Superman and Lois, “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events”, Review!

After the stunning last episode, we had Superman facing off against Tal-Ro’s army.  He was able to stop and restore the Smallville citizens.  Still, he found himself at the Fortress of Solitude.  Tal-Ro’s plans are not finished and he continues to have Leslie as his second in command.  The Artic plains, teen Clark Kent sees the light go out with the red crystal.  He throws it into the snow and this of course raises the Fortress of Solitude.  He is caught under snow and bursts out with his heat vision flaring.  Clark enters the fortress and places the crystal in the console bringing Jor-El!  We see Clark running across the snow, impressive, this switches to the older Clark who leaps into flying.  Jor-El wonders why Clark wants to defend humanity.  Clark lands at the farmhouse and hugs his mother.  He tells Martha that he is Kryptonian.  He looks at his yearbook and then goes to see Lana.

SUPERMAN AND LOIS - “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” - TYLER HOECHLIN - Photo: The CW -- © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Photo Credit: Bettina Strauss.

Martha console his son that Lana moved on from him.  She shows him the costume she made.  Clark goes to Metropolis and then reveals his costume!  We see the first episode where he saved the kid.  The first appearance of Superman!  Daily Planet, Perry White rejects Clark as reporter.  He meets Lois Lane.  She is more interested in the problems of the city than some hero.  She shows a file of a man with a metal mask.  Jimmy Olsen is mentioned, but we haven’t seen him yet and what happened to him.  He starts to work with Lois reseraching and interviewing people.  Short, but you can see the working relationship of Lois and Clark.  He detects a disturbance with his super hearing.  A man fires a flame thrower and Superman stands in his way, freezing the weapon with his super breath.  This is Atom Man (Paul Lazenby), who was featured on the old radio show, and also the name of a 1950 film serial, Atom Man vs. Superman, but this was Lex Luthor.  He throws grenades at civilians which Superman stops and Lois tazers the villain.  

Lois introduces herself to Superman and she first calls him Superman!  This is a great summary of Superman and Lois similar to Superman the Movie, but with its own spin.  Hosting Daily Planet Today, Lois interviews Superman, he tells about Krypton, I like him learning every language.  Lois has to check her mic and meets with a co-worker, Janet (Yoshié Bancroft) who says he’s falling for her.  Lois confides that she likes Clark. Janet brings up that Superman has super hearing.  She continues the interview.  Clark and Lois go to the farm, Lois meets Martha, Martha!  She likes Lois and Clark wants to reveal his identity.  Martha hugs her son.  He shows Lois that he can fly.  They kiss, he shows her a ring at the Fortress of Solitude, they wed. Strange, that this flashback does not cover the first meeting of General Lane and Superman.  At the Fortress of Solitude, he tells Jor-El about the wedding and suddenly his father is screaming at him, a nightmare!  Lois tells Clark that she is pregnant. The doctor shows the couple that they are having twin boys.  Clark faces Tal-Ro, who is playing This is Your Life?, Lois gives birth to Jonathan and Jordan.  

SUPERMAN AND LOIS - “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” - JORDAN ELSASS, ALEX GARFIN, ELIZABETH TULLOCH - Photo: The CW -- © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Photo Credit: Bettina Strauss.

Clark removes a headband, he faces Tal-Ro in the Fortress of Solitude, who asks for his surrender.  Tal-Ro threatens Jonathan and Jordan.  He crushes the Jor-El crystal.  Then, Tal-Ro slams Superman.  Kyle is trying to recover from his transformation with Lois and Lana.  The alien part is covered up by the government.  Jordan and Jonathan talk with Sarah, she wants to speak to Jordan alone, he gets a kiss from her!  Kyle apologizes to Lois for the way he treated her.  Lois is happy for her son and Uncle Morgan drops down!  He says his fortress is in the desert.  He blasts Jordan with his heat vision.  Lois stand against him.  Edge is about to blast Lois, but Superman appears.  He agrees to Edge’s bargain to spare his family.  At the Val-Ro’s desert fortress, they appear and the young Val-Ro (Ben Cockell) throws the crystal to from his fortress.  He activates the red crystal, and sees the hologram of his father, Zeta-Ro (A.C. Peterson).  It is 1987 and he begins his training to rule.  The first test is pain with red rays torturing him.  He brings Superman to Zeta-Ro.  Superman is bathed by the red rays as Zeta-Ro and his son watch.  An impressive episode of Superman and Lois, but this should have been a two part episode, and where is Jimmy Olsen?  

Four Kryptonite Crystals out of Five!

#SupermanAndLois, #ABriefReminiscenceInBetweenCataclysmicEvents, #YoshieBancroft, #AtomMan, #PaulLazenby, #BenCockell, #ACPeterson 

Loki, “The Variant”, Review!

 Loki is now working for Agent Morbius and the Time Variance Authority to track down a Variant that has been deadly for the agents, it’s a Loki Variant!   Some medieval flutes and instruments play at a ren faire in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1985.  Dancers swing around the May Pole.  TVA Minutemen appear and then move to a tent lit by torches. A recorded message startles them and puts the agents at the ready. One agent’s eyes, Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane) flare white, possessed?  The goofy message goes  into Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero.”  Hunter C-20 starts to take down the other Minutemen until she is restored and falls down.  The remaining agent is stabbed by a sword.  The shadowy Variant uses the Minuteman’s time device and disappears in a time door.  It picks up with Miss Minute checking Loki’s time knowldge.  Loki decides to smack around the cartoon clock until she jumps into the safety of her screen. 

Mobius checks Loki’s new jacket.  Very fashionable. Hunter B-15 is at the briefing with Mobius and Loki.  She points out that the back of his Loki’s jacket reads Variant.  Mobius goes over Loki’s powers showing some of the variants including Loki as a soccer star.   He has the group break into two teams to find the Variant.  Loki is excited thay one of the the peeks of is new job may be an audience with the Time-Keepers.  They arrive at the ren faire and Loki asks why they don’t travel to before the incident.  Mobius explains it is because of the disruptive nature of the Nexus time flow.  He grew bored of the TVAs videos and didn’t get the full TVA procedures which of course is an excellent way for the audience to know how this time travel works.  They reach the tent, Hunter B-15 wants to search for C-20, but Loki stops Mobius.  He senses a scheme that would be himself behind it.  Loki compares the TVA to the gods of Asgard.  

B-15 is impatient, but Loki says the Variant is setting a trap for him.  This would allow the two Lokis to take over the TVA.  He says he needs to see the Time-Keepers, but Mobius thinks it’s another Loki deception.  At an office that contains strange, black armors, the TimeKeepers? the office of his boss, Ravonna Renslayer.  They are discussing the failure of the mission, Mobius says the more he understands Loki, the more he will be able to catch the Variant.  She says the Time-Keepers are watching the case. Ravonna authorizes one more mission with Loki.  Joining him outside the office, Loki tries to explain what happened with the mission.  Mobius is frustrated with Loki.  They enter an elevator down through the TVA halls.  Mobius warns Loki that this is his last chance.  Loki goes over the research, the Variant kills agents and takes their reset charges.  He later goes to desk clerk requesting files on the creation of the TVA.  He is refused any information except the Variant case file.  

There is one part of the file that catches Loki’s interest, the “Destruction of Asgard.” Loki is melancholy of the fate of Asgard and also that there was “Zero Variance Energy Detected.”  This clue sets Loki to tell Mobius busy eating his lunch that the Variant is hiding in apocalypses. He says it is Ragnarok.  I like that this team up is starting to work, great chemistry with Hiddleston and Wilson.  He uses his lunch to say that the Variant could do anything he wanted because it would eventually lead to Ragnarok.  He takes a juice box from Casey, the TVA office worker from last episode, and makes the metaphor of pouring juice into Mobius’ salad. Morbius thinks Loki’s theory may be valid, but doesn’t want to go to Asgard to be betrayed by the God of Mischief.  Loki admits that he loves to be right.  Pompeii, Italy, 79 A.D., right before the eruption. Mount Vesuvius rumbles, but villagers continue with their lives.  Loki is excited about the impeding destruction. 

