I’m not actually trying to be shitty here, at least not to the character herself. It was The Walking Dead’s responsibility to make us care about Rosita, something it’s resolutely failed to do since introducing her back in season four. Her compatriots Abraham and Eugene got ample screen time so we could get to know them, but Rosita had about as many lines as the late, lamented T-Dogg, and less of a personality. In four seasons, her only defining characteristic was her relationship with Abraham, both before and after he dumped her. I guess Rosita also had a death wish, but since 50 percent minimum of the cast have a death wish at any given time, that hardly made her stand out.
Her second dumb, doomed attempt to kill Negan looked poised to finally put the character out of her misery, but I was pleasantly surprised to see her open up and talk about herself to Sasha. The idea of her realizing she was helpless once the zombie apocalypse hit, and then methodically hooking up with guys and learning their skills like some sort of relationship Mega Man in order to learn how to take care of herself is pretty compelling, and I also liked that she realized she wasn’t jealous of Abraham dumping her to be with Sasha as much as was jealous that Abraham found some sort of happiness and peace in Alexandria, while she felt just as lost and unsettled as before. Their conversation doesn’t exactly pass the Bechdel test, but at least Rosita has reframed things so we see how her character was informed by Abraham, as opposed to existing solely as his supporting player.
There was another excellent moment in this episode, a face-off that had been a long time coming. For the first time since the season premiere, Maggie and Daryl shared the same scene—which means it was the first time since Daryl’s foolish act of defiance got Glenn killed. Daryl is so wracked with guilt he can’t even look at Maggie, even when the two of them are forced to hide from the Saviors in the Hilltop mansion’s basement. I always get annoyed when a TV character who’s lost a spouse has to comfort someone else just because that someone else is a more prominent character, but underneath his leather jacket we know Daryl is a big softie, and watching him cry always tugs at the heartstrings. And it doesn’t seem too out of the question that Maggie would have already found at least a measure of peace over Glenn’s death, while the emotionally stunted Daryl has been wallowing in guilt all this time.
The rest of the episode? …enh. There were two storylines, and we basically knew how both of them would end: 1) The first is Sasha and Rosita’s suicide mission to kill Negan, which we know ends in failure because that’s not how the series’ new main antagonist is going to meet his end, and 2) The Saviors arrive at Hilltop and Maggie and Daryl have to hide again. Will the Saviors discover them? No, because narratively speaking Maggie has lots to do in Hilltop, i.e., getting the colony’s people ready to fight, and because it would be lame for Daryl to have escaped the Saviors only to get caught by them again a few episodes later.
There were a few twists and turns along the way, but Maggie and Daryl were obviously not in any danger, nor was Negan. Weaselly Hilltop mayor Gregory is still being weaselly, laying yet more groundwork for when he inevitably betrays Maggie to the Saviors in the future. About the only thing I didn’t expect was that the Saviors (led by Simon), takes Hilltop’s doctor Harlan to replace the one Negan threw in the furnace a few weeks ago. (Also? Apparently Sanctuary’s doctor was Hilltop doctor’s brother.) That should complicate Maggie’s pregnancy a bit.
Meanwhile, Rosita and Sasha’s journey starts out just as slow and obnoxious as you could have expected; they leave when the Saviors arrive, Rosita is as unpleasant as ever, and they spend really long time trying to find a car, which made me worry that the show was going to drag this dead-end storyline out. It’s when Sasha says there are some four-story buildings outside the Saviors’ compound where they can get a good shot that I saw a glimmer of hope—because then they wouldn’t have to enter the compound, and thus they’d maybe actually live after they took the shot. Rosita is, of course, angry that Sasha would suggest something that won’t get her killed as soon as possible, but eventually comes around, leading to the scene I described above.
Obviously, this plan has to be abandoned when Negan’s new chief engineer Eugene orders a random search of the nearby buildings, but the fact that at least Sasha momentarily had the sense and desire to at least try a way to kill Negan that didn’t involve total self-sacrifice made me less annoyed with the storyline. I also liked that the two of them attempt to rescue Eugene, who basically freaks out and runs back in the compound, presumably back to his Atari. Rosita is so pissed she doesn’t notice Sasha sneak through the fence and then close it up, then tells Rosita to go live while she tries (and inevitably fails) to kill Negan. And there the episode ends.
So we don’t know what’s happened or going to happen to Sasha—she could be dead already, but I doubt The Walking Dead would have the restraint to have a main character die off-screen—but Sasha’s sacrificing herself and locking Rosita out makes no sense at all. Sasha didn’t seem to want to die, certainly not a quarter as much as Rosita; the reason the two partnered up in the first place is because it was at least a two-person job, meaning Sasha now nullified her already slight chances of succeeding; and all of Sasha’s speech about Rosita living and how people “need” her is nonsense, because no one has ever needed Rosita, because Rosita has never done anything for anybody, because the show has never bothered to give her a relationship with anybody beyond Abraham.
It’s a dumb scene, and knowing that Sasha is absolutely going to die just makes it more annoying. Honestly, Sonequa Martin-Green should have said, “Look, it’s time for me to go. Seriously, I’ve got to be on-set for Star Trek: Discovery in a few weeks.” (This would also explain her huge smile as she ran off to die.)
The good news is that at least this dumb plot is (mostly) out of the way, and more importantly, that Rosita finally has gotten a lot more interesting and sympathetic. I’m not going to pretend a three-minute scene has made up for four seasons of nothingness, but it’s a start, and absolutely the most interested I’ve ever been in the character. Assuming Rosita uses this experience to grow as a character—by no means a given, unfortunately—it would be great to see her continue to open up, to try and join the fight against the Saviors and work with people for the greater good, and finally, all these years later, truly become part of the team.
Assuming, of course, Dwight doesn’t put an arrow through her head in the first 30 seconds of next week’s episode.
Assorted Musings:
• Glad we got more of Simon. He’s obviously another terrible person, but he’s so much more charming and interesting than the other Saviors. For instance, I feel pretty confident he’s the only one who recognizes how delightful and/or crazy it is that someone makes is making cardamom gelato in the zombie apocalypse.
• I may start referring to Gregory exclusively as Mayor McWeaselface. Still pondering.
• Man, that scene with Eugene’s walkie-talkie message—where Sasha and Rosita turn it on just before Eugene gives out a huge infodump, including the fact that the nearby buildings are randomly being searched, was awful. It was so contrived I was actually confused and wondered if Eugene has somehow spotted them and was trying to send them a message. It was very bad, and I’m getting worried TWD’s moments of bad storytelling are starting to get a little more frequent.
Hmm, maybe Peter Parker and Barbara Ann Minerva had the same martial arts sensei?
The newest character teaser for Netherrealm’s DC Comics fighting game features Wonder Woman’s archenemy, although this version of Cheetah doesn’t appear to be taking very many cues from the iteration that’s been seen in Greg Rucka’s run since DC Comics’ Rebirth. The moves on display make it seem like she should just give up on villainy and open up a chiropractic practice.
Speaking of moves, Cheetah’s super-move looks a whole lot like the “Maximum Spider” super-move that Spider-Man could unleash in Marvel vs. Capcom. Both of them have slashing-across-the-screen sequences that intensify in speed and end in a brutal kick into the opponent’s back. Here, take a look:
This is a fun little nod that’s probably intended as an homage to a superhero fighting game that preceded Injustice 2. Or it’s just a weird coincidence that happened when multiversal dimensional barriers got a little too porous.
Near the end of Muppet Guys Talking, puppeteer Dave Goelz is asked a question about where he’s found the nobility in his life’s work. “[In] folly,” he answers. “Human folly. Celebrating the degree to which we’re all lost.” That’s just one instance of how this documentary about the world’s favorite puppets gets surprisingly deep.
