We thought that in a post-Justice League landscape at Warner Bros. there might be wholesale changes to the upcoming DC Films lineup. There has been a shakeup in leadership, which should count for something, but what kind of impact would that have on their slate of superhero movies? Apparently none, because it all looks exactly the same as it did before Justice League bombed so hard.
Last summer at Comic-Con, Warner Bros. unveiled every DCEU film they had coming up, including surprising confirmations like Flashpoint, Justice League Dark, and Green Lantern Corp. Over the weekend, fans at the Comic-Con Experience in Brazil got a look at the state of DCEU movies and…well, nothing has changed. Actually, I take that back. They actually add one more movie; Joss Whedon’s Batgirl.
Warner Bros. Revealed Its Full Slate Of DC Extended Universe Films Earlier Today At Comic-Con Experience 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil:
•Aquaman
•Wonder Woman 2
•Flashpoint
•Suicide Squad 2
•Shazam
•Batgirl
•The Batman
•Green Lantern Corps pic.twitter.com/Xe9qvrzhJh
I don’t know whether to be surprised in a good way or a bad way. On the one hand I’m happy they didn’t let one underwhelming box office performance destroy everything they’ve been trying to build since Man of Steel. On the other…well, shouldn’t there be some reevaluation or something? Perhaps they’ve taken the hint that the biggest change they need to make is less Zack Snyder, and are going to see how things go without him first?
Still a problem is that most of these movies don’t have directors, and thus aren’t really going anywhere. Wonder Woman 2 has Patty Jenkins returning, Aquaman has James Wan, and Shazam will be kicking off soon with David F. Sandberg. The Batman will have Matt Reeves behind the camera but has yet to secure a star since it doesn’t look like it will be Ben Affleck.
What you don’t see are some of the spinoff films, like Gotham City Sirens, none of the various Harley Quinn movies, Cyborg, or Nightwing. Who knows what the status of those are, if any. In a way it’s good that DC Films has a loose plan for the future, but since most of these movies are nowhere near production it makes me wonder if they’ll happen.
This winter finale of Gotham
focused mainly on the war between Sofia and Penguin. We get a few glimpses
about what is going on with Bruce, Riddler, and Grundy – but the crux of the
episode deals with the feud that has been building all season.
Main story arc – “No
one gets to decide who lives and dies in Gotham”:
We pick up this week right where we left off last episode. Sofia’s team
of misfits makes the first move and attacks the Iceberg Lounge trying to find
Penguin, who is out gathering support from criminal gangs across the city. Sofia
gets an urgent call and returns home to see her father, Carmine Falcone, who
has come back to Gotham. Carmine chastises her for her behavior, especially for
her relations with Jim – which come as quite a surprise to Barbara & co. as
well. It turns out the Carmine is in Gotham because Penguin reached out to him,
which was a strong move on his part.
In the meantime, Jim is back on the hunt for Pyg/Lazlo. Jim
and the GCPD believe that Lazlo has taken the face of another person to hide
his identity once again and left Gotham. Jim heads to GCPD where he
gets news of the meeting between Penguin and Sofia at the bridge the night before.
He realizes that the war between Sofia and Penguin needed to be GCPD’s focus
and they would have to deal with Lazlo later. Jim goes to Sofia’s house to
check in on her, but Carmine meets him out front. Carmine tells Jim that he
made a deal with Penguin – if Carmine takes Sofia out of Gotham that day,
Penguin won’t kill her. Carmine then leaves Jim with an ominous message
foreshadowing something terrible that Jim has brought upon his city. Just as
Carmine and Sofia are about to leave Gotham, a van pulls up in front of
the house with a gunman that shoots and kills Carmine and shoots Sofia.
At Carmine’s funeral Jim approaches Sofia, who does
not want to see him. She tells Jim that Penguin did this to her father and Jim
needs to bring Penguin to justice, with evidence or without. Zsasz is also broken up about Carmine’s death. He leaves a bullet in Carmine’s casket
and then storms out, ignoring Penguin’s request that he stays. Harvey attends
the funeral as well and asks Jim why Penguin hasn’t been arrested. Harvey tells
Jim that deciding to go after Penguin months ago set in motion all of the
events that led them to this point – so this is all on Jim and that it is time
he finished what he started. Penguin threatens Sofia at the funeral, but Jim
interjects and removes her from the situation.
