Episode VII was refreshing. It was similar to the original trilogy. It was an invigorating contrast to the prequels with its energy, familiarity, and quality. It was, however, the same old Star Wars. Episode VII was meant to re-establish the Universe for fans. If you were looking for something new, the callbacks may have been too much, too familiar. If that is the case...

Rogue One is the Star Wars film you've been looking for. Rogue One is meant to expand the Universe. The images we have seen in the trailers so far are evident of that expansion. Stormtroopers on picturesque beaches, Imperial officers walking through fields, statues of ancient Jedi buried in the sand. The Star Wars cinematic universe is growing fast with Rogue One. We're excited. We're more excited for expanding the universe and stories in the Star Wars universe. Rogue One will be the boldest departure from the core story to date. It is going to play in the Star Wars sandbox, center around some key characters and elements. Yet, Rogue One will be closer to the Outer Rim than the center of the galaxy when it comes to Star Wars films.

Mild Spoilers Follow for everything Star Wars before Rogue One including the expanded universe.

Rogue One, You’re Our Only Hope

More precisely, Rogue One is more than “a new hope” for the future of Star Wars films. It is the future of Star Wars films. When Disney purchased Lucasfilms and the rights to all future Star Wars films, we were most excited to see how far from the Skywalker saga they would go. We love the original trilogy and enjoyed Episode VII, but we're most excited for new territory - a new saga.
Rogue One is the first step in that new hope for the Star Wars Universe. Rogue One can start to do what none of the other Star Wars films have been able to do. They can tell new, fresh stories in addition to the saga of the Skywalker family. The expanded universe imagined these tales for decades before Disney dubbed them Legends. Now we get to start to explore those Legends as they are re-developed in a new continuity.

Coruscant City Limits

The Star Wars Expanded Universe started in the same way as Rogue One will begin this new foray. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye followed Luke and Leia on a journey to find crystals that would imbue incredible force power on others. It was a side adventure around the events of the films. The Expanded Universe or Anthology film series will grow from the saga films and then blossom with its own stories. We will adventure close to very familiar themes, characters, and stories for our first non-saga adventure. Yet, we will see the world from a whole new perspective.

Saving Private Erso

Episode III promised us war in the crawl and it gave us some very epic battles. The space battle above Coruscant was incredible. The force battle between Sidious and Yoda and the lightsaber duel between Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi felt like the payoff of the entire prequel trilogy. Yet, we have not touched the grit and grim of war in the Star Wars universe. Rogue One will take us into the perspective of the rebellion like never before. We will get into the grit in hopefully a very human and tragically dramatic way. If this is the Saving Private Ryan of Star Wars, we’re all in.

Check Your Lightsaber at the Door

No Jedi. No lightsabers. No force lightning. No Skywalkers. No Sith. No talk of midichlorians - thank you. Kyber Crystals are a new mythology to the cinematic universe. There will be some hints at each of these. We’ve seen Darth Vader in the trailers. Any inclusion of these elements will be peripheral to the main story and characters. It’s exciting territory. I’ll admit that I didn’t like the Battlefront games as much because I prefer my Star Wars with a heavy dose of Jedi. However for the sake of storytelling and where the future of Star Wars lies, Rogue One needs to be something different. Disney, Lucasfilms, and all of the creative executives working on the project have billed this as a standalone. It is meant to literally stand on its own. For it to do so, it must blaze a trail away from common elements and give voice to more human elements, drama, tragedy, our desire to stand for something and rebel. Yet, ironically we hope this isn’t a stand alone but rather the beginning of a bright future of Star Wars beyond the saga films.

Disney clearly has plans to expand the Star Wars Universe into the foreseeable future. Marvel, another Disney property, has movies planned out for 20+ years according to Kevin Feige. The Star Wars Universe is looking long term as well. Kathleen Kennedy recently discussed the future of Star Wars as possibly more like Rogue One than Episode VII.

Here are some of the areas we hope Star Wars will expand their universe. Some of these may be front and center in Rogue One. For now, we know Star Wars is going to start with a format of alternating between a “Saga” film like Episode VII in 2016 and an “Anthology” film like Rogue One in 2017. Let's explore.

Characters

Luminous beings are we...not this crude matter.

-Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars is at its core a very character driven franchise. Beyond the saga of the Skywalker family, we have so many iconic characters to explore already in the universe from Han Solo and Boba Fett to Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma. Of the five announced Disney Star Wars films, one will be a young Han and Boba Fett centric adventure. Han has already been cast. A Han Solo adventure looks likely to be our 2018 Anthology film. These are great characters and stories. But, we’re most excited about those that haven’t yet made it to film and possibly those who have yet to be created.

Click on the image to explore our top most wanted characters. Vote in our new Polls section for our top 4 favorite characters we want to see adapted or re-created for future Star Wars films. Join the discussion and add your own choice.

Episode VII balanced about half its time reinvigorating old characters, tropes, and iconography with new characters and new themes. We love the old but don’t need to re-hash it time again. We’d rather have the old films “restored” to their theatrical release and cleaned up for HD release than to just simply recycle old characters.

The most exciting part of the Star Wars Universe for us is now the unknown corners and stories. We won’t ever separate from the heroic archetype shared by characters like Luke Skywalker and Rey or the anti-hero Han Solo or his counterpart Finn. Let's explore the various shades in that heroic spectrum. The expanded universe has its own gallery of rogues, scoundrels, and Jedi to explore or at least use as the inspiration for future characters.

Conflict on All Scales

I feel the conflict within you! Let go of your hate!

-Luke Skywalker, Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars universe is comprised of epic conflicts for light or dark supremacy in the galaxy. According to Legends, this has been going on for over 37,000 years with the Old Republic spanning 25,000 years.

There are amazing conflicts between light and dark to explore. These can span personal, intimate conflicts such as Vader, Luke, or Kyle Ren struggling between light and dark. These conflicts exist outside of the Force users. Han decides to join a rebellion. Finn becomes his own man apart from the Empire. The future can also be focused around larger, massive conflicts spanning star systems like the Jedi Civil War of the EU. The galaxy is also peppered with alien invasions like the Yuuzhan Vong, super-weapons like Centerpoint Station, and monsters like the Sarlacc. Emotional conflict, intimate struggle, epic scale battles, close physical fights. The range of scale and diversity of "human" stories is what makes the storytelling in Star Wars so compelling.

Rogue One looks to be a war movie exploring the Rebel Alliance’s struggle against the Galactic Empire. It is supposed to have no lightsaber duels, little focus on Jedi or Sith. The conflict seems intended to be less mystical and more "human," like great war movies.

Disney has done a great job developing each property within a specific genre. For instance, Marvel tells stories set in their universe of super-powered heroes. Yet, they don’t just tell superhero stories. They tell human stories. Each film and franchise they create within the Marvel umbrella has it’s own focus on a different archetype story genre. Ant-Man was a heist film. Captain America: Winter Soldier was a government and espionage thriller. Guardians of the Galaxy is a science fiction film.

Battle on Coruscant from Star Wars The Old Republic's game trailer

Rogue One looks to be the first Star Wars film to be not only a Star Wars movie but to have its own specific narrative focus within a genre. This can open up numerous doors in the future for storytelling, but will do so with focus and clarity giving them a chance to be much more successful. A New Hope indeed.

Eras

For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.

-Obi Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope

The Old Republic could be a great place for Disney. The Old Republic era spans 25,000 years and is an era in which great wars are fought between armies of Jedi and the ancient Sith. The scale alone begs for modern movie or epic TV series treatment. Disney can mine this era to create epic storylines and even a new saga or tv series of its own. Think more like Game of Thrones than Agents of SHIELD. Rogue One appears to hint at the future a little bit with images of Jedi statues covered in sand. There is a rich history to explore where both the Jedi and the Sith have battled for control of the galaxy for ages.

The canvas for Star Wars is a deep well for science fiction creativity. Disney has shown the foresight to build amazing properties in larger universes around established properties. Take Marvel for example, the Avengers form the core of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Avenger films are the largest in budget and box office success. Yet, they have created a number of smaller properties that have grown to have a corner of the universe all their own. Guardians of the Galaxy is a perfect example. After their first film, the Guardians have become an especially popular and beloved property of their own.

Exploration within different era’s within the Star Wars universe could provide substantial appeal narratively. They can explore the beginnings of the Force such as the mystical origins of the Jedi and Sith. There is also the post-Saga world of Star Wars where the Galaxy faces new threats after the stories of Kylo Ren, Rey, Finn, and others have been concluded. Those left to carry on the struggle can go on adventures similar to those of Luke and Ben in The Fate of the Jedi series. The future of the Star Wars franchise will extend far into the future or perhaps the galaxy’s distant past. Either way, the Expanded Universe has demonstrated there are plenty of stories to tell.

Worlds

“Strong this planet is with the Force.”
“It is one of the purest places in the galaxy.”

-Yoda and the Force Ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn in Voices Episode 11 on Season Six of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

One of the most iconic tropes found throughout Star Wars is the use of different single environment worlds. Each world is usually a single environment such as the forest planet Kashyyyk or the desert planet Tatooine. Yet, they are narratively rich ports of exploration. We hope that in future stories, the Star Wars world uses some of the more history rich locations, from the Legends material. The Sith home world of Korriban is at the top of our list as well as Corellia, the home of Han Solo. The home of the battle hardened Mandalorians, Mandalore would be an epic world and culture to explore. There are even interesting space stations and spaceports like the seedy Nar Sheeda, “The Smuggler’s Moon.”

Rogue One is a start as it will go to Scarif, the tropical paradise planet. We will see our first planet sacred to the Jedi in Jedha. We can’t wait to see where future adventures will take us.

The Force

“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”

-Yoda Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Since we first saw Luke reach out with the Force and grab his lightsaber, the Force has expanded exponentially. The Force Awakens expanded how the Force can be learned. Rey came to knowledge of the Force and its application far more organically. Her mentor was after all Han Solo. Rogue One will show us a type of Force conscious monk who uses the Force to see but is no Jedi. The awakening of the Force in Episode VII was the beginning for growing and expanding upon what our characters can do with the Force on the big screen. Within the Jedi arts, there are many different styles of fighting and types of mastery. There are some very exciting possibilities in our future.

Future movies may continue to take queues from the EU. In the Expanded Universe, the Force grew to be something that was controlled with much further reaching effect. Force users varied greatly with their abilities, even from Dark to Light side users. Some Force users could perceive memories through objects. Some could influence animals to do their bidding or interact with machines such as droids shorting them out. Others performed more basic Force abilities but in varied application like slowing the descent of a great fall or manipulating their own body to heal more effectively. All of these Force abilities may become heightened visually in future films. We hope so.

Beyond even varied abilities, there are some wildly powerful Force users. The scale of the Force was evolved for different stories. There are characters such as Darth Vader’s apprentice Galen Malak, Starkiller who was featured in the Force Unleashed video games. Starkiller displayed exponentially powerful Force abilities. He pulled a Star Destroyer out of space and crashed it on the planet where he stood. The Force Unleashed explored the supercharging of basic Force abilities in extreme visual effects. He also used his lightsabers in a reverse grip to devastating effect. These imaginative powers and abilities grow the mythos of Star War’s mystical Force users. They give future films the foundation of how they can evolve and continue to grow the Force for future films.

Weapons

“Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”

-Obi Wan Kenobi Star Wars: A New Hope

When Darth Maul lit up his double bladed lightsaber, jaws across Star Wars fandom hit the floor. There are many more great weapons hiding in the lore of Legends and lurking in the minds of future creators. Starting with the lightsaber and the blaster, Star Wars weaponry has expanded to thermal detonators and now cross guard lightsabers. But, those don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to incredible weapons from a galaxy far far away. Here are a few we hope to see or that will provide the basis for future creations.

Click on the image to explore some of the great weapons we want to see in the cinematic universe. Vote in our new Polls section and choose from our top 4 new weapon choices. Join the discussion and add your own top pick.

Where the Star Wars universe of future decades will go is anyone's guess. It is clear though that Rogue One is our first foray into the wider universe. We're going far beyond that galaxy far away that now seems so familiar. Rogue One will begin our journey into new and exciting territory.

SPOILERS for Rogue One and Everything Beforehand

Like The Force Awakens, Rogue One succeeded despite being under the shadow of an iconic character. Another super-cameo in a Disney backed film wins the day. Continuing from what Black Panther and Spider-man did earlier this year, characters short on screen time but big on impact shine brightly in ensemble films. We have to have this character return in a movie heavily focused around their story. We didn't think there was anything more to explore. We were wrong.

That show stealing character in Rogue One was none other than Darth Vader. He isn’t new by any means to Star Wars. Yet, Rogue One made the character feel fresh. Rogue One teased that there is so much more to the iconic villain yet to explore. He wasn't simply an add-on to sell the movie. The movie certainly had its own story and identity. Vader popped up as a sort of easter egg then kept impacting the story and eventually provided Rogue One one of its most powerful action sequences. We thought he was going to be a cameo until his iconic breathing could be heard and the red lightsaber ignited. 

Never before have we seen so much depth of intrigue around Darth Vader. The original films established this mysterious villain, but Lucas never really knew what he had in Vader alone. He always viewed Vader as a shell of Anakin Skywalker. Anakin was the real story he wanted to tell, and he has completed that. Now we are starting to see some creative minds take the lead. Those who are huge fans of the original trilogy for what it gave to them, not what they gave to it, are shining through. We're enjoying their visions on-screen.

Never before have we been so close to the power of the dark side Sith Lord. This is the Vader we were looking forward to heading into the prequel trilogy. But, that story was about Anakin. In Rogue One, Vader was dark, menacing, powerful, mysterious, and terrifying. Just like he should be. He didn’t have to kill younglings to do achieve evil. It emanated from him like his breath pushing through the air. This was Darth Vader!

We first glimpse Vader in the mysterious bacta tank scene from the trailers. Many speculated about who was in the tank. It was the broken, burned, and severed body of Darth Vader! This was much better than any of the other speculations out there. The camera starts behind a strange hooded figure. Then, amid smoke, he is revealed partially being held up by some tentacles as the bacta tank drains. He appears unattached from his robotic limbs and vulnerable. There are Red Imperial guards who stand watch. We see very little of Vader, as it should be. He is shrouded in mystery, pain, and suffering.

This scene is incredibly evocative for the character. The pain and suffering he is constantly in must be astounding - emotionally and physically. The agony is clearly what fuels his immense dark side power. Yet, he remains a mad dog on a leash. In the following scene, Vader gives an audience to Director Krennic. Krennic is visibly intimidated by Vader. Their discussion is classic Star Wars with Vader bullying an inferior character who lords over the rest of the galaxy. Yet Vader terrorizes the man who built a weapon that could destroy planets. It’s a powerful notion and it resonates throughout the scene. The scene ends with Vader deploying some evil whit as he plays with the audience choking Krennic for a moment to establish his dominance and then pulling back. Vader showcases his role more fully as the menacing bully of the Empire throughout the galaxy. He is afterall a mad dog on a leash; terrorizing, snarling, and powerful.

The film ends with Vader taking center stage for an iconic hallway scene as he hunts down the stolen Death Star plans in epic fashion. We FINALLY get to see Vader wield his immense power. The prequels showcased Anakin and the power he grew to be for both the light and later the dark side. The original trilogy established the character as a menacing, evil icon. Yet, Vader didn’t reveal his full power in those films in the same way he can now - with the help of modern movie magic. Vader became fully realized in Rogue One and it made the character feel fresh. He deflects multiple blaster bolts marching down a hall lifting. Vader tosses rebel soldiers left and right, choking multiple victims, slashing several. He uses the Force to pull their weapons out of a handful of soldiers hands, all at once. It’s the kind of action fans have envisioned for Vader for decades.

