There is a monster of a rumble coming as King Kong and Godzilla duke it out in a new Warner Bros movie. GODZILLA VS KONG romps its way into movie theaters across North America as well as streams on HBO Max on March 31, 2020. Not only will this monster of a movie be coming our way soon but also a number of tie-in comics and books are arriving this Spring too. I'm so geeked!
Godzilla Dominion— the prequel graphic novel written by Greg Keyes (the Age of Unreason trilogy; three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels in the New Jedi Order series) with art by Drew Edward Johnson (DC’s Wonder Woman, Supergirl; Legendary Comics’ Godzilla Aftershock)—will feature a unique story that picks up after the events of the film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where the Titans have risen and the reign of Godzilla has begun. As told entirely from Godzilla’s point of view, the graphic novel brings new insights into the King of Monsters: his habitats, ancient rivalries, encounters with new Titans, and other challenges. As his new era of dominance is tested, a coming confrontation with another King looms.
Kingdom Kong is a sequel to the graphic novel Skull Island: Birth of Kong and a prelude to the film Godzilla vs. Kong. This graphic novel will follow a group of highly skilled military pilots gathered together on Skull Island to see who has ‘the right stuff’ to take on a dangerous mission into the hollow earth. One of the pilots, Audrey, is haunted by the memories of a monstrous clash with one of Godzilla’s titanic rivals that left deep scars. When Skull Island is attacked by Camazotz, a bat-like Titan, Audrey must to come to terms with her inner demons, and finding his home newly threatened, Kong must rise to face this usurper that would plunge the world into perpetual night. Kingdom Kong is written by Marie Anello (Shout Out) with art by ZID (Legendary Comics’ Skull Island: The Birth of Kong; Trick ‘r Treat: Days of the Dead; Spectral: Ghosts of War).
New York Times’ bestselling author Greg Keyes returns once again to the Monsterverse with Titan Books’ Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization, taking readers deeper into the worlds of Monarch, the Titans, and so much more. Humanity fights for its future as Godzilla and Kong embark on a path of destruction that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in an all-out war.
Godzilla vs. Kong: One Will Fall, The Art of the Ultimate Battle Royale— written by Daniel Wallace with a special foreword by director Adam Wingard—takes fans behind-the-scenes revealing how this monstrously epic film was brought to the screen. The deluxe book will feature a dynamic selection of exclusive concept art, pre-production materials, on-set photography and insight from the filmmakers, making it the ultimate guide to an iconic movie showdown.
For new readers wanting to discover the backstories of Godzilla and Kong for the first time or fans revisiting their favorite adventures, the Monsterverse Titanthology Vol 1 brings the previously released graphic novels, Skull Island: The Birth of Kong (2017) and Godzilla: Aftershock (2019), together in one legendary volume for the first time ever.
There is a book for young readers too with Kong & Me by New York Times’ bestselling author Kiki Thorpe (The Never Girl early chapter book series) with illustrations by Nidhi Chanani (Pashmina; I will be fierce). Children will be able to follow along as the mighty Titan and his new pal spend a day of fun and adventure exploring the many wonders of Skull Island — proving that friendships come in many sizes and no matter how different we are, no one is too big or small to find a true friend.
Legends collide in Godzilla vs. Kong as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans--instigated by unseen forces--is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth. Godzilla vs Kong is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language.
This last weekend there was a huge gathering of fans at the convention center in Anaheim California celebrating all things Star Wars. If you were like me and wanted to go but just didn't have the extra time and money for a trip to CA, here's a roundup of many of the exciting announcements and previews that came out of STAR WARS CELEBRATION 2015. The rest of this year and into next year is going to be full of Star Wars thrills!
MOVIES
Disney's first feature film since acquiring the Star Wars franchise hits theaters on December 18, 2018. THE FORCE AWAKENS is set in a time of the Star Wars continuum approximately 30 years after the events that transpired in the movie RETURN OF THE JEDI uniting George Lucas' original trilogy of movies with a new era of story telling under Disney's stewardship. A new trailer for the film was released at Star Wars Celebration and it really has given me a lot of encouragement that Disney is getting this film right producing something that old school fans like myself will love and a new generation of movie watchers will adore. Check it out!
