Leave it to South Korea to give the superhero movie a swift kick in the pants. Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho delivered on his wildly original, batshit crazy zombie flick a couple of years ago and already he’s back with Psychokinesis, which sees him bringing a new spin on heroes with superpowers.
The story is simple enough; an ordinary guy gains the power of telekinesis, “Some weird power” he and others call it, and must use it to save his daughter. The comedy is super goofy looking, like something out of a Stephen Chow flick, but soon he’s ripping down walls, racing through traffic, and even picking up a sidekick. Ryoo Seung-Ryong, Shim Eun-Kyung, Park Jung-Min, Kim Min-Jae, Jung Yu-Mi, and Kang Sang-Won star.
Psychokinesis has been picked up by Netflix but has yet to be given a U.S. date. Hopefully soon.
Even though Fox has been very successful with their X-Men films, I gotta admit, The Gifted really works well as a series. With the Disney merger about to go into effect (barring anyone in the government stopping it), it might be a good idea to keep the trend of having mutants on the small screen. Both The Gifted and Legion have shown that the X-Men universe can thrive on the small screen. The first season of The Gifted gave us a very interesting race/immigration parable, as Stan Lee intended when he first created the X-Men back in 1963.
Focusing on the Strucker family, whose life got turned upside down when they discover that their young children Lauren and Andy have manifested their mutant powers. The family patriarch Reed, having been a prosecutor who investigates and imprisons “dangerous” mutants, he knows his children don’t have a chance and goes on the run with them. They joined the Mutant Underground, a new network of mutants who help protect mutants who just want to be free of persecution. As we discover throughout the first season, they are the heirs to the X-Men, who are mysteriously absent from the show. Perhaps in the second season, we’ll see some fan favorites (who won’t be in any future X-Men movies). They are continuously hunted by Sentinel Services, a government agency dedicated to stopping dangerous mutants. The Sentinel Services have partnered with contractor Trask Industries, who have their own nefarious means of hunting down mutants, by using brainwashed mutants against their own kind. Recently, a new player was introduced to the mix: The Hellfire Club and their most active (and murderous members: the Stepford Cuckoos, leading to the explosive season 1 finale.
Let’s take a look at a few highlights from this week’s two-parter “eXtraction/’X-roads:”
Flashbacks:
The flashback for the finale focused on Trask Industries’ mad scientist, Doctor Campbell. Campbell has spent most of the season working with Agent Turner and Sentinel Services, blending government with the private military company Trask Industries in the name of stopping mutants. Trask had created a drug which turned mutants into “Hounds:” brainwashed mutants who then would hunt other mutants. Thanks to the flashback, we learn a little bit about his motivations against mutants. Turns out Campbell had a brother who was dying of cystic fibrosis. This led him to be motivated to study genetics. Later on, during a conference by Humanity Today, a “humans only” conference. During his lecture he commented on genetics and how even though the Neanderthals were stronger than their human counterparts, they did not survive because of humans ingenuity, something he wants to do to the mutants.
Mutant Underground Try To Stop Campbell:
Knowing that at the conference, Campbell would be meeting with politicians with the intent on taking the Hound program national, even global, the Mutant Underground knew that they would need to stop him. Working with the Stepford Cuckoos, they hatched a plan to infiltrate the conference, get close enough to Campbell, and stop him. After the Cuckoos brainwash a politician for access, they go to the conference to confront Campbell.
Things don’t go according to plan though. Even though they manage to infiltrate into the conference, they don’t get the drop on him. Eclipse, Blink, and Thunderbird goes on the offense and takes out his security detail. Campbell manages to weasel his way to grab some young children and holds one as a hostage, forcing him to escape.
