Weekly Roundup 04/13/2025
Kathleen Kennedy, Predator: Killers of Killers, Dawnrunner
With work starting to pick up, I might not get a chance to write so much. By the way! Universal Studios is doing nerd weekends that’s like Horror Nights but for nerds. I’m really looking forward to it, and I think it could be very cool.
As you can probably tell, I don’t have an intro for this week.
So what can you look forward to?
New Atomic Geekdom piece
Other things I’m writing
How excited I am about more Predator
Weekly Roundup
1923
Death of a Unicorn
Creation of the Gods: Kingdom of Storms
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Absolute Green Lantern #1
Dawnrunner
Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2 review
When Kathleen Kennedy Leaves, Who Takes Over Lucasfilm?
Click the image to read the piece
Admittedly I’ve gotten burnt out over how much Star Wars there is. It’s not a Star Wars problem though. There’s so much that I want to watch that I’ve decided that I won’t watch any of it. I call it the crippling burden of choice. But that’s not what this is about!
Even though the report of her retiring ended up being false, it got me thinking about who should take over when she does. Because the outrage merchants online have been yelling about her “woke” agenda, or her getting fired, or whatever bullshit they come up with every week in order to get clicks on YouTube, I’ve avoided talking about her or Star Wars. I didn’t want people to, either think that I was doing the same, or attract them in a way that puts me in their crosshairs. Remember, I’m rather thin skinned. But I had a cool idea and it came very easy for me to write.
I didn’t see any else have this idea online because everyone thinks that Dave Filloni should take over, which I don’t agree with, so I wanted to put this idea out there. I thought it would be a fun and unique talking point and hope that others agree.
What Am I Working On?
I turned in a review of Universal Monsters: Dracula. It’s a comic book review of a comic book that I actually liked! A very rare thing and a very hard thing to write. Like way harder then it should have been. I’m going to write review of Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives next. I’m trying to prove to myself that I can write reviews of comics that I like because I have a plan for when I’m done with the three Universal Monster comics.
I currently am in the middle of my next Indiana Jones piece. It’s late for a few reasons. These are difficult for me to write, I had a full work week for the first time since January, and I had to start from scratch. The first two were adapted from essays I had already written, and the next three were never finished. I did go back and update the two already on here if you want to revisit them. At the end of every essay I’m going to include, either a real picture of the object or a real depiction of the object
I’ve got first drafts of like five other things too. Good pieces that I want to get out there! Maybe I’ll just take pictures of my journal and upload those. You guys can read chicken scratch right?
Weekly Musings
What a week! Marvel announced a new Godzilla crossover series with Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe and the Oscars announced a Stunt Catagory! All very exciting, but the one that got me more excited then anything else was this:
Predator: Killer of Killers | First Look | Hulu
I’m on record saying that the Predator franchise is more interesting and has more potential then the Alien franchise. I just haven’t really been excited about the Alien franchise since Aliens. That’s not to say that I don’t like any of the films that came after, they just haven’t sparked the imagination or had me hunger for me. But even the worst Predator films get me hungry for me. Hell, the first fan fiction I ever developed was a Predator one.
So I’m jazzed for Predator: Badlands and jazzed for this secret animated Predator film, Predator: Killer of Killers. This was all I could talk about this week. I talked to all my co-workers about this. I love the animation style and I think each setting looks awesome. Of course, like many Predator fans, I’ve always wanted to see it go up against a Samurai, so this is already more then I could have asked for.
Two Predator movies in one year?? Both directed by Dan Trachtenberg?? It’s a dream come true.
Weekly Roundup
1923 Season 2
Created by Taylor Sheridan
I don’t care for Yellowstone but because of my dad I checked out 1923. Kind of a tribute to him since he couldn’t see it himself. I liked the first season quite a bit too and was looking forward to the second season because I wanted to see Spencer and Alexandra reunite. But Taylor Sheriden is a bastard. I also think he hates women.
