The staff here at Some Geek Told Me have been working around the clock to bring you the latest news from around the globe.1 And when I say news, I don’t mean politics, sport, crime, or the economy. I know you have no room in your life for such frivolous subjects, so that’s why we thought it was time to bring some much-needed logic and reason to the table.
This is why we pulled out all the stops and spared no expense to bring you our annual San Diego Comic-Con wrap-up!
I do realise some of you amazing people may not have any idea what I’m talking about, and that’s ok; nobody is perfect. Well… nobody living anyway. The point is that San Diego Comic-Con is one of the biggest dates on any geek’s calendar, whether they attend the event or not.
If I can break down the event, it would be this, even though I’m cheating from last year:
San Diego Comic-Con is an opportunity for some of the world’s leading entertainment companies to showcase their upcoming products, including toys, anime, computer games, manga, books, comics, movies, and TV shows, to the ticket-paying fans and the rest of the world.
Once again, the event has been and gone without me attending; however, one fine day, I will win the lottery, and then I’m going there. The queues, the overpriced food, the fans, the creators, the trailers, the back issues- it sounds amazing! Over the course of the event, information trickles out from all sections of the entertainment industry, covering everything you wanted to know, plus stuff you didn’t even know existed! Because of that, it’s my self-appointed job to wade through the content to discover the gems.
However, as with anything on this scantily information-clad blog, there are rules. There are always rules.
1.) I have not read or seen every article or trailer released from San Diego Comic-Con. I can only discuss the things I know about and the things I’m interested in. 2.) Just because a product is on my list doesn’t mean I’ll get to see or purchase it. Quite simply, if something has landed on this list, it has my attention, regardless of whether I watch or purchase it. 3.) I have included some information and trailers that were released just before San Diego Comic-Con. This is because I’m the lead writer on this venture, so what I say goes.
Since I know you’ve been waiting harder than Michael Meyers for Laurie Strode, let’s look at the announcements that were made only for me!
Credit: San Diego Comic-Con
Literature: (Books and Comics)
It’s slim pickings this year, to be honest. There was extra information about Marvel’s Midnight Universe (which I already knew about and had pre-ordered the first issues of the three series a few weeks ago) and some content about some of DC’s new titles, but there were only two comics that were a complete surprise to me.
Batman Day 2026: Batman of Two Worlds #1 (One-shot)
Credit: DC Comics
Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium #1-5
Credit: Marvel
Star Wars: Edge of the Abyss (Reign of the Empire)
Credit: Random House Worlds
Movies:
A lot of movies were announced at San Diego Comic-Con that will be released between 2027 and 2028, but there were only a few that I cared about that were still being released in 2026.
Coyote vs. Acme
I heard a while ago that this project was shelved, but it seems that the universe has not finished it, and it’s going to see the light of day. To me, the Coyote is one of the world’s greatest optimists. I understand the film is based on Coyote suing Acme because of their faulty products and the damage it has had on Coyote’s physical, financial, mental, and emotional health.
In one of the trailers, it looks like Coyote manages to actually touch Road Runner, after 76 years of trying, along with a shower of cameos. It looks stupid, crazy, and bonkers, so naturally, I want to see it, with or without the boys.
Ebenezer
I know what you’re thinking, seriously, I do. Not another adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. There have been so many versions of it over the decades, though you can’t go wrong with The Muppet Christmas Carol or Scrooged. Having said that, like a new Shakespeare adaptation, I’m ready and down for another version of A Christmas Carol.
From what I gather, Ebenezer Scrooge is being played by Johnny Depp, the go-to man for quirky or weird characters. Supposedly, the film will flesh out more of the story about Ebenezer, but I’m not 100% sure. I also saw the reference in the trailer to Depp’s first movie role in A Nightmare on Elm Street with the bed. Nice touch.
Whatever the case, Ebenezer Scrooge has one of the greatest, if not the most powerful, redemption arcs in literature, so it will be terrific to see him again.
Clayface
The DCU is still trying to establish itself, since it started with its first movie entries in the form of Superman and Supergirl. Both films have been great, but I would say their box office returns have disappointed the studios. Enter their 3rd entry, Clayface, a member of Batman’s rogues’ gallery, who is one of the few who have legitimate superpowers.
It was a bold move to give Matt Hagen his own movie, and it seems the movie is the offspring of John Wick and The Substance; and for the record, that’s not a bad thing. Whether it’s the right time to bring a bit of horror into the DCU, I can’t say; however, I will be watching this odd nugget in the cinema. Count on it.
Avengers: Doomsday
If you’ve been a follower, supporter, or subscriber of New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website, then this one pretty much speaks for itself. If it’s possible, I want to go to the opening screening at our only cinema this December. I’ll even try to take the day off work, if I have to.
Not counting 1994’s The Fantastic Four, Fox had three cinematic attempts at portraying Latveria’s most beloved ruler and sorcerer correctly, but has failed three times. It’s now Marvel, Disney, and Robert Downey Jr.’s turn, and they really need to get Victor right.
Television shows:
Unlike the movie announcements, there are a lot of TV shows I would like to see. Now, whether that’s a positive or negative thing, I am not smart enough to answer that.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4
Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds have reignited my love for all things Star Trek, to the point that I’m trying to track down and watch Star Trek: Enterprise, so I can work my way from the beginning. I’ve also been reading some Star Trek comics, which is quite rare for me.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, so Season 4 should be awesome. Having the Gorn as the main antagonists throughout the series has been, in my humble opinion, a stroke of genius. I love the show and cast, along with the diverse storylines. With Star Trek’s 60th anniversary just around the corner, the future of Star Trek seems solid.
Lanterns
I realise Lanterns has already started on HBO Max, and it’s part of the DCU, via its television arm. Currently, I’ve just started on Season Three of The Greatest American Hero; it’s a long story. I also realise Lanterns is gathering a lot of backlash, but I have faith in the showrunners; I mean, you have to, right?
Anyway, I will start on Lanterns soon. I have no idea how much of the series will be set off-Earth, but it’s certainly great to see John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) in a live-action role, along with Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and hopefully other notable characters. I have learned that Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner and Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro. Seriously, I’m looking forward to this show, and maybe Kyle Rayner.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3
Before I go back to this show, I’ll rewatch the first and second seasons, and I think the series is getting better. It ended with devastation, but also laced with hope, which I believe is a good place for a cliffhanger. 19 rings of power have been forged over the two seasons, but that just leaves one ring to be created. The One Ring. The Master Ring. The Ruling Ring.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. Where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
To my understanding, Sauron, the Dark Lord, does in fact forge the final power ring in the season and sit on his dark throne. Will we see more of the various rings’ abilities? Only time will tell.
Avatar: Seven Havens
We are going back to the world of Avatar. No, not James Cameron’s Avatar; I mean the OG, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I actually discussed this TV show in last year’s San Diego Comic-Con wrap-up, but we only had one image; now we have a trailer. I believe the story is set after the events of The Legend of Korra, with Avatar Korra obviously having passed away, though I don’t know the time jump.
Korra’s world was different from Ang’s because of the march of technology, so I do wonder what the world’s technology will look like now. Having said that, again, to the best of my understanding, some sort of disaster or apocalypse has hit the world, and somehow regressed or devolved civilisation.
I have high hopes for Avatar Pavi, though I have no idea how I’ll ever see it.
Reacher Season 4
Like Lanterns, the new season of Reacher has already started, and I’m going to be there for it. As a character, I like Jack Reacher- sorry, Reacher, my bad; he’s like James Bond, Jack Ryan, Sherlock Holmes and Batman, all rolled into one. My wife has started reading the books, and I will also. One day.
Reacher Season 4 will be on my list for late 2026, if not sometime in 2027. Not that it matters in the scheme of things, of course.
And speaking of the scheme of things, I know there’s a massive amount of things going wrong in the world, but there’s also a lot of positive. I fear sometimes the negative can drown out the positive, and it can convince you that the world is broken because of A, B and C. That could be the case, but D, E and F are fighting to rebalance it. The world’s not a lost cause, because you and me, well, we’re still here, and that counts for something.
Yes, reviewing the announcements from a pop culture event is petty and vain, but it’s not ignoring the pain of the world; it’s there to humble it.
There was probably a vital piece of information that I missed from San Diego Comic-Con, so as always, please let me know.
That delightful transition brings us to the end of another blog for another week. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, Up the Wahs, and I’ll see you next week for the return of the least recommended tour in the Solar System.
Friends, Bloggers, Internet users, lend me your ears! The moment has arrived when the truth shall be finally revealed to you. Yes, my young padawans, my review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is upon us, as you have waited long enough. In truth, waiting two weeks isn’t that bad, but the time frame could have been worse.
This juggernaut of a movie is smashing the box office, having earned, at the time of writing this well-read blog, US$1.843 billion, which still just boggles my mind.1 So, let’s follow the template I have set for myself and see where it leads. If you missed the preview, you can find it here.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened in New Zealand on 30th July, although I only managed to see it last week. It was another typical cold, dark winter Tuesday night at the only cinema in town. Armed with a pre-bought ticket and with expensive snacks from the counter, I was ready to be entertained, and so were 22 other people.
There was a trailer for the new Jason Statham movie, Mutiny, where I think he is trying to kill a cargo ship. You can’t go wrong with a Statham movie for a date night. Anyway, before I dissect Marvel Studios’ 38th film, I want to discuss an epiphany I had after the film. As I was making my way home, it occurred to me that the way I consume movies at the cinema has changed.
I go to the cinema for roughly two different reasons now. The first one is when my wife and I, or just me, take UMC1 and UMC2, which is essentially a family event. In that regard, I’m there to watch whatever crazy-arse movie the boys want to see, usually in the school holidays. There’s no preview to write, and certainly no review, apart from the debrief with the boys about their favourite moments in the movie.
The second reason I’m at the cinema is now to review a movie. This means instead of sitting in my seat waiting for the film to start, and just being happy for the experience, I’m finding myself remembering my preview questions and preparing to store various scenes of the movie into useless parts of my mind. This has transformed my cinematic experience into a venture of criticism.
Whether this is a new positive or negative aspect of my personality, I’ll have to wait for God to fill me in. And with that delightful notion, let’s go over the rules of the review.
1.)Please be aware there will be spoilers concerning the movie, so proceed with extreme anxiety and caution; even after 2,000 years.
2.) The aim of my reviews are not to rip apart the subject or trash it. If I liked the subject enough to watch it, then I’ll give my honest (possibly biased) opinion.
3.) I’m not a professional critic, so I’m not going to dive into deeper concepts and themes, or the art of filmmaking. I’m just a geek; always have been, and always will be.
With the introduction now complete, along with Obi-Wan’s failure; and since we’re not here to watch Count Binface dance, let’s get on with the review!
Credit: Marvel Studios/Disney and my local cinema
Because it’s rare for me to deviate from this course of action, the first step is to discuss whether I liked the film or not, and as usual, I did. The MCU can still entertain me after 18 years, which means I’m still invested in it, as well as everybody’s favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. To be honest, I’ll always give a damn about ‘Ol Web-head.
Things I liked:
Following the plan, I’ll fire these off in no special order, as I don’t want my OCD to be that intense.
Right off the bat was the introduction by Tom Holland at the start of the movie. I can’t remember if I have ever seen an actor talking directly to the audience to thank them for watching the movie, as well as pointing out that the entire production crew have pulled out all the stops to make the best film possible, because they love Peter Parker, just like us. It was cool.
And speaking of cool, I was impressed by Parker’s Spider-Man suit, because it looked…amazing and spectacular.2 It looks quite comic-accurate, though to be fair, does it have to? The homage to Amazing Fantasy #15 was not lost on me either; it was…amazing.3
I liked the symmetry in the interactions between the characters. In No Way Home, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker attempts to stop Tom Holland’s Peter Parker from killing Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn. This mirrors Holland’s Peter Parker trying to prevent Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey from killing Tramell Tillman’s Bill Metzger. It’s an interesting form of compasssion, no matter how you want to describe it.
The parallels between the two scenes were strong, with Parker learning his lesson and trying to make sure Jean Grey doesn’t make the mistake of killing Tillman. It’s one of Parker’s strongest traits to uphold his own personal belief system, to himself, the world, and to his friends and allies, like the Punisher, and now, Jean Grey.
Now, let’s discuss Jean Grey. I understand that with Disney’s acquisition of Fox, they finally got the movie rights back for the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Rather than quickly stuffing these characters into movies, they bided their time, which was clever. They did this by introducing the Fantastic Four as being from another universe, and it looks like the X-Men, or at the earliest, mutants, will come from the main universe; not counting the X-Men Fox Universe.
So we have now been introduced to at least two mutants, with Jean Grey, with the first being Namor. How Marvel is going to continue to introduce mutants in the main universe remains to be seen, although Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will deal with the Fox X-Men.
It will be great to follow Jean’s heroic journey through the MCU, because when we first met her, she was already an adult in X-Men, as Famke Janssen. Having her on a quest to find her sister, Sara, a forgotten Marvel character, was key to seeing how loyal she can be, but also how powerful she can really be.
I can’t be sure about it, but I was wondering: when Damage Control was running the experiments on Sara and Jean, it gave me the idea that maybe the computer programme they were running was an early or prototype version of Cerebro. I will laugh and laugh if I’m correct about that.
Another thing that impressed me was Scorpion’s fighting style, as in controlling his tail like a limb, similar to Doctor’s Octopus’ arms. When he was fighting Spider-Man, it was fantastic to see him use his tail like that, as it was extremely smart and creative.
I also can’t be the only person to notice the similarities between Parker being accidentally shot while saving someone by the Punisher and the Death of Spider-Man storyline in Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 from 2011, where Ultimate Peter Parker is accidentally shot by the Ultimate Punisher while saving Ultimate Captain America.