Directed by Frank Oz and screened this week in Austin at SXSW, Muppet Guys Talking is a warm, unassuming film that documents a reunion of five people who worked with Jim Henson. The movie is essentially a recording of a 10-hour hang-out in 2012 that Oz had with Goelz, the man who’s brought Gonzo and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew to life for decades, Fran Brill (Prairie Dawn), Jerry Nelson (Count von Count), and Bill Barretta (Rowlf, Pepe the King Prawn). Oz, having performed as Yoda and Miss Piggy, is among the best known of the crew but the point of the film is to let audiences know about some of the more unheralded puppeteers who helped bring the Muppets to full bloom.
There’s a mix of cozy reminiscing, nuts-and-bolts discussion of craft, and psychological deconstruction in Muppet Guys Talking, as the friends describe the origins of characters and the depths they plumbed to shape those personalities. Talking about Animal, Goelz says that the wild percussionist didn’t need to be three-dimensional like Miss Piggy and that Animal only thinks about “drums, sleep, food, sex, and pain.” “He goes out in the middle of the night,” Goelz went on. “You don’t know where he goes and you don’t want to ask.”
Oz shared similar insights about Fozzy, saying that, in his mind, the character doesn’t have a key to the Muppet Theater where he performs. But the schlocky comedian shows up at 6:00 a.m. every morning, wanting to be in “the show business.” “He’ll never succeed at being funny but he’ll never stop trying,” Oz said.
Gonzo is crazy but free, Bunsen is specific but misses the big picture and Zoot is in his own world. Some of these truths have been obvious to people who’ve watched the Muppets but, in the cases where they weren’t, the insights will make you appreciate the characters even more.
Anecdotes about The Muppet Movie and other productions reveal that making this kind of entertainment could be physically grueling. One such story is centered on a campfire singalong segment with the late John Denver. A bunch of puppeteers were hunched underneath the stage in a tight circle around the propane tank fueling the fire up above. Oz remembered thinking “Holy shit, this thing could blow and destroy all of us.”
“We’ve worked real close, like nose-in-armpit close,” Oz says at another point in the film. That emotional closeness is evident on screen and Muppet Guys Talking makes it clear that the Henson only built such a meaningful legacy by creating an open atmosphere where anyone could contribute ideas and take risks. Goelz describes Jim Henson as a harvester of people and said that “How do you get to abandon and lunacy?” was a key question that reverberated through the air in their work together. “The farther you went with a character, the more Jim liked it,” he remembered. Nelson, who died shortly after the project was filmed, cited his Muppet work as a source of personal growth, saying, “I’m not who I thought I was.”
Generations of people have also had the Muppets be part of their own self-discovery journeys. I include myself in that number but didn’t expect to cry while watching Muppet Guys Talking. Yet I started welling up about two minutes into the documentary. Seeing old, familiar Sesame Street footage and the raucous music from the Muppet Show reminded me of the rapturously untethered energy that Henson’s work infused into my young mind. The ethos of Henson’s work seems to be joy without judgment. Oz puts it another way in the movie, saying that his late friend “took a chance on sweetness,” adding, “That’s hard thing to take a chance on. You can get laughed at.”
Muppet Guys Talking stands as a testament to the enduring opposite reaction to the Muppet oeuvre: we’re giggling with these creators, not at them, and there’s a deep well of gratitude underneath all the laughter.
Jeff Bezos testing out the Method-2 mecha robot by Hankook Mirae Technology yesterday at a private Amazon conference on automation (Twitter)
What would you do if you were a billionaire? Elon Musk is trying to get to Mars. Peter Thiel wants to live forever. And Jeff Bezos, well, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apparently wants to rule the world in a gigantic robot. At least that’s the impression you might get from the photos and video taken yesterday.
Last night at Amazon’s annual robotics conference Jeff Bezos slipped into something a bit more comfortable—a 13-foot tall robot designed by Korean company Hankook Mirae Technology. Bezos, much like his fellow tech billionaires, seems to be on the fast track to supervillain status before we’re all inevitably annihilated in a nuclear war started by one of Trump’s butt-tweets.
Amazon’s private conference is known as MARS, an acronym for Machine learning, home Automation, Robotics and Space exploration. And Bezos looked like a kid in a candy store (a futuristic Richie Rich, to be exact) as he played around in the robot.
Jeff Bezos piloting a gigantic Method-2 robot designed by South Korean company Hankook Mirae Technology (Twitter)
“Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver,” Bezos quipped, referring to the Alien movie franchise.
As the Verge points out, this particular robot, the Method-2, has been the source of plenty of speculation about whether it’s a fake. There was no evidence last night that the thing could walk, but the arms seemed to move as designed, with Bezos at the controls.
There are legitimate questions about the robot’s mobility (promo videos for the robot with it walking appear to be almost certainly faked) but that didn’t stop Bezos from having fun wildly flailing his arms around.
I guess we should be happy that Bezos is getting to have his fun before we’re all destroyed in the upcoming nuclear war. Maybe he can even design one that’s protected from radiation. Or better yet, he could show up to his next meeting with the Bloviator-in-Chief wearing the robotic suit.
Whether you’re building a brand new PC, or just upgrading your current rig, Amazon’s one-day Gold Box deal is full of popular peripherals and accessories for great low prices.
Plus-sized iPhone owners have traditionally been left out in the cold when it comes to battery cases, but ZeroLemon finally made one for the iPhone 7 Plus, and you can get it for $10 off with promo code P8H9ZHRO.
The 7 Plus is a big phone to begin with, so I’m not sure I’d want to use this thing full-time, but it could really come in handy for long days with few chances to plug in.
The Razer Blade Stealth ultrabook isn’t actually all that great a gaming laptop (unless you buy the Razer Core external GPU, but, come on), but it is a fantastic high-end general purpose laptop, with build quality that rivals Apple, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 12.5" 4K display.
Your next surge protector should have USB ports too, and you can choose from three different sizes today from Bestek. Just be sure to note the promo codes below.
The Fremo Evo attaches to the bottom of the Dot via an included magnetic plate, and can power it continuously for six hours away from a charger. And when you’re ready to plug it in, it uses the same power adapter that came with the Dot, meaning you can keep the Evo attached at all times, and take your Dot off the charger without ever losing power and forcing a reboot. Just use promo code 9A757B3O at checkout to save $7.
While integrated sound bars are increasingly popular options for home theater audio, if you like to kick it old school with a receiver and satellite speakers, Amazon’s top-selling receiver is down to an all-time low $198 today, or about $100 less than usual.
The Sony STRDH770 includes four HDMI inputs (all of which support 4K at 60FPS), Bluetooth streaming, and 7.2 channels of audio output. That’s a lot of bang for your buck.
This curved sound bar is easily one of the best looking I’ve ever seen, and if you own a newer Samsung TV, you can even connect it wirelessly. Today’s deal on Amazon is the lowest price ever listed, and roughly $80 less than usual, so it’s definitely worth a look if you’re still using your TV’s built-in speaker.
The Logitech MX Master Mouse comes with all the accoutrements you’d expect form a high end mouse—namely a rechargeable battery, adjustable DPI, and a dark field laser that works on glass—and a few that you wouldn’t, like a side thumb wheel for horizontal navigation and gestures, and the ability to connect over Bluetooth to three devices simultaneously.
It’s officially spring, which means it’ll soon be time to head to your nearest pool/lake/river/stream/resevoir/ocean, and you can keep your phone safe from the elements with this $3 dry bag.
