This Dune article contains spoilers. After ingesting the Spice Melange, Guild Navigators working for CHOAM gain precognitive abilities, allowing them to chart paths for interstellar space travel, making Arrakis, the only source of Spice, the most important planet in the galaxy. Such is the premise of Frank Herbert‘s Dune novels, which inspired the 2021 blockbuster and Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming sequel, Dune: Part Two. In the first movie, the Spice enhances young Paul Atreides’ burgeoning prescience. That effect gives Paul visions of his future leading the Fremen with Chani at his side. But it also tells him things about others, as…

Anybody who looked carefully at the Christmas presents unwrapped by the family in Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographically inspired 1969-set film Belfast will have spotted a copy of Agatha Christie’s The Hallowe’en Party. It was an Easter egg for the eagle-eyed, teasing which Hercule Poirot story the actor-director and screenwriter Michael Green were planning to tackle next on the big screen, after 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and 2022’s Death on the Nile. Green and Branagh took several liberties with The Hallowe’en Party, changing its title to A Haunting in Venice, much of its plot, and moving it from the English…

Ben Grimm is mad. The ace pilot would do almost anything for his college pal Dr. Reed Richards, the super-genius who has designed an experimental rocket. But Ben worries about cosmic rays surrounding the planet and threatens to drop out of the project. “Ben, we’ve got to take that chance,” interjects friend Sue Storm. “Unless we want the Commies to beat us to it.” With that Ben takes up the mission. Because if there’s one thing that Benjamin J. Grimm hates (beyond being called a coward, which Sue also does), its Commies. Well, at least that’s what Ben hated in…

This Oppenheimer article contains spoilers. Oppenheimer is more than just 2024’s apparent Best Picture favorite and one-half of the “Barbenheimer” movement that shattered modern box office expectations. It’s a sweeping examination of the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer and how his work on the atomic bomb reshaped the course of human history. Of course, even the most thorough examinations of significant real-life figures and events can’t quite cover everything you need to know about the true stories they try to tell. More importantly, many of those movies often intentionally alter or exclude certain details for the sake of storytelling. Understanding…

Dune: Part Two is one of the most highly-anticipated films of the year and for good reason. With Part One, director Denis Villeneuve brought forth a mesmerizing vision of a psychedelic war epic full of action, drama, and tragedy, while remaining faithful to one of the best and most complex sci-fi novels ever published. Frank Herbert‘s world of scheming, manipulations, combat, prophecies, and drug-induced dreaming comes to life in the desert sands of Villeneuve’s movie. But that film ended on a cliffhanger, with Timothy Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, the promised messiah of Arrakis, taking only his first steps toward his destiny.…

This Madame Web article contains spoilers. It’s a big year for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. While Disney powers forward with Deadpool & Wolverine as its lone theatrical release for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony has three Spider-adjacent movies in the form of Kraven the Hunter, Venom 3, and Madame Web. Potential connections between the first two and the Marvel Cinematic Universe remain unclear, whereas Madame Web serves as an unconnected origin story for Dakota Johnson’s Cassandra Webb. As the name suggests, it’s Cassandra who is at the center of the spandex-clad caper, although she’s not alone. Johnson is joined by Sydney…

This Madame Web article contains spoilers. It’s a big year for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. While Disney powers forward with Deadpool & Wolverine as its lone theatrical release for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony has three Spider-adjacent movies in the form of Kraven the Hunter, Venom 3, and Madame Web. Potential connections between the first two and the Marvel Cinematic Universe remain unclear, whereas Madame Web serves as an unconnected origin story for Dakota Johnson’s Cassandra Webb. As the name suggests, it’s Cassandra who is at the center of the spandex-clad caper, although she’s not alone. Johnson is joined by Sydney…

Planet of the Apes is one of the most successful and durable science fiction franchises in Hollywood history. Starting in 1968 with the original film, the Apes series has generated more than $2.1 billion in box office grosses over the course of just nine movies, with a highly-anticipated 10th entry, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, due for release this May. The property has also spawned both a live-action and animated TV series, books, comics, video games, and toys – the latter produced in the wake of the first film’s success and arguably the template for future movie merchandising…

There’s no denying that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker certainly made some… interesting storytelling choices, especially with its main villain, who somehow returned to strike back at Rey and the Resistance. Not only does the movie reveal that Supreme Leader Snoke was just one of Emperor Palpatine’s clones all along, and that he’s been secretly preparing for the return of the true Empire and the Sith on Exegol, but we also get the biggest twist of all: Rey (Daisy Ridley) is his granddaughter. The Emperor’s family tree is more complicated than that, though. Technically, Rey’s father, Dathan, is a…

1961’s Fantastic Four may have kicked off the Marvel Universe, but the FF aren’t really superheroes. They are explorers, they are scientists, and yes, they do fight supervillains such as Doctor Doom, but at their heart, the Fantastic Four are a family. So when Marvel officially announced the cast for next year’s Fantastic Four movie with a Twitter post, the good news isn’t the cast. Pedro Pascal has long been rumored to play Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards, as has Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm-Richards aka Invisible Girl/Woman, Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch/Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm,…

