Star Wars Spin-Offs

By: Justin Hopkins

I am not a fan of Star Wars.  Anyone who has talked to me or read my previous blogs are aware of that.  Yet,  with Disney planning on movies all the way out past 2020, and me blogging about as many movies as I can. Something I’ll have to get over. However,  all is not lost for me. The spinoffs have alot of fun potential, and can’t help but think of three characters that I think deserve to be front and center, and also believe the fans would love them as well.  Let’s start this off,  with wildly popular, Yoda.

You may not find a more popular character then Jedi Master Yoda. From the original trilogy,  prequels, and inclusion in TV. He has been great fun to watch.  Not much has been seen on his early years though. After all this time, would be a nice change of pace to see his early years,  as a young Jedi.

Most people give Boba Fett way to much credit. He’s boring and way overrated. The Bounty Hunter who they should go with is Cad Bane. Made one hell of a splash in the Clone Wars Saga. Taking on any perilous assignment all for the money.  His intelligence and ruthless not only made him succeed alot of the times, but made the Jedi chasing him; appear woefully outmatched. For the fans of Boba Fett, they can even have a younger version being trained by Bane. Like they originally wanted to do in the show.

And here we are,  the most deserving one; Ahsoka Tano. She absolutely made Clone Wars Saga entertaining. A character you could get behind. Watching her grow as a Padawan and learn throughout. Heartbreaking moment when the Jedi Order hung her out to dry, for a crime she didn’t commit.  Exciting return in Rebels.  With at least one actress,  Rosario Dawson willing to play her. Wouldn’t just stop at a spinoff,  but work her back into the main story.

Star Wars may not be my favorite series of movies,  but it does have some entertaining parts to it, and for me; these are the three who deserve their time on the silver screen more then anyone.

Can Cameron do it again?

BY Paul Anthony

Recently we got announcement from James Cameron, that announcement was finally making it official that Avatar 2 is happening and coming out in… 2020, eleven years after the first one. That’s right if you are a fan I am sure you are excited. You be wondering why the delay or even if part was evening happening. Now we anyone who knows Hollywood would have told you part two would be happening. Since Avatar went onto become the highest grossing movie of all time. In its total run, it ended making 2.7 billion. A record that may never been broken.
The last few years we have had many films that had potential to tie the record, we had The Avengers 1 and 2 and Iron Man 3, Jurassic World and two Star Wars films, none have come close. When a film makes that much money, it is a given that a sequel would have but did it really need to take eleven years to make? I often ask that question myself. First let’s look at the time it took Avatar to happen on the big screen. After Titanic James Cameron proved he was now a legend, he had many films under his belt that were not only blockbuster hit but award winning films that became cult classics and Hollywood most iconic films, he used technology that was ground breaking. He was smart he didn’t rush anything and took his time. Avatar early stages started to happen right after Titanic, James had only two films Titanic and Avatar, here we thought he just became a myth so wrong, he cemented his true legacy. He wrote the script and waited for the technology and everything came together. Cameron became the highest grossing 3D director despite only having one film in the 3D department.
I believe Cameron planned was never to release a sequel in a normal period if you look at his record of accomplishment you know he doesn’t rush anything. James has a history for delaying the sequel just look at the delay in Terminator 2, which became a bigger hit than the first film, scary to think about what Avatar two can do at the box office. But times are different, fans want more and they want better. There a lot riding on Avatar two. Yes Terminator 2 did do better but Terminator 1 wasn’t the all- time box office, Avatar is.
Avatar wasn’t cheap the budget was around 250 million, making it clear it needed to make more than a billion, sure it did, but is Cameron talented enough to make Avatar 2 and have it gross more money, I can promise the budget for part 2 will be crazy high might even push in the 400 million range. However, if anyone can do it my money is on Cameron to get the job done. He also awarded fans by announcing three more films of Avatar, which all are supposed to come by the end of 2025.

Oh NO! Not Another Writer’s Strike

Back in 2008 I was still in high school when this event occurred, I was confused because I didn’t know they could do it but when it happened I was fully behind them. I am of course talking about the writing strike of 2008, it started in November of 2007 and lasted for a hundred days. Why am I talking about the writer’s strike? The sad truth is because just nine years later it could be happening all over again. Now I am all for the writers getting more money and credit for their work and in this blog, I’ll explain why.

