Episode 87: Thankful for the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

 

Welcome all, and to our fellow Americans, Happy Thanksgiving! It's become a tradition here at Planet 8 for us to celebrate and be thankful for some genre-related franchise, and in the past, we've been thankful for Star Trek, Star Wars, and James Bond. This year, we are expressing our love and gratitude for the magnificent Marvel Cinematic Universe -the MCU! Now with 26 films and climbing, not to mention the MCU TV series, we've been blessed with a bountiful collection of films that created a rich, complex, and deeply rewarding experience for the viewers. 

We'll have a conversation about our early experience with the MCU, when we first started hearing about Marvel making an Iron Man film, what we thought of it and how Marvel blew us away with that and the succeeding films. 

Casting has been a big key to making the films successful, and we'll talk about our favorite castings and the ones we thought might have been crazy, but actually worked out really well. 

Of course, no discussion of the MCU would be complete without going around and talking about which Marvel movies are our favorites! With so many to choose from now, it's getting harder to pick, but we do come up with a few. Amazingly, there are few MCU films that we don't like. There may be a few that we like less...but somehow they have kept a high level of quality through the series.

The crew also talks a bit about the latest MCU film, The Eternals, so if you haven't seen that film yet, be warned! And we can't neglect all the activity on Disney Plus - four series so far, and as this episode goes live, the Hawkeye series will be hitting the airwaves in a couple of days! Where else will the Marvel Cinematic Universe go? We can't wait to see.

For the Sensor Sweep, Bob shares information about a book by his friend Norman England, Behind the Kaiju Curtain: A Journey onto Japan's Biggest Film Sets. This book is a personal record of Norman's experiences while he wrote for Fangoria and was able to visit the sets of a number of kaiju films in a professional capacity. He met many of the actors and crew on the films and the book gives you an intimate look at what went on in the Japanese film industry in the 90s. If you like kaiju films, this is a must-read! Ask for it at your local bookseller, or get it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

That's all for us this time. Listeners, we are also thankful for you! We appreciate you listening to us, commenting, subscribing, contacting us on Twitter and Facebook. It's great to feel a sense of community forming around Planet 8. We hope that you and yours are safe and well.

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Avengers Assemble!!

Episode 79: Marvel Two in One -Black Widow and Loki!

Finally, the Black Widow movie has been released! It's been delayed over a year, but now it's out in the theater (as well as on Disney Plus), and your intrepid crew has made the journey back to the theater to check it out. In this SPOILER-FILLED review, we'll share our thoughts on the film and how it works with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a bonus, we also discuss the Disney Plus series  Loki, which takes the villain/anti-hero through an adventure that has major implications for the rest of the MCU.

Black Widow takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Infinity War, and provides a glimpse into Natasha's life before she became an Avenger. On the run from Thunderbolt Ross, Natasha winds up returning home after her long lost "Sister" contacts her, and she learns that the Red Room program that turned her into an assassin is still operating.

The Planet 8 crew discusses what we liked about the film, the performances, the little bits of connective tissue to other MCU films, and so much more. This film introduces some major characters, including Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, aka the "other" Black Widow, David Harbour as the Red Guardian and the villain Taskmaster, whose identity is rather controversial. If nothing else, it was a great spotlight for Scarlett Johansson and a good send off for the character.

The Loki TV show was a mixed bag for the Planet 8 crew. Certainly Tom Hiddleston did a wonderful job in providing us with a Loki of real substance who goes through extensive character growth. The story itself was complex and with the timestream fractured, should feed directly into Spider-Man: No Way Home and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. What other Marvel properties might we see come out of this? Phase 4 looks to be full of surprises!

Our Sensor Sweep brings us some great shows coming to the Bay Area. In August, there will be two Godzillafest shows at the  Balboa Theater in San Francisco.  On August 20-22, it will be King Kong Crashes Godzillafest, with a number of King Kong kaiju films as well as many Godzilla films, and special guest Linda Miller from King Kong Escapes. Then on August 27-29, it's Legendary Godzillafest, featuring many Legendary Godzilla films, with special guest TJ Storm, motion capture artist who played Godzilla. Both weekends will have vendors with tons of goodies. And there will even be a show t-shirt. Go to Bay Area Film Events to get all the info about tickets, what movies are going to be shown, and more!

We'd love to hear your thoughts on Black Widow and Loki! Did you go to the theater to see Black Widow? Was it your first time back in the theater? Let us know how you felt about the movie and your experience. As always, leave a comment here or hit us up at our other locales:

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Dosvedanya!

Episode 31: Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Friendly Globe-Hopping Spider-Man

Spidey's back, and your Planet 8 crew is here to share our take on this new Marvel blockbuster. As usual, our discussion will be SPOILER-FILLED, so make sure you see Spider-Man: Far From Home before you listen to this episode.

This time around, Spidey's no longer your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, he's a globe-hopping hero. International locations are the key to this movie, making the web-slinger seem a little more like James Bond! Larry, Bob, and Karen will talk about Spidey's expanded responsibilities and much more, such as what they thought of seeing long-time Spider-Man villain Mysterio on the big screen.

This film takes place not long after the events of Avengers: Endgame, so how is Peter dealing with the loss of Tony Stark? What's the world like, after the Snap? Did the movie deal with this effectively? We have thoughts about this...

What about Peter Parker's personal life? How are Aunt May, Ned, and of course, MJ? Spidey's always had a great supporting cast, and the MCU is developing them too, in a slightly different way. How did things go in this film? Yup, we'll jabber about that too!

For our Sensor Sweep, Engineer Bob shares some big news for Ultraman fans: Mill Creek Entertainment has acquired the rights to all of the Ultraman series all the way up to the current Taiga series. (The Ultraman shows have been embroiled in legal red tape for years; if you'd like to know the full story, check out this link and this one.) They also have rights to 20 films. They will be released in blu-ray format, and also on streaming platforms. In even more exciting news, Bob and his partner Keith Aiken of SciFi Japan have been asked to consult with Mill Creek on these releases! You can get more details over at SciFi Japan.

So tune in, turn on, and tell us what you thought of Spider-Man: Far From Home! And thanks so much to our listeners who take time to comment here or on Twitter or Facebook. We can't name all of you, but here's a few: Edo, Al, Kevin, Debby, Michael, Sean, Jasmine, Steven, John, Dan, Jeff,  Edward, and so many more! We love hearing from you, so keep it coming. And of course, here's where you can find us: 

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Thanks for Listening!