Adam's Blog

It’s strange how much I talked down upon this movie despite never reviewing it. It was more of me going on about the amount of money that was spent on the picture even though there has been plenty of other recent animated films such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and TMNT: Mutant Mayhem that had less budgets but more creative and impressive animation with having a cast of much more recognizable celebrities. There was also the notion of Disney not putting as much effort on marketing their animated films as much as they used to since Bob Chapek too over, current strikes and Bob Iger stalling it not withstanding. However, all of that was mostly after the film was able to comeback with strong legs at the box office, so much to the point where it was able to make it’s money back completely according to Pixar themselves. Even so, I never did talk about the actual quality of the motion picture.

Although I did claim I didn’t think Elemental was among Pixar’s very best and would put it in the middle-of-the-pack of their filmography, I never thought it was bad. However, after watching it again on Disney Plus this week, I now find myself having to slightly reevaluate with as this film is much better than I originally gave it credit for. While I still don’t think Elemental is one of the very best Pixar films, it still is a damn good Pixar film and worthy of praise.

Premise: Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, the story follows a tough, quick-witted fire element Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), that also happens to have temper issues. She meets a sappy water element Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), after he is summoned by a plumbing accident at a convenience store owned by Ember’s father, Bernie (Del Carmen). As the two spend more time together, Ember comes to vision a life not just with Wade but outside of working at a convenience store. It’s then that she must choose between being with Wade and taking the first steps towards an uncharted but promising future as an intern or fulfill her father’s legacy by taking over the shop.

On the surface, Elemental seems to be the Pixar-equivalent of Zootopia. In the sense that it’s a film that covers important themes of race, migration, and inclusivity while taking a place in a world full of anthrophonic figures and not being afraid to deliver some of the most on-the-nose puns you would expect with it’s kind of premise. While I definitely got that impression with from an aesthetic, thematic, and world building standpoint, the story that Elemental sets to tell is one that feels more grounded and personal than that of Zootopia. Not only in the sense that it’s a love story that feels oddly refreshing or finding your place in the world, but it’s also about the amount of pressure of living up to someone’s expectations versus living up to your own expectations.

First off, I love the way the film portrays life as being a retail worker. It’s not always an easy job as many people claim it is. While it’s certainly good work experience that teaches great knowledge in accomplishing certain tasks and providing good costumer service, there will always be at least one incident that takes you out of it entirely. Regardless of how many people you service well, just dealing with one person that isn’t served well will have a dire impact on you. All it takes is dealing with one grouchy consumer or being overwhelmed with many different costumers at the same time that your temper takes over and gets the better of you. As someone that has previously worked at a similar retail job and even about to work at another one until further notice, I certainly find that aspect very relatable.

By working at the store, Ember is trying very hard to set herself up as taking over her father’s mantle with the shop but is doing so at the expense of her own happiness. No matter how hard she tries, she can just never let go of the fact that she has other desires for her life than simply working at her parent’s store her whole life. She doesn’t want anyone else to say that out loud and for her to hear but it’s deep down how she truly feels. Even if that doesn’t make her the perfect daughter, it makes Ember her perfect self.

Of course, the other main focus of the film involves around Ember’s relationship with Wade. Once again, Wade is someone that Ember deep downs believes she shouldn’t fall in love with but it’s just how she feels. Even if it feels like an unwritten rule for a fire and water element to be together in ways that makes as much logical sense as the world of Cars, it’s an attraction that feels genuine to both elements, which is the most important thing of all. It brings together the true meaning of love in a way that both elements discover about themselves throughout the course of the film. They don’t just have much in common but they have something elemental. While this sure isn’t a premise that will set the world on fire (Pun definitely intended!), but it’s able to hold water greatly (Again, pun certainly intended!) because of how earnest the relationship between Ember and Wade feels and Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie sharing great chemistry with one another.

As much as I’ve been ragging about the cost of the animation of this film, I can’t deny it looks as absolutely stunning as one could imagine from a Disney Pixar film in 2023. The world themselves are filled with bright colors and visuals that offer it’s own sense of uniqueness to it and capture the mood of each scene perfectly. There are plenty of gorgeous shots throughout the entire film that will make anyone want to pause the film to admire it’s beauty whether you’re watching on a 4K TV or even a laptop. And while the worlds themselves aren’t as fully explored as say the ones in Zootopia, they are still very fun to explore with enough creative set pieces and visually imagery to keep you interested in every moment you spend in Elemental City.

Arguably the biggest appreciation for Elemental would have to go to it’s overall sound. The voice work by Leah Lewis as Ember and Mamoudou Athie as Wade is very well done, as previously stated, along with the rest of the cast of actors that is fairly new to me. The biggest standout however is that of the original score from Thomas Newton. It’s incredibly soothing, relaxing, and is an absolute treat to the ears. Not only does it perfectly reflect what the tone is from each scene but also how the characters and audience are suppose to feel throughout the entire picture. From the very opening scene, you just get the scene that the score will stick with you the whole way through and it certainly did just that for me.

What stops Elemental from being top-tier Pixar mostly had to do with it’s timing. Not necessarily because the relevant and timely themes the film presents but more of because it’s the kind of themes that Disney and Pixar have tackled plenty for at least the past two decades. Themes such as finding your place in the worlds, your destiny not being set in stone, and welcoming other race and parties to your group have been done to death at this point and basically becoming an absolute blueprint at this point. While it’s all still done well here, it basically feels like a case of the same things but with a different code of paint. While Elemental can definitely be consider groundbreaking for it’s animation, it’s far from groundbreaking when it comes to themes and storytelling.

Perhaps it’s because things have slowly changed for me in my life than it was when I saw this film back in June but I definitely believe Elemental will stand the test of time as being an absolute gem of Pixar’s library. Maybe not the very best but definitely one that plenty will find to be another worthy addition to their library. It’s looks gorgeous, it’s very charming, the characters are engaging, the music is beautiful, and even the similar themes it tackles are done very well and might even stand out greater than other Disney and Pixar films that have done it to some people. I’m sure glad this film was able to stand strong at the box office as this might be an encouraging sign for Pixar’s future in movie theaters. I might have not enjoyed The Good Dinosaur but director Peter Sohn was able to win me over in Round Two with Elemental. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.

The existence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is quite bizarre when you think about it. Not just because this joins alongside 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife in the genre of “movies made to apologize for a bad modern sequel”, but that you still have Harrison Ford putting on the fedora once again as he is pushing his 80s. Even if that basically defeats the whole wish fulfillment mindset of Indiana Jones in his prime (something which Dial of Destiny greatly excels at), that has to be quite commendable because it’s so unlike anything among actors in Hollywood. Like when is the last time you’ve seen someone in their 80s that is still continuing to do action roles? I guess you’ll just have to get back to me in 2043 when Tom Cruise is about to do Mission Impossible 17! It’s just a shame that this movie doesn’t do anything good enough to justify having Ford come back for what will likely be his last time as Indy himself!

To put out all of my cards on the table, Dial of Destiny is the weakest of all the Indiana Jones movies by a country mile. It lacks the energy and passion that Spielberg provided with the previous four movies (Yes, even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!), it doesn’t justify any of the baffling decisions that it makes for the Indiana Jones character, and the whole thing just has a “going through the motions” feel to it that I imagine the people behind this movie were just as bored making it as I was watching it. It might succeed in the sense of making a more bleak and depressing Indiana Jones movie for those that actually want that along with good final contributions from it’s cast and John Williams respectively, but as a whole, Dial of Destiny is underwhelming and quite frankly forgettable.

Plot Synopsis: We start off in 1944, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) teams up with an Oxford archeologist named Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) to retrieve a legendary dial from the Nazi lead by Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) that can change the course of history. This is know as the Archimedes’ Dial, which has the power to allow possible time travel. The pair are able to obtain a dial piece and escapes the Germany army before they are able to get the full artifact entirely.

We then fast forward to 1969, 12 years after the events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we see Indy in a worse place than he has every been in. He is on the verge of divorce with his wife, Marion (Karen Allen) after their son, Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War. As he is about to retire as a college professor from Hunter College, Indiana is visited by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who just got her degree in archeology and has interest in researching the Archimedes’ dial herself. Despite warnings from Indy that the dial drove her father so insane to the point that he wanted Indy to destroy it (which he didn’t for some reason), Helena is persistent and wants the dial for herself for her own personal gains and needs.

Circumstances become even more complicated when Indy and Helena are pursued by the Nazi to retrieve the full dial, as Voller has his own plans of going back in time to correct Hitler’s mistakes and make it to wear Germany is victorious in World War II. The chase is on as Indy must put on the hat and fedora once last time before the Nazi are able to accomplish their goals and change the course of history forever.

It’s no secret that this is the first Indiana Jones film to not be helmed by Steven Spielberg. This time around it’s been handled by no other than James Mangold, a director who has had a recent run of success with films such as Logan and Ford v Ferrari. On paper, Mangold does seem like the best possible replacement for Spielberg as he has proven to make films as crowd pleasers and intriguing character-driven pieces. Unfortunately, the results of Dial of Destiny doesn’t do him any favors whatsoever. Whether it’s 100% because of Mangold or interference with the studio, this new Indiana Jones film is clearly missing the spark of the first four Indy flicks and the very best in Mangold’s filmography. If Lucasfilm was hoping that Mangold would at least do a good job of acting as a poor man’s version of Spielberg, then they really seem to miss the mark.

There’s a lot that has been said with the way Dial of Destiny decides to portray Indiana Jones as a figure that is more dour and depressed than ever before. While Mangold was able to showcase that incredibly well with Wolverine in Logan, he misses the mark entirely with Indiana Jones. Taking away the fact that the main reason that the bleak portrayal worked so well in Logan was because Wolverine is at his heart a tragic character, it doesn’t really benefit Indy at all throughout the course of the film. Aside from one entertaining scene towards the beginning where grandpa Indy has his “get off my lawn” moment and one great monologue he has in the middle of the second act, this depressed version of Indiana Jones feels more like a footnote than anything else.

