Guidance for designers in the aliens universe.

If you are going to make a series of androids, don’t make them all look the same. People may not be able to tell the difference between the working and defective ones.

When storing 2,000 bodies, put them on a horizontal position so they don’t have anywhere to fall.

When designing a spacecraft to transport 2,000 people to a new world, build more than one personnel dropship.

Before investigating a planet closer to earth than the one you are going to, check your database of planets and ask why they skipped this one.

Before you land on an alien planet, be sure to scan it thoroughly, especially with thermal imaging cameras. If there is lots of vegetation, but no animals, maybe stay away.

If it is dangerous to get closer to a planet than 80km, having two crew members agree does not make it any safer.

When going to an Alien vs Human fight, take more than a knife.

Cryochambers should have an emergency button on the inside, so you can get out.

If something looks dangerous, prod it with a stick. Don’t put your face in it.

Do not use Tesla “Armor Glass” on spacecraft, a sharp object may break it.

You should be able to spot a C shaped alien craft from the air, don’t land 6km from it. Try the flat land next to the craft.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) is the sixth film in the franchise.

It features the return of the villainous penguin Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers (1993), who takes revenge on Wallace and Gromit by reprogramming their robotic garden gnome.

The film holds a 100% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Movies of 2024

The films I saw in 2024.

The Duds
(Films that failed to entertain)

Deadpool & Wolverine
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Uglies
Fly Me to the Moon
Lift

The Entertainers
(Well done, but average)

Borderlands
The Creator (2023)
Milli Vanilli (Documentary)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Ice Age Collision Course (2016)
Wonka (2023)
The Founder (2016)
Oppenheimer (2023)

Top Shelf
(best of the year)

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Bride Wars (2009)
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (2018)
Despicable Me 4
Sing 2 (2016)
Alien Romulus
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Nude Tuesday (2022)
Inside Out 2
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023)
The Wild Robot

Film of the Year

Anatomy of a Fall

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 American fantasy heist comedy film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay and Gilio.

But really, it should be “Forgotten Realms: Honor Among Thieves” as this is the franchise it is set in. The franchise covers books, tabletop and computer games. It comes out in the same year as Baldur’s Gate 3, the biggest RPG games of the year and universally praised.

It stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant in “Evil” mode.

The film follows bard Edgin Darvis (Pine) and barbarian Holga Kilgore (Rodriguez), who enlist a team of unlikely heroes to steal an ancient and powerful relic but come into conflict with evil forces.

Fairly standard medieval fantasy, lifted by some witty writing and a script that does not suck. Fortunately all the actors look like they are having a good time, especially Hugh Grant who chews the scenery, even if most of it is CGI.

A fun movie worth the over two hour run time.

Sing 2 is a 2021 American animated musical comedy film that is the sequel to Sing (2016).

It was written and directed by Garth Jennings, co-directed by Christophe Lourdelet.

The story follows Buster Moon and his group putting on a show in Redshore City while working to impress an entertainment mogul and enlist a reclusive rock star to perform with the group.

Back with the main cast if Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz, Jennifer Saunders, and Nick Offerman from the first film.

This time adding Bobby Cannavale, Bono, Halsey, Pharrell Williams, Chelsea Peretti, Letitia Wright, and Eric André.

It’s more of the same. With a range of music from covers to new songs. It retains much of that I remember from the first, with all the glitz and glamour. A fun movie everyone can enjoy. And from the box-office ($408 million worth) they did.

The Wild Robot is a 2024 American animated science fiction survival film.

Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Peter Brown, it was written for the screen and directed by Chris Sanders.

I did recognize the voice of Matt Berry as a Beaver. But I didn’t pick the voices of:
Pedro Pascal (Mandalorian) as Fink, a red fox .
Bill Nighy as Longneck, an elderly Canada goose.
Mark Hamill as Thorn, a grizzly bear.

The story is about a ROZZUM robot, lost on an island  during a storm. Later nicknamed “Roz”, the robot (She) attempts to advertise her services to the animals but only succeeds in terrifying them and injuring herself. But she finds her goal with a goose egg.

The story is packed with themes and ideas. Identity, friends/family and purpose.  Plus a surprising number of jokes about death and being eaten. But despite all that, it’s well written and provides a story with some surprising twists and turns.

Well worth seeing. And again the box office proves this, making $198 million on a $78 million budget.

Xenomorph Trouble

Alien: Romulus (2024 Film)

Set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). The film stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu.

It follows two pairs of siblings and couples, all downtrodden young space colonists, who encounter hostile creatures while scavenging a derelict space station.

This takes a lot from the first two films. It has the gritty realism of the first, then in the third act has the action of the second.

I would put this on a par with the first four films. The more recent ones are ponderous rubbish. In the end the numbers speak for themselves; a $350 million box office based on an &80 million budget.

Anatomy of a Fall is a 2023 French legal drama film, directed by Justine Triet from a screenplay she co-wrote with Arthur Harari.

It stars Sandra Hüller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death.

The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2023, where it won the Palme d’Or and the Palm Dog Award, and competed for the Queer Palm.

It was released theatrically in France by Le Pacte on 23 August 2023, receiving critical acclaim, winning six awards at the 49th César Awards, including Best Film.

The film also received five nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Triet), Best Actress (Hüller), and won Best Original Screenplay.

Agree with all of the accolades above. The best film of the year (so far).

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a 2024 American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton.

A sequel to Beetlejuice (1988)  the film stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara reprising their roles alongside new cast members Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, and Willem Dafoe.

Set more than three decades after the first Beetlejuice, it follows Lydia Deetz, now a mother, struggling to keep her family together in the wake of a loss as Betelgeuse[a] returns to haunt her.

The film takes some time to setup the situation, following in the death of the father. After a rather slow second act things really get going in the third part. There is some strange musical choices, and you will never think of “McArthur Park” the same way.

Although not as good as the first film, mainly due to how original it was, this is just as fun and macabre.

Deadpool & Wolverine is a 2024 American superhero film.

It is the 34th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the sequel to Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018).

The film was directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay he wrote with Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells.

In the film, Deadpool learns that the Time Variance Authority is set to destroy his home universe and works with a reluctant Wolverine from another universe to stop them.

I watched the first film and the second which wasn’t as good. I should have stopped there. This mashup of Marvel characters lacks a narrative focus and is a mess.

There is something about alternative universes, finding different versions of Wolverine in each. And time travel to go back and  fix something that went wrong somewhere.

It just consists of fast, blood soaked violence followed by everyone standing around so Reynolds can insult everyone using profanities.

At first it was amusing, then tiresome, then annoying until finally I gave up halfway through.

The best character was Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Paradox, I hope he survived to the end.