Found this link super helpful, especially if you are looking at saving some money on the yearly sub before it expires.

With Disney Plus just a month away in the UK and the newly announced £49.99 a year I think this is a question a lot of us will be asking ourselves.

First off if you’re a fan of The Simpsons then you’re out of luck as it won’t be on Disney Plus here in the UK until at least 2022 thanks to SKY having the rights. If this is a deal breaker then you can stop reading and save your money by not subscribing.

I’m in a weird position where I’m a massive Star Wars and Marvel fan and already have all of the movies in my collection. I think most of the UK who wanted to watch The Mandalorian have already acquired it by some other means so I’m left wondering if I should wait this one out until Falcon and Winter Soldier comes out later in the year.

At the moment I can’t get anything out of Disney confirming what we will get here in the UK. That’s a lot of faith paying £49.99 when we don’t really know what we’ll be getting here.

Here are the only shows that Disney confirm on their site, not a huge amount. Yeah I’m excited for Clone Wars but is it too much to ask to show us a complete list of movies and TV.

I think it’s worth holding out for now to see what Disney announce up until 24th March when the £49.99 offer ends. I already have a load of Disney movies in iTunes so I’m not seeing the value in it just yet.

If you’ve been following me for a bit you’ll know I’m a massive Star Wars fan. I grew up in the 80’s with the original trilogy but I’ve come to appreciate the prequels and like the sequels but more recently I’ve come to the conclusion Star Wars might be better sticking to the small screen.

The Mandalorian was some of my favourite Star Wars and now I’m a few seasons into The Clone Wars I’m absolutely loving it. Having more time to develop characters and bring us new places is absolutely what Star Wars needs right now.

I think Disney have taken the right approach with slowing down the theatrical releases and concentrating on TV.

I think The Mandalorian proves people like familiar settings but new characters. I know a few people I wouldn’t consider hardcore fans getting well into it after watching The Mandalorian. It also gives more space to develop existing ones that people would like to know more about.

Seeing a Rogue One era series and obviously Obi-Wan is exciting and The Mandalorian Season 2 coming it’s looking great for the future of Star Wars.

Watching The Clone Wars with my daughter I’m also seeing a few new favourites such as Ahsoka and Cad Bane. I’d like to see a prequel era live action series added to the mix. Ahsoka has become a fan favourite in our house so I’d love to see her in some capacity.

What do you think, is Star Wars better on TV now the saga is finished?

(Also can we get Boba Fett back please…)

Spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker ahead….

Chewie will always be my favourite character in the Star Wars universe, as a kid to now I always love seeing him. Joonus Suotamo has done a great job picking up for the late Peter Meyhew and I felt in Solo he came into his own as I believed it was the Chewie I grew up with.

Thankfully Chewie got through Rise of Skywalker but we didn’t get a resolution of where he ended up. The medal for me was a great nod to him having something to remember Han and Leia by, this isn’t him finally getting a medal and isn’t fan service as some would lead you to believe. I like to think that he went back to his home planet of Kashyyyk with his family (yes, that holiday special is unfortunately Canon) but I would have liked to have seen it. Rey ends up with the Falcon but where’s Chewie? I’m hoping this either gets explained somewhere officially or we get Chewie in another movie or Disney+ show.

Personally I’d love to see him popping up in a series!

So I’ve been back and watched it for a second time with my family and I have to say I still massively enjoyed it. Still got glassy eyes at the same points and knowing the story going in I was able to relax a bit more. I still enjoy how they tied it all together and when I’m comfortable writing spoilers I’ll share all of my thoughts.

Still coming to terms with this being the last of the Skywalker Saga and the last John Williams scored Star Wars movie. I shed some tears, had some laughs and enjoyed the ride - everything a Star Wars movie should be.

I’m not writing up my thoughts yet given it’s only just come out but as someone who grew up with the original trilogy, I’m very happy with what we got.

If you’ve followed me long enough you’ll know I’m partial to the Hasbro legends series of props. I’ve got the Captain America shield and Infinity Gauntlet but wanted to complete my MCU phase 3 collection with one I’ve been after for a while.

It’s been out since 2016 but was stopped production for a while. Well this year it came back and I managed to score one using Forbidden Planet.

