Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 6

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

We are well over halfway through the season, and from the very start we knew that the destination was to have our characters arrive at the Halo ring before the end of it. The path to getting there, however, is still rather fraught as the show has made some bold moves in its breaks from canon, but we only have so long to replace it with a new status quo which isn’t getting any easier with the Spartan III program cramming itself in there as well. Still, the last episode got us back on track as far as I’m concerned, and I’m optimistic that they can get us over the finish line without falling flat on its face. Does this continue the upward trend of the season since the Fall of Reach, or are we falling back on bad habits now that we’re in-between set piece episodes? Lets’ find out!!

On the remote planet of Onyx, Kai (Kate Kennedy) is in charge of a new program spearheaded by Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) to create the next generation of warriors; the Spartan III program. Kai, being a Spartan II, is more than qualified for the role and is making great progress with the new recruits, including Perez (Cristina Rodlo), but the mission they’re training for seems hopeless, and the troops are far from ready for such a task. Things don’t get any easier for her when John (Pablo Schreiber) shows up and starts wrecking the place as he looks for answers and justice for what happened back on Reach. Meanwhile, the rest of John’s ragtag crew of misfits and outcasts are off doing their own thing with Soren and Laera (Bokeem Woodbine and Fiona O’Shaughnessy) searching for their son Kessler while Kwan Ha and Halsey (Yerin Ha and Natascha McElhone) are looking underneath the Onyx facility for something that will get them closer to the Halo ring. If that wasn’t enough drama, Makee (Charlie Murphy) and the Arbiter (Viktor Åkerblom) are having a tough time convincing the rest of the Sangheili crew that they know where they’re going; especially with the ship’s priest demanding that they turn around and ask the Prophet’s for directions. Will John get the answer he seeks from ONI and the UNSC, even if he has to go through Kai to get it? How much longer can Makee keep the Sangheili placated with promises of the Halo ring, and is Cortana going to help her out despite them being ostensible enemies? Maybe it’s a good tradeoff if it means she can actually get some screen time!

“If I could just get five more minutes-” “NO!” “I’ve got some killer knock-knock jokes!” “I SAID NO!!”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 5

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

The Fall of Reach has come and gone with some surprising changes to the status quo and many questions to answer before we finally get to that darn ring everyone keeps talking about. Still, a big event like that needs some time to decompress so it’s time for a budget-friendly talky episode that I tend to enjoy much more than the action. Sure, it’s there if you want it, but a show has to be more than that and this season has had a bad track record of developing its characters and establishing themes. Will this be the turning point for the series that I’ve been waiting for, or is it back to business as usual after the big mid-season blowout? Let’s find out!!

With the fall of Reach, humanity is on the brink of annihilation as few defenses remain between The Covenant and Earth. The UNSC is fighting amongst itself due to the machinations of Ackerson and the ONI, Makee (Charlie Murphy) managed to get one of the sacred artifacts off Reach before it blew up, and Silver Team lost Vannak (Bentley Kalu) in all the chaos. While Chief, Halsey, Soren, and Riz (Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, and Natasha Culzac) were able to escape the planet with the help of Kwan Ha and Laera (Yerin Ha and Fiona O’Shaughnessy), there’s little hope to be found on that ship as they head their way to a remote mining planet where Soren and laera hope to find their son Kessler (Tylan Bailey). It’s a dark chapter for The Master Chief as the galaxy presumes him dead and the ONI did everything in their power to make it so. Chief is used to having his back against the wall, but with so much against him, can he get back on the saddle and finish the fight, wherever that fight may be? How is everyone else dealing with the fall of Reach and the loss of everyone there? Do you think maybe we can chill out on this planet for a while longer as it’s not bathed in constant darkness? I mean, it still doesn’t have sunlight but at least I can finally see what’s going on!

