Mainstream Entertainment – Page 9

Terminator’s Future – Toss It All Out And Keep It Out

Source: https://bleedingcool.com/movies/terminator-james-cameron-has-a-plan-for-franchise/

James Cameron wants to make another Terminator movie… but this time, it’s going to be a reboot that’s not reliant on what came before. So, basically, tell the same story again, but with different characters and stuff. Isn’t that what they’ve done with all these other Terminator movies?

I suppose I should give Cameron credit for not making it another Terminator sequel. Honestly, it’s probably what they should have done with that Dark Fate movie that skipped over “some” of the movies, but not all of them. But even so… who the fuck is asking for a new Terminator movie these days? Every time they do another one, it’s a matter of dimishing returns. Each one not only sucked more than the last movie that came out, but it even made less money. You’ve got nothing left to say with these movies. They’re a product of their time and place. If you want to invent some new concept based on old ideas… THEN JUST MAKE THE NEW CONCEPT AND NOT USE AN OLD NAME.

Ah, but that’s the catch, isn’t it? Create something new and there’s no guarantee that it’ll be a success. Regardless of quality, there exists the possibility that it could be overlooked. But tying it to a legacy franchise? Calling it a new entry that continues the story or offers a new take? Now you’ve got some guaranteed money to work with. Now you’ve got the attention of those fans who should know better, but so desperately want their chosen love to be number one that they’ll stoop to any low to support this thing… and then it’ll come out and they’ll turn on it because it doesn’t respect the old material or whatever the case may be.

There are some franchises that can evolve and change with the times while still keeping the course tenants true. And then there are some franchises that, no matter how hard you try, are a relic of a bygone age. Terminator is one of the latter. We tried the reboot thing (twice) and it didn’t work. Nobody bit.

James Cameron had the right idea in jettisoning what came before. Maybe after doing that, he can move on to something else.

I mean, if Ridley Scott can’t make a decent Alien movie these days…

By the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve touched on Terminator outliving its usefulness as a movie franchise. I’ve touched on this ages ago and you can read that here.

Yes, I Saw Deadpool & Wolverine.

I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of things because that involves touching on things that the rest of the internet might have spoiled, but I’d rather let those who haven’t spoiled discover the fun stuff for themselves. But I will say this much; it is very much a Deadpool movie with the usual Deadpool tropes mixed in with some bad cop/bad cop dynamics between Wade and Logan. Even though there’s some hints of MCU stuff that I don’t care for, they’re not the dominant aspects of this film. And thank fuck for that because I want to watch a movie that’s actually content at being a fun ride and not world-building nonsense for the next three series that I could possibly not give enough of a shit to watch.

And before anyone asks, no, I will not be watching. This is the first Marvel thing I’ve seen since Falcon/Winter Soldier. I’ve not touched anything else. I’m not inclined to watch anything else. Naturally, I was concerned that this would be tainted and toned down. It hasn’t; it’s still the same Deadpool goodness because Ryan Reynolds and friends give enough of a shit about this character to do him justice and continue to make him the best possible interpretation of the character in modern media.

This isn’t Marvel Jesus. This isn’t going to make me care about anything involving the other Marvel stuff or their Multiversal phasing stuff. I’m not exactly clamoring for any other potential projects that this might be teasing. And this sure as shit isn’t going to make the MCU great or even good again. It is, however, a largely fun and enjoyable movie that, if you can put up with a little crass humor and lots of gratuitous violence, is not a bad way to kill a couple hours at the movie house.

At the end of the day, I just want to have a good time at the movies. This gave me that. And if I had more movies like this, I’d spend more time and money at the movies. But I don’t have those. So I don’t go. And that’s fine. I’ve got other stuff to keep me entertained.

So yeah, if you liked the first two Deadpools, give this one a whirl. And if not… watch something else, instead.

RDJ as Dr. Doom… Meh…

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/robert-downey-jr-doctor-doom-marvel-rcna163991

So we had this guy who played Kang The Conqueror for a couple things here and there… and then it was discovered that he was involved in some heinous shit. Obviously, we can’t keep him around, but now we’re totally fucked because we have this whole movie built around this guy and now we’ve gotta find someone to replace him.

The solution? Replace Kang with Dr. Doom… and the guy playing Dr. Doom will be none other than Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr.

Because, sure… why the fuck not?

You want to know the funny thing about this whole deal? I read up on the news online, I assume it’s a bit of a joke, and then when I discover that this is an actual thing they’re doing, I just shrugged and moved on with my life. I had no real, tangible reaction to this piece of information. I was ambivalent. I simply didn’t care. I’m sure there are questions, but honestly… I’m in no hurry to get answers any time soon. I’m just like… “Whatever.”

