What a month
for pop culture fans. And not just the recent slew of movies that have hit the silver screen. I’m
talking about some of the all-time favourites like Bruce Willis’s ‘Die Hard’.
In its poll ranking of the 30 best Christmas movies ever made, Empire’s readers
placed ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ at number two and ‘Die Hard’ was ranked as
number one, triggering a fierce debate if ‘Die Hard’ was even a Christmas movie
to begin with. For fans of John McClane, they just had one thing to say: ‘Die
Hard was the greatest movie! Ever!’
If that wasn’t wacky
enough, fans were up for a mighty disappointment when the much anticipated
‘Justice League’ came out. Pop culture forums are up in arms over the handling
of Zack Snyder’s exit from the movie and replacing him with ‘The Avengers’ and
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ director Joss Whedon. The result has been a
financial disaster, with the film projected to lose Warner Bros. $50-100
million. What has upset fans the most is how so many scenes were cut, scenes
that could have added so much to the movie, and having watched ‘Batman v.
Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and Znyder’s previous comic adaptation ‘Watchmen’,
the movie could have teased fans about the future films, the way Marvel
Cinematic Universe (MCU) always manages to do.
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Even as the DC
Extended Universe (DCEU) is restructuring, it took a massive hit against the
backdrop of ‘Thor Ragnarok’s’ success and the ‘Avengers : Infinity War’s’ first
trailer has already become the most watched trailer of all time. Not only does
the cast of this movie pack almost as many superheroes from the MCU as
possible, there are so many talking points with this trailer – from which
superhero could meet his doom to where are the Infinity Stones and how Thanos
and his Black Order will be a tough fight for the combined superpower.
While this is touted
to be a never-before-seen kind of superhero movie, there will be another
previously unseen superhero character when Tom Hardy will play the lead in the
upcoming solo movie ‘Venom’.
Fans are also super
excited to hear that Quentin Tarantino could make a new ‘Star Trek’ Movie with
J J Abrams and the fact that Tarantino has got Paramaount to agree on an
R-rating for the film – which is now considered to be the new hit formula given
how Ryan Reynold’s ‘Deadpool’ and Hugh Jackman’s ‘Logan’ won the box office.
Speaking of X-Men,
Entertainment Weekly just released the first look of ‘Dark Phoenix’ that not
only gives us our first look at Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey’s dark turn, but also
the first look at the outer space side of X-Men universe on screen.
Fans are more
concerned though as to what Disney’s acquisition of Fox means for Marvel’s
superhero movies in the future.
There is excitement
in the non superhero universe as well. Julia Roberts and Jacob Tremblay will
melt your heart in ‘Wonder’. The film, tells the story of a boy with facial
differences who strives to be treated the same as his peers as he begins the
year at a new school.
A new poster for the
heist film ‘Ocean’s Eight’ is out and Sandra Bullock heads the ‘Ocean’s Eight’
all- female star cast as Debbie Ocean, the sister of George Clooney’s ‘Ocean’s
Eleven’ heist-master Danny Ocean.
Another world that is
coming back is ‘Jurassic Park’, with the first trailer of ‘Fallen Kingdom’ just
out and it looks amazing and even shows the return of Jeff Goldblum from the
original Steven Spielberg classic as Dr Ian Malcolm. Moreover, there are
rumours that Sam Neill could be returning to ‘Jurassic Park’ as Dr.Alan Grant.
Blast from the past
aside, Spielberg is back and is shifting gears in the eye-popping ‘Ready Player
One’ trailer. Another sci-fi adventure trailer that was out recently is ‘Alita:
Battle Angel’, from the makers of ‘Avatar’ and it looks inhuman to say the
least.
The biggest takeway
of this weekend is the ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, and the legions of Star Wars
fans have been waiting for this film for nearly two years, after the debut of
its predecessor ‘The Force Awakens’. Watching the first day first show with a
group of nerdy looking Goans, the movie directed by Rian Johnson pulled out all
stops. While the film has divided the fan base, it has taken a brave decision
to figuratively, burn everything down in order to create something new.
There’s plenty of
callbacks and references to the previous films, especially the way some of the
fight scenes played out. At the same time, the film finally brings back the
charm and power of the sibling axis – Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Princess
Leia (the late Carrie Fisher) of the original trilogy.
It
also turned around expectations about the role certain characters would take
and sets up the finale beautifully as there is clearly more than just a
telepathic connection between the face of the light side and dark side of the
force – Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
