By George Robbins
For many gamers, there is one series that had permeated the industry for many years due to the number of niche mechanics and the gameplay style. This series would be the ‘Metal Gear‘ series of video games which has become world-renowned due to the aforementioned reasons and it has gathered a dedicated player base over the years. The mind behind all of the games that were released in this series was Hideo Kojima who is now regarded highly for his works. His most recent game, ‘Death Stranding,’ was well-regarded by a niche groups of players for its mechanics, but the story is difficult for some people to follow. Kojima has been known for his games also having complex plots in addition to the complex yet interesting mechanics he puts in his games.
Due to a series of conflicts with Konami, the company he worked for, he was forced to leave the company and this is when he went on to found his own company. Unfortunately, when he was ousted by the company he was forced to leave the ‘Metal Gear’ franchise to Konami because they owned the rights to it. This is how that series has almost effectively ended, but not before one last game was put out, even if it was unfinished. The latest big entry to the series was ‘Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,’ which was very well sold but it was noticed almost immediately by fans to be incomplete. This, as mentioned above, is due to Kojima no longer being a part of the company that owns the title.
Although the most recent entry to the series was well regarded, there was a feeling of melancholy due to the fact we would never really experience the true ending of the game. That being said, it is a very popular game series that stretches back over 30 years at this point and this is what makes what is said next so interesting. When a game series becomes popular enough, there is usually a studio somewhere that will want to make money by turning it into a movie somehow. Despite the popularity of the series, ‘Metal Gear’ has yet to receive any kind of treatment for a film version. Even if they did, what would the story even end up being and who would get to play the role of one of the series’ most important characters, Solid Snake.
Kojima has said recently that he believes Luca Marinelli, who recently starred in the film ‘The Old Guard,’ would be a perfect fit for the character. In Kojima’s own words: “Luca Marinelli recently caught my eye after watching ‘The Old Guard’ and ‘Martin Eden.’ He played an impressive villain in ‘They Call Me Jeeg Robot’, but I think that he will break out soon, and his popularity will increase. Also, I think if he donned a bandana [sic], he’d be a spitting image of Solid Snake!” This just goes to show that Kojima might just be onboard if his series that he created would eventually become a motion picture. The likelihood of this is slim given how the rights for the series are all messed up, but it does and will make many fans hopeful for the day it could happen.
By George Robbins
Not to anyone’s surprise, many conventions are being cancelled left and right due to the fact there is an ongoing pandemic. Every day we hear about another future convention being cancelled for the year due to the pandemic and then we hear about it coming back next year. In the case of the Star Wars Celebration convention, they will not be making a comeback until August of 2022 which is even more disappointing but understandable. For any new kind of disease, there is a period of about 18 months or so before a working vaccine is developed and we are only going on 4 and 1/2 since the announcement of the pandemic. This means that they are still a ways off from a proper vaccine for the virus and this puts next summer into the window that a vaccine won’t be available for.
This unlikelihood has made some weary of whether large-scale gatherings like conventions will even be able to return within the next year. Movie releases are one thing as theaters are preparing to have lower numbers of tickets sold, but conventions thrive off of the sheer number of those attending. This is why conventions end up cancelled and they reschedule for either next year, or to be safe, the following year. As time moves on this becomes more and more apparent to the companies hosting the convention and it is becoming apparent to all of the fans who end up attending these conventions. That being said, some conventions have tried making up for their lack of in-person content by hosting an online version such as this past weekend’s Comic Con @ Home.
The most recent convention to join the cast of cancelled conventions this year is Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago. The convention, while not being the biggest of all of the Comic Cons is a live event that normally draws in thousands of participants every year. Obviously this fact is the reason why the convention had to be cancelled for this summer. Well, that plus a number of reasons mentioned earlier such as the lack of funds that comes from a reduced capacity convention. Without a large number of people coming to the convention, vendors also won’t have very many people to peddle their wares to at the convention hall. Wizard World Chicago Comic Con is one of the biggest conventions of the year and it will most certainly be missed this year.
Owned by Wizard Entertainment, this upcoming convention would have been one of many that they usually try and host every year. Wizard Entertainment is very much invested in their convention side of things and without any of the conventions they normally hold, they are in a bit of a sticky situation this year. They have other things that keep their company going, such as certain branded products, but it will most certainly affect the bottom line in some way if they can’t hold any of the usual thirteen annual conventions. This is a shame for both fans of the conventions and the convention holders themselves, but at this point it is the safest thing to do. The Wizard World Chicago Comic Con is being planned to return in June of 2021.