Firstly, Hellen Mirren and Harrison Ford were incredible. Truthfully the whole cast was, but this season was a lot slower then the last and focused mostly on Spencer and Alexandra getting to Montana. The main plot, which was what was happening to the ranch, was just spinning their wheels until Spencer could get there. But I was only interested in when Alex and Spencer could get back together. Let me tell you, this was torturous. Sheridan put Alex through the worst imaginable events. Assaulted, both physically and emotionally, and one of the most traumatizing events I’ve ever seen. I did not have a good time!
But the finally episode got me jumping out of my seat with anxiety, so that was something. At least I’m free of it.
Death of a Unicorn
W/D: Alex Scharfman
I did not care for this. I wanted to like it cause I like a good monster movie and a good “eat the rich” movie. This is both. But I also found it frustrating. I don’t mind predictability in movies, but I was so far ahead of the narrative that I got frustrated with how stupid the characters were. Not the rich idiots, the main characters.
I liked the Unicorn designs and I liked the “eat the rich” aspects.
Creation of the Gods: Kingdom of Storms
D: Wuershan/W: Jianan Ran, Ping Ran, Cao Sheng, & Wuershan
I’ve wanted to watch this for a while. Sam brought this to my attention on the Fake Nerd Podcast when we reviewed a chinese animated film based on the same mythology named Jiang Ziya. It’s a very ambitious fantasy film, probably China’s most ambitious yet. It’s been compared to The Lord of the Rings in its ambition. So did I like it? Ya man! This was cool!
It’s a lot of exposition though. There’s a ton of setup here being the first movie in a trilogy. I’m not familiar with this mythology outside of a few things I’ve already seen, so I welcomed the exposition. But since it’s subtitled that meant there was a lot of reading to do and I have a focusing problem! It was cool though, I like this mythology, but I do wish there was more fantasy in this movie since it often feels like a historical epic. I’m hoping the sequel gets more into it.
It’s got a slower pace then I would have liked and the action isn’t great, but it’s compelling and the third act makes up for a lot as everything comes crashing down. I found myself most interested in the story when the three immortals were involved since they were able to be more fantastical and eccentric.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
D: James Griffiths/W: Tom Basden & Tim Key
This was a vibes watch. It’s got a cute story of finding your voice and moving on, but it’s mostly vibes. I quite liked it. I even teared up towards the end.
Absolute Green Lantern #1
W: Al Ewing/A: Jahnoy Lindsay
I’ve been very interested in reading the Absolute universe, but I’ve been trade waiting for many comics lately. I don’t want to read to many single issue comics anymore, since they take up a lot of space and I don’t have much money coming in. Trade waiting saves me money, but also gives me FOMO. But I love Green Lantern so I was thinking that I could potentially add this to my pull list if I liked it.
I did like it! It’s a cool beginning to what will likely be a very interesting reinvention of the Green Lantern mythos. I haven’t read a lantern comic in ages and was looking forward to something like this. But I didn’t love it enough to want to continue to read it monthly. So, like the rest of the Absolute universe, I will trade wait.
Dawnrunner
W: Ram V./A: Evan Cagle
This was incredible. I saw someone on BlueSky call this a comic inspired by Pacifc Rim and Evengelion, two things I really love. So I immediately bought it. I’m so glad that I did because this blew me away and actually made me cry. As emotional as I am, it’s very hard for a comic book to make me cry. It’s probably only happened two or three times before this.
Basically, it’s set in a future where monsters have come from a portal in the sky and humanity built mechs to fight them. This became a sport for hmanity and they invented a new mech called Dawnrunner. When Anita, the main character, connects with Dawnrunner she begins to see visions of another life. Ram V. wears his Evengelion influences on his sleave here and that’s not a bad thing. There are some truly horrifying images towards the end of this book.
I love the art, and my only knock on it would be that I wish the choreography of the early fights scenes was clearer. Outside of that, this was perfect. To gush about it anymore would be to spoil it and I don’t want to do that.
Recently Posted
I still want to write a Tomorrowverse ranking list. But that’s on the back burner while I finish some other things. This is the only review I wrote for that series. There were a lot of bad faith arguments about it that I wanted to chime in about.
