John Cena‘s role in Bumblebee may have slipped your mind, but G.I. Joe producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura hasn’t forgotten, hinting at its significance as he discussed the future of the Transformers franchise.
Per ScreenRant, Bonaventura addressed fan theories about Agent Jack Burns, the character Cena played in the Transformers prequel Bumblebee, being the alter ego to Duke in G.I. Joe.
There are now a whopping 32 MCU movies. So far, Marvel Studios has never put out an objectively terrible box office bomb, though it’s safe to say there are entries that fans dread revisiting when doing a watchathon. But each and every MCU movie, no matter how poor the critical reception, has its fans.
r/MarvelStudios is currently picking through these, with fans revealing what their MCU “guilty pleasure” is. The top candidate seems to be Chloe Zhao’s 2021 Eternals, which sputtered at the box office, received some of the worst reviews of any MCU movie, and has yet to spawn any sequel plans. This is a butt-numbing two-and-a-half hours of philosophical superhero action which bored many in theaters, though its reputation has slowly improved after the home release. Replies dub Eternals as “underrated”, praise the overall aesthetic, and love the cinematography.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has finally graced the world with its presence today, and while the theatrical bow of this mammoth of a Marvel movie is an inarguable win for comic book film fans everywhere, it’s equally as bittersweet; indeed, as someone who snuck a Thursday night preview into their schedule, I can confirm that there’s no measurable chance that a better comic book movie will emerge from the woodwork any time soon.
But, peaks should be celebrated, and there’s a whole lot to celebrate when it comes to Across the Spider-Verse; from its diverse art styles to spectacular writing to the nigh unmatchable performances from co-leads Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen and Miles, Across the Spider-Verse conquers.
“Animation is not a genre for kids. It’s a medium for art, it’s a medium for film, and I think animation should stay in the conversation.”
Guillermo Del Toro
In the space of a week, I got to sit in a theater room to watch The Little Mermaid and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on the day they premiered, and this sequence of events could not have been more opportune.
You read that right, Henry Cavill‘s Superman will feature in The Flash, after all — sorta. It’s well-known by now that the long-awaited movie will see the Man of Steel’s role in the DCEU universe replaced with Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, thanks to the time-unraveling actions of Ezra Miller’s Scarlet Speedster, but Clark Kent’s absence from proceedings never sat right with fans given that we’re getting two Batmen (Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck).
The snub felt particularly mean-spirited given that Calle recently admitted that Cavill only had nice things to say about the film. Thanks to the latest promo for The Flash, though, at least we can now say that the Last Son of Krypton will get some kind of representation in this grand finale to the SnyderVerse. See for yourself by checking out the international teaser trailer above.
Much has been said about Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid, and while some complaints are purely based on bigoted viewpoints, there are legitimate criticisms to be made. The one dominating conversations right now, though, is the film’s underwater CGI.
No, a film doesn’t have to be perfect to win over audiences, but when it comes to underwater scenes, nothing can compete with Avatar: The Way of Water. Despite having little in the way of lasting cultural impact, the Avatar sequel completely blew it out of the park with the perfectly balanced use of CGI in underwater scenes. This is a reason to celebrate, of course, but for armchair critics and general film enthusiasts, it’s impossible not to compare all new movies to the new standard set by James Cameron.
Forget Secret Invasion, Marvel fans are already casting their sights further afield to think about Avengers: Secret Wars, the grand finale to both Phase Six and the Multiverse Saga as a whole. It’s fair to say, then, that Secret Wars is primed to become the biggest MCU movie since Avengers: Endgame and is probably the franchise’s next bet shot at reaching the kind of insane box office numbers that the Infinity Saga closer and its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, managed.
On the other hand, a big part of what helped hyped up those two movies before their releases is that hardcore fans couldn’t wait to see the arc of Thanos claiming the Infinity Gauntlet become a reality, as we mostly knew what to expect from the MCU itself and also the clear source material it was drawing from. Secret Wars is much more mystifying project, however, because — as comic book readers will know — there are two very different events that go by that name in Marvel lore.
Sasha Calle, who will make her first appearance as Supergirl in DC Studios’ upcoming The Flash film, has spoken about how meeting Gal Gadot, one of her inspirations and role models, filled her with a mixture of excitement and disbelief.
Comicbook.com interviewed Calle, who described her fangirling over the Wonder Woman actress upon meeting her for the first time.
Hunter Doohan is a name to remember when it comes to up-and-coming stars in the entertainment industry. The son of Australian tennis player Peter Doohan, Hunter was born on January 18, 1994, and is most known for his roles as Your Honor and Wednesday on television. His journey to Hollywood began when he took an interest in acting in high school and through community theater.
After graduating high school, Doohan interned at Elizabeth Barnes Casting in Los Angeles. Then he worked as a background extra, waiter, and tour guide at Universal Studios while he studied acting and auditioned for roles. Doohan’s breakout performance was as the younger Warren Cave in the premiere season of the Apple TV Plus original comedy Truth Be Told, which starred Aaron Paul.
As Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swings into theaters, on the back of some completely unsurprising positive early reactions and first reviews, we’re learning about a new rule when it comes to Spider-Man movies that we never knew about before. It seems that there’s only room for one universally beloved Spidey flick at any given time, as with Sony’s animated sequel now claiming that spot the previous position-holder is being tossed on the scrap heap. Namely, Spider-Man: No Way Home.
As easily the most widely praised entry in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga to date, No Way Home has always managed to avoid much of the never-ending criticism faced by its brothers and sisters in Phases Four and Five, but those days are now over, apparently. Just days ahead of Across the Spider-Verse hitting the silver screen, @cleooffilm went viral for taking a potshot at No Way Home‘s visuals, sharing four screenshots of dubious quality with the caption, “can’t believe we as a society just let this slide.”
It’s no secret that the MCU‘s Multiverse Saga isn’t enjoying the rude health that the Infinity Saga did before it, even the positively received Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 being so standalone rather proves that point. On the plus side, Marvel Studios has plenty of time to course-correct as we’re only at the beginning of Phase Five and the reign of Kang the Conqueror won’t end until the conclusion of Phase Six in 2026. And one way to fix things might be as simple as going back to how things used to be.
As part of a Twitter trend in which users voiced their most controversial Marvel opinions, The_GM_Is_God dropped their personal hot take that “Post credit scenes should just go back to teasing what’s in the next movie.” The opinion likely stems from many recent MCU end-credits sequences thinking further afield — e.g. Clea’s introduction in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Eros appearing in Eternals — resulting in endless waits for answers that have left fans frustrated.
Chukwudi Iwuji has been named by many Marvel fans as a suitable replacement for Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. However, not only is this a bad idea, it’s also pretty problematic.
The High Evolutionary was a great villain and Iwuji’s performance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 stood out as one of the most memorable that we’ve seen in the MCU for a while. In fact, his performance was so good that it outshone even Major’s role as the aforementioned multiversal big bad of the MCU. This is in part due to how the Conqueror was completely misused in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; his grand debut was squandered by the film’s poor plot and writing.
There are more than a few plot holes in Attack of the Clones, but one glaring blunder stands above the rest as just being completely nonsensical.
The mistake appears during the climax of the second Star Wars prequel, the battle on Geonosis, as Anakin and Obi-Wan give chase to Count Dooku. A clone trooper is ordered to shoot down Dooku’s ship but claims to be out of rockets. However, during the same scene, rockets can quite clearly be seen on the gunship’s wing.
Marvel loves a good pop culture reference – from Peter Quill’s fascination with Kevin Bacon to Carol Denver’s Nine Inch Nails t-shirt – but what happens when the superhero studio decides to hire the stars their own characters love? It’s like when Glee covered a Demi Lovato song and then proceeded to cast the singer to play a completely unrelated character a season later. Does her character know about the pop star who looks exactly like her? And does Guardians‘ Stakar Ogord know about the Rocky movies?
The connection was made in a recent Reddit post that resulted from the original poster rewatching 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Steve comes up with a list of all the things he needs to catch up on from the years he’s been on ice. On the list are Rocky and Rocky 2, which are obviously Sylvester Stallone‘s most famous movies. That same year, the Guardians of The Galaxy trilogy had its first installment, eventually bringing Stallone on board for its second and third as Ravager captain Stakar Ogord.
From the dodgy CGI to his rushed redemption arc, there were plenty of missed opportunities with M.O.D.O.K, so comparing him to Darth Vader – arguably the fiercest and most beloved villain of all-time – might ruffle some feathers.
Let’s face it, M.O.D.O.K was a pretty big disappointment when he finally debuted in the MCU as the secondary villain to Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The character was botched so badly that he’s pretty much become synonymous with everything wrong with the movie. So how dare someone have the gall to put him in the same bracket as Vader? The two aren’t even close!
It’s a far cry from perfect, as pretty much every Disney live-action remake will ever be, but there’s quite a lot to love about The Little Mermaid. From its treasure trove of excellent performances to its dazzling eye for spectacle via a respectable-at-best attempt at beefing up the story, the Mouse House’s latest can safely call itself one of the queen bees of the craze.
Of course, there’s effectively zero debate over the film’s most prominent linchpin, and she’s currently spending her time being grateful for The Little Mermaid‘s overwhelming domestic success.
“It ruined my childhood!” That’s the hyperbolic phrase often employed by incensed fans after a remake, reboot, legacy sequel, or spinoff connecting to something from their youths comes out and it falls short of measuring up to the rose-tinted memory of the original they hold in their heads and hearts. Sure, it’s a ridiculous thing to say — the thing you love still exists; in fact, it’s probably on streaming — but, honestly, Disney‘s live-action remakes of its animated classics often make us feel that way.
