The anime series sets up a daunting task for survivors.
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]
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Sunday, June 30, 2019
Notes on Streaming: 7SEEDS From Japan Asks, What Price Survival?
The anime series sets up a daunting task for survivors.
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This Rotten Week: Predicting Spider-Man: Far From Home and Midsommar Reviews
This week, we've got your friendly, neighborhood web-slinger off on vacation, as well as a festival gone way off the rails. Get ready for Spider-Man: Far From Home and Midsommar.
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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 Episode 4 Review: God Bless The Child
Jun 30, 2019
This The Handmaid's Tale review contains spoilers. We have a spoiler free review of the season here.
The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 Episode 4
Gilead is an aesthetic society. It values good taste and beauty. Its Commanders’ houses are chic, permanently prepped for a Homes & Gardens photoshoot (if only they hadn’t executed all the journalists, there could have been some quite lovely magazine spreads). Just look at the gleaming white Putnam place; it even has a pool that isn’t used to drown dissident children.
The beauty serves a purpose, of course – to disguise ugliness. The Wives of Gilead don’t want to confront the brutal regime behind their miracle babies and elegant mansions. They drape doilies and arrange flowers to distract from Gilead’s missing eyes and cut-out tongues. They sit their households down sweetly to hear a Bible reading before committing rape. The uglier the system, the prettier its disguise.
related: Read our review of the previous episode, "Useful"
Which is why June and Serena’s new alliance couldn’t have hoped for a better floorshow than the one given by Aunt Lydia this episode. Slap bang in the middle of the Putnams’ marble floors and silk rugs, Lydia viciously attacked Janine and the spectacle was unavoidable. They may have turned their faces away, but every Wife in the district was in that room. Might one or more be - in June’s words – ignited by it?
Or perhaps like Serena, the other Wives will need to personally experience the loss of a finger/child before they see Gilead as it really is. Losing Nichole appears to have flicked a switch in Serena, activating a previously dormant empathy gene. All of a sudden, she feels for mothers separated from their children. It’s a shabby route to humanity, only taking threats seriously if you’re the one being threatened, but in Gilead, you have to work with what you’ve got.
June’s certainly doing that. This week she was part prison yard hood, squaring up to Ofmatthew in the kitchen, and part cigar-chomping Mafioso, brokering a deal between clients. “It’s worth discussing,” she cockily told Fred about the bargain he needed to make to get Serena back. The Godfather in a red dress.
All the breath-stopped tension of June’s former scenes with the Waterfords has been exhaled now that they’re all colluding in the secret of Nichole’s “kidnap”. No longer prison guards and inmate, they’re collaborators. Explicitly so in Serena’s case. It can’t have been an accident that Serena signalled her assent to June’s “wear the dress, pull the strings” by silently handing her cigarettes and a lighter. Not only are they contraband (especially for a walking womb like June, not that Commander Lawrence carries out that part of his job), they’re also a permanent reminder of Serena’s protest in burning her pretty house to the ground.
read more: The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 Depicts a Seismic Shift in Gilead
"God Bless The Child" does have tension in the silent panic leading up to Aunt Lydia’s attack. With a characteristic lack of self-preservation, Janine danced up to the Putnams and asked them to break one of Gilead’s fundamental laws with no real grasp of her transgression. It was this slow episode at its most gripping. Madeline Brewer makes any scene she’s in compelling because of her character’s childlike unpredictability. The same goes for Ann Dowd as Lydia (the flashback episode we're all really waiting for), who is falling apart in front of us. Watching Lydia’s breakdown this season has been like watching the Waterford house burn - another instrument of Gilead razed.
The messed-up mother/daughter dynamic between Janine and Aunt Lydia fascinates. Just as June earlier struggled to describe her feelings for Commander Waterford, Janine and Aunt Lydia’s twisted bond acknowledges how complicated emotional lives are. Gilead may have written its laws to prevent attachments (“That’s exactly why the system was designed, to prevent this kind of thing from happening”), but it failed to account for the messiness of human emotion, an oversight that – if Serena’s arc is anything to go by – it will pay for dearly.
read more: The Handmaid's Tale - Max Minghella Understands Nick, Even If You Don't
Elsewhere, Emily reunited with her wife and son in a series of careful, quiet and well-acted scenes. Like the baptism flashbacks, which added little, the Canada thread didn’t drive forward the plot but brought emotional range, even sentimentality to this famously hard-nosed drama.
