Musings – Page 23

Nice To Meet You, Rose. Run For Your Life!

Hard to imagine that it’s been twenty years since Doctor Who made a return to television. A far different take on what had come before, but still very much part of that long-lasting lore. I adored Christopher Eccleston’s take on the Doctor, I thought Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler was a perfect companion for this new, brooding Doctor fellow. I liked that stories were resolved in one or two episodes rather than four or five like in the old show. I liked that the video quality was actually consistent as opposed to the old show where the outside scenes looked grainer than the inside scenes.

This was my entry point into this now six-decade plus old franchise that had, up to that point, largely eluded me. I knew of Doctor Who, I heard of it, but my exposure to the franchise had been fairly minimal. Even now, I’m still playing catch up with the older stuff while ignoring the newer stuff due to its current choice of streaming home. Whatever happens, here’s to another six decades of zany Doctors and stuff.

New Power Rangers Series On Disney+

Source: https://www.thewrap.com/live-action-power-rangers-hasbro-disney/

Described as a re-invention of the franchise and headed by two guys whose names I can’t be bothered to recall… hence the link to the original source article so that you can read it for yourself.

No solid details at this point, but I’m pretty sure anyone clamoring for a continuation of the old show are going to be disappointed. This looks like it’s headed in a new direction and I’m… eh. How about we let it play out and see where it goes?

I’m Reading “Some” Comics… But Mostly “Old” Stuff

For whatever it’s worth… and honestly, I don’t want to make a big stink out of this; I’m merely posting this for the sake of posting anything on this blog on a daily basis… but yes, I’ve been reading some recent comics as of late… although realistically, I’m re-reading a lot of the older stuff that I’ve still got laying around. My only real follows nowadays is the current Power Rangers and TMNT comics… I’ve recently concluded the first arcs of DC’s initial wave of Absolute comics and will probably stop there for the moment… I’ll probably get back on those somewhere down the line and maybe I’ll touch on these in future musings or reviews, but for now, I’m mostly sticking with Prime and IDW’s second TMNT output.

But most of all, I’ve just been re-reading some of the old stuff that I’ve got laying around. Some of the stuff I still held on to, some of the ol’ digital stuff I got from Comixology before the changeover to Amazon (which I resent, because Comixology had a pretty functional and easy-to-use comic reader whereas Amazon… doesn’t), and also a few other things that I’ve got laying around and am not quite sure how I have these… there’s been a lot of that lately, let’s be honest.

Anyhoo… I don’t know if this is going to lead to more comic talk or possibly even more reviews beyond the restoring of the old shit from decades ago… but it’s one more thing to keep me busy.

I guess.

An Epiphany Of Sorts…

For those who don’t know, I have a question gimmick on the sidebar of the blog where you can write a question and I would attempt to use it as fodder for this blog. It used to be a thing that would fuel the old DTM-Cast audio program when I was still doing those, but now it just sits there… unloved and untouched.

Or so I thought.

Some time ago, I got a message from someone asking if I actually got around to sitting down to watch that Section 31 movie… and the answer would, of course, be no. In fact, I had not thought about that movie until this post came along. And so, I gave the question a little more thought and you want to know what popped up in my mind?

Leonard Part 6.

For those who don’t know, Leonard Part 6 is an old movie starring Bill Cosby as a retired CIA agent who has to save the world from an evil plot or something. It is generally considered to be one of the worst movies ever and, up until his recent indiscretions came to light, an otherwise huge blight on the career of Bill Cosby. Why I was thinking about Leonard Part 6 over a question about Section 31… I couldn’t even begin to tell you.

But then something else came to mind… a thought occurred that I didn’t think was possible, but when it did, I was both pleasantly surprised and horrified at the idea. The fact that I gave this thought consideration and didn’t immediately push it aside made this even more disturbing.

See, it just occurred to me that while I am in no hurry to watch Section 31 – which would require a subscription to Paramount+, which I do not have – I do have a mild curiosity regarding Leonard Part 6… dare I say, I’m actually curious to see how bad that movie really is. Never mind the fact that even during his beloved period – yeah, I know, such a thought is impossible to process these days – I was never the biggest Bill Cosby fan. I didn’t dislike the fellow; he just wasn’t my cup of Jello.

Jello, I’m so sorry.

So yes, what I’m trying to say here is…

I would rather watch Leonard Part 6 than Star Trek: Section 31.

Now if only I can find a cheap copy somewhere so that I don’t feel entirely dirty…

Screen Rant Is Worthless…

Why is it that whenever I look up news for a specific franchise – let’s say Power Rangers, for example – most of the search results are glorified opinion pieces from Screen Rant. If there’s an article that has the brilliant clickbait headline of “30 Year Mystery Solved” or whatever the case may be, they’re usually referencing something from the comics… which generally exist in their own little world independent of the TV continuity.

Screen Rant has a lot of these pointless articles that feel like I’m actually getting dumber with each passing word I read from that site. I get that it’s a site called Screen Rant, but none of these articles come across as “ranting.” They’re just rambling nonsense. I know quite a bit about that. I’ve done that myself. It’s not something that you should be paying for as either a consumer or an employer.