Disney also hosted a panel discussion at Star Wars Celebration about another new Star Wars movie it is producing called ROGUE ONE that will be hitting theaters during the 2016 Christmas season. The film's director Gareth Edwards presented the official plot for the movie: A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans. Edwards noted that the film which will take place between Episodes III and IV of the Star Wars movie timeline will have a focus on the WAR aspect of Star WARS. "It is called Star WARS" he joked to the panel audience. To add some grit and realism to ROGUE ONE's portrayal of warfare, Edwards has enlisted members of his production team that have worked on war movies such as Zero Dark Thirty, Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down.
Filming for ROGUE ONE will take place this summer. While the film hasn't been shot yet, Edwards did provide a glimpse at some concept art prepared for the movie and a teaser video of computer generated imagery to give people a sense of the vibe he wants for the Star Wars: Rogue One. As the first stand alone movie, though it is somewhat tied to the others through the Death Star connection, this film really will have a big impact on Disney's long term viability for making more and more Star Wars movies. Disney can't afford to have this movie be a JOHN CARTER type bust and it appears they are taking its production very seriously. Just from the limited information I have on this movie already though I'm already excited about it and looking forward to learning more in the coming months ahead.
courtesy of StarWars.com
TELEVISION
DisneyXD's Star Wars: Rebels animated television series is returning this Fall for a second season. When my 6 year old son thinks of Star Wars this TV series has really been his first exposure to these tales from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. This is a show that is very suitable for him to watch yet I also find very entertaining and interesting to watch as well. The two of us have really enjoyed some bonding time together watching this show. The trailer released at Star Wars Celebration shows that DisneyXD may be expanding upon a great first season with an even more incredible second season.
I really don't like the prequel movie trilogy -- it just stripped away too much of the magic and mystery of the original movies -- but found the Clone Wars animated television shows to be a decent program. One of my favorite all time Star Wars characters actually is from the Clone Wars series, Cad Bane, a deadly bounty hunter that would give the legendary Boba Fett a run for his money. For my own personal viewing enjoyment, I just wipe out the prequel trilogies and the Star Wars timeline currently is made up of the Clone Wars and Rebels television shows, the original movies (Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) and the upcoming Disney movies. Because there is a large viewing audience that is younger than me that grew up watching Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network and a more "mature" group of fans like myself, Rebels is bringing some of these characters back. Check out the trailer to see for yourself!
I'm really looking forward to watching with my son the showdown between his favorite Star Wars character, Ezra, and one of my favorite childhood villains Darth Vader.
VIDEO GAMES
Electronic Arts showed off their first collaboration with Star Wars in its BattleFront video game. I can't wait until November to load this game up on my Playstation4 and immerse myself in tackling the Empire from a speeder bike or x-wing.
COMIC BOOKS
I have to give kudos to Marvel because since taking over the brand they haven't just used it to cash in on the name, they've been publishing a great product. I've read every issue they've published of their new series STAR WARS and DARTH VADER and have enjoyed every one of them. Lando Calrissian will be joining these titles with his own mini-series STAR WARS: LANDO beginning in July which will feature a story that takes place between the events in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Also coming in September will be a mini-series titled SHATTERED EMPIRE that will share what happened after the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi and bridge some of the gap between the movies Episode VI and the upcoming Episode VII.
The current story arc in Marvel's STAR WARS will wrap up in issue #6 this summer and a new arc will begin with issue #8. Star Wars #7 will be a stand alone story featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi during his exile on Tatooine.
So there you have it! It looks like there are going to be a lot of thrills for Star Wars fans throughout the rest of the year and into next. I for one am really going to be enjoying it!
2014 was somewhat of a lackluster year of movies for families with younger children (elementary school age and under) to enjoy. There were numerous times last year when my wife and I said let's take the family to go see a movie and there just wasn't anything that was suitable to take our 5 year old twins to go see playing at the theaters. So it was nice to start off 2015 by going to the family friendly film PADDINGTON at our local MJR cinema. I have to say that our family found the Paddington movie as enjoyable to watch as a bear from darkest Peru will find marmalade delicious. It really was a nice selection for a family outing to the movies.
It was a bit nostalgic going to see this film with my wife and kids, because the Paddington Bear novels by Michael Bond were the first books that I read entirely on my own as an elementary school aged student. My aunt for a birthday present one year gave me a collection of the classic Paddington children's books and a toy bear of the character to go with it. I really adored Paddington Bear and his adventures in faraway London and after reading the books begging my mother every day to let my try marmalade. Ugh when she finally let me try marmalade I hated the stuff but I have still always liked the mischievous, inquisitive, kind-hearted Paddington Bear.
