The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special: Trailer Talk
It’s come to that time of year where shops are selling Christmas decorations and holiday releases are being announced. And Marvel is once again included in the Christmas cheer, with ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’.
The special will see Star Lord (Chris Pratt – Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy), Drax (Dave Bautista – Dune, Guardians of the Galaxy, Army of the Dead), Mantis (Pom Klementieff – Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper – Guardians of the Galaxy, A Star Is Born, Nightmare Alley) travel to Earth in order to cheer up Star Lord after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, all while discovering what Christmas is all about.
The one thing that worried me about this special was whether the quality would decrease because of its format and the fact that it’s a Disney+ exclusive. However, after the fantastic ‘Werewolf by Night’ and the hilarious trailer for this, I have more faith in it. The cast look fantastic as usual and the humour is still present (including a hilarious chase scene involving Drax, Mantis and Kevin Bacon!). But it also looks like it will be heart-warming; even the premise is sweet as it shows that Rocket, Mantis and Drax care about Star Lord.
The first ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is one of my favourite Marvel films and I’m so happy to see it continue. I had doubts but the trailer has showed that the humour is still present, as well as the well-known chemistry between the leading characters. It will also be interesting to see how the non-human characters react to everything on Earth for the first time!
November this year will not only see the release of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, it will also mark the end of Phase 4 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase 5 won’t start until five months later with ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, the third film in the ‘Ant-Man’ series.
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ sees Casey Lang (Kathryn Newton – Detective Pikachu) transport her, her father Scott Lang (Paul Rudd – Ant-Man), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas – Wall Street, Ant-Man) and Hope Van Dyme (Evangeline Lily – Ant-Man, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) into the quantum realm, where they meet various creatures, and take on a quest beyond what they thought was possible.
The trailer does a great job at not completely spoiling the film; after ‘Multiverse of Madness’, it’s clear Marvel is taking their films in the direction of creating a multiverse war of some kind. And the visuals are incredible. It’s reminiscent of the wonderous visuals of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as well as ‘Star Wars’ but gives the familiar atmosphere a new perspective by introducing them to new characters who have never experienced this before.
It also introduces Kang the Conqueror to the film universe. Played by Jonathan Mayors (Lovecraft Country, Captive State), Kang the Conqueror was first introduced in the Disney+ series ‘Loki’ and, while I am not familiar with the character, the actor is fantastic so I’m excited to see his portrayal.
Overall, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ looks interesting but is also an indication of the direction of the Cinematic Universe after the conclusion of ‘Avengers: Endgame’. After being confused by its direction for a while, I’m glad the new phase has a clear route and I’m excited for it.
With advancing AI technology comes new ways to scare moviegoers, whether it’s within the horror or science fiction genre. ‘Black Mirror’ is more than knowledgeable of this subject matter as well as the 2019 remake of ‘Child’s Play’ and, now it looks like writer James Wan (Saw, Malignant) and Blumhouse want to dive into this theme of strange new technologies too.
‘M3GAN’ follows Gemma (Allison Williams – Get Out), a toy company roboticist who suddenly becomes the caretaker of her 8-year-old orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw – The Haunting of Hill House). After creating a life-like doll prototype that is programmed to be someone’s best friend, Gemma decides to pair the doll, M3GAN, with her niece which leads to horrific consequences.
What happens when ‘Child’s Play’ is mixed with the passive aggressiveness of GLaDOS from ‘Portal 2’? You get this film, and it looks fantastic! The tone seems to be creepy and tense, with a hint of self-awareness; it knows it’s a ridiculous concept and is having fun with the idea (M3GAN dancing was also an unexpected but welcome visual!).
The slow build-up of the robot protecting Cady to the point of extreme is very well executed in the trailer, and M3GAN looks great. Blended with CGI and an actress (Amie Donald – Netflix’s Sweet Tooth), the film takes the ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ approach with the robot’s appearance, creating a creepy and unnerving appearance for her.
‘M3GAN’ looks creepy and unnerving. The visuals effects to create the robotic character look fantastic and the film looks tense but could also have some comical moments. The January release date is a little worrisome, but I still cannot wait for this. And, don’t worry, the film was not named after me.
Fantastic Fest 2022: My Experience with ‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’
A film reviewer has the responsibility of watching and criticising different types of films, through different genres and quality. When writing a review, it can sometimes be easy to type out thoughts and feelings towards the media and sometimes it can be a struggle.
This is one of those times; reviewing ‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’ is going to be one of the most challenging articles I will probably ever write.
‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’ is the third film in the extremely low budget ‘Birdemic’ franchise. The film follows Evan and Kim who quickly develop a relationship in their small beach town. But, as the title suggests, the town is soon under attack from rabid eagles.
