Kinda considered a joke at first, Sony’s non-Spidey Spiderverse is actually looking pretty good. Venom will be the first film out of the gate and it has Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, and Riz Ahmed on board, followed by a Silver Sable/Black Cat crossover flick with Gina Prince-Bythewood directing. And now another prominent Spidey character is getting his own movie; Morbius, the Living Vampire.
Penned and already submitted to Sony by Burk Sharples and Matt Sazama, co-writers of Power Rangers and the more apt Dracula Untold, the film will center on Morbius, a man with vampire abilities gained through a scientific experiment. He debuted in 1971 as a villain in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, but would eventually grow in popularity and become a tragic antihero.
With the script already completed the search is on now for a director. Morbius could, and probably should, be conceived as a straight-up horror movie since that is how the character has best been portrayed. His ties to Venom are tenuous, though, so we may see this be a completely standalone effort, or a franchise that’s a little off the beaten path. [THR]
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Roman J. Israel Esq. starring Denzel Washington.
SYNOPSIS: Roman J. Israel, Esq. is set in the underbelly of the overburdened Los Angeles criminal court system. Denzel Washington stars as a driven, idealistic defense attorney whose life is upended when his mentor, a civil rights icon, dies. When he is recruited to join a firm led by one of the legendary man’s former students – the ambitious lawyer George Pierce (Colin Farrell) – and begins a friendship with a young champion of equal rights (Carmen Ejogo), a turbulent series of events ensue that will put the activism that has defined Roman’s career to the test.
The screening takes place on Monday, November 20th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. If you’d like to enter, simply complete the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, November 17th and notified by email. Good luck!
“Let me be very clear, I am the luckiest guy in the world. Batman is the coolest part in the universe. I’m thrilled to do it. It’s fucking amazing….“I know there’s this misconception that because I didn’t direct it I wasn’t enthusiastic about it; it’s f*cking amazing… and with Matt Reeves doing it, it’s like I’d be a f*cking ape on the ground for Matt Reeves – nevermind being Batman! It’s incredible! So I’m really blown away and excited and it’s a great time in the DC Universe. You’re going to see some stuff from Justice League that we’re really really proud of, and I’ll think you’ll see why I’m really excited to be Batman.”
That was Ben Affleck at last summer’s Comic-Con, and look, you either believed his enthusiasm or you didn’t. The fact of the matter is that stories have continued to emerge that he’s looking for an exit strategy from his role as Batman, and that Justice League is likely to be the last time he suits up. This all started when Matt Reeves replaced Affleck as director of The Batman, then threw his script out completely to start over from scratch. Rumors swirled that Reeves’ film would star a different actor, and now today in comments to USA Today, Affleck says his involvement is “something I’m contemplating.”
Elaborating a little bit, Affleck confirms that he is indeed looking towards an exit from playing Batman…
“You don’t do it forever, so I want to find a graceful and cool way to segue out of it, “, Affleck said.
So does that mean The Batman is his way of saying goodbye to the Dark Knight? And is it even up to him? What if Reeves actually wants to go in a different direction with a new star?
It’s not as if Affleck has been mired in playing Batman for years. Justice League would only mark the second feature-length performance he has as the Caped Crusader, but it’s undeniably come with a price. The distraction definitely hurt his ability to focus on Live by Night, and the poor response noticeably shook him.
I think Affleck’s decision will depend on the fan reaction to Justice League, which opens this week on November 17th. If they love it, he’ll be jazzed to stick around. But if has to go on another “Sad Affleck” press tour then you might as well start fitting other actors into the Bat-suit.
The war continues, this time around focusing solely on the group from The Kingdom. When we last saw the group they were surprised by machine gun fire and scattering in a field. This episode picks up right where that left off showing the complete carnage left in the wake of just one browning .50 caliber machine gun. Wounded and beaten both physically and mentally the survivors, which are limited to just Ezekial, Carol, and Jerry (thank God!) fight their way from the danger left by so many dead bodies. While Carol goes full Jane Bond to complete their mission and capture the guns.
