Author: Adam

The Woman King is one of those movie that is able to walk the perfect line between a roaring crowd pleaser and a faithful historic action epic. While there will certainly be talks about the film’s overall achievements in diversity and representation, it works wonders enough on it’s own as a well-made spectacle that everyone involved brought the A-game with. It’s able to portray the brutal realities of being involved with a war without losing the entertainment value. It’s able to showcase the gray line between a bleak conflict of good vs evil without being completely one-sided and shown in a very black and white light. It’s able to display it’s immensely talented cast of women as flawed, multiple layered people who have to make drastically difficult choices during a time of crisis and fear. Lastly, it’s able to put Gina Prince-Bythewood on the map as being the next big indie director to watch out for. Between this and The Irishman, it’s refreshing to see studios have confidence in giving bigger budgets to smaller directors to make the action-packed thriller they desire.

Taking place in the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century, an elite group of female warriors known as the Agojie are assembled to protect the kingdom. We see a young king known as Ghezo (John Boyega) who is attempting to make peace with his nation in a not-so peaceful time in Dahomey. The role that the kingdom plays in this story involves them operating slave trades with the Oyo Empire where African prisoners are slaves to Europeans in exchange for weapons. After a successful ambush by the Agojie to free their people who have been captured by a certain tribe, we eventually run into a young teenage girl (Thuso Mbedu) who is eventually accompanied by Izogie (Lashana Lynch) to train among the other strong women in Dahomey. When tension runs high when a mysterious new threat emerges, General Nanisca (Viola Davis) must put together a new generations of warriors to fight their opponents head on who want to destroy their very way of life.

The thing that makes The Woman King work as well as it does is how complete up and front it is on it’s title and it’s overall story it’s trying to tell. While there are definitely hints at trying to subvert tropes that is common with historic pieces, it never forgets it’s true central meaning on who the woman king is and what she is suppose to stand for with her tribe. There are plenty of subtext and commentary on war, slavery, and mortality but none of it is presented in a simplistic preachy “heros good, enemies bad” kind of way. It takes as much time as it needs to present it’s conflicts and have it be more than a mere good vs evil tale. Yes, the main characters we follow are undoubtedly the protagonists but can they really be the heroes to do what they can to survive and evolve with their own kind. The film never present an easy solution or way out for any of the main characters and each and every one of them are forced to discover within themselves what they are willing to do to destroy their enemies to live on.

The performances from the cast is nothing sort of extraordinary. Viola Davis as General Nanisca delivers a powerhouse performance as the commanding titan who is more than convincing of being able to display her true power and strength that she possesses. Lashana Lynch shines as the fierce (and even sometimes funny) warrior of Izogie who’s main task is to train and protect Nawi at all costs. Sheila Atim jells perfectly with everyone else as the right-hand woman to Nanisca who must counsel her superior through the tough decisions they are force to make. Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s Santo and Jimmy Odukoya’s Oba Ade make for intimating antagonists and legit threats to our protagonists even if they don’t get as much spotlight as our leading ladies. John Boyega’s Ghezo, while also not in the movie quite as much as he should, is always a great presence whenever he shows up as the young conflicted king who takes the carefully next steps needed to make his path towards mortality. However, it’s Thuso Mbedu as Nawi that really steals the show here. She’s the character we follow the most aside from Nanisca herself and Mbedu sells every scene she is in making her easily the most compelling and emotionally connected character in the entire movie. Nawi is the overall beating heart of the central story and the one that goes through the most intriguing arc in the film.

The production of the movie is off-the-charts terrific. There’s plenty of great location shooting, costume, make-up, and set designs presented throughout the whole movie making the time period it’s set in to be very believable. While not quite as well done as making the film’s setting it’s own distinct character in the same way that Black Panther did with Wakanda, it’s still a place that is interesting to explore in the amount of time we spent there. Polly Morgan’s cinematography is flawless with a huge emphasis on geographic authenticity and widescreen shooting that makes the movie more than worthy to see on the big screen and the extra bucks for IMAX. The score by Terence Blanchard is inspiring and perfectly matches the tone and mood that the film is going for. The make-up and editing, while at times can make it’s PG-13 rating noticeable, is good enough to make you overlook some iffy blood stains and lack of realistic gory moments. This was clearly a passionate project from everyone involved and there is not a single shot or scene of this movie that feels phoned-in.

The real stand-out thing on the movie are the action sequences and overall fight chorography. Gina Prince-Bythewood already proved herself of being capable to direct action a few years ago with The Old Guard and she shines even better with them here. The big highlights beating the fight by the Agojie in the opening prologue and the jaw dropping and emotionally intense battle displayed at the film’s official climax. It’s perfectly able to display the raw fierceness of our strong women leads while providing enough tension and brutality between each individual conflict that makes it believable and on the edge of your seat. It may be PG-13 but no doubt that Prince-Bythewood is able to make it as raw, brutal, and intense as humanly possible without needing to create a complete blood bath out of it to make it feel real. Also, who doesn’t wanna see Viola Davis swinging around a sword and killing people with it?

If there is a specific downside here, it’s that there definitely may be some folks that interpret things in a way that may or may not be intentional on part of the filmmakers. The main one being that the film itself glorifies a slave trading kingdom. While I don’t think the films quite delves into that as much as some are claiming, it is something that I believe would have been 100% better if it was glossed over completely without leaving things go noticed. Like with a certain minor subplot in Elvis, some things are better left unexplored. There’s also some pacing and structure issues in the middle and tail end of the film where it’s hard to tell at first viewing which sequence of events was supposed to act as the end of the second act or the beginning of the third one. I also think there might a been a scene or two missing with the antagonists as they do tend to disappear during a certain stretch of time and even takes a while before they are fully introduced.

Nevertheless, The Woman King is a strong work of art and entertainment from one of the more underrated action directors today. It’s work as it’s own compelling action-packed historic drama as well as an inspiring feminist empowerment piece. The cast is stellar, it looks amazing, the action is terrific, the characters are layered and very compelling, and the representation that is on display is fully earned and masterfully done. While it won’t shut up the alt-right trolls who have already review bombed the movie and even may raise an eyebrow or two from historic purists (I won’t pretend to be an expert on the events of this movie in real life), The Woman King excels at being a piece of entertainment for casual moviegoers along with a genuine work of art for casual movie experts. This time around, the women come together and they are indeed strong!

Other thoughts:

• Thuso Mbedu should be in more things!

• While it sucks that Gina Prince-Bythewood isn’t returning for The Old Guard sequel, the fact we were able to get this from her is more than fine by me.

• If you’re becoming a fan of John Boyega, I strongly recommend watching the first film he was in, Attack of the Block, which is basically the movie that helped land him the role for Star Wars.

• As for my thoughts on the review bombing, I honestly have stop trusting audience ratings all together from any review site because it’s nearly impossible to tell which ratings are genuine and which ones are coming from trolls. I’ll just stick with Letterboxd and call it a day.

• Seriously, for those that waste time review bombing s*it, grow the f*ck up already! Go waste your time doing something else!

There has been a lot that has happened in this final month of regular season baseball. Playoff chases are on and more interesting than ever before, star are being born right before our eyes, and players are more eager than ever to get to October with a chance to win it all. In the mix of all of that, there are also history chases that have been going on as well. Aaron Judge is aiming to pass Roger Maris for the all-time single season home run record in Yankees and America League history by hitting 62 dingers. Albert Pujols is aiming to be just the fourth player in baseball history to hit 700 home runs, right after making his place passed Alex Rodriguez for the fourth most career home runs by a single player in baseball history. While those milestones still have yet to be achieved, there is one historic milestone that is just about to be achieved and not many people are talking about. That being the milestone of the most battery starts by a single pitcher and catcher. That milestone has been acclaimed by no other than longtime St. Louis Cardinals legend, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.

