The X-Men are dead. Well, the first set of movie X-Men, anyway. After decades of thrilling readers with soapy, intricate stories in the pages of Marvel Comics, the X-Men finally made it to the big screen with 2000’s X-Men. Despite its clear limitations, including unconvincing CGI and black leather instead of comics’ accurate costumes, X-Men set off a long and profitable franchise, one that stretches over 13 movies and 20 years. That run (kind of) came to an end after Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019. While the Mouse was obligated to release a handful of more mutant movies…

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here. Everybody knows Optimus Prime and Megatron are arch nemeses, and Transformers One director Josh Cooley used this knowledge to his advantage when making the fully animated origin story. The film is set on Cybertron before the Autobot-Decepticon Civil War ravaged the planet, and Optimus and Megatron—young miners called Orion Pax and D-16, respectively—are the furthest thing from mortal enemies: they’re brothers in arms. “The audience knows that they’re going to become enemies, so I wanted them to start their arc as best…

While Ryan Reynolds has gone on the record as far back as 2021 to state that his dream vision for a third Deadpool movie always involved a road trip story with Wade and Logan, the path to making Deadpool & Wolverine a reality was anything but a smooth ride. In fact, Reynolds spent a good deal of time pitching Marvel Studios on a number of alternate, divergent ideas for Deadpool 3… including a low-budget concept sans any big set pieces. And when we spoke to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige last week, the MCU impresario confirmed that a “Sundance” version…

In Star Trek: TNG episode “Captain’s Holiday”, how does Riker embarrass Picard on 'pleasure planet' Risa?Gets him to buy a souvenir that advertises the Captain’s sexual availabilitySwaps his swimming trunks for a child’s sizeTeaches him a saucy phrase in the local dialectWrites “I Heart Riker” on his back in sun lotionWhat’s the name of the resort in where Jennifer Grey’s character and her family spend the summer in Dirty Dancing (1987)?Kellerman'sRed OaksSteiner Mountain ResortCamp KrustyWhich 16-year-old US actor provided the voice of Erin in 1996 The Simpsons episode “Summer of 4’2”, in which Lisa gets popular while the family are…

From the very first scene, Wade Wilson is squatting in the grave of Wolverine and the X-Men cinematic universe he helped build. This is not a metaphor. The film literally opens with Ryan Reynolds’ crimson-clad dynamo six feet deep in the hole Hugh Jackman’s superhero was buried beneath at the end of Logan, desperate to resurrect the past—or at least exhume the corpse of it for a gag. It is not a metaphor, and yet it happily invites one all the same while watching Deadpool & Wolverine, the third fourth-wall-knocking laugher starring Reynolds and an endless barrage of dick jokes.…

This article contains spoilers for Twisters. What a way to end a movie! After surviving multiple major storms, corporate overlords, and fresh bouts of trauma, YouTube sensation Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) says goodbye to ambitious meteorologist Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) in the closing moments of Twisters. The latter is going to New York City where she hopes to get some ethical funding for her research that might have found a way to thwart tornadoes. Before Tyler and Kate say goodbye though, the two former rivals embrace one another in a long, soft kiss. They don’t let go after the kiss…

Here’s the thing about Deadpool: he knows that he’s in a movie. So he’s probably aware that his long-awaited first MCU entry Deadpool & Wolverine has finally been screened to critics and that those critics are sharing their thoughts about the movie on social media. But is he reading the tweets and jumping in joy or blowing himself up a la Deadpool 2? The studio betting big on the character’s latest theatrical outing is definitely hoping it’s the former. After the relative box office and critical failures of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine is…

In the modern age of superhero movie domination, comic book-accurate portrayals are a basic expectation. Nowadays fans even get upset when an actor doesn’t have the right hair color or nationality as the character that they’re portraying. Those expectations weren’t nearly as prominent back when X2: X-Men United was released in 2003. But that didn’t stop Aaron Stanford from doing his best to do justice to St. John Allerdyce, the Aussie mutant better known as Pyro in the comics. “The movie Chopper had just come out and I loved Chopper, so I approached them with my best Mark Brandon Read…

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here. Transformers One sheds light on the earliest era of Cybertronian history fans have seen yet. Set billions of years prior to the films, on Cybertron before it was ravaged by the Autobot/Decepticon Civil War, the story follows young miners Orion Pax and D-16, two best friends who are destined to become the bitter rivals we now know as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Adopting an American accent that renders him virtually unrecognizable on first listen, Chris Hemsworth lends his voice to the movie…

“It’s okay, baby,” Harley Quinn tells an agitated Joker at the end of the newest trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux. “Let’s give the people what they want.” What people want, apparently, is Harley Quinn herself. First introduced in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Harley has grown to become one of the most popular characters in the DC Universe. Through most of her history, Harley has been the quintessential battered girlfriend, a woman who lost her own identity under that of her abusive, controlling boyfriend. Harley Quinn began as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum tasked…