Luke and Moira having Nichole baptized was a happy ending - increasingly less rare this season - only complicated by June having had to identify Luke in that video (the first time she’s seen him since they were separated, and her first proof that he’s being a father to Nichole, hence that smile).
Is Luke in danger now? Could Gilead reclaim its lost child? Or will the coalition of Serena and June be able to keep their daughter safe? What they’ll do next to “move the point” has given season three momentum. As the man said, smart girls are trouble.
Keep up with all our The Handmaid's Tale season 3 news and reviews right here.
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Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’ Lands Huge Series Deal Between Netflix and Warner Bros. TV
Studios have been trying to turn Neil Gaiman‘s acclaimed Vertigo comic book Sandman into a feature film for a long time. The earliest attempts stretch back all the way to the 1990s while the most recent try from New Line Cinema just happened a few years ago. Now, in the wake of the shuttering of the Vertigo arm at DC Comics, a new deal has sprouted to create a Sandman TV series between Netflix and Warner Bros. Television.
The Hollywood Reporter has word of the Sandman TV series in the works. An episode count hasn’t been determined, but apparently the deal for the series comes with a hefty, unknown pricetag that makes it the most expensive TV series DC Entertainment has ever produced.
Wonder Woman scribe Allen Heinberg will be writing and working as showrunner while author Neil Gaiman will executive produce along with David Goyer. The latter two had recently been part of New Line’s attempts to turn the comic into a movie.
If you’ve never encountered Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic book series before, here’s what it’s about:
The Sandman is the universally lauded masterwork following Morpheus, Lord of the Dreaming—a vast hallucinatory landscape housing all the dreams of any and everyone who’s ever existed. Regardless of cultures or historical eras, all dreamers visit Morpheus’ realm—be they gods, demons, muses, mythical creatures, or simply humans who teach Morpheus some surprising lessons.”
That’s the most basic and vague description of the story of a comic series that spans fantasy, horror, and mythology, following the entities of Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium, as well as Dream.
If that sounds like an epic undertaking, that’s exactly why Warner Bros. struggled for years to get a film adaptation off the ground. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was even trying for a few years as producer, star and director, but ended up bailing on the project after creative differences. The last screenwriter to attempt a draft of the script for a feature adaptation at Warner Bros. was Eric Heisserer in 2016. It was just before Gordon-Levitt walked away from the project, and coincidentally enough, this was the last thing he had to say about it to io9:
“I … came to the conclusion that the best version of this property exists as an HBO series or limited series, not as a feature film, not even as a trilogy. The structure of the feature film really doesn’t mesh with this. So I went back and said here’s the work that I’ve done. This isn’t where it should be. It needs to go to TV.”
So here we are, and Sandman is getting the series adaptation many fans and creatives have always felt it deserved.
Apparently Warner Bros. took the pitch to several outlets, including HBO (which is part of WarnerMedia). However, the cable network wasn’t interested because of how much it would have cost to make. That was the perfect opportunity for Netflix to pick up a potentially huge property that already has a well-established fanbase, and it could easily become one of the streamer’s biggest shows. Of course, it actually needs to get off the ground first. And considering how long Warner Bros. was trying before this, we won’t hold our breath until it’s actually in front of a camera. Stay tuned.
The post Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’ Lands Huge Series Deal Between Netflix and Warner Bros. TV appeared first on /Film.
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Christopher Lloyd Wants To Make Back To The Future 4
While there’ve been a lot of ’80s reboots and sequels, the Back to the Future franchise has remained pretty untouchable up to now. Give or take some jokey adverts and DVD features, as well as a great Telltale Games series, the prospect of the property having an official continuation has been shot down in the past by both producer Frank Marshall and director Robert Zemeckis. However, Christopher Lloyd has now given some hope to fans of the series by showing enthusiasm for a fourth movie, as well as ideas for plot lines.
Speaking at the ACE Comic Con in Seattle, Lloyd was asked whether he’d return to his most iconic role as Doc Brown. He was enthusiastic but cagey, commenting as so:
“That’s a tricky, tricky deal. Because you don’t want to do another one and disappoint. So I don’t know. I’d be happy to, for myself. But we’ll see.”