All this Vader awesomeness in Rogue One has us salivating at the prospect of a future Vader heavy solo film. At this point, it has to happen. Could there be an anthology film with his name on it? His story felt like it was exhausted in the prequels and completed in the original trilogy. The Force Awakens is about his legacy. Yet, Rogue One displayed a freshness to Vader and teased so much more narrative real estate. Let’s explore. Let's hear what you think.

Click here to continue this article in our Polls Section. 
 

Guest Blog by Robert Mills, Destrus76's Mind Debris

Despite the differences from the rest of the saga there is a lot that ties this film into the overall universe. Rogue One uses some interesting Hidden Gems and Easter Eggs to build this continuity. Not only does this move tie in, it also expands the lore of the Star Wars Universe. Are you ready for some Easter Eggs? Let’s take a look.

The Guardian Of The Whills

As a "hardcore" Star Wars nerd, this was a moment that made me jump out of my seat in the theater the first time through. There is a line, almost a throwaway line of dialogue, in which the 'blind Jedi' Chirrut Imwe is referred to as "The Guardian Of The Whills". This is a reference to George Lucas’ original script for Star Wars. In the earliest versions of the script, there was no Force and there were no Jedi. Over time developing the script, the Whills became The Force and the Guardians Of The Whills became the Jedi. With this one throwaway line of dialogue, Disney has opened a door to a whole new section of Star Wars lore.

In the screenplay for Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, Yoda actually mentions the Whills as being the order that Qui-Gon Jinn was studying prior to his death. This was ultimately cut from the final version. But, in the final cut Yoda still mentions that Qui-Gon had transcended death. Are the Whills going to make an appearance as an ancient hidden order of Jedi in future movies? Chirrut Imwe’s dying words were, “Look for the Force and you will find me.” Are the Whills the secret to how Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin become ‘Force ghosts’?  

Jedha and Kyber Crystals

We have never had a definitive description for what powers lightsabers in cinematic canon.  Now, we know that they are powered by kyber crystals, and the same kyber crystals that power lightsabers is what powers the Death Star’s main weapon.  We have known that Jedi built their own lightsabers as part of the transition from Padawan to Jedi Knight.  Now we know the origin of these crystals and they have finally given them a name.

Tying back in with the Whills and the Guardians of the Whills, we know that kyber crystals were found on the planet Jedha.  Doesn’t Jedha sound suspiciously like Jedi? Is the origin of the name Jedi a reference to someone from Jedha? The temple on Jedha is one of the earliest, if not the earliest Jedi temple. Was Luke looking for Jedha and the ruins of the original Jedi temple?  If you think back to The Force Awakens, Luke had left to go find the original Jedi temple after the disaster with Ben Solo and the Knights Of Ren. In Rogue One you can see a giant statue of a Jedi that has fallen and is almost buried in the sand. The temple at Jedha City has been destroyed, but are there older temples and ruins on this planet that Luke and Rey will return to in Episode VIII?

Star Wars Rebels

Since the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney a few years ago, most of the novels and side projects were thrown out as not being ‘canon’. This means that Disney has said that the novels, the comics, and the video games never really happened. They were reduced to glorified ‘fan fiction’. The only two exceptions to that were the animated Clone Wars TV show and the animated Star Wars Rebels TV show.

In Rogue One, we finally have a connection to Star Wars Rebels (SWR).  While on Scariff, there is a reference to the Darksaber, which is a fairly significant plot point in SWR.  Although it isn’t seen, it is mentioned by Cassian and Jyn Erso while they are looking through different files in the archives and trying to find the Death Star schematics.

The Rebel Fleet including The Ghost (pictured in the bottom left) from the Disney animated show, Star Wars REBELS.

Also, on Yavin IV at the Rebel base, you hear someone on the loudspeaker calling for General Syndulla.  Is this referring to Hera Syndulla from Star Wars Rebels? Maybe it might be referring to her father, Cham Syndulla, who was in The Clone Wars and an episode of Rebels. Either way, this is a definite connection to the animated TV shows because the Syndulla name is only used with those two characters to this point.  It’s almost certain that they are actually reference Hera Syndulla because...the Ghost joins the Rebel fleet directly above Scariff.

The ship from Star Wars Rebels, the Ghost, can actually be seen with the Rebel fleet above the planet Scariff during the final battle. This directly implies that the members of the team in Star Wars Rebels are participating in the battle in Rogue One. 

Obi-Wan And Bail Organa

Jimmy Smits reprises his role as Bail Organa. While on Yavin IV, he mentions that he knows someone who might be able to help and specifically says ‘he’ and mentions that it is a Jedi.  This appears to be a direct reference to Obi-wan still being in contact with members of the Rebellion while he is in hiding on Tatooine and keeping an eye on Luke Skywalker.  It seems likely that Bail Organa specifically told Leia to head for Tatooine in order to get the plans to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Because of this connection in Rogue One, we now know specifically that Bail knew Obi-Wan was still in hiding on Tatooine and had been in recent contact with him.  Is this just intended to be a stronger tie in for Episode IV or something more?  Ewan McGregor has said that he would be open to coming back to do an Obi-Wan movie for Disney.  Is this Disney’s way of saying that Obi-Wan has been actively doing things other than watching Luke for the last 18 years?  Are we going to get an announcement of the Obi-Wan standalone movie at Celebration 2017?.

Blue Milk

This is a small tie in, but in the Erso farmhouse at the beginning of Rogue One, you can see a container of blue milk on the table.  This is the same blue milk that appears in A New Hope and Attack of The Clones. Both previous times it appeared, it was at the Lars homestead on Tatooine. This is the first time we have seen the blue milk other than on Tatooine. While this is a small thing, it serves as a connector to the rest of the Star Wars Universe.

Cameos

Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, Ponda Baba and Doctor Evazan (the thugs in the Mos Eisley cantina in A New Hope), Mon Mothma, General Dodonna, C-3P0, R2D2, Bail Organa, and Princess Leia all make appearances here. Given that this movie takes place immediately before A New Hope, it was expected that some of these characters would appear in Rogue One.  However, the fact that Tarkin plays such a major role in the film was unexpected and really serves to tie this film firmly to Episode IV. 

What other tie-ins did you see in Rogue One?  Is there something that we missed?  Please let us know in the comments below.

It's 2017 and it is a BIG year for movies. It is a HUGE year for Comic Book movies. For the first time, Marvel studios has three films coming out. Hugh Jackman's time as Wolverine comes to an end in what looks to be an epic telling of the Old Man Logan story line. This may also be the last Singer timeline X-men film. You never know. Spider-man debuts in his own film for the first time in the MCU. Iron Man is in it. Thor has a team-up of his own with Hulk and Doctor Strange in what may be his final MCU solo film for awhile. The first of several female led comic book movies will come out as the incomparable Wonder Woman hits the big screen. Oh, and did we mention the JUSTICE LEAGUE finally becomes a cinematic reality. How big is that? HUGE.

We preview each of the upcoming films. We also give our predictions for the worldwide box office as well as an aggregated critical and audience score prediction using aggregated style scoring system. (NOTE: The scores are not official, have no affiliation with aggregated review websites, and are fun estimates ONLY). We think there will not be a bad comic book of these six in 2017. Then, it's your turn to tell us you predictions and vote for the movie you are most excited for in 2017.

I'm ready to VOTE now.

Logan

March 3rd, 2017

X-men started the modern comic ensemble era in 2000. Hugh Jackman was a fill-in for Dougray Scott as Wolverine because Mr. Scott was busy with Mission Impossible II. Jackman would go on to build an incredible career on the character Wolverine. Bryan Singer was also the new "it" Director having completed Usual Suspects. Little did the world know this kind of comic film could succeed and would lead to some of the most epic cinematic journeys of all-time including the Avengers and this year the DC ultimate team-up of the Justice League.

Logan looks to be a crescendo for the character and the original Singer X-men timeline. It's post-apocalyptic setting, tone, and R-rating may make for a film with substantial heart, and set a new standard for dramatic, adult themes in film making for comic book movies. Johnny Cash's music for the trailer, COME ON! Talk about your gritty films, Logan. Even Deadpool is jealous.

Predictions

Worldwide Box Office $714,654,958

83% Critical and 76% Audience Score

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

May 5th, 2017

The Guardians return with a little companion you may have seen in the trailers. BABY GROOT! The trailer looks amazing and James Gunn looks to have a very strong follow-up to the surprise hit Guardians of the Galaxy. New to the cast will be Kurt Russell as Ego the Living Planet. Incredible!

The film also may have a few surprises up its sleeve like many other Marvel films. Will we see Adam Warlock delivered on the epic Easter Egg from the first film? Will Thanos make a return (even though they've said he won't)? Could this be the resting place for the final infinity stone? We're excited to see if they can recapture the magic of the first film. So far, so good!

Predictions

Worldwide Box Office $979,184,643

90% Critical and 92% Audience Score

Wonder Woman

June 2nd, 2017

Wonder Woman stole the spotlight as she jumped off the page and onto the big screen in Batman v. Superman. Slashing at Doomsday, saving Batman, and ultimately being every bit the warrior princess from the comics.

Her trailer looks even more epic as they look to continue to build her mythology on screen. The lasso and combat movement for Amazonian look incredible. We hope the story will match and the DC films universe can build some steam headed into their second film of 2017.

Predictions

Worldwide Box Office $784,865,124

54% Critical and 76% Audience Score

Spider-man Homecoming

July 7th, 2017

It was early 2015 in the dead of winter when Marvel and Sony made a little announcement that changed the comic book movie genre forever. Spider-man would return to the MCU in partnership with Sony. The deal was the stuff of dreams for many Spidey and Marvel fans.

Spider-man made his debut to cheers and an overwhelmingly positive reception in Captain America: Civil war. Now, we finally will see what Marvel and the MCU have in store for their web-slinger. Apparently, it's high school. Mentored by Tony Stark, Spider-man will face off against more than just puberty and girls. He will go toe to toe with Michael Keaton's Vulture in a very surprising and interesting casting. There is a lot riding on this film for Spider-man, and everything looks good so far.

Predictions

Worldwide Box Office $1,114,111,210

89% Critical and 81% Audience Score

Thor RAGNAROK

Nov 3rd, 2017

Breaking with tradition, Marvel has THREE films this year from the MCU in theatres. Spider-man tipped the scales to AWESOME this year. Thor, however, isn't looking to be outdone by the little guy. He is packing some major punch in the follow up to his lukewarm sequel. Hulk has long been confirmed for this buddy space adventure with some of the Planet Hulk story line to feature. There is also recent news that Doctor Strange is confirmed to have a significant role. We picked up on this with a creative read on his End Credits scene, and fans have jumped on-board with our theory.

Thor's team-up looks to be very similar in structure to the Captain America trilogy finale Civil War. Marvel is pulling out all the stops and have left the film two weeks before DC's most important film in an big budget comic book showdown this fall. Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, and Keith Urban join the already incredible cast. We expect this movie to expand the MCU substantially and lead directly into the long awaited Infinity Wars. This film has our eye this year as a potential sleeper to be the year's best. It has steep competition.

Predictions

Worldwide Box Office $847,865,991

91% Critical and 90% Audience Score

Justice League

Nov. 17th 2017

This is the big one. The film where childhood dreams are realized. Batman. Superman. Wonder Woman. Flash. Aquaman. Cyborg. The Justice League has arrived. We don't care what you thought about BvS or Suicide Squad. We don't even care what we thought about the films. It's 2017. We are all in for the Justice League. We know we're not alone in our excitement. Will this be the biggest film of 2017? The DCEU is going to hit a home run with this one, we just know it!

What is going to bring these heroes together? How will Arkham play in? Will Superman return or will he be the like Luke Skywalker and only fade into the credits? Darkseid? Mother boxes? Green Lanterns? Unite the Seven!

Predictions

Worldwide Box Office $1,437,713,947
84% Critical and 91% Audience Score

It's going to be an absolutely epic year in 2017 for comic book move films, and we are so excited to witness and enjoy the adventures. Check back as we'll be taking in depth looks at these films heading in and discussing them after we've all seen them.

Check back in a few weeks as we will do a second preview filled with the rest of the biggest in geek movies for 2017.

“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.”

Disney and Lucasfilms revealed earlier this week the title of the next installment.

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

We have so many questions. Here are some very different theories we have about the title.
Who is the last Jedi?

POTENTIAL THEORY SPOILERS FOLLOW

UPDATE 4/15/17:

The Director of Episode VIII Rian Johnson has weighed in. From his point of view, the last Jedi was never anyone but Luke. He said recently,

"It's so funny when people started asking that when the title was announced because I never even pondered that question... In my mind its singular. They say in The Force Awakens that he's gone on to find the last Jedi temple. Luke is the last Jedi."

While even a Director's comments never complete close the door on fan theories, it appears Rian Johnson has cast a powerful vote for Luke Skywalker. (Good Morning America)

The History of the Last Jedi

The Jedi knights became all but extinct in the shadow of the empire after Episode III's Order 66. Few scattered Jedi remained throughout the galaxy. By the end of Episode VI, the Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker was the last of the heroic order. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan had passed on to take their place in the living Force.

In the time between Episode VI and VII, Luke tried to revive the Jedi order. He failed to do so. A catastrophic event led to Luke's demise of the resurgent Jedi order. In its place, a new dark side power rose up headed by Kylo Ren and his knights of Ren under the First Order leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke. Han and Leia Solo also lost a son amid this catastrophe. The final images of Episode VII leaves us with the last Jedi returning to the galactic stage.

We assume two things.
First, Luke Skywalker is the last Jedi in The Force Awakens and entering into Episode VIII is still the “last Jedi.”
Second, the last Jedi is singular and will remain so. Click here to see why we believe this. The Last Jedi, One No More.

Now let’s theorize.

Luke Skywalker

So, why are we talking about “the last Jedi” now?

We’ve always known who is the last Jedi.
Clearly Luke is the Last Jedi as he has always been. This is still Luke Skywalker’s story. Episode VIII is definitely going to be heavy on Luke, as they've said. It is going to be a return to Luke as center stage for the Skywalker saga. We will follow his training of Rey and battle with the First Order. He will confront his own failure as a mentor to Kylo Ren as Obi-Wan did before him. We will also look back at his time before and during Episode VII with some amazing flashback sequences highlighting his time as “the last Jedi.” This episode is going to be all about Luke from the start. He made only a little appearance in TFA, but he will dominate Episode VIII. The saga is Luke's story. The burden was always his to bear. The last Jedi is Luke Skywalker. It always was.

Rey

Luke may have started Episode VII TFA as the Last Jedi, but Episode VIII will end with Rey as the last Jedi.

Episode VII will be more about Rey than Luke as the torch is passed to a new generation, again. Disney and Lucasfilms aren't going to go in some crazy new direction. These are new stories but they will follow old paths, just like Ep. VII. It’s clear this story is now about Rey and Ren. Luke will play the mentor role and pass into the Force just like Obi Wan did in A New Hope or even like the mentor Han Solo in The Force Awakens. Rey will emerge as the last Jedi. It will be her story from now on. Rey will rise up to defeat Ren and Snoke from the ashes of Luke’s sacrifice. This is Star Wars after all and Disney is not afraid of re-hashing old tropes from the original films in new packages. There will be some little twists but it's pretty clear Rey is the last Jedi.

Ben Solo

The last Jedi is not currently a Jedi at all.

The story of Luke and Rey is ultimately doomed to a very compelling drama. Snoke and Ren will take their revenge on the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker. They will destroy him before Rey can become the powerful Jedi/Skywalker torch bearer she was destined to be. This is where the story will take a dark turn and break new ground. The red lettering in the title signals this dark turn.

