ThaOGDreamWeaver

Thoughts:

New Anakin-centric mini-trailer... Mini-trailer-mini-thoughts:

I still haven't seen the actual series, but if nothing else, it debuted... ...that laugh.

I was writing it in my head the other way round. Old Loki would not appreciate someone trying to outmaster him in terms of confusion and illusion, let alone a mortal. And our new, slightly-more-heroic Loki would not want anyone he needed or cared about getting stuck in there either. So a duel of the tricksters ensues... to the (grisly, and probably poetically just) death. On the What if bit:

Hmm... Loki vs the World's Fair Murder Castle would be one hell of a story beat, though quite how you'd run it I'm not sure... About What If: there's no recent updates on drop date. But given the changes, budget cuts and mass layoffs at Disney as Bob Iger tries to dig them out of a hole, it's not a surprise that it's been pushed back a bit. Might drop as a surprise package for Labour Day, Halloween or Christmas, but most likely early 2024 now. There are three episodes of the back nine that are known about, and one of which was played in full at SDCC 2022 - so don't go looking for badly-filmed spoilery stuff. Read this badly-written spoilery stuff instead:

Prepare for more temporal-buddy-cop shenanigans - and with both Quantumania and Secret Invasion having died the death, Marvel badly want to fix the timeline if the Secret Wars arc is going to survive. And if anyone should know how to handle parallel universes, slips and general timey-wimey-malarkey, it's Everything Everywhere's Ke Huy Quan.

Quick followup: finally got round to seeing Indy in a completely full theatre - not one spare seat, several weeks after release. Very solid entry in the series, way better than KoCS, and the twist ending was fun even if quite well-signalled as to what was going to happen - but why it happened was a great touch. Also loved the portrayal of 60s NYC, with Indy having had to trade down from Marshall Uni to Hunter Community College. (Though why appears to have cut: in press kits, there were references to Indy's objections to Nazis being allowed into the states for Paperclip, and his position was rapidly made untenable.) Mutt getting Poochie'd was handled very well and provided the core motivation for a large chunk of the story. Very impressed by the de-aging CGI in the flashback sequences - clearly they've been doing some serious work on that - and pretty decent action sequences. Gripes: Phoebe WB might been over-Mary Sue'd just a touch but still a very rounded and appealing character, and some of the sequences needed a little more editing. Other than that... we dig. And a decent way to hang up the hat.

Heh. I'm looking forward to that ep. But about the most CoH moment I've seen on telly is in Doctor Who Mysterio... ...and this bit 100% reminds me of the conversations in General Chat.

Nigel Stanford - Automatica 3

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Hanuman

New trailer up. First look at our antagonist and the reason for this mess: Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), Kree warrior and clearly hacked off with Carole for some as-yet-unknown reason. She has both an Accuser hammer (quite nasty) and the other half of Kamala's bracelet set - but whether or not screwing with their powers is part of the plan or not... ...oh, and more Goose. Obviously. 😻

And in today's WTAFery out of Whollyodd... I'd have assumed this would be animated in the style of the game but... ...thaaaat's gotta be Tiny Tina, right? And there are shots on IMDB of Cate (Lilith) and Ariana Greenblatt (Tina) in serious wirework harnesses. I know Cate's entered the "sod it, I'm gonna go be a stage dancer for Sparks" stage of her career, but they still must have one hell of a script to land her - and Jamie Lee Curtis (Dr. Tannis) - for something like this. And yes, slavering hordes, Moxxi is in it, played by everyone's favourite criminal plumber Gina Gershon. Much like the game, it ought to be tapdancing along the curve between insane genius and horrifically "wacky", but with this cast... I'm optimistic here.

1. Very. I'm not sure what he's up to these days, but my Bothan spies detect very little trace of his activity beyond some Insta posts. 2. Ming was indeed Ming's stunt double for The Cavalry, but a lot of it is still... er... Ming Prime. Between them they took home two of the big prizes at the Action Icon Awards - MQ as Stuntwoman of The Year (and that is a tough field in every sense of the word), and MNW Action Icon Of The Year. 3: ...and we walk once again into the Cave Of Spoilers...

AC⚡DC x Bruno Mars - Funk In Black

DJ Cummerbund - Don't Stop Til' You Mash Enough

Erm... no. Ray had a bit of a h0rneh-on-main Instagram incident during lockdown that caused a disturbance in the fandom. And whatever the truth of the situation, neither he nor the SW press room handled it well. He doesn't have a single IMDB credit since 2020. However, the stunt co-ord on this one is a friend of the Filoni family: Ming Qiu, wushu mistress and regular double for the likes of Ming-Na Wen (as Fennec Shand in Mando & BoBF), Maggie Q (M:I:3), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill) and more. This might explain the change in style from the balletic/kinetic to sweeping and elegant. Oh, and if you've got a minute, I think Ming's got the chops to handle this gig. Now onto something a little more spoilery. M'learned coll was inquisitive about a new character, and something popped up on the SW insta...

