There's a lot of optimism (wishful thinking?) in Just Westerns':
"...preview of 40 new upcoming Western films and TV shows heading are way in 2026 and beyond, including Young Guns 3, Lonesome Dove remake, Blood Meridian, A Fistful Of Dollars remake, Horizon: Chapter 2, The Dark Tower TV Show, Butch & Sundance, Flint, The Magnificent Seven TV Show, Wind River2 and many more, as well as new Westerns starring Tim Blake Nelson, Kevin Costner, Scott Eastwood, Kiefer Sutherland, Wes Studi, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Pine."
For my personal tastes there are a few too many "neo-Westerns" here (although I love Yellowstone... and there's an abundance of Yellowstone-adjacent projects on this list) and, maybe, not enough classic, period Westerns.
I'm not going to bury the lede here: this latest comic book adventure for The Rocketeer features a young Tintin and a surly Popeye. The former revelation sold me on the comic without knowing anything more, while the latter was just the cherry on the cake.
Set in 1938, The Rocketeer: The Island #1 sees Cliff Secord hired by a shady government operative to lead a hunt for the lost aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who may - or may not - have been spying on the pre-war Japanese military build-up.
Tintin & Snowy
Cliff, his buddy Goose and mechanic Peevy, end up on a boat heading towards the Caroline Islands in The Pacific, under the stewardship of Captain "Popeye" Segar, along with the team's researcher Justin 'Tintin' Martin, his pet dog Snowy, archaeologist Alexandra Payne, Cliff's estranged former girlfriend Betty and her new beau Marco.
I'll admit, at this stage, I'm not 100 per cent sure how Betty and Marco ended up on Popeye's ship as well, but I'm also not that bothered as the pulp adventure is already in full swing.
After the set-up and cast introductions, the balance of the comic is the nautical journey.
This eventually guides the ship into a tropical storm that takes out the communications and damages the attached seaplane meant to transport those in the party without ready access to a rocketpack.
Tintin has already confided in Secord a story he's heard of an "uncharted island untouched by time... filled with prehistoric wonders and beasts so bizarre they boggle the imagination." But Cliff isn't buying any of it.
As they approach the area where Earhart is thought to have vanished, Secord dons his iconic flying gear and jets off to scope out what's ahead.
Maybe Tintin's story wasn't that fanciful after all?
"I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam,"
Based on an unused story idea from The Rocketeer's late creator Dave Stevens, The Rocketeer: The Island just oozes pulp sensibilities from every page, with its comic character cameos and very strong suggestion that they're heading to The Skull Island, just ramping up the nostalgic excitement.
Kudos to writer John Layman for his intelligent handling of these characters that he clearly has a lot of affection for, while Jacob Edgars' delightful, cartoonish art style also accentuates the devil-may-care ambience that pervades this comic book.
I don't think we'll be getting anything particularly deep here, instead The Island miniseries looks like it's going to be old school fun, fun, fun for its entire three-issue run.
There's also a strong suggestion that King Kong himself will also appear!
It's almost as though this comic book was being written just for me.
After I was pleasantly surprised by the general enjoyability of In The Name Of The King - A Dungeon Siege Tale, I thought I'd brave another of Uwe Boll's infamous video game adaptations to see if I could scrape up some more morsels for recycling into Dungeons & Dragons inspiration.
I went for BloodRayne as it featured vampires, swords and the mega-hotness of Kristanna 'Terminator 3' Loken in the lead role.
Some films are renowned for being 'so bad' they are 'good' - BloodRayne isn't one of them.
Loken is Rayne, a half-human/half-vampire sired by Ben Kingsley's Kagan, lord of all vampires.
Escaping from the circus that was somehow holding her as a performing freak, she is tracked down by a band of vampire hunters - Vladimir (Michael Madsen), Sebastian (Matt Davis) and Katarin (Michelle Rodriguez).
Despite being members of a vampire hunting order called The Brimstone Society (in fact Vlaidmir might be the leader, it's never really made clear), they team up with Rayne and go looking for some payback against Kagan.
There are some powerful vampire relics thrown in as a scavenger hunt (although why the humans holding them didn't just destroy them is, again, never explained) and a slightly-confusing sub-plot with rebellious vampire Billy Zane, who also happens to be Katarin's father (I think).
