Category: Theaters

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2016 Is The Year That Expanded Universes Came In To Their Own!

Ever since Marvel showed that audiences will buy in to Expanded Universes, movie studios have been rushing to cash in, and in 2016 we finally saw it happen.

We got not one, but two DC movies in the same universe (Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad), and while they were critical failures, they still brought in a combined $1.5 Billion.  Warner Brothers was also able to kick start the Harry Potter Universe films by successfully opening Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  It may not have been as big as they were hoping for, but it will bring in north of $750 Million off of a $180 Million budget, and that is a return on investment studio heads will make every day of the week.

Meanwhile we are in the middle of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s run, and it has already cashed in almost $400 Million, so it should get to about $1 Billion.  Not bad for a movie that isn’t about a Skywalker.  Sure there is one in it, but this is not Darth Vader’s story.  Between the Marvel Universe and the Star Wars Universe, Disney may not be the House of Mouse anymore, but the Universe of Movie Universes.

After 2016 I am pretty sure every blockbuster being made will somehow link to another movie in some way.  The links may be small like Fantastic Beasts, the fictional writer of one of Harry’s text books, or more substantial like Rogue One, the events leading directly in to A New Hope, but they will be there.  I can’t wait for the Jurassic World Raptor Team solo film.  I am sure it will be filled with intrigue.  In all seriousness though I hope the Expanded Universe films they are making are at least in a universe worth exploring.  The Hasbro Expanded Universe they are working on sounds like nightmare fuel, but hey at least we are getting that M.A.S.K movie! (said no one ever)

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Rogue One Brings War To The Stars!

I saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story twice over the weekend and loved it both times.  This the type of prequel fans were hoping for when the prequel trilogy was announced.  It explains things fans have wondered about for years while still showing us something new.  Which is hard since there have now been three movies to focus on a Death Star.  Four if you include Attack of the Clones, and Five if you consider The Force Awakens’ Starkiller Base to be just a bigger Death Star.

Rogue One follows Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) as she tries to find her father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) who was in charge of designing the Death Star.  This quest will take her all over the galaxy with a rag tag crew of misfits.  It is the Star Wars equivalent to The Dirty Dozen, except there are only a half a dozen of them.

I enjoyed how they made a story about a giant flying death ball personal.  While soldiers trying to find a way to take out the Death Star is an interesting premise.  A woman doing it to fulfil her father’s legacy is even better.  Plus Rogue One was fine living in the gray areas of the Star Wars Universe.  There are no white knight heroes here.  Just people doing what they have to in order to defeat The Empire.

The cast was fantastic.  Of course I am biased towards anything featuring Alan Tudyk as a back-talking reprogrammed murder bot.  Felicity Jones leads this film perfectly as a conflicted soldier who is unsure about fighting for a cause that has only brought her loss, and Diego Luna as a fighter who is wondering if he has crossed too many lines in his fight for the Rebellion.  They all just work really well together.

The film is not perfect though.  It bounces around too much in the beginning, so it is hard to focus on what is going on.  I understand that Gareth Edwards wanted to show that this was a galaxy wide war, but there are just a few too many planets.  Also Rogue One pandered to our nostalgia just a little too much.

All in all Disney’s second Star Wars film is a rousing success.  It is like they made an adult version of the Star Wars: Rebels cartoon.  Which is something I can fully get behind.  Rogue One is the best prequel film that has been made, and while that may have been an easy bar to clear, it is still a great film that was fun to watch.  I can only hope the Han Solo film is as successful as Rogue One.

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DC Is Sticking With Ayer For Gotham City Sirens!

Suicide Squad made tons of money despite its awful reviews, so it is not surprising that it is getting a spinoff featuring Harley Quinn and her villainous besties, Gotham City Sirens.  What is surprising is that they are keeping on David Ayer to do the film.  Usually in this kind of situation were the movie made money, but that fans were not pleased they axe the director to appease everyone.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised given that after the fallout of Batman v Superman DC/Warner Bros stuck with Zack Snyder for Justice League, but considering the studio head reshuffle, you would expect story/director changes to be happening all over the place.  I guess they just decided that in order to keep everything on track they need to stay with what they got, and then try to have Geoff Johns retool and try to get the scripts where they need to be.   I am hoping this strategy works out because I love the DC Universe, and would love for the movies being made to be actually good instead of okay.

Regardless, it looks like I will have to cast a new Catwoman and Poison Ivy.  That is an exciting prospect.  Also it sounds like the Deadshot movie announcement is incoming, so that should be fun.

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There Is A Lot Going On In The Transformers: The Last Knight Trailer!

Clearly Michael Bay has decided that if you can’t write a coherent plot you just need to cram the movie full of more stuff so audiences can’t tell.  In the first Transformers: The Last Knight trailer alone we got the Arthurian Legend, Unicron, Bad Optimus Prime, and a dragon that is probably Nemesis Prime.  I mean you spend thirty minutes with each of those plot lines and you get a two hour movie.  Will it make any sense?  No.

I can only hope that much like Transformers: Age of Extinction that none of the plot lines truly intersect.  Like the Robodragon from the Author timeline is a totally different dragon from the one they have to fight in the future, and that the Unicron killing sword has nothing to do with Excalibur.  Then when we are all scratching our heads trying to figure out what just happened, we will get Rodimus Prime because why else would Hot Rod be in this movie.  Plus he can put a bow on everything to get us ‘excited’ for Transformers 6.