The villains will largely succeed by the end of Episode VIII killing Luke before Rey can prepare herself for the burden of being the last Jedi. Like Empire Strikes Back, the dark side will come out of the middle trilogy film with the upper hand. In doing so, it will be Kylo Ren who will rise up as Vader once did to defend his sister. As she falls to Snoke’s power, it will be Ren who returns to the light side and rises up to become the last Jedi as Ben Solo.

The Star Wars saga was always about the Skywalkers and Kylo Ren will be the last surviving Skywalker. He will learn the truth about who was his real grandfather, Anakin Skywalker Jedi Knight and he won’t let Snoke manipulate him further. Kylo Ren will end Episode VIII as the last Jedi as a new threat far more dangerous than Snoke and the Sith is revealed.

Finn

You’ve missed a huge reveal early on in Episode VII which reveals what the Force really Awakens and who will be the final Jedi.

Here is what you may have missed. As the First Order troopers raided the village where Po Dameron was retrieving the whereabouts of the last Jedi, the Force Awakens. It didn’t awaken in Rey. It was in FN-2187, a first order trooper. As he touches the helmet of his dying fellow trooper, something happens to him. It's a shock to his "programming." Something is passed to him, and he is taken back - never again what they created him to be. It is a powerful and mystical transformation. It is at that moment he is awakened to be the true hero of the new trilogy. It is Finn who takes up the lightsaber. It is Finn who fights off Kylo Ren to save Rey. As the tragedy of Luke and Rey unfold in Episode VIII, it will be Finn who takes up the lightsaber once again to become the last Jedi.

There is no “new” last Jedi.

These other theories are so predictable. Time for something new.

Episode VII set up a new story by leveraging old tropes. But, now it is time for a wholly new direction and drama. There is no “last Jedi” anymore than there has been since Luke proclaimed himself a Jedi, like his father before him. The Jedi order dies with Luke. He will be the last Jedi and Episode VIII will be his swan song. Yet, the story will not go the way you think. Rey will not be the last Jedi.

The title refers to a “last Jedi” because the Jedi order will die with Luke, even if Luke doesn’t die in this film. He will not pass on his knowledge to Rey as it has become clear to him the order should not survive in its "Republic-era" form. Too much suffering has come from Jedi turning to the dark side, and so something new will come out of Episode VIII. It must evolve. Rey is that evolution but she is no Jedi.

The series hasn’t been expanding its Force lore for no reason. There are more types of Force users and Force sensitive beings in the galaxy than Jedi and Sith. Maz Kanata was clearly force sensitive but not a Jedi in Episode VII. The Guardian of the Whils, Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One opened up the lore of the Force even more. Rey will step out of the light and become what the Jedi should have always been. She will be a grey Jedi not limited by the dogmatic view of the Jedi, but freed by the inclusion of love and passion. As Luke proclaimed he was a Jedi like his father before him. Rey will stand up to Snoke with Ren proclaiming, ‘I am no Jedi!’ The Jedi order dies in Episode VIII with Luke Skywalker. The story will continue in a new direction away from Skywalkers and the Republic era Jedi into new uncharted territory. It really has to in order to succeed in the long term. We can't constantly follow the same old tropes if we're going to get a movie every year for the next couple of decades, which we likely will.

Vote Now in our Polls section and let us know which of these you agree with. Comment to add your own theories.

We hope you enjoyed these theories. The truth is that we do not know what will happen in Episode VIII and we like it that way. Creating more questions than answers is a much appreciated function of good narrative development and storytelling. It gives us a lot to talk about. While one of these theories or some mix may come to pass, each certainly has some pretty solid narrative footing. We won’t know until after the opening crawl of Episode VIII. We can’t wait.
Please click the link below and vote for the theory you think will come to pass or add your own in the comments on our poll (upcoming when we publish this on the main site). We love talking about Star Wars and other geek movies and TV shows with you.

Guest Blog by Robert Mills, Destrus76's Mind Debris

The Walking Dead; Season 7, Episode 11

“Hostiles And Calamities”

Five Points From Episode 7.11

**Beware mild SPOILERS in our discussion**

The war is brewing between the Saviors and the "saved." As communities line up against Negan, we finally get a look at what has been going down in his own camp. Negan is keeping order with numerous power plays ruling by fear. Hostiles and Calamities gives us a personal view how a few of those under his boot survive. 

How Dwight and Sherry Survive

So Sherry was the one who broke Daryl out of Sanctuary? It obviously was NOT Dwight after his reaction when Darryl was missing after killing Fat Tony. Sherry allows Dwight to make a pivot that fans of the comics have been waiting for. Dwight lost the one person who he truly seems to have loved. In processing this grief amidst his reality, he has lost himself as well. This is how Sherry protects them from Negan. Dwight clearly blames the doctor for things. He framed him with the note that Dwight found in the wilderness, but the big question is why? What does framing the Doctor get Dwight?

How Eugene Survives at Sanctuary

Who was Eugene before the collapse? It really seems like Negan and his women appreciate his intelligence. Above and beyond that, Eugene always appears to be bluffing about his intelligence. Given what we have seen him do in this episode, it’s really quite possible that Eugene was some kind of chemical engineer prior to the collapse. I’m still not saying he was working with the Human Genome Project, but he was definitely not just a random guy of moderate intelligence. Bonus points for Eugene’s brilliant idea for how to keep the walkers upright at the gates to Negan’s compound. These metal walkers are going to come into play in the future.

Secret bonus

The cigarettes Dwight pulls out of his pockets are Morley’s! Morley's, they are the same cigarettes that the Smoking Man smokes in The X-Files. Not saying this is the same world, but this is at least an homage to the X-Files.

Double secret bonus

Eugene makes a Dungeons and Dragons reference when Negan’s wives call him ‘a good man’. He said he’s not ‘good, lawful, neutral, or chaotic’. This was my favorite line of the episode.

Life in Survivor-Land

Eugene looks happy with Negan. Sure, he is terrified and still a coward. Yet, he is respected. He has a purpose now as the new “Doctor” even if he is faking it to some degree. He has done enough to get himself some breathing room. He really seems to be taking to the opportunity that was given to him. Contrast this with Rick’s group and he was helpless, a coward, and forever a fraud. Despite contributing in different ways to Rick’s group, he was forever a fake. He seems to appreciate the freedom and respect, but is he just playing Negan? I cannot believe that he would so easily saddle up to the man that killed his best friend, Abraham, a few episodes ago. I have a sneaking suspicion this is a ‘long con’ that Eugene is playing.

Look Ahead

So, we are almost three quarters of the way through Season 7. Only 5 episodes remain. We have had to sit through all these different episodes to get everybody’s individual points of view. Expect that we are going to see the threads all start coming together as we build towards the conclusion of season 7 in 5 weeks.

How loyal is Dwight? Has the letter from his wife finally made him shift his allegiance enough to drive him against Negan when the war starts?

Why did Dwight frame the Doctor and get him killed?

How does Eugene feel about finally being ‘appreciated’ amongst The Saviors? Is this all just a game to get close to Negan so he can take his revenge for the death of Abraham? What will he do with the poison pills he made?

**SPOILERS** Beware, we can't erase your mind like Professor X if you read something you don't want to. 

It is a beautiful film. Hugh Jackman's grand finale as Logan and Sir Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier did not disappoint. The final chapter of the original X-men timeline (we suppose) was an elegant film agile beyond its genre. Logan gracefully mixes a wonderfully grounded story with some well placed genre action. Set further down the timeline of the original X-men trilogy, this bookend world is not post-apocalyptic but rather spiced with post-cataclysmic plot and hints of tragic demise.

At SUPERflix Movies, we don't do reviews. We argue with balance like civilized film aficionados. This is a 3 vs. 3 where our 3 favorites face off with the 3 worst from the film. You decide which wins out. As always, your opinion is the only one that matters! Comment below and tell us what you liked or didn't. 

The Good

Beautiful Film

Logan is a beautiful film in any genre. The film is a tragic, dramatic story about loss, pain, and a man coming to terms with his life. The film shines with a willingness to step outside the superhero genre and develop story and character over all else. <clapping> The film succeeds on so many levels that precious few comic book or even superhero genre films have dared explore. It is willing to put drama over action in a way that doesn't ignore nor belittle the comic book genre movie. The characters and their conflict drive this story forward and frame the plot with their struggle. In the previews, we were told "there are no more mutants" and the story symbolizes that sentiment. This is a human story about pain and struggle along a dark road to redemption. It's a look at the last leg of a heroic journey not set on the pages of a comic book but rather in the dark terms of a gritty and real struggle. Logan is what The Last of Us was for games and The Dark Knight was for superhero films. It is beautiful beyond the confines of its genre and its medium. It is what art should be. As Pablo Picasso said, “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”  And so it goes with good film.

Simple, Powerful Character Story

Logan tells a simple character driven story using drama over action to drive the narrative forward. Logan is brilliant. The rage, his long life with an adamantium skeleton, and the deep dark fathoms of his pain have poisoned him to the point he can barely function. Jackman is brilliant in the role as Logan in his final act. It is a beautiful picture of a man poisoned by the pain of his long life as a soldier struggling to make it to the ultimate end, an honorable death. At his end, he is given purpose as he unwillingly limps along a journey that redeems his extraordinarily long life of rage with a few last moments of peace.

Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier is also at his best in his time as Professor X under the mechanism of a brutal premise. Charles Xavier is ironically stricken with the deterioration of his immeasurably powerful mind. While Logan's body is poisoned, Charles mind is stricken with disease. This Professor is no longer the wide-eyed optimist giving hope to a disenfranchised but powerful minority. This is a broken man who can no longer control the monumental power he embraced in his youth. It has instead become a weapon of mass destruction out of his control. For the character, it is a truly tragic and painful twist of fate. Stewart wears it well.

Focus

Too often films in the superhero genre become complicated by massive ensemble casts and multiple plots intersecting in huge action piece after complicated visual effect and so on. Logan dares to be simple and this gives the film a clarity of focus by which we can see the human drama more clearly. No doubt, the blockbuster Avenger films and massive DC epics are a lot of fun and can succeed within a range of complexity. But, it is also nice to take a deep breathe once in awhile and go on a less crowded and more focused walk. You can hear yourself think in this film. The characters shine clearer. The drama tastes more palpable. The R-rating may be for violence and gore. Yet, what makes this film truly adult is its refined focus on the human drama, in all its grit and grime.

The Bad

While Logan was an excellent film in its own right, it had to escape the x-men universe to a certain extent to do so. Unfortunately, it leaves some minor traces which tread on too familiar and shaky ground, like many of the X-men films.

Re-Treads

Personally, I am glad to be done with the original trilogy. This (hopefully) will bookend a great ride from the 2000 film X-men to LOGAN. The franchise desperately needs new creative direction, a renewed focus, and a willingness to pave its own path in a genre that has evolved substantially. 

It has become more than stale to create plot devices to weaken Logan to fit a more grounded plot. It's time to embrace the Wolverine character, not just Logan. Let him be powerful yet checked by other characters and powerful plot devices. Didn't we just come off a film where Wolverine couldn't heal because of a parasitic heart robot stealing his mutant ability? Now he can't heal because he has "adamantium" poisoning. It's clear they don't know what to do with Wolverine as he is in the comics. Is this the only way we can ground and root the character in reality. It's time to find a creative direction that can balance Wolverine closer to the comics versus simply dumbing him down into a vulnerable "mortal" every time we need character suspense. The genre is matured to the point where we can handle comic real characters and root them in drama instead of just de-powering them time and time again.

And how many times are humans going to re-engineer mutant DNA to wipe out mutants? Instead of using Mystique's DNA to engineer super-sentinals, they slipped an x-gene sterilizing agent into coca-cola. The plot included messing with the x-gene in X-men, Days of Future Past, Wolverine: Origins, and now Logan. It works best in Logan as it provides the backdrop to an interesting alternate world setting. Still, it is another re-tread which makes it feel a little creatively stale.

There was even a re-tread within a re-tread here. Logan faces off against a cloned, mindless, and fully powered version of himself. It's incredible that they couldn't even have this Wolverine in anything but a tank top t-shirt. At least this evil Wolverine was wearing a black one since he was the evil version of Logan.

Stuck Between the Comics and a Grounded World

Logan doesn't escape the X-men movie franchise's biggest problem. They are stuck in between the comic realism we see in the MCU and the grounded drama we saw in The Dark Knight trilogy. It's an ironic scene when Logan walks into the room with an X-men comic and calls it complete BS. It's fitting. It's a cool little easter egg and a wonderful motif that the comics were created as a fiction of the "real" world x-men heroism we see in the X-universe on film. Yet, it's too ironic that Logan calls it out as fake when the X-men movie's creative team can't find a good balance between the comics and adapting them to film.

It's the biggest flaw in the franchise and something the new trilogy tried to accomplish but failed in Apocalypse. Logan works outside of the comic genre as a beautiful film, but these spots where they skirt the line and fail to commit are disappointing reminders of the larger franchise. We hope to see a larger commitment to the comics now that we can (and should) close the door on the original trilogy. Balance your world by creating dramatic human and cultural stories like mutants vs humans, human rights for mutants, government controls like Genoshan camps, and the war between the two with the X-men caught in the middle. Make powerful statements that reflect our world's modern issues. The X-men are as relevant as they have ever been. Don't dull the X-universe on film by having Logan wear a white tank top and jeans while the X-men wear paramilitary black suits. Let your heroes shine in this world in all their glory. Ok, that's enough. I'm off my X-men soap box.

The Big Action Showdown...Logan v. Logan? 

The ultimate bad guy here was a bit of a let down. The son of William Stryker was the better villain in the story yet we're focused in on the weapon he uses to slow down the mutants. It was a good narrative device to have the lineage of the man who experimented on Logan and other mutants effectively exterminate organically biological mutants. However, the main villain from an action standpoint was the counter point to Logan... another Logan. As we said above, this evil Logan even wore a black tank top to show he was the bad guy. That's pretty close to the definition of lame.

It was fun to a degree to see a younger and fully powered Logan wreaking havoc without conscience juxtaposed with an old, dying Logan. But, we've had 17 years of Wolverine in movies. It was a bit of a cop out for a film that committed to its identity in other larger areas so well. It was as if they just couldn't go a whole film with a weak Logan, which fit this plot even if they've done it before. They figured out a rather lame way to have Jackman showcased in more action set pieces. They missed a real opportunity to explore a final Logan villain or come back to an old archenemy. A version of Omega Red would have been fun to pit against Logan. Sabretooth would have fit the role perfectly and even been able to handle the dramatic weight this villain would bear in the plot. At least, the reveal of evil Wolverine as the bad guy solved the riddle of Jackman's fake hair throughout the movie. 

SUPERflix Movies BONUS BEST:

X-23 was superb. The young actress was phenomenal as a silent mystery in the first half the film and continued to impress through fights, choreography, action pieces, and some dramatic character moments the rest of the way. 

Logan was a wonderfully cinematic and beautiful film. We believe it falls just short of greatness with a lame villain and some minor attachments to an ailing X-universe. As a stand alone bookend to the original x-universe, it is superb. As a film outside of genre, it will likely be included in the top tier of films this year. Jackman and Stewart could each be up for acting nominations. It's that good. Tell us what you thought below!

Guest Blog by Robert Mills, Destrus76's Mind Debris

The Walking Dead; Season 7, Episode 12

“Say Yes”

Five Points From Episode 7.12

**Beware SPOILERS in our discussion**

Careless

The group is getting a little comfortable in the world of the Walking Dead. The narrative is sleep walking with them. With Negan as our big bad, the environment has been relegated to a neutral threat. This may have been a pivot by the creative team in response to the very heavy drama from Negan's entrance and a little fall off in ratings on his heels. Regardless, the effect on the suspense and drama of the show is measured throughout this episode.