Yes, it’s true: Ultimate Punisher did not kill him, as Parker returned home to fight the Ultimate Green Goblin, aka Norman Osborn. And yes, Ultimate Parker indeed died defeating Ultimate Osborn, but he did so with the bullet wound from the Ultimate Punisher, so at worst, the Ultimate Punisher aided in Ultimate Parker’s death, since he couldn’t fight the Ultimate Green Goblin at 100%. Comic books- who would read them?
I enjoyed Parker’s and Frank Castle’s relationship too, but also their performances, along with everybody else’s. Obviously, Holland and Zendaya’s relationship is jumping from behind the camera to in front of it, but it still works. Mark Ruffalo, Florence Pugh, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, and Jon Bernthal all understood the assignments and were fantastic.
I’ve mentioned this before, but since I don’t have Disney+, I have no idea what’s been happening in the MCU TV shows. That being the case, I don’t know if Damage Control has been seen in the shows or not. Regardless, it was great to see them in the movie, though it seems like their cinematic portrayal and their comic counterparts are different, with vastly different company objectives. Still, it was nice to see them, as they’re an overlooked and underrated corner of the Marvel Universe.
Things I disliked:
I realise this film is getting attention through vast amounts of money and great acting performances, along with positive praise among critics and fans, but that doesn’t mean it’s invulnerable to criticism.
I may have missed this point, as there was a lot of information fired at us, in addition to being revealed, but when we left Parker at the end of No Way Home, Parker had moved into a new apartment; but when Brand New Day rolled around, Parker was in a completely different apartment.
That in itself is not a problem, but what is a problem is that, to the best of my knowledge, the film never clears up what Parker does outside of the mask. I suppose something in the film clears it up; it could be referred to as his university- maybe Empire State University, but it’s not clear. What exactly does Parker do? Does he study or work or both?
Because this leads us to another question: what does Parker do for money? Does he have an income stream, and what is it? Does he live off money earned as Spider-Man? Is he, in fact, a part-time photographer for the Daily Bugle, or does he have another job? How does he afford to live in that apartment?
One of the key reasons Peter Parker has been so relatable to readers is that he has shared many problems that are grounded in reality, namely paying his bills, but also helping with Aunt May’s bills. Of course, in this universe, Aunt May is dead, but Parker does not seem to have any money issues that I saw. Why is that?
Another thing to add to this issue is the fact that his suit is back to being powered by AI. At the end of No Way Home, Parker had opened a new chapter for himself, with a non-tech suit, via a homemade fabric suit. Years later, he seems to have upgraded the suit, forgetting the lessons he learnt in all of the previous films. He’s become the new Tony Stark, and I feel that’s not his role.
When advertising a movie, Marvel can sometimes be a little deceptive with its trailers and press releases. An example of this in Brand New Day was information released about Tombstone, Boomerang, Tarantula, The Hand, and Ramrod, and I thought it was all true.
To my disappointment, Tombstone was in the film for roughly two minutes, though an argument could be made for only one minute. While the trailers featured Spider-Man fighting Boomerang and Tarantula, the movie’s footage featured the identical footage as the trailer. Basically, the amount of time that you saw of Boomerang and Tarantula in the trailers was the same in the movie. As for Ramrod, he didn’t feature in the trailers, but he had the same amount of screen time as the other two.
I do have some issues around the Punisher. Again, having not seen the MCU TV shows, how can the Punisher be walking the streets, or in a Damage Control building with agents and a hospital, AND NOT BE ARRESTED?
How in the hell did he walk out of the Damage Control without being arrested, considering Metzger and his agents were staring at him? How can the Punisher, one of the largest serial killers in the United States of America, just walk into a hospital with a bleeding Spider-Man, be allowed to stay in a hospital room, and slip out without being notified to the police and not be arrested? How?
And speaking about the Punisher, how does he finance his war on crime? Where does the money come from to buy these powerful guns? How did he get his Battle Van fixed and repaired so quickly after it was badly damaged the previous day, or does he just have a spare Battle Van lying around?
As for the hospital scene, at no point did the film address the fact that multiple hospital staff would have seen Peter’s face, since his mask was removed. Regardless of whether they know his identity or not, they have seen his face, which means supervillains and criminals could capture and torture the information from the hospital staff, as well as securing footage from the hospital’s surveillance.
I also feel terrible for bringing this up, but Jean’s hypocrisy was farcical. At the climax of the film, when she has Metzger under her control, she complains about how evil he is and that he’s a murderer, but she has completely skipped over her own actions. With Jean mentally controlling people, she has destroyed careers, cars, and buildings, along with getting people arrested, in addition to injuring people, with the possibility of killing one person who got hit by a bus. Bruce Banner is now locked up in a psychiatric hospital because of her.
In her speech, she accepted no responsibility for her actions, especially for creating a psionic field. Who knows how many people were killed when she did that? At some point, Jean will need to own up to her actions.
I think I have mentioned this before in the Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World reviews, but when something like a psionic field appears in New York, of all places, why is it that no extra superheroes turn up to help? Not a single one? If the MCU is interconnected as they say it is, why don’t these events mean anything to the world, because nobody, absolutely nobody, from any superhuman team or government department arrived to lend a hand? Not even Daredevil?
To round it out, Parker’s transformation seemed to mean nothing. He solved the problem, but simply making friends? Does this mean that if Parker ever feels lonely or isolated again, he will revert to the “Spider” persona? Does he still have access to his organic webbing or not? I thought the resolution to this problem was rather weak.
So, what about my preview questions?
Is having four different villains, Scorpion, Tombstone, Boomerang, and Tarantula, too many? Willthey be working together? No, this was not like Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, or Spider-Man: No Way Home, where, wherever you looked, there was a villain. Like I said before, Boomerang, Tarantula, and also Ramrod had blink-and-miss-them cameos; Tombstone had two minutes at most, while Scorpion had the largest role. They were not working together.
How will Black Widow be introduced in the movie? She was like an information consultant because Peter needed information about the person attacking Damage Control facilities.
Will it be revealed how Peter has built alife out of thin air, considering Peter Parker does not exist? It was not explained or touched on at all.
Will Ned start to turn against Peter or Spider-Man? In the film, there was no red flag to indicate his eventual betrayal.
Does Matt Murdock/Daredevil or Kingpin make an appearance? Sadly, they were absent.
Will Jean Grey be classified as a mutant? To the best of my knowledge, she was referred to as “special.”
Will there be any form of early mutant legalisation? Nothing, but I wonder if Parker’s inhibitor will be the basis of the mutant collar inhibitor.
Will the transformations Peter goes through be permanent? Totally unclear. Maybe he still has his organic webbing, but by the end, he’s back to his normal self; though he could revert under the wrong conditions, I think.
Does Peter know Boomerang, outside of his mask? No idea, because Boomerang had no lines, and in the film for three seconds.
What is the Hand doing in the film? They are reformed and working for Damage Control.
Can we expect any other cameos, whether Avengers or X-Men? Apart from Black Widow and the Hulk, there was also the appearance of Detective Jean DeWolff. Does that mean Sin-Eater is coming?
Will Bruce Banner be able to help Peter? He did after having a conversation about suppressing mutations.
Is Morlun involved in the movie? Once again, sadly no.
Will Peter try to break up Mary Jane’s relationship with her boyfriend? That’s a good question, because yes, he did. However, the end of the film revealed that they have become friends again.
Will there be a Doctor Doom reference? If there was, I missed it. There was an end-credit scene that showed Peter was in space via the Spidey-Tracker, but that was it.
Overall, I enjoyed the film, and it just reaffirmed my belief in the character. Spider-Man is in my top five favourite Marvel characters, so to show my support, I have preordered Midnight Spider-Man#1, which is being released in October. I’ll have to let you know my thoughts about that issue, along with Midnight X-Men #1 and Midnight Fantastic Four #1.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a solid and entertaining movie. Anyway, don’t trust me; go watch it for yourself, so you can be the judge. Have you seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Please tell me your thoughts about it. I would love to know.
The next MCU movie is Avengers: Doomsday in December, which I will preview and review. However, the next preview/review will either be Clayface (my decision) or Wicker (my wife’s choice), whichever one is released first. Clayface is in my wheelhouse, but Wicker is not, but I’ll give it a go anyway; mainly because my wife thinks I can’t preview/review a romantic fantasy comedy. Challenge accepted!
Ok, that’s another blog for another week. Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, follow Nigel Farage’s Parliamentary investigation, and I’ll see you next week, where we discuss the news from San Diego Comic-Con. It’s hard-hitting investigative journalism!
1 Not The Juggernaut of course, because as Spider-Man knows all too well, nothing stops the Juggernaut!
2 If anybody is clever enough to understand that reference, please let me know.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Here we are again, for the final time this Winter, for a movie preview/review. Yes, the Moirai, or should that be Disney, have decreed that I commit more time to this amazing venture, which, to my humble credit, I have gracefully said, “Sure, bro.”
The FIFA World Cup seems a distant memory, along with the first half of the Nations Championship, though the Clacton by-election is this week, so hopefully God has a sense of humour, and Nigel Farage will lose to Count Binface. Dreams are free, mate, dreams are free. I’ll mention the winner next week, so stay glued to New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website.
With all of that cool stuff out of the way, we need to discuss Spider-Man: Brand New Day. This hasn’t happened for a long time on this amazing account, but the film has been out since 30th July, and I’m just releasing a preview. However, just to lay your fears to rest, I’ll be watching the film tomorrow at 8 pm, since I’ve secured my ticket for the screening. Old habits are hard to break.
Before I stumble into another awful attempt at alliteration and previewing a superhero movie, we need to discuss the elephant in the room, or should that be the $1 billion at the box office. I’m never going to do this again, as in wait so long to write a preview of a movie, when it’s already been released, generated $1 billion, as well as trying to avoid memes, reviews, and posts about the film.
Never again; it’s been too awkward and stressful. It also means some things that I would have asked in my preview questions have already been answered.
I have tried so hard to block out information about the film, but some information has bled through, though it’s to be expected. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been on people’s radar for a while. It’s no secret that the film is the 38th entry in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), with the 39th being Avengers: Doomsday, due in theatres in December 2026. I’ll be nearly on holiday for that one, so we’ll see how that pans out. This is a classic example of a first-world problem.
Anyway, Spider-Man: Brand New Day gives us the first appearance of Peter Parker since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. Of course, the MCU has kept chugging out cinematic content since then, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps; with The Marvels being the only MCU film I have not seen, and its proved difficult to rent. Another first-world problem in action.
The cast is Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson (Zendaya), Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), Frank Castle / Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Yelena Belova / Black Widow (Florence Pugh), and Bruce Banner / Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); though there are others, I need to move things along.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (who previously directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who both have co-written other MCU films like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Its armed with a budget of an estimated US$225 million, roughly the same as The Avengers’ budget from 2012.
So, sit back and relax, while we continue our dive into Phase Six with Spider-Man: Brand New Day! Let’s do it!
Credit: UMC1 and UMC2’s Lego collection
Am I looking forward to watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Yes, yes, of course, the answer is yes. As I said before, the last time we saw Peter was in Spider-Man: No Way Home, not counting 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Now, I’ve mentioned this several times when writing these world-famous previews, but I don’t have Disney +, so I haven’t seen any of the MCU TV shows.
This means I don’t know what’s been happening with Moon Knight, Daredevil, Wonder Man, but more importantly, for the context of the movie, Hulk and the Punisher. I really have no idea what they have been doing, other than being green and shooting people.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has become a vital cog in the MCU machine, mainly because we have watched Peter grow up, secure some victories, but also suffer defeats, and we’ve been there along the way. It’s almost like checking in on an old mate that you don’t get to see often.
The title, Brand New Day, obviously sets up, to me at least, a possible opening chapter in a new Spider-Man film trilogy, featuring the word, Day, similar to Home, in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, I have been known to be wrong. From time to time.
Comic book fans will recognise Brand New Day as the follow-up storyline to one of Marvel’s worst Spider-Man storylines, One More Day, though the Clone Saga and Sins Past could give One More Day a run for its money. I remember that as soon as I had read all of the issues in One More Day, I sold it as soon as I could, because I didn’t want it under the same roof as me. I hated it.
Brand New Day was a reset for the Spider-Man titles, with Peter being single and living his best life with new friends and enemies, after he made a deal with Mephisto to save Aunt May from death, by giving up his marriage to Mary Jane, by allowing Mephisto to remove it from reality. I believe the thinking at the time was to align the Spider-Man from the comics to the Spider-Man from the films, namely, Sam Raimi’s trilogy, and to make him single and younger. Again, I hated it.
Having Mephisto remove people’s knowledge of Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage from reality was lifted from One More Day, and used in No Way Home, but instead of Mephisto, it was Doctor Strange removing people’s knowledge of Peter being Spider-Man. Comics and movies, what a deadly combination.
What is the movie about?
According to Marvel.com, the premise is this:
It’s a BRAND NEW DAY for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves—a powerful villain no one can even see.
What can we expect?
The running time is 145 minutes, which places it roughly around the same time as The Avengers, from way back in 2012. I saw that film three times at the cinema, what a geek. I’m not 100% sure how much time has passed since Spider-Man: No Way Home, especially because the MCU is a bit funky. Still, with research, it says that No Way Home was set in 2024, and Brand New Day is in 2028.
From the trailers, Peter is going through a transformation reminiscent of “The Other” storyline, which appeared in Spider-Man comics as a crossover between the titles. In it, Peter is pursued by a freaky, universe-hopping life-force vampire named Morlun, who defeats him, transforms, and is reborn. It will be interesting to see how much of “The Other” is used in the movie.
From the trailers, it appears that Peter will be able to create organic webbing, similar to Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man (Earth-96283) and Spider-Man Noir (Earth-90214/90214B). This is a great reminder that I still need to watch Spider-Noir, because it looks awesome.
I think one of the biggest things to remember before you see the film is the fact that Doctor Strange removed the planet’s knowledge of Peter Parker being Spider-Man, but also that Peter Parker even exists at all, which includes from Mary Jane/MJ and Ned.
