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It reminded me of that interview with Emilia Clarke in which she's joking about the reception that Sansa and Arya give her at Winterfell: "And so I need to be like: 'Can I braid your hair, Sansa? Little Arya, come over here, let's play some cricket.' So there's that. And then, very, very quickly, it's like: 'Wait, is it just me, or do they hate me?'" This wouldn't be the first time Sansa's hair has been used to demonstrate her alliances, as she's adopted the hairstyles of Catlyn, Cersei and Margaery throughout different points of the show. So maybe at some point we'll see her with Dany's braids? (Okay, it's a reach, but I found it interesting that both actresses casually drop the subject of hair-braiding into their interviews).

That was a fun moment. She needed a ride, and he was being a dick. Nothing to start clutching pearls over. Edit: I mean, in "Civil War" Bucky runs up to a random guy and steals his bike right out from under him so he can escape the authorities. It's not like this is the first time one of our heroes has done this.

Max/Eleven friendship! That was at the top of my wish list!

I'm living in Christchurch, New Zealand, and as I'm sure you're all aware, there was a terrorist attack on Friday, in which a white supremacist attacked two mosques in the city, killing fifty people. My friend and I had plans to go and see Captain Marvel that weekend, and after some discussion, decided we would go ahead and see it on Sunday as we'd originally intended. All things considered, it was a good decision. It took our minds (albeit temporarily) off the dark pall over the city, and though I'll probably always subconsciously equate Captain Marvel with this terrible weekend, there was something uplifting in watching a story that was fundamentally about people seeing each other for who they truly were and changing one's prejudices to fit new realities. I loved Carol's horror that she had been on the wrong side of the war, the obvious strength of the bond between Carol, Maria and Wendy, the entirety of Talos's storyline (I pegged pretty quickly that the Kree were bad guys, but wasn't too sure about him till the actual reveal), and Carol refusing to engage with Yon-Rogg in his attempts to shift the goal-posts, dictate the playing field and drag her down to his level. There is SO MUCH POWER in simply not giving a f*ck. So yeah. The world feels pretty shitty right now, (and what happened here in Christchurch has made all the ridiculous drama surrounding the release of the film even MORE stupid and pointless), but we gotta be like Carol, and get back up on our feet again. One another thing: having seen this movie I ended up googling the comic version of the character and learning about Kamala Khan for the first time. Holy shit, what a revelation. These movies matter, and we NEED Kamala Khan on the big-screen ASAP.

The Sound of Music: "Reverend Mother, I have sinned." "I too have sinned." "What is this sin my children?" *side-eye* *pull out car parts from behind their backs* That we hear the sound of the Nazi cars hopelessly stalling outside the convent throughout this entire conversation is what makes it so damn funny and satisfying.

I was surprised that this opened so late in America, as here in New Zealand it's been out since the first week of January! We're usually waiting for weeks or even months to get stuff from overseas (thank God for streaming services) so it was a pleasant surprise to see it so soon. It's a good movie, even a great one at times, but towards the end I felt a little manipulated. Here's the thing: when you spend two movies, two television series and a handful of short films based on one single, hopeful premise: that Vikings and dragons can live together in harmony, it's more than a little bit jarring for said Vikings to suddenly go: "nope, this can't work, we gotta send our dragons away for their own safety." It was such a U-turn from everything the franchise has told us thus far, and I suspect it was because Dean DeBlois knew this was the final movie and so wanted to get an emotional reaction from the audience by separating Hiccup and Toothless. It COULD have been pulled off, but they simply didn't lay the narrative groundwork. The villain was defeated, they had found an isolated island from which to form their defenses, and (like I said earlier) Berk had already spent YEARS working towards the goal of inter-species harmony with pretty impressive results. It was forcing characters and storylines towards a specific goal without justifying it properly - at least that's my opinion, obviously others may differ. The stuff I loved was the visuals (especially the Hidden World), the relationship between Astrid/Hiccup, and the underlying theme of growing up that runs throughout all three movies: specifically how the most important people in our lives change as we grow up, from parents (Stoick) to friends (Toothless) to spouses/children (Astrid). You can see the way Hiccup grows through his relationships with others, and the scene in which he and Astrid introduce their children to Toothless was a slam-dunk. Beautifully done (though again, this would have been just as poignant and joyful and "full circle" without a contrived ten year separation).