Another fake death?  This attempt at raising the stakes was so transparent that Michonne was the only one on "planet TWD" that bought it. I don’t think anybody else really thought that Rick was dead. When will the show stop doing the ‘OMG is BLANK dead?’ Trick or bad (lazy) editing and writing?  This time around it was almost laughable. They have neutered the danger with their tone on these supply raids and in the environment. Even if this was real foreshadowing, like we killed Glenn after faking you out so get ready...it didn't come off as serious in the least. We at least debated Glenn.

Rick and Michonne seem to be having a lot of fun. Our main characters are having fun exposed in the wilds of the zombie apocalypse yet can't sleep at night because they live under the boot of a ruthless dictator that killed their good friends in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Something is a little out of balance. Still, they expect us to jump at them killing off the lead character in such a whimsical way. He could have slipped on a banana peel and had a clown horn go whomp whomp and it wouldn't have been any more silly. I don’t know very many people who didn’t think that Glenn was under the dumpster last season. At least, thankfully, they didn’t allow us to think that Rick was dead for multiple episodes. The conversation this "drama" facilitated between Rick and Michonne at least explores their current emotional states. However, we could have got there without another lame fake out. We get Michonne can't live without RIck. That is a new development but his being in danger could have come from something that carried more weight than a silly and poorly done ruse.

Also, who is keeping watch when Rick and Michonne are fooling around?  Seriously.  It’s a dangerous world out there. Rather, it was a dangerous world.  And who is mowing the greens at the golf course in the opening pre-credits sequence?  It’s been 2 years since the apocalypse.  This is a quick scene with some of The Saviors. But to be honest, it’s a total miss in terms of continuity. I hate to be that guy, but come on...nobody has been mowing the grass in the last 2 years while they’ve been trying to stay alive.  I get that they want to illustrate that some parts of normal life are returning, but golf is a pretty labor intensive thing for The Saviors to be doing. 

Weightless

This episode is evident of something that has been missing since the group has come to a world seemingly teaming with communities. Mystery and suspense. Alexandria was a whole new weird closed off world. The Saviors were a whole new threat. The show thrived narratively and dramatically when mystery was rampant. We didn't know who was Negan and we watched the group kill who we knew wasn't Negan. From the beginning, there has been a sense that each mission they went on or each area they entered carried some weight. Meeting other survivors was an event and carried massive ramifications with it, friend or foe. The environment was wrought with suspense you could feel and danger you could sniff out around the corner. There was mystery and suspense in every location. When someone was trapped in a vehicle or a room, you could feel the tension. People died this way. That suspense has dried up right now. Rick and Michonne get trapped in a car and their plan goes awry to have it produce very little angst. Their tone was far too laissez faire for us to feel any different. 

"Say Yes" also had the opportunity to solve a single episode environmental mystery and give the episode some real weight while pushing the plot forward by getting the supplies they needed. Instead, they merely kicked the can down the road and used some cheap tricks to "toss the leaves around" a bit.

Why were the soldiers still wearing their guns yet turned? What happened there? How come others didn't stumble upon the area before and what stopped them from getting in or being curious? Something small would have sufficed. Something creatively around the corner that felt fresh. The deer didn't even carry any real weight though it hinted it might. It led them to the area and then popped back up as if it was going to show us something interesting. It didn't. Really, nothing did and we're limping towards the Negan conflict rather than building suspense. 

What lurks around the corner is a hallmark of the series and yet this suspense is dry. 

The Big Score

The big advancement in the plot was the find they fell upon. So, Rick and Michonne finally found everything that they were needing to find.  They found tons, literally, of food and all the weapons that they need. Military automatic rifles no less! That's huge! We can rest assured that they’re going to keep that food hidden and far away from falling into the hands of Negan and The Saviors. The group is sitting pretty considering, but you have to question their new allies if that haul of guns didn't even raise an eyebrow. Anyway, they are more well supplied than they have ever been. What was with that weird ladies negotiations? That group is "off". 

Seashells and Promises 

Is Tara going to go back on her word to keep the group of women and children at Oceanside secret?  It's clear they still need a lot more weapons to arm their large army. It certainly appears as though Oceanside is the next stop. Tara said it though, they'll get their guns. Somehow we don't see a strong arm coming from Rick, since that would be awfully "Negan" of him right now.

Tired Rick

Rick is wearing down and wearing out.  Rick’s confession to Michonne in the closing sequence brings up what was hanging out there throughout the episode.  Rick wanted to stay away. He keeps wanting to drag this search out. We assume that there is something more going on in his psyche than just teenage hormones or feeling like they have time. He wanted to get away, with just him and Michonne.  He has come full circle to not wanting the power and responsibility, again. But, he is at least still committed to doing what they need to do survive as a group, if not as individuals. He doesn’t appear to want to be the person to tie all of the different communities together.  This may be foreshadowing or just a mechanism to create some tension where there really isn't much. The end of the season will definitely explore what is behind this door. It's still all about Rick.

Look Ahead

The well laid plans are starting to come apart as we come towards what looks like an inevitable conflict.

Rosita and Sasha certainly seem poised to get in the way of Rick's plans. They can't seem to wait and impatience is usually foreshadowing of an upcoming calamity.

Carol is not sitting still, apparently. Does Morgan give in to her questions?

The King doesn't seem to be able to keep the peace. His lieutenant is still plotting to force his hand. 

Rick's new allies don't look to be rock steady, far from it. Too many groups are promising support but seem to have much more natural inclinations to hide before fighting. If their forces scatter, Rick's group will carry a heavy burden, especially if they are prematurely forced into a conflict.

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." -Robert Burns

Guest Blog by Robert Mills, Destrus76's Mind Debris

The Walking Dead; Season 7, Episode 13

“Bury Me Here”

Five Points From Episode 7.13

**Beware SPOILERS in our discussion**

Bury me here. There was a lot buried in that grave besides Richard in this episode. We buried Morgan's pacifism. We buried Carol's ignorance about what Negan did. We buried the Kingdom's naivety in believing the Saviors were reasonable. Continue to the end for my death predictions.

Morgan’s breaking point  

So Morgan knows that this was all a setup and Benjamin died as an unexpected martyr. Richard and his repeated attempts to spark a war with the Saviors are finally successful. No more waiting. This theme echoes through Richard, Carol and Morgan’s storyline. Morgan has been sitting passively by, unwilling to take a life even in the most dire circumstances and now his young friend and protege is dead as a result. The question comes back...what is the right course?  It's a dilemma we struggle with as we watch Morgan and Carol switch roles from aggressors to passive bystanders. Do the survivors in this world have to force action?  Will waiting to take action ultimately result in losing the right to determine your own course of action?

Morgan’s decision  

He knows he has to kill. This world will not allow him to live without taking life...so he takes the life of the one person who pushed him over that edge. It's a powerful statement. Morgan took a life to try and head off the war. So, it is still hard for us to get behind Morgan. We know the war has to happen. We want revenge. Morgan looks like he is back to living in the world.

The Triumph of Evil

Does he really still believe that war with the Saviors is avoidable? Morgan kills off Richard. Yet, he lets Carol know what happened to Glenn and Abraham. The action vs inaction comes around full circle in the closing moments of the episode. The quote "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" is lurking like a spectre behind the scenes. The moment of truth is coming. The war is starting. It’s starting somewhat quietly, but the aftershocks of tonight’s episodes will reverberate through the final few episodes of season 7 and on into season 8. 

Carol wants answers.

Carol likes to play secrecy games, but doesn’t like it when everybody else keeps secrets from her. The look in her eyes, and the tears, gives it all away.  She knows that everything isn’t okay. She knows that Daryl lied to her, as well. Is she emotional because she doesn’t know what’s happened?  Is she blaming herself for not being there to help protect others? More on this to come...because this is a very heavy thematic episode which gets to the heart of what this whole season has been building towards. Carol is back and she begins her war prep with a little gardening. Classic Carol.   

Order Balanced on a Canteloupe

It's a more delicate balance than you would think, ruling by fear. Order must be maintained yet if you keep pushing and pushing the people that supply food to them, something will break. Negan knows this and he makes sure it is always the other side who breaks because he breaks them. His lieutenants have small compassions or heavy hands. Killing Benjamin was the Kingdom's breaking point. The Saviors are really too stupid to understand when they have someone willing to work for you that you maintain the status quo. The war with Negan begins with a canteloupe.

BONUS Perspective

The episode was a powerful step back in the right direction, heavy character drama over forced, cheap dramatic tricks. Last week's episode was another attempt to balance the heavy weight of the show with a lighter side. The show does heavy with artistic excellence and fumbles the lighter side from time to time. 

The heaviest moment since the beginning of the season. Morgan buries Richard with his daughter’s backpack. You can only assume that she was buried there as well. This fully explains the exact location of the roadblock and why that grave left specific instructions to “Bury Me Here.” 

Upcoming death predictions

Sasha. She is on a dangerous road. She knows it.

Morgan is going to kill the Savior that killed Benjamin

Guest Blog by Robert Mills, Destrus76's Mind Debris

The Walking Dead; Season 7, Episode 14

“The Other Side”

Five Points From Episode 7.14

**Beware SPOILERS in our discussion**

The push to the finale of season 7 is finally here.  The episode started tonight with the inner workings of the Hilltop community as they begin their preparations to take the fight to Negan and The Saviors. The episode ended by putting Rosita and Daryl in place outside of the Sanctuary while Sasha makes a final desperate decision to go it alone.

Gregory The Weasel

This is no surprise to fans of the comics and for astute viewers of show.  You could see it coming a mile away that Gregory will do anything possible to hold on to power.  He’s too much of a weasel to openly oppose Negan, and he’s always going to choose to side with whichever group he thinks has the upper hand.  Gregory is going to do whatever it takes to hold on to his grip on the Hilltop. The teaser for the next episode hints at drama to come with our new weasel.

Abraham’s Wake

I’ve been waiting a while for Sasha and Rosita to get some alone time and hash their differences out.  They both lost the man they loved earlier in the season.  Sasha was ‘The Other Woman’ to Rosita.  The tension in the sequences between them was well played.  They both want to take down Negan as a vindication of their love for Abraham.  This underlying tension really drives their scenes forward in this episode. It creates some suspense asking which will win out, their jealous or their desire to kill Negan. 

Sasha’s Exit

I called this last week.  Sasha was a character that has outlived her usefulness.  The dynamics of her relationship with Abraham are gone now that Abraham had a run-in with Lucille.  Couple that with the fact that she has already been announced as being part of the cast of the new Star Trek series, and it was a forgone conclusion that Sasha was going to be a casualty this season. Yet, she still may make her mark on the show with one final show of the powerful force she has become for the group. 

Doctor Harlan

If they’ve gone to recruit Harlan from Hilltop, then what does this mean for Eugene?  The reality is that Eugene is more of a chemist and scientist, so Harlan should be the new MD at The Sanctuary. It creates some potential tension for Eugene in his new home. Yet, it creates a vacuum at the Hilltop. They will most certainly have dire need of a doctor now that they don't have one. That's just the way it goes. 

Eugene’s Choice

Eugene really wants to stay inside The Sanctuary...but what is his play?  Does he really feel useful at The Sanctuary?  Is this all about staying close to Negan so that HE can be the one to avenge Abraham, or has he actually started to feel like he belongs with The Saviors? Could he be so fearful of Negan that he won't even run when he has the chance? You never know with Eugene. He had countless chances season after season to step up and shed his label as a coward. He never really did. 

This week was a step back down from the superior episode that they put out last week.  It did have two stand out moments with Daryl and Maggie finally talking about what happened. The same finally happened for Sasha and Rosita.

Now we can start the war.

Several pieces are being maneuvered into place for the last 2 episodes of season 7.  Will they be able to ratchet the intensity up next week to deliver a satisfying finale, or will the doldrums that have overwhelmed this season continue on through to the end of season 7?  Tell us your predictions for the final two episodes or what you thought about this episode. 

Join us next week at the Five Points for more Walking Dead.

Iron Fist is finally here! The last of the pre-Defenders shows has received lukewarm reception from critics. However, you should know critics were only given the first 6 episodes of the show before release. Most of their criticism also had nothing to do with the show itself, rather on Iron Fist as a “whitewashed” character. We don’t buy into this argument. The character is of an American trained in martial arts in a fabled city to harness the mystical power of the Iron Fist. Maybe that old origin story is tired, but that has been the character from the beginning. It makes "whitewashing" a little bit of a stretch.

The show itself is good. It isn’t excellent and doesn’t break much new ground, rather adds another character to the marvel Netflix roster expanding the MCU. If this was the first character of the Marvel Netflix Defenders story to be released, we think it would be much more critically acclaimed. However, the universe has already seen Daredevil in one good season and one great. Jessica Jones changed the game with her psychological drama, and Luke Cage gave us an entirely different scene and flavor of Marvel show. Iron Fist stands out in small flashes while the other entries by Marvel & Netflix have consistently expanded on our expectations. It’s hard to do that now. The Defenders was always the next big thing. Iron Fist is more of the same winning formula of darker, deeper character and narrative exposition though with some key misses. 

Let’s get in our stance. Center your chi. Get ready to dive deep into Iron Fist. It’s 3 v. 3 time! 3 Good spar with 3 Bad from the show and you decide which comes out the victorious champion. Your opinion is the one that matters.

**BEWARE SPOILERS from ALL Marvel Netflix Original Shows and the MCU in General**

The Good

Character Driven, Street Level Drama

The bread and butter of the Marvel's Netflix Originals is clear. The shows are character driven, street level dramas. They work best without straying too far from this core. With that focus at the heart of their shows, they will continue to be good while some will breakout and be great. Because of this center, Iron Fist is solid.

Iron Fist doesn’t expand on the depth or variance of character heavily, but it is a distinct enough entry to keep us interested. The show does a better job of focusing on one narrative journey where Luke Cage jumped from villain to villain segmenting the plot a little bit. Cottonmouth and Diamondback gave way to each other but each served basically the same role. Daredevil season 2 was split between Daredevil and the Punisher. Iron Fist has numerous villains but they all serve the same enemy, the Hand. It is an exploration that takes us deeper into the overarching villain of the series where other conflicts have been more personal to the characters. This both differentiates Iron Fist but also makes the conflict a little more drawn out with a little slower of a burn.

Danny Rand, a Different Kind of Hero

It took us a few episodes to get a hold on Danny Rand. His personality is a little odd. He enters the series like a child thrust into the adult world. It was odd at first why he kept acting childish. He is a child in our world. He reminds us of Tom Hanks in BIG. He doesn’t know how to operate or what to expect from the business world around Rand. He has done no research and blindly just stumbles up to the front desk of the corporation expecting to be greeted as if he never left. It made it a little difficult for us to become invested in such foolish behavior until we were able to place him.

Danny Rand is a bit of a dufus. He's a wide-eyed 12 year old kid trapped in the body of a man coming to grips with amazing power. He’s Thor without the bravado. Everything he does is the work of a confused child in a powerful body. Iron Fist is both a coming of age story and a fish out of water adventure. Where Tony Stark and Stephen Strange were rich, brilliant, super-egos, Danny Rand was raised on a mystical "farm". He's a country boy returning to life in the big city from his stay at K’un Lun, a monastery from myth. Danny Rand has a hard time finding his place. This made him less accessible but also gave us a fresh type of personality for a hero. It made for a little bit of a disconnect but in the larger MCU and Marvel Netflix universe, Danny Rand will be an asset on a team like the Defenders.

The Iron Fist had to be a different kind of character on screen if he is going to fit into the Defenders and not be just another Daredevil. Danny Rand will fit right in, cuz he's a little goofy. You can see him as a character foil for the straight and to the point idealist, Luke Cage. He’s the wide eyed optimist to Daredevil’s brutally cold and calculating methods. He’s the hopeless romantic to the bitter and sharp edginess of Jessica Jones. Danny Rand is in many ways the most powerful Defender, and the group’s biggest kid.

