Scream 3 (2000)

 "I did not **** that pig Milton to get a leading role just to die here with second rate celebrities like you two!"

Sequels usually offer diminishing returns. Third films all then more so. And yes, this third instalment is not quite as good as its two predecessors. Wes Craven may be helming, but the lack of Kevin Williamson in the scripting duties is noticeable. Still, this is nevertheless a hugely enjoyable film, doing easily as much violence to the fourth wall as to any of its doomed characters.

Spoilers abound, obviously, this being a slasher. You have been warned. 

The opening sequence with  Cotton is a splendidly shot, deeply suspenseful, hugely ironic delight. It's also, of course, a statement of intent, killing of a fairly major character early on. The use of Stab 3, the film within a film, is clever and enjoyable, with the cast being very meta and... yeah, literally all of them are doomed. And it's such fun to see the cast interacting with Sidney, Gale and Dewey, the characters they're playing.

And, if that's not enough, Carrie bloody Fisher appears, in a delightfully witty cameo. There's lots of delicious discoursing on the rules of a trilogy... which sort of implies this is the final film, an implication that perhaps hasn't aged well but is clever nonetheless.

And yes, the resolution is clever, dramatic, exciting and satisfying, which is good, as a satisfying resolution is rather fun in a film like this. As for the characters... well, this is a melodrama, character depth is not the point, but the chemistry between Gale and Dewey is a delight.

There. Phew. I've blogged at least one horror film in October... 

Batman: The Animated Series- Fire from Olympus

 "Now, at last, mighty Zeus is home..."

Maxie Zeus, it's fair to say, never really was a top tier Batman villain, and so I'd not be surprised if this turns out to be his only appearance in the Animated Series. Still, it's nice to see a villain of his stature make an appearance. Might there perhaps be some hope for Crazy Quilt?

This is nicely done, though. The backstory changed so that Maxie becomes a businessman turning to criminal dealings, and whose exposure to the legal consequences causes him to crack. There is depth in his "muse" Clio being heartbroken by what has happened to the man she once loved, and it's a nice touch that we get a brief moment of the real Maxie before he, er, orders her to be tied to the front of this episode's MacGuffin of a massive, massive gun before firing it.

The forties vibes are even stronger than usual here, with everyone suitably attired and the police having, yes, an airship. And, yet again, the plot moves forwards with admirable efficiency so as to fit within the twenty minute timeslot, with nicely efficient exposition between Batman and Jim Gordon who, well, seems awfully happy to disclose what must surely be secret information with his vigilante friend.

Overall. good stuff, and good use of a quirky but forgettable villain. Even if the writer doesn't quite get the distinction between the subjective and objective in the singular second person pronoun in early modern English- "... where thee belongs", indeed! 

Dexter: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

 "This is a deliberate insult against me and my people!"

Another superb episode, needless to say- with the theme embodied from the start. This is an episode about predators, literally in the sense of the utterly depraved proclivities of Dexter's victim of the week, but also in the sense of the predatory Dexter himself, whose freedom to do things (and murder people!) is so very limited by his stifling and unwanted friendship with Miguel.

Because Bail Organa Miguel is dangerous for Dexter. He's powerful, he knows Dexter has killed at least once, he;s a shrewd judge of character and he may end up putting two and two together. Worse, he's a gregarious extrovert and an over-sharer, a difficult person around whom to stay guarded. He can turn on a sixpence. And this situation can only get worse. Will Dexter eventually have to kill him, in defiance of the "code" of Harry, from which he seems to be drifting in any case? Or will the Chicky Hines conviction be Miguel's Achilles' heel?

Dexter continues to grapple with the prospect of fatherhood, with Deb as overjoyed as we might expect upon hearing the news. She's right that Dexter needs to step up- loved the slap!- but is she right about Dexter being a good dad? She has wise words about parenting though.

This is a typically subtle. character-based episode. But I can't help but see this as setting up potential causes of future chaos...

Fantastic Four #18

 "If there's going to be any shatterin' impacts around here, I'll do the shatterin'!"

It's such a relief to get back to Fantastic Four after a run of fairly inconsequential issues with, at this stage, frankly second string heroes and writers. And this is enormous fun from the start, as the FF watch themselves on the news by means of an enormous, 1960s era, black and white telly... which is immediately juxtaposed with the frankly bonkers futuristic tech hi-jinks of Reed and Sue using an actual ICBM(!) to quickly nip over to Hawaii for a spot of swimming. And yes, that was a highly satisfying sentence to write.

But, in deep space, the Skrulls are still around, and this time we meet their unnamed Emperor, no less. Is he concerned about his underlings stuck as cows on Earth in issue #2 in a frankly nightmarish bit of body horror? No, he is not. Instead, he's determined to (all together now) defeat the FF and conquer Earth, because that's just what alien baddies do. He's "emptied the Treasury" and treated his people "like slaves", so this clearly matters quite a bit to him.

And so we meet the Super-Skrull, who has all the powers our heroes possess, "and more"... not only that, but he also has the shape shifting powers of your average Skrull. And it's such fun to see him arrive in Times Square, calmly claim Earth for the Skrull Empire, and await the Fantastic Four as the Emperor watches from afar. And so the inevitable skirmishes occur... and the Super-Skrull very much wins the first round, the FF heading back to the Baxter Building with their metaphorical tails between their legs. Plot-wise, this is very standard stuff, but it's fun.

But, naturally, Reed comes up with a MacGuffin that saves the day by removing the Suer-Skrull's power supply from the "fifth quadrant where the Skrulls are, and, in a nice touch, it's Sue who, invisibly, gets to use it and defeat the bad guy, causing the watching Skrull Emperor to call his underling a "dolt", a word only ever used by baddies in superhero comics. 

At last, a comic that's genuinely a pleasure to read. 

Stargate SG-1: The Torment of Tantalus

 "He chose his ideas, his work, over me."

Wow. The run of great episodes continues. Even before the credits we get a truly exciting hook- footage from 1945, freshly declassified, which shows a man (in a deep sea diving suit!) entering the Stargate. It's immediately apparent that this is going to be an exciting arc episode. So it proves to be. And yet, even more so, it's a rather moving episode about people.

Wonderfully, we (and the gang) again meet Catherine from the film, as she explains to Daniel that the man who entered the Stargate was her fiance, Ernest. Immediately the tragedy rears its head. Catherine's father, no doubt meaning well, told her that Ernest had died. Yet now, in old age, she learns that her fiance, on the cusp of marrying her, chose to take such a huge risk.

And there's more reason to be excited, too. It seems this location, not on the cartouche, was close to Abydos but unknown to the Goa'uld. Could it, therefore, lead to alien tech, or tantalising info on who created the Stargates...? The latter will, of course, prove to be the case. We learn of four alien races, each with their own script, meeting in a kind of "United Nations of the Stars". Of a universal language based on the chemical elements.

And yet... the area they're in, a castle on the edge of a cliff, is close to destruction from the elements- rather convenient that they should find and ultimately rescue Ernest at the very last moment! It's all good fun, and I enjoyed the creativity of the various Heath Robinson creations Carter comes up with, the Dial Home Device being destroyed, to get them home. Naturally, it means sacrificing the wonderful device upon which Daniel sets so much store.

And yet... despite all the lore, this is ultimately a story about people, feelings, and wisdom. About a man spending fifty years utterly alone. About the need to forgive before it's too late, and take the happiness we can while we have the time, because it's always later than we think. And, yes, about the realisation that there are more important things than knowledge.

Utterly phenomenal. 

Batman: The Animated Series- His Silicon Soul

 "We humans are more resilient than you give us credit for."

Sequels are at their best when they're not just a cynical attempt to bring back something popular, but actually have something to say. Fortunately, this sequel to the Heart of Steel two-parter very much does. And it's a deeply, satisfyingly philosophical twenty minutes or so of television.

The plot is quite straightforward- burglars unwittingly revive a duplicate of Batman and, after some fun with the fact that the winged detective has a metal doppelganger, the duplicate sets out to bring back HARDAC and yet again replace all of humanity with AI. And, yes, this is an interesting episode to watch in October 2026, with stories of AI agents going rogue getting worryingly frequent for a kind of event for which the only acceptable level of frequency is "none at all.

Yet the plot is a mere excuse for the philosophical questions to play out. The Batman doppelganger is convinced by Rossum that it is not in fact the original Batman by the argument that its memories are vague, facts-based and devoid of emotional meaning. Yet... is not human memory imperfect, fallible and inconsistent, too? AI consciousness is one thing, but what actually is this concept we call "consciousness".

There's a lot to praise here. Rossum as a genuinely regretful man. Alfred's horrified realisation that the "Batman" in the Batcave is the duplicate. Right up there, though, is the highly appropriate ending, with the duplicate ultimately failing because it's too good a copy of Batman, unable to take a human life.

 Yes, there's the odd relative dud, but this is yet another high quality episode.

Legends: Old Kings

 "We can't afford false moustaches. But you can lend us a couple if you like."

The penultimate episode and, in a deliberately jarring jolt, Hakan announces to the whole alliance- Turk and Scouser, both Guy and Eddie included- that the Istanbul connection is gone and there's only one thing for it- go to Karachi and deal with the opium suppliers direct. The episode thus begins as it ends, with Customs struggling for some semblance of control as events speed up around them.

Yes, permission is given to go ahead with a potential two tonne drug bust, but Customs are  outmaneouvred not only by Hakan but also the Secret Service, all-knowing, omnipotent and absolutely nothing like the James Bond films, thank the Lord.

We get some good character scenes, though. Don and Bailey. Bailey and Eddie. Eddie realising what Guy is, and keeping quiet. Bailey versus Guy. And Kate connecting with Erin, who is dealing with how "London can be a confusing place when you're poor, but sound like you're rich."

Once we reach Karachi, though, things veer out of control as we're introduced to real life drug lord Afridi, and to the Khyber Pass with the Cure's "A Forest" as the perfect soundtrack.. and this truly is a different world, with both gangs in the clutches of a ruthless man with absolute power who, naturally, has a man casually killed in front of them, just to make a point, yet also discoursing in a learned way on the solid history of the Silk Road. Not only the Scousers but also the Turks (well, Kurds) are out of their depths... until things are salvaged at the last moment by Mylonas' wife, a not-so-real Afghan princess.

Kate gets some nice scenes, too, as she chases and catches the Liverpool copper who's working with Carter through sheer brass and cleverness. But we end, with only one episode to go, with Guy's physical safety hanging by a thread as the boat leaves. Legends has been bloody good throughout, but this instalment takes things up yet another notch. Excellent stuff.

Tales of Suspense #44

 "Cleopatra's beauty is almost worth it, but my work is in the twentieth century."

This story is, of course, bonkers. It's also yet another instalment that doesn't move the character forward. Yes, we've established that Stark is a wealthy playboy, the armour, the heart condition. But there are no other recurring side characters and villains are invariably one-offs- as here, where we have the "Mad Pharaoh", the fictional King Hatap, seemingly in reality just a failed rebel against Cleopatra, well into late Hellenic times.

We have some archaeological fun, along with the usual hijinks with heart trouble and transistors. But soon we have Hatap returned to life, having been in suspended animation for 2,000 years and, even more miraculously, speaking English, a language that didn't exist until many centuries after he was mummified.

And so we have this sorcerer take Stark and travel back in time and.. oh dear, let's try and overlook the historical inaccuracies, shall we? Romans in green, with chariots. Oh, and Stark now apparently speaks Ancient Greek, or Coptic, whatever Cleopatra is speaking, and gets to meet her, the lucky sod.

He soon saves the day and returns to 1963- and yes, Marvel Time adherents, the actual year is mentioned several times. But then, at the end, we have the twist: Tony Stark, in the last panel, sees a film at the cinema, a film which is clearly Cleopatra, with Elizabeth Taylor, an epic released that very year. Yep. This story is... a tie-in to a film currently in cinemas. I must admit that's rather cool.

But can we please have some recurring characters and identity for these Iron Man stories?

Stargate SG-1: Thor's Hammer

 "Teal'c, I think we got the answering machine."

This may not hit the heights of the last extraordinary episode- the friendliness of the Cimmerians is a little too trite and convenient, while events play out predictably. But this continues a streak of strong episodes and gives me something I'm growing to live for- the drip, drip, drip of lore as the series progresses. And I'm willing to forgive the moments of dated, '90s storytelling and conventions. Yes, we get a crap rubber monster... but, on the other hand, it's voiced by James Earl Jones.

Perhaps Daniel's theory based on ancient Norse myth is a little unconvincing and convenient, too... but this is a universe where Erich von Daniken and that lot were sort of right, and pagan "gods" were in fact ancient aliens. So let's just acknowledge the triteness of the plot and get into the exciting lore, shall we?

In Cimmeria (Robert E. Howard's grave stirs a little, the gang genuinely have some nice Viking friends with whom they would be wise to stay in touch, as well as the possibility of one day removing the Go'auld hosts from  who are Sha're and Skara. And it seems that, indeed, there are benevolent, powerful aliens who are hostile to the Go'auld and... well, is "Thor" a long dead powerful spacefarer, as the recorded message may suggest, or an actual sky god in the here and now, as Kendra's thunder suggests? I must sheepishly admit, though, that it feels weird seeing the god Thor in a non-Marvel context. Kudos for the mythologically accurate ginger hair though.

Then there's the mysterious Unas, the Go'auld's mythological first host. And, dammit, so much lore and backstory. I really hope all this gets properly followed up.

Dexter: Finding Freebo

 "Some people just shouldn't have kids, you know?"

Another strong episode here and, following last week's bombshell, there's a strong theme of having kids. Dexter and Rita have to decide whether to have a kid... although, of course, Rita ultimately decides to keep it, as was always going to happen or this plot point, like Chekhov's Gun, would not exist otherwise. 

Still, we get lots of fascinating musing from Dexter as he ponders the possibility of bringing another monster like himself into the world, and how we can never know the kind of little person we'll be bringing into the world. And the theme fits into the wider cast of characters, too- Bail Organa (ok, Miguel...) and his wife struggling to conceive; Angel's unbridled joy at Dexter's news showing how good and guileless he is beneath his flaws. A proper appearance from Harry for the first time in a while.

Yet the episode is also about Dexter's need to find and kill Freebo to protect himself, as well as to get the bad guy- and yes, still, his values are evolving and moving away from Harry's. He's calmly musing on the kind of monster he now wishes to be, and because he's the protagonist it's easy to forget what a monster he is, a trick the show constantly and cleverly exploits.

And Dexter's need to get Freebo, of course, puts him at odds with Deb, who has become single-mindedly focused on policing and needs this case to go right. There's other character stuff, too. The fact that Maria and Miguel have some kind of history, hinted at for now. The fact that Angel is struggling with the weight of his promotion... combined with his excessive drinking.

But that ending, with Miguel catching Dexter killing his brother's supposed killer "in self defence"... and actually being grateful. Deeply ironic, considering what actually happened. And Miguel is a character with real depths, not all of them yet explored. I'm excited to see where all this is going... 

Coraline (2009)

 "Giraffes don't just fall from the sky, Miriam."

Let's quickly deal with the elephant in the room: there's the controversy about Neil Gaiman, it's all rather unpleasant and I'll not be going into it here. Libel laws exist, my watching this film in the way I did (perfectly legally, I must emphasise) directed no money to the writer concerned, and a film is the creation of more than a writer alone.

There can be no denying, though, that this film happens to be a wonderful little Halloween treat. Much of it is charming. The use of a parallel world evokes Lewis Carroll as well as a much older faerie tradition. The animation is glorious, clever and creative while still doing its job of narrating an entertaining story. And yet...

What really makes this brilliant is how, despite its inevitable happy ending, it really leans into the darkness of fairy tales. The very concept of a parallel world, with an Other Mother and Other Father, that is much more fun that drab reality with vaguely neglectful, busy parents... but, as ever with faerie, with a terrible price. The very thought of having one's eyes replaced by buttons is... brr!

There's more, of course. Standout performances by (who else?) French and Saunders. The matter-of-fact treatment of a talking cat. The cleverness with which it all unfolds. But this is, above all, a perfect dark little fairytale for Halloween.