The Strucker Children Are At Odds With Each Other:
While some of the Mutant Underground is trying to pull of their kidnapping, the Struckers have their own side mission. Reed finds out that his mother is still in danger thanks to their Mutant Underground activities, and he goes to try and find his mother, as well as try to find any information about his late father’s research surrounding the X-Gene, since the bad guys need that info. As Reed and Caitlin find Reed’s mother, the kids are to stand guard for anyone from Sentinel Services.
As Sentinel Services arrive, they confront the two children. Remember when I said that Andy seemed to have a bad streak when the season first started? Well, it looks like that has completely come to fruition. Andy wants to take on the agents, basically being the Magneto of the siblings. His sister Lauren is fulfilling the Professor Xavier role and doesn’t want any violence. After Andy easily subdues them with his telekinetic powers, Lauren has to use her powers against her brother to stop him from killing them. The two briefly engage in a fight before their parents return, none the wiser.
Polaris Has Her Own Mission:
In the aftermath of the botched conference mission, Polaris escapes with the Stepford Cuckoos. Turns out, there was an additional mission that the rest of the Mutant Underground was not aware of. They realize that now that Campbell is on his way to Washington DC and the most recent “attack” by the Mutant Underground, he’ll have all the political capital to launch the Hound program nationwide. The only recourse they have left would be to kill him.
Polaris at first seems like she doesn’t want to go through with such a bad thing, but the longer she spends with the Cuckoos, the more she warms up to the idea. Blink, Eclipse, and Thunderbird manage to catch up to them just as she’s about to use her magnetism powers to bring down Campbell’s plan and try to talk her out of it. Unfortunately, she’s too far gone at this point and she brings down the plane, not only killing Campbell, but also killing an anti-mutant senator at the same time.
The Showdown At The Mutant Underground Headquarters:
Agent Turner (with the blessing of his agency) is tasked with launching an attack on the Mutant Underground headquarters. Not only does he have Sentinel Service agents ready to shoot first, he also has a few Hounds, who are using Campbell’s device to combine their powers to attack them. Reed gets his children, as well all able bodies mutants to stage a last line of defense, so that the other mutants can find a way to escape out of the back. While he and everyone are able to put up a fight for a while, the Hounds start overpowering them.
Lauren and Andy realize that the only way to ensure everyone can get away is for them to use their Fenris powers and completely destroy the Mutant Underground headquarters. Just as the Hounds are closing in on the headquarters, they lock their hands and activate their destructive might. They kill the poor brainwashed mutants and level the place. Of course, they are the only ones to survive.
Agent Turner is to fall on his sword and take the blame for the agency being unable to catch the Mutant Underground. Fed up with the bureaucracy, Agent Turner screams at his superiors and resigns. Is he going to replace Campbell at Trask Industries now? For a while, I thought he would “see the light” and realize he’s on the wrong side, but it looks like he’s too far gone and will continue his Captain Nemo quest.
The Mutant Underground Splits:
Disheveled, the Mutant Underground regroups in Tennessee. Now they don’t have their vast network and are holed up in a warehouse. Eclipse and Thunderbird want to start all over again. However, there’s now concern growing throughout the Mutant Underground. Some are sick and tired of running and know that Sentinel Services will just find them again.
That’s when the Stepford Cuckoos and Polaris crash the party. At the right time, when the group is divided on what to do next, they manage to continue sowing seeds of discontent among the ranks. A few mutants decide to go with them. We now have an X-Men/ Brotherhood of Mutants rivalry going on between the Mutant Underground and the Hellfire Club. Not only did the Hellfire Club manage to divide the Mutant Underground with their new philosophy, they have divided families. Polaris (who was revealed to be bipolar also through a flashback, along with her captivity explains her new about face) and her boyfriend Eclipse are on different sides. The Struckers are also divided as Andy leaves his mother, father, and sister to join the Hellfire Club. As Reed tries to stop his son, he uses a telekinetic push to keep his father away. Yeah, he’s officially gone to the Darkside as predicted.
One hell of a first season for The Gifted. See ya next year!