I can only imagine that a large chunk of the film will handle Peter trying to reestablish his relationships with them. Will this film lay the seeds of Ned’s ultimate evolution, turning him into the Hobgoblin, thus continuing the trend of Peter’s BFF becoming a supervillain and trying to kill him?
As a side note, it would be extremely difficult for Peter to live, considering there would be no record of him even existing; he’s a ghost. He would have to go and get official documents stating who he was, as well as proof that he’s a US citizen; otherwise, he would be deported. Also, try to imagine the levels of madness it would take if you knew lots of information about different people and the world, but nobody, and I mean nobody, knew anything about you.
The trailers also give the impression that Peter and Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, have some sort of working relationship, since, as Spider-Man, Peter calls him “Frank” in a plea for help. However, it’s unclear whether Peter has revealed his identity to Frank. I could be wrong about what I’ve seen, but it seems like Frank and Peter are acting like brothers, as in supporting each other, as well as bickering and arguing. Watching them debate the morality of killing criminals would be interesting. It also suggests that Dr Bruce Banner has not remembered who Peter is, so their relationship would be awkward as well.
With the known villains, Marvel has been very loose with these details, considering the amount of public knowledge of the characters, because of the trailers and toys, like the plague of Ooshies that have infected the world. These include Scorpion (last seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming), Tombstone, Boomerang, and Tarantula, along with The Hand.
The Hand provides me with a great transition point, since, to the best of my understanding, they have featured in the MCU TV shows. Similar to the Disney + Star Wars shows, there is so much I have missed with the MCU shows that sometimes I feel that there’s no point getting Disney + because of the massive back catalogue. Like I said, sometimes.
Before the movie was released, there was speculation as to Sadie Sink’s role, so when the trailer was released, people started to guess the identity of the entity that was somehow taking over people or possessing them. The internet is a fertile place for growing conspiracy theories, and for once, the conspiracy theorists were correct that the mystery villain was, in fact, Jean Grey. It’s a weird feeling knowing a key piece of hidden information about a movie, before you watch it, considering you have a ticket in your hand.
Since Jean Grey is involved, my questions about the X-Men, or at least mutants, will be discussed. Hopefully, we will see some fantastic fight scenes, along with powerful emotional scenes, with Peter trying to reconnect with people. Who knows?
Do I have concerns?
One day, I’ll answer this question by saying I have no concerns, but it’s not today. That being the case, here are my concerns about a film that has earned US$1.6 billion at the box office:
Is having four different villains, Scorpion, Tombstone, Boomerang, and Tarantula, too many? Willthey be working together?
How will Black Widow be introduced in the movie?
Will it be revealed how Peter has built alife out of thin air, considering Peter Parker does not exist?
Will Ned start to turn against Peter or Spider-Man?
Does Matt Murdock/Daredevil or Kingpin make an appearance?
Will Jean Grey be classified as a mutant?
Will there be any form of early mutant legalisation?
Will the transformations Peter goes through be permanent?
Does Peter know Boomerang, outside of his mask?
What is the Hand doing in the film?
Can we expect any other cameos, whether Avengers or X-Men?
Will Bruce Banner be able to help Peter?
Is Morlun involved in the movie?
Will Peter try to break up Mary Jane’s relationship with her boyfriend?
Will there be a Doctor Doom reference?
As always, there’s probably going to be some questions to ask after the film. Are you planning on watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day, or have you already seen it? As always, please let me know.
I’m sorry if this preview is a tad shorter than usual, but I just want to watch the film while eating and drinking vastly over-priced items. And that’s another blog for another week.
Last Thursday, it was -5 °C at 6 am, which is just madness to me, because I’ve been going to bed wearing a hoodie and a beanie. I want to wear my dressing gown and slippers to work to be warm, but I’m sure it would be frowned upon.
Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, and if you can vote in the Clacton by-election on 13th August, remember that it’s bin day. Bin for the Win!! Please make Nigel Farage unemployed.
Take care, and I’ll see you next week for the Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review!
The start of August has brought the Commonwealth Games to a close, along with the second part of my world-famous movie preview/reviews, in the form of The Odyssey. This Winter (Maybe Summer for you) has been very busy for the staff of Some Geek Told Me, since The Odyssey is the third preview/review of the season, which started with Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Supergirl, but will end with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which just opened.
My astonishing and riveting preview for The Odyssey can be found here.
In my last review, I talked about how predictable I can be, specifically regarding my use of the same preview and review template and my habit of purchasing advanced movie tickets. However, I must warn you to brace yourself for a surprise: I have changed my usual approach. You can teach an old dog new tricks!
If you’ve read the preview, you would have discovered the shocking revelation that has shaken the pop culture world to its core! Well…maybe not that far. Anyway, because I was on my break, I watched The Odyssey without an advanced ticket, and the planet did not stop spinning. Who would have thought?!
Because we only have one cinema, it’s hit-or-miss whether the theatre you are in will be busy or not. Case in point, after purchasing my ticket, drink and snacks to fuel me through the upcoming three hours, and to cry about the cost, I noticed that the theatre had 23 people in it, which was very busy for a Tuesday night.
I also noticed that 2026 is the year of Zendaya, based on the fact that I was sitting in a theatre waiting to see The Odyssey, where I also experienced the trailers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Dune: Part Three; two films that I will see at the cinema. Now, whether she is in Avengers: Doomsday or not, I can’t say, but whatever the case may be, she seems to be everywhere.
Alright, I think the only thing left to do is to cover the rules for the review:
1.)Please be aware there will be spoilers concerning the movie, so proceed with extreme anxiety and caution; even after 2,000 years.
2.) The aim of my reviews are not to rip apart the subject or trash it. If I liked the subject enough to watch it, then I’ll give my honest (possibly biased) opinion.
3.) I’m not a professional critic, so I’m not going to dive into deeper concepts and themes, or the art of filmmaking. I’m just a geek; always have been, and always will be.
And that is it. The key has turned, the coin has been flipped, and the Joker has escaped from Arkham again. So without further delay, let’s get on with the review!
Credit: Universal Pictures and my local cinema. I’m very sorry, but some random idiot managed to catch his reflection on the glass, while taking a photo. What a moron.
One of the first things we need to discuss is whether I liked the movie. As usual, I did. What a surprise! Now, before I expand on this concept, I’m going to try really hard not to compare the film to the poem. Why is that? What a wise and just question that was, my liege. Hundreds of other people would have already done this, so my two cents wouldn’t change the narrative around that, nor will I try to judge Odysseus’ actions. Ok, maybe I’ll do that, just a little.
Things I liked:
I tend to allow my rants to flow, so there’s no real structure or order to them. I’ll start with one of the scenes that hit me the most: Argos. I did mention Ancient Greece’s most loyal dog in the preview, as in, I hoped he would be cut from the film. This is because I can’t handle the death of a fictional dog, much the same as the death of a real dog. No, that’s not true.
Basically, I didn’t want to see Argos finally see his master after 20 years and die, because I would start weeping. Oh no, Christopher Nolan hit me below the belt, with footage of Argos’ siblings being murdered, and Odysseus choosing him, thus saving him. Showing the audience the developing bond between Argos and Odysseus actually made me get all of my crying done, so when Argos died, his death was more like Luke Skywalker’s death in Star Wars: Episode VIII-The Last Jedi. For an audience member, that extra scene was great, but as a dog lover, it was brutal.
Anne Hathaway’s speech as Penelope to Tom Holland’s Telemachus, about being the one who has sat on the throne of Ithaca for the last 20 years and unofficially ruled, was powerful, poignant, and emotional. Penelope is imprisoned on her own island, and Hathaway did a great job at displaying the conflicting feelings she had about the whole crisis.
And speaking of crisis, Robert Pattinson’s Antinous was terrible, but in the best way. Antinous was a typical villain who sought to gain power and become a leader, but didn’t want to take any physical action himself to make things happen. He would rather make other people do the work, like ordering Telemachus to be ambushed and assassinated, but not be a part of it himself. Plausible deniability in action.
This concept was never more on display than during the slaughter of the suitors. Antinous, hiding from the battle and ordering others into the fight, made me laugh because it just reinforced how much of a coward he was, with the seeds planted back when he traded places with Sinon. Kudos to the fight choreography for that scene, especially having the weapons being fed into the fight via a hole in the ceiling.
The scene with the Laestrygonians was brutal as well, especially the part where they were capsizing the boats and killing the survivors. It would be a terrifying experience to encounter an enemy that seeks your total annihilation, without any verbal threats. The Ithacans were massacred, losing over 60% of their surviving forces. There were no compromises, almost like Terminators.
Charybdis and Polyphemus were both outstanding, so after the film, I researched how they were created, and like I just said, they were outstanding. I also thought it was a smart idea not to show you what the Sirens looked like, as well as what their song sounded like.
For the Trojan Horse, I watched Nolan’s interview about its origin. I thought it was very creative to have the horse wheel-less, as well as being half-buried in the sand. It goes against the idea and concept of the Trojan Horse, and as Katy Perry said, I liked it. Another scene I liked was the journey to the Underworld, or at least, a part of Hades. The imagery was superb and terrifying, as Sinon drank blood to talk, and the dead chased the survivors. Having the actors emerge from the black sand was genius and added to the surreal nature of the scene.
With Circe, I fell into a trap and expected to see the transformation of the soldiers into pigs, to be done via CGI. Well, don’t I need to go and stand in the corner with a dunce’s hat on?! I thought the practical application of Samantha Morton physically altering the face and bodies of Odysseus’ men was equally amazing and horrifying; especially the shot where she stretched her arm down a soldier’s throat was jaw-dropping.
I think it was important to keep visiting Zeus’ law or Xenia, as in being respected and honoured, versus breaking it. Throughout the film, xenia was constantly being respected and disrespected, which, of course, leads to the destruction of Troy and Odysseus’ 10-year journey home. When the “Sea People” were first mentioned, concerning a group of seafaring people, raping, pillaging, and killing along the various coastlines, I knew it was the Greeks, because let’s be honest, how could it not be?
I know The Odyssey and Nolan’s other recent film, Oppenheimer, forces their main protagonists to confront what they have unleashed upon the world, while witnessing the damage and carnage, having never stopped to consider the consequences of trying to be the smartest person in the room.
It’s always interesting to note that Odysseus knows how important xenia is to the gods, but he keeps breaking it; though it finally catches up with his morality and conscience on Ithaca.
There are other things I liked, but we can’t spend the whole time bogged down in the section, so as the All-American Rejects said, we need to move along.
Things I disliked:
Just like any movie, some elements didn’t sit well with me. The first is with the armour, mainly Agamemnon’s and the Trojans. Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, King of Men, and the Supreme Commander of the Greek Forces, needed to look different from the other Greek leaders and kings.
His large black armour looked extremely bad-arse, but I think that’s the problem. The war has been raging for 10 years, though to be fair, it’s mainly been a war of attrition: The Greeks can not break into the city of Troy, and the Trojans can not make the Greeks leave.
So, my point is this: after 10 years, Agamemnon’s armour looked brand new. True, he would have had servants cleaning it for him, but it didn’t look like battle-hardened armour; it looked like it was freshly produced from the costume department. It was too shiny and clean.
Similarly, the first time we see the Trojans’ armour, they are riding on horseback towards Sinon. Sadly, like Agamemnon, their armour looked too neat, shiny, polished, new, and clean, rather than soldiers wearing armour that had seen 10 years of war. It took me out of the film; it wasn’t believable.
Another thing that took me out of the film was the casting, but it’s not what you’re thinking. Essentially, we had a film that featured Jason Bourne, Catwoman, Spider-Man, Batman, Nakia, Alpha, Violator, Mary Jane, Furiosa, The Punisher, and Shadowcat. I realise actors play fictional and non-fictional characters, but more importantly, they are more than their most famous roles. However, they can sometimes get type-casted, where we had scenes between Catwoman and Spider-Man, Batman and Violator, Punisher and Nakia, and everybody else in between.
It felt strange watching Peter Parker and Frank Castle go hunting, along with Bruce Wayne trying to marry Selena Kyle, but also Shadowcat, Mary Jane, and Alpha being angry with Jason Bourne. As I said earlier, it took me out of the movie at times, which, to be honest, is quite rare.
It reminded me of the time when I saw Les Misérables with my girlfriend (future wife) at the cinema. It was her favourite musical, so she was singing along with the rest of the audience, while I was watching a film about Wolverine raising Catwoman’s daughter, while being chased by Jor-El. I mentioned this to her after the film, and she was not impressed.
I was also let down by how Scylla looked, but I did like her nest. I was hoping her definitions would be clearer, but what do I know? As for Helios’ Cattle, I thought they would look grander than they did, though in hindsight, I realise why they chose to leave the cattle looking normal.
So, what about my preview questions?
Will the film open with an exposition about the Trojan War? There was a single line at the start, but nothing else.
Will the film start in the Iliad, and move into the Odyssey, or will it be told with flashbacks? It was a Nolan film, so it was told using a non-linear timeline.
How graphic will the battle scenes be, or the monsters killing Odysseus’ men? I could be wrong about this, but to my memory, there were only three battle scenes, and they were intense for very different reasons.
How will Nolan mark the passage of time in the film? Since Nolan did his time manipulation with the narrative, the biggest indicator of the passage of time was Odysseus’ beard, along with the growing age of Argos, Telemachus, and Eumaeus.
Will there be an epilogue? There wasn’t an epilogue in the traditional sense, but the film did leave us with Odysseus abdicating the Kingdom of Ithaca to Telemachus, as well as patching up his marriage with Penelope.
Tom Holland is 30 years old, so is it believable that he is playing a 20-year-old man whose mother is Anne Hathaway? I’ll be honest, the age difference bothered me more than I thought it would. Hathaway is 43 years old, while Holland is 30, playing a 20-year-old. Both Hathaway and Holland were fantastic, but I felt that either Hathaway was too young for the role or Holland was too old.
