And here I thought the new Big Hero 6 animated series had already started, but nope, it doesn’t officially premiere until next month. I guess the “Baymax Returns” episode from last year was just a teaser for the series that springboards directly from Disney and Marvel’s hit 2014 film which earned $657M at the box office and proved Marvel’s animated future on the big screen is bright if they pursue that route further.
Disney has dropped a new trailer for Big Hero 6: The Series, which reunites the original voice cast with the exception of TJ Miller and Damon Wayans Jr. Miller has been replaced by Brooks Wheelan as the voice of Fred, team mascot and the guy who comes up with the team’s name. The Walking Dead’s Khary Payton takes over as Wasabi. Hiro (Ryan Potter), Baymax (Scott Adsit), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), and Go Go Tomago (Jamie Chung) are back and picking up directly from where the movie left off.
Here’s the synopsis: The adventure continues for 14-year-old tech genius Hiro and his compassionate, cutting-edge robot Baymax. If dealing with the academic pressure of being the new kid at the prestigious San Fransokyo Institute of Technology weren’t enough, it’s off campus where things really get tricky. Hiro and Baymax, along with their friends Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go and Fred, unite to form the legendary superhero team Big Hero 6, protecting their city from a colorful array of scientifically-enhanced villains intent on creating chaos and mayhem!
The first two episodes of Big Hero 6: The Series will hit Disney Channel on June 9th, followed by two more the next day.
Solo: A Star Wars Story failed to launch over the weekend, earning just $148M worldwide over the course of the Memorial Day weekend. Trying to pinpoint one exact reason why it was a dud is silly. It could be any number of things for a troubled production that fired its directors halfway through and replaced them with someone who is their polar opposite. Ron Howard came in and cobbled together a solidly entertaining film just right for the summer season it was released in. Maybe the bad buzz was just too tough to overcome.
Whatever the reason, we now have Howard’s first reactions to Solo‘s disappointing start. In a tweet, Howard basically urges fans to give the film a chance and see it for themselves.
I would definitely second that. Solo is a fun movie, imperfect but a completely different kind of Star Wars experience. It asks you to simply sit back and enjoy the ride, and I think most who have seen it can say they did. Still, it’s kinda bad taste for Howard to be taking a victory lap over it being a personal best. Pretty sure Disney is looking at this tweet screwface right now.
But there’s still no getting around that box office, especially for a movie that cost around $300M to produce. At this rate it’ll probably break that number and land somewhere between $400M-$500M. If that’s the case then we’re looking at the first Star Wars film to truly underwhelm financially, and it could spark a change in Disney’s approach to them in the future.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is the franchise’s first legit summer popcorn movie, designed to be a big, entertaining romp at your favorite multiplex. So while its ambitions are smaller than the “core” trilogy films, or even Rogue One which tied so neatly into them, Solo still makes some significant impact on the stories we’ve come to know and love. One moment in particular will change the way you perceive the original trilogy forever, and it involves the droid L3-37, voiced excellently by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
L3-37 is different than just about every droid we’ve ever encountered in Star Wars. While we’ve always known to some extent that droids are second-class citizens, L3-37 is the first we’ve seen who actively challenges that status. When we first meet her she’s attempting to break up an underground droid “fight club”, encouraging its silent combatants to stand up for their rights. L3-37 is also the first droid to overtly allude to her own sexuality, teasing a romantic relationship with Lando Calrissian (Donald glover) who is clearly more to her than just her owner. They do seem to be friends, or at the very least partners in crime. With Lando recently confirmed to be pansexual it’s possible they were lovers.
Late in the film L3-37 meets a terrible fate when she is shot in the middle of a shootout on Kessel while trying to liberate other droids and start a rebellion. It’s a noble end for the activist droid, but her story doesn’t truly finish there. She is gathered up and her navigational computer, noted to be the best in the galaxy, is uploaded into the Millennium Falcon so Lando, Han, Chewie, and Qi-Ra can make a hasty escape. L3-37 is now part of the Falcon, and its thanks to her that Han can make that legendary Kessel Run we keep hearing so much about. Of course, a woman does the hard work and the dude gets all the credit.
