Dr. K

Movie Night [Sci-Fanuary]: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

16/01/202609/01/2026Dr. K1 Comment

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.

Released: 30 June 1995
Director: Bryan Spicer
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox

Budget: $15 million (reportedly)
Box Office: $66.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 30% / 57%

Quick Facts:
Despite attracting controversy, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993 to 1995) was a cultural phenomenon that spawned videogames, toys, and this largely maligned feature-film. Rather than repurposing footage from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992 to 1993) like the television series, the movie included brand-new costumes for the heroes and a theatrical new villain.

The Review:
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie not only has a mouthful of a title but is technically separate from the ridiculously popular show. While it clearly takes place between the show’s second and third seasons, with the line-up placing Rocky DeSantos as the Red Ranger (Steve Cardenas), Adam Park as the Black Ranger (Johnny Yong Bosch), Aisha Campbell as the Yellow Ranger (Karan Ashley), and fan favourite Tommy Oliver/The White Ranger (Jason David Frank) as the fearless leader, the movie was almost instantly rendered non-canon when the third season retold some of it. Still, I always viewed it as a big-budget expansion of the show, with the awesome new, far more armoured suits and the redesigned command centre simply a big-screen glow-up for what we saw on TV. Angel Grove has been protected by the Power Rangers for some time but the six heroic teenagers are just as giving to the community in their civilian guises as they partake in a charity skydive to raise money for the local observatory, ostensibly to aid researching Ryan’s Comet, which is passing by soon. Billy Cranston/The Blue Ranger (David Yost) and Kimberly Hart/The Pink Ranger (Amy Jo Johnson) join their friends, alongside bungling bullies Farkas “Bulk” Bulkmeier (Paul Schrier) and Eugene “Skull” Skullovitch (Jason Narvy), in completing the dive, amazing youngster Fred Kelman (Jamie Croft) and his strangely unnamed firefighter father (Peter Mochrie), who particularly praise Tommy for his efforts. While roller skating around the city, the titular teens pass by a construction site right as Bulk and Skull land off course, though they miss when the workers unearth a mysterious, ancient egg.

*When Ivan Ooze endangers Zordon, the Power rangers must journey to restore their powers.*

This doesn’t escape the attention of the Power Rangers’ mentor and father-figure, Zordon (Nicholas Bell/ Robert L. Manahan), who immediately orders his robotic assistant, Alpha 5 (Peta-Marie Rixon/Richard Wood), to bring in the Power Rangers to warn them. The egg also attracts the malevolent Rita Repulsa (Julia Cortez/ Barbara Goodson) and her equally malicious lover, Lord Zedd (Mark Ginther/Robert Axelrod), who teleport in to unleash Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman), a sorcerer so powerful that even Zordon fears his wrath. Sealed away eons ago for his wicked ways, Ivan immediately sets to work avenging himself on his captor, promising Rita and Zedd that he will destroy Zordon’s entire legacy as recompense. Since Ivan is an accomplished shapeshifter, Zordon’s champions are caught off-guard when they arrive at the construction site and end up battling Ivan’s Oozemen (voiced by Neil Kaplan). Initially, the teenagers battle the Oozemen in their base forms, giving us a taste of how far these youngster’s martial arts and choreography has improved over the show. Indeed, I had trouble spotting when or even if the actors were subbed out for stunt workers, which helped the fights to be more tactile and believable even with all the physics defying, cartoonish nonsense. Eventually, the teenagers morph into their amazing big screen suits, which sport some new gadgets to inspire a wave of new toys. Although the Power Rangers triumph over the Oozemen, Ivan infiltrates the command centre, disables Alpha 5, and leaves Zordon close to death, robbing the Power Rangers of their suits, their powers, and their Thunderzords. After somehow trekking to the command centre, the depowered Power Rangers are horrified by the state of their mentor and jump at the chance to save Zordon and regain their powers, regardless of the risk, by braving a seemingly one-way trip to Phaedos, where a legendary “Great Power” sleeps (though none have ever survived the quest to obtain it).

*Despite the looming, personal threat, there’s little chance for character progression or emotional arcs.*

Although the Power Rangers are largely interchangeable, given few chances to showcase even their admittedly one-dimensional personalities (there’s no chance for Billy to be smart and scientific, for example), Tommy stands out thanks to his undeniable charisma. I was impressed by the performances here, however, as the actors are much more comfortable and confident by this point, though there’s still plenty of over-the-top deliveries and exaggerated gestures to mimic the Japanese actors. The movie gives the actors more of the spotlight since they (and/or their stunt doubles) are fully carrying the plot and action rather than recycling Japanese footage, which again helps everything flow much better. While all six are shaken by Zordon’s condition and eager to help, Kimberly is particularly rattled and the group are very aware that time is against them. When wandering around Phaedos, the teens are aided by Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), a formidable warrior and ally of Zordon’s who saves them from Ivan’s Tengu Warriors and partially empowers them with an animal spirit, granting them new (and sadly quite disappointing) colour-coded ninja outfits. While the others are emboldened by this, Adam is disheartened that he’s been lumbered with the frog, though embraces his animal spirt after a pep talk and kiss from Dulcea. While the six quest to fully unlock their “Ninjetti” powers, Angel Grove is splintered by Ivan’s mind-controlling ooze, which infects Fred’s dad and the other adults and turns them into mindless slaves to produce more ooze and dig up Ivan’s Ecto-Morphicons. While the other kids enjoy having the run of the city, Fred urges them (and Bulk and Skull) to help their parents after spying on Ivan’s operation and learning that he’s ordered the adults to march to the construction site and “leap to their doom”.

*The theatrical Ivan Ooze steals every scene with his over the time, pantomime-worthy performance.*

Rather than offering a non-stop, action-packed, big screen Power Rangers adventure, the movie strips them of their powers and forces them to undergo a journey to replenish their power source. They face a ticking clock to accomplish this thanks to Zordon’s health rapidly deteriorating and Ivan’s plot to unearth his machines and destroy the world but have little in the way of individual character arcs. There is no dissension amongst the Power Rangers and they never argue about anything; they remain steadfast in their determination to stay optimistic and save their mentor. This means characters like Rocky and Aisha largely fade into the background as neither have the same emotional reaction to Zordon’s fate as Kimberly, question their abilities like Adam, or have Tommy’s charisma. In fact, there’s more in-fighting between the villains as Ivan, after leaving Zordon near death, barges into Rita’s Moon base and traps her and Lord Zedd in a snow globe, forcing their minions, Mordant (Jean Paul Bell/Martin G. Metcalf) and Goldar (Kerry Casey/Kerrigan Mahan), to join him. There’s little for these two to do except spout one-liners and bow to Ivan’s whims, and it’s a shame to see Rita and Zedd usurped so easily as they look great here. While Ivan looks ridiculous and is often joined by some horrendous visual effects, Paul Freeman is absolutely hamming it up, cackling maniacally, chewing the scenery, and delivering a performance so over-the-top that would make any seasoned pantomime veteran blush! Rather than exuding power, authority, or terror, Ivan is a theatrical and flamboyant villain who delights in playing dress up and bending others to his will, relishing the chance to avenge himself and fully confident in his ability to do so, to the point of arrogance.

*As great as the new suits are, they’re sadly side-lined for awful ninja outfits and atrocious CGI Zords.*

While I love the big-screen paint job given to the Power Rangers’ suits, they’re sadly absent for a big chunk of the film as the team is depowered by Ivan’s attack. The suits are far more detailed and layered, sporting armour, headlights, special visors, and other nifty gadgets for the big screen. When morphed, the team bust out all the crazy, colourful attacks from the show, defying gravity and physics and relying on teamwork to triumph. However, there’s a distinct lack of explosive sparks thanks to Ivan’s goons being made of sludgy ooze and it takes all movie for us to get a kaiju-sized battle (though this benefits the pacing, to be fair). When on Phaedos, the team are attacked by the Tengu Warriors, bird-like monsters that flap about in unconvincing suits but are at least being whisked along by wires and such. Unfortunately, the Ninjetti are a massive downgrade and little more than coloured gi that turn them into rainbow ninjas. While they’re encouraged to receive new spirit animals, the team are still lacking their full power and must battle past rock warriors that are just as visually disappointing as the Tengu Warriors since they flop and flail about the obvious sets and are crushed by polystyrene boulders, chopped in half with dodgy CGI, and dissolved in a nearby stream. Once the guardians are vanquished, the team reach the Great Power and are fully restored, ditching the awful ninja outfits for their armoured suits and fully unlocking their Ninjetti powers. Beyond providing them with new Zords, though, this largely amounts to them spouting the word “Ninjetti” every time they launch an attack or do anything and is clearly an excuse to sell new toys to kids. Still, it’s a great moment to see them back in their suits, even if the sultry Dulcea is unable to aid them since she would face the same rapid decline as Zordon if she left Phaedos.

*A knee to the crotch ends the butt-ugly CGI finale and allows our heroes to revive their mentor.*

Although he looks ridiculous, Ivan is a significant threat as he easily disables Zordon, destroys the command centre, and usurps Rita and Zedd, allowing him to force Angel Grove’s adults into unearthing his Ecto-Morphicons. While Fred, Bulk, Skull, and the other kids desperately race to intercept the adults, barely surviving when the Ecto-Morphicons endanger their monorail and Fred commandeering a fire hose to push the zombie-like crowd back, the newly empowered Power Rangers swoop in to battle the Ecto-Morphicons in their all-new Ninjazords. Unfortunately, while the film had been doing a great job of upgrading the show’s practical suits and “Suitmation” aesthetic, it completely drops the ball for the finale by rendering the Ecto-Morphicons and Ninjazords as fully CGI creations (save for some sparse model shots and scenes of the Power Rangers in their cockpits). This was an absolutely atrocious decision as the CGI looks terrible, with the giant machines resembling bad videogame graphics and lose all sense of weight, reality, and appeal since they’re too shiny and too cartoony. It’s a real shame as the finale could’ve been a fun, kaiju-style battle between the mechs but it instead looks embarrassing and laughable. Although the Ninjazords destroy Scorpitron, Ivan bonds with Hornitor and reforms it into a gigantic, unconvincing CGI version of himself. Overwhelmed, the Power Rangers desperately form the Ninja Mega Falconzord but find themselves outmatched by Mecha-Ivan’s pure power. Luckily, the Blue Ranger remembers Ryan’s Comet and suggests luring Mecha-Ivan into the comet’s path. This forces the Ninja Mega Falconzord to get uncomfortably close to the maniacal sorcerer and the Yellow Ranger to amusingly smash a big, red emergency button to deliver a knee to Ivan’s balls and send him hurtling towards the comet, with both being destroyed on impact. Ivan’s death releases his hold on the adults, but the Power Rangers are distraught to find the Zordon has perished. Luckily, Dulcea taught them to overcome any obstacle with their sheer willpower, so they join hands and summon the Great Power to restore Zordon, and the command centre. In the aftermath, Angel Grove rejoices, and Rita and Zedd quickly reclaim their throne from the ambitious Goldar, determined to continue their own plans for conquest.

Final Thoughts:
I swear I remember seeing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie in the cinema back in the day, but I have no record of that so I must be thinking of when we rented or recorded it on VHS. The Power Rangers were the hottest thing when I was a kid and I was well into it, especially for the show’s first two seasons. After that, and this film, I dropped off and rarely paid much attention beyond videogames and specials and such, but this movie stuck with me despite that. Many of Ivan’s more bombastic lines are very memorable thanks to Paul Freeman’s absolutely glorious performance. The guy is hamming up being under all that make-up and it’s a delight every time he’s onscreen, even when Ivan’s doing wacky shit like whipping up ooze for the adults. Considering how cringey the show could be, I was very impressed by the lead performers, who delivered their lines much more convincingly and had more opportunity to showcase their physicality in the fight scenes since the movie doesn’t recycle any Japanese footage. As great as the new suits look, though, it’s a shame the characters aren’t given more chances to shine individually or as a team. They have a quest and they complete it there’s little character progression or emotional depth beyond them mourning Zordon. Like, why not have Kimberly descend into despair about Zordon to bring her and Tommy closer or have Rocky lash out in anger due to the emotions. I guess that would be too heavy for kids to handle so the film opts for a surface level depiction of this and focuses more on sending a message about believing in yourself. Sadly, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie lacks the same punch as the show since it opts for ugly-ass CGI mechs for the finale, completely losing the Suitmation spirit of the show to try and be bigger and better. This alone is enough to cost the film a star, in my opinion, as the ending completely falls flat because of this god-awful, cartoonish CGI. Otherwise, this is a fairly harmless kids’ adventure that does a great job of bringing the TV show to the big screen, even if it’s not doing much more with the formula and is clearly trying to sell new toys to impressionable kids.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie as a kid? How do you think it holds up today and what did you think of the CGI Zords? Were you also a fan of the new, armoured costumes and disappointed by the ninja look? Do you agree that Paul Freeman stole the shole or did you find him a little too over the top? Which of the Power Rangers movies and incarnations is your favourite? Let me know your thoughts on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie down and donate to my Ko-Fi to fund more Power Rangers content.

Movie Night [Sci-Fanuary]: The Fly (1986)

15/01/202617/01/2026Dr. K6 Comments

Released: 15 August 1986
Director: David Cronenberg
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox

Budget: $9 to 15 million
Box Office: $60.6 million
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 93% / 83%

Quick Facts:
A reinterpretation of George Langelaan’s 1957 short story and a remake of Kurt Neumann’s 1958 sci-fi classic, The Fly was surreptitiously produced by comedy legend Mel Brooks, featured creature effects by Chris Walas, Inc., and almost starred Pierce Brosnan or John Malkovich. Though a sequel and stage play followed, Cronenberg’s proposals for another follow-up never materialised, despite Jeff Goldblum’s enthusiasm.

The Review:
I think it’s fair to say that, for shy, insecure recluse Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), meeting Veronica “Ronnie” Quaife (Geena Davis) at a Bartok party was love at first sight. Cradling a glass of Scotch and claiming to be working on something that’ll “change the world and human life as we know it”, Brundle is excited to discuss his work with the beautiful Ronnie, misreading her interest as anything other than a story for Particle Magazine since, by his own admission, he “doesn’t get out much”. Equally, I think it’s fair to say that Ronnie’s intrigued by Brundle’s doe-eyed naivety; she later admits that he’s “very cute”, indicating that she was attracted to him despite his somewhat bumbling nature and acute travel sickness. This, and the perception that Brundle is a harmless cook, drives her to visit his isolated laboratory/apartment, housed within a rundown building in what looks like a pretty rough area of town (red flags if I ever saw them). Once there, Ronnie immediately regrets her decision upon seeing Brundle’s sparse apartment, which is the furthest thing from a clinical, scientific setup you can imagine. Brundle, however, is a closet showman as he tries to impress with his piano skills and introduces her to his revolutionary Telepods. While Ronnie’s unimpressed by the “designer phonebooths”, Brundle’s extremely protective of them, even the “clunky” prototype, since he literally cobbled them together from bits and pieces of other Bartok technology. Yet, Brundle isn’t some hack or fraud; Stathis Borans (John Getz) later reveals that Brundle has a distinguished scientific career and almost won the Noble prize for Physics at just twenty-two! It seems, then, that Brundle is being unnecessarily humble regarding the Telepods, which he controls via a simple computer interface and voice recognition software and which are apparently so efficiently designed that they cause no power drain to his apartment or the immediate area.