Today on September 14, 2022, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright are set to surpass the all-time record set by pitcher Mickey Lolich and catcher Bill Freehan with their 325th start together as the starting pitcher and catcher with their start against their division rivals, Milwaukee Brewers. And that is just after nearly four months ago on May 15th, 2022 in a blowout victory against the San Francisco Giants where they set the all-time record with the most teams wins with the same starting battery when the Cardinals won their 203th game together, passing the previous record of 202, which was set by catcher Warren Spahn and pitcher Del Crandall, and now land on 213 victories. Those two have been an absolute dynamite pairing on the mound for many years for St. Louis. From recording the final out in the 2006 NLCS and World Series to being the notable faces of their respective franchise for over the past decade, it’s quite possible we won’t see a pairing like this in the MLB for a very, very long time! Why is that you may ask? Well, we just have to go all the way back to the very beginning.

Yadier Molina came to the Cardinals after he was selected by them in the fourth round of the 2000 MLB Draft. After spending previous years with the Cincinnati Reds organization and grabbing the attention of baseball legends Johnny Bench and Bret Boone during his time there, Molina was in the mindset that he would be drafted by that specific team. That turned out to not be the case as St. Louis snatched him as there were concerns with Cincinnati about his overall offensive production. He was then invited to Major League spring training camp following his draft and immediately made an impression. With most being impressed with his abilities in catching and framing along with having an absolute rocket of an arm that is able to get a huge chunk of base stealers out without much effort. Yadi started his playing career in 2001 with the Johnson City Cardinals of the Rookie-level Appalachian League, advancing one level in each of his four seasons in the minor leagues. It was then on June 3rd 2004, after Cardinals catcher (and later on manager) Mike Matheny went on the DL with a strained rib, that Molina was called up for his first every Major League start as catcher and has mostly kept the title for the good majority of Cardinals games for the past 18 years. He has been the Opening Day starting catcher for the Cardinals every year since 2005 and has been the prime reason for the amount of success that St. Louis has achieved since then. 10x All-Star appearances, 9x Gold Gloves, 4x Platinum Gloves, 2x World Series Rings, and even a Silver Slugger and Roberto Clemente Award to go with it.

Adam Wainwright, on the other hand, was not actually drafted as a Cardinal. Back in 2000, Adam was picked by the Atlanta Braves and 29th overall in the first round of the MLB Draft. It was in December 2003 where Wainwright got traded to the Cardinals along with pitchers Jason Marquis and Ray King in exchange for veteran outfielder J.D. Drew and utility player Eli Marrero. It was then that Wainwright spent two years in the minor league with the Memphis Redbirds that he met Yadier Molina and attempted to build himself up as being a top starting pitcher in the Major Leagues for years to come. However, despite being called up in 2006, Wainwright role’s wasn’t necessarily as a starter but as a reliever. Things got even more complicated and interesting when Wainwright found himself at the tail end of 2006 as a last minute closer, with long-time Cardinal closer Jason Isringhausen undergoing season-ending hip surgery. With the Cardinals playoff hopes crumbling in the final week of September, on the verge of blowing an eight plus game lead in their division, Wainwright was able to save two crucial games on September 27th and 30th which was able to hold off the second place Houston Astros and help the Cardinals secure the NL Central title. It was then that Adam Wainwright would go on to get the final out in the NLDS against the Padres, the NLCS against the Mets, and even the World Series against the Tigers to help the Cardinals land their 10th World Series championship with Yadier Molina right by his side.

After 2006, it was then that Adam Wainwright moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation. His first ever career Major League start occurred on April 6th, 2007 against the Astros with Yadier Molina being the starting catcher. Wainwright would go seven innings and allow only run which was enough to hand the Cardinals their first win of that season and the first win in Waino’s career as a starter. While 2007 would ultimately be a very down year for the Cardinals, with a poor 78-84 record (which btw is the last time the Cardinals had a losing season), it help showcased that Adam Wainwright was an ace in the making for St. Louis. Aside from 2011 where he would miss the whole season due to Tommy John Surgery along with missing a good portion of 2015 and 2018 due to injuries, you’d be hard pressed to find a pitcher in St. Louis not named Chris Carpenter that has left such a great lasting impression with the fans and players. 3x All-Star appearances, 2x Gold Gloves, 2x World Series Rings, along with a Roberto Clemente and even a Silver Slugger award would also help wonders as well! With the exception of Lou Brock and possibly even Nolan Arenado, you would also be hard pressed to name a trade that has impacted the St. Louis Cardinals throughout their history this greatly.

So, yeah. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright have been around the Cardinals for a long time and have made plenty of history through their amazing run in St. Louis, including this year with passing the most teams wins and the most starts totals in battery mate history. However, why is it that there should be more focus on this? Why should there be as much to celebrate as Judge when he gets to 62 or Pujols getting to 700? Because after this season, this tag team will break up.

Before the 2022 season, Yadier Molina confirmed that this season with the Cardinals would be his last. Along with Albert Pujols planning to retire as well, this certainly has helped make for a rather emotional rollercoaster of the year for the Cardinals and their fans. While Adam Wainwright hasn’t 100% confirmed that he would also retire at the end of the year, hinting at possible coming back in 2023, everyone knows that it won’t be the same. With Yadi being Waino’s personal catcher for so long, it would be difficult to imagine him wanting to pitch next year without his best friend and catcher for life right on the field with him. No matter what choice Adam makes, Yadi and Albert choices are set to leave the game in the coming months following the season. With Yadi already having plans to manager for a team in his home country and Albert most likely having to start his 10-year plus service time with the Angels, this will definitely be as big of a swan song we have had since Big Papi and Derek Jeter retired.

There’s an old saying in baseball about how pitching and defense is what wins games and hitting is what sells tickets. That is perhaps why I would imagine there hasn’t been as much focus on this incredible milestone as with Judge and Pujols chasing for theirs. People love action in sports. As much as it is fun to watch your team’s defense make an amazing play or two, it’s the offense and scoring that is the kind of spectacle that fans come to the game to see. Cardinals fans always love to see Nolan Arenado make an incredible diving stop play as much as they do with seeing him hit a game-winning home run. It’s the glove that helps win games but also the bat that helps provide entertainment. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright however, aren’t necessarily known for their bats. While both have received Silver Sluggers awards and have had their share of clutch moments with the bat, it’s mostly Wainwright’s elite pitching and Molina’s elite catching/throwing that is their most common trait. The old Uncle Charlie curveball and the same old Yadi with his fire arm and stealing strike calls from the hitters. In that case, it’s understandable that their accomplishments hasn’t got as much recognition as they deserve but it’s still a major shame regardless.

Overall, the main point I’m trying to make with this piece is to savior the amount of history with Yadi and Waino. They are a pairing that will come to an end in the coming months. They are a pairing that we likely won’t see in baseball for many years to come. They are a pairing that showcases the attitude and leadership that a baseball team should possesses to be able to become constant winners and eventually World Series champions! Like I said earlier this month with Albert Pujols, enjoy it all while you can because you won’t be able to for much longer!

Nevertheless, as a dedicated fan of the St. Louis Cardinals since the mid 2000s, I want to take my time to say thank you so much to Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright for everything you both have done for my favorite sports team! You have helped given me so many memories with such an historic franchise that I can simply never forget. I don’t know if any one of you will ever see this piece but if you do, thank you so much for being a Cardinals for life and by heart! You’ve allowed me to watch my favorite team be a consistent winner year-in and year-out and allowed me to be witness to a couple of world championships throughout my lifetime! Thanks again and I wish you both well for whatever the future awaits!

A few days ago, Major League Baseball Association announced upcoming rule changes for the 2023 season and beyond. It mostly involve three specific aspects of the game. Those include pitch clocks, bigger bases, and eliminating defensive shifts. These are rules that are being added in as a means of trying to add more action in the game along with improving the pace to play. With these rules changes, MLB is hoping to address the two criticisms of the modern age of baseball involving the length and lack of activity of each game in order to make baseball more enjoyable and fun to watch. There are definitely many ways that these rule changes can help the game deeply while also backward spectacularly. Regardless, changes are coming and it’s best to look at each of these three new rules along with seeing how it can benefit and even bite the league in the long run. Let’s take look at each one step-by-step.