The Good
–Ezekial proves why he is King with a VERY theatrical “Still I Smile” speech that we all caught in the trailers. This episode his star making turn with a good 60% of his character development happening right here. He comes to terms with the silliness of his King persona and at the same time comes to understand it’s importance to the people who follow him
–Carol also gets a BIG push in this episode finally earning that ‘Bad-ass Soccer Mom’ title she’s been holding for some time now. Yes she’s always presented as cold as ice, at least since about season 3, but what have you really seen her do that was above and beyond the level of a regular foot soldier? This time around we see her just annihilate the competition. Even as she’s pinned down with no hope of survival you see her pull out an amazing okey-doke and gaining the advantage on 4 grown as soldiers. Of course, the merc with a heart of gold ends up succumbing to those motherly instincts when she opts to save Ezekiel and Jerry instead of securing the guns. Which brings me to….
–JERRY! A fan favorite since his hilarious debut the big guy really earns his place as Ezekiel’s right hand. He doesn’t show up until half way through the episode but damn does he make an entrance, cutting Ezekiel’s captor in twain (hmm..guess we all can’t pull of the Shakespeare speak). His loyalty and honesty are what keeps the King going, and what makes him realize the importance of his regal charade. More than just a funny presence Jerry just cemented himself on the list of ‘Please don’t kill them I’ll go into a deep depression!” characters.
–Daryl and Rick, or Dick….err…Raryl? We’ll just stick with Daryl and Rick. The gruesome twosome is making strides in their badass bromance as of late. Never so awesomely as in this episode. A perfect hero entrance, just when all hope is lost and you see the truck carrying the machine guns, and Negan’s surefire victory, on its way down the road a familiar sound comes to greet us…Daryl’s motorcycle. The two chase down the Saviors and a pretty awesome chase/gun battle ensues. Obviously, the good guys win, but not before Rick goes over an embankment in the hummer carrying the guns. Their banter on Rick’s emergence from the brush is perfect and something I want to see a lot more of to bring some light to this bleak world they’ve created.
The Bad:
–You’ll notice I didn’t mention much about the first half of the episode. Aside from Carol’s Jane Bond segments the first half left a lot to be desired. It was cool seeing the damage caused by the .50 cal guns, which really hammered home why obtaining them was so important, but outside of that…meh. Ezekiel is captured by some wanna-be David Koresch looking punk who just over does the whole creepy bad guy thing. The best thing that character does all episode is allow himself to be cleaved in half by Jerry.
–The series jumped back to a, mostly, single story episode format. It just feels like it’s slowing down the entire war story arc for something that could have been handled in half an episode. This isn’t such a big deal if it only happens this one time, if it becomes a regular thing we could fall right back into a show that feels like it’s stalling the whole season just for that finale episode.
–This last thing is more of a quibble than anything else, but I really can’t stand when TV/Filmmakers are inconsistent in the damage caused by firearms and explosives. I mentioned how great the gore was in that opening massacre, and it really was, showing the capabilities of these guns is paramount for having us understand why it was worth risking most of the fighting force of the kingdom. They falter in the end for the sake of an action beat. When Rick and Daryl are chasing down the Saviors one drops the tailgate and, in true 80’s action movie fashion, has a .50 cal machine gun setup and ready to fire. Now these guns literally RIPPED apart 60 people earlier in the episode, however when they’re fired into Rick’s jeep they just plink off the hood with little more than a spark. Just for arguments sake, these are the bullets that are fired from fighter jets (at least the ones that have guns), it would do to say that one quick burst would rip that Jeep to shreds.
