By George Robbins
As we all know at this point, there are many points of contention in regards to some of the storylines in the ‘Avengers: Infinity War‘ movie. Some of these things are based on information we received long after the release of the movie and they were revealed by the filmmakers. Of course content is going to end up being cut from movies because it either doesn’t fit into the allotted time or it doesn’t fit into the story of the movie. This is what happened with a lot with the two most recent ‘Avengers’ films. There are parts of the story that many people feel were unnecessarily glossed over in favor of spending more time on other stuff throughout the films. Going into ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ one of the questions on many people’s minds was why Smart Hulk was a thing and when did it even happen.
In ‘Infinity War,’ the Hulk played a minor role throughout the film as a whole due to us only really seeing him at the beginning of the film. Following the end of ‘Thor: Ragnarok‘ many people, myself included, wanted very much to see more of the Hulk going into the end of the Infinity War Saga. He played such a major role in that film and we got to see another side of him, which just made us want more Hulk. He never really had much dimensionality to him in his previous outings where all he did was destroy whatever was in front of him. By the end of ‘Ragnarok’ he was a unique character with a personality all his own and we wanted to see this part of him moving forward. At the start of ‘Infinity War’ we thought we would see that again, but sadly it was not meant to be.
The Hulk being one of the first people Thanos fought in the movie was meant to be an introduction into just how powerful he was as a character even without the Infinity Stones. This sets up the tension for the rest of the movie where even the strongest character doesn’t seem like much of a threat to the Mad Titan. We would not see the Hulk for the remainder of the film and would only really see him again after the 5-year time skip going from ‘Infinity War’ to ‘Endgame.’ Even when we got to see him again, he was no longer the Hulk that we remembered and we got to see Smart Hulk. This new version of Hulk was one that combined the strength of the Hulk with the intelligence of Bruce Banner, which gave us an entirely new character to look at for the film. However, this was not originally meant to be our first introduction to the character.
During the final battle in Wakanda at the end of ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ Bruce Banner is forced to fight against one of Thanos’ lieutenants, Cull Obsidian. He fights him in the Hulkbuster armor which has the capabilities of the Hulk but without the precise control that the Hulk has in combat. During this scene, the Hulk refuses to fight again, so Banner must do all he can to beat Obsidian on his own. Originally, this was meant to be the moment where Smart Hulk was introduced and he was meant to emerge from the Hulkbuster armor to fight Obsidian. He was then supposed to be approached by Natasha, who would try to calm him down like she used to only for her to find out he was in complete control. However, according to the filmmakers, this didn’t seem like the proper time to do this and they felt that Banner succeeding in fighting on his own made for a better character arc. Whether this is really true is unknown as it would be up to fans to decide, but we won’t really get a chance to see it.
By George Robbins
As of now, it has been a question on many different people’s minds as to when it is, exactly, that productions will actually start back up again. Some productions have managed to keep going during these past few months because they only had to do VFX or the movie they are working on is animated. This has allowed for some productions to keep working while also giving some people time off that is warranted given everything going on in the world. People has still managed to find their way back to the production sets and some movies have started up their production again. Unfortunately, some of those productions won’t be able to start up again so easily due to the size of the production itself.
Included in the list of films that were going to have a hard time starting up again is ‘The Batman‘ which has a massive production crew and a lot of effort going into it. The upcoming film is another film that is finding itself placed in the DC Extended Universe. That being said, the film is a standalone film that sees the titular Bat go up against villains like Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman. At least this is what we expect to happen given the casting choices and the roles they will be playing. According to the actors, the script for the movie is a strong one that has a lot of potential which is a great thing to hear about the film. Even if they say that about the film, we have no idea what it is really about at this point or if the characters even have roles as large as we think they do. We will just have to wait for the movie to release to find out.
Although the film is slated for a 2021 release, it doesn’t bode well that it was just announced that the movie would be starting from scratch. Originally, they had started principal photography and filming in the U.K., starting with London, but it seems that this will no longer be the case. It seems that when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the crew had only managed to finish about one fourth of the overall film. Instead of shooting on location, it seems that they will be building sets in studio to continue the filming of the movie and that the date they will resume the production will be set in September some time. As of now, the film’s release date is set for October of 2021 after it was changed from summer of 2021, so let’s hope it doesn’t get pushed back even further.