1.) Pitch Timer

This one was quite a no-brainer. There have been numerous complaints by fans and players about how the game is always slow because of pitchers who always take their sweet ass time between each pitch they throw. Whether it’s constantly trying to pick-off a runner at first base or second they have no chance of actually picking off, step up the mound right before a wind-up, or having to call time out to make sure they agree on a certain pitch, pitchers tend to always disrupt the pace and flow of the game. With this new rule change, things are definitely going to be speeding up.

Similar to NFL’s play clock, there will now be a pitch clock added in for each pitcher. Pitchers will now be giving a total of 15 seconds to deliver a pitch when bases are empty and 20 seconds whenever there is a runner (or runners) on base. They must motion before time expires and are able to disengage the rubber twice without penalty (the clock will then reset after the latter action is made). Failure to make a pitch in time will result in an automatic ball for the opposing batter.

This rule also will impact hitters as well. To address another common complaint about batters constantly stepping out of the box between each pitch and calling as many timeouts as they want, hitters will now receive only one timeout per plate appearance. They must be in the batter’s box and alert to the pitcher with at least eight seconds remaining before the clock runs out.

This rule has actually already been tested last year with the pitch clock being added down in the Minor Leagues. It’s been reported that it has helped shaved off at least 26 minutes in the average length of a ball game. And many folks who tend to watch numerous amounts of MilB games have responded to it very well, stating that it’s barely noticeable once everyone is used to it.

Between the three rules, this is the one that I believe will have the most positive impact on the game. It might take a while for certain pitchers that have the tendency to slow down and take their time with each and every pitch (*cough* Giovanny Gallegos *cough*) but once the rule starts to make an impact, I think there will be a benefit for everyone involved with an added pitch clock.

2.) Bigger Bases

This one has been a headscratcher for many. This next rule includes making the bases just a tad bigger, increasing the size of first base, second base, and third base from 15″ square to 18″ square. To answer the question has to why this rule change is necessary, it mostly comes down to two reasons.

First, it’s a way of trying to get more action between and during plays. It’s a way to open up old school strategies such as stealing bags, hit-and-run, and perhaps bunting that aren’t used as much anymore because of the consequences of always getting caught stealing or walking right into an easy out. Bigger bases might just allow for things like that to become more frequent with runners being able to get better jumps on the bases.

Second, it’s to help reduce injuries involving baserunning that are far too frequent. Accidents such as stepping on a player’s foot or stepping on the right end of the bag have been caused due to runners not getting as much room to put their foot on the bag. With bigger bases, it gives enough room for the defender and runner to put their feet on the bag to make a play without any potential harm coming to both sides.

I feel like they should have also added in the kind of bases they have in Little League where there’s an additional bag for the runner that’s right next to the first base bag to create a perfect running lane for the runner when going to first. It would have at least cut down on any potential interference calls on the runner for being out of the baseline by giving them their own lane (*cough* Trea Turner *cough*). Otherwise, this rule is mostly implemented for the safety of the players and the possible chance that there may be more open stolen base attempts/hits-and-runs.

3.) Shift Restriction

Here’s the big one! The one that seems to be the most controversial, debated, and polarizing of all of the three major rule changes! The extreme defensive shifts are no more!

There can now only be two infielders on either side of second base when a pitch is made. All four infielders must have both feet strictly on the infield and out of the grass when the pitcher is on the rubber. Infielders can NOT switch side unless there is a defense of substitution.

No more four outfielders. No more having the third baseman at second base. There are now exact restrictions and limitations with how a team can play defense.

The idea of this rule change is as clear as day: to allow more offense. There has been plenty of studies and evidence that has shown how the constant focus on defensive shifts nowadays is taking away a good portion of hitting every season. If a hitter is not striking out for trying to swing for the fences, then they are most likely hitting a grounder or soft flyball that is right into a shift where a player is positioned at a different spot then they are assigned in the lineup card.

Just how many times have we all seen in recent memory a hitter hitting a chopper right up the middle which you think is a base hit but it’s actually an out because it lands right into the glove of a fielder that is positioned perfectly there for some reason? And how many times have we all groaned that something that would have been a hit ten years ago is a sure out now? That’s not even getting into the hitters whose careers took a big hit by being shifted on a extreme basis (Ryan Howard, Matt Carpenter, Joey Gallo, etc.).

There are certainly purists out there that are strongly against this rule, claiming that hitters should learn how to beat the shift instead of being rewarded for their own incompetence. To those people, I’ll say this. If beating the shift was that easy, more hitters would be able to do it.

How easy can it be to try to hit the ball the other way when the pitcher you’re facing is throwing somewhere between 95 to 100 MPH? Sure, you can try to bunt every now and then but that was just get tiresome to a fan real quick. How many times a game would you really want to see a hitter bunt so they are guarantee to get a base hit of some sorts. Defense might win ball games but offense is what gets people to watch them.

No doubt this is the rule change that can change the game for better and for worse. Not just to help get more points on the scoreboard but also as a means of rewarding hitters for being able to put the ball in play. If this works out, perhaps that will open multiple different hitting approaches instead of the usual three true outcomes of home runs, walks, and strikeouts. By being able to have more freedom to hit the ball in big parts of the field without having to worry about a position player being in a completely different spot than they usually are, maybe that will lead to more contact hitters and old-school hitting strategies to make a big comeback on the game. If it does that, then this might just change the game for the better. If not, then this rule won’t mean much in the long run.

It’s too early to tell how exactly this will affect the game of baseball. Hopefully, this find the right mix between action, tension, and pace to play to make most ball games feel like a complete package and not a completely dull slog to sit through. This could also lead to other impactful rule changes such as moving the pitching mound back and switching to electronic strike zones.

We have to wait until next year to find out ourselves but at least there’s an effort from MLB to improve the sport and making it more entertaining.

For more information on the rule changes, here’s a link from an article from MLB.com:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rule-changes-aim-to-improve-game-in-2023

This isn’t going to be much of a review of the actual movie but more on what is actually added to the extended cut of this gloriously successful Spidey flick! I still love the movie even if my nostalgia for the previous Spider-Man incarnations and my initial opening night theater experience did elevated a bit more at the time it came out than it does now on repeat viewings. The things I still like before I still like now even if the things I didn’t care for do stick out a bit more. Still a 3.5 out of 4 star movie for me however! But what about the content that was added in this so-called More Fun Stuff version that is coming out this weekend in some theaters. Does it really enhanced the No Way Home experience or is it just a cheap cash grab?

First off, let’s go over the scenes that were added in to this cut of the movie that is releasing the theaters this Labor Day weekend (which btw can be watched for just three bucks on September 3rd). There was a total of at least ten minutes added to this longer version of No Way Home. This makes the overall movie hover right over the two and a half hour long minute mark. These scenes that were added in include the following that I’m about to describe:

(Also, if you consider me describing each individual scene as a spoiler, then you might wanna click away right now. You have been warned!)

• Just before the movie starts, it opens with Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire through a Zoom meeting (which looks like it was shot on the same day they did an interview through Zoom about a month after the movie came out). The three of them greet the fans and thank them for their overwhelming support on their Spider-Man picture.

• There’s a cameo with Tom Holland’s brother, Harry Holland, where he plays a thief that stole a bicycle. This leads to Spider-Man interacting with citizens until a Mysterio supporter douses him with green paint, which gets basically all over his Spider suit that Peter has a hard time brushing off later on in the movie.

• There are more high school scenes added with most of the side characters from Homecoming and Far From Home such as the teachers, Flash Thompson, and Betty Bryant that didn’t really get to do anything in No Way Home. This include extra/extended scenes such as a longer conversation between Peter and his teachers, Peter being pressured into climbing the wall using his Spider powers by students during gym class, and a segment of Betty Bryant interviewing various teachers and students on how they view Peter Parker now that they know he is Spider-Man, including Peter himself. These interview segments are probably the most added content in this version, excluding the new end credit scene.