Action and Special Effects

Coming into Iron Fist, we squarely placed much of the success of the show on differentiating itself from the action and special effects of other shows. Iron Fist did enough for us to be happy with it. We still aren’t blown away by the effects and action as it is getting a little redundant. It’s difficult on a TV series budget to really compete on a larger scale if you make comparisons to the big screen MCU. That isn't really fair, but we keep hoping there will be some bridging of the gap.

The special effects were an improvement. Luke Cage had nearly zero impressive effects and only a few action moments that stood out. But as we move into more powerful characters and a little further away from street level martial arts and brute strength, Iron Fist had to give us something. The lighting special effects as he charged his chi and used it to power his martial arts were solid. They didn’t really expand heavily on what they showed us in the previews. Yet, they did have a standout visual moment in the final confrontation when the Iron Fist uses his power on a bit larger of a scale.

The action and choreography were good. There were moments that came off a little weak, and the overall delivery of the martial arts didn’t do much at all to differentiate itself from Daredevil. The best scenes in our opinion were when the Iron Fist is working through mini-boss henchman to get to Madame Gao. The drunken boxer was pretty cool, but they failed to connect him with his comic counterpart in the show. The bosses were reminiscent of the "levels" found in older martial arts films were cool. Yet, each of these lacked a strong enough identity to power the show into new territory. If these were iconic characters from the comics or at least a little bit more "comic" like, they would have been a lot of fun. Instead, these are just martial arts masters failing to really stand out or push Iron Fist.

Still, it broke some small difference from Daredevil's brutal style. The Iron Fist provided more finesse and form which can work well when they are side by side. The moves were very similar though. The settings were also near mirrors. The best sequences are still when they move through a tight space like a hallway as the camera follows. Daredevil did this best, yet each series seems to add its own entry into the hallway action sequence.

Overall, Iron Fist’s positives were solid though none of them really broke new ground or made us stand up and take notice.

The Bad

Origin Story Fatigue

Yet another rich, entitled hero re-enters the fray after a family tragedy leads him down the path to becoming a powerful hero. Tony Stark. In some ways, Thor. Doctor Strange. The story is a little bit stale at this point. Danny Rand offers a little twist with his wide eyed optimistic romanticism on the Tony Stark, Doctor Strange rich hero trope. Yet in the end, it stands behind a long line of similar origin stories.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to connect with these types of characters. Doctor Strange succeeded largely by packaging this story in a visually expressive way. Iron Fist has a hard time doing that on a TV budget so they try to do it on the street level by playing in the character space of Danny Rand. It works in some ways but ultimately comes off as weak.

Villains

There were two primary villains in the show. The Meachum's and the Hand provided most of the opposition in the plot. All three Meachum's and every member of the Hand was ultimately too chaotic and fluid. They each went from bad to good and back bad again. Some of the transformed one last time to return to good. The constant flux dulled the plot significantly. Kingpin. Kilgrave. Frank Castle. Cottonmouth. Black Mariah. These were the best villains of the Marvel Netflix Originals. Harold Meachum, Madame Gao, Bakuto, Ward Meachum, Joy Meachum were all too erratic and confused to really provide good opposition to Danny Rand.

Weakest Secondary Characters

The Iron Fist and Danny Rand form the most interesting dilemma for the show. It’s an origin story and coming of age for the naive hero from the mystical Himalayan village of K’un Lun. Outside of Danny’s struggle, his allies aren’t especially strong characters.

Matt Murdoch has some interesting friends working with him piecing together the puzzle that was the Kingpin who was pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The conflict unravelled slowly, but wasn't confused. In his second season, Frank Castle was an amazing opposition and eventual ally. Jessica Jones showed us Luke Cage as well as Hellcat and Nuke though they never dawn their alter-ego costumes. Luke Cage introduced a few powerful villains from the comics, Copperhead and Diamondback, Shades, and a solid ally Misty Temple.

Iron Fist introduces us to Colleen Wing, the daughter of the dragon, and Davos, the Steel Serpent. Each fall a little flat in the end. Colleen Wing’s character arch is as confused as the rest of the characters in the series. We really liked her until they tried to turn her into the Hand. She was a powerful character, but her narrative journey was weak. This twist not only blunted the evil of the Hand, but it blunted the quality of Colleen Wing enough for us to lose a little interest in her. We lose connection with her as she teaches her students the Bushido code she follows. Yet, she disregards that code for some quick cash and cheap thrills in some cage fights. This foreshadows her arch. We further become disconnected from her as she is revealed to be a part of the Hand, though believing she is still on the right side. By the time she comes back onto the heroic side, we don’t feel connected to her or impressed by her anymore. Davos is the same but in reverse. While he maintains that he is Danny Rand’s best friend, he harbors real hate for the character stealing his destiny on his ultimate path to villainy.

Neither character really serve to support Iron Fist or truly become an opposition to him. Every relationship that Iron Fist has on the show is friend one minute and foe the next and then back (or some combination). The only characters consistently on his side are Claire Temple and Hogarth, whom he pays. In other Marvel Netflix series, Foggy, Misty, and Luke Cage all provide stronger support to the hero without getting in the way. Take Foggy and Misty. Each character is at odds with the hero at some point. However, none are on the villains side at any point and each have clear motives and a character center. It’s the hero’s struggle that pushes them away and brings them back - not a confusion of their own loyalty. Danny Rand feels horribly on his own as he lack a single anchor. He is betrayed at some point by quite literally every significant character.

Overall, Iron Fist is good but not particularly strong in any significant way. The plot and characters are confused. The conflict is inaccessible. The narrative is blunted with so many characters switching sides and operating in "gray" space. The story is a little weak and the pace leaves the show slowly meandering towards a predictable conclusion. The show starts off well, and has some areas where it could have shined with more impressive nods to the martial arts genre. Yet, it’s the weakest of the Netflix Marvel Original series, but we think that is still a cut above any other superhero TV show out today. Even when a character focused drama falls a little flat, it still stands above any story that doesn't value character and story above all else.

BONUS: The Future

The most compelling thing that Iron Fist accomplishes is to introduce martial arts mysticism and a larger world into the Netflix Marvel universe. The mystical powers of the Iron Fist elevate the show from a purely street level focus. This brings up some interesting possibilities for the future of these shows, and their place in the MCU. The disappearance of K’un Lun is icing on the cake and a fine way to lead into the Defenders. Iron Fist bring us out of the world of fist fights on the street and into a universe with not only a larger threat, but also a larger scale of conflict. This is super exciting! The bigger the universe gets, the more potential the shows will have for not only raising their own stakes but also perhaps touching the larger MCU in some meaningful way. The trick will be to stay street-level while advancing the shows scale and universe. If they can some how work up to a Game of Thrones type budget for their team-up events like The Defenders, they could cement their corner of the MCU as the best of any comic or superhero entertainment today.

We’ve laid out our thoughts on the show. What do you think?

SUPERflix POLLS

Where does Iron Fist rank among the Netflix Marvel series shows? VOTE HERE. 

Guest Blog by Robert Mills

The Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 15

"Something They Need"

FIVE Points from 7.15

**BEWARE Spoilers in our Discussion**

The last episode before the season 7 finale was on Sunday night.  The players are moving into their final positions before we see the outright war between Alexandria/Hilltop/Kingdom and The Saviors.  This was a complex episode filled with betrayals and shifting alliances/allegiances as everybody tries to decide which side they want to be on when the bullets start to fly next Sunday night.  Let’s look at 5 pivotal developments in “Something The Need” the penultimate episode in season 7.

Likeable Negan

Sure, Negan beat in Abraham and Glenn’s heads earlier this season.  Sure, he’s an absolute dictator who demands total obedience.  But, Negan is so darn likeable.  Yet again, Negan shows that he has rules and there are things that are unacceptable this week.  Sasha was about to get raped in her cell when Negan showed up to stop it.  Not only did he stop it, but he killed the member of his group that broke the rules.  His speech with Sasha about her ‘lady nuts’ and his pitch to get her on his side was one of the more likeable Negan moments of this season.  What Negan doesn’t know is that he wasn’t successful in swaying Sasha to his side, but his charismatic nature continues to play well with viewers.  So, are viewers starting to shift their allegiances away from wanting Negan to pay the ultimate price for his actions at the beginning of the season?  Has Negan’s charisma started to sway viewers to his side?  It worked on Eugene apparently, speaking of that…

The Coward Eugene

Eugene continues to give away more and more of his apparent true intentions as the season wears on.  At first, nobody really believed that Eugene could really be interested in joining up with the Saviors.  In this week’s events, we see him interacting with a captive Sasha.  Sasha makes a plea to Eugene to get the knife so that she can kill herself in the cell instead of facing life with Negan in captivity.  Instead of providing the knife, Eugene presents her with one of the ‘suicide pills’ from a few episodes ago.  Eugene is no dummy, he knows that presenting her with a knife would a) show that someone is clearly working with Sasha inside and b) give Sasha a potential weapon with which to attack Negan.  Eugene clearly gives away his position of wanting to protect Negan by not giving Sasha a weapon.  Eugene knows that he’s a coward (much like Gregory...and more on THAT in a moment) so he has aligned himself with what he thinks is the powerful team that is going to survive the coming war.  Is Eugene really in so deep with The Saviors that he’s not coming back around?  Is he really so weak that he will default to whomever is the strongest?  Was his ‘friendship’ with Abraham nothing more than a defense mechanism to make sure he was with someone who he felt could keep him safe?

Weasley Gregory

Boy, that Gregory...such a great guy.  He’s out there trying to keep a lookout and protect Maggie.  He’s out there offering an olive branch of peace and cooperation.  That is, until he takes that knife out of it’s sheath.  Gregory fidgets with the knife while standing behind a defenseless Maggie.  If only he had some of Sasha’s “lady nuts”, he’d get the job done.  But, Gregory is a total coward.  You see him try to man up and kill a walker, but he almost gets taken down in the process.  Maggie has to rush to save his life after killing her own walker.   So, how has Gregory managed to stay alive for 2 plus years in the apocalypse without taking a life?  Will Gregory ever take the action against Maggie?  Can he psyche himself up enough to get it done?

Tara The Betrayer

Tara finally turns on the women’s colony at Oceanside by betraying their location and their supply of weaponry to Rick in order to complete the deal with the team at Jadis’ Junkyard.  More and more, the theme of the season continues to be taking action and choosing a side.  As we saw with Morgan and Carol a few weeks ago, there are no bystanders any more. Tara has decided that the alliance with a group willing to fight far outweighs the need to protect the privacy of Oceanside.  Rick offers the opportunity to keep the guns and fight with the Alliance, but Oceanside ultimately rejects it. So, Rick and the Alexandrians leave with the guns on their way to seal the deal with Jadis.  Does this mean the end for Oceanside?  Is this another example of showing that standing by and not fighting will ultimately mean death?

Dwight The Turncoat

The episode closes with Rick and Co returning back to Alexandria after getting the guns.  You can rest assured that they’re not going to take all those guns to the meeting with Jadis.  Rick is hedging his bets after Jadis has shown to be someone who is willing to change the terms of the deal.  Who’s waiting in the jail when they get back?  It’s Dwight!  (or Wight after Eugene took out the D)  Dwight has finally had enough of Negan and pushed himself into position with who he thinks the winning side is going to be.  The winds have shifted and lots of characters are being moved into new positions.

So, is all of this how it’s going to go down next week?  Do you trust everybody’s motives?  

Is Eugene really in tight with Negan or are the showrunners playing the viewers in order to make us believe it like Eugene is selling it to make Negan believe it?  Can Dwight really be trusted?  Have we seen the last of Oceanside?  Will the Oceansiders end up being overrun by the zombies we saw by the tanker at the beginning of the episode?  

Next week is the last Walking Dead until October.  You can bet that there are going to be casualties next weekend.  Who’s going to be showing up on Talking Dead after next week’s finale?  Sasha?  Dwight?  Gregory?  Maggie?  Is there going to be a very unexpected death of a major character that we haven’t seen coming yet?  

The War truly starts next Sunday.  It’s about time...

The Justice League's first full trailer dropped this past weekend. We are so excited for this film and it isn’t just because we’re huge fans. The trailer clues us in on some very important things they are doing to improve the franchise massively, while a few lingering concerns remain. Let’s discuss the five top reasons we are even more psyched for this movie after seeing the trailer! We are all in on the DCEU's big year, 2017!

Characters

We were critical of Batman v. Superman, like many of you and rightfully so. Some of the big characters like Superman, Batman, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday fell far below expectations at times. Murder Batman. Sad, brooding Superman. Joker Lex. Cave Troll Doomsday. That was 2017.

The focus appears to be back on character. We see this in two different aspects throughout the trailer, powerful character moments and fun personalities. Justice League looks to have learned an important lesson for the DCEU. Aquaman and Flash both appear to have strong personalities which will fit right into the Justice League as an ensemble movie.

For an ensemble, big budget, superhero, CGI heavy blockbuster such as Justice League, we honestly need to have reasonable expectations when it comes to story and character. BvS looked like it had the potential to be an interesting mix. But it was clearly a larger ensemble than we thought and the story tried to do much more than focus on the two title characters. Justice League isn’t the Dark Knight and it shouldn’t be. Think more like the Avengers of an X-men film. It's spectacle and it's fun. We won’t be getting seriously psychological depth to the characters or the villains. The trailer seems to show us that we won't get some complicated mess of an attempt at this depth either. We will be getting what the trailer has front and center. FUN. We will be seeing personality spiced with some deeper character glimpses, and that can make all the difference.

Each major new character also appears to be getting some serious character moments. This is important but those don't appear to be overshadowing or attempt to be overly complex. Barry Allen is seen in prison visiting his father. Arthur Curry brings a man we assume he saved into a bar. Mera looks to make an appearance as well for which there will be some attachment to Aquaman’s larger world. Cyborg’s father is seen being stalked by what looks to be a Parademon. We get a glimpse of Cyborg both before his transformation and later as Cyborg clearly with a powerfully emotional expression on his face. While there won’t be time for major exposition, we do appear to have some focus on building these characters and that is a strong step in the right direction. The best use of these characters in an ensemble blockbuster will be personality alongside the action. The trailer gives us some teases of what is to come. Character looks better this go around.

Comic Personalities

We’ve often praised the DC Comics animated movie universe for capturing the various personalities of JL members perfectly. Each character has a role in the group. They interact with each other in fun, funny, and interesting ways. This JL looks to do that as well, possibly with excellence. Aquaman and Flash in particular look to be spot on. Aquaman appears to be the brooding, highly arrogant macho ego from the comics. He also appears to have a bit of a thrill seeking adrenaline junky type of interaction with the team, separating himself from the more stoic Batman and Wonder Woman. He hops onto the Batmobile and relishes the fight to come. This is great and we're excited for more.

Flash appears to have the jokester personality from the comics. He is seen asking Batman hilarious questions like what is your superpower? This gives the stoic and brooding Batman a chance to be dry yet humorous without coming off as too bland and brooding. This is exactly the type of interaction we were hoping for. We get another glimpse at Flash's personality n the iconic frame to frame move between featured Justice League members. Flash is smiling and looking off camera only for the camera to reveal he is oogling Wonder Woman. Diana ignores him and stares ahead intently. It’s a create display of the personality dynamic within the Justice League and something we enjoy. This addition of different personalities to balance the stoic, brooding trio of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman signals a tonal shift for the DCEU.

