ThaOGDreamWeaver

Derina Harvey - The Last Shanty

Spacehog - In The Meantime

Time to goodbye to the space oddities... General theme seems to be confronting the end / destiny / things that follow, and tone is... darrrrrrk. Even with epic-ized Spacehog over it. We do know that this is the end of the road for James Gunn with Marvel, and Dave Bautista was keen on having Drax killed off to wrap up his arc. Dave's got a much larger range of options these days for a "big guy." Saldana is also swearing off franchises for a little while. We have a Richard Scarry version of suburbia, Rocket's origin story and a very friendly otter, plus Cosmo is in the credits... ...which leads us to our briefly glimpsed Scowling Big Bad. The High Evolutionary, a grumpy Mancunian (aren't they all?) who's into genetic manipulation, and created CounterEarth. Played by Chukwudi Iwuji, who joined the Gunn crew via Peacemaker. Also introducing Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), who was teased in the post-credits of GOTG2. Likely antagonist-turned-ally. Time to call an emergency meeting? (0:48). Nice Gunn touch: Troma films regular Steve Blackehart (hell of a name to start with) written in as Steemie Blueliver.

Indy was 13 during the Last Crusade cold open, which was set in 1912. So, born 1899. Marion/Karen Allen may or may not be in the movie - she's currently not listed on main cast - so Indy may or may not be a widow at this point. If you want classic score: here's Helena's (very 30s/40s femme fatale) Theme. Oh, and Mutt died on the way back to his home planet.

...okay, not the most inspiring title, and certainly not an enlightening one. But dammit, this looks like proper Indy. What do we know? This is absolutely, positively, the last Ford Indy film. (As the man said: "I'm not falling down for you again.") Nazis? In America? Whodathunkit. While it's a little on the nose right now, this lot are the real deal. Setting is 1969 USA, at the height of the Space Race - making Indy 70 years old, and a lot more mileage. This ties neatly into our big bad Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who was imported via Operation Paperclip, and loosely based on Wernher Von Braun. Indy knows him and intensely dislikes the fact that the US is giving a home to his kind. Mikkelsen mentioned his character's motivation is to "correct the mistakes of the past", so... time travel, or something a little weirder? There seems to be a lot of Greek architecture and mathematical imagery around the aforementioned Dial. If that statue's who I think it is, Pythagoras is best known today for irritating geometry students. But also had interests in astronomy, music... and reincarnation, the ability to recall past lives, and quite a lot of other mystical stuff. That opens up more possibilities as to what this Dial does when you turn it up to έντεκα. Phoebe WB being Proper Adventurous as new sidekick Helena, who is apparently quite the con artist. Indy refers to her as his god-daughter... is that part of their con act, or does that mean she's Helena Brody? Some classic Indy gags - car chases, duelling tuktuks, and racing a horse through the subway - plus getting in way over his head (again). There'll also be a bit with a digitally de-aged Harrison and Mads set in 1944. Whether that's a cold open or a rewind, we do not yet know. Additional cast: John Rhys-Davis is back as Sallah, plus Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, and Antonio Banderas in an as-yet-undisclosed role.

Just watched a neat little vid about some confirmed Easter Eggs from Luthen’s shop… Mandalorian armour Padme’s bronze headpiece from AOTC Gungan powershield A modified version of Starkiller’s helm from Unleashed Jedi Temple Guard mask A Sith and a Jedi Holocron The Sankara Stones. (Though IMHO, they belong in a museum).

AC⚡DC - Who Made Who?

"Thrawn's digging in the wrong place..."

Stolen from Twitter. Trust Ahsoka to cut through the difficult bits (…and the roof…) It doesn’t look like a live action replica of Lothal, but there’s a lot of the World Between Worlds symbolism going on.

It reminded It did remind me a little of WandaVision or Firefly in that respect. Ep 4 (well, the back half of Ep3 for Andor) is where the action kicks in, once the worldbuilding's done. But I don't mind being dropped into a chaotic situation with fully-fledged characters, and then rewinding a bit to find out how they got into that particular mess. Trust the audience to catch up.

Halfway house on this one. Yes, Tony went very much his own way, which is good. But mayyybbeeee a little light rework on the first three eps could have dialled up the action enough to keep more fidgety butts on seats. It might have wound up as 13 episodes (full half-series) if I'd done it... For example: Tie the Kenari flashbacks closer to the scenes with Maarva throughout the series. (And more Maarva generally). Play out on screen one or two of the dodgier things that Cassian's been up to over the years. How did he land in jail the first time round? More Luthen. Maybe move the Kreegyr sacrifice subplot into Eps1-3: Give Dedra an early cheeky win which establishes her efficiency (but also hacks off her peers). After which she's assigned to looking into the missing parts to "keep her busy", but also from her supervisor's gut feeling she's good with detail. Show Luthen as both ruthless and desperately in need of a win... ...giving him motivation to hire Andor to guarantee the success of the Aldhani op... ...and more tension around whether our ISB mole is loyal or not. I don't honestly know if this would have improved the series.