Please, do me a favor. If you want to reference something my way, please don’t let it be from Screen Rant. I will just ignore you. Thanks.

I’m (Genuinely) Miserable

Hey, folks. I’m using the Goldberg Is Miserable meme to illustrate how miserable I’m presently feeling at the moment. Aside from some family issues on the outside, I’m also presently dealing with some health issues. I was hoping to get something up and running on the video side of things, but sadly, that’s going to have to take a back seat for a little bit.

So we’re putting a pause on the video output for the next couple weeks. I’ll find a way to readjust how things work going forward, but right now, I have to focus on regaining my bearings and feeling a little better than I do now. On the flip side, there’s still some written stuff to look forward because there’s some stuff that’s been done in advance and also writing stuff is far less taxing and time consuming (click on Add New Post, Type Shit, Push Publish, repeat as needed, etc.).

Honestly, it hasn’t been a bad streak. Banging out 25 reviews and a couple streams along the way in the past couple months is more than I would have expected to get out given the usual output ’round these parts. Would it have been nice if it had continued? Sure, but you get to a point where you realize that you really, really, REALLY need to take a step back and give yourself a break. So that’s what I’m doing. Only difference is that I’m giving you ample warning.

The only real good that could come out of this is that once I’m at a point where I can manage this stuff a little better, I can prep some stuff for the future, start building a bit of backlog, and have SOMETHING to fill the void in the event that I ever fall ill again… maybe I can scale back and focus on reviews of older arcade titles as featured in the various compilation sets that I’ve got laying around. I know someone’s been bugging me to give Sinistar a look.

Anyway, sorry for the bad news, everyone. I was hoping that I could power through this setback, but it just wasn’t gonna happen. All I can do is get better and hope that once we get back on track, things will stay on track for more than a couple months… it would be nice.

Take care, everyone. And see you soon.

Later,
Dave

P.S. If a certain someone makes an appearance on tomorrow’s episode of that Monday sports entertainment program on Netflix, I may break the month’s wrestling moratorium to discuss said episode as a sort of make up for the lack of video. But otherwise, we’re not going to bother.

About Prime…

I haven’t made mention of it as of late because I really didn’t want to say anything until I had anything substantial to say, but for those wondering, I have been reading the Power Rangers Prime reboot comic book thing. As a matter of fact, I’m still reading the book, which should tell you volumes about where I’m at with this book. Is it as good as people say? Not sure I want to go that far, but it is good enough to keep my attention and readership for the foreseeable future… which, again, speaks volumes.

Right now, I’m holding off actually saying anything until I’m fairly confident that we’re done with what’s essentially the “first chapter” of this new series. I’ve written some notes here and there, but I don’t want to jump too deep into this until I’ve read more story and who knows how long that’s going to be. Once that’s done, I’ll probably sum my feelings in the form of a PR Reflections post somewhere down the line.

Anyway, this is a post to let you know that I’m reading Prime. I’m been reading Prime since it started. While I have some thoughts on Prime, I’m not quite ready to articulate those thoughts to printed word… not yet anyway…

Yellow-Green Stream On A Snow White Field

Well, today is the day that a lot of people are anticipating for some reason or another. It’s the day where Disney’s latest attempt at converting one of their classic animated films into live action – this being Snow White – finally hits movie theaters and by Monday, we’ll see if people went “Shut Up And Take My Money!” or “Thanks, But No Thanks. I’ll Stick With Netflix.”

I, of course, will fall in the latter category.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has frequented this blog in the past; I never cared for any of Disney’s attempts at turning their animated fare into live-action. I’ve seen maybe one or two and that was enough for me… and also, I don’t have enough nostalgia for the original works that would entice me to give these a look in any way, shape, or form. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people making a big stink over this Snow White film, but on my end, I’m just like… eh, whatever.

That said, while I have no interest in the film itself, what DOES pique my curiosity somewhat is the potential aftermath of Snow White’s release. It’s no secret that Snow White has been catching a lot of flak from anyone with a means of communication and I’m going to assume that you know pretty much what I’m talking about. If not, Goggle Is Your Friend. I want to say that I’ve never seen a film cause this much of a divide over opinion, but chances are there’s a Star Wars film or Marvel Cinematic property that’s also seen its share of flak. In this day and age, what HASN’T seen its share of flak and noise? So while the movie is like “eh,” it is the noise surrounding the film that somehow sucked me in and became one of those things where, on an off day where I had absolutely nothing better to do, I’ll look up what’s going with this film. Has one of the cast said something stupid to ire the fanatics? More than likely. Has the preview material been underwhelming? Possibly. Are we shitting on this thing because it’s Disney and thus we have to shit on everything Disney does – justified or not? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s a given too.

I hear some people claiming that Snow White is going to be the worst Disney film ever made… even though the movie isn’t out yet. If people are expecting this to be the worst film ever made, that’s another story, entirely. But flat out saying that this is the worst thing Disney has ever made because of all the noise before… eh, I don’t know. I’ve seen the trailer for this thing and to me, it’s just another lame animated-to-live-action Disney thing that does nothing for me and thus I have no interest in. That’s all I have to say on the film itself; it’s continuing a trend that I didn’t care for in the first place and nothing about this feels any different from what came before.

