When Death comes to take her, Tuesday attempts to cover her fear with a joke about penguins. To her surprise, Death enjoys the joke.

So much of Death’s life is filled with … well, death. He hears the thoughts of every person who wants to die. He feels their pain.

He knows exactly how excruciating Tuesday’s life has been, unable to walk or even breathe properly on her own. So it’s a refreshing change of pace for Death when Tuesday offers up humor instead of the usual pleading and complaining. And for a brief moment, Death is able to shut out all the other voices summoning him. The steady flow of agony turns off.

Death is so impressed by Tuesday—by her positive attitude in the literal face of death—that when she asks him one last quick favor, he grants it to her.

He lets her call her mom to say goodbye. And when Tuesday’s mom doesn’t answer, he agrees to wait until the woman gets home so the mother and daughter can bid farewell.

Unfortunately, it’s not all that simple.

Although Tuesday has embraced the fact that it’s her time to pass on, her mom, Zora, hasn’t. And Zora will do just about anything—even killing Death—to keep Tuesday around.

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We might look to Dr. Onda, the leader of the Kaiju Defense Force, who lost his wife and daughter to those giant monsters. Now, he’ll do whatever it takes to find the hidden Kaiju island and slaughter the beasts once and for all in order to prevent that tragedy from happening to another family.

We could also think about the actions of the kaiju Gigantron. The dragon-like monster did everything in her power to protect and reclaim the egg containing her child—an egg which had been stolen by the KDF as a step in locating Kaiju island.

And we could certainly talk about Professor Sato. He’s got the power to transform into Ultraman, a giant humanoid robotic figure who defends Tokyo from the occasional kaiju attacks. Unlike the KDF, he’d rather repel the endangered and misguided beasts than turn them into sashimi. And because of his superhero status, he chose to protect his wife and son from his dangerous profession by sending them away to Los Angeles.

But if there’s anyone who needs to learn a lesson about family, it’s Kenji “Ken” Sato, Professor Sato’s son. In the two decades since he was sent away, Ken grew up to have both a professional career in baseball as well as a hefty grudge against his father for abandoning them. And just as Ken was about to take the Dodgers to the championship game, his father, weary from years of battle, asked him to come back to Japan and take up the Ultraman mantle.

Well, Ken does begrudgingly go back. By day, he plays baseball for the Yomiuri Giants. By … well, whenever there’s a kaiju attack, he repels kaiju as Ultraman.

But remember that egg Gigantron hoped to get back, prompting her attack on the KDF? Well, just after Ken watches the KDF blow Gigantron out of the sky, the egg hatches, and the tiny kaiju imprints on Ken. And, just like his father, Ken can’t bear to see the KDF kill the creature—so he vanishes with it before the KDF can secure their asset.

And so Ken begins to discover just how difficult being a father can truly be.

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First, there’s Cricket, the thrill-seeking and wildly unpredictable son. Then, we’ve got the unique and whimsical daughter, Tilly. Up next is family patriarch Bill Green, a loving father but overwhelmed farmer. And finally, there’s Gramma. If you threaten her son or grandkids, she’ll come after you with a sword, mace or even her prosthetic leg in a pinch. But she also loves distributing kisses and hugs.

Bill and his kids moved to Big City to live with Gramma after they lost their farm. And the family has adjusted. They’ve made friends and even converted Gramma’s yard into a profitable vegetable garden.

But after working so hard to get their lives back together, they’re ready for a vacation. Cricket knows just the thing: a luxurious stay at Big Tech’s Space Hotel in, you guessed it, space.

There’s just a little matter of funding this spacecation. Though the Greens work hard, they don’t make enough to cover the $10 million a night stay.

Luckily, Cricket has the solution for that, too. In addition to creating the Space Hotel, Big Tech has also created a farm located on an asteroid. And the farmbots created to harvest the plants are malfunctioning.

So, Big Tech CEO Gwendolyn Zapp makes the Greens an offer: Go to the asteroid and harvest the produce for her and she’ll let them stay at the Space Hotel for free.

It’s not exactly the family road trip Bill had in mind for this vacation. But after a little convincing from Cricket, he finds himself saying a sentence he never thought he’d utter: “Let’s get to that asteroid and harvest those space crops so we can enjoy our space vacation at that Space Hotel!”

