This is Post 6 of 7. 
8) “WHAT ARE YOU READING/WATCHING?”
On ZOOM at this moment, we’re asking “What are You Reading, or Watching?” Give us your quick book report, or your brief review of a film or TV show you’ve recently enjoyed!
For those not participating in our ZOOM chat, today, you may still contribute by submitting your concise book reports or movie and television-series reviews via this post’s “Leave a Comment” option. We welcome your input.
9) TV AND MOVIE REVIEWS
Or, read on for club vice-president Keith Braithwaite’s thoughts on movies and television series he has recently watched! Have you seen any of these, and do you share his opinions of them? Leave a comment!
Prey
This latest installment of the Predator franchise is distinguished by being the first film released both in English and the Comanche language. Prey could well be interpreted as a metaphor for the violent “settling” of North America by European explorers, but otherwise, it’s pretty much a standard Predator movie with nothing truly fresh to offer the franchise, science fictionally speaking. That said, it is a well-made sci-fi/actioner with a compelling cast of Native American actors led by Amber Midthunder.
Set in 1719 on Comanche territory, the story follows Naru, a young medicine woman who longs to prove herself as a great hunter, like her older brother, Taabe. While tracking a deer one day in the forest, she witnesses the arrival of a “Thunderbird”—in fact, a spaceship transporting a Predator to these hunting grounds—which she takes as a sign of her readiness to join the young men of her tribe on a hunt. Taabe agrees to take her along in pursuit of the mountain lion believed behind a tribe member having gone missing, setting the stage for the hunters’ eventual encounter with the lurking Predator.
Naru’s tracking skills have told her that there is something else out there in addition to the mountain lion, and the build-up to the revelation of the Predator’s presence in the forest is slow, tantalizing, and finally culminates in an explosive and deadly confrontation between the Natives and the lethal creature.
The arrival of a band of French trappers, chasing the Predator, complicates things for Naru and Taabe, who in the end, are the only ones left alive to face the alien threat. There’s a funny moment that sees the Frenchmen, after unloading a volley at the shielded Predator to no effect, pause, wasting valuable seconds in the middle of the fight, in an attempt to reload their flintlocks!
An entertaining couple of hours.
The Umbrella Academy (Season 3)
The diverse characters at the center of this one are the best thing about Netflix’s well-received, time-twisting, apocalyptic superhero series, which just completed its third season. The show is imbued with a wildly eccentric sensibility and sports a terrific ensemble cast. It can be a tad difficult to follow at times, in particular this most recent season, which is chock-full of a lot more than were the previous two. But time-and-space jumping Five, “the Boy”, a favourite character of mine, is usually there to explain it all.
A stand-out this year is hopelessly drug-addled, hedonistic Klaus, who both character and audience learn is immortal. He delivers some of the season’s best lines. Kudos to actor Robert Sheehan, who plays the role with wonderfully gonzo, comic panache.
Knife-wielding Diego and love interest Lila—David Castañeda and Ritu Arya—also have their moments, and favourite Hargreeves son Luther, played by Tom Hopper, gets to fall in love and marry, amid the Kugelblitz’s impending apocalypse. Sloane, his bride, is a member of the Sparrow Academy, a version of the Umbrellas existing in the alternate timeline to which our heroes have travelled.
Yep, there’s a lot to digest, but if you like your bickering, dysfunctional superhero families dark, cynical, and droll, this is the series for you!
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Now this is the kind of superior writing that could have greatly benefitted the final Star Wars trilogy of a few years ago!
While we are in familiar territory, here, we’ve only ever known the broad strokes of this chapter of the Skywalker saga. With Obi-Wan Kenobi, we are made privy to the details of Obi-Wan’s time on Tatooine (and elsewhere) between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
There is very little that I did not enjoy about this Disney+ mini-series. The reunification of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christiansen in their iconic roles takes us right back to the best elements of Star Wars, with top-flight performances by all cast members, and a special nod bestowed upon the marvellous Vivien Lyra Blair as young Leia. Though a nuanced character—which is a good thing, of course—Third Sister is the best new villain the franchise has introduced, probably, since Boba Fett. She and her fellow Inquisitors rock!