If there was a fourth Back to the Future, Lloyd said he would want the film to tackle contemporary issues, whereby:
“I think somehow it needs to kind of convey a message about something that’s important to everyone, universally, like climate change. Some way of incorporating whatever fever is going on at the moment into the film and keep the feeling of one, two and three.”
To be honest, we’re not sure if a new Back to the Future is a great idea, even with Lloyd’s involvement. After all, there was similar enthusiasm for Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and that didn’t turn out too well. As fun as it can be to update 1980s classics, including the new Child’s Play and the upcoming RoboCop Returns (to name a few), it’d be a shame to see Back to the Future‘s legacy tarnished with an unnecessary sequel.
What do you think, though? Would you welcome another journey in the DeLorean? As ever, share your thoughts and theories below on what that movie could look like.
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Watch: Avengers: Endgame Re-Release Post-Credits Scene Leaks
Though the attention of most Marvel fans has already turned towards Spider-Man: Far From Home, it’s clear that the buzz surrounding Avengers: Endgame hasn’t fully faded away just yet. Make no mistake about it, Disney and Marvel are refusing to call it quits on the film as it made its way back to theaters this weekend with additional footage, including a brand new post-credits scene featuring the Hulk.
Of course, there was a bit more tucked in at the end, too, including a Stan Lee tribute, a special message from co-director Anthony Russo and an exclusive clip from the aforementioned Far From Home. Overall, it made for an enticing if not slightly underwhelming offering, with fans walking away from their screenings of the re-release feeling happy to have watched Endgame again but a bit disappointed by the lack of meaningful bonus content.
Obviously, there are just as many people who simply won’t pay to see the film in theaters again and for those of you who fall into that camp, we’ve got some good news, as some of the extras have now leaked online and can be seen in the video below – which, understandably, is pretty poor quality.
Robert Downey Jr. Shares BTS Shots From Iron Man's Big Avengers: Endgame Moment
Click to zoom 
So, there you have it. That’s the majority of what was shown during the re-release screenings this weekend and as we said above, it was certainly a bit of a letdown. The post-credits scene itself featured unfinished effects and doesn’t add anything to the story and the Far From Home clip is taken from the very start of the film and is hardly the most exciting part of the sequel.
But then again, getting to re-watch Avengers: Endgame on the big screen again isn’t exactly the worst way to spend a couple of hours on the weekend and besides, with Spidey’s next solo outing getting ready to swing into theaters, it may be useful to refresh your memory on what happened in the last MCU movie.
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Sandman TV Series From Neil Gaiman Coming to Netflix
Jun 30, 2019
No, you're not dreaming. Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is finally getting adapted.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Television has come to a deal with Netflix to adapt Gaiman's influential comic book run into a television series. The deal is described as being a massive financial commitment from Netflix and represents potentially the largest dollar amount that DC Entertainment has ever received for a TV series. It would have to be a big monetary commitment for Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment to allow one of its juiciest comic book properties to go to a rival streaming service rather than its own, DC Universe.
Gaiman will serve as an executive producer on the TV project alongside David Goyer, who was also attached to the produce an ill-fated film version of The Sandman for New Line. Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey's Anatomy) will serve as showrunner. The project is bypassing the pilot stage and being ordered straight-to-series at Netflix. There is no early word how many episodes it will feature.
The Sandman has long been one of DC and the recently shuttered Vertigo's most sought after properties to adapt. The series, which Gaiman launched in 1989, follows Dream (the titular Sandman), who sets out to rebuild his unconscious realm after being imprisoned in an occult ritual for decades. Like Gaiman's other properties like American Gods and Good Omens, The Sandman features personified versions of mystical entities like Death, Desire, Despair, and Destruction. Both American Gods and Good Omens have received their own TV adaptations for Starz and Amazon Prime respectively.
The project has come close to being adapted several times throughout its lifespan. Most recently, it was in line to become a film before it fell into development hell. That project's co-writer Eric Heisserer said that The Sandman would likely fare better as a TV series. Now we'll get to see if he’s right!
With rivals Amazon and HBO having their own big budget blockbuster franchises in place with Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, Netflix has been on the hunt for an extendable franchise of their own. That search has mined a lot of comics IP including Mark Millar's Millarworld, Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy, and an overall first-look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. Netflix has also searched outside the comic book realm with trading card game Magic: The Gathering and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Stay tuned for all the upcoming Sandman news here.
Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad
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BREAKING: Sandman TV Series In Development at Netflix!
Sandman TV Series In Development at Netflix!
The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics have found their next attempt at a live-action venture, with streaming service Netflix picking up the option to the series for an adaptation. Wonder Woman co-writer Allan Heinberg will serve as showrunner with both Gaiman and David Goyer executive producing.
No official statement has come from Warner Bros. Television or Netflix just yet, but with San Diego Comic-Con just weeks ago the official announcement could come during one of WBTV’s many panels. THR notes that the series comes with a “massive financial commitment” from both DC Entertainment and Netflix, with the streaming service always eager for the next big thing in television.
Pick Up the first volume of Sandman by clicking here!
There have been countless attempts to turn the seminal Sandman comics into live-action adaptations before, dating back into the 90s when the series began. Recently Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attached to star in and direct a feature film adaptation at WB’s New Line Cinema before that version failed to materialize.
Sandman, which launched DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, ran for 75 issues beginning in 1989. Gaiman’s worlds-within-worlds weaved an episodic anthology, focusing on the allegorical character of Dream and his brothers and sisters, known as the Endless (Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny).
The Sandman series adaptation marks another high-profile comic adaptation for Netflix, which already has Dark Horse’s Umbrella Academy in production on a second season along with many Mark Millar works like The Magic Order & Jupiter’s Legacy.
The post BREAKING: Sandman TV Series In Development at Netflix! appeared first on ComingSoon.net.
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‘Stranger Things 3’ Review: The Nostalgic Hit is Better Than Ever With an Exciting, Emotional Third Season
The kids of Hawkins, Indiana aren’t really kids anymore. Demogorgons and other slimy monsters are plenty scary, but not nearly as scary as the passage of time. In Stranger Things 3, the third season of Netflix’s mega-hit series, characters who once seemed so childish and young are on the cusp of young adulthood, and facing down the future. “One summer can change anything” says the tagline for the season, and it’s an apt description. After a lackluster, slipshod second season, Stranger Things roars back more exciting, and emotional than ever, with a third season that moves things forward at a thrilling pace, and sweeps us along with it.
It’s summer 1985, and love is in the air. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) are in the midst of a relationship – which, since they’re thirteen, simply means they spend any free time they have smooching clumsily in El’s bedroom. Their blooming romance is infuriating to Hopper (David Harbour), who has fully embraced his role as Eleven’s father. Hopper is threatened by all the kissing going on under his roof, and he’d like it to stop, immediately. At the same time, he’d like to start a new relationship of his own with Joyce (Winona Ryder), who, understandably, remains a bit hung-up over the brutal death of her old boyfriend Bob.
But love, or lack-thereof, is the least of these character’s problems. Because the Mind Flayer – the creepy creature from the Upside Down that possessed Joyce’s poor son Will (Noah Schnapp) last season, is still lurking – and it wants revenge against Eleven. Will Eleven and her pals triumph over the forces of darkness? Will Hopper and Joyce finally embrace their feelings? This set-up and these questions are familiar – even derivative. But how they play out is not. Stranger Things 3‘s strength lies in the unexpected directions it heads into, giving viewers the sense of something legitimately new and thrilling.
One of the many problems of season 2 was the character imbalance. The series added even more characters last time – new kid Max (Sadie Sink) and her jerk brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery), but had no idea what to do with them. Worse, it didn’t seem to know what to do with any of the other characters as well, save for Eleven. Season 3 has none of these problems. Remarkably, it finds a way to give its ever-growing ensemble their fair share of heavy lifting. And we relish the time we spend with them. What a treat it is to spend time with these characters again – like reuniting with old friends.
To better balance the workload, Stranger Things 3 breaks everyone up into groups, while also keeping them in the general proximity of one another. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), back from summer camp, ends up spending most of the season at the town’s new mall with Steve (Joe Keery) and his co-worker Robin (Maya Hawke). Steve and Robin work at the mall ice cream parlor, and the three characters are soon embroiled in a secret plot involving the mall itself. They’re joined by season 2 fave Erica, once again played with scene-stealing grace by Priah Ferguson.