*While Brundle and Ronnie grow closer and solve the Telepod enigma, Stathis threatens their relationship.*

Ronnie, however, is incredibly sceptical of Brundle’s claims to be able to teleport inorganic matter between Telepods. However, when she witnesses it after seductively handing over her stocking, Ronnie immediately recognises that they’re an exciting scientific breakthrough and begins grilling Brundle, causing him to panic when he realises that he’s misread the signs and prematurely revealed his project. Thus, Brundle’s relieved when the creepy, condescending Stathis dismisses Ronnie’s account, initially believing Brundle’s a “con man” before spitefully running with the article after the two become lovers. Brundle offers Ronnie the chance to follow his work more closely, eager to publish a complete record of his world-changing invention and, intrigued, she agrees. However, ever the curious journalist, Ronnie questions the teleportation process, so Brundle naturally demonstrates the system’s fatal flaw by teleporting a baboon (because I guess lab rats or rabbits are too hard to come by!) While Ronnie is horrified when the process turns the baboon inside out, Brundle is both grief-stricken and enraged by the continued failure, blaming himself for the flaw since the computer is only following his commands. Luckily, he gets an intense and passionate sermon on the “flesh” when Ronnie, smitten by his intellect and drive, seduces him. This sexual escapade inspires Brundle to realise that the computer is being too analytical about organic matter, so he excitedly rewrites his program and is elated when the second baboon is successfully teleported. While Brundle and Ronnie celebrate and begin a whirlwind romance, the jealous Stathis descends into a malicious tantrum, angrily confronting Ronnie and threatening to expose Brundle’s work just to get back at them. Ronnie’s forced to pay her editor and former lover a late-night visit to try and reason with him, leaving poor Brundle to drink himself into a stupor. Drunk, believing Ronnie is cheating on him, Brundle spontaneously decides to teleport himself, completely unaware that a seemingly harmless housefly has snuck into the machine with him.

*Brundle undergoes a slow but horrific transformation after a teleportation mishap.*

Though Ronnie allays his fears regarding Stathis, she’s alarmed to learn about this and relieved to find he’s unharmed. Her relief turns to amazement when Brundle immediately undergoes physical changes, suddenly becoming far stronger, having more stamina, and being more excitable than ever, After being physically exhausted by his sexual appetite and discovering coarse hairs on his back, Ronnie reacts with horror when Brundle suddenly urges her to undergo the process, believing the Telepods purified his genes and made him superhuman, only to lash out with anger and take to the streets to find someone more willing, leaving her devastated. Brundle impresses barfly Tawny (Joy Boushel) with his gruesome physical strength and Telepods, though he’s further frustrated when she also refuses to use the machines and when Ronnie reveals that he’s sprouting insect hairs. Drunk on his newfound physical strength and ignoring Ronnie’s concerns about his health and erratic behaviour, Brundle throws her out in a rage, only to beg her to visit him some time later, his condition having noticeably deteriorated. After realising Ronnie was right when his fingernails fall off, Brundle is horrified to discover that his Telepods spliced him and the fly on a molecular level and surmises that the foreign DNA is manifesting as a “bizarre form of cancer” that’s causing gruesome tumours and decay. Terrified, Ronnie begs Stathis for help, those he’s disgusted upon viewing footage of the rapidly worsening Brundle, whose despair is replaced by a manic glee as he finds he can scale walls and vomit a corrosive enzyme to eat, now excited to be transforming into a unique lifeform he dubs “Brundlefly”. Though Brundle’s mental health degenerates alongside his body and he laments his declining humanity, he works tirelessly on a solution using his Telepods, only to be wracked by agonising spasms and to realise his only viable option is to sacrifice a healthy life. Ronnie’s nightmare only worsens when she finds she’s pregnant and, fearful that the baby could be contaminated by Brundle’s mutated genes, struggles with telling the increasingly monstrous and animalistic Brundle of her plans for an abortion.

*Brundle’s initial delight at his superhuman abilities soon turns to despair and madness.*

The Fly is very different from the original film, and the source material, replacing concerns about nuclear annihilation with a very blatant AIDS analogy and marrying the fear of scientific curiosity with the tragedy of watching a loved one succumb to a cancerous disease. For me, The Fly is one of the quintessential examples of how to do a remake as it takes the basic premise of the book and adds a new spin to it, modernising it and recontextualising its themes into an unforgettable, tragic sci-fi body horror piece. The Fly takes itself very seriously, showcasing Brundle’s mental and physical decline in gruesome and uncomfortable detail, so much so that Cronenberg famously cut a scene where Brundle beat a cat/baboon hybrid to death as audiences lost sympathy for him. While it’s admittedly odd that Brundle cobbled together his Telepods largely by himself, operates in a less than sterile environment, and uses baboons as test subjects, his eccentric and secretive nature speaks to these decisions. These are also early warning signs that Brundle isn’t quite prepared for how dangerous his Telepods can be. Not only were they not calibrated to handle living tissue, they also can’t comprehend the presence of two lifeforms, essentially killing Brundle during his first jaunt since what emerges is an “insect… who dreamt he was a man… and loved it!” Brundle’s pained soliloquy about “insect politics” is easily one of the film’s most emotional and horrifying moments, largely because The Fly does such a great job building the romance between Brundle and Ronnie. It helps that Goldblum and Davis were dating at the time, but their characters have great chemistry together, with Brundle finally having someone to talk to and be open with and Ronnie excited to be at the forefront of a scientific breakthrough and involved with such a passionate and selfless man.

*The squeamish need not apply for* The Fly, which is a masterpiece of body horror!

It’s thus even more tragic and horrifying to see Brundle go from an eccentric, loveable goof to a conceited, temperamental jerk and a broken, literal shell of his former self. At first, Brundle’s excitement at reaching his physical potential is infectious but, when he subscribes his condition to the purifying nature of the Telepods, be becomes uncharacteristically violent. Brundle’s mood swings only increase as he deteriorates; he constantly goes from despair, to anger, to sarcastic acceptance even when collecting his decaying body parts. Brundle initially tries to put a positive spin on his condition by urging Ronnie to document his fly-like abilities, before becoming resentful of Ronnie’s frequent absences and trashing his apartment during one of his many outbursts. Brundle noticeably struggles to maintain his logic, reason, and humanity as his body hideously warps, barely holding onto himself long enough to warn Ronnie to stay away for her own safety. However, when he learns that she’s pregnant, Brundle sees the unborn child as potentially the last link to his humanity. Rather than stumbling around with a big fly head, Goldblum endures a horrific physical transformation that is brought to life through top-notch make-up and prosthetics and showcases his deterioration in multiple stages. At first, things aren’t so bad with a few extra hairs, skin blotches, and bad hygiene but, within about a week, Brundle struggles to stand and his skin is covered in disgusting boils. The foreign DNA essentially turns him into a living, slowly decaying cocoon, at first bestowing him with the proportional strength of a fly and then crippling him with pain as the mutation grows more severe. Brundle loses his fingernails, his teeth, his ear, and his penis (judging from his ghastly medicine cabinet); his fingers and toes fuse together; and his speech is so badly distorted that his computer doesn’t recognise him. All throughout Brundle’s transformation, he’s pained by a growth on his side, which another deleted scene reveals birthed a gruesome, fly-like appendage! Brundle loses the ability to properly digest food, using “vomit drop” to liquify sugary treats, and is eventually reduced to a rotten, limping, tumour who’s barely recognisable as a man in a startling gruesome analogy for the AIDs epidemic, the aging process, and cancer.

*Brundle’s final, monstrous transformation leaves him a mangled mess of meat and tragedy.*

After a horrifying nightmare about her baby, Ronnie pleads with Stathis to help her and he takes her for an abortion since she refuses to risk giving birth. Desperate for a part of himself to live on, Brundle pleads with her to keep the baby but, when she refuses, he’s forced to bring the distraught and terrified Ronnie to his lab. Barely able to speak, Brundle explains his insane plan to teleport himself, Ronnie, and their unborn child and fuse them together into one body, his warped mind seeing this as the only way for them to be together as the “ultimate family”. Though Stathis bravely tries to stop Brundle, he ends up getting his hand and foot melted by vomit drop, though his harrowing moment is merely the appetiser for The Fly’s most impressive and unsettling scene. While fighting off Brundle, Ronnie dislodges his jaw, kickstarting Brundle’s final, gruesome metamorphosis as his sickly shell splits, his flesh tears to ribbons, and his eyes explode as the sickly, gangly Brundefly emerges! Driven only by his insane plan to undo his condition, the “Spacebug” launches Ronnie into a Teleport, activates the sequence, and settles his into another Telepod. However, the horribly injured Stathis fires a shot that shorts out Ronnie’s Telepod. Enraged, Brundefly smashes his way out, only for the countdown to complete and the Telepod to activate! As Howard Shore’s haunting score rises to a crescendo, the Telepod deposits Brundlefly, now little more than a howling, mangled mess of meat, piping, and machinery. Barely breathing, clearly wracked with agony, the twisted Brundlefly/Telepod-thing crawls along on pure instinct. Traumatised and wary, Ronnie grabs Stathis’s gun to defend herself but is crippled by heartache at the sight of what’s left of her lover. With the last vestiges of his strength and humanity, Brundlefly weakly presses the gun to his bulbous forehead. Though Ronnie hesitates, struggling to kill the man she loves, Brundlefly emits a heart wrenching groan and silently pleads to have his torment ended and, more on instinct than anything, Ronnie fires, atomising Brundlefly’s head and causing what’s left of him, and his tormented lover, to collapse to the floor.

Final Thoughts:
I was way too young to watch The Fly when I first saw it, and yet it didn’t traumatise me like other horror films back then. There are many reasons why The Fly is so well regarded, even when it first released, and I largely credit The Fly for being one of a handful of movies that made me appreciate the beauty of practical effects, prosthetics, and animatronics. Brundle’s physical and mental decline is disturbing to witness, with him becoming this monstrous, pain-wracked hunchback who grows increasing volatile as his humanity is stripped away. This final transformation into Brundlefly remains as captivatingly horrific as ever, with the sickly, almost alien creature being unpleasant to look at and yet deeply sympathetic, especially when he’s mewling on the ground after being spliced with the Telepod. Add to that the horrifying maggot birth sequence and you have a movie that largely cemented David Cronenberg as the king of body horror. Cronenberg’s visuals are even more potent when you watch The Fly as an allegory for sexually transmitted diseases, a plot point just as prominent in this first-class remake as the dangers of meddling with science and which works so well because of the chemistry between the leads. Brundle and Ronnie make an adorable pair, a couple you really root for due to their undeniable chemistry, and Stathis makes for a despicably loathsome third wheel. The fact Stathis becomes someone to root for by the finale is almost as unsettling as seeing him get dissolved by fly vomit since he’s such a vile creep, but it speaks to how well-written The Fly is that every character is so well rounded. The Fly may very well be the quintessential Jeff Goldblum performance as he throws his all into the role, enduring unimaginable discomfort to showcase Brundle’s declining state and being the perfect mixture of lovable goof, erratic jerk, and enraged monster. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that The Fly has aged beautifully and is just as impactful and emotional now as it ever was, especially for me, and it remains one of my all-time favourite movies of any genre…and the standard bearer for how good remakes can be!

My Rating:

Fantastic

Are you a fan of this gruesome remake of The Fly? Did you enjoy the ways it reinterpreted the book, or do you think it strayed too far from the original text? Were you invested in the romance between Brundle and Ronnie? What did you think to the horrific make-up effects and Brundle’s mental and physical deterioration? Is The Fly your favourite remake? Would you like to see a new adaptation of Langelaan’s book? How are you celebrating all things sci-fi this January? Leave a like and a comment with your thoughts, go check out my other sci-fi reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi movies for me to cover.

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Mega Man 8 (Xbox Series X)

14/01/202621/01/2026Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 8 August 2017
Originally Released: 17 December 1996
Developer: Capcom
Metacritic Score: 6.9

Also Available For: GameCube, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, SEGA Saturn, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

Quick Facts:
After dominating Nintendo’s 8-bit consoles and successfully transitioning to 16-bit, Mega Man made the jump to the 32-bit era with Mega Man 8, with Keiji Inafune taking the helm following Tokuro Fujiwara’s exit from Capcom. The developers apparently struggled to adapt to the PlayStation hardware, and fought to keep Mega Man 8 2D. The game also featured tracks by J-pop band Ganasia and atrociously dubbed anime cutscenes by Xebec. Although Mega Man 8 sold well, reviews criticised its lack of innovation, uninspired visuals, and frustrating difficulty curve. While it inspired a spin-off title, Capcom chose to return to 8-bit visuals and gameplay for the next title.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Mega Man’s debut on the PlayStation and SEGA Saturn sticks so closely to the original 8-bit games that it could easily have been released on a 16-bit console with a few graphical adjustments. Aside from some visual changes and some voice acting and anime style cutscenes, the core gameplay is as familiar as ever, and actually a step back from Mega Man 7 (Capcom, 1995) and even some of the NES titles. Still rendered as an anime-style hero and wielding his “Mega Buster” arm cannon, Mega Man must tackle four new Robot Masters in whichever order the player chooses, then challenge four additional stages, and finally storm Doctor Albert Wily’s newest base, the Wily Tower. You’ll find Mega Man 8 more challenging if you tackle the Robot Masters at random as each one is vulnerable to another’s Special Weapon, which you acquire after defeating them and can, in some instances, be used to better traverse the environment. Like Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8 features an opening stage to learn the game’s controls, which can be customised but remain as simple as ever. The default setup sees you jumping with A or Y, firing your regular shot with X (or holding X to charge a bigger, more powerful shot), and utilising your currently selected Special Weapon with B. Mega Man can slide beneath enemies, projectiles, and through narrow passages by pressing down and A and can now swim by tapping A or Y. This does offer greater control when underwater, but it can be finicky as Mega Man’s quite an erratic swimmer! The Left and Right Bumpers let you quickly cycle through the Special Weapons you acquire by defeating Robot Masters, and these are manually selected from the in-game menu with the “View” button. Your Mega Buster comes with unlimited ammo and can even be fired in conjunction with your Special Weapons, but you’ll need Weapon capsules to replenish your Special Meter to use them. There are no Energy and Weapon Tanks this time, but you can still activate different shots and call upon Mega Man’s canine companion Rush from the main menu after defeating certain bosses.

