Just the Ticket

Happy Halloween, Ticketholders! And because it's Halloween, I'd like to take a moment to do some  Critical Quickies  on a few frightening things I've been watching on Netflix. Stranger Things --Winona Ryder ( Beetlejuice ), David Harbor (the upcoming  Hellboy  reboot), Finn Wolfhard (this year's  It  remake). A kid goes missing and uses Christmas lights as a Ouija board, a monster gets loose, a girl with psychic powers steals waffles, Winona Ryder can act, finally, and Matthew Modine ( 47 Meters Down ) is creepy as all hell, except that when the show gets there, Hell (or Negative Earth, the Upside Down, The Vale of Shadows,...) is a lot creepier. An homage to 1980's coming-of-age horror movies and Stephen King that does both justice, appeals to a broad audience without pandering, and just has a cool, engaging story. The only thing wrong with it (that was also probably an executive decision to preserve said near-perfect quality) is that it was only eig...

Good afternoon, Ticketholders! I really must come up with a new tag for you guys, since I'm not doing much movie-related stuff anymore. Oh, how the digital age sucks! But, I've harped on that particular string to the point of snapping it already, so let's just dive into something else ugly. GFT #28: The Ugly Duckling Here’s a "great" idea: get someone who’s never written for Grimm Fairy Tales before to write an issue! New (and as of this date, only three-time) Zenescope writer Mike Dolce presents a take on The Ugly Duckling that acknowledges few and incorporates none of Grimm Fairy Tales ’ established mechanics while recycling plots that have been used at least three times before ( Cinderella , Beauty & the Beast , The Little Mermaid ). At the “heart” of the issue is Robin, an awkward, plain-looking girl who resorts to magic (provided by Belinda) to make herself attractive and popular, only to become a superficially desired mean girl who spu...

Things are back on track, Ticketholders! In other words, I have my eyes on the prize. And with nothing else clever to say, here's my Grimm Fairy Tales Retrospective  review of the Three Blind Mice . GFT #27: Three Blind Mice Again, this is not a Grimm Brothers fairy tale, nor is it a fairy tale, period. Like stories featured in the first two annuals ( 2007 and 2008 ), it is a nursery rhyme. More specifically, it is a nursery rhyme that some historians believe was a way of endearing young children to Queen Mary I (the farmer’s wife) and her view of Protestant heretics (the three blind mice). And because burning people at the stake doesn’t really appeal to children (except maybe Timmy in his early GFT appearances), the author of the rhyme chose to include a lyric about bodily dismemberment by kitchen utensil instead. Sounds just right for Grimm Fairy Tales , doesn’t it? I started reading this issue, thinking that I would have to say something negative about how starting ...

Hello again, Ticketholders and other click-bait enthusiasts! It's been several days since the four-part Spider-Man: Homecoming  special (the collected edition of which can be accessed here ), and almost two weeks since a Grimm Fairy Tales Retrospective  hit the interwebs despite my many promises to the contrary. And before you read the rest of the post, you can download and read the Volume 5 Trade Paperback from this link . Trade Volume #1.5 So to recapitulate and recapture the latest focus of the Ticketverse, Sela Mathers is dead, leaving Belinda with free reign over the lost souls of the world as we head into the fifth volume of the first volume of  Grimm Fairy Tales , beginning with this pair of milestone issues. GFT #25 & 26: The Little Mermaid Collection Next on Belinda's list is the mother of a college student named Sara. After reading some of The Little Mermaid (which is not technically one of the Brothers’ Grimm’s original Fairy Tales, ...

Given the "most recent first" nature of blog structures, and the fact that I just haven't been in the mood or had the opportunity to post to my normal schedule, I've decided to take a cue from the world of comic books and start doing a supplemental post here and there called Ticketverse Trades , collecting recent posts of a common theme (links only, because brevity is king) so that they may be read in the order in which they were intended. This first Ticketverse Trade  includes links to the recent, four-part Spider-Man retrospective, titled Homecoming . Homecoming #1: Web Series  ( Spider-Man animated series retrospective) Homecoming #2: Geek Mythology (unofficial  New Piece Offerings #11 , mythology of Spider-Man) Homecoming #3: The Reel Reason You're Here ( Spider-Man  movies retrospective) Just the Ticket #102: Spider-Man Homecoming ( Homecoming  movie review) I genuinely plan to get back to another Retrospective  series of mine ( Grimm Fairy ...

