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21 Dec

The Matrix Resurrections Review: Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus Reloaded

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No two Matrix movies are alike. We remember the original as a revolutionary cyberpunk action film that introduced audiences to “bullet time” and the “wire fu” action sequences of the East. But The Matrix sequels weren’t just more of the same: The Matrix Reloaded is in many ways a superhero fantasy with the kind of CG spectacle we take for granted in the Marvel age. Meanwhile, The Matrix Revolutions could best be described as a manga and anime-inspired mecha horror movie, an absolutely twisted conclusion to the story that feels like the Wachowskis’ answer to the equally controversial The End…

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21 Dec

Link Tank: Who Could Keanu Reeves Play in the MCU?

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The Matrix Resurrections star Keanu Reeves is still in talks with Marvel, but the pair are searching for the right part for him to play in the MCU. “Keanu Reeves has been a constant dream casting choice for many of our favorite heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is constantly on the tip of our tongues when we’re suggesting who he could play, and apparently, the star of The Matrix Resurrections has met with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, and the two are working on finding something that works for both the MCU as a whole and Reeves.” Read more at…

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20 Dec

Breaking Down Spider-Man: No Way Home’s End Credits Surprise

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This article contains one spoiler for Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, and heavier spoilers for the Disney+ series Loki and What If…? Marvel Studios released a first teaser for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and there was a lot to unpack! Benedict Cumberbatch is back as Stephen Strange in the sequel, which has now shifted release dates and will finally arrive on May 6, 2022, all things being well. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness takes place in a post-Avengers: Endgame world where the multiverse has been opened up…

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20 Dec

Spider-Man: No Way Home Fixes the Worst Spidey Story Ever Written

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This article contains massive Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers. It’s generally considered to be the worst Spider-Man story ever written; a contrived and hideous editorial exercise, engineered solely to erase Peter and Mary and Watson Parker’s marriage after 20 years of existence; a four-issue monument to everything that is awful and cynical about comic book storytelling and the laziness of retconning previous events. One More Day, penned by J. Michael Straczynski, but penciled and truthfully masterminded by then-Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, is a narrative monstrosity that betrayed everything good about the Peter Parker and MJ characters in service to…

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20 Dec

The Simpsons Season 33 Episode 10 Review: A Made Maggie

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This The Simpsons review contains spoilers. The Simpsons Season 33 Episode 10 The Simpsons are still on a roll. Season 33 episode 10 “A Made Maggie” is a Christmas football in the groin: it works on so many levels. In short, Fat Tony gets himself an invitation to be godfather to Margaret Simpson, also known as little Maggie. If that sounds like a mob moniker for a street gang, it’s mere hearsay. The Simpsons live on Evergreen Terrace. Earlier this season, The Simpsons created a modern classic, “A Serious Flanders,” by skewering the series Fargo. It was so good, not…

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20 Dec

Dexter: New Blood Episode 7 – Skin of Her Teeth

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This Dexter: New Blood review contains spoilers. Dexter: New Blood Episode 7 When it was announced that Dexter: New Blood would be eschewing the original series’ 13-episode format for a more streamlined 10-episode order, it was a sign that perhaps the new adventures of Dexter Morgan would improve upon areas where the original show’s run faltered. Almost every season of Dexter had more episodes to fill than plot to cover and that led to a lot of wheel spinning, false starts and stops, and needless procedural elements to pad out the season. By shaving off three unnecessary hours. Dexter: New…

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20 Dec

Young Justice: Phantoms Digs Into the Origin of Dr. Fate

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This Young Justice: Phantoms review contains spoilers. Young Justice Season 4 Episode 10 The more I sit with “Ydaer Teg,” this week’s episode of Young Justice: Phantoms, the less I like it. It’s not the same unhappiness that I’ve had with the rest of this season, though that’s definitely there: I still hate the motion comic, and I’m still pretty mad that the show chose to tell the story of Starro the Conqueror’s invasion of ancient Babylon and murder of Nabu in still frames they nudge across the camera to simulate movement. And I’m getting increasingly frustrated with the Beast…

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19 Dec

Spider-Man: No Way Home vs. Into the Spider-Verse: Which Is Better?

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This article contains Spider-Man: No Way Home and Into the Spider-Verse spoilers. What was once just a meme has become a fact of pop culture life. Two men who would be Spidey, as originally drawn for the 1967 cartoon series, stare at each other in a back alley. Each points incredulously at the other, as if to insist that no, HE is the imposter. Two Spider-Mans, huh? Things really were simpler back in the ‘60s! These days, it seems you can’t make a wallcrawler movie without at least three Web-Heads swinging around. We’re sure Sony Pictures accountants will suggest as…

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19 Dec

Fellowship of the Ring: How the Arwen Chase Improved on the Book

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Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has several standout sequences that anyone who saw it on the big screen surely remembers. There’s the opening battle sequence; the Ringwraiths sniffing for the hobbits as they cower under a tree root; the leap across the chasm from the collapsing staircase in the mines of Moria; Aragorn’s one-man-army stand against the Orcs at the Falls of Rauros. But perhaps the best scene in the film is the furious chase sequence in which the Ringwraiths pursue Arwen (Liv Tyler) across the countryside as she races to…

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19 Dec

Spider-Man: No Way Home Box Office Breaks Pandemic Record, Third Biggest Opening Ever

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It appears reports of the COVID pandemic dampening audiences’ appetites for going to the cinema were greatly exaggerated. At least they were if your movie stars Spider-Man and a collection of his greatest on-screen rogues. Indeed, one imagines Sony executives are pinching themselves this weekend as the choice to do a live-action Spider-Verse movie has resulted in the Spider-Man: No Way Home box office topping an estimated $253 million and counting in the U.S. alone. As the old Chad Kroeger song in the 2002 movie said, “And they say that a hero could save us!” This number, which comes from…