*Mega Man’s Special Weapons have more use but autoscrolling gimmicks make for irritating sections.*

You can visit Doctor Thomas Light’s laboratory between stages to buy gear from Mega Man’s sister, Roll, using Bolts. These allow you to immediately exit any cleared stage, speed up your shots, slide, and ladder climbing, replace your regular shot with a piercing arrow or laser, reduce the cost of Special Weapons, and negate the pushback you receive when taking damage. Rush is significantly different here, allowing you to ride him like a motorcycle, gift random items, perform an airstrike, or continuously drop restorative items while his meter lasts. You can still use him to fly across stages, but only in specific areas, finally adding an autoscrolling shooter mechanic at the cost of keeping you from freely flying past hazards or springing to higher areas. Though Auto, Beat, and Eddie help blast incoming enemies when freed from capsules, Rush Health and Rush Item can only be summoned once per stage and I really felt the loss of Rush Coil and Rush Adapter as Mega Man 8 includes some dodgy platforming. There are eight new Special Weapons in Mega Man 8 and, in a change of pace, they’re surprisingly unique. The awkward Mega Ball can be kicked to ricochet around or bounced on to get higher, the Thunder Claw snags hooks to swing you across chasms, the Flash Bomb destroys enemies and illuminates dark areas, the Ice Wave freezes enemies and lava so you can briefly bypass hazards, the Tornado Hold allows you to float and move certain objects, the Homing Sniper locks on to nearby enemies, the Astro Crush rains meteors to clear the screen or break certain barriers, the Water Balloon damages anything caught in its bubbles, and the Flame Sword delivers fire damage up close and melts ice blocks. While I mainly saved these for the Robot Masters, they’re invaluable in Sword Man’s tomb and the Wily Tower as you’ll need them (mostly Thunder Wave) to progress. Finally, Mega Man 8 features aggravating jet-powered board sections, jumping gaps and sliding under obstacles, in some of the most frustrating sections! The screen scrolls awkwardly, making it very difficult to see what’s ahead, you’re giving little time to react, and your button presses often fail (though Astro Crush can help a little as you’ll briefly float when using it).

*The usual hazards and gimmicks are compounded by janky controls and cheap-ass insta-death traps.*

Naturally, all the usual hazards return, including various insta-kill spikes on walls, ceilings, and floors, insta-kill flame bursts that must be frozen, and giant mallets that knock you to your doom. Disappearing and reappearing platforms also return, fading in and out of reality at the worst times, as do various moving and spinning platforms and even ones that you must press switches to move. There are more switches than usual, too, activating Dr. Wily’s teleporters and moving weighted blocks out of the way. You’ll loop around maze-like catacombs, navigate past spiked mines in fragile bubbles, frantically jump and climb a mechanical tower as it descends into sand, and hop to timed explosive platforms up narrow shafts. Platforming is quite the chore in Mega Man 8, especially without Rush’s usual abilities. Some platforms are just out of reach or quickly fall out from under you, sometimes you must make pixel perfect jumps to precarious platforms, sometimes the Thunder Claw passes through hooks, and sometimes you must risk instant death by sliding and jumping for extra momentum. Ladders are sometimes just out of reach, you sometimes must force dangerous platforms to respawn alongside turrets and enemies to try again, and those autoscrolling sections move far too quickly to ever be fair. You’ll battle on rising elevators, get rid of destructible blocks (watching for pits and spikes as they appear), catch a ride off toy trains, fight against (or be aided by) blowing wind, and avoid crushing hazards as you go. Unlike previous Mega Man games, Mega Man 8 uses a save feature when you clear each stage, though it seems to force you to re-do the entire Wily Tower if you head back to the map screen between these stages. You can replay any stage using your new Special Weapons to find hidden paths and goodies, usually a Bolt to spend at Roll’s shop, though there are no hidden encounters with Proto Man or upgrades to find here.

Presentation:
Without a doubt, Mega Man 8 is the best looking 2D Mega Man game I’ve played so far. While Mega Man loses a few frames of animation compared to Mega Man 7, his body short circuits when he takes damage and he moves far smoother and has more personality than ever thanks to voice clips. The sprite-based cutscenes now bolstered by partially animated profile pictures and an infamous English dub that I found amusing and somewhat charming. The quality of these cutscenes might still be very outdated but they add a lot to this world and bring it even more in-line with its anime aesthetic, finally giving these iconic characters voices and personalities beyond story text. Mega Man sounds a little too young at times and Dr. Light sounds like he’s on the verge of a stroke, but these were fun and kinetic sequences that placed more emphasis on story than ever before. Mega Man’s rival, Bass, returns, with the two no closer to settling their differences, and even Proto Man helps in sticky situations. Sadly, the little tutorials and conversations between Mega Man and Dr. Light every time you get a new Special Weapon are gone, replaced by a somewhat impressive 3D model of Mega Man and some congratulatory text. Equally, while Mega Man 8 boasts a jaunty and unique techno-synth soundtrack, I can’t say I found any of the tunes all that memorable. I did like that the Robot Masters’ introductions featured voice clips and that they spawned into their arenas in a unique way, such as Aqua Man (not that one) emerging from the water and producing a rainbow displaying his name, ~~Swords~~ Sword Man cutting his way out of a statue, and Grenade Man blasting into the arena. However, while the game performs very well, with no slowdown due to the in-game action, screen and stage transitions are a bit jerky thanks to the PlayStation’s loading times.

*Despite its laughable* anime cutscenes, Mega Man 8 *impresses with tis visuals, if nothing else.*

While there’s little on offer in Mega Man 8’s stages that wasn’t done to death in the previous games, Mega Man 8 offers the benefits of 32-bit hardware by…slapping some 3D models and prerendered textures in the backgrounds. To be fair, this does give stages more depth, colour, and life than ever, with overgrown wreckage seen in the background of the introductory stage, more foreground elements, and far more vibrant and detail environments in general, with blinking lights and moving parts prevalent. Grenade Man’s stage is a dangerous weapons factory, with giant 3D mallets swinging, explosive blocks everywhere, and even dynamite blocks that you must race across to avoid falling to your death. Frost Man’s stage is a flash-frozen city, with you traversing an icy highway (strangely with no loss of traction), ploughing through snow, and blasting past the bright city at night. Tengu Man’s stage is a series of floating pillars held aloft by propellers that features a wind gimmick. As you fly along on Rush Jet, a gigantic bird-like battleship sporting turrets looms through the clouds and you must gingerly fly through this to reach the Robot Master. Clown Man is fittingly in a wacky fairground stage where balloons float in the foreground, you fight through a toy factory so littered with moving foreground elements that they become distracting, and eventually navigate through a pirate ship attraction. After a brief interlude where Mega Man first encounters Duo in a rocky cave, it’s off to Astro Man’s surreal stage with its M.C. Escher-like backgrounds, giant mechanical sunflowers, and ladder maze. Aqua Man’s stage is almost entirely underwater, with a domed underwater city seen on the horizon, while Sword Man’s takes place inside a boobytrapped temple where you must utilise different Special Weapons to overcome obstacles and clear a path to the volcano-like interior. Search Man’s stage features a jungle theme, while the Wily Tower naturally mixes every gimmick and hazard and makes them ten times worse. Here, jet board sections are nearly impossible, walls and ceilings damage you on Rush Jet, and aggravating, often instant-kill hazards are everywhere in this mechanical hellhole that almost had me snapping my controller in two!

Enemies and Bosses:
As any long-time Mega Man player might expect, a fair few of Mega Man’s most recognisable enemies return here, in more detail and with improved animation cycles. There’s the Metalls, for example, who appear in the standard variant and a flaming version to spark dynamite fuses. The Bunby Tank returns from Mega Man 7 alongside Battons (with the vampire bat-like Succubatton draining your health with its bite) and a new Sniper Joe. These jump, hide behind their shields, shoot, and toss grenades, though they’re few and far between and easier to take out than previous Sniper Joes. Mega Man 8 also throws ice skating rabbits at you, bird-like robots that fly in swarms, grasshopper-like enemies that often hop between small platforms to mess up your jumps, and little toy soldiers that also drain your health when they latch onto you or hop from hot air balloons. Robotic snakes drop near-endlessly from holes, large flying whale-like battleships hover in the skies dropping Metalls and ice blocks, and three gorilla-like robots toss bombs, spiked balls, or giant boulders that double as makeshift platforms. Crocodile-like robots snap at you from holes in the floor, robotic dragons snake through the air, and shellfish-like robots float about underwater alongside oyster-like enemies that shield their vulnerable cores with their shells. Large cylinders float about dropping bombs and armoured rhinoceros-like Sydeckas fire missiles, but they’re nothing compared to the mini bosses that pop up. A floating mechanical eye awaits in Grenade Man’s stage, surrounding itself with and flinging debris not unlike Junk Man, the central core of Tengu Man’s battleship doubles as a laser cannon, a strange spinning disk with a lion’s face bounces around in Clown Man’s stage firing doubles of itself and little robots, a large fish-like robot emerges from a waterfall to ram you and destroy your log platforms in Aqua Man’s stage, and a gigantic, cog-like robot shoots fireballs in Sword Man’s stage as you desperately avoid a plunge into lava.

*The Robot Masters continue to be fun, challenging opponents with some unique attacks.*

Your first test comes from a giant robot crab that requires you to awkwardly kick your Mega Ball into his weak spot (though Astro Crush basically one-shots it). Your best bet at tackling the game’s Robot Masters is to fight Grenade Man first as he’s very simple, using wall jumps, a dash, raining debris, and firing his signature Flash Bomb and being particularly weak to the Mega Buster. His Flash Bomb makes short work of Frost Man, a large but clunky robot who delivers a shockwave punch, tosses his Ice Wave, and whimpers when damaged. While the Ice Wave is very effective against Tengu Man, it’s tough to freeze him since he’s always flying and floating about, dashing in and flinging you into the sky for a somersault kick with Tornado Hold. This Special Weapon snatches Clown Man mid-swing and deals damage when he drops to send his Thunder Claw under the ground to grab you, though it might help to slide under his wild trapeze swings. Thunder Claw works pretty well against Grenade Man but I fought Astro Man next, who’s best fought with the Homing Sniper but the Flash Bomb is also good. Astro Man teleports about, flings small orbs to whittle down your health, and fills the screen with his signature Astro Crush. Despite its limited uses, this Special Weapon decimates Aqua Man, who fires a shot of living water that tracks across the screen, conjures waves, and shoots his destructible Water Balloon. These are great at taking out Sword Man, provided you aim at his torso. Sword Man leaps about swinging his Flame Sword, which cuts through the elusive Search Man, who hides behind bushes and takes cheap shots with his Homing Sniper. As ever, all eight Robot Masters are fought in the Wily Tower, this time in more unique arenas, though you’re also tested by Duo during the interlude. He sports a charged, explosive fist slam and ricochets about but is fought to a standstill as Proto Man interrupts the battle.

*As familiar and aggravating as some of the late-game bosses are, they’re at least beatable this time!*

When in the Wily Tower, four additional mini bosses await, the first being a robotic penguin that requires the aggravating Mega Ball as you must perfectly position yourself to ricochet your shot up the shaft where Atetemino appears, avoiding the crates and missiles it drops. The Bliking aircraft is fought while on Rush Jet, so be sure to grab your other robo buddies to help. This thing fires screen-filling lasers and destructible mines and missiles, and can only be damaged (preferably with Astro Crush) when its wings are fully extended. Bass and Treble combine for a rematch, one far less taxing than Mega Man 7’s as he flies about, charges at you, fires his Mega Buster, and blasts a concentrated beam from above. The Yellow Devil is evoked by the Green Devil, who can only be damaged by blasting a hole to its mechanical core and firing your Flash Bomb or Thunder Claw. Thanks to it constantly deconstructing, summoning green waves and floor spikes, and filling the screen with its pieces, this is another exercise in tedium as you have such a small window of opportunity to strike. Success once again sees you battle Dr. Wily in a two-phase boss fight that’s far easier than the brick wall I ran into in Mega Man 7. Dr. Wily’s newest skull-like machine advances with a buzz-saw like appendage that it flings across the ground. This is easily jumped over, as are its charged laser beams and even its projectiles if you time your jumps right. You need to be quite close to hit it with the Flame Sword but the Water Balloon reportedly works quite well, too. True to form, Dr. Wily mans a UFO-like hovercraft for the final phase, one that teleports about the place and sends purple orbs out in a spiral or spread. While he’s often just out of reach, some of his shots home in, and he can rain Dark Energy into the arena, you should be able to finish him off with the Flame Sword (or, better yet, the Flash Bomb), especially if you still have Rush Health in reserve.

Additional Features:
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 features twenty-one Achievements, with one popping when you complete Mega Man 8. You can also toggle various display options (screen size, borders and screen filters), view a character database and production art, activate “Extra Armour Mode” to reduce the damage you take, and take on additional challenges that have you play through remixed stages, boss rushes, and time attacks. Like the other games in the collection, Mega Man 8 lacks the rewind feature that would’ve made many of its more frustrating sections more tolerable and replaces it with a janky save state system that simply saves a new version of your last checkpoint rather than literally create a save state. Disappointingly, there are basically no secrets or collectibles in Mega Man 8 beyond the forty Bolts, and even those are difficult to amass in a single playthrough. While you can cobble together different combinations of items by visiting Roll, there are no new armours or additional weapons here, meaning there’s even less content than some of the 8-bit games! Incidentally, if you play the SEGA Saturn version (sadly not included in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2), you can battle Cut Man and Wood Man in Duo’s interlude and Search Man’s stage.

Final Thoughts:
Considering how much I struggled with Mega Man 7’s difficulty curve, I was apprehensive about tackling Mega Man 8, especially without the convenient rewind features. Thankfully, the final boss wasn’t anywhere near as much of an uphill battle and Rush’s new abilities made the lack of E- and W-Tanks more tolerable at times since Rush drops so many restorative items when summoned. Mega Man 8 makes a great first impression with its anime-style opening and colourful, detailed, vibrant stages. Sure, the voice acting is grating and ludicrous at times and the video compression is awful, but these cutscenes added a lot to the aesthetic and I was very impressed with the visual design of the stages. Unfortunately, Mega Man 8 is let down quite significantly by its gameplay. Not only does Mega Man sport no new abilities beyond his new Special Weapons, but he’s been robbed of many elements that made his games so much fun. I liked that we finally got autoscroller sections with Rush Jet, but I never expected to miss using Rush Coil and Rush Jet whenever I liked. The items in the shop weren’t very useful, it was disappointing that we don’t get to collect anything beyond Bolts, and those jet board sections can go die in a ditch! These sections are far too fast and punishing, often dangerously reducing your view space and requiring split-second decision making. The Robot Masters were fun and I liked the attempt to give the Special Weapons more versitality, but the Thunder Claw’s swing function was needlessly aggravating and the Mega Ball was a clunky and annoying addition. It’s such a shame as there was some real promise here but Mega Man 8 screws up even the most basic platforming mechanics with its janky controls and emphasis on pixel-perfect jumps, irritations only aggravated by the lack of a rewind function. Sadly, I’d say you’re better off sticking to the 16-bit games and even the later 8-bit titles as at least they offer collectibles, bonuses, and air-tight gameplay mechanics to make for challenging, but enjoyable experiences.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

What did you think to Mega Man’s 32-bit debut? Were you surprised to see Capcom stick to the 2D style of gameplay? Which of the new Robot Masters and Mega Man’s Special Weapons was your favourite? What did you think to Mega Man and Rush’s stripped back abilities? Did you also struggle with the jet-board and Rush Jet sequences? How are you celebrating the science-fiction genre this month? Whatever you thought about Mega Man 8, drop a comment below, go check out my other Mega Man reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Mega Man content for the site.