When you are watching a movie or a T.V show you see the opening credits there is a good chance you don’t focus or even pay attention to the names that write the script. A lot times we know the director and even the producers and very rarely do we pay attention to the writers. Now I get that it comes down to money but as a writer myself, it also about pride. When something does well, the credit goes to the director or the actors but hardly ever the writers. However often to none the script always get criticize when the movie fails or receive mixed reviews.

So now I ask myself is it fair when actors and actresses get paid raises and even directors and producers get raises and as for writers? They don’t get raises when the first movie does well and spawns a sequel. Did you know the strike of 2007-2008 cost the entertainment nearly two billion dollars, still think writers can be replaced or have no value? I truly believe writers don’t get as much credit as they deserve. Now I understand if you are against the writers going on strike.

Many of us here in this country work hard every day and the sad truth is most of us make less than the writers that will go on strike, so you may see it as a greed situation. I would agree with that point but these people are in a business that makes billions per year and they only get a small piece of the pie.

So, what will happen if they go on strike? Well any scripts that haven’t been finished will stay un-finished, which will cause a delay in production. First the actors won’t be able to act because they have no script, the directors can’t direct because the actors are sitting around and the producers can’t produce anything because there isn’t anything to piece together. Then the release dates and series start dates will go get pushed back to an unannounced release date which could be months away from when they were supposed to.

Now I don’t want them to strike and to be honest I enjoy writing about movies and so forth, and let’s be honest we enjoy their work so hopefully they get what they deserve.

 

 

 

 

Hollywood Marriages and Divorces

By Paul Miller

Divorce is a touchy subject but in recent years not so much, our culture is changing their views on the matter but still this terrible thing should not be a normal thing in our lives but slowly it is becoming normal especially in Hollywood.

As we all know Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner recently got a divorce, they intended to get divorce back in 2015 but try to fix it, however they could not. Now I must ask myself and I am sure you have been asking yourself also and that is, why don’t marriages work in Hollywood? There maybe a few answers to this question and I would like to give many of those answers as possible.

Time away from each other, spending time together is very important as we all know and sadly actors and actresses, who are together often are away from each other more than they are together. Yes, they make a lot of money and can catch a flight to see each other however think about this what if your wife or husband away also? Now it becomes a lot harder to just jump on a plane. Remember your schedule may not even allow for that to happen.

When you are away and around other people and they are filling the void that you’re experiencing from being away from your spouse, it becomes hard not to feel for the other person. When this situation happens, two things could happen, they will cheat or they will leave the other person to be with someone new. This doesn’t make them a bad person if they leave on the latter term, emotions can be a weird thing.

Being in the public eye can cause problems, every step you make can be photographed and articles will be published about your personal life, this can affect both partners in the relationship, they could see a photo that don’t tell the whole truth which then cause arguments because they might think the other person is cheating and what not.  Being followed a lot can change one emotion and they could cause change in moods and once again arguments can and will happen. This can cause couples to hate each other because why would you want to be with someone that no longer makes you happy.

Sadly, there may be more reasons like we have, each divorce is different from the next one, sure there may be more reasons and situations that we don’t know, I am sure certain things are private. Don’t get me wrong, there are marriages in Hollywood that work, we just don’t hear about them because they are working and no one cares about it, only the ones that end. There you have it, the reasons why Marriages don’t work in Hollywood and feel free to let us know if you think of any other reason.

 

Wonder Woman’s growing problems

By Justin Hopkins

Little over a year ago, DC put out what should have been an easy, billion dollar mega hit, in Batman vs Superman. Alot of excitement and hype. Only for it to fall flat. While it had many flaws. One of the positives, was Gal Gabot’s performance as Wonder Woman. Bringing the Amazon to life for the first time, on the big screen. May have only had  brief screen time, but was a true highlight. Enough to garner excitement for her future… or so it should have.

This movie has so much going for it. Long awaited female led superhero movie, Wonder Woman’s first, Gal Gabot’s return, and entertaining trailers. These are things studios want from an upcoming movie. Yet, here we are, just over a month away, and the walls are mounting.

Starting with the simplest; the early estimates that this movie is tracking for an 83 million dollar opening weekend. Now, this would be fantastic, if it wasn’t a superhero movie. It has to match precedence here. Man of steel at least got 117 million.

Factor in all movies see a drop after the first week, along with stiff competition from The Mummy the following week, hope Baywatch and Pirates of the Caribbean don’t turn into a success that takes away from that projection. 83 million is simply not going to cut it.