The Dead:
–This was an especially painful episode for loss, and no not because of the 60+ humans massacred, and not because of the flashbacks that showed their last moments with their families. No, this pain is caused by a CGI tiger. Sheva, we hardly knew ya! Ezekiel’s tiger, in a moment the comic fans knew was coming, goes down in a horde of Zombies while protecting her human and allowing him to escape. It was truly heartbreaking.
–The zombie’s this episode were top notch. As I mentioned earlier the gore effects from those ripped up by the machine guns were gnarly to a new level. If that wasn’t enough, while Ezekiel, Carol, and Jerry make their escape they have to do so by crossing a toxic waste dump area. Let me tell you, toxic waste and sewage zombies are the worst zombie. Greg Nicotero’s crew proved that hands down. Say what you will about the consistency of the show’s quality but one area where they have yet to stumble is the effects department.
We may all take a certain amount of glee at mocking Brett Ratner as a terrible director, but the truth is he’s extremely powerful. Through his Ratpac-Dune Entertainment production banner, he’s had a hand in producing some of this year’s biggest hits, including Dunkirk, It, and…yep, Wonder Woman. So removing Ratner out of the equation following allegations of sexual misconduct may be tougher than it looks, but if Warner Bros. wants a Wonder Woman sequel they’ll need to make it happen.
According to a report from Page Six (judge accordingly), Gal Gadot is refusing to sign on for Wonder Woman 2 until Ratner is completely taken off the movie. Ratner’s label made a healthy profit on the first film, but Gadot wasn’t the sequel, which again will have female empowerment as a core theme, to be tarnished by having a sexual harasser making key decisions.
Makes sense, and Gadot is reportedly sticking to her guns on this one. Warner Bros. should have no problem finding another funding source, but if they dawdle on this it could look really bad. Best to nip this thing in the bud now before it becomes a bigger story than it needs to be.
In the works for years, The Greatest Showman has long been a passion project for star Hugh Jackman. An entertainer himself who relishes the art of showbiz, Jackman has been eager to play P.T. Barnum, the man who invented show business as we know it. Now that he doesn’t have one Wolverine or X-Men movie to distract him, Jackman will finally get to play the famous ringleader this holiday season.
Directed by Michael Gracey, who has been on board practically since the beginning, the film should let Jackman sing and dance to his heart’s content. Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya co-star as side acts, but it’s Jackman who is the main event as Barnum, who found a way to combine entertainment with business savvy. Here’s the synopsis:
The Greatest Showman” is a bold and original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and the sense of wonder we feel when dreams come to life. Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, “The Greatest Showman” tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. “The Greatest Showman” is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award® winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“La La Land”) and starring Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman. Jackman is joined by Zac Efron, Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya.
Imagine Office Space meets The Purge and you’ve got a pretty good idea what the aims are for the appropriately-titled Mayhem, the latest film from Joe Lynch, a purveyor of over-the-top madness. Lynch is best known for directing the goofy LARP comedy Knights of Badassdom (geeks still routinely complain about its lack of wide release) and the single-location battle royale Everly, which featured Salma Hayek dispatching wave after wave of enemies. An excess of violence and minimum of plot is generally Lynch’s sweet spot, but as a gory satire of corporate corruption Mayhem isn’t going to get off quite so easy.
Steven Yeun, who played the beloved Glenn on The Walking Dead, is altruistic corporate peon Derek. The film begins showing us his rise to mid-level importance in a corporate law office, meaning he’s a nice guy who just does his job, even when it means hurting those who need help. He just feels really bad about it, and occasionally he paints. After being framed for a 7-figure screwup, Derek tries to plead his case but winds up fired, anyway. Good thing a pandemic has broken out in the building, a rage virus of sorts, similar to 28 Days Later. Even better? Court precedent has shown that those under the influence of this virus can commit any act of violence they want and get off on a technicality.
It’s about to get downright prehistoric around the water cooler.
