ThaOGDreamWeaver

Without spoilering too much... multiverse being what it is, I'm not sure they've got the right Logan.

Peggy's one of us. For sure.

Spoiler theory responding to spoiler theory... I'm not big on Skrull lore, btw - so is it a two way process when working with a mind linked human? Do they experience or remember anything the Skrull gets up to?

I think so, but maybe not that one. Reynolds & co were aware of the "multiverse" angle before Quantumania died and The Flash had star power trouble... and given recent events, may need a rewrite both to downplay Kang and mock those movies.

Rezzing this thread for some surprising casting news... ]

Love a Venn diagram. The marvelous Don McMillan, everybody... pulling off the one thing you should never do - analyse a joke.

The comments I've seen/heard from actual humans who've seen it... ...it's a perfectly fine popcorn flick to spend an afternoon with. Not quite as good as the first three, but substantially better than Crystal Skull (mainly as it doesn't have Mutt in it - though his character's non-appearance is used as a solid plot beat.) You have to wonder if some critics are getting particularly nasty on editor instruction, because a B-movie can't be... a B+. Because that doesn't make good clickbait.

Not hugely impressed so far with this series still, except for...

Walken: elegantly ruthless since... well, forever.

It's a Sony joint, so it's the Morbius Cinematic Universe.

"In its conclusion, the report argued, "The wholesale condemnation of all comics magazines is one of the worst mistakes of some of the critics. The fact is both sides are right. The books are not all bad, as the more extreme critics say; nor are all good, as some of their publishers and defenders content. Like all other creative products, they must be judged individually. And that is what most critics, parents, and public officials have failed to do." Still, the city council found a third of published comics to be "offensive, objectionable, and undesirable," and, on February 2, 1949, it appointed a board to monitor news dealers' compliance with a blacklist of titles. When the Associated Press picked up the story from local accounts, readers of The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other papers around the country learned how, just three years after the Second World War, American citizens were also burning books." -- David Hadju, The 10¢ Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare "I always wrote the stories for myself. I figured that if I liked this kind of story or that kind of story, there have to be some people out there who would too." -- Stan Lee "When Mick Jagger sings that he can't get no satisfaction after fifty years of being in the Rolling Stones... ...I'm guessing he's either lying, or not all that bright." -- Henry Rollins

Second trailer is up. More beautiful shots, Zendaya being extra fierce, and...

It's worth a look for Big Dave proving he can hold a movie together - a proper movie, not just an action flick or a comedy (though he's damn good in Glass Onion), or as a superior guest henchman/smarter muscle (Mongo only pawn... in game.. of life.) Plus little star Kristen Cui, Hamilton's Jon Groff stepping out of his kingly robes for some Big Drama, and quite beautiful cinematography. Oh, and Ron Weasley getting brutally murdered. Bonus! But - and if you wanna not read me being a movie snob b**ch here - skip this bit till you've seen it... Well, that's one way of ensuring immortality.

There's a whole section called "The Corman Film School" on his Wikipedia. I'm a serious film nerd and didn't know a third of them. (And maintained a sense of humour about it. Per Ron Howard, Corman said "do a good job on this movie, and you'll never have to work for me again.") I also didn't know he directed the OG version of Little Shop Of Horrors - with a young lad called Jack Nicholson on the cast. But the thing that makes me happiest to know of all - he's still alive, and still working, at age 97.

For a big guy, he's often very economical with his movement, voice and presence, which gives him this air of menace and power in reserve. And while I don't necessarily recommend you see Knock At The Cabin, Dave's relentlessly earnest and maybe-psychotic Len Brocht is the standout character.

Unless he's been ordered not to disclose the role, Prinze has said he's not really a fan of the idea. Kanan has one of the great sci-fi exit scenes and the guy should be left in peace. But. Maybe he's trying to conceal his involvement, or they hadn't waved a big enough cheque at him at the time. There's the obvious way that Caleb could reappear via timey-wimey stuff using the World Between Worlds (boo!). The other is that a Loth Wolf named Dume with oddly similar markings appeared to Ezra in a dream sequence. So Kanan may be quite capable of reaching out through the Force in other ways. Plus, who doesn't want a Loth Wolf around? Whoosa good boy? WhoosagooddeadJediOHYESYOUAREyesyouaaaarrree. 15/10.

Our lorb? Are you still playing Ratchet & Clank in 2023? Like I say, it's an overused thing. But occasionally, it produces decent results. The Rock basically is the Rock rather than an actor (and the only time they've strayed too far off that core persona likeable-badass with Black Adam, it's not gone well.) Cena, given James Gunn's direction, gleefully subverted his WWE persona for The Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker series and has shown himself capable of surprising range in other flicks. And then of course there's Dave Bautista, who's done Blade Runner 2049, GOTG, Glass Onion, and more, and generally turned out pretty well. Hoping he gets more to do in Dune Part Two, but he's a much more terrifying Beast while he's around...