The reporters at i09 were given BTS access to Galaxy's Edge (the new Star Wars portion of Disneyland in California) and - WOW. Their write-up is incredible.

You know, I've always been aware that Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac were attractive, but this is the first time I've seen them all together and been: "DAMN those are beautiful people." (Which is saying something since you can't even see Daisy's face. And if these characters are an indication of what JJ's priorities are in Episode 9, then I'll tentatively start looking forward to it.

I'm not sure what the point of this movie, which has already chosen "BO PEEP IS BACK" as one of their taglines, would be if this was not the same Bo Peep. (So to answer the question, I'm 99.9% sure it's the same one we last saw in 1999. Damn, I can't believe it's been that long).

Well, as someone who felt the first Frozen was overrated, I thought that teaser was amazing! I have no idea what the plot might be, and yet it felt epic and eerie and beautiful (all those autumnal colours). These days trailers can be mini-versions of the entire movie, so it's nice to have some actual ambiguity for a change.

Saw it last night and there are worse ways to end the year. Ultimately I'd say it's parts were worth more than the whole (or however that saying goes). The plot and characters were hopelessly predictable, and yet the little moments made me smile. I liked that Arthur wins the day by communicating and being humble, I liked his ending voiceover that his parents "saved the world with their love", I loved that he spoke to various people in their native language, that he ate the rose Mera offered him instead of laughing at her - even the selfie montage when he went from grumpy to drunkenly happy with the guys in the bar. Mera was also a surprise - granted, she's not in Wonder Woman's league, but do you know how incredible it is that a superhero's love interest got through an entire film without being taken hostage? Or that Arthur ends the movie with TWO living parents?? I admire the movie simply because they did away with those two horrible, tired tropes. No one outside of New Zealand will get this, but the biggest laugh came when Temura Morrison offered to make Nicole Kidman some eggs. Jake the Muss has come a long way... It was also great eye-candy, from grown men riding giant sea-horses, to Mera's jellyfish dress. A jellyfish dress!! The villains were pretty boring unfortunately, and though they tried to give them personal and/or reasonable motivations, I am SO DONE feeling sorry for a**holes because of tragic backstories. Orm and Manta can go join Kylo Ren and Loki in the "get over yourself" room. One thing bugged me though, and it was the same thing that happened in "How To Train Your Dragon 2": the hero (Hiccup and Arthur) spend the WHOLE MOVIE saying they don't want to be chief/king, and...they've kinda got a point. Neither one of them really suits the role of king in personality and temperament. But you know who would? The capable, responsible, intelligent, eager woman standing RIGHT THERE next to him. But nope, the dude gets a crazy superpower (magic trident, domination over dragons) and takes on the job he never really wanted in the first place. Okay, so there was no way this movie was going to end with Mera becoming king given the comic books - but I'm still annoyed Dreamworks didn't make Astrid chief instead of Hiccup (Pixar would have done it).

I also noticed that Jasmine's famous turquoise two-piece is no more, and her midriff is covered. *shrugs* I don't see the big deal, what works in animation isn't always the case in live action. I'll probably wait until DVD for this one, but Jasmine is my favourite Disney princess so I'm interested to see what they'll do with her (and this new handmaiden character).

