So, this depression has lasted a lot longer than I intended. Sorry about that. Here’s a Quickies to get old stuff out of the way because 2017 was not a good year for me…and you yourself, I’d imagine. Let’s wipe the year’s film slate clean first, shall we?

  1. Thor 3: Ragnarok: I immediately declared the first five minutes to be superior to the other two Thor films combined and the full movie remained that way. I realize the reason for the tone shift between films is because in between Dark World and Ragnarok we got two widely successful Sci Fi Action Comedy films and the MCU has always presented Thor and the Asgardians as aliens that ancient Scandinavians based Norse mythology on instead of actual Norse gods anyway so making Thor 3 more like Guardians makes some sense. The acting is still great. I like Chris Hemsworth more here than I ever have in any other Marvel movie he’s been in save Age of Ultron’s team hammer scene, Tom Hiddleston is still good even when he’s playing ally, it’s great to see Mark Ruffalo again, and Tessa Thompson is a major find for Marvel. Seriously, she better start getting all of the contracts. She’s great. The only way she could have been better is by leaving in that deleted scene that made it clear Valkyrie was bisexual. Seriously, why was that left out? Give me an explanation on the DVD. I liked the film’s music. I liked its humour. The villain was cool, but wasn’t in it much. Still, easily one of the better Marvel movies. They still got it.
    Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi: Wow, I just cannot get Star Wars reviews out on time. Damn, that’s annoying. This film is great. Yes, I’ve heard people’s problems with the film. That’s great. I don’t care. I liked it. The acting was still great. The story was interesting, yes I’ll grant you the casino stuff was pointless, but I still enjoyed myself. I didn’t see some of the twists coming. I liked the new characters. The cast from Force Awakens is still good. Mark Hamill is still awesome as Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher’s final performance, not just as Leia but ever, is wonderful and I am genuinely interested as to what the hell they have planned for the next one considering she was supposed to have a big role and they had to rewrite it. Maybe they’ll finally bring back Lando. …Please just bring back Lando. Also Leia used the Force….I don’t care if the scene’s flawed as all hell! I’m glad it finally happened!
    1. Coco: Didn’t see it. Sorry. Though considering Disney didn’t put out any animated films this year and no one in their right mind would give the award to Cars 3, this is gonna be the Best Animated Feature winner at the Oscars this year. Bet against me if you want. I’ll win. It’s already won a Golden Globe.
    2. The Shape of Water: That’s four Guillermo del Toro films I’ve seen and I love them all. Visually, the film is beautiful. I love the design and setting. If this film is nominated for nothing else, it’ll get some tech noms. It should get director and lead actress as well, but it probably won’t. The actors were amazing and the romance, while kinda weird, was actually very sweet. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised this is one of the few romances I actually like considering my favourite Disney film is Beauty and the Beast. I don’t normally like romance, but the monster movie/fantasy elements were enough for me to stay engaged.
    3. Baby Driver: Oh god, I forgot I saw this movie. …Uh. I liked it. Edgar Wright’s a good director and I like his style. The romance was cute and I really liked the lead’s relationship with his deaf foster father, Joseph. Also, Joseph was my favourite character. CJ Jones is awesome. They interpreted his sign language the same way they did in Shape of Water. That was cool.
    4. Justice League: CALLED IT!!
    5. Doctor Who Series 10: Don’t worry, the Christmas special will getting be a full review. We got two Doctors and a regeneration to get through. I’m not skimping on that. I just thought it best to get the latest season out of the way here so I’m not releasing the Christmas Special review in March…again. Anyway, first, to reiterate (Spoilers), I like Peter Capaldi and Bill is an excellent companion. I’m sad she’s left. I love Missy. I get why they went back to the other Master, but I’ll miss her. The stories were all very good. I think this is my favourite of the Capaldi era. Overall, I think Moffat’s run has been well done, barring some hiccups. While he’ll be missed, I’m looking forward to the new showrunner. Chibnall has written some good episodes for the show and written some for Torchwood as well. I’m looking forward to our adventures with the new Doctor and wish Capaldi well on whatever he does next. …Also hoping he eventually joins the Big Finish crew like most of the others (…Ecclestone, I’m looking at you.)
  3. Quentin Tarantino is directing the next Star Trek movie…on the one hand, this is a director whose work I really really like (I’ve seen all but two of his films (Django Unchained and Death Proof) and there’s not a bad one in the bunch) and Star Trek could really use a boost considering we’re coming up on another Odd Number Film (ie, a bad one (if we count the Star Trek homage film Galaxy Quest as #10, which I do. Readily), though Search for Spock kinda straddles that line). On the other hand, what the hell is Quentin Tarantino doing on a Star Trek film?! Thankfully, unlike J.J. Abrams, who is sticking around as a producer (so he basically got the Roddenberry treatment post the Slow Motion Picture/ Next Gen Season 2), Tarantino is actually a Star Trek fan. Apparently he’s more a fan of the Next Generation than the Original, but still a Star Trek fan and I’ll take what I can get in terms of nerd directors taking over big name nerd movie properties.
    In particular, Tarantino’s interested in adapting a classic Next Gen episode called ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’, which would bring back Chris Helmsworth as Captain Kirk’s dead father George Kirk as a major player and wouldn’t that be interesting? The original episode is considered one of the best of the series and one of the most beloved of season three after ‘Best of Both Worlds Part 1’(…I don’t think I have to explain why that one is higher on the list.) as well as being known for the return of Denise Crosby as the killed off in season one Tasha Yar. Being a story about time travel and timelines, this could also be a way for the Kelvin timeline to crossover with the original Star Trek Universe. Patrick Stewart has said he’d like to come back if Tarantino’ll let him or, if Paramount thinks Stewart would be too improbable because…movie studios are idiots, they could always bring back a less expensive captain like Janeway or Sisko. As far as I can tell (based off Star Trek Online’s timeline), they’re still alive (even if one went off to be a God basically) and Janeway’s an Admiral…somehow. Hell, you could even bring back one of the surviving Original Series actors (minus Shatner of course). If Doctor McCoy can be alive in the first Next Gen episode, who’s to say Sulu, Uhura and Chekov aren’t? This is the 24th Century we’re talking about. Walter Peck has made it clear he believes Chekov, at least, to be alive and well since he and Tim Russ, who played Tuvok on Voyager, tried to make that Star Trek: Renegades series taking place at least some time after the events of Voyager if not Nemesis.
  4. Disney bought the majority of FOX, which includes pretty much all their movie stuff and most of their TV stuff (minus FOX News because no way is Disney touching that crap) which includes all the Fox released Don Bluth works such as Anastasia, the remaining rights to the first six Star Wars movies (including all rights to the Original Trilogy theatrical cuts, it’s about damn time), and, most importantly, any and all Marvel rights FOX owned returning home to Marvel (which means they could, for example, potentially bring Quicksilver back, retcon the twins’ origins so Magneto is their father again, have the X-Men or Deadpool team up with the Avengers (Disney, keep DP away from Peter for now, he’s a bit young for all that flirting especially if you guys are gonna do the smart thing and keep Ryan Reynolds around), or have a movie where the heroes take on Doctor Doom. (Again, don’t care about the Fantastic Four (or really the X-Men for that matter outside of Deadpool), just their villains). So, I guess that means they’ll be in Avengers 4 or whatever comes afterwards.)…Holy Crap! I mean, I’ve always joked that Disney would take over the world someday, they basically own America’s collective childhood outside of PBS and Star Trek, but I never thought it would actually happen. It’s…actually really scary…,but we could have worse corporate dictators and I for one welcome our new Mouse Overlord. Assuming, of course, that the DOJ gives them the okay.
    Disney has said Deadpool can stay R rated so they’ve already done one smart thing.
  5. Multiple men in Hollywood are being accused of sexual harassment and the mainstream public are finally taking notice. I’m glad this is happening and change is finally happening. Something I’m disappointed in is that one of those men is George Takei, a man I respect and admire very much. I want to believe Takei. I really do. This man is basically the kindly old grandpa of internet culture and I honestly believe he’s better than this and the other men accused of sexual assault. But, we believed the same thing about Bill Cosby. That was basically the apitff to all this. (…don’t look impressed, I stole that word from Hannibal.) Thankfully, Takei’s is only one instead of over fifty, but it’s still disheartening to hear.
  6. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 10th anniversary is coming up in April…Damn! 18 films, 17 TV seasons, 5 short films, over 40ish heroes, and over 13 billion dollars in box office gross worldwide and counting over a period of 10 years without (in the movies at least) a single flop. That’s amazing!
     Also they finally announced a Black Widow movie! It’s about damn time!
    1. Black Panther comes out next month. I’ve already got my ticket….I have nothing else to say. It’s gonna be great and I can’t wait.
      Also, T’Challa’s stepmother is now his real mother. …Kay. Simplifies it for a movie audience. I’m fine with it. Also, his sister Shuri is in it. She was Black Panther for a while in the comics. That opens up possibilities if Boseman ever wants out, though he’s signed up for five films (I don’t know if that includes Civil War and the next two Avengers films count as one (I think).) so I think he’ll be sticking around for a while.
  8. We may be going to Mars in about 15 years where the astronauts may not return. I’m okay with this because if there’s one thing I want us to have before I die, it’s either a Lunar or Martian colony. If this starts that, I’m cool with it. I want us approaching something like Starfleet in my lifetime.
  9. A lot of internet reviewers are coming up on or have celebrated their tenth anniversary. I am not one of them, but congrats to them.
  10.  ……*beleaguered sigh* The past year has been rough and tiring, both politically and personally. At least it was better than 2016…barely, but that’s not a high bar.

Okay, I think that takes care of the backlog. Next time, the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas Special…and then something else. Maybe I’ll talk about Dragon Age. I’ve been playing Origins a lot lately. Maybe some Retro Reviews? Now that I’ve made that category, I should actually do something with it. I have some anime reviews on the backburner I could be making. There’s really nothing interesting for me new movie wise until Black Panther comes out so I’ve got time. Should probably see Proud Mary and Coco though. Oh, I know! Oscar predictions! Those are always fun! And hey, we already have one down.

My New Years Resolution is to find someone to marathon the Middle Earth Franchise Extended Editions with me. Almost 20 Hours of Hobbits, Dwarves, Wizards, and Elves.