• There is an extra scene with Matt Murdock where he’s trying to help plead Happy’s case against the Department of Damage Control. It’s during that part where Happy sees Peter and Aunt May leading the villains into the apartment through his security camera. It also includes a semi-funny moment where Matt tells Happy to stop sweating in which Happy asks how he never sweats.

• There are lengthier scenes of the three Peter Parkers talking with one another during the big moments such as the loved ones that they lost and the banter they exchange before the big fight on the Statue of Liberty. No major things happened but just a couple more moments of the three Peters talking and quipping with one another.

• Lastly, there is a big post credit scene (right at the same spot which the Multiverse of Madness trailer played) with Betty Bryant hosting a school news segment on the last day before graduation. It’s basically here just taking a trip down memory lane with all of the teenagers from all three MCU Spider-Man movies. It basically showcases the crazy adventures and field trips that the students went on in the previous movies with Peter no where to bee seen in any footage. It basically confirms that everyone’s memory of Peter Parker had been 100% erased!

And that is basically it as far the More Fun Stuff version goes when it comes to the bonus content. No extended fight scenes, no major plot and character details revealed, no moment of Maguire’s Peter and Dafoe’s Norman interacting, no cameo of Kirsten Dunst’s MJ or Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, etc. This isn’t like a full-on director’s cut on the range of say Zack Snyder’s Justice League with a good portion of the theatrical footage mixed with plenty of the director’s original footage or even like Spider-Man 2 which included extended action sequences and bonus/longer scenes that help a detail or two towards the characters. It’s basically nothing more than a couple of deleted scenes added back in with Sony hoping that’s good enough to justify bringing it back in theaters to get a few extra dollars.

Granted, I used Regal Unlimited which only cost me two quarters and four pennies worth to watch. Because of that, I can’t really claim it was that much of wasted money on my part. However, to anyone else, I can’t say it’s worth the full theater ticket price. Unless you haven’t seen the full movie yet or are just extremely curious to see the extended footage in person, it’s not something you have to pay in theaters to see. You will most likely be better off just watching the version that already came out on Blu-Ray again and just wait for the added scenes to show up on YouTube, assuming it’s not on there already. It’s definitely not like the extended cut of Avengers: Endgame that included literal unfinished scenes of CGI with the Hulk or the PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2, A.K.A. Once Upon A Deadpool which featured more censored content and added footage of Deadpool parodying The Princess Bride by telling the story of the film to Fred Savage (which at least led to money being donated to charity). That being said, I highly doubt the More Fun Stuff version it’s gonna affect anyone’s overall opinions on No Way Home as a whole.

If you want to see it, go ahead but at least see it at a discount or for the $3 deal that will be going on all day Saturday in celebration of Cinema Day. Anything more than that is quite outrageous!

(Also, on a brief side note! I have read from leaks that this version also includes a brief moment where MJ pleads Peter to get Doctor Strange to make the world forget her too but I can’t recall ever seeing that. Unless I dozed off during that part and didn’t pay attention for a split second, I don’t think that part is there. Just try looking it up on YouTube to see if it’s real or not!)

We now officially have a full release date for Sonic Frontiers! Revealed during last week’s comic con, the newest entry with the blue blur is expected to come out on November 8th, just one day before God of War: Ragnarok releases. More so than any other game that has come before it, Frontiers is looking to be a massive departure for Sonic the Hedgehog. By taking obvious inspirations from games like Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this looks to be the first Sonic game with a larger emphasis on an open world than ever before, or as Sonic Team is putting it, “open-zone”. This looks to be a game where Sonic himself will have areas with the most freedom to run around and explore in than he has ever had before, a game that will seemly have the most content for any Sonic game to date that will definitely give the player their full $50 to $70 money’s worth, and the game that seemly will have the most work and effort put into it than any other game in the franchise thus far. Regardless of how the actual game turns out, this certainly won’t be a game where one will just simply shrug their shoulders after playing it like say, Sonic Forces.

Opinions on this game has been very split down the middle since the very first gameplay footage showed off from IGN back in June. Many have criticized Frontiers for looking too much like a tech demo and not having much of an identity of it’s own other than Breath of the Wild but Sonic. Fans have understandably been concerned about this latest project, especially since this is the first main Sonic game since Sonic Forces, which came out in 2017. It’s has caused so much concern that there was even a hashtag going around on Twitter at one point, #DelaySonicFrontiers, which had some fans pleading for SEGA to delay the game and give it more development time. SEGA, however, is not giving in and have full intention to release Sonic Frontiers this upcoming holiday season. Despite the mixed reaction to it thus far, SEGA and Sonic Team are 100% committed with their new game.

Sonic Frontiers is a game that has been reported to be in development for at least four to five years, longer than any development of any Sonic game to date. While this has surely been caused due to recent events (*cough* Covid-19 *cough*), this is also because there hasn’t been a Sonic game quite like this before.

After Sonic Forces, Sonic Team wanted to go bigger and grander than they ever have with Sonic the Hedgehog. They wanted to define what a modern Sonic game should be and created a new formula that would be a template for the future in the same way that the original Sonic Adventure did. With Forces receiving criticism for it’s short length and brief levels, Sonic Team felt as if the boost formula on it’s own had run it’s course and intended to put more emphasis on giving fans and players more bank for their buck. That led to the idea of a more open world Sonic game which would provide players with more freedom and diverse gameplay than ever before. Elements like these are things that have been talked about for the game for the past few years, going all the way back to when leaks of the game first came out back in 2019 or 2020. And as it turns out, it was true! All of it! Sonic Frontiers is real!

Me, personally, I have no idea how to feel about this game. On one hand, it is refreshing that this looks to be the first Sonic game since Unleashed that seems to be putting more effort in the story, presentation, and other content than simply the basic gameplay. I like the fact this is looking to provide a full package that can’t be complete with just one brief Gamefly rental sitting unlike other recent entries. It’s also nice to have the well-known/beloved Sonic writer Ian Flynn, writer of Archic Comics, taking a stab at the game’s script since he tends to add more depth and intrigue to his comic stories than Sonic Team usually does with the plots of their games. Those are all promising elements that does get me very curious of the game. On the other hand, I still can’t help but feel that Frontiers is likely going to fall into the same trapping that previous Sonic games from the past decade have fell into.

When watching the gameplay and trailers for it, I still can’t help but get the feeling that Frontiers looks like a fan-made mode of Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, or basically any other recent game with large open worlds and RPG elements. It just doesn’t look like a game that belongs in the Sonic universe and feels as if you just inserted Sonic into someone else’s game. Adding elements such as puzzles, hearts, stamina, food items, etc.. doesn’t align on what I view (and I imagine many others) view as Sonic. And even the open worlds that have been shown don’t look all that impressive and the combat on display is nothing more than mindless, brainless button mashing. To tell you the truth, if it wasn’t for the fact that Sonic himself has been in all the gameplay footage shown, I would be hard-pressed to guess that this was suppose to be a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

While there are definitely things that look promising of the game such as the cyberspace levels, (the kind of levels that reportedly plays like Sonic Generations), and more focus on story and characterization, it looks as if Frontiers could be to Breath of the Wild what Sonic Lost World was to Super Mario Galaxy. In that, it will be yet another Sonic game borrowing from another successful IP without an understanding as to why it worked for that property but just doesn’t work for Sonic.

This has been a common case with Sonic Team’s overall approach to the Sonic franchise. They constantly makes games that at times come across as experiments than actual games. They are always throwing things at the walls to see whatever can stick, then cherry pick the things that they believe stick, make a handful of games with that sort of style and gameplay, and then the whole process starts right over again after it loses it’s appeal. Sonic the Hedgehog has become so many different things over the years and as a result, has lead to many games that are very inconsistent in their overall quality. It’s always difficult to get a grasp of what SEGA and Sonic Team views as Sonic since the identity of the character is constantly changing year in and year out.

