danny put it, but I didn't expect Bran to be chosen. He was rather a disappointment, after the big buildup of the three eyed raven, and his apparent lack of action during the battle against the dead army and the Knight King, I was expecting something more from him in the last episode, but nothing came?! But when Tyrion listed his accomplishments he seemed to suggest the 'three eyed raven' was more significant than we've seen.

Brans comment at the end about the dragon, "I'll find him" that too came to nothing and was a big let down. I did like his new council, but I was surprised to see Bronn, where had he been hiding because last we saw of him was in Winterfell aiming a crossbow at Jamie and Tyrion?

Bran's comment to Tyrion when he was suggested as the new King "why else would I have come" and later his comment to John "you were exactly where you were meant to be" hints at an underlying plot by him to win the crown, but I can't believe that as there's been nothing in the past 8 series' to suggest anything of the sort?

Aryas revelation that she was just going to sail away to the west was a bit of a surprise, but her curiosity was mentioned before in Series 6, and Euron said he has sailed around the world so there has to be SOMETHING there? Maybe there's a sequel in this? I hope so

I expected Sansa to 'bend the knee' to her little brother, but for the girl who wanted to be a Queen since episode 1 it was almost predictable that she'd make the north a separate kingdom.

John being sentenced to the Knights Watch was unexpected, why is it necessary now the Army of the Dead is gone? But on consideration it is in a way where he belongs with the 'free folk'

It seems a little too predictable that we started Series 1 with the Stark children growing up together in Winterfell, and a couple of deaths aside, we've ended with the Stark children in command everywhere (Bran is King of the 6 Kingdoms, Sansa is Queen of the North, Arya is taking command of the seas, and John is north of the wall (and no doubt he's thier leader given his history with the 'free folk'))

But what's happened to the dragon? Where did he take Danny's body? We need answers

Episode 5 was amazing to watch, but the war at King Landing seemed too one sided; despite all the Scorpions on the ships and the dozens on the walls barely any of them fired when the dragon attacked? Surely they could have got more shots off than they did. The soldiers by the gate too did nothing but stand there and look menacing until the dragon burst through the gate from the inside, then they all died anyway. Once the gates were destroyed Grey Worm and John lead thier men inside where the soldiers surrendered with barely a fight (after the Dothraki - who I thought all died at Winterfell - killed everyone as they charged the streets) Danny and her dragon then destroyed the Scorpions on the front wall, although they seemed abandoned. They did nothing, not even turn to fire at the soldiers or at the dragon!

I liked the sudden turn in Danny, as she heard the bells of surrender she turned on them and destroyed the city - maybe she wanted revenge for her dragon and Missandei, or was just mad that they haddn't immediately turned on Cersei as the slaves in Meereen had done when she arrived.

Like a good soldier Grey Worm followed her example and they slaughtered everyone, I think the event showed John that maybe he SHOULD rule rather than Danny, so I think we'll have a Danny v John power struggle in the last episode. And my bet is that after seeing his reaction to the slaughter (and the death of his beloved brother) Tyrion will side with John. The only real obstacle would be the dragon, but as we've seen the dragon does like John so maybe he'll get an upgrade from the wolf?

I was waiting for the dragon to fly over to Cersei on the balcony and burn them all, but I think it was a more fitting death for Cersei that she and Jamie were crushed under the Red Keep she loved so much, and I'm glad that horrible Euron got what he deserved. And finally we get to see Sir Gregor do more than walking around (and we got to see what was beneath the armour beside the bloodshot eyes), the zombie creature that won't die, a good end for both of them!

I think it was a bit far fetched that when everyone was burnt to a crisp Arya emerges with just a few cut and rides away on the horse that is conveniently waiting for her in the street. It suggests she'll have a role to play in the last episode, perhaps she's the next 'king slayer'?

After Pitch Black I thought this film would be good. It started well: building on the characters of the original film who escaped with Riddick, and I loved the prison break on the maximum security prison world (although it did feel like the writers just reversed Pitch Black, a world where you're in danger in the shadows, now a world where you're in danger in the light).

But then they ruin it with Necromongers, a universal army which go world to world destroying everything and turning thier inhabitants into whatever they are. It got too strange and just unnecessary for my taste. It should have ended on the prison world, or escaping from it.