How much screen time will be given to Odysseus’ return to Ithaca? It was difficult to determine, because, being Christopher Nolan, the film’s timeline was out of order.
Will we see the plough and donkey scene? Sadly, no, we didn’t.
Will a 21st-century perspective be placed on the film, considering it is set over 3,000 years ago? I’ve covered this earlier, but yes, the destruction and sacking of Troy brought this into focus.
Will conservatives be correct that the woke casting choices derail the movie? Honestly, the casting of Elliot Page and Lupita Nyong’o was great; seriously, the movie was not derailed by them. Anybody who says that to you they are lying.
How will the monster be shown? CGI or practical effects or both? I think it was a combination of both. I believe Charybdis, the Laestrygonians, and Polyphemus were practical effects, but Scylla was different.
How will Calypso and Circe be portrayed? I thought Charlize Theron and Samantha Morton were awesome, with each actress showing how dangerous and fragile their characters were.
Can the sacking and destruction of Troy be laid at Odysseus’ feet? Once again, I have already discussed, I believe the answer is yes.
How much PTSD will Odysseus have, if any? A lot. Odysseus would have kept a therapist very busy and wealthy.
How will Nyong’o go with her dual roles? I thought her role as Helen was small, while Clytemnestra was even smaller.
Will there be any other appearances of Greek Gods, apart from Athena? If there were, I missed them.
Will Aeneas be mentioned or shown? To the best of my knowledge, no, he wasn’t.
Again, please remember that this review wasn’t about a comparison between the poem and the movie. Overall, The Odyssey is amazing, especially with the grounded use of practical effects, but would you expect anything less from a Nolan movie?
And that brings another rant to a close for another week. Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, dance on the FIFA Forward Enterprise’s grave, and I’ll see you next week for the final preview/review for the Winter series, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Three down, one to go! Booya!
Just like the red carpet can be rolled out for a visiting leader, I’m going to roll out the red carpet for you, because after a relaxing time hanging out with UMC1 and UMC2, I’m back with more stupid ideas and badly translated English to entertain you.
So what could I possibly write to kick off the second half of 2026? Yes, I have been alluding to this for a few weeks now, but today’s blog is my preview for The Odyssey. It’s funny, because lately on this highly popular blog, I’ve recently completed movie previews/reviews about Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Supergirl, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day still to come as well.
If you’re new to this account, I promise that I do write about other things; it’s just this Summer’s (Winter for me) movies have been interesting enough for me to conduct my highly successful movie previews/reviews. Clear as mud? Awesome.
I’ve been looking forward to The Odyssey for several reasons, which, because nobody asked for it, I will now break down for you:
1.) I’m a fan of Christopher Nolan’s films. One day, I will write a blog post about the recurring theme among them, but not today.
2.) Being a geek, I’m a fan of history and mythology, and what better crossover of these subjects can you get in The Odyssey, other than Hellboy?
As always with my previews, I purchase an advanced ticket, because…say it with me…I’m a geek. However, something rare has happened on this account, as I strive to maintain transparency here. Typically, I write the preview, publish the preview, watch the movie, then write the review and publish it. However, with my Mid-Winter break coinciding with the release of The Odyssey, I decided to make an executive decision and watch the movie.
This means, by the time of the publication of this blog post (27th July), I would have already seen the movie. So, The Odyssey’s order is this: Write the preview, watch the movie, publish the preview, then write the review and publish it. This slight alternative to the system will probably carry over to Spider-Man: Brand New Day also.
I apologise in advance if my tenses are a bit weird in this blog post, since again, I’m writing the preview before I’ve seen the movie, but you’ll read it after I’ve seen it. Sorry, I’ll shut up about this. Ok, where were we? Oh right, for those (un)lucky enough not to understand what The Odyssey is about, you have come to the correct place. Maybe.
I have to interject with a pointless reference; I will be discussing two versions of the Odyssey. The first is the book (poem), which will be identified as The Odyssey, while the second reference will be the movie, which will be identified in italics as The Odyssey. This is to avoid confusion for you, other readers, and me, the absent-minded writer. Did I need to include this in the blog? Absolutely not. Did I want to? Absolutely yes!
The film is based on an epic poem that has been translated and adapted into a book, which is famous around the planet.1 It was written by Homer, an ancient Greek poet who lived around the 8th century BCE, who wrote The Odyssey and its predecessor, The Iliad, around the same time.
I do need to state that The Odyssey was a famous legend, passed down by storytellers for hundreds of years, before it was written down and became a bedrock of ancient Greek literature, and like the works of Shakespeare, it became a staple in high school English classes.
It has been reworked, reimagined, and adapted into several media over the centuries because of its powerful themes and messages. The Odyssey tells the timeless tale of revenge, love, regret, guilt, children, war, loss, marriage, grief, death, hope, compassion, loyalty, and just about everything else you can cram into it. The Odyssey has been with me since primary school, which, in all honesty, says more about me than the story.
The most basic, stripped-down version of the story that I can create is this:
A man leaves his island, kingdom, and family, and goes to war, with the majority of the fighting men on the island for 10 years. It then takes him another 10 years to return to the island, with all of the men he took having been killed, and he has to deal with the consequences of leaving in the first place, and what he did during the war and after it. This is not an ancient Greek rom-com, nor will the movie be.
And speaking of the movie, I believe The Odyssey’s budget was US$250 million, which is more than the budgets of Minions & Monsters, Obsession, Backrooms, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Jackass: Best and Last, Evil Dead Burn, and Bring Her Back combined.
Before I waffle on even more, we’re going to be discussing names from a movie that are based on a piece of Greek literature that is over 2,000 years old. With the pronunciation of these names, I’m not going to lecture you about how to pronounce them, because I’m not an expert myself.
Basically, pronounce them however you wish, except if you’re actually Greek, then there is no excuse for getting them wrong. So, with that fantastic introduction out of the way, let’s move on to the preview.
WARNING, WE HAVE HAD OVER 2,000 YEARS, BUT THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!
My awesome copy of the Odyssey
Am I looking forward to watching The Odyssey?
As I mentioned before, I’m a fan of Christopher Nolan’s movies, history, and mythology, so TheOdyssey fits inside my wheelhouse. Odysseus, the main protagonist and yet at the same time, an antagonist, is a complex character who has been analysed for centuries for his victories and defeats.
It’s one of the reasons the tale of the Odyssey has endured long enough for Nolan to decide to write a screenplay and direct a movie about one of the smartest men in Ancient Greece, who got lost trying to get home; a two week journey became 10 years. Ouch.
Speaking about the movie, the cast includes Matt Damon (Odysseus), Anne Hathaway (Penelope), Tom Holland (Telemachus), Robert Pattinson (Antinous) Lupita Nyong’o (Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra), Samantha Morton (Circe), John Leguizamo (Eumaeus), Zendaya (Athena), Charlize Theron (Calypso), Jon Bernthal (Menelaus), Himesh Patel (Eurylochus), Bill Irwin (Polyphemus), Elliot Page (Sinon), and Benny Safdie (Agamemnon).
A few of these actors have worked with Nolan before, like Damon, Hathaway, Pattinson, and Page, which always suggests to me, that the actors and director actually like working together. That’s always a positive thing, right?
Obviously, it costs more money, but I do appreciate the filmmakers putting in the extra effort with building massive sets, using a vast array of practical effects, and employing hundreds, if not thousands of extras. I’m a sucker for epics, so The Odyssey is a film that, I believe, fits that criteria.
I’m still waiting for Hollywood, or quite frankly anybody else, whether it’s animated or live-action, to release the trilogy, nobody seems to have the guts to do: The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. Imagine using the same actors and voice actors, but also filming them back-to-back; the continuity would be amazing!
Yes, they were written by different authors, centuries apart, but they are interconnected, as well as overlap each other, and in my very humble opinion, form one long narrative. Though to be fair, Hollywood did dabble with the Iliad in the form of 2004’s Troy.2
I do understand the film has faced some backlash for making “woke” casting choices, as well as a call for a boycott of the film over the scenes filmed in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.
What is the movie about?
According to universalpictures.co.nz, the premise is this:
Christopher Nolan’s next film, The Odyssey, is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX® film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX® film screens for the first time and opens in cinemas everywhere on July 16, 2026.
The Odyssey stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o, with Zendaya and Charlize Theron.
The Odyssey is produced by Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan for their company, Syncopy. The executive producer is Thomas Hayslip.
This description leaves a lot to the imagination, however Wikipedia, as usual, saves the day with:
The Odyssey follows Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War, chronicling his encounters with mythical beings such as the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and the nymph Calypso, while attempting to reunite with his wife, Penelope.
What can we expect?
The running time for The Odyssey is 172 minutes, so realistically, you would be in the theatre for over three hours if you combine adverts, trailers, and the movie. Classic films that have lasted over 170 minutes have included Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, so The Odyssey is in good company. After three hours, though, your bladder and stomach may not agree.
Once again, as I have already stated, The Odyssey is going to be like the nature of the poem: epic. I know Nolan has a reputation for using practical effects over CGI, leading the public to speculate that he would detonate a real nuclear weapon for Oppenheimer.
I expect to see some fantastic sets, stunning costumes, and even more gorgeous practical effects, especially in the forms of the monsters, like Scylla, Charybdis, Helios’ Cattle, Sirens, the Laestrygonians, and Polyphemus; though, to be honest, I’m not sure if they will all be in the movie.
It’s cool that Nolan has involved the Greek Gods in the movie, because the Trojan War, famously between Greece and Troy, caused divisions between the Gods themselves. Some were on the Greeks’ side, some were supporting the Trojans, some were neutral, while others didn’t care.
Of all of the movie previews I have done, I think The Odyssey has been the most difficult to write about because humanity has had over 2,000 years to develop and adapt it into different mediums, so after thousands of years, there are not many things left to talk about; only what Nolan has kept, what he’s thrown away, the order of events, and maybe, just maybe, something new.
I also have to wonder how Odysseus will be portrayed: heroic, dangerous, clever, deceitful, faithful, sexist, wise, a mass murderer, or a combination of all of these. It’s hard to root for a king to return to his faithful and loving wife and son after 20 long years away, having slept with at least two women, killed countless men, got all of his men killed, and helped to destroy and ravage a city, where the citizens, not just soldiers, are massacred, robbed, or enslaved.
As I said earlier, Odysseus is a complex character, but we also need to view him not through a 21st-century CE lens, but through a 12th-century BCE standard. You can argue whether Odysseus was a real person or not, but his story is timeless, and still needs to be retold, if nothing else, as entertainment or as a warning of hubris.
Do I have concerns?
This is arguably the biggest film of the Summer (Again, Winter for me), so there is a lot of pressure on it to live up to the hype. Added that it’s based on a story that’s thousands of years old, and has been retold countless times, so of course, I have concerns.
Here are some of my questions:
Will the film open with an exposition about the Trojan War?
Will the film start in the Iliad, and move into the Odyssey, or will it be told with flashbacks?
How graphic will the battle scenes be, or the monsters killing Odysseus’ men?
How will Nolan mark the passage of time in the film?
Will there be an epilogue?
Tom Holland is 30 years old, so is it believable that he is playing a 20-year-old man whose mother is Anne Hathaway?
How much screen time will be given to Odysseus’ return to Ithaca?
Will we see the plough and donkey scene?
Will a 21st-century perspective be placed on the film, considering it is set over 3,000 years ago?
Will conservatives be correct that the woke casting choices derail the movie?
How will the monster be shown? CGI or practical effects or both?
How will Calypso and Circe be portrayed?
Can the sacking and destruction of Troy be laid at Odysseus’ feet?
How much PTSD will Odysseus have, if any?
How will Nyong’o go with her dual roles?
Will there be any other appearances of Greek Gods, apart from Athena?
Will Aeneas be mentioned or shown?
There’s probably more questions, but I can’t think of them right now, sorry.
And to end this woeful rant, it’s more of a hope than a question, but I hope Argos has been cut from the film. I saw The Return recently with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche3, and Odysseus’ reunion with Argos was hard to watch, because I forgot about that scene to my shame. Argos was a good boy, and I stopped the movie because I had started crying. What an idiot!
Odysseus and Telemachus slaughter a room full of suitors, and I will have no reaction. Odysseus and Penelope reunite, and I will have no reaction. Odysseus’s dog, Argos, waits 20 years to see his master, and then dies; pass the tissues.
I swear, I can’t make it through any form of entertainment where a dog dies, and I don’t cry.
I believe this movie will be a juggernaut, but only time will tell if critics and fans like it; though the film studio will be opening its coffers for that sweet, sweet money.
Alright, that’s it. Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, Bin for the Win, and I’ll see you next week for The Odyssey: Movie Review.
1 Suck it Flat Earthers.
2 The Iliad and The Odyssey were written by Homer, while The Aeneid was written by Virgil, over 700 years later.
3 The Return was a slow burn, but it was a solid, entertaining movie. I enjoyed it.
Kia ora everybody, this is just a quick check-in with you, because I’m still on my mid-winter break. I know, how selfish of me! The world is still turning, with Spain conquering the world, bird flu is spreading, Trump and the United States have become the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz, and Nigel Farage is slowly regretting his decision to resign. It takes a special person in the House of Commons to rally against you.
Bin for the Win
Before I go back to playing board games with UMC1 and UMC2, I want to quickly acknowledge the death of Sam Neill, as he was one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s favourite sons. In all seriousness, I never met him, but his passing still saddens me, as he was one of our proudest exports to the world.
Whenever I saw him on screen, I would often think, “Hey, what’s that Kiwi boy doing there?” He was a fantastic actor, and again, having never met him, I always held the impression that he was a fantastic person as well. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to re-watch some of his films, as I have already started with Sleeping Dogs. Sam, cheers mate.