If you have any $75+ items on your shopping list, you can save $15 until 11PM ET by buying them through eBay. Just use promo code CSAVE15OFFMARCH at checkout to get the discount.
Unfortunately, this deal excludes gift cards, money, and, uh, real estate, so it’s not nearly as useful as some sitewide eBay coupons we’ve seen.
Update: Now up to $25, which is still a pretty solid price.
Wi-Fi range extenders can’t work miracles, but if there’s one spot in your house with spotty coverage, they can be a much cheaper solution than buying a new router. So at $22, why not give this one a try? That’s within a couple bucks of an all-time low.
$19 is a very good price for any 20,000mAh USB battery pack. But when you consider that this one includes Quick Charge 2.0 for your Android devices, it’s a no-brainer. You should be able to get 4-5 phone charges out of this thing, making it perfect for sharing during a long flight or camping trip.
Despite its impressive performance, the RoboVac normally sells for over $100 less than the Roomba 650, and today on Amazon, you can get and extra $33 off its usual price. Vacuuming is the worst chore, so it’s worth every penny to pawn it off to a robot.
This discount is valid whether you’re booking someone for spring cleaning, repairing an appliance, installing a porch swing, or just about anything in between. Just pick your service, verify that Amazon services your zip code, and you’ll see the discount automatically at checkout.
If your wiper blades have seen better days, Amazon will sell you two Michelin Stealth replacements today for $20. Just add any two to your cart (shipped and sold by Amazon.com), and the price will automatically be reduced to $20 at checkout. The deal even works if you buy two different sized blades, so you should have no trouble finding a combination that fits your car.
Energy drinks will probably kill you, but if you can’t go without the pick-me-up, Red Bull is probably the least disgusting option out there. And with this Prime-only Amazon deal, it’s also one of the most affordable.
You probably looked at that image up there and laughed. But let me tell you, there’s nothing funny about using the bathroom in the middle of the night and having to turn on an overhead light to see where you’re going. Because as soon as you hit that switch, you know you’re not getting back to sleep for another hour.
OxyLED’s new motion-sensing toilet lights fit on just about any toilet, and can output 12 different colors of light without wreaking havoc on your circadian rhythms. For a limited time, you can score a 2-pack for $14 with code 2OXYTN01. Note that this is a new product, so it doesn’t have many reviews yet, but our readers have purchased thousands up thousands of other motion-sensing LED products from OxyLED, so it’s a brand you can trust.
This unique measuring cup doubles as a kitchen scale, so you can work seamlessly with both volume and weight-based recipes. My mom owns one of these, and she’s told me it works great.
Spring is here, which means your lawn mowing vacation is officially over. Edging will be a pain in the ass no matter what, but this 20V cordless Black & Decker trimmer makes it as frictionless as possible.
Today only, get the trimmer and two batteries from Amazon for just $75, an all-time low.
You get to choose from either the 20 oz. or 24 oz. model in for this deal, though only in one color. When we post deals on these mugs, it’s usually the West Loop model, but the Byron’s a little bit different. Unlike the West Loop, the Byron’s lid doesn’t open and close automatically, though many reviewers say it’s easier to clean. The Byron also includes a rubberized non-slip sleeve, which is a nice touch, especially at these prices.
These dryer balls have an astounding 12,000 Amazon reviews at a 4.6 star average, and are unsurprisingly Amazon’s top-selling item in the fabric softener category. Like, good for them, but how does such a boring product get that much attention?
A $40 hand vac might not seem all that notable, but this is one of the only ones I’ve seen with a motorized brush to loosen up pet hair from your couches and car seats. Of course, you can also swap in standard crevice and upholstery tools if the job calls for them.
Before you go out and flush $30 down the drain on a Yeti Rambler, check out this RTIC alternative for just $10 on Amazon today, within a dollar of the best price Amazon’s ever listed. It uses the same vacuum-insulated stainless steel construction, and according to this YouTube video at least, actually keeps ice frozen for longer. No-brainer.
Note: It’s listed as an add-on item, but if you look on the sidebar for other sellers, you can buy it from RTIC directly with free (albeit slower) shipping, without adding any extra items to your cart.
I wouldn’t normally post a rotating RGB stage light like this, but hell, it’s $8 and it includes a microphone so it can spin at the same speed as your music. Loan it to one friend for a wedding, and that’s money well spent.
If you make a habit of shopping at Banana Republic, GAP, Old Navy, or Athleta, you can get $10 off your next purchase with this discounted gift card (it’s branded as a Banana Republic gift card, but it’ll work at any Gap-brand store).
Since it’s just a gift card, your savings will stack with any other deals or promotions the retailers offer as well, which is good, since Gap is taking 40% off their entire site right now with promo code SPRING. The gift card includes fast email delivery, so you’ll be able to take advantage of both deals today.
Another huge sale from Timbuk2 brings a ton of their excellent bags down to hard-to-resist levels. All custom bags (if you didn’t know you could get a custom bag, now you do) are up to 40% off. Check out all the styles you can choose from here.
So, how do you redeem your discount? Start with your base bag, whether it’s their new Folsom Laptop Backpack, or the ever-popular Classic Messenger Bag. Then hit the customize button and go to town making your own one-of-a-kind Timbuk2 bag. Show us your designs in the comments.
Another day, another J.Crew Factory markdown. This time, get an extra 30% off almost everything with the code WAKEYWAKEY. J.Crew Factory is basically always on sale, but it works even better when they have extra discounts, so if you haven’t stocked up on workwear staples and outwear galore, maybe this one will change your mind.
iTunes gift card discounts are noticeably less common than they used to be, and while we do see 20% discounts from time to time, a $100 iTunes gift card for $85 is still a solid deal if you pay for apps, movies, Apple Music, or iCloud storage.
These Xbox One S bundles aren’t discounted, but they do come with your choice of two extra games (in addition to whatever games are included in the bundle), for a limited time.
After you add a bundle to your cart, you’ll be able to choose one game from a selection of mostly crap (though Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Rainbow Six Siege are decent options), and another game from a selection of newer, more popular titles, including Mass Effect Andromeda.
Update: Amazon’s also selling a $300 bundle with an Xbox One S, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Andromeda, a $10 Amazon Music Unlimited credit, and a $10 Amazon video credit. Thanks, Shiloh!
Remember that awesome speeder Rey used to haul her shit across Jakku in Star Wars: The Force Awakens? There’s a LEGO version of it, complete with a Rey minifig, and it’s only $12 right now. You’ll treasure it sitting on your desk like she treasured that beat up Rebellion flight helmet.
Remember Uno? We used to play it all the time when I was a kid, and Amazon’s selling decks for just $3 as an add-on item right now. I can’t promise you’ll have as much fun as the people in that photo, but it’s a solid addition to any game collection.
Is saving a little over a dollar on a $20 Xbox gift card a big deal? No, not really. But you can buy multiples, it’ll take you about 30 seconds to purchase them and add the codes to your account, and that credit is often the only way to buy DLC or certain downloadable games. So if you have an Xbox One, why not?
Image: DC Comics. Art by Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair.
Ever since Flashpoint, DC Comics has tried not to stray too far into roster-wide comic book event series. That’s going to change this year with Dark Days—a big new project being pitched as what could be an over-the-top sendoff to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on the Dark Knight.
Today DC announced that Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jim Lee, Andy Kubert, and John Romita Jr. are teaming up for two one-shot comics called Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting that promise to “reveal the dark underbelly of the DC Universe” before heading into a new line-wide event series.
There’s not much more to go on about the event other than that description and the above art of Batman looking up at a giant statue of what looks to be a far more tyrannical version of himself. But a mystery with dark ramifications for the DC Universe could possibly indicate that the untitled event Dark Days is leading up to will lift the lid onWatchmen’s integration into DC canon.