And, here we are again with Sonic Frontiers, a game that yet again sees Sonic Team experimenting on a new formula that is hopefully good enough to have follow-ups that will expand on this open zone-style formula until there is another left to expand upon. The overall difference between Frontiers and other recent games however is that this is the one that SEGA and the team seems to be fully putting their chips in.

With ideas for Frontiers starting near the tail end of 2017 and development beginning sometime in 2018 or 2019, I can’t recall a Sonic game that has had this much time spent on it. There’s been no rushed development cycle, no tight scheduling, and no concern of budget or fan interest of the product fading. Sonic Frontiers is SEGA fully going for it and hoping this is able to redefine Sonic in the current window they currently have after the big success of both Sonic movies. If this works out, then there is a big chance that this will lead to Sonic to be in the kind of spotlight he hasn’t been in since the days of the Genesis and the Dreamcast. If not, then who knows where this will lead to for Sonic.

It seems as though whenever a new Sonic game comes out, there always seems to be some sort of pressure added from fans and gamers that this must be the one Sonic game that changes the landscape or else the franchise is finished. This has been the case since Sonic The Hedgehog 2006, a game that is consider that very low point of not just Sonic but video games in general. Even after successful games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, there is always that sort of unrealistic expectations set that if the game isn’t completely great, then Sonic could be as good as dead. Despite that, even after games with middled to negative reception released after 2011 such as Lost World, Rise of Lyric, and Forces, the Sonic franchise is still here, alive and well.

The reason Sonic the Hedgehog is still a thing that exists is because Sonic has such a dedicated fandom that is constantly expanding generation after generation that simply refuses to let the series die. Just like a professional sports team that is usually mid or bad year in and year out with a few bright seasons in between, Sonic fans are loyal and will always stick around to see if this year will be the one that they can share with others why they love what they root for so much. There will always be support from Sonic fans everywhere and will let their beloved hedgehog live on for many more years to come.

The way Frontiers can make or break Sonic isn’t necessarily whether it would revive or kill the franchise but put less focus on the gaming side of Sonic and focus on the other successful mediums such as the movies or even streaming series if that Sonic Prime show, expected to be released sometime this year on Netflix, is successful. The success of the Sonic movie franchise shows that Sonic doesn’t have to be known as a strictly slumping gaming franchise but can be something much more. Fans and moviegoers enjoyed the first two Sonic movies and have a third movie and even a Knuckles spin-off series to look forward too. This is SEGA’s chance to get Sonic more in the public eye than ever before. Even if Frontiers bombs critically and financially, it may not matter much for the character to fade away but it could matter for Sonic games for the foreseeable future. There will always be a Sonic game coming out here or there but that won’t be necessary to keep the character relevant in 2022 and beyond.

Regardless, I guess we all just have to wait and find out ourselves as to how good or bad Frontiers will be. Maybe it will be something revolutionary. Maybe it will come across as a complete train wreck. Even so, SEGA and Sonic Team aren’t looking to play it safe with Frontiers and want to give everything they got to bring the world the very best Sonic game they possible can!

Sonic Frontiers is expected to be released on November 8th, 2022. It will be available on the Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5, Xbox One Series X and S, and PC!

Last month, it was reported that DC and HBO Max Parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, decided to not released Batgirl in any form of capacity. Despite the fact the film was about 95% complete and be in it’s released form, it will not be available to watch on HBO Max or in theaters. Just like that, the work that directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, screenwriter Christina Hudson, and cast members Leslie Grace, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, etc.., had all been for nothing.

That in of itself is awful but you would at least assume that directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi or the studio would still have the footage to preserve in case of a potential revival of the project. Well, you would be wrong about that! According to co-director Bilall Fallah, that footage is long gone. Just yesterday, it was confirmed that Fallah was trying to preserve whatever footage they could onto their phone but they could never find any existing files from the film. It had all been deleted. Unless there’s some Toy Story 2-like miracle here where someone on production conveniently had some sort of back-up drive that include the majority of the existing footage that was shot, Batgirl is basically 100% dead. Just completely vanished into thin air! Almost has if it never existed at all!

Talk about wasting a ton of time and money on basically nothing! All that work in pre-production, production, and post-production might as well never happened! Aside from getting some solid paychecks from the higher-ups, this Batgirl movie is basically a good three to four years that everyone involved with it will never get back. Going through all that trouble to get 70-year old Michael Keaton back as Batman (Although, he may still make an appearance in The Flash) and the first on-screen Batgirl in forever turned out to be a waste. As terrible as that is, that exposes the biggest and scariest thing about Hollywood. No movie is every 100% safe to be released in any existing form!

Granted, Batgirl was not the only project recently that had been cancelled from Warner Bros. It’s been reported by the unfortunate CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, David Zaslav, that a number of planned content for HBO Max had either been cancelled or put on hold due to being used as tax write-offs and putting more focus on theatrical productions that they believe will benefit them more in the future. These other projects include Scoob!, Holiday Hunt, Little Ellen, Batman: The Caped Crusader, The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie, Merry Little Batman, The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, and Bye Bye Bunny (Looney Tunes Musical). While some of these are expected to be shopped by other networks/SVOD’s, others have been confirmed to be officially cancelled. What makes it even worse is that some of these projects were either finished or about to be such as the first three I mentioned but those have been scrapped with no intended release dates for any of them. While Batgirl is far from the only victim of this controversial business decision by WB Discovery, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that has suffered the most.

There had been folks that claimed that the reason this decision was made was due to the negative test screening that the film received, scoring in the low 60s (a similar score that the original It and Shazam received) and because of that, WB felt like it wouldn’t be releasable. That sounds like a very ill-conceived reason for wanting to shut down production on that as there has been numerous movies over the years that still made it’s way to theaters despite bad test screenings (Remember when the initial test screenings of Wonder Woman that rendered the movie “unwatchable”?) I don’t buy that theory as to why that was the reason it got canned or any business related theory.

Even if Batgirl was legit bad, so what? There has been plenty of movies over the years that had been released despite being bad. Hell, Warner Bros has released plenty of content recently that got a mid-to-negative reception. Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League (Theatrical Cut), Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, The Legend of Tarzan, Geostorm! All movies that were badly received and/or didn’t make the money that was expected of them yet they were all able to find their ways in theaters or on streaming. I can’t imagine Batgirl doing as much damage as any one of those from either a business or critical standpoint.

No matter what way you look at it, this is a dumb and poor move by Zaslav and company. Not only is it a costly one by throwing away millions of dollars with no guarantee of getting any of it back but it’s also that will now question the leadership of that company. Why in the world would anyone want to work with them now? Why bother working for a company that can decide to just cancel the project you’ve worked so hard and long on whenever they want to? It just gives a back look with WB and anyone else associated with it. What makes this an even more scary scenario is that this is not the only time this has happened in recent memory?

There was Sony who have cancelled a handful of projects (a CGI Popeye movie that would have had Tom Kenny doing the voice of the character) in favor of other ones (The Emoji Movie). There was Disney who shut down Blue Sky Studios and cancelled Nimona along with other planned future projects from that studio. It’s a very scary thought with how nothing is guaranteed to finish with filmmaking in Hollywood.

When you sign on to a project with a studio, that gives that as much control as they want on the thing you are working on. While you might get to write your own story and apply your own individual voice to it, it is the studio that decide the kind of budget and time constraints that the movie you are making will include. Similar to how whenever someone makes a pitch to a tv studio and it gets greenlights, once you agreed to a project with a company, then it’s (mostly) out of your hands. You’ll be able to get a chance to work on it but it will be up to the higher ups to decide if they want to continue funding the project or not. Some are lucky enough to see it until the very end, others are not so fortunate.

As much as many folks are outraged over Zaslav and Warner Bros for these puzzling, head-scratching moves, this is something that has been going on in Hollywood for awhile and it won’t stop anytime soon. Whether that’s because the people in charge have too much power that no can stop them or some other matter, this should be a lesson on the expectations of Hollywood and in life. Just because you work really hard at something does not mean you will get to complete it. Many people have gone through this process and many of them were met with heartbreaking results. It’s only a matter of being able to try until you are able to overcome that failure that it will matter in the long run.