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Mina could use a change.

Oh sure, Mina actually changes plenty. Every night the woman goes out to the bar, the 28-year-old shows up as someone else. She might be a brunette ballerina. Or a red-headed singer. The blond just dons a wig, slaps on a new personality and voila! No more Mina.

Just as well, she figures. Who’d like Mina anyway? Mina doesn’t even like Mina that much.

But still, a change of scenery would be nice. So when her pet-store-owning boss asks her if she’d be willing to transport a pricey golden conure (think large parakeet) across Ireland, she’s happy to do so. A little road trip might do her good.

But when that road takes her deep into the dwindling Irish forests, something goes mysteriously awry. First, her car conks out. Then, when she gets out of the car to search for help, it vanishes altogether.

And let’s not forget the strange flocks of birds overhead. Or the rumbling ground. Or the creepy sign that says, “Point of No Return 12.”

Mina—still toting her own bird around in its nifty little cage—is getting seriously creeped out when she spies a concrete bunker, with an elderly woman standing in the doorway.

“If you care to live, you’re going to have to run,” the woman tells her.

Run where? Well, to the bunker, presumably. So run Mina does, golden conure swinging by her side. She rumbles into the bunker, takes a breath and eyes her new surroundings.

It’s a simple place: a table. A couch or two. A tube TV and an old-timey phonograph. Oh, and three people. The old woman introduces herself as Madelyn. Danny’s a young man—not much more than a boy, really. And then there’s Ciara, a young woman around Mina’s age. She’s still hopeful that her husband might come back after leaving the bunker—a place they call the “Coop”—six days ago. 

Then there’s that wall of glass. Mina’s barely had time to take a second breath before Madelyn asks everyone to line up and face that glass, so that they can get a good look at the Coop’s newest resident.

They? The Watchers, of course. Those outside the Coop, those who rule the forest, those who hide in in the day and run wild and ravenous in the dark.

Those who kill anyone they catch.

The forest stretches too far in every direction to leave before nightfall. Ciara’s been in the Coop for five months. Madelyn? She might’ve been there for years.

Yeah, Mina needed a change.

But this? Not the change she had in mind.

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“We’ve come to it at last, the great battle of our time.” – Gandalf

The Return of the King, the climactic chapter in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, draws to a close the events of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Gollum continues leading Frodo and Sam toward Mordor. But he has no intention of letting the hobbits destroy his “precious” by casting the ring into the fires of Mount Doom. The emaciated, desperate and devious creature plants seeds of doubt in Frodo’s mind about Sam’s loyalty (which remains unwavering). That allows Gollum to lure Frodo, alone, into the lair of a giant spider named Shelob. With Sam alienated and Frodo dead, the ring would be Gollum’s for the taking.

Concurrently, the armies of men begin marshaling their forces to defend Gondor’s seven-level city of kings, Minas Tirith. Soaring more than 700 feet above its main gate, and fortified with numerous walls and battlements, Minas Tirith would seem impregnable. However, the dark forces massing against it are formidable. Orcs. Haradrim. Easterlings. Nazgul. Huge trolls that tote battering rams and wield massive maces. Rampaging, elephant-like giants called Mumakil.

There’s no king to defend Gondor from within. Denethor (father of Boromir and Faramir) is the city’s steward, but pride, grief and an unsound mind have rendered him ineffective at protecting his people. Only Gandalf and Aragorn (the one, true king) can lead the ragtag armies of Middle-earth in what could be their last stand against Sauron. Among the human armies that ride to Gondor’s aid is Rohan, led by King Theoden. Hidden among their ranks, the lady Eowyn and an impassioned hobbit seize the chance to fight for all they love and believe in. The troops are vastly outnumbered. To even the score, Aragorn hopes to collect on a centuries-old debt and enlist a legion of cursed undead to fight on their side. Little does Aragorn know that his true love, the elf princess Arwen, has foregone immortal bliss in the Gray Havens in favor of a mortal life with him. But she grows weak. Only the defeat of Sauron will restore her health and secure their royal future. That, of course, is up to Sam and Frodo. Can they survive Gollum’s nefarious schemes? And if so, can the armies of man buy them the time they need to fulfill their calling and drive a stake into the heart of evil?