Tony Gilroy on pacing complaints re first 3 eps…

Cue “nice package” jokes…

Yep, that kinda goes right the way back. Metropolis, Gold (about the last German SF movie before the Nazis banned it), the Flash Gordon serials, quite a few others. Oh, and HG Wells' Things To Come, which... ...well, better novelist than a screenwriter, let's put it that way. It's not for everyone (looking at you, JKR.) But you might spot a few influences that little movie's had.

I’m kind of the opposite. I grew up in a very old city (at least 450AD as a known settlement, with evidence of large scale habitation in the area well before that). I’m comfortable around old stone, trees, grass, open space: canyons of ultramodern, clinical buildings make me nervous. You build spaces for people, people will live in it. You make spaces to herd people…

On the bonkers Star Wars Theory “no bricks or screws in space” thing that’s been roundly mocked on The Interwebs… …kinda missing the point. As one of my assorted Twitter folks put it: “[A New Hope] gave us a setting that felt established and real, because people had evidently been living in it. We saw the grimy underside of SF.” In Andor, we see both shine and grime, and it’s very much by design. The Empire is all surface gloss, steel, chrome, cold clinical maddening (and occasionally electrified) order, until you get down to Coruscant’s grimy underbelly. Aldhani is grass, natural stone, forests, curved valleys, plus one sodding great concrete dam dropped in the middle of it, jarring, out of place. Ferrix is brick, stone, rust, mud, old recycled tech, warm tones, down-to-earth, imperfect… human. The contrast between these settings sets the tone for the people who live and work there and their characters.

Utah Saints x Kate Bush - Something Good

Opus III - It's A Fine Day

Together - Hardcore Uproar 12" Mix

Mark Governor - Stadium Rave (aka Jellyfish Jam from Spongebob)

Mark Summers - Summer's Magic (Unit Mix)

Normally, boardroom shenanigans don't necessarily affect the kind of content us peons enjoy. However, in, this case it may well do, if you're a D+ subscriber. Longtime CEO Bob Iger has been recalled to his role and his handpicked replacement Bob Chapek promptly, dismissively iced. For people whose companies are share-listed, many industry prognosticators will set what they think you'll earn, as a multiple of the number of shares in circulation. It's based on what you've been telling the market, plus wider market analysis, so you'd better hit it. Q3 was expected to grow by around half to 56¢ per share and $21bn in revenue, compared to Q3 2021. They missed. For stonks fanciers, that is bad news. While the revenue wasn't that short - $20bn - the cleared earnings total was only 30¢ per share, due to a loss of $1.47bn across all their streaming platforms (D+, ESPN+, Hulu), originating from content and marketing spending. That wiped 13% off DISN stock - or about $24bn in value. Stonks people not happy, and out for blood. They got it. That was the nail in Chapek's coffin, but the mishandling of the Don't Say Gay affair, the public spat with Johannson, a general dislike for Whollyodd schmoozing, and a fairly blunt management style had pretty much put him there. Iger now has two jobs - get back in and turn around those losses, and fend off a bunch of notorious activist investors hungry for profits, even if it means breaking the company up. Key things that may happen as a result: Changes or cutbacks at D+. They've got a vast library now, they can afford to dial down the acquisition spending for a bit, and they've racked up impressive subscriber numbers. D+ are also adding an ad-supported tier like Netflix. Cutbacks generally. Anything underperforming is likely to get sold if someone thinks it's worth it, sidelined or redlined if not. Buy out Hulu completely from Comcast, and deepen the content partnership with FX. Sell off ESPN. Chapek held off doing another Star Wars tentpole movie, favouring Obi-Wan and Andor to drive people to D+. Mando S3 is in the can and hopefully S2 of Andor is safe, but Chapek had already cut it back from 5 seasons. It's possible this is why Patti Jenkins dragged her heels on the Rogue Squadron development.

So that was, indeed, pretty damn special. Some surprises: welcome ones, to be sure, and quite a few things left unresolved. All in all, that one slightly saggy plot device aside, the only thing I'm narked about in this episode is that we've got about two years to wait till the next one. And pray to the Makers that the changeover at Disney doesn't get a big, expensive, critically acclaimed but under-audienced show redlined, or D+ doesn't bite it and get merged with some other platform I can't get at in the UK. But for now... it's very rare that a series leaves you feeling anything, let alone... that damn good.

Thoughts thereon: