Order in the (Marvel) Universe (Part VIII)

It's been a while again, been a hectic month! But in between work, trying to keep sane, an evening class, and continuing my rewatch of not only every episode of Doctor Who, but also another couple of series, I've managed to squeeze in a few more stages in my rewatch of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order.

Last post we got as far as the second and final season of Netflix's The Punisher, which brought us to the final series in the Netflix run - Jessica Jones Season Three.

Really odd series. With the introduction of the very strange choice of a villain with 'Foolkiller' Salinger, and building up the Hellcat Patricia Walker storyline, it was a bit of a low. Such a shame. Acting was great again, and they even had Benjamin Walker in it (who really should be cast in a young Qui-Gon Jinn TV series for Disney+). But Salinger was so utterly hateful, you were on Trish's side and wanted him out of the picture. Sure, she went too far, but it was really one of those 'Someone had to do it' moments. 

Add to this Hogarth's storyline, which was just a wreck of her making terrible choices, and I think Jessica was the only character to come out of this unscathed. Here's hoping they can incorporate her (and the rest of the Defenders) into the Disney+ MCU and not discount it entirely.

Strangely, we watched Black Widow next. While it's technically out of order, it kinda fit, as it takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, which is where we are. I hadn't seen this on initial release, being extremely cautious with the pandemic, so we were very eager to watch it the moment it became accessible on regular Disney+.

I have to say, the opening two thirds of Black Widow were brilliant. A great action, spy drama, with some really great scenes. The big disappointment was Taskmaster's great reveal, as that was blown by the opening credits for me seeing the actor's name come up. By about half-way through the movie, realising we hadn't seen them yet, I put two and two together and... well. On the plus side, as many have said, is Florence Pugh. Brilliant again, and really hoping she gets her own 'Black Widow' movie in the future, along with appearances in Hawkeye...

Next on the list, chronologically, we return to the movies with Ant-man and the Wasp. I think I'd only seen it once at the cinema so it was great getting to watch this again. Great stuff again, great acting, exciting scenes, really funny at the right times without going over the top (I'm looking at you Ragnarok), some scarily good de-aging CGI for Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. And great to have Laurence Fishburne and Hannah John-Kamen in the MCU. 

Technically, you should stop watching the movie just before the mid-credits sequence at the end, and come back to this scene after Infinity War. 

But that's as far as we are at the moment. Next up is the biggie - Infinity War!

Until next time, stay safe!

--

If you want to catch up and keep up with the rewatch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've been following the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...

1 - Captain America: The First Avenger

2 - Agent Carter (Season One)

3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)

4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)

5 - Captain Marvel

6 - Iron Man

7 - Iron Man 2

8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)

9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)

10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)

11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger

12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)

13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)

14 - Iron Man 3

15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)

16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)

17 - Thor: The Dark World

18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)

19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)

21 - Guardians of the Galaxy

22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

23 - Daredevil (Season One)

24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)

25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)

26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)

27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)

29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)

30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)

31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)

32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)

33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)

34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)

35 - Ant-Man

36 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 1-10)

37 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 11-19)

38 - Iron Fist (Season One)

39 - Captain America: Civil War

40 - Black Widow [New Addition to the Time Line!!]

41 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 20-22)

42 - The Defenders

43 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 1-6)

44 - Doctor Strange

45 - Black Panther

46 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 7-8)

47 - Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (Episodes 1-6)

48 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 9-22)

49 - Spider-man: Homecoming

50 - Thor: Ragnarok

51 - Inhumans (Season One)

52 - The Punisher (Season One)

53 - Runaways (Season One)

54 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 1-10)

55 - Jessica Jones (Season Two)

56 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 11-18)

57 - Cloak and Dagger (Season One)

58 - Cloak and Dagger (Season Two)

59 - Luke Cage (Season Two) 

60 - Iron Fist (Season Two)

61 - Daredevil (Season Three)

62 - Runaways (Season Two)

63 - The Punisher (Season Two)

64 - Jessica Jones (Season Three) 

65 - Ant-Man and the Wasp (credits after Infinity War)

Next up is...

66 - Avengers: Infinity War <--We Are Here!!

67 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 19-22)

68 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 6)

Order in the (Marvel) Universe (Part VII)

Many, many moons ago, right in the middle of one of the UK lockdowns, I tried to keep myself sane and distracted by rewatching all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (including the TV series) in chronological order of events.

Just because the world (well, certainly the UK) seems to think the pandemic has ended, I'm still keeping as safe as possible, and keeping myself as sane as possible by continuing this massive Marvel rewatch.

Last time I posted about the Marvel marathon was back in July, and we continued our watch through in the order that DigitalSpy recommended. We finished that section with a back-to-back rewatch of Seasons One and Two of Marvel's Cloak and Dagger. So what was next on the list in order of events?

We head back to Netflix and return to Luke Cage for Season Two. Another excellent series, though I spent most of my time frustrated by the villains again. I know you're not supposed to like Mariah, but I really hated her in this series. Luckily, she is so completely hateful, and does such absolutely horrible things that her sidekick, Shades, eventually turns on her, and she's eventually killed by her own daughter. 

Once again, Mike Colter is freakin' awesome, as is Simone Missick, and the music is just brilliant again. One episode really stood out (Episode 4) where Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram performs on stage in the club, and... man, can that guy play. 

There's a little video of his 22nd Birthday concert. He's 22. Wow... 

After Luke Cage's final season, we head over to Iron Fist's last — a shorter season of ten episodes (and it really shows that most of the Marvel series on Netflix may have worked better as ten episode runs rather than thirteen). It's a good season again, plenty going on in it. It introduces one of my wife's favourite characters from Daredevil with 'Typhoid' Mary, and once again Jessica Henwick steals the show as Colleen Wing. After a climatic battle, Wing ends up with the Iron Fist powers, channeling them through her katana, though Danny Rand can still manifest the power in some way through guns? Weird. I'd have loved to have seen where this would have continued. 

Continuing the watch through in order, we move onto another of Netflix's 'Defenders' series, and the final season of Daredevil.

Can't believe it's been so long with the world thinking Matt Murdock was dead. This series Matt is hiding for most of it under the church, his suit having been stolen by Kingpin's goons and given to Bullseye. Some amazing scenes in this again — there's the 'filmed as one shot' sequence in the prison, where Murdock foolishly goes in to get info and as trapped in there, drugged, while a riot breaks out. And then there's the intense Karen Page / Kingpin scene in Kingpin's 'home arrest' luxury apartment. Fantastic as always. Brilliant cast, and I'd love to see the actors continue these rolls in future. Will Murdock be in Spider-man? Is Kingpin in the Hawkeye series? Who knows... only time will tell.

Next in the viewing order we head back over to Disney+ for Season Two of Marvel's Runaways.

I don't know what happened. I really enjoyed Season One when we rewatched it. I remember enjoying all three seasons first time around (though the main villain in Season Three was a strange choice). But this time around, rewatching Season Two was a bit of a struggle. Maybe it's because it was longer (thirteen episodes rather than ten), and the 'big bad' is kinda stopped by the seventh or eighth episode. After that it flounders a little as they try to establish the alien possessions storyline, the AWOL storyline, and just try to get to grips with what's going on... and then it just kinda stops. 

Oh well. Onto something completely new to me - 

Season Two of The Punisher. Now, I'm going to confess, I really liked Season One, despite it being one of the most violent series I've watched in a long time. But when Season Two dropped, I didn't quite get around to watching it straight away. And then the reviews started coming in saying it wasn't as good as the first, so we never quite got around to sitting down and actually watching it. So this was the first time for us, and we were pleasantly surprised! I thought it was going to be bad, but (again helped by some great supporting cast) it was rather good again. My only complaint is the end scene with Frank gunning down a load of drug dealers. Part of me was kinda hoping he was going to go back to that roadhouse and see if he could make up again with Beth Quinn, but alas. Billy Russo met a fitting finale, and 'John Pilgrim' was scarily brutal. 

And that's as far as we've got!!

Next up on the list is another Netflix series we haven't seen before — Season Three of Jessica Jones.

--

If you want to catch up and keep up with the rewatch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've been following the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...

1 - Captain America: The First Avenger

2 - Agent Carter (Season One)

3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)

4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)

5 - Captain Marvel

6 - Iron Man

7 - Iron Man 2

8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)

9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)

10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)

11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger

12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)

13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)

14 - Iron Man 3

15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)

16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)

17 - Thor: The Dark World

18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)

19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)

21 - Guardians of the Galaxy

22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

23 - Daredevil (Season One)

24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)

25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)

26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)

27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)

29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)

30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)

31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)

32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)

33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)

34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)

35 - Ant-Man

36 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 1-10)

37 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 11-19)

38 - Iron Fist (Season One)

39 - Captain America: Civil War

40 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 20-22)

41 - The Defenders

42 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 1-6)

43 - Doctor Strange

44 - Black Panther

45 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 7-8)

46 - Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (Episodes 1-6)

47 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 9-22)

48 - Spider-man: Homecoming

49 - Thor: Ragnarok

50 - Inhumans (Season One)

51 - The Punisher (Season One)

52 - Runaways (Season One)

53 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 1-10)

54 - Jessica Jones (Season Two)

55 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 11-18)

56 - Cloak and Dagger (Season One)

57 - Cloak and Dagger (Season Two)

58 - Luke Cage (Season Two) 

59 - Iron Fist (Season Two)

60 - Daredevil (Season Three)

61 - Runaways (Season Two)

62 - The Punisher (Season Two)

Next up is...

63 - Jessica Jones (Season Three) <--We Are Here!!

64 - Ant-Man and the Wasp (credits after Infinity War)

65 - Avengers: Infinity War

66 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 19-22)

67 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 6)

[I have noticed that DigitalSpy's page has updated to insert Black Widow as Number 40 in the sequence, but we're way past that now - I haven't seen Black Widow yet, but will rectify that as soon as it hits non-premiere Disney+]

Order in the (Marvel) Universe (Part III)

 Over the last month or so, we've been distracting ourselves from the horrors of the outside world by rewatching all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order of events, including the various TV series. 

Still from Netflix series "Daredevil" featuring Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and
Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio)

We finished the first season of Daredevil, which was freakin' great again. The whole series is just gorgeously filmed, with some perfect casting. Big shout out to Vincent D'Onofrio for his portrayal of Kingpin Wilson Fisk. I grew up reading Spider-man and always found the Kingpin a bit of a boring villain - after all, he's just a crime lord, albeit a huge one both in power and physically. But D'Onofrio brings a real depth and real terror to the character. He's intriguing, and when he walks into a scene you actually feel concern for the characters around him (especially Matt Murdock). He is a manipulative rage monster with actual depth and drive. Absolutely stunning performance from him. 

You hear me Marvel? If Charlie Cox is appearing in the next Spider-man movie as Matt Murdock, how about bringing back Kingpin for a future Spidey movie - and keep D'Onofrio? He's freakin' brilliant.

After Daredevil, it was back to Agents of SHIELD. Season Two, we're starting the build up to the revelations of the Inhumans on Earth, and the fallout of the big HYDRA reveal last season and in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Absolutely loving it again this time around, as it quickly brings in some of the new characters like Bobbi Morse, Hunter, Mack, and Trip. (Poor Trip)

Promotional image from Marvel's Agents of SHIELD season 2,
featuring Coulson, Skye, May, and Trip

It's just really frustrating that SHIELD just can't get its act together. The moment HYDRA is revealed, we discover that SHIELD became two organisations both claiming to be the 'real SHIELD' and why can't they all just get along and be one? Luckily, Coulson is the constant - love Coulson - and while he was troubled by visions of Kree symbols, he's still the heart of SHIELD and a voice of reason.

Following the DigitalSpy feature's list of how to watch things chronologically, we watched the first ten episodes of Agents of SHIELD, then paused to watch the first season of Netflix's Jessica Jones. The second of Netflix's "Defenders" series. So we stopped, just as Skye is cocooned to activate her Inhuman origins. Talk about a cliffhanger...

Oh boy, where to start with Jessica Jones? More brilliant casting all around, especially Krysten Ritter. We're also introduced to Luke Cage, with another perfect bit of casting using Mike Colter. However, the whole series has a horrible sense of tension in it, thanks to the most disturbing of villains in the MCU. Worse than Thanos? Worse than Ultron? I think so... Killgrave is just the nastiest piece of work in there. 

Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Killgrave (David Tennant)

Made even worse, I think, by being played by David Tennant. I love David Tennant, probably one of the most popular Doctors in Doctor Who. But Killgrave is absolutely horrible. Being able to control people to do absolutely anything. So... effing... creepy. 

After Jessica Jones Season One it was back to Agents of SHIELD and some brilliant collaboration between the series and the movies. Watching season two of SHIELD up to episode nineteen it perfectly builds up to HYDRA's experiments and Strucker in Sokovia. While SHIELD is getting information about HYDRA's experiments on 'the twins', they get the location of Loki's sceptre. Episode 19 'The Dirty Half-Dozen' ends with this location being given to Maria Hill, and talking of a secret project "Theta Protocol"... which leads perfectly into Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The first big Age of Ultron assembled shot. Lovely slow mo as they attack Strucker's Castle

Avengers: Age of Ultron is a strange one. The characters are great, the acting is good, but I'm not a huge fan of the villain (Ultron), and some of the dialogue is problematic (Stark, how could you? Very out of character). And Joss Whedon pulled his 'guy lands on a woman in an embarrassing way' "gag" just as he did in his cut of Justice League. 

While the villain's a bit naff in my opinion, the fight sequence as the Avengers work together to defend the 'key' in Sokovia so that Ultron cannot flick the switch, is glorious. A seamless blend from one character to another, showing off their strengths, acting as a team. Fabulous. 

And it was great seeing Wanda's first appearance after watching WandaVision on its launch days. Just shows off how beautifully worked out and tied together the MCU seems to be.

After that, it's back to Agents of SHIELD for the final three episodes of season two. Episode 20 - 'Scars' perfectly continues the storyline from Age of Ultron, explaining Coulson's 'Theta Protocol' was actually Nick Fury's plan to keep a SHIELD Helicarrier hidden in case of emergencies - the very helicarrier that appears at the end of Age of Ultron to help rescue the civilians of Sokovia as their city is lifted into the air. 

Just finishing up the series today, with a great bit of Kyle MacLachlan getting all over-the-top as Skye's father. Been a big fan of Kyle MacLachlan since Dune, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks, so it's always great when he appears in things. 

With the weird solid/liquid monolith, it just reminds me how much I think Agents of SHIELD would be a great RPG. Like The X-Files in a world with aliens, superheroes, robots, and sorcerers. Sounds great to me...

For those of you who want to keep up, I'm using the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...

1 - Captain America: The First Avenger

2 - Agent Carter (Season One)

3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)

4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)

5 - Captain Marvel

6 - Iron Man

7 - Iron Man 2

8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)

9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)

10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)

11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger

12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)

13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)

14 - Iron Man 3

15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)

16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)

17 - Thor: The Dark World

18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)

19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)

21 - Guardians of the Galaxy

22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

23 - Daredevil (Season One)

24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)

25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)

26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)

27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)

Next on the list is...

29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)

30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)

31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)

32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)

33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)

34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)

35 - Ant-Man

Order in the (Marvel) Universe (part II)

 Last post I mentioned that I was distracting myself from the horrors of the real world outside by marathoning all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in chronological order of events, including the TV series. 

Phase One was pretty easy to get through, working through from Captain America: The First Avenger, through Agent Carter, and onto the individual characters' origin stories (including Captain Marvel) building up to the first big Avengers movie.

Agents of SHIELD Season One Promo Image

Then it was onto Agents of SHIELD. Oh lordy had I forgotten how cool that series is. I mean, I watched it all and loved the later series - ranting at people for not watching it from when it started - but rewatching Season One, especially punctuating it with Thor: The Dark World (in between episodes 7 & 8) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (my favourite Marvel movie. It fits between episodes 16 & 17 if you're keeping track), it really hits home how great Agents of SHIELD is. Awesome stuff. Absolutely loved it.

Had that realisation, rewatching it, that the late, great Bill Paxton's character in SHIELD is Garrett from one of my favourite comic series - Elektra: Assassin. Not sure if I twigged that reference first time around. Only shame is they didn't give him the Hawaiian shirts and big shoulder pads, but Paxton is so cool in it. 

After Season One of Agents of SHIELD, it was onto a double-bill of Guardians of the Galaxy. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Promo Image

I have a distinct memory of going to the press conference and the early screening of the first Guardians movie. I came out of the screening in tears as it was so darn good - that sequence at the beginning with Quill's mother that echoes in the final conflict against Ronan the Accuser does me in every time. It was everything I hoped the Guardians movie could be and more. 