Zane only appears in two scenes, but they are certainly the funniest - and not just because of the awful wig he is wearing.
Meanwhile Rayne is training with the Brimstone Society in their top secret island lair and has a random sex moment with Sebastian - who seems as shocked as the audience, as none of us had seen that coming.
All this nonsense is supposedly taking place in 18th Century Romania, but it could be Greyhawk, Ravenloft or countless other pseudo-medieval Dungeons & Dragons realms for all the verisimilitude or attention to detail.
The plot stumbles towards a final confrontation between father and daughter, in which we quickly realise that a lot of the brouhaha around the relics was just a red herring and finally Loken shows us some half-decent fight moves (having looked rather uncomfortable up until this point).
Lifeless fight sequences, uninspired performances and a confusing - possibly incomplete - storyline, can be blamed on the director.
However, Mr Boll can't be blamed for everything: Guinevere Turner's script has more info dumps of exposition than actual dialogue, for instance. When actual dialogue is allowed to sneak in - barring Billy Zane's couple of deadpan comedy zingers - it is of the lowest calibre, not helped by the top-flight stars delivering their lines in varying degrees of mumbling or monotone.
The only role-playing game moment that is possibly salvageable from all this is the near-Total Party Kill the script delivers quite spectacularly at its climax.
However, BloodRayne doesn't so much end as just run out of script with a blank-faced Loken slumping down into her father's throne and staring forlornly into the camera.
Although the Kickstarter-funded reimagining of/sequel to the original - and infamous - swords-and-sleaze classic Deathstalker has yet to materialise on these shores, my old pal Pun (of Halls of the Nephilim) stumbled over a fresh treat on DriveThruRPG.
Bring the world of Deathstalker into your Dungeons & Dragons 5e games with this guide from Shout! Studios and ProgCore Fantasy. Featuring full D&D5e stats for 12 of Deathstalker's deadly adversaries and two powerful magical artifacts, all straight from the new Deathstalker film by Steven Kostanski.
This compendium is produced by the ProgCore Fantasy team for Shout! Studios, and is offered FREE in conjunction with the February 17 2026 Blu-ray release of Deathstalker.
Fearing spoilers, as is my wont, I've only skimmed the booklet. I was impressed by the variety of creatures on display, but I noticed a couple of things in particular that piqued my interest:
Firstly, Deathstalker seems to have had a real human man name before he was Deathstalker, which, to me, rather demystifies the character and fails to understand the central joke at the heart of the original quartet of low-budget movies.
Secondly, one of the magical items is a multi-bladed sword called Light of Talon. Is this iteration of Deathstalker also the long-awaited sequel to Albert Pyun's The Sword and The Sorcerer? Does this signal the establishment of a Deathstalker'verse???
Back in 2022 we lost the B-movie maven Albert Pyun.
He'd hit the ground running in 1982 with his first movie, The Sword and The Sorcerer - which gave us the legendary blade-firing Tri-Sword.
And it was through this movie, which I wrote about on a previous blog back in 2011, that he achieved a god-like status in my eyes when he made contact with me via the comments section of that post.
My write-up had concluded with a trailer for Tales of An Ancient Empire, the long-awaited sequel to The Sword and The Sorcerer.
It so happened that I had acquired what I thought was an 'official' DVD of that sequel via eBay, but as Albert would go on to explain that was actually an unsanctioned early cut that he was not best pleased to discover was out in the wild.
He sent me a link that allowed me to view the first 18 minutes of the actual cut of Tale of An Ancient Empire... and it was such an improvement on the first version I had seen.
I've always had a preference for sword-and-sorcery B-movies, so my knowledge of the rest of Albert's vast oeuvre was very limited.
"He is credited with pioneering the cyborg sub-genre and is considered to be a maverick and renegade in independent genre cinema. With over 50 titles to his name, he has enjoyed a prolific career spanning 30+ years and has earned himself a fevered cult following."
From our brief interactions well over a decade ago, Albert came across as a genuinely nice, and enthusiastic, film fan and it was his willingness to reach out to me all those years ago that really made an impression.
That he was keen to engage with a random small-time blogger such as I and ensure that I saw, and reacted to, the film as he had actually envisioned it spoke volumes.
Albert Pyun passed away on November 26, 2022, at the age of 69.
The Creepers are thrill-seeking urban explorers who love pushing things to the edge, and their latest stunt – livestreaming from New Jersey’s abandoned Paragon Hotel – is their biggest yet.
With its mobster past, supposed ghosts, and rumoured stash of $300 million, the Paragon is catnip to the Creepers, a sure-fire way to increase their fanbase.
But fear has other plans. Daring to enter the Paragon, not heeding the warnings, the Creepers fend off deadly rivals while supernatural creatures stalk them from the shadows, testing their endurance, sanity, and willingness to pay fame’s heavy price.
Based on the 2005 book Creepers by David Morrell (the creator of Rambo in his 1972 novel, First Blood), Do Not Enter is directed by renowned music video director Marc Klasfeld and I have to give him major kudos for NOT shooting this movie as "found footage".
This great-looking exploration horror is getting a limited cinema release in the States from March 20.
Dominic Purcell (from The Arrow'verse shows and Prison Break) is Hazen Kaine, a burned-out, no-nonsense American hitman working in Bulgaria. His "last" job - before retirement - is to kidnap the two daughters of the Bulgarian royal family, so his paymasters can demand an enormous ransom.
Although he's having doubts about his latest assignment, he hides the girls in the nominated shipping container anyway, then notices that one is wearing a pendant that matches the tattoo on his arm (which his late wife chose for him).
The girl tells Hazen the medallion, a family heirloom and talisman of protection against things he wouldn't understand, is magical. He takes it outside for a closer look... and causes a rift in time and space to materialise and drag him through.
Hazen finds himself in a mysterious land - which, he later learns is also called Bulgaria, but clearly is a fantastical, pseudo-Medieval version - and stumbles into a nearby village which is being attacked by a dragon!
He uses the last bullets in his gun to drive off the dragon, in the process befriending a pair of warrior princesses, Arabella (Ralitsa Paskaleva), and Emeline (Daria Simeonova).
They're living in this village because of Game of Thrones-style violent machinations which saw one of their uncles, Tervon (Marian Valev), usurp their father and steal his throne.
They are now part of a rebellion led by their other uncle,
Tybalt (Nikolai Sotirov).
Eventually, Hazen comes to accept his position in this new world - his tattoo marks him out for a special destiny - and hatches a plan that will allow him to slay Tervon and steal the king's magical medallion, which will send Hazen back to our world.
During all this he develops a rather cute and chaste romantic relationship with Arabella; the hitman's flirting technique seems to be telling her about the horrific fiery death of his wife at the hands of other gangsters.
Hazen's big plan comes to nowt, as the rebels are ambushed in a forest by Tervon and his men.
However, the fight goes surprisingly well in favour of the rebels, even though Tervon has been controlling the dragon this whole time.
The evil king flees back his castle... followed by Hazen and Arabella.
The castle is remarkably easy to access and our heroes fight their way through Tervon's goons to confront the Big Bad on the roof of the castle, where Hazen dispatches him, causing the time rift to reopen.
This time, not only does Hazen travel back to our world, but also the dragon. Not entirely sure why Arabella didn't go with him.
Hazen then races to where the kidnapped girls have been hidden and fights the mobsters who have come to collect him... at which point you realise that the head gangster Ayavlo is also played by Marian Valev.
Does this mean that Hazen's whole isekai adventures in In The Name of The King - The Last Mission were a dream? Or a metaphor? He does kidnap two young princesses in our world and then become entangled with two princesses in the fantasy world. But then how do explain the dragon now loose in the skies over Sofia?
There's a lot that's handwaved in Joel Ross's 85-minute script and under Uwe Boll's taut - let's get things done - direction. As an example, I particularly loved the blasé attitude of, I guess, the king of Bulgaria to having his daughters kidnapped and then returned by the same person. It rather implies that this happens all the time!
Honestly, for my money, too much time is spent in modern day Sofia and I'd have preferred Hazen to stay in mythical Bulgaria with his new love... but then that would have left the kids in the shipping container and at the mercy of the gangsters.