From the moment the infamously bad first trailer dropped, we knew Madame Web was going to be an absolute vibe. But even putting aside lines about researching spiders in the Amazon right before the main character’s mom died, Dakota Johnson’s recent press tour for the movie hasn’t exactly helped this latest Sony superhero foray feel like a winner, either. For example, while lauding director S.J. Clarkson during an interview with EW, Johnson shared this little tidbit about the way the film was shot: “I’ve never really done a movie where you are on a blue screen, and there’s fake explosions…

The MCU has a villain problem. People said same thing the first few years of the franchise’s existence, but those complaints fell away as Loki, Killmonger, and especially Thanos entered the fray. Now that Jonathan Majors’s off-screen problems have presumably brought an end to Kang the Conquerer in the MCU, the question has come up again. Josh Brolin recently teased Marvel Studios might bring back Thanos in some way, although he stopped short of confirming it would be in the role of big bad once again. That would be one way to re-energize the MCU with a popular villain. That…

“Don’t breathe. Don’t look back,” commanded the tagline for the movie Twister from 1996. Apparently, that’s not a warning that Universal Pictures wants to heed. Instead, they’re looking back to the ’90s with a new adventure about storm chasers and the flying cows in their wake with the upcoming sequel Twisters. That said, first trailer for Twisters features no familiar faces. Not only do we see no characters played by actors who sadly passed in the interim, such as Bill Paxton’s Bill or Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Rusty, but also missing is Helen Hunt’s protagonist Jo. In their place is a…

Two shady figures walk into a club, raising the suspicions of Detective Axel Foley. Foley needs help to deal with both men, but the pair of officers keeping an eye on him — Sergeant Taggart (John Ashton) and Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) — don’t trust him. Furthermore, he’s in a public place, which means that his actions could harm civilians. After his pleading convinces Taggart and Rosewood to help out, Axel approaches one of the potential troublemakers. “Phillip!” Foley shouts, adopting the stagger and slurred speech patterns of a drunk man as he approaches the confused suspect. Foley continues…

To say that all eyes are on Wade Wilson in 2024 is an understatement. With most superhero movies struggling to make a dent at the box office last year, studios will next look to the performance of Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine as a referendum on the state of the genre. Fortunately, Ryan Reynolds‘ latest turn as the Merc with a Mouth looks absolutely insane in the first trailer, which premiered during Super Bowl LVIII. As the trailer reveals, Deadpool is stepping into the multiverse with the help of Matthew McFayden’s mysterious Marvel character and the TVA from Loki. But…

There’s no question that the James Bond film franchise – the second longest-running such series in cinema history after Godzilla – comes with certain expectations in the minds of viewers. We can predict, mostly like clockwork, that 007 will wear a tux at some point in every film, he will bed at least one or more beautiful women, he’ll drive an Aston Martin (or some other high-end vehicle), and that he’ll have one polite conversation with the villain before the shooting really starts. There will also be a surreal, psychedelic credits sequence, often a big action scene before the credits,…

Digimon: The Movie. Angela Anaconda.  “Two properties tied together by forces beyond their control. You could even call it destiny.” That’s how Angela Anaconda expert Alexandra Bender summarized the intertwined legacy of these two franchises and its spot on. In 2000, Digimon: The Movie premiered in theaters but before fans could watch the flawless masterpiece they were greeted with an unexpected Angela Anaconda short film that in the years since has drawn no shortage of ire.  The four-minute short features the characters and distinctive cutout animation of the Angela Anaconda TV series, which at that time was airing on the…

Don’t get me wrong. I was one of the few people who was genuinely looking forward to seeing Madame Web after the first trailer dropped in November. It’s still so rare to get superhero movies that have a majority female cast, that I was ready to fight for this movie against all odds. After watching Dakota Johnson’s incredible takes during the Madame Web press tour, however, it seems like this may be a movie that not even the cast is very interested in fighting for. Johnson’s carefree attitude on the Madame Web press tour isn’t a surprise given her iconic…

In 2017, on the press circuit for his first Hercule Poirot film Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh was asked by French newspaper Le Figaro to name his three favourite Agatha Christie Novels. The actor-director picked Orient Express, of course, and two others: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, published in 1926, and, published a decade later in 1936, Murder in Mesopotamia. “I like one, Roger Ackroyd, because it’s deep in the heart of England so it’s classic Christie, village green…,” said Branagh. “And the other one because it’s in a super-exotic archaeological dig and she knew those really well…

This post contains spoilers for The Marvels. For a variety of reasons, The Marvels left a lot of lingering questions in the minds of viewers. One of the biggest concerns the movie’s MacGuffin itself, the bangle that the villain Dar-Benn uses to fight the heroes and restore her home planet Hala. In the climactic scene of The Marvels, the central trio defeats Dar-Benn and Ms. Marvel takes her bangle, pairing it to one she received from her grandmother. But when Kamala returns to Earth and hugs her parents at the end of the movie, she’s only wearing one bangle. She…