There’s no attempt at exploring this darker side of Indy other than an occasional reference to bad things that happened in his past or since Crystal Skull and some back-and-forth banter between Ford and Bridge. The decisions that’s made with characters such as having Indy and Marion being split (again) and killing off Mutt don’t really matter as much to the narrative as the film thinks it does. If you basically had it to where Indy and Marion are just taking “time off” (think the way Tony and Pepper took “time off” between Civil War and Homecoming) and Mutt is just living his own life with a slight grudge against his father, the film would basically play out the exact same way. All you really had to do was rewrite that one scene of Indy giving that emotional monologue to Helena (which Ford is so good in that one scene that it almost makes up for everything) and you would basically have the same film.

And speaking of the same film, despite claims that this film would correct the problems with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when you get right down to it, Dial of Destiny is really not that much different than Crystal Skull. Once again, we have an Indy that’s older, bitter, has lost everything and is forced to come to terms with his own age and morality. He also happens to have a relative that’s close to him and forces him on one last possible adventure. An adventure where Indy learns that even as an elder and past his prime, he can still gain new things such as new friends, family, knowledge, and a new purpose. Although whereas Crystal Skull, albeit flawed, was able to tell that story while having Indy finding a new sense of happiness that he never knew he wanted, Dial of Destiny rips that away from him entirely, only for him to learn the exact same lesson all over again towards the tail end of the film.

Another big addition to the film is that of Indy’s granddaughter herself, Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While there’s an interesting idea towards her character acting as a mirror to Indy in Temple of Doom, in it all for the fortune and glory instead of knowledge, it comes across as rather half baked as the film basically doesn’t really know what to do with her. Her motives comes off as very vague as it’s unclear if she’s doing all of this for personal gain or to stick it to her angry fiancé (which the film mentions once or twice but is then handwaved) or her new kid sidekick (who is certainly no Ke Huy Quan) or something else entirely. Phoebe Waller-Bridge does what she can and helps provides charm and energy in a film that severely lacks any of that but the character of Helena feels like an idea that is barely explored.

And that is basically Dial of Destiny in a nutshell, ideas that sound good on paper but never explored. There are subplots that are set up but go nowhere like Indy being on the run from the government, side characters that feel pointless such as Short Round 2.0 and whoever Antonio Banderas is playing, action scenes, save for the prologue, that aren’t memorable, a lengthy runtime that feels unwarranted, and an ending, while bittersweet, is about as clean cut as once could imagine in the most contrived way possible. There’s just too much of a going-through-the-motions feel to the whole picture that it only feels like it exists because Disney now owns the rights to Indiana Jones and they had to release something with it eventually. Even by the time we get to it’s bonkers third act (which likely had George Lucas smirking throughout), it still feels like business as usual with the film pulling back it’s punches.

If there’s a main saving grace to the picture is that the cast has equipped themselves admirably, even with the bare minimum material they are given to work with. Harrison Ford is still great as Indiana Jones as he always has been, selling this bitter version of Indy so well that it almost justifies the decision made. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is hugely charismatic and seems to be having the most fun out of anyone in the film, even if I don’t buy her whatsoever taking the mantle in the future. Mads Mikkelsen is always a blast to watch as the main bad guy, even if I won’t remember what his character’s name is by next Monday. John Rhys-Davies is underutilized as Sallah but still as charming as ever. Everyone else is fine but play such little of a role that they honestly aren’t worth mentioning by name.

In terms of other positives, John Williams brings his A game once again, putting together a score that feels appropriately Indiana Jones, making one realize how much the world will miss him once the inevitable happens to him. The prologue, despite too much of de-aging Harrison Ford that’s not buyable whatsoever, is fun stuff and contains the classic Indiana Jones magic that the rest of the film lacks. And in spite of the film’s abrupt way of wrapping up, it does end on a nice callback to the original Raiders film that will certainly get one in the feels.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on this film since I have a big fondness for the original trilogy and even have a soft spot for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in spite of it’s flaws, but Dial of Destiny is just yet another in a sea of franchise installments that have come out throughout the summer of 2023 that seems to exists for the sake of existing. It’s not that it’s an exceptionally terrible film but it’s one that just left no impact on me whatsoever. I expect this film to go down the way of the last few Home Alone sequels, just buried and forgotten about with only a few mentions from folks in the future to go like “Oh, yeah! That movie did exist!” And considering this whole franchise is about a character that would love nothing more than to go down in history, that’s about the worst crime you could possibly commit.

For those who were not fond of Crystal Skull and perhaps want a more “mature” take on the Indiana Jones character, you might get some enjoyment in this. For everyone else, you will likely find this as tiring as Indy himself does throughout the entire movie. In that case, at least Dial of Destiny is truthful to itself, even if it’s in the worse ways.

To tell you all the truth, out of all the summer movies I missed out on reviewing at the time they came out, this is the only one I didn’t want to review whatsoever. I always try my best to be as fair to each movie I’m reviewing as possible and judge it on it’s own terms regardless of the behind the scenes drama or offscreen behavior of certain actors that might have occurred. In the case of The Flash, this has to do with lead actor for Barry Allen themselves, Ezra Miller, who can’t seem to get out of trouble as they have been charged with multiple charges and allegations for the past few years, regarding abuse, assault, harassment, manipulation, and burglary. To quote Tony Stark from Iron Man 2, “Can you please NOT do anything awful for five seconds?!” I won’t go too deep into all of that as I already did a piece on that last year, which I will leave a link to at the end of the article, but Ezra has been causing an absolute s*itshow for everyone involved with The Flash.

I just didn’t think there was a way I can do a fair review for The Flash without recognizing the giant rain cloud behind the entire production of this film! However, after wrapping my head around my thoughts on this movie since June and rewatching it recently on Max, I now feel like I am able to give a complete and honest review for The Flash without the outside baggage from Ezra Miller influencing my opinion. That’s not to say I won’t mention it once or twice for the remainder of the review but I promise you this will in fact be a review of the movie and not what’s going on outside of that.

So, anyway, The Flash is a movie that has been in development hell for about as long as your parents have been alive and that’s NOT an exaggeration. The development for a Flash movie began all the way back in the late 1980s with multiple writers and directors attached to the project through 2014. Of course, when Warner Bros decided they were gonna make their own cinematic universe with their own superheroes, they knew that human Sonic the Hedgehog would have to play a role in it. However, there had been many, and I do mean MANY delays since this film was announced as part of the DC Extended Universe. With constant director changes, the Covid-19 pandemic, post-production setbacks, and controversies surrounding Ezra Miller, the fact this film was able to be released in an actual finished form is somewhat of a miracle.

After the mixed to negative response that the DCEU has received since it started in 2013 along with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over to push forward to a new DC Universe, The Flash had been confirmed to be using the famous Flashpoint storyline to reset the DC timeline and set a clear path for future DC film installments. While it is quite risky to announce ahead of time that a film’s main purpose for existence is to wipe the slate clean as it would just give the sense of obvious obligation that folks can skip entirely, it can make for some good visual storytelling with plenty of fun action and fan service to get folks hyped for the future. While there have been films released that was able to do just that, The Flash is unfortunately not of those films.

Yes, Michael Keaton is back as Batman and is awesome to see once again! Yes, Sasha Calle is perfect as Supergirl and should definitely reprise this role for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Yes, there are a few of action beats and a fun cameo at the very end that work well here. However, none of those elements are able to save the picture. We still have a Barry Allen that’s not interesting, compelling, and is just annoying, there is still pointless fan service and cameos throughout that don’t amount to anything, some of which are quite frankly insulting, and it can just never outrun the whole feeling of obligation that the film is desperately trying to avoid. While The Flash might accomplish exactly what it sets out to do, it doesn’t accomplish it well whatsoever and makes for a middling at best experience.

Premise: Worlds collide when the Flash (Ezra Miller) uses his superpowers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod (Michael Shannon) has returned, threatening annihilation. With no other superheroes to turn to, the Flash looks to coax a very different Batman (Michael Keaton) out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian (Sasha Calle) — albeit not the one he’s looking for.

To be sure, The Flash‘s overall purpose of existence is not the main cause for it’s failure whatsoever. There are plenty of ways to tell interesting stories involving multiverse concepts, time travel mechanics, and just even for the sake of course correction. You have Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse that was able to use the multiverse concept to perfection to craft genuine, multilayered stories about what it means to be a superhero with fan service that actually meant something. You have No Way Home that used it’s multiverse concept to act as both a logical progression for the MCU’s Peter Parker and bringing back the other two live-action Spider-Men that acted as a culmination of the past two decades of Spider-Man films. Heck, there was even X-Men: Days of Future Past, a movie which solely existed to erase the X-Men movies that no one liked, who used it’s time traveling mechanic and obvious course correction template to craft a film about our heroes fixing their mistakes of the past to push for a better, more uplifting future. Even Multiverse of Madness used it’s set pieces and effective imagery to flirt with and mock the kind of fandom that care more about filmmakers making their bizarre fan theories coming to live instead of making a genuine work of art. And do I need to say anything about the impressive cinematic achievement that was Avengers: Endgame. Unfortunately, The Flash lacks the cleverness, inventive nature, or memorability of any of those films mentioned.

While the film sets up the idea of Barry Allen messing with time to so he can go back and save his mother from death, that ends up getting pushed to the way side once the characters shows up in another timeline. It’s once we arrived at an alternate 2013, it’s all about stopping Zod from Man of Steel and basically The Flash doing Superman’s job for him with the help of an alternate version of Batman and an alternate version of Supergirl. It’s honestly about half way through the movie where I already forgot that the main purpose of Barry traveling back in time was to rescue his mother because that got lost in the sea of everything else on display.