Movie Night [Sci-Fanuary]: Return of the Fly

13/01/202611/01/2026Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 22 July 1959
Director: Edward Bernds
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox

Budget: $225,000 (estimated)
Box Office: Unknown
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 36% / 26%

Quick Facts:
Following the surprising success of Kurt Neumann’s ambitious 1958 adaptation of George Langelaan’s 1957 short story, the studio rushed a sequel into production with a lower budget and shooting in outdated black-and-white. $25,000 of the budget went to returning actor Vincent Price, potentially affecting the revised practical effects, though the barely related follow-up was deemed to be far worse overall.

The Review:
Return of the Fly immediately loses points by being filmed in black-and-white. While I have nothing against a good, grainy, black-and-white horror flick, this was the age of Technicolor, where black-and-white was not only a step backwards but almost an insult, especially as the first film was in colour, so Return of the Fly looks cheap and dated as a result. The film opens with Hélène Delambre (formally Patricia Owens) dead, apparently so haunted by the ghastly accident that cost her ambitious husband, scientist André Delambre (formally David “Al” Hedison) his life, that she was consumed by anguish. André’s devoted brother, François Delambre (Vincent Price), is especially heartbroken as he’d harboured a deep love for Hélène and stepped in to help raise her son, Philippe Delambre (Brett Halsey), as a surrogate father (and potentially married Hélène following André’s death). Alongside the sadly absent Inspector Charas (formally Herbert Marshall), who’s replaced by Inspector Beecham (John Sutton), François covered up the gruesome truth of André’s final days, which have long concerned the now-adult Philippe. Desperate for answers, Philippe begs François to tell him what happened and he reluctantly relates how André, consumed by scientific passion and curiosity, accidentally transformed himself into a bizarre human fly using his “Disintegrator-Integrator”, a potentially world-changing invention left in shambles after André destroyed it to avoid others suffering his fate. Intrigued by his father’s work and seeking to vindicate him, having become a keen scientist himself, Philippe vows to rebuild the machine and perfect his father’s dream, though François strongly advises against it and even refuses to bankroll him with what’s left of the Delambre wealth, believing André meddled in things man should leave alone.

*Philippe looks to complete his father’s work, unaware he’s working with an industrial spy!*

Undeterred, Philippe returns to his childhood home alongside his friend, Alan Hinds (David Frankham), who agrees to assist him and even waves off a salary to be part of the project and co-own it once they’ve changed the world. Both are quite taken by Philippe’s beautiful childhood friend, Cecile Bonnard (Danielle De Metz), who’s largely just here to be a pretty face, scream when she sees something awful, and babble in French about their childhood. Philippe and Alan quickly rebuild the Disintegrator-Integrator and successfully test it on inanimate objects. They also program it to “store” disintegrated objects to be reintegrated later (apparently a workaround for them only having one chamber), though they encounter a bizarre defect where the machine enlarges living organisms. It doesn’t take long for François to discover their progress and be coerced into aiding them, financially and with his knowledge, to keep Philippe from selling his half of the family company for additional funds (though François continues to oppose the project). Although disheartened that he effectively has to threaten his beloved uncle and encouraged by their progress, Philippe has no idea that Alan is secretly Ronald Holmes, an industrial spy looking to sell the secrets of the Disintegrator-Integrator to the unscrupulous Max Barthold (Dan Seymour) for an even greater profit. Having fled England for crimes so terrible he would be hanged if caught, Alan frantically overpowers Inspector Evans (Pat O’Hara) and sends him through the machine, only to produce a dead body with the hands and feet of a guinea pig and a guinea pig with human hands! After killing the animal and disposing of the body with Max’s help, Alan’s confronted by Philippe, who becomes concerned by his friend’s suspicious nature, only to be easily forced into the machine at gun point alongside a fly, which Alan spitefully tosses in with Philippe since he knows he’s deathly afraid of the insects.

*Philippe goes on a rampage as a comical fly-thing, but is ultimatley restored to normal.*

François arrives too late to help, taking a surprisingly non-fatal bullet to the gut and collapsing upon seeing Philippe emerge as a grotesque human/fly hybrid (Ed Wolff) with an enlarged and disappointingly comical head, stumpy fly leg, and claw-like arm. Like before, Philippe’s head is transposed onto the tiny fly, which buzzes around the laboratory begging for help before being captured (rather roughly) by Inspector Beecham so they can restore Philippe. Unfortunately, the fly-headed Philippe flees into the night and the police struggle to find him; they even threaten to kill him if he won’t come peacefully. Somehow, the fly-Philippe knows to head to Max’s funeral parlour and throttles him with his augmented strength. Conveniently, Alan shows up shortly after and gets his neck brutally crushed by the fly creature. When François hears of this, he worries that his nephew has already been consumed by the “murderous brain of the fly!” but Philippe apparently has enough of his humanity left to stumble home and collapse in Cecile’s bedroom. Despite still being injured, François helps Inspector Beecham get the fly-Philippe and his insect counterpart into the Disintegrator-Integrator and successfully restores his nephew, sparing him the same fate as his father. While I cut The Fly a lot of slack, it’s difficult to do the same for its sequel, primarily because the enlarged fly head looks so goofy. It’s technically impressive, I guess, but it’s too big and cartoony and makes it too obvious that it’s just a man in an uncomfortable headpiece. Return of the Fly has a higher body count than the first film, which is nice, but Philippe isn’t as interesting as his father. He lacks André’s boundless charisma and enthusiasm and his desire to recreate his father’s work seems paper thin, at best. It might’ve been better if it was Alan pushing Philippe to do this and if Philippe was somewhat reluctant. I also don’t get why the filmmakers didn’t just recast Inspector Charas or bring back Herbert Marshall as Inspector Beecham fulfilled essentially the same role and it was weird seeing a third party be aware of the awful fly experiment.

Final Thoughts:
While it has some flaws and has largely been surpassed by the 1986 remake, The Fly was still a fun, classic sci-fi film and a stirring cautionary tale about the mysteries of science. Return of the Fly hits many of the same story beats as its predecessor, focusing on a budding scientist seeking to make a historic breakthrough and being undone by that same technology, but Philippe wants to vindicate his father by completing his work; the benefits to humanity are merely a bonus. While Cecile is a pretty face, she and Philippe lack the same loving (if corny) relationship as his parents; indeed, they are never explicitly stated to be a couple by the end. Return of the Fly focuses more on the devious Alan, who plots to steal the Disintegrator-Integrator and is willing to kill for a profit. Having befriended Philippe, Alan knows how best to spite him and is perfectly positioned to manipulate him, a faulty plot point considering he stood to greatly profit from Philippe’s work. Vincent Price tries his best to elevate the material, but he doesn’t get much to work with and the effects are laughable compared to the last film (which didn’t exactly set a high bar!) Return of the Fly devolves into a simple monster movie when the fly-Philippe goes on a rampage, one that makes little sense as I have no idea how it knew to target Max and it’s still odd that the transformed people retain their intellect. You’re not missing much if you skip Return of the Fly, but I guess it’s an interesting coda for those who wanted to see more after watching the first film, but I’d be lying if I said it was a worthy follow-up.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Were you also disappointed by Return of the Fly or do you think it’s surprisingly good? Did you also think the enlarged fly head looked too goofy to be horrifying? Do you think the film wasted Vincent Price’s talents and agree that Philippe wasn’t as interesting as his father? Were you disappointed that so much of the film focused on Alan’s nefarious scheme? Would you like to see a new adaptation of The Fly and how are you celebrating the sci-fi genre today? Leave a like and comment below with your thoughts, check out my other sci-fi reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi movies for the site.

Screen Time [Sci-Fanuary]: Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! (E: 1-3)

12/01/202619/01/2026Dr. K2 Comments

Supervising Director: Karen Peterson
Air Date: 8 September 1991 to 22 September 1991

UK Network: BBC One
Original Network: NBC

Quick Facts:
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) inspired a slew of anthropomorphic knock-offs. Perhaps the most well-known was Captain Bucky O’Hare, an intergalactic rabbit created by Larry Hama first serialised in the short-lived science-fiction anthology Echo of Futurepast. Bucky O’Hare was expanded into a wave of TMNT compatible action figures and this all-too-brief animated series produced by Sunbow Productions (alongside Hasbro Studios). Although another example of a cartoon being produced simply to sell toys, the short-lived Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! is often fondly remembered as one of the better TMNT knock-offs (despite some noticeable issues).

The Review:
Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! started with a bang with a three-part pilot episode (“War of the Warts”, “A Fistful of Simoleans”, and “The Good, the Bad and the Warty”) that somewhat follows the basic plot of Bucky’s original comic book. Namely, the crew of the Righteous Indignation are outnumbered against the all-conquering Toad Empire and joined by science whiz Willy DuWitt (Shane Meier) after a photon accelerator malfunction. Although the cartoon is very colourful and the bonkers premise helps it standout from Teenage Mutant ~~Hero~~ Ninja Turtles (1987 to 1996) and features one of the all-time great theme songs, Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! suffers somewhat from cheap animation. The Righteous Indignation changes size from scene to scene, sometimes being a massive space frigate and other times appearing like a small shuttle. Characters warp and distort as they talk, fight, and shoot, with guys like Bruiser the Betelgeusian Berserker Baboon (Dale Wilson) radically changing size as he pounds toads and the decorated Toad Air Marshall’s (Jay Brazeau) massive, wart-encrusted head apparently caused the animators a lot of trouble. Unlike the TMNT cartoon, Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! is surprisingly violent. The toads are obsessed with terraforming worlds into disgusting swamps and stamping out indigenous life in the name of their leader, KOMPLEX (Long John Baldry), and Dead-Eye Duck (Scott McNeil) is always eager to “croak some toads” with the crew’s “masers”. Indeed, it isn’t until “The Good, the Bad and the Warty” that toads eject from their ships upon destruction, meaning many are presumed killed during the many space battles, though the Righteous Indignation’s original engineer, Bruce the Betelgeusian Berserker Baboon (Dale Wilson) is said to have been transported to “another dimension” rather than killed like in the comics.

*Bucky’s battle with the toads gets a boost when science whizz Will accidentally arrives from Earth.*

Fearless leader Captain Bucky O’Hare (Jason Michas) commands the flagship of Sentient Protoplasm Against Colonial Encroachment (S.P.A.C.E.), headed by the United Animal Security Council (U.A.S.C.) of anthropomorphic pencil pushers who oversee the “Aniverse” from the lush planet Genus, the capital of this universe that’s well protected by a defence system so powerful it can destroy even toad motherships. Despite the Toad Empire threat, which overruns Bucky’s home planet of Warren in “War of the Warts”, the U.A.S.C. are reluctant to commission additional ships, leaving Bucky disheartened to find he’s left with only The Indefatigable as back-up as the U.A.S.C. are happy to hide behind their impenetrable defence grid. Brave and determined, Bucky faces the Toad Empire head-on despite the odds and his ship being stuck with a dodgy photon accelerator. Though Android First Class Blinky (Sam Khouth) and Bruce try to fix the device, Bruce is presumed dead and the crew are stunned when Willy arrives through an interdimensional portal generated when he activated his home-made photon accelerator. Willy is expanded upon greatly in these episodes compared to the comics. While his hippie parents (Unknown) are more concerned with saving the world than helping with his bully problem, Willy’s a curious and intelligent preteen who immediately adapts to his space adventure by repairing the photon accelerator, earning him the respect and gratitude of the crew. Unlike in the comic, Willy can freely return to Earth and is encouraged to do so despite joining the crew and having an awkward crush on first mate Jenny (Margot Pinvidic) and feeling accepted for the first time. I remember not caring much for Willy as a kid and certainly he’s less interested than the battle hungry Dead-Eye Duck and mysterious Jenny, but he wasn’t as annoying as I thought. He wasn’t a Gary Stu or constantly moaning and was instead surprisingly capable with space technology and lucky that the Toad Empire didn’t think to waterproof their Void Droid.

*Bucky and his crew refuse to back down even when faced with the might of the Toad Empire.*

The Righteous Indignation is constantly under fire from the Air Marshall’s mothership or against the odds as the Toad Empire is so vast. The Air Marshall and KOMPLEX have clearly run into Bucky and his crew prior to the series and are determined to stamp them (and S.P.A.C.E. out) and spread toad supremacy across the Aniverse. Like the comics, Blinky reveals that the toads were once a benevolent race more concerned with consumerism and comfort than conquest. A highly scientifically advanced race, they built KOMPLEX to handle their boring, everyday tasks but were enslaved when the artificial intelligence became self-aware and decided to conquer the Aniverse. This essentially means that the toads aren’t in control of themselves and are compelled to build war ships and conquer planets for their A.I. commander, though they also showcase some autonomy. The toads watch infomercials, are deathly afraid of Betelgeusian Berserker Baboons, and the Air Marshall is very proud of his medals and has an intense hatred for Bucky. This means the toads have the numbers but not necessarily the smarts and are easily bested, even when the Righteous Indignation is outgunned or Bucky is outnumbered. Bucky simply leaps to safety time and again, apparently possessing superbunny agility, though even he’s overwhelmed by the towering, cybernetic Toad Borg (Richard Newman). Once a regular Storm Toad, the Toad Borg was transformed (presumably by KOMPLEX) into a nigh-indestructible enforcer. Thus, he easily shrugs off masers and water alike and threatens to suffocate Bucky and the others (and then flush them into space) to intimidate Willy into handing over the access codes to Genus so the Toad Empire can install one of their climate converters.

*Willy helps the crew overcome betrayal, loss, and the odds to deal a massive blow to the toads.*

Although aghast to see his new friends in peril and torn between saving them and dooming an entire planet, Willy bravely defies the Toad Borg and destroys the access codes, only to underestimate cunning bounty hunter Al Negator (Garry Chalk), a crack shot sleazasaur hired by the Air Marshall in “A Fistful of Simoleans” to infiltrate the Righteous Indignation and steal the access codes. Despite being clearly nefarious and the warnings of Willy and Dead-Eye Duck, Bucky accepts Al Negator’s application for ship engineer, impressed by his credentials, and immediately regrets it when the bipedal crocodile easily outwits Blinky and the others and downloads the access codes from the ship’s computer. The greedy Al Negator initially seems willing to part with the stolen codes for play money Willy tricks him into thinking is worth far more than simoleons, but is smart enough to create back-ups of the codes to double down on his profit. Comically, Al Negator is more amused than enraged by the deception and I’m sure returned to plague the crew as often as the Toad Borg, who was blasted into space when Willy successfully tinkered with the climate convertor to destroy it before it could wreck Genus. Considering how colourful Bucky’s crew is, it’s a shame they don’t have more to do in this climatic battle, which sees Bucky holding off the Toad Borg while Willy gets to work. Jenny frees them with her mysterious psychic powers but is reluctant to fully display her abilities due to the laws of her coven, and Dead-Eye Duck is more use at the ship’s cannons than in a skirmish. Bruiser added some muscle to the team but it’s a bit weird having him be there as there’s little to separate him from the doomed Bruce and the team barely acknowledge their comrade’s loss, so it might’ve been easier to just have Bruce survive (at least until “The Good, the Bad and the Warty”).