After the funeral, Penguin goes to the GCPD and demands that
Jim hands over Sofia. Jim tells him that isn’t going to happen and that Jim and
the GCPD will uphold the law. Penguin tries to bribe the other GCPD officers,
but that time is long gone – they all respect Jim and the badge again. Jim
sends the GCPD to crack down on criminals and a few gunfights ensue, but the
might of the GCPD leaves them victorious. These are just a few battles and not
the war though. Sofia goes to the GCPD and pressures Jim to go directly after
Penguin. Jim lets her know that while Penguin is using proxies and not
committing illegal acts himself, he is safe. Sofia tells Jim about Martin and
how Penguin ‘killed’ him. Jim goes to arrest Penguin for the crime, causing
Penguin to burst out laughing and tell Jim the boy is alive and it was all a
setup. In a twisted turn of events, Zsasz tells Jim that Penguin did kill
Martin and he would testify to that, causing Jim to carry out the arrest.
Zsasz goes to visit Sofia and pledges his allegiance to her.
Zsasz switching sides is a huge blow to Penguin. Zsasz was a powerful ally that
provided a lot of legitimacy and firepower to Penguin’s operation. Sofia holds
true to her word and gives Barbara & co. the club back – Penguin sure as
hell won’t need it anymore. Jim decides to visit Sofia to ask her not to try and
take control of the criminals of Gotham. Sofia holds on to the idea that that was
their deal – Jim would be the law and she would be the order. Jim warns her
that if she does this, he would have to come after her. Sofia instead decides
to give Jim a proposal of her own. To make sure Jim is listening, she has Lazlo
– YES, Lazlo! – hold Jim at gunpoint. It turns out that Sofia hired Lazlo to
come to Gotham as part of her plan, and Lazlo created the Pyg persona to do so.
The truth comes out about Carmine – Sofia was indeed behind the murder. Jim
quickly knocks the gun away from Lazlo and begins hitting him, proclaiming that
he will arrest him and have him rot in prison. Unfortunately Jim’s plan gets
slightly derailed when Sofia puts a bullet into Lazlo’s head.
Sofia tells Jim that if he arrests sure she will talk and
let everyone know about all the transgressions that have happened since Jim
visited the Falcone’s mansion asking for help. The other option is to not
arrest her and continue on living the lie, but not losing the GCPD and Gotham.
Jim takes the latter option. He goes back to the GCPD and runs into Harvey who
has left his badge and gun on Jim’s desk, effectively quitting the
department. We end the episode with Penguin in prison screaming about how he
well get his revenge on everyone that crossed him. Luckily for Penguin, it
turns out his cell is right next to Joker’s and Joker thinks the two of them
can help each other out.
My thoughts:
Sofia is clearly a master manipulator and I think it was
pretty clear that she was the one behind her father’s death from the get-go. I
am a little disappointed that Jim never realized that. I am also disappointed
with the end of the Pyg saga. He was such a great villain that deserved a
better end then being shot in the head by Sofia when he wasn’t looking. The
combination of Penguin and Joker will be a formidable one as both of them are
out of their minds, I am definitely looking forward to seeing what trouble the two of them will cause.
Side stories:
Bruce story arc – “There
is a mess in the Rolls, you’ll need a bucket”:
Bruce is back! He is continuing his party boy lifestyle,
much to Alfred’s dismay. Alfred wants to employ a project he has dubbed
“Operation Save Bruce Wayne.” He wants to take Bruce to Switzerland for a few
months in the Alps. Bruce has been partying and enjoying life in order to run
away from his problems and from his pain. Bruce refuses to join Alfred, leading
to the two of them exchanging blows. Alfred gets the best of Bruce, even after
Bruce tries to take a cheap shot – leading to Bruce storming out of the room.
Bruce comes back later and Alfred vehemently apologizes.
Bruce has something else in mind, and has gone to his lawyer to draw up
emancipation papers. He asks Alfred to sign, which would lead to him not being Bruce’s
legal guardian anymore. Alfred refuses to sign the papers. Bruce tells him it
doesn’t matter if he signs or not. If Alfred is still there when he gets back,
he will go to the Police and show them the bruise on his face.
My thoughts:
Bruce has been a little punk for a lot
of the season now, but firing Alfred is a terrible new low. I had such strong hope
that we were finally well on our way to the Dark Knight – and all signs were
pointing in that direction. I did not expect such a huge step back.
Grundy and Riddler
story arc – “What pretty lady want?”:
We get a glimpse of the nonsense going on in Ed’s mind. He
is arguing with the Riddler in the mirror, who accuses him of being in love
with Lee Thompkins. Grundy interrupts the argument, and Ed decides to step outside
for some fresh air. While Ed is gone, Grundy gets knocked out by Tabitha, who
did promise she would come back for him. Tabitha tries to get Grundy to
remember her – nicely at first, and then a little more sinisterly. Tabitha
gives up for the time being. As she is gone, Grundy wakes up, sees his
reflection, and we hear Butch wonder aloud what the hell happened to him.