Mike, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Will are situated in their own group, with Mike and Lucas pondering the mysteries of girls while Will grows paranoid that his friends are growing up too fast and will soon leave him behind.
Eleven, meanwhile, forms a new and welcomed friendship with Max. Season 2 kept these characters apart the entire season, and when they finally met, Eleven was instantly hostile to Max. None of that is here this time, and the camaraderie that blooms between the two girls is one of this season’s many highlights.
And while Hopper and Joyce are dancing around their potential relationship, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are trying to navigate their own. The two are together now, and both interning at the local paper. But while Jonathan is content to go with the flow, Nancy dreams of cracking a big story, and becoming a star reporter, consequences be damned.
Eventually, all of these threads come together – and in an wholly satisfying way. Nothing here seems crammed together, or extraneous. Instead, Stranger Things 3 carefully builds its way towards big Spielbergian moments loaded with pulse-pounding action beats against memorable set pieces. And everyone is bringing their A-game.
Brown’s Eleven remains a highlight, and she’s tasked with some of the biggest emotional heavy lifting she’s had to deal with so far. Harbour once again reminds everyone why he’s so damn likable, managing to balance Hopper’s rough-and-tumble tendencies with real heart. He also gets to kick a lot of ass – Hopper is in full-fledged action hero mode. And the goofy friendship between Keery and Matarazzo’s characters is as fresh and charming as it ever was.
On the new character front, Hawke’s Robin is a welcomed addition to the bunch. The actress has great dry comedic timing, and her line delivery – her voice sounds almost identical to the voice of her mother, Uma Thurman – is so sharply enunciated and pronounced that you hang on her every word. It would’ve been very easy for this character to get lost in the shuffle, but Hawke nails it.
The direction, most of which comes from series creators the Duffer Brothers, is often cinematic, but poorly served by some oppressively dark lighting. I get it – this is a show that takes place primarily at night, in dark rooms, dealing with dark moods. But we should be able to see things on screen. My biggest problem with season 3 is that for several episodes, I found myself squinting and trying to figure out just what the hell I was supposed to be looking at.
If you can move beyond the frequently impenetrable cinematography, you’ll be rewarded with what might very well be the best season of this series yet. I came away from season 2 thinking the show had run its course, and there was perhaps nothing left to do with this premise. I leave season 3 excited to see what comes next. To hell with the dead summer movie season – stay home and get your blockbuster kicks from Stranger Things 3.
Stranger Things 3 premieres on Netflix July 4, 2019.
The post ‘Stranger Things 3’ Review: The Nostalgic Hit is Better Than Ever With an Exciting, Emotional Third Season appeared first on /Film.
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Saturday, June 29, 2019
Edinburgh 2019: FARMING and AURORA Take Top Awards
Ahead of Sunday night's Closing Gala, Edinburgh International Film Festival announced this year's award winners. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje picked up the festival's prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature for his film Farming. The writer-director looked to his own childhood for his debut feature, which follows a young man, Enitan, left in the care of a British foster family by his Nigerian parents. Instead of finding a better life, Enitan instead joins a skinhead gang led by a brutal leader. The jury who presented the award called the film, "culturally adrenalising. Visceral. Inspirational." Actor Damson Idris was awarded with the Best Performance in a British Feature Film Award for his leading role in the film. Director Miia Tervo took home the Best International Feature Film...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]
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Spider-Man: Far From Home Producer Says Morbius Looks Great So Far
During the press rounds for Spider-Man: Far From Home, producer Amy Pascal praised Jared Leto and said that the upcoming Morbius looks “really great.” Given that the only footage we’ve seen so far though has been a couple of still images and a brief video, the jury’s still most definitely out on this one after the last time the Academy Award-winning actor played a pale comic book character.
Sony may have leased their web-slinging crown jewel back to Marvel Studios after the disappointment of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but that hasn’t stopped the studio from moving forward with their own series of spinoffs featuring Spidey’s rogues’ gallery. The Tom Hardy-led Venom was the first entry in their cinematic universe and made an impressive $855 million at the box office, despite less-than-enthusiastic reviews.
When asked about Morbius, Pascal responded by saying “Jared is fantastic. Who could be better? You can’t imagine. It’s fantastic. I’m not involved in that one, but the studio just wrapped, and I think it looks really great.” Who knows if Pascal has seen Suicide Squad or not, because Leto’s Juggalo-esque interpretation of the Joker came in for a fair share of criticism from fans and critics alike.