I’ve said this before. I’ll say it again. My interest in the MCU narrative ended with Endgame. While I enjoyed one or two of these things (the Spider-Man team up movie and the Falcon/Winter Soldier series), I never bothered with the rest of it. I simply didn’t have any interest in anything they had going and also their dwelling into the multiverse for the story ideas feels like they’re just tossing shit to a wall and seeing what sticks.

The Deadpool/Wolverine movie, judging by box office results and audience reactions, seems to be the one thing sticking on that wall, which mean they’ll want to do more of that… except people assume that they want more of this multiverse garbage when the reality is that they just wanted to see this long-awaited team-up between our ol’ pal Wade and his frenemy Logan. And Deadpool works because the people behind Deadpool give enough of a shit about Deadpool to do the character justice. Otherwise, you get shit like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was awful.

If the MCU made more films like Deadpool – not so much the R-rated stuff or the fourth wall breaking stuff, but mostly just being fun little schlockfests – more people would be into it other than the diehards. But as it is, the only thing that this current MCU is capable of producing is more X-Men Origins: Wolverine. One of those is more than enough.

I haven’t even watched Dark Phoenix yet… but I’d much rather watch that than anything involving the MCU at this point.

That has been my Theodore Conversation.

Longtime Trekkie Reacts To New Alien Movie Trailer: “Where Are All The Romulans?”

Longtime Trekkie Theodore L. Pinkus was interviewed by local media and expressed his excitement for the upcoming Alien: Romulus motion picture. The latest attempt by FOX to inject new life to the Alien franchise after several failed attempts was met with approval from the longtime Star Trek fan.

“You know, it was a well-done trailer,” Pinkus stated, “Looked really dark and scary. This might be the first Alien movie in a while that actually looks like it could be good.”

Pinkus did note one aspect of the trailer that got to him and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it until the last moment.

“Where are the Romulans?” he decried. “If you’re going to name your movie Alien: Romulus and you’re going to have it take place on Romulus, it only makes sense that there should be Romulans in this movie!”

“Instead, it’s just a bunch of humans. Boring.”

After a brief pause, the interviewer decided to – calmly and politely – explain to Pinkus that the Romulans are part of Star Trek, which has nothing to do with this movie. He also had to explain to Pinkus that Romulus was referring to the historical figure Romulus.

Pinkus stared at the interviewer blankly, trying to process what was just told to him. After what seemed like five minutes of uncomfortable silence, Pinkus finally mustered the energy to respond.

“Will there be Klingons, at least?”

No, I Did Not Watch Deadpool & Wolverine

I’ve been busy prepping for the road trip. Hell, by the time you’re reading this post, I’m probably long gone by now.

I liked the Deadpool movies just fine. They’re funny stuff and Ryan Reynolds pretty much owns the role to the point where I tried to play the ol’ Deadpool game from a decade ago (has it really been that long?) and hearing some other dude voice the character – as good as he was – simply felt wrong because he wasn’t Ryan Reynolds. It’s almost like having someone else besides Cal Dodd or Hugh Jackman play Wolverine feel wrong, no matter how good they try to play the role. You simply couldn’t imagine anyone else doing the role justice.

That in mind, there’s a possibility that I might see it down the line. If not in theaters, then wait until it hits home video like I did the other Deadpool movies. That way, when my phone rings, I can pause the fucking movie and answer said phone… or take a fucking piss… which is more likely than answering the phone because it’s eternally set to Do Not Disturb, which is most of the time.

I hear it did well, so good for them, I suppose.

Cold Ronda’s Writing A Comic… No Thanks.

Source: https://www.wrestleview.com/wwe-news/319519-ronda-rousey-announces-new-graphic-novel-project-expecting-the-unexpected/

Former UFC and WWE Diva Ronda Rousey announced that she’s doing a graphic novel about a hired gun who pretends to be knocked up, only to eventually be knocked up and pregnant. And of course, said hired gun is modeled after Ronda herself, because of course it is.

While I’m sure that this is going to be on par with the Kevin Nash comic book from ages ago, I have no interest in giving this comic a look. Anything that actually involved giving Cold Ronda any of my money so she can start talking shit about people who thinks she sucks and use the “if it were a guy, you wouldn’t say it sucked” argument… which doesn’t work here because I compared her would-be project to the Nash comic, which was also wildly imaginative and shit… and that’s being generous.

Best of luck to her on the project, hope it works out for her, but… no buys for me. Sorry.