Foo Fighters X Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Live @ O2 / Explicit) Rick Astley - Highway To Hell (Live @ Glastonbury)

Per Wikipedia and Fandom (which was ripped off from the old Marvel Database), Kraven is a maniacal big game hunter, given powers and longevity by a serum from voodoo priestess Calypso. He'd need to be, since by the time of his first Spidey adventure he's in his mid-fifties. But the whole Beastmaster riff is new (if he allies with gigantic guard-digesting bats, we'll know what's up). The comic version is a proficient combatant in all forms and with most kinds of weapon, has enhanced senses, and trains attack animals. I guess the psionic link or whatnot saves the movie from having to do a Rocky training montage with lions/eagles/hamsters/whatever. The WWE-to-flicks pipeline is also overused, but they can hit marks, do stunts, pose, and say the odd line. Which is pretty much all you need for a half decent cape flick. And well, Kraven is fond of the odd bit of grappling. To whit, I present one Seth Rollins: recent WWE Champion, appropriate stature and physicality, and one of the few people for whom the Kraven outfit can be considered an upgrade, because DEAR SWEET GODDESS IN ASGARD WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE. Does Jimmy Buffett have fans in goth subculture? I dunno...

I had a sudden flashback to Roger Corman. He had (for him) a solid hit with Star Wars/Magnificent Seven knockoff Battle Beyond The Stars, then spent the next 20 years making even cheaper knockoffs of his own movie recycling the same FX and music. This feels very much like Sony went the same way, but creating a knockoff of Morbius is... a choice. More thoughts: Russ Le Roq is phoning in a performance as thinly-veiled Sergei Prigozhin clone (also a choice, given current events). Big retcon to Kraven's background, but comes out a bit less silly than before... ...sadly, they didn't retcon the outfit as well. Dahling, neck ruffs were so last Met Ball, and nobody wears real fur any more. Sam Taylor Johnson should make a decent meal of any dramatic meat they throw him, but the physicality would be much more Momoa territory. Wikipedia says the last few reels should have a time-jump and physical change, for which no CGI was used (probably too expensive. Gonna have to be one hell of a muscle suit though. I don't think anyone could get through enough chicken to bulk that much.) Their "Rhino" isn't a guy in a suit, they're some other kinda science experiment. So it's yet another hero vs similar villain boss fight. Meh. Director is JC Chandor, after Equalizer's Antoine Fuqua (say that carefully) decided against the project. He is, oddly enough, an award-winning indie darling having a crack at a corporate cape gig. Because that's never been done before, always goes well, and the director doesn't ever get chewed up and spat out by the machine in the process. At all. Oh, and I note that Kraven seems to have Beast Mastery / Savage Melee powers, which would be an interesting MM combo choice. So if Sony execs are reading this and quietly stealing our content, how about this rather clever, wisecracking psychic goth girl with healing powers and a penchant for terrible puns? I can do a treatment in a couple of days... EDIT: checking into Taylor-Johnson, his next gig's more interesting - playing a missing movie star in the big screen adap of yet another 80s teatime favourite, The Fall Guy. Though how they're going to convince people Ryan Gosling should play a washed up stunt guy with a face like a leather bag full of hammers is another question. Lee Majors, naturally, is in it, so maybe he's Colt Jr?

So, Ep1 is out. Thoughts: All in all... mixed bag for Ep1, and another reason Marvel / Disney are about to have angry strikers from another union on their tail.

While we're not fighting over who controls the 'verse... an example of that corporate partnership stuff for you. If you've seen Across The Spider-Verse already, you probably didn't spot the placement for Hyundai... ...because they worked it in pretty cleanly. This isn't always the case and there have been some truly terrible placements in the past (hello, Fringe fans). But this is pretty decent... So what does the movie get out of this? Well, there's a 30" animated spot for the new car, done in-Spider-universe. Which is going to be hammered out by Hyundai centrally, all of their dealerships where they buy ads locally, posters, billboards, quite nifty test-drive competitions... all told, about $20m of well-written, well-targeted activity that doesn't come out of the studio's bottom line, and helps get the flick into people's heads.

The Ataris - Boys Of Summer #happysolstice #blessedbe

True. But then again, much as nerds like us like to think we're the arbiters of all things capey, you'd be surprised how many people neither know nor care about casting choices, industry plans, or even canon. Those ignorant FOOLS... [FX/GRAMS: lightning crash, dramatic organ tones] ...ahem. Sorry, not sure what happened there. All the vast majority of genpop want is to have a good time, maybe with stars they know, and get a tiny thrill of adrenaline, joy, sadness, laughter, mystification, feel something that they wouldn't do in a normal day. And this flick don't do that enough to get people raving about it and butts on seats. It's a B-grade movie with a AAA price tag. And not just for the studio. We're in a recession. And if I'm going to blow twenty-eight sodding quid on a first-run movie, I wanna be near-guaranteed a good time. (Thought: the "new release" premiums that cinemas have put on some flicks pad the box office, but may also be acting as a deterrent. Maybe drop the price and have a better fill rate if you're not confident in the flick?) EDIT: if I have one annoyance about the retcon, it's that they cut both Cavill and Calle's return scene in favour of [BAT-REDACTED]. I know they wanted to recast Henry but could have left the door open: and Sasha Calle did a pretty solid job here. Kinda hoping her casting is kept for Gunn's grimdark Supergirl flick.

Given how muddy the original is in the final multiverse-collapse sequence (claimed intentionally: as you're supposed to be "in the speedster POV", though it could also be "running out of renderfarm budget") , it's probably going to be even more unwatchable on a hookey copy. Or airplane versions, for that matter.