In any case, hiring well-known dramatic actors to lead their movies seems to be the approach Sony are taking to their spinoffs, and it’s one that’s worked so far, with Tom Hardy’s unhinged performance turning out to be one of Venom’s only redeeming qualities. With Leto determined to make his mark on a comic book movie after having large parts of his Suicide Squad performance left on the cutting room floor, the actor definitely has a point to prove.
Directed by Safe House filmmaker Daniel Espinosa, Morbius co-stars Jared Harris, Adria Arjona, Matt Smith and Tyrese Gibson, and hits theaters on July 31st, 2020.
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Fortnite Player Uses Creative Mode To Remake Pokémon Red
Back in 1999, Pokémon Red and Blue were at the centre of a genuine craze. In playgrounds, all you’d hear was discussion of the best starter, link cable Pokémon battles and gossip over the mysterious MissingNo. Cut to 2019 and the children of those 90s kids are talking as excitedly about Fortnite. So, it’s a nice bit of symmetry that FiveWalnut8586 has done an extremely impressive job of recreating Pokémon Red in Fortnite’s Creation Mode.
Right now, he’s built the first few stages in the game, with players able to choose their starting Pokémon (actually a weapon) in Pallet Town, before battling the long grass and wilderness before reaching Viridian City and Pewter City. But the centerpiece of the map has got to be the seriously impressive gym battle against an Onyx.
While animating a giant rock monster in Fortnite would have been all but impossible given the Creative Mode tools, FiveWalnut8586’s solution is beautifully simple and effective. There’s a static Onyx model sending out shockwaves and you have to avoid them and shoot the explosive barrel attached to its head. If you want to check this out for yourself, the code for the map is 2911-4244-1867, or you can see a video of it via the link below.
You might do well to familiarize yourself with Red/Blue, too, because in the wake of Detective Pikachu being a hit, our sources tell us that Legendary Pictures are developing a live-action movie based on the original GameBoy games. The anime miniseries Pokémon Origins sticks closely to Red/Blue‘s design and mechanics as well, and if you want a taste of what the upcoming project from Legendary might look like (or you’re just a big fan of classic Pokémon), you could do worse than checking it out.
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The Violent Satire of ‘Robocop’
It’s easy to look at the surface elements of RoboCop and dismiss the movie as a violent actioner about a crime-fighting robot cleaning up the mean streets of a futuristic Detroit. Equipped with cheesy one-liners and plenty of scenes containing bloodshed and carnage, the film certainly ticks all the right boxes in that regard. Still, anyone who understands RoboCop will agree that the movie is much smarter than its basic premise suggests.
At the time of its making, director Paul Verhoeven and writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner set out to comment on the problems affecting 1980s America. Issues like corrupt politics, violence, unchecked capitalism, economic decline, gentrification, media influence, and the militarization of the police force. The movie is a melting pot of upsetting sociopolitical commentary in addition to being an entertaining sci-fi action romp.
RoboCop himself was created as a reaction to action hero archetypes popularized by the likes of Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. Similar to their respective heroes in Death Wish and Dirty Harry, RoboCop is all about shooting first and asking questions later. According to Neumeier, the film’s protagonist and his violent nature represents “how ludicrous the [action] genre was becoming.”
Additionally, his simplistic brand of justice — all guns blazing and merciless if need be — also exemplified the unforgiving conservative ideology of Ronald Reagan’s America. Even though the titular machine-human hybrid is a walking parody, he also displays these characteristics pretty straight-laced.
As is the case with most Verhoeven flicks, RoboCop‘s satire is far from subtle. For example, throughout the film, we see several segments of Media Break, a Detroit news program where the smiling anchors comment on horrendous global catastrophes without a shred of sympathy. During these scenes, we’re reminded that the world has become so desensitized to violence that it’s just a common aspect of day-to-day life. Perhaps this is why the movie goes overboard at times when it comes to the gruesome stuff.
Of course, the entertainment we consume is also partly to blame for people’s apathy toward atrocities that don’t affect them. RoboCop drives this point home by treating us to commercials for fake products such as NUKEM, a board game where the objective is to launch missiles at opposing players. Furthermore, as the commercial for the game shows, it’s fun for the whole family. There’s no moral or social responsibility when it comes to making a few bucks.