However, in a statement from Scott Snyder about the news, it seems like this may instead be the big Batman-centric event the writer has been talking about doing with his fellow Batman series collaborator Greg Capullo pretty much since the two left the book after an extensive run last year:
Dark Days posits a mystery that traces all the way back to when I started on Batman. I’ve hinted at them over the years with Easter eggs and clues. This is a mystery that literally begins at the dawn of man and spans generations of heroes and villains and ultimately leads to huge revelations about the past, present and future of the cosmology of DC. I couldn’t be more excited for Dark Days. It’s the prelude to the event we’ve been developing for years.
Either way, expect a big deal and some Batman revelations in whatever DC’s cooking up. What you shouldn’t expect from it? Superheroes arguing with each other, according to an earlier interview Snyder did with CBR:
I want it built out of the stories happening now and creating new material and giving everybody a place to tell stories that fit what they’re doing on their books, and feels really modern and different and above all fun. I don’t want it to be grim. I don’t want it to be superheroes arguing over something. Superheroes won’t be fighting superheroes. I want it to be celebratory, and huge, and crazy. I am going for out of control dinosaurs and lasers.
The Power Rangers finally morph in Power Rangers. All Images: Lionsgate
The final act of Power Rangers is everything you could want from a Power Rangers movie. It’s fun, funny, action-packed, and filled with so many Zords and monsters that you’ll actually feel like you’re watching a big-budget update of the popular kids’ franchise. The problem is that the 90 minutes preceding it wants as little to do with the Power Rangers as possible.
For its majority, Power Rangers is a heavy-handed, character-forward teen drama with a little bit of Rangersstuff sprinkled in. It’s way, way less interested in the characters as color-coded superheroes than it is with their struggles to grow up and accept the responsibility of being Power Rangers. It’s not a bad story, but it’s so devoted to its teen drama it doesn’t have time for fighting and Zords and everything that makes the franchise fun, so overall the movie feels wildly uneven and, ultimately, disappointing.
As you could tell right from the characters’ muted, overcomplicated uniforms, it’s obvious director Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) didn’t want to make a bright, colorful Power Rangers movie. After a promising, yet dark, prologue featuring Bryan Cranston’s Zordon and Elizabeth Banks’ Rita, we meet Jason (Dacre Montgomery) as he’s committing a crime and getting into a violent car accident. The film then cuts to black and the words “Power Rangers” appear in a very small font in the bottom corner of the screen—it’s the opening of a Steven Soderbergh movie, not a Power Rangers one. From there, we follow Jason as he goes into detention, meets a few fellow outcasts and, eventually, they all haphazardly meet at a rock quarry almost an hour outside of their town. There they find the power coins and begin their journey to becoming Power Rangers.
Cyler, Montgomery, G., Lin, and Scott are the Power Rangers.
As this is all happening, it’s obvious from the realistic setting and muted visuals that the film is taking the material incredibly seriously. Yes, it gets to the Power Rangers stuff fairly quickly but it all feels secondary to the teenagers’ problems. Zack (Ludi Lin) has a sick mother. Trini’s (Becky G.) parents don’t understand who she truly is. Kimberly (Naomi Scott) is dealing with a bad case of cyber-bullying and Billy (R.J. Cyler) is ostracized because he’s on the spectrum. Add that to Jason’s problem of throwing his life away for a dumb prank and these kids obviously have some issues.
This could have been a great parallel, right? They need to deal with their personal problems and the difficulties of becoming Power Rangers simultaneously, and these conflicts could have informed each other. But at almost every turn the Power Ranger training and mythology plays back-up to the teen drama. There’s rarely a sense of “wow” early in the film and the characters almost never think about the bigger picture of the world being in danger. They are so laser-focused on their small-town lives and high school problems that it seems like they barely care about becoming Power Rangers or saving the world. They say they care, but the movie doesn’t show any evidence of it. And since they don’t care, neither do we. It all just ends up making the film feel super slow, with the exception of a training montage or two.
But once you get past all that the kids finally put on the costumes and jump into action. At this point, the audience I saw the film with cheered, because the movie has finally delivered on its promise. It’s the Power Rangers! Zords! Rita! Goldar! Fighting! But something is off... literally. The kids don’t wear their iconic masks, so we can see their faces almost the whole time. Even in this huge, ludicrous action scene, the film refuses to fully embrace the mystique of the Power Rangers.
Elizabeth Banks is the only one in the film who gets it.
To their credit, the cast does their best in their roles. Elizabeth Banks seems to be the only person aware she’s in a Power Rangers movie and she acts with pure, devilish delight. The kids all embody their characters fairly well, too; obviously, the script was written to give them maximum room to grow as characters in the film and they do just that. R.J. Cyler’s Billy, in particular, is a character that’s the audience can latch on too. It’s just a shame they weren’t given the same memo as Banks that this franchise is less The Breakfast Club and more monsters and robots.
Despite the fun of the third act, it can’t erase those first 90 minutes, and the harsh tonal shift between the two. It’s hard to imagine that young kids—arguably the prime Power Rangers audience—would enjoy sitting through all that talking and angst before getting to the good stuff, although maybe they will. Maybe for kids, the teen heroes are simple and charismatic enough that they’ll latch onto and look up to them, sympathize with their problems and truly felt the evolution when they become Power Rangers.
Maybe. But walking out of the movie I had a revelation: The problem with Power Rangers is that it establishes a world where five kids in robot dinosaurs don’t belong. In a film devoted to exploring Billy, Jason, Kimberly, Zack, and Trini’s teenage angst, somehow it’s the Rangers who end up not fitting in.
Jyn and Cassian had a different fate in earlier versions of Rogue One. Image: Disney
By now, it’s common knowledge that Rogue One does not end happily for any of the main characters. Sure, they accomplish their goal, and that goal makes many major things possible, but they never get to see the fruits of their labor. In early versions of the script, however, that was not the case.
While director Gareth Edwards has admitted this in the past, Rogue One’s first writer Gary Whitta just gave all the details of the original ending to Entertainment Weekly.
After Jyn and Cassian stole the plans, they ran across the beach (a shot seen in early preview footage) and a Rebel ship dropped down to pick them up. Once in space, Leia’s ship met up with Jyn and Cassian’s, but with Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer in pursuit. They transferred the data to Leia’s ship just as their ship was destroyed. However, as the first shot of A New Hope happened in the back of the frame, a small escape pod ejected from the destroyed wreckage, indicating Jyn and Cassian had survived.
It’s obviously a much happier ending, but Whitta said it just didn’t feel right.
“The fact that we had to jump through so many hoops to keep them alive was the writing gods telling us that if they were meant to live it wouldn’t be this difficult,” Whitta told EW. “We decided they should die on the surface [of Scarif], and that was the way it ended. We were constantly trying to make all the pieces fit together. We tried every single idea. Eventually, through endless development you get through an evolutionary process where the best version rises to the top.”
It’s worth noting this version was never shot. It just existed on the page.
Entertainment Weekly has many more details at the link, and it’s definitely worth a read. Rogue One hits digital download March 24, followed by Blu-ray on April 4.
Mass Effect: Andromeda comes out this week, marking the end of a long wait for fans of BioWare’s scifi action RPG franchise. We’re big fans of Mass Effect here at io9 and have decided to celebrate the occasion by looking back at our most-loved instances from the long-running series.
