MUSICAL MONDAY: The Mandalorian and Grogu (Boys Noize Remix)

THIS IS THE WAY... TO THE SILVER SCREEN

Star Wars Is Back - And On The Big Screen!

SUPERB OWL LX MOVIE TRAILERS

SUPERGIRL

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU

DISCLOSURE DAY

SCREAM 7

MINIONS & MONSTERS

Another Magnificent Birthday Celebration Under My Tightening Belt

The biggest afternoon tea Rachel and I have ever seen

Last weekend, I marked my birthday with a level of food consumption that would have made Mr Creosote proud.

In my excitement, I fear I may have gotten a bit carried away. With the constraint of my current increased state of disability, my usual "going out and doing something active for the day" was put on hold, making way for a number of magnificent food-centric activities instead.

On Saturday, Rachel's parents took us - including Alice - for a meal at my favourite, nearby pub-restaurant, where I managed to consume a three-course Christmas meal. In the evening, watching Strictly in a borderline food coma, I could only manage a bowl of ice cream (I needed something to take some of my pills with).

Then on Sunday Rachel, Alice and I went to the wonderful Pup Cup (the dog café in Tonbridge High Street), where Rachel had prebooked us afternoon tea for two.

It turned out to be the biggest (and most delicious) afternoon tea either of us had ever seen (see picture above), and we ended up having to take a few top tier cakes away in a "doggie bag" for later.

The evening was rounded off with a KFC, although I suspect that might have been a "wafer thin mint" too far 😂

My weekend of excess ended up with me not feeling particularly chipper in the middle of Sunday night and fearing I might explode. However, I got back to sleep and felt a lot better by Monday morning.

This week I've been halving my daily portions of breakfast toast, snacks etc

Haven't even started my birthday cake yet!

Family meal on Saturday

Dog-themed t-shirts for dog-themed café

Downing my favourite strawberry milkshake

Alice always loves The Pup Cup for the attention she gets 

Presents waiting for me on my birthday morning

Wonderful presents from Rachel

Rachel turned me into a Funko Pop!

Pop! me comes holding a comic book and a pizza box - seems about right!

Amazing presents from Rachel's parents

This Is The Way: May The 22nd (2026) Be With You!

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

I've been reading the Fantastic Four for over 50 years and have seen all the previous movies (even the unreleased Roger Corman version), but the latest offering from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe is - beyond a shadow of a doubt - the most comic book accurate to date.

Taking place on an alternate Earth to the main Earth-616 of the MCU, Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces us to the planet's heroes - Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic (The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman (Napoleon's Vanessa Kirby), Sue's brother Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Stranger Things' Joseph Quinn), and family friend Ben Grimm/The Thing (The Bear's Ebon Moss-Bachrach).

In fast order, a chat show - hosted by Mark Gatiss - summarises the team's origin story and gives us a good look at the retro-futuristic 1960's world the team inhabit.

Soon after Sue reveals to the team that she's pregnant, Earth-828 is visited by the alien herald known as the Silver Surfer (Ozark's Julia Garner) to tell everyone that the planet has been selected as the next meal for the ever-hungry extraterrestrial "god" known as Galactus (The Witch's Ralph Ineson).

Naturally, Reed and co. want to prevent this and travel back out into space to try and negotiate with Galactus. 

The incomprehensible space kaiju, seated in his cyclopean planet-devouring spaceship, offers them a trade: it will spare the Earth if Reed and Sue give him their child, who Galactus says is a powerful cosmic being and the only creature that can take his place.

Of course, the Fantastic Four refuse this deal and head back to Earth, with the Silver Surfer and Galactus in pursuit across the vast expanse of space.

Once home, the people of Earth are initially angry at our heroes for turning down the offer that would have saved them all, but nevertheless the Fantastic Four knuckle down and try to come up with a scheme to dispose of Galactus and save the world.

With influences from classic science fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and numerous period B-movies, Fantastic Four: First Steps has more of a pure pulpy sci-fi feel than any previous MCU offering and, to my tastes, is all the better for it.

Kudos to director Matt Shakman (of WandaVision fame) and scriptwriters Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, for channelling the spirit of the original Fantastic Four comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (there's a lovely explanation at the end of the credits tying Kirby to the choice of Earth designation).

I might have tweaked the look of a couple of the supporting members of the cast, but that's trivial compared to how much of First Steps is just so right in the eyes of this life-long Fantastic Four fan.

I cannot stress enough how "comic book" this film is. I nearly cried a number of times because it was so perfect, and the rest of the time I was either grinning from ear-to-ear or my jaw was on the floor from the sheer awesomeness and grandeur unfolding before me. 

For my money - although I'm obviously biased - Fantastic Four: First Steps is the best Marvel movie yet, perfectly encapsulating why I've always loved this team of characters as well as dropping multiple breadcrumbs and potential plot hooks for future movies.

We're going to have to wait until the end of next year and the release of Avengers: Doomsday though before we see the team again.

Although I can't wait for the home video release and the film's appearance on Disney Plus to watch it again... and again... and again.

I'd booked cinema tickets for Rachel and I to see Fantastic Four: First Steps weeks ago, prior to the whole "losing the power to walk" nonsense, but a kind attendant in the foyer of The Odeon (Tunbridge Wells) today swapped them for two spots in the third row. One was a place for me to park my chair, the other was an adjacent sofa seat for Rachel.

Naturally, she turned it into a comfortable bed and slept through about an hour in the middle of the movie - as is her wont. 

Rachel on her comfy sofa, next to me in my wheelchair slot

Having spied some Fantastic Four-themed merch on the way in, after the movie I was directed to the food counter where I was able to order an empty drink container and popcorn bucket (not that I eat popcorn).

Rachel had agreed to pay for these treats, but we both realised my "schoolboy error" in ordering them without asking the price. Both items were way more expensive than we'd naively imagined, but Rachel kindly got them for me anyway.

Back home, showing off my unexpectedly expensive Fantastic Four merch

The Return of Tonbridge Comic-Con

"I could do this all day!"

Tonbridge Comic Con & Toy Fair has returned, with (I believe) different people running it, eschewing celebrity signings for more cosplayers, more photo ops, and more traders.

It must be a good five years since there was a Comic-Con at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge (that time I got flustered meeting Hannah Spearritt from Primeval and S Club 7 and got her to sign my copy of the Primeval roleplaying game), but this was quite a different affair.

In a strange - but comforting - kind of way, this fresh iteration reminded me a lot of Cavalier (our annual wargames show), but with people dressed as superheroes and anime characters and staged cinematic photo opportunities in lieu of wargaming displays.

The time we spent at the comic-con was really enjoyable, I got to chat to a load of people (stall holders and cosplayers) and - as you can see - Rachel took loads of pictures.

Today's event was 'nicely busy' (enough people to make me think it was a success for the organisers, but not so many that it felt claustrophobic or made getting to any particular place a struggle).

This definitely helped me adjust to the situation, and I surprised myself with how conversational I was with the many people I spoke to. Normally, I hold back, for fear of my aphasia tripping me up, but this felt really relaxed.

Major kudos to the Captain America cosplayer who we met before we got inside the event. He embodied the spirit of Cap nicely and, after he remarked on my t-shirt, we talked enthusiastically about James Gunn's impending Superman movie.

Meanwhile, inside the Angel Centre, the chap who'd 3D printed then built the array of animated Star Wars droids was clearly a Doc Brown-level genius.

Huyang moved (he didn't walk though!) and spoke with David Tennant's voice

These are the droids I was looking for

Deadpool dance class

"You now have fifteen seconds to comply." Robocop's ED-209 was quite threatening

"Beam me up!"

"This is The Way!"

Rachel snuck into Andy's room to play with Woody and Buzz

"The claw! The claw!"

Just chillin' with Thanos before we destroy the Universe

Radio-controlled baby droids to play with

Lightning McQueen

Our shockingly conservative haul from the day

Much to my (and Rachel's) amazement I didn't actually buy anything at the show (although there was some great art, action figures, and prop replicas that caught my eye), although I did get a free 28mm goblin from a man promoting promoting his self-published fantasy novel.

Rachel treated herself to a "Trust Me, I'm A Dogtor" pin badge to go on her NHS lanyard.

We may have stayed for only an hour, but we had a great time.

The only minor quibble I would point out is that for a COMIC convention, there was no one selling actual comics, which was a shame.

STAR WARS DAY: May The 4th Be With You

Abigail (2024)

A sextet of professional criminals are hired to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman and hold her hostage while their 'go-between' sorts out the $50 million ransom demand.

The criminals are a mixed bag, all unknown to each other and chosen for their special skills: medic Joey (Melissa Barrera, from the recent Scream movies); ex-cop Frank (Dan Stevens, of Legion fame and many other works); hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton, from Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania); muscle Peter (Kevin Durand, another genre staple, most recently mo-capping as Proximus in Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes); sniper Rickles (Will Catlett, from the underrated TV series Constellation); and driver Dean (the late Angus Cloud in his last live-action performance).

When they suss out that the 12-year-old ballerina, Abigail (Alisha Weir, from Matilda: The Musical) that they've grabbed is actually the daughter of a legendary underworld bogeyman, the Keyser Söze-like Kristof Lazaar, the hardened villains start to go to pieces.

Matters get worse when they realise that the isolated mansion that their contact, Lambert (The Mandalorian's Giancarolo Esposito), has sent them to seems to be designed to keep them in... rather than keep out anyone sent to rescue Abigail.

Then the gang's problems escalate as they start getting killed off one-by-one and the survivors come to understand that their hostage is actually an extremely dangerous - and old - vampire... not a small child!

And they are her prey.

Directed by horror legends Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence), who brought us the last two Scream movies and the wonderful Ready or Not, Abigail is glorious, blood-splattered cocktail mixing Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects with Dusk Till Dawn.

Crime caper meets creature feature horror, with Grand Guignol results.

Following Tarantino's Dusk Till Dawn formula, the charismatic 'bad guys' pull off their kidnapping cleanly and are then find themselves trapped in a confined space with a monster even more dangerous than their own dark sides.

Extremely violent and gory, humorous, and action-packed, this 109-minute movie is so well-paced that you don't feel its duration in the slightest.

Even with a limited cast to kill off in true 'spam in a cabin' style, and an obvious 'final girl' from the get-go, the Radio Silence duo wring every bit of brilliance out of the script by their frequent collaborator Guy Busick and Stephen Shields.

The only slight slip-up, for me, in the whole production was - during the final sequence - the directors didn't seem able to decide whether it was night or day outside (which, when you're talking vampires, can be quite key). 

However, that minor glitch aside, I absolutely loved this monster movie.

A strong contender for my "film of the year" so far, Abigail also definitely feels like it has great sequel (even maybe a franchise) potential.