DC had fallen into a bad steak, with their last two movies entering opening weekend, with rumors of messy scripts, and labels of disaster. Neither of which were able to be proven wrong. Could be a bad omen, that Wonder Woman is facing down the same barrel. Risk scaring people off, who don’t want to pay for a potential bad movie again.

Most important, Justice League is set to release six months after this movie. Alot of investors and studio heads will be watching Wonder Woman’s numbers closely. If it bombs or under performs. This will not only add to the pressure on Justice League, a movie under the same disaster barrel, but start to ask the question is it time to clean house?

Despite my hammering, I want this movie to succeed. The DC Universe is full of awesome characters, that deserve their time in the spotlight. In order for that to happen; Wonder Woman must succeed.

How Long Is Too Much?

By Paul Anthony

I remember as a child watching the hit film Titanic, which I loved but was amaze to see a film needing two VHS tapes for the entire film. Many years later I watch the film on blu-ray which requires two discs and I realize that this film was way too long and I had to ask myself, How long is too long?

Its been a recent trend, films are getting so much longer when you go out to see a movie, you almost need an intermission to use the restroom and get more refreshments. Storytelling is very important to any film, it’s best part of the film regardless of the genre because without the story you really can’t get behind the plot the characters or anything. But do we really need movies beyond two and a half hours?

Action films in this generation is a big culprit of stretching the length of the film to add in a few extra explosions and a cool fight scene, we buy into it because of how cool it all looks that we forget to look at the length of the film. There are action films to where they try to give us a good story with very little action and expect us to be happy with sitting passed the two and a half hour mark ( I am looking at you Batman V. Superman).

So are we alright with action films being very long as long as they give us a lot of good action to justified the length of the film? I am torn here but I am leaning towards no because at the end of the day two and a half plus hours is still too long. Let’s not forget theses action movies for the most part have no good story to it, we are basically paying twenty dollars to see stuff explode.

We are lucky that most long films seem to be mostly of the action genre but there are other genres that touch the lengthy film, dramas can drag the story out also, it’s a tactic they use so we can get behind the characters for the ending of the film.

Horror films have been kind to us with the length of their films on average they are usually around ninety minutes, yes some have touch two hours or close to it. For example look at The Conjuring which is around  hundred and sixteen minutes and The Conjuring 2 which is at hundred and thirty-four, which is roughly two hours and ten minutes.

Here we are back to our question how long is too long? In my personally opinion if the story is good and we are amused and not looking at our watches and cellphones then the length is actually fine, if the story isn’t all that good and we are waiting for it to be over then the length is just too long, but for us on a postive note, you get more for your money.

Rated R is not a risk.

By Justin Hopkins

Every time a more mature comic character is about to start production or filming stage. The question of whether they should risk the R-Rating? Should they risk losing money by not targeting a more family friendly PG-13. Even when the lead characters are heinous villains, the question lingers. When the real question should be. After all the successes; why is it still being considered a risk?

It’s easy to start this off with the mega hits like Deadpool bringing in 760 million dollars of a budget of 58 million. Logan earning 596 million so far with a budget of 97. You can go back to 1998 though, with the success of Blade. Packing a 45 million dollar budget and reaped in 131 million. Sequel doing 154 million with 54 million to spend.

These movies didn’t succeed with being violent and graphic alone. These are characters that were designed to be for a mature audience. By staying true to who these characters are. The stories came together better and the fans rejoiced.

Look at the differences when they tried to go the other way. Between the tame wolverine and watered down Deadpool, and how awesome they were once they got the R. Blade Trinity was an utter disaster as PG-13, and Ghost Rider never had a chance.

Not about to say they all need to go that way. Disney/Marvel is doing fantastic keeping their mature stuff on Netflix. No reason to change. Fantastic Four can do well at the level, and Batman, Superman, and Justice League can go either way. There are two big ones in the works that need the R- Rating though.

Yes, Suicide Squad was a success, and has a big following, but one of the many (MANY) flaws was its rating. Gotham City Sirens should learn from this, and give them an R-Rating.

Last, Sony announced plans to carry on with the Venom movie. Venom is not only one of Spider-Man’s biggest threats, he is one of the biggest in the Marvel Universe. He is a murderous beast. Would be a massive mistake, to not let him tear loose. Especially if they are planning to bring in fan favorite, and even more blood thirsty, Carnage.

These are characters taylor made for a mature audience. Stick with it, will not only win over the fans, but the stories will be better, and no risk.