Seven Movies in and still no Lockheed.

So, given my little rant earlier about why I was not looking forward to Days of Future Past, I figured I should give my thoughts on how it actually turned out.  I can say right now that I was pleasantly surprised to have been mostly wrong about this, but that doesn't mean the film doesn't have some pretty big issues, and to discuss them I am having to go into spoiler territory.  So the short version and overall is that the film is so much fun, it's able to overcome problems that would cripple most other films, it's one of the better X-Men films, but not quite up there with X2, First Class or The Wolverine.  For more details, read on, but be aware that spoilers a-plenty lie within...

It passed the first test; it was better than this!

Trancendenzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You know, more than a few movie magazines and websites, like Empire and Den of Geek put Transcendence (near) the top of their "most looked forward to of 2014" lists.  They've gone quiet since then, presumably now they've actually seen some of the previews.  I didn't have it in my own personal "looking forward to next year" list.  So I guess what I'm saying here is that I'm smarter than everyone at Empire magazine?  Ok, not really, but I can take comfort that I'm not as stupid as this movie is.

It's Time to Play the Music...

So, thanks to Den of Geek, I've gotten to see number seven of the list already; Muppets Most Wanted!  The screening even had Kermit and Gonzo do a specially filmed intro!  So how is it?  While it's not up there with their best, it's still a real blast with what really want from the Muppets; fun gags, leaning on the fourth wall, catching songs, and celebrities clearly fanboying out about acting opposite socks with attitude!

You Have Been Warned - A Spoiler Free look at Ghost Stories

Not to be confused with Ghost Stories (when will they do that on Tabletop?), Ghost Stories is a play that's just started a new three month West End run.  I first saw it three years ago when it was on at the Duke of York theatre, and last weekend I caught the start of the new run at the Arts Theatre.  Now the show relies a lot on some pretty big secrets; in fact, as you leave, you walk past a sign saying how many people now know the secrets (which when I was there stood at just over 310,000).  As such, I am going to work very hard to make sure I don't give anything away, while still giving a full and fair review.  Challenge Accepted.

Sherlock - The Empty Hearse Spoiler Free Review (Plus a bit about The Tractate Middoth).

So I got to see a special preview of the first episode of Sherlock Season 3 at the BFI yesterday.  In attendance at a Q&A afterwards was the director Jeremy Lovering, producer Sue Virtue, showrunners Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (Who wrote this episode) and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, being asked questions by writer Caitlin Moran.  I'll let you finish the rounds of "you lucky bastard" before I continue after the break.

As good a look as my phone's camera could allow

RIP Lou Scheimer

Today we lost Lou Scheimer, one of the founding members of Filmation Entertainment.  In his honour, I present the 21 (or however many clips I can find) kid's show salute!

Any resemblance between this film and its source material is purely co-incidental.

So, World War Z; I think it's safe to say that from the moment the first trailer was released, it was pretty clear this wasn't going to follow the book very strongly.  The action taking place during, instead of looking back at the Armadeaddon, the use of fast zombies, the main character actively on a "save the world" mission; there's so little of Max Brooks' novel left, there's really no point in comparing the two.  Therefore, I'm not going to mention the novel at all, I'm purely looking at the film on its own in my rating of it, as let's face it, it is its own movie with the title slapped on at this point.  So on it's own, how does it stand up?  Let's say that this year's Warm Bodies, a rom-zom-com that could be seen as the zombie answer to Twilight, made for a far more enjoyable and truer-spirited zombie movie than this...

(You are now crossing Spoiler City limits; we welcome careful readers!)