It also doesn’t help that Barry Allen as a character is just not endearing or a main protagonist to follow. There’s no reason as to why we should care about this version of Barry other than his mom died and his father is in jail now. He’s just some annoying young adult who has the awkward behavior of a nerdy kid from grade school without any of the traits that have made prior superheroes that fit under that sort of criteria likeable or interesting in their own rights. Not to mention, there are TWO Barry Allens we have to follow throughout the majority of the movie and man, are they both insufferable whenever they are on screen together and both are just not funny whatsoever. There’s only so much Ezra Miller one can take. All of that and more is what makes the first hour of this movie an absolute slog, aside from some fun cameos with Batfleck and Wonder Woman. And that’s not even mentioning the opening action scene with The Flash where he literally puts a baby in a microwave to protect it! A BABY IN A MICROWAVE! I got nothing else on that!

Once Michael Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl gets thrown into the mix, the film does become much better as those two do some serious heavy lifting to make the middle act of this picture more bearable to sit through. Keaton is just as much fun here as Batman as he was back in the Tim Burton’s duology. The action scenes with him are awesome, especially the break-in scene, being back in his Batcave is cool, and it’s always a delight to hear Danny Elfman’s Batman music. Sasha Calle is fantastic as Supergirl and looks stunning in her suit, perfectly displaying the range and emotion for Kara. While she has a bit less screentime than Keaton, she’s steal every scene she is in and probably kicks more ass in this movie that Batman and Flash does combined. Please Mr. Gunn, let Calle come back as Supergirl for future movies!

Even so, it’s a huge problem when the only characters you like in a movie are strictly the main supporting players. They should be added bonuses and not the only saving graces of your picture. If anything, it just makes me wish I was watching a Batman Beyond movie with Michael Keaton (which was suppose to happen but got scraped) or Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow with Sasha Calle (which should happen). I’m willing to bet those would be more interesting films than The Flash and probably even make a better profit.

Another controversial element of this film has to do with some of the bizarre cameos within the film. While there a handful that fine and dandy such as Batfleck and Wonder Woman in the first act and the one at the very end, about every other one is distracting, pointless, and insulting on multiple levels. These aren’t even like “blink-and-you-miss-it” cameos either, they are right on screen with absolutely TERRIBLE CGI and each one takes you out of the film completely. I don’t care if they got approved by family members or the actors themselves, those cameos felt so dirty to watch that I needed to take a shower after watching the movie. At least the extended cameos in the Star Wars Disney Plus series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett knew who they were aiming for and which fans would love that. I couldn’t tell you what these cameos were aimed for but I assure it’s not for the fans that DC thinks they are.

And speaking of CGI, it is absolutely ABSYMAL at every turn. They do not look even remotely convincing whatsoever and reek of obvious green screen and post-production problems. The cameos that have heavy CGI attached to them look like they came across from an early PlayStation 3 game rather than an actual movie with even Injustice 2 released on the PlayStation 4 looking more convincing than that. The Flashpoint itself looks more like a main menu screen in a video game than an actual scene from a 200 plus million dollar film. Even the CGI in the MCU have never been this bad and that’s saying a lot. I can’t imagine how hard the VFX artists were cringing when they were all trying to make these special effects look even half salvageable. I didn’t think it could possibly get worse than the obvious CGI-removal of a mustache and the messy final battle with Steppenwolf in Josstice League but I was dead wrong.

When it comes to The Flash, as a whole, even if you are able to separate the artist from the art in regards to Ezra Miller, it’s still not a very good movie at all. It’s got some fun moments with the action and a few cameos that aren’t ugly or insulting to look at along with the presence of Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle. That still doesn’t take away how terrible the CGI is, how the fan service scattered throughout don’t amount to anything, how it can’t escape the whole feeling of obligation, how this version of Barry Allen is still an incredibly annoying and unengaging character, and even the entire message of how cheating in time to correct your mistakes is wrong is one that basically contradicts itself by the end in ways I don’t think was intentional by the filmmakers. It might accomplish it’s goals it sets out do but doesn’t do in a way that’s particularly good either.

The whole thing just comes across as a movie that DC felt they were forced to make just so they can then get to the movies they might actually want to do. The Flash is far from the worst film that has been associated with the DC Extended Universe (if we’re going by recent ones, I did like it more than Black Adam), but I don’t think there has been one where it felt like a movie that the filmmakers were forced to make rather than one they actually wanted to make. If I were you, I just look up all the Batman and Supergirl scenes on YouTube. And now that the movie is out on digitally and Max, I imagine that’s what everyone else is doing. And it’s all for the better! I certainly hope that the future for the DC Universe is not as phoned-in as this movie was.

Part of me wants to give it a 1.5 stars but the fun parts were fun enough to where it’s get 2 stars!

2018’s Bumblebee was a refreshing change of pace for the Transformers series. This was coming after a slew of overblown and bloated installments from the Bayverse itself, most notably with the nearly unwatchable Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. It got to the point where even the most hardcore fans of Bayformers would admit that iteration of the autobots had officially warned out it’s welcome. Travis Knight was able to deliver the new shot in the arm that the series needed with Bumblebee and here we have Steven Caple Jr. trying to deliver another one with Rise of the Beasts. As much praise that Bumblebee got for strictly not being Michael Bay’s Transformers, from being more small-scaled to action that was comprehensible to the transformers feeling more like their series counterparts to a more human and fleshed out story, it really wasn’t as far removed from Bay’s Transformers as one might think.

I’m not just talking about the fact that it wasn’t made perfectly clear at the time it came out whether or not it was suppose to act as a prequel to Bay’s universe or just a complete reboot entirely (It’s been confirmed that it is in fact a reboot!). It’s more because Bumblebee basically hit many of the same beats of as the 2007 film did! Once again, you have a shy teenager that wants a car and happens to stumble upon one that turns out to be a Transformer, that Transformer being Bumblebee. It’s also got it’s fair share of wacky comedy sidekicks, the U.S. government playing a big role in it, evil robots that also happened to be aligned with dopes in the U.S. government, and there’s a bunch of badass military men with killer guns. While there were certainly elements that were changed or tweaked such as the main human character being a girl, having female characters that aren’t just eye candy, action without red bull shaky cam, a nice coming-of-age story, and a more family friendly tone, it would be easy to mistake Bumblebee as being a modern retelling of the original Transformers, even if it probably did it better.

Which is honestly why it should come as no surprise that Rise of the Beasts follows the same plot beats as 2009’s Revenge of the Fallen. You have Unicorn playing the role of the Fallen, Scourge playing the role of Megatron, the shocking death of Optimus Prime with the shocking death of *spoiler*, an interdimensional key, a moral that the main human character must learn about responsibility and leadership, and certain transformers that seem to only exist for comic relief. Again, that’s not to say Rise of the Beasts doesn’t do these plot beats better but you can definitely feel the Michael Bay influence still present within this franchise. While Travis Knight was able to measure up the material with inspiring results with Bumblebee, director Stephen Caple Jr. is only able to measure the material to results that feel as auto pilot as the autobots themselves with Rise of the Beasts. It’s a serviceable Transformers film overall but not one that serves as the next right step for this series, and that’s even with it’s obvious tease for the future (?) at the end.

Premise: Optimus Prime (Anthony Ramos) and the Autobots take on their biggest challenge yet. When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges, they must team up with a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals to save Earth.

The main selling point for Rise of the Beasts is the fact that it would be an adaption of the well-known Beasts Wars, perhaps the most popular sub-franchise in the series. The most well-known Transformers in that series include a group known as the Maximals, with characters such as Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rhinox, Arcee, Airzaor, Mirage, etc.. That in of itself could make for the most engaging material in a Transformers film to date and finally get an installment that they feel more of the main characters of their own movie. Unfortunately, this element is no where near as well utilized as it could have been.

That’s not to say the Maximals don’t have their moments, most notable Pete Davidson’s Mirage who has some of the best and funniest moments in the movie. However, they mostly feel like an afterthought here, with only about two members of the Maximals getting anything of significant to do in the story. It feels as if they were thrown in there at the last second just for the sake of having more Transformers in action. While the action beats with them are cool, there is so much potential with them that the movie doesn’t even bother to explore. Instead, it choses to focus on characters that mainstream audiences are more familiar with such as Optimus Prime (who is surprisingly almost as much of a jerk as he was in the last two Bayformers movies) and Bumblebee along with the personal human drama.

Anthony Ramo is likable in the lead role as the new main human lead of Noah Diaz and has a fun sibling relationship with his brother Kris, played by Dean Scott Vazquez. I especially love the way they both refer to each other as Sonic and Tails (which of course is referenced to Paramount owning the rights to the Sonic movies). However, that mostly gets pushed to the wayside in favor of giving him a female love interest named Elena Wallace, played by Dominque Fishback, whose presence also feels tacked on. Fishback is fine in the role but she isn’t giving much to work with other than playing love interest #101 and lacks property chemistry with Ramo. While it’s far from the worse human drama in this series, it’s lacks the spark of that was present between Bumblebee and Hailee Steinfeld and even Shia Labeouf to an extent.

However, for those that come to these movies for the robo fights, this should definitely do you proud. The action is quite top-notch, able to build perfectly from the prologue of Bumblebee and able to translate that scale and chorography wonderfully into Rise of the Beasts. While it’s certainly not as explosive heavy as Bay’s movies, it certainly avoids the trappings of obnoxious shaky cams and awkward cuts, being able to see clearly what’s going on and feeling the tension throughout every single action scene that is present. Even if the Maximals don’t make as much impressions as characters, they do make for some entertaining spectacle.

Despite the paper-thin characterization and plotting, the cast does a fine job overall, from the voice celebrity actors for the Transformers themselves to the human cast. Peter Cullen is still the G.O.A.T. as Optimus Prime. Rob Perlman, Peter Dinklage, and Michelle Yeoh does good work as Optimus Primal, Scourage, and Airazor respectively. Pete Davidson probably makes the biggest impressions among the new Transformers as Mirage, certainly making for one of the better comic relief characters in this franchise. Although, the two lack on-screen chemistry or characters with depth, Anthony Romos and Dominque Fishback have enough personality and charm to carry the material they are given to work with.