Naturally, RoboCop’s biggest gripe is with corrupt corporations and capitalism gone awry. In the movie, this notion is represented by Omni Consumer Products, a powerful conglomerate which sells items for virtually every consumer need. They also control Detroit’s law enforcement and treat it like a for-profit business. The problem with this is that they’ve turned the city into a crime-ridden cesspool of human waste. However, the company wants to create a shinier new city down the line, and they employ RoboCop to flush out the undesirables.
Omni can also be interpreted as a metaphor for America’s involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, which saw Colonel Oliver North illegally sell weapons to Iran to help rebels combat Nicaragua’s socialist government. While Reagan’s involvement in the conspiracy is up for debate, many people believe that he was an out of touch imbecile. In the movie, the head of the company is simply referred to as Old Man (Dan O’Herlihy) and is presented as being unaware of the unlawful scheming being carried out by his executives, which includes employing violent mercenaries to do their dirty work.
There’s no denying that RoboCop is a movie that encapsulates the perils of its zeitgeist. That said, watching it today, you can’t help but feel the film’s messages were a sign of things to come. That’s because its vision of the near future was prescient in many ways.
For a start, capitalism is still far from perfect as companies continue to be afforded a wealth of privileges. To name one example of this unfairness, earlier this year CBS News reported that 60 of America’s most profitable Fortune 500 corporations paid no federal income tax in 2018. But given that the current US president has personally used loopholes to avoid paying tax in the past, this news isn’t surprising in the slightest.
Elsewhere, there’s been a rise in the privatization of prisons and mercenaries being hired to serve in the American police state. With the combating of crime now rooted in the financial interests of corporations, the ethics of this type of law enforcement is very questionable. It’s only a matter of time before they invent robot cops to do exact uncompromising justice on criminals.
Of course, the film’s themes pertaining to violence, the media, militarization, and conservatism that lacks compassion are still topical in the current climate. NUKEM is tame compared to modern video games, daily news reports show us cops looking like they’re about to go to war, and Reagan’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric is back in full swing. Maybe RoboCop is a silly action flick to some, but it remains a biting satire that’s proving to be timeless.
The post The Violent Satire of ‘Robocop’ appeared first on Film School Rejects.
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The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies of 2019 So Far
For more in this series, check out our Mid-Year Report archives.
Whether it’s to escape from our problems or better understand them, we need speculative fiction more than ever these days. But so far, 2019 hasn’t been delivering on the former. Not only are we midway through the year, but as of the end of June, we’re also basically midway through the summer, the season of blockbuster entertainment that’s traditionally mindless yet still often satisfyingly well-made. Yes, there have been a few good superhero movies this year, but outside of the dependable from Marvel and the surprising from DC, the science fiction and fantasy movies that have resonated thus far have been mostly smaller and/or less successful releases taking us deep into space or far into the future.
Keep reading for a look at 2019’s best sci-fi and fantasy movies so far.
Alita: Battle Angel
More than 15 years in the making, James Cameron’s pet project, which wound up being helmed by Robert Rodriguez, might have been a perfect alternative to all the underwhelming sequels had it been held for this summer. Instead, US audiences mostly ignored the manga adaption when it released inexplicably on Valentine’s Day. There’s no denying Alita: Battle Angel has issues, especially script-wise; Cameron productions often do. But as far as spectacle tailor-made for the theatrical experience, there hasn’t been much better this decade, let alone this year. And yes, I’m talking 3D-worthy, the most impressive since Cameron’s own Avatar 10 years ago.
The worldbuilding is visually (if not logically) magnificent. The action is stupendously well-directed. And at its center, behind some occasionally questionable execution from the story and effects teams, Rosa Salazar gives a phenomenal captured performance that’s energetic and endearing as the titular cyborg finding her way through a 26th-century dystopia full of hunter-warriors, literal overlords, and a thrilling sport called Motorball. Thanks to foreign markets, Alita is one of the top-grossing movies of 2019 worldwide, despite disappointing domestically, so hopefully, the teased sequel will still happen.