Star Wars had, frankly, become rather tired and lacklustre with the final trilogy films, but has since experienced renewed force as a result of recent streamed content like The Mandolarian, The Book of Boba Fett, and now, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Shark Bait
You can’t beat Jaws when it comes to shark movies, and what is beach season without a shark movie? My summer tradition is too watch at least one film involving sharks that I haven’t yet seen, augmented by the documentaries offered on TV during “Shark Week!” This year, my choice of film was the 2022 horror/thriller Shark Bait, starring Holly Earl, Catherine Hannay, Thomas Flynn, Jack Trueman, and Malachi Pullar-Latchman.
While it tries really hard, the quality just isn’t there and in the end, this film bites!
The morning after their last night of partying in Mexico on Spring Break, a group of young friends pilfer a couple of jet-skis and race them out to sea, where their reckless hot-dogging results in a collision that leaves both watercraft damaged, one sinking, and one of the friends injured and bleeding with a broken leg. They all gather together on and around the remaining, inoperative jet-ski, tending to their friend’s injured leg.
There’s blood in the water!
You can easily guess where this is going.
Slowly drifting further out to sea, they must find a way to signal for help, or somehow steer back towards shore. Toss in some relationship drama to help pass the time while bobbing about on the ocean until the requisite man-eating shark arrives to begin picking them off, one by one, and that’s the movie! Utterly, completely predictable. The script offers not a hint of originality—no surprise twist, no clever solution to their predicament, not even any smartly ironic dialogue, nothing that would distinguish this film from the countless others just like it.
The shark attacks are fairly well executed, but the acting, direction, and cinematography not particular noteworthy.
2016’s The Shallows is a better choice if you’re looking for this kind of stranded-offshore-facing-a-killer-shark scenario.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
(This review was first published in Warp, issue 112 (Summer 2022)
Doctor Strange was never a favourite comic book character of mine, but in the hands of Benedict Cumberbatch, the MCU’s Strange is certainly entertaining enough, though perhaps more as a supporting player, or part of an ensemble, as in Infinity War and Endgame.
Anyway, there are now two Doctor Strange films, and this second of the pair centers on a teenaged girl, America Chavez, who is able to travel from dimension to dimension while drawing upon storylines originating in the first Strange movie, and particularly in the WandaVision mini-series. Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch is as engaging, here, as ever.
The film packs in a lot of fan service, too, with the multiverse providing opportunity to cameo alternate-Earth versions of popular MCU characters Peggy Carter, Charles Xavier, Maria Rambeau, and even Black Bolt, he of the short-lived ABC/Marvel series Inhumans. Hayley Atwell, Patrick Stewart, Lashana Lynch, and Anson Mount all appear as these alternate versions of their MCU characters, along with John Krasinski as Reed Richards in a portent, perhaps, of what is to come. Often a collaborator with Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi, none other than genre favourite Bruce Campbell puts in an appearance, as well!
With all this stunt casting, then, the film is a bit gimmicky and probably not for any but die-hard Marvel fans.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
(This review was first published in Warp, issue 112 (Summer 2022)
Every Star Trek sequel (or prequel) series has promised to emulate the original 1966-1969 show, but few if any have successfully done so—some most definitely have not! But it’s fair to say that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is as close to the spirit, at least, of the original as is possible in our contemporary television environment. Among the snazzier sets and special effects of this modern take on the old, familiar concept, there are enough call-backs, and in general, welcome similarities to the original to elicit a smile from an old Trekker.
Strange New Worlds, first of all, is, essentially, episodic, eschewing the grand, season-long, often tedious story arcs of many of the other Trek shows. That, alone, hews closer to the original than we’ve seen in a long time.
Further, there are no puerile Neelix- or Quark-like plotlines, or any such silliness, and fans are able to enjoy the expanded stories of compelling characters like Number One and Nurse Chapel, who never really got the chance to step forward much in the original show. I like the interplay between Spock and Chapel, here, with a playful Chapel’s subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, longing for something more with Spock, despite her understanding that such a relationship is, at best, unlikely. T’Pring, too, gets to shine a lot more than she did during her brief foray in the original’s “Amok Time.” And, there are interesting new characters aboard ship for us to get to know, and a couple of unexpected turns along the way.
I also like what the writers are doing with the Gorn, even though a little derivative of Alien, and, without giving anything away, this premiere season’s closing episode is among Trek’s best ever, revisiting and expanding upon an original-series classic!
Strange New Worlds isn’t perfect, but it’s the best Star Trek we’ve seen since Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon!