No No No No No No No No - LEGO Batman!

The LEGO Batman Movie! I saw it, and my comments on it are below. Be forewarned, there are spoilers. So many spoilers. If you haven't seen it yet and don't want to hear about all of the awesome pop culture references, then go watch it and come back and read this post. You really should go see it. And don't tell me you'd rather see 50 Shades Darker instead (for shame).

❦

The LEGO Batman Movie Poster

LEGO Batman was AWESOME!

OK, yes silly reference to the first LEGO movie, but it comes with the territory. And I actually think The LEGO Batman Movie was better than The LEGO Movie.

First, the song in the opening seen -- best Batman song ever! "Who's the Bat(Man)." It's on my list to buy. ;)

Onto the serious stuff? Nah, not yet. But I have to say, I really did enjoy this movie. And not just because the toddler sat through it entranced instead of making a scene in the theater. I was literally laughing out loud through most of the movie, and for me that's great. Everyone needs to laugh. It's good for the soul. Honestly, it was nice to see the Batman/DC franchise poking fun at itself, among other things.

Let's see, some of my fav lines... Barbara Gordon: "Batgirl? Can I call you Batboy?" Oh, and when Sauron tells Joker the Bat Cave is under Wayne Manor. Joker: "You mean to tell me Bruce Wayne is... Batman's roommate?"

Part of the humor, though, was in the pop culture references. When Joker goes to the Phantom Zone, it's filled with so many bad guys from a lot of other movies and books. Voldemort, The Eye of Sauron, Godzilla, King Kong... but my favorites were the Gremlins and the Daleks! I'm likely dating myself with the Gremlins, but I got all giddy when I saw Spike right away in the Phantom Zone. And you have to love the Daleks and their infamous line: "Exterminate!"

There were so many Easter eggs and references in this movie that I'd have to watch it a couple more times to catch most of them -- and I'd probably still miss some (because let's face it, I haven't seen and read everything, so some stuff may have gone over my head). Siri is Batman's computer! Too funny.

With so many references stuffed into this movie, I'm actually a bit overwhelmed and not sure what others to mention!

I'll move on then and get a little more serious. Not too serious. Promise.

Not only does The LEGO Batman Movie have great humor, it actually has a solid story arc and character growth.

Batman has relationship issues. Right from the beginning he doesn't even want to claim Joker as his main villain (and the Joker's face when he's rejected is priceless). This stems from the loss of his parents, and you see him struggle with this throughout the movie and eventually overcome it and start to let people in. Which then ends with him finally admitting to Joker that he's his main villain. Great arc and a funny one at that. Not the normal "love" story which we see so often in most Batman movies.

Actually having a good story arc and the character growth at the end just strengthened the humor of the movie for me. I was expecting to laugh, but I didn't expect a great story to go along with it! Seriously well done.

Oh, and the last bit I have to mention: Harley Quinn. How can I not? She's one of my fav villains. I loved it that they kept switching up her outfit to reflect the many looks of her character through the years.

If you want a laugh, make sure to watch The LEGO Batman Movie! And if you've seen it already, there's no reason you can't see it again, right?

The X-Files - It's Back!

***WARNING: There are spoilers in the post below. If you have yet to see the first two episodes of the new season of The X-Files, you may want to wait to read this until after you've watched the episodes. Unless of course you don't mind spoilers.***

* * * * *

Copyright Info on The X-Files Title Screen

Forgive me, but this may be more of a fangirl post than observations with a critical eye. But hey, I'm allowed to get excited over something and just enjoy it for what it is. Right? Right? Well, I am!

Anyway, I was to no end thrilled when I heard The X-Files was coming back to TV. See, I was in high school when it first aired, and I fell in love with it almost instantly. I have fond memories of watching episodes. Heck, even my mom watched the show, and it's not really something that would usually interest her.

Now, while I love the series, and I label myself a fangirl, I have to admit I probably haven't seen every episode. College happened. I also haven't seen the second movie (my husband and I kept saying we needed to see it, then we never got around to it - I know, horrible, especially since I bought the soundtrack and the score for the first movie, you'd think I'd have made more of an effort). My memory also sucks at times, and it has been a long time since I watched any episodes (though I own several on VHS - lol). I am actually regretting not binging and re-watching all the episodes before this new season started. Eh, live and learn. Though I'm guessing I may start watching them soon anyhow.

Until I watched the two new episodes, I didn't realize just how much I missed The X-Files. It brought back a lot of memories. Especially since they used the old intro for this new season as well! I thought that was amazingly awesome - it really brought me back.

Oh, but who wants to hear about my silly reminiscing? Probably no one - ha. That's OK, I'll move onto the episodes themselves.

The first episode, "My Struggle," started out with a brief summary from Mulder, which was much appreciated due to the aforementioned sucky memory. Clearly, Mulder and Scully have moved on with their lives. OK, maybe Scully has - Mulder will always be that dog that just won't let go of the damned bone. That's what makes him Mulder. =D Because of this, he's easily dragged back into things by Tad O'Malley. We also get to see Scully's unending skepticism. This is great, especially for fangirls like me. We get to see the characters we fell in love with over two decades ago.

Of course, Scully is less skeptical by the end of the episode, and Mulder's bone morphs a bit. I love the transition, though. We start out the episode with the usual song and dance, that the government has been hiding the existence of aliens. That's The X-Files we remember, the conspiracy Mulder always wanted to crack wide open. But by the end of the episode, things are flipped a bit. Instead, it's theorized that the government is using alien technology to experiment on humans, to change their genetics, and to eventually use this to pretty much take over the world. Humans are the ones behind the abductions, not aliens.

The apparent cover up of trying to out the truth on O'Malley's show (which includes the death of at least one person - spaceship blowing up her car no less), results in re-opening The X-Files. And now we get to my favorite scene of the episode. Yup, the Cigarette Smoking Man is back! Smoking through the hole in his throat even - awesome.

"Founder's Mutation" is the next episode, and it really does continue with the strain of manipulating human DNA with alien DNA. I loved the mirror of Scully and Mulder thinking about what life would have been like if they kept their child along with the sister and brother whose genes had been tampered with to give them powers. Could this be what their child is like? Could he have been tampered with? I really do hope we get to see their son in a future episode!

This episode, though, made me realize one thing with this revival of The X-Files. They are not pulling any punches! From watching a man shove a letter opener into his brain via his ear, a woman graphically cut open her belly to release the baby inside (oh, yes, we see the cutting and the blood and the baby sticking his little hand out), and finally seeing blood pour out of all orifices of the doctor who experimented on his own children. Holy cow! I love it.

I'm looking forward to the next episode, and I may need to start sneaking in some of the old episodes during the week when the toddler has driven me to insanity.

What are your favorite recollections of the old episodes? And what did you like (or not like) about the new episodes?