Care to expand on THE VOID? (glad someone else has seen it now!)

Playing a little catch up with my rewatch reviews:
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Marvel’s second entry in the MCU. It’s an alright little adventure but there’s not a lot to it. Norton’s Banner doesn’t have much of a character arc here. He ends the story pretty much the same as he started. I had long been of the opinion that Norton’s Banner was superior to Ruffalo’s but I’m not so sure now. Abomination is just horrific and Tim Roth comes off as very one dimensional. The only real standout here is William Hurt’s General Thunderbolt Ross, it’s great that he’ll be returning soon.

Iron Man 2 (2009)
I remember not caring too much for this film when it originally released but coming back to it now, it’s surprising how much it managed to setup for the future. This is the film where we first meet Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanov and it’s a great first introduction to her character and her abilities. Similarly, this is Samuel L. Jackson’s first real time to shine after the very brief end credits scene in Iron Man. Jackson manages to inject a lot of flavor into Nick Fury here in a short amount of time and it’s here where we first start to get a hint of what S.H.I.E.L.D. is capable of.

The real standout though is Tony Stark’s impending death and how he does/doesn’t cope with it. RDJ does a great job of slowly unraveling as the film goes on. The party scene in particular is pretty disturbing as a drunken Tony puts all of his guests in danger. Meanwhile, we’re left lacking a bit in the villain side. Sam Rockwell makes for an interesting foil to RDJ’s Stark. Rockwell’s natural charisma did a lot to save a relatively forgettable character. It’s a shame they haven’t brought him back to expand the role. The only real let down here though is Ivan Vanko. While his character origins are fairly tragic, the character himself is pretty one note. Still though, the film delivers in terms of character arc, action and some surprising tension.

Thor (2010)
The first entry in the Thor series has some great material but is bogged down by the terrestrial portions of the film. Kenneth Branagh does a spectacular job of bringing Asgard and its people to life. The art design on display here is brilliant. As are all of the sections of the film set in it. Hopkins’ does a spectacular job of giving gravitas to his role here as Odin. Hemsworth and Hiddleston both also give solid performances and firmly establish their relationship to one another. If only the sections set on Earth were as good.

No frink is an island.

That’s a little complicated. In the bigger picture, no. Marvel Studios had no hand in the production of this film like they did with Homecoming.

However, it might still be connected to Homecoming’s Spider-man. If it is then this will be the start of a pocket Spideyverse.

Where that Spider-man can crossover and interact with a variety of other characters that are not part of the MCU canon.

But that’s only if Sony does decide to connect them.

The TOS era novels are an area I’ve been meaning to get into. I’ve not read them but I’ve heard very good things about the following:

SPOCK MUST DIE! by James Blush
Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre
The Final Reflection by John M. Ford

As far as I know, I’ve always been here.

Assuming this is a trilogy, it looks like we really are going to be taking a break from the Saga films with two standalone trilogies lined up for the next few years.

I’m excited about that aspect of this news and I’m really interested to see where these trilogies will lead us. I’m hoping at least one of them is set around the OT period.

Here’s the official announcement:

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are going from Winterfell to a galaxy far, far away.

It was announced today that Benioff and Weiss, creators of the smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning television series Game of Thrones, will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films.

These new films will be separate from both the episodic Skywalker saga and the recently-announced trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.”

“In the summer of 1977 we traveled to a galaxy far, far away, and we’ve been dreaming of it ever since,” Benioff and Weiss said in a joint statement. “We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of Game of Thrones is complete.”

No release dates have been set for the new films, and there have (thankfully) been no sightings of White Walkers around Lucasfilm.

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darthrush said:

The new Spock doesn’t work. He’s meant to be an emotionless Vulcan but actually translates onscreen to being a constantly grumpy and irritated dude. You also have no reason to believe he would become best friends with the new Kirk who is basically boiled down to being a jock flyboy who’s main thing is just to disobey every order.

TLDR: The new Star Trek movies minus Beyond (which is delightful) are dumb action movies with poorly written characters.

I agree with all of this (Beyond is the best)

NeverarGreat said:

Leonard Nimoy maintained that while his iconic character may have been seen as cold and unemotional, he always played him as “a guy trying to keep his emotions in check.”

Yeah, Nimoy played him as a levelheaded person that every now and then would slip up. Quinto’s portrayal was that of an ever irritated grump. None of the cast of nuTrek really nailed their character except for Bones and to a lesser extent Kirk. Though Kirk suffered the most from being written as a pop culture stereotype of the character.