My thoughts:
Riddler being back will definitely be a
treat. The dumb Ed story was hilarious and well done, but it’s about time we
get to see Riddler at full strength again. This may bode poorly for Lee
however. All of the women that Ed loves seem to suffer a poor fate once the
Riddler is back in the picture. I am not sure what will happen with
Grundy/Butch’s character. Will he have Grundy’s ability to not feel pain –
being dead and all – but Butch’s memories or will he keep going back and forth?
I guess only time will tell.
This spring on Gotham:
Joker, Penuin, Riddler, Ivy, Sofia – all hell is going to
break loose in Gotham this spring. Harvey holding Jim at gunpoint!? Sofia
torturing Lee!? And was that a Batman silhouette? I really wish we didn’t have
to wait months for the fun to keep going!
It’s crazy to be a fan of both movies and wrestling right now, and seeing so many WWE superstars not just acting consistently, but excelling on the big screen. Dwayne Johnson, John Cena, and Dave Bautista are killin’ the game right now, and all of them have multiple projects coming that guarantee they won’t be in the ring any time soon. In the case of Bautista, he’s got Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers 4, and Escape Plan 2 coming up, but he’s also added a new action flick to his schedule.
Deadline reports that Bautista will star in Stuber, an action-comedy from Goon and Take Me Home Tonight director Michael Dowse. In what sounds like an updated version of Taxi, the film centers on a detective (Bautista) who commandeers an unsuspecting Uber driver named Stu into a harrowing evening of hijinks and mayhem. The script was written by Tripper Clancy, who developed it alongside Horrible Bosses writers John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldstein. Make of that what you will.
Bautista has actually been talking about a full-time return to the WWE but, as I mentioned earlier, that seems highly unlikely. I’m surprised he has any interest at all given the negative response to his previous run with the company, which saw him booed into oblivion every time he hit the ramp. Why go through that again?
Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One may be the geekiest book ever, a treasure trove of Easter Eggs for gamers, music nerds, comic book fanboys, and movie lovers. It’s why there has been such a clamor to adapt it for years, even before there was a publishing date. And really, there was only one guy who could make it happen, Steven Spielberg, who will be taking us into the virtual reality world of the OASIS where many of the director’s most beloved properties are the key to solving a great mystery.
A new trailer has debuted today after a Facebook Live event hosted by Cline, and he dropped some pretty big news to go along with it. The author revealed that he’s writing a sequel to the novel, confirming a rumor that has been floating around for months.
“It’s true. I can’t talk about it too much, but there’s no better inspiration for a writer [than] to return to a world they’ve already worked on when they’re watching Steven Spielberg bring that world to life.”
And you know if the film is a hit Spielberg will be looking to tackle the sequel, as well. Cline didn’t add anything further so we’ll have to wait for a release date, but it sounds like it might be a while.
The original story follows Wade Watts (played by Tye Sheridan on screen), a teenage who spends all of his time in the OASIS, a virtual reality world that has become an escape from a terrible reality. In the OASIS he joins with other hunters to solve several pop culture-themed mysteries that will unlock the greatest prize ever, one that could change the world. The film also stars Olivie Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, TJ Miller, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, Letitia Wright, and McKenna Grace. Here’s the synopsis:
In 2045, the planet is on the brink of chaos and collapse, but people find salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he promises his immense fortune to the first person to discover a digital Easter egg that’s hidden somewhere in the OASIS. When young Wade Watts joins the contest, he finds himself becoming an unlikely hero in a reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical world of mystery, discovery and danger.
One thing I like about this trailer is that it reveals a bit more of the plot than the teaser, which basically through every nostalgia reference it could at your brain all at once. It was a lot to take in. There are still plenty of them here, but they spread out as to not overwhelm the senses.
1. Coco– $18.3M/$135.5M
The couple of weeks before a superhuman movie like Star Wars: The Last Jedi are a good time for holdovers, and so Pixar’s rather terrific Coco has held #1 for three straight weeks. Kinda crazy to think that it wasn’t Justice League in command all of those weeks, but that’s a subject for further down. The Mexican-themed film now has $135M here but an impressive $389M worldwide.
2. Justice League– $9.5M/$212M
The good news, Justice League has surpassed the $600M mark. Yay! The bad news, it took four weeks to get there. That said, the film is actually coasting along pretty well, which is exactly why Warner Bros. slotted it where they did. They just thought it would do better domestically, and instead it’s overperforming everywhere else. I’d bet that if it didn’t cost so damn much because of the reshoots we’d be calling this quite a bit more of a success rather than a disappointment. Also on the bright side is news that changes are finally being made at the top of DC Films, and I think when films like Aquaman and Wonder Woman 2 hit we’re going to see things really take off. Fingers crossed, anyway.