We’ve seen precious little from Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, and that’s not really too surprisng. With Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War ahead of it the decks should be cleared before the sequel gets a chance to stand on its own. So a trailer might be a ways off, however we do have a new photo that has stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly suited up for action.
This is our best look yet at Lilly as Hope Van Dyne aka The Wasp, picking up the mantle from her mother Janet Van Dyne, played by the newly-cast Michelle Pfeiffer. It seems as if the plot will find her and Rudd’s Scott Lang venturing into the Quantum zone to find her long lost mom, undoubtedly with the help of Hope’s father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).
Otherwise we don’t know a lot about the story other than Scott will be trying to balance fatherhood with his time as a hero fighting alongside the Avengers. But is there an actual villain in the movie yet? If so I’ve got no clue who it is.
Directed by Peyton Reed with Judy Greer, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, and more co-starring, Ant-Man and the Wasp opens July 6th.
We’ve heard conflicting stories about Sony’s Venom movie and how the universe it’s set in relates to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, who is firmly set in the MCU. It’s always been weird to have a series of movies based on Spider-Man characters but no Spider-Man, but the plan seems that Venom and the Spidey spinoffs exist separately. Or maybe not? A new rumor by director Jon Schnepp on Collider Movie Talk says something completely different, and that we may see Holland appear alongside Tom Hardy’s Venom after all…
“Spider-Man is going to be in Venom. For the last couple of months, we’ve been hearing how Sony is keeping it all separated, and Spider-Man is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but every other character that’s in the Spider-Man universe is separate. All I’m saying is that Spider-Man—and I’m talking about Tom Holland’s Spider-Man—is going to be in Venom.”
Jon is a nice guy, I’ve met him, but still I’d urge caution. Sony and Marvel may have struck a deal to bring Spider-Man over to the MCU, but how far does Sony want to take that? I think blending the universes causes cohesion problems, especially as Spidey becomes more of a focal point in the MCU. I just don’t see it happening, but then again Marvel and Sony could easily shut down these rumors if they really wanted to.
Disney isn’t showing us anything from Solo: A Star Wars Story. The film is only four months away and we’ve seen nothing other than some set photos, mostly featuring director Ron Howard who is not exactly what we’re looking for. And this has begun to fuel rumors that Disney is keeping it under wraps because it may not be very good. None of us knows the answer to that yet, but what we do have is the brand new synopsis. How detailed do you think it is?
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course for one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Er, wha? It doesn’t even read like a synopsis, but like the introduction to a theme park ride. Whatever, we can probably expect to see highlights from the rogue’s notorious past finally brought to the big screen, and that should be fun even if this isn’t Lucasfilm’s strongest Star Wars movie.
Solo: A Star Wars Story opens May 25th, although I think we may see that date move. If we don’t get a trailer in the next week or two I would say it’s a sure thing.
It’s tough to get excited over Warner Bros. finally naming directors for their standalone Flash movie, titled Flashpoint, because they’ve gone through so many already. Plus, the duo they’ve chosen for the job are hardly inspiring. Landing the gig are John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who previously directed the Vacation reboot nobody liked.
Probably the biggest strike against Daley and Goldstein is their work as screenwriters. While they did write Spider-Man: Homecoming and that turned out awesome, they’re also the guys who took a pen to The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and both Horrible Bosses movies, the latter being pretty atrocious. They teamed up for the upcoming Game Night which looks pretty funny.
The duo are still in talks so the whole thing could fall through, but if everything works out they’ll be taking over from Rick Famuyiwa, Seth Grahame-Smith, plus Phil Lord and Chris Miller, all having dropped out previously. Another director who passed on the gig? Ben Affleck. That’s right, Warner Bros. approached him first but obviously he shot it down. Of course he did. Why would he ever take it when he’s so clearly on the way out as Batman? Ugh. [THR]
Fun fact, WB actually went to Affleck to helm but he would eventually pass on the job
The 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly remains one of the most divisive among the African-American community. The original starred Ron O’Neal as Priest Youngblood, a drug dealer looking to get out of the game, but not until he makes a big enough score to retire gracefully. Its glorification of drug dealers has been a bone of contention for some, while others saw it as a realistic view of what it took for black people to stand on their own at the time. I’m not sure how Sony plans to make their remake, now titled Superfly, relevant to today’s standards but they’re putting together a cast that makes me interested to find out.