The first film is infamous for extremely cheap visual effects and bad acting and cinematography, and the third film continues to implement these aspects. And, while the first film was enjoyable due to its poor quality, ‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’ is just dull.
A lot of technical mistakes are expected by now: some shots will suddenly switch to a different type of lighting despite being in the same location, some dialogue suddenly changes volume drastically without warning and there’s even a moment where a character is supposed to be talking yet their mouth isn’t moving. But what’s been added are long lingering shots, that are in desperate need of a re-edit. As proof of this, the film contains a 6-minute opening credit sequence, which then transitions to a silent scene of the main character, Evan, walking down the beach before transitioning to him watching TV. And even this scene goes on for too long, with a news segment that treats the audience with no respect for their intelligence at all.
This theme of treating the audience poorly doesn’t end at that scene; it continues throughout the entire film. A 10-minute scene early on in the film occurs where Kim is asking Evan about his job, and it is painful to listen to; it’s as if she’s asking Google various questions. But ‘Birdemic 3’ also tries to carry a message about Climate Change, fires affecting America and how we can help save our planet. This is a very important and relevant message as it continues to affect the world, but the writing is so poor and unsubtle that it appears disrespectful to the issue. If the script had a different writer, then ‘Birdemic 3’ could’ve easily have worked with this message and the consequences that it shows. But this is ‘Birdemic’ and good writing doesn’t exist in this world.
If there were anything positive to say about ‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’, it’s that the Van-Gogh style poster is actually lovely, and some of the beach shots look great, but their appearances are rare and does not make for a good 80-minute film.
After enjoying the first film, ‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’ is just as awful as the previous films and additionally dull. The poor quality in writing, editing, acting and effects are once again here but the film takes its time in developing a relationship between the two characters that I forgot this was supposed to be about bird attacks. Plus, the creatures didn’t show until the 60-minute mark, looking like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
‘Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle’ is an hour of long lingering scenes where nothing happens, a 6-minute opening credit scene and 15 minutes of crazy birds. It almost begs the question: by the third film, was the writer/director making a bad film on purpose after the cult following of the first entry?
I expected a bad film, but not something to fall asleep to. But, if you really want to watch this, there’s a great game to play alongside it: take a drink every time the word ‘wildfire’ is spoken.
In 1993, ‘Super Mario Bros.’ movie was released, serving as an adaption of the iconic Nintendo gaming franchise. It starred Bob Hoskins as Mario (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Long Good Friday) and Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider, Speed) as King Koopa and was a disaster. It was as far away as an adaptation could get with terrible acting, strange character designs and odd tones. Since then, a movie adaptation has not been attempted, until animation studio Illumination (Despicable Me, Sing) announced one in 2018.
‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ stars Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy) as Mario, who is tasked with stopping Bowser (Jack Black: School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda) from taking the power stars from across the world.
The announcement of the film made me nervous, especially after seeing the first trailer of ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ when that was revealed, and I was worried it would be terrible. And my nerves weren’t calmed when the voice cast was announced. None of the voices sounded like they would fit the character they had been picked for. But I am happy to say that I have been mostly proved wrong because the movie looks fantastic!
Illumination Studios’ films are gorgeous looking, and this trailer further proves how amazing their films look. From the opening shot of the trailer to the first glimpse of Mushroom Kingdom, it all looks perfect, colourful and vibrant.
Most of the voices are also great. The biggest surprise is Jack Black, whose voice fits very comfortably with the role of Bowser; he clearly cares about the source material and has taken his time to figure out what style of voice Bowser should have, and it’s paid off. Keegan-Michael Key voices Toad, another unexpected choice, but it also fits perfectly. While the game version of Toad has a very growly voice, Key has chosen to give Toad a softer tone, but used the famous voice when he’s yelling or shouting, which works fantastically.
The only issue with the trailer, which seems to be an unfortunate mindset across social media, is that Chris Pratt’s voice for Mario is a strange decision. While it feels like the other cast have changed their voices to suit their characters, Chris Pratt has chosen to adopt a Rocket Raccoon-style for Mario, and it’s very jarring to hear. While Mario and Luigi did start the games by having a Brooklyn accent (until Charles Martinet took the role of Mario in 1991), fans have gotten used to how Mario and Luigi sound by now, so it is strange to hear a different voice. However, it can also be argued that, since this film is an origin story, it would make sense for Mario to have the Brooklyn accent since that’s how his voice sounded like at the start of the gaming franchise. But, as a long-time fan, it is weird to hear the casting choice for the lead character.
But, overall, I am both pleasantly surprised and impressed by the first trailer for ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’. The visuals are gorgeous and colourful, the designs of the main characters are completely accurate to the games and, aside from Mario, the voice cast is fantastic. I didn’t expect to be writing this, but I cannot wait for it.