The Force Awakens: It leaned a bit too much on nostalgia in several respects, and (as has been mentioned above) the political landscape wasn't build up very clearly or coherently (when episode 9 comes out, I'm certain that I'll look back on this sequel trilogy and say its biggest weakness was retreading the Resistance=underdogs, First Order=powerful oppressors setup, instead of making the New Republic the powerful but vulnerable default, and the First Order little more than a terrorist faction, albeit one that can cause incredible damage). But the new characters were instantly loveable and intriguing, the legacy characters were exactly as I imagined they would be, and there were some fantastic set-pieces along the way (Kylo and Rey fighting in the snowy forest is possibly my favourite Star Wars battle ever). Rogue One: A great change of pace and a "war story" that shone a light on those who were struggling through the mud instead of playing space-wizards with magical swords and familial legacies and operatic destinies. Unfortunately, the characterization was a bit weak (Jyn and Cassian didn't resonate with me until literally a few minutes before their deaths) but as others have said, the second half of the film more than makes up for the weak first half. And I can't complain that we got a second female SW protagonist in as many years. The Last Jedi: Rian Johnson wanted to deconstruct the tropes, themes and expectations of Star Wars. I understand that, and I can even respect that - but at the end of the day, I simply didn't want that. Maybe this is some weird form of reverse-snobbery, but I was looking forward to a straightforward good-versus-evil story that didn't play out like a long train of GOTCHA! moments (Rey's parents are nobodies - GOTCHA! Luke is a cynical old hermit who throws his lightsaber away - GOTCHA! Poe should have trusted Admiral Holdo - GOTCHA! Finn shouldn't have trusted DJ - GOTCHA! Snoke is irrelevant - GOTCHA! Kylo Ren doesn't want to be redeemed - GOTCHA! Okay, I GET IT. Can you just tell me the story now and stop trying to catch me off-guard?) Not only were most of these twists not even remotely surprisingly, but characters felt like they were being punished for acting like Star Wars characters (Rey, you were stupid for thinking you could redeem someone from the Dark Side, Poe, you were stupid for not following the chain of command, and Finn, you were stupid for trusting a roguish cad; how DARE all three of you try to emulate your heroes!) Again, I GET this this was a deconstruction of what we usually expect from Star Wars movies (anyone can earn redemption, it's good to flaunt authority, feel free to trust the dodgy-looking guy who insists he's only out for himself) but to me it all felt too manufactured for shock value. There was stuff I genuinely liked, such as the removal of Snoke and Kylo Ren coming out worse than when he started, and other things I'm neutral on (I wasn't mortally offended by Luke's characterization as many others were) but I've always been more invested in the heroes rather than the villains of this franchise, and felt that they were shortchanged here. The movie just wasn't what I wanted, though I accept that's MY problem, and not Johnson's (that there are six hour YouTube videos whining about this movie just makes me cringe, not to mention all the backlash the cast and crew had to endure). Solo: It was a fun heist movie, but there's not really much more to say about it. Like Rogue One, I appreciated the glimpse of non-Jedi characters just trying to survive under the Empire's grip (though in this case it was the criminal underworld rather than the rebel alliance) but despite all the many, many call-backs and in-jokes, I was never quite able to connect the young version of Han with his older self. To me, this was just a story that happened to be set in the Star Wars universe, rather than a prequel concerning the early years of a fan favourite. Star Wars Rebels: I'm throwing this in because I binged watched all of it this year, and I'd go so far to say that it's the best story of the lot of them (involving the best love story of the franchise). Television shows have lower budgets, but they also have a lot more room to explore storylines and character development, and despite my complete lack of interest in protagonist Ezra (another plucky and semi-obnoxious orphan with power in the Force) I loved the rest of the crew, especially Hera and Kanan. The latter's fate is right up there with Luke learning about his father and Han getting frozen in carbonite as a Big Emotional Quintessential Star Wars Moment, and it also takes the time to really explore the mysticism of the Force and make meaningful links to the original trilogy (at one point Ezra is in a place that echoes with voices from past, present and future, and it gave me CHILLS).

Anyone else seen this? Though to be honest, we can't be 100% sure who or what Kylo Ren is (in the characterization sense) until the last movie comes out. For instance, JJ may have deliberately gone for the above interpretation, though I think the character was born more out of a brainstorming session that ended with: "well we can't top Darth Vader, so let's lean into that by making the next villain a Vader wannabe," than something as self-aware of its audience as the above comic (which would require a certain degree of clairvoyance as to how fandom would react). And Rian Johnson may have played up on some sympathetic traits in Kylo, though in hindsight I feel it had less to do with a genuine interest in Kylo's psychology, and more to do with misdirecting the audience so he could pull off his GOTCHA! moment when Kylo rejects Rey's olive branch. (And I don't think Rian entirely ignored the "Kylo is an alt-right, MRA, incel, internet troll" take on the character, since after all the franchise's talk on how people are TEMPTED and SEDUCED by the Dark Side, when his big moment to lure Rey over to his way of thinking finally comes, the best he can do is neg her. NEG HER. I have mixed feelings about the entirety of The Last Jedi, but that moment was hilariously f**king perfect. Love him or hate him (or love to hate him) the fact that he's garnering this much discussion means that SOMETHING went right. It's not like you can say he's boring.

