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.
By George Robbins
There were many films that people have been looking forward to this year that no one will really have a chance to see due to the pandemic. Most movie theaters are still shut down and are only going to start seeing reopenings within the next month or so. This doesn’t help people because it means that they will not get to see the movies that they were hoping for. Beyond just theaters being closed, there is also the issue of studios pushing back the release dates of their films because it would be too much of a risk to release them any time soon. Thus many movies from the beginning half of the year that couldn’t be shown due to the pandemic will now be releasing some time later in the year and even this may not end up happening.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the pandemic issue will be ongoing for quite some time and in the United States it has become the worst. With a second wave of the virus hitting, states such as California have had to start shutting things down again. This is a risk that many movie studios are not willing to take and it means that even if theaters reopen and studios want to show their films, what happened at the start of the pandemic could happen again. This means that they would rather wait things out and see if anything gets better before they try and put their movies out to the public. Hence, many studios that had films releasing later this year have pushed their film releases into next year.
One of the bigger releases that was meant to come out later this year was ‘Godzilla vs. Kong.’ The upcoming giant monster, or kaiju, film was supposed to feature a massive fight between the titular monsters and possibly give us a new “King of the Monsters.” Originally the film was supposed to release in November of this year, but after the second wave of the coronavirus hit, its release date was pushed to May of 2021. This entry in Legendary’s MonsterVerse was a film that many people were looking forward to seeing. Even though people will have to wait longer to see the movie, there is still plenty going on with the film to warrant attention. People will be the most excited when the trailer for the film drops, so it was a good thing they held off on the trailer’s release.
Even if the studio held off on giving more details about the movie until we reach a date that is closer to the movie’s actual release, information still ended up being potentially leaked. The toy lines for movies often go hand-in-hand with the movies by releasing figures of characters from the films. Most of the time, the figures released represent characters that could play a potentially large role in the film and this is what people are currently latching onto. The newest figures to be put up are the returning Skullcrawlers from the ‘Kong: Skull Island‘ movie and a new monster that is going by the name of Warbat. Alongside the reveals by the toy lines of a new Titan named Nozuki and the return of a classic from the Toho series, Mechagodzilla, these new reveals show us that there is a lot in store for audiences when the film premieres next year.
By George Robbins
The film adaptation of the novel ‘Gone with the Wind‘ is considered a culturally significant film that captures a time period in U.S. history. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the film due to the portrayal of the slaves in the movie. Unfortunately, the movie is based in the South during the time period of the Civil War and it also takes place at a plantation of all things. All of these things made people petition for the film to be taken off of HBO Max back in the early part of June and the film was taken off of their roster. Like the phrase goes, “There is no such thing as bad publicity,’ and so the movie ended up in the news and this peaked the interest for a lot of different people. This is what led to the film being placed at the top of Amazon’s charts almost immediately after it was taken off the HBO Max movie list.
Instead of simply leaving the movie off of their service, HBO Max put the movie back up about two weeks later with text at the forefront of the film. The opening text now states that the movie was a product of a different era, a bad one, but one that should not be forgotten. By trying to get rid of the film, it isn’t erasing racism but instead trying to erase history and this is even worse. Beyond the racism depicted in the film, the movie itself is regarded as one of the most culturally significant films of all time. This movie is not only a reminder for future generations to be better, but also it is just a very well made film that tells a story that has echoed through the generations to modern day.
All of this being said, the film is very old since it was made back in 1939. At this point in time, it has been over 80 years since the initial release of the film and almost none of the people who worked on the film were really left. The actors in the film were all young, but time takes its toll and until very recently there was only one remaining actress who starred in the film. Actress Olivia de Havilland played one of the biggest roles in the film and unfortunately she had passed away this previous Saturday from natural causes in her home. She will be remembered by most for her role as an actress in ‘Gone with the Wind,’ but also for her legendary career as an actress in general. She was around since the so-called ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ and was among the last from the era, so she will certainly be missed.
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