In this modern age, I don't like the fact that critical voices are often contrary for the sake of being contrary. Do I still find them entertaining? Yes. Do I allow them to influence my own desires, tastes, and opinions when it comes to actual entertainment media? Sometimes, but only when reinforced by more knowledgeable, credible voices. In truth, sometimes, I don't agree with either the contrarian opinion or its more scholarly reinforcement. Amazing Spider-Man  and its sequel are widely regarded among critical and fan voices as the worst Spider-Man film efforts since Spider-Man 3 , which I didn't hate, but merely thought was an average production that left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth when it was all over. Amazing , on the other hand, I loved. Its sequel was of considerably diminished quality, but had that addictive aspect that had me wanting more and angered me only when I discovered later that none of the epic plot setups therein would be given resolution. Like S...

It's for the movies, right? Movies? Reel? Anyone get that? Or have you already forgotten what film projectors are? I may be sociologically and chronologically defined as a millennial, but I am more like my parents' generation than I would care to admit, so I'm going to say it: millennials suck. That's right. You suck as a generation, with your social media and instant gratification. If you want the internet and instant gratification so badly, go jerk off to some porn. That'll fix you right up. Otherwise, it's time to use your computer or other electronic device to read something. Aside from the villains Gollum-ing constantly (that is, talking to themselves and/or to the One Thing which made them villains in the first place), the events of 9/11 all but eradicating one of the best looking movie trailers in recent memory from public record, Spidey having organic webs, Peter disco-dancing like an emo douchebag version of John Travolta, Gwen Stacy being reduced to ...

Greetings, True Believers and Ticketholders! Welcome to the second in a three-part lead-in to my review of Spider-Man: Homecoming . Though not titled as such, this will be a post in the spirit of New Piece Offerings , an essay of liberal format FROM  my senior Mythology elective, Period 3, April 13, 2002 . I earned a perfect score for this paper, a six-paragraph defense of what qualifies Spider-Man as mythological hero. Sean Wilkinson April 13, 2002 Period 3 Spider-Man When one thinks of mythology, Greece is usually the first place that comes to mind; however, there are heroes of mythological stature much closer to home. One of these is the comic book superhero, Spider-Man. Given his tragic youth, unnatural powers, and controversial life, Spider-Man might be considered a modern day Hercules. Spider-Man was first seen in the comic book, Amazing Fantasy #15 . Peter Parker--Spider-Man's civilian identity--was born in New York City, the son of Mary and Richard Parker. W...

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Ticketmaster! Spider-Man: Homecoming  came out this week, and I thought I would update my Spider-Man: Then And Now  post to compile all of my reviews of Spider-Man's visual media as a lead-up to the review you already saw a dozen times from other sources when the movie came out in theaters. Or maybe you haven't. You'll just have to read to find out. It all starts with the animated series.... I have always been a big fan of all things Spider-Man, which disappoints me all the more when a beloved, long-running series like the 1990's Spider-Man animated series meets its end. Featuring a voice cast with the likes of Ed Asner (Disney/Pixar's Up ) and Mark Hamil ( Star Wars  and Batman: The Animated Series ), a full rogues' gallery of infamous Spidey villains, cameos from other Marvel animated series of the time, like the X-Men, Iron Man and War Machine, and the Fantastic Four, a sprawling narrative, and a then-revolutionary...

How about a little reading, you Ticketholders and click-bait enthusiasts? A little late on the release, but as promised, here's another Piece  of my mind FROM Period 3, October 8, 1999 . It's slightly lax on structure (only two supporting paragraphs, but with the correct amount of concrete detail and commentary for a high school freshman-level English class), and I don't recall the prompt behind it, other than "analyze the short story 'By the Waters of Babylon' in an essay format."  As usual, prepare for an elongated post with interjected self-analysis of the work in question. I mean both that I will be analyzing my own work, and that I, myself, am a work in need of analysis with regard to how well--or poorly--I live by the words I have written down here. Sean Wilkinson 10/8/99 Mrs. Whitaker Period 3 "Finding the Middle" If you listen to people at the movies, you might hear some of them saying, "If the actors didn't do a...

The Experiment was originally a three-part story, dished out in installments at the end of each of the first three Tales From Wonderland , perhaps as a way of keeping readers from being selective and getting them to spend more money on comic books. Whatever Zenescope’s motives, I enjoyed this fractured story far more than the materials it was meant to accompany. TFW Bonus Story #1: The Experiment The Experiment follows Henry Allen, the scientist from The Queen Of Hearts , as he recounts his time as an employee of Charles Dodgson (who is apparently over two hundred years old by Alice’s time, as Henry Allen’s journal is dated 1864). When an accidental explosion uncovers a portal to Wonderland (because of course there was a magic portal behind his basement wall the entire time), Henry begins sending animal test subjects through and recording his findings for Dodgson. If you hadn’t guessed, the animals were a white rabbit and a black cat whose fur is subtly inked in a dark shade...