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The confrontation of good vs. evil in mythical Middle-earth continues. Let’s jump right in—as the film does—to the second act in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy [for information about act one, see our review for The Fellowship of the Ring]. With the fellowship broken, warriors Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli embark on a rescue mission, tracking the detachment of battle-bred Orcs that made off with Merry and Pippin. In the process, they encounter horsemen of Rohan and visit a kingdom facing extermination at the hands of Saruman’s Uruk-hai army. The Rohan monarch, King Theoden, has had his mind poisoned by a traitorous advisor named Grima Wormtongue, leaving Theoden incapable of ruling his people. But intervention by Gandalf (we learn that he conquered the fiery Balrog and emerged as Gandalf the White) restores Theoden to full health. Wormtongue is exiled, and returns to his true master, Saruman, who plans to wipe out Rohan at the hands of 10,000 Uruk-hai soldiers in a climactic battle at Helm’s Deep.

Merry and Pippin escape the Orcs on their own and wander into Fangorn Forest where they meet Treebeard, part of a race of tree-like creatures called Ents. The Hobbits appeal to the Ents to join the fight against Saruman, but the complacent Ents are reluctant to do so until they realize their future may be threatened as well.

Meanwhile, ringbearer Frodo and his trusty companion, Sam, must proceed alone toward Mount Doom to fulfill their mission of destroying the seductive gold band coveted by the dark lord Sauron. The pair realizes they’ve been followed when a pathetically emaciated, psychologically tormented creature named Gollum is caught stalking their camp. Gollum’s history with—and addiction to—the ring make him both a valuable asset and a potential liability to their quest. Gollum can guide them to Mount Doom. But are his intentions honorable? Is he simply biding his time in order to kill the Hobbits and steal the ring? It’s a risk Frodo—who is beginning to show wear and tear from his immense burden—believes they should take.

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It’s helpful to think of the three-hour epic The Fellowship of the Ring as the first act of a three-act play which includes the films The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Middle-earth, with its diverse population of men, elves, hobbits, dwarfs and wizards, stands at a crossroads. For generations, these races and tribes have battled to keep the dark lord Sauron at bay. Insulated from this ongoing conflict are the hobbits, a carefree, simple-hearted colony of little people too busy farming the land, enjoying food and raising families to care much about the ominous occurrences outside of the Shire. But their pastoral existence, indeed the future of all Middle-earth, is threatened when Sauron, obsessed with recovering an evil ring that would give him supreme power, learns that his prize is somewhere in the Shire.

Of course, one might assume that a righteous hero could use the potent ring of gold to thwart Sauron’s mounting forces. Not so. Many have tried . . . and failed. Created for evil, the ring can only be used for evil and corrupts whomever wears it. It can yield no good. That’s why fate has chosen a virtuous hobbit named Frodo Baggins to guard the ring until it can be thrown into the fiery bowels of Mount Doom where it was forged.

After learning about his destiny and the dangerous ring’s history from a wise wizard named Gandalf, Frodo embarks on his journey alone. He’s barely out of the Shire when he gets company. His hobbit pals Sam, Merry and Pippin join him, though they have no clue what they’re getting themselves into. A series of scary scrapes and narrow escapes lead the youths to a pub where they connect with a mysterious wanderer named Aragorn. Pursued by black-clad Ringwraiths (mounted, sword-wielding spectres) and a growing army of orcs (hideous, screeching goblins), the young heroes head for Rivendell, where representatives of Middle-earth’s inhabitants form a fellowship to escort Frodo on his perilous mission to Mount Doom. The fellowship is made up of Frodo, Gandalf, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Aragorn (revealed to be heir to the throne of Gondor), Boromir (a warrior of Gondor), Gimli (a burly dwarf) and Legolas (an archer elf). After three hours of thrills, chills and impressive visual effects, the fellowship is broken, and these characters chart separate courses in the protection of all that is good.

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Koichi Shikishima didn’t die when he was supposed to.

