The Blog to Nowhere

So this should be a post about day one of the comic book expo, but there was a little movie I had to go see instead. Man, seeing movies on your own is no fun. I had no one to talk to at the end. And man, there's a lot to talk about.

( Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame )

I will have to watch the movie again, in 2D this time. 3D is just so distracting. Okay, now I have a very full weekend of geeking out ahead of me.

Saw Ant-Man and The Wasp this weekend. The theatre was not packed, but I think that had more to do with the fact that it was a nice day outside rather than a lack of interest in the movie. With the way Infinity War ended, I'm sure there were some people who went to this movie just to see if there were any hints about what's to come.

( Spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War )

Oh man, I can't wait for next year. Captain Marvel and the conclusion to Infinity War.

- Sigh. Catherine Tate had to cancel her appearance at the comic book expo. So no Doctor Who guests this year. Consequently, this means no photo op for me, either. I do believe this will be the first year that I don't have a photo op booked with any of the guests. I mean, I could take the money I was going to spend on Catherine and put it towards another guest, but at the same time I feel like I should be more frugal. We'll see. I will probably get Wil Wheaton's autograph, since he's a guest and I have something for him to sign plus I knitted a Wesley Crusher doll so I'm hopeful he'll accept it as a gift.

The only annoying this about this is, and it's a very minor annoyance, is that I actually put together a femme!Ten cosplay. I'm still going to wear it, of course, but the main reason I put the costume together was for the photo op with Catherine. Oh well. It's a costume I can wear again and again so it's not like it's going to go to waste.

- A friend organized a game of archery tag for her birthday party this weekend. It's basically like dodge ball, only you shoot each other with padded arrows rather than hurl balls at each other. The only archery I've done is in video games so I had zero experience to draw from going in. In theory, I like the idea of shooting things, whether they be targets or moving people, but in practice, it's damn hard and probably only really fun if you're in shape and/or are good with a bow and arrow. Not to say that I hated the experience, but I doubt I will do it again.

Also, ow. My knees and thighs are so sore from ducking and kneeling behind cover. Thank god I don't have to climb any stairs at work. I also have some wicked bruises all along my arm from snap back from the bow string. I think I got off fairly easy, though; many of my friends were seriously black and blue and swollen. The place had arm guards, but some of my friends said it didn't really help since the bow string would get caught on the guard. No wonder Ollie wears leather and Clint has arm protection.

 Axe throwing is much more fun. Your arms and abs hurt the day after, but you don't have to worry about going into work with big bruises.

- Saw A Quiet Place as well. Horror movies generally aren't my thing - I think the last "horror" movie I saw in the theatre was The Village - but the movie was getting good reviews so I thought I would check it out. I actually quite enjoyed it. There are some logistical things you wonder about, but they are minor quibbles. The tense atmosphere the movie creates was amazing and the sound design was incredible. Seriously. The use of sound in this movie is so good. It's not that there's a lack of sound, but the sound that is there is so amped up because you are so aware of it.

There are jump scares, but those are a given in a horror movie. At one point, a lady in the theatre cried out, but she quickly apologized. I don't know why she did. It's a horror movie; there's nothing wrong with gasping loudly or a quick cry. I guess it's because Canadians are so polite. :-)

I avoided going online for a few days to avoid any spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi (because not everyone on social media is thoughtful about such things), but was it worth it?

( Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi )

Overall, The Last Jedi is a fine movie, but not the best Star Wars movie ever. But it was still fun to watch and that's definitely worth all of the anticipation.

(I am lacking a Wonder Woman icon. An icon featuring Supergirl play strangling Green Arrow and the Flash will have to do.)

I went to see Wonder Woman this morning, which has in turn delayed my viewing of Doctor Who until this evening, but that's all right. Wonder Woman was worth missing Doctor Who.

Finally, a female centric superhero movie that doesn't suck! Is Wonder Woman perfect? Not completely, but in the end, it's a fun movie with an awesome main character who doesn't compromise herself to win the day. If DC can keep this up this quality for the other solo movies, then their cinematic universe may stand a chance after all.

( Spoilers for Wonder Woman )

I'd totally be willing to see this movie again. I feel bad for the movies that have to follow Wonder Woman in the summer viewing schedule. They're going to have a hard time trying to beat her.

- Saw Logan on the weekend. I'm not squeamish at the sight of gore nor a big prude when it comes to the f word, but I'm not a huge fan of R rated movies so they're not something I necessarily need to see. Hell, I haven't seen Deadpool yet. So I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a family of four sitting behind me. The family consisted of the parents, a son who was probably no older than ten, and a daughter who was around six or seven. This is an R rated movie! Okay, it's 18A in Canada, so technically a minor can see this movie if accompanied by an adult, but come on. This isn't like the other X-Men or Marvel movies. If you've seen the trailers, you know that Logan stabs a guy in the head with his claws, and that's just one example of the amped up level of violence. I get that your kids may love superhero movies and you wanted to do a family outing, but this didn't seem like a great choice.