Drama Balanced with Fun

While BvS is often derided for being too heavy and crowded, it’s clear Justice League is going to be fun. The addition of new personalities to the brooding heroes from BvS looks to add a tangible element of fun. Each character looks like they are having fun. There are few things more transferrable to the audience than a character of substantial power enjoying his fantastic gifts. The audience relishes in a smiling Superman as he learns to fly in Man of Steel or The CW's Flash learning to use his speed. There is a big difference between heroes focused in action sequences and heroes constantly brooding. Some superheroes need to look like they are having fun. Batman should continue to brood, but now he can come off as a dry and distant contrast to the other JL personalities. Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Ezra Miller's Flash shine brightly for the JL. They look like they are loving being heroes. We expect this tonal improvement will resonate powerfully with the audience and bring the fun back to the DCEU. Fun should never be the sole province of a single studio. DC never had to be ONLY heavy. 

The darker color tones preferred in film today persist, but they are more balanced by upbeat, exciting music. The Batman v. Superman trailers were dark, brooding and heavy. The film was the same. It doubled down on dramatic weight but didn't have the character and story foundation to support the weight. While the MCU is both praised by fans for its fun and derided by its detractors for lacking serious dramatic weight, each will seek to strike a balance in the years to come. DC looks to have added a good dose of fun to their mix.

Breakthrough Originals

DC isn't only learning from its missteps. It is clearly maturing its own unique identity in the superhero genre. For DC, it has always been strength of characters. These powerful titans of comic book lore headline a rich universe. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are incredible characters but DC is so much more rich. 

Aquaman is the first major, unique addition to the growing cinematic franchise. This will be the first aquatic superhero for contemporary movie audiences. Even the larger MCU hasn't gone under the sea. Aquaman looks incredible. His power set looks to be as visually stunning as dramatically compelling as any hero. 

Cyborg is also a first of his kind for today's superhero films. His name gives it away. Part man and part machine. His potential in a digitally interconnected world is limitless and highly relevant. His struggle as only the remnants of a man is compelling character drama. The MCU has gone full android and man in a can, but Cyborg wires his own digital path. 

The Flash. Fastest man alive. We've seen speedsters. We haven't seen this kind of a speedster. Forget Quicksilver, MCU and Fox. The Flash is THE fastest man alive. The Speed Force looks to be incredibly visually stunning. The speed his powers can reach are near limitless. The DCEU looks to have found an incredible way to showcase this power like we've never seen it before. The Flash opens up a vast amount of narrative potential for the DCEU to explore. They look poised to begin exploring new territory.

Patience

The trailer also succeeded for how it was released and what it didn’t show us.

Teasers for each major hero in the film were released for the last few days. We received three on Thursday and another two on Friday. This was a lot of fun and hyped up the new trailer in a great way. They were small, character showcases and we ate it up!

The trailer and the teasers also are notable for a major omission, or two. Superman is not seen anywhere. Narratively, this is huge for us. We hate learning about key story elements outside of the movie. Trailers should never sell the dramatic power of suspense for a few more view on YouTube or a bigger opening weekend. We do get a quick shot of Lois Lane looking up to the sky. That is more than enough.

Last year, many felt cheated by the pre-release reveal of Doomsday. We were among those who felt robbed. It came off as a last minute, impatient plea to see the film. Dawn of Justice was Batman and Superman on the same screen. It was going to start off with a big box office weekend. It also cheated the narrative of the movie as we not only now knew Doomsday was in the movie. Any comic fan also knows that Doomsday kills Superman in the iconic Death of Superman. The real reveal was that BvS was going to a far too crowded affair. The trailers included no clever misdirection to the actual movie. This hurt our experience with the film. It didn’t need to. Zach Snyder and team have done us justice so far this go around. Superman and the dramatic weight he carries have been saved for the movie, so far.

The villain also is somewhat of a mystery so far. In this trailer, we see some action scenes with Parademons. Yet, we have not seen the big bad Steppenwolf nor any other major villains. This can really work to fuel the suspense of the narrative if they can hold true to the story until release. We applaud the patience of Justice League so far. And, we hope that they can stay the path and give us a powerful and fun cinematic experience.

Justice League is already drawing substantial buzz among fans. This trailer gives anyone with hesitation from BvS something to think about, ourselves included. These are some important queues in this trailer that give us hope. Wonder Woman should do well with even a solid, quality movie early this summer. And, we will hopefully be able to get to the film’s release without the team at Warner Bros and Zach Snyder getting too anxious. Fingers crossed. 

What did you think of the trailer?

What, in particular, has you most excited?

The trailer deserves another look now that we've talked about some key points. Take another look. It's too fun not to. 

Guest Blog by Robert Mills

The Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 16

"The First Day of the Rest of Your Life"

FIVE Points from 7.16

**BEWARE Spoilers in our Discussion**

Wow.  What a finale that was!  After what can be safely described as the most lackluster season in TWD history since Season 2, TWD went out with a great closing episode in Season 7.  Before anybody gets too down on Season 7, let’s all look back and remember how Season 2 was so dreadfully dull.  It was a bunch of standing around at Hershel’s farm waiting to find out that Carol’s daughter was in the barn all along.  But, season 2 laid the groundwork for season 3 and 4, where TWD really took off and gained a lot of popularity.  Season 5 and 6 coasted off of the momentum of 3 and 4….but then we got to Season 7.  Every great story has to build and develop characters, depth, and relationships.  When we look back at Season 7, we’ll see all the threads that they were laying in place for Season 8 and 9.  This finale finally felt like the excitement was back for the first time since Abraham told Negan to suck his nuts.   

So, let’s get into dissecting the Season 7 finale of The Walking Dead with 5 big moments from the last TWD until October.

Sasha’s Death

Well, we’ve been anticipating Sasha’s death for a while.  I called that this was going to happen several weeks back.  She’s already been announced in the cast on another show, so this was completely expected.  With that said, OMG how amazing of a death was that?  Until this moment, there has never been a time where we had a ‘good’ character killed off in a fashion where we actually stood up and cheered.  You knew early on that Sasha was going to sacrifice herself, but it seemed like she was going to allow Negan to beat her to death with Lucille instead of forcing that burden on to someone else.  Instead, Sasha ponied up on her ‘lady nuts’ and pulled off the most insane sneak attack in TWD history.  By taking the option to commit suicide while locked inside the coffin, Sasha was able to almost take Negan out after her death. She gave them a fighting chance.

Eugene’s Bargain

Eugene was begging Rick and the Alexandria army to stand down.  Rick turned that bargain down.  Rick was fully prepared to execute Eugene and would have, if not for Jadis and the Junkyard Gang turning on Rick.  I think that line has been firmly drawn in the sand.  I don’t see Eugene having any kingdom in the end of this.  Negan has his suspicions.  Rick isn’t going to let him come back.  Has Eugene ended up with nothing and no place to call home because he has been trying to align himself with the strongest party?  If Eugene was really sincere about wanting to join up with Negan, why didn’t he tell him about the suicide pills that he had made?  Why didn’t he sell the women out?  There’s something hiding in his actions, if we can just put all the details together.

Jadis’ Betrayal

I really actually honestly did NOT see that coming.  Call me stupid, but I thought that Jadis’ and the Junkyard Gang were going to fight with Rick.  A few burning questions here...who approached who about selling Rick out?  Did Jadis actually go to The Saviors and offer to sell Rick out?  What was the bargain that was made?  12 of something.  Was it guns?  We know that Jadis was light on firepower, so was that what she agreed to sell Rick out for?  

Relationship Reset

Everything comes around full circle here at the end of the season.  Rick is back to being the ‘full on defiant’ version of Rick that we were used to.  His speech to Negan was great!  “I already told you I was going to kill you...so kill Carl...take my hands...it’s already done.  I’m going to kill you”. So intense!  And Negan, wow….what a performance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  He plays Negan as the perfect sociopath.  He is The Joker to Rick’s Batman.  You cannot help but like him...but still, he was back with all of his fury in the closing moments.  Rest assured, if not for some help, he was about to beat Carl’s brains in and cut Rick’s hands off.  Negan is fresh out of sympathy.  Like he said last night, “This is about punishment.”

The Alliance is alive

Just when all hope seemed lost, here comes Carol, Morgan, and Ezekiel to the rescue with the Kingdom and Maggie shows up with the Hilltoppers.  Seeing a bengal tiger in combat was a sight to behold.  Hearing Negan’s reactions to the tiger was even better.  Carol, Morgan, Ezekiel, Maggie, Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Jesus...all in action at the same time.  Wow.  How over the top great was that final battle sequence?  It just might have been the most exciting 15 minutes in TWD history.  The Battle Of Alexandria was much more exciting that the Battle At The Prison in Season 3.   Is this a taste of what is to come in Season 8?  Will we see more battles on this scale?  I’m going to call it now...What about another similar battle at The Sanctuary for the mid-season finale of Season 8?  

Questions for next season:

Who is on the chopping block?  

Let’s be honest...there weren’t that many deaths in season 7.  Yes, we lost Abraham, Glenn and Sasha.  You can rest assured that more characters are going to be written off in Season 8...but I would put money on it right now that Rick, Carl, Michonne, and NEGAN are all safe.  Negan is too much fun to kill off.  JDM is doing an AMAZING job in the role.  He showed again in the finale that he could be menacing...and he’s so great at being bad.  So...I’ll say that Morgan, Carol, Eugene, Daryl, Rosita, Ezekiel, Jesus, Aaron, Maggie, and Gregory are all on notice in Season 8.  I’ll go even farther than that, and I’ll say that 5 of those 10 will not be alive at the end of season 8.   We had a light body count in S7, so I think S8 is going to be a bloodbath.

Who runs The Hilltop?

Maggie led the Hilltop into battle against the Saviors.  They’re officially on Negan’s hit list now.  This isn’t going to sit well with Gregory.  How will the weasel strike back at Maggie for the betrayal of stealing ‘his’ community and ‘his’ people?  You can bet this will be a major thread in season 8.

Who is going to get less screen time?

This year saw a decrease in screen time for Carol and Daryl.  I think Carl is definitely going to get less screen time in Season 8 because Chandler Riggs is going to college this fall.  He won’t have time to be hanging out on set all the time.  I think you might only see about 4 episodes with Carl on board in Season 8.  

All out war?  

Yeah, it’s coming.  Hell, it’s here!  Who is going to be left standing?  

How brutal is Negan going to be when there are no holds barred?

We have always seen Negan when he is trying to prove a point.  Everybody he has killed has been to inspire fear in others up to this point.  How’s it going to look when he doesn’t care about paying the butcher’s bill?   Rest assured, he’s coming for Rick. He’s going to bring everything he’s got. This is going to get messy.

What role is Dwight going to play in Season 8?  

He’s the spy in the enemy camp.  Will he be the one to really truly bring Negan down?  

The teaser trailer for The Last Jedi is finally here! It is amazing. Watch now. Let's walk through the trailer and discuss what we learned and explore some of the amazing hidden gems. We already discussed the title and debated who is The Last Jedi. 

Now, let's deep dive into this brand new trailer!

Beware of Star Wars SPOILERS, theories, and rumors beyond here. The trailer leaves a lot to suspense and doesn't ruin anything major, in our opinion, but please don't proceed if you aren't interested in discussing and speculating on the trailer. 

Luke Skywalker's One Truth

The entire film and the entire Star Wars universe now hinge on one single breathe of dialogue. Luke's motives are revealed in one chilling line. Goose bumps!

"I only know one truth. It's time for the Jedi to end."

Wow! We won't know the full extent of what that means until December (and we don't want to). It is clear that not only our characters are in transition, but the entire Star Wars universe in flux. He also continues to tell Rey, "it's so much bigger!" referring to the Force and the universe. He isn't just talking to Rey. Star Wars will go on far, far into the future and maybe Luke is telling the audience to get ready. Will they reveal a new larger threat to the galaxy beyond the dark side? 

Luke's Journey

Kathleen Kennedy has been on record saying that The Last Jedi will be heavy on Luke Skywalker. JJ Abrams discussed how difficult it was to find a place for him to enter The Force Awakens, while Mark Hamill didn't know when he would enter with the implication being that they filmed A LOT that wasn't included in TFA. Behind all of this, Luke was clearly busy from a narrative point of view. He left to go find something.

This trailer gives some indication. We see shots of a hooded figure we assume to be Luke with R2 standing in front of a burning "temple" like building. We also see a wide shot with a narrow lit focused on a shelf of books. Another shot gives us a glimpse of someone looking at an old Jedi inscription. The Last Jedi will no doubt show us some of how Luke gets to his understanding that the Jedi's time is at an end. 

Mysteries of the Force and Beyond

The Star Wars film franchise has always been best served by a heavy dose of mystery and suspense. The Force Awakens re-ignited fans thirst for the unknown questions within the universe. The Last Jedi will continue to open up new mysteries and explorations both within characters and the larger universe. Luke's journey will illuminate much and reveal more mysteries to explore later.

Will there be a BIG reveal like Empire Strikes Back? We hope so. We also hope it is something satisfying and not transparent. The trailer clues is in that this is an adventure not single point narrative. That continues the tradition of detail into the narrative journey and exploration behind events, not just hollow fan service reveals. Perhaps we will learn more about Rey. Kylo. Snoke. 

Whispers in The Force

As Luke instructs Rey to reach out, she sees the light. There are some whispers as the camera slowly leads up to General Leia Skywalker looking over a star chart hologram. Then as she sees the dark, there are more whispers in the Force. It's very hard to tell what is being said, but they are no doubt important hints within, just like the vision Rey had when she first finds Luke's lightsaber. 

We hear a woman's voice, perhaps Leia's. Either the word help or love appear to be central. She could be saying "let me help you" or "I love you." This could be Rey's mother or it could be as simple as part of Leia's line from A New Hope 'Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope.' Either a hard clue or a simple symbolic reference, Rey is seeing something important.

The dark side whisper sounds a lot like the Emperor at first but could easily be Snoke. The words "dark side" seem to be central because, of course! Again, this could be simply the Emperor from Return of the Jedi talking to Luke or it could be something new. We hear "if you are dark side"...

The last whisper is even more faint as the shot moves in to show what looks like a row of a few books on a solitary shelf among a wooden tree like structure. This is very mysterious as there is no context. This voice sounds close to Yoda but could be an older Obi Wan. It's faint and hard to hear. We think it says, ..."bring to me"... 

What do you think these voices are saying? Please tell us in the comments. The trailer is here on YouTube and you can select to slow it to 75% and hear a little bit better what is said. 

Light and Dark

As Luke teaches Rey to reach out more clearly in the Force, we glimpse what she sees. Light. Dark. But, as Luke says, it is so much bigger! The Last Jedi will have a heavy dose of Luke, but it is clear that this journey is Rey and Kylo's to walk. 

Kylo Ren Unmasked

The Force Awakens took some deliberate steps to show Kylo Ren under his helmet in the Kylo persona and outside of it as Ben Solo. This isn't just symbolism. Remember, Kylo visibly cringed when Hux walked in and saw him without his helmet on. He took it off for his father before finishing his training. He spoke to and revered his grandfather's melted helmet.

Now, we see a beautiful shot of his helmet (possibly Vader's but we think it is Ren's) destroyed on the ground. We're not 100% sure if this is Vader's mask or Kylo Ren's mask, but it is clear that Ben has shed his heritage and become more his own villain. Snoke alluded to this in The Force Awakens when he was sent to face father, Han Solo. Now we get to see what he has become. We think he will be the balance to "hope" Vader was in The Empire Strikes Back as the First Order and the dark side take the upper hand in the middle film of this trilogy.  

Rey's Pain

The Force Awakens gave us a powerful vision of the pain Ben Solo experienced thrusting himself into the dark side and suppressing the light. Rey's journey will be the focus of The Last Jedi and we see our first glimpses of her own struggle.