The freakout over this decision to make L3-37’s “consciousness” part of the Falcon has sparked an Internet outrage. If I read one more thinkpiece comparing it to an episode of Black Mirror I’ll scream. The uproar is over L3-37 basically being subjugated, the thing she fought so mightily against, and turned into just another tool for the humans to use. The female droid and advocate for droid rights has had her agency taken away, doomed to plot hyperspace routes for as long as the Millennium Falcon soars.
To be fair, it does change the way we look at the Falcon’s earliest appearances, doesn’t it? There’s that one peculiar scene in The Empire Strikes Back when C3PO plugs in to the Falcon to figure out why the hyperdrive is fitzing out, and he says “Sir, I don’t know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.”
Well, that dialect was, as we know now, L3-37. Of course it’s peculiar. She was a peculiar droid; brassy and argumentative with more of a personality than any other droid we’ve seen. But when you think about it further, all of this makes sense. In a recent episode of Cinema Royale, myself and Joblo.com‘s Chris Bumbray talked about the implications of L3-37 being part of the Falcon. Put simply, it explains why Han always seems to be met with so much embarrassing resistance from the ship (like the aforementioned hyperdrive snafu), and why Lando seems to have no issues at all when he gets back in the pilot’s seat in Return of the Jedi. Okay, he too has a problem but that was caused by someone else not fixing what was promised. The ship also seems to be flying quite well on its own during this scene, because that ain’t Leia flying. L3-37’s co-pilot skills are still coming in handy.
L3-37 has a preference, and she has chosen Lando, naturally. It also explains why Lando never gets over losing the ship to Han, and adds poignancy to every time they refer to the ship as “her”. And the guy who wrote those crucial stories is Lawrence Kasdan, who also co-wrote Solo. It’s possible he was laying this groundwork all along. At least I choose to believe that’s the case.
But the notion that L3-37 is just another case of a female character being sacrificed in service of a male is ridiculous. First of all, it demands that you believe L3-37’s story is over. That now she is just this passive observer to all of the many amazing feats accomplished by Han or Lando on behalf of the Rebellion. That’s not true, though, and we have multiple movies that prove it’s not true. The Falcon is, I would say, the heart and soul of the rebel army. And that means L3-37 is the heart and soul of the Rebellion. She is a symbol of hope and has literally saved their hides on multiple occasions when no other ship could. This is not a “Women in Refrigerators” moment the way one friend tried to tell me a few days ago. L3-37 was never helpless, she fought and died for a cause she believed in, and she continues to do so in another form. She certainly wasn’t “fridged”.
How she continues to fight also shows that her personality and spirit lives on. As the Falcon she’s as temperamental as ever and helps who she wants to help when she wants to do it; previously we took that to just be Han’s piss poor care of the ship, but we know now that it was L3-37’s brassy attitude. And maybe she IS upset at Han’s piss poor care of the ship. You see how pristine the Falcon was in Lando’s care? Come on! I’d be mad and fuck up the deflector shields on occasion, too. Take that, Solo!
I get it. With HBO’s Westworld we’ve come to ask deeper questions about artificial intelligence. Should a synthetic being that can mimic human personality be treated as if it is indeed human? I don’t know the answer to that ethical dilemma. I’ll keep watching Westworld to find out, though. I had my issues with L3-37’s humor not completely meshing with the film’s tone, but I recognize her as an important and very progressive addition to Star Wars at a time when it’s dangerous to create such a character for fear of fan backlash. So if you’re going to do it, better make it count. L3-37 has been woven into the fabric of Star Wars; she continues to fight the good fight and make choices that determine her fate as well as that of the people she cares about. What better honor is there for a droid who believed independence was a right for all creatures.
There’s a new Disney princess in town, and this one may be the new ruler of Wakanda. Black Panther breakout Letitia Wright attended this year’s MCM London Comic-Con and during a Q&A session revealed that T’Challa’s brilliant sister Shuri could find herself Wakanda’s new leader very soon…
“If the opportunity came about, then why not? It would be comic book accurate. Yeah, that would be amazing.
It means more training, more learning and it would really be an amazing adventure. Shuri becomes a savage in the comic books.
From going to comedic and fun and like a kid – to then just pulling out some claws. I’m excited.”