In D&D terms, I reckon it's a young black dragon (although it breathes fire)
For a decade-old, low budget , direct-to-video sword-and-sorcery flick, all the special effects, including those that bring the dragon to life, are pretty decent. Of course, the beast is obviously CGI, but I've seen far worse in this calibre of movie (yes, Asylum, I'm looking at you).
On the other hand, the fact that the rebellion relies on caves so much - despite having several villages to call their own - is a real throwback to '80s sword-and-sorcery films that also often operated on similar microbudgets and had to make do with what nature provided.
Director Uwe Boll certainly makes great use of the beautiful Bulgarian landscape and the film was largely filmed at Nu Boyana Film Studios where, co-incidentally, the new Red Sonja movie was shot as well as Jason Momoa's Conan The Barbarian and the excellent last Hellboy movie, The Crooked Man, and many other great films.
Dominic Purcell and pretty much the entire Bulgarian cast of In The Name of The King 3 are all great and clearly invested in their roles, but they're not always best served by a script which barrels along at such speed that a lot of plot threads are just left dangling.
It's also a shame that In The Name of The King - The Last Mission appears to be totally disconnected from either the first or second films in the franchise.
I'd rather hoped that Hazen was actually in the Kingdom of Ehb (where the previous films took place) and that Arabella and Emeline were the daughters of Dolph Lundgren's Granger, to continue the generational narrative of the two earlier movies.
This time, the fan favourite champions - now joined by Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) himself - are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.
Mortal Kombat II will be in cinemas and IMAX internationally beginning 6 May and then across North America from May 8.
Albert Pyun's 1982 The Sword And The Sorcerer is B-movie gem that doesn't need a review.
If your gaming is fuelled by a love of these great, pulpy epics from the '80s then you will have seen this countless times and realised that - as much as anything - it's a Dungeons & Dragons adventure turned into a movie.
From the pithy one-liners and dark humour to the casual nudity (primarily restricted to the one scene where our roguish hero escapes through the bad king's harem), this is a love letter to Conan The Barbarian and Leiber's Lankhmar.
The protagonist, swashbuckling Talon (Lee Horsley) - seadog, adventurer, mercenary general - is a great role-model for player characters, cut from the same loin cloth as Howard's Cimmerian warrior.
And you have to appreciate the fact that, although the rightful heir to the kingdom being fought over, Talon has no interest in the throne, or marrying the princess he rescues. This is just one adventure for him, out of a string of many.
While full of memorable moments, as all this era of swords and sorcery cinematic shenanigans were, the most memorable aspect of The Sword And The Sorcerer is the titular 'sword'.
And I'm pretty sure it's not even magical!
The wholly impractical sword had three blades, with the added bonus that the exterior two could be fired off like high velocity, short-range missiles.
Of course they didn't have an automatic return mechanism, so it was pretty much a one-shot effect for each combat... and if, for some reason, you were unable to reclaim the shot blade you'd need to find a swordsmith willing to make you a replacement.
But such logistics are irrelevant in this old school genre of movie.
The arrival this week of the The Planet of The Apes Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and the supplementary ANSA Files marks a major turning point in my lifelong habit of buying gaming books.
If I can stick to my goals, this pair of gorgeous hardback books will be the last I buy that are not directly connected to a game I'm running or seriously planning to.
As beautifully designed and illustrated as these two meaty tomes are, I have no expectations of ever actually running the system (it uses West End Games' old d6 dice pool mechanics, which were never my cup of tea as a potential gamemaster).
I've purchased these purely as a completionist, as someone who has loved - and been mildly obsessed by - the original, classic Planet of The Apes movies since he was a little kid.
Sure, it wouldn't surprise me when I get round to reading them more thoroughly if I don't find ideas, maybe even rules, that I can lift for a future game unconnected with this simian franchise.
But, ultimately, these are resource books and artefacts, not rule books I can ever see myself busting out for the Tuesday Knights.
And - as I said a moment ago, if I can stick to my guns - these will be the last I purchase in this manner, the last I get to just "look at" rather than actually use as The Lawgiver intended.
