"THUNDER LUST!"
Movie News & Miscellany
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I watched a lot of Wonder Twins cartoons as a kid.
figmentPez
Staff member
'Duke Nukem’ Movie in the Works from ‘Cobra Kai’ Creators
My inclination is that this movie is going to be a horrible train wreck, but I do enjoy Cobra Kai a lot, and that show was able to do some solid deconstruction of the source material, while still showing they understood what was good about the original.
The problem is that what's good about Duke Nukem was the gameplay. The plot is already a parody, and some of the best parts are basically torn whole cloth from better properties. Even the design of the aliens isn't stand out. The game was a technical achievement in terms of it's engine and game mechanics, but those things don't translate into a movie, at all.
figmentPez
Staff member
First shot of Ryan Gosling as Ken in Margot Robbie's Barbie movie:
So bizarre.
That looks awesome. This is how you make a remake.
I'm probably in the minority but I like Shin Godzilla.
Not the minority by a long shot. The vast majority of people I've seen mention Shin Godzilla loved it. Diehard Godzilla fans loved it.
Posted this rant on Twitter, but it bears repeating:
On a post about today being the 25th anniversary of Disney's HERCULES, someone commented, "Yeah, until the live action remake ruins it." One last time for everyone: Remakes. Do. Not. Ruin. The. Original.
It's the same as an adaption of a book. The movie or show didn't "ruin" the book by getting details, characters, or even themes wrong. You can still pull down your copy of that book and read it, unaltered, as you originally remember.
Same, too, for the Disney live-action remakes. I don't like them, personally. They feel stiff and hollow compared to their animated counterpart. But they don't "ruin" the original. I can still enjoy the original, unaltered animated films. Emma Watson won't suddenly show up in the middle of the 1991 classic Beauty & the Beast, punch out Belle, and shout "THIS IS MY MOVIE NOW, BITCH."
I saw a similar thing said about the 2016 Ghostbusters, that it "ruined" the original Ghostbusters 1 & 2. No. You can still watch the original 1984 film. Kristen Wiig and company won't barge in, shouting "Step aside, boys! We'll take it from here!" (Though that WOULD be funny.)
It's not really a "remake," but the ONLY time I would argue something "ruined" the original is the release of the Star Wars Special Editions. Only because, thanks to George Lucas' insistence, there is no legal way of getting the original, unaltered trilogy aside from ordering them on Ebay.
(For the record on that, there are things I like about the Special Editions, like the extra detailing of ships, backgrounds, and vistas with CGI. But Lucas enjoys the editing process way too much and edits things that don't need editing, making it worse with every new release.)
On a post about today being the 25th anniversary of Disney's HERCULES, someone commented, "Yeah, until the live action remake ruins it." One last time for everyone: Remakes. Do. Not. Ruin. The. Original.
It's the same as an adaption of a book. The movie or show didn't "ruin" the book by getting details, characters, or even themes wrong. You can still pull down your copy of that book and read it, unaltered, as you originally remember.
Same, too, for the Disney live-action remakes. I don't like them, personally. They feel stiff and hollow compared to their animated counterpart. But they don't "ruin" the original. I can still enjoy the original, unaltered animated films. Emma Watson won't suddenly show up in the middle of the 1991 classic Beauty & the Beast, punch out Belle, and shout "THIS IS MY MOVIE NOW, BITCH."
I saw a similar thing said about the 2016 Ghostbusters, that it "ruined" the original Ghostbusters 1 & 2. No. You can still watch the original 1984 film. Kristen Wiig and company won't barge in, shouting "Step aside, boys! We'll take it from here!" (Though that WOULD be funny.)
It's not really a "remake," but the ONLY time I would argue something "ruined" the original is the release of the Star Wars Special Editions. Only because, thanks to George Lucas' insistence, there is no legal way of getting the original, unaltered trilogy aside from ordering them on Ebay.
(For the record on that, there are things I like about the Special Editions, like the extra detailing of ships, backgrounds, and vistas with CGI. But Lucas enjoys the editing process way too much and edits things that don't need editing, making it worse with every new release.)
GasBandit
Staff member
I mostly agree with you, but also consider there will never be in our lifetime another attempt to make a live action version of Tolkien's Two Towers. We'll never get a live version that doesn't have all that extra shit Jackson shoehorned in because he thought he knew the story better than the guy who defined the genre.
Having read the books, I...honestly preferred the movies. They still retain all the core thematic elements. Yes, they changed things around, like leaving Shelob for the third movie, but I still dug the hell out of it. Mind you, it's been a long time since I read the books (last time I read them was before the first movie came out). Still, my point stands more that it doesn't "ruin" the book. You can still read it, unaltered.
The only thing I miss is the Taming of the Shire part of the story, because that was my favourite part of the original book. But for timing and pacing reasons, I understand why. ROTK was already a long-ass movie with a gazillion endings. And really, the tired, worn out shared look the four hobbits shared in the tavern at the end said everything that that entire section explained: they weren't the same lively bunch we saw at the beginning of the first movie.
EDIT: Just to add to that point: one of my all-time favourite books is The Hobbit and I haaaaaaaaaaated the movies. So much so that I never bothered seeing the third installment. It was great when it adapted purely the parts from the original book, but when it strayed and added all kinds of ancillary stuff, they lost me.
But that's just a bad adaption. It still didn't "ruin" the book to me.
GasBandit
Staff member
You're right, it didn't ruin the book. But we won't get a live version without a made-from-whole-cloth and completely unnecessary Eowyn-Aragorn ship tease, and it's a shame.
