Natasha Romanoff's shifting allegiances have never been more conspicuous than in Captain America: Civil War, when she initially fought alongside pro-regulation advocates in support of the Sokovia Accords right up until the moment she betrayed them and allowed Steve Rogers and James Barnes to avoid capture. Naturally, she went on the run herself shortly afterwards, generously given a headstart by Stark himself, and remained underground for nearly two years before reemerging in Scotland with platinum blonde hair, fighting aliens alongside pararescue airman Sam Wilson and a bearded, shieldless Rogers in Avengers: Infinity War.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) may be experiencing an opening weekend that falls short of initial expectations, but the film is being reviewed well and boasts scores north of the 80% range on Rotten Tomatoes, and the future of the pic's title character is already secure. Psychiatrist-turned-villain-turned-vigilante Harleen Quinzel is set to appear in next year's The Suicide Squad, James Gunn's standalone sequel to David Ayer's 2016 film Suicide Squad, which Birds of Prey itself spun out of.
Despite receiving general critical praise and boasting an 80% Fresh rating and an 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) has opened to significantly lower box office numbers than anticipated. Initially projected to score a $50-55 million opening weekend, the latest entry in the DC Extended Universe of comic book movies grossed just $13 million domestically on its first day (including Thursday previews), prompting estimates to be downwardly adjusted to $33 million.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) premiered this weekend to critical praise, being called "a fun, madcap, and insane ride" with "highly stylized" visuals and several excellent performances on its way to earning a 92% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Franklin Richards, the eldest son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman and the older brother of Valeria Richards, is one of the oldest teenagers in the Marvel universe. First appearing in Fantastic Four Annual #6 all the way back in November of 1968, he's since become so powerful that he's literally created not just one but multiple entire alternate realities, including the Counter-Earth pocket universe where he concealed the many heroes believed to have perished in the Onslaught event of 1996.
The Walt Disney Company took the streaming industry by storm last November when it launched its very own in-house Disney+ streaming service, a move that saw its stock price surge almost 19% over the course of a month to a high of $153.41 per share by Thanksgiving. The entertainment juggernaut amassed nearly 29 million subscribers in just three months – some likely partaking in the seven-day free trial program and many lured in by the service's startlingly low $6.99 subscription fee (an announcement that saw the company's stock soar more than 32% over a month last April).
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a young slave boy was prophesied to bring balance to the Force and grew up to become one of the most powerful Sith lords ever to wield a plasma blade. After the destruction of the Death Star at the end of 1977's Star Wars, retroactively subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope, Anakin Skywalker, by then known as Darth Vader, was demoted and set out on a personal mission to find the fighter pilot who destroyed the Empire's deadliest superweapon with a single improbable shot. In pursuit of that goal, he traveled to the Kallidahin asteroid Quarantine World III, and it's there that he crosses paths with a rogue archeologist by the name of Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra.
The final installment of the astonishingly inconsistent X-Men film franchise has traveled a long and circuitous route to its eventual premiere this Spring. Based on the 1982 X-Men spinoff comic created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, The New Mutants actually completed principle photography back in September of 2017, shortly before Deadpool 2 wrapped filming, with director Josh Boone delivering a cut of the pic that tested as well with audiences as early screenings of the first Deadpool had.
Ever since The Mandalorian debuted as one of the opening-day original offerings on the Disney+ streaming service back in November of last year, the hysteria over The Child – a 50-year-old toddler of Jedi master Yoda's species imaginatively nicknamed Baby Yoda by Star Wars fans, that was, coincidentally or not, born around the same time as Anakin Skywalker – has thoroughly engulfed the Internet. So much so that The Walt Disney Company has been scrambling to shut down the many bootleg merchandise listings that have popped up across Etsy and other online outlets.