Regardless of what you think of this whole situation with Batgirl, this should be a huge wake-up call to inspiring filmmakers that you may not be able to see your project until the very end. No matter how hard you’ve worked on it, it could be as good as gone in the snap of Thano’s finger if it’s deemed not good enough from the studio that you are working for. It’s disturbing but it’s also reality. Nothing is ever safe in Hollywood!

Link On Other Cancelled Shows/Projects:

https://tvline.com/lists/hbo-max-cancelled-shows-2022-list-warner-bros-discovery-merger/

Link On Batgirl’s Test Screenings:

https://www.gamesradar.com/batgirl-test-screening-audience-score-it/

Marvel’s newest series for Disney Plus, She-Hulk, has just premiered it’s very first episode. This latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe sees the introduction of Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters turning into a green six foot and seven inch long superpowered hulk. It’s then that she must find a way to juggle her life as a lawyer and her life now as a suppose superhero. Whether or not this is a show you feel like you will be into it, it’s available to now watch on Disney Plus if you want to see for yourself.

However, even before the series even aired it’s first episode, it was reviewed bombed to dead on IMDb and I’m sure plenty other websites like it such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. It’s been reported that the vast majority of reviewers was either rating it a perfect 10 stars or a low 1 star, with most of the 1 star reviews coming from male in their 30s, while reviews from females and younger males were much more positive.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happen with an MCU project in recent memory. There was a review bomb campaign for Captain Marvel months prior to that film’s release because of comments that star Brie Larson made about wanting to have more exclusive interviews for her press tour. There was also similar review bombing for Ms. Marvel and Eternals for reasons I’m sure relates to women, diversity, or LGBTQ+ like things. Granted, the ratings for those movies got better after they all came out but the fact they were even review bombed before it even released showed the distinct mindset from a certain group that is always spending too much time on the internet.

And there are definitely more and more examples of that when it comes to IMDb not even related to Marvel or featuring a cast and subject matter not surrounded with white men. Anyone remember when Interstellar was the highest rated movie of all time on that website weeks before the movie even came out in theaters (which is still ranked #27 of all time btw) ? Or how just about every new movie with well-acclaimed directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarnatino ends up with near perfect scores around the time they first come out all because it’s a movie made by them? This has been a constant occurrence over and over again for several years now. So much so that it’s time that major studios and even folks on the internet stop taking it seriously because it’s clearly not legit.

I remember back in early 2017 where I wrote a column during my Journalism course in college about IMDb deciding to shut down all message and discussion boards on their website. It was previously reported this was done due to the constant spam and trolling on the website that got to the point where the people in charge of the site just found it unbearable. Instead of taking the time of their day to be able to take down as much of these kind of accounts as they could, they decided to shut down the boards entirely. Because of that, fans and movie nerds around the globe would have to discuss and argue their fan theories on the next Star Wars and Avengers movie somewhere else. This was honestly the point where it seemed like even IMDb was well aware of their own reputation and how unreliable they are when it comes to rating movies.

There are definitely other uses when it comes to IMDb not involving rating movies. It’s useful for movie-related things such as keeping up with the box office, being up to date on release dates, looking up facts on what goes one behind the scenes with movies, making movie-related lists of your own, and clicking on interviews involving the cast and crew to discover new info about each newest feature film. However, it’s always the ratings and reviews from that website that gets the most attention. And with this constant spam, trolling, and review bombing, it’s time to take a stand against websites like this and stop treating the scores they get as anything particularly meaningful.

It’s always very clear the kind of demographic that does this constant review bombing day in and out with each certain film. So why do we still pay attention to those people and take them seriously in anyway? I’m never one to bluntly accuse someone of being racist, sexist, misogynist, misandrist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.., but it’s clear as daylight the folks that are any of this things and it makes me wonder how long do we have to keep this up? Eventually, the day will occur where these folks will get bored of doing this and finally move on with their lives, so why do we continue to focus on them now and give them all the attention they are clearly craving? It’s all annoying, repetitive, predictable, and just plain tiresome!

I’m sure there are people out there that have good reasons for not liking She-Hulk or any other thing I just mentioned but when the review bombing is so thuddingly obvious where it’s just constant spamming either positive or negatively, how can you really take it seriously? I get not everyone is filthy rich and want to spend the limited budget they have on something they would enjoy but if that’s the case, wouldn’t you be better off just following folks with legit opinions on the things you are interested in. Wouldn’t that be a better case of finding someone you share similar opinions with it and then deciding if you should watch something or not instead of just going on a website that is clearly full of spammers and taking that site’s word for it? I’m very certain you will get a better opinion or description on the thing you want to watch from those that have actually proof they have watched the thing.

Say what you will about Rotten Tomatoes or movie critics in general but at least the reviews from that site come from individuals that ACTUALLY watched the piece of media that they are praising or critiquing. You can at least say that they are not spammers or trolls, just normal everyday reviewers giving their two cents on the product they are being paid to cover. I will certainly take that over some dude bro on Metacritic giving The Last of Us: Part II a 0 because it’s “too woke” or whatever.

When it comes to websites involving reviewing or rating movie, I still say Letterboxd is the best one. It is able to contain sources from both professional reviewers and casual reviewers with less spam and trolling out of any popular site like that. It provides a good mix of critics and audiences with ratings that feel legit and represent the popular opinion on both sides with each new feature that comes out. And you are most likely to get the most in-depth reviews on the content they are reviewing and not just the completely one-note “it sucks” or “it is awesome” takes like you do with other sites just like it. Not to say Letterboxd is perfect by any means but I find them to be the most reliable with reviewing and rating movies.

Whenever I hear someone ask me why I trust critics more than mainstream audience, it’s because of things like this. It’s because of these group of individuals who have a very clear agenda that plague the internet with their hot takes, overlong reviews, and constantly putting words into people’s mouth who can’t come up with an opinion of their own. It’s why being a reviewer as become less and less enjoyable as times goes on. Because no matter how many credible reviewers your can find, there will be several more bias one that will take their place and be more successful just because negativity sells on the internet. People just want to see non-stop rants and complaining because that is what people find entertaining nowadays. It’s this sick and one-note mindset that is leading to movies being review bombed constantly that shows why websites like IMDb are worthless. They represent the one-note bias mindset that is currently plaguing the internet to this very day. Well, I’m not one of those and I’m sure there are many others that would agree with me!

Last week saw the re-remastered of the 2018 smash hit of Marvel’s Spider-Man, developed by Insomniac Games, being released on the PC! This is a game that started off exclusively on the PlayStation 4 but later came available in better quality (and a more Tom Holland-like redesign) to the PlayStation 5 and has now been ported to the PC.

Marvel’s Spider-Man has been one of the more successful video games in recent memory, selling millions of copies and is loved by critics and gamers alike! Most would agree that this is one of the best, if not THE best, Spider-Man game to date and one of the best superhero games ever made! It’s basically the equivalent of the Batman: Arkham series in the sense that it not only plays like a superhero game should but it just makes you FEEL like a superhero, more so than any other prior game with the web swinger! However, as times goes by with this game, not only has it aged wonderfully but it makes me think how better The Amazing Spider-Man movie series could have turned out if they choose to take the same approach and direction to the character before Insomniac did years later.

The Amazing Spider-Man had just turn ten years old last month with the original release being back in July 2012. It was approached by Sony as a darker, lower-scaled reboot compared to the Sam Raimi trilogy, containing a larger focus on the teen drama/high-school dynamic aspects of the character. While it did get mostly solid reviews at the time it came out, with most critics praising Andrew Garfield’s performance, it received plenty of criticism for putting too much focus on the origin story and being way too similar to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. These complaints are valid as there was plenty of plot beats that the movie follows with the 2002 film along with not offering much new or interesting things of it’s own. Despite having a talented cast and crew, the whole thing came across as rather forgettable and tiresome.

