Well, I watched it.  And it was great!  I know there are some assholes who view it as “feminist propaganda”, it’s not.  And you don’t have to be a woman to appreciate the message and the journey of this hero.  Just like all the other films, comics, and all the other media devices conveying these super hero stories, the key elements are universal.

     It’s an origin movie.  That said, this is a character that almost no one had any point of reference going into the theater but they told her origin in an interesting way.  Using flashbacks and the character herself discovering her origin with us.   The origin served to progress the story and did so well.

     I’ve been telling everyone to go first chance you get.  If you’re waiting for someone else to watch it, don’t.  Leave their ass behind and go by yourself if need be.  The only thing I tell parents with younger children is that the special effects for the Skrulls transformation might be a bit rough otherwise, as long as they sit through a movie take them.  That’s about all I’ve got and it’s taken far too long to finish this.  Enjoy the film! 

     It’s finally time to watch Captain Marvel.  I’m so excited!  I’ve been stoked for this one for awhile.  I got my collectable cup, one of my regular snacks, and I caught a few Pokémon while I’m out of the apartment.        

     I can’t wait to see the credits scenes and finally see exactly they lead it into Avengers: Endgame.  There has been, of course, bullshit rage about women super heroes focused on this film.  I’ve never understood that.  I’ve never chosen my heroes or disregarded heroes based upon their gender.  Just whether they sucked as a character.  And I certainly never judged them as such without seeing them. 

      Just go watch the movie and quit your bitching.  And enjoy the credits scenes, I think we’re going to see exactly how this leads into Avengers: Endgame, in theaters April 26th.  And again, eternal gratitude to Dan Farr, Bryan Brandenburg, and ALL the heroes behind the scenes of FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention!  And Bryan just announced Samantha Smith, Mark Pellegrino is coming back, and a hint at a Harry Potter person maybe being almost close to an announcement.  Thanks, everyone!

      First things first, I have no point of reference for this movie going in. I haven’t read the manga nor watched the anime.  I went in blank slate other than a couple of trailers and I enjoyed it a lot. 

     I didn’t expect the layered emotional stories of self-assurance and genuine confidence, and filial belonging, while weighing those concepts against the the more self-destructive ambition and the less positive form of grief one can feel having lost someone.  The action sequences and fighting was great but used primarily to progress the story.  This film is at its core a drama wherein a family builds itself from disparate beings working through various traumas and manages to move forward together.  Of course, a story reminding of everything I’ll never have in my own life.  Despite that I like how they handled that story balancing it well with the sci/fi, humor, and action.

      Performance capture is progressing at an extraordinary pace.  There are moments in this film when you see in the character of Alita glimpses of true joy and profound anguish.  Rosa Salazar does a spectacular job of portraying a youthful vulnerability and an unrelenting will to live.  Not just survive but to be happy.  And to genuinely fight for what is right and win.  I like this one a lot.

     I recommend you see this movie.  It’s set for release in theaters February 14 but showtimes are available today, the thirteenth.  Enjoy the show. 

     A couple days ago we reached a goal of mine with the podcast.  We got over a hundred downloads in a single day!  Thanks to you guys we’ve been downloaded more each month than the month previous and last month we almost hit 1,000.  So far in February we’re on track to beat all of that.  And if you have any friends or family in Arizona or Nevada, get them to listen to our show.  That’ll get us althoughout the pacific southwest.  Once we get downloads in all fifty states we’ll do something special.  I don’t know what.  Let’s burn that bridge when we get to it.

     We played the new set for Magic the Gathering.  Allegiance is the second set of the third block taking place in the plane of Ravnica.  I had some friends come over for a small booster draft to explore the new creatures, characters, and keywords introduced in this set.

      The first Ravnica block is to this day one of my most favorite eras of Magic the Gathering.  I enjoyed the new concept of guilds.  The pairing of colors and new keyword mechanics specific to each guild served well in gameplay but also filled out the storytelling just within the collecting of cards.  I was in a lull at the time the second Ravnica block was on shelves so, I missed out on that at the time and haven’t had a chance to explore those sets. 

     Now, my friend Devon and I briefly reviewed Guilds of Ravnica on our twitch channel.  And we enjoyed it much.   I found that the new keyword mechanic I used. OST in our game was ‘Spectacle’ which is the new Rakdos mechanic.  It was useful and worked well in my deck.  Although, I think my favorite mechanic in this set is the Gruul keyword, ‘Riot’.  When you caste a creature spell with ‘Riot’ you can give either a +1/+1 or haste.  In seventeen years of playing Magic I can’t think of nor imagine any instance where you can’t find a use for one of those options.  Beside that, I pulled Domri, Chaos Bringer and I’m super excited to build a deck for that one card.

     So far Allegiance is shaping up to my favorite Ravnica set.  It’ll take a little more for it to be my favorite set utterly but I’m not ruling it out.