Clockwise from top left: ‘Dead Calm,’ ‘The Hunt for Red October,’ ‘The Piano,’ ‘Possession,’ ‘Peaky Blinders,’ ‘In the Mouth of Madness,’ ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Event Horizon.’ Everett Collection; BBC
I also want to quickly acknowledge the death of Sir Garfield Sobers, the great West Indian all-rounder cricketer. He retired before I was born, but I’ve seen footage of him destroying teams, including New Zealand. He was an idol for millions, and in New Zealand, he was highly respected, since he was so damn good.
I’m glad he wasn’t born later on, because I would have had mixed feelings watching Sobers take New Zealand apart. As a New Zealander, it would have been awful to watch, but as a cricket fan, he would have been glorious to see live.
Thanks, Garry, you were amazing.
Credit: Cricket West Indies
And with that, I’ll leave you, but my Twitter and Mastodon accounts are still operating, because what else am I going to do?
So, that’s it for today, and I’ll be back next Monday for a much longer blog, which will be in the form of The Odyssey Movie Preview. Take care, and I’ll see you next week.
Some things in this world are destined to go together, like peas and carrots, Han and Chewbacca, salt and vinegar, Trump and corruption, but also my movie previews and reviews. Yes, just as the predictable nature of the Earth and Moon’s cosmic dance, as well as Newton’s third law of motion, my movie previews are followed by a review, and in this particular case, it’s Supergirl. If you missed last week’s preview, you can find it here.
I’ve been called many things in my life, but nobody has ever called me a creature of habit, even though that’s what I call myself. This is self-evident in the painfully predictable formula that I employ when covering the previews/reviews, which, fortunately, do not get picked up by mainstream media. Imagine how popular I would become? No, I’m quite happy living without doing interviews all the time.
Supergirl premiered on Thursday 25th June in New Zealand, and I saw it on Tuesday. As always with the movie rant from yours truly, the ticket was purchased in advance, so when I turned up at the cinema, I only brought a bottle of Pepsi Max, because I’m so extreme that I live life to the max!
Anyway, just like every single time I have purchased an advanced ticket, I was not asked to produce it, because why would the staff need to see something like that? Am I right? There were 12 people in the theatre, which I thought was a lot for a Tuesday night. They played the trailers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey, which look cool, though I will discuss my fears for The Odyssey very soon.
As always, let’s go over the rules of the review.
1.)Please be aware there will be spoilers concerning the movie, so proceed with extreme anxiety and caution.
2.) The aim of my reviews are not to rip apart the subject or trash it. If I liked the subject enough to watch it, then I’ll give my honest (possibly biased) opinion.
3.) I’m not a professional critic, so I’m not going to dive into deeper concepts and themes, or the art of filmmaking. I’m just a geek; always have been, and always will be.
So, with that all out of the way, join me for another ill-advised rant about a big budget movie!
Credit: Warner Bros. and my local cinema. I’m sorry the photo is crappy, but it was cold and raining.
Let’s discuss the first part, because where else should we begin? Did I like the movie? The answer would have to be yes. Is it the best superhero movie I have ever seen? No, it isn’t. Is it the worst superhero movie ever? No, of course it isn’t, but I understand some people will probably want to rage because they can.
Before I go on, I want to explain the conversation I had with my wife when I got home from the cinema. I was discussing the movie, and of course, I was comparing it to the source material, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. She asked if it would have been better for me not to have read the source material.
Normally, I would have said, of course not, but Supergirl has made me rethink it. It’s an interesting question: was it better or worse to have read the comic beforehand? Just something to think about.
Things I liked:
In no particular order, the best place to start is the fight scenes, which I thought were amazing. With Kara being a Kryptonian, her power levels are massive, so that would translate to her fighting ability and style. It was nice to point out that under a red star’s solar radiation, it cancels out a Kryptonian’s powers. I thought it was important to display that Kara can handle herself, with or without powers.
I thought the fights were well-choreographed, inventive and destructive. In saying that, Kara did get beaten up often, but that is not necessarily a negative thing. It showed that she could take a beating and not give up, which is shown by her fight with the alien over Ruthye’s sword. As I said, the fight scenes were great, especially having Kara being able to adapt to the environment.
And speaking of adapting, it was a clever idea to introduce planets by using a title card, as well as the colour status of its local star(s); that way, the audience has an insight into whether Kara will have her powers or not on that planet.
I thought Milly Alcock’s performance as Kara Zor-El was solid. She did a fantastic job showing the differences between Kara and her cousin, because their life experiences have shaped them, as they do for all of us. At the start of the movie, she is a bit of a mess, but, like any great character development arc, as in Batman in The Lego Batman Movie, Kara is a changed person by the end.
As I discussed in the preview, processing the trauma of losing your culture, people, parents, city, and planet would take some time, and maybe it’s something you may never 100% get over, but I think they did a fine job with that, especially with the flashbacks. It was also great that, apart from the flashbacks and the final scene, the story was set away from Earth, with Kara mixing it up with various other aliens and visiting odd planets.
I’d like to take the time to discuss something I noticed in Man of Steel that bugged me, with Superman and Supergirl correcting it. Yes, I know these characters and worlds are fictional, but in Man of Steel, we were presented with two versions of Kryptonese/Kryptonian.1 One was the written form, which, as you can imagine, looked very alien, as the symbols and characters were not from Earth.
However, the written language did not match up to the oral language, because all of the Kryptonian citizens we saw were walking around speaking English. I remember this because I saw the film on my birthday with my girlfriend at the time, who, side note, became my wife one year later. I remember feeling cheated of seeing Kryptonians speaking in their native fictional language, as we got Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon yelling at each other in English.
Flash forward 12 years, and we finally got to experience some Kryptonian in Superman, then expanded on in Supergirl, with actors having conversations in the fictional language. If you are committed to the concept that these characters are aliens, then give us an actual alien language. From that point of view, I was impressed and appreciated the effort in Supergirl.
Jason Momoa’s Lobo was in the film longer than I thought he would be. I honestly thought we had seen the last of him on Bilquis, so seeing more of him was a bonus.2 His “Super useless,” “Bastich,” and “Bye, Tits” lines were hilarious to me because that’s very on brand for him. Momoa did a great job as the Main Man, though if I’m not mistaken, he never referred to himself as the Main Man in the film. If he did, that would have been outrageous.
Krypto was chaotic as ever, and the scene where he and Kara were in the apartment was awesome. He was flying around, trying to eat the feathers that he had just liberated from destroying the pillow. The scenes where he was shot, poisoned and dying were tough, because it made me think of my mate, Indy.
Obviously, I have no information about how much CGI was used for the various aliens, because I’m sure practical effects were used as well, but the point was that they were different, creative, quirky, and scary. All of the elements that you need to bring fictional aliens to life.
By the way, I’m not going to launch into great details about the comparisons between the comic and the movie; however, I was impressed that they included the scene on Barenton, when Kara was under the influence of one of the planet’s binary stars, where one was green and possibly made of kryptonite. It was important, at least to me, to show how physically, emotionally, and mentally strong Kara had become.3
Things I disliked:
Alright, this is the part where I’m leaning into the source material, maybe too much. I thought Eve Ridley’s portrayal of Ruthye Marye Knoll was a little odd. In the comic, only Ruthye’s father is murdered by Krem of the Yellow Hills, not her entire family, but that’s fine.
The point was that Ridley seemed wooden for Act 1 and Act 2. Now this could be put down to two reasons: the first could have been that Ridley was instructed to mimic Ruthye’s character from the comic, or possibly, the creative team and/or Ridley decided to go with that tone. She did grow into her role as the film went on, which was good, but Ruthye was difficult to like for the bulk of the film, as she did some strange things.
The main villain, Krem, is interesting because he has gotten a lot of hate for being a forgettable villain, or at least, providing Kara with a low-stakes problem. I honestly understand critics’ disdain for him, I do, and I agree, to a certain degree.
I do find myself defending Krem in a way. He was never going to be a Darkseid, Mongul, Anti-Monitor, Starro, or Brainiac. He was never trying to enslave a planet or the universe, or trying to rewrite history, distort reality, attain ultimate knowledge, solve the Anti-Life Equation, or control all sentient life forms. No, he wants money and to be able to kill whomever he wants.
Yes, that is evil, but it’s nowhere near the likes or power levels of the villains I just mentioned. He was never meant to be a high-stakes villain, but similar to the Hutts in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, where the villains are not trying to take over the universe. No, they are just trying to make as much money as possible, and if they have to kill to achieve it, all the better, just like Krem.
To me, Krem is a personal and intimate villain, creating problems surrounding Kara, but not with her, until he shoots Krypto with a poison arrow, then he becomes Kara’s business. He was never going to truly threaten Kara, but that was not the point; he was there to test Kara, emotionally and mentally. I’ve now reached the region of the rant where I need to confess something. Like I have mentioned many times, I sourced Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, because I wanted to know the story, thus I discovered Krem’s true fate.
At the climax of the story, Krem is defeated and at the mercy of Kara and Ruthye’s sword, but Ruthye basically repeats all of the lessons she’s learnt from Kara, back to Kara. So, at the end, after all of the shitty things Krem has done throughout the series, they don’t kill him. Kara wanted to protect Ruthye’s innocence from killing Krem by doing it herself, but Ruthye talked her down. They gave him mercy.
Decades later, Ruthyre is a very old woman, and both Kara and Krypto turn up, virtually unchanged. It’s then revealed that Kara and Ruthye did deliver justice by sending Krem to the Phantom Zone to serve out his sentence, and Kara is there to release him. Upon his release, Krem is full of regret and remorse, which his younger self lacked. He apologises to them both for his crimes.
Since Ruthye is elderly, she uses a cane to walk and hits Krem on the head, which is depicted as a silhouette. He collapses on the ground, with Ruthye walking away. Kara remains for a while before eventually moving on, with the only passage of time being the local star rising in the background. So, after reading this, I was a little unsure about whether Krem was dead, because of the position of his arms. I assumed that he was alive, as why would Kara and Ruthye punish him in the Phantom Zone, just to execute him upon release?
I mean, it’s a pretty boss thing to do, but I needed to be sure. I looked it up, and the answer was that Krem survived; he was just unconscious. I was correct, but I thought it was a strange choice to leave that up to the reader’s discretion, but hey, I’m not Tom King, nor a comic book writer. I’m just a sucker who buys them.
King came out later to clear things up and said Krem survived the ordeal, and the ending wasn’t supposed to be so confusing. Now here is where things get super weird, super fast. In the climax of the film, the roles are reversed, with Ruthye holding the sword, Krem is at her mercy, and Kara is the one talking her down.
Kara is essentially saying to Ruthye that killing Krem won’t give her justice; it will change her into something she’s not. Kara also points out that Ruthye could take revenge by surviving and living a good life. Ruthye agrees to drop the sword, walks away and not to kill Krem. As Ruthye disappears off-screen, Kara then picks up the sword and stabs Krem in the stomach for vengeance over Krypto, then stabs him in the neck for Ruthye.
Since the film’s release, Ana Nogueira, the screenwriter, received some backlash over Krem’s death, and in an interview, she stated that basically, the screenplay followed the comic, because Krem died at the end, at the hands of Ruthye. There is also a twist in this, because in the comic, Ruthye is narrating the story, as in a memoir.
She states that Kara killed him with a sword, and that was the end of Krem, but the reader knows that’s not true, before we saw him alive. This is a long-winded way of saying that I believe Nogueira thought that Ruthye had executed Krem, and then swapped his executor for Kara in the movie, to protect Ruthye.
Adapting a beloved story will always be a challenge. What things do you keep, what things do you drop, and what things do you change? Was Nogueira allowed to change elements of Superman: Woman of Tomorrow to fit a movie? Of course, it’s a yes. But, and there’s the big question, is it possible that Nogueira misinterpreted the comic’s ending and mistakenly added the wrong outcome?
And if, and it’s a rather large if, if that’s the case, why was this change in plot not picked up? Why was it ignored by the filmmakers? Someone, somewhere, in the creative process, must have noticed that the two endings were vastly different, and why wasn’t something done to correct it?
Writers are allowed to make mistakes, but why didn’t the director, producer, or anybody else stop to correct this mistake? The whole point of the comic was a personal journey about Kara finding her place in the universe and dealing with the trauma of her life, but also trying to protect Ruthye from killing Krem. By doing this, Ruthye gave compassion and mercy to both Kara and Krem.
However, in the film, Kara talks Ruthye out of killing Krem and gives me mercy, then she just executes him herself anyway. Everything she just said was a lie. The trip home would be very awkward. How would the audience react in Spider-Man: No Way Home if Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker stopped Tom Holland’s Peter Parker from killing Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, then turned around to just kill Osborn himself?
Sadly, I feel the filmmakers may have dropped the ball on that scene.
So, what about my preview questions?
How faithful will the film be to the source material, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow? Overall, it’s quite faithful, which is rare in comic book movies.
Will Lobo’s appearance feel forced? It’s still hard to say. They could have left Lobo out, and the story would still have made sense, but it was fun to see him.
How old is Kara? That one is easy, she’s 23 years old.
Will Kara’s life on Krypton/Argo City be shown chronologically or as a flashback? It was done through a series of flashbacks, when Kara was explaining something or when a memory was triggered.
How much screen time will Lobo receive, and will he steal some of the spotlight from Kara? I suppose Momoa did steal some of the spotlight from Alcock, but I feel that was to be expected.
Will everybody’s interaction with Krypto seem real, or will it look uneven? I felt the actors’ interactions with the CGI Krypto were better in Supergirl than in Superman.
Apart from Superman, will there be any other cameos? I don’t think there were any cameos. I could have missed some, though I did notice Seth Rogen’s voice as an alien spacebus driver.
Will Krypto get a bad-arse scene? No, he didn’t, as he was poisoned for the majority of the film.
Is Supergirl known throughout the galaxy? Not that I’m aware of, but Krem did know of kryptonite and its effects on Kryptonians.