The big takeaway for me when it comes to The Amazing Spider-Man franchise has a whole is how it’s cynicism became so apparent on the big screen. It only exists to fill out a balance sheet! Sure, every big movie is made to make money but the best of these kind of movies are one that don’t FEEL like that when you watch them. When you watch a movie, you want to get the sense that it felt like a passion project for everyone involved and the love and effort it took to make it. Unfortunately, I can’t really say that for The Amazing Spider-Man and it’s sequel.

They don’t feel like movies that Sony or anyone involved WANTED to make but were FORCED to make because they had to keep the rights to Spider-Man somehow. Despite arguably containing more comic book-like elements of the character than before, hardly any of it is put to good use, meant anything in terms of story and character development, and came across as things needed to be check off of a list that obsessed fanboys would want to see in a Spidey flick than actual earned fan service.

However, it didn’t have to be this way. It didn’t have to be derivative and come across as an obligation. They could have actually explored a interesting and new dynamic of Spider-Man How exactly? By focusing on a new side of the Spider-Man character that wasn’t presented in the Sam Raimi films, Peter Parker coming into his own as a fully form adult. Whereas Raimi put more emphasis on Peter being on the tail end of high school to college, Sony and Marc Webb could have made the Amazing franchise more successful by putting more emphasis on Peter Parker on the tail end of college to complete adulthood. This would have helped uncharted new territory for the famous character on screen and showed audiences a different and unique side of the character.

When I really think of all the amazing things that Insomniac provided with their Spider-Man games thus far is showing Peter Parker away from his traditional origins and roots. It doesn’t show Peter Parker in high school or seeing him meeting all his friends, girlfriends or enemies for the first time. What it does show that this version of Peter Parker has a history of his life as Spider-Man.

Plenty of things had already happened throughout his tender as a masked, web swinging-hero. Instead of focusing on things that most mainstream audiences already know about Spider-Man, it focuses on NEW things that mainstream audiences haven’t seen much off, Peter Parker as a fully-formed adult. He’s still young but he’s grown more powerful and responsible. We’re not always shown that but we KNOW it because of the right amount of context shown and told to the audience.

In this version of Spider-Man, we see Peter Parker taking on many different roles now that he is out of college and on his own as a grown man. He plays the reliable cocky vigilante that New York and the police force led by Yuri has grown accustom to. He plays the ex-boyfriend who somewhat wants to get back with his ex-girlfriend in Mary Jane Watson. He plays the supportive nephew with Aunt May and her work with F.E.A.S.T. He plays the apprentice with his assistance towards Otto Octavius on his big experiment. And arguably the most important role of all, acting as a mentor towards a younger, more diverse Spider-Man for a new generation in Miles Morales. These were all major roles that Peter has to play throughout the course of the game to discover a new meaning of great power coming with great responsibility! These were also major roles that Amazing films themselves could have tackled.

We could have seen a natural progression of Andrew Garfield’s version of the character without having to resort back to the standard origin formula or hitting the same beats as before. We could have seen Peter play the same energy-filled web swinger as Insomniac’s did without having him come across as Deadpool. We could have seen his status on New York and the police force led by Captain Stacy or whoever without having to see the hows, whens, and whys. We could have seen him deal with his relationships with the female figures in his life such as Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and even Liz Allen without resorting to typical teen drama and soap opera tropes. We could have seen him be a supportive nephew to Aunt May without him coming across as a jerk and a tacked on nurse subplot (You forgot that Aunt May became a nurse in the second film! Didn’t you?!). We could have seen him play the apprentice role to Dr. Connors with an actual mentor ship and connection with one another. We could have gotten more invested in Peter and Harry’s relationship by letting the history between the two play out more. Lastly, we could have seen Peter act in his first step as a teacher and mentor to Miles Morales, introducing the character on the big screen even before Into the Spider-Verse did. Things like this could have made the Amazing Spider-Man series much better and more interesting than it was.

I’m always baffled whenever I hear people defend the first Amazing movie for being an origin story because it just had to be since it was a reboot. I find that absolute bollocks. Most mainstream audiences are already aware of Spidey’s standard origins and didn’t find another origin movie released just a decade later to be necessary. They just needed to do an opening credit scene similar to all three of Raimi’s films or even The Incredible Hulk ( a very underrated MCU film) to use visual storytelling to show the origin of this version of Spider-Man and then move on to new things. It would have helped the series stand out more on it’s own and putting a focus away from how Peter Parker became Spider-Man could have let room for plenty other interesting stories to tell.

What would make the Amazing series stand out even more with the other two live-action Spider-Man movie series is how we would have gotten a perfect showcase of three different versions of Spider-Man. Tom Holland’s version focused on the high school nature of Peter Parker along with seeing him grow into his own iteration of Spider-Man after taking inspirations from other superheroes he grew up watching and fighting alongside with. Tobey Maguire’s version would have focused on Peter Parker finishing high school and working his way to college as he takes his first steps into true adulthood. Lastly, Andrew Garfield’s version could have focused on Peter Parker fresh out of college, fully into adulthood, and on the verge of fully fleshing into a middle aged superhero. That way, we would have gotten three different Peter Parkers from three different perspectives: as a high schooler, college student, and as a grown adult. It would have had Andrew Garfield stand alongside with Tobey and Tom as being Spider-Men that stand well on their own and don’t need a crossover movie to be as great as they are.

While I’m still glad that Andrew Garfield go to come back as Spider-Man once again for No Way Home and seen him interact with Tobey and Tom along with fighting alongside them, I still can’t help but see missed potential with his version of the character. I believe him to be the best overall actor to play Spider-Man and his version had the best costume and web swinging of the live-action movies so far. Just to bad he was also settle with the worst story and character development of the three by far. To this day, if the series of films could have just focused on a different time period of Peter Parker that felt more natural and be more age appropriate for Andrew, the Amazing series could have truly been amazing! Oh well!

On the bright side, there is at least another version of Spider-Man to look forward to in the future! Not just with Marvel’s Spider-Man being remastered yet again for PC owners but also for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that is confirmed to be released sometime next year in 2023! It might be five years since the first game and three years since Spider-Man: Miles Morales but I’m pretty confident it will be well worth the wait!

I can’t recall a movie production in recent memory that seems to be as cursed as The Flash. With countless director changes, countless rewrites, and countless delays, there is not telling what to make out of this upcoming DC superhero flick because I don’t think the people behind it even know what to make of it either. However, there is not one thing that been cursed more with the movie than with the lead themselves in Ezra Miller.

You might be asking what exactly has Ezra Miller done? I think a better question is what HASN’T Ezra Miller done? For what has at least been a better part of a year or two now, Ezra Miller has been causing absolute chaos around the world! There has been numerous allegations and charges against them for what they have done outside of production of The Flash and it doesn’t seem to be coming to an end.

It all started back in April 2020, just right around the time that the pandemic hit, where a video surface of Miller out in public choking a girl and throwing her into the ground. The video itself was confirmed by Variety to have taken place at Prikio Kaffihus, a bar in Reykjavik, and a bar employee confirmed that the person who strangled the woman was no other than Ezra Miller. No one knows why they did it or the intent behind it, but that unfortunately was only the beginning of the absolute trouble that Miller has caused in recent memory.

Here’s a video of the incident if anyone is interested. Be warned, this might be disturbing to some readers! Viewer discretion is heavily advised!

While Miller was mostly silent in 2021, 2022 was a whole another story! Since March 2022, there doesn’t seem to be a day that passes by where Miller is NOT all over the news!

They were arrested twice in Hawaii, one where he was accused of disorderly conduct and harassment at a karaoke bar and the other was for second-degree assault where he threw a chair at a 26-year old woman after being told to leave a private get-together! They were filled a restraining order by the parents of 18-year-old activist Tokata Iron Eyes after claims of emotional, mental, and physical abuse of the child. There’s been harassment allegations against them after a mother and her 12-year-old after they threatened their family and acted innapproiate in front the child. There were claims that they were giving very young children that were only one to five years old, access to guns and ammunition while they housed a woman and their children in Hawaii. And just a few days ago, they were charged with burglary in Vermont where they stole bottles of alcohol.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if there is one thing I missed or something else gets reported by the time I post this but yeah, Ezra Miller has been an absolute disaster as of late! I may not know what’s going on with them mentally or emotionally but this needs to stop now! Whether it’s putting them behind bars or in a mental hospital, this reign of terror has to come to an end!