It’s wearable and is made up of a couple of parts. The main helmet and removable faceplate.

The faceplate is attached with magnets and you makes some noise once attached. This’ll need three AAA batteries if you want the ability to do the electronic stuff.

Once attached the eyes glow, you can adjust the brightness of this if you are wearing it for cosplay. There’s a button inside the helmet to adjust this.

It’s made up of hard plastic and sports a really nice (but fragile) paint job. It’ll easily scratch so be careful if you want to keep it in pristine condition.

For me getting a prop you can display for under £100 is a steal and I’m constantly impressed with how good the Hasbro Legends series is for the money.

Next up, Ant-Man.

I try to surround myself with stuff I love, particularly in my home office. I don’t have loads of space in there but like to get collectibles that give me some joy to own and look at. After watching Endgame I really wanted a poster to hang up. After browsing around I came up with the solution to just do it myself.

I picked up these two items and it gave me exactly what I was looking for.

• Avengers: Endgame poster
• Picture frame

This’ll obviously work for any A2 poster, I’m thinking about Infinity War for my next one.

One of my favourites from last year, Bumblebee has been released on iTunes today. As an 80’s kid growing up on the original cartoon series this really does feel like an extended live action episode.

Check it out.

It goes without saying, don’t listen to this unless you’ve seen the movie.

Listen on Apple Music

It stuck the landing, a long but satisfying end to the Infinity Saga. So many thoughts but don’t want to ruin it for anyone yet.

As you know I share my passions on the blog, one of these and a massive influence on me is Star Wars. I wanted to highlight a few things I noticed in the new trailer for Episode IX, well the stuff I think is interesting anyways.

First up is looking at Rey’s lightsaber, which we know from the events of The Last Jedi was broken in half and needed to be repaired.

Well in the first teaser we can see the repair and it looks like it’s pretty much intact, which is great as someone that wanted to see that one last until the end of the saga.

You can see here that although blurry the grip is maintained but there is a repair as shown above that is keeping it together.

You can also see the repair in this shot, which is a little more covered but shows a repair where it got broken in the last film.

It’s going to be interesting to see how it actually gets repaired but for now we know what it’s going to look like in Episode IX.

This week marks the start of Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, something definitely on my bucket list but not this year unfortunately. There’ll be some big announcements and panels for this one and here’s how I’m keeping up to date.

First off you can check the official site. This’ll show key timings and events. The key ones for me are

• Episode IX panel + trailer: Friday 12th @ 11am-12pm (Chicago time)
• Galaxy's Edge theme park updates: Saturday 13th @ 11am-12:30pm (Chicago time)
• Jedi: Fallen Order Game: Saturday 13th @ 13:30-14:30 (Chicago time)
• The Mandalorian: Sunday 14th @ 11am-12pm (Chicago time)

Events and a live stream of the show (hosted by the Star Wars show) will be on their YouTube channel.

So close now so I’m in full avoid any possible spoilers mode. To aid in this I’ll be pretty quiet on social for the next few weeks. Here’s the plan.

I’ve muted this hashtag

I’ve unfollowed any Marvel and muted journalists I follow that report on movies.

I’m also going to be posting my social feed from my blog.

How are you avoiding spoilers?

One of my favourite films of 2018 is now available in iTunes in the UK.

This is maybe my favourite Spider-Man film of all time and I’m really looking forward to seeing what it looks like in 4K HDR given the visual style of it. This is a must watch for any comic book fan.

I needed a new cap to replace my ageing hockey one so after watching Captain Marvel I fancied a shield one.

Well the good news is that you can get one, although it’s not officially licensed.

It’ll take a little while to get to you if you’re used to next day shipping (around two weeks) but it was worth the wait.

I can’t post the link as it’s now been taken down, I expect it’s because of the license issues but if you do a search on Amazon you’ll see a lot more.

The new trailer is out and it’s a good one.

Doesn’t give much away (well a few things, I’ll do these in a separate post) but I’m not expecting to see Thanos much. He’s done his deed and in no mood for a fight. Looking at this trailer my best guess is using the Quantum Realm to go back and get the infinity stones before Thanos.

Not too long to wait.

Here’s the trailer.

As you most probably know I enjoyed Captain Marvel and been listening to the soundtrack pretty much on repeat this week so far. It’s got a nice mix of classical, synth and guitars, here’s the Apple Music link.

I won’t be posting spoilers on my site but this is useful non spoiler information that I think is useful. As with almost all of the MCU we wait for mid and end credit scenes, in Captain Marvel there are Two. One at the mid and one at the end credit sequences.

I won’t be telling what they are.

I’m pleased to report that Captain Marvel is awesome. I’ll post up my thoughts soon.

It’s 20 years ago this year that we saw the first of the prequels and as time has gone on I’ve come to appreciate what George Lucas was trying to achieve even the execution wasn’t all to my liking.

When I saw them originally I was in University, an original trilogy fan and had high expectations. The special editions had launched a year earlier in the cinema and fever pitch for a new set of Star Wars movies was at peak level.

On the first viewing I left somewhat confused. I didn’t think I liked it. This was a new experience for me. Loving the franchise and it being such a big part of my growing up I suddenly had some disappointment with my favourite movie series of all time. Even though I loved Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan I didn’t particular like all of Anakin’s back story (I was also confused why he created threepio) and it felt somewhat silly in places. But as the years have gone on I’ve seen it in a new light. This particularly changed when watching them with my daughter who for the first time sat down and watched Episode I completely engrossed. Then it hit me to relax and enjoy it for what it was - a film for a younger age group that takes you away to a different galaxy. I love Return of the Jedi and as a 7 year old watching it in the cinema completely engrossed I’m sure there were older generation rolling their eyes at Ewoks (I love them BTW).

Doing a rewatch of the series this year with my family before EP 9 I’m reminded how much I enjoy the last 45 mins of Episode I. Dual of the fates is one of my favourite music pieces and the fight between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul remains one of the best lightsaber battles in the series. It’s also the first time in years that a Jedi and Sith had encountered each other.

I have to admit that Episode II is my most disliked Star Wars movie and I struggle to get through it but I appreciate the story Lucas is telling, just the execution doesn’t land with me.

I had high hopes for Episode III back in the day and it somewhat delivers. I like Palpatine and he really does shine throughout the prequels but this appearance is one of my favourites. I’m not a huge fan of the ‘noooooooooo’ moment at the end and still confused as to the end of Padmé but I can let them go. Shoehorning in Chewie also feels a bit off but seeing one of my favourite characters in the franchise again is ok with me.

So, now I’m older and (supposedly wiser) I can sit down and just enjoy them.

Came across this great fan edit video today and it gave me chills. It’s one of the best videos I’ve seen showing all timelines and bringing on a central theme of the force in this case.

If I didn’t know it was a fan edit I’d swear it was from Lucasfilm to be shown as Celebration in a couple of months.

I’m hoping that Disney take note of this.

Sadly when I read the following I dreaded thinking about what might happen for us in the UK.

Notice launch in the US.

For a Star Wars fan looking forward to The Mandalorian it’s got me worried.

I’m thinking that Disney will instead push TV onto their SKY channels as they did for Rebels, alienating an entire audience who doesn’t want to pay for subscription TV.

I’m really hoping I’m wrong.

I love this image of the Thanos armour in the new trailer. As per the comic books he looks to have become a farmer and stopped his desire for power. The comic plays a bit different to the movies where he loses the gauntlet after the snap thanks to his arrogance then retires to a plant for the simpler life having failed.

Given he has retired I’m thinking he’s done fighting but the Avengers will still need to get the gauntlet to reverse the snap. The question is will be put up a fight? With the reintroduction of Ant-Man and the quantum realm they might not even need him if they can mess with time.

It’s very interesting thinking that Thanos might not even have a big part to play, I don’t think he will.

I think it’ll be more of a time travelling adventure to stop the stones in the first place.

This was a cool moment in the new Avengers trailer, Hawkeye appears to have embraced his dark side and become Ronin. I’m assuming that his family were dusted in the snap.

In the comic books this happens after Civil War, it’s a samurai term and generally means going at it alone. Looks like he’s after a particular person or group in the trailer.

He does go back to Hawkeye in the comic books but it’ll be interesting to see where it takes him in the movies and his relationship with black widow.

Perfect trailer I think, more thoughts on an upcoming podcast..

Check it out.