3. Wonder– $8.4M/$100.3M
4. The Disaster Artist (review)- $6.4M/$8M
The big winner of the week and not a disaster at all was James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, his surprisingly great tribute to atrocious cult classic, The Room. With no major new releases this was the pinpoint time to expand by 821 theaters, giving Franco’s film a lot of extra elbow room in multiplexes. I literally just left a mainstream theater near me and it was playing there, and seemed to be doing pretty well. I think it’s only bound to get better, too, with legit Oscar buzz surrounding Franco’s performance as Tommy Wiseau, if only because the Academy HAS to want the oddball Wiseau to be in the house that night. Think of that image. I feel safe in asserting that Franco’s sudden credibility as a filmmaker also comes with his highest-grossing directorial effort. For the most part he’s been tackling literary adaptations or super-niche genre efforts, opening in so few venues they don’t rate at the box office at all. Did anybody (other than me and a few critics) even see The Institute or In Dubious Battle, the latter having earned a pitiful $119K?
5. Thor: Ragnarok– $6.2M/$301.1M
6. Daddy’s Home 2– $6M/$91.1M
7. Murder On the Orient Express– $5.1M/$92.7M
8. The Star– $3.6M/$32.2M
9. Lady Bird– $3.5M/$22.3M
10. Just Getting Started– $3.1M
If this were…let’s say, 1990, then a Ron Shelton-directed movie with Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Rene Russo might’ve killed it at the box office. But in 2017 it makes only $3.1M, isn’t screened for critics, and was basically thrown out there with little to no marketing. Just Getting Started features Freeman and Jones causing a ruckus at an assisted living facility, and from what I hear it’s God awful. But I will never know for sure, and apparently the same goes for most folks who didn’t bother with this one. This is probably the final theatrical film we’ll be seeing from Broad Green Pictures, which went defunct last summer after a series of expensive flops.
Doing big things in small release is the excellent I, Tonya (review), which stars Margot Robbie as controversial Olympic figure skater, Tonya Harding. Expect a much wider rollout soon because Robbie and co-star Allison Janney are shoe-ins for Oscar nominations. Plus it’s a legitmately great film that works as a crowd-pleaser and story of redemption. As a longtime Harding fan and apologist it certainly won me over, but I think it’ll do the same for those who are more skeptical.
Jessica Jones is coming back for a second season, and she’s pissed. Of course, she’s always pissed about something, and after that lousy season of The Defenders who can hardly blame her? So it’s good to have her back on her own, coping with her demons in typically self-destructive fashion.
Jessica Jones season 2 will arrive on March 8th 2018, which is not far away at all. A new teaser has arrived to herald the announcement, and it looks like Jessica’s past is still haunting her. She’s back working as a private investigator, digging into the secrets of others as a way of ignoring her own. And since we know David Tennant’s Killgrave is due to return, we can assume the emotional pain he caused has left behind some deep scars. Star Krysten Ritter tells EW…
“Jessica is in a pretty dark headspace when we meet her at the top of season 2. What we’ve done again is kept the story very personal. If season 1 was in her head and in her mind, then this season will be more in her heart. It’s still a psychological thriller, but it’s more of an emotional thriller this time.”
As if this footage isn’t enough to get us excited, every episode of the next season will be directed by a woman. Pretty sweet. Here’s the synopsis:
New York City private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is beginning to put her life back together after murdering her tormenter, Kilgrave. Now known throughout the city as a super-powered killer, a new case makes her reluctantly confront who she really is while digging deeper into her past to explore the reasons why. Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) is joined by an incredible returning cast that includes Rachael Taylor (Trish Walker), Carrie-Anne Moss (Jeri Hogarth), Eka Darville (Malcolm Ducasse) and new cast members Janet McTeer and J.R. Ramirez, among others. Marvel’s Jessica Jones on Netflix is Executive Produced by series Showrunner Melissa Rosenberg (“Twilight”, “Dexter”), Raelle Tucker (“True Blood”), Jim Chory (“Marvel’s Daredevil”, “Marvel’s Luke Cage”, “Marvel’s Iron Fist”) and Jeph Loeb (“Marvel’s Daredevil”, “Marvel’s Luke Cage”, “Marvel’s Iron Fist”) who also serves as Marvel’s Head of Television.
Remember when Marvel and Sony first struck their deal to bring Spider-Man into the MCU there was a push to have it not be boring ol’ Peter Parker under the mask. Fans wanted some diversity, in particular they wanted to see Miles Morales, the black/Hispanic character made popular in the Ultimates line of Marvel Comics. Well, they didn’t get their wish, but they got a different one; an animated movie from Phil Lord and Chris Miller. And today we’ve got the first teaser for the newly-titled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Morales swings into action in this brief teaser, revealed at Brazil Comic-Con. It’s an incredible piece of footage, featuring a masked figure in a very different Spider suit, soaring through the air in gravity defying leaps. From there he’s on the ground racing after an escaping villain, finally landing on a rooftop, taking off the mask and revealing that it’s Miles Morales. “More than one wears the mask” is a pretty cool tagline, too.