We also learn much more about our hero. She will be trained. It also is not going to be as easy as she had it in the first film. Her first steps appear to be far easier than her next. That much is clear. Yet, will she take up the purpose of her mentor to "end" the Jedi? How far will she get in her training? On a smaller motif, she is also definitely sticking with blue so far. While Luke changed his blade to green when he lost his lightsaber, Rey is taking Luke's original color into battle. We also appear to see Rey facing Kylo Ren again. No doubt, Kylo will not underestimate his foe this time. Will Rey be prepared? What will this confrontation reveal about Rey?

The First Order vs. The Resistance

Several shots of a larger war raging frame the trailer. We see walkers facing down a line of Resistance fighters. We see Captain Phasma resurgent from the flames. Poe and BB-8 clearly have a mission and a battle to fight. Finn doesn't get much time in the trailer. We only see him in what appears to be a healing stasis chamber, oddly not a bacta tank. General Leia appears to be watching over a large map planning the next move for the Resistance. We expect the First Order to strike back much in the same way the Empire did in the original trilogy. We just hope that they don't build another death star, cringe.

We are so excited for Star Wars The Last Jedi to hit theaters this December. Check back with SUPERflix Movies to discuss the highlights as we get closer to the next Star Wars chapter. Comment over on Facebook and follow us to stay up on our latest features.

Join below and we'll keep you up to date and send you some of our big features before anyone else.

Worth another look...

What an epic and fun ride! We weren’t expecting anything less but it can be tricky to re-create the magic of an original like Guardians of the Galaxy. Iron Man 2 suffered by being just good enough. Yet, Captain America thrived in the Winter Soldier in ways the original did not. But, Guardians vol. 2...

Guardians 2 carves out its own identity while not straying too far from the success of the first film. It stayed true to its core...FUN!

It’s time to pop on a space suit and hop out into the unknown! Get ready to dive deep into the Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2.

It’s 3 👍 v. 3 👎 time! Three Good face down Three Bad from the show and you decide which comes out the victorious champion. Your opinion is the one that matters.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The Good 👍

Fun to the Extreme

Guardians are just a lot of fun. They don’t have to apologize for being brazenly fun. Some of the absurdities, like battling a planet, are a little more palpable as the action takes a back drop to the colorful and fun characters. The humor was spot on. The music was perfect to establish the mood of the film. The color palette, tone, and pacing continued to flavor the movie with a tangible sense of fun.

The entire team is a great mix of real character personalities. Even the new characters were interesting and fun. The movie started off with Baby Groot enjoying himself thoroughly and innocently dancing in between a major action set piece. The movie never stopped being fun even when it go serious and that is something very special. It’s what a big summer blockbuster should be.

Deeper, Darker

Yet, Guardians 2 didn't just go for humorous and fun beats. They put their characters in dramatic and compelling stories. Rocket, Yondu, Gamora, Ego, and especially Peter Quill all had compelling and emotional storylines of their own. But, none of them took away from the fun of the movie. None of them fell too flat or carried too much weight.

Ego and Peter Quill provided the context for the conflict of the film, and their opposition was emotional and dark. Yet it didn’t require Peter or Ego to brood and bring the energy of the film down. It didn't require a dark pallet and sad somber music.

Rocket and Yondu also shared very powerful character moments yet each of them stayed light and fun. The balance on display of the film was exceptional.

Peter Quill meets his father, learns a terrible truth about his father, and loses his actual father. Yet, he is still a hilarious goof ball as he daydreams David Hasselhoff is his dad and that he can conjure a giant Pac-man! Guardians proves that they can not only have as much fun on camera as possible, but that they can struggle with powerful heroic conflicts without making the film overly heavy.

New Characters

The colorful cast had some notable additions. Nearly all of the new cast added something notable and fun to the adventure. Stemming from the successful ensemble formula from Avengers, every character had a memorable action, humor, and emotional beat. Mantis was hilarious in her odd interactions with Drax. She also was able to impact the final conflict and provide some purpose to her involvement in the film.

Ego was an odd character, but he worked well enough among other excellent characters not to bring the movie down. The accomplishment of showcasing one of comics most extravagant characters was impressive. Ego is a living planet for crying out loud and they didn't shy away from it. They didn’t retcon the character and just make him an alien that looks like a human. They didn’t relegate him to his planetary form. Ego was accessible, interesting, and served up a compelling and intimate conflict. This was quite the feat for a larger than life character, even if some plot points around him were ambiguous.

The Bad 👎

Good, not Great Villains

We had two major villains and neither was legendary though neither hurt the film. The Marvel formula for the heroes worked again carrying the film. The villains were good but not great.

Ayesha was interesting despite being very robotic. She is after all the leader of a race of genetically manipulated humanoids called The Sovereign. Life after CRISPR, cringe. The Sovereign acted as a foil for the colorful Guardians gang which worked well. Yet, their emotional impact was blunted. They were detached from consequence as they remotely piloted their spacecraft. The action set pieces proved they were especially disposable - for such a powerful civilization.

Ego, Star Lord’s father, ascended to the mantle of the primary villain pretty quickly. Comically, he throws in the zinger right in the middle of waxing poetic about Quill's mother. His "ego" driven plan revealed he had an agenda beyond just being Star-Lord's dad.

Battling a Celestial was epic. However, Ego brought up a lot of questions the film didn’t really answer. None of which hurt the film too much as the pace and fun continued without missing a beat. But we did pause a few times and thought, wait...what?

For one, Ego describes himself as learning to create a form for himself before he sets out to find other life....that form was clearly human. That is odd if you haven’t met humans or any life before. Perhaps this was a clue to Ego's intentions and meant to be a logical inconsistency. How would he know to become human? This is especially odd as humanity wasn’t even who he finds first. For that matter, why did he keep the human form when he travelled to other planets with all manner of aliens? And for that matter, why did he age his form? A lot of this may have been done to convince Peter and make him comfortable, but the delivery was a little confusing.

Next, we didn’t really follow some more ambiguous plot points. For instance, why did the plant Ego leaves on earth look so alien? If he can create anything, why not create a plant that looks earthly on the outside. These are just a few questions we had about Ego and his plot. None of them were absurdly executed plot holes, but we were left a little befuddled.

These are pretty nit picky since the character is a living planet named Ego. The execution of bringing one of the more amazing fictional characters to the MCU was really pretty good considering, but it wasn’t perfect.

A Man Can Take Only So Much CGI

The more distracting part of Ego wasn’t the confusing logic. It was the overly extravagant CGI action pieces inside the planet. Some of those camera shots with Groot or Rocket could have been 10)% CGI. Guardians is larger than life and it remained fun despite the over use of CGI. We get that. But the final action sequences were a little cluttered with after effects. The insanity ranged from massive amounts of disposable ships from The Sovereign to giant CGI rock and mind tentacles.

It took away from the intimate drama between Peter Quill and Ego. But hey, his dad is a planet. It’s impressive they made the conflict as personal and intimate as they did with this much CGI. We can live with it, but it was approaching our limit. It's tough for movies like this in a sequel to get bigger and larger when CGI is such an important tool.

Confusing Earth Connection

The execution of Ego’s impact on earth was confusing as well. What was the ambiguous expanding blue electric foam on earth? What impact will this have on bringing the team to Earth? I suppose we can applaud the fact that it wasn’t a swirling portal to the sky. Thank goodness! The real battle wasn’t on earth or any other planet, and this isn’t a street level story so it didn’t hurt the film greatly. But, it was a little too ambiguous. Cool easter egg having his Grandfather in the SUV being chased down by the goo.

As for our verdict, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 was an exceptionally fun adventure follow up that succeeded at being hilarious and enjoyable as well as poignant and powerful.

SUPERflix POLL:

But was it as good as the original movie? You tell us in our upcoming SUPERflix Movies POLL.

Guest Blog by Robert Mills

Now that we’ve had time to watch and digest Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, there are some interesting threads and connections that started with GOTG. These threads and connections help to make a stronger overall narrative for both films.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

It’s a Marvel Cinematic Universe within a MCU. The connected universe of the MCU excites fans with a rich environment of easter eggs, shared drama, and interesting connections. The possibilities seem limitless. Guardians is building their own connected universe in space...which will soon collide with Earth’s mightiest heroes. That sort of thing.

This connected universe in space starts with one core element...family. Like the Fast and the Furious franchise or the Avengers corner of the MCU, it’s all about a core group of misfits becoming “family.” Let's look deeper at the element of family in the Guardians franchise.

Family vs. Bloodlines

The traditional “family” begins with a central patriarch. Star-Lord fills that role by the end of Guardians. But, in Volume 2 we explore that relationship in a far deeper exposition. Primarily, we explore Star-Lord’s patriarch - Ego and Yondu. Like everything in the Guardian’s galaxy...it’s complicated (in a good way).

The movie plays with the difference between a “father” and a “daddy," as Yondu puts it. We can look back to the opening moments of GOTG to see that Yondu was always protective of Peter. Yondu is accused of always taking it soft on Quill. This is an early thread that is laid down that ultimately foreshadows Yondu’s true intentions. Yondu gives Peter the framework to be the “hero” becomes in Guardians and to defeat his own “father” in volume 2. Ego on the other hand gives Peter Quill the genetic makeup to be something super human, a celestial. In the end, it is Star-Lord's desire to be the man Yondu helped form though we suspect that he will always be as Star-Lord would put it, "a bit of both.'

Family of Misfits

Guardians 2 builds strongly on the patchwork family of Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Drax, and Groot ...a family that you choose instead of being born into. This plays as a juxtaposition to the themes of the first movie. In volume 2, the guardians not only have to defend the galaxy but defeat threats to their own family. Some of these like Rocket's demons, Drax's forward behaviour, and Gamora and Quill's continued dance.

In the first movie, Quill is a loner who is searching for a place to belong. He ultimately finds that place to belong with Drax (who is an outsider without a family because of Thanos), Rocket (who never had a family), and Gamora (who is essentially without a family because of Thanos). Now, in Volume 2 it becomes a question of what is more important. The connections you make with the people you choose to be with directly oppose the bonds with the family that you’re born into, and you know the safety of the entire Galaxy.

The BIGger Picture

Does this unlock an even BIGGER thread? Drax - without family because of Thanos. Gamora - without family because of Thanos. Could Thanos be directly or even indirectly behind Groot's race being destroyed? He wiped out Gamora's and Drax's family. Rocket's creation and experimentation...Thanos did basically the same experimentation on Nebula. And lastly, what if Thanos pointed Ego to Earth all those years ago when he met Peter's mom? All roads point to THANOS at this point. Someone may be playing an intricate game with more than the Avengers and the Infinity Stones. We don't doubt that Thanos may have even made a hidden appearance in Guardians.

Clearly, the MCU loves to build these long tail threads into their stories. We have been talking about Thanos for five years and roughly ten MCU movies. The Guardians clearly have enough ammunition to provide substantial motives to oppose Thanos. But, could there be an even bigger connection to the Guardians?

Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War

It may not be Peter Quill's "terran" heritage that brings the Guardians to Earth after all. If the past storylines of the MCU are anything we can go on, the MCU loves to bring a family together only to dramatically rip it apart like in Civil War. The Guardians may come into Infinity War after experiencing their own catastrophe and perhaps a bit fractured because of it. Nebula may be an outsider but she has become a part of the Guardians family, except maybe according to Drax. 

This might clue us into the final connection for Guardians to the Infinity War. Nebula might actually be the first casualty in the war and bring the Guardians to Earth hunting for their revenge. She would certainly give the Guardians a sense of urgency heading after Thanos. It's a conflict with many layers and might be how the Guardians get further emotional investment in the battle. Since 2012, all roads lead to Thanos.

We'll have to wait and see. Ultimately, this is a series/franchise about family...and they bring it around full circle in volume 2. Where this leads is anyone's guess, tell us yours in the comments on Facebook.

It has taken two movies to bring these "A-Holes" together to form a family. What will break them apart? It's all about a...

Posted by SUPERflix Movies on Thursday, May 18, 2017

AT LAST! The DCEU has a breakout hit!

Both critically and at the box office, Wonder Woman is an absolute SMASH! With a mid-90's RT score, some have put it in the top tier of a growing pantheon of comic book movie masterpieces.

We discuss three areas the film shines and put those up against three of the worst parts of Wonder Woman.

It’s 3 👍 v. 3 👎 time! You decide which comes out the winner in this battle. Your opinion is the one that matters.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The Good 👍

The Woman, The Warrior

Wonder Woman doesn’t often compromise its title character's power. The film absolutely hits on the core center of Wonder Woman. She is a brazen, powerful and unyielding in her convictions. Wonder Woman controls her character's movement driving the action forward. She doesn’t take a backseat to the men in the movie, and that makes a powerful statement in the movie and for the character. She even rivals a certain caped hero in red and blue currently absent in the DCEU. Wonder Woman is powerful and the film truly does her justice. She is the most true, honest portrayal of her comic counterpart in the fledgling DC cinematic universe.

Wonder Woman is quite the accomplishment. Other female led superheroes movies have tried but failed to capture a woman playing the role of the powerful hero. This is something the even the wildly successful MCU has not yet to attempt. For the first time on the big screen since The Dark Knight, Marvel is following in DC’s footsteps. As fans, we're excited at the possibilities.

The action was epic and Gal Gadot was good. She shines during several of the action pieces, most notably the conclusion. Her breakout scene is the now iconic, incredibly empowering and inspiring “no man’s land” scene.

Wonderous Story Execution 

This story was a simple origin story with an effective and layered twist at the end. Where other DC movies have stumbled greatly, Wonder Woman most notably finished strong.

The movie took its time building a mythos and introducing us to another world. It made it grounded enough for us to stay engaged. The adventure moved into the real world and gave us a textured, deep group of characters in Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor, and their team of castaways. Yet, it didn’t subjugate Wonder Woman in this new world. She stood out as a fish out of water, but became more the hero in the face of the world of men rather than less.

When Wonder Woman steps out in No Man’s Land of her own momentum and power, we see this iconic hero illuminate the big screen as few other heroes have on-screen. The movies final act masterfully delivered the story, the conflict, and featured the biggest action moments. The story and characters were able to take center stage. Coming on the heels of two much larger and more anticipated tentpole films, Wonder Woman didn’t take sacrifice any ambition. It succeeds wildly.

Mysterious Villain

Good films most often need a good villain. Wonder Woman was boldly patient in a universe populated with films that reveal their plots in trailers or collapse under the weight of poor storytelling. The villain in Wonder Woman isn’t an iconic mainstay like The Joker or Lex Luthor. Instead, Ares is a well-crafted and especially effective villain.

The final act revealed to us a patiently crafted, well thought out, and successful villain. Ares completes Diana’s journey from amazonian warrior to Wonder Woman. The film could have easily given us a cookie cutter God of War bent on conquering and punishing humanity with simple motives and left it at that. That would have worked ok. Ares final form was visually spectacular as well as being true to the larger than life villains in the comics.

Yet, the film doesn't stop there. The story doesn’t take the easy road other DC films have to date. The real reveal behind Ares wasn’t the secret of his identity, it was his hidden perspective as the god of truth that showed us the real verity of Wonder Woman, the god of love.

The Bad 

Minor CGI Moments

There were moments when the CGI didn’t live up to the quality we have seen so often display in big time summer movies. It certainly didn't match the quality of this movie. Perhaps they got a little too far from practical effects in places or the budget wasn’t there to really fine tune all of it, but there were moments when the CGI took us out of the film. Wonder Woman had stand out CGI moments with Wonder Woman herself, such as the “no man’s land” scene and the finally with Ares. The lasso of truth was especially impressive visually as were the movements of Wonder Woman and the final look of Ares.

BAD CGI Moment Highlight: Queen Hippolyta dismount and slash took us right out of the movie. It felt like the actress was replaced with a cartoon. It wasn’t that bad but it was close to cringeworthy.