Mobius checks his TemPad for variance energy, Loki runs, opening a pen of goats to run wild.  He gives a speech in Italian to all of the villagers that the volcano is about to erupt.  They return to the TVA and Mobius wants to research natural disasters where the Variant may be hiding.  Mobius has Loki take a break from their research to the cafeteria, Loki asks about his jet ski magazine.  He admires the invention from the “early 90s” and Loki realizes he has never ridden one.  It is Mobius' motivation working for the TVA.  Then, Mobius goes on an existential debate when Loki questons the Time-Keepers.  He just accepts things as they are and that the Time-Keepers are working to resolve the future.  Loki goes on that there are no absolutes, good or evil.  Interesting conversation with some heavy topics, I don’t think Doctor Who goes into this territory.  This gets Mobius to check on the other variable, the candy, Kablooie, left at the cathedral.  They research the time period of the candy, 2047 to 2051.  Loki and Mobius have a competition to find the Variant against natural disasters and the Kablooie time period.  Loki finds it and Mobius has to get the mission approved by Ravonna.  The Variant's plan becomes revealed and threatens everything!   This episode of Loki explores some interesting time travel concepts and ups the danger with the Variant villain!     

Five Time Twisters out of Five! 

#Loki, #TheVariant, #SashaLane, #Kablooie 

Happy Birthday Nicole Kidman!

Happy Birthday Nicole Kidman!  She worked in tv and had the lead in the horror film, Dead Calm (1989).  Then, Kidman played Dr. Claire Lewicki in Tony Scott’s Days of Thunder (1990).  Kidman was also in Batman Forever (1995) as Dr. Chase Meridian.  Next, , she played a witch in Practical Magic (1998).  A standout part was as Satine in the Baz Lurhmann musical, Moulin Rouge (2001)!  Kidman entered the haunted house of The Others (2001).  In 2002, Nicole Kidman won the Academy Award for Best Actress playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours.  Then, she starred in the Frank Oz remake of The Stepford Wives (2004) trying to uncover the strange secret of the town and the wives.  She returned to playing a witch in Nora Ephron’s adaptation of the sitcom, Bewitched (2005).  Kidman returned to a singing part as Norma Jean in George Miller’s animated Happy Feet (2006).  

Next, she played a psychiatrist trying to fight The Invasion (2007).  She was Mrs. Coulter in the fantasy movie, The Golden Compass (2007).  Kidman played the villainous taxidermist in Paddington (2014).  She played Miss Martha in the remake of the drama The Beguiled (2017). Kidman was Celeste Wright in the Big Little Lies series. She won the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for the show.  In 2018, Kidman played Queen Boadicea in the sci fi comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties based on the Neil Gaiman story.  Queen Atlanna, the mother of Aquaman (2018), was played by Nicole Kidman!  She played Gretchen Carlson in the drama, Bombshell (2019). Kidman was in the David E. Kelley drama series The Undoing.  For the musical comedy, Prom, Kidman played Angie Dickinson.  Next up, Kidman will star in Nine Perfect Strangers, the drama series based on the novel by Liane Moriarty.  Happy Birthday Nicole Kidman!   

#NicoleKidman, #MoulinRouge, #BigLittleLies, #Aquaman, #TheUndoing, #NinePerfectStrangers 

Happy Birthday John Cho!

Happy Birthday John Cho!  He started a genre career playing Mark Chao in a 1998 episode of Charmed.   Then, Cho had a cameo in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000).  Cho voiced two 2001 episodes of the Static Shock animated series.  He played as as student in Ivan Reitman’s sci fi comedy Evolution (2001).  Next, Cho had a cameo in Stephen Soderburgh’s sci fi film Solaris (2002).  Cho had an iconic role as Harold Lee in the comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004).  He played Teddy Wong along with Bradley Cooper in the sitcom Kitchen Confidential (2005-2006) and then The Singles Table (2007).  Cho voiced Vince Chung in the animated series American Dad! (2006-2016).  He then returned in Harold & Kumar Escape form Guantanamo Bay (2008).  Then, he had another career defining role as Sulu in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek (2009). 

Next, John Cho played Demetri Noh in the sci fi series Flashforward (2009-2010).  Then, he finished out the comedy series with A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011).  Cho next was in the Total Recall (2012) reboot.  He returned as Sulu in Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013).  Cho was in the supernatural series, Sleepy Hollow (2013-2014) as Andy Brooks.  One of my favorite roles for John was as Henry Higgs in the sitcom Selfie (2014) alongside Karen Gillan.  John Cho played Sulu in 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond.  He played Andrew Kim in the supernatural series, The Exorcist (2017).  He was in the drama, Searching, about a father trying to find his missing daughter and may find clues to her disappearance with her laptop.  The Searching review is at: http://geektruth.blogspot.com/2018/09/searching-review.html.  Cho was in “The Wunderkind “ episode of The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access.  He voiced the father in the animated Over the Moon (2020).  Long in the animated move, Wish Dragon, was voiced by Cho this year.  He has upcoming the Netflix series Cowboy Bebop playing Spike Spiegel based on the anime.  Happy Birthday John Cho!   

