2024 Cinema trips - all the 'quels

It was a case of all the "quels" in 2024. I saw sequels, a prequel and an interquel. In fact, five of the seven films I saw in the cinema were "quels", and the other two were adaptations of books. Here's what I watched on the big screen:

Dune Part 2 - sequel (although they split the source material in two for the movies so this was a continuation sequel rather than a second story in a franchise). Full review here. 

Inside Out 2 - sequel. I really liked the first Inside Out film, which took a complex concept and explored it in a very accessible way. The sequel continued the story of Riley and her emotions, which have multiplied as Riley grows up. This is probably one of the best depictions and explanations of how anxiety is a protection mechanism that can go into overdrive and become harmful. 

Besides Anxiety, the other new emotions include, Embarrassment, Envy, Ennui and, my favourite, Nostalgia, who pops in and is promptly dismissed for being too soon. Although I think I felt nostalgia as a teenager - certainly I found myself looking back to things I had done a few years previously and having a new appreciation for them. Nowadays I agree strongly with Douglas Coupland's comment that "nostalgia is a weapon" and I know it gets weaponised against me. That's why I end up with things like an A Team van made by Playmobil...

The film has a happy ending for Riley and her friends as they navigate the emotions around changing schools, establishing new friendship groups and playing ice hockey. I like the mix of joy and anger that fuels Riley's in-game activity. There's a good explanation about how our beliefs about the world and about ourselves shape our lives - another deep topic that I felt the film-makers summarised well. 

Harold and the Purple Crayon - the film version of a popular kid's book. So, not totally original but technically not a 'quel. Full review here. 

Alien Romulus - an 'interquel' that was apparently set between Alien and Aliens, the first two films in the franchise. Not the greatest movie in the Alien franchise but I enjoyed it. Full review here. 

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! - a "legacy sequel" released decades after the first film. Full review here. 

Transformers One - a prequel of sorts. I'm not sure where in the Transformers franchise this animated film fits, but it was expanding on the in-universe lore and would act as a prequel to just about any other Transformers movie. 

It's the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and why they became bitter enemies. I thought it was very well done despite leaning hard on some over-used tropes - the people in charge don't have our best interests at heart; best friends become implacable enemies; there is a quest for a lost artifact that can save civilisation. 

However, within those well known story arcs, the script was lean, the film was fast-paced with several action sequences that all served the purposes of the plot, and there was plenty of humour in the dialogue and situations but it never got silly. It felt like a grown up kid-friendly cartoon. It also added some depth to other long-established characters, even those with limited screentime like Starscream, who in this was more than just a whining minion of Megatron. 

The Wild Robot - another film based on a book. I watched this with Cathy on her birthday in a cinema that was experiencing temperature issues. It was freezing. At one point in the story an ice storm hits - at that point it felt like we were in a 4D film experience. 

The basic plot was of a robot booting up on a remote island and looking for tasks to carry out. Being a robot it works out how to communicate with animals and gradually develops its self-awareness to become the protector of the wild creatures. This includes teaching an orphaned gosling to fly - which I found was a surprisingly moving storyline. 

The third act of the movie dragged a bit. The most intriguing part was seeing the wider world, with humans living in large hi-tech habitats, with hydroponic farms, hovering over the drowned ruins of cities (San Francisco to be precise). It's a world after the climate apocalypse and the survivors seem to be doing OK with an army of robot servants undertaking menial tasks. Somehow, that felt like the most unrealistic part of the film compared to a robot learning how to talk to a gosling and teach it to fly before its fellow geese migrated and left it behind. 

Looking ahead to 2025, I'm sure there are more 'quels to come. I have set myself a challenge to try and watch more original films next year. 

Halloween movie review - Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

Hey, remember when I posed with this guy?

Well, I finally got round to seeing his new film. I went this week with Bryan and Elaine. Considering the film was released in early September I was surprised how many other people were watching it too - but then it was half term week in the run up to Halloween. The further mystery is why the studio didn't wait to release this as a big Halloween release, considering it's set at Halloween and is a ghost story (of sorts).

Mild spoilers follow...

This is a sequel that rides the current trend of very late sequels, arriving 36 years after the original movie. Alongside Michael Keaton as the titular Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara both revive their roles as Lydia and Delia. We get a throwaway line explaining why Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin's characters aren't around and Jeffrey Jones's character, Charles, appears in an animated segment and is sort of in it thereafter but in a way they didn't need to use the actor.