Office Depot never needed advertising quite like this, as staplers, nail guns, scissors, and all sorts of cubicle goodies are driven through skulls and used to slice off tongues. Derek, joined by the equally-vengeful Melanie (Samara Weaving), a client recently screwed by the company, cuts a path through his co-workers in an effort get up to the top floor and go overtime on the big boss (Steven Brand), who is too busy brandishing his golf clubs to care. “Do you have any idea how many man hours I’m gonna lose until he’s replaced?”, the boss screams at the loss of a trusted assistant. Yeah, he’s one of those bosses; the kind of arrogant prick we’ve all had and secretly wished would get his comeuppance.
Why is it so tough to cheer Derek on in this bloody mission, then? A big part of the reason is the script by Matias Caruso, which fails to make much of a statement about amorality in the “Corporations are people, my friend” era. Or at least it seems to coast on the simple hope that we all just hate our bosses and despise those greedy corporate crooks. Yeah, we do, but a satirical splatter flick needs to have a little something more to say than that. By contrast there was considerably more insight in James Gunn’s similar The Belko Experiment. At some point there is so much violence that, stylish though it may be, it becomes tiresome without something to back it up.
Yeun is and will always be a likable star as long as he keeps playing the underdog, and Weaving gives the film a welcome dose of blue collar fury. Together they’re a fun pair to watch, especially since Weaving correctly approaches her role like a Looney Tunes cartoon. While there are buckets of blood spilled it’s shot in such a hyperbolic way that it’s impossible to take seriously. And that may ultimately be the problem with Mayhem, and why it lacks real-world resonance at a time when corporations are as popular as pond scum. This should have been an easy home run, but instead it’s like the boss made you stay late and miss half the game.
Holy spirits of vengeance, might The Crow Reborn actually be happening?? No film has been in deeper pits of development Hell than the reboot of The Crow, but could Jason Momoa and Corin Hardy be the ones who could see it take flight?
Momoa, who just completed shooting on Aquaman, took to Instagram to show his excitement for The Crow Reborn, although he doesn’t specifically state that it’s happening.
A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies) on Nov 12, 2017 at 7:51am PST
Everybody and their granddaddy has been attached to play Eric Draven, the vengeful hero of James O’Barr’s comic book. Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Luke Evans, and Tom Hiddleston are only a few, with just as many directors attached before Hardy took over a couple of years ago. The film would then get swallowed up in a lot of legal mumbo jumbo, although right now Sony holds the rights.
It’s hard to believe Sony or anybody would want to move forward on this since it’s such a risky gamble. There’s a lot of love out there for Brandon Lee’s iconic take on the character in Alex Proyas’ film, but even that is little more than a cult favorite. Is there really enough passion out there to see The Crow remade? I don’t think so, and it seems to me it falls into the same general area as Momoa’s Conan the Barbarian which tanked badly. We’ll see what happens!
Last week in the Arrowverse, we focused on the possible damage that religion can play, got to meet a new member of Team Flash, got the best homage to Stephen Spielberg’s E.T., and met a possible new big bad guy for Team Arrow to deal with.
Supergirl was very interesting. Most of the episode focused on the idea that Kara was a messianic figure for many people that she had saved since becoming Supergirl. A new church was created, thanks to hopeless people finding hope in her heroics, as well as learning about the Kryptonian religion because of a probe that detailed her planet’s history. Kara wasn’t comfortable with the idea of being a Jesus-like character and spent most of the episode to try to dissuade her faithful followers, especially as she was going through her own dark place.
The Flash introduced a new metahuman, thanks to the Thinker’s planning. This time, the new metahuman wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, Ralph Dibny, AKA Plastic Man, was invited to become a possible new member of Team Flash in the aftermath. Although Ralph previously had a sketchy history with Barry, they made amends and he was a hero towards the end. Ralph also revealed to Barry that there’s a man behind the curtain orchestrating the current events, and they need to figure out who this bad guy is.