Agreed. I think he's a great villain BECAUSE he's a spoiled child. He embodies the banality of evil in a way that no other villain has in recent years, and if Disney is somehow doing this all accidentally then colour me baffled. That said, I refuse to analyse an off-handed comment too much. It doesn't even make clear who said "no" to the joke in the first place.

Yeah, I got that from the Vanity Fair article. But it should have been made clear in the actual show. Come to think of it - how did Anna's bicycle get in the gross pond at the farm?

I'm chiming in long after everyone else has left, but I finished this last night and have some thoughts. I haven't read this entire thread, but most people seemed to have the same reaction as me: patiently waiting through the dense, stifled, "something is rotten in the town of Wind Gap" atmosphere and grim portrayal of a broken woman by Amy Adams (which for the record, were excellent) only for the slow-burning psychological drama to end with a rather lame GOTCHA! line, with no sense of closure at all. And hilariously, I was so tired that I didn't stop to watch the ending credits, which I usually ALWAYS do, and which in this case would have added just a little more clarity to the murders. I wouldn't have even known about them had I not read this board. So last night I decided that I would simply pretend the story ended with the relatively upbeat montage of Amma and Camille rebuilding their lives together: the scene in which they see Jackie come to visit Adora would have been a perfect final scene. I had Adora pegged as the killer of Anna/Natalie because she was projecting her hatred of Camille onto other "wild, unruly girls" that reminded her of "the daughter that got away", who needed to be punished. There was that odd moment in one of the early episodes in which Adora describes the story about Natalie (how she cut off her own hair in order to avoid hair curlers, as told to Camille by her father) only she switched out Natalie for Camille. Camille reacted to it with confusion, but didn't follow up, something that seemed like a clue as to Adora's motivation. That it was Amma all along came the heck out of nowhere, though I concede there were some clues along the way and I have warmed a little to the idea of Amma as the killer. That said, it was NOT okay that I had to read a linked Vanity Fair article in order to understand some of the finer details. I was baffled at the fact that Natalie had been killed in Ashley's carriage house. The heck? How on earth did Amma and Natalie have access to that? I was equally weirded out by the fact Amma's conversation with Natalie's brother happened at the pool of Ashley's house: she clearly wasn't friends with Ashley, so what was she doing there? It was VF that pointed out that (in the book) Ashley was the older sister of one of Amma's friends that helped with the killing - something that was definitely not spelt out in the show, and was a HUGE detail that needed clarification. Also, a part of me wishes that if they were going to go this route, they would at least have had Camille figure it out BEFORE another innocent girl was killed. How much trauma (dead sister, gang rape, body cutting, psychotic mother/sister) can you heap on one person? Ah well. I probably won't watch it again, but it was appropriately creepy and atmospheric while it lasted. Yeesh. This reads like something Adora would write in her prison journal.

I just finished binge watching this, and I loved it. All the characters seemed so real, and though I JUST missed out on social media being a real big thing during high school (we had cell-phones/texing but not much else) there was so much here that brought back memories of that time. Most of all, just how serious everything felt, when in reality it's just a passing moment in time. It also got particularly dark at times, not just in Dylan's arrest and despair at life, but the little things in hindsight. Like, I'm pretty sure that the coach knew all along that he was the target and Christa was the culprit, but his demeanour when the boys come into his office (with the phone in their shirt pocket) is so demonstrative about how confident he felt - in his colleagues, in his position - that nothing would ever come of it.

Heh - that hashtag was EXACTLY what I thought the moment Carol's insignia popped up in the final seconds of Infinity War's stinger.

