This article contains Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes spoilers. The penultimate scene in Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes might be its most important. The chimpanzee they call Noa (Owen Teague) and the young human woman he learns is Mae (Freya Allan) stand at a crossroads for their characters and their species. Despite Noa generally disliking humans, or “echoes,” for their smell and their ignorance, he’s grown attached to Mae, perhaps not least of all because she’s revealed herself to be as intelligent as an ape—if not more so. Yet Mae, as we learn over…

In the grand scheme of things, Matt Reeves’ two entries into the Planet of the Apes series might be the highest peak this beloved franchise has experienced since the original 1968 movie. There have been other good movies about talking chimpanzees and the humans they enslave—a shocking amount too when you think about that premise for a minute—yet Reeves brought a somber, frigid tactility to the material we’d never seen before. So following in those footsteps, as well as those left by the monumental performance of Andy Serkis as Caesar (a Spartacus among apes), was always going to be a…

Along with being arguably the best Star Trek movie ever, 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an exceptional example of sci-fi filmmaking. It blends action, adventure, love, and horror in ways that few (otherwise great) sci-fi movies have ever come close to replicating, and decades’ worth of repeat viewings and shared praise have certainly helped capture the scope of the film’s accomplishments.  Yet, there is one part of Wrath of Khan’s considerable legacy that remains as forgotten as the marooned settlers of Ceti Alpha V. It is the movie that not only contributed to the end of…

How much Marvel is too much? That question has hung over the MCU for more than five years, since Avengers: Endgame gave viewers an easy jumping off point. In that time, Marvel has released 25 movies, TV series, and specials, few of them pleasing all but the most committed fans. It’s no surprise that, since he came back as Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger has talked several times about reducing MCU output. He hasn’t offered much in the way of specifics until now, but that still raises questions about the franchise’s future success. Bob Iger Reduces Marvel Output In a quarterly…

Even after almost a decade, critics and audiences continue to heap praise on Mad Max: Fury Road. The 2015 sci-fi classic earns every accolade, from its subtle character work to its jaw-dropping visuals. But there’s one thing that cannot be said about Fury Road: that it has no CG. True, director George Miller and his stunt team did many of the most impressive action sequences in-camera. But he did so with the assistance of computer graphics to erase the safety wires and other rigging. In other words, Miller has no problem using computer effects, provided that they don’t get in…

One of the downsides of streaming’s cord-cutting era has been how hard it is to stumble on a great movie midway through. You know the joy of which we speak. After a long day at work or school, a moment to unwind turns into discovering one of your favorite flicks, that one you’ve probably seen a hundred times, is playing right now on cable. And wouldn’t you know it, you’ve come across it right at your favorite bit. Before you know it, you spend the next 90 minutes catching up on a film you already have half committed to memory.…

Director Wes Ball tells Den of Geek that he remembers seeing the original 1968 sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes on “HBO or something” as a child, watching with his dad. “I’m sure all the concepts probably went over my head,” he muses now. “I was probably very young. I don’t remember having a reaction to the Statue of Liberty, but I remember the images very clearly. I remember the feral humans in the grass and the apes on horses and the sets and obviously that [ending] on the beach. That’s what I remember—the images, the iconography of it all.”…

Ever since Charlton Heston climbed out of a little rocket ship in the toxic waters of the Forbidden Zone, science fiction has never been the same. The film in which he starred was based on a Pierre Boulle novel, but by the time it reached the big screen, it felt like an epic cinematic version of The Twilight Zone (and it had the Rod Serling writing credit to prove it). The ending of the film is still one of the all-time great “twists” in cinema history, birthing the first modern science fiction franchise. And it’s never let up since. When…

“Bring the clown. We want to see the clown. We like it how he juggles glombo shells, or spits fish up in the air and catches them, or how he dances around and falls on his butt.” So demand the orphan children on the planet Naboo, according to an interlude in the post-Return of the Jedi novel Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig. And the clown acquiesces, happy to find any form of acceptance. “The adults, though,” continues the narrator, “they don’t say much about him. Or to him. And no other Gungans come to see him, either. Nobody even…

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… well, we’re not entirely sure what it is, but it looks like something Brainiac would use to attack the Earth. Whatever the cross-space invader in the picture that director James Gunn just posted to social media may be, the real attention goes to the figure in the foreground of the image: our very first look at David Corenswet in full uniform as Superman. View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn) Gunn has long been posting teasers about his upcoming movie, initially dubbed Superman:…