Pre-order the movie from Amazon
Aniara
While some foreign countries are making waves with big science fiction blockbusters that look expensive and are sufficiently engrossing, Sweden has come through with something more intriguing yet still awe-inspiring. Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s Aniara is not heady sci-fi, just clever and contemplative, ultimately ironic even. Based on Harry Martinson’s epic existential sci-fi poem, itself the pride of Sweden, the film follows a colonial transport ship that loses power and goes off course, drifting through space possibly forever. It’s like a better, more populous Passengers. Actually, forget I brought up that movie. Essentially, it’s Gilligan’s Island with less goofiness, more despair. Also, orgies.
Emelie Jonsson is fabulous in the lead, playing all the stages of adjustment to a crisis as an employee of the ship who operates a form of VR escapist attraction for its passengers until even that resource has been depleted. While never as deep nor lyrical nor scientifically motivated as the source material and not even as curiously or brutally bleak as another title on this list about a one-way interstellar “sarcophagus,” Aniara is a smorgasbord of a film, spanning many eras in its depiction of life on an aimless ark. And kudos to its LGBT representation being so normalized and not relevant to the plot. Between this and its co-production of 2011’s Melancholia, Sweden might just be the best place to find profound sci-fi disaster movies.
Avengers: Endgame
Last year, Avengers: Infinity War just barely made my list of the best sci-fi and fantasy movies of 2018. And in a tie with Aquaman. When ranked rather than alphabetized, Avengers: Endgame will certainly fare much better. Like Infinity War, it’s a whole lot of movie. It also feels like a series finale for a decade-long TV show that just happened to play out on the big screen over 22 super-sized episodes. To that, it’s a surprisingly satisfying conclusion, wrapping up multiple character arcs and plotlines, including some we didn’t even realize needed such focus — this is, unexpectedly, Nebula’s movie as much as it is Iron Man or Captain America’s.
How and where Endgame will place down the road, both within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and against other comic book and superhero movies overall, is unclear. The Avengers sequel is hardly able to exist on its own. For this year, though, the experience of sitting through its three hours, divided into the three acts of serious drama in melancholic mourning, fun adventures with time-travel fan service, and an overpopulated yet thrilling splash-page of a climax, especially as a follow-up to the messy misery of Infinity War, was outstanding.
See the movie in theaters now
Captain Marvel
As substantial as Avengers: Endgame was (and maybe is), its MCU predecessor proved to be anything but. Narratively, that is. Outside of the screen, it was a momentous occasion, more so for the billion-dollar-grossing ceiling broken by a woman director (co-helmer Anna Boden) than the fact that Marvel Studios finally delivered a movie with a female lead with its 21st franchise installment. On the screen, it’s a fine standalone tale of a superwoman learning not to hold anything back, presented alongside a Nick Fury origin story plus a showcase for a scene-stealing alien cat. Also, tons of ’90s nostalgia.
Aside from all the references to that decade, the movie also earns marks for feeling like something of a mashup of ’90s action cinema and that era’s indie spirit. It looks like a Marvel movie made by filmmakers who came out of Sundance, and with regular MCU DP Ben Davis, they gave us some of our favorite shots of the year so far. Meanwhile, their screenplay, written with Geneva Robertson-Dworet, subverts expectations whether you’re a comic book expert or casual superhero movie fan, and gives us phenomenal female bonding moments. It could have used more personality, but here’s hoping there will be growth throughout multiple sequels.
Fast Color
Since the rise of the superhero movie genre as a dominant presence in cinema, plenty of storytellers have explored the idea of what it would be like if costumed crusaders or people with special abilities existed in the real world. Julia Hart’s Fast Color is probably the closest thing to a correct answer. The small, stiff, slow film makes even the similarly plotted Midnight Special look like an epic action spectacular. Gugu Mbatha-Raw takes the lead as a woman on the run from government agents and scientists. She heads back home to reconnect with her mother and the daughter she abandoned years ago.
They have abilities, too. And the effects involved in their powers are very cool and beautiful. Yet this isn’t a film to watch for dazzling magic or astonishing feats or heroes saving the day. Fast Color is mainly a drama about three generations of women who’ve inherited gifts that go back through their family for centuries. They mainly involve breaking things apart and putting them back together, metaphorically reminding me of The Brother from Another Planet (which also happens to co-star David Strathairn). This, too, is a little film with big ideas executed tremendously.
The post The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies of 2019 So Far appeared first on Film School Rejects.
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