I know it's a pretty standard aspect of the roleplaying hobby, but it's one I can no longer justify personally either for financial or space reasons (as both are becoming increasingly tight).
Going forward, I intend to keep a narrow focus on Twilight Sword as the game I intend to run next for the Tuesday Knights (although I have a back-up system if Twilight Sword, for some reason, doesn't live up to my expectations. It's a system I already own and have run once for the group, and they really enjoyed it).
Sample page from the Core Rulebook
Sample page from The ANSA (American National Space Administration) Files
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.
As a long-time fan of the liminal horror of the Backroomscreepypasta, I'm delighted to see it transition into the cinematic medium... I'm also fascinated to see how it'll work.
From writer/director Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell. Backrooms – in Theaters May 29.
Part Dungeons and Dragons romp, part Xena: Warrior Princess and a smidge of Lord of The Rings, Sword of Xanten is based on the Germanic myth Das Nibelungenliedand the Nordic Volsunga Saga, which also inspired the four-opera cycle by Richard Wagner and Tolkien's world famous ring-centric work.
The film is a loose retelling of the legend of Siegfried and Brunhild as swords-and-sorcery viewed through a soap lens.
Weaving a complicated plot, with inevitable unhappy ending, it's easy to see why Wagner would want to adapt this story.
The acting is fine for what it is and you can't help but be distracted by the gorgeous Kristanna Loken (T-X from Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines), perfectly cast as Icelandic warrior-queen Brunhild and the lovely Alica Witt as naïve Kriemhild.
Great scenery, slow-motion bundles (it's a bit of an exaggeration to call most of them 'fights'), arch acting and above-average CGI make for a great little pot boiler.
It's quite long (around three hours) but The Sword of Xanten (aka Ring of the Nibelungs) is non-stop fun and frolics all the way - with a bit of sauciness and a bit of blood - that can hold the attention of a willing viewer.
The first season of the wonderful A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms has come to an end, but we only have to wait a year for the next one (which, I believe, is being shot as we speak).
This is, obviously, a very good thing because I loved the show's freshman year and can't wait for more, but also - and this is key - if the gaps between seasons get dragged out then I worry that the amazing Dexter Sol Ansell will age out of the role of Egg.
Below are a final couple of 'making of' features for this season, the first is specifically related to this week's finale, while the second is an overview of the latter half of the season.
"Suppose we can go anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms”
Tying in to the film I'm most interested in seeing at the cinema this summer, Masters of The Universe, Dark Horse Comics is launching a four-issue miniseries, The Wings of Fate, that is scheduled to drop in the week following the movie's debut.
Masters of The Universe is currently scheduled to open in the States on June 5 with the first issue of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Wings of Fate coming on June 10.
In the aftermath of Skeletor’s siege on Eternos, a down-and-out refugee gives sanctuary to a mysterious, injured falcon. Now, to save her life, he must embark upon a perilous journey through the Mystic Mountains and seek aid from the storied inhabitants of the realm of Avion.
The Wings of Fate, which is set in the movie universe, is written by Tim Sheridan (Masters of the Universe: Revolution), illustrated by Will Sliney (Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren), coloured by Israel Silva, and lettered by AndWorld Design.
After the sheer brilliance of Evil Dead Rise(let's be honest, there's never been a bad Evil Dead movie), not one but two continuations of the saga are being worked on.
Evil Dead Burn is now due out this July 22 and now it's been announced that work has begun on Evil Dead Wrath, written and directed by Francis Galluppi.
Nothing is known about the plots of either of these new additions to the franchise, although there are rumours that Bruce Campbell may return as the iconic Ashley J. 'Ash' Williams in Wrath.
Production has begun this week - in Auckland, New Zealand - on Evil Dead Wrath. The occasion was marked by the release of the movie's striking, retro logo (pictured above).
This weekend found Nick and I back at our local wargames' show, Cavalier, at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge.
It was my first time in a couple of years and while I wasn't feeling one hundred percent, I was determined that my excitement would see me through. And, thanks to Nick stepping in as my ad hoc 'carer' (in the absence of Rachel, who was at home with Alice), I managed an impressive (for me) three hours at the show.