The movie does a nice job of bringing Brown's first book "A Bear Called Paddington" to life on the silver screen though it does take a lot of liberties with its script and is more inspired by than portraying the novel. The key characters from the books though are all featured in the movie: Paddington's Aunt Lucy, the Brown Family, the antique shop owner Mr. Gruber, and the mean spirited odd neighbor Mr. Curry. The movie differentiates from the novel in that while the book is a series of humorous misadventures involving a bear adjusting to life in "civilization" the main storyline of the movie involves a taxidermist (played by Nicole Kidman) trying to kill and stuff Paddington so the rare Peruvian bear can be displayed in London's Natural History Museum. Though it didn't bother my kindergarten aged children, since this plot is of a darker nature than the light-hearted children's books the movie is based on people may want to be cautious of taking children who may be sensitive or scared by the the topic of death or scenario of someone trying to kill this little bear. While the chase after Paddington is presented in an over-the-top comedic manner there are still some intense scenes that take place that may be too much for some younger viewers. That being said my twins laughed throughout the movie and had a jolly good time.
The cgi (computer generated imagery) used to create Paddington Bear is very remarkable. You really become immersed in the story and the character doesn't stand out as a cgi image but rather blends in to the point that you think of it as just another actor in the story. Hats off to the creative team who blended the movie's real life scenery and actors with a cgi character in such a nice way.
PADDINGTONtells the story of the comic misadventures of a young
Peruvian bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) who travels across the sea hiding in a cargo ship to London, England in search
of a home after his jungle life is destroyed by an earthquake. Finding himself lost and alone, he begins to realize that
city life is not all he had imagined - until he meets the kindly Brown
family who read the label around his neck that says "Please look after
this bear. Thank you," and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as
though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye
of a museum taxidermist.
My family all had our own favorite scenes from the movie. My son is still laughing about the bathroom flood scene which ends up having the curious bear flying down the Brown's flat's stairs in a bathtub. I have to keep an eye on my toothbrush now as my daughter's favorite part was when Paddington used Mr. Brown's toothbrush as "ear cleaners" - yuck! My wife thought the bear's interactions with London's pigeon population was hilarious and found a scene where he shares a moment with a Buckingham Palace guard adorable. My favorite scene was when Paddington chases down a pick pocket saving the day and aiding the police while generously trying to return a dropped wallet to the thief not suspecting it may have been stolen. The movie is full of fun scenes like these that will have you wanting to see more adventures with Paddington and with 13 novels for source material combined with the quality of this film I'm sure there will be sequels following. So don't miss out on how the adventure begins and make an effort to watch PADDINGTON.
PADDINGTON gets A GEEK DADDY nod of approval because it was a movie that my wife and I felt taking our six year old children to see and the whole family enjoyed it. To quote my lovely wife "it really was a charming movie." If you are looking to start out the new year with a family outing to your local movie theater PADDINGTON provides an ideal opportunity. And just in case the movie theater popcorn doesn't fill you up...don't forget to keep a marmalade sandwich hidden under your hat.
P.S. Michael Bond who authored the Paddington novels appears in the film as the "Kindly Gentleman" though I found out about this after viewing the movie and am not sure where exactly his cameo was. There's an easter egg for you to hunt for when watching the movie.
A NEW DAWN ushers in a new era of publishing for the Sci-Fi franchise being the first novel to be "officially" included in Disney's canon for its Star Wars Universe and serves as an introduction to the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. This book is a decent romp of an adventure for the teen and young adult audience that the Star Wars: Rebels television show is being developed for and marketed to. The tie-in to the Disney XD tv series and Star Wars universe is a great hook to get a young audience, that probably doesn't read literature as much as they should, to pick up and enjoy a book. While the novel isn't designated as a Young Adult (YA) book [The Young Adult Library Service of the American Library Association defines the young adult genre as for ages twelve to eighteen although many publishers and authors market materials as either Teen Fiction for ten to fifteen year olds or Young Adult for sixteen to twenty-five year olds] that should be its key audience as it really is a flop when it comes to providing an enjoyable read for more mature adult Star Wars fans who may be more discerning readers.
