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Could Marvel Lose Full Ownership of Spider-Man and Avengers in New Lawsuits?

Marvel Studios’ transformation from an entertainment conglomerate to a legal firm that occasionally makes blockbusters is apparently well underway. Following the paradigm-shifting lawsuit filed against Marvel by actress Scarlett Johansson for Black Widow’s release strategy, the Disney subsidiary behind The Avengers and many other superheroes is set to return to court soon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel is filing a series of lawsuits against various Marvel comics figures, including the heirs of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in a bid to maintain complete ownership over its most popular characters. THR obtained a copy of one such complaint for declaratory…
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What Star Wars: Visions Has in Common With Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

The beauty of the natural world and its spiritual elements have long been popular subjects for anime, and in the new short film anthology Star Wars: Visions that translates to rich forests and bringing life to once barren ground. With its emphasis on how characters affect the environments around them, Visions touches on both the history of anime and an idea that has been present but muted in most Star Wars stories: that the evil of the Empire goes hand-in-hand with resource exploitation and greed. Naturally, anime is an art style — developed in Japan and with a wide range…
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House of the Dragon Gets its First Lannister, Signaling an Epic Early Battle

The rains of Castamere shall soon weep o’er the hall that is House of the Dragon. That’s because HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series has just cast some interesting new characters, some of whom notably bear the Lannister surname, indicating a deviously game-changing presence. Indeed, with the prequel set to showcase the build-up to a historically protracted bit of royal Targaryen infighting known as the Dance of the Dragons, House Lannister still has a role to play, even some 200 years before the events of the main series.    As officially announced, House of the Dragon has added characters…
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Midnight Mass Is Creative, Bold, and Flawed Horror

This review contains huge spoilers for Midnight Mass. Don’t you dare even think of reading one word before you watch. Mike Flanagan, the maestro of horror responsible for Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and this spooky season’s entry, Midnight Mass, has always taken a novelistic approach to storytelling.  The man knows his way around a jump-scare, sure, but he excels in crafting deep, rewarding themes, richly drawn characters, and ornate dialogue. It’s what has drawn him toward adapting novels from horror legends like Shirley Jackson, Henry James, and Stephen King. And it’s perhaps what’s…
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The Starling Review: Melissa McCarthy Netflix Movie Doesn’t Fly

The Starling is a movie that can be held up as a good example of why Netflix should not get behind every single project that comes its way. The streaming giant probably thought that a tragicomic drama starring Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Kevin Kline (making one of his rare onscreen appearances these days) would be a sure bet. But like the CG-created bird that gives the movie its title, the movie never once approaches anything resembling reality. What makes it worse is that the movie deals with some intensely painful and very real subjects: depression, grief, and that most…
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Star Trek: In Defense of Enterprise’s Worst Episode

Don’t worry, this isn’t a defense of “These Are The Voyages.”* We’re here today to talk about the other “worst episode of Enterprise,” season two’s “A Night In Sickbay.” “The episode that killed Star Trek.” “One of the worst episodes of the whole Star Trek franchise.” “Almost as bad as ‘These Are The Voyages.’” These and similar opinions of “A Night In Sickbay” are all over the Internet. The episode frequently appears on “worst episodes of all time” lists alongside “Spock’s Brain” from The Original Series and Star Trek: Voyager’s “Threshold.” I have no intention of arguing that this is…
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15 Best Castlevania Monsters and Bosses Ranked

Few series have been more resilient than Castlevania. The first few games in the franchise were fairly standard 8-bit platformers (albeit with a unique horror vibe), but over time, entries in this series became less linear and more about exploration, eventually helping to inspire a whole new subgenre: “Metroidvania.” While the 3D Castlevania games never quite reached the same heights as those earlier titles, they’re still excellent (maybe even underrated) experiences in their own right. Regardless of your favorite Castlevania, I think we can all agree that the series has given us some of the coolest enemies around. From new…
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Midnight Mass: It’s Time to Talk About That Monstrous Twist

This article contains huge spoilers for Midnight Mass. So help me God if you read this without watching the series first… The version of Midnight Mass that Netflix advertised still would have made for a compelling horror series.  An isolated, insular island community? Great. A young, charismatic preacher suddenly coming to town to shake things up? Perfect. That preacher proving capable of performing minor miracles? Love it, no notes!  Of course, as viewers who have watched at least four episodes of the seven-episode series now know, Midnight Mass has one extra supernatural twist in mind that elevates an already interesting…
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No Time to Die Director Addresses James Bond’s Problematic Past

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Often this axiom is used to apply rose tinted glasses over the past—a chance to get nostalgic about the “good ol’ days.” But sometimes when you take a critical look at the old days, they’re not always better. Which would be putting it mildly when acknowledging the gender politics of otherwise beloved early James Bond 007 movies. No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga would seem to think so. In a new profile interview he did with The Hollywood Reporter, the True Detective and Maniac director reflected on the shadier side of…
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Link Tank: The Muppets are Back in a New Spooky Season Special

The Muppets are back in spooky fashion with Muppets: Haunted Mansion set to hit Disney+ next month. “The special will see Gonzo the Great and Pepé the King Prawn survive a night spent at the titular mansion after an invitation from the Ghost Host (Will Arnett). The rest of the Muppets appear as ghosts within the mansion, and Miss Piggy takes on the role of Madame Leota’s floating head in the crystal ball.” Read more at The Mary Sue Did Star Wars: Visions create a multiverse within Star Wars? “There used to be just one Star Wars galaxy, but thanks…
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Foundation: Why Isaac Asimov’s Estate Approved Modernizing the Sci-Fi Classic