“Oh, wow! They got you good, didn’t they?”     “I know, right? Should have put on a helmet, at least.”
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Cinema Dispatch: Dune: Part Two

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Dune: Part Two and all the images you see in this review are owned by Warner Bros Pictures

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Dune as a series is a confounding one as it has attained a huge following but is also full of goofy and un-filmable concepts. David Lynch certainly gave it a go and bothered to include the giant space fetuses, but with Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation in 2021, we got what is easily the most digestible iteration of the story. I appreciated a lot of its choices that cut back on the specifics and relied on the themes of the narrative, but splitting it up into two films feels like the IT gambit; do the easy part first and hope that you can cobble together enough workable elements in the sequel to carry it to the finish line. With the straightforward coup of the Atreides already covered, can this sequel possibly live up to such a strong opener and deliver a satisfying conclusion? Let’s find out!!

Following the fall of the House of Atreides, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) have joined the Fremen and have acclimated to their new life in the deserts of Arrakis. Still, they can’t rest easy as Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) is back in charge of Spice production, and he has no qualms about cleansing the ethnic population if it makes harvesting Spice just a little bit easier. The Fremen will need to fight back and Paul is up for the task as he wants to avenge his father’s death and protect his newfound family; especially Chani (Zendaya) who fights alongside him and makes sure he doesn’t embarrass himself in front of the other Fremen. That may not be enough to win this war, however, as Lady Jessica knows how brightly Paul’s star can shine and continues to push the idea that Paul is the Messiah of Fremen Prophecy to the consternation of Paul who knows that such a story could spin out of control and cause more destruction than anyone could imagine. Will Paul lead the Fremen to victory against the sinister Harkonnens and the Baron’s youngest nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) who’s as sadistic as he is ambitious? What other allies to the Atreides are still hiding in the sands of Arrakis, and will they be a help to Paul’s cause or a hindrance to his new life among the Fremen? So wait, if Paul is a guy who can see the future through his dreams, fights like a true warrior, and tames the mighty sandworm, why wouldn’t you want him to be your leader; Messiah or not? He may not be a Jesus, but he’s at least a Goku, right?

“By the power of Grayskull! I HAVE THE POWER!!”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 4

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Craig Zisk

The Fall of Reach is perhaps the most significant event in the timeline; not necessarily for its impact on the Human Covenant War, but for its place in the fandom. If you just wanted to play the Halo games for their top notch gameplay and just let the story pass you by, that was perfectly fine and those kinds of players were the ones who drove the franchise to such dizzying heights of success and prestige. If you wanted to know more about the games, however, the first thing you learn is what happened to Reach. It’s the first book in the series, it takes place right before the first game, and it’s been poking around the more mainstream side of the franchise with the game in 2010 and the animated adaptation in 2015, so getting it right is going to be the biggest challenge for this season of the show. With so much at stake, can the new showrunners satisfy both fans of the games as well as fans of the show with their telling of this iconic chapter in the lore, or will Paramount be looking for yet another showrunner to try and correct the ship for season 3? Let’s find out!!

After trying to tell the UNSC that the Covenant were on Reach, John (Pablo Schrieber) is proven right as he and Corporal Perez (Cristina Rodlo) are caught in the opening Salvo of the invasion. With little time to spare, the two meet up with Riz (Natasha Culzac) and head to Fleetcom HQ to try and get a handle on things and hopefully find their power armor still intact. Sadly they won’t find it as Ackerson and the rest of the UNSC higher ups have taken all the good equipment and ran away while everyone else was still unaware that an invasion was imminent; leaving Admiral Keyes (Danny Sapani) and a small contingent of marines to try and hold the aliens at bay while they get as many civilians offsite as possible. If that wasn’t bad enough, Ackerson shows his sadistic side as he leaves the recently captured Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) and the long held captive Doctor Halsey (Natascha McElhone) to die in the basement prison of the Fleetcom building, and they have to find a way to escape as well. With so much death and destruction happening all around them, can this rag-tag crew of Spartans, Pirates, Mad Scientists, and Marines make a valiant last stand against such an overwhelming foe? What else did Ackerson and the UNSC leave behind that could prove even more fatal to humanity’s chances in this war than the destruction of Reach itself? How did the Covenant sneak this much firepower on the planet in the first place? They’re not exactly known for their subtlety.