Put this up against the 3-D environment movement in slow motion during Wonder Woman's various attacks. You can see moments where the visual effects were top notch, even groundbreaking. It is the scattered few moments where the effects were disappointing that make our bad list.

Odd Humor

Wonder Woman was funny. Some of the humor was odd. In our first viewing, we laughed not only becuase it was funny but because it was so odd. We weren’t even sure they were making the jokes they were, and then...yeah, wow they really are making that joke.

The ice cream bit before Diana sees the horrors of war for the first time was great. The conversation on the boat was hilarious if a little awkward. The scene with Steve Trevor getting out of the water was an interesting juxtaposition, but that scene was especially odd. Humor is so subjective, but these moments caught us as a little strange.

Gal Gadot Moments

Again, overall - great! The action was done especially well. We're still amazed at the final product of Gal Gadot's action scenes as Wonder Woman. She was impressive. She looked powerful and not frail. Her motion and strength felt real and not just CGI on top of an awkward actor.

Yet, there were some "acting" moments in conversation where Gal’s acting felt odd and her accent was slightly distracting. It mixed with several different accents of the Amazon’s that seemed generic and hard to place. Queen Hippolyta, Antiope, and Diana all had slightly different, awkward accents. When Wonder Woman would scold Steve Trevor from time to time, she seemed a little less powerful than during other more climactic moments.

Gadot delivered when it counted in the climactic final act. The “no man’s land” scene is absolute class so this is a small complaint, admittedly. Still, looking back, it was kind of like Gal Gadot cringed her eyebrows together for the entire movie. Like Bale's Batman voice in The Dark Knight, these are small complaints in an otherwise brilliant film.

So far, 2017 has seen BOTH comic franchises at the top of their game. That is an encouraging thought. It is all thanks to Wonder Woman.

What did you think about Wonder Woman?

Guest Blog by MIKE CAMUNAS, @mikecamunas 

Welcome home, Spidey! You webslinger, you threat or menace, you infamous thorn in the side of J. Jonah Jameson. 

*SPOILER ALERT*

Actually, in Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Homecoming, there is no mention of The Daily Bugle. The cigar-chomping, Parker-abusing, photo-demanding editor-in-chief and owner is also notably absent.

Despite the marketing focused on Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron-Man, when it comes down to it, this is a coming-of-age, high-school movie about Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

So let’s discuss three (of the many) areas of the film that shined, while also taking a look at the three worst parts that we’ll nitpick about Spider-Man: Homecoming.

3 👍 v. 3 👎 and you can agree or disagree with us. What say you?

*SPOILER ALERT* Your Spidey sense must be tingling...

THE GOOD

Peter Parker/Spiderman

From beginning to end, Tom Holland (The Impossible, The Lost Kingdom of Z) embodies Queens’ own hometown hero. Nerdy, awkward, humorous, charming and determined, he wants to be the “next” Avenger. From the moment we first saw him shoot his chemistry-class-made web in last years’ Captain America: Civil War, this third incarnation of Spidey swung into our lives and now. With Homecoming, he swings into our hearts.

People will still debate on Tobey Maguire’s take, especially in the train wreck third movie. They will inevitably debate Andrew Garfield’s skateboarding hipster take, but this is the Peter Parker we’ve been waiting for since 2007.

Remember, Peter never had a father figure. Even in this movie there isn’t one mention of Ben Parker. Thankfully this is not another Uncle Ben murder scene. Peter’s uncle and the Wayne's have been killed on screen enough, guys! So when Tony Stark fills in as his mentor giving him the new suit show in Civil War. The airport battle is hilariously replayed from Peter’s smartphone video POV. Peter looks up to Stark like any 15-year old would to a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, with awe and gumption “to be like you.”

Luckily, “with great powers comes great responsibility” isn’t overdone and shoved down our throats, at least not literally. Instead of a monologue about it, it’s Holland who shows us that doing the right thing as Spider-Man isn’t always doing the right thing as Peter Parker. He constantly lets down his best (and only) friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), as well as his crush, Liz (Laura Harrier) and his attractive Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Like any high schooler with extreme powers, Parker gets arrogant and headstrong. It’s his arrogance that let Stark bring Peter down a peg, taking back his awesome suit.

However, Holland handles Peter’s growth and his shining moment beautifully. In his moment of triumph, turns down being the next Avenger to be the “friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man. At least, he is going to remain grounded a little bit longer and that truly makes this the best Peter Parker. He isn’t just handed power and is Spider-man. He needs to grow up first.

Adrian Toomes/The Vulture

Perhaps it was a stroke of genius to cast Michael Keaton (Batman, The Paper) as The Vulture so soon after starring in the Academy-Award-winning Birdman. He was the perfect foe to go up against Peter Parker in this smaller scale MCU.

As Keaton has been doing for years (with the exception of Bruce Wayne), he gives us a blue-collar, regular guy who is dedicated to his family. His hatred for Stark and the one percenters is evident, but it doesn’t consume him like other “villains.” Instead, it’s his family he wants to protect and while the plot twist isn’t the most jaw dropping, the reveal is done quite tying into what else, the Homecoming dance. .

Keaton chews a few scenes he’s in, brings his comfortable humor to a few lines and comes off perfect once you get to the big reveal. It’s a tough line to toe: a villain whose motives are understandable even relatable. We don’t hate him, but Keaton’s performance is menacing delivering a twisted version of the relatable values he shares with the hero. .

The Humor, the Grounded Setting and the Action

Not that it should be all that surprising, but this isn’t just the funniest Spider-Man movie. It is one of the funniest Marvel movies to date. That says a lot since Ant-Man has an Academy-Award-winning writer (Adam McKay). Every character gets a moment to get a laugh, including Peter and Ned’s darkly strange, oddly sarcastic Michelle (Zendaya and more on her later). Every character, even the most minor, such as Hannibal Buress’ Coach Wilson, get a good laugh. It is Ned who shines brightest in every scene, especially when he’s wearing his Indiana Jones’ fedora.

The grounded setting of Queens is what made Spider-Man work so well because that’s who Spider-Man always is: a kid looking out for the little guys in his borough. And the action … it was perfectly handled by a director in his first go around with major action sequences.here are a few that stand out, the Staten Island Ferry being my favorite.

THE BAD

New Minor Characters with Minor Screen Time

What’s interesting about Spiderman: Homecoming is that it took a lot more of Spidey’s world and brought it to the MCU. While the new Venom movie will reportedly NOT be in the MCU, the Sinister Six was still teased in the mid-credits scene by Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) aka The Scorpion.

Other Spidey lore is teased, but the actors are given frustratingly small amount of screen time. Donald Glover (Atlanta, Community) plays Aaron Davis aka The Prowler in the Ultimate Marvel comics. Davis says “I have a nephew who lives around here” when he helps Spider-Man. That nephew is Miles Morales! If you don’t know, Miles Morales is a character that takes over for Spider-Man after Peter Parker dies in the comics. Anyway, Glover has a scene and a half, at best. I wanted a little bit more. Martin Starr (Silicon Valley) is also underused as Peter’s academic decathlon coach. Half the time Aunt May was a voice off screen. Burress had two lines — both funny, but he looked like he slept walk through them. Or does he always look like that?

And once Ned unlocks the “training wheels” program off the Spidey suit, it has its own A.I. that Peter names Karen and is voiced by Jennifer Connelly. She’s there until Stark takes the suit back, so she’s also a flash in the pan. We only get a glimpse at what may be the Iron Spider armor.

Lack of cameos/More Easter Eggs

There were good cameos. Yet, they still seemed lacking considering most every Marvel character in the MCU is hanging around filming 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan does have more than a cameo, certainly larger than Pepper Potts’ (Gwyneth Paltrow). Captain America (Chris Evans) probably has the best running gag of the film. Funny PSA videos the high schoolers are constantly re-shown. And if you blink, you’ll miss pictures of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in Peter’s science class and older Howard Stark (John Slattery) on a mural inside the school.

There are plenty of Easter Eggs, but there could have been more. MY favorite, however, has to be Peter Parker’s principal being played by Kenneth Choi. We last saw that actor in the MCU as one of The Howling Commando’s, Jim Morita. That’s right: Choi had an I’m my own grandpa moment.

Also, the mascot at Peter’s school, Midtown School of Science and Technology is the Tigers, which leads us to ...

Michelle played by Zendaya is...yep, M.J.

Sort of. Zendaya’s Michelle delivers this throw-away line before the movie wraps up. “My friends call me M.J.” However, it seems that she’s not THE Mary Jane Watson. Kevin Feige and the producers just thought it be a fun homage to the comics. But come on. We nerds want the feisty red head back in Peter’s life as well as ours.

What did you think of Spiderman: Homecoming? Join our discussion on Facebook.

Deadpool 2 hits theaters in 2018. Mr. Pool is bringing an old friend to the party. That friend is none other than Cable, the time traveling half-cyborg soldier.  

If you've read the comics, you know the whole story behind Cable and his mission. We'll save that for another day... Personally, I'm a big fan and fell in love with the character in 90's. I really hope they go to some of those awesome stories in the movies. Cable could easily headline his own X-Force franchise or solo series if they do it right. But, they have to do Cable as well as they did Deadpool.

We've only recently been gifted a sneak peak look at Josh Brolin's Cable. He is a complex character I loved as a kid collecting comics in the big muscle, big gun 90's. He is darker, more gritty, and complicated than a lot of the brightly colored X-men. He's a perfect opposition to Deadpool. He is dark like Mr. Pool but has a code of honor and a mission. This chemistry is why they've shared so many buddy adventures together.

We're going to take a scalpel to this first look at Cable and see if we can get some clues about what they will get right and wrong with the character. Let's dissect.

Click here to checkout the full images on Instagram.

Mean Mug

Josh Brolin looks great as Cable. The actor is going to be an excellent fit. His strengths as an actor fit really well with Cable as a character. It is no co-incidence that he also plays Thanos in the MCU. They aren't completely different when it comes to their demeanor. He is potentially as perfect for Cable as Ryan Reynold's has been for Deadpool.

Right off, we can see they nailed it with his face. He is rugged, beaten, mysterious, shadowy, and bad ass. The iconic elements really seal our approval of his "mug shot."

The modern version of his iconic silver military cut looks comic-real.

The glow in his left eye accompanied by the star shaped scar on his right are comic accurate and movie real. This looks great. Like Cable, his mutant power is subtle and often the last line of defense or offense in battle. It hides behind his cybernetic body and his identity as a soldier out of time. Well done with the subtle eye effects!

These elements tell us that they are on the right track to get two of the core elements that define Cable.

First, the grit looks front and center. Cable is a time traveling soldier who is mission oriented to save the world by visiting our time to battle Apocalypse, prevent some event that will alter his future into chaos and war. This mission changes shape from time to time and his opponents change shape as well, but it's all about the mission. He is a battle hardened, no non-sense soldier. He will do WHATEVER it takes, and this look says it all. It looks like they got this spot-on!

Second, Cable is a powerful mental mutant. While his parentage is super important and interesting (check out the comics if you don't know), it's his mental powers that form half of what make him a formidable opponent in battle and a complex character. The bright shining left eye is often the symbol of the activity from this power - most often utilized as telekinesis. They have not found away to do the mental effects from other mutants like Professor X or Jean Gray in the movies, but perhaps Cable will use this visual que to powerful effect. This could be a really big leap forward for comic realism. There is no reason we can't see more of these amazing effects to visualize powers. It makes his look and they are on the right track!

Cable's Mug: Fan Approved! 

Big Guy, Big Guns

Cable comes from the 90's in comics. He is the epitome of the era, a true tour de force. It isn't just his willingness to do whatever it takes to complete the mission. It's his imposing will that help define him. This is best visualized in his great size, strength, and massive future weapons. 

Cable is a soldier. He is a tactical genius having fought hellish wars in his time. Those are written all over his face, form his iron will, and give his narrative movement. He most often relies on his physicality and firepower to control a battlefield. Coming from the future, he can do so against teams of contemporary mutants and super-villains with ease. 

Big Guy

Brolin looks like he has put in the time to get into shape to play Cable. He did some really great work on his arms, kudos. Defined by the 90's style of comics with huge guns and gigantic biceps, Cable is a product of his comic generation in many ways.

Brolin gives it a good shot here, but it is after effects and camera trickery that are going to make or break the physicality of the character. It doesn't look entirely promising here.

Cable is most often depicted as big guy with broad shoulders though that has been tamed in recent iterations of the character from his hulking 90's days. Cable is still a massive physical presence closer to Arnold in his prime than the 5'10" 175lb actor. Getting these characters to inhibit varying sizes becomes especially important visually. Think of Hulk, Groot, Drax. Even Doomsday in BvS (though we hated his look) was represented size specific. The Guardians of Galaxy even showcased Ving Rhames as Charlie-27 as being gigantic in size. Size matters and effects like those used to size up Ving Rhames or even Gandalf and Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings are relatively easy and inexpensive. It's important. It doesn't feel right if they don't get close. He doesn't have to have shoulders spanning several normal sized people as we see in some of the 90's comics. But, he needs to be a big guy. They did it with Colossus to great effect.

Brolin can't portray this size. It was our hope they would use after effects to put him somewhere in between Deadpool and Colossus. It doesn't look like that was important to the film. It's a shame. It's like the days when the Hulk was a body builder in green paint. We can live with it but there will always be a part of us that can't stomach seeing human sized Apocalypse, weight lifter Colossus (in X-2, DOFP), or now...Cable. 

The last wrinkle to Cable's size is the omission of his iconic shoulder pads. Cable is often pictured with large, leathery shoulder pads further adding to his size and military gear. Our most favorite of these looks has him with one angular shoulder pad that shoots out from the top of his shoulder. This could have been used to create the illusion of more size, but as most things in Fox's X-men world, they seem to have not been able to reconcile the looks as real and authentic. We still will hold out hope that perhaps Cable will don the iconic pads in future movies like X-Force when they will hopefully continue to increase their comfort with the source material.

Big Guns

The next staple of Cable the character is his big guns. The 90's gave him some gigantic and ridiculous future firepower. We didn't expect to see that level of weaponry, and didn't want it on screen if we're being honest. Yet, it looks more like Cable has some suped-up contemporary firearms. That is a bit of a disappointment.

It seems to indicate that they are not playing up the whole future soldier elements of Cable. This means no body-slides, no computer AI, no Graymalkin, no connection to Apocalypse, and no future weaponry.  This might also limit his technopathy and the technovirus elements that gave him his cybernetic half. It's unclear which elements will make their way into Deadpool 2, probably not many of these if any. If Cable and Deadpool 2 do well paving the way for X-Force and others, we hope to see some of these elements make their way into the cinematic universe. So, we'll save total judgement here and give Cable time to mature on-screen.

Big guy, Big Guns: Meh

Techno-Organic Cyborg

One of the most iconic elements to Cable is his cybernetic body parts. Most notably, he has a cybernetic left arm and chest. While it is unlikely for Deadpool 2 to get into the techno-organic virus seeding his look, we do get a nice look at the iconic cybernetic left arm. 

Cable's cybernetic look has changed from comic artist and era to era. This look is more akin to his more realistic and functional modern look than his previous thick steel appendage - the look they went for with Colossus in Deadpool. We think it looks great and may clue us in to some fun elements to his character. 

While it doesn't look very techno-organic, it does look like Cable is futuristic, though not as far advanced as he is in the comics. The arm looks like a more advanced version of the Reavers we saw in Logan earlier this year. Could there be some sort of connection? Mr. Sinister has loomed behind several storylines and teasers recently so could this connection be a clue that Cable may have some interaction with the mad geneticist? Only time will tell. 

Techno-Organic Cyborg: Looks good!

We're super excited to see Deadpool 2 and can't wait for one of our favorite characters, Cable, to make his debut. 

Tell us what you think of the first look at Cable on one of our social channels.