Category: Musings

OG Pinky To Write New Power Rangers Comic

Source: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/amy-jo-johnson-power-rangers-comic-series-1235569122/

For the TLDR crowd, Amy Jo Johnson is writing a Power Rangers comic book due next year. And also, her not doing the reunion has nothing to do with money. Strangely, she didn’t mention anything about beeswax.

Well, she might not be doing the special, but she’s there in spirit.

Shazam Underperforms At Box Office… What Did You Expect?

So the new Shazam movie came out this past weekend.

Raise your hand if this is a surprise to you because it sure was to me.

Unlike the first movie, which had a bunch of press behind it, this “Fury Of The Gods” film went under the radar. Nobody talks about it, nobody is promoting the thing, nobody is marketing the thing, and as such, nobody knows that it’s a thing that exists until it’s already out. I didn’t know the movie had been released until someone I subscribe to on Youtube did a review on it. At first, I thought they got an advanced screening or something, but nope. Turns out the movie has been out since Friday.

Well, color me (not) shocked, but apparently Shazam underperformed at the box office. I won’t speak to the quality of the film since I have not seen it – reactions have been mixed, with critics not caring for it, but the audiences enjoying it – but in regards to the film not being an instant money maker without any kind of marketing machine behind it, only one thing comes to mind…

What did you expect?

Listen, you assclowns. If you’re going to spend money on this big blockbuster motion picture, then you need marketing. Yes, that costs some money, but at the very least, people will know about your movie and any failure at the box office can at least be attributed to lack of interest as opposed to lack of marketing. I get that there’s a big reboot of this whole universe coming up and this is being thrown under the bus as a result despite the higher ups claiming that they’d like to retain the Shazam crew for future projects if this does well.

Look, I enjoyed the first Shazam film. I thought it was a fun little superhero movie released during a time when genuinely fun superhero movies from DC were an endangered species. This second film looks to be more of the same – for better or worse – but it’s not high on my list of must-see movies. I’ll wait until it hits DVD.

And no, the Rock refusing to cameo in the movie is NOT the reason for its underperformance. Last time I checked, Black Adam wasn’t exactly a box office winner, either.

Yeah, so… bye.

A Disturbance In The Force, You Say?

I see this teaser for a documentary film that supposedly tells us how the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special happened… and other than clips from the cast at various conventions and interviews eluding to its status as a forbidden subject, the only talking heads featured on the show seem to be celebrities and hack frauds who seemingly have nothing to do with the Holiday Special.

Having seen the Holiday Special – yes, the whole damned special – I am somewhat curious about how such a thing came to be and I’ll admit to finding the idea of a documentary covering the origins of this strange piece of Sith blasphemy in Star Wars lore appealing. This teaser trailer – featuring some dude speaking with a Darth Vader voice filter that gives me greater appreciation for the people who voiced Vader in those old PC games from the 90s – does little to sell me on the idea that this is a story worth talking about.

Having a bunch of people talk about how bad the Holiday Special is – no matter who you get for talking heads – that’s old news. It’s been done to death. You can get that sort of thing online for free. But a documentary talking about how this came to be is an idea worth pursuing. Maybe this film actually does do that. I wouldn’t know by watching this, however. At this point, I’d much rather watch the actual Holiday Special again than watch this film.

Regardless, I wish the filmmakers the best of luck. And I hope they do a better job selling this thing than what they have here.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s “Final” Trailer

It looks like a Mario. It moves like a Mario. But does it talk like a Mario?

Does it really matter? I’ve heard Mario get voiced by a bunch of people? Here’s another to add to the list.

At least, the movie looks like it’ll be fun. A nightmare to point out all the references, but it’ll be fun.

We’ll see, I guess.

Is DKOldies A Scam?

I don’t know. I never bought from them. Shit is expensive enough here and now to see those prices converted to Canadian dollars? No thanks.

That said, other people seem to think they’re a scam. I’ve seen videos of supposed “refurbished” consoles appear less than furbished. So if that’s the level of quality people are expecting from a refurb job, then I don’t know what to tell you.

In any event, I see the above “meme” image tossed around every so often. If you want to use it for yourself or whatever the case may be, have at it. I don’t know who made this originally, but they’ve done a service for you folks.

That’s all I’ve got. I know some people were expecting me to talk about Picard at this point, but I just didn’t feel like it, so you got this, instead. Have fun.

A Word On The Bond Edits

For those who haven’t heard, James Bond is celebrating his 70th Anniversary this year and rather than a new movie that’s going to feature 100 callbacks to prior films whether they make sense or not, we’re going to be getting reprints of all the original Ian Flemming books… except not really.

Apparently, there’s word that the new reprints are going to be edited for content – presumably to remove or perhaps rework certain wording that might not be “appropriate” for modern sensibilities. Naturally, this has caused some people cry foul and throw out accusations of censorship and changing the original works without the consent of the original author… although I’d imagine the Fleming estate or whoever was in charge of Mr. Fleming’s holdings would have approved such edits before any announcement was made in regards to said re-releases.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I can understand the desire to present a version of these novels that can be read by anyone without any possible fear of controversy. Those books were written during a time when certain attitudes and wordings were commonplace and more widely tolerated, if not outright accepted. I’m saying that to be the case; this is WAY before my time, but I would have to assume that’s the case. So I can understand the desire to present these classic stories in a way that can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone.

On the other hand, just the fact that these works are being edited at all does not sit well with me. Not just in the sense of censorship – which is also a grave concern – but it raises the question as to how much of the work you’re reading was written by the original author and how much of it was edited for content. I fear that it eventually gets to the point where we might be getting heavily edited editions of these books that may be nothing but edited for content text with nothing of the original author’s work remaining. It’s almost like taking a bunch of scenes from a movie, shot with a certain intention, and then somebody else reworks those scenes to be completely different.

I am not telling you to either condemn or condone this practice. I’m only offering my five cents on the matter. Am I concerned about this practice being the new standard for literary works in the future? Certainly. Do I think this is going to be a major issue going forward? Absolutely. Is there anything we can do about it? Not really. I could suggest if you don’t want to support these things, don’t give these people your money… but the reality is that if you don’t buy it, somebody else will. And a franchise like James Bond is no doubt going to sell some books on name value alone without a care as to whether the work is representative of the original author’s writings.

I guess we’ll have to see.