#JohnCho, #Harold&KumarGotoWhiteCastle, #StarTrekBeyond, #Searching, #OverTheMoon, #WishDragon, #CowboyBebop  

Superman & Lois, “O Mother, Where Art Thou?”, Review!

Last episode’s shocking revelations, Morgan Edge confronts Superman in an empty valley. Returning to the rocky landscape, Edge says he is Kal-El’s brother, a Kryptonian!  He reveals that his name is Tal-Ro and he was the first Kyptonian to arrive on Earth as a boy.  He is the son of Zeta-Ro and Lara Lor-Van, Kal-El's mother!  Kinda like Atlanna, Aquaman's mother in the movie, with Tal-Ro replacing Orm.  He is a new character for the show.  A man with his son shoots the Kryptonian boy.  Superman refuses to resurrect Krypton and return his mother.  Tal-Ro flies him slamming back through the rocks!  Night, Kyle is staring out the porch.  Sarah is angry at him.  Lana tries to explain that ther is more to his story.  Sarah runs off and Lana wants to know his story.  Lois tries to call Lana, General Lane sends someone, Clark walks up defeated.  He reveals to his family the truth.  Lois sends off Clark with the DoD protection.  The Fortress of Solitude, Clark asks the hologram of Jor-El why he wasn’t told about his brother.  He says that his mother wants to suspend consciousnesses like his hologram form.  Jonathan looks at the sirens flashing outside.  Jordan gets no cell text back from Sarah.  Jonathan speculates that this plan might turn Superman into the Superman tyrant.  Lois says they are always family.  

SUPERMAN & LOIS - “O Mother, Where Art Thou?” - EMMANUELLE CHRIQUI - Photo: The CW -- © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Photo Credit: Bettina Strauss.

General Lane reports that Kyle is found.  At the house, Kyle confides to Lana that he didn’t want to be a failure.  A knock at the door, it’s Lois, Kyle flashes forward and chokes Lois and Lana, Lois strikes him with a fist of Kryptonite!  Soldier take him into custody.  At the farmhouse, Lana is staying with them and can’t find Sarah.  Lois calls Edge’s machine, the Eradicator!  The Eradicator was one of the forms of Superman after his death, really a that took his form in Action Comics #687 (1993), it was really a machine introduced in Action Comics Annual #2 (1989).  Lois shows everyone a slideshow of the loyal subjekts.  Lana points out Dr. Dabney Donovan who examined all of the private army.  He was seen in the "Haywire" episode.  At a base, General Lane wants to mobilize the troops, he brings a photo of Donovan to Kyle’s containment cell.  He refuses so General Lane orders him a nice Kryptonite ray bath.  Soldier march through the streets of Smallville.  At the diner, the Kent boys talk to Sarah, Jonathan tries to break that Morgan Edge altered her father.  Great! I like the clarification without compromising everything and sparking feelings.  At the farm, Lois wonders why Tal-Ro has given Clark time.  He hears the capture of Donovan. 

Superman breaks into the lab with General Lane, and wants to reverse the process.  Donovan says only the inventor of the Eradicator could reverse it, Superman realizes it’s his mother, Lara-Van! It makes me think if the Krypton show would have continued, it could have tied into this series, it was set two generations before the destruction of Krypton.  Lois takes Lana to the camp, Lana is stunned to see Superman, Donavan tries to explain that there is no way to discover the secret. Lana volunteers to transfer Lara-Van’s consciousness to herself, brave.  Superman’s former girlfriend becomes his mother?  She will finally know the truth about Superman!  A soldier blocks Sarah, Jonathan, and Jordan from entering the base.  General Lane doesn’t want her in to see her father.  Jonathan tries to talk sense to his grandfather, he is a hero even without super powers, and General Lane gives permission.  Sarah meets Kyle in his cell, he gets up in rage, Jordan takes her away.  Kyle threatens to kill Jonathan.  Superman worries at Lana’s decision.  He tries to assure her, but Lana is strong.  

SUPERMAN & LOIS - “O Mother, Where Art Thou?” - ELIZABETH TULLOCH, TYLER HOECHLIN, DYLAN WALSH - Photo: The CW -- © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Photo Credit: Bettina Strauss.