RedLetterMedia Tackles The Movie Theater Problem

Red Letter Media – famed hack frauds who produced those wonderful Plinkett reviews that will never be made again due to Content ID shit – discuss the woes of movie theaters and how they can survive in this world of streaming video and movies not quite having the same impact as they once did. Apparently, this discussion came about because a couple “big” movies flopped at the box office during memorial weekend and that, along with news of multiple movie theaters shutting down, is signaling the end of the movie theater.

I don’t know if I can make that determination… probably why I posted the above video instead, but I will say this much.

Continue reading “RedLetterMedia Tackles The Movie Theater Problem”

NFOMO

No fear of missing out on these programs on the Disney+ app that I’m not subscribed to. I’m sure there’s a minute part of me that regrets having subscribed to Paramount+ instead, but at the very least, I’m getting what may very well be the best season of Discovery yet.

(I say this based entirely on the fact that the show hasn’t turned me off and the overarching storyline is at least somewhat interesting. And while I do consider this to be the best of Discovery’s five seasons, it’s still Discovery when all is said and done and thus there are lots of Discovery tropes that annoy me, but I can willfully put up with to see this season through.)

In any event, I’ve had a couple people (for some reason) wonder about the new Doctor Who as well as the X-Men 97 series that supposedly serves as a continuation of the original 90s X-Men cartoon… and I can answer both with the same answer.

I have not seen them.

With Doctor Who, I wasn’t even aware that the season had started, so chances are I may have to give it a watch when I have the chance. As far as X-Men 97 is concerned, that is simply due to a lack of interest. Mostly because I only saw the first couple seasons of X-Men when it first aired, enjoyed it for the most part, and then gave up on it once Power Rangers became the thing to watch… and also, Batman: The Animated Series was also a thing… and also Spider-Man… and eventually, Superman… and… you get the idea.

Hell, I hadn’t even watched anything from the last couple seasons of the show until a few years afterwards, where I had noticed a drastic drop in the overall quality of the animation and it seemed to have suffered from the Captain Planet syndrome of cheap-as-shit animation in the latter years of its run. That said, I have been keeping up with the plot threads going on in that show and given the direction that it took several characters and some of the stories that it’s been aping as of late, let’s just say that I’m in no hurry to get back on that particular bandwagon anytime soon.

The Knuckles “Event”… Eh.

After two Sonic The Hedgehog movies – that I liked – Paramount put out a Knuckles miniseries… oh wait, it’s not a miniseries. It’s an event. Ooh… aah…

Eh…

This is a show less about Knuckles and more about some guy named Wade and his wacky Jewish family… because that’s what I want to see in my miniseries… er, I mean, event… about a giant red echidna who feels out of place and is trying to adjust to life on Earth. I mean, you get some of that here… but it’s more about Wade and his business and… Wade is not that interesting of a character.

Dude, the CG characters are the interesting critters. Those are the critters you’re building this media franchise around, not some schmuck people are going to forget about in ten years time. I want to see Knuckles in a series called Knuckles doing Knuckles stuff. This stuff… this stuff with Wade, this excuse to play every single licensed song under the sun… the bowling tournament… these other schmucks that are poor stand-ins for Knuckles… what even is this?

I’m not saying this is a bad show nor am I saying this is a good show. I’m saying it’s a show I don’t like because I thought I was getting one thing and instead I got another thing… and, well, why am I watching this?

So… yeah… not a fan…

If you have a free trial, don’t waste it on this. There are better things to watch on Paramount+. There’s a bunch of old Ninja Turtles on there you could want if you want all the 80s and 90s nostalgia you can stuff down the marble zone. All of that is better than this.

Hopefully Sonic 3 will be good.

Why Do We Need A Live-Action Scooby Doo Version Of Riverdale?

Source: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/scooby-doo-live-action-series-netflix-1235985955/

Is the world really clamoring for another live-action take on Scooby Doo… and from the same folks who brought you all those Arrowverse things and presumably also Riverdale, so we can focus more on the relationships between your made-up original characters (DO NOT STEAL!) and less focus on the dog?

Listen, this isn’t so much outrage because that would imply some sort of emotional investment with this franchise, which I don’t have. I’m really wondering if the only reason Scooby Doo still exists is so people can make reboots of the property that people actively hate? This is right up there with all those Mickey Mouse horror movies that popped up as soon as Steamboat Willy went public domain. Who is asking for this stuff?

Oh well… that’s another series I’m probably going to forget is a thing until news of its cancellation comes up. Trust me on this; if I do re-subscribe to Netflix anytime soon, it’ll probably be for Cobra Kai.