There’s not much you can say about Rise of the Beasts other than what you come to expect from a Transformers movie at this point. Some might think I’m demanding to much from the kind of movies that solely exists to be fun popcorn flicks that don’t require much to turn your brain off too. However, with the kind of material is was adapting and is present onscreen, it could have made for one of the better Transformers movies rather than one that is middle-of-the-pack at best. Despite sharing similar faults as Bumblebee with following familiar beats and tropes, it lacks the energy and heart that film provided, leaving this one feeling more disposable than anything else. It delivers the action, visuals, and spectacle you can come to expect from these movies and does them well to make for a fine watch but it doesn’t do enough to justify the Beasts Wars brand or even the brand that it has follow through for over a decade now. Even with the tease at the end of a potential cross-over in the future, Rise of the Beasts feels too surface value and run-of-the-mill. And if the lackluster box office numbers have been any indication, I’m certainly not alone in thinking that.

Who in the world would’ve thought that the Fast & Furious series would have eleven installments up to this point? This is a franchise that has come a long way from it’s traditional street racing days and now acts as some of the biggest and dumbest actions films ever made. Everyone has their own opinion of which days of Vin Diesel and crew that they prefer. As I mentioned in my review for Fast X, if it wasn’t the original The Fast and the Furious that got you into the series, then it was likely Fast Five that did just that. Because of that, opinions on the series’ quality and decline certainly differs from one generational fan to another. That’s why there’s a good chance my ranking won’t match with yours. Regardless, let’s rank these crazy films from worst to best!

11.) F9

This is the installment that basically redefining jumping the shark by having a sequence where it had it’s characters literally jump out in OUTER SPACE WHILE IN A CAR! F9 is the movie that took every known component that F&F was known up to this point and cranked it up to 11! The result was a mindless and proudly stupid film that constantly reminds you how mindless and proudly stupid it is. You have action sequences that have no tender to reality, characters that are brought back but giving nothing to do, and the whole family dynamic that has been the driving force of the series is abandoned, with Dom having a brother this whole time that he literally threw out of his life and pretended never existed. There’s jumping the shark and there’s whatever the hell F9 is! If this wasn’t a sign that the franchise had lost it’s heart and soul, then I really don’t want to know what is.

10.) 2 Fast 2 Furious

The one entry that put the full spotlight on Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner and Tyrese Gibson’s Roman Pearce is unfortunately one of the weakest in the franchise. Most of the fun and personality that carried the best F&F movies and even some of the worst ones is just not present here. The racing sequences fall flat and don’t hold a candle to the original, the villain is a complete joke, the plot is silly beyond words, and the film’s overreliance on weird Dutch angels gets distracting the longer it goes on. While it’s no longer the worst in the franchise since it at least doesn’t get so ridiculous that it’s insulting to the human brain, 2 Fast 2 Furious is best left ignored.

9.) The Fate of the Furious

The first post-Furious 7 flick that showcased the lack of creativity that this franchise has remaining and the amount of staying power it no longer contains. These movies were slowly starting to flirt with the amount of ridiculousness contained within itself that was clearly not going to carry over well with future entries. What makes it stick out more like a sore thumb here is the needlessly self-serious tone along with putting too much emphasis on constant timeline retcons, bizarre character reveals, and predictable outcomes. You also have Jason Statham feeling like a completely different character from the last movie, Charlize Theron (A.K.A Furious herself) cast in a F&F movie but doesn’t even get to drive a car, and the tone-deaf name reveal of Dom’s son named Brian. While not without some enjoyable moments, The Fate of the Furious was the sign of this series had been stuck in neutral.

8.) Fast X

Fast X is not the worst entry in this franchise but it definitely feels like the most tired one. It’s pretty much a statement that this series has lost the pride and heart that it once have and has literally become the parody that it was previously avoiding or poking fun at. Jason Momoa carries the whole thing with his charismatic performance as the new evil baddie in the series and there’s a few fine characters moments and action beats here and there but there is just no reason to care about anything that’s going on in this series anymore because whatever happens where, it will likely be retconned by the next film. For those who are still on board and don’t care about effective stakes and consequences in these movies, you will likely get your money’s worth and still be entertained. For everyone else, just get out of the car while you still can. It’s better than 8 and 9 but that’s not really much of a race to win.

7.) Fast & Furious

The bizarrely titled Fast & Furious (which I actually thought was suppose to be the first one based on the title when I first binged these movies) is the one that basically resembled the end of one road and the beginning of another. Acting as a bridge between the street racing flicks of the original three movies and setting the groundwork for Fast Five and onwards, this was one of the last movies in the series where we see the Fast Family acting more like mortal human beings who have to deal with the consequences of their past. Just a shame of outside of those elements along with the supposed death of Letty (which would get retcon two movies later), there’s nothing much that stands out as being particularly memorable about Fast & Furious. It’s harmless enough but not one you will find yourself going back to outside of potential future binging.

6.) Hobbs & Shaw

This is probably the only one chapter of the post-Paul Walker era that I found enjoyment in. Yes, it’s just as crazy and over-the-top as those recent films and I still don’t buy Jason Statham being portrayed as a suppose “good guy” now but that’s forgivable because of how well done the action scenes are and the Rock and Statham just have perfect chemistry whenever they are on screen together. Idris Elba makes for one entertaining bad guy as basically “Black Superman” and Vanessa Kirby blends in very well with the rest of the rose gallery of badass women in the series (even if Eiza Gonzalez could have been given more to do). It may not be necessary but Hobbs & Shaw is able to deliver what it says on the box quite well without trying to convince you it’s something else entirely.

5.) The Fast and the Furious

The one that started it all is the most unapologetic Point Break knock-off out there and somehow managed to be a better Point Break remake than the actual turd remake that somehow made it’s way to theaters in 2015. While this franchise has certainly come a long way in the best and worst ways, it’s odd to look back when these films were about street racers boosting DVD players as it made things more focused with clear cut goals to deliver straight forward racing flicks with a limited budget and runtime. Similar to the very first X-Men and Harry Potter, while it’s reputation is higher than it’s actual quality along with playing more like a “proof of concept” than an actual film, The Fast and the Furious works well as a one-and-done racing/crime melodrama that requires no homework whatsoever to understand and enjoy.

4.) Fast & Furious 6

Coming off the series’ high of Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6 was always gonna have tough shoes to fill. Even if it doesn’t quite measure up, it’s still a lot of fun to watch Justin Lin try to top himself with even more action-heavy stunts this time around and a stronger focus on being a heist thriller. Despite coming off an entry where it felt like everything paid off big time for the whole crew, this is still able to give each member of the Fast Family something to do and their own moment to shine. While this did introduces tropes that would later come back to prior future sequels with resurrecting dead characters and defying internal logic, it still holds together well because there’s still legit stakes throughout and the family dynamics still feel real. This is probably the one F&F movie I always put on whenever I need a good fun time without thinking too much about it.

3.) Furious 7

Acting as the beginning of the end of the F&F franchise as we know it, Furious 7 existing at all feels like a miracle. What makes it even more of a miracle is that it works all despite having everything going against them with the tragic passing of Paul Walker. This acts well as being the final chapter of the successful self-parody era of this franchise along with delivering an ending that’s such an all-timer and perfect send-off for Brian O’Connor that it should have been the end to this franchise. It’s a shame that The Rock gets pushed to the wayside this time around and this was when the series was starting to get so ridiculous that people were beginning to get very annoyed by it. Warts and all, James Wan is still able to deliver the great stunts and action where it counts the most while giving the Fast Family a nice send off that would have worked well as a satisfying conclusion to this franchise. It might be an easy movie to nitpick to death but considering all the circumstances surrounding the production, Furious 7 is a marvelous achievement that deserves all the credit in the world.

2.) The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

There are two kinds of people in the world: those that get Tokyo Drift and those that do not. Considering that this is #2 on the list, you probably know which group I fall in. Acting as a brief departure from the main series by not including 99% of the Fast crew, this was easily the best of the pre-Fast Five films because it’s makes the best use of street racing element that played the biggest key factor in the series. Setting a F&F film in Japan was such as genius choice that I’m surprised it wasn’t done from the get-go as it makes for the perfect location to provide some genuinely intense and fist-bumping racing sequences. Lucas Black may not be the best actor in the world but his character fits perfectly in the F&F universe as yet another anti-hero that’s trying to take the law into his own hands for his personal greed. Of course, this also introduced fan-favorite Hans who was so likeable they had to make the next few films actual prequels to this so they can keep him as part of the gang for a limit period of time. If there’s anyone that wants to know the appeal of this series during it’s early era, look no further than The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. When even Christopher Nolan himself is a big fan of the film, you know you’ve done something right.

1.) Fast Five

Of course, there has been no installment in this entire franchise that been able to top his one. Not only is Fast Five hands down the best F&F movie to date, it’s arguably one of the best action films of the 21st century. Every action scene, from the car chases to the hand-to-hand combat to the heist missions, is spectacularly done, the stunt work from every member of the team is so good that they all deserved an Oscar, the supporting cast is at their absolute best and most well utilized here, the family drama and tension has never been more personal, and introduces the most charismatic actor of the series that acted as the perfect “shot in the arm” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. This was the one where it felt like the whole thing came full circle, paying off four movies of ill-conceived plots and delivering a spectacular climax in the heist mission that is easily the most stand out sequence in the entire franchise. This has the right mix of everything and was able to avoid most of the series’ problems before hand and especially after. Because of all of this and more, Fast Five is the best that the Fast and Furious franchise has got and is just as good as blockbuster films can possibly get in general.