By George Robbins
It is of absolutely no surprise to anyone but the most ignorant of people, but movie releases and productions being pushed is nothing new at this point. As of late, a majority of movie theaters have kept their doors shut to the public in order to open up as close to new releases as they possibly can. This has made it so that it is mostly independently owned theaters that are opening up nationwide as they are given the permission to open to the public again. While there may be no new movies for those theaters to show given the release dates keep getting pushed further back, theaters have resorted to showing older movies to keep people entertained. This is how we ended up with ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ being the top film at the box office for this previous weekend.
Movies are in a bit of a predicament at this point in time since a majority of them don’t have concrete release dates. This has resulted in movies getting shuffled around more than companies really want them to and there is no telling when they will really be able to release properly. Thus we have ended up with many movies being shifted out of their spots- even near the end of the year- and being moved to some time early next year or even an entire year to late 2021. At this point, it is becoming something of a daily bet as to what film will be next to announce that it will be delayed. As of now, it seems the most likely candidates are the movies getting most moved around that are supposed to premiere in August.
Many studios are starting to really take the cautious approach by pushing their movie release dates back further than initially projected. Among the new list of films to be delay is the upcoming adaptation movie for the ‘Monster Hunter‘ video game series. The film stars actress Milla Jovovich as a soldier transported to another world to fight against monsters that essentially rule over the land. She meets a man who can teach her how to fight the beasts, but there is no telling if she will be able to return home. At that point, it is just a matter of survival and hopefully the movie will not be an absolutely terrible adaptation. It is being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson who also did the ‘Resident Evil’ film series, so who knows what will happen. We will have to wait a little longer to find out as the movie was pushed from its September release to a new April 2021 release.
By George Robbins
The DC Extended Universe has its hands full as of late due to the number of properties that are currently tied to it. There are releases that haven’t even been able to have definitive release dates yet due to the pandemic that has so many things tied up currently. One of the biggest production that they have available for theaters at the moment is ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘ which has a prolonged release date. On top of that there are a number of other productions for the universe still in the works that haven’t had their chance yet to resume filming. Like most Warner Bros. films, DCEU films just have their hands full given what is happening all over the world.
There has been a lot of news as of late in regards to everything currently going on with the DCEU, including one of the bigger news headlines of Michael Keaton joining the DCEU. Keaton is known by many for his role in the Tim Burton ‘Batman’ films from 30 years ago. This brought many a happy fan joy because not only will he be in a DCEU film, but he will be returning to play the role of the Batman he play in the original films. This news has been welcomed with open arms by the community and has made people excited for ‘The Flash’ in which he will be appearing. Although production on the movie hasn’t really started, there is clear thought and intent going into that movie that will make it interesting.
Other than the fact we will soon be getting the ‘Wonder Woman‘ sequel and Michael Keaton will be Batman again in ‘The Flash,’ it seems ‘The Batman’ may be a title to really look forward to. The Robert Pattinson led movie will be a supposedly standalone film and sees Pattinson playing the titular “Bat” himself. With a variety of villains in the film, it is one we might actually be looking forward to seeing. Not only is the villain variety a bit higher than other films, the movie has been praised by a couple of the actors for its strong script. That being said there is still a lot that must be done for the film before it can even be considered something close to a finished product.
News for the DCEU is something that DC fans look forward to considering the rocky road that it has been presented on thus far. Many of the films in the franchise are not very well loved and some have been received not so well critically. It takes longer to get up and running again for this movie because it is such a large production, but it does show that a lot of effort is going into the making of the film. Production will start up again soon and the movie is meant to release in October of next year. Director Matt Reeves has said that he is already working on a spin-off television show that will air on HBO Max that focuses on Gotham PD in the universe of Pattinson’s ‘Batman.’ This only leads to stoking the flames of hope that the new film will give us something incredible to watch.
By George Robbins
Although theaters are still mostly shut down all over the nation due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are many privately owned theaters that are open to the public. Movie theater chains have yet to reopen because they see no point in doing so due to it being such a monumental effort and because of the currently high risk social climate right now. Due to the reopening of many different public places nationwide, there was a very rapid growth in the number of new cases that we were seeing pop up all over. This brings with it the possibility that we will businesses start to shut down again in an effort to curb the growing numbers. This risk is a big reason why the main theater chains don’t want their doors reopened just yet, while the bigger reason is that they have no new content to show to the public.