Quentin Tarantino does not view Kill Bill as two separate films. That should be acknowledged upfront as fair. After all, it is this detail which allows Tarantino the ability to claim Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood as his ninth instead of 10th film (thereby delaying any obligatory early retirements). And to be sure, Tarantino shot Kill Bill as one epic vision that was only encouraged to be broken up by, ahem, Harvey Weinstein while Tarantino was finishing up principal photography. So while the story was released as Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, they’re two sides…

Presented by: Ringing in May the 4th in style, Den of Geek is launching an online charity auction broadcast in our New York City studio through eBay Live, celebrating the iconic Star Wars franchise with plenty of cool items to bid on and purchase. The proceeds will go towards Feeding America, who work with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger in the United States. Supporting the auction are a number of fan-favorite companies that have donated Star Wars merchandise, including BoxLunch, Loungefly, Bioworld, CGC Comics, and more. Items up for auction on May 4 range from Star…

Another May the 4th has arrived, and with it, the promise of so much Star Wars goodness on the horizon. Today, for example, sees the release of a new animated series called Tales of the Empire, which expands the stories of Lady Morgan Elsbeth, the villainous Nightsister from the Mandoverse, and Barriss Offee, a fallen Jedi whom Clone Wars fans have long wanted to revisit. The show sees both of these characters embrace the dark side for the glory of the Empire. Festive viewing indeed. That’s only the beginning for the villains of Star Wars. On June 4, fans will…

Show-stopping stunts have long been as important to the James Bond movie formula as gadgets, villains, and the appropriate amount of workday martinis. While the early Connery movies didn’t emphasize such stunts quite as much as future installments did, audiences soon came to expect in the 1970s to see Bond put his life on the line in some incredible stunt sequence for queen, country, and our entertainment. While other action franchises (most notably, the Mission: Impossible movies) have certainly raised the bar for film stunts since then, there is a charm to the best Bond stunts that can’t easily be…

Ryan Gosling is living his best life these days. Or certainly his funniest. After earning an Academy Award nomination purely based on his ability to persuasively turn “Kenergy” into a noun in last summer’s Barbie, he brought that pure, uncut Ken stuff to the Oscar stage. No, not by winning the prize, but by taking home the hearts and minds of the internet with an epic performance of “I’m Just Ken.” In hindsight, the spectacle of it all might be viewed as a turning point in his career as audiences embrace the guy who seemed so stoic and tortured in…

Five years ago, the idea of discussing the best video game adaptations ever felt like a largely joyless task. Inevitably, you would have to lower the bar to allow room for movies and shows that you would never otherwise discuss in a positive light. There were a few genuine highlights even back then, but the perception that the majority of video game adaptations were quite bad was both widespread and largely accurate. The situation has changed in truly remarkable ways in recent years, though. We now regularly receive video game adaptations that aren’t just good according to the standards of…

Space is great. It’s massive, it’s colorful, and you can have big fights with lasers there. It really does have everything you could want. But it also has problems—mainly, like we said, that it’s massive. In fact it’s so massive that if you want to go anywhere in it (apart from a few nearby planets with hardly anyone to shoot lasers at), by the time you get there, you’re dead. Now you might think that if you can just go fast enough, you’ll get there before you die, but there’s a problem. That problem, as Albert Einstein tells us, is…

“You’ve been making women feel bad about themselves since you were invented,” the hip teen Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) tells the stereotypical Barbie standing before her. “You represent everything wrong with our culture: sexualized capitalism, unrealistic physical ideals.” Stereotypical Barbie is horrified: “No, no, no, you’re describing something stereotypical,” she insists. Margot Robbie spent much of Barbie proving why the doll she portrayed wasn’t the sexist object that girls like Sasha see. The Aussie actor has a much more difficult task ahead of her if she’s going to do the same thing in her upcoming project Avengelyne. Everything about Avengelyne screams…

With its list of May 2024 releases, Amazon Prime Video is giving us the kindest gift of all: cougar Anne Hathaway. May 2 sees the premiere of The Idea of You, a romantic-comedy that features Hathaway as a 40-year-old mom finding romance with a 24-year-old boy band singer (Nicholas Galitzine). Having saved the medium of film forever, Prime Video is celebrating with some big time library titles this month as well. American Fiction and BlacKkKlansman arrive on May 14 and will be followed by Creed and Pearl: An X-traordinary Origin Story on May 16. For its TV offerings, Prime is…

Hulu’s list of new releases for May 2024 is missing a certain amount of original series firepower. In the place of a blockbuster like The Handmaid’s Tale or Shōgun, however, is some content diversity. The first of the month sees the premiere of four-episode British series Shardlake. This mystery drama takes place during the reign of Henry VIII and features none other than Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) investigating a murder. Other series of note this month include the Korean drama Uncle Samsik on May 15. Movies are bit more interesting on Hulu in May. Teen comedy Prom Dates premieres on…