The story begins with a young fourteen year old Jedi in training (known as a Padawan) named Caleb Dume who escapes the Empire's purge of the Jedi Order and goes into hiding. Ten years pass and Caleb has changed his ways and his identity to avoid detection from the bounty out on the heads of any remaining Jedi. Hiding out in a backworld mining community far away from the heart of the Empire, he enjoys a lifestyle of drinking and carousing with the ladies when not performing menial labor to get by. Caleb never uses the force or his real name to avoid any chance of being associated as a Jedi which would undoubtedly lead to his death at the hands of Imperial authorities. The problem becomes that the mineral being exclusively mined where he is hiding out suddenly becomes a hot commodity being used to build the Empire's Star Destroyers (and probably the Death Star too) bringing with it the novel's villain and a lot of attention to the planet that Caleb, now known as Kannan Jarrus, doesn't want.
Kannan Jarrus is one of the primary characters of the Star Wars: Rebels animated series described as a Jedi in hiding from the Empire. So anyone who has looked into the show in advance or watches any of its episodes will quickly pickup that Kannan Jarrus is Caleb Dume. I suspected this about a page into when the Kannan Jarrus character was introduced but the author tries to spin this angle into a huge plot twist for the story. Younger audiences may not connect the dots and appreciate this story angle but more sophisticated readers will find this angle overplayed and a rather boring element of the story that drags on way too long.
John Jackson Miller originally became associated with the Star Wars universe by scripting some pretty good stories for Dark Horse Comic Books which he parlayed into a gig as an author for Star Wars novels. I've read all of his Star Wars books so far because their descriptions always sound interesting and I enjoy Star Wars stories. A New Dawn though just really finally cemented for me that I'm not a fan of John Jackson Miller's novels which I find to be very simplistic and uninspiring. I give him credit for having great story ideas but beyond delivering a decent outline for a novel's premise he just can't deliver a quality final product in my opinion. Yet, I will say his work is probably good enough to amuse and entertain a younger reader so I would recommend A New Dawn to that demographic; but John Jackson Miller's writing just doesn't cut it for me when it comes to wanting to devote my valuable time towards enjoying a good book. To be honest, if I wasn't reading A New Dawn for this review I probably would have stopped reading it halfway through the story.
A New Dawn also introduces another major character from Star Wars: Rebels known as Hera Syndulla, but beyond introducing this mysterious Twi'lek as being "mysterious" that is about all we get about her. We find out that she owns a space ship called the Ghost which is a big part of Rebels but don't learn anything about her past or present that really connects her to the television show. I thought the book was supposed to be setting up the television series but telling the story of how Kannan and Hera meet before Rebels is about all the novel accomplishes. Hera seems to have a lot of information and intel about the story's main villain and other Imperial activities but the story doesn't delve into how she acquired it, how she funds her secret agent type activities, who, if anyone, she is associated with, what is she actually doing traveling around the galaxy piloting an expensive starship, and so on. The story actually goes out of its way to say there isn't a Rebellion yet...so what is Hera up to and what brought her to mingle in the Empire's affairs. None of these issues is brought up and it just leaves you scratching your head.
Miller doesn't even do a nice job of creating a reason for Kannan and Hera to team up. Essentially the author has Kannan lusting after Hera and offering to follow her and help her in whatever she wants him to do because he's fallen for this mysterious beauty? Really! that just seems a little naive and uncreative. Fortunately for readers incidents beyond the two of them bring Kannan and Hera together for a more rational reason to join forces rather than her being an attractive female that caught his eye. In the end, the two of them fly off together into the sunset to do who knows what because John Jackson Miller doesn't elaborate anything about Hera other than she is a good fighter and pilot who hates the Empire.
The best part of the story is probably the villain who is sort of a parallel Darth Vader. While Darth Vader went from being a healthy and powerful person that was crippled into a robotic cyborg form, Count Vidian was a sickly and weak individual that became physically and professionally powerful when he transformed his body into a mechanical cyborg. Count Vidian was a worthwhile adversary and featured the best plot elements and twists in the story. I appreciated how he demonstrates the corruption and abuses of the Empire from a business perspective versus the military viewpoint that is the normal perspective in Star Wars novels. Unfortunately in the end, the reader isn't invested enough within the story and its characters to really care if County Vidian succeeds with his villainous scheme or not but rather is just curious to find out how the story will wrap up.
For this being the first book to be included in the canon for the overall Star Wars storyline and the introduction to the highly anticipated Rebels, I have to say it was disappointing that the novel didn't contribute anything memorable to either.