Final Thoughts:
I haven’t watched Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! in years, so it was really fun coming back to it for this review. Although the cartoon has largely been forgotten and my toys are long gone, I never forgot the show or its awesome theme song, which was burned into my imagination. In a sea of TMNT knock-offs, Bucky O’Hare definitely stands out but only a fool would say this cartoon is on par with the Ninja Turtles, at least in terms of animation. These three episodes might be full of space action and adventure, but there’s maybe a little too much going on and some of the character designs are perhaps a little too complicated as they’re constantly warping and changing. Cartoon physics handicap some of the action sequences, and things feel a little too hectic and chaotic, especially compared to early TMNT, which better balanced action and characterisation. I liked that the general gist of the comic book was adhered to but with noticeable changes, especially considering Willy’s characterisation. It’s always tricky having kids in cartoons as they’re often bratty, whiny, annoying, or instantly amazing at everything. Willy definitely gets a confidence boost from joining the Righteous Indignation and is clearly a smart kid, but he’s also in over his head in the Aniverse and only survives thanks to comical luck and his impressive adaptability. This kind of thing gives Bucky and his crew the edge despite the overwhelming odds from the Toad Empire and the bureaucracy of the U.A.S.C. The Righteous Indignation crew never say die and never back down from a fight and constantly think up new ways to fight back, even when faced with physically superior foes like the Toad Borg.

*A colourful and bonkers series, despite some dodgy animation, that’s sadly forgotten these days.*

Bucky seems to have been mellowed out by the adaptation process, being a far less snarky and prideful character, though he’s not afraid to speak his mind to his superiors about their dire situation or go solo against insurmountable odds. This drive is echoed by Dead-Eye Duck and Jenny, who are equally willing to die to safeguard Genus, and this rubs off on Willy as he constantly chooses to return to the Aniverse to aid his new friends. I enjoyed the explosive space action on offer and seeing how violent this war was. A bunch of toads are unquestionably killed, which was pretty shocking for a cartoon, though the showrunners seemed to realise this and walk it back by having them eject and constantly saying Bruce is lost to “another dimension”. This skews the stakes somewhat but not by much as you clearly see how outnumbered and outgunned Bucky and his crew are. I was a little confused about the Toad Empire, though. KOMPLEX wants to rule purely for the sake of power, it seems, and has brainwashed the toads into following his every command and yet given them enough autonomy to make mistakes and feel emotions like fear and pride. It’d be far more efficient for KOMPLEX to create robotic soldiers who follow his every command rather than place his faith in bunglers like the Air Marshall, especially considering how efficient the Toad Borg is in his endeavours. Still, it was a lot of fun revisiting the pilot episodes of Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! and I do think the cartoon had a lot to offer with its visuals and messages of overcoming the odds. Bucky may be lost to time and have been dwarfed by the TMNT but he’s an entertaining character in a rich and exciting world so do yourself a favour and seek him out however you can for a nice slice of nostalgia pie.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you watch Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! back in the day? How do you think it compares to TMNT and other cartoons from the time? Which crew member was your favourite? Were you annoyed by Willy DuWitt or did you find him tolerable? Did you like the ways the cartoon adapted and deviated from the comics? What are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated cartoons? Feel free to share your memories of Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! in the comments and donate to my Ko-Fi if you’d like to see more Bucky content on the site.

Movie Night [Sci-Fanuary]: The Fly (1958)

11/01/202615/01/2026Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 16 July 1958
Director: Kurt Neumann
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox

Budget: $350,000
Box Office: $1.7 million (or $3 million)
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 95% / 71%

Quick Facts:
A relatively faithful adaptation of George Langelaan’s 1957 short story, The Fly saw star David Hedison struggle with the ambitious and surprisingly terrifying practical effects as much as co-star Vincent Price struggled with the film’s iconic final moments. Regarded as a sci-fi classic, The Fly spawned a couple of sequels and a widely praised remake in 1986.

The Review:
Set in Montreal, Quebec, The Fly opens with all the major action having already taken place and aspiring scientist André Delambre (Al Hedison) crushed by a hydraulic press at his family factory. His equally wealthy brother, François Delambre (Vincent Price), is shocked by this but knocked for a loop when André’s beautiful wife, Hélène Delambre (Patricia Owens), confesses to killing her husband. Stoic and apparently remorseless, Hélène openly admits to the act, refusing to paint herself as a “murderess” as André willingly placed himself under the hydraulic press but confessing to activating the machine twice to crush his head and arm. Having adored his brother, his curious young nephew, Philippe Delambre (Charles Herbert), and having secretly been in love with Hélène for years, François is desperate to know why she’s saying such awful things and to get to the truth of the matter. François aids Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall) in this endeavour, eager to understand why Hélène is so desperate to find and kill a white-headed fly. As Hélène faces either hanging for murder or being committed to an asylum on the grounds of insanity, François pretends to have captured the fly and threatens to give it to Inspector Charas unless Hélène tells the truth. This breaks Hélène’s crazed demeanour and she reveals she’s been pretending to be mad to protect Philippe. Assuming that François has seen the truth of the fly he’s supposedly caught, Hélène agrees to tell him and Inspector Charas the whole story, meaning most of The Fly is framed as flashback to a couple of months ago, when the Delambres’ were a healthy and happy family very much in love and enjoying the opulence of their home.

*Hélène shares a fantastical story of her ambitious husband’s incredible new invention…*

Back then, the charming André was a loving, if reclusive, scientist who spent days in his basement laboratory working away but always greeted his wife and son with a smile. One day, André bounded from his lab and eagerly brought Hélène to witness his latest, greatest creation: the “Disintegrator-Integrator”. Hélène watches in amazement as André’s machine teleports a plate from one glass chamber to another and shares his elation in the potential applications of the machine, which promises to solve world hunger and change concepts of transport. Unfortunately, André’s delight quickly turns sour when Hélène discovers the reintegrated objects are not perfect duplicates, so André immediately returns to work, shunning his family for several days before he solves the problem. Once satisfied that the flaw’s been corrected, André moves to live animal testing by transporting the family cat, Dandelo (Unknown). However, Dandelo mysteriously fails to reintegrate (possibly because she was transported alongside a saucer of milk) and is apparently reduced to atoms, with only her disembodied cries echoing throughout the lab. Grieved by this mishap, the cause of which he never discovers, André returns to work on his machine and finally re-emerges to demonstrate the revised Disintegrator-Integrator to Hélène, now able to teleport living objects and allowing her to care for a reintegrated guinea pig to atone for Dandelo. Though eager to celebrate his breakthrough, André hesitates to inform the wider scientific community as even he doesn’t fully understand his machine, though he excitedly requests that Hélène bring François to witness the fruits of his labour and bask in what promises to be a world-changing creation. However, when François arrives, he and Hélène are disappointed to find a badly written note taped to the door of André’s lab asking them to stay away. Assuming André has lost himself in his project once more, the two leave him to it, only for André to remain in the lab for several days.

*Hélène’s desperate search for the fly leaves the horrifically altered André contemplating suicide.*

Concerned, Hélène goes to check on him and finds him hiding his face behind a black cloth and keeping his left hand obscured. Though unable to speak, André converses through written and typed notes and by banging once for “yes” and twice for “no”, forcing Hélène to turn her back as he slurps his food and revealing that he experienced a horrible accident when he transported himself through the Disintegrator-Integrator. A common housefly got into the chamber with him and mixed up their DNA, leaving André with a deformed, fly-like hand and head and the fly with a human head and arm. Strangely, André retains his logic and reason but, knowing it’s only a matter of time before he loses his humanity, he orders Hélène to find the white-headed fly. Hélène spends a couple of days frantically searching all over for the fly, aided by her eager son and confusing their housemaid, Emma (Kathleen Freeman), who somehow misinterprets Hélène’s clear instructions to capture the fly and goes around swatting them. Determined to help her husband, Hélène repeatedly tries to corral the fly and is constantly met with failure: it slips out of Philippe’s net and eventually escapes into the garden, presumably acting as a fly would and slowly having its instincts overridden by André’s consciousness just as André becomes increasingly animalistic. Indeed, the frustration at his wife’s failure only exacerbates André’s condition. He struggles to type and write and keep his thoughts straight and warns that he will have to “destroy himself” if the fly isn’t found. Refusing to accept this, Hélène desperately begs André to try transporting himself again, confident that this will undo the damage, only to be left a shrieking, horrified wreck when she whips off André’s cloth and witnesses his gruesome fly head!

*Despite the bizarre story, Inspector Charas* *is convinced to spare Hélène from the law.*

While quaint by today’s standards, this practical effect is surprisingly shocking. It twitches and moves like a fly’s proboscis and effectively transforms the beautifully handsome Hedison into a tragically monstrous figure. This is further emphasised by how hard André fights the animalistic urges of his fly genes; he struggles to keep his fly arm from harming Hélène, and this same limb actively fights against him when he destroys his lab in despair. Realising that he’s meddled in forces beyond human understanding and wishing to destroy all evidence of his experiment, André uses what little humanity he has left to ransack his lab and scrawls a final declaration of love and plea for help on his chalkboard. Thus, Hélène helps her husband to the hydraulic press and, following his instructions, activates the machine to crush his fly parts into indistinguishable mush (though not before his fly arm tries to bring her under with him!) Though amazed by Hélène’s story, Inspector Charas begrudgingly returns with a warrant and the men in white coats to take her to the nut house. While he’s also sceptical, François is desperate to save Hélène and frantically alerts Inspector Charas to a white-headed fly Philippe found caught in a spider-web in the garden. Dubious, Inspector Charas entertains François’s plea one last time, taking no pleasure in causing him pain, and is appalled when he sees the fly has André’s head! Inspector Charas and François watch in horror as a spider advances on the half-human fly as André screams for help. Unable to stand the screaming, Inspector Charas crushes both and François immediately condemns him as being as guilty of murder as Hélène. Shocked by the whole ordeal, Inspector Charas reluctantly agrees to François’s suggestion that André committed suicide, sparing Hélène from death and the asylum. Some time later, Hélène and Philippe return to normal, with François now much closer to them, and François sadly tells Philippe that his father died in a reckless search for the “truth”.

Final Thoughts:
Although I grew up with the 1986 remake, I’ve always had a fondness for the 1958 adaptation of the The Fly, which I read and wrote about at university. Aside from a few changes, this is surprisingly faithful to the original short story and certainly one of the more ambitious sci-fi efforts of the late-1950s. Although some of the dialogue is a bit clunky and André and Hélène’s relationship is sickeningly sweet, André has an enthusiastic and affable charm about him thanks to the charismatic David Hedison, who adeptly captures André’s despair and torment after his horrific accident. Vincent Price brings his peerless authenticity to the film, perfectly portraying François as a lovestruck, tormented man trying to do his best by Hélène while struggling to comprehend her fantastical tale. Philippe was kind of annoying but did his best to be helpful, while Patricia Owens did a fine job carrying the bulk of the drama, portraying Hélène as a devoted wife desperate to help her husband. The Fly does a great job of building tension to the big reveal, giving glimpses of André’s malformed hand and depicting his obvious desperation and struggle to maintain his humanity. Sure, the fly head might be quite laughable by today’s standards but that reveal scene is an iconic moment in sci-fi cinema and has immortalised the film as much as the infamous ending. Again, the fly-André’s anguished cries of “Help me! He-ll-p me-e!” might be absurd, but it’s played so straight and so horrific that I can’t help but get shivers as that painfully fake spider devours him. While The Fly was completely outshined by its remake, it’s still a classic sci-fi morality tale of the dangers of science and a surprisingly effective exploration of madness and devotion, to say nothing of having some memorable moments that make it a truly timeless experience.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy this sci-fi classic? Did you like how accurate it was to the book? Were you won over by the seemingly perfect life shared by André and Hélène? Did you like the build up towards the big reveal or did the endless chasing for the fly get on your nerves? Were you impressed with the practical effects or do you think they’ve aged badly? Would you like to see another adaptation that was as closely tied to Langelaan’s book? How are you celebrating sci-fi this January? Like this review and leave a comment below, check out my other sci-fi reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi movies for me to cover.

Movie Night [Sci-Fanuary]: The Thing

10/01/202606/01/2026Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 14 October 2011
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Distributor: Universal Pictures

Budget: $38 million
Box Office: $31.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 34% / 43%

Quick Facts:
Despite being a critical and commercial failure at the time, John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) became a sci-fi/horror classic but spawned only comic books and videogames rather than a sequel. Universal Pictures eventually revisited the iconic Who Goes There? (Campbell, 1928) with a prequel to both expand upon and pay homage to John Carpenter’s classic. Despite the filmmakers utilising traditional practical effects by Amalgamated Dynamics, the studio demanded they be replaced with digital effects, dramatically changing the ending and leading to much unfair critical backlash and the cancellation of a follow-up.

The Review:
Nonsensical title aside (The Thing: Zero or The Thing: Origin might’ve worked better), The Thing is a rare example of a clever way to do a remake, even if the execution isn’t as memorable as John Carpenter’s film. The Thing is set in 1982, just like Carpenter’s movie, and follows the crew of Norwegian research station “Thule” in Antarctica, making it a direct prelude to John Carpenter’s movie. We saw glimpses of the Norwegian’s discovery and their gruesome fate in 1982 film, but The Thing expands upon what happened at Thule and even incorporates some elements from The Thing from Another World (Nyby, 1951). The film opens with the Norwegians randomly discovering a vast and ancient alien spacecraft buried deep under the ice, estimated to have been there for over 100,000 years. Though Thule houses a few scientific minds, Doctor Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) and his assistant, Adam Finch (Eric Christian Olsen), assemble a team to investigate the crash and its ejected pilot. Adam suggests recruiting beautiful palaeontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and, despite the lack of details, she eagerly agrees and is as amazed as the others are by the discovery. Although they question why the pilot would’ve ejected, geologist Edvard Wolner (Trond Espen Seim) enthusiastically organises his men to help Kate excavate the creature, which they bring to Thule in a massive block of ice. Against Kate’s warnings, Dr. Halvorson orders a tissue sample to be taken from the entombed creature, chastising her for contradicting him and arrogantly wishing to be at the forefront of the find of the century. To be fair, Dr. Halvorson does promise to credit everyone with the discovery, which he verifies is the first recorded example of an extraterrestrial visitor to Earth. Despite her unease, Kate celebrates the reveal alongside the others, including pilots Sam Carter (Joel Edgerton) and Derek Jameson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

*Norwegians and Americans alike are stunned to excavate an aggressive alien predator.*

While inspecting the thawing ice block, Jameson is horrified when the titular “Thing” bursts free and, after a moment’s disbelief, convinces the others to search for it. When Henrik (Jo Adrian Haavind) and Olav (Jan Gunnar Røise) find the vaguely insectile creature under a building, Henrik is ensnared and seemingly devoured, splattering Olav with blood and leading the others to burn the Thing alive. The shell shocked team barely hold it together as Dr. Halvorson conducts an autopsy and finds a disturbing copy of Henrick within the mangled corpse. Against Dr. Halvorson’s wishes, Kate reviews the Thing’s tissue and is horrified to discover that the alien cells are attacking, absorbing, and replicating living tissue. Her warnings fall on deaf ears, however, as even Adam is in denial despite witnessing it for himself, meaning Kate’s powerless to stop Derek, Griggs (Paul Braunstein), and Sam from taking Olav to a medical facility (and, as Sam promises, getting military aid). However, after discovering bloody dental fillings in the bathroom, Kate rushes to flag down the helicopter, sure that someone onboard is the Thing. Turns out it was Griggs, who violently splits apart and crashes the chopper, though the others are still sceptical about Kate’s warnings, especially as the evidence has been cleaned up. Juliette (Kim Bubbs) offers to help Kate get the keys to Thule’s vehicles to keep Edvard and the others from leaving and potentially spreading the Thing’s reach, only for her to also be revealed as a Thing and kill Karl (Carsten Bjørnlund) before being immolated by the surly Lars (Jørgen Langhelle) and his flamethrower. Echoing a similar scene from the 1982 film, the survivors dig a ditch in the snow and burn all the bodies, agreeing to quarantine themselves until they can figure out who’s who using a blood test devised by Dr. Halvorson and Adam, just like in Carpenter’s film. Similarly, this test is sabotaged when the laboratory goes up in flames, which also raises tensions in the group.

