Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Good Night Oppy: Directed by Ryan White. With Angela Bassett, Steve Squyres, Moogega Cooper, Abigail Fraeman. The film follows Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover affectionately dubbed Oppy by her creators and scientists at NASA. Oppy was originally expected to live for only 90 days but she ultimately explored Mars for nearly 15 years. Did I expect to cry about a couple of dumb rovers on some dumb planet? No. Did I? You bet your ass I did. This is an emotional tale, expertly scripted, shot, narrated, and with a musical score that might make me cry just by itself. Buy...
Command and customize your own capital ships. Take down opponents in thundering, team-based combat. Dreadnought is a free-to-play shooter that puts you at the center of spaceship battles on a colossal scale. As a multiplayer only game, I got to this way too late. Add to that, my normal gaming group was open to trying it out, but weren’t exactly enthused about it, but we only got about a dozen matches in before they lost interest and I was unable to play much more of it. I, for one, definitely enjoyed the time I was able to spend with the...
Awaken as a vampire. Hunt for blood in nearby settlements to regain your strength and evade the scorching sun to survive. Raise your castle and thrive in an ever-changing open world full of mystery. Gain allies online and conquer the land of the living. There’s a good game here, but it’s buried under a few things that I didn’t really enjoy and that ‘good game’ isn’t a type of game that I normally go out of my way to play. The base building is fun, the combat is ok, but the keyboard commands are difficult to get a handle on...
The Peripheral: With Chloë Grace Moretz, Gary Carr, Jack Reynor, JJ Feild. Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own. The season isn’t over with yet at the time that I’m writing this, but I’m so happy with what they’re doing so far that I figured I’d throw it out there to suggest that you watch it before the end of the year. It’s included with Amazon Prime and the story is a near future / not so near...
Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Directed by Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise. With Corey Burton, Claudia Christian, Michael J. Fox, James Garner. A young linguist named Milo Thatch joins an intrepid group of explorers to find the mysterious lost continent of Atlantis. I’m sure that I would have seen this when it came out, but I have no memory of it, and it would have been well before I was logging the movies as I watched them, so I’m considering this my first time. I’m aware of the reputation that the movie has with Disney fans, it’s one of the less well...
Andor: Created by Tony Gilroy. With Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O’Reilly. Prequel series to Star Wars’ ‘Rogue One’. In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a Rebel hero. Is this the best Star Wars show that Disney has done since their acquisition of the franchise? Quite possibly yes, with some small caveats: there are no Jedi, there are no Sith, just regular people getting all mixed up with the creeping bureaucratic horrors of the Empire, rebeling in their own small ways that...
The Taurus Reach. Once the conquered realm of a powerful alien species, this region remains largely shrouded in mystery even as it brims with potential for exploration and colonization. The Federation has sent in two of its finest starships on a quest to uncover the secrets it may yet hold…The A continuation of the first Seekers book, but with some minor changes in the power levels and temperaments of nearly all the characters. That’s my only complaint though, as the story and its resolution is satisfying and enjoyable. Buy On Amazon!
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Directed by James Gunn. With Luke Klein, Sean Gunn, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker. Star-Lord, Drax, Rocket, Mantis, and Groot engage in some spirited shenanigans in an all-new original special created for Disney+. Surprisingly better than I was expecting, but less than I was hoping for, if that makes any sort of sense. There’s plenty of time padding and the story is pretty light, but it’s a fun enough romp on the cosmic side of the MCU to be worth the hour of your time it’ll take to watch. Buy On Amazon!
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch: Directed by Michael LaBash, Tony Leondis. With Chris Sanders, Dakota Fanning, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers. A malfunction threatens to destroy Stitch and his friendship with Lilo! As cute as the first one, and just as fine as the second one, this is the third Stitch film, paradoxically named “Lilo & Stitch 2”. It follows the tv series, but makes absolutely no reference to it at all, which is good, because I’ve still not finished it. Buy On Amazon!
Venom: Let There Be Carnage: Directed by Andy Serkis. With Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris. Eddie Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution. After watching VENOM with the wife, she suggested that she had never seen this and wanted to watch it, so we did. It’s still a perfectly fine movie that I don’t appreciate at all. Buy On Amazon!