Legends of Tomorrow had the Legends save a young Ray, who befriended a young baby alien Dominator. The Dominator wasn’t what could have killed our fellow hero, but the Men In Black who wanted the alien for their own nefarious purposes. As Legends of Tomorrow is the most tongue-in-cheek shows in the Arrowverse, they did an outstanding job playing homage to E.T., as young Ray fulfilled the role of Elliot from the classic sci-fi movie in last week’s “Phone Home” episode.
Arrow continued with Diggle assuming the hood and leading the team. It’s surprising that they are sticking with this arc for so long. It’s clear that Oliver is missing his former nightlife as he consistently plays the back burner to all Team Arrow activities so that he can focus on being a politician and a dad. He did get a chance to play the guy in the chair and helped Team Arrow as “Overwatch” last week when they went on a mission to help save the Internet. Last week finally showed us who Helix hacker mastermind Cayden James was (guest starring Michael Emmerson). He’s sure to be a big baddie this season as you don’t cast someone a big as Emmerson for one episode. Meanwhile, Oliver has to go on his own side mission as Slade Wilson needs his help rescuing his lost son.
This week in the Arrowverse, some episodes were a lot of fun, some were very heavy. So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Damage”
While this week on Supergirl did not really touch any of the religious things from last week, this week’s episode “Damage” was equally impressive as it also dealt with very adult issues. The idea of making a devastating choice in a relationship for your own life goals, as well as the idea of poisoning children, are not to be taken lightly. They most certainly not what we would normally get from the more family-friendly episodes that have been in the Arrowverse, and especially on Supergirl.
The A story of this week’s episode focused on the fact that children were suffering from lead poisoning in National City. The only evidence that is pointing towards a cause is the fact that Lena Luthor created a weaponized “lead bomb” to deal with the Daximites in last week’s season finale to deal with the alien threat. The weapon was shown to be non-fatal towards humans, but would kill the alien invaders if they remained on earth. However, when children started showing up sick from lead poisoning, all fingers were pointed towards Lena.
Lena’s corporate rival Morgan Edge was more than happy to place blame on Lena and tie her to her less than savory family. Holding press conferences in her own hospital filled with sick children is a political low blow, and it works in his favor as Luthor becomes public enemy number one. Even when she tries to get ahead of the damage and holding a press conference, a concerned parent tries to kill her by shooting at her from the crowd. This forces Lena to think that she is responsible and she takes a leave of absence from her business activities and drowns herself in a bottle of wine.
Kara and Samantha aren’t too sure that this is her fault. Like the good friends they are, they decide to do some investigating on their own. Through their investigation, it’s revealed that it’s Morgan Edge who willingly poisoned children as a means to get back at his political rival. If we didn’t know that Morgan was the big bad guy before, he sure is now. This makes him an interesting villain, as he has no superpowers, just political and economic power, which is more than enough to take on his rivals. Even when he is stopped, he has a backup plan and blames one of his lackeys so he can live to fight another day.
The B story focused on Alex and Maggie are continuing to deal with their impasse. Alex and Maggie deeply love each other and want to get married, however, they have different life goals. Alex wants to one day have children, and that’s something Maggie has no interest in doing at all. Neither wants to budge from where they are, so how does this relationship move forward?
The two decide that they need to no longer be together. It’s heartbreaking for the two of them as they are genuinely in love with each other, but they just will not be able to move forward together. Before Maggie leaves, the two spend one last night together where they laugh, dance, cry, and spend the night together before they say their final goodbyes. In the aftermath of the breakup, Kara is Alex’s shoulder to cry on. Kara even calls J’onn telling him that the two of them will be away from the DEO for a little while, so that Alex can heal a little.
The episode ends with Samantha spending time with her daughter. Her daughter notices a hole in her mother’s shirt. Samantha then takes a look at her jacket where she sees a spent bullet in her jacket. Turns out during the shooting earlier when the parent tried to kill Lena Luthor, she was hit, but her powers saved her, confirming that she’s some sort of bullet-proof alien.
