July 23rd saw new announced trailers, mostly video based, on upcoming X-Box games, intended for release in 2020 or 2021. Heading them all up was the latest in the first-person shooter, sci fi video games series, Halo – one I am myself an aficionado, of – now moving to next generation tech, in part, on […]

Read more "HALO Infinite – general reveal Demo, a considered review"

It has definitely been an odd few weeks, of recent. Spending much of them time isolated from friends and colleagues, I, like many others in the UK, am spending a lot of time close to home. That said, it has not prevented me from some occasional outings, usually spent on my bicycle. During that same […]

Read more "Corona Lockdown – an account, plus photos"

And so, a little later than planned, due to the lockdown and Corona virus scare, I come to my review of another major science fiction property of the last year or so – the ‘revival’ of Star Trek, most recently in the form of Picard, a ten episode miniseries headed by author/screenwriter Michael Chabon, aided […]

Read more "Star Trek: Picard – a general review"

And so a new trilogy comes to an end, with admittedly mixed execution and results. A rushed pace in the first half causes complications for the overall story telling, but other aspects are handled with decent bravura and payoff. The problem is that so many characters are juggled that it is hard to give all […]

Read more "Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker – a general review"

And so, after six years of Disney owning the Star Wars brand, we are about to close out an era, with this week’s release of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, the third instalment in the controversial Disney helmed ‘sequel trilogy’, after 2015’s The Force Awakens, and 2017’s The Last Jedi. Intended as the end […]

Read more "Star Wars under Disney – a recap"

Earlier this year we saw the conclusion of many epic and built up plot threads from across eleven years of Marvel film releases, and over twenty movies, coming together for a three hour, orchestrated climax. It is, overall, a film in some ways smaller and more intimate than the previous bombastic Avengers: Infinity War from […]

Read more "Avengers: Endgame – a general review"

DC movies continue to play catch-up with the Marvel cinematic universe, but since the release of Aquaman last year, they do appear to have hit their second wind. Last month saw the release of another less well known DC comics property to the big screen, in the form of the onomatopoeic sounding Shazam! movie. Based […]

Read more "Shazam! A general review"

Film versions of Japanese manga comics have had a troubled relationship with western cinema. One of the more recent attempts was 2017’s Ghost in the Shell, directed by Rupert Sanders, and starring Scarlet Johansson as ‘Major’ Killian, a cyborg security officer in a futuristic, neon and rain soaked world. The movie, despite being visually impressive, […]

Read more "Battle Angel Alita – A general review"

2018 was a pretty good year for Marvel comics, and also for the character of Spider-Man in particular – the flagship character of the franchise, established since the heady days of 1962. The year recently past saw the release of Spiderman: Homecoming, featuring Tom Holland as the third live-action actor to play the role of […]

Read more "Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse – a general review"

Well, this is it. After some eighteen movies spread across ten years, Marvel Studios has reached it’s pre-planned landmark movie. After this, we can take something of a rest! Taking inspiration from their own original comics, running from the nineteen sixties right through to present day, Marvel Studios has released movies based around multiple characters […]

Read more "Avengers, Infinity War part 1 – the review"