Fast and Furious has to be one of the most severely complicated movie franchises out there. It’s a series of films that have basically coasted on two different identities for itself. You had the first three movies that act as simple street racing flicks while four and onwards act as crazy, over-the-top action thrill rides with some espionage and heist elements thrown into the mix. They say that if it wasn’t the original The Fast and the Furious that got you into the series, then it was Fast Five that did just that. Regardless of what subgenre for this series that you prefer, I think most will agree that Furious 7 should have been the main stopping point for the series. Not only because of the passing of Paul Walker and the seventh installment basically acting as one fine tribute to him but it seemed like everything had come full circle for the characters and their journeys throughout the series that there wasn’t anywhere left to go. However, the movies didn’t stop there and the series have basically become even more of a parody of itself then it already was as a result.

The Fate of the Furious was a completely dour and self-serious pile of mediocrity filled with confusing twists, odd character motivations, and screw-ups of the timeline, showcasing the lack of ideas this series has left. F9 redefined jumping the shark by literally having it’s characters jump out into orbit along with action scenes, character motivations, and logic that was borderline nonsensical, even for F&F standards, making it easily the worst the franchise has got. While the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw was enjoyable enough in it’s own right, there has been nothing about these post-Furious 7 entries that have justified this series continuing on aside from box office results. Now, we have Fast X. Although it’s an improvement over the last two main installments, it still continues that trend of a series that desperately needs to put it’s engine to rest.

Premise: Over many missions and against impossible odds, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family have outsmarted and outdriven every foe in their path. Now, they must confront the most lethal opponent they’ve ever faced. Fueled by revenge, a terrifying threat known as Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) emerges from the shadows of the past to shatter Dom’s world and destroy everything — and everyone — he loves. Toretto must bring his back together once again to protect his family and the one he loves from this new menace.

There are basically three main selling points when it comes to Fast & Furious nowadays: ridiculous stunts, over-the-top action, and some social commentary on the power of family. That is something that everyone has to be aware of when they go to one of these movies. While the better entries in this franchise were able to make the best use of that, most notably Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7, these last few entries continue to make the absolute worst use of that. Not only because they defy logic with characters feeling more like overpowered superheroes than real human begins, they also defy tension and actual stakes. It’s not that turning your brain off for a dumb action film is inherently a bad thing but it’s now done so much to the point there’s no reason to care about anything going on in these movies anymore.

Fast X certainly doesn’t contain anywhere near amount of logic breaking action sequences on par with F9, almost as if the filmmakers felt pressured to pump the breaks after the criticism for that movie. However, there are still plenty of moments throughout that it will require you to not think whatsoever for you to buy it one single bet. The main one involves a sequence where Dom Toretto is able to run his car head on into a crane, is able to spin it around with enough force, and the car is able to land perfectly without a ton of damage or Dom having so much as a scratch on him. And don’t get started when he is also able to life a car up with just one hand and even driving perfectly through the damn while he and his son are ON FIRE! It’s almost as if scenes like this exist just so Vin Diesel can stroke his own ego and prove himself to be the “hero” of cinema! Goodness gracious!

What also takes away the tension of these recent installments is constantly bringing back characters that were previously dead. You can definitely make the argument that bringing back Letty in Fast & Furious 6 was pushing it but just about every character that has come back since then have just felt redundant. What’s the point of caring about anything happening anymore if you have characters constantly coming back when they’ve been previously killed off? Without getting much into spoilers, there is a sequence towards the end of the climax where one major character commits a heroic sacrifice but I’m willing to bet it won’t mean crap in the next film because he will likely just be brought back anyway. And that’s not even mentioning how after said character dies, we discover later on that ANOTHER character that was thought to be dead is still alive. Even if I can admittedly buy that one person surviving over the other characters brought back to life, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that the series just has no stakes or tension of any kind anymore.

To make matters even worse is that the film itself throws brand new characters into the mix without even knowing what to do with the ones that they brought back to life. Brie Larson and Alan Ritchson join the expanded cast of characters but they are mostly pushed to the wayside for the majority of the film as it has to make room for a bunch of other characters and subplots that it also doesn’t even know what to do with. What was the point of bringing Han back from the dead if you weren’t gonna give him anything to do? Why is Shaw constantly being dragged into dire situations with Dom’s crew? When exactly did Scott Eastwood becoming a main player of the series again? How in the world did you get *spoiler* back into this mess? If you offer such little spectacle that is fun to watch and ask yourself questions like I just did, then you basically failed your job at what you are trying to do.

It should be worth mentioning that Fast X is tended to be Part One of the supposed final story in this franchise, with Part Two coming out in 2025 with a possible Part Three in the works. If you didn’t know that ahead of time, then you CERTAINLY will with the way this film wraps up in the most abrupted way possible. There’s a good chance that most of my questions will be answered next time around but they’re not necessarily questions you should need another movie to answer for or ones that you really want to see being answered next time around. And considering this is a franchise that no longer cares about continuity whatsoever, I trust them to resolve all these loose ends about as far as I can throw Vin Diesel himself (except when he’s a little talking tree of course).

That’s not to say there’s no redeemable valuables whatsoever. The one newcomer that absolutely makes the whole movie his own is the villain Dante Reyes, played by Jason Momoa. The character himself is probably the best villain this series has had in quite some time and Momoa himself is clearly enjoying every scene that he is in. You can tell the actor is 100% aware of what kind of movie he is in and absolutely makes the most of it. He’s funny, manipulative, and makes for a perfect foe to Dom and his family. While the way the character is inserted into the timeline is about as contrived as it usually is with this series, Momoa is so entertaining in the role that it’s impossible to care.

There’s also John Cena’s return as Dom’s brother Jakob (I still can’t believe this is a real thing!) who works much better this time around compare to Fast X and has really nice chemistry with his nephew Brian, played by Leo Abelo Perry. The main players from the past F&F movies still do have nice chemistry with one another, even if they have all pretty much provided everything they’ve possibly can add to the series. And while the action has become so in-your-face that it’s become numb to this point, there are handful of hand-to-hand combat fights that work quite well, most notably the long awaited fight between Charlize Theron and Michelle Rodriguez.

Fast X is not the worst entry in this franchise but it definitely feels like the most tired one. It’s pretty much a statement that this series has lost the pride and heart that it once have and has literally become the parody that it was previously avoiding to do. Jason Moama carries the whole thing with his charismatic performance and there’s a few fine characters moments and action beats here and there but there is just no reason to care about any of it anymore. For those who are still on board and don’t care about effective stakes or consequences in these movies, you will likely get your money’s worth and be entertained. For everyone else, just get out of the car while you still can. It’s better than 8 and 9 but that’s not really much of a race to win.

It was just announced today that Charles Martinet, the man behind the voice of Mario since he started speaking, will be retiring after over three decades of voicing the iconic character. He had also done the voice for other notable characters in the Mario franchise such as Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and their baby equivalents. It’s unknown yet who will be taking over the role but whoever it is will make their debut voicing Mario in the upcoming game Super Mario Wonder, set to release on October 20th. While Martinet will still remain at Nintendo as a special ambassador, his time as the Italian plumber and a few others have come to an end. His last notable roles in the Mario franchise came from last year’s releases of Mario Strikers: Battle League and Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope along with The Super Mario Bros. Movie where he did some cameo roles and voiced Mario and Luigi’s father.

To say that whoever will replace him will have big shoes to fill would be an understatement. You are replacing a legend who had helped bring so much life and energy to what was originally a very muted character. Sure, there were a handful of notable actors that voiced the character in other entertainment mediums such as the 90s show, 90s live-action movie, and of course, the animated movie from this year but it’s never really happen in the form of medium that the character is most well known for, the video games. Whether you like it or not, things are about to change for the better or worse.

Admittedly, Mario as a character isn’t well known for his award-winning voice acting. In the games themselves, he never really talks in long or coherent sentences to give Martinet an “Oscar” moment and only speaks ups every once in a while to utter the same phrase that the player is thinking about at that very moment. However, it’s that voice alone that brings the life and energy to that character that has helped defined him over the past 30+ years. It’s the voice that exists to give you a glimpse at what that character would sound like in real life and have anyone imagine how it would sound if the character was more talkative. It may not be a whole lot but it’s definitely enough. Just hearing Charles Martinet say “Yahoo!” as Mario sounds right every single time!

That’s not to say having a different voice actor for Mario will make those iconic lines sound wrong but it won’t sound right the way it used to be. No matter how good of a job the next person up might end up doing, he will be compared unfairly to Charles Martinet. Whether he will try hard to sound exactly like Martinet’s Mario or do his own spin on it, he will never be Charles Martinet and there is no denying that. Just ask Chris Pratt!

In the best case scenario, this will be the equivalent of when Troy Baker took over the role as Joker from Mark Hamill or when Tara Strong took over the role as Harley Quinn from Arleen Sorkin. While they do resemble their previous voice actors to an extent and can never fully captured the spark they provided, they are still worth successors in their own right. That’s because they are able to provide enough of their own take on the characters they are voicing that makes their version stand out greatly in their own rights and pays respects to the characters they are voicing along with the actors they are succeeding. If this is a similar case scenario for Mario, then I think this will work out just fine and the next person up should have nothing much to worry about.

While Nintendo hasn’t announced yet who will be the voice of Mario in Super Mario Wonder and beyond, there have been some voiced clips released with the gameplay that has been shown so far of the game. If what we have heard so far is any indication, then I think we are in good hands. I certainly am curious though if the new voice actor for Mario will also be voicing multiple characters as well, most notably the ones that Martinet voiced such as Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. Even so, I’ve liked what we’ve heard of Mario’s new voice so far. If you want to be your own judge, here’s a link to the gameplay footage shown thus far and form your own opinion.

While Charles Martinet no longer voicing Mario is certainly a shock, it is something that was gonna have to be done at some point. As the good old saying goes, all goods things must come to an end. Regardless, no matter how Mario sounds from hear on out, Charles Martinet will always be known as the main voice behind the famous Italian Plumber for generations. While he will certainly be missed as the voice of Mario, he will certainly never be forgotten.

Thanks for everything, Charles Martinet! And whoever had the balls to follow in his footsteps, I wish you the best of luck!

Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released on October 20th!