It's just occurred to me: I was a little perturbed by the amount of new actors joining the cast for episode nine (it feels like they're already juggling SO MANY characters that we don't need any new ones), but now I wonder: could Dominic Monaghan, Matt Smith and Keri Russell be playing Knights of Ren? These guys were oddly absence from TLJ given their apparent importance to Kylo (and the fact they helped him slaughter the students in Luke's school), and it'll be weird if they're never seen or mentioned at all in 9. I recall that one of the earliest rumours about TLJ was that they'd accompany Kylo to Luke's island and fight with Luke/Rey - this obviously turned out to be false, but it sure sounded cool. And it feels like they SHOULD be important considering they turned up in Rey's vision in TFA. (I've skipped Richard E. Grant as he seems a bit too old, and Naomi Ackie is apparently Also, having watched that Resistance trailer - I'm looking forward to it, though I hope Jacen Syndulla will be incorporated somehow, especially considering his mother's love of flying/links to the Rebellion. It would seem like a catastrophic waste if he didn't appear at some point.

This might be old news to some, but has anyone else seen this trailer for the Old Republic game? Please don't let this kick-off another round of The Last Jedi arguments, but... damn, that was incredible. I feel more pity, horror and (most importantly) understanding of this girl in six minutes than two movies worth of Kylo Ren.

I haven't read X-Men comics in years, but I was always a huge Gambit/Rogue shipper as a kid, so those panels made my day! What a nice surprise. I certainly hope they won't, but newbies might well complain that she's a Mary Sue given her power levels ("Mary Sue" seems to be the usual refrain; see Rey from Star Wars). Hopefully Carol's precedence in comics will protect her, as it did with Wonder Woman.

No, of course not! If people like the remake, then I'm happy for them. At the end of the day, it's just a movie.

I would usually agree with you (especially regarding The Last Jedi - I didn't like it either, but jeez, that some people have YouTube vids longer than the actual movie to complain about it just blows my mind) but I knew Lindsay is a huge fan of the original animated version and I was interested in her take on the remake. And I feel the same way she did on just about everything, especially on two points: 1) the completely unnecessary "plot-hole filling", which only managed to raise MORE questions. Like, apparently the servants were cursed along with the Beast because they didn't do anything to prevent the Beast from growing spoiled and selfish after his parents died. Wait... so Chip, an actual child, is being held responsible for the behaviour of a prince he probably never interacted with in his life? The DOG is being held responsible for that? Ugh. It's so dumb. Seriously, I don't NEED to know the motivations of the Enchantress. Maybe she was evil. Maybe she was a fey and just didn't care about the servants. Maybe the servants were considered the property of their master. Maybe the spell had a built-in clause that included the entirety of the castle whether she meant it to or not. Heck, in the animated movie, we don't even get told the Beast's NAME. The whole thing is a masterclass of telling the audience ONLY what they need to know and letting them fill in the blanks with their own imaginations. But god forbid anyone do that these days. Now every tiny itsy-bitsy insignificant thing has to be explained or else it's a "plot-hole". 2) and the unfortunate changes to the Beast's personality that made him a jerk. The animated Beast was a spoiled brat who becomes a genuinely frightening Beast - that's where the transformation arc gets it's power (and why this version is so much more memorable than older versions in which the Beast is actually quite genteel and charming). But there are moments in the animated version that are SO IMPORTANT to the audience's perception of him, starting from his astonished: "you would take his place?" to Belle after she offers herself in place of her father (he's never encountered this level of selflessness before), to his ashamed reaction to her sobbing about how she didn't get to say goodbye (so he CAN feel remorse), to his devastated body language when he realises just how badly he Fucked Up after scaring Belle in the West Wing. As Lindsay points out, the live action cut all this out. It just completely skipped over all the extremely important nuance that clued the audience into the Beast's inner thoughts and feelings. Instead we get to see him negging her about her favourite book. TL;DR: I'm with Lindsay: "Thanks, I hate it."

That the first official image of Episode IX is John Boyega is heartening to me. In a discussion with friends a couple of months ago over what we wanted from the last movie, I whittled it down to: 1) a Billy Dee Williams cameo and 2) for Rey and Finn to be reinstated as the leads. So far so good.