The highlight of the day came early, when Nick and I had barely seen a quarter of the displays and traders, as a gentleman from the Maidstone Wargames Society invited us to join in their Labyrinths of Mars participation game.
This was one I'd mentally flagged ahead of time, looking at the list of games on the show's website, because - as I suspected - it was John Carter themed.
The game was a reskinning of the classic family board game Labyrinth, which I'd played with Nick and his son, Alec, several years ago. However, this iteration included fighting and treasure hunting, and was scaled up to feature 28mm miniatures.
My dynamic duo of Barsoomian warriors before battle commenced
The ever-moving Labyrinth of Mars
Nick's team (top) make a strategic withdrawal from my gang (bottom)
As with the boardgame, you always start your turn by sliding a spare tile into the layout - pushing all the other tiles in that row on one space, thus constantly reconfiguring the Martian (Barsoomian) maze, and making planning ahead quite challenging.
There were four of playing and we each had four objectives to find before we could escape the labyrinth, be they treasures, allies, or boosts, and you could earn special cards as well that gave you extra abilities or bonuses.
I'd got three of my objectives (a couple of artifacts and a Barsoomian prince), without making too much of a scene about it, but the last thing I needed for my 'collection' was The Great White Ape (pictured above).
The only problem was The Ape had just joined Nick's team, as Nick had played a "brain transfer" card on it, giving it a Barsoomian brain... rather than a raging great ape's brain!
So, I had to attack Nick's party! Aided by the prince, we overpowered Nick's characters (and with some lucky die rolls) and the ape opted to join my "stronger" team.
Then on my next turn (again more by luck than judgement), I was able to slide the walls of the maze to open a straight avenue to the exit... where I was declared not just the winner, but WARLORD OF MARS.
I suspect Nick is never going to forget how I robbed him of potential victory!
After this, we resumed our patrol of the main hall, and the first person we bumped into - who was demonstrating his grid-based Vietnam War game - was Paul of Pazoot, a wargaming YouTube channel I have recently discovered (thanks to his work with Big Lee of Miniature Adventures).
This was my first - in-person - encounter with an actual YouTuber.
Paul's 'Nam game, which he was putting on with the East Kent Wargames Society, will be the second of his Battle Chronicle range of narrow-focused rules sets across different historical periods. The first is 1812: Retreat from Moscow, which Big Lee is working on.
Here follows a brief selection of some of the other games being played at Cavalier:
Shepway Gamers' The Englishman's Castle: a 28mm Wars of the Roses conflict
Of course, as well as gaming, these events are also for shopping. Both Nick and I, in our own way, were surprisingly restrained this year. While Nick didn't buy anything, I managed to restrict myself to items for my Dead Man's Hand (Wild West) game.
I found myself mainly being drawn towards terrain, as I have enough unpainted gunfighters etc already, waiting to sent off for painting.
Amazing fantasy terrain at surprisingly affordable prices - I'm impressed I resisted
Pumpernickle Games do some lovely stuff - I hope to get some desert bits from them at a later date, but, in the meantime, who doesn't want their own Stonehenge?
At the end of the day, I only purchased a Western bank, from Beowulf, with interior fixtures and fittings; a pair of metal cacti and a pair of resin outhouses from Debris of War; and a log cabin.
My haul from Cavalier 2026
It was a great time and I'm glad I persevered. I'd wanted to play at least one participation game, but wasn't sure if I was up to it. So I'm delighted it happened to me one I was looking forward to checking out.
I did have one "funny turn" - after squatting down to look at some items that were being displayed on the floor, then bobbing up again. But Nick kindly offered me his arm and helped me to a chair, where I could rest a while.
Once I got home (Rachel came and picked me up), I was totally zonked out for the rest of the day, then had a rough night of near-continuous coughing. But, you know what, it was so worth it.
I had a fantastic time with one of my oldest friends, we got to play an awesome wargame... which I won, we chatted with a ton of people, and I got myself some more bits for my PROJECT 60 wargame of choice.
And I've already have made a shopping list of future bits and bobs I can order from these traders online.