Along with myself, io9 staffers Beth Elderkin and James Whitbrook have all played the previous Mass Effect titles and are looking forward to exploring a whole new galaxy in the series’ next game. To me, the biggest success of previous Mass Effect games was making the player feel like they were at the crux of turning points of (future) history. There was a lot of established lore and culture in the Mass Effect universe in the story of the first game and that gave the proceedings a certain amount of weight. But two of my favorite moments were the ones where it felt like my Commander Shepard was the one making decisions that would later be written about in the codex entries passed down for generations.
It’s not necessary to know anything about the older trilogy to appreciate Andromeda but we still wanted to reminisce about the sagas of our Shepards before warping into another sector of space.
Evan Narcisse
The Conversation with Sovereign
This is the exact moment when Mass Effect stopped being another tweak-your-stats, space soldier shoot-em-up and, for me, became a story about the larger existential threat that the universe faced. Sovereign—the petrifying giant squid robot revealed as part of the race behind the Mass Effect’s initial “rogue operative” storyline coming to destroy the galaxy—felt frighteningly aloof, like the voice that might come from the sole of a boot about to crush an ant. Talking with the consciousness inside of a member of the giant robot species made me feel like dealing with the Reapers would require a huge undertaking. The scope of the adventure ahead came into focus and I felt so very, very small.
The Decision on Virmire
I’ve written elsewhere about how deeply the plight of the Krogan race resonated with me in Mass Effect 1. Their fictional history clearly alludes to the way that non-white people were used as enslaved labor to benefit a white ruling class, and the artificially induced disease that’s rendered them nearly extinct, the Genophage, can be read as a metaphor for Jim Crow, redlining, and other real-world decrees meant to keep people from a specific population in a particular—usually lower—social stratum.
So, the chance to right this great wrong—curing the Genophage and letting the Krogan breed again—was a powerful goal for me. But, because of gameplay choices I made, I wasn’t able to do that. Instead, after an intense argument I had to watch space racist party member Ashley kill my Krogan buddy Wrex, and wonder what kind of future would be left for the warrior race that had once saved the entire galaxy.
The Tragedy of Overlord
To this day, I hold the DLC story missions for Mass Effect 2 as a high point of what’s possible when adding content to a single-player, narrative-based game. They added tonal variance to the universe and, in the case of the Kasumi mission, Stolen Memory, leavened the so-serious tone of the main game with heist-caper humor. Overlord told the story of two brothers torn apart by a rogue experiment that tried to fuse artificial and human intelligences, giving players a haunted house adventure that worked an emotional vein in a different way.
Beth Elderkin
Mordin’s Swan Song
No moment brings me more joy in Mass Effect 2 than when Mordin Solus—a quick talking alien doctor you recruit for your mission against the collectors, busts out his Gilbert and Sullivan verse, joyously singing about being a “scientist Salarian” in the middle of the lab. It’s one of the many reasons why his final goodbye in Mass Effect 3 is so heartbreaking. If you agree to help Mordin (rather than sabotage his cure for the Genophage, which his people inflected on the Krogan, like a dick), he gets to right the mistakes of his past, sadly sacrificing himself in the process. In his final moments, he softly sings about being “the very model of a scientist Salarian.” It is a beautiful moment, but a tragic one for one of the series’ most intriguing characters. Forever more, these will be the saddest seven words in Mass Effect, when Mordin tells Shepard that he has to be the one to die so that the Krogan might live: “Somebody else might have gotten it wrong.”
The Al-Jilani Saga
I always play Mass Effect as a virtuous Paragon, making the best and noblest choices I can in the game’s patented morality system (inspired by the light and dark side of the force morality of Bioware’s Star Wars RPG series, Knights of the Old Republic). I’ve tried Renegade—the option of being an uncompromising asshole/badass—but I always end up feeling guilty about all the shitty things I’m saying and doing to my friends. However, there’s one character who always brings out the villain in me: Khalisah al-Jilani, a bitchy reporter fond of harassing Commander Shepard and embellishing her stories on them. She’s one of those side characters who shows up in every single game, like Conrad Verner the crazy Commander Shepard superfan, but al-Jilani is no fan of yours. She’s always out to get you, even if you’re doing every goddamn thing you can to save the galaxy. You can try and plead your case, show your true colors, but she’ll always find a way to twist your words in her favor. She’s not just a bad person, she’s a terrible reporter. That’s why I punch her lights out. Every. Single. Time.
Thresher Maw vs. Reaper
This is easily one of the most badass set pieces in the entire series. During the mission where Shepard works to cure (or sabotage) the Genophage, disaster strikes. Oh shit, here’s a Reaper and it’s out for blood. Humans aren’t equipped with the right weapons to take them out, and Goddess knows the near-extinction Krogan aren’t going to have what it takes. Luckily, Mother Nature steps in to kick its ass. In one of the tensest fight scenes of the game, if not the series, Shepard has to dodge Reaper attacks and fight scores of enemies to ring a bell summoning the the mother of all Thresher Maws—a giant, Dune-esque sandworm native to the Krogan homeworld. The Thresher rises like a phoenix from the Dust, wraps itself around the Reaper, and drags it down to hell where it belongs. Damn, what an incredible sight! Never send a machine to do a monster’s job.
James Whitbrook
The Garrus Vakarian Bromance Experience
My primary Commander Shepard, Lucas, never had the chance to romance Mass Effect’s wry Turian space cop, but dammit if I didn’t try anyway. A persistent party member throughout all three games, Garrus Vakarian’s evolution from disgruntled security officer to sniper merc to homeworld hero is one of the most enduring character arcs of the entire series—especially if he’s by your Shepard’s side throughout, building a wonderful banter and rapport with the Commander.
Jokes, war story swapping, Shepard’s relationship with Garrus (whether platonically as a male Commander, or romantically as a female one) is the closest thing Mass Effect can do to a buddy cop adventure. Its sweetest moment culminates in the third game, when Garrus invites you to hang out on the rafters of the Citadel space station—the hub present throughout all of the games, and where you first met Garrus back in Mass Effect—and shoot the shit (and get some target practice in), two best friends hanging out one last time before entering the end, once and for all. Regardless of whether you were Paragon or Renegade, John or Jane, there’s no Shepard without Vakarian.
Stressing Out Over the Suicide Mission
I’ve never been so nervous playing a video game as I was the first time I played the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2, the game’s action epic finale where you assaulted the villain’s base in a do-or-die attack. I’d done all the loyalty missions, as much side content as I could, leveled up Shepard and every party member as much as I could in preparation. I’d made my first choices, including to have Miranda Lawson, your antagonistic but trustworthy second-in-command throughout the game, lead a second fire team of party members while Shepard took the vanguard. Providing covering fire as Shepard’s team enters a doorway, an unmistakable sound shattered through my TV speakers: Miranda took a bullet just as the doors closed behind us. I audibly yelped in shock—even though I didn’t like her that much, I felt like I’d messed up and already gotten a party member killed. My hard work, all for nothing, and Miranda’s blood on my digital hands.
Turns out, a sufficiently “loyal” Miranda—as in, you did all the side content for her throughout the game—can take a bullet in that sequence and shrug the attack off to live, unlike pretty much any other character you can select for that fire team leader role. When that appeared to be the case, my abject shock quickly gave way to several loud curses. It’s a moment I’ll forever remember as a testament to how much you grow to care about the motley crew Shepard builds in Mass Effect 2.
Saying Goodbye to It All With Citadel
The controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3's ending still incites fiery discussion today, five years after the fact. Its decision to rob consequence from the player in its final moments—in order to shuffle the into one of three specific choices for BioWare’s mandated ending—is one thing, but many felt Mass Effect 3 also didn’t do enough to give you a sufficiently fond farewell to the characters you’d fallen in love with over the entire series.