Of course, the bigger question with Warner Bros is how exactly can they deal with this massive problem with one of their casted leads? According to The Hollywood Reporter, the heads of the studio are looking to try three different methods on how to handle this utter fiasco.

• First, Miller, with the aid of their mother, will seek professional help and will give an interview that will explain their erratic behavior recently. They will then be able to do limited press or the movie and it will be able to get released on time.

• Second, If Miller doesn’t get help, WB will still release the film but Miller will play no role in the marketing or press tour and will no longer work with Warner Bros as the Flash.

• Lastly, WB will just cancel their incredibly expensive movie all together since they couldn’t reshot it with a different actor and will just write this whole disaster as a loss and move on!

No matter what choice is made from WB, it will be resulted in a painfully awkward and long process. Whether it’s being forced to ask Miller themselves questions as to why they’ve been acting like a complete psycho for the past two years, release a film with no attention presented to it’s lead actor, or pulling the plug on a 200 million dollar production right after pulling the plug on another certain female-lead production less than half it’s budget (That post is for another day!) , nothing will come easy!

The Flash was suppose to be one of the biggest films in the DC Extended Universe as it was believed to be the one that will help change course and push boundaries towards the new direction they will go for in the future. With the inclusions of returning veterans such as Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as the Batmen themselves to new additions such as Sasha Calle as Supergirl, this was the movie that was thought to clear a straight forward path with starting up a new timeline with the characters they would focus more on in the future. However, all of that seems to be in complete jeopardy now with the cancellations of movies such as Batgirl and Supergirl along with Erza Miller disastrous behavior out in public.

I don’t know exactly what Warner Bros will do with this current ordeal with Ezra Miller but I know damn well that something MUST be down with them here and now! I don’t care what it takes but you have got to stop the bleeding in some way, shape, or form! The longer this drags on, the more problems this will cause and harm the brand of DC Comics and Warner Bros!

Regardless, put an end to it all now!

Here’s some links to other articles that dives deeper into Ezra Miller and the troubles they’ve cause for the past few years:

• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-flash-fate-ezra-miller-problem-worsens-warners-1235196919/

• https://consequence.net/2022/08/ezra-miller-legal-troubles-timeline/

• https://www.npr.org/2022/08/11/1116932907/ezra-miller-scandals

Prey just released over the weekend on Hulu in the USA and (strangely enough) Disney Plus in international territories. Despite some outburst from sexist trolls who were ready to hate on the movie the second that they learned that it would have a female main lead in it, it seems to be doing pretty well with critics and fans of the Predator franchise. Dan Trachtenberg was able to breath new life into a series that looked as good as finished and Amber Midthunder (Again, what a cool name!) is just destined to be the next big action lead heroine to watch out for. With a movie this well made and received, you would think it would deserve to be seen on the big screen. Unfortunately, it is not. It is strictly only a streaming service movie that was only seen at a theater during the San Diego Comic Con back in late July.

Many have wondered why exactly this was the case. The Predator IP is still a rather iconic brand. Say what you will about the quality of the sequels but the series has still run high on the greatness that was the original Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. You would imagine just the success of the first one alone and expanding to it’s own franchise that people would be supportive to see the newest one in theaters, right? Well, let’s take a look at how The Terminator franchise, the other franchise carried by Arnold, fared when they had a similar situation occurring with each installment.

Back in 2019, the sixth Terminator movie came out with Terminator: Dark Fate. Despite it’s mostly solid reviews from critics and having the return of James Cameron and Linda Hamilton themselves, it was a an absolute box office failure. Grossing only $261.1 million with a $185-196 million budget and a reported loss of $122.6 million for Paramount. Because of that, future plans for potential sequels were cancelled and who knows if the Terminator franchise will every see the light of day again anytime soon.

Plenty people have their theories on why the movie bombed the way it did. It could be due to the more polarizing reaction from fans along with the controversy of the fate of John Connor that might have turned audiences away. And of course, someone out there will throw out the fact it was a movie starting strictly women and apparently no one wants to watch action movies staring women (Something which has proven time and time again to be false). But, I believe the most logical explanation was that everyone was just done and over with the franchise at this point. The following three movies that came after the first two iconic masterpieces were met with mixed to negative reception and/or underwhelming box offices results.

Rise of the Machines despite it’s box office success was seen as a major stepdown from the first two. With many people not being fond of the film’s overly comedic tone, PG-13 rating, and severely missing Linda Hamilton’s presence.

Strike one!

Salvation wasn’t received much better and made even less money than the last one. Despite trying to differentiate itself from the other movies taking place in a post-Judgement day timeline and with John Connor at the leader, audiences still couldn’t get into it and just found the film too boring and forgettable for it to be a worthwhile Terminator sequel.

Strike two!

Then there came Genisys which was the most poorly reviewed and received entry in the franchise and the one that was the biggest bomb at the box office. From it’s convoluted plot to it’s lazy rehashing of other, better Terminator movies to it’s contradiction of the established lore to it’s countless plot holes the movie doesn’t even attempt to fill to it’s hilariously bad casting decisions (Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese?! Really?!), everyone finally had enough. It was the final nail on the coffin that people had just given up on the franchise.

Strike three and you are out!

Because it was following three poorly received movies that made less of a profit with each new entry, Dark Fate was practically DOA regardless of how good it was. People could care less that Linda Hamilton was back or that the GOAT James Cameron, the man behind the first two game changers would be involved in some way, shape, or form. Audience had already been fooled three times and they weren’t gonna bother being fooled again.

Which is a damn shame because I personally thought Dark Fate was a damn good movie and easily the best one since the first two Terminators but it was never gonna to be good enough to make the other bad installments worthwhile. Had the movie had truly been the third Terminator movie released, then it would have certainly made a profit. But being the sixth one, no chance? Looking back on it, the fact that Dark Fate was able to release at all in theaters is quite astonishing.

Before Prey, the Predator franchise was in a similar situation as the Terminator series. The sequels were iffy in quality and at the box office and the last one to release in theaters, 2018’s The Predator also underperformed vastly at the box office. It got a poor response from both fans and critics alike and it gave the impression that the series had finally ran it’s course. If there was another installment to release in theaters, it would most likely be guaranteed to be another bomb. Why in the world would anyone want to invest anymore time and money to watch it in theaters after being let down repeatedly over the years? Well, now they didn’t have to and could just watch the next one in the comfort of their own homes with only a subscription fee to pay.

To be sure, I know that Dark Fate tanking in theaters wasn’t the prime reason for Prey being only a streaming service exclusive but I like to imagine that it was the same mindset that 20th Century Studios had when deciding to release it. After several failed attempts to win the audience over again with Predator, there’s no telling that Prey would have fared much better at the box office even if it’s far away the best one since the original. Just like with Dark Fate and even Bumblebee, it was following up a bunch of poor, ill-fated features that everyone was exhausted with it and would rather just wait until it hit cable or streaming to even bother investing their time in. In that case, it seemed smarter to just release it on streaming anyway and there’s a big chance that would gain more viewership than it would had the folks who didn’t bother seeing it on the big screen just waited three months to get around to it.

While reports haven’t come out yet how Prey did in terms of ratings, hopefully the numbers are good enough that 20th Century might consider releasing the next Predator movie in theaters because of the support from fans and audiences alike. However, in the case of Prey, I think it was the right call to make it a streaming exclusive from the business side of things. There was just no guarantee it was going to make anything in theaters because of the shaky track record that other movies in the series had critically and financially. It was at least able to avoid the outcome that Dark Fate did and there may in fact be new leash on life for the Predator franchise in the near future.