Star Wars fans are ruminating over who was behind what may be the most epic blunder in the franchise’s history.
Kevy96 sparked a heated discussion in the r/StarWars subreddit with their post, “Has Yaddle made the single largest mistake that any character has ever made in Star Wars Canon?”
1994 was the year that Jim Carrey exploded out of relative obscurity to become an A-list megastar, which comes with the territory when you headline widely-quotable smash hits Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber in the span of under 12 months.
The former established the rubber-faced funnyman’s signature style of blending slapstick physical comedy with incredibly exaggerated line readings to set the template for what was to come, while a $107 million haul at the box office on a $15 million budget also ensured that it became incredibly profitable as it punctured the zeitgeist.
Roland Emmerich was once one of the most consistently bankable and widely popular directors in the industry, but recent evidence points to the “Master of Disaster” losing his crown. Independence Day: Resurgence, Midway, and Moonfall all cost a mammoth amount of money, and yet only lived to disappoint on both the critical and commercial front.
It’s now been well over a decade since Emmerich landed a certifiable box office hit, but he can continue churning out big budget epics because they tend to be independently financed. In fact, Moonfall is one of the most expensive indies ever made at $140 million, while Midway was chump change by comparison at “only” $100 million.
Succulent spoilers ahead for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as you may have guessed.
As if it couldn’t be made any clearer, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hammered home the notion that the throne of the titular African nation may be well and truly cursed.
J.J. Abrams has accidentally developed a reputation for pissing off longtime fans of iconic sci-fi properties, with Star Trek supporters the first to voice their disdain towards the filmmaker’s handling of a franchise multiple generations hold close to their hearts.
There was skepticism right from the off when it was first revealed that a brand built upon tackling weighty themes and serious subject matter in an intergalactic setting was being dusted off and blasted back onto the screen as an action-packed $150 million summer blockbuster, and that was before the marketing campaign infuriated the diehards even further.
Every time a new Marvel Cinematic Universe project rolls around, we’re told without fail that it’s bringing something new, fresh, and exciting to the franchise. At the end of the day, though, the long-running superhero saga has a formula that it resolutely adheres to each and every time a new movie or Disney Plus show arrives, but could Thunderbolts really break the mold?
It’s definitely a unique proposition within the context of the MCU, given that virtually every major character announced so far was initially introduced as either someone painted in heavy shades of grey, or an outright villain. One member of the titular team fans can’t wait to see again is David Harbour’s Red Guardian, who became an instant favorite after debuting in Black Widow.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is shaping up to be a monster hit for Rian Johnson. The sequel premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and garnered rave reviews, earning a 92 percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many saying it’s better than the already excellent opener.
Despite being a Netflix movie (with the streaming giant having paid an astonishing $469 million for the franchise) it’s getting a limited theatrical release later this month, and yesterday saw the cast and crew turn out for the L.A. premiere. Variety interviewed star Edward Norton on the red carpet, where he heaped praise on Johnson’s 2005 debut Brick:
Zack Snyder fans recently had reason to hope for the future. Walter Hamada, the executive keen to leave all Snyder-related stories in the past, left Warner Bros. under a cloud and was replaced by James Gunn. At the same time, Henry Cavill returned as Superman in Black Adam, with Ben Affleck set to don the cape and cowl once again in The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like Snyder will be back in the DCU anytime soon. In a recent appearance on The Preston & Steve Show, Snyder said nobody at Warner Bros. has gotten in touch, and that he’s focused on the upcoming space opera Rebel Moon for Netflix. But that hasn’t stopped fans from dreaming about the Snyderverse being restored and Zack Snyder’s Justice League getting a sequel.
Dominique Thorne is winning hearts all over the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom with her stint as Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Gearing up for her solo Disney Plus show, the star has started teasing what fans can expect from her character, especially when it comes to her connection to Tony Stark.
“I do think in Riri’s creation of this suit, or pursuing a build like that, I think that there’s an inherent acknowledgment of what Tony Stark did by creating this suit of armor,” the 25 year-old actress told ComicBook.com.
Academy-award winning icon and legendary director Martin Scorsese has become the face of the anti-Marvel Cinematic Universe establishment, with the filmmaker flirting perilously close to “old man yells at cloud” territory following his constant criticisms of the all-powerful superhero franchise.
He’s found plenty of weapons-grade allies, though, a list that includes such industry heavyweights as James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jane Campion, but the overwhelming success of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could end up leaving the bushy-browed icon fuming with rage.
