ThaOGDreamWeaver

O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei

Thou Shalt Not - If I Only Were A Goth

Had a look through the other toys on offer and forgot they've thrown Metamorpho into this too, though he's a good guy. Having looked at some more offerings on the site, Multiverse might just be the branding for the toy/merch line. There's a whole range of stuff under that name, including JL Red Supes, the Keaton-Bat from The Flash, the classic animation Supes, various Harleys, Arthur and Murray from Joker... Speaking of which, They've already said that Matt Reeves The Batman and the Penguin series exist in a seperate Elseworld, and if the Bat shows up in this on top of everybody else it'll be a new Bat. As for Multiversing the movie - please, no - I don't think so, unless the Black Noir lookin' dude behind Supes with a U on his chest when he's being arrested is an emo version of Ultraman. Or is that one of Lex's suits?

He's on pre-order from McFarlane already, and is just a bit-part, workaday Kaiju. Not even a named part. He should call his agent. Probably be sitting forlornly in a booth in London Comic Con in a couple years trying to tell people he's worked with James Gunn. Then again, McFarlane might be better at not spoilering than Lego or some of the other toymakers. https://mcfarlane.com/toys/kaiju-superman-movie-mega-figure Again, I'm wondering how he fits in the movie alongside Lex, The Engineer, The Hammer Of Boravia (?) and The Floating Eye Of Death. (Hey, team-up?) Wonder if the prevalence of such beasts attacking Metropolis is a plot point - might people start thinking they're all coming to town to challenge him or get him out of the way? And do they have worse insurance premiums than Paragon by now?

That doesn't get you clicks on socials, though, or monetise those YouTube clips... Small incoming rant. Every reviewer across time has had their own schtick, from Siskel & Ebert, Barry Norman and Mark "Grumpy" Kermode, through to the old acid-pen theatre critics back in the day. It's how they gain a following. (BTW: hunt out Ian McKellen in full b**ch mode in The Critic if you like that sort of thing.) And people sometimes like reading things getting trashed. I'm a tiny bit bothered these days that there's a direct, easily-gamed monetisation model attached to some of it, but hey, if that's what people wanna read, and a guy's gotta eat. It just ain't Siegel and Shuster's gospel truth until the flick comes out.

Okay, we have a character breakdown of everyone who's in Season 2, and a couple of nice things to know: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wednesday-character-cast-guide This version of Hester is a somewhat dead-hearted mogul. (Big in funeral homes, naturally. Definitely a business that's never going to go cold...) But with a soft spot for Wednesday, and they're pointing up the grandma/mother/daughter triangle. Should be fun with these three.. Fred Armisen's joins the family as Fester, which should also play to his strengths. And Christopher Lloyd gets faculty tenure as disciplinarian Professor Orloff. That sounds more like an extended cameo: but one well suited to the infamous Judge Doom. And while I'm not normally fond of PR puff pieces - I have to read them a lot for work - something genuinely made me smile. I'd been wondering why the CGI on Thing was so good. It's not CGI. It's an old-school bluescreen performance by the wonderfully named Victor Dorobantu, a closeup magician and creature performer (from Ploiesti, Romania... just down the road from Transylvania. You couldn't really get better.) Oh, and chalk another one up for the power of practical FX.

Kamala isn't necessarily my favourite person. (Nothing to do with the writing. I find hyperenthusiastic teenagers grating in person as well. So in that sense, I suppose it's true to life). But I felt very at home with her family, liked the way her arc worked through dealing with her first Hellions-level adventure, and her relationship dynamics. And your words instantly brought to mind that great little musical in-joke they threw in...

Duran Duran - Make Me Smile (Come Up & See Me) (Live)

Seconded. It's not like Gunn hasn't delivered great ensemble cast pieces before, it's just you don't want Lois & Clark's emotional core (and Lex's dark, twisted, bitter counterpoint) getting lost in a whirl of new folks to meet. That's one of the things that appeals to me about the OG Donner/Reeve/Kidder/Hackman flick. Compared to a modern comic book flick, there's really not that much going on - so everything and everybody gets room to cook. And even though he's an iconic character, Kal's story gets explored properly. Lois isn't one-dimensional. And then, of course, there's the greatest criminal mastermind of our time tapping Hackman's underused comedy skills. With this one, I consider myself a mild-to-medium-spicy nerd, and I have never heard of Mr. Terrific, The Engineer, or a couple of the other key characters. Guy's also fairly new to me, but he's a Lantern, so we don't need to have that explained (and nothing's explaining that haircut.) So people with less nerd knowledge than I will need them built out a little and given a reason to be there.

Krypto is best boy.💖 They’d better not kill him off. If I’m still a bit weirded out, it’s that there’s a lot of characters - heroes, villains and bit players - and I still can’t see how this meshes into a coherent story. Nonetheless, I’m gonna be there.

Mm. Not sure. Coogler’s only EP on this - though with Sinners still running strong, no wonder he gets a Big Damn Credit. The writer/showrunner (Chinaka Hodge) is verrry new at this and feeling a touch of the Mary Sues. As to our Big Bad… I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be Mephisto or Alastor… …wait, Alastor would be AMAZING. And Coogler does love his musicals. Can we get Alastor? PLEASE?