The Flash: “Girls Night Out”
No new Dark Matter metahumans this week on The Flash. Instead, it’s an episode full of bachelor/bachelorette parties as Barry and Iris have their own adventures. Barry and the guys have their own fun while Iris and the girls take center stage as they not only have a bachelorette party, but they also face off against evil metahuman gangsters.
Felicity from Arrow comes to town for Iris’ bachelorette party. Joining them also are Cecile and a reluctant Caitlin, who was in the middle of packing her bags to leave town before being invited on the festivities. This plays a giant role in the entire episode as Caitlin’s escapades before rejoining Team Flash are coming back to bite her.
As the girls are off for what appears to be a regular night out full of drinking and dinner (a tame bachelorette party) when a glass-eyed goon on this week’s bad guy Amunet Black shows up demanding Caitlin come with him. After the rest of the girls laugh him off as a stripper, an eye worm explodes from his glass eye to attack her. The girls get in fight mode and actually take him on. Caitlin realizes they need Killer Frost and turns into her Jekyll and Hyde persona to fight him off.
Killer Frost wants to get out of town because she knows that Amunet Black will still come after her. But Iris wants to help her friend. She even follows her as she tried to meet with the gangster. As Killer Frost pleads to Black (played by Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff with an English accent) to let her go, Black reveals that Killer Frost is her best henchman and she needs her to secure safety for her latest trafficking victim, Weeper: a metahuman whose tears create a powerful hallucinogen. Although Killer Frost is able to escape thanks to Iris, the girls decide they will help get her free and save the poor metahuman help prisoner.
As Black goes to set up a deal with what is assumedly be a triad for Weeper’s tears, the girls spring into action. Despite having no powers, they use their brains to overcome Black (who’s magnetic powers are overcome by a magnet), her goons, and the triads, saving the day. At the end, Killer Frost and Caitlin manage to find a way to coexist and they both remain as members of Team Flash.
Meanwhile, the boys are also doing their own crazy night. Barry’s bachelor party was supposed to be nice and normal, just drinks and cigars. However, Ralph crashes the party and determines that it’s too lame, and proceeds to take the guys to a local strip club where he has his own framed picture as “customer of the month.” The funniest part of the episode is that Cisco gave Barry an alcohol concoction that can withstand his Speed Force-induced healing powers and get him really, really, really drunk. He proceeds to tell many patrons and strippers that he’s the flash countless times in his inebriation. Joe runs into Cecile’s daughter Joanie (who conveniently skipped the bachelorette party) stripping at the club. She explains to him it’s an exercise in feminism, but by the end of the episode, she decides to not continue it.
Thanks to Ralph stealing money from a stripper using his Plastic Man powers, the guys start a bar brawl and end up spending the night in jail. Barry and Joe have a heart to heart with Joe becoming a father again. Barry tells Joe that he was a great father to him despite having no help. Now that he has Cecile, he will also be a great father and there is nothing to fear. Harry (who didn’t get arrested) bails them out where they run into the girls back at STAR Labs and both parties say their nights were uneventful.
Legends of Tomorrow: “Return of the Mack”
This week on Legends of Tomorrow, the Legends go vampire hunting.
As the Legends are trying to understand the nature of these new time aberrations anachronisms, Nate tells the team that there are rumored vampire attacks in 1895 London. Mick becomes focused on the idea of killing a vampire. Gotta give props to actor Dominic Purcell, who is having a blast now on the show and completely is nailing the comedic timing for the character. He spends most of the episode with a stake in hand just ready to kill the undead. Even when the team meets a pathologist and are ready to perform an autopsy on a recently drained corpse, he quickly drives a stake through the body.
Oh, they also get some help this week. Even though they have been at odds with their former leader Rip Hunter and his Time Bureau, Rip is there trying to discover what’s going on as well. Despite reservations, Sara agrees to work with him to try and uncover the mystery surrounding the vampire and the mystery name “Mallus.”