The post-release add-on Citadel provided exactly that, the final story content to be added to the game, and the last time to see these characters again. A heartwarming, self-referential character-driven piece that climaxes with a drunken party at Shepard’s pad on the titular Citadel, it’s a sentimental celebration of the fun and friends you’d made along the way in this long journey. It was a goodbye to the series at large as much as it was a goodbye to Mass Effect 3, and the perfect coda to a beloved saga.
Have your own favorite moments from Mass Effect? Share them in the comments below. We’ll have more on Mass Effect: Andromeda later this week.
Written by Erik Burnham with art from Dan Schoening, Ghostbusters 101 will see the original team from the classic films head back into bustin’ action after retiring for a life of academia, when some of their students accidentally rip open a hole in space-time that leads to the universe of the new film. That disturbance, it seems, is causing all kinds of supernatural goings-on in their world, as you’ll see in our peek at Ghostbusters 101 #1 below.
Also, behold Chris Hemsworth’s character Kevin in a broccoli costume for no reason at all! Don’t forget to open the images in a new tab to embiggen them.
Ghostbusters 101 #1 is out this Wednesday, March 22.
From Iron Man to a doctor, Rober Downey Jr. is about to make another family film. Image: Disney
For the second time, Hollywood is rebooting Doctor Dolittle with one of its biggest stars of the moment. First it was Eddie Murphy in the 1990s, and now it’s Robert Downey Jr.
Universal Pictures just won a bidding war for a new project called The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, with Downey attached to play the lead and Oscar winner Stephen Gaghanplanning to direct from his own script. The film is an adaptation of the near century-old book series by Hugh Lofting about a doctor who can speak to animals.
Hollywood first adapted the property in 1967 as a musical with Rex Harrison in the lead, then in 1998 and 2001 with Murphy. This version is aiming to shoot next year after Downey is done shooting Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel.
According to multiple reports, several studios were in the mix to acquire this project but there’s no word on what makes it special, other than the obvious: Downey is a huge name and a family-themed film with him in the lead certainly has financial potential. However, while both the Harrison and Murphy films were successful in their own ways, you have to imagine that with Gaghan at the helm (he previously wrote Traffic and Syriana), there’s something more to the story than just a simple adventure where a guy can talk to animals. Or, at least we hope so.
The bidding also happened over a weekend when another big-budget remake, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, made almost $400 million worldwide, so the chance to make a similar star-backed film was certainly something people were interested in. A 2018 shoot would likely mean a 2019 release, but that’s just speculative. Downey will next be seen in July’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Humans, AMC’s scifi drama about a world where robots are as ubiquitous as smart phones, ends its second season tonight. Much like in Westworld, the artificial lives born in Humans have been slaves to humanity’s whims, and just like in the finale of Westworld, a rebellion has formed. But Humans has had much better success with exploring precisely what an advance in artificial sentience would look like to the world at large—and in the process it’s done an arguably better job of showing just how predictably callous and afraid humans are when dealing with a group they have deemed “inferior.”
Although Humans’ first season aired before Westworld premiered on HBO, the immense popularity of the latter meant that Humans’ second season has lived in Westworld’s shadow, to a degree. The two shows demand comparison, and serve as wonderful counterparts—because despite Westworld’s omnipresence in pop culture last year, Humans has quietly turned in a thoughtful, phenomenal season that stands on its own.
To get to the point: in both Westworld and Humans, robots are completely subjugated by the living. In Westworld, robots are slaves. They exist, ultimately, for the pleasure of humanity—they’re fucktoys and cannon fodder for the very wealthy people playing very wealthy games of God. The robots are ants, too inconsequential to care about. The gap between human and robot is made more vast by the humans’ wealth, and their home in the cloud far above the world of robots, even as the humans strive to make the robots more and more realistic.
But on Humans, synths—as they’re called on the show—have served as slaves from the beginning, but there’s a difference. Synths are seen as tools, and are given as much compassion and understanding as you would give your smart phone. There are a few humans that feel some discomfort over having human-like appliances in their home, but on the whole, humanity, in every economic bracket, has accepted synths as inferior and incapable of being more. The sense of inferiority is intentionally compounded by the show’s decision to have actors portraying synth movement with a specific refinement and kind of robotic-ness. So even when you’re watching just two synths interact, no human in sight, there is this nagging feeling of unease, a reminder of their otherness.
On Westworld we’re asked, immediately, to empathize with the robots, but on Humans we’re kept just far enough away from them to be a little worried (which is, presumably, precisely how any of us will react when Siri or Alexa finally grows a body). They might look like us, but they’re really just giant computers you can hack with a Microsoft Surface or sell to a shady reseller. Like the robots we have now, they’ll reside deep in the uncanny valley, close enough, but just too far removed to be human—at least if the companies creating them hope to be profitable.
Humans tells the tale of what happens if Apple made robots, while Westworld is more interested in sentience itself—what makes a brain, a soul, a consciousness—the age-old scifi question that wonders at what point do we consider something aware of itself. While Westworld is a fantastic intellectual exercise (and a damn good story), Humans is exploring a much more prescient-feeling tomorrow, where humans can turn away from others’ troubles because they look different or talk funny or have a tic.
So far Humans has made for a fascinating, if heartbreaking, ride. We’ve seen robots shot, beaten, and torn apart this season. We’ve seen them slowly open their eyes to consciousness and watched the show ruminate on the very nature of the soul. Yet we’ve also seen the synths vie for legal rights, only to be denied because of wealthier and more politically powerful humans—a story that plays out all too often in real life.
Tonight the synths seem to be setting up a rescue mission to recover sentient synths kidnapped by the humans, and it will be the capper to a tremendous season that has seen its world grow smaller as the consciousness of the synths grow larger.
So if you’re pining for more Westworld—or if you stopped watching Humans because Westworld took over its place—AMC’s show is well worthing seeking out. It might not have the flash and MA rating as HBO’s hit, but Humans holds robots up to reflect the human characters’ own humanity, both good and bad. And the result is the show that has become a fantastic scifi reflection of the real world.
Distance from Mars to Phobos (Image: Public domain/Ryan F Mandelbaum via Wikimedia Commons)
Orbiting our dusty red neighbor are two puny potatoes, Phobos and Deimos. They look like they belong among the worst (but not the absolute worst) moons in the solar system, but their existence might tell a crazy story about Mars’ history.
A Purdue graduate student built a model to figure out how Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos formed. His wild conclusion: it’s possible that during the planet’s history, it has cycled, and will continue to cycle, between having a ring system like Saturn’s and having increasingly small, gravitationally-bound rocks in tow.
Our own Moon likely emerged after a large impact some time during Earth’s very early history, around four and a half billion years ago. This would have left a rock ring which soon clumped into a large sphere. It’s possible Mars experienced a similar collision around the same time.
“My argument is that Phobos... was not produced in an impact,” study author Andrew Hesselbrock from Purdue University in Indiana told Gizmodo. Instead, “The largest impact created a large satellite that, instead of crashing onto Mars, ripped apart.” In other words, Mars might have once had a fairly sizable moon that was ripped to pieces long ago, creating a ring system. Over time, this ring system kept clumping and falling apart under the pull of Mars’ gravity until today, all that remains is two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos.
We know Phobos is falling apart—so eventually, it may become yet another ring in this Martian cycle.
Hesselbrock’s simulation comes from data plugged into physical equations and crunched on a computer. The model implies that three to seven of these ring-moon cycles could have occurred over the course of Martian history. In the case of Phobos, it predicts that 80 percent of the moon will deposit itself on the Martian surface, while 20 percent will form a whole new moon 70 million years in the future. Hesselbrock published his result in the journal Nature Geoscience today.