*While the execution is somewhat flawed, the film works as a decent prelude to the 1982 movie.*

I like that The Thing largely commits to having the Norwegian characters speak in Norwegian and that it closely emulates the aesthetic of John Carpenter’s film, with Marco Beltrami’s foreboding score reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s work in 1982. The film quality is noticeably better but the set design seems to perfectly match with what we saw in 1982, and The Thing goes to great lengths to explain how Thule ended up in the state it’s found in the previous film. Although the survivors briefly turn on and suspect each other, with Adam, Sam, and Jameson prime suspects since the former was the last person in the lab before it burned up and the latter two inexplicably survived the helicopter crash. Although the test is ruined, Kate checks everyone for fillings, leaving Adam, Colin (Jonathan Lloyd Walker), Edvard, and Dr. Halvorson suspects as they claim to have porcelain fillings. This scene isn’t as tense as the 1982 blood test but it’s a great way to show that the Thing cannot replicate inorganic material, meaning fillings and other metal implants are rejected during the absorption process. While fetching the isolated Sam and Jameson to check them, the Thing attacks and, in a bout of paranoia, Peder (Stig Henrik Hoff) is shot dead and Edvard is injured by an explosion. He’s dramatically revealed to be the Thing and goes on a rampage, infecting Jonas (Kristofer Hivju) and Dr. Halvorson killing Jameson, and gruesomely crawling over Adam to partially merge with him and create the abhorrent two-headed Thing discovered in John Carpenter’s film. After finally destroying this creature, Kate and Sam spot Dr. Halvorson fleeing in a snowcat. While Sam’s happy to let him drive off and freeze to death, Kate realises the Thing would benefit from that and that it’s heading back to the space craft, so she encourages them to pursue, relieved to find that Sam still has his ear piercing and is thus human.

*While CGI isn’t as impressive as practical effects, it’s not as bad as many would have you believe.*

While there are moments of tension and suspense in The Thing, this is far more akin to a monster movie than John Carptener’s film, focusing more on large, ungainly alien abominations and giving us a bigger body count. The Thing is still an unknowable, shapeless creature that’s cunning, patient, and extremely volatile, happy to imitate a victim and bide its time. While hidden as Griggs, the Thing almost escapes and, much like in the 1982 film, many characters are infected offscreen to keep the audience guessing. The Thing is noticeably more insectile at times and far more bloodthirsty, skewering and impaling prey with its razor-sharp tentacles and devouring them afterwards rather than immediately trying to absorb them. It still detaches parts of itself, notably its hands, to attack and is particularly vulnerable to fire, especially when in the middle of imitating someone. It cannot replicate inorganic material, though, raising some questions about how it has time to get dressed after imitating someone. It still imitates people flawlessly despite this, even attacking other parts of itself to maintain the ruse and being smart enough to lure others to a quiet area to attack, though Thule is well stocked with flamethrowers and grenades. Unfortunately, as many have said, The Thing ditches traditional practical effects for CGI visuals, and the results are noticeably mixed. When I first saw it, I didn’t think it was all that bad and thought it did a decent job of capturing the same vibe as Carpenter’s film but being just different enough in fun and clever ways to be enjoyable. I still think this, and this extends to the visuals, which are still disturbingly gruesome even if the CGI can be quite dodgy and cartoony. It does mean The Thing is a little less gory at times, especially when the alien is revealing itself or attacking someone, which is a bizarre choice considering how ghastly the effects are when it splits apart and erupts into a mess of tentacles, teeth, and moaning humanoid faces.

*Despite the bizarre ending, the film segues nicely into the beginning of Carpenter’s cult classic.*

Kate and Sam follow the Halvorson-Thing back to the spaceship, which it activates in a bid to either return to the stars or infect larger civilised areas. The commotion separates Kate and Sam, leaving Kate to wander the highly advanced alien craft and stumble upon a glowing, geometric hologram that leaves her mesmerised for some time. This was initially a biomechanical alien pilot, not unlike the “Space Jockey”, that was originally planned to have been collecting alien samples before being attacked by the Thing. Other versions of the film had an animatronic version of this pilot (or a horrendous amalgamation of Dr. Halvorson, the pilot, and the Thing) attacking Kate for the finale. Instead, Kate stares at this weird lightshow before the disappointingly cartoonish, CGI Halvorson-Thing attacks, forcing her to find space to toss a grenade into its gaping, teeth-riddled maw. Luckily, Sam appears just in time to unload with a flamethrower, destroying the grotesque creature and shutting down the ship’s engines. Though exhausted and battered, Kate still has the wherewithal to notice that Sam is now missing his earring and burns him alive without hesitation, reducing him to a squealing mess of alien meat as the Thing is finally destroyed. While Kate heads towards a nearby Soviet base in the snowcat, pilot Matias (Ole Martin Aune Nilsen) returns to Thule from a refuelling mission and finds it in ruins, Colin having slit his wrists out of fear of being assimilated, and is confronted by a paranoid, trigger-happy Lars. After verifying that Matias is human, Largs desperately urges Matias into the chopper to pursue his fleeing snow dog, which was discovered brutally killed soon after the Thing first awoke, perfectly tying the end of this film into the beginning of John Carpenter’s The Thing…

Final Thoughts:
I’ve always been a big fan of John Carpenter’s The Thing, even if it can drag a bit in the middle. It’s a fantastic example of horror, paranoia, and gruesome practical effects that would be difficult for any film to emulate. Rather than try to remake John Carpenter’s cult classic, The Thing opts to act as a companion piece, a prequel to show what happened at Thule before the 1982 film. In that respect, I maintain that The Thing does a decent job. The attention to detail in the set design and the fates of Thule’s residents is admirable, revealing that these twisted, mangled corpses were once people driven to desperation and paranoia or overtaken by a violent alien organism. I really liked the abundance of subtitles and Norwegian being spoken and it made sense to bring in some Americans as Thule wasn’t equipped to properly excavate or study the Thing. I adore Mary Elizabeth Winstead and won’t hear anything against here. Kate was a forthright and level-headed character who kept her cool, even when being attacked by the Thing, and came up with practical solutions. Joel Edgerton is no Kurt Russell, though, and most of the other characters are interchangeable and forgettable compared to those in Carpenter’s film, but I liked the smarmy, arrogant Dr. Halvorson, who seemed to be channelling the equally egotistical Doctor Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) from The Thing from Another World. While I don’t think the CGI is that bad, it’s true that it’s not as impactful as practical effects and appears very slap-dash, lacking the visceral horror of animatronics and puppets. The weird hologram-thing in the spaceship was a strange decision (it might’ve been better to just cut that scene) and the Halvorson-Thing wasn’t as grotesquely disturbing as the monstrous Blair-Thing, despite being more mobile thanks to CGI. I truly think The Thing is better than a lot of people think and is worthy of re-evaluation. It works really well as a double feature with John Carpenter’s The Thing and has some good moments, but even I must admit that it’s lacking compared to its predecessor and sadly missed the mark with its overall execution.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Do you agree that The Thing is better than most people think? Did you like that it aligned well as a prequel? Were you disappointed that much of the suspense was downplayed in favour of monster horror? Did you find the CGI disappointing and what did you think to that hologram thing? Would you like to see a new version of Who Goes There? on the big screen? How are you celebrating sci-fi this month? Whatever you thought to The Thing, comment down below and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other sci-fi films for me to review.

Screen Time [Sci-Fanuary]: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Re-Ignition: “Day of the Dumpster” (S1:E1)

09/01/202616/01/2026Dr. K1 Comment

**Series 1, Episode 1: “Day of the Dumpster”**

Director: Adrian Carr

Air Date: 2 January 2010
Original Air Date: 28 August 1993

Network: ABC Kids
Original Network: Fox Kids

Quick Facts:
While in Japan, Haim Saban came across the popular Choudenshi Bioman (1984 to 1985) and partnered with Shuki Levy to produce an American adaptation. When this failed to attract interest, Saban took a gamble by recontextualising footage from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992 to 1993) that paid off when the pilot episode was a hit with test audiences. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a cultural phenomenon at the time, despite some controversy, that spawned numerous spin-offs, movies, and merchandise, and the original series was digitally remastered in 2010.

The Review:
I’d recommend sitting down with a sugary snack to watch the classic, if ridiculously cheesy, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as “Day of the Dumpster” moves at a mile a minute! Interestingly, unlike many first or pilot episodes I’ve watched, “Day of the Dumpster” includes the full show intro, which recaps the basic plot and therefore makes the episode largely redundant as it simply expands this premise into a half hour-ish episode. “Day of the Dumpster” begins with a couple of badly dubbed astronauts (Unknown) landing on the Moon, which strangely has a day and night cycle, normal gravity, and looks suspiciously like a quarry. Rather than questioning these aspects, the astronauts investigate a massive “space dumpster” buried in the ground and, abandoning thoughts of quarantine or procedure, eagerly pop off the lid. They’re suitably horrified when they unwittingly release Baboo (Hideaki Kusaka/Dave Mallow), Finster (Takako Iiboshi/Robert Axelrod), Goldar (Takashi Sakamoto/Kazutoshi Yokoyama/Kerrigan Mahan), Squatt (Minoru Watanabe/Michael Sorich) and their malevolent leader, Empress Rita Repulsa (Machiko Soga/Barbara Goodson) from ten thousand years of imprisonment! To celebrate, Rita quickly builds (offscreen) an elaborate palace on the now darkened Moon, where she badgers Finster to whip up a fresh batch of her disposable minions, the Putty Patrol, to begin her plans to conquer Earth. These opening scenes alone are enough to make any parent cringe as the dubbing is atrocious, and the characters are delightfully pantomime-like in their over-the-top theatrics. Rita’s “Suitmation” buddies flail like fish out of water and any scenes with them move at a blistering pace, as they didn’t have the right coverage and angles.

*When the evil Rita Repulsa escapes, the wise Zordon recruits five teenagers to combat her.*

Meanwhile, the cool hip teenagers of Angel Grove, California are hanging out at the Ernie’s (Richard Genelle) Gym and Juice Bar at the youth center, where expert martial artist Jason Lee Scott (Austin St. John) teaches karate, Kimberly Hart (Amy Jo Johnson) practises gymnastics, and Trini Kwan (Thuy Trang) works on her kata. Although Jason’s had great success with Zack Taylor (Walter Emanuel Jones), who incorporates breakdancing into his fighting style in a version of capoeira (because, y’know…he’s Black, so of course he has to have some style!), bookworm Billy Cranston (David Yost) struggles with the basics despite memorising the principals. It doesn’t help that loud-mouthed braggarts Farkas “Bulk” Bulkmeier (Paul Schrier) and Eugene “Skull” Skullovitch (Jason Narvy) give Billy a hard time, make lewd passes at Kimberly and Trini, and challenge Jason’s authority. Of course, the bungling duo are humiliated each time but Billy struggles with his confidence throughout the episode. These five teenagers find their lives changed forever when they’re suddenly teleported to a command centre atop a nearby mountain range and introduced to Zordon (David Fielding), an “interdimensional being” who ordered his robotic assistant, Alpha 5 (Romy J. Sharf/Richard Steven Horvitz), to bring him five “teenagers with attitude” to combat Rita. While the five seemed perfectly amiable characters in the youth center, Zack suddenly develops a smart mouth with Zordon and Kimberly partially transforms into a stereotypical airhead, with both being sceptical of Zordon’s plea for them to assume incredible power through their Power Morphers, which promise superhuman abilities modelled after dinosaurs. Although Jason is intrigued by the offer, he reluctantly follows the others when they reject Zordon’s warnings of Rita’s threat, though Zordon allows them to leave with their Power Morphers as he clearly sees something special in them.

*The colourful Power Rangers send Goldar packing in their first outing and vow to protect the Earth.*

Even the most incredulous of the five are convinced of Rita’s threat when Putty Patrollers (Unknown) suddenly teleport in and attack, easily overwhelming even the experienced Jason and pushing the five to transform into the colourful Power Rangers. Rather than testing their mettle against Rita’s minions, the Power Rangers are immediately returned to Angel Grove as Rita sent Goldar to attack the city. This leads to another sequence that had concerned parents clutching their pearls as our five heroes fight Goldar and his Putty Patrollers on the rooftops, throwing punches, flips, kicks, and judo tosses. The transformation apparently quashes any concerns about inexperience the teenagers had, seeing Jason immediately assume the role of confident leader as the Red Ranger and Billy gain fighting prowess as the Blue Ranger. Similarly, the five immediately fight as a well-oiled unit, despite it never being hinted that they’ve fought together before, prompting Rita to hurl her magic wand to Earth and enlarge Goldar to kaiju size! Thanks to Zordon’s crash course on their abilities, the Power Rangers summon their Dinozords and combine them into the mighty Megazord, a clunky Suitmation mech that screams “toyetic”! Interestingly, the Power Rangers falter when controlling the Megazord, barely striking the embiggened Goldar, who slashes with his sword and has their cockpit exploding in a shower of sparks. After stunning Goldar with a couple of blows, the Power Rangers call forth the Power Sword, which sends Goldar scurrying back to Rita’s Moon base, where she chastises him for his failure. Despite barely surviving the encounter, Zordon commends his champions, allaying any lingering concerns they have, and they agree to continue defending the Earth as the Power Rangers.

