I open with this, purely because I love it so much. The voices of Conroy and Hamill, the great animation, which is so true to the original art while still being stylized for the current generation. I can’t really explain how excited I am for this to be released.
I loved this tease. A small intro to only one of the characters. It appears as though Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso will be at the very least a co-lead. I personally believe that Diego Luna’s character will also be a co-lead in this film, given his billing on a lot of the officially released cast images and his placement in the movie. The quick clips of the Death Troopers and Donnie Yen kicking some Storm Trooper ass were quite welcome.
The one thing that irk’s me is actually the horrible response that this has garnered from a lot of people. I have seen everything from “oh look another british brunette” to “I’m tired of lead roles being taken away from men and given to women”. I really dislike this kind of talk, the trailer itself looks amazing, is well paced and delivers the base of the story for the film (which we already know). Why does it matter who leads this team? Can a woman not lead a team? Can a woman not be a bad ass? How do you know the story wasn’t written for the female lead? It really sucks that in this day and age, people can state things like “this movie is going to suck” simply because their perception of a character is solely derived on their gender. Please, dismount the high horse you are on and come join the rest of us on the ground. (*Editor’s note here.)
Scott Derrickson (the director of Dr. Strange) announced that principal shooting on the film has wrapped and they are in to post production. We finally have some images of Mads Mikelsen’s character so while we still don’t know WHO he is playing (they are keeping that under wraps pretty well) we do know he looks pretty bad ass. Some early guesses are that he is actually playing Dormammu, while others have hypothesized that he is playing one of the lesser known enemies known as Kaecilius. We will have to wait and see how this one plays out, I personally don’t want to see them turning Mordo into a villain until right at the end, giving them a primary adversary for the sequel (cause we all know that is going to happen).
Shortly after the release of Batman V Superman, the Suicide Squad cast went back on set for some reshoots. Early guesses and rumors are that after the criticism of BvS being too dark, that they were going back to add more comedy to the film. Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang) said this about the reshoots to Entertainment Tonight:
“I think there’s plenty of that in it. I wouldn’t say we’re going back to make it funnier. There’s some additional action stuff we’ve been doing which is pretty dope. We’re just kind of adding, in that sense. Don’t believe everything you read.”
Some news out of the 20th Century Fox camp, it appears that they are going to be making a spin off in their X-men universe. Initial reports are that a “New Mutants” production is starting to get it’s legs. It appears that Maisie Willams and Anya Taylor-Joy will be playing key roles, with some of the other stars from “Days of Future Past” playing roles as well. We may see Sunspot, or even Warpath in the film.
Well, it’s coming up on that time of year when we need to start paying attention to who get’s picked up for another season on television. This year we were inundated with comic book shows, so I’ll focus on that. The CW have officially renewed ALL of their superhero lineup, including the quite expensive to produce Legends of Tomorrow. CBS has yet to announce if they will be renewing Supergirl; the ratings for the show are pretty steady, and producers are sending positive messages, but we will not know until CBS makes an official announcement. Lastly; Fox has renewed Lucifer, a show that I have yet to watch (which means I have some off season viewing to do).I was honestly waiting to see if Fox was going to cancel this after season one.
And my last bit for today, scroll back in your mental rolodex and think back to when I covered the Point Break remake. Yes, I know, it’s hard to remember. Well, I finally got a chance to watch the movie and figured that after all of the pre-release coverage I gave the movie, I should follow up with you fine folks and let you know what I thought of the film. Lets face it, the original Point Break wasn’t exactly a stellar piece of cinema, so we can’t really expect a reboot of the film to be an Oscar caliber film. The acting was mediocre, and there was a throwback to the original (yes, it’s EXACTLY the scene you would think of). What I did love about the film was the action sports. One of the major reasons I was excited for this movie was that they spent so much time and money bringing in high caliber extreme sports athletes for the scenes in this film. And you can really tell from the close flight wing suits to the paired deep sea surfing, the quality of the films’ action sequences are really high.
I would say to give it a watch, if only for the action. But, like the original, don’t expect a masterpiece.
David Alberto is a Contributing Editor for AYBOnline.com. You can often find him making people cry in Counter-Strike. Roll percentile dice to see if his opinions change, your chances are slim.