Lois tells Lana that they are ready for her.  Lana walks to the Eradicator and lays down into the machine.  She twists in pain.  The process over, Lana/Lara-Van opens her eyes and says, “Kal-El.”  Lara looks at a globe of the Eradicator and says she wanted resurrection to save Kryptonians.  Her story is beautiful.  The only part is that she should know he is Clark Kent now.  Lara’s crystal was stolen by her ex-boyfriend in revenge.  She knows Kal-El is married.  At the diner, Sarah sits by herself, Jonathan and Jordan are worried about her.  Leslie meets with Val-Ro and wants to search for the Eradicator.  He wants her to prepare for their "arrival."  Lara explains that the Eradicator is like a computer re-writing a person’s consciousness.  She says all of the people will be needed to reverse the process.  To transfer everyone, Lara says it will need a power like the sun.  Superman detects Val-Ro’s signal, Lois says to use his own tactic as a brother against him, Lara sends off her child as a hero.  This is great, but where is John Henry Irons?  On a field, Val-Ro wonders about , he mentions his hunting by humans in the “British countryside.”  He was jailed and experimented on.  This kinda hints at the Elseworlds graphic novel, Superman: True Brit (2004) co-written by John Cleese. 

Superman apologizes.  He is about to be escorted by soldiers and then steps in the sunlight to activate his heat vision to kill the soldiers.  At the diner, Jordan apologizes for not appearing at the talent show to Sarah.  The waiter is about give them a ly overhead!  Val-Ro is driven to not lose another planet and points to his loyal subjekts.  Val-Ro brings up the old "us or them."   Superman flies away chased by the army.  He contacts General Lane about the readiness of the Eradicator.  Superman says he will be the energy source!  General Lane clears the building, Superman flies with a burst of speed, Sarah watches her father rage in his cell, Superman races to take hold of the globe.  The army's multiple heat vision beams converge, but Superman counters.  Val-Ro screams for them to stop.  There is an explosion.  Does this activate Jonathan’s powers?  Everyone is knocked down.  The soldiers check on the Smallville citizens.  Lois sees that Lana has returned.  Morgan Edge is missing and Superman is gone.  Great episode, it can end right here and be satisfying. 

Five Kryptonite Crystals out of Five!  

#SupermanAndLois, #OMotherWhereArtThou, #ValRo, #Eradicator 

Happy Birthday Chris Evans!

Happy Birthday Chris Evans!  He may be known as Captain America, at least the Steve Rogers version, but started in the teen drama, Opposite Sex (2000).  Then, he moved to a comedy movie, Not Another Teen Movie (2001).  This led to his first superhero role, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch in Fantastic Four (2005).  Evans provided the voice of Casey in the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2007).  He returned to the role in the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Evans voiced Stewart Stanton in the sci fi animated film, Battle for Terra (2007).  He was in the police drama, Street Kings (2008) directed by David Ayer.  In 2009, Evans played an enhanced psychic, a Mover, against The Division in Push.  He was in a comic book adaptation with The Losers (2010) based on the Andy Diggle and Jock Vertigo comic.  One of Evans’ finest comic book roles was as Lucas Lee, stunt man/action hero/skateboarder, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).  His iconic role was as Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) directed by Joe Johnston and then The Avengers (2012).  

Evans’ next genre project was Snowpiercer (2013) directed by Bong Joon-ho and based on the French graphic novel.  He reprised the role of Captain America in one of the MCU’s best films, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).  Evans directed his first movie with the romance Before We Go (2014).  He took up the Shield again in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Captain America: Civil War (2016).  A dramatic part for Chris Evans was as Frank Adler, the uncle of his genius niece, Mary, in Gifted (2017).  He also cameo’d in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) as Captain America.  The First Avenger was in the final battles against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and then turned over the shield in Avengers: Endgame (2019).  Ransom Drysdale was played by Evans in Knives Out (2019).   In 2018, Evans debuted on Broadway with the drama Lobby Hero with Michael Cera (who played Scott Pilgrim) He won the broadway.com Audience Awards for the part.  Evans has starred in the drama miniseries Defending Jacob on Apple TV+ based on the William Linday novel.  He has upcoming The Gray Man based on the 2009 novel by Mark Greaney.  Evans will voice the space hero based on Toy Story with the animated Lightyear.  Happy Birthday Chris Evans!   