I was a fan of Tim Burton's movies for a long time but lost a bit of faith in him as a director more recently. This felt like a return to form - as if someone had said to him 'Hey, Tim, go and make a Tim Burton movie!' And he definitely maxed out the trademark black humour and silly gore. The writers must have had fun imagining as many different gruesome deaths for the residents in the afterlife. I particularly chuckled at the escapologist who was still chained inside his box that was full of water. 

It's a short, fast-paced film with a lot going on. Lydia is now a TV ghost whisperer. Her stepmother Delia is a successful artist. After Charles dies, the pair travel back to the 'ghost house' where they first met Beetlejuice for a memorial service. Lydia's daughter. Astrid (played by Jenna Ortega) is with them. She definitely doesn't believe in ghosts and thinks her mother is a fraud. She changes her mind during the course of the film.

Because there is a lot going on, some storylines feel rushed and unnecessary. Monica Bellucci is frankly wasted as Beetlejuice's angry ex-wife seeking to kill him for good. Willem Defoe as a dead actor who thinks he's a cop steals the scenes he is in, but it's also an aspect of the story that gets squeezed. Meanwhile there are some scenes that are overplayed - while I like any scenes featuring trains in movies, the "Soul Train" dance sequence could have been cut despite the energy it brought to the perilous journey into the underworld for the mortal characters. 

After a great dance number during the wedding scene, with the characters bewitched to sing along to MacArthur Park (with the wedding cake dissolving as they sing about a cake left out in the rain), the film ends with the characters suffering a variety of fates - some pleasant, some not so. There is a mixed bag of happy ever afters for the main characters, again playing to Tim Burton's strength of not ending a character's storyline conventionally. One happy ending turns into a horrible nightmare and then the credits roll.

As very belated sequels go, this was great fun. I laughed a lot, winced at some gory bits, laughed again, enjoyed the spectacle of the musical sequences, and overall thought it was great. It extended the Beetlejuice story without just rehashing the original film and was well worth seeing on its own merits too. 

Monthly round up - August 2024

August was another busy month. (They are all busy months!) Although most of the world was on holiday, I was working throughout. However my work included an afternoon in an 'Escape Room' - the first time I'd ever been to one. The good news is I escaped, along with my team of young people who are part of the programme I work on. 

I've blogged some of the really big highlights of the month already - like seeing Billy Joel at the Principality Stadium, and a trip to Huddersfield to watch a football match. And I've also blogged about cinema trips to see two wildly different films: Harold and the Purple Crayon and Alien: Romulus. But there have been plenty of things I haven't blogged about yet. On one of the cinema trips I met Beetlejuice!

I was very pleased to make it to the Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick this month. It was on a sunny Saturday morning. I collected a couple of bags of trash, but nothing particularly interesting. The following morning the Cardiff Rivers Group were holding another litter pick - this time at Grangemoor Park near our house. So I went to that too. I set a new record for a plastic water bottle retrieved from a hedge - an 18.5 litre job that looked like it had come off a water cooler!

Cathy and I did something slightly out of the usual in the middle of the month. We were witnesses at a wedding. Neither of us had been wedding witnesses before. It was for a couple who wanted to surprise all their friends and family and put an appeal out on Reddit for witnesses. As the registry office is now very conveniently close to our house I offered our services and they picked us to be there. It took about 45 minutes in total (including travel to the registry office and back) and it was really lovely to be able to help them get hitched. 

Besides meeting strangers from the internet, we have been fortunate to meet up with quite a few friends and family during the month. We met Steve and Mary in Chepstow one weekend.

And Connor was in town so I was able to hang out with him down the Bay one evening. 

And we met our friends the Woottens in Thompson Park. Here's Anna as Queen of the Stump!

Football-wise, I went to 9 matches. There were two new grounds, the aforementioned Huddersfield and a more local team, Undy Athletic. I went with Steve to Undy to watch them play Caldicot Town. Our friend Ben was playing for Caldicot and we got a selfie with him after the game. He's grinning because they won 3-1. 

Here's my running total on Futbology for the season so far. The very first game of the season, Barry's 9-0 drubbing in a friendly, is still the highest scoreline of the season. It's likely to stay that way!