The Flash is one of the most contentious superhero flicks on the horizon, but despite all the signs pointing to a potential disaster, the film’s marketing campaign continues to insist that fans are in for one of their best moviegoing experiences of recent times. Some are even comparing it to 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, and we all know that one is going into the history books.
In other news, Star Wars fans argue that The Lord of the Rings did a much better job of establishing the dark side of the Force, even though J.R.R. Tolkien’s universe had nothing to do with Midi-chlorians in principle. As we try to wrap our heads around the connection between the One Ring and Sith lightning, a Last of Us criticism bordering on nitpicking provokes the ire of its dedicated fanbase, causing hundreds of people to raise pitchforks in Joel Miller’s defense.
And speaking of unstable online fandoms, the Marvel community continues to face the harsh rebuttal of Phase Four and even the latest Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which kickstarted Phase Five. Amid growing concerns, some are worrying that Kevin Feige will resort to meaningless fan service moments to fuel the hype for the upcoming Avengers installments.
Check out all of these beats and more in today’s sci-fi roundup.
We have Nick Offerman’s wife to thank for his Last of Us performance as Bill
Nick Offerman was initially so busy that he considered turning down The Last of Us. Fortunately, his wife stepped in and read the script, at which point the man had no choice but to make time for HBO and shoot that episode. Actor Megan Mullally recently had a chat with The Hollywood Reporter and explained the situation: “His schedule was really packed, and he loved the script, but he was just so busy. And I was like, ‘Well let me read it,’ and I was like, ‘You’re doing it.’ So then he did.”
Chris Hemsworth would probably prefer to hang out with his fellow Asgardians of the Galaxy in GotG Vol. 3 rather than the Thor crew
There’s no going around the fact that Thor: Love and Thunder is now one of the weakest outings in the history of the MCU. Such is the extent of the movie’s failure that Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder is probably fearing for his character’s future these days. We’re sure he would’ve preferred to go out with the rest of the Guardians, as was originally the plan, so it should hardly come off as a surprise that he brought our attention back to Asgardians of the Galaxy, which will officially go down in the history of superhero cinema as the team-up that never was.
Did Tolkien do a better job of explaining the Star Wars universe than George Lucas himself?
You could find dozens of parallels between The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars even without really trying. Both involve a world where good and evil are locked in a perpetual conflict. Both feature a young protagonist (movie Frodo, obviously) that has to fight off temptation and come out triumphant in the face of their inner conflicts. For Luke Skywalker, that challenge manifests itself as the dark side of the Force, while for Frodo, that evil takes on the form of a magical artifact.
In terms of how well these worlds flesh out the concept of evil, however, it seems that many people agree Tolkien did a much better job. Sure, Star Wars touches on the corruption of power and the necessity of overthrowing a tyrant, but when it comes to villains, Papa Palps has nothing on Sauron the Deceiver. In a way, The Lord of the Rings explained Star Wars better than Star Wars.
MCU detractors dread the day Avengers: Secret Wars gives them the most cringeworthy fan-service cameo of all time
Even Marvel execs are beginning to see something is seriously wrong with the MCU these days. The new movies just don’t hit the same heights as the Infinity Saga line-up, and the latest fiasco of Ant-Man 3 is further proof that if and when Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars arrive, the studio can’t expect to imitate the success of Infinity War or Endgame.
More importantly, Marvel is simply no longer equipped to develop an Avengers movie worthy of the MCU and its long history, so a lot of people are taking this to mean the next two installments will resort to the most cringeworthy of fan-service elements just to rope fans in.
Do you think that’s an overreaction? You won’t when you imagine seeing Tony Stark, Captain America, Wolverine, and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man in a scene together, with zero chemistry, just hanging out for the sake of it to give you those inevitable nerdgasms. Only this time, the sensation will be meaningless because the story hasn’t spent any time building up to that moment.
The Last of Us fans left incredulous after an outlet accuses Joel of not knowing how gasoline degrades
Before we explain, yes, you read that sentence correctly. Faced with the sheer magnitude of everything The Last of Us gets right as an adaptation, it seems that some people are willing to give in to nitpicking just to be able to single out a logical flaw in the narrative, never mind that the story’s lore is fundamentally rooted in unrealistic elements.
This time, Joel Miller is being criticized for not understanding how gasoline works. In one of the episodes, Joel and Ellie use almost-evaporated gas to drive their minivan across the wasteland. That shouldn’t be possible due to all the time that has passed, but the fandom is lambasting a critic for merely pointing it out and accusing them of unnecessary nitpicking.
The Flash being compared to Top Gun: Maverick excites half of the fandom and confuses the rest
With all the people hyping up The Flash and Warner Bros. feeling confident enough to showcase it at CinemaCon like Top Gun: Maverick before it, it seems Ezra Miller’s outing as the Scarlet Speedster is really poised to become the next superhero sensation in 2023. We still remain cautiously optimistic about The Flash‘s prospects, though the overall consensus hints at a very powerful premiere. Who knows? Maybe the Andrés Muschietti-led flick can redeem the DCU before its scheduled hard reboot, and, in doing so make James Gunn’s job that much easier.
That’s all for now, but tune back in tomorrow for another sci-fi barrage.