“THEY’RE SHOOTING FIREWORKS AT US, SIR!”     “My god… our one weakness!”
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Cinema Dispatch: Madame Web

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Madame Web and all the images you see in this review are owned by Sony Pictures Releasing

Directed by SJ Clarkson

Sony’s attempts at building their own Marvel mini-verse out of the Spider-Man license have yielded mixed results, to say the least. I, for one, appreciated the two Venom films for their shameless swagger and playful take on the material, but Morbius was an absolute bore and I never thought Kraven was a good idea unless they got Sharlto Copley to play the part. Now we have this slice of the expanded Spider-Man canon that Spider-Verse hasn’t laid a claim to, but hey; at least this one has actual Spider-People in it which you’d think would be a bare minimum requirement to making a Spider-Man connected movie. Is this the film to finally get the Sony-Verse on track and competing with Marvel, or are those dreams as lofty as Warner Bros bringing back the Snyder-Verse? Let’s find out!!

Cassie Web (Dakota Johnson) is living a normal, unassuming thirty-year-old life in the early 2000s as she drives an ambulance with her best friend Ben Parker (Adam Scott) and… well, that’s about it. She does have a mysterious past as her mother died in Peru while researching spiders, but hey, what Gen Xer doesn’t have some weird stuff going on with their parents? Cassie just wants to get through life one day at a time without making any strong connections or getting wrapped up in other people’s problems, but fate has other things in store for her as a near-death experience starts to awaken future-seeing powers that are a real drag when you’re just trying to get through your shift. With great power comes great responsibility, however, as she sees three young women (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor) getting attacked on a train by what appears to be an Evil-Spider-Man (Tahar Rahim), though since this takes place before Spider-Man, I guess that would make Spider-Man the good version of whoever this is, and manages to save them while putting a target on her own back for the Spider-Jerk. Why are these three girls so special that they incur the wrath of the Wicked Web-Head, and what role does Cassie have to play in this clash of destiny? Does the Not-So-Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man hold the secrets to Cassie’s past that she’s been desperately searching for?  If Spider-Man doesn’t exist yet, does a guy walking on walls and wearing a spandex bodysuit even read as a spider?

“Why are we being chased by a sticky man!?”     “What even is his gimmick? Mr. Adhesive?”     “How about The Human Lint Roller?”     “How about we run, instead!?”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 3

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Craig Zisk

The season premiere left me underwhelmed, to say the least. For someone who genuinely enjoyed the first season and all its interesting creative choices, it was jarring to see so much of it thrown away in the pursuit of poe-faced solemnity. In any case, I said my piece last week and got it all out of my system so I’m ready to approach this episode much more on its own terms instead of comparing it to what came before. Well, okay. Maybe a little bit more griping, but hopefully it will be productive rather than simply nagging. Will this be the episode that turns me around on the season, or will my disappointment grow with each passing week? Let’s find out!!

With the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) certain that something is going on that Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and the UNSC aren’t telling him, he takes his crew on an unauthorized mission to search for the missing Cobalt Team and find evidence of whatever it is that The Covenant are up to. Of course, you can’t rock the boat without getting wet, and this little excursion puts a significant wedge between him and the rest of Silver Team (Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, and Natasha Culzac) who are increasingly concerned about Chief’s erratic behavior; a feeling that Ackerson is happy to exploit as he continues to move all these pieces around in whatever game it is he’s playing. Reach isn’t the only place that’s having problems, however, as Laera, her son, and Kwan Ha (Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Tylan Bailey, and Yerin Ha) are now targets after Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) was taken prisoner by the UNSC. Without him around to play Pirate King, there are a lot of people looking to not just take the throne but whatever buried treasure Laera might know about. Can these three escape The Rubble without Soren’s past catching up to them? What can Chief do to stop The Covenant and save Cobalt Team now that the UNSC consider him unreliable and a threat to their secrets? I’m not convinced that the Master Chief is built for this kind of subterfuge. Did they even cover spy craft during his Spartan training, or did they look at this four hundred pound slab of meat and decide it was a lost cause?