Movies have had no choice but to be delayed due to the aforementioned spike in new Covid-19 cases that is currently sweeping across a majority of the nation. Studios don’t want to take the risk that they would be repeating the start of the pandemic; releasing movies and then having to pull them out of theaters way too early and put them up for sale on a digital format. One of the films meant to release in the middle of July, ‘Tenet,’ was moved back to almost the middle of August despite some protest from the movie’s director. This was a push deemed necessary by the studio and other companies have taken similar steps with Disney even moving back their upcoming live-action version of ‘Mulan.’ Thus, most theaters have decided not to open their doors until at least the end of July.
Theaters that have been opened up already haven’t really had much success in drawing in the biggest of crowds, but dedicated moviegoers are still going there. At this point, not having anything to do at home is the worst thing for some people and they have to get out of the house. Thanks to a few new services from Fandango, they are managing to find theaters near them that are open and they can see what restrictions they have in place. This has given people an opportunity to try and safely get out of the house and see movies that they may not have seen in awhile. At this point, theaters really only have older movies to show and it is not so great for the bottom line of these businesses. That being said, theaters have managed to get the box office up and running again.
The Box Office has pretty much been shut down since the pandemic began and theaters shut their doors to the public. With no earnings to report, they were essentially shut down until recently when some theaters domestically managed to reopen their doors. This has resulted in ticket sales for older movies, bringing them back into the spotlight after so many years. The amount of money being brought in is low as one would expect given the situation, but there is something instead of nothing, so some people are happy. Not too long ago, ‘Jurassic Park’ made its way back to the top of the box office from its initial 1993 release and now it seems ‘Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back’ has taken the seat on the throne. ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ stood at the top of the box office domestically with around 400k to 500k in ticket sales for the first time in two decades because theaters needed something to show the public.
By George Robbins
John Carpenter is considered one of the best horror filmmakers of the era due to his work on the original series that he created called ‘Halloween.’ This series of films is one of the longest running horror franchises out there and has remained a classic franchise ever since the first ‘Halloween‘ was released back in 1978. Since then, there have been a large number of films belonging to the franchise, but none of them have managed to capture the same level of fear and terror that the original film gave people. The first film has easily become, to many people, one of the best slasher films of all time and gave birth to a horror icon the likes of which is rivaled by few. Over the years, Michael Myers has become a being that inspires fear in just about anyone who knows the story behind the character and that still holds true now.
The reason why ‘Halloween,’ the original film, was so terrifying is because the main villain of the film is based on someone with psychological issues that make them kill people. Michael Myers is a terror which could feasibly exist in real life and this makes the original character and the one seen in the 2018 ‘Halloween‘ so much more terrifying. As time went on with the original franchise, things started getting weirder and Michael Myers became more of an unkillable mythical figure that always knew where his target would be. This made the character still scary as the movies continued, but not in the same way as the original film. It is most definitely certain that the newer 2018 film revitalized the franchise and allowed for the slasher to continue his spree.
The idea behind the new film is that it would allow for more films to be made as a result which is how we end up with a brand new trilogy that can properly end the saga. The upcoming film, ‘Halloween Kills,’ is something of a topic of discussion recently because there is just more and more news coming out about the film. Characters from the original film like Lindsey Wallace, Nurse Marion Chambers, and Sheriff Leigh Brackett, all of who are played by their original actors, will be appearing in the next installment. The character of Tommy Doyle will also be appearing in the film, but this time, he will be played by Anthony Michael Hall. This just shows that something major will be going on in the continued fight against the psychotic killer.
Apparently, the film will also pick up where the 2018 film left off right after the fight at Laurie’s house and will start on the same night. This shows that the danger of the Myers cannot be easily taken care of and no matter what is done to him, so long as he breaths, he will kill his target. The film is one that so many people are looking forward to seeing and it was meant to release in October of this year. With the number of coronavirus cases spiking again, it was a cause of concern that the movie might just end up being delayed like many other movies this year. Producer Jason Blum was hopeful that the movie would actually not be delayed because the release date was so much later in the year. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case as Universal just announced that they would be delaying the theatrical releases of four horror films and among them is ‘Halloween Kills.’ Now we will have to wait until October of 2021 before we can see the next chapter in the newest trilogy.
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