As Netflix customers grow increasingly discontent with the company’s ridiculous policy of canceling originals without giving them a second look, an all-but-forgotten sci-fi thriller soars through the streaming charts to prove that you don’t even need a powerful marketing machine to make this flicks work within this business model.
Meanwhile, James Gunn continues to butt heads with his DCU detractors, and the latest instance of this has left the Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker absolutely dumbfounded. In other news, Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is coming out to mixed reviews in a few days, and the most disconcerting fact about Peyton Reed’s threequel is the fact that its Rotten Tomatoes score is somehow below that of Thor: Love and Thunder.
As we try to wrap our heads around all the shenanigans from the cinematic superhero world, a megastar who starred in Alita: Battle Angel has once again fueled fan hopes by doubling down on his devotion to appear in a potential sequel. We have a lot for you in today’s sci-fi roundup, so let’s get to it.
Is James Gunn planning to bamboozle the entire world with Henry Cavill?
Warner Bros. bringing Henry Cavill back only to toss him out again was the ultimate betrayal, but what if James Gunn is planning to pull the rug from under everyone by recasting him as the World’s Greatest Detective? The filmmaker has repeatedly expressed his disappointment at the company’s mishandling of Cavill, and the former Man of Steel certainly fits the Dark Knight’s age. The DCU needs a new Batman, and we can’t think of anyone better to fill those shoes. Of course, this is all speculation, perhaps even bordering on wishful thinking, but thinking about all the innumerable characters who are about to make their debut in this hard DCU reboot, we wonder why Cavill shouldn’t be one of them.
This forgotten Netflix sci-fi thriller is garnering attention on a rival streaming platform
IO is a movie panned by critics and audiences both, wherein even Anthony Mackie or Margaret Qualley’s more-than-decent acting chops couldn’t save it from disaster. The story involves a climate disaster in the future, and the protagonists racing to reverse it and save the planet. It also serves as a reminder of how mind-numbingly stupid Netflix is in regard to its original shows and films, but despite all its flaws, IO is finding a new audience on Rakuten, of all streaming platforms.
Jon Favreau explains why he reunited Din Djarin and Baby Grogu so soon after The Mandalorian season 2
Those who skipped on The Book of Boba Fett will be in for a huge surprise when The Mandalorian season 3 premieres this March. In case you still don’t know, one of the former’s episodes centered solely around Din Djarin and another on Baby Grogu’s training with Luke Skywalker. In the series finale, the two reunite once again and set out for an all-new adventure in a galaxy far, far away. For a lot of fans, this rushed development came off as Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni panicking about season 3 and reinstating the old dynamic to save face, but Favreau defends this decision as the only path forward.
“We couldn’t just hit a hard reset,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how this unfolds for people who may not have seen The Book of Boba Fett. But I think The Book of Boba Fett offered time to pass. You saw what Mando was like without Baby Yoda and we saw what Grogu was like without the Mandalorian and neither of them was doing too good. So them coming back together was a really good plot point that allows us to jump back into Season 3 while maintaining the central relationship.”
Anthony Mackie geeks out over Harrison Ford joining the MCU, says he’s going to give him a full breakdown
It must be intimidating for new stars to join the MCU with more than 30 movies and a dozen TV shows worth of continuity to catch up to, but as far as Anthony Mackie is concerned, Harrison Ford has nothing to fear. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones legend is set to join the cast of Captain America: New World Order, and Mackie plans to bring him up to speed in a comprehensive manner. “I’m gonna give him a full breakdown,” he said in a recent interview. “And we’re gonna compare notes. I’m very excited about it.” Knowing Ford, he probably won’t even care as long as he gets to cash in that cheque.
Alita: Battle Angel star still hasn’t given up on the sequel
Alita: Battle Angel fans simply won’t give up until 20th Century Fox, and by extension Disney, greenlights a sequel. Ever since the movie came out in 2019, they have been ferociously campaigning for a second installment, and even the media is starting to root for it. Venerated cinematic veteran Christoph Waltz recently had a chat with ScreenRant, and when asked about whether he’d sign up for a comeback, he said: “Thank you. Yes, if the part is what I would like to do, certainly. Definitely.” Forget about Avatar. James Cameron should get on that Alita sequel.
Quantumania is currently rated worse than Thor: Love and Thunder on Rotten Tomatoes, so take that how you will
If critics continue to bash Quantumania the way they’ve been doing today, then it’ll end up getting mostly associated with Thor: Love and Thunder. That’ll undoubtedly make Peyton Reed’s threequel live out the rest of its days in infamy, not to mention set Phase 5 off to a terrible start. At the moment of writing this, Ant-Man 3 has a rating of 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, coming below Love and Thunder‘s 64% as hard as it may be to believe. Of course, it should be noted that the Thor entry has more than 400 reviews to its name, while Quantumania has to fight this battle with barely more than a hundred. Not that we see that balance changing with more reviews in the days to come.
James Gunn can’t believe the lengths some trolls go to in order to give him some bad press
DCU trolls and Snyder stans might be taking their online hate campaign a little too far. After associating a random account with James Gunn and coming up with all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories about how the director is using it to self-promote, Gunn sounded off and brought the incredulity of it all to our attention. It seems this relentless tirade isn’t going to die down any time soon, so perhaps the wisest course of action would be for the director to just engage less with social media, lest he risk his sanity as many creators before him.
Published: Feb 15, 2023 12:00 am