The Lonely Island have developed a rather unwanted habit on the big screen for crafting widely-adored movies that end up tanking at the box office. The Watch is the odd one out because it was terrible on almost every level, but the comedy trio’s feature-length collaborations on Hot Rod, MacGruber, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping all bombed horrendously in theaters.
Of course, all three went on to enjoy long-lasting life as cult favorites that fans still quote to this day, but you get the sneaking suspicion Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg would much rather the aforementioned trio performed a lot better among paying customers than a disastrous combined haul of $33 million on total production costs of $55 million.
As The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker have made perfectly clear, James Gunn has a soft spot for the more obscure characters from the DC Comics back catalogue, so we should reasonably expect to see even more deep cuts make their live-action debuts now that the filmmaker is the co-CEO in charge of the company’s creative future.
Naturally, some fans were wary after Gunn name-dropped a couple of lesser-known favorites during the recent town hall meeting where he and Peter Safran laid out their plans for the next decade of superhero content, but we’re certainly crossing our fingers in the hopes that the Bat-Mite fan art approved by the Guardians of the Galaxy director on Mastodon doesn’t come to fruition.
2022 has been a great year for Colin Farrell. He’s starred in sci-fi drama After Lang, dark superhero epic The Batman, gripping true-story Thirteen Lives, and most recently, the critically acclaimed (98 percent on the Tomatometer!) Banshees of Inisherin. This all comes after a long and successful career as one of the best actors in the business, consistently bringing depth and charisma to each role he plays.
And yet, despite receiving nods from practically every other awards body, Farrell hasn’t seen so much as an Oscar nomination across his career. Letterboxd thinks that should change, asking where the heck is this man’s statuette?
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever roars into theaters around the world today, and looks poised to be yet another super-sized hit for Marvel Studios. Ryan Coogler’s hugely anticipated sequel is sitting at 86 percent on the Tomatometer (with a 94 percent audience rating), and early reactions are that it’s both a hugely exciting action movie and touching tribute to Chadwick Boseman.
It also seems to be stacking up very nicely against the other MCU Phase Four movies – and that’s without any multiversal shenanigans to fall back on. Marvel fans on Twitter are naming Wakanda Forever as the best big screen entry since Spider-Man: No Way Home, saying it’s right up there with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and may just pull this much-criticized phase back into positive territory:
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has long been one of the MCU’s most anticipated sequels and is already establishing its presence as a full-force blockbuster smash hit after receiving rave reviews from critics. And, while the majority of Marvel mavens will soon be fawning over the film’s breathtaking action sequences, those who appreciate the quality of deleted scenes won’t be left in the cold once the film ends its theatrical run.
While chatting with Collider, director Ryan Coogler touched upon the importance of deleted scenes from an editing and creative standpoint, while simultaneously teasing that the plethora of cut sequences will be available when the movie eventually releases on Blu-ray, digital, and Disney Plus. As Coogler noted:
As one of the most anticipated films of the year, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has had more than a lot of hype to live up to. Besides finding a way to top its acclaimed predecessor, the sequel has had to adapt with the death of Chadwick Boseman. For Ludwig Göransson, the film’s composer, honoring Boseman with music ultimately changed the entire direction of the score.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Göransson opened up about the challenges of having to incorporate the familiar sounds of the first film, while leaving room for new music that isn’t solely tied to the image of T’Challa. Having been introduced to the initial script featuring Boseman’s character, shifting the sounds of the score after his death was not an easy feat.
The hype for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever seems to have reached an all-time high. With only two days until the Phase Four swansong makes its bow, all while sporting a healthy critic score of 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, fans will no doubt be lining up in droves for what could very well be the greatest Marvel project of the year.
The film boasts a cast to die for, including Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Michaela Coel, and Tenoch Huerta, and the ensemble nature of Wakanda Forever‘s players weave in a sort of complexity that arguably hasn’t been tapped into before.
Ever watched a really bad horror movie that completely bombed in every other regard, but totally brought the hits? Well, so have a lot of other people, apparently. Certainly enough to make a whole thread about it. Since the ’80s, there have been so many examples of both groundbreaking and abysmal horrors, but whether good or bad, the soundtrack is usually reliable. After all, most of the ambience comes from setting the scene with a spooky backdrop and some chilling tunes.
The ever-active subreddit r/horror decided to list off their picks for terrible horrors with impeccable scores. Usually, the definition of a good horror soundtrack isn’t a pleasant toe-tapper, but deep and reverberating to send shivers down one’s spine and make their blood run cold. If the music isn’t achieving that effect, then it isn’t fitting for the atmosphere. So, Redditor u/Don’t4GetToSmile reached out to the masses and dared them to name a “train wreck” of a horror film that had a surprisingly good soundtrack. Naturally, the horror fanatics didn’t disappoint.