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18 Dec

The Witcher Season 2 Ending Explained

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This article contains major spoilers for The Witcher season 2. Far from resolving its many conflicts, The Witcher season 2 finale merely focused more intensely on the mystery of Ciri’s power and brought powers together to either find her or protect her. Instead of a traditional victorious ending, the final moments saw the banishment of a troublesome demon and the hardened resolve of the fractured family that surrounds the former princess of Cintra. Plus, of course, there were several surprising reveals that raised more questions than they answered. For example, we never did find out who was behind Rience the…

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18 Dec

The Expanse Season 6: The Redemption of Clarissa Mao

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This article contains The Expanse spoilers. In the latest episode of The Expanse, Bobbie Draper reminds the Rocinante crew that they’re harboring a convicted felon, Clarissa Mao, and it’s easy for the audience to forget that she was in a maximum security prison on Earth for blowing up a ship full of innocent people in season 3. The forgiveness she earned from Amos in the intervening seasons has now been extended by Holden in this week’s most touching scene, and saving Bobbie’s life was a big part of her redemption arc. Co-creator of The Expanse Ty Franck enjoys exploring the…

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18 Dec

Spider-Man Actors Ranked from Worst to Best

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This article contains Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers. Who’s your favorite Spider-Man? This loaded question often says as much about the age of the person answering it as it does the actual performance they’re praising. Millennials of a certain age, as well as younger Gen-Xers, might swear on their lives it never got better than when Tobey Maguire locked lips with Kirsten Dunst upside down in the rain. Yet if you grew up (or are growing up) in the age of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is there really any other answer except Tom Holland? It’s obviously a skewed and entirely…

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18 Dec

10 Biggest Video Game Controversies of 2021

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While we’re looking forward to celebrating the very best games of 2021 in the near future, it’s tough to paint an accurate picture of this year without also spending a little time talking about some of 2021’s biggest controversies. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this has been an especially noteworthy year for video game controversies compared to previous years, but there is no denying that some of the year’s biggest stories were controversial in one way or another. Given the context of some of those controversies and the way they remind us that there is a…

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18 Dec

George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ Has a Long, Complicated History Beyond the Music Video

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George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” was released on Nov. 23, 1970, as the first single to his groundbreaking and historic solo album. The Beatles were the first band to play stadium concerts, put backwards instrumentation into songs, and the first rock band to put sitar and tamboura drones in pop rock. But Harrison’s first solo release after the band’s break up, All Things Must Pass, was the first triple album coming from a single act in rock. “My Sweet Lord,” was the first number one hit by a solo Beatle and the biggest selling single of 1971. It is most…

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18 Dec

The Spider-Man: No Way Home We’ll Never See

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Now that Spider-Man: No Way Home has swung its way to theaters armed with an array of revelations, it’s practically unfathomable that collaborative companies Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios envisioned anything short of its stupendous scope. However, it appears that slimmer, multiverse-deprived ideas were originally planned for the threequel during a brief period of panic in which Spider-Man seemed destined to leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man: No Way Home successfully promoted its returning villainous ghosts (so to speak,) of Spider-Man iterations past, and implicitly teased even more universe-shattering surprises, on which it delivered—we’ll just leave it at that. However,…

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17 Dec

10 Hardest Games of 2021

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While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that 2021 has been a banner year for hard video games, anyone who seeks out difficult games as a cathartic escape from difficult times certainly won’t be disappointed by this year’s selection of controller smashing, monitor breaking, soul-shaking experiences. In fact, it was an especially interesting year for difficult Triple-A and AA games. From Metroid Dread to certain difficult settings in Resident Evil Village, it really does seem like more and more major studios are starting to explore the viability of at least adding optional difficulty modes to their major releases…

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17 Dec

The Witcher Season 2: Why Does Jaskier Sing ‘Burn, Butcher, Burn’?

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One of the standout accomplishments of the first season of The Witcher was the sheer addictiveness of the song, “Toss a Coin To Your Witcher” as sung by Joey Batey, who plays the bard Jaskier in the show. Now lightning has struck twice with the season 2 entry, “Burn, Butcher, Burn,” which is just as much of an earworm. Given that it’s been awhile since we last saw Jaskier, the circumstances related by the lyrics might have been forgotten by some. Why is the bard so pissed at his friend Geralt, who is clearly the subject of this rage anthem?…

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17 Dec

How Anna and the Apocalypse Shows Zombies are, in Fact, Christmassy

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There are some things we just automatically associate with Christmas. Tinsel, Christmas trees, crackers with bad jokes in, fairy lights. There are also stories we keep coming back to at this time of year. Scrooge and his ghosts, George Bailey seeing what the world would be like if he’d never been born, and yes, John McClane single-handedly foiling a terrorist attack that is actually an elaborate heist. But one thing you probably don’t associate with Christmas is hordes of the shambling undead attempting to batter your door down and feast on your brains. In 2017 Anna and the Apocalypse set…

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17 Dec

Link Tank: Find Out Who Rhys Ifans Wants The Lizard to Fight Next

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Spider-Man: No Way Home actor Rhys Ifans says he wants to see the Lizard take on Venom in a future movie. “The Lizard is in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but is Rhys Ifans? The actor, who also stars as Rasputin in The King’s Man (2021) is keeping his lips closed on the new Spidey movie, but he still has opinions on why his The Amazing Spider-Man character was such a good antagonist for Peter Parker.” Read more at Inverse After her standout performance in What If…?, Captain Carter is getting her own run in the comic books. “Peggy Carter has gone through many different titles during…

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