As for the topic at hand, I’m a big believer in being able to recast an iconic role. But whoever is cast has to be able to capture the spirit of that character. Sean Patrick Flanery was a great young Indy in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles because he understood that. The jury is still out on Ehrenreich’s Solo but so far the prognosis is not good.

Yeah, I was wondering if he’s supposed to be Bollux or maybe Vuffi Raa in name only. Probably just an original character all around though.

DominicCobb said:

Mocata said:

But trailers are designed to maximise the hype, and presumably this was the best they could do in terms of crowd pleasing sound bites even after all the delays.

Well I haven’t seen it but I’m electing to defend it regardless!

FTFY

The film looks great but he is not Solo. Looks like they should have recast and gone with Ingruber while they were switching out directors.

Strangely, Ehrenreich sounds like Ingruber when he’s not doing his Harrison voice.

emanswfan said:

The cinematography does not disappoint! Bradford Young is killer behind the camera! And it also seems to be a nice continuation of the Rogue One’s heightened realism aesthetic.

This so much! Rogue One was easily my favorite of the new films in terms of visuals. It brought the OT era to life and it looks like they’ve done it again!

That teaser was fantastic! Can’t wait for the full trailer!

I am Tobar. I seek to crush my enemies. See them driven before me. And to hear the lamentations of their women.

DominicCobb said:

No room for rebels vs Empire kind of stories. Plenty of room for whatever else. Not every story has to be a massive galactic conflict.

They can do small character stories which is a lot of what they’ve been doing but that’s not sustainable.

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp - Official Trailer

I just can’t believe how badly they’ve handcuffed themselves when it comes to room for more stories.

Why in the world would you end the conflict with the Empire just a year after ROTJ? That doesn’t even sound plausible.

The only conflict they’ve made room for is the wiping out of Hutt cartels as was referenced in Bloodlines. Something else that book establishes is that the Republic has been at peace for decades. So no real room for stories.

Fast forward to TFA and it’s revealed the attack with the Starkiller is the first time the First Order has committed an act of war. So no room for stories leading up to TFA.

TLJ starts immediately after the last film, so no room for stories there again.

The only chance they’ve got is if there’s a time jump between VIII and IX.

It’s just bizarre to me how they didn’t worked this out ahead of time and have instead written themselves into a very tight corner.

Hostiles (2017)

Really good film. Solid performances all around. It’s amazing that this is only this studio’s third film. Kudos to the writer/director.

theprequelsrule said:

Tobar’s avatar is mind-blowingly awesome.

Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight (2017)

Nutty Hong Kong Action Zombie Comedy.

Is it though? Their main base of operations was just destroyed. It’s going to take a while before they can regroup.

SilverWook said:

Anyone else think we might get a Droids movie someday? There isn’t the wiggle room there once was for Threepio and Artoo to have solo adventures between the trilogies, but maybe we’ll find out what the red arm thing in TFA was about.

That story was told in comic form and Tony Daniels milks it for all its worth by padding out his panels with it. =P

‘Star Wars Rebels’ sets 90-minute series finale

“Star Wars” is officially closing one chapter in its universe, with the animated series “Star Wars Rebels” to conclude March 5 with a 90-minute series finale.

The program, which airs on Disney XD, will return February 19 with back-to-back episodes leading up to its conclusion.

The cable network also confirmed that Ian McDiarmid – who has played Emperor Palpatine in the “Star Wars” movies – will provide the character’s voice during this final flurry of episodes. (Another actor had previously voiced the character, who has been heard but not seen in the series.)

The emperor is shown fleetingly in the trailer, which was released Friday.

Despite airing on a children’s network, “Rebels,” now in its fourth season, has been an intriguing offshoot of the “Star Wars” mythology, focusing on a small band battling against the empire several years before the events depicted in the original movie, subtitled “A New Hope.”

The question of what happened to those characters – which include a Jedi named Kanan and his apprentice, Ezra – has hung over the series in terms of how dark the ending might be.

In October, series producer Dave Filoni told CNN that charting a finish to the series represented “quite a puzzle,” saying, “The ending works as it’s meant to. One of George’s main things about ‘Star Wars’ is it is a story about hope. … I tried to stick to those themes.”

Lucasfilm parent Disney has ramped up its production of live-action “Star Wars” prequels, but Filoni said that there’s still a wide array of possibilities for animated storytelling as well.

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