Does anyone remember that one episode of Spongebob Squarepants titled, “Fear of a Krabby Patty”? What happened in that episode is that Mr. Krabs decides to open the Krusty Krab for 24 hours after his arch rival Plankton threatened to open his restaurant, the Chum Bucket, for 23 hours! Because of that along with Plankton secretly ordering 10,000 Krabby Patties, Spongebob and Squidward are overworked to hell and their minds start cracking like an egg from exhaustion! Because of this, Spongebob suffers from cases of insomnia, hallucinations, and so-called “Krabby Patty phobia”, which leads to him needing to see a psychiatrist. The most famous moment of that episode was the montage where Mr. Krabs is keeping track of how many days it’s been since the Krusty Krab is opening while Spongebob is slowly starting to lose his mind and be exhausted from constantly doing his jobs for several weeks with no breaks whatsoever.

That episode managed to be quite ahead of it’s time and honestly overlooked. Not only because it was the first episode to come out of Spongebob Squarepants after the very first movie came out (A.K.A. the start of the so-called “bad” era of Spongebob), but the morals of that episodes are ones that still range true to this day. The morals being that bosses needlessly overworking their employees is wrong and quality should come first over quantity. And if the reported awful experiences that VFX artists have had at Marvel Studios along with the animators behind Across the Spider-Verse is any indication, it looks as though the folks involved in either of those teams have suffered from their own Krabby Patty phobia. Overworked to exhaustion so much that they never want to even take a glance at a digital effect or piece of animation ever again!

If you have been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years, you would know that Marvel has had a HUGE CGI and VFX problem for a long time now! It got to the point where somehow the works from their previous films from the very beginning have better and more polished effects than the later films despite the increased budgets over time and more advanced technology. While most people will point that problem to many of the Phase Four installments and onwards with infamously awful CGI/VFX work in the likes of Black Widow, Thor: Love and Thunder, She-Hulk, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this has been a problem going on for almost a full decade now!

My first notice of the iffy at best special effects work came at the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the Avengers are fighting alongside each other in a sequence that looks so cartoony, over-the-top, and unrealistic that it COMPLETELY took me out of the movie along with others when I first saw it. While the effects did get better throughout that film, the results of some of the effects there were just baffling, especially with so much money being spent on that movie. Unfortuantely, it didn’t stop there!

There were plenty of other instances that I noticed that for the rest of Phase Two and Three of said poor VFX work. There was the airport fight scene in Captain America: Civil War where the CGI was painfully obvious, especially with Spider-Man, the big blue blob sequence that took place at the climax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and of course, the INCREDIBLY poor special effect work in Black Panther! It’s so bizarre how the more this series got popular and the more money spent on it, the worse the special effects actually got!

Whenever the effects in anything looks bad, people always like to point their fingers to CGI being the main problem or even throwing shades at the people who worked on it. However, it’s very clear at this point that neither one of those are to blame for it! The VFX artists are clearly trying their heart out to make it work and make the effects look as convincing as possible! The problems mostly ranges from the studios releasing as many projects as they can with not as much time as before, having very little patience with their workers, annihilating those that won’t put up with their crap, and as a result, the VFX teams become smaller and more overworked the longer the production goes on. If you don’t believe me, just ask the people that worked on WandaVision!

I will leave a link at the end of this piece of the interview with the VFX artists themselves so you can read more into it but needlessly to say, the experience of working on WandaVision was absolute hell for those that worked on it that were a part of the VFX team! From working constant 18-hours shifts to not having any days offs until the show was near completion to being unable to see their families due to work conditions to not even getting any bonuses or raises for working overtime, it had to been an absolutely MISERABLE experience to anyone who had to work on that show!

Just imagine being a part of that team during the making of WandaVision! Can you honestly really blame the VFX artists for any bad effects that might have been on the show? At some point, when working so much and having very little rest during that, you have to stop giving a crap and likely just want to finish it as fast as you can so it can all be over, getting a chance to have a full eight hour long sleep for once! I understand it’s a big show that MILLIONS of people around the world are gonna watch which always results in long work shifts but being overworked to that extend is just not acceptable!

You can also say the same thing for just about every show or movie that Marvel Studios has released in the past two years! Regardless of what you think about the overall quality of them, I think everyone will agree that releasing over 20 products in the span of just two years is quite absurd! Compare that to when the studios were just releasing a couple of films a year. That led to more time being spend on polishing the scripts, effects, and productions so it can make for better, quality pictures. You know the term, less is more! Less is more is certainly what can NOT be said about Marvel for the past two years!

While that likely has to do with Disney demanding so much Marvel content at once for Disney Plus and theaters, especially during Bob Chapek’s brief time as CEO, at some point, the pressure is going to get to the people working on these things eventually. At some point, they are simply gonna stop caring about the quality of it and just focus on getting it done as fast as possible so they can see their families sooner rather than later. There’s only so much the human body can take before it has had enough and your brain completely goes into “I don’t give a F!” mode! To put it all simply, the treatment that VFX artists have been getting at Marvel Studios is quite frankly cruel!

Thankfully, the Marvel VFX workers seem to think the exact same thing! Earlier this week, it’s been reported that the VFX artists will indeed go on strike and set up a vote to create a new, national VFX union. A union that will likely create a better work environment for the team with plenty of fresh, young blood, flexible work scheduling, and plenty of rewards and bonuses for those that chose to work overtime!  If successful, this would be the first group to certify union participation amid a wider call for unionization in the VFX community. The election date for it is August 21st and will last until September 11th.

I don’t know how that will played out but something like that NEEDED to happen badly. Not just for the sake of the quality of the VFX for future Marvel projects but also for the sake of the well-beings that take so much time out of their day to do that work for all of us to watch in the comforts of our own homes. However, VFX artists are not the only ones that desperately need a strike to voice their displeasure with their working conditions, that should go to animators as well.

As much as we would all love to turn a blind side of any potential behind the scenes drama to any one of our favorites movies, they are always worth bringing up when they happen to make sure you know of the unstable working conditions that the people involve in these movies are going through for several months and possibly even years while they are making it. In this case, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is still one of my favorites films of 2023, I can’t deny the reports of the absolute hell that animators and artists went through when it came to making the film as masterful as it is. It hurts to admit but it’s just the truth, to paraphrase a very wise someone from the same said film!

Just like with the article involving the VFX artists, I will also provide one involving the making of Across the Spider-Verse that goes more in-depth to everything the animators of that film went through but once again, it was NOT a pleasant experience whatsoever. This interview that came out in June referred to four animators on Across the Spider-Verse that left the project due to it not being a pleasant experience and they were far from the only ones.

The working conditions for Across the Spider-Verse were very difficult for everyone involved, from numerous revisions to full 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, for over a year. This had to do with producer/co-writer, Phil Lord, constantly re-writing the script and overseeing production, forcing animators to constantly re-work certain scenes until he 100% approves of it. This led to hundreds of hours of hard work with the animation being thrown in the trash because it wasn’t what Lord wanted and hundreds of extra hours of work to make it the way he wanted. This stressful workload was so overwhelming to many animators and artists that over 100 of them left the project halfway through.

The four went on to say that there was no way that the next film, Beyond the Spider-Verse was gonna makes it’s March 2024 release date (which they were correct), as both movies were not made at the same time and they “barley crossed the finished line” when it came time for the second movie to premiere. While the highers ups from Sony such as Amy Pascal and Michelle Grady attempted to downplay on those work conditions that these four animators addressed, there is no denying that grueling hours and workload demands were a major factor on getting Across the Spider-Verse into shape before release. While this is far from the first instance where a genuinely great film was a complete nightmare to work on for the people involved, it is quite said to see animators get such harsh treatment like this.

What makes it worse is the reports of there being completely different versions of Across the Spider-Verse that were released in theaters and also through digital last week! While the versions aren’t so different that it affects the plot or viewing experience, certain changes and details that were removed have been noted from people that have watched the film multiple times! Could that have to do with the film “barely crossing the finished line” like the animators mentioned and not taking one last glance at the picture before releasing it everywhere worldwide? I can’t say exactly but the fact that the people involved didn’t bother making one more edit before publication before release and only did it after release says a lot!

There is hope that Beyond the Spider-Verse might not get the same story when it comes to the overworking hours for the animators. The film has been delayed from it’s initial March 2024 release date and even taken off the release schedule until further notice. While a large part of that has to do with the current strike that’s currently taking place with the writers and actors, that does at least mean that there will be more time for those involve to publish the film and help make it the best possible version of itself. And even producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller claimed that the film will only come out “when it’s ready”!

Even if I can take their word for it, that does not change the fact that the animators went through a lot when making Across the Spider-Verse and received very little reward for it in return. While there has been a strike in place for VFX artists in regards to Marvel Studios, animators and artists are more in their right to go on strike. Their contract with the SAG-AFTRA is set to expire sometime next year. When that happens, I would not be surprised to see them go on strike! Or if the studios want to avoid another situation like the one happening now with their writers and actors, they should leave by example like what Seth Rogen did to the animation crew of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Yes, you read that correctly! In a recent interview, it was confirmed by TMNT director Jeff Rowe that him along with producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made sure the staff could work on the animated movie while continuing to maintain a good work-life balance. It was something that the three of them took to heart and made their top priority every day when working on the picture. Come on studios, if Seth Rogen of all people can take good care of his crew, then you can too! I’ll also leave a link for that interview as well but yeah!

Keep in mind, I’m not trying to get you to change your mind on what you think of the new Marvel stuff and Across the Spider-Verse! It’s perfectly okay to still enjoy them if you do. Even I will admit I still enjoy most of them! I don’t necessarily think folks who worked on these things are coming out to get you to hate the things they worked on but more to understand their perspective on what they’ve been going through when making these things as a result and hopes it will lead to more stress-free productions for the immediate future.

In conclusion, VFX artists and animators deserve to join alongside the writers and actors right now and take a stand to the toxic work environment they are forced to work with every day. While the VFX crew from Marvel Studios are doing that right now and the animators may have to wait another year to do so, they have fully earned the right to do that!