Final Thoughts:
Although I diligently watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as a kid, had some of the toys, and even once fought a friend who suggested VR Troopers (1994 to 1996) was superior, it’s been years since I watched it and I can’t remember if I ever watched this first episode. As I said, it’s not really necessary as everything is told through the intro, which a generation of kids no doubt committed to memory thanks to the catchy and memorable song. Despite knowing the show was cobbled together from Japanese shows, it’s ridiculously cringe and a fever dream of editing, outlandish performances, and explosive action. It’s funny seeing our five heroes sporting their Power Ranger colours before they get their powers, and watching them perform at the juice bar, and I wonder if it might’ve been better if the leads had just been regular kids with no interest or experience in martial arts who then gain incredibly fighting powers from their transformation. The five leads are surprisingly good in their roles, despite the material, their inexperience, and the immense and unfair pressure placed upon them. Amy Jo Johnson remains a heartthrob to this day and showcases some impressive gymnastics, while Austin St. John and Walter Emanuel Jones equally impress with their martial arts prowess and fight choreography. I remember thinking the Red Ranger bland and boring, but he’s surprisingly charismatic here, carrying himself with a quiet confidence and showcasing an inherent desire to protect others by being the only one to take Zordon’s offer seriously.

*A delightfully bonkers show that relies on fast-paced action and colourful, toyetic characters,*

I was surprised at how long it takes for the five to become the Power Rangers and for the Suitmation action to kick-in. “Day of the Dumpster” sets a trend for the show by focusing on the human characters, depicting their friendship, unique (if one-dimensional) characteristics, and giving a taste of the teenage drama they deal with (primarily goofy bullies Bulk and Skull). These concerns are superseded by their responsibilities as the Power Rangers, a role specifically designed to teach kids not to use their power or abilities for personal gain and to fight in self-defence rather than picking fights for the sake of it. While the outdated slang and humour cuts like a knife these days and Alpha 5 will always be one of the most annoying characters, the suits and kaiju sequences more than make up for it. Although the Dinozords don’t feature much here, I loved the visual of clunky plastic mechs rising from volcanoes and forming the Megazord, a ridiculous and yet immediately iconic mech than stumbles about bashing the equally laughable Goldar for an otherwise enjoyable kaiju fight that sends sparks flying. It’s easy to see why kids were so enthralled by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and parents were so concerned. The five leads are colourful, lively characters who flip about and strike dramatic poses while fighting mindless goons, which immediately captured the imagination of youngsters and had parents unreasonably worried about the violence. The villains are just ridiculous enough to be comical and yet are still depicted as a formidable threat, especially when enlarged, that emphasise the importance of teamwork and self-belief, values that are still at the core of the Power Rangers concept. I enjoyed revisiting “Day of the Dumpster”, as cringey as a lot of it is, and it was fun being transported back to a simpler time when colourful, theatrical superheroes like these where all the rage.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Were you a fan of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers back in the day? Which Power Ranger was your favourite? Would you jump at the chance to have such power? Do you think the show has aged well or do you find the awful dubbing and cringey moments off-putting? Which incarnation of the Power Rangers is your favourite? What are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated TV shows? Feel free to share your memories of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the comments, check out my other sci-fi content on the site, and donate to my Ko-Fi if you want to see more Power Rangers content.

Back Issues [Sci-Fanuary]: The Thing from Another World #1-2

08/01/202606/01/2026Dr. K1 Comment

Story Title: “The Thing (from Another World)”
Published: 1991 to 1992

Writer: Chuck Pfarrer
Artist: John B. Higgins

Quick Facts:
Published by Dark Horse Comics, known for creator-owned stories and licensed adaptations of horror and science-fiction films, The Thing from Another World continued where John Carpenter’s sci-fi classic left off but utilised the title of the celebrated 1951 adaptation of John W. Campbell’s influential 1938 novella to avoid legal issues with Marvel Comics.

The Review:
The Thing from Another World is set twenty-four hours after the team at United States Antarctic Research Outpost #31 discovered an aggressive, parasitic alien organism (the titular “Thing”) that drove them to paranoia and violence through its ability to gruesomely mimic living creatures. The comic immediately answers the question about whether or not the final survivors from Outpost #13 lived or died by showing that Childs carried the unconscious R.J. “Mac” MacReady through a bitter snowstorm and out onto the ice fields and left him to be rescued by the Misaki Maru, a passing whaling vessel. The confused and disoriented Mac is horrified to learn that Childs returned to Outpost #13 to look for more survivors, leading to him being sedated to keep him calm. When he awakens again, Mac quickly cuts himself free and dresses, pondering why Childs would save him if he (as in Childs) was infected by the Thing. Suddenly paranoid that he may be the one that’s infected, Mac quickly replicates the blood test depicted in John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and is relieved when he gets the all-clear, lending some credibility to the notion that the infected don’t know they’re a Thing until they’re threatened. Easily snaking around the ship, Mac (being a fully qualified pilot) commandeers their helicopter and quickly picks up Childs’ trail, which heads East rather than North towards Outpost #13. Although Mac’s forced to ditch the helicopter when he runs out of fuel, he successfully makes it back to the remains of Outpost #13, where he quickly gets to work burning the brutalised remains of his former friends.

*The paranoid Mac is so determined to eradicate the Thing that he seems willing to die to do it!*

Mac discovers the mangled, monstrous hibernating form of another mishmash of lifeforms and promptly blows it to pieces. However, he’s stopped from destroying the separate chunks by United States Sea, Air, and Land troops (SEALs). The SEALs were dispatched to investigate Outpost #13 but appear to have no idea of what really happened there and believe Mac murdered everyone and destroyed the base. Despite being cuffed, Mac leashes out when one of the SEALs, Pybus, curiously touches a piece of the Thing, leading to him taking a rifle butt to the head and the oblivious Lieutenant Commander Les Erskine to order that the mutilated remains be left for the bio-team. Just as the SEALs are boarding their evacuation helicopter, Pybus sprouts tentacles and mutates, firing on his stunned teammates, gunning most of them down and destroying the helicopter. Freed from his cuffs, Mac blasts the Pybus-Thing with a pistol, only for its corpse to birth a bizarre, tentacled alien that finally makes a believer out of Erskine before Mac blows it up with a grenade. After tending to their wounded, Mac and Erskine explore their options, only to find they’re out of fuel and with no hope of rescue. Erskine’s aghast when Mac reveals his plan to eradicate all traces of the Thing, including the both of them, to ensure there’s no chance of even a small part of it reaching civilisation. Erskine offers an alternative solution by holding Mac at gunpoint and ordering him to help get the wounded soldiers to a nearby research station, though they continue to clash regarding their chances and one man dies from his wounds (or the severe cold) on the way. Erskine is livid when he discovers Mac intentionally led them in the wrong direction, leading to another brief scuffle in which Erskine suspects Mac wants them to freeze to death because he’s the Thing!

*Mac and Childs must set aside their differences to stop the Thing from reaching civilisation.*

Their scuffle is interrupted by Childs and some Argentinians from the base, though the paranoid Mac immediately attacks Childs. After Mac is subdued, Childs confirms that he left Mac to be rescued and went back to destroy the others, though Mac remains suspicious. Mac’s horror only increases when they reach Campo Del Sur and see how many people could get infected, though Childs assures him that the Argentinians are conducting routine blood tests to stay safe. While Mac’s still hostile even after he and Childs are tested negative, he’s startled when Erskine’s unconscious trooper bursts into a bloody mass of tentacles and teeth! Though injured, the Thing quickly escapes, forcing the others to pursue and discover the gruesome remains of its latest victim. Despite Mac’s protests, Childs insists on proceeding further before the Thing can freeze and ends up almost devoured by the gigantic, cephalopod-like Thing before it’s destroyed with a grenade. Erskine urges them to return to Campo Del Sur so he can radio for assistance, leaving Mac to share his concerns about the commander to Childs. While Childs has his doubts since Erskine was so “gung-ho” about destroying the Thing, Mac’s fears are soon proven when they find three men dead in the trashed radio room. Realising that the Erskine-Thing radioed for a submarine, Mac and Childs race to intercept it, riddling the Erskine-Thing with bullets and causing it to wildly mutate. The Thing slaughters its way onto the submarine and goes on a rampage, with the sub performing an emergency dive and eventually crashing after the Thing wrecks the controls. With the submarine quickly flooding and the Thing heading for the escape capsule, Mac quickly catches the survivors up to speed and forms a hunting party and finds it in the torpedo bay. Despite Mac being ready to die to end the Thing’s threat, he objects when Childs goes to blow the hatch and end the nightmare once and for all. Childs thus destroys the submarine and all onboard except Mac, who’s inexplicably blasted from the wreckage and emerges on the frigid surface, passing out on an ice float despite his determination to stay alive…

Final Thoughts:
John Carpenter’s The Thing ends with perhaps one of the greatest cliff-hangers in all of cinema and fans have debated for years about whether Mac or Childs have been infected or not. One of the reasons it’s such an intriguing debate is that it’s presented as a stalemate between the two. Both are equally suspicious of each other and likely to be either human or the Thing, but both are too exhausted and paranoid to do much about it but “wait and see” what happens. The Thing from Another World isn’t the only piece of ancillary media to provide a definitive answer to this long-debated cliff-hanger, but it’s equally questionable about whether these answers work or not and may come down to personal preference. On the one hand, it’s cool to continue Mac’s nightmare and to see him hunt down and destroy the Thing, and to see how he and Childs react to each other when reunited. On the other hand, it feels like a disservice to the film to provide a definitive answer and it’s possible this story could’ve been just as effective if it followed a researcher or soldier investigating Outpost #13 and perhaps working from the remains of Blair’s notes. The fact that subsequent issues double-down and continue Mac’s story only compounds the issue, though I liked that Mac was even more proactive than ever and used his traumatic experiences and first-hand knowledge of the Thing to his advantage against the shape-shifting alien. I was also intrigued by the twist that he was ready to die to ensure the alien is destroyed. However, it’s bizarre that he so vehemently objects when Childs sacrifices himself and the others on the submarine at the end, especially as Mac was ready to sacrifice Erskine in the mountains. At the same time, Mac was hesitant to murder Erskine so maybe this is just a poorly executed expansion of the fear and paranoia that have so tightly gripped Mac’s heart.

*If nothing else, the comic perfectly captures the paranoia and horror of John Carpenter’s movie.*

Overall, I’d have to say the artwork was very impressive, perfectly capturing the dark, desolate atmosphere of Antarctica and bringing the gore to life with intricate brushwork. It was a little difficult to make out what was going on at times, especially when the Thing reveals itself, but this may have been intentional to replicate the “less is more” approach of the movie and emphasise how chaotic it is when the infected suddenly sprout tentacles and gnashing teeth. Indeed, the art is at its best when depicting the Thing and its victims, recreating the memorable special effects of the movie and playing upon the reader’s familiarity with the film to depict the remains of Outpost #13 and the mangled corpses of its inhabitants. Mac blows up a hibernating mass of flesh and teeth that closely resembles the Thing’s final form in the film, the defibrillator scene is evoked when Erskine’s soldier suddenly explodes with tentacles and dangerous alien appendages, and we get a better idea of how capable the infected are as we see them using rifles and having the wherewithal to signal for help. The Thing from Another World also introduces a couple of additional forms for the Thing, ones possibly too outrageous and ambitious to be brought to life by John Carpenter’s paltry budget. These include a bug-like Thing, a larger one out in the snow, and the strange, bipedal mess of meat that Erskine devolves into to tear through the submarine. The only real downside is that the Things are dispatched quite easily each time, with a single grenade being enough to destroy or at least subdue them long enough for their pieces to be incinerated. The Thing still slaughters a bunch of people, to be fair, but they’re largely nameless, faceless SEALs whose deaths mean little compared to those of Outpost #13. Ultimately, this was a decent enough epilogue to The Thing, but I think it would’ve been better, overall, to avoid answering what happened to Mac and/or Childs and instead follow wholly original characters as they encounter the Thing.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Have you ever read The Thing from Another World? Were you happy to see the film’s cliff-hanger answered here or would you have preferred the story to focus on original characters? What did you think of the art work and the call-backs to John Carpenter’s movie? Did you guess that Erskine was infected? Can you explain why Mac suddenly abandoned his suicidal crusade at the end? How are you celebrating the sci-fi genre this month? Whatever your thoughts on The Thing from Another World, drop a comment down below and send me some love on Ko-Fi if you want me to review more Thing comic books.

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Mega Man 7 (Xbox Series X)

07/01/202606/11/2025Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 8 August 2017
Originally Released: 24 March 1995
Developer: Capcom
MobyGames Score: 7.4

Also Available For: GameCube, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

Quick Facts:
Mega Man’s debut title became a widely praised run-and-gun that spawned numerous, equally celebrated sequels and spin-offs that dominated Nintendo’s consoles. After wrapping up Mega Man’s time on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with the widely praised Mega Man 6 (Capcom, 1993), Capcom faced a tight deadline for the seventh game. Designer Yoshihisa Tsuda expressed regret at not having more time to work on the title, which saw series artist Keiji Inafune design an all-new rival for Mega Man who became a fan favourite with spin-offs of his own. Though praised for its graphics and music, Mega Man 7 was criticised for failing to innovate on the core gameplay of the series and is largely seen as inferior to Mega Man X (Capcom, 1993), and the brutal difficulty curve made it one of the hardest games in the series.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Mega Man 7 brings the classic, 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun action platforming of the 8-bit and portable games to the SNES for the first time. Fundamentally, very little has changed from Mega Man’s NES glory days, though Mega Man 7 does a far better job of translating and updating the classic formula than his previous 16-bit outing. As ever, Mega Man tackles four initial stages and one of Doctor Albert Wily’s new “Robot Masters” before challenging four further stages and Robot Masters and then finally storming Dr. Wily’s latest hi-tech base. While you’re free to choose which stage and Robot Master to take on, each Robot Master has a specific weakness that’ll make short(er) work of them. Unlike previous Mega Man games, Mega Man 7 opens with a tutorial to instinctively teach the game’s basics in a simple platforming challenge. By default, A and Y see you jump, B fires Mega Man’s patented “Mega Buster” arm cannon, and you can hold X to auto-fire in short bursts. You hold B to charge the Mega Buster for a stronger shot, jump higher when underwater, and Mega Man can slide beneath jumping enemies, some projectiles, and through narrow passages by pressing down and A. The Left and Right Bumper cycle through the “Special Weapons” you obtain from Robot Masters, though you can manually do this from the in-game menu with the “View” button. While you get unlimited ammo for the basic Mega Buster, the Special Weapons drain individual meters, so you need Weapon capsules to replenish these. You can also review your stock of lives and bolts (the game’s currency), activate health or weapon energy restoring Energy and Weapon Tanks, or utilise special items and Mega Man’s robotic allies from the game’s menu.