Shameik Moore voices Morales, with Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, and Liev Schreiber also part of the cast. This will be a standalone film and not part of the MCU, but the title clearly suggests a larger world will be right around it.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opens December 14th 2018.
Last week in the Arrowverse was the mega-crossover the “Crisis On Earth-X,” where the heroes from Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Arrow faced off against their Nazi doppelgangers from an unknown Earth within the multiverse. The 2-night event was substantially better than the “Invasion” crossover from the previous year, meaning that next year’s crossover (you know they are going to do another) will have to be even bigger and better than this year’s one.
While the heroes were able to defeat their evil Aryan counterparts, it did come at a cost. Martin Stein of the Legends, who was trying to find a way off the team (as actor Victor Garber was trying to find a way off the show to concentrate on stage acting) and separate from Jax and cease to be Firestorm, met his maker as he was shot by some of X-Oliver’s “stormtroopers” while trying t save his fellow heroes. This, of course, will have ramifications felt throughout the Arrowverse.
This week in the Arrowverse, everyone was in the Holiday spirit, but there was some sorrow filled cliffhangers as well. So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Reign”
Because of last week’s crossover, we have to pick up on all the events going on in National City from two weeks ago. Mon-El returned, and he now has a wife. After explaining that he went into the future (31st century) after leaving Earth, and then thousands of years into the past, plenty of time between he and Kara has passed, so he had to move on and found a new wife. This, of course, did not sit well with Kara, who spent most of this season heartbroken for him having to leave Earth.
Most importantly, Samantha, the CEO of Lana Luthor’s L-Corp just discovered that she’s a Kryptonian as well. On she’s not the “truth, justice, and the American way” type. She’s really “Reign,” the “world killer.” Although she is horrified at the notion, it’s in her DNA and the computer program at her own “fortress of sanditude” told her that she would soon cease to be her nice usual self and become a darker version of Supergirl. This week, we get to see Reign in action, and it looks like Kara will have her work cut out for her for the rest of the season.
The episode begins with a holiday party, complete with drinks, movie trivia, and the usual festive cheer. One thing of note is that James and Lana seem to be catching eyes towards each other. Now as soon as she took over CatCo and James and she had a very standoffish and adversarial relationship, you could see that they would eventually get involved somehow. As Kara and Samantha were pushing her to get with him, she was hesitant. By the end of the episode though, she and James were an item. The party didn’t last long as the DEO people there were called into action as a stranger Kryptonian signal was burned into a field owned by L-Corp, prompting them to investigate.
Lana thinks it’s her competitor Morgan Edge, who already tried to sabotage her career and reputation. He has just the right amount of resources to make it happen. He already poisoned children, what’s a little fire in a field? However, it wasn’t him, it was Samantha. Kara does her own research thanks to her “mom” and learns about an ancient Kryptonian religion from which Reign comes from.
Meanwhile, Kara is trying her best to “be cool” about Mon-El and his new wife, Imra. It’s hard to be cool when the love of your life has become married, and is forced to flaunt off his new wife in front of you. She does tell Mon-El her feelings as she’s trying to work through them for which he apologizes. Imra later speaks with Kara and tells her she knows that the situation is awkward. She tells Kara that Mon-El continued to talk about her in the highest regards, to the point that their group tried to live up to her example. He eventually had to let her go after a number of years stuck in the future, then the two of them got married.
Meanwhile, Reign is still doing her dirty work across the city. After killing a member of a gang during a drug deal, she goes after Morgan Edge. Kara goes to stop her and the two have a city-wide slug fest. It was very reminiscent of Man of Steel, except for the endless destruction and deaths. While Kara is doing her best in the fight, Reign is superior and is single-handedly demolishing her throughout the fight. In fact, she makes Kara bleed, not a small feat to make a Kryptonian do. The fight ends with Reign throwing a beaten Kara off of a building to her death.
The Flash: “Don’t Run”
This season of The Flash has done a bang-up job with their new villain The Thinker. Sure, we have the “metahuman of the week,” but they have all been as a result of DeVoe’s planning, and now he’s finally getting taking the fight to Barry, and he’s winning.
The episode begins with Team Flash celebrating Christmas at STAR Labs. The gang’s all there and having a good time. However, the festive event gets ruined for Caitlin as everyone talks about how cool Killer Frost (her metahuman alter ego) is in comparison. They don’t do it on purpose, but now that she’s not a murderous ice queen, she’s a different version of Caitlin, one that everyone seems to be enjoying, especially Ralph who can’t keep his mouth shut about Killer Frost. As she leaves STAR Labs, she gets kidnapped by Amunet Black (Katee Sackhoff with her scene-chewing fake British accent returns), who needs her help.