One highly specific form of cinema that’s been gradually eroded to the chagrin of many is the decently-budgeted psychological thriller geared towards older audiences, something that was all the rage in the 1980s and 90s, but stands out as a rarity in today’s IP-favoring landscape. One of the most popular examples was and still is The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, which is riding a renewed wave of momentum a full 30 years on from its initial release.
Rebecca De Mornay gives an iconically chilling performance (one that landed her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, no less) as Peyton Mott. Plunged into grief and despair after sexual misconduct allegations against her husband lead to him committing suicide and her losing their baby, she decides to seek a uniquely unsettling form of revenge by infiltrating the family of her late spouse’s accuser as the nanny.
Erotic thrillers are in short supply as of late. It’s a rarity to get something that can be sensual, suspenseful, and sexy. In theory, Follow Her should be a breath of fresh air, and a return to a genre that gets little screentime in our current film landscape. Unfortunately, what unfolds instead is a clumsy, incoherent, and heavy-handed attempt to comment on a mountain of issues.
In Follow Her, we meet Jess Peters (Dani Barker, who also wrote the film). Jess, a struggling actress who takes gig work to get by, is also known by her online moniker J PEEPS. She has a streaming channel where she highlights creepy interactions at her various jobs. Her ultimate goal is to go viral on the site where she streams, and thus, make her first steps towards being a full-time influencer, and maybe even get a shot at a legitimate acting gig.
A franchise doesn’t remain at the forefront of popular culture for 60 years by churning out a string of forgettable, formulaic, and/or terrible additional installments, but cinematic sacrilege may be getting committed in front of everyone’s eyes as the James Bond back catalogue comes under scrutiny.
Pretty much every single one of the 25 installments to date are products of their time in one way or another, and we even include the far-fetched likes of Moonraker and Die Another Day in the conversation, seeing as they clearly exist to capitalize on the post-Star Wars boom for sci-fi and the onslaught of CGI-driven blockbuster spectacle respectively.
Star Wars fans will likely be debating the merits of The Last Jedi until the death of the universe. Rian Johnson’s middle entry in Disney’s sequel trilogy is undoubtedly the best movie of the three, though we’re now five years on from its 2017 premiere, and its revelations about what happened to Luke Skywalker after Return of the Jedi are still a hot-button topic.
We can’t deny it was a shock to see the formerly optimistic farm boy living in miserable self-imposed isolation, riddled with guilt over Ben Solo. Luke’s actions pushed Ben to the Dark Side and resulted in the creation of Kylo Ren, leaving him feeling responsible for the atrocities of the First Order. His penance is a grim life spent sucking down gross-looking blue milk on a windswept island in the middle of nowhere.
One of the strangest things about Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that it contains the single greatest atrocity ever seen in the franchise, which was forgotten almost instantly afterwards. To demonstrate the immense power of their technically-not-a-Death-Star ‘Starkiller’ weapon, they fire it at the Hosnian System, which contains the Republic capital Hosnian Prime. The entire system was destroyed and, as Hosnian Prime was a bustling city world, we can presume billions of people died.
But for some reason, it just doesn’t feel like that big of a deal, and fans are wondering why director J.J. Abrams chose to invent and then destroy a new city when he could have blown away the almost identical Coruscant, which we at least have some emotional connection to via the prequel trilogy.
The turn of the millennium was a strange time for action cinema. The influence of The Matrix was everywhere to be found, whether we’re talking kung fu, gun fu, bullet time, or entire ensemble casts being squeezed into the leatheriest of leathers, while the superhero genre was right on the cusp of exploding in popularity. Giving audiences the best of both worlds, Blade II arrived at exactly the right time.
Wesley Snipes’ first outing as the Daywalker predated both The Matrix and Bryan Singer’s X-Men, but it was a spiritual companion in more ways than one. Upping the ante, Guillermo del Toro stepped in for original director Stephen Norrington to deliver a sequel that’s arguably superior to its game-changing predecessor, but equally beloved even if you don’t agree.
Making a worthy sequel to a classic movie is difficult, but you could also make an entirely well-founded argument that closing out a trilogy in suitably spectacular fashion might just be harder.
We’ve seen countless all-time greats succeeded by a worthy second installment, only for the rails to come off a little bit when it’s time to bring a three-film arc across the finish line. Of course, there are a number of phenomenal examples where that hasn’t been the case, but the people of Reddit are struggling to come to an agreement over which threequel can definitively be named as the greatest ever made.