That said, one trailer did not kill the entire movie. There have been bad trailers for good movies in the past and there have been excellent trailers for movies that didn’t quite live up to the hype. The only thing that one trailer killed was any interest you had in seeing this movie. And if that means spending your movie ticket fare on something else… well, hope you spend that money wisely. Unfortunately, the naysayers saying these things are probably going to feed the machine to justify their opinions on Snow White being the worst film ever made and they’ll probably contribute to this film being something of a success story… or maybe they’ll be the only audience feeding this machine while the rest of the moviegoing community attempt to find the next cinematic masterpiece to dub “Absolute Cinema” or some hokey bullshit like that.

I won’t be doing that, however, because one trailer convinced me that this wasn’t worth my time… it did, however, convince me to pull out The Asylum’s version of Snow White out of mothballs and give that another watch. As I recall, that movie wasn’t particularly good, but it looks way more interesting than this.

Actually, now that I think about it, we’ve had a bunch of live-action Snow White films over the years… DECADES even. Aside from the aforementioned Grimm’s Snow White, there was also Snow White And The Huntsman (the one with Chris Hemsworth and the Twilight chick), there was the 2012 comedy film Mirror, Mirror movie, A Tale Of Terror with
Sigourney Weaver, there was the 2001 TV Movie with Kristin Kreuk (Lana from Smallville, who was also Chun-Li in that abortive Street Fighter movie) or… shit, even the fucking CANNON GROUP made a Snow White movie in 1987 for Walt’s sake. Good lord, what is the world coming to where the possibility exists that Disney’s live-action take on Snow White could potentially be WORSE than anything coming out of THE ASYLUM or THE CANNON GROUP of all people?!

So yes, dear reader… as you can probably tell, I’ve given you a small sample of live-action takes on Snow White that have been done in the past and are more intriguing takes on the material than Disney’s Xerox-ing of their animated feature. Hell, there’s a Wikipedia page that can give you the full list if you want… there’s even a couple porn movies listed if you’re willing to venture outside your comfort zone… all I’m saying is that if you’re in the mood for live-action Snow White and you don’t want to give Disney your money, you have options aplenty. Don’t give your money to the machine if you feel this new take is going to be the drizzling shits.

On the other hand, if you’re highly anticipating this film and are looking forward to it, by all means, go out and have fun. Hope you enjoy the film and that it lives up to your expectations. I’m not telling you not to watch. I’m just telling you that I’M not watching it. My interest, as it relates to this film, is more surrounding the noise that will come along afterwards. Will this be as bad as some folks claim it is or will it fail to live down to the fail hype? I’ve heard people shit on the recent Captain America movie and then I saw it and I was like “eh.”

That’s the same feeling I have with this Snow White movie. Just… “eh.”

Problem is that nobody wants to hear about “eh.” They want “BAW GAWD, KING! THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO BE FUCKING SHIT AND NOBODY SHOULD BE WATCHING IT!” or “OH MY GAWD YOU GUYZ THIS FUCKING RULES EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH IT AND SUBSCRIBE TO MY FUCKBOOK AND REDTUBE CHANNELS!” That’s what sells apparently… that’s what America operates on.

Thank fuck I’m not American.

Anyway, that was my Five Cent Theodore Verbiage. Thanks for listening.

I wonder if I still have my copy of Snow White And The Three Stooges somewhere. They made that in color, you know…

Keeping Out Of Hell’s Kitchen

So I’ve heard good things about the new Daredevil relaunch series, Born Again. Apparently, despite all the production troubles that plagued the series, the first few episodes supposedly continue to set the bar established by the original three-season run on Netflix.

I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet… my disdain for the Disney+ platform is the main culprit of this omission, but there is a small part of me that almost wishes that I’d bite the bullet and give the show a watch.

Keyword being “almost.”

Still, glad to hear that the show is up to the standards of its predecessor. And from what few clips I’ve seen of the show, it definitely looks the part, so I’m pretty optimistic that things will go well.

Remember Galactic Starcruiser? Neither Do I…

Source: https://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-hotel-disney-starcruiser-coverted-into-offices/

So once upon a time, Disney had a Star Wars-related attraction called Galactic Starcruiser, which is a Star Wars thing where you were on a star cruiser of some kind. It was a thing that opened back in 2022 and then stopped being a thing a few months later. The most I’ve heard about this thing were a couple bits here and there, but that’s about it.

Well, apparently, Disney has decided to convert the building that housed this Galactic Starcruiser thing into an office building for their theme park groups. I guess if you can’t entice enough people to spend money on your attraction, you shut down said attraction, let it fester for a couple years, and then turn it into more offices for your bureaucracy. At least you’ll have SOMEONE attending those buildings, if you’re the one footing the bill.

I wish I could share more emotion, but much like the Hunters game that’s getting shuttered, this was one of those things that I heard about once or twice and then never gave another thought again. It always sucks when one of these things gets shuttered, especially for those who went and had a good time there. Maybe there’ll be another one in the works somewhere down the line.

Is Galaxy’s Edge still a thing?