#ChrisEvans, #CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier, #LobbyHero, #DefendingJacob 

Bad Batch, “Battle Scars”, Review!

The seventh episode of The Bad Batch is almost a turning point for the series!  Yes, the threat of Crosshair, the Imperial Elite Squad, and who is Fennec Shand working for is all pending.  There is enough episodes to develop those storylines, plus I think the real focus is the Bad Batch exploring the post-Republic universe!  I wonder about the opening title and military snare drum music, I think the Bad Batch are moving away from a simple, military outfit.  Over a green planet, the Havoc Marauder is pursued by three, smaller patrol ships.  Hunter is using the shuttle’s rear cannons to try to hold them off.  Echo is trying to restore the hyperdrive.  Omega puts down the crash chasis, the lizard creature in a cage next to her squawks, she calls it Ruby.  Tech clarifies Wrecker’s statement that they stole the lizard from the Rohkai.  The cage falls and Ruby leaps onto Wrecker’s face!  Kinda funny.   He slams his head into a chair, Ruby scampers off, and Tech throws the ship into hyperdrive!   

Cid stares at the lizard in the cage and tells the Bad Batch that she doesn’t care about the fate her client intends for it.  She has them carry the cage in the back.  Hunter notices a hooded figure in the cantina.  Omega wants to leave with Wrecker after the mission, it’s their tradition.  The stranger stares at them Strider-style.  Cid gives the Bad Batch a finger full of credits minus their debts.  She has been paying for their fuel, gear, and 20 cartons of Mantell Mix.  At a booth, Wrecker and Omega share a box of Mantell Mix, it looks like the multi-colored Outpost Mix Popcorn, reddish and yellow kernels, at Galaxy’s Edge!  The Ithorian wants the stranger to leave his seat, mistake.  Cid asks them for a big score like the tactical droid head they didn’t return last episode.  Then, they hear blasterfire outside.  The stranger pulls off his hood, it’s Captain Rex!  He was the first clone trooper officer that we identify in the Star Wars: Clone Wars (2008) movie fighting alongside General Kenobi, General Skywalker, and Commander Tano on Christophsis through the entire Clone War!  

We saw him bearded and free from the inhibitor chip in Star Wars: Rebels.  Also, the fateful last episode of Star Wars: Clone Wars, “Victory and Death” (2020).  Later, over drinks, Rex explains that he was “keeping a low profile” after the war.  He found the Bad Batch through Trace and Rafa.  It looks like the hologram glimpsed at the end of last episode was Rex and they Montez Sisters retrieved the tactical droid head for him.  Wrecker is surprised to see Rex and gets him into a bear hug.  Omega instantly recognizes Rex as a generation one clone.  He wonders at Wrecker’s head pain and begins to reach for his blaster when the finds they have not removed their inhibitor chips.  Wrecker’s head was struck in the third episode, “Replacements”, during a crash landing, and continued to have problems.  Rex leaves them to work out how to help.  The Havoc Marauder jumps through hyperspace.  Hunter tells the suffering Wrecker that they are going to meet Rex on Bracca.  It is a Mid Rim planet first hinted at with the Resistance Reborn (2019) novel and seen in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) video game.  Tech has finished with his chip scanner.  

The ship reaches Bracca orbit and begins its descent into the rusty hulks of starships and green pools of water.  There have of course been starship graveyards, but this vision is more rusty, broken down, like sci fi art.  The shuttle lands next to Rex’s Y-Wing.  Rex points out the Venator-class Star Destroyer.  Hunter gives out a warning.  A hovering group, the Scrapper Guild, patrols the graveyards.  Rex points out when they enter the interior that it was an original, Wrecker compares it to Rex.  Hunter watches the shifting waters at the bottom of the ship and tells Tech to be careful.  They fire a cable to cross a chasm, but Wrecker falls towards the water.  Tentacles drag Wrecker down, a Watcher in the Water, or Dia Noga!  They lift up a door and rat creatures scamper away.  Echo works on the surgical pod.  Tech tries to scan Wrecker, Omega is worried that if they fails, she will be alone.  