What is Supergirl’s status on Earth?Is she well-known? That’s a difficult question, hence the bulk of the story happens off-Earth. However, it seems that she is known on Earth, but nothing to the levels of my famous cousin.
Will Krem of the Yellow Hills be a believable antagonist? I discussed my answer to this amazing question in the above rant.
Kara seems to suffer from apathy, but will this continue by the end of the movie? No, by the time she is back on Earth, she wants to commit to Earth. Her friendship and adventure with Ruthye have empowered her with new hope.
Will audiences see Kara as a hero, standing on her own, or will she still be in her cousin’s shadow? I’ve realised that I don’t know how to quantify that. She has been around longer than Spider-Man, but deserves more attention than she gets.
Will there be a Brainiac reference somewhere? If there was, I missed it.
This brings me to discuss something I haven’t done before: box office returns. I’ve been planning on writing a series of blogs about what makes a film successful, because Supergirl has had some low numbers in terms of box office returns. At the time of writing, the movie has earned $89.1 million, against its $170 million budget.
I’m sure there are many people with a lot more qualifications than myself who have analysed the film’s earnings, but I have three working theories.
1.) Creative differences
The knives have been brought out, with various people throwing others under the bus, because of the film’s slow performance at the box office. From what I understand, the media has said there were two cuts of the movie, the director’s cut and the studio’s cut, and to the best of my understanding, the film released was the studio’s. There have also been reports of creative differences between the director, Craig Gillespie, and James Gunn, the co-CEO of DC Studios, along with other people.
2.) Release Time
I understand that film studios plan years in advance to determine the optimal release dates for their movies. They seek to find the best window for their product, which is essentially what a film is—a product that the studio is selling to us.
I also realise that the summer months for blockbuster releases in the Northern Hemisphere are June through August. However, it’s important to note that in New Zealand, June to August is actually winter.
Supergirl was released in New Zealand on 25th June, but it’s got stiff competition to earn our precious and hard-earned money. In New Zealand, Supergirl is fighting against Masters of the Universe, Disclosure Day, The Death of Robin Hood, Toy Story 5, Minions & Monsters, and Jackass: Best and Last, with Moana, The Odyssey, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, just around the corner.
Releasing at this time, wasn’t the best idea in the world.
3.) Female Superhero movies
This theory has two parts to it. Since the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2008, the now-dead DC Extended Universe (DCEU), and the new DC Universe (DCU), 57 films have been released between all of them.4 Of these 57 films, only 4 MCU films (Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and The Marvels), 3 DCEU films (Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, and Wonder Woman 1984) and 1 DCU film (Supergirl) have female lead characters.
That works out to be only 14%, compared to 54% with a male lead character. Only Captain Marvel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Wonder Woman have earned over $800 million at the box office.
What does this tell us? Well, male-led superhero movies tend to do better at the box office than female-led superhero movies, hence the massive discrepancy. But why? I think it’s the perception. I think studios need to be targeting male and female movie fans differently.
For males, studios need to be promoting female-led superhero movies, as these beloved classic characters need to be seen as the arse-kickers as they actually are, just like all of the male superheroes, and to actually prove it in the movie. For females, these female-led movies are a great opportunity for promoting these strong, intelligent, and powerful women as role models, not to be sidelined as sidekicks or love interests.
Hollywood is getting better at this, displaying more diverse voices, but women like superhero movies as well, so the studios just need them to turn up and care about these characters, as I do.
Another argument has been made against superhero movies as a whole genre, with the concept of superhero fatigue settling in. This is supported by the recent low box office numbers from Marvel and DC. The problem here is that with Spider-Man: Brand New Day being released only weeks away, and Avengers: Doomsday being released in December, both of these films will earn over $1 billion each. There will be no superhero fatigue with these two films, I promise you.
Fans want amazing special effects, along with tons of action and excitement, with a drop of humour; however, what drives these movies forward are the characters, which are driven by stories that mean something to people. We want to connect them because we want to see ourselves up there, whether they are male, female, dogs, aliens, or everything in between.
For the record, I enjoyed Supergirl. It does have its issues, but it does not deserve the hate and contempt that are overflowing from all regions of the internet. I think these haters are forgetting that if more superhero movies fail at the box office, more studios will be less inclined to invest money in them. So, in the end, more failed movies mean fewer movies being released, which means the audience and fans are the real losers.
If these people are truly fans, they need to stop cheering for a movie’s failure and start getting behind and supporting it.
But anyway, what do I know? Go out and see the movie for yourself, so you can be the judge.
I’m nearly done, but I need to mention a few things.
Firstly, this is my 300th blog post. I talk about some truly weird stuff on this blog, and it may never become popular, but I keep doing this because I feel I would go crazy if I didn’t have a creative outlet. Thank you to my long-suffering wife, but also UMC1 and UMC2, for allowing me the time to sit down and waffle on about history, books, movies, flags, geography, sport, politics, and fictional characters.
And thank you to my old and new subscribers, readers, and followers of New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website. Thank you for being an audience. Seriously, thank you.
This outpouring of emotion can also mean that my mid-year break is finally upon us. I will be taking a 2-3 week break from this website, because I’ve mentioned this before, but running a blog as badly as I do takes a lot of energy. There will be a shorter and smaller post for next week.
And that’s it. Please remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, go watch the World Cup quarter-finals and I’ll see you next week.
1 I’ve seen the term for the main language for Krypton be described as Kryptonese and Kryptonian, so I’m not sure not which one is more accurate then the other. In this regard, its the reader’s choice for which one to use.
2 If you have eaten your Vegemite, you would have recognised that the planet Bilquis, was named after the artist for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Bilquis Evely.
3 In DC lore, the green star was actually an artificial kryptonite star, created to neutralise and kill Superman, much like Solaris, the evil artificial-super computer powered red star was; except Solaris was sentient, whereas this green kryptonite star was not.
4 37 from the MCU, 16 from the DCEU, and 2 from the DCU. With the two different versions of the Justice League, I have counted as two different films.
My winter break is just around the corner, as well as my 300th blog post, which is a sad, yet funny reminder that I exist. However, before these two events can be achieved, we have a new Movie Preview/Review to sort out. Yes, I am once again entering the positive and uplifting world of movie reviewing on social media, because I’m too old and stupid to do anything else.
I realise the world is busy right now, with algae blooms, Boston recovering from the Scottish invasion, people researching where Curaçao and Cabo Verde are located, along with Andy Burnham, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappé taking over the planet. However, amidst all that craziness, I feel that in terms of preventing a total worldwide disaster, my Movie Preview/Review is here to save the day, just like Kara Zor-El.1
That seamless transition would make Ta-Nehisi Coates break down in awe, because the first half of the Preview/Review is the Preview, namely Supergirl. When I say Supergirl, I’m not discussing 1984’s movie, Supergirl, or Supergirl, the television series from CBS. No, what I’m discussing is the second cinematic entry in the DC Universe (DCU) Chapter One: Gods and Monsters Phase 1.
The first entry was last winter (Summer for my Northern Hemisphere friends), with Superman, for which I created a preview and review. Sadly, I’m still waiting for my Pulitzer Prize and an All Blacks call-up. Dreams are free, my friends, dreams are free.
As any keen and avid follower of New Zealand’s 5th least popular website will tell you, I always purchase an advanced movie ticket because that’s what hardcore fans do. Boo ya! I have my ticket for Tuesday 30th at 7.15 pm, and I have stopped name-dropping my blog when I purchase a ticket, because no one cares or has heard of this poorly received blog. Anyway, as you can imagine, my ticket is where it always is: centre of the back row.
Supergirl has been flying around in our minds and hearts since her debut in Action Comics #252 in 1959, and arguably, she has been an underrated and underused character in the world of DC. However, since Kara is a fictional character, and like so many others, her origin and backstory have been tweaked and retconned. This, of course, brings us to the US$170 million film that lies before us, written by Ana Nogueira and directed by Craig Gillespie.
To the best of my understanding, the cast includes Kara Zor-El / Supergirl (Milly Alcock), Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), Zor-El (David Krumholtz), Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham), and Lobo (Jason Momoa), as well as David Corenswet returning as Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman. Krypto will also be appearing via CGI, and as longtime fans will remember, I have a connection with Krypto.
Before I start my rant, though I feel I may have already started, I find it interesting that the number of people who proudly promote and cheer for a project, whether it’s a television series, novel, video game, comic book, or movie, to fail has been increasing. Someone a lot smarter than me would be able to dissect this trend, as haters have been crawling out of the woodwork for Supergirl long before the movie was released.
Then again, what do I know? I’m just a sucker with no self-esteem. And with those glorious lyrics, let’s push on and see what the Maid of Steel may have in store for us!
Am I looking forward to watching Supergirl?
I think I’m going to have to change this question, because it’s always the same answer; of course, I am. Watching comic book movies at the cinema, especially the developing DCU unfold, is exciting for me, just as it is when viewing the newest Marvel entry. I am a geek after all, but there’s more to it.
I’ve always liked Supergirl, and her reintroduction in 2004 was awesome, especially having Michael Turner on the art.
To the best of my limited knowledge, I believe that Supergirl is based on the mini-series, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #1-8, which was written by Tom King and illustrated by Bilquis Evely. I remember when the mini-series came out, I was very tempted to buy it, because of Evely’s work on The Dreaming, but ultimately I didn’t. Mainly because, even though I would love to read a lot more comic books, I simply can’t afford them.
When I discovered that the film was going to be based on the limited series, I did whatever self-respecting geek would do: curse that I didn’t buy it the first time, and then tried to read it. Buying the single issues proved to be far too expensive, so I settled on the DC Compact Comics version. I liked the new format, which surprised me.
People are going to complain that the movie plot is similar to True Grit, and that’s true to an extent, but that’s the crux of the story; Ruthye enlists Kara’s help to track down Krem of the Yellow Hills, who murdered her father. It’s an old trope, but it still works.
I’m glad that I read it, because, once again, I was surprised. I honestly enjoyed it, because as I was reading it, I started to understand why it’s an acclaimed title. Anyway, the point is that I’ve read it, so I know the characters and why Kara is portrayed as she is. Also, Alcock’s Supergirl looks like a blast, so that’s positive.
I’m really excited about the DC Universe! In Superman, which featured a cameo from Kara at the end. This explained why Krypto was at the Fortress of Solitude, as Krypto actually belongs to Kara, and not Clark, in this universe. Unlike some others, I’m perfectly fine with this change.
What is the movie about?
According to DC.com, the premise is this:
When an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion on an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.
What can we expect?
The running time is 108 minutes, which is sort of short, so your bladder should survive the ordeal, compared to Superman’s 130 minutes.
As previously mentioned, the movie is based on the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow mini-series, so regardless of how faithful it is to the source material, we can safely assume the majority of the plot will be off Earth. I discussed this in my last preview with Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, about the joy of travelling to new planets with crazy environments and even crazier aliens. Visually, I have high expectations.
I believe the film will also follow the path that King and Evely laid out, with Kara dealing with survivor’s guilt, and the trauma that goes with watching your entire world die before your eyes, twice. This is the major difference between Kara and her cousin: according to the DCU, Clark landed on Earth as a baby. He has no real memories of Krypton, as he was raised as an infant on Earth.
Kara is different since she survived the initial crisis and lived in Argo City, a section of Krypton that survived. I’m not sure of the official DC decree on how old Kara was when she left Argo City, but she was a teenager. This obviously meant she grew up with her parents and had many years with them.
Yes, once again, Kara is a fictional character, but the level of pain, regret, sadness, and trauma would be real for many real people who have had their worlds ripped apart by war, disease, violence, or a natural disaster, and can relate to her plight. It’s an interesting aspect to create for a character, especially for someone who wears a large S on their chest.
It’s interesting to note that this idea has been transferred to Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval’s Absolute Superman, where Kal-El grew up on Krypton with his parents, before escaping the planet’s destruction when he was 11-12 years old. This trauma has been a subplot throughout the series.
And now we’re going back to Kara. I’m sure there will be darker themes of the emotional and mental impacts of the trauma, but that’s the point. Kara will need to overcome something to win or save the day.
These breadcrumbs have led us to Krypto, where, in the trailers, we see Kara meeting Krypto as a puppy on Krypton or Argo City. Whether he was a stray or not, I can’t answer that. It does look like Krypto will be some sort of emotional anchor for Kara, linking her to her Kryptonian heritage. In addition to this, I saw in a trailer, Clark meeting Kara, obviously when she first arrived on Earth. It will be nice to see their interactions, especially because of the language and cultural barriers.
Hopefully, it might be fun to see a Kryptonian cutting loose (under a yellow or blue star, of course) and causing havoc out in the universe, on a micro-level. There is also the issue of the film allowing Kara to step out from her cousin’s large shadow, similar to Nightwing, and being able to be recognised as a hero on her own.
I’m curious to see the friendship develop between Kara and Ruthye, or will the writer, Ana Nogueira go off-road? The same can be said for Krem of the Yellow Hills, though I don’t know if the audience will accept him or not. And speaking of acceptance, we need to talk about the Main Man.
Having Jason Momoa return to DC, but also portray everybody’s favourite violence-loving, cigar-smoking, Czarnian bounty hunter, Lobo, is fantastic. I’ve always put Lobo and Guy Gardner in the same group because they excel at upsetting people, but underneath the layers of whatever they like to display, they still have a moral code of sorts.
I’m looking forward to seeing Lobo’s infamous regenerative and fighting abilities, as well as his bombastic statements, his chain, the Spacehog, and, if we are lucky, some space dolphins.
Do I have concerns?
I tend to stick with the non-award-winning formula for these previews, so it would be remiss of me to say that I have had no concerns about the film, because I always do. No true geek wouldn’t.
How faithful will the film be to the source material, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow?
Will Lobo’s appearance feel forced?
How old is Kara?
Will Kara’s life on Krypton/Argo City be shown chronologically or as a flashback?
How much screen time will Lobo receive, and will he steal some of the spotlight from Kara?