There’s your first mistake! Any good spy knows not to eat anything offered to you!
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episodes 1 & 2

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Debs Paterson

I reviewed the first season of this show and thought it was pretty great, but I also know that my opinion was in the minority, and was unsure if we would even get a second season after the lukewarm reaction from everyone other than me. Thankfully, Paramount is willing to give this show another chance to find its audience and the last season gave us a great starting point to finally move us to the Halo ring and everything else that fans wanted to see in the series. Will season two finally get the ball rolling and bring the fans on board with what I thought made the first season so special? Let’s find out!

Our story ended with the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and his fellow Spartans Kai, Vannak, and Riz (Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, and Natasha Culzac) managing to escape from the Covenant with the artifact, but not without incurring losses. Makee (Charlie Murphy), the human adopted by the Covenant to activate the artifact, was shot down in the firefight and Chief was forced to let his AI partner Cortana (Jen Taylor) take full control of his mind and fry his personality to manage the escape. It’s some time later and while Chief is verbal again, he’s not the warm cuddly bear he was by the end of the last season. He’s taciturn and stiff with his fellow Spartans and his questions about his past and the ethics of the Spartan program no longer seem to be an issue. The Covenant have escalated their war efforts and are now destroying whole planets, including Madrigal which Kwan Ha and Soren (Yerin Ha and Bokeem Woodbine) fought for half of last season to liberate, and the entire planet of Reach has come down with a bad case of Blade Runner depression, though whether these changes are part of the story itself as humanity is starting to lose hope or are just a creative change is still unclear. To make matters worse, the UNSC seems to have turned whole hog into the Office of Naval Intelligence (the Section 31 of this franchise for those Star Trek fans out there), and not only did they take Cortana out of Chief without a proper explanation, they are going all in on the propaganda with the Spartans being treated more like props than warriors. All of this chicanery from the ONI has left Chief and his crew feeling useless while the Covenant are seemingly making moves that will undercut all of humanity’s defenses and turn the tide of the war in their favor. Can Chief and Silver Team figure out the Covenant’s secret plans despite ONI’s insistence on remaining in the dark? What does this escalation of violence from the Covenant mean for those either liberating themselves from the UNSC or choosing to live on the margins and stay out of the war entirely? Why is everything lit so poorly!? Did the UNSC lose all its funding?

“Can we open a window at least?”     “YOU GET SLIGHTLY OPENED BLINDS AND NOTHING MORE!!”
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Cinema Dispatch: Top 10 Best Movies of 2023

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

I’ve got to say that 2023 was not the easiest year to come up with a Ten Best list. Partly because I had to cram a dozen movies into December to have a well-rounded list, but also because the year itself just felt underwhelming. The continued move to streaming has started to take the spark out of the theater-going experience, and without the constraints of the theater, it feels like movies are filling space rather than inspiring and exciting. Still, even with all this noise and overabundance of content, there are genuinely amazing creatives out there working on fantastic movies and I’ve collected ten of them to talk about today! Let’s get started!

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Honorable Mention – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Full Review

I gave this movie a lot of praise on its release, and the accolades it’s received are well deserved. However, 2023 ended up being the year that I got sick of movies that got halfway through their story before telling us to come back later for part two. Unlike a traditional sequel which promises a new story, these films dangle the conclusion of the current one over our heads in a way that doesn’t have me on the edge of my seat but makes me want to turn back the clock and just wait to watch the entire story once it’s finished getting made. Spider-Verse has a lot going for it and there is little doubt that the story will feel complete once part 2 is released, but until it is I don’t feel like putting it in a proper spot on this list.