*Mega Man’s new, but extremely familiar abilities are put to the test in striking 16-bit stages.*

Mega Man’s mysterious “brother”, Proto Man, offers hints and you can visit Auto’s shop from the stage select screen, where bolts are traded for extra lives and E- and W-Tanks. These are also found in stages and dropped by enemies, of course, but Auto also sells Super Tanks to fully restore both health and Special Weapon energy, an “Exit Part” to exit any stage, and lets you call robotic bird helper Beat to rescue you from bottomless pits. However, you must first find Beat in Slash Man’s stage and, similarly, you’ll find extra abilities for Mega Man and his robot canine, Rush, by either exploring or shopping. Rush can again be summoned to spring you higher, fly you across areas for as long as the meter lasts, or find hidden goodies. Rush’s search ability is required to access the Energy Equalizer and Hyper Rocket Buster, though you must use your own abilities to find the hidden R-U-S-H letters to fully upgrade Mega Man like in Mega Man 6. Mega Man again gains powerful new abilities from each Robot Master that can be used to defeat others or further explore stages, such as powering up generators or burning objects. Some are very similar to previous Special Weapons (the Junk Shield is essentially just the Leaf Shield, for example, and Scorch Wheel is like Fire Storm). Thunder Bolt and Freeze Cracker are two of the best Special Weapons as they splinter on impact to damage multiple targets (the latter even freeze some enemies) and the Noise Crush can be powered up by absorbing the sound wave as it ricochets back. I found the Wind Coil erratic and unwieldy, however, and especially dangerous as it makes you a sitting duck, and the Slash Claw is powerful but hazardous as it’s only effective up close. Like my previous Mega Man experiences, I largely saved the Special Weapons for the Robot Masters unless I needed to activate machinery with the Thunder Bolt or utilise Rush’s abilities.

*Despite some fun and unique stage elements, it’s all business as usual for the Blue Bomber.*

Mega Man 7 sticks very closely to the classic Mega Man formula, throwing bottomless pits, disappearing and reappearing platforms, and insta-kill hazards like various spikes and flame turrets at you. You’ll do as much vertical progression as horizontal thanks to the many ladders and rising or moving platforms, timed explosive platforms threaten to drop you, and conveyer belts push you towards enemies or pits. While enemies still respawn, they don’t clutter the screen as much as before, though they’re still placed in the worst positions to screw up your jumps. Wall, ceiling, and floor turrets and spikes are commonplace, some platforms crumble or spin beneath you, and you can ride or hop to other temporary platforms to cross chasms (or just use Rush Jet for a slightly easier time). Burst Man’s stage incorporates underwater sections that see you perfectly timing hops into the predictable tide to bypass spikes, Cloud Man’s stage has you riding cloud platforms and even fighting against torrential rain, Junk Man’s stage features insta-kill molten steel, crushing hazards, and overhead magnets you can power up, and Freeze Man’s stage sees you losing traction on icy surfaces and sliding into hazards. Prior to facing the Robot Museum, you’re presented with four additional, shorter stages. You’ll be hopping to log platforms as they fall down waterfalls and using Technodons to cross spike beds in Slash Man’s stage, bouncing around Spring Man’s funhouse, lighting up dark caverns in Shade Man’s dilapidated castle, and avoiding overheard tyres in Turbo Man’s stage. This stage also features a panic inducing drop past insta-kill flame bursts not unlike the lasers seen in Quick Man’s stage, while Dr. Wily’s first stage includes a blackout gimmick where the stage turns dark when you jump or land on certain platforms. More (and often smaller) conveyers are in the doctor’s second stage, as are flame burst blocks you must precariously scale, while his third stage includes platforms that only become visible when you’re on them and a risky underwater drop past some insta-kill spikes.

Presentation:
Mega Man 7 is obviously a massive graphical upgrade from the Blue Bomber’s 8-bit days, featuring gorgeous, vibrant 16-bit graphics that put Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Minakuchi Engineering, 1994) to shame. Mega Man is a big, chunky sprite with more expression than ever thanks to the SNES hardware. While he only blinks or looks about when idle and still can’t look up or crouch, he has a determined look on his chubby cheeks and showcases his personality in sprite-based cutscenes with Auto, new rival Bass, and Dr. Light. Mega Man changes colour with each Special Weapon, now sporting two colour schemes for every weapon, and is far more detailed so you really feel it when he cries out in pain and explodes upon dying. The game incorporates partially animated, anime-style sprite art and in-game sprites for its story, which is emphasised far more here as interactions happen in some stages and after beating each Robot Master, with Mega Man and Dr. Light discussing his new abilities. I was a bit annoyed to find the story still shied away from answering lingering questions about Proto Man and instead introduced a new robotic rival for Mega Man, Bass, who has a cool look and his own robot dog, but appears out of nowhere with no explanation yet everyone acts like he’s been around forever. I was therefore nonplussed when Bass went rogue thanks to Dr. Wily’s influence, though I did enjoy encountering and battling this dark mirror of Mega Man. Mega Man 7 also includes a jaunty and bombastic soundtrack and much improved performance. While screen transitions can be a touch awkward, I never encountered any slowdown or sprite flickering like in the old games, even when lots of enemies or bigger foes appeared. Everything just popped with colour and little details, from Mega Man’s hair fluttering in the wind, to robotic Pterodactyls in the background of Slash Man’s stage, which has a fun Jurassic Park (Various, 1990 to present) aesthetic.

Mega Man 7 pops with its visuals, which emphasise story and gameplay performance.

I was most impressed by Shade Man’s stage. As if featuring a hidden track wasn’t enough, the entire stage is modelled after the Ghosts ’n Goblins games (Capcom/Various, 1985 to 2021). Astro Zombie’s emerge from coffins and hop in from open windows in the background as you ride a platform to a castle roof, and the stage even starts in pitch black and illuminates when the full moon rises. Slash Man’s stage is a close second, with its dinosaur fences and thick jungle, but the game impresses from the start with a ruined city aesthetic, a visual treat only doubled with you visit the Robot Museum and see all the old Robot Masters in the background. Burst Man’s stage is a hi-tech mad scientist’s lab, filled with gigantic test tubes and lab equipment and murky water, while Cloud Man’s stage is up in the heavens, with windmills in the background, big fluffy clouds blocking platforms in the foreground, and an impressive rain (or snow) effect when Tel Tels appear. Junk Man’s fittingly holed up in a junk yard full of girders, blinking lights, and piles of junk that hide worm-like Dust Crushers. Freeze Man’s stage starts pretty basic, with just a snowy landscape in the background, but you’re soon venturing into a frigid cave full of frozen fossils and dinosaur skeletons. After fighting through Slash Man’s thick, prehistoric jungle, you’ll be knocked about in Spring Man’s funhouse. This is a colourful, circus-themed stage full of springs and flashing neon lights, while Turbo Man’s stage is set in a garage. After battling past tyres and tricky platforming, you drop to a giant, sentient semi-trailer truck for a mini boss fight. As ever, Dr. Wily’s stages are mostly just hi-tech facilities and robot factories, but the first one is modelled after a flying battleship, the second has a green metallic and turtle theme, and the third is geared more towards machinery.

Enemies and Bosses:
Some familiar robot baddies pop up in Mega Man 7, respawning when you leave the screen and randomly dropping pick-ups. Naturally, the series staple Metall is back, hiding beneath its helmet, swimming underwater with a snorkel, and floating from above thanks to propellers. Sniper Joe also returns, thankfully far less cheap than before and easily dispatched with timed jumps or shots, as does a revised version Tom Boy and new versions of the always-annoying Shield Attacker and sentient fan Matasaburo, with the latter both sucking you in and pushing you back in Cloud Man’s stage. We’ve got little spherical bombs riding sleighs, slender tanks whose heads detach upon defeat, hopping traffic cones, robotic bats, crows, and fish, and birds that drop eggs filled with little chicks. Similarly, Derusu Bee hives near-endlessly spawn robot bees, a jouster-like knight rushes at you on a single wheel, robotic cockroaches continuously scurry about until you destroy their nest, and robots walk on the ceiling and drop icicles. There are hopping frogs, detached helmets, grinning rockets, large robot Stegosauruses that fire their fins and homing missiles, and a little sphere robot flings spiked tyres at you. Some stages also include mini bosses, such as the steamroller-like Mad Grinder in the prologue and the similarly themed forklift contraptions encountered in Turbo Man’s stage. You’ll easily take down a giant stationary polar bear that can only attack by flinging ice projectiles across the ground, blast the eyes of the large, grinning Sissi Truck while avoiding its minions, and pummel the core of the VAN Pookin to access new areas of Shade Man’s castle. While you battle the crab-like Kanigance twice, the Tyrannosaurus rex-like King Gojulus was the most visually impressive mini boss as it chases you down and attacks with flaming breath.

*It’ll take a lot of skill and the right Special Weapons to best these Robot Masters.*

Each stage culminates in a battle against one of the eight Robot Masters, with each vulnerable to a specific Special Weapon and fought again in Dr. Wily’s final stage as part of the final boss gauntlet. I tackled Burst Man first as the regular Mega Buster easily pops his bubbles and damages him. Indeed, he’s little threat even when he uses Danger Warp to spawn bubbles with mines; just keep firing and you’ll escape his bubbles and put him down. His Danger Warp is great against Cloud Man, who hovers above and summons a thunderbolt to strike you and send an electrical current through the ground. Be sure to dash under him to avoid being blown to your death when he summons a rainstorm, and position yourself to hit him with your Special Weapon. His Thunder Bolt annihilates Junk Man, who leaps about flinging junk and causing it to rain down. He can attract a bigger ball of junk to throw, but he’ll probably be dead before he gets a chance. The Junk Shield tears through the nimble Freeze Man, who can flash-freeze the ground, freeze you with a shot, and drop icicles, though it’s much tougher landing clear shots on the rotund, clown-like Mash, whose head you must detach to pummel with Danger Warp. The Freeze Cracker quickly ends Slash Man, though he’s a fast target and loves to hop offscreen, rain goop into the arena, and pounce with his claws. Rather than electrifying Spring Man with the Thunder Bolt, jump and slash him with the Slash Claw, quickly sliding away from his extendable punches, to finish him off. I fought Shade Man next and he was by far the toughest of the regular bosses as he swoops in and drains your energy to replenish his own, freezes you with his energy waves, and is most vulnerable to the unreliable Wind Coil. Finally, I fought Turbo Man, who transforms into car to charge you, saps your health with Scorch Wheel, and sucks you towards him. The Noise Crush is your best bet, but he’s a pretty big target to hit.

*Tackling Dr. Wily’s final machines is no joke as* Mega Man 7 is notorious for its late-game difficulty.

Mega Man’s new rival, Bass, is fought three times. The first fight is a sparring session where he jumps about firing regular shots, but he adds charged shots in the second bout and joins with Treble for the third. In this fight, he flies about, jets towards you, fires a homing punch, and is a much tricker target to hit. Dr. Wily gives Guts Man an upgrade in his fortress, forcing you to pepper him with shots and trick him into dropping giant stones for you to hit at him with the Slash Claw. You must keep him at bay with your shots to avoid his pincers tossing you into the ceiling, and work fast to avoid being crushed. The giant, turtle-like Gamerizer guards Dr. Wily’s second stage and is best damaged with the Wind Coil. You must time your shots to hit his head and avoid being immolated, slide under his rocket charge, and fend off his minions when he flies off-screen. While this was a pain, it was nothing compared to the HannyaNED², which chases you across a platform, fires a piercing laser, spits bombs, and shoots high and low missiles. Its only weak spot are its eyes, which are extremely difficult to hit with Noise Crush, to say nothing of its massive hit box! Things take a turn for the ridiculous in Dr. Wily’s final stage, where you must defeat all eight Robot Masters and endure a two-stage battle against his latest mech with no checkpoints in between! You must slide under the Wily Machine 7 to avoid being crushed and attack its smaller doubles to clear the ground, though landing shots on Dr. Wily’s cockpit is easier said than done as the hit box is very small and your attacks do minimal damage. Dr. Wily’s last-ditch attack comes in his latest capsule, which teleports in and out and fires homing orbs that damage, stun, freeze, or immolate you. He also shoots a lightning bolt that travels across the ground and is often out of reach of most Special Weapons, making for a ridiculous tough final boss that broke me.

Additional Features:
There are twenty-one Achievements available in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 (Capcom, 2017), with one awarded specifically for beating this game. Alongside different display options (screen size, borders, and screen filters), Legacy Collection 2 allows you to view a character database and production art, enable “Extra Armour Mode” to half the damage you take, and tackle additional challenges. These see you playing through remixed stages, enduring boss rushes and time attacks, and defeating certain bosses with only the Mega Buster. Mega Man 7 uses a password feature so you can skip ahead to later stages and gain some helpful extra items, which you may need as, for some bizarre reason, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 removes the rewind function! Sure, you can enable auto- and utilise manual saves, but these aren’t like save states. When you reload, you reload from the last checkpoint, meaning you have to endure the final boss gauntlet every time if when you fail! There are a lot of secrets in Mega Man 7, with even Rush’s abilities hidden in stages or needing to be purchased. You’ll need all the R-U-S-H letters to access Mega Man’s most powerful form and must collect a lot of bolts or search all over for additional upgrades. The Hyper Bolt will reduce Auto’s prices, and you can gain Proto Man’s overpowered shield if you track him down and defeat him in battle!

Final Thoughts:
I was really excited to get stuck into Mega Man 7 after largely enjoying my playthrough of the first Legacy Collection (Digital Eclipse, 2015). The game makes a fantastic first impression, utilising the greater processing power of the SNES to bring more life, detail, and colour to Mega Man and his unique world than ever before. The game is everything The Wily Wars wishes it was, featuring tight controls, fantastic use of space, and essentially being a 16-bit do-over of the 8-bit classics. The challenge on offer is immediately familiar, with the game’s difficulty being dictated by the player as much as the many hazards and bizarre enemies. While I remain disappointed that the Special Weapons aren’t more innovative, the Robot Masters had a lot of personality and put up quite a fight at times. I was disappointed to see Bass steal Proto Man’s spotlight, but Bass has a bad-ass look and offered some fun bouts, to say nothing of the anime-like visuals evoked by the sprites. The stages also provided some enjoyable (if often safe and recycled) gimmicks, with the game outpacing its 8-bit counterparts at every turn and hiding some cheeky secrets that greatly reward you. Unfortunately, Mega Man 7 is let down by Mega Man Legacy Collection 2’s lack of a rewind or proper save state feature. Without these, the difficulty spikes dramatically and unfairly for the finale, forcing you into a boss gauntlet that’s practically unwinnable and sucking a lot of the fun out of the game. I get that this is how games were played back in the day, but it makes no sense to remove these features when they were included previously. Just allowing players to use save states rather than just manually saving to the latest checkpoint would’ve helped but, as is, Mega Man 7 is made for hardcore gamers only with its brutal difficulty curve.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Were you excited to see Mega Man come to the SNES back in the day? Which order did you tackle the game’s stages in and did you ever fully upgrade Mega Man? Which of the new Robot Masters and Mega Man’s Special Weapons was your favourite? What did you think to the late-game difficulty spike and lack of quality of life features? Which of Mega Man’s SNES games is your favourite and would you like to see more titles released in the franchise? How are you celebrating all things science-fiction this month? Whatever your thoughts and memories of Mega Man 7, drop them below, check out my other Mega Man reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Mega Man content you’d like to see me cover.

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