Will everybody’s interaction with Krypto seem real, or will it look uneven?
Apart from Superman, will there be any other cameos?
Will Krypto get a bad-arse scene?
Is Supergirl known throughout the galaxy?
What is Supergirl’s status on Earth?Is she well-known?
Will Krem of the Yellow Hills be a believable antagonist?
Kara seems to suffer from apathy, but will this continue by the end of the movie?
Will audiences see Kara as a hero, standing on her own, or will she still be in her cousin’s shadow?
Will there be a Brainiac reference somewhere?
As usual, there’s probably going to be more things rattling about in my mind after the movie, but I’m done for now. I’m going to wear my Superman t-shirt to the cinema, but since it was -2°C last week, I’ll be wearing a jersey as well.
I want the film to work, but that’s out of my hands, just like New Zealand leaving the World Cup, or Cabo Verde beating Argentina in a knock-out match.
Just a heads up to everybody that next week’s Supergirl review will be my last major blog post before I go on my Mid-winter break. So, yay for that.
Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, keep watching the World Cup, and I’ll see you next week for the Supergirl Review. Later gators!
1 When I young, I thought I would able to grow up and marry either Wonder Woman, or Supergirl. Like they were real and I would have a chance with them. HAHAHA!
The challenge I laid down for myself last week was indeed achieved by me. What a result! Go me! And what challenge, dear reader, am I talking about? Yes, I braved the early wintery conditions and went to the cinema to see the latest Disney Star Wars entry, The Mandalorian and Grogu.
As always with this constant, ridiculous pop culture project, this blog post contains the second half. The movie preview can be found here.
If this is your first time reading one of my reviews, welcome, and I’m sorry. It’s great that you’re here, but if you’re hoping to get a detailed description of the film, then you will be very disappointed. My woeful reviews are mainly based on the preview, and this disaster is no exception to the broken formula. With that in mind, let’s be smart and start at the beginning.
Just like the immortal tales and legends of old, my cinematic ritual will never change. Following Batman and the Scouts’ motto of be prepared, I had already purchased my ticket, using the tears of my enemies. Wait…that’s a different story. No, I walked into our only cinema, to an empty foyer. I purchased my go-to drink, Pepsi Max, because I live life to the max. Um…no, I don’t.
Anyway, just like every single time I have purchased an advanced ticket, I simply walked into the theatre, with NOBODY checking to see if I had a ticket. It’s great to know they are consistent. By the time the film had started, there were seven people in the theatre, but for a Tuesday night, it was to be expected. Of course, I got to watch the movie from the centre seat of the back row, like a boss.
The trailers were nothing memorable, as in I can’t remember any of them, and then, surprise, surprise, the film started. As always, let’s go over the rules of the review.
1.)Please be aware that there will be spoilers concerning the movie, so proceed with extreme caution.
2.) The aim of my reviews is not to rip apart the subject or trash it. If I liked the subject enough to watch it, then I’ll give my honest (possibly biased) opinion.
3.) I’m not a professional critic, so I’m not going to dive into deeper concepts and themes or the art of filmmaking. I’m just a geek; always have been, and always will be.
I’m not going to fart around any more, as your Granny will show me up. So let’s get on with the review!
Credit: Disney and my local cinema
I guess the first question is the most basic one: Did I like it? Yes, I did. Is it the best Star Wars film I have ever seen? No, it isn’t. I think it does the job it set out to achieve; anything more than that, I’m clearly not clever enough to answer. However, it was certainly nice to watch a Star Wars movie in a cinema, even one based on a television show.
Things I liked:
These thoughts are in no particular order or importance, just the way my feeble brain works in recalling information.
I’m not sure what planet the story opens on, but whatever it was, it was a Hoth-type planet, covered in ice and snow. I already knew Din Djarin was a bad-arse from the clips I have seen, but I feel the filmmakers wanted to establish early on to new viewers that Djarin and Grogu are devastating as a team, but they still can show mercy, like in the board room, where he spared the representatives of various outposts/colonies. Also, Djarin taking down three Imperial Walkers reinforced this concept.
Let’s talk about the Hutts. When information about the movie was revealed, I read that Rotta the Hutt would be involved. This, of course, sparked my Spidey-Sense: Rotta the Hutt. I knew that name, but I couldn’t remember where I heard it.
After what seemed like an eternity, though it was only a few minutes, I searched for his name, only to discover it was Stinky! He made his appearance in 2008’s movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I remember watching that movie at the cinema, not fully understanding it was a long pilot episode or opening chapter for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show.
Anyway, I’ll move on. It was interesting to see Rotta for a few reasons. Firstly, it is a trope to have a grown-up child being painted with the same brush as their parent, because of the parent’s sins. Having said that, it’s not a trope I get tired of, and growing up to be the scion of a crime syndicate would be awkward and demanding.
I liked his friendship with Grogu, and it was referred to that as a Hutt, Rotta could live for hundreds of years, so he would be the perfect candidate for an adopted father or godfather figure to Grogu, when Din Djarin finally dies, as he is only a human, to the best of my understanding.
Since I have not seen every single Disney Star Wars live-action or animated television episode, I can’t say this for certain, but travelling to Nal Hutta, the self-appointed home world of the Hutts, was something I’ve been waiting to see. The criminal underworld of Star Wars is rife with stories, as there is always a Hutt or two involved in the illegal dealings. I have learned that the Twins, the two Hutts involved in the movie, possibly siblings, have already appeared in previous television shows.
In various media, we have seen Hutts acting as agents of order and chaos. This, of course, leads to Rotta’s physique and fighting style in the arena. His rolling technique was quite impressive, and a smart move for the creative team to use; pun very much intended. As for witnessing a Hutt fight, that was not on my 2026 bingo board, as well as the Hutt ménage à trois, or at least that’s what it looked like. It was dark, and I was wearing 3-D glasses. Still, the Hutts fighting each other was great, and I loved it.
Rotta’s reaction to Djarin’s collaboration with the Hutts was important because it stemmed from Djarin’s response to Ward’s (Sigourney Weaver) suggestion of working with them. Djarin’s hesitance to engage in a partnership with the Hutts forced him to explain his position to Rotta, as neither character approved of the arrangement.
It does pose the interesting question of “Do the ends justify the means?” from a new perspective in the environment. Granted, the New Republic can be compared to the Allies after World War II, and Djarin is a Nazi Hunter, contracted to find war criminals. However, it would be like the Allies using the Mafia to track and hunt Nazis, and then paying them for it. I like the idea of putting characters into morally grey areas, where they need to untangle themselves from a situation that they are not comfortable with.
Continuing with Djarin, and after my rant about his helmet in the preview, I’m glad that Pedro Pascal only lost his helmet for a short amount of time, and not for the remaining part of the movie. It did not transition from a Star Wars movie to a Pascal action movie, which I was relieved about.
As a rule of thumb for aliens and me, the weirder the better, which is one of the reasons I enjoy Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who so much. The creatures in the arena were pretty wild and imaginative, which I enjoyed. And speaking of enjoying things, I thought the Twins’ mismatched droid army was genius. Of course, Hutts would not pay for top-quality droids; they would use whatever droids were cheap and lethal enough. They still have to worry about the bottom dollar, or whatever currency the Hutts prefer.
Today’s blockbusters seem to have a minimum $100 million budget now; whether that is a positive or negative thing, so I’ll let you be the judge of that. Anyway, the film looks great, even with the use of puppets, like the Anzellans. They look awesome, and I have loved the concept of the species, even since Episode IX.
I thought Grogu’s rescue mission was corny, but it was on brand. I mean, Djarin is effectively his dad, so why wouldn’t he try to save him, along with the Anzellans? Their spaceship was hilarious, which, after you think about it, does make sense.
One more thing I want to add is something about Zeb. I realise he was in one of the live-action Star Wars television shows, but I don’t know which one. He didn’t look exactly how he did in Rebels, but bringing an animated character to life isn’t the easiest job in the world to do. The point being, it was good to see him, because Rebels remains a hit in our house. Occasionally, I closed my eyes for a few seconds when Zeb spoke, just so I could focus on Steve Blum’s voice for nostalgic reasons. “Karabast!”
Things I disliked:
Fans of the TV show could answer this, but why does everybody in the New Republic and other places refer to Djarin as Mando or Mandalorian, instead of Din Djarin? Is his name not publicly known? Do soldiers of the New Republic refer to every Mandalorian as Mando? If they met two Mandalorians, would they be referred to as Mando 1 and Mando 2, regardless of gender?
I find this weird because in 2026, would you be ok if people referred to you as the name of your religion, or your race? And then even shorten that name? Like I said, weird. It would be like if people outside of New Zealand called me “Kiwi” or just “Ki,” but never bothered to learn or use my real name.
Continuity errors and issues were something that I wasn’t expecting in a film with a budget of $165 million. I have three, but I could be wrong about these.
The first was when Djarin was thrown into the pit at the Twins’ palace, which was filled with water, aquatic creatures, and a dragonsnake. His helmet was removed, and he was weaponless. The underwater scenes were murky and not 100% clear, so it was difficult to see what was happening.
The point was that Djarin had no weapon in the pit, then, like magic, he had a long war-axe. As I just mentioned, it is possible that Djarin fell into the water and found the weapon, and because of the dirty water, it was difficult for the viewer to see. It’s possible this happened, and because of the low quantity of the water and the speed of the scene, I may have missed Djarin picking the war-axe up. However, if it isn’t the case, then the film crew have stuffed up.
The second issue was on Nevarro, when Embo captured Djarin. It looked like he was stripped of his weapons, so Embo could transport him to Nal Hutta on orders from the Twins. Fast forward a little bit, and Djarin is rescued and saved by Grogu and the Anzellans, though it does take some time.
When Djarin had recovered, he was seen walking into the gunrunner’s ship with his blasters. I was hit with the realisation about where he got the blasters from. To the best of my understanding, Embo took Djarin’s weapons with him on his ship, since we saw them there. So, if that was the case, how did Djarin get the blasters? I suppose it is possible that Grogu and the Anzellans raided Embo’s ship, but how realistic is that?
The third continuity error was about the gunrunner’s ship. Granted, as the viewer, you don’t know how much time has passed since Djrain sent Rotta with the gunrunner on Nevarro, to the time it took to get to Nal Hutta. However, when Djarin and Grogu discover the ship, it looks like it has been there for years, if not decades. The ship was trashed inside and out, but it had only been there for a few days at the most.
Another argument is the lack of action in the movie, or at least, people saying that it’s boring. I do understand this because I believe it’s true. Not boring, but having a lack of high stakes. However, to somewhat defend the project, it was never going to be that sort of film where Djairn and Grogu are trying to save a planet, the Republic, democracy, or the galaxy, from the Empire, Sith or whatever else is threatening to destroy everything.
It was not a macro-story, but rather a micro-story; essentially a story about a guy taking his adopted son to work. The film is lacking in intensity, and the stakes were lower than any other Star Wars film apart from Solo, but I think that’s on purpose. So yes, I disliked the low-stakes concept, but it works for what it was, so I’m ok with that.
I thought Sigourney Weaver would have more of a role in the movie. She was in two scenes at the New Republic’s base, one with the aerial assault and another one back at the base. That was it. This is Ripley herself, one of the original female action and science-fiction heroes, and I feel that her character of Ward was wasted.
I was also hoping to see other Mandalorians in the film, but that was a long shot, and it never happened. This came from the show, and it was on display in the gaping holes in my knowledge of characters and planets. I knew going into the movie that it wasn’t going to play out like an original movie or part of a Star Wars trilogy, since it was based on TV characters. I feel the filmmakers did the best they could to include new fans, as well as catering to the existing fans, but I still couldn’t help myself thinking of all that I was missing.
This involved the names of planets, weapons, and characters, especially characters. Part of the film involved me trying to figure out if characters were from the show or original characters for the film. Was Ward an existing character, for example? Again, I knew it would be like this, but I still felt lost at times.
Having not seen the television show, the film felt like a film and not like extra-long episodes, but there was still the feeling that I was missing things.
So, what about my preview questions?
Will there be an opening crawl, since this is a Star Wars movie? (I know Rogue One and Solo did not have one) Yes, there was an opening introduction, but it wasn’t a crawl.
How much time has passed since the end of the third season? Don’t quote me on this, but I think 1-2 years.
How accessible will the movie be to people who have not seen the television show? It was accessible and easy to follow, but as I mentioned earlier, you do feel like you’re missing out on things.
Are there any remnants of the Empire? That is a hard yes.
Will Grogu’s performance be a mixture of puppetry, animatronics, CGI, or everything? It looked a cross between puppetry and animatronics, but I’m not an expert.
Wasn’t the Razor Crest previously destroyed? Yes, in Season Two. The Razor Crest in the film is another ship that was found, refitted, and given to Din Djarin as an advanced form of payment.
Will Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, or any other major character feature? Apart from Zeb, who was advertised in the film, there was a blink-and-miss-it cameo from R2-D2, the bounty hunter Embo and his anooba, and the Anzellans. There were probably others, but having not seen the live-action television shows, I wouldn’t recognise them.
Is the plot going to drive the story forward, or will it be flat? I’m not sure. Djairn has a new spaceship, which is a replica of his previous one, so I guess there is that.
Will we get to visit any new planets (to me at least) or discover new alien species? Yes, we got to visit Nal Hutta, a new planet that looked like Scarif, Nevarro (new to me), and Shakari. The fighting arena aliens were awesome, along with the Anzellans, the fishing-hut guy, and the Hutts.
Will any bad-arse weapons be involved? Djarin was using a mini-scout walker at the start of the film, plus the phase-pulse rifle, which, to me, is new, that can disintegrate targets. It looked like and worked like a sci-fi shotgun, considering that Djarin had to load and reload it.
Will we meet any force-sensitive characters? If we did, I definitely missed them.