"Christmas is a time for family. It's also a time to party your asses off at the Lucky 38 Casino..." ...and for dropping major event streaming series. Naturally. For Amazon Upfronts, the ever-wonderful Walton getting increasingly frustrated with being a pitchman. (Given Amazon's taking ad revenue now and a large chunk of the audience were gonna be agency types, I'm sure they got the gag). And about 30 seconds of actual teaser... And for those interested, Walton, Ella and Aaron got the full-on Vegas intro, showghouls and all. EDIT: one other piece of related news... Season 2 wrapped last week and is now in edit and post (so that was a fast turnaround on that teaser - then again, that looks like an old-school glass shot rather than CGI. I like it.) That's not the only thing that went fast: based on what they saw in rushes, plus some storyboards, Amazon just greenlit Season 3. This doesn't of course guarantee that any of your favourite characters survive this season. Then again, Ghouls are quite hard to kill...

I think Mel the assistant kept hammering on that theme a bit...

Stevie Wonder 🎂- Higher Ground

Global total was down 55%. Not good. But that said, it was still US domestic #1 and international #1, ahead of Sinners. So not a great week at the flicks generally. Hollyweird accounting note: CA:BNW and Thunderbolts* both have a listed $180m budget. In theory, that means technical breakeven (2.5x) is $450m. CA:BNW tapped out at $415m. Thunderbolts should get there, maybe a little less, maybe a little more. However, the back talk says that this movie's budget is the real one, and CA:BNW's real budget is almost double that with the reshoots and extra CGI. As to where that budget went: it's a lot more evident in this flick that this crew like practical FX. Substantially cheaper - other than the insurance on Pugh doing a decelerator drop herself - and on an IMAX-size screen, they LOOK better.

...just most of it. And still not exactly someone you'd want to relate to, but he is more than capable - and there is still a spark of good left in him. Alexei's also a pain in the backside, but the relentless, dog-like enthusiasm is infectious. And out of the lot of them, probably the best-adjusted. For those who haven't seen it yet and aren't intending to, here are the tail stings:

Finally got round to seeing it today - and was a whole lot of fun, if not the top rank of movies - probably around the original Ant-Man, definitely a return to form. Decent laughs, some pretty solid action, and shot in a very grounded way (right up till the big dark twist.) Great performances from JL-D, Stan, and especially Harbour and The Pugh. And had something quite decent to say at its core.

Now up to Ep5 and the darkness grows. Some quick notes: Ep6:

Tracey Ullman - They Don't Know

Ray Charles 🎂 & The Blues Brothers - Shake A Tail Feather

Brittany Howard - Pale Pale Moon

Four episodes in and liking The Well most so far: it’s Aliens, but for kids. (Including the “nuke it from orbit” line.) Ruby’s solo episode had that nasty little twist but fell flat after that: Lux had great one-liners but otherwise way too gimmicky and self-referential for my taste.

It helps that they cast Keaton for that. Aside from the Bat-references, he's a vastly underestimated actor both for drama and comedy: and was MUCH better for both without the bird suit. Specifically, the scene in the car where he twigs Peter's identity, and the argument with his unfortunate henchman (I thought that was the Gravity Gun?) Oh, and if you've not seen Birdman yet...

I'm gonna say jury's out on this one until the movie comes out. On the one hand, James Gunn is coming off the back of a hit franchise, plus Suicide Squad which was a little uneven but fun, and of course Peacemaker and Super. He is a Super-Fan and True Believer. On the other hand, David Corenswet is untested at this level, and there's a lot going on that he'll need to hold attention against. Hilarious as Fillion's bowlcut is, does Guy need to be there given this particular storyline, or Mr. Terrific for that matter? Is the Engineer a strong enough antagonist - especially with Lex also kicking around in the movie - and also are they familiar enough to an audience member that's not an obsessive Super-Nerd? Does everything and everybody get enough time and love to make them make sense as part of a whole, and still deliver 2 hours 20 or so of punchy popcorn-munching fun? I worry that Gunn's gone kid-in-a-sweetshop on getting hold of his dream franchise, and trying to pack too much in. I didn't think Hackman's Lex was completely goofy. Looking back from an adult PoV, his Lex was very much like the OG comic book versions (even down to repeating his self-aggrandising catchphrases). He's genial, almost likeable, and yet entirely capable of wiping out the Western Seaboard in pursuit of real estate. Smiling Psycho's a classic trope, and I've met more than a few...

Early numbers: $11m Thursday previews, US weekend $70m-$75m, global open prediction $175m. Which given May 4th isn't a Federal holiday, is pretty solid. And if that $175m figure does appear, that's the entire budget banked on open: $525m for technical breakeven should be well within reach. Previews aren't necessarily good predictors: Shang-Chi opened low at $8.8m but got legs from word-of-mouth, whereas Cap:BNW had $12m and then died. Sinners and Minecraft are still also strong contenders. BTW: if you're not fancying seeing Bucky, Yelena and Bob at the flicks this weekend... go see Sinners. Really. GO. Try not to watch or read anything about it before you do. Not even one trailer.