“It’s only nine people, but my entire world is in this picture.” These are a few of the words uttered by Ryan Reynolds’ forever-chatty Wade Wilson in the final Deadpool & Wolverine trailer. While the sizzle reel took the internet by storm Friday morning because of its strategic reveal of another beloved character cameo from X-Men movies past, what caught us most by surprise was how earnest, and even hoarse, Reynolds sounded as he pleaded with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to help him save his family. Deadpool might be the Merc with the Mouth, but in this scene he definitely wasn’t…

Does anyone remember the Satanic panic? It was a bizarre mix of urban legend, conspiracy theory, media frenzy, and religious fanaticism that occurred primarily in the early 1980s. The phenomenon was marked by thousands of alleged incidents of ritualized abuse, often involving children, and desecrations reportedly perpetrated across the nation by scores of so-called Satanic cults in towns and cities everywhere. While many of the reports were later found to be baseless—and the initial investigative techniques used to supposedly substantiate them discredited—the aftermath of the panic remains with us today in the shape of things such as QAnon and PizzaGate.…

Though the Sith may keep their numbers small, out of choice and necessity depending on which time period you’re looking at, they’ve still managed to be the ultimate enemy of the Jedi for millennia. In fact, there have been many powerful Sith Lords throughout the galaxy’s history, both in current canon and the Legends timeline that have challenged and defeated the guardians of peace throughout Star Wars history. With The Acolyte offering another perspective on the Sith’s master/apprentice dynamic, it seems like a great time to look back on the most powerful Sith Lords in the Star Wars universe, both…

“You’ve got the wrong guy,” sneers Wolverine in the latest and final trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine. “You were always the wrong guy,” comes the rejoinder, which would have been powerful said by anyone, but gets all the more cutting because of who delivered it: Laura aka X-23, once again played by Dafne Keen. Ever since Hugh Jackman announced his return to the world of superheroes as Wolverine, fans have worried about the sanctity of his last outing, Logan. In addition to fully embracing the themes of regret and violence that have always driven Wolverine, Logan gave the hero a…

“Joe and Anthony Russo will return.” The Hollywood Reporter reports that Marvel is now in talks to bring Joe and Anthony Russo back as directors of Avengers 5 and 6. The Russos helmed some of the franchise’s biggest hits, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the discussions are still in early phases, but they seem to be on their way. Given the success of those films, and the difficulty that MCU head Kevin Fiege has had finding someone to helm the next Avengers movies, having gone through Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten…

When Duke Leto Atreides took on stewardship of Arrakis, he did so at the behest of the Imperium. The transfer of stewardship featured all manner of pomp, which cost the Imperium “1.46 million and 62 solares,” according to Mentat Thufir Hawat. Those external shows of extravagance are about all that viewers get to see with the Imperium, in both Dune and its sequel Dune: Part Two. Even when Christopher Walken joined the cast of the second film as Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, he makes only infrequent appearances, surely not enough to flesh out the Imperium’s workings. Fortunately, the newest…

The Alien franchise has a lot of scary elements: the uncaring company Weyland-Yutani, androids that look like humans, and, oh yeah, freaking Xenomorphs, based on an unnerving design by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. Underpinning many of these things is a fear of rape and pregnancy, especially inflicted upon men. Many have written about how the first chestburster scene in Alien represents a man giving horrific birth, after being violated by a facehugger. Ash’s analysis of the facehugger in that movie gave viewers a sense of how the creature worked, including a tube that ran down the victim’s throat. But, at…

Oddity begins with a delicious horror conundrum. Alone in her newly purchased country house while her psychiatrist husband Ted (Gwylim Lee) works an overnight shift nearby, Dani (Carolyn Bracken) runs out into the dark to retrieve something from her car. When she hears a strange noise, she rushes back into the house and locks the door. The sounds from outside intensify, prompting Dani to open a slot on the door, revealing a shocking sight: a haggard and intense man, staring at her with one glowing glass eye. The man begs Dani to let him in, a request she denies until…

Film critic Andrew Sarris changed his profession forever when he introduced, to English-speaking cinephiles at least, the concept of “auteur theory.” The general conceit is that some rarified directors are so gifted, or commanding, in their control over the process of film production that they alone can give a film a “personal or unique stamp.” They are the ones who become the author of the movie you’re watching. If anyone. It’s a seductive theory which encourages the critic to look for points of narrative, visual, or thematic similarity between a filmmaker’s work. The more ideas or images that rhyme, the…

The ‘autobiography’ of female brindle Cairn Terrier Terry was titled I, Toto and told the story of her role in which classic 1939 movie?The Wizard of OzGone With the WindMr. Smith Goes to WashingtonStagecoachDowngraded in 2006 to a dwarf planet, what is the name of the animated Disney dog owned by Mickey Mouse?PlutoCeresMakemakeErisEddie from US sitcom Frasier was a wire-haired Jack Russell Terrier who shared his real name with which species, also the state mammal of Maine, USA?MooseBeaverBuffaloCoyoteWhich of these members of the family Canidae was the only non-dog to have been nominated for the Palm Dog award at Cannes…