[WARNING:INCOMING RANTETTE] Other than the Jack Black episode ...which... had some fun bits, but was a really strange bottle episode to throw in generally, not just at that point in the story... ...I was most entertained by Mando, and it felt like a good place to park him and the small one's story for now. It played a little with canon but, IMHO, didn't add enough new things to the mix. Greatest Hits of Mandalore, sure, and great to see the old place in live action. Andor is very much Tony Gilroy's creation (who is determinedly not a fan of Star Wars, still less its fandom), where he's doing his own thing with the toys in the Lucasfilm toybox. And all the better for it. We saw new worlds, ideas that haven't been on screen before (like the corporation-states that happily allied themselves to the Empire, the shipbreaker world, the Eye, James Bond Q-Ships vs Imperial Traffic Cops, and that actual nightmare-inducing prison.) Most of all, with one or two exceptions, you got very detailed human characters, portrayed by fine actors. (PS: support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes if you'd prefer your spacey/capey content to have human created content in the future, and stick laxatives in the Huel of any passing techbro who says AI can do it just as well). I feel Rebels is much the same. It got a bit of stick early on and was dismissed as a kids' show, but Filoni patiently built a team you grew to bond with, didn't pull emotional punches and introduced some wild new ideas like Purgill, the World Between Worlds, and the Bendu (even though that seems to be mostly an excuse to get a legend like Tom Baker on your show. Can't blame him, can you?) Now that Dave has The Big Budget, yes he's got the band back together in live action. Which is gonna be fun anyway. But I'm hoping he can carry on creating, taking creative risks, show us something we ain't seen before and take us places we ain't seen before. Damn the critics. Because I still want that sense of wonder and terror I had age four when the big weird man with the breathing problem came out of the dark in the swamp tunnel.

I have a feeling that it might go wrong somehow as well. Either some actual side effects, or - the Evil Chocolate Cartel being what they are - feigned ones to get him and his sidekick nicked and off the streets. Or they'll just invent a law against Unauthorised Floating In A Built Up Area. It does seem rather disorderly. I don't get the Marty Stu vibe so much as someone projecting absolute confidence... as a potentially very fragile mask. That'd explain the need for a sidekick and a friend - as a mirror. It's not necessarily the nicest way of using someone: but having been that mirror role a few times in life, there are a hell of a lot worse people to be around. It's fun. But much as with chocolate, necessarily healthy fun or something you should do every day. Keep an eye on Liv Colman at 1'30". Who has she got shut in where and what exactly is she up to?

I've always thought of Tony as one of those irritating move fast and break things kind of bros who infest my industry, and it's always more fun to watch when the things break because they took shortcuts. Genius has limitations. BTW, this is also who the move fast and break things adage reminds me of:

If I were writing this...

You remember what I said about never messing with anyone's abuela? ...I got that right.

In theory, I should be all "oh no, not another remake/prequel/sequel/reboot/reimagining/deconstruction, nobody has original ideas". And yet the word I'm looking for here is... joyous. Especially Chalamet. It's going to stand or fall on his ability to project charisma, and I think the kid's got it. Plus there's a whole bunch of good people in it. Hugh, obviously, but also Jim, Paterson, Tom... ...and scuse me for being a regular stan, but Liv Colman looks like the kind of Dahl character who can face-heel / heel-face turn on a dime. Fine casting. But if there's a not particularly secret ingredient here, it's got Paul King and Si Farnaby of Paddington and Paddington 2 on script and direction. This should be a good time, repeatedly stomp on your emotions, and then bring you back for a happy ending. Long story short: if a trailer can put the biggest damn stupid grin on my face inside of two minutes, damnit, I'm in.

Ahsoka final_final_FINALCUT_trailer.mov has been dropped (well, there's still a month to go to release, so there'll be more stuff like TV spots and EPKs to play with.) Some new stuff - including Baylan getting more followers, another Jedi temple that appears to be a map room rather than a gate to the World Between Worlds, and what looks like an Inquisitor. Oh, and neat new 'do for Sabine. EDIT: one other thing. Baylan also wants to find Thrawn. Why do I feel that's bad news... for Thrawn? Whaddawethunkabadit?