Barry is having his own problems as well. Fresh off his marriage to Iris, he gets kidnapped by The Thinker, who imprisons him deep in his lair. Imprisoned in a force field he cannot escape, there’s little Barry can do. Even his Speed Force lightning cannot penetrate it. The Thinker is 10 steps ahead of Barry. Joe and Harry come to DeVoe’s house looking for Barry and come up with nothing.
The reason that Amunet Black kidnapped Caitlin wasn’t that she wanted her former henchwoman Killer Frost back, she actually needs Caitlin, the scientist/doctor to help her with a situation. Turns out Amunet Black has a hostage that’s in need of medical attention. This week’s bus metahuman is Dominic (Kendrick Sampson) a metahuman with the powers of telepathy. However, he pissed off Amunet Black and she shoved a piece of her telekinetic metal glove into his neck. Now she’s a trafficker of metahumans, and a telepathic person is a good one to have around, so she needs him alive. So, she nneedsCaitlin’s medical expertise to save him, or she’ll kill Caitlin too. Once Caitlin learns of his powers, she and Dominic plan an escape.
Iris is hit with a dilemma. With two members of Team Flash kidnapped, she has to make the tough call as to who they need to pull their resources for to save. They can’t do both, she has to choose one. How can she not choose her new husband? How can she not choose her friend Caitlin? Ultimately she knows that Barry can take care of himself and deploys all resources to save Caitlin. Cisco finds a way to track Caitlin and he and Ralph end up rescuing her and Dominic just as Amunet Black is about to deliver a killing blow after finding the two of them.
Barry is still DeVoe’s prisoner. Barry tries to outsmart him by vibrating so fast that he appears invisible. DeVoe lower’s the force field and then Barry attacks him. Although DeVoe’s powers are supreme intelligence, he does have that kickass Professor X hover chair. He uses the “Doctor Octopus” arms to grab Barry and teleport them in the middle of Central City. As they are fighting, Barry manages to disable the chair and DeVoe come crashing to the ground to presumably die.
All the members of Team Flash head to Joe to celebrate Christmas after a long day. Dominic comes by to thank Caitlin for saving his life. Just then, the alarm goes off at Barry and Iris apartment and he goes to check it out. Just then he receives a call from Dominic of all people. Turns out, this was all a part of DeVoe’s plan. Amunet was working for DeVoe to traffic Dominic to the Thinker, who ended up not only surviving, but then used his chair to transport his essence into Dominic’s body. With a telepathic brain, DeVoe now has the perfect body to continue his plans, and his wife has a handsome upgrade for a husband. At Barry’s apartment is Devoe’s old body with fresh stab wounds in it. Before Barry can even yell at Dominic/DeVoe, the police come crashing through. Because Barry’s been “stalking” DeVoe, and his dead body is in Barry’s apartment, DeVoe successfully framed him for murder. Barry has the option to run, but he deiced to be taken into custody.
Legends of Tomorrow: “Beebo the God of War”
Legends of Tomorrow continues to toe the line between ridiculous and awesome week after week. This time, the Legends have to prevent a Viking takeover of North America, who happen to be worshipping a time-displaced stuffed animal.
Although Martin Stein dies last week in the “Crisis On Earth-X” crossover, that doesn’t mean that we can’t see a past version of him. Keeping in tune with this week’s Christmas episodes, the episode focuses on holiday shopping. Do you guys remember Furby? Do you remember how every collectively lost their sh*t over that stuffed electronics toy back in the late 90s? Well, I guess that tells my age, but trust me, that was one of those holiday toys that may you question our collective sanity. The original is still selling on eBay for $750 right now. People were fighting each other to get that toy back then. OK, enough reflecting on Furby. This week focuses on a Furby-like toy called “Beebo.” A young Stein is at the mall (remember those?) trying to get the toy for his young daughter when a “toy riot” breaks out over the last toy which he has. Just as he’s trying to escape from the onslaught of angry parents, he gets caught in a time aberration and sent to 1000 AD.
As a result, the Legends, fresh off of regular-time Stein’s death have to get back into the fold and investigate what’s going on in 1000 AD. Agent Sharpe of the Time Bureau calls to offer her condolences to the Legends as well as tell them about the aberration. To show how bad the aberration is, she’s greeting them in Viking terms for the Christmas holiday, meaning that Vikings now control North America in current times.
Joining the Legends from Earth-X is their version of Leonard Snart, who unlike Earth-1’s version, he’s a lot more clean cut. He tries to get Mick to quit drinking as he sees him having a drinking problem. The running joke throughout this episode is that he’s going to get Mick to quit drinking. He makes the Wave Rider a “dry ship” which vexes Mick. When they travel to 1000 AD, he watches Mick to make sure he goes 48 hours without a drink. He does this to bond with the Earth-X version of Mick who was his best friend.