Who will be the main antagonist? I would say the primary antagonists were the Twins, with Commander Coin/Janu acting as a secondary antagonist.
Will the movie work as a movie, or behave like long television episodes? It works as a movie, but as I said earlier, it didn’t totally work.
If the future of Star Wars movies is going to be based on television shows, how will I feel? That’s a difficult question to answer. I believe the future of Star Wars lies in television more than movies, because of the way characters can be fleshed out more. In saying that, movies would be more profitable for the Mouse House, and they are a business. THE business.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but there are more things I like in the movie than I dislike. There are issues with it and the direction Disney is taking the franchise, which we can’t control. I want the creative teams to focus more on story development and take their time, rather than slapping something quickly together for a quick dollar and destroying the fan base.
One thing to point out is that Star Wars fans are passionate, but we can be toxic and negative, which is not always a good thing. Fans cry out to see new things in Star Wars, then complain and compare the projects to the original trilogy. Fans will then also complain of seeing the same old, same old in Star Wars, and complain that Disney won’t try new things. Sometimes you can’t win with people.
The franchise is facing its 50th birthday next year, so it must be difficult for all of the Star Wars creators across all mediums, whether it is movies, television, novels, learn-to-read books, comics, as well as fact books, along with board games and computer games, to keep the old fans happy, but still draw in the next generation. Not very Star Wars fan is a straight, white, 40-year-old, married male, and hopefully the creators are aware of this.
I want to see and read fantastic stories from a galaxy, far, far away, because it can allow our ideas and creativity to soar, which in turn can also be a reflection of us and how we view each other. I love Star Wars, so whether I will ever get to watch Disney + or not, I need Disney to be getting it right, which, as you would agree, is more difficult than buying a workable droid from a bunch of Jawas.
Anyway, as I’ve said this before, don’t trust me, go watch it for yourself, so you can be the judge. Have you seen Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu? As always, please let us know.
That brings this non-award pop culture literature venture to its obvious conclusion. Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please remember the FIFA World Cup and the Supergirl preview/review will be in June, along with my mid-Winter break, which is coming to New Zealand’s 5th least favourite website.
Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, wish a homophobe a Happy Pride month, and I’ll see you next month, where we get to discuss the FIFA World Cup. I know, I’m excited too!
Wow, the last time I did a movie preview was back in July 2025 with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and as I mentioned last week, we have plans to cover movie previews/reviews for Supergirl, The Odyssey, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day as well. The staff will be working overtime.
However, before these three movies have been previewed and reviewed by the most popular blog this side of the street, we have Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu to discuss. It was either this or The Devil Wears Prada 2, and that’s not going to work, now is it?
With Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, I thought I could give you the illusion of being effective and professional, which, of course, is the total opposite. In that vein, I’ll refer to Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu as The Mandalorian and Grogu from now on.
We have not had a Star Wars movie released since 2019, with the release of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker; however, we have had several Star Wars movies announced and then cancelled for one reason or another. Of course, as you are well aware, The Mandalorian and Grogu is not an original story, or continuing a movie trilogy, but rather a continuation of the television show on Disney +, Star Wars: The Mandalorian, or just The Mandalorian.
So, a new Star Wars movie is exciting enough for me to take the plunge and visit the local cinema. As longtime fans know, I try to buy my tickets in advance, so I can get the best seat, because, you know, that’s what hard-core geeks do. Anyway, my ticket is for Tuesday, 25th May at 5.45 pm. Centre of the back row, thank you very much.
Dun dun duuun!
To make sure we are all on the same page, The Mandalorian and Grogu is the cinematic appearances of the characters from The Mandalorian TV show on, and say it with me, Disney +. And to establish another concept, I don’t have Disney +, so just like all of the Marvel TV shows on the channel, I have only seen clips from YouTube of The Mandalorian, and never any entire episode, like every single Star Wars TV show on the channel.
It’s my understanding that The Mandalorian was released in 2019, and has aired for three seasons, or 24 episodes; eight episodes per season. Now, why there has been no Season 4 or why a movie has been based on the same characters, could be connected, or they could be as far away from each other as O. J. Simpson and the truth. Whatever the true origin of the movie and its existence is, it’s here.
Though, to the best of my understanding, the movie is a continuation of the third season, but that could be wrong. What the hell do I know about anything?
As for the cast, it’s been revealed as follows: Din Djarin/The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), Ward (Sigourney Weaver), Janu (Jonny Coyne), Trapper Wolf (Dave Filoni), and Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios (Steve Blum).
These performances are a mix of live action and performance capture/motion capture, along with other characters, because you’re dealing with crazy arse aliens. This also includes Grogu, which, again, to the best of my understanding, is a hybrid of CGI, puppetry, and animatronics. It could make a nice drinking game; every appearance of a CGI character in a new scene, you drink.
The budget for each TV episode worked out to be around US$15 million; however, the movie’s budget was reportedly set at about US$165 million, which could buy you a lot of frozen pizzas and comics. A lot. Disney seems to have very deep pockets, though I don’t know if that’s a positive or negative thing. Still, Episode IX had a US$593.7 million budget in 2019, so who knows?
Will The Mandalorian and Grogu knock it out of the park, will it flop, or will it be somewhere in between? Join me as we preview the latest Star Wars movie.
Toys credited to UMC2. Yes, Din Djarin has no hands.
Am I looking forward to watching The Mandalorian and Grogu?
Like always, it’s a trick question, because if I’ve taken my time to write a preview of a movie, chances are that I’m looking forward to watching it, even as temperatures are dropping across the country, and especially at night. I’ve tried to have a steady diet of Star Wars content since 2019, mainly in the form of comics and novels.
I have discussed this before; not only do I like reading about Star Wars, but I also do not have, and say it all together…“I don’t have Disney +.” So, just to reinforce the point that I have not seen a single episode of The Mandalorian, only memes and clips on YouTube.
I get the general premise of the show, but obviously, not everything. Having not seen Season 3, I have no idea how it ended, because, as I understand it, the movie is set after that season, but I don’t know if it’s the next day, next month, or the next year.
Going into a Star Wars movie has always been an event for me, seriously, I love Star Wars. I also get that Mandalorian lore has been fleshed out over the years, especially with Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, which is only a positive thing.
However, after the sequel trilogy, my faith in Disney handling cinematic Star Wars experiences was shaken. Interestingly enough, I really enjoyed Rogue One, and Solo wasn’t half as bad as people made it out to be. But the sequel trilogy thoroughly disappointed me for various reasons. That being the case, I need to be honest. As much as I am looking forward to the movie, I am equally worried, for three main reasons that can be broken down.
The first reason is the previously mentioned concerns about Disney Star Wars movies. Of course, I’m basing these concerns on the sequel movies, and not on any of the animated or live-action TV shows, since I haven’t seen. None of the sequel trilogy movies would make my top five Star Wars movies. However, as I understand, the Disney live-action Star Wars TV shows are a lot better.
Another reason is the fact that since I have never actually seen the TV show, apart from short videos, I don’t know the characters that well, or even at all in some cases. There are three seasons of stories that I’m missing, so I need the filmmakers to have made the movie accessible to people who have never seen the TV show.
Having not seen the TV show, there is the concern that the movie will feel like an extra-long episode. I need them to drive the plot forward, but that’s difficult not knowing where the characters have started from, where they have been, where the audience left them, and where they are going. I want to travel to a galaxy, far, far away, but not feel guilty for not having enough money to pay for the TV show.
Sorry, I have a mixture of emotions, fighting for attention over this movie, and I’m trying to sort them out. I want this film to work.
What is the movie about?
According to Star Wars.com, the premise is this:
The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu.
What can we expect?
The running time is 132 minutes, compared to the last three Star Wars movies is short: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (141 minutes), Solo: A Star Wars Story (135 minutes), and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (152 minutes).
A budget of US$165 million is a rather large investment, but other films have had less money and achieved great results, but how many have been set a long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away? I want to be transported and escape to that galaxy that I’ve grown up loving.
I want to be blown away by visiting funky planets, cool aliens, wicked spacecraft, and bad-arse weaponry. Granted, I can only imagine the amount of time the actors would have performed in front of a green screen, but I still want the razzle-dazzle.
But here’s a problem: what I expect from The Mandalorian and Grogu will be similar to other people who have never seen the TV show, but different to those who are fans of the TV show. Our experiences and connections to the characters will dictate the outcome. Will I be able to adapt to the story being told to me, or will it feel like I’m playing catch-up?
How much of the story is going to unfold versus be explained to us, purely because the filmmakers might have understood that not everyone would have seen the TV show. To prepare for it, I have watched various WatchMojo videos about the TV show, so whether that will help, I have no idea. I believe the movie is set five or six years after Episode VI, but I’m not confident about that.
This is a roundabout way to say, I’m not sure what to expect because I don’t know Din Djarin, Grogu, and their allies and enemies that well. It would be like if they made an adaptation or continued the story of Cal Kestis and BD-1, from the Star Wars Jedi computer games. I know of them, but I have never played the games, so I would feel lost about the plot that has happened previously.
I do understand that in Mandalorian lore (I think), warriors should not remove their helmets in the presence of other people. How much of that relates to other Mandalorians, I can’t really say; however, I have seen Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) walking around without a helmet. I’ve viewed Pedro Pascal’s performance as Din Djarin from afar and have compared it to the two Judge Dredd movies: Judge Dredd (1995) and Dredd (2012).
This is a weird comparison, but I’ll explain. In the comics, Judge Dredd is (im)famous for never revealing his face. When he is working as a Judge, and when is he never not, Dredd is always drawn wearing a helmet. The helmet covers his upper face, but his lower face, as in his mouth and chin, is exposed.
When the creative team need him to be seen without the helmet, whether he takes it off, puts it on, or if it has been knocked off, Dredd’s face is put into shade or shadow. The idea is that it doesn’t matter what Mega-City One’s top lawman’s face looks like, because justice is supposed to be blind.
In the two movies, there is a small but subtle difference in Sylvester Stallone’s (Judge Dredd) and Karl Urban’s (Dredd) portrayal of Judge Dredd. In Judge Dredd, Stallone does an alright job of convincing people that he is the law. You know it’s Stallone wearing the helmet, because you’re not an idiot, plus, the lower part of his face is exposed; you know who it is.
Stallone is kicking arse until his helmet is removed, and it doesn’t go back on. From this moment on, the film transforms from a Judge Dredd movie to a Stallone movie. He stopped being Judge Dredd and was just Sylvester Stallone, running around without a helmet. It went from a crime-ridden futuristic landscape to just another 90’s Stallone movie. The rumour mill said that Stallone wanted to have the helmet removed, so the audience would recognise him. But like I just mentioned, we’re not idiots. Does that make sense?
Alright, flash forward to 2012’s Dredd, and Urban knew the assignment. Apparently, as the rumour mill went, Urban knew the comics and understood the character, so as a fan and audience member, you discovered this fact in the introduction.
When Urban is putting on his uniform, his face is never exposed to the camera, even when he places the helmet on. I was in Nelson at the time when I saw the movie, and when I saw that the filmmakers had obscured his face, I smiled and thought, “Yes, they get it.” I knew from that moment that we would never see Urban’s face, because the filmmakers were not going to treat us as…say it with me, idiots.
Now, going back to Pascal’s Din Djrain, and I could be wrong about this, but from the clips I have seen, the creative team took the steps to conceal Pascal’s face. People knew what Pascal looked like under the helmet; they didn’t need to be reminded. I did need to look this up, but his helmet was removed in the first season by a droid to receive medical treatment.
In the second season, he removes the helmet to infiltrate an Imperial base with Bill Burr’s character (I’ve seen that), and also says goodbye to Grogu, without a helmet. Now I believe, and I could be wrong about this, that in the third season, he had to atone for breaking the Mandalorian creed for removing his helmet in front of someone.
So, given the fact that someone like me, who has never seen an entire episode, understands that Pascal is Din Djarin, and the filmmakers have established the rule about never removing the helmet, there are scenes in the trailers that have Pascal as helmetless!
How much of the film will Pascal be running about without a helmet like Stallone? Is this due to part of the new audience members who won’t understand who is under the helmet? Is it part of a contract clause by Pascal?
Personally, I want to see Pascal’s Din Djarin be like Urban’s Judge Dredd, and not like Stallone’s. Then again, what the hell do I know?
Do I have concerns?
Of all of the movies that I previewed/reviewed, and let’s be honest, it’s not that many, The Mandalorian and Grogu have been the one that I’m most concerned for. Movies based on television shows, and I’m sure you’ll agree, have either hit the target or missed it; rarely settling in the middle. I am worried about this movie, mainly because it’s so unknown to me, and as a Star Wars fan, it’s an odd feeling. Some of my specific concerns are as follows, and will be answered in the review.
Will there be an opening crawl, since this is a Star Wars movie? (I know Rogue One and Solo did not have one)
How much time has passed since the end of the third season?
How accessible will the movie be to people who have not seen the television show?
Are there any remnants of the Empire?
Will Grogu’s performance be a mixture of puppetry, animatronics, CGI, or everything?
Wasn’t the Razor Crest previously destroyed?
Will Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, or any other major character feature?
Is the plot going to drive the story forward, or will it be flat?
Will we get to visit any new planets (to me at least) or discover new alien species?
Will any bad-arse weapons be involved?
Will we meet any force-sensitive characters?
Who will be the main antagonist?
Will the movie work as a movie, or behave like long television episodes?
If the future of Star Wars movies is going to be based on television shows, how will I feel?
There’s probably going to be more things to think about, but I’ll hopefully cover them in the review. I love Star Wars, so I hope this film works, I really do. Are you planning on watching Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu? As always, please let me know.
Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, get ready for the FIFA World Cup next month, and I’ll see you next week for the Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Review.
Also, I know it sounds boring, and it is, but the New Zealand Government will be announcing its budget for 2026 on Thursday, 28th May, and since it’s an election year, expect a lot of outrage across the media. I love it. Take care, and I’ll see you next week.
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