But what about Mars’ other potato, Deimos? There’s a point around six times Mars’ radius, called the synchronous orbit, where the speed of the planet combined with its gravitational effects will keep a moon from either flying away or moving closer. Deimos sits outside this point, and may eventually get further and further away from Mars until it escapes. Phobos sits inside this point, forever ensnared by Martian gravity.
Many people have suggested Mars’ tiny moons were captured asteroids—after all, Mars sits right near the asteroid belt. But Hesselbrock and others find that theory unlikely—both Phobos and Deimos seem to have orbits far too circular and aligned with Mars’ equator to imply such an origin. Larger planets like Saturn have small, captured moons that take distant, wild, eccentric orbits around the planet.
Of course, we’ll never in any of our lifetimes know for sure if this is what really happened, because A, this is just a physical model and B, the oldest of us only live around a century, not millions of years. However, if Hesselbrock’s model is right, we might be able to see deposits of ancient moon dusts on the Martian surface.
“There’s a significant amount of material that would be deposited onto Mars,” he said. “There’s a weird implication of Martian geology.”
If scientists found telltale sediments on Mars, it could clue us in to this ring-satellite cycle. But for now, who knows. The future is a mystery. Chaos reigns.
It’s been obvious from the outside looking in that Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is gated into two areas: movies and TV, and never the twain shall meet. But the thing is, if you ask anyone at Marvel Studios or involved with one of their movies, no one can seemingly give a consistent response about whether or not this is the case.
The latest person to wade into the imbroglio is the Falcon himself, Anthony Mackie, who told Screen Geek at Wizard World Cleveland over the weekend rather explicitly that no one should ever expect significant connections between Marvel’s films and TV shows:
Different universes, different worlds, different companies, different designs. Kevin Feige is very specific about how he wants the Marvel Universe to be seen in the film world. It wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t work at all.
Mackie’s response is, at the very least, refreshingly blunt—in a way that people involved with Marvel rarely are when it comes to the question of expecting the shared universe to apply to all of Marvel’s output. But it’s also the latest answer in a long saga that’s ummed and ahhed repeatedly between actively stating the shows and movies will never be deeply linked and being vague enough that a glimmer of hope still lingers.
The MCU’s style of keeping its movies and TV shows as separate windows into a larger universe is not a bad thing. Hell, it’s practical—the shows and movies move and are made on such different scales of time that trying to keep everything orderly and interconnected would be a daunting task for anyone, even two studio divisions with the power of Disney behind them. But why not just say that as an official stance? Why all the wishy washy back and forth, with different people all offering different answers?
If Marvel actually clarified the break between its shows and its films, and then stuck to that answer whenever it was asked about it, it’d save a lot of fans from being disappointed by the time an opportunity like Infinity War comes along and they don’t see the likes of Coulson, May, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil rubbing shoulders with Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow.
Hell, maybe it’s just a campaign of confusion being sown, specifically designed to leave you unsure enough that if those TV heroes do show up in one of the movies some day, you’ll still be surprised. Guess we’re stuck having to wait and see until that day comes, otherwise.
This past weekend’s episode of Star Wars Rebels may have been pretty intense, but the upcoming finale is looking bigger than anything the series has attempted in a while. Plus, lots of gooey, delicious Star Wars space battle action is always welcome.
Next week’s two-parter, “Zero Hour,” is the culmination of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s attempt to find out the location of Phoenix Squadron’s hidden base—and boy howdy, does he find it. In fact, you might even say he finds it with extreme prejudice, given the amount of Star Destroyers he hauls in tow to Atollon.
Things look pretty dire for the Rebels crew—and equally lavish, with space battles, Ezra hauling Sabine and her family into action, and even the young Jedi running around in space with his lightsaber out like he’s in an episode of Clone Wars or something.
Will they all make it out alive? Probably, they’re protagonists in a show aimed at young kids. Still, the gang’s gonna need a little bit more than the Force on their side this time to face up to Thrawn’s wrath. Star Wars Rebels’ third season concludes next Saturday, March 25.
Saturday Night Live is remarkable because so much of it still happens live. In fact, the final four episodes of this season will be completely live in all four US timezones. That commitment to the craft is what makes this video of a Kate McKinnon character change so damn impressive.
On the March 11 show, McKinnon played her hilariously on-point version of Jeff Sessions and only had the span of a commercial break to transform into “Shud the Mermaid” for the next skit. SNL just posted this time lapse video of the transformation, and it’s nothing short of incredible. Expect more shenanigans in the near future.
Spot the vampire! (It’s not the cat.) Image: NBCUniversal
If you’re going to rip off True Blood, you might as well go right to the source. The extended trailer for NBC’s supernatural drama Midnight, Texas further makes us expect that this latest Charlaine Harris adaptation about a small town filled with secrets will resemble HBO’s vampire drama, but with way less nudity and gore.
There’s a bit more here than in the earlier trailer that dropped in October; you get a better look at the characters, which include luxuriously coiffed drifter-who-is-also-a-psychic Manfred (François Arnaud); an angel named Joe (Jason Lewis); a vampire named Lem (Peter Mensah, who also played a vampire on True Blood); a witch named Fiji (Parisa Fitz-Henley); and “the Rev” (Yul Vazquez), who’s probably a werewolf, because this show clearly needs a werewolf. Less obviously supernatural are the pawn shop owner (Dylan Bruce), the Sookie stand-in (Sarah Ramos), and the most seemingly out-of-place character, the sex-ay assassin (Arielle Kebbel, who coincidentally played a vampire on Vampire Diaries).
There’s also at least one hardworking fog machine on the payroll, and a surprising lack of anyone attempting a small-town Texas accent.
Sweet supernatural cheese! It ain’t gonna match up to True Blood, but there’s some guilty-pleasure potential here for sure. Midnight, Texas premieres July 25 on NBC.
My photoshoot of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends 12-inch Deadpool figure might have gotten away from me, but the point stands—Hasbro has really gotten a handle on 12-inch figures.
During the heyday of my Marvel action figure collecting it wasn’t Hasbro making Wolverine, Iron Man and Thor action figures, but rather ToyBiz, progenitors of the Marvel Legends line. Prior to the detailed Legends line, ToyBiz did a line of passable Marvel Universe toys. That line included a series of 10 inch figures that were very, very bad.
“Kill me”
So when I think of a large Marvel Comics action figure on store shelves, I imagine something horrible like this or Hasbro’s Titan Heroes line. Kids’ stuff.
This is not kids’ stuff. Well, depending on your kids.
6-inch Legends Deadpool just kind of showed up. He brought his taco.
Hasbro kicked off its 12-inch Marvel Legends line last year, debuting Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man at Toy Fair 2016. Instead of the barely-articulated, sparingly-detailed abominations of the past, these figures were premium collector material, packed with extra heads, hands and accessories and featuring nearly as much articulation as the six-inch Legends line. They also carry a premium price tag—each retails for around $50.
Now that’s a foot-long Deadpool.
Deadpool is the latest entry in the series, with 12-inch Thor and 15-inch Hulk (cheater) waiting in the wings. He comes with six different hands, two futuristic guns, a pair of katana, two knives, technically two extra heads and the world’s first 12-inch scale burrito, as far as we know.
Alongside the six-inch scale taco, Hasbro has recreated a large portion of Chipotle’s menu at semi-accurate scale.
I say technically two heads, since one of the two included is technically his own character, Zombie Deadpool, AKA Headpool. He comes with his own plastic stand for premium posing potential.
He wants a bite. Don’t ask.