Myself and my daughter sat down to watch Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures on YouTube only to be presented with this.

I tweeted out to a few of my favourite Star Wars Podcasters and the social media team (thanks to Michelle Buchman) at Star Wars got back to me.

Turns out if you’re outside of the US and Canada you will need to use Star Wars Kids.

Really looking forward to rewatching this one.

Marvel have released the official timeline of their movies, all makes sense to me.

update:

• 2018: Ant-man and the Wasp
• 2019: Avengers: Endgame

This can be seen in the following book (unfortunately went out of stock before I could nab one).

(Spoilers for Captain Marvel ahead …)

Now I’ve been reading a lot of Captain Marvel, particularly the Kelly Sue Deconnick run I spotted something new on the Captain Marvel poster.

If you look in the bottom left you’ll see what looks like the back end of a cat.

This appears to be Chewie, her cat (who happens to be an alien called a Flerken).

In the comic book there’s some great interaction between Rocket, Chewie and Captain Marvel that won’t make it into the movie but I’m really curious how they are going to take on the character of Chewie.

I’m thinking it’ll just be a cat for this movie, if we get a second then maybe it’ll go more into what Chewie actually is but I think the first movie will be so packed that there won’t be any time to get into it.

What do you think?

Source: Star Wars

The new streaming series from Jon Favreau just keeps on looking more positive. Aside from the bad ass looking Mandalorian in the image below the list of directors and creatives at Lucasfilm is top notch. Having Dave Filoni on board is a very positive step, having George Lucas’s padawan involved in live action is great. He’s long been doing great things on the animation front with clone wars and rebels and having him on live action in some capacity is only good.

I also can’t believe I’m seeing Taika Waititi (Thor Ragnorok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) directing an episode.

Can’t wait for this.

As one of the apparent few that enjoyed Solo I’m glad to be able to rewatch at home, it’s out today on iTunes.

Been back ordered for ages but finally here! Going to look great next to my cap shield.

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At last, can’t wait to watch it again.

I really enjoyed Deadpool 2 and it was good to see a release date being added to iTunes.

Not long to go, iTunes has updated its pre-order page to 20th Aug, about 3 weeks after its release in the states.

I can’t wait to watch this film again, my pick of the year so far.

It’s SAN Diego Comic-Con this week and trailers have started to be shared with us non attendees.

Being more into Marvel comics I honestly know very little about Shazam but I’m very pleased to see a DC trailer that I like.

Here’s the official trailer.

It’s taken a while but Black Panther (along with The Shape of Water) is now available in iTunes for us U.K. dwellers.

iTunes.

Solo has just come out in the U.K. and I’ve managed to see it twice. For films I’m into I try to see them as soon as possible so to avoid spoilers. I won’t spoil Solo for you here so don’t worry about reading on.

My overall impression of Solo is a positive one. It has a few plot points that are obvious or head scratching but like I said overall I enjoyed it.

Here are my takeaways

• Han and Chewie's relationship is well done and in keeping with the original trilogy
• I forgot that Chewie is no longer being played by Peter Mayhew
• Han is portrayed very well, not an impression of Harrison Ford but in keeping with my understanding of the character
• There's a lot of good stuff for you Falcon fans
• It's a fun adventure

Don’t take it too seriously sit back and take it in.

I’m a fan of making tech my own, be it via a case or sticking decals on them. I know some people are horrified by this but for me it adds some personality. Everyone’s iPhone’s just looks the same.

I spent a few quid (see link below) on Amazon and grabbed this Infinity War set. In the package you get a total of 34 decals that you can stick anywhere you want.

They are clear backed so only the image is visible on your device and are easily taken off.

I was originally after a Cap shield but at this price you may as well get the entire infinity war set.

So, you’re either going to love or hate personalising your stuff this way but for me I love it.

Link: Marvel Avengers Infinity War Gadget Decals Re-Usable Waterproof Stickers, Vinyl, Multi-Colour, 21 x 15 x 1 cm

I’ve seen Infinity War twice now and wanted to share my thoughts on it now that I have had some time to digest everything. First off I’ll come straight out say it’s in my top 3 MCU movies along with Winter Soldier and Civil War - these are in no particular order by the way.

To me as someone that is somewhat familiar with the comic story line I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in front of me, it really is like a comic book coming to life. Massive fight sequences mixed with humour and a diverse set of characters make this a really enjoyable movie. It has to be seen at the cinema, it’s that huge a deal. Not many movies like this come along and it’s up there with Empire Strikes Back and The Lord of the Rings trilogy in terms of it being that epic (to me).

Not everyone is going to be pleased but I am glad that Disney backed the Russo brothers and pulled out something amazing from a crazy amount of characters.

If you haven’t seen any MCU movies then it’s going to be difficult, you have to see at least the 3 Captain America’s, first 2 Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and previous Avengers.

I’m slowly but surely filling my home office with stuff I love, thought I was time to get some Marvel props. The Marvel Legends series are made by Hasbro and offer an affordable high quality replica of your favourite film props. I’m planning on wall mounting this one, more on this in a later post.

Here are some images of the unboxing:

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• • Get one here: The Avengers Marvel Legends Captain America Shield, One Size

One of the highlights for me in the new trilogy is a character that has had hardly any screen time - Captain Phasma. She is such a cool character looks and story wise and I was disappointed that we didn’t see more of her in The Last Jedi.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So as you can tell from the headline it looks like we saw the last of her in The Last Jedi, the last time we saw her it was engulfed in flames. This wasn’t the ending I wanted for one of the coolest characters since Boba Fett. So, could she have survived and be used in Episode IX?

My head tells me no, it’s the last we will see of her in this new trilogy.

My gut tells me yes, she survived and will be back.

To me the story arc that was used for her in The Last Jedi wasn’t compelling, yes there is a cool fight scene with Finn but I was hoping for an alternative story line.

I was hoping that she would have left the first order and become more of a bounty hunter.

I’m also considering the possibility of an origin story instead of an appearance in episode IX. I have a feeling that would go down well but not sure if it would be in movie or TV format.

What do you think?

I missed the chance to see this one in the cinema so I’m excited to watch it in 4K HDR at home. I’ll post my thoughts once I’m done.

I’ve been a fan of rebels since its launch, its in its final season and no word on the iTunes release. Last year I picked up the season pass and watched episodes as they were coming out in the states but this year it’s not available.

It’s not a great move from Disney for us non satellite owning U.K. fans. We are going to know the end before the season airs.

I’m eagerly awaiting some news but the silence makes me think we’ll get it after the season finishes. Meaning you are going to have to avoid the internet not to spoil the entire series.

I’m disappointed at Disney on this one.

Whilst looking at my list of films for 2018 it got me thinking, why aren’t we seeing anything Solo related? We are only 4 or 5 months out and we haven’t even seen a teaser. All we have is photos from Ron Howard on set.

I’m thinking one thing, there is a delay.

With The Last Jedi just out and a change of director it makes sense to me that they delay by a few months. I’m thinking it gets shifted to September, just makes the end of the summer.

If there isn’t a trailer by the end of January it’s getting delayed.

2017 was a pretty great year for films, 2018 looks to have some crackers so here are the films I’m most looking forward to watching.

(All of these are taken from IMDB so I can’t confirm if some will actually come out this year).

• Black Panther
• Avengers Infinity War
• The Shape of Water
• Coco
• Deadpool 2
• Jurassic World 2
• Incredibles 2
• Ant man and the Wasp

Most surprisingly for me Solo: A Star Wars Story hasn’t made my list. As much as I love Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon I just can’t get past two things. First up, we don’t need to see this back story. It’s better left unknown and risks ruining the character of Han Solo. Secondly I just don’t buy the actor chosen as Han Solo. I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and wait until it’s release but there’s something I just don’t like. It might be the first Star Wars film I don’t see in the cinema.

I’ll also be looking forward to seeing some films I didn’t get to the cinema for in 2017 (Blade Runner 2049) and rewatching some of my favourites including The Last Jedi and Thor: Ragnorok.

What are you looking forward to?

I finally got around to watching The Dark Tower yesterday, not having any knowledge of the books. I know about the popularity of them and been encouraged to read but never had the time. I also know that the movie has been a little panned, especially from fans of the book.