While walking about, Nate gets kidnapped, which leads the Legends to learn about a secret society that happens to be run by none other than Stein’s ancestor (actor Victor Garber playing double duty this week as Stein and his great-great-grandfather), who leads an occult group. It turns out, they are trying to resurrect someone of power. The blood draining is not vampires, but instead, blood transfusions 1800s style. The person they are trying to bring back from the dead? Damien Dahrk.
Sara hates Dahrk more than anyone possibly could. After all, he killed her sister, Laurel Lance. She wants him dead. Meanwhile, Rip wants him to remain alive as he’s important to Mallus, which is Rip’s primary objective. Rip seemingly agrees with Sara, but it was a ruse as he then programs Gideon and the Wave Rider to imprison the Legends so that he can continue his solo mission.
The only person not stuck on the ship was Zari, who was captivated by one of the occult members as they were able to commune with her dead brother. She manages to infiltrate them just as they are resurrecting Dahrk. The Legends manage to escape the ship and arrive just as Dahrk is resurrected. The Time Bureau also arrives just in time which leads to an all-out battle against Dahrk and his forces while the song “Return of the Mack” is playing the entire time, hence the title. Even though the Legends hold their own, Dahrk manages to escape.
Because of Rip’s treachery, Sara realizes he can no longer be trusted and calls the Time Bureau on him to report his solo mission to them. They apprehend him for going against them and finally give the Legends free space to carry out their own missions without their interference, leaving Rip in their custody. I predict it now, Rip will be next season’s full-on bad guy.
Arrow: “Deathstroke Returns”
This week on Arrow, Oliver and Slade Wilson go on their own solo mission, and we finally get to see who Vigilante is.
Oliver seemed to be itching for some sort of action. Ever since he hung up the hood and gave the title of Green Arrow over to his buddy John Diggle, he’s been missing for his former lifestyle. Although he doesn’t want to go back towards the darkness, you know he secretly has been craving it. This week he gets to toe the line as Slade Wilson needs his help rescuing his son. Turns out his son joined Australian Secret Intelligence (following his father’s footsteps) and got himself in trouble in Kasnia.
However, Slade tells Oliver that he doesn’t need the Green Arrow. He needs help from Oliver Queen the politician. Turns out the folks in Kasnia would be fine with a face to face with a high profile American politician, so Slade has Oliver come to be the middle man to try and negotiate his son’s release.
The flashbacks return back to Arrow as they instead focus on Slade as he takes his son on a camping trip. Slade secretly was using the trip with his son as a means to carry out an execution. While he had a good time bonding with his son in the wilderness, he does bring his Deathstroke helmet and kills his target. It’s not revealed if his son actually saw the hit carried out, but it’s heavily implied.
When Oliver comes to the jail under the pretension of a humanitarian mission, the warden tells him that Slade’s son died during a prison fight the day before. Once Oliver reveals this to Slade, he goes to view the body. The warden didn’t count on this and gets caught in his lie. The warden’s family was threatened as a group called the Jackals kidnapped him.
Meanwhile, Team Arrow preparing for the vigilante vote. Vigilante, the take no prisoners vigilante tried to take out the politician responsible for the bill, Dinah uses a sonic scream against him. This causes his visor to shatter revealing him to be none other than her former partner and lover Vincent, who she thought was dead. Turns out the Particle Accelerator explosion that gave her the sonic scream powers also gave him a healing factor where he can heal from bullets to the head. He now operates as Vigilante and goes on killing sprees against those he deems bad guys, even corrupt politicians. Realizing how far gone he is after discovers his lair full of hordes of ammunition, Dinah wants to take him down. Diggle reasons with her to try and reach and help him. Once again, Dinah and Diggle look like they will eventually be a couple. They have the same amount of chemistry that Oliver and Felicity have.