Below, you will see a 17-minute video by Model Paint Whatever of the sights and sounds of the day, which shows off way more of the games on display than I have:
And here's a piece from Big Lee himself about Cavalier:
When Prince Caspianbreathed new life into The Chronicles Of Narnia franchise (after the pretty bland Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe), I had high expectations for the next adaptation from the cycle: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.
And I wasn't disappointed.
Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes) find themselves transported once again from war-torn England to the fantastical land of Narnia.
This time the method of transport is a magical painting and they are joined by their obnoxious and cowardly cousin Eustice (the greatWill Poulter in an early role).
Plucked from the sea by King (formerly Prince) Caspian (Ben Barnes) on board the sailing ship Dawn Treader, the children soon find themselves swept up in an epic voyage to track the location of seven lost friends of Caspian's father who held seven magic swords that are required to defeat a growing evil in the East.
The evil manifests itself as a green mist that has the ability to project itself as one's fears and doubts.
There is a moment, towards the end, when Edmund realises that the green mist has latched onto his own fears and with the look he gives, and the way he says "oh no", you just know 90 per cent of the adults watching are thinking: "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man".
Voyage Of The Dawn Treader is a classic sea-borne, island-hopping tale, in the style of The Odyssey and Sinbad stories, with every island being a different - increasingly dark - encounter for our party of adventurers as they make their way towards their final destination.
A true family action adventure film, this expands the fantasy world of Narnia beautifully, with some truly amazing visuals - to rival those of Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings movies - and high quality special effects that are so slick they never threaten to shatter your suspension of disbelief.
Director Michael Apted ensures there's never a dull moment here and, even though our heroes never actually set foot on the final island, the story wraps up in a suitably magical and convincing fashion that shouldn't leave anyone dissatisfied.
Although there is physical conflict in Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, most of the story revolves around dealing with intellectual and emotional problems - but in ways far more exciting than I've just made it sound!
A clever story, unsurprisingly there are "messages" in the text, but they are reasonably subtle and good natured, working on a fairy tale moral level rather than a sledgehammer approach.
The returning young performers, Henley and Keynes, have grown into their roles.
For completists there are some nice cameos by Tilda Swinton as The White Witch, Anna Popplewell as Susan Pevensie and William Moseley as Peter Pevensie.
Liam Neeson once more lends his vocal skills to Aslan and geek-favourite Simon Pegg replaces Eddie Izzard as the voice of warrior mouse Reepicheep.
The source material's Christian allegory gets a bit heavy-handed at the end when Aslan is talking to Lucy about "being known by another name" in our world (I'm presuming it's not Leo), but given then one of the characters willingly volunteers to travel on to "Aslan's country" (Heaven?) is this also advocating suicide as the character wasn't dead, just satisfied that he had had enough adventures in Narnia?
And, of course, the big difference between believing in Aslan, in Narnia, and believing in God, in the real world, is that Aslan is a walking, talking, breathing lion - not so much a test of faith as a test of eyesight.
Sometimes, I guess, it doesn't pay to think too much about these things!
It's a year after the events in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and the four Pevensies are summoned back to the magical kingdom of Narnia from wartime London for further adventures in Prince Caspian.
While it may only be 12 months since they left, hundreds of years have passed in Narnia and a human kingdom, Telmarine, has risen to prominence and driven the supernatural natives to near extinction.
The "old kings and queens of Narnia" were summoned by Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), rightful heir to Telmarine, who is escaping his usurping uncle's assassins.
Peter (William Moseley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) join with Caspian to bring the Narnians out of hiding and restore peace and harmony to the land.
From the outset this is darker film than its predecessor and more violent, as its central focus is the war between Narnia and the colonising Telmarines.
Although the running time is nearly two-and-three-quarter hours, the story races along with superb pacing and almost non-stop action scenes, with each battle or duel somehow managing to top the one that came before.
As with the first Chronicles of Narnia film, the weakest element of this generally superb film is the younger leading actors - all of whom (with the exception of Edmund, who has a hint of the 'dark side' about him after he was tempted by the White Witch) have yet to develop the chops to make their characters' feel more rounded - and only really shine in the fight sequences.
Thankfully there are enough supporting characters - many of whom brought to life by incredible CGI - who are more than capable of carrying the film (particular praise has to go to the mouse Reepicheep, who I only realised towards the end was voiced by Eddie Izzard).