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Cinema Dispatch: Top 8 films of 2023 That Need Improvement

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

It’s a cliché to talk about how bad a year had been in a retrospective like this, but 2023 was pretty rough for me; so much so that, for the first time since starting this website, I took an extended hiatus to try and get my house in order in this nightmare we call modern life. Still, I tried my best to catch up on the big releases right before the end of the year and have been stewing on this list for a month until I finally found time to get my thoughts on the page. The elephant in the room as always is that we are still in a post-pandemic world, or at least it would be if we weren’t still dealing with COVID and its massive impacts daily, so some of these movies can undoubtedly trace some of their problems to the disruption it caused in the entertainment industry. That’s why I try to keep this list constructive with good faith analysis and a limited number of cheap shots. Granted, the last few months have left me feeling a bit salty about things in general, but I’ve done my best to keep the unproductive dunking to a minimum. Let’s get started!

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Fool’s Paradise

Fool’s Paradise is owned by Roadside Attractions

Directed by Charlie Day

Frankly, I don’t want to come down too hard on a guy’s directorial debut, even if it’s someone like Charlie Day who has a reasonable amount of clout to throw around. Making movies isn’t easy and not everyone can make a graceful leap from actor to director; especially on their first attempt. That’s very much the vibe of the movie; something that was made with passion but not enough discipline. Everything from the obvious Hollywood satire to its homages of the silent era is not as clever as it thinks it is; nor as ambitious as its inspirations. The jokes have no wit to them and the story is held together with outdated caricatures of the Hollywood elite that still aren’t goofy enough to carry this silly premise and so the narrative bends over backward to try and make it work to with middling results. Also, while I wouldn’t call myself an aficionado of silent comedies, I’ve seen enough to know how half-hearted the slapstick is, and that lack of effort here compared to the immense effort and genius that went into crafting a lot of those classic films says a lot about this movie. It’s like reading the first chapter of a textbook and thinking you’re as knowledgeable as the professor, or assuming you can be a professional chess player after watching a few YouTube videos. By all means, follow your passions and be inspired by the talent of others, but maybe let the ideas cook for a little bit before presenting to the class.

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Super Recaps: One Piece – Episode 5

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

One Piece the live-action series is owned by Netflix

Directed by Tim Southam

The two-episode arc we just finished did start to show a few flaws in the formula as it strains to fit as much as it can into this first season, but I’m still very optimistic about this show and where things are heading. After all, we’re only four crew members in and Sanji was always a favorite of mine back when I watched the anime which gives me a lot of hope that they can pull him off in this. Will this be a better introduction to a crew member than we got for Usopp, or will this show ultimately buckle under the weight of the franchise’s lore? Let’s find out!!

With the Black Cat pirates roundly defeated and a brand new ship as their reward, Luffy and the Straw Hats set sail only to barely escape from an attack by Vice Admiral Garp and his crew of Marines. With their pristine ship now showing some wear and tear, they set anchor at a floating restaurant to get some R and R before figuring out their next move. Of course, nothing is as simple as that when it comes to the life of a pirate, and Luffy finds himself caught between the head chef Zeff (Craig Fairbrass) and his young protégé Sanji (Taz Skylar) who are butting heads over the menu; not to mention Zeff and Luffy’s fundamental disagreement on the efficacy of IOUs when it comes to paying for meals. Still, the rest of the crew get some time to relax and it’s nice to see them getting along as best they can! Oh, and also there’s a Vampire Pirate with a big sword trying to capture Luffy. Wait, what?

“The only things more precise than my blade are the angles on my mustache.”     “Yeah, how DO you maintain that? Is it a magic mustache or something?”     “My secrets are mine alone.”
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