Wrecker groans seeing the light from the surgical pod.  Tech tries to sedate Wrecker and suddenly he goes into Order 66 mode!  Suddenly, the strongest member of the Bad Batch has turned against them!  Wrecker is about to choke Hunter, but Omega sends off a blast from her energy bow!  She has to run from her best friend.  When they stun Wrecker and treat him, Wrecker is unconscious, and Omega refuses to leave him!  Rex still wants in on the fight and would need the Bad Batch.  They in turn have Rex as yet another ally.  The Bad Batch has fulfilled one of its concepts from the start of the show, what happens to their inhibitor chips?, and now we have them truly out of the control of any army or group.  There still remains the mystery of Omega.  We still have missing Wolfe and Gregor that turned up in "The Lost Commanders" (2015) of Star Wars: Rebels.  The greatest action the Bad Batch can do to save the ideals of the Republic?  Baby Yoda!     

Four Vibro Knives out of Five! 

#StarWarsTheBadBatch, #BattleScars, #MantellMix, #CaptainRex 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Review!

 The Conjuring series has been a gripping horror series with thr first Conjuring (2013) directed by James Wan, the more ghosts, but slightly less scary, Conjuring 2 (2016), this third film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, starts off intense!  The series features paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, caught up in powerful terrors threatening seemingly normal families.  There has been spin-offs with the latest one was Annabelle Comes Home (2019) which had a cameo with the Warrens.  The director, Michael Chaves, previously directed the light horror of The Curse of La Llorona (2019).  The screenplay is by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick who co-wrote the screenplay for Conjuring 2 and co-wrote the this story with James Wan.  The film’s release was delayed until released in theaters and on HBO Max on June 4th.    

The movie begins with the eerie music of Joseph Bishara who composed the music of all of the The Conjuring films.  We see a three story house with some lights on in the night.  A broken chandelier as words are said, a prayer, for an exorcism by Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson).  The actor was also in Annabelle Comes Home. We are introduced to the introduction type that it is July 18, 1981.  The first movie took place in 1971, Conjuring 2 was in 1977, and now we find the Warrens four years later, a journey through their many cases.  They are witnessing the exorcism of David Glatzel (Julian Hillard).  He is eight years old, glasses, just a boy.  Glatzel starred as Billy Maximoff in WandaVision.  David is being held by his mother, Judy Glatzel (Charlene Amoia).  On the other side of the couch is his older sister, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) and her boyfriend, Arne Johnson (Ruari O’Connor).  Hook was in an episode of the Monsterland horror show.  O’Connor was in The Spanish Princess mini-series.  Arne becomes our focus, IRL they were fiancees.  The movie hangs on their appeal as a simple couple, not stock characters.  Ed  calls for a break. 

Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) is next by his side. Varmiga is in the upcoming Hawkeye series as Eleanor Bishop.  Next to them is David’s father, Carl Glatzel (Paul Wilson).  Lorraine checks on Ed who says this case is unusual for them.  Arne takes David to sleep. Carl is worried about his son, but Ed tries to reassure him that Father Gordon will be there soon. A quiet moment, Arne tries to say David is being brave, and promises to protect him.    David brings up when Arne will ask his sister to marry.  Arne nervously laughs and then looks out the window to see the taxi cab pull up with Father Gordon (Steve Coulter).  This is a part Coulter begun in Conjuring 2. The priest walks up to the dark house.   David hears the knocking at the door and heads to the bathroom.   He hears the rattling of a doorknob and hides behind the shower curtains.  David looks up and sees the black shower rings are actually fingers.  The shower turns on and sprays David with blood!  Carl breaks into the room with the others.  David appears from a corner and then stabs his father in the leg with a knife!  

David is enraged, Ed tries to carry him down the stairs, and David’s fingernails claw the walls! Ed’s assistant, Drew (Shannon Kook) tries to catch everything on camera, the others try to restrain the possessed David on a table while Father Gordon performs the exorcism!  Kook has also starred in the past Conjuring films.  Lorraine sees clairvoyant visions as she assists.  The table starts to shudder as Father Gordon sprays David with holy water.  The sweating, pus-filled David lets out a scream, then dishes start flying out of cabinet and one smashes into Father Gordon.  Ed checks on Father Gordon.  He picks up Gordon’s bible and we hear bones snapping as David’s body twists around under the grip of Debbie, Arne, and Lorraine.  Arne pleads for the spirit to leave David alone against the warnings of Ed.  David knocks back Arne and Ed, leaps on Ed, and threatens to stop his heart!  Arne takes up David and screams to leave David and take him!  The weakened Ed sees the spirit pass to Arne.   Lorraine checks on him, but Ed collapses.  The titles explain that David Glatzel’s exorcism to Arne Johnson’s torment and national headlines.  I’m not familiar with the news story, but take the film as a dramatization of events.