While Captain America, Spider-Man and Iron Man were released earlier, Deadpool is my first hands-on with a 12-inch Marvel Legends figure, and I’m pretty impressed. It’s nice to see a major toy maker embrace 12-inches as vigorously and passionately as Hasbro has with Deadpool.
It’s a far cry from the upscaled plastic monstrosities of the past, utilizing the extra size to provide extra detail. 12-inch Deadpool has so much love to give.
My five-year-old saw this shot and asked, “Is he going to kill the raccoon?” I am a great parent.
The only sticking point (not counting swords and knives) might be the price. Not that $50 is a lot for a 12-inch figure—I’ve spent a lot more on less. But these are sold at Walmart and such, in toy aisles packed with other ways to spend $50, making going all-in a tougher choice, at least for me.
But hell, if you love Deadpool, you love Deadpool, now matter how many inches you get for your money.
I felt bad about not photographic the half-mask face, so I left him the taco and burrito.
This quirky short from Campbell Hooper follows the inner monologue of a statistician who’s ejected from an airplane at what would obviously be a fatal altitude. Panic doesn’t factor in at all—in fact, Forty Three Thousand Feet is mostly a rumination on the past and the future, complete with an extended tangent about a time machine. It’s weirdly thought-provoking.
Screenwriters Rhett Rheese and Paul Wernick talk Deadpool 2, Zombieland 2, and everything but their new movie Life. Bad Robot’s supernatural World War II movie finds some stars. Stephen Amell teases a return to the island on Arrow. Plus, a new clip from Ghost in the Shell, and new images from Walking Dead. Behold, Spoilers!
Terminator 6
The New York Daily News reports that both that a Terminator 6—presumably, a hypothetical followup to Terminator: Genisys—has been scrapped for good. Also, in a future where the Terminator franchise would continue beyond this, original star Arnold Schwarzenegger would not be back. This isn’t too surprising to hear, of course—we’d already heard that Genisys star Emilia Clarke would not return for future movies, and Paramount actually already pulled the sequel to the film off schedules last year.
But interestingly, this report doesn’t make mention of the recent rumors that James Cameron and Deadpool director Tim Miller plan to sweep in and save the franchise from doom with a film that is allegedly a “reboot and conclusion” to the series, somehow. It does, however, mention that there’s still hope an “independent company” could come to Paramount and revive the series, so maybe the future isn’t quite as grim for Terminator as it currently sounds.
Deadpool 2
The press tour for scifi horror movie Life has begun, which means that instead everyone is asking screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick about Deadpool 2. First up, more familiar mutants will make surprise cameos, according to Reese in an interview with LRM:
Yeah, Cable and Domino grabbed the headlines on Deadpool. But there are definitely some more obscure characters that people know or that real diehards know that will be in there just by virtue of we need a new villain, and we need some new good guys to compliment (Deadpool), but it is growing. Of course, it will be all about the lunacy that is Deadpool himself.
In a separate interview with Cinema Blend, Reese confirmed that the X-Force film is not in lieu of Deadpool 3, but an entirely separate entry:
Yeah, Deadpool 3 will be different from X-Force. So I think we’ll be able to take two paths. One is where we’re launching something bigger, but then another where we’re contracting and staying personal and small. So I think best of all worlds, really.
Meanwhile, Reese also spoke highly of incoming director David Leitch in an interview with IGN:
It’s been phenomenal, David has his own, you know, point of view that’s different from Tim’s. He comes into a situation obviously where there already exists a tone and a style, so he’s going to stay pretty close to that, I think. But at the same time, he brings a new approach and it’s enlivened us definitely to try new things and to do things a little bit different from the first Deadpool. Not drastically, but enough that you get the sense that it’s coming from a slightly different team.
We love Tim Miller to death, we also love Dave now. I think you’ll be very satisfied with what we’re cooking up. We are loving our script right now, and the direction that it’s headed. So I think audiences hopefully will be pleased.
Zombieland 2
In an interview with Comicbook.com, Paul Wernick gave an update on the long-gestating Zombieland sequel, when asked about that rather than, surprisingly, Deadpool 2:
It is [in active development]. We’re trying to get it going. All of our cast have read the script and love it. Zombieland director Reuben Fleischer is signed on. It’s just a matter of making our cast deals and making it for a budget number. All the cast have become superstars now so, we made Zombieland with 20 million, so it’s trying to fit that financial model into the sequel model so it makes sense for the studio and being able to pay the actors what they now get paid and deserve to paid.
Did anyone ask these guys about Life? Poor Life.
Ant-Man & the Wasp
Michael Peña still hasn’t received word from Marvel on whether he’s returning for the sequel:
No, no, I haven’t gotten the phone call yet. I don’t know if I’m gonna get the phone call. Who knows?
Daniel Kaluuya is very excited to be part of the movie, according to an interview with GQ:
This is an African blockbuster, bruv. This is like Game of Thrones. This is crazy. And Ryan Coogler is just, man dem. He’s like us! He’s a normal dude, in a Golden State hat and a Tupac T-shirt directing the whole set. It’s the most beautiful thing to see.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
James Gunn revealed to Empire that Ego the Living Planet will be “the biggest visual effect” in film history. With all the polygons. All of them.
We have over a trillion polygons on Ego’s planet. It’s the biggest visual effect of all time. There’s nothing even close to it. Which is cool.
The magazine also shared a few new pictures, including another good look at Kurt Russell as Ego, in his non-trillion polygon-ed planet form:
Mission: Impossible 6
According to producer David Ellison, Tom Cruise has spent a year training for the film’s signature, show-stopping stunt:
We’re thrilled. [director Christopher McQuarrie] is back, obviously, writing and directing after Rogue Nation. We could not be more excited about the character Henry Cavill’s going to play. And I will say after the Burj [Khalifa] we thought it was going to be impossible to top that stunt, and then Tom did the A380 for the plane. What Tom is doing in this movie I believe will top anything that’s come before. It is absolutely unbelievable—he’s been training for a year. It is going to be, I believe, the most impressive and unbelievable thing that Tom Cruise has done in a movie, and he has been working on it since right after Rogue Nation came out. It’s gonna be mind-blowing.
Following the news, Christopher McQuarrie took to Twitter to clarify Cruise has trained a full year for a “sequence” and “not a stunt.”
Overlord
Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell have both joined Julius Avery’s upcoming Bad Robot movie, a D-Day set drama with heavy supernatural elements (including Nazi Zombies, apparently!). Naturally, Bad Robot’s involvement and mysterious supernatural elements have already lead to speculation that Overlord is secretly the third entry in the Cloverfield saga. [/Film]
Extinction
The alien invasion film has been given a January 26, 2018 release date. [Coming Soon]
Ghost in the Shell
A new clip has surfaced called “Water Fight.” True to its name, The Major beats up an assailant while ankle deep in shallow water.
Amberville
Amazon is developing an animated series based on Tim Davy’s Mollisan Town from Chris McCoy and Sausage Party director Conrad Vernon. Amberville will be a crime drama set in a city populated by living stuffed animals, starring a reformed teddy bear pulled back into the criminal underworld for “one last job.” Grim! [Coming Soon]
The Flash
Anne Dudek has been cast as a Tracy Brand, a “future genius” with “a smorgasbord of quirky idiosyncrasies” who, having currently displayed none of those genius-related talents, sets out to make her future happen. [TV Line]
Arrow
Stephen Amell may have teased the return of Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson in a photo posted to Twitter. Or, more likely, there could just be some island-based shenanigans in store.
iZombie
Here’s a new poster of Liv for the new season from Screen Rant.
The Walking Dead
Finally, here are some photos from next week’s episode, 15, “Something They Need.” See the rest at the link. [Coming Soon]
Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson. Banner art by Jim Cooke.
