News Around the Net!
So, here’s our first real look at the new X-Men film, Dark Phoenix:
I really want this to be great, but I’m not yet feeling this one. First of all, the continuity of these X-Men movies makes my head spin. One of the things I loved about Days of Future Past was the way it adjusted the continuity of the previous films in order to undo some of the damage of The Last Stand and give these characters a happy ending. Most relevant to this new Dark Phoenix movie was that, in the last moments of Days of Future Past, we saw that Jean Grey was still alive. So I’m a bit flummoxed that they’ve continued making movies (X-Men: Apocalypse and now this one) set BEFORE the events of that Days of Future Past epilogue. If Jean is alive in that epilogue, that sort of removes the suspense from this movie, no? This is a actually a rare case where I wish they’d just do a reboot and start fresh.
Putting that aside and just considering this trailer, my next biggest concern is the degree to which what we see in the trailer seems totally different from the classic Dark Phoenix story from the comics (by Chris Claremont and John Byrne). I’m not really seeing ANYTHING from the classic comic story here yet. The Last Stand bungled the Dark Phoenix story, and so I am excited at the potential for a do-over. But my hope for a do-over would be for the movie to hew much closer to the original comic story, which so far doesn’t seem to be what they’re doing here. That really disappoints me.
What’s good? I do really like this cast, and I am happy to see James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence back in these roles (after they all seemed like they were done after X-Men: Apocalypse). And I’m happy that the new crew introduced in Apocalypse also seem to all be back as well: Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheriden as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler. I’m particularly jazzed to see Sophie Turner (who I thought was a little underused in Apocalypse) given a chance to shine. I love the new-look costumes (which seem to be heavily influenced by Frank Quitely’s designs for Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men back in 2001). I’d love for Dark Phoenix (why have they dropped X-Men from the title?) to be a big, awesome X-Men epic. Here’s hoping…
Here’s a nice juicy look at Daredevil season three:
After the disappointment of The Defenders, I have fallen behind on the Marvel Netflix shows. I skipped The Punisher, as I’m just not interested in that character as the lead of a show, and since I was lukewarm on the first seasons of both Luke Cage and Iron Fist, I haven’t been in a rush to watch the second seasons of their shows which have been released recently. But I am excited for Daredevil, and I hope that this third season can pull the Marvel Netflix shows out of the spiral they have been in lately. We’ll see…!
Here’s a second trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season two:
That’s a great trailer. Does a second great trailer (I loved the first one too!) mean the second season will be better than the disappointing first? Of course not! But I can dare to dream. What’s good? It looks gorgeous — the visual effects, everything looks top-notch. I love seeing Trek realized at the budget-level it deserves. I love everything we’ve seen so far of Captain Christopher Pike. I love his speech about Starfleet. And I got a little giddy at the quick shot of Number One (Pike’s first officer, played by Majel Barrett in the original Trek pilot “The Cage”). I hope they do her character justice. The glimpse we got of the white-haired Klingon looks MUCH better than the weird-looking Klingons of season one — I hope that represents a course-correction on the look of the Klingon makeup & costumes for season two. And after complaining throughout season one about the terrible, canon-abandoning designs of the Klingon ships, I was delighted to see an image in what looks like a computer display of an honest-to-goodness Original Series style Klingon battlecruiser. Huzzah! What’s not so great? I’m intrigued that Spock will play a role in season two, but I’m not nearly as convinced by the shot of a weirdly-bearded Spock at the end of the trailer as I was by everything we saw of Captain Pike. I really hope they don’t let us down with their depiction of Spock. I’m also not excited to see Mirror-Georgiou back on the show. I want this show to tell new stories and not wallow in overfished waters like the Mirror Universe or Section 31. Discovery has the potential to be great. Several other previous Trek shows adjusted after a lousy first season to become great. I am rooting for Discovery to do the same.
This is exciting! The new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is coming to Netflix on Thanksgiving, 2018!! I am so excited that this show continues (even though I’m still only about halfway through the show’s first revival season! It’s amazing, the show is as great as it ever was, it just takes me a while to watch these hour-and-a-half-long episodes!)
This is also exciting! Scientists have located an Earth-like planet in the system that has been often named as the “actual” location of the planet Vulcan from Star Trek! Very cool.
I have little hope that a new Terminator film will be any good, but I have to admit that this photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton together again brings a smile to my face.
This is a fascinating, deep dive look at Never Say Never Again, in honor of it’s 35th anniversary! This is a must-read for all Bond fans.
I’m a huge Beatles fan, so I am very excited by the news of a 50th anniversary (wow!!) release of the White Album filled with never-before-heard alternate tracks! I can’t wait.
This is an interesting look back at the “Maximum Carnage” crossover event that ran through the Spider-Man comic books back in 1993. Apparently this storyline has remained popular and aspects of it inspired the new Venom film (which looks dreadful to me, by the way.) I remember reading those comics during the summer of ’93. I wasn’t that impressed, as I recall — I thought the 14-part story was stretched far longer than it deserved, and even as a kid I was bugged by inconsistencies in the story as it moved from issue to issue (because the different Spider-Man comic books were written and drawn by different people). But it’s fun to look back on that story now — I can’t believe it’s 25 years later!
I’ll leave you with this fantastic, in-depth look at The Good Place, one of my very favorite currently-running shows! I loved season one and season two, and I am really digging the current third season. If you haven’t yet seen The Good Place, find it on Netflix and start watching immediately! You won’t regret it!