It’s 1945, and the Japanese kamikaze pilot has just launched into what’s supposed to be his sacrificial mission. But instead, Koichi takes a detour, landing at a Japanese mechanical outpost, Odo Island. He claims his plane was having some issues—issues that no one on Odo Island can seem to identify.

The truth is, Koichi is a coward.

One mechanic doesn’t blame him for backing out. They’ve been fighting a losing battle against the United States for a couple of years now.

“Why obey an order to ‘die honorably’ when the outcome is already clear?” The man says.

But Koichi has no time to grapple with his actions: Alarms blare. The outpost is under attack. And when they shine a light on their attacker, they find a massive reptilian creature dubbed Godzilla whose claws tear through the base like a hot knife through butter. The others task Koichi with running to his plane and shooting the beast, but he freezes in terror. And by sunrise, he’s one of a mere two survivors.

A couple of years later, Koichi’s still plagued with guilt over the deaths of the men at Odo Island. It certainly doesn’t help that others constantly remind him of his failure. After all, kamikaze pilots aren’t exactly supposed to come back home. The disgraced man takes a job on a small minesweeper crew, sailing the Pacific Ocean to find and detonate leftover bombs.

It’s not long before Koichi and his crew come face to face with Godzilla. And thanks to United States atomic bomb testing at Bikini Atoll, the beast is even bigger and stronger than Koichi remembers, having been mutated by the radiation. What’s more, the seemingly invincible monster is on a crash course to collide with the Japanese mainland, and the war-weary nation is nowhere near prepared to defend itself.

But for a coward, Koichi sure seems to gravitate to jobs with high mortality rates. And fighting a nuclear reptilian beast with no discernable weakness certainly fits the bill.

Perhaps it’ll even let Koichi finally die with honor—even if the outcome is already clear.

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You’ve got Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, Rowlf and, of course, Kermit the Frog. They, alongside plenty of others, are famous names in households all across the world.

But every story has its beginning. And Kermit is ready to share it: the story of how the Muppets—approximately—got started.

You see, Kermit wasn’t always the green movie star you know him as today. At one point, he was content simply to play his banjo in his Floridian swamp. But when he hears about an offer of fame in Hollywood that’d give him the opportunity to make millions of people happy, well, he’s as tickled pink as any green frog could be.

Along the way, he meets many others looking to find fame in Hollywood, too, including plenty of the aforementioned names so familiar with us all.

But he also meets a dastardly villain, too: Doc Hopper, a Col. Sanders-like man who’d like Kermit to be the spokesman for his fried frog legs restaurant chain. And let’s just say that he’s got the deep fryers already sizzling in the event that Kermit declines the offer.

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Back when Atlas was just a girl, her mother, Val Shepherd, was a groundbreaking scientist who championed the development of neural links, taking human/AI interaction to new heights.

Val created “Harlan,” a truly sentient robotic man. Atlas was, in a sense, raised alongside Harlan as a sibling. There were servant robots before, but Harlan was something no one had ever dreamed of.  

However, that robotic dream became a nightmare. Atlas was part of a mishap that transformed Harlan into what amounted to the first AI terrorist. He killed Val Shepherd … and millions of others. He raised up an army of AI fighters and used his strategic brilliance to spread terror around the globe

The ICN was created to deal with that terror. They were, in fact, so effective that Harlan was forced to flee Earth. He’s been hiding somewhere in space for the last 28 years.

In all that time, Atlas Shepherd has been searching. She’s helped the ICN develop Earth safety measures. She’s sought out clues to the robot’s whereabouts. And she’s devised scenarios to deal with his potential moves. Harlan is still the greatest threat that mankind has ever faced. And he promised to come back and finish what he started. He will be back.

Out of the blue, one of Harlan’s robotic lieutenants shows up on Earth. Was he scouting for a new attack? After a great battle, the robot is captured. Atlas outfoxes the AI bot and discovers Harlan’s current location: the unexplored and generally uninhabitable planet GR-39.

This could be the break that the ICN has been looking for. It could also be … a trap. But whatever it is, the ICN rangers and their neural linked robotic ARC suits are convinced they’re up for the task.

Atlas isn’t so sure.

But she’s worked so long for this moment that she won’t be left behind. She’ll be there and face this AI demon, win or lose.

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