Pete Messum Reviews...

The brainchild of legendary authors Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett, ' Good Omens ' is the tale of an angel Aziraphale and his demon friend Crowley, who are both deployed by Heaven and Hell respectively to start Armageddon. Quite frankly though, the world is full of too many nice things to get destroyed in the apocalypse, so Aziraphale and Crowley agree to prevent it by any means necessary. Despite many attempts to get an adaptation produced in the years since the book's publication, its only recently that Amazon finally produced one, with the wishes of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman working as its screenwriter and executive producer. It's a masterful adaptation, and about as accurate as you can realistically get to the original novel without simply recreating it. New scenes are added, concepts are elaborated on and elements are removed for the sake of telling a cohesive and amusing story in six installments. It's not a word-for-word adaptation, but it

I remember 2014 being a very exciting year for a Doctor Who fan. Despite having yet another nine-month wait for the next series, news, leaks and spoilers were abound. We were just coming off the back of the show's 50th anniversary year, and I was still riding high on the celebrations of such an event. We had a new Doctor in Peter Capaldi, a relatively new companion in Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), and a whole new era to look forward to. Steven Moffat's era B, if you will. Throughout the year we had official photos from the new years, vague behind the scenes snaps, the usual Radio Times episode guide and the World Tour - as the first episode ' Deep Breath ' screened in seven cities across five continents, building the excitement in the weeks before it aired on BBC One. I had come back from a week's holiday just in time to see Episode 1, and was absolutely ecstatic. It saddens me somewhat to say that when I revisited ' Deep Breath ' a little while ago, I f

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns for its sixth season after what seemed to be it's definitive ending last year. Whilst I felt that Season Five was a rather small-scale season to go out on - more because of the low production values than the story - and that a definitive, planned-out ending would be better than running the show into the ground, I was encouraged by the news that a sixth season would only consist of thirteen episodes, and be set after Coulson 's death in the Season Five finale. About a year later, Season Six has arrived in the UK, set to be followed by a thirteen episode seventh season next year. ' Missing Pieces ' is very much a slow-build episode, pulling together a few strings and setting multiple ongoing storylines in motion, making it a rather uneventful self-contained episode but no doubt an integral part of Season Six. I felt very much underwhelmed by this opener, but that's mainly because of how little it can really achieve in f

A mere four years after ' Terminator: Genysis ' - the previous attempt to revive the Terminator franchise - original director James Cameron has returned (and just in case you didn't know, the poster and trailer make sure you do) to produce a new trilogy of films starting with ' Terminator: Dark Fate ' , directed by Tim Miller (director of ' Deadpool '). ' Dark Fate ' has a lot riding on its shoulders, being the first sequel since ' Terminator 2: Judgment Day ' to have Cameron actively involved, as well as also being yet another sequel desiring to set-up a new trilogy. Whilst ' Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ' technically received a sequel with ' Terminator: Salvation ', it was re-cast and re-framed as a prequel, intending to set-up two further prequels. That didn't go according to plan and thus ' Terminator: Genisys ' was produced to set-up two further sequels (set for release in 2017 and 2018). And then th

I don't think anyone was quite expecting to see 2014's ' John Wick ' become the start of a successful franchise, but somehow Chad Stahelski managed to not only make a great standalone revenge film, but also a fantastic action-packed follow-up with 2017's ' John Wick: Chapter 2 ' (which earned double the first film's gross). With plans afoot for a spin-off film and television series, it was very much up to ' John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum ' to keep the franchise strong, and frankly, I don't see this series going away any time soon. Not only is ' Parabellum ' a masterclass of action cinema, but it has already grossed nearly $100 million on it's mere $55 million budget. The audience is here for John Wick, and we're thinking he's back. Former hit-man John Wick ( Keanu Reeves ) has been through a lot recently. He finally escaped a life of murder to live with his wife, but then his wife died, leaving him only with a sma

The Pokémon franchise very much passed me by growing up, so finally seeing a live-action adaptation of the card game - in the form of a new feature film - doesn't instantly form any particular nostalgic connection with me (as I'm sure it will for some people). I was simply someone who watched the trailer to ' Pokémon Detective Pikachu ' and thought it looked quite entertaining. The end result is...perfectly adequate, but I can't help but wonder if everyone involved was playing it a little too safe. The story follows Tim Goodman ( Justice Smith ), a man who's cut himself off from the world of Pokémon (small adorable creatures who roam the planet, waiting to be caught in a ball and partnered-with) until he is sent to Rhyme City in the wake of his distant father's untimely death. Rhyme City is the creation of Howard Clifford ( Bill Nighy ), who desires to maintain harmony between humans and Pokémon, but as Tim arrives, a mystery begins to unfold, and he mus

With the spoiler ban (referred to as #ThanosDemandsYourSilence ) lifted for Marvel Studios' ' Avengers: Endgame ' , Sony Pictures have very quickly released the trailer for the next installment in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and their current crop of Spider-Man films, ' Far From Home ' . Since watching the first trailer, I've actually re-watched ' Spider-Man: Homecoming ' for the first time since seeing it at the cinema in 2017, and to be frank I found it very underwhelming. 'Homecoming' is very flat, lacking in ambition and frankly laughable in comparison to the incredible work put into the likes of ' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ' and Sam Raimi's Spidey trilogy. Sadly though, the film made enough money and pleased enough people to justify bringing back the same creative team for ' Far From Home ', and I honestly think that this could actually ruin the film - and the prospective series - in its entirety. Di