At the hospital, a doctor reports that they are going to put a stent in David’s artery after the heart attack, Father Gordon is concerned, as is Debbie and Lorraine.  Arne is asleep hearing echoes of the fateful night, light shines on him, and then he notices Debbie. They kiss and then hear the dogs barking outside.   Arne pulls her back to say that now David is safe that they should leave Brookfield.  They are such a nice couple and I like that Arne is more concerned about David than all other things.  Debbie heads over to her job at the first story of the Boarding Kennels. Her boss, Bruno (Ronnie Gene Blevins) just likes to rock out to his stereo which he needs Arne to fix.  Debbie tells him about how to care for the dogs. Later, Debbie tells her mother, Judy, about Arne’s plans as he plays football with David.  She tells him to get the meat in the refrigerator and a box of cereal spills over.   

Arne inspects the box, a rat bursts out, and he follows it into a darkened hole in the wall!  So it begins.  At night at the Brookfield General Hospital, Lorraine tells Father Gordon about how she and Ed met, 30 years at a movie theater.  It is a really sweet moment that brings this couple together and gives a little more insight to them. A window reveals Arne working on a tree with a chainsaw, he tries to start it, but the chainsaw sputters.  Arne turns to see a person in a dark suit in the window, but then he is gone.  The chainsaw suddenly starts buzzing causing Arne to drop it in from his startled co-workers.  Arne drives his truck over to the dog kennel.  Bruno is happy Arne is there to fix his stereo and drink a beer.  He takes Arne in as Debbie noticing the dogs barking.  At Brookfield General, Ed revives and his daughter Judy (Sterling Jerins) is excited.  Jarins also stars in The Conjuring movies.  

Ed tries to warn Lorraine that the spirit has possessed Arne.  Bruno is happy that Arne fixed his stereo so he can crank up Blondie’s “Call Me.”  Bruno takes Debbie into a dance, Arne blinks, she is laughing.  Lorraine contacts the police.  Arne washes his face in the sink.  He hears Debbie screaming, it looks like demonic Bruno has her, the dogs in the cages disorient Arne.  Flashes of red in the window, the song cuts off, screams.  Then, we get Arne walking down the road confronted by a police officer.  The violence is implied, there hasn’t been murder in Brookfield for some time, and the Warrens are looking to Arne’s defense and the evil continues even during his prison time.  It will take the Warrens’ investigation and help with a character played by John Noble who also had a dark secret!  Lorraine has to take the lead since Ed is recovering and she has to crawl through a basement to find rats and a totem!  The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a small town horror, one of the most challenging cases for the Warrens putting them in danger!, and one of the best Conjuring stories where we might find a little love in a world surrounded by darkness!    

Four Totems out of Five!  

#TheConjuringTheDevilMadeMeDoIt, #MichaelChaves, #VeraFarmiga, #PatrickWilson, SarahCatherineHook, #RuariOConnor

Happy Birthday Natalie Portman!

Happy Birthday Natalie Portman!  Her first role was as Mathilda in Luc Besson’s  Leon: The Professional (1994).  One of her first genre roles was in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996).  She played Anne Frank on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank (1997).  Portman’s next film was as Queen Padme Amidala Naberrie in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999).  She returned as Padme as senator in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005).  An interesting role for Portman was as Ever in V for Vendetta (2005) based on the Alan Moore and David Lloyd comic books.  Next, she was in the fantasy, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (2007). 

Her most recognized part was as Nina Sayers in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan winning her the Academy Award for best actress.  Strangely, she was in the fantasy comedy, Your Highness (2011) as Isabel, an archer and huntress.  Then, she entered the MCU as Jane Foster in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor (2011).  Portman returned as Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World (2013).  She directed her first film and starred in A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015).  Portman took the lead role in Jackie (2016) based on First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy with more award recognition.  She was in the Alex Garland sci fi film, Annihilation.  She starred in Pale Blue Dot as an astronaut disturbed by her trip to space.  Portman voices Jane Foster in the What If...? animated series and soon will return in Thor: Love and Thunder!  Happy Birthday Natalie Portman!    

#NataliePortman, #LeonTheProffesional, #BlackSwan, #Thor, #ATaleofLoveandDarkness