In the comics, Shuri takes over as Black Panther when her brother is depowered and must go off to recover. After enduring the trials to gain the powers of the Panther god, Shuri defends Wakanda against the threat of Doctor Doom and others, proving herself to be a capable leader due to her fighting skills and technological expertise.
Of course, the film universe is very different, and the reason for Shuri’s potential ascension has to do with the events of Infinity War. While we know that Shuri has survived Thanos’ cataclysmic actions because the movie’s directors have said so, we don’t know the fate of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa just yet. My gut tells me we’ll see Shuri in a Black Panther outfit of her own in Avengers 4.
That’s right, there is still a Marvel Cinematic Universe after Thanos’ snap of the fingers, especially down on the gritty streets of Netflix’s shows which seem to have been left unaffected. The second season of Luke Cage is coming up and this time the bulletproof hero is matched up against someone just as tough as him, but the real damage may be to his reputation as Harlem’s protector.
The villain of season 2 is John McIver (Mustafa Shakir) aka the Marvel villain known as Bushmaster. He’s got the physical durability to kick Cage’s butt, and in this new clip we see some of Harlem’s vocal residents wondering if their champion has met his match.
Like every Marvel Netflix series the first season of Luke Cage had its moments of greatness, but eventually dragged on for longer than it needed to. And honestly I don’t know what the solution is because The Defenders had a smaller episode count and it still dragged. But I still have high hopes for Cage’s second season because showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker has given the show a hip-hop feel different from anything else on Netflix.
Luke Cage season 2 arrives on June 22nd and brings back Mike Colter along with co-stars Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, Simone Missick as Misty Knight, Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard, Gabrielle Dennis as Tilda Johnson aka Nightshade, and Theo Rossi as Hernan ‘Shades’ Alvarez.
It’s another Star Wars weekend as Solo: A Star Wars Story flies into theaters. I won’t be flying solo on this review, though, as my homie Chris Bumbray of Joblo.com and The Beard and the Bald podcast joins in to talk about the anticipated prequel, what worked, what didn’t, and if there are too many Star Wars movies! Plus we’ll look at Paul Schrader’s latest, First Reformed, starring Ethan Hawke as a priest suffering through a crisis of faith.
Finally we’ll take a look at Danny Boyle agreeing to direct Bond 25, James Mangold directing a Boba Fett movie, Jake Gyllenhaal joining the Spider-Man sequel, and The Expendables 4 finally becoming a reality!
Sollers Point follows the story of a 24 year old man named Keith who after being released from prison attempts to rebuild his life while still dealing with a lot of the same problems that he dealt with before going in. It stars McCaul Lombardi, Jim Belushi, Zazie Beetz, Tom Guiry and is directed by Matthew Porterfield.
I applaud the filmmakers for choosing to highlight the issue of criminal justice, more specifically the idea of recidivism, and how challenging it is for someone who has spent time behind bars to properly integrate back into the society and circumstances that landed them behind those bars in the first place. It’s not this easy journey where once you’ve done the crime and time everything clears up because more often than not your payment for your actions don’t cease to exist once the legalities of the situation have been figured out. Simply dealing with the label of “ex-convict” is enough to seriously damage your mental, social, and physical life for years to come.
Where this story falls short however is in the meat of the story. They introduce all of these ideas about Keith and relationships that he has, but never explore them in the way that you would think/hope that they would. We meet his father, father’s friends, sister, niece and nephew, ex-girlfriend, Uncle, Grandparents, dog, friends, and enemies; but they never felt like they had any real impact on Keith. They just felt like these snapshot moments that didn’t carry any real meaning.
We don’t really get a backstory as to the tumultuous relationship between Keith and his dad. We don’t know what events led to the falling out between him and his ex. We don’t get to see any real depth to the friendships that he already has and randomly forms over the course of the story (this can be said for all his relationships in the movie as well). It’s as if the filmmakers were a bit too preoccupied introducing these different characters and relationships that Keith could interact with to show just how connected he is to his environment for better or worse, that when it came time to actually setting up some kind of a sub-plot or explain a relationship, it’s as if they forgot.