This article contains no spoilers for Foundation. We live in an era when classic works of literature that were once thought to be “unfilmable” — particularly in the realms of sci-fi and fantasy — are now actually coming to the screen. Chief among those, and certainly a crown jewel in the annals of science fiction, is Foundation, an epic series of stories and novels by legendary writer Isaac Asimov that spans thousands of years of future galactic history. Premiering on Apple TV+ with a 10-episode first season, Foundation begins with the story of Hari Seldon (played by Jared Harris), a…
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Why Midnight Mass is Mike Flanagan’s Most Personal Work

This article contains no spoilers for Midnight Mass.  Horror auteur Mike Flanagan is responsible for many excellent spooky sagas since his first major film Oculus debuted in 2013. The writer/director has shepherded films like Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald’s Game, and Doctor Sleep; and TV series like Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.  Still, even with such a deep resume, there’s room for only one favorite. And according to Flanagan himself, that favorite is definitively his latest TV collaboration with Netflix, Midnight Mass.  “I’m just going to admit it—Midnight Mass is my favorite project…
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Does Silent Hill 2 Have a True Ending?

Silent Hill 2’s legacy has only grown in the 20 years since its release. While Konami’s follow-up to one of the best horror games of the PS1 era was a critical hit out of the gate, it’s taken years for people to fully grasp the brilliance of Silent Hill 2’s atmosphere, characters, and story.  Silent Hill 2 casts players in the role of James Sunderland: a mysterious man who receives a letter from his deceased wife that asks him to come and find her in the town of Silent Hill. What follows is a haunting trip through the town itself…
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How Dear Evan Hansen Changes the Musical’s Ending

This article contains Dear Evan Hansen spoilers, both for the movie and the stage show. No matter how you come to the story of Dear Evan Hansen, and regardless of the medium, things always have to end at the same apple orchard. It’s fitting since Evan’s first major lie about Connor Murphy, the boy who killed himself, was that they spent whole days in the then-abandoned orchard, talking about girls, boats, and whatever other fantasies Evan could concoct. And it’s here that Zoe Murphy, Connor’s younger sister, requests Evan meet her for the story’s final scene. This is true of…
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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 5 Review: The Chamber of Judgement

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers. What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 5 The vampires get back to their official duties on What We Do in the Shadows  season 3 episode 5 “The Chamber of Judgement.” Nandor (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) are poised to take the throne at the center of the judicial altar in the subbasement office of the Vampiric Council. They poise for quite a while. So long, in fact, it becomes unjudicial. The battle over the top seat in the council is as petty as it is essential…
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Foundation Delivers the Best of Star Trek and Game of Thrones

This Foundation article contains spoilers. Don’t sleep on Foundation, Apple TV+’s excellent adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s once-thought-to-be-unfilmable hard science fiction novel series that chronicles the 1,000-year fall of a galactic empire. The story that was long considered too expansive for Hollywood (although many have tried) finds the perfect home on TV in the hands of creators David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Krypton) and Josh Friedman (Snowpiercer, Avatar 2). They’ve taken the hefty source material that sometimes reads like half-history book half-math dissertation and translated it into an entertaining drama that resembles something closer to Star Trek or Game of Thrones.…
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Squid Game: Best Deadly Competition TV Shows & Movies to Watch Next

Chances are, if you’ve started watching Squid Game, then you’ve finished watching Squid Game. Netflix’s Korean social thriller is highly suspenseful, driving viewers through its nine episodes to its chilling conclusion with an anxiety-inducing urgency. The story of 456 desperate people who play a deadly game for the chance to win a ₩45.6billion ($39 million) prize, Squid Game is a familiar premise executed masterfully, which means that if you’re looking for more stories like Squid Game, then you’re in luck; the “deadly competition” trope is a very popular one. Like other standouts in the subgenre, there is nothing quite like…
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Interview with the Vampire Series Will Tweak Anne Rice’s Story

Nearly two decades before Twilight, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles had all the makings of the definitive vampire movie franchise.  Interview with the Vampire, a film based on the writer’s first book in the vampire series, starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as stately Louisiana vampires Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac. It was quite well-received. Its follow-up, the 2002 Aaliyah-starring Queen of the Damned…was not. As such, Rice’s 13-book (and counting) series seemed destined to stay on the page for good.  That all changed last year, however, when The Walking Dead network AMC greenlit a series…
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How the Star Wars Boba Fett Toys Commemorate the Franchise’s First Prequel

As surreal as it might seem to newer Star Wars fans, the omnipresent franchise once fell into a decade of relative dormancy until the late-1990s. It was a natural effect, since the Original Trilogy phenomenon played itself out upon 1983’s Return of the Jedi. It was subsequently kept afloat on television, first with two Ewoks live-action TV movies, followed by 1985-1986 Saturday morning cartoons Star Wars: Ewoks and Star Wars: Droids. Interestingly, the latter series took place 15 years before A New Hope, making it the franchise’s forgotten first prequel (revoked canonical status aside), and even featured Boba Fett. Now,…
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How the Best Star Wars Visions Episodes Subvert the Story of Luke and Leia

This Star Wars: Visions article contains spoilers. At the center of Star Wars sit the twins. A cornerstone of the Original Trilogy, Luke and Leia are also the template for some of the shorts in the Star Wars: Visions anime anthology. The episode “The Twins” takes this concept the most literally, presenting twins born for a specific purpose, whether or not they fulfill it. But it’s another episode, “Lop and Ochō,” which truly takes the “Force siblings” concept to another level. It’s similar enough to be recognizably Star Wars, while also breaking new ground.  Luke and Leia, the brotherly bond…
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