Photo from the Guardians of the Galaxy press conference, before the cast appeared (July 2014)

And the press conference was great too (though it was a shame Vin Diesel was a no-show - Debs was so looking forward to being in the same room as Vin). 

The first one was always going to be a tough one to match when it came to sequels. 

We finished the Guardians double-bill today, and now we're back, firmly footed on Earth, and back in New York for the first season of Daredevil on Netflix. I honestly can't remember if I've watched this twice already, but I do remember loving the Netflix series - especially Daredevil. 

For those of you who want to keep up, I'm using the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...

1 - Captain America: The First Avenger

2 - Agent Carter (Season One)

3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)

4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)

5 - Captain Marvel

6 - Iron Man

7 - Iron Man 2

8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)

9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)

10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)

11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger

12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)

13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)

14 - Iron Man 3

15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)

16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)

17 - Thor: The Dark World

18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)

19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)

21 - Guardians of the Galaxy

22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

23 - Daredevil (Season One)

--

coming next...

24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)

25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)

26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)

27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

Should keep me out of trouble for a bit...

Stay safe everyone. 

Order in the Universe

Lockdown has been a bit of a strain on everyone, especially mentally. While I've been grateful not to be out in the public, being exposed to the threat of the virus, it has been hard to concentrate on things. Luckily, I've had plenty of writing to keep my occupied, with both WILD and something else (that I'm not sure if I can talk about yet).

But when I haven't been writing, I've wanted as big a distraction from the real world as possible. Thinking about the virus, what it has done to everyone, all the people we've lost, those who deny its dangers. Heck, I ended up with counselling last year from having to go out among people for work.

So, to distract myself from the real world, I've been watching a lot of movies and TV. When I mean, a lot, I mean A LOT...

When Disney+ started, we had this ridiculous idea of rewatching all of Star Wars in chronological order of the events. Okay, so we didn't re-jig the episodes of The Clone Wars into event order, but we watched everything...

Starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars (all seven seasons), Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rebels (all four seasons), Rogue One, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, The Mandalorian, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Resistance (season 1), Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Resistance (season 2) and finally, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

Was great to watch everything in this order. Took a long time, we didn't marathon it or anything, and after many months, we finished the Star Wars rewatch about a week ago. The highlights were definitely rewatching The Clone Wars and Rebels. Rebels is such a good series. Seriously, why haven't you watched it yet?

Anyway, that was Star Wars done... so what do I watch to distract myself next?

The X-Files is going onto Disney+ in a few days, despite me already having it on VHS and DVD (but not Bluray, much to my disgust... and can you get it on Bluray now without a lottery win? No. Why have they discontinued it? - I know, probably to make you get Disney+). 

After watching the weekly episode of WandaVision there seemed to be one really obvious rewatch to do... the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe... in chronological order. 

Now, I'm not going to be pedantic - I know some of the episodes of Agents of SHIELD involve time travel, but I'm going to stick with the time the team should have been in if they weren't knocked out of time, or in an alternate dimension, alternate future, etc... So we're sticking to the order that DigitalSpy recommended.

So, we started with Captain America: The First Avenger, (my second favourite movie in the MCU... you'll have to wait if you want to know my favourite)... followed by the fantastic Agent Carter (seasons 1 & 2). Why did that ever get cancelled? Great series, and great to watch it again.

Okay, so you know I said I wasn't being pedantic? Well, maybe a little. Agent Carter is followed by the strange 'alternate version' with Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter (found on the Iron Man 3 Bluray). Peggy's back in New York and being treated like crap, before Howard Stark gets her to start up SHIELD. The beginning is like a prequel to the TV series, but it definitely ends afterwards with Carter's big new assignment. 

There's a big time-jump in the timeline from the 1940's to the 1990's, as the 'one-shot' is followed by Captain Marvel (may have to look into what happened to the Tesseract between Howard Stark finding it at the bottom of the ocean to Lawson using it to power the lightspeed engine), Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk (not on Disney+ to due rights issues, but it's on Netflix if you want to keep up and don't own the disc), and then onto the 'one-shots' again...

Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant is next (on the Thor bluray), explaining the appearance of Tony Stark at the end of The Incredible Hulk in a great bit of retconning. Along with Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer (on the Captain America bluray). You could so tell they were testing the water for Agent Coulson to get his own spin-off series. This leads in nicely to Thor (The Mighty Avenger), and the big team up movie The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble as it was called over here). A movie I have a bit of a history with as it was my first big press conference (yes, I was in the same room as 90% of the Avengers) but it occurred just as my mother was hospitalised. Anyway, that's another story...

It's been really cool watching these all again, despite us having watched them dozens and dozens of times before. Heck, I can probably recite huge chunks of Captain America and Thor off by heart. 

Topping off MCU Phase 1, we squeezed in Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 (which again, was so setting up a SHIELD spin-off, which can be found on the Avengers bluray) before making a start on Phase 2 this morning. 

We started Phase 2 with Iron Man 3, and the Marvel One-Shot: All Hail The King (which I do think is Ben Kingsley's finest performance, found on the Thor: The Dark World bluray). 

And now we're onto a rewatch of season 1 of Agents of SHIELD. Must admit, I love Agents of SHIELD, though I know a lot of people gave up on season one for it being a bit slow. Did they ever miss out! The whole Agents of HYDRA series and the time travel seasons? Awesome. Love it. Of course, we're starting slow, and stopping at the right time to insert the movies and more from Phase 2. So we're going to keep watching until the end of Episode 7, then onto Thor: The Dark World. We're on Episode 3 at the moment (with Ian Hart appearing, looking identical to a very good friend of mine). 

I'll let you know how we get on. It's been a great distraction from the impending doom of returning to the outside world. 

Stay safe everyone, 

[Roll Your Own Life] The Movies That Made Me (Part 24)

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE / THE AVENGERS (2012)

Doing this chronologically has meant that the final movie in the 24 movies that have had the biggest impact on my life is tinged with a bit of a down-side. Marvel's big movie, The Avengers (or as we in the UK got it Avengers Assemble, because we didn't want to get confused with John Steed and Emma Peel) was a bit of a landmark, and coincided with some major and not great changes in my life...

Okay, let's set the scene. I grew up reading Marvel comics. I loved Iron Man, Thor, Dr Strange, and especially Spider-man. I was one of the first in that darn queue to go and see Iron Man when it came out and absolutely loved it. Blown away by how cool it was, and by how true to the comics it felt. I loved Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and I especially loved Captain America: The First Avenger. These were all brilliant movies in my eyes and I was loving what Marvel were doing with their films.

Let's just get this straight here - my opinion has not changed in the slightest. I love the MCU movies, and don't think there is a bad one in there. My favourites, just for the record, are Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Doctor Strange.

At this time, I was blogging for the SyFy Channel, and doing some writing for a couple of other websites including Forces of Geek. Thanks to this, I'd managed to get on the press lists for some of the big movies coming up, and managed to go and see some movies in advance so that I could review them for websites.

However, the biggest one was to come when I was invited to the press screening of The Avengers, and an invite to attend the UK press conference the following day.

So, I headed down to London. Press invite printed out, name on the list, I went to the Odeon Leicester Square along with loads of other press people, and eagerly awaited the biggest movie of the decade. It was raining when I got there, but it didn't matter. I was going to see The Avengers. They took my name, saw my ID, watched me turn my phone off, and in I went...

The movie was brilliant. Absolutely loved it. I was a massive Joss Whedon fan, and as always he managed to weave a story with an ensemble cast that made sure everyone got screen time, everyone had a storyline, and it all made sense. Fantastic!

I remember staggering out of the movie amazed and happy.

I took the tube to my inlaws where I was going to sleep that night, ready for the following day's press conference, and tried to turn my phone back on. Nothing. It had gotten completely soaked in my jacket pocket and was dead - it really wasn't going to come back on. Nuts.

Eventually, a couple of tube rides later I arrived at my mother-in-law's to discover that people had been trying to get in touch with me all evening. My phone was off, and wouldn't come back on, so it was all news to me... but while I was in that screening watching some of my favourite childhood heroes leap about on screen, my mother had been taken into hospital and it wasn't looking great. I couldn't get home, the trains were no longer running that far up the country, and there was nothing I could do. I spoke to my family to see how she was and how things were, and once in hospital she was doing okay. She was going to be in there a while.