What’s going on with film and television production in Hollywood right now is unacceptable and it’s time for changes! Changes such has treating the people that make you who you are with some damn respect! First the writers and actors, now the VFX artist and animators! And I promise you, A.I. won’t bail you out of this one!

Links to Articles:

• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/marvel-vfx-workers-move-toward-unionization-vote-1235567010/

• https://collider.com/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-animators-working-conditions/

• https://decider.com/2023/08/07/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mutant-mayhem-director-treating-animators-ethically-seth-rogen/

The new Spider-Man fan film, Spider-Man: Lotus, has finally been available to watch for free on YouTube. This has been a fan film that has been years in the making with a lot of discourse surrounding it. While some were excited to see a low budget Spider-Man project that aimed to put more emphasis on the human drama surrounding Peter Parker and him grieving over losing his loved ones, it has been overshadowed by the ENORMOUS amount of controversy surrounding the making of the picture along with the history surrounding the cast and crew attached to it.

I’ll admit that I’m someone who mostly stayed out of the discourse surrounding Spider-Man: Lotus while it was in production because I just wasn’t interested in it. However, after reading up on it in the past week, it makes me certainly wish I knew about all of that sooner. Even if I was someone that ending up really enjoying Spider-Man: Lotus (which I do not whatsoever), it was undoubtedly things that HAD to be brought to the forefront regardless of the film’s overall quality. Because of that, I want to discuss all of the drama behind the director, the actors, the making of this fan film, and how the overall film actually is. It’s important to address all of this and see why fan films like Spider-Man: Lotus are a perfect showcase of the dangers of letting fans become the filmmakers.

And I know there will be some folks out there that claim that people need to separate the artist from the art and judge the film as it’s own thing. However, when it comes to the circumstances with how this film was made and how the main people involved with it are quite frankly not good people, I just can’t look the other way this time. Even so, I promise I will talk about the film’s quality overall and why I don’t think it works whatsoever on it’s own merits. But, first, we have to discuss the controversy involving certain people attached to this well-funded project.

Warden Wayne

The first bit of controversy came off of the lead actor and co-write of Spider-Man: Lotus, Warden Wayne, after there were comments that made by him that surfaced on the internet that came across as incredibly racist. This came from Twitter user @Thnnder, who shared a handful of those bluntly racist comments that were made by Wayne through social media. I’m not gonna show them directly but it mostly came across as him using the N word over and over and over again in plain sight on Instagram.

Those image surfaced on the internet in June 2022 and it wasn’t long until Warden Wayne admitted to making those racist comments. He put the blame on his sheltered lifestyle and being part of a conservative household where racial slurs were “pushed” onto him. Wayne did take to Twitter (Btw, YES, I’m gonna keep calling it Twitter and not X! Take that, Musk!) to explain his actions but claimed in the end that he was willing to take responsibilities for those offensive comments and grow to become a better person. So, the fact that the lead actor already had a bad history behind him is not an encouraging sign at all for this film! First domino to fall!

And here is Wayne’s full response to the racist allegations, which he admitted was true!

I’ve been wanting to come forward about this for a long time. Please read. pic.twitter.com/kz42egpAs5

— Warden Wayne (@mrwardenwayne) June 19, 2022

However, Wayne’s past would unfortunately not be the only dark cloud that would hang over production of this fan film. The next one had to do with the main man behind the entire film himself, director/co-writer, Gavin J. Konop.

Gavin J. Konop

Konop had already been a controversial figure among the Spidey fanbase given his well-known contempt towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Spider-Man and it’s director Jon Watts. Despite Jon Watts showing his support towards this project, Konop has actively gone out of his way on multiple occasions to insult the MCU’s spin on Spider-Man at every turn. It is believed that a big reason for this project’s very existence has to do in a response to Konop’s dislike towards Jon Watts’s take on the character, most notably his extremely negative reaction to Spider-Man: Far From Home, and as a means to “stick it” to him with the mindset that he seemingly knows the material better than Watts does. Konop did backtrack on that, claiming he has enormous respect towards Watts and was over the moon when he got a DM from him after the initial trailer for Lotus came out, despite not being a fan of his iteration of Spider-Man. However, there has been plenty of comments from Konop through social media about Watts and the quality of Spider-Man pictures made from the Sony and Marvel Studios partnership that give the indication of the smug, ego-filled mindset that was the cause for this project’s existence.

There was also the other notable controversy that surfaced the internet by Twitter user @BerkmanBoom, with screenshots of remarks that came across as racist, sexist, and homophobic along with specific recordings that leaked which were quite disgusting. Even though the original posts of those had been deleted, screenshots and recordings of it were already made and went into the public eye all throughout the internet. Again, I don’t want to share them but it was confirmed by Konop himself that at least some of them were in fact real. He claims that a big reason for those remarks had to do with that kind of vocabulary being allowed in middle school and high school along with refusing to grow into more maturity.

Berkmanboom however claimed that Konop was lying about his reasons. In a now-deleted post, he mentioned that “He was even going to help me make my own Spider-Man fan film. He was going to write and edit the whole project. He eventually started to get more followers and changed his platform to Gjkcentral and started to drop me. I had other friends, but no one who I felt understood me like Gavin.” He was afraid to come out at first due to potential backlash from Konop’s fans but felt compelled to after prior allegations of Konop using racist language came out. That eventually would lead to another anonymous source on Twitter to share a screen recording where Konop using another racial slur.

Konop did make a video where he tried to address all of this controversy surrounding him and the making of his film. Despite the apology, it didn’t come across as earnest to most of his fans, with most who contributed to crowdfunding Spider-Man: Lotus demanding refunds and no longer showing support to the project. So, not only is the main lead of this fan film had not so good history surrounding him but now the director as well. There goes another domino!

Here’s that video btw!

John Salandria

As if things couldn’t get any worse with the racist allegations, it was later revealed that the actor for Green Goblin had also been exposed for similar behavior. Derrick Woods, writer and director of a similar crowdfunded Spider-Man film that has yet to come out, released screenshots of what appeared to be a conversation between Wayne and Goblin actor, John Salandria. I also won’t show the screenshot but it basically came across as Saldandria using the same racist vocabulary that Wayne did and even go as far as to defend Konop for his behavior as well. There’s goes the third domino!

With now THREE of the biggest crew members off the project being exposed for their offensive remarks, there was just no getting around to how much of a nightmare this whole picture has become. You HAD to pay attention to it and can no longer use the whole “separating the artist from the art” approach when it came to Spider-Man: Lotus. And if you don’t want to take my word for it, the VFX team of the project would seem to agree with you.

The VFX Team

After all the controversy surfaced online surrounding Wayne, Konop, and Salandria, the entire visual effects team for the project stepped down as they felt there was no saving it. Main artist Max Aurnhammer made a video where he addressed the controversy and his decision along with others with leaving the project. He claimed that while some of the DMs were fake, most of the remarks made were very real, leaving himself and the entire VFX team shocked and disappointed. Although he regretted leaving the film and even claimed that the team didn’t feel “mistreated” by Konop, he felt it was the right decision to leave as the film “no longer aligned with what Spider-Man represents as a character.” One more domino to fall and now the ENTIRE stack has completely COLLAPSED!

Here’s that video with Aurnhammer, where he also showed off some of the team’s work on Lotus!

Suffice to say, the production for Spider-Man: Lotus was a complete and utter disaster. From the allegations to the VFX team leaving to the sense of cynicism being the main sole reason for this project’s existence, this did not have any good press attached to it upon release. You could not ignore any of these even if you wanted to.

But, let’s just assume none of those remarks happened and this fan film was ran by good, heart felt people that just want to express their love and passion towards the character of Spider-Man and possibly take a step forward with their filmmaking career. Even if you want to look at it through those merits, I can promise you that Spider-Man: Lotus is still pretty awful and does not do a service to the character of Peter Parker whatsoever. While I won’t do a full depth review on it, here’s my thoughts.

Spider-Man: Lotus comes across as a film made by a fan with a very ill-conceived vision of what the character of Spider-Man stands for. It attempts to dive into the inner turmoil of Peter Parker and how he responds to losing those he cares about because of his duty as Spider-Man, in this case him losing Gwen Stacy in the bridge battle against the Green Goblin. Unfortunately, the film fails to deliver a compelling narrative or a reason to get behind this version of Spider-Man, with Konop mistaking dourness and pro-faced seriousness for depth and nuance.

What kills the whole picture is that Peter Parker is profoundly unlikable here, constantly lashing out as his friends and pushing them away in the hopes that will somehow ease the pain. He’s probably more angrier here than the character ever has been in any version of him with the symbiote, making for probably the most despicable version of this character on film in any form. Konop just seems to think that having Peter being moopy and depressed over his dead girlfriend is enough of a reason to care about him and make the audience want him to overcome his trauma. While that might be enough with a runtime of 30 to 45 minutes top, it simply DOES NOT work for two hours!

Things take a turn for the worse halfway through when the plot FINALLY gets underway with Peter as Spider-Man paying a visit to a terminally ill child, requesting to meet his #1 hero in person before he dies. It starts off cute until Peter gets reminded of Gwen’s death. It’s then that Peter goes from comforting a child with terminal cancer to literally TRAUMA DUMPING on the child before his death. No joke! The last memory our hero wants to give to a young kid who always looked up to him before he dies is nothing but pure bitterness and trauma! THAT IS NOT SPIDER-MAN! Even if Peter does get talked back into it and is able to comfort the kid in the end, the fact that he even chose to do that at all is simply unforgivable!

It also doesn’t help that the pacing is slower than a sloth with a broken leg and the storytelling here is basically non-existent. About every scene is way too long, with just the same repetitive scenes of characters talking about how sad they are set to loop with the same constant score playing and the same pretentious imagery throughout. There’s just no forward momentum of any kind here and the transition from scene to scene is so awkward that it at times comes across as an extended clip show than an actual film.