For me overall I mostly enjoyed it, not a film of the year by any stretch of the imagination but for something to let me switch my brain off for a bit it was fine. I’m also glad I didn’t spend over £40 watching it at the cinema and only spent £9.99 getting it via 4K iTunes.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

First off I enjoyed The Gunslinger character and Idris Elba’s acting was solid as usual. They seemed to CG most of the stunts, which was a little disappointing and it wasn’t as slick as a lot of modern CG. The baddie played by Matthew McConaughey wasn’t really that menacing and just felt lifeless and dull to me. They also relied on CG for his end scene, again not done that well.

It just doesn’t feel like it had a big enough budget, brought production time or commitment from it’s backers.

I liked the premise of the movie, bright kids being picked up by the baddies henchman to be brought into his world in a bid to find the one that can bring down the Dark Tower (don’t want to spoil it too much for you).

Problem is, even though I don’t know the books I can’t see how 8 books fit into a 1.5hr movie. I don’t know how it even got signed off.

If this had an established director, a big budget and at least 3 films it might have served fans of the book. As it stands I feel it doesn’t serve either fans of the book or the general public looking for an interesting film.

I’m glad I didn’t pay to see it at the cinema and can only recommend watching it if it’s £10 or less or on a streaming service for free.

Now fibre is impending I picked up a new Apple TV, this one is a 32GB 4K version.

I’ve got a 15MB (on a good day) so until I get my promised 70-80MB I’ll report back on how I get on.

Thought I’d share some of my favourite things from 2017. No particular categories just anything that gave me some joy this year.

• Thor Ragnarok : Up there with The Last Jedi as my favourite film of the year and along with Guardians of the Galaxy one of my favourite Marvel films so far.
• Star Wars, The Last Jedi : Very polarising film based on public opinion but on second watching it cemented it as one of my favourite Star Wars films. It plays with some of the rules of the universe, has lots of shocking moments and takes old characters in interesting new ways.
• Stranger Things Season 2 : One of the most original, compelling and well acted TV series of the last 10 years in my opinion. Season 1 was amazing, season 2 took up it up a notch.
• Nintendo Switch : My gadget of the year, goes everywhere with me. Bought on day 1 of release and played almost every day since. Just wish the older games were out so that I could relive the NES and SNES days.
• Zelda Breath of the Wild : What can I say, not been this drawn into a game like this since the original uncharted. It feels like being inside something like middle earth and I think I put almost 100 hours into it. I don't think I've ever been this obsessed with a game in my life.
• GT Sport : Always been a fan of Gran Turismo since the original PlayStation. This new 4K HDR version feels like I've come back home. Loads of cars, loads of single player challenges and a cracking online option.
• Lego BB-8 : Hands down my favourite bit of Lego I've done all year and a must for any Star Wars fan.
• Sphero R2-D2 : If you can pick this up for under £100 then it's a must, again if you are a Star Wars fan.
• iPad Pro 10.5" : Apple have made some good hardware this year but my pick has to be the new iPad Pro. Paired with the Smart Keyboard cover and Pencil it is easily my favourite "computer " Apple has ever made. As with my Nintendo Switch it goes everywhere with me.
• LG B7 OLED : Dropping our Sony with Android and grabbing this webOS enabled LG is one of the best decisions I've made all year. The quality of OLED blows me away every time I watch it and HDR adds a 3D quality you have to see rather than me try to describe.
• Apple AirPods: I know they technically didn't come out this year but that's when I've been using them. Easy to set up, use across devices and design to easily make them my favourite headphones of all time. I still think they look a little funny but I'll take it over wires dangling and getting caught on things.

So here’s some of my favourite things this year, what are some of yours?

I tend to get a couple of Lego Star Wars kits a year, when I saw the BB-8 larger model it had to go on my wish list. Well I must have been good because Santa brought me one this year.

This kit is one of the more tricky I’ve done and requires a bit of forcing! The main body is held together by an elastic band until you get all of the sides on so be prepared for some swearing.

Assembly took about 4 hours at a relaxed pace and aside from the above it’s a pretty easy one.

I’d guess that anyone over the age of 10 will be ok with this but might need a hand with the centre section of the body.

Once assembled it had a moving head and lighter opening. You control these via either side, spinning the disc on each side will move the mechanism inside to make the magic happen.