That’s pretty much my only flaw with the movie, though it”s still a pretty important one. Because by the end of it we still don’t really know anything about Keith, see him make any kind of real change, or see how the various relationships in the movie affect him – it makes it extremely hard to truly understand him, therefore making it hard to care about him or his story. I like the realism, but other than that this was a movie that left me feeling extremely indifferent and unimpressed.
Sollers Point opens at West End Cinema on May 25th
When one thinks of the legendary career of Paul Schrader, naturally the first to come to mind are his most iconic films. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Mosquito Coast, and others about lonely, spiritually confused men barreling down an apocalyptic path. Schrader began his career criticizing film, after finding a passion for movies that went against his strict Calvinist upbringing. He would go on to direct his share of notable films such as American Gigolo, Hardcore, Blue Collar, and continues to be very active today at the age of 71.
Film has been a way for Schrader to work out the many conflicts raging within himself, and that has never been more true than with First Reformed. A return to the dark, contemplative style from his early career, the film stars Ethan Hawke as Toller, former military chaplin now a troubled priest who is going through an existential crisis. Wrecked by grief and physically decimated by illness, he finds renewed purpose by aiding a parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband has become a radical environmentalist, a cause that Toller takes a dangerous interest in.
I had a chance to speak with Schrader about First Reformed, why he waited so long to make it, and of course his thoughts on spirituality as it relates to modern day challenges. You can listen to that interview below, and find my review of the film here!
So it was around 1995 or 1996, back when E! would cover fashion and air fashion shows and while I was sitting back and taking in all the high fashion, beautiful models and seeing the actual designers who made the clothes I started to notice this very large black man. Always in the front row and giving wild, or what my teenage brain thought was wild sound bites about the show. It wasn’t that long after that I learned that man’s name – André Leon Talley who at the time worked at Vogue magazine and just seemed like a grand wizard of fashion knowledge. He’s a staple in western fashion and now it seems it’s time to cover his life in film. The Gospel According to Andre is a documentary following Talley in his day to day life as he tells his story.
Kate Novak, the director of this piece does a fine of job of letting the camera sit with Andre and let him tell his story and show his personality. There are plenty of interviews with people in life from when he grew up in North Carolina to his time at Brown University through his years the in New York nightlife and fashion world. Novak chooses to frame it in the weeks before the 2016 Presidential Election as Talley is worried about Hillary Clinton’s chances in the election to the time directly after. Talley has lived an amazing life and interfaced with so many greats in the fashion world from the press side to some of the major names at some of the biggest houses. The film also does a good job of allowing Talley to talk about some of his struggles with race in the fashion world and his choice on how outspoken he was about these issues. There really isn’t much talk about his sexuality and that might have to do with the fashion world and how much of a non-issue homosexuality is or a choice to not talk about it.
There really isn’t much to decry about the craft or structure of this film. It’s very entertaining and engaging for an audience. It might be held back by the fact its about high fashion and that’s a subject that everyone isn’t really into. Also, I don’t know if this film needs to be seen in theaters, it is a film that works very well on a TV at home being that a lot of the shots are so intimate and close that they don’t have the scale to really use the large screen of the theater.
It’s a mixed bag when looking at the box office prospects for Solo: A Star Wars Story, but let me say that I have a bad feeling about this.
The film opened Thursday night previews with $14.1M, breaking the Memorial Day weekend record held by 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. That film went on to earn a record $139.8M over the four-day holiday.
At this point, analysts are projecting more than $140M for Solo, which would make it the new Memorial Day all-time leader, but would also be the lowest weekend total for any Star Wars movie since Disney took over. While I think its expected for the spinoff to earn less than the core trilogy films, Rogue One managed to open with $155M on its way to $1.05B overall.
China delivered a crushing blow to Solo‘s deflector shields, also, with the film only earning $3.3M on its way to $11.4M in 43 international markets. To be fair, expectations had to be pretty low because China has NEVER been that big into Star Wars, at least not on the level of Marvel or even Fast & the Furious. They love them some Vin Diesel.
Solo has incredible tough competition to deal with from Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2. How well it does is going to depend on early buzz, which has been mixed among critics so far, and word of mouth from those who decided to shoot first and worry about reviews later.