There are a handful of elements that do work well here such as the spot-on CGI, the comic book accurate suit, and the generally okay performances from the cast, but as a whole, Spider-Man: Lotus feels less like a love letter to Spider-Man and more of a neglect for him. Konop’s prideful and arrogant mindset is on full display here, more concerning of making his fan film so bleak, dour, and “totally not for kids” that he forgot to actually provide compelling characters and an engaging narrative to his picture. There’s a reason why people like Jon Watts are the ones in charge of making these Spider-Man movies in Hollywood and people like Gavin J. Konop are not.

If you were to compare Lotus with the other Spider-Man films made, then I would say this is easily worst than all of them, even more so than The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2. For as bad as those films are, there is at the very least some sort of pacing and sense of rhythm throughout and there’s enough going on in the actual movies to justify it being over two hours long. And yes, all three of Jon Watts films are far superior to whatever Lotus is. I have my issues with Homecoming and Far From Home but those at least function well as actual films and doesn’t seem like it’s going out of it’s own way pretending to be something that it’s actually not.

And if you think that it’s unfair to compare a low-budget fan film to high-budget films made in Hollywood, well you can blame Konop and the crew on that, who have made various comments and going as far to claim that this film would do Spider-Man far more justice than Marc Webb and Jon Watts ever did. Or the other toxic fanboys of other franchises that actually believe they know the series they claim to be a fan of better than the actual creators and makers of it. If you’re gonna talk the talk, then you better walk the walk or else you will get this as a result.

There is a lot you can say about Spider-Man: Lotus from what transpired both on and off camera but I think most people would agree that this is NOT what fan films should consist off. They shouldn’t be projects that are made for the sole purpose of showing certain folks “how it’s done”, they should be projects that are made to show the love, support, and passion they have for the character and franchise. While I’m sure some of that passion was shown by some of the innocent folks attached to this project, it’s overall sense of cynicism is felt throughout the entire 120 minute length with no attempt of deviating from it whatsoever.

If you take way the controversy involving the cast and crew, Spider-Man: Lotus would still serve as an example of everything that can go wrong with fan films. If you don’t take away that, then Spider-Man: Lotus serves as an example of everything that can go wrong with anything, with the extra controversy serving as a simple cherry on top of this s*itpiled sundae.

To quote Spidey himself in The Spectacular Spider-Man, “I can’t ever look the other way again!” And I believe everyone else would think the same thing in regards to Spider-Man: Lotus.

Here’s links to several different sites that go into the controversy surrounding this nightmare:

• https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/spider-man-lotus-fan-film-172150657.html

• https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/spider-man-lotus-controversy-explained-2241217/

• https://www.indy100.com/showbiz/spider-man-lotus-controversy-2663523534

• https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2390578-spider-man-lotus

Last June saw the release of Pixar’s newest film, Elemental. This was coming off of recent box office duds from Disney and/or Pixar that made it’s way to the big screen post-covid such as Lightyear and Strange World. With how badly those notable movies failed at the box office along with the lackluster to practically non-existence marketing campaign for this newest feature, Elemental was once again expected to make very little noise once it arrived in theaters.

With yet another Disney flick expected to be an absolute bomb, this has to bring questions to the table of how the company would handle features films going forward? Should they stop releasing these in theaters and just release them on Disney Plus? Should they release less films with lesser budgets? Should they greenlight more sequels from their more well-known franchises instead of releasing more original films? Those are the kind of questions I imagine Disney and others were asking themselves before the release of Elemental.

Elemental came out worldwide on June 16th alongside The Flash, putting itself head to head with another familiar brand that exact same weekend. Everyone was expecting an all-time low first week at the box office for Pixar and it most certainly delivered. The film went on to make just under 30 million worldwide in it’s opening weekend, finishing second behind The Flash and was only slightly under the original Toy Story from 1995 as the second lowest three-day opening weekend for a Pixar film, which if you don’t count inflation, then it would in fact be the lowest opening weekend . For a movie that was expected to be DOA, it was able to meet those expectations perfectly in it’s first three days.

There were plenty of folks that had their theories as to why Disney and Pixar movies continue to flop big time in theaters since the 2020s rolled around. Some said it’s because the mainstream audience was too accustomed to waiting for these films to come on Disney Plus rather than actual theaters as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, some have claimed in this case it had to do with the early negative reviews for Elemental that came out of Cannes when Disney premiered it as a part of that film festival along with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (That’s a story for another day!), some thought it had to do with competition with the likes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and of course, there are some that thought it had to do with something something wokeness and something something brokenness. Regardless, Elemental had about as bad of an opening weekend as one could imagine.

Just like with a number of films that have come out in 2023 with underwhelming opening weekend results at the box office, Disney was probably thinking of just pulling Elemental from theaters ASAP and have it be available for digital release in about two to three weeks with a Disney Plus release slated for the next month. Shockingly enough, none of that actually happened. Instead, Disney and Pixar chose to keep it in theaters for an extended period of time and see if it can gain any short of legs. It’s a bold move but a move that not many studios have tried in 2023 after their films failed to make noise in it’s opening weekend. Disney and Pixar stuck to their guns with Elemental and believe it or not, they have been rewarded for that decision.

In it’s second weekend, Elemental yet again finished second at the box office but made a reasonable $18.4 million at just a 38% drop, which gave encouraging signs of possible strong legs. Even with projections of a solid turn around after it’s very poor opening weekend, many media outlets claimed it would be largely difficult for the film to gain enough of a profit to counter with the film’s $200 million budget, specifically from a domestic’s point of view. However, come this week, things have took the turn for the better.

At the time of writing, Elemental has made a total of $425.2 million worldwide, currently becoming a sleeper hit and easily Disney and Pixar’s most successful film in the post-covid era. The film particularly is doing well internationally, most notably in South Korea, which became the film’s third largest market. This was likely attributed to director Peter Sohn’s background of Korean culture and including elements to the story that have resonated with Korean audiences. And if Pixar’s President Jim Morris’s recent comments on the film’s remarkable comeback at the box office is any indication, Elemental will in fact make a profit for Disney, helping put the finishing touches on what has been quite an underdog story for a little film that could.

The remarkable turn around from Elemental has been quite a surprise for everyone in the movie and entertainment industry. A film that looked to be finished before it even began it’s theatrical window was able to overcome near impossible odds to at least make a steady profit despite it’s dire circumstances. There seems to have been a decent word of mouth on the film itself and I imagine that will continue once the film hits home on Disney Plus in the coming weeks or month. Not only is this film’s success a miracle in of itself, it should lead by example for studios whenever they release their own films.

It’s no secret that most studios in Hollywood nowadays tend to have very little patience with how their films perform at the box office. They constantly set themselves up for disappointment thanks to handing out ridiculously expensive budgets and clouded themselves in a very stubborn mindset that their film will make it’s money back just mere weeks after it’s released in theaters based off the name of their IP or brand alone. Even after what has gone on since 2020 involving cinema, you still have Hollywood thinking they are still in 2019, where every big movie they put out will make an easy billion at the bank just because inflation and the past success of their previously beloved properties says it will. They still believe a billion dollar grossing movie in 2023 is the norm and not the exception, which could not be any further from the truth. Because studios still haven’t figured that out by now, this has lead to early digital releases for their films in the hopes of making quick money in a flash (no pun intended) before it hits home media and/or streaming services. However, with Elemental, Disney and Pixar seems to say otherwise.

Which is why the success of Elemental should not be as surprising as it is because that was basically how films were at the box office back in the day. Sure, there was always a handful that scored big in it’s opening weekend and went on to become a grand success but most of the time, for films like these, it took a decent amount of patience from the studios after it’s initial release to allow the worth of mouth to spread which could lead to stronger legs for the films than initially anticipated. They didn’t panic when their latest film didn’t make Avengers: Endgame amount of dollars in it’s first three days, they just let things play out and were eventually rewarded for it. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mission Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1 facing a similar outcome despite it’s initial underperforming box office numbers. If Paramount can just let things play out for the next month or two, I guarantee it will receive similar legs as Elemental and then the folks behind the action packed picture can celebrate for the glorious motion picture they put together.

That’s not to say that Disney and Pixar did everything right in regards to Elemental. The $200 million budget is still a ridiculous high one, especially when compared to recent animated films such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, The Super Mario Bros Movie, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, all films that cost much less and had much more impressive animation. And as for the quality of the picture itself, Elemental is a good movie overall but far from Pixar’s best and not a film I see myself rewatching compared to their very best. Also, Disney will likely never want to release a film early for Cannes Film Festival ever again unless they are 99.9% sure that the film will get a GLOWING response from the critics there! However if they and every other major studio in Hollywood can learn the right lesson here, that could lead to better results for themselves and the general moviegoing audience.

To all studios out there, the next time you release a big picture and it doesn’t set the world on fire on it’s opening weekend, give it some time. Let worth of mouth grow on the film, see how it’s projected to do in the coming weeks, and create REALISTIC expectations for yourselves as to how your feature film will fair in theaters. Don’t pull a Shazam!: Fury of the Gods or Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken and pull your films from theaters at the first sign of trouble. Show some faith in your feature film and you might find yourself surprised and even rewarded for it.

Congratulations to Elemental for it’s success and comeback at the box office! Hopefully, more films in the future will follow in your footsteps!

Other comments:

• Also, to all studios out there, PAY YOUR DAMN WRITERS AND ACTORS AND END THIS STRIKE ALREADY! A.I. IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE THE ANSWER!

Sources:

• https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt15789038/

• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-flash-box-office-elemental-iced-1235518215/

• https://deadline.com/2023/06/box-office-the-flash-no-hard-feelings-jennifer-lawrence-1235422274/

• http://koreabizwire.com/pixars-elemental-enjoys-popularity-in-s-korea-despite-struggles-in-the-u-s/252777

• https://variety.com/2023/film/news/pixar-elemental-box-office-rebound-1235691248/amp/