This is the first Lego I’ve had with a display stand. It’s actually pretty great and comes with a mini fig you can put just in front of your full sized model.

So overall if you are any kind of Star Wars fan then this is a must buy. As a Lego collector it’s not a complicated build so best if you are a fan of BB-8.

I saw my second viewing of The Last Jedi yesterday, this time with my daughter. It felt even more like a Star Wars film to me this time.

I enjoyed it first time around but was conflicted about a few parts. Having had this second viewing, taking more in and seeing my daughters reaction I have to admit that it’s it up there with my favourites in the franchise.

I watched Return of the Jedi in the cinema when I was a kid and this feels a lot like that. Cool planets, space battles, creatures and a couple of good baddies.

I think some people are picking apart the mythology a little too much. I just sat back and enjoyed it for what it is - a Star Wars movie.

I should preface this to say I’m a massive geek for Star Wars but I do like what Rian Johnson has done with the storyline, breaking away from the Skywalker family.

I love this movie.

It’s a not so well kept secret that Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean here in the U.K. was used in The Force Awakens. At the time it was obviously hush hush but now it’s been out for a while it’s common knowledge that it was shot there.

It’s also rumoured to be one of the places Tolkien took inspiration from for middle earth.

Specifically Maz’s home planet of Takodana.

I live about an hour away and visit there a few times a year, it’s such a magical place to visit and like nowhere else you’ll visit.

It’ll take a few hours to get in there and wander around, remembering to take in the food at the cafe.

If you’re visiting the U.K. (and a Star Wars and Lord of the Rings) fan check it out.

I have to admit, when I saw the second Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer I got worried. It was for one reason, The Porg.

What changed my mind though was seeing my daughters reaction to it, she was laughing out loud. That made me sit back and enjoy it along with her. I have to not look at them from my older perspective but the joy I got from seeing characters at Jabba’s palace when I was the same age watching Return of the Jedi at the cinema.

That’s a major lesson I’ve taken from The Last Jedi, I really enjoyed it and it let me be a kid again like when I saw the originals.

There are some great scenes with the Porg, I’m especially fond of Chewbacca (my favourite character) having a BBQ outside of the Falcon. I won’t ruin the scene for you but it’s one of my favourites in the franchise.

I know the bulk of people will believe that Disney forced Rian Johnson’s hand in making something marketable but I read that he himself created them after seeing the puffin on the Island whilst shooting. I want to be optimistic and believe that this is in fact true.

So, some people are going to hate them and others love them. I love them and am glad that they were included in this movie.

With every new Star Wars movie I’ve gotten into the habit of buying two books

• The visual dictionary
• The art of Star Wars

I enjoyed both books for The Force Awakens so picked up The Visual Dictionary on Amazon for £11.99.

These books are a great reference if you want to know a bit more about the characters, vehicles, weapons and worlds. The great part about them is that they show characters that appeared in the background and smaller parts. One that I was keen on was the commander of the dreadnought at the beginning of the movie.

They are full of rich images showing costume design and details that you just can’t get from watching the movie alone. For each of the images you’ll find accompanying text descriptions showing details of a costume or item in a scene.

One difference with TLJ (The Last Jedi) vs TFA (The Force Awakens) is it doesn’t seem so rich, it’s also thinner. I’m not sure if that’s because we know more of the characters or there’s less background stuff going on.

A larger portion of the book is around the casino based planet, a lower point of the movie for me. So, apart from reading about a few characters flipped straight past (it’s a bit prequel for me).

So, at £11.99 it’s on the expensive side. Wait until after Christmas and pick up when it gets to £5.99 or less.

Since Disney picked some of Fox along with it came a raft of Marvel characters such as Deadpool and the X-Men. As a bit of an X-Men fan it got me thinking about the state of the existing film series and whether they could get a reboot.

Let’s be honest there hasn’t been a good one since the second movie. The possibility of seeing them done justice and a possible tie into Infinity War Part 2 sounds great to me.

There is such a diverse set of characters in the X-Men universe that they could be the next launch pad for a series of movies. Personally I’d be ok with Capt and Iron Man taking a break to focus on Spider-Man, an X-Men solo film and a couple of independent character ones (Nightcrawler or Gambit anyone?).

Personally I think that we’ll see a new X-Men movie announced within the next 2 years.