By George Robbins
Since the start of the pandemic, studios have been doing their best to try and figure out the best ways of releasing their movies. Unfortunately there are really only two options available for studios at the moment and that would be either to delay the release of the film or release them straight to digital. While most studios opted for the former method of release in order to try and make their money back at a later date, Universal Studios instead decided to go with the latter. Universal themselves admitted that they have been wanting to try the straight to digital method for some time now, and they finally got an opportunity to try it out. When the pandemic first hit, they were about to release their newest animated film, ‘Trolls World Tour‘ and so they released it to digital.
According to Universal, the release of ‘Trolls World Tour’ to digital went way better than they expected it to and it apparently outsold its predecessor domestically. There is really no way of knowing how much of what was said is really true, but we do know that it topped the digital marketplace for awhile after its initial release. It would really only lose its spot at the top when Warner released its newest animated film, ‘Scoob!,’ to digital a couple of months later. Even if the movie did sell well domestically, an analyst has said that until their is an international release, there is no telling whether it was a box office success or not. Unfortunately we will not be able to find out for awhile if it was really worth it to release the film straight to digital.
Nonetheless, when they realized that the model was somewhat working, they decided that they would be releasing movies in this format for the foreseeable future. Universal said that this way of releasing films worked out better for them and it would make it so they wouldn’t have to rely on theaters. This statement really didn’t end up all that well as AMC and other theaters made a statement immediately after Universal made their decision. They stated that they would no longer show any future Universal films in their movie theaters and it seemed like they were going to hold that statement up even if it hurt them in the future. Universal then said that they planned to have theatrical releases for their films and simultaneously they would release the films straight to digital for those who wouldn’t be able to make it to the movie theater.
Ever since that announcement back in April, there hasn’t been any word as to whether AMC would really hold up this plan of theirs. Now that the climate for movie theaters has become very volatile, people were wondering if they would really not allow Universal to show films in their theaters anymore. Now, however, AMC and Universal have made an announcement that they have worked things out and that they have come up with a plan that works for both companies. They both agreed upon a plan where movie theaters would have an exclusivity period of about two-and-a-half weeks, or 17 days, with new Universal films. After this period of exclusivity ends, the movies will stay in theaters, but they will also become available for digital purchase from that point on.
By George Robbins
Coming up in the not too distant future are a number of movies that are currently in development or will soon be starting development. Many movies that are theater ready will unfortunately not get to play any time soon due to the pandemic closing down theaters and studios being worried about releasing them. Thus we currently have a period in time where there is nothing new coming in in regards to the movie industry except news about new movies we won’t be seeing for a long time yet. That being said, it was recently announced that there is an upcoming ‘Tron 3’ movie that will hopefully start some kind of development in the near future. In the meantime, while we wait for new details to drop for that project, let us discuss an older finished product.
The movie in question is the new movie’s predecessor ‘TRON: Legacy‘ and how the movie’s director tries to make his films. First things first, ‘TRON: Legacy’ is a sequel to a much older film which was simply titled ‘Tron’ which released almost 30 years prior. The movie featured the character Sam Flynn who is looking for his father who had disappeared many years prior to the start of the story. This search for his father is what leads him into the techno-scape his father created and he must battle evil programs to try and find his father and get out of that world. While the film may not have been incredibly well-received it still did well at the box office and it had relatively positive reviews.
Although the movie had relatively positive reviews, it was still regarded as another one of Disney’s attempts to make a good live-action sci-fi movie. As a result, it did not do as well as they hoped it would but it could have been worse or possibly better with the use of fan service. Fan service can help a film by giving fans what they might want to see, but simultaneously it could harm the movie by messing up the plot of the film. At its core, fan service works as a double edged sword and for some movies it can make or break the film because even if fans like the fan service parts, there are parts of the film that could be ruined by it. ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is a good recent example of this because it catered heavily towards the fans which ended up with it being the lowest rated film in the sequel trilogy.
‘TRON: Legacy’ director Joseph Kosinski is firmly against the idea of using fan service in his films because in his words, “You gotta tell your story. The idea of fan service is a very alluring, tricky thing, because it’s kind of like an easy win. But ultimately you have to decide, does this serve the story you’re telling?” This is what is mentioned above and it holds true for all types of films, but the worst offenders are sequels in popular franchises. If Kosinski really is so against the idea of fan service, then this may affect his newest film which has still yet to hit theaters, ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ The much awaited sequel is bound to make mention of the past as Cruise’s character must come face-to-face with his past, so will he be able to avoid using fan service in the film. The only way to know now is to wait for the release of the film which currently has a scheduled theatrical release on December 23, 2020.