In addition to trying to stop Vigilante, Team Arrow is now in FBI agent Watson’s crosshairs. She sets up meetings with each of them. Felicity is the first interview and provides Oliver with alibis. Hopefully, Watson is bad at her job (she isn’t) and can’t disprove those alibis. Diggle and Renee also have interviews with her. Curtis is upset that he’s not on the list.
Dinah knows that the politician is still on Vigilante’s radar, so she organizes protection during a television interview. She tells Team Arrow to lay low as agent Watson is there hoping to get them. Of course, Vigilante makes another attempt to kill the politician. He and Dinah have a fight where he reveals that he survived the explosion and is now doing what needs to be done. He takes a bullet to the head from a trigger-happy cop to save her. She then lets him escape when she realizes he can survive. In the aftermath, agent Watson comes to the conclusion that she is the Black Canary.
Slade realizes he has to take on the Jackals to try and find his son, he goes to full-on Deathstroke mode. After drugging Oliver, he attacks their lair. After killing numerous members of the group, he is finally cornered. With nowhere to go, the presumed leader of the Jackals (his former associate) tells him where his son is. His son is the leader of the Jackals!
1. Thor: Ragnarok– $56.6M/$211.5M Thor: Ragnarok continued to swing a mighty blow at the box office, earning $56.6M and bringing its domestic total to $211M. Worldwide the third, and by nearly all accounts the best film in Thor’s solo run, has grossed $650M in only a couple of weeks of wide release. That’s already better than every MCU movie before The Avengers, and it will likely top Doctor Strange‘s $677M in a day or so.
2. Daddy’s Home 2 (review)- $30M
It didn’t seem to matter that Thor: Ragnarok was still hanging around because all of the new releases opened big. The biggest was Daddy’s Home 2, which opened with $30M, just $8M shy of what Daddy’s Home debuted with. The inexplicably expensive film ($69) reunites Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, joined by Mel Gibson and John Lithgow as warring dads and granddads. Basically, you can count on Daddy’s Home 3 sooner rather than later, especially with Paramount so hard up for hit franchises right now.
3. Murder On the Orient Express (review)- $28.2M
Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded Murder On the Orient Express pulled into the station with $28M, a strong start for the $56M adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery. While star power doesn’t often mean much when it comes to big budget franchises, it often does with these mid-range dramas for adults. And ‘Express’ had the benefit of a much better marketing campaign than The Mountain Between Us had, even though they were targeting the same audience. Branagh’s film saw him take on the role of mustachioed detective Hercule Poirot, joined by Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, and more. I don’t know if this will be the first in a series of Poirot movies, and I’m split on whether it should be, but if they do continue here’s hoping they’re smart enough to keep the budget manageable. So far the film has $85M worldwide.
4. A Bad Moms Christmas– $11.5M/$39.8M
A slight 31% is all A Bad Moms Christmas had to endure in its second weekend, securing the holiday sequel a total near $40M. It’ll probably take a few hits in the coming weeks but already this is quite the gift for the $28M comedy.
5. Jigsaw– $3.4M/$34.3M
6. Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween– $2M/$45.9M
7. Geostorm– $1.5M/$31.6M
While this looks like nasty weather for the $120M (although it’s really closer to $300M with marketing) Gerard Butler action flick, it does have $199M worldwide. So it’s not all bad. Just mostly bad.
8. Blade Runner 2049– $1.4M/$88M
9. Happy Death Day– $1.3M/$54.9M
10. Lady Bird (review)- $1.2M/$1.7M
After a killer opening weekend in just a handful of theaters, Greta Gerwig’s terrific Lady Bird expanded to a whopping 37 and kept the momentum going. It earned $1.2M for an average of $33K per site. The coming of age drama stars Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, but this is being driven by great reviews and Gerwig, who has become an industry unto herself on the indie circuit. With genuine Oscar buzz surrounding it we may see a long run well into the holidays.
