Category Archives: 2018 Reviews

Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

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TL;DR – While we get more of those character moments that have been the highlights of the season so far, it just does not quite come together in the end.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. Image Credit: BBC

As we reach the end of the 11th season of the new Doctor Who we have had the highs of Rosa (see review) and Demons of the Punjab (see review) but also the feeling that at times the show just was not quite coming together. It is with this duality that we hit the end of the shorter season than normal and you have to wonder will they stick the landing, and I’m not sure that they did. 

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Movie Review – Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

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TL;DR – While at times this film has moments of technical brilliance, huge issues with tone, and a story we already know to death means that the film ends up being just dull.     

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. image Credit: Netflix

Review –

There are warning signs in the industry that happens sometimes that lets you know a studio is not really confident with what they are about to release. This could be not screening it for critiques,or putting an embargo on reviews before release, or in this day and age it is a film suddenly disappearing from the cinema schedule and being sold off to Netflix. Now, this is not always a case of it being a bad film, just a case of the distributors not knowing what they have, see this year’s Annihilation(see review). However,today we look at a film that probably falls squarely into this category.

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Movie Review – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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TL;DR – A masterpiece in animation, in incorporating comics into film,and exploring all the emotions, a must watch.      

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene and the credits are a technicolour dream coat

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Image Credit: Sony/Marvel

Review –


When I first heard that they were going to do a new Spider-Man animated film outside of the MCU I honestly didn’t have a lot of hope. It felt like a plan of a company that is trying to scramble while not doing anything new with a property that had stagnated for years. Then they announced that the story was from Phil Lord, and that piqued my interest, and then that first trailer dropped and I knew instantly that I was going to have to eat my words. Now that I have seen the movie proper I can honestly say that this is not only one of the best films of the year, but it might be the best superhero film I have seen in a while. This has been a bumper year for Spider-Man with Infinity War, the Spider-Man video game from Insomniac Games, but Into the Spider-Verse is the crown achievement and I have never been so glad to be wrong.

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TV Review – The Good Place: Janet(s)

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TL;DR – The entire universe is against them, but it is here where the show finds its core drive and so many Janets

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Janet(s). Image Credit: NBC

Review –

So far this season, The Good Place has been a bit hit and miss, with a lot of episodes that make you wonder where are they going with this? Add to this, the show started splitting up the group which didn’t fit the tone of the show. The good thing is that even though some episodes were not working, because the show itself is so good it meant that even when an episode didn’t work, it was at least still compelling. Well this week, not only do we come back to form, we get one of the show’s most fascinating episodes to date.

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Movie Review – Mortal Engines

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TL;DR – This is a visually impressive film, full of moments that make you go wow, but you can see that they have been held back by fitting the whole first book into the one  film   

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Mortal Engines. Image Credit: Universal

Review –

The Mortal Engines series is one of those books that I have always been meaning to read but just have never gotten around to it. The idea where cities have become mobile and drive around hunting for prey is one of those conceptional ideas that is just genius, and I have a lot of friends that are super excited to see this world brought to life on the big screen. Add to this the fact that you have the minds behind The Lord of the Rings working to bring this to life and I have to say it definitely piqued my interest. Now that I have seen it, I can say I mostly enjoyed it, even if not everything worked.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: It Takes You Away

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TL;DR – A very odd episode filled with 80s Technicolor, monsters in the woods, talking frogs, and a sheep rebellion. It didn’t quite get therein the end, but it did have some interesting moments.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Doctor Who: It Takes You Away looking over a Fjord. Image Credit: BBC

Review –

We are almost at the end of the 11th Season and Jodie Whittaker’s first as The Doctor. When you have a penultimate episode, sometimes you want to use it to give your audience a breather before the end, sometimes you want to build tension for the final episode. Today we went in a completely opposite direction by instead doubling down on the weird that can be Doctor Who, and boy is this a weird one.

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Movie Review – Creed II

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TL;DR – While it may tread along a path that is a bit predictable, the commitment of the actors and the emotion make it a must-see film.    

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Creed II. Image Credit: MGM/Warner Bros.

Review –

Back in 2015, I didn’t really have any great desire to go see the first Creed film, a spin-off of a long-running boxing series that had felt like it was running out of steam didn’t seem like an enjoyable time in a world where remake after remake was getting greenlit. However, some people that I trust called me on my reluctance and really recommended it, so reluctantly I went and soon discovered how wrong I was. It was a beautiful film of struggle and triumph, fighting when no one believes in you, and how we battle both are internal and external demons. It was the film that immediately put Michael B.Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and Ryan Coogler on my radar of performers to watch out for and ended up on my Top 10 Films of 2015 list. So when I heard they were doing a sequel I was incredibly excited, when I heard Ryan was not directing or writing it, I got a little concerned, but now I have seen it once again I should have known better.   

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Movie Review – Widows (2018)

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TL;DR – This is a film that has one of the most ridiculous casts I have seen in a long time, but it just does not come together in end.    

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Widows. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Review –

It is rare that a film comes along with a cast just as ludicrous as this, with a premise as strong as this, indeed you should see it just to watch Viola Davis own every scene she is in. Add to this, we have a heist film, and ensemble heist films are some of my favourite films. Now,this should be an instant win for me, but while I think it is a good film, I am not sure it was a great one because it is held back but a couple of things.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: The Witchfinders

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TL;DR – Well this is an odd one indeed, and while it is looking at an important issue, it just feels like it never really all clicked together.   

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Doctor Who - the Witchfinders. Image Credit BBC

Review –

Throughout history, there have been numerous times when the people living in villagers have needed a scapegoat for their current woes, and often times that scapegoat has been any women of note in the town. Now, of course, the most well know, though not well understood, occurrence of these witch trails was in Salem, Massachusetts in the US, they also happened across the world (and still happen today), and in tonight’s Doctor Who, we look at England’s past. However,while this setting should feel right up The Doctor’s (Jodie Whittaker) ally,something just does not quite work.

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Movie Review – Robin Hood (2018)

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TL;DR – Of this films many, many failings, is the fact that you can see a kernel of a good idea here, that they refused to commit too and thus made it a film about nothing.    

Score – 1 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Robin Hood. Image Credit: Lionsgate

Review –

Oh wow, and I mean wow, how do you stuff this up as badly as you do here. For a lot of people, there is this annoyance that film companies keep going back to these public domain properties because it is just a cheap option, and I get that. But because these stories are so well known, you can use them as a basis for doing something novel or even experimental. In years past, we have gotten the full-on epic with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves all the way to the absolute farce that is Robin Hood: Men in Tights. However, there was room for another film to take the mythos in a new direction … well, this is not that film, which somehow fails at being both a re-telling of the original myth and also an abysmal attempt at modernising the story for a new audience.

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