In the end, reassured that there was nothing I could do and that she would be alright, I was convinced by everyone that I should stay where I was, and go to the press conference. It was a big deal, and my mum would have wanted me to go and experience something as amazing as this.

So, reluctantly, I did.

The following morning, I phoned around again to check everything was okay and that I was doing the right thing, and then I headed back into the city to go to the press conference. My phone was still dead, but I had my camera - but I wasn't allowed to take photos during the conference as that honour went to some of the professional reporters and photographers, and the video camera crews from places that had more clout than me.

I took a photo before it started - a swanky hotel ballroom had been transformed into this massive conference hall, with chairs and cameras set up facing the wall of heroes and chairs for the actors...

I managed to get a seat about seven rows back so I wasn't too far from the actors as they came out.

Selfie at the conference before it started

When they did, it was amazing. I've reported about this before on the blog back in 2012, but actually being in the same room as the whole cast of The Avengers was electric. You can tell why these people are in movies, because up close they are all so darn attractive. They're all gorgeous people.

And there was me, like a bald potato sitting in the audience. Star-struck, stunned, and my head spinning in circles confused by what had happened the previous night and whether my mother was going to be okay.

The press conference itself was about thirty minutes. Robert Downey Jr stole the show being the living embodiment of Tony Stark. Being in the same room as Scarlett Johansson is a little disconcerting. These were the biggest actors on the planet, just about - and certainly would eventually be the biggest actors in the biggest movie franchise, and in the biggest movie. And there I was, fifteen feet from them. That expression in the awful selfie above? Yeah, that was pretty much my expression for the whole thing.

Not my photo, I wasn't allowed...

And then it was over. They bid their farewells, and wandered off to the one on ones in various hotel rooms with the press that would be used on every entertainment programme from around the world.

I grabbed my bag, and headed home - made the two hour trip back home, showered, changed, repacked a new bag, then started the six hour trip back to my hometown so I could visit my mother.

She was okay, but it was the start of things going bad. She was in hospital for weeks after that as they tried to work out what was wrong and to assess the situation. Eventually, she was released into a care facility in my hometown, but never returned to the family home. The Avengers night in question was April, and she died in August. During those last few months I spent a couple of days every week when I had time off from work up there visiting, but I've always felt guilty that I couldn't be reached that night.

On those visits my mum said that I did the right thing, that she was okay, and she listened to me relating the story of the press conference and being in the same room as the stars.

It wasn't the last press conference I went to, and I managed to go to the Thor: The Dark World one (the video of which is on my Youtube channel - my most watched video as it has Tom Hiddleston in it), the Guardians of the Galaxy one (which just reinforced my infatuation with Karen Gillan - I managed to bring Debs along for that one, but unfortunately Vin Diesel was a no show), and the first Ant-Man one.

In time, the invites stopped coming. I couldn't afford to keep going to London to see movies for press screenings, and the last one I attended was to see part of The World's End, where I met Edgar Wright. Pair this with the websites I was writing for shutting down, and my time as a movie journalist had come to an end.

It was fun while it lasted.

--

And that's it. My twenty-four movies that have had the biggest impact on my life. It was hard to narrow it down to just twenty-four, movies have been such a major part.

Hope it wasn't too boring!

I'm thinking of doing one more of these things - possibly books? - but not as many. The time to go back to the day-job is looming ever closer.

In the meantime, stay safe everyone. Look after yourselves and those around you.

Being Frank Movie Review

Many moons ago I used to review movies. I loved doing it too, and went to some awesome screenings and press conferences - heck I was in the same room as the entire cast of the Avengers! Yes, I was twenty feet away from Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hiddleston without passing out. Getting to these screenings was pricey and soon fell outside of my budget, and the big Marvel movies didn't really need press conferences and screenings to get people interested - people were going to see them no matter what! - so my movie reviewing seemed to have been left by the wayside.

However, I still get invites and review offers for some of the coolest indie movies around, and last month I was offered the chance to check out the new documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story. 

I couldn't make it to the screening, but my very good friend Maz Webster went in my place and really enjoyed it. Anyway, enough of me waffling on, here's Maz with her review of Being Frank.