By George Robbins
Many of the Fox series of films that featured superheroes were not well received by the fan-base that loved the characters portrayed. This mostly stems from the fact that much of what happens in the films just doesn’t seem to make as much sense as people wanted it to. On top of that, the portrayal of the characters in those films just wasn’t based enough off of the character they are supposed to be. The original ‘X-Men‘ trilogy is a perfect example of how something went from highly anticipated to a total let down. The first film was rated very well among fans of the comic book series and while the second wasn’t received in the best way possible, it was still okay in the eyes of most fans. It wasn’t until Fox made ‘X-Men: The Last Stand‘ that everything started going down hill.
In the original film, the characters had yet to be portrayed in any kind of format so it was a big moment when they decided that they would put them on the big screen. Their portrayals on screen seemed fitting at the time for the characters and it introduced the world to Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine. This character became a focal character for the series they tried to make out of these films and easily became the most redeemable part of the movies. That being said, the third film in the original trilogy, ‘The Last Stand,’ was regarded as just a truly bad movie for the franchise. The story line that they tried following ended up just being told badly and the characters were not portrayed in any way that seemed similar to their comic counterparts.
When a film comes out and it isn’t what people wanted it to be and it isn’t well received by people, everyone goes straight to blaming the director or studio for the movie. It isn’t just them, but also the writers who work on the films and are largely responsible for how those films turn out. This is part of what happened to ‘The Last Stand’ which caused many to say that the writing for the film was just bad. Included in this are characters which received some of the worst treatment of all when the movie was in development. There were a multitude of issues during the production of the film, but overall it just wasn’t a good movie. Still, the biggest thing on people’s minds at the time was the portrayal of characters on screen and the lines they had in the film with Juggernaut being a prime example.
In ‘X-Men: The Last Stand,’ the Juggernaut showed up as a character that was well known by comic book fans at large due to regular appearances in the comics. Actor Vinnie Jones recently explained that the portrayal of the character was something he tried his best to work with, but the writers gave him nothing to work with. On top of this, he just doesn’t “feel” the same way that his comic book counterpart does. He is supposed to be a strong opposing force against the X-Men, but in the film he hardly has a role to play. The actor complained that he was given nothing to do and that if given the opportunity, he would have played him as the true character would have been. The character of Juggernaut got to be in the spotlight again in ‘Deadpool 2’ and was even given a more comic based treatment where his character was pretty well treated. Hopefully we will get to see this type of Juggernaut in the future, but we have no idea when this could be.
By George Robbins
This past weekend was a big weekend for comic book fans from all different kinds of backgrounds as it was the weekend of Justice Con and Comic-Con @ Home. The Comic-Con @ Home event was held in lieu of there not being an actual Comic-Con this year due to the pandemic. Among the biggest selling points for the convention was the fact that anybody could have watched the panels for free. For vendors they also had a virtual marketplace in order to allow people the chance to buy merchandise they would have only got at San Diego Comic-Con. Unfortunately, the pandemic didn’t just impact the fact that an in-person convention couldn’t be held but also what made it to the convention.
Due to the pandemic, studios have had to change the release dates of their movies and they’ve had to push the productions of their upcoming films. This has resulted in studios not really having anything to show to the public and therefore they didn’t have a panel for this year’s convention. One of the biggest panels that was skipped this year was the one for Marvel studios who suffered from just that. They had nothing new to show as they only just started up production again for ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ and they already did marketing for ‘Black Widow‘ which left them with very little to end up showing off. They weren’t the only ones as Star Wars was nowhere to be seen at the convention.
Justice Con, on the other hand, proved to turn out pretty well for the most part and shed light on what was happening there. The reason for the existence of Justice Con was solely centered around the release of the Snyder Cut of the ‘Justice League‘ movie. The movie is set for its release on HBO Max some time in 2021, but there are still questions that people wanted the answers to in regards to the new cut of the film and the original film. Snyder himself part of the biggest panel that discussed things about the movie and its development as well as changes that happened to the original film. As many people know by now, after Snyder had to give up the director’s chair for personal reasons, there were reshoots done to the film which apparently changed the movie.
Snyder has made comments about how the movie was changed such as characters being cut from the and scenes not playing out the way he originally intended. He also admitted that this new version of the film is one he is doing for free to get his version of the film out into the world. When asked if he had a hand in picking Joss Whedon to be the movie’s new director after his departure he admitted that he had no hand in picking him as director. The biggest reason this was being asked as of late is due to accusations of Whedon being abusive towards those on his set while filming. People wanted to know if they had the same vision in mind when making the movie, and it now appears this was not the case.
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