5-Minute Racing Stories

5-Minute Racing Stories by Walt Disney Company

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


These stories are about the perfect length for little kids. They may appear familiar if you also have any of the learning to read stories for the Cars series. Regardless of the familiarity, the format is just different enough, that my son still loves them and will often bring me this book as his choice for story time before bed, especially if he's in a Cars mood.

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X-Men 12: Dark Phoenix

X-Men 12: Dark Phoenix (2019)

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars


As a stand alone movie it was alright. It is slightly better done as far as renditions of the Dark Phoenix saga goes than the original attempt in The Last Stand. This one is noticeably missing Wolverine from the action, and it doesn't take long for Mystique to be taken out of the running either. We do see Magneto return, along with some of his Brotherhood of Mutants. Despite being the Dark Phoenix story, there is no Hellfire Club, even though they were seen in First Class. The film also likely suffered as they were forced to change things around rather last minute, including re-filming the ending as there were too many similarities with Endgame. There are still a lot of similarities, but that isn't all too surprising given the nature of the power in use for both films either. There were hints at the Genosha arc with the power inhibitor collars, which could be a lead in for the next movie in the set, or we could be going a completely different direction or start from the beginning with Disney having bought out Marvel. Being the last of the Fox X-Men movies, it'll be interesting to see how the next one stays the same or changes going forward.