Anyway, the movie. It was actually pretty good, blood and gore and language aside. I seriously could watch an entire movie that consisted solely of Logan and Charles taking a road trip and complaining with/about each other. Charles is slightly dotty in his old age, so Patrick Stewart was just delightful to watch. But the most amazing thing about Logan is how it doesn't feel like a superhero movie. It has mutants in it, but no one is in a colourful spandex suit nor is the fate of the world at stake. It's a very personal journey for Logan and that's more engaging than stuff blowing up or cities being destroyed.

( Spoilers for Logan )

- My flight to Cardiff is booked! I'll be in Wales for my birthday, which I plan to spend at the Doctor Who Experience. I can't think of a better gift to give to myself than an afternoon of sheer geekery. I'm still trying to figure out how to get to Portmeirion from Cardiff. I'm sure figuring out which trains to take is really easy, but my experience with booking train trips is next to nil. This is what happens when you live in a country that's ginormous. Convenient rail travel isn't a thing so you don't get any practice at it.

- This also means that I'll get to watch an episode of Doctor Who while in Cardiff. I know it's not a huge thing, I can easily watch Doctor Who at home, but I like the idea of watching it on its proper channel. It's like an observing a wild animal in its natural habitat. ;-)

- And speaking of Doctor Who, they announced the villains for episodes 11 and 12. I won't provide a link to the article since it's spoilery (damn io9 spoiling it for me *grumble*), but I'm very intrigued.

( Spoilers for Doctor Who season 10, episodes 11 and 12 )

Still sorting through my photos from the Star Trek con, but in the meanwhile, here's some of the non-Star Trek things that also happened over the weekend.

( Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. )

Back at the con, they have something called the Signers' Room where some of the guests can set up a table and sell their own photos and do autographs and selfies and generally just meet fans. I wandered in there to check it out and I walked by a table set up for Cas Anvar. He didn't have much set up yet and he wasn't there himself, but he had a sign showing the things he's been in. I noticed he's been in The Expanse and Assassin's Creed: Revelations (but no Star Treks) and moved on before I could really dwell on it.

But then it hit me as I left the room. Cas Anvar is in The Expanse? Wait, that name sounds kind of familiar now... So I dug out my phone and did a quick Google search. And what do you know. Cas Anvar plays Alex on The Expanse! I rushed back to the Signers' Room the first chance I got and Cas was there talking with people. Turns out he was there because he's the reason Kirstie Alley was attending the con. He knows her and talked to his agent and his agent talked to her agent and etc. He ended up getting a table because he has so many genre related things on his filmography.

( Meeting Cas Anvar )

Oh yeah, I also bought an old school TARDIS key for my Fourth Doctor cosplay. So yeah, it was a multi-fandom weekend.

I saw Star Trek Beyond today and you know what? It wasn't that bad. I certainly enjoyed it more than Ghostbusters (not that Ghostbusters was really bad) and it was definitely much better than Star Trek Into Darkness. No re-hashing of old storylines here, thank you very much.

The theme of the movie certainly lives up to the spirit of exploration that's embedded in the heart of Star Trek, but it also slaps on some showy summer movie antics that made me roll my eyes. I will be so happy when the new Star Trek show premieres. The franchise needs to get back to telling smaller stories.

( Spoilers for Star Trek Beyond )

I say Star Trek Beyond is a solid B. Maybe it was rushed so it could be released for the 50th anniversary, but at least we got something to celebrate the franchise.

See, now this is how you do a superhero smackdown movie. I wonder if Marvel is laughing quietly in the corner.

( Spoilers for Captain America: Civil War )

So Doctor Strange is next with, I think, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 after that. Don't drop the ball now, Marvel. You're on a roll.

I would have liked to have seen it opening weekend, but the timing wasn't good for me. Also, I was feeling Star Wars fatigue from all of the merchandising and advertising. As such, I ended up with a theatre full of kids off for the Christmas break and I think some of them had already seen the movie. Case in point, there was a mom with two boys sitting behind me and the younger son kept talking about the movie and the mom had to tell him to stop talking a bunch of times. Clearly, the mom didn't want to be spoiled. Now that's a good parent. ;-)

Anyway, the movie. I really enjoyed it. It was, foremost, fun, and it does a good job of setting up another trilogy.

( Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens )

Overall, the movie was very much in the spirit of A New Hope and you're left with a great desire to see what's next. Please don't screw it up. We've been burned once before.