As fantasy war films go, Prince Caspian is an amazing display of unearthly fighting (just look for the Telmarine's adopting a Testudo formation and the centaur jumping into the middle of them) that should entertain its target audience and provide great inspiration to role-players looking to add a splash of colour to their combat sequences.
All the crowdfunded shiny goodness of Twilight Sword is on track to be shipped to backers around the beginning of August, however the PDFs of the two main books and starter set could be sent out as early as the end of March.
These nuggets dropped during the first livestream of the year, yesterday, by two of the founders of the game's Italian production company, Two Little Mice, Riccardo “Rico” Sirignano and Simone Formicola.
The game, the company's biggest project to date, is currently going through extensive playtesting to hone the mechanics.
While the land of Radia remains central to the default campaign included in Twilight Sword, the core book has been rewritten to make the game more setting agnostic, so gamemasters can easily use their own settings with the system.
The bulk of the livestream concerned the production of other current Two Little Mice projects, such as Outgunned Superheroes, the latest variant of their action movie-styled roleplaying game.
Without going into too much detail, it was revealed that the company's next crowdfunding campaign, taking place in May, would be another addition to Outgunned.
Let's get one thing straight - this is not the next Lord Of The Rings. That trilogy set the bar so high for fantasy films that it would take something pretty amazing to even equal it. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is not that film.
Amazing (but sometimes a bit wonky) effects sequences, wonderfully animated talking creatures, beautiful sweeping New Zealand scenery and odd flashes of humour can't stop this being very clearly an old school children's' film with a simplistic story, cheesy - yet key, from the source material - bits (like the appearance of Father Christmas to hand out the 'magic weapons') and occasional two-dimensional characters.
While we're obviously supposed to root for our young protagonists - the Pevensie siblings: Georgie Henley as Lucy; Skandar Keynes as Edmund; William Moseley as Peter; and Anna Popplewell as Susan - they are rather overwhelmed by the supernatural elements of the story, particularly the pitch perfect casting of the iconic Tilda Swinton as Jadis The White Witch.
Thankfully the Christian subtext of C.S. Lewis's novel is presented here subtly and Liam Neeson turns in a warm vocal performance as Aslan, but it's the CGI Beavers and wolves that will really stick in the mind.
A mild distraction, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is a pleasant piece of gore-free fluff that would have become (in the olden days of limited TV channels) a Saturday afternoon television staple to distract the wee kiddies from their consoles and social media once ITV's copy of the Railway Children had worn out.
Hi. This vid product examines two very early, transformative stories in the Judge Dredd canon. It’s time to travel to the future setting of Mega-City One and have some fun poking tyranny in its stupid eye.
Conan the Barbarian will team-up with Italian comic book icon Dragonero this May in a seven-part miniseries published for the first time outside of Italy by Titan Comics and Conan rights' holders Heroic Signature.
In Conan & Dragonero, the legendary barbarian finds himself transported to a mysterious land called Erondár, the home of dragon-slaying hero Dragonero.
After the traditional initial misunderstanding triggered by such meetings, the two heroes realise they must team-up to fight the mysterious forces that threaten both their worlds.
This series is written by Dragonero's creators Luca Enoch and Stefano Vietti, with art from Lorenzo Nuti.
Now, it has finally made its way into the American comic book format:
TWO WORLDS COLLIDE IN A SAVAGE CROSSOVER YEARS IN THE MAKING!
CONAN OF CIMMERIA and DRAGONERO meet for the first time in an epic clash of steel, sorcery, and survival. Pulled to the mysterious land of Erondár by dark forces, Conan comes face to face with the famed dragon slayer, Dragonero, and the two warriors must set aside suspicion to stand back-to-back against a supernatural force poised to doom both their worlds.
Published for the first time outside of Italy, this landmark crossover brings together two legendary heroes in a story that honors classic sword-and-sorcery while forging something bold and unforgettable.
My pop culture Odyssey: a slice of super-powered geek life with heavy emphasis on pulp adventure, superheroes, comic books, westerns, horror, sci-fi, giant monsters, zombies etc
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