This is a portrait of the man underneath the over-sized papier-mâché head of Frank Sidebottom, Chris Sievey. A good looking, hugely creative man. One that saw himself as a pop star, and could have achieved such status but didn’t fit into the Manchester music scene of the time. With his band, The Freshies, he released a few pure pop Manchester singles but they never quite broke out. Frank Sidebottom first appeared at a Freshies gig as a fan. This appears to be the start of a split personality which intimately consumed its creator.

Being Frank is an affectionate film including interviews with some of the privileged few who knew  Chris Sievey and including well known fans such as John Cooper Clarke and Johnny Vegas. This comical and moving story is told through extensive images, music and tapes made by Sievey himself. 

Starting with him as a young man, this is a portrait of a family man who had a fun and unique approach to fatherhood. Often making videos with his children, this is a man who lived and breathed art in all forms. Apparently never disheartened when a project failed to take off, he would just move on to the next idea. Frank Sidebottom was just meant to be a fun character but became a legendary Manchester personality putting the suburb of Timperley on the map. Sidebottom was often on television, released records, produced a comic and made many live appearances particularly through the ‘Madchester’ time of the late 1980’s. 

Frank Sidebottom allowed Chris Sievey to express his art and claim the fame he sought after. The alter ego however, started to overtake his true personality and a double life was truly formed. 

This is a thoroughly enjoyable film and is totally fascinating and inspiring. The world has lost a fantastic artist and human being. It’s time to bring Sievey and Sidebottom into your life. It really is.

Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story is released in cinemas in the UK on 29th March 2019 by Altitude. For further information, check out the official website for the movie at www.beingfrankmovie.com and check out the trailer below.

They're gonna put you in the movies!

One of my great sidelines and distractions in the past has been film reviewing and publicising. I've always had an interest in movies, as you'll probably have noticed from my blog posts in the past. Even before my fascination with gaming I was enjoying the thrill of Bond movies, the spectacle of the first Star Wars, and a wealth of TV scifi and action.

I took my love of movies through to my academic years, studying film, film language, and even writing my dissertation on the differences of film language and rules compared to another medium - comics.

Taking this interest in film to the internet was an obvious choice, and I ended up blogging for the SyFy Channel UK (though they removed all their blog posts so I can't link to them), for the Tor Books UK site, and more recently for the Geekologists.

I've gone to premieres, the press conferences for things like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor and Ant-Man.

I've interviewed amazing people like the Soska Sisters about their careers and awesome movies.

Hell, I've sat within feet of Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson!

But now I've found myself without a site to write movie / TV stuff for. I kinda thought about doing it here, on this blog, but I know that most of the time I write about tabletop RPG stuff.

But is it really that different? A lot of the time, my movie / TV experiences can be connected to gaming. The last time I tried this, I was sent a link about the remake of Carrie by the lovely people at the various film companies that ask me to review things, and I promoted the trailer and talked about my experiences meeting the legendary Stephen King. (Yes, I know the trailer is missing now... the internet is only so big, they probably had to delete it to make room for another trailer or something*).

Most of the time when the publicity people send me stuff, it's links to trailers and things that - by the time you've gone to the effort to post something about - someone has usually beaten you to it. And by someone, I mean people who actually do this sort of thing for a living and get paid for it.

I got sent a link to the new Ghostbusters trailer today, the new international (and improved) trailer. I was thinking about posting it, and what I thought about it (for the record, I didn't hate it and will reserve judgment until the film comes out - I just hope there's some sort of acknowledgement of the original movies in there) and my love of the original Ghostbusters (and especially the West End Games RPG). I've discussed my Ghostbusters history before, how I tried to get into game writing with an old electric typewriter and a head full of bad ideas for Ghostbusters adventures.

Part of me really wants to keep writing and reporting on geek news, movies and TV - it's a good way to keep writing when otherwise the gears get rusty and I don't feel like tapping the keyboard. But I'm also thinking "should I bother?" - shouldn't I be writing the games? And there are so many other things I have circling my head - a podcast of a dramatisation of the WILD novels, a webseries of the Role Your Own Life blog entries...

All of these things are a distraction. But without those distractions, I would never have had such fantastic encounters with the movie world.

What to do? I don't know... but the future's already around the corner.

* Yes, I know that's not how the internet works.