The Legends head to 1000 AD where they run into young Stein of all people. Thinking he’s the time aberration, they think that their mission is over. Knowing about time travel nature of the legends, he notices his older counterpart is missing. The Legends do their best to lie to him so that they don’t tell him his future. Jax, who is having the most trouble with Stein’s death sees this as a second chance to save him. Sarah warns him against telling Stein about his future, but he is resistant. Stein doesn’t want to leave as he has to get his daughter her Beebo toy. The only problem, the current Vikings there have the toy and are worshiping it as a deity. They are also interpreting the innocent responses as a call to conquer all of North America. It’s up to the Legends to go undercover as other Vikings at a festival and steal the doll.
Of course, Mick gets caught when trying to steal it and almost gets caught. The Legends end up rescuing him on the sly (thanks to Captain Cold) as he’s about to be burnt alive. The other Legends try to steal the toy but get caught. Mick ends up using his heatwave gun on the toy ending the Viking’s worship of the toy. Just as that happens, in comes Damien Darhk. Dressing as Odin, he demands they worship. The Legends are ill-equipped to deal with him, and even the Time Bureau cannot help them as they are in shambles in Rip’s absence.
Sarah, fed up with the guy who killed her sister, opts to try and face him herself. They even have a planning montage showing what she will do and then what the team will do. As they face off against Darhk, they manage to injure his daughter. This causes Damien and his daughter to teleport out of there. Sarah gets caught in the wave and is transported somewhere else. She later describes it to the team as cold and dark. She also hears the voice of Mallus, the person that Rip Hunter was obsessed with destroying.
Jax tries to take young Stein back to 1992. However, he gives him a letter telling him not to open it until 2017. Stein knows what it will reveal, that he’s going to die and tells Jax that he will not open it. He knows that it would disrupt the timeline and even change things for Jax, so he will not change the timeline. This causes Jax to rethink his place on the Legends. He tells Sara that his time with the Legends is done. Sarah doesn’t want him to leave but she understands. Jax wants to leave quietly and have Sarah not tell the rest of the team. We all know that’s not gonna happen. She throws him a surprise goodbye/Christmas party.
Sara walks Jax off the Wave Rider in present-day Central City and when she gets back on the ship, there’s a new passenger: John Constantine!
Arrow: “Irreconcilable Differences”
Over the last few seasons, Team Arrow has grown from just Oliver trying to “save the city” to a cohesive unit of more than 5 vigilantes keeping Star City safe. Sure, they have hit a few bumps here and there, but after this week, things will never be the same. It’s all about trust and how quickly it can be eroded and never put back together again.
The episode opens with Oliver and Felicity officially celebrating their marriage as a couple in front of the whole world. After all, they did a quick shotgun wedding last week at the end of the “Crisis On Earth X” crossover, and they had to share the altar with Barry and Iris (since they joined their makeshift ceremony). This week, the newly married couple celebrated in style. At the reception, Felicity’s parents were there, people from all over the city, and especially Team Arrow were there to celebrate. Curtis got highly drunk as he was remembering his own marriage failures. Rene managed to give a pretty good Best Man speech (even though Diggle should have in his place). Quentin operated as Oliver’s surrogate father to bless the union. He also had to share some bad news. He learned that the prosecution case against him has a witness on Team Arrow that is going to name him as the Green Arrow.
This causes Oliver to hunker down and start to be mistrustful of his teammates. Against Diggle’s wishes, Oliver and Felicity start to spy on Curtis, Rene, and Dinah. Thanks to Felicity spying on the rest of the team, they learn that Dinah has been talking with Vigilante. This leads Oliver to believe that she is the snitch as she’s been lying to the team about meeting with her former lover.
To make matters worse, Cayden James has Black Siren kidnap Quentin and ransom him for an important piece of equipment needed for his continued quest to destroy the city and ruin Oliver. With no other option, Oliver gets the team together (without Dinah) to go and steal the document from an ARGUS facility. The team does their best rendition of Mission Impossible (complete with Oliver flying down into a secure room on a wire) to steal the item. When they return back to the Arrow Cave, Dinah is there to confront Oliver. There Oliver reveals that he not only spied on her but the whole team. As accusations are thrown back and forth, Rene reveals that he is the one who actually is the prosecution’s witness. He tells Oliver that FBI agent Watson had evidence that he was Wild Dog and he had to testify or he would never see his daughter again. Dinah quits and Oliver kicks Rene off the team.