I can’t be alone in that, every time I sit down to watch one of the Mouse House’s latest reimaginings — which we didn’t ask for but nonetheless line up to see — I’m silently praying for it not to trample all over what’s so beloved about the animation too much. The risk in making the leap and deciding to watch these reboots is high and the rewards are unfortunately often low, and yet we keep on coming back — as evidenced by their box office success.
Phase Five is shaping up to be easily the unluckiest era of the MCU to date. First, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a critical and financial disappointment, then Marvel‘s entire plans for the Multiverse Saga were threatened over the troubling ongoing Jonathan Majors drama. Sure, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has gone well but now we’re back to the bad luck as a total of three upcoming projects have been simultaneously postponed for the foreseeable.
As you can probably guess, it’s all to do with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Strike that’s currently causing havoc in Hollywood. Although early word suggested filming had secretly got underway, it was ultimately confirmed that filming on Thunderbolts has had to be delayed due to the strike, with Marvel notifying cast and crew that it’ll finally get going once things get resolved. This makes it the third MCU project to be affected by the strike, following Blade and Wonder Man.
Netflix is having a rough week. The streaming giant has now cracked down on account sharing, resulting in a wave of unhappy comments from customers. It comes as subscriber numbers gradually contract, revenues shrink and many popular shows are being canceled before their time.
All of this means it’s high time for Blockbuster Video to get some payback. The once-dominant video/DVD rental giant was almost eradicated by Netflix in the 2000s and 2010s, though still just about lives on in much-diminished form. But it seems revenge is a dish best served cold:
Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker making a fresh start. The magical multiversal shenanigans eventually resulted in him being wiped from the world’s memory, which tragically included MJ and his best friend Ned. As per the ending, that pair are now MIT students, while Peter focuses on street-level crime as a self-made Spidey.
That said, whenever Spider-Man 4 happens, we wouldn’t be surprised if Zendaya and Jacob Batalon reprised their roles once again. So, based on what we saw in No Way Home, what does the future hold for the loveable Ned? MCU fans are debating where his story could go: will he ever follow his comics counterpart and become the Hobgoblin, or could his latent magical talents make him Wong or Strange’s newest apprentice?
As is obvious from the way that James Gunn can’t stop hyping it up on social media, The Flash is being pushed as the first stepping stone on the road to the shiny, new rebooted DCU. At the same time, however, it’s also something of a last hurrah for the old DCEU, also known as the SnyderVerse, whose continuity will officially be erased by the Scarlet Speedster tampering with time in the movie.
The most obvious connection with the SnyderVerse is Ezra Miller returning as said speedster, with their Barry mostly being paired with Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Batman over the course of the film. Nevertheless, there are many familiar faces from the DCEU dropping by alongside them. Even if one or two have been recast — Ron Livingstone replacing Billy Crudup as Barry’s dad Henry Allen, for instance.
On the same week that Deadpool 3 officially began production and amid a flurry of somewhat controversial snaps from the set of Captain America: New World Order, a third Marvel Studios movie has been confirmed to have secretly started shooting. While we’ve yet to get any photographic evidence of this one going before cameras, a bit of detective work reveals this to be the case.
While speaking with Poker Face cinematographer Steve Yedlin, Below The Line notes that they spoke to him “during a break in filming a new Marvel project down in Atlanta.” A glance at Yedlin’s IMDb confirms that he’s attached to none other than Thunderbolts, whose filming status has suitably been updated on the site to read “In Production.”
Gerard Butler would much rather be known as the Tom Hanks of action movies than the king of the B-movie, but it can’t be denied that he’s quietly been on quite the hot streak recently, with Copshop, Greenland, and Plane ranking as three of his best-reviewed action thrillers ever. However, the wheels come off a little with Kandahar, but that’s to be expected when the shadow of a vastly superior film looms overhead.
Re-teaming with Angel Has Fallen and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh for a third time, the story finds Butler’s undercover CIA operative Tom Harris on the run when his cover is blown. With Navid Negahban’s translator along for the ride, the unlikely duo face the daunting task of making it to an extraction point in the titular city, all while enemies are breathing down their necks at every turn.
Wes Anderson has been making films for almost three decades and he has barely experienced a lull in either success or popularity. Still, with his new film Asteroid City premiering at Cannes, which critics are calling his best since Grand Budapest Hotel, and his work being copied all over TikTok, it’s safe to say Wes Anderson has never been more in demand.
Despite being a relatively private person, this is far from the first time Anderson has taken over social media trends. As an early Gen Zer, I still remember when Anderson was the darling director of Tumblr, and everyone wanted to be Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward in Moonrise Kingdom.
The Flash is now on the starting blocks ready to race into action. In just a few weeks, we’re getting one of the busiest superhero movies in years, featuring two versions of Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen, Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck’s Batmen, Sasha Calle making her debut as Supergirl, and Michael Shannon as Zod.
A select few have already seen the finished product and their reports indicate that the above appearances are merely the tip of the iceberg. Potential major spoilers for The Flash follow, so if you want to go in unsullied do not read below this image.