Yeah, one of my favourite books growing up was The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. It doesn't matter how terrible the movie adaptation was, what matters is that some kids would have read that book solely because it got turned into a movie. That's the worst case scenario for a book getting a movie adaptation - increased sales for a book you probably think deserved to have more people reading anyway.
I did my 7th grade book report on this series. The rest of the class couldn't understand why I would read about wizards and clocks and Herne and how the point of the entire series is to be the first one to prune a flower ("That's it? That's the whole thing?"). I still have not yet seen the movie.
--Patrick
As someone who's attempted to read the books several times and failed, I really appreciate the movies. I know I'm in a nerd minority here, but Tolkein's writing just bores the shit out of me, and I stand by my statement that if he were a new author today, nobody would pick him up for publication. There are parts of his stories that, to me, read just like all the "begats" in the Bible and I just go "zzzzzzz"
I've never made it through any of his books. And I gave up trying for the "nerd cred" a long time ago. So, for all that, I enjoyed the movies considerably
Agree to disagree and all that.
Some remakes or reimaginings really do reflect back on the original.
In some cases it's just a different take or a different version standing side by side. Even if I think a specific version sucks, that's okay.
In some cases a remake replaces an older version, and certainly in a time where we're moving more and more to media as a service, older versions are being removed from public access.
"you can still read the book" may be true, but Disney is very much trying to remove older versions of some movies already, and songs as well. Any Disney playlist on Spotify uses only newer versions, for example. This comes down to your point about the SW edits, of course - it's getting more agressive and present, is all.
And, in some cases, a newer version can cast a work in such a way that the whole IP gets burned for political reasons.
Some remakes or reimaginings really do reflect back on the original.
In some cases it's just a different take or a different version standing side by side. Even if I think a specific version sucks, that's okay.
In some cases a remake replaces an older version, and certainly in a time where we're moving more and more to media as a service, older versions are being removed from public access.
"you can still read the book" may be true, but Disney is very much trying to remove older versions of some movies already, and songs as well. Any Disney playlist on Spotify uses only newer versions, for example. This comes down to your point about the SW edits, of course - it's getting more agressive and present, is all.
And, in some cases, a newer version can cast a work in such a way that the whole IP gets burned for political reasons.
GasBandit
Staff member
*Cough*gameofthrones*cough*
Why did no one tell me 3000 Years of Longing was George Miller? I need to stop ignoring pretentious ass titles.
Also, lol, lmao, lmfao that Warner Bros is now so fucked from the Discovery merger (20 billion in stock losses already, ha ha ha) that they have to push films back because they literally cannot afford to release them.
Also, lol, lmao, lmfao that Warner Bros is now so fucked from the Discovery merger (20 billion in stock losses already, ha ha ha) that they have to push films back because they literally cannot afford to release them.
figmentPez
Staff member
Well, that gives'm plenty of time to reshoot the scenes with whatsherface :-P
But....Really, "we have finished product but we don't have the money to market it" is such a weird issue. It's like "yeah I have 100.000 finished PS5s in my warehouse but I don't have the money to ship them out".
Admittedly, marketing is a large part of the budget these days, but come on. HOW is this possible? Businesses run on short term loans all the time for products expected to repay themselves over time. Is no-one willing to give WB Discovery a working loan anymore? Are their financials THAT bad? Are they THAT incompetent? Then how did this buyout/takeover ever happen?
You're never going to become MORE successful or financially stable by NOT selling stuff you already made.
1.) Yes, their financials are that bad. WB hasn't had a monster hit since the original Harry Potter films. The DC movies made some money but nothing on the level of the Marvel properties. They've been losing money for years.
2.) No one is going to give loans to a company that's 20 billion in the red without massive collateral, something they don't have anymore.
3.) The entire reason they got into this mess is by putting a CEO unfamiliar with the movie and animation industries in charge of a service that was nothing BUT those properties. No one gives a shit if you axe a bunch of reality shows, but the people who make animation and film have fucking unions and massive fan bases they can inform when shit like this goes down.
4.) THE ENTIRE POINT OF A STREAMING SERVICE IS KEEP THINGS ON IT AND GROW IT. When your streaming service SHRINKS, people get worried.
I honestly expect Zaslav to get hit a no-confidence vote from the shareholders and for them to bring in someone new.
And he gets a nice severance package.
figmentPez
Staff member
When I watch movies or shows, I don't know what the racial makeup of the staff of the studio making them are, and I have no idea how I would find out. So the idea that making the studio's personnel whiter will draw certain audiences is, frankly, bizarre to me.
It’s not about the racial makeup behind the scenes. It’s about getting rid of anyone who tries to create or support movies/shows that have people of color in them, or strong female protagonists, or LGBTQ+ representation. If you make it so you only have straight, white, Christian males doing the creating, all you will get is stories about straight, white, Christian men. And that’s what they apparently want to appeal to MAGA land.
‘Friday the 13th’ Prequel Series ‘Crystal Lake’ From Bryan Fuller Ordered at Peacock
You know, I want to hate this but...that oddly might work. We could see pre-drowning Jason, his mother, the camp counsellors. There's stories to be told there.
Not exactly excited for the idea, but I can see the potential.
variety.com
You know, I want to hate this but...that oddly might work. We could see pre-drowning Jason, his mother, the camp counsellors. There's stories to be told there.
Not exactly excited for the idea, but I can see the potential.
‘Friday the 13th’ Prequel Series ‘Crystal Lake’ From Bryan Fuller Ordered at Peacock
Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to a "Friday the 13th" prequel currently titled "Crystal Lake," Variety has learned.
variety.com