To make matters worse, Cayden James needs that device. Oliver has Curtis sabotage the device and prepares to deliver it to him when he realizes that he needs Team Arrow. After a heart to heart with his sister Thea, he comes to the understanding that Rene had no choice and he understands his plight. Oliver gets the team back together to rescue Quinten. Oliver doesn’t completely trust them, so he orders them to wait back while he does all the grunt work. Rene and Curtis would rather look for Quinten, so they abandon their post while Oliver and Dinah deal with Cayden’s men. Turns out, Rene was right and he and Curtis almost save Quinten. Quinten turns out was saved by none other than Black Siren, who has a sweet spot for her Earth-1 father.
Even though Quinten is safe from harm, Oliver is angry that Rene wasn’t there for him. Rene points out that he was right to do so, but that falls on deaf ears. Oliver kicks him off the team once again. Dinah and Curtis also quit the team as Oliver didn’t trust them 100% either. Dinah seeks out Vigilante, the only person she can talk to, even though she told him earlier that she would stop him.
It turns out that this was orchestrated by Cayden James all along. He has his own version of “Team Arrow” that wants to take down Oliver and his team. Anatoly, Dragon, Black Siren, and even Vigilante join him relishing in the fact that Team Arrow has disbanded as they look on a spycam Black Siren placed in the Arrow Cave during her last visit. With Team Arrow disbanded, they are free to carry out whatever they want.
Director Scooter Corkle’s debut feature Hollow in the Land is a dirt-covered thriller about the crime and prejudice burned deeply into the fabric of a snow-covered small mountain town that’s seen better days. A detective story of sorts, it stars Glee‘s Dianna Agron as Alison, a hardworking young woman trying to do everything she can to repair the reputation of her infamous family after her brother disappears from a murder scene, leaving him a top suspect. The film has an almost neo-noir feeling to it, as we watch Alison follow leads from one person to another, using the tight-knit community to her advantage as she pieces together what really happened. The “hard-boiled detective” similarities stop there though, as if Corkle was more interested in using the story conventions of a noir than he was in exploring the style and tone associated with the genre. It’s less like the Joseph Gordon-Levitt film Brick and more like Winter’s Bone (and that’s not where the resemblance stops.)
Although it was nominated for several Oscars and propelled Jennifer Lawrence to stardom, I found 2010’s Winter’s Bone to be far too melodramatic for its own good. That film also follows a young woman trying to clear her family’s name against the backdrop of a crime-ridden American small town. The key difference to me is the manner in which the two films handle their depiction of the troubled lives at the center of the stories. Bone filled the life of Lawrence’s character with so many intense, heavy issues that it was almost laughable how unrealistically hellish her circumstances were. Hollow in the Land, on the other hand, found a way to explore the problems facing it’s protagonist without being exploitative, or letting them define her. Alison is her own person, fighting her way through a world that doesn’t want her or her family to be a part of it. Still reminiscent of Winter’s Bone, but, to me, far more compelling.
I actually found myself quite wrapped up in the story as the mystery unfolded. Which characters were telling the truth? Who was lying? Who knows who and why? The small-town thriller vibe really got under my skin for the majority of the run time.
Unfortunately, the ultimate resolution we’re given for events surrounding the murder fell kind of flat, and therefore weakened the potential impact of the ending. The third act of the film throws several twists and complications at us that I didn’t really feel a need for. Part of what made a majority of the movie so intense was the simplicity of its mystery. It was bare bones and harsh, just as cold as the environment it was set in. You were allowed to see the world through Alison’s perspective so easily because of how straightforward the narrative was, and for me, the complicated ending let out a lot of that steam.
The film is ultimately worthwhile. Although somewhat sporadically thrilling, Hollow in the Land is just about as icy and rough as a no-frills noir story should be. If you’re in the mood for some brutal small town hostility, this film is worth a watch.
I don’t know if HBO’s Big Little Lies needs a second season, probably not. It’d be great if it stayed one perfect miniseries full of incredible performances, thrills, shocks, and one beautifully open-ended finale. But if HBO is committed with moving forward, the surest way to get someone like me to watch is hiring Andrea Arnold to direct the whole thing.
Arnold, the supremely talented director behind Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights, and American Honey, will direct the 7-episode second season. This is huge even if most people don’t know who the heck Arnold is, because it hopefully means she’ll be getting more high-profile gigs. She’ll have a great returning cast to work with as Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard (in flashback, I hope??) and Laura Dern are all coming back, and she’ll have support from original series director Jean-Marc Vallee as a producer, and David E. Kelley is writing the scripts again.
Is it too much to hope Arnold lures some of her previous leading ladies, maybe Kaya Scodelario and Sasha Lane, for roles? No way she could drag Katie Jarvis out of retirement, is there?
The prior season ended with the cops keeping an eye on the women of Monterey, who have conspired to hide a crime. Here’s hoping this doesn’t turn too much into a crime procedural. That’s what I tune into True Detective for. [Deadline]