Mudbound and Straight Outta Compton star Jason Mitchell will lead the film, to be directed by Hype Williams protege Director X. Trevor Jackson of comedies grown-ish and black-ish will co-star as Eddie, with Mitchell starring as Youngblood Priest. The cast also includes ex Scott Davis as Georgia, Andrea Londo as Cynthia, Jacob Ming-Trent as Fat Freddy, and Omar Chapparo as Adalberto.
Between Proud Mary and the upcoming Shaft remake it’s like blaxploitation is in style again, and I can see why. As a response to long-standing criticisms of Hollywood’s lack of diversity, not to mention a certain racist sitting in the Oval Office, we’re seeing black filmmakers revive a genre that produced some of our most iconic screen characters. I’m all for it as long as the movies have something fresh to add. [Deadline]
The long awaited sequel to the cerebral sci-fi masterpeice Blade
Runner, the brilliant new thriller 2049 stars Ryan Gosling as Officer K,
a new blade runner who accidentally uncovers an intensely protected secret that
could further destory our already fractured distopian society. Seeking the
answers only he would know, K goes on a quest to find Deckard (original star
Harrison Ford), who’s been missing since the events of the original film.
We Said: “When all is said
and done, Blade Runner 2049 enhances Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, but also
improves upon it. He has taken the seed planted by Scott, nurtured it, and now
it has blossomed into one of the finest works of science-fiction ever. Does it
answer every question we’ve been pondering all of these years? Of course not,
but in all of its ruminations about the future, Blade Runner 2049 has
opened up a future in which this franchise will continue to grow and evolve.” Rating: 4 out of 5
This new hit horror/comedy focuses on young, rich, and
selfish sororotiy girl Tree, who finds herself inexplicably stuck in a time
loop, repeating her birthday over and over again for no apparent reason. Further
complicating matters, every version of the day ends with her being violently
murdered by a masked killer. Stuck in time until she solves her own murder,
Tree begins her hunt to stop whoever keeps killing her.
We Said: “While there are
pretty big problems with the basic structure of the movie, they don’t detract
too much from the overall fun and inventiveness of Happy Death Day. It’s a
familiar concept, but still entirely its own incredibly strange movie. It’s a
very special brand of odd that I haven’t seen in a mainstream movie for a very
long time.” Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Michael Fassbender stars as washed-up detective Harry Hole in
this adaptation of the acclaimed detective series of the same name. begrudgenly
on the case of the “Snowman Killer”, a mass-murderer who turns his corpses into
snowmen and taunts Hole every step of the way, Harry becomes bound to stopping
the madman and his own demons before time runs out.
We Said: “The unfortunate part
is that The Snowman had all of the right pieces – super successful and
popular source material, talented stars across the board, and the backing of
major Hollywood players… yet it still managed to fall flat. I wanted to like
this one, I really did, but I couldn’t even convince myself that I somewhat
enjoyed it by the end.” Rating: 1.5 out
of 5
A beautiful new film about the mysteries surrounding the life
and death of troubled painter Vincent Van Gough, Loving Vincentis
comprised of beautifully hand painted frames of animation in style of the
beloved artist.
We Said: “Loving Vincent is a gorgeous,
inventive work of art, but some will take more value from it than others. They
say that art is in the eye of the beholder, and that certainly applies here..” Rating: 3 out of 5
Damn, and I thought some extremely entitled men cried their share of man-tears over Ghostbusters, I had no idea how far they would go to “own” Star Wars: The Last Jedi. A men’s rights activist has taken a bootleg copy of Rian Johnson’s film and edited out every single female, every reference to females, anything that offends his delicate male sensibilities. The result is a 46-minute cut he’s titled “The Last Jedi: De-Feminized Fanedit”, that he says is “basically The Last Jedi minus Girlz Powah and other silly stuff.”
I can see this guy over on the fainting couch every time Haldo (Laura Dern) gave poor reckless Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) a tongue lashing. Yeah, he cuts all that out, too, which also has drastic ramifications for Poe, of course. He even cuts out other stuff that has nothing to do with women, although in one instance (Porgs as Chewbacca food) I fully support the change.
“Cut out most shots showing female fighters/pilots and female officers commanding people around/having ideas.“
“NO HALDO (sic)! She simply doesn’t exist. Her whole subplot doesn’t exist. The Kamikaze is carried out by Poe. ( = Poe dies.)“
“Leia never scolds, questions nor demotes Poe. He is a respected and very skilled high-ranking member of the resistance.“
“When there’s a scene where a woman is cut in making some important statement that can be substituted by another statement by a guy, then she gets cut out. Works pretty well actually.“
“Wookie eats the Porg, or at least isn’t interrupted in trying to do so.“
“No green milk.” (What the [frick])
The edited movie was uploaded to The Pirate Bay and the anonymous user wants you to know his thoughts on it. Basically, he digs not having any girls in it (They have cooties, y’know) but he’s sorta embarrassed by the technical aspects. Oh, you’re embarrassed by THAT, eh?
Obviously it’s far from perfect. The source is not even on DVD-level. Some of the technical edits were slacked because why not, it’s a CAM source (e.g. some masks and Snoke disappearing). Sometimes there’s an extreme zoom despite the mediocre quality. There are plotholes and continuity errors and some cuts are not as smooth as they should be, especially audio transition-wise.
But for what it’s worth, it can now at least be viewed without feeling nauseaus about most of the terrible big and small decisions they made in this film. Also, at least the intro sequence is now very watchable and actually much cooler without all of Leia’s nitpicking. Now it’s all one united Resistance fighting without inner conflict and that’s much more satisfying to watch. Due to the extreme shortening, the whole movie is much more fast-paced now, at times unfortuantely also rushed due to a lack of usable filler footage.
If this piece of crap pops up somewhere within our reach we’ll point you to it, but I ain’t posting it on the site for obvious reasons. One, every woman I know will smack me in the face. Second, I’m not drawing the ire of Lucasfilm. At least one man, Rian Johnson, can see the humor in all this:
Priscilla hits all the major points here but I’ll just add hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha https://t.co/f0bKJ9NeUe
The new film Love, Simon from Arrowverse head honcho Greg Berlanti has a lot on its shoulders. There are plenty of movies that attempt to capture the whirlwind of emotions that come with discovering one’s sexuality. Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is an example of doing it the right way and telling a unique story at the same time. Berlanti’s film also deals with the issue of coming out, and being true to the emotions that accompany such a monumental moment in a teenager’s life.
Nick Robinson stars in the adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s book about 17-year-old Simon Spier, who struggles to come out to his friends and family, while he also tries to find the anonymous teenager he met online and has fallen hard for. There’s also another student who knows Simon’s secret, and is threatening to reveal it to the whole school.
The trailer teases some of the heavy stuff we’d expect, but I like that Berlanti has found a nice mix with the funny moments that are a part of being a high school kid. I’m expecting big things from this, maybe on the level of The Fault In Our Stars, with buzz similar to 12 Reasons Why. Speaking of which, that Netflix hit’s star, Katherine Langford, is featuring prominently in the trailers for a reason. The audience is there, that much is undeniable.
Love, Simon opens March 16th and co-stars Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Miles Heizer, Keiynan Lonsdale, Logan Miller, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, and Tony Hale.
