House Of The Dragon What The Rise Of House Strong Means

When House of the Dragon began, it was like being invited to an extended family reunion full of relatives we’ve never met. Here are five major Targaryen characters, all with silver hair; and here are also the Velaryons, each of the same silver hair, who’ve married into the Targaryens. And though they hadn’t married into the royal dynasty yet, the prospects of Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and his daughter Alicent (Emily Carey) were clearly signaled to be on the rise by the end of the first hour....

December 5, 2022 · 6 min · 1273 words · Madeline Bates

House Of The Dragon Episode 4 Review King Of The Narrow Sea

House of the Dragon Episode 4 Sex plays a big role in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire world (as it does in our own). Not only does the act, you know, feel good, but procreation is kind of a big deal in a political landscape dominated by inherited dynasties. So while Game of Thrones certainly reveled in spicing up the fantasy genre with nudity and violence, both elements at least felt natural to the story that the show wanted to tell....

December 5, 2022 · 8 min · 1539 words · Cesar Johnston

How F9 Brings Back Justice For Han And Asian Inclusion

One thing is for certain about the Fast and Furious film franchise—it has been a wild ride. Other aspects of the Fast Saga are less certain. Although the F9 title definitively labels the latest film as the ninth installment, it’s actually the 10th film. Or the 11th. You could even say the 12th if you include the short film. It depends how you want to count it. For a franchise laden with car chase clichés, the Fast Saga makes a lot of long, winding detours....

December 5, 2022 · 8 min · 1568 words · James Miller

How Marvel S Eternals Succeeds Where Captain America Civil War Failed

If you break Marvel’s Eternals down to a barebones premise, the latest MCU film is the story of a family that loves each other but is torn asunder by ideological differences in spite of that love. It’s one of the more topical thematic explorations in the MCU pantheon—a central tension Captain America: Civil War promised us, but never fully delivered on. Eternals isn’t about Deviants. It’s not about shepherding humanity through millennia of technological development....

December 5, 2022 · 6 min · 1213 words · Grace Smith

How One Scene Changed The Politics Of Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

Sure enough, screenwriter Paul Dehn was asked to immediately get to work on a new story following Escape‘s release. The next one would follow Milo, renamed Caesar by circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban), as he laid the groundwork for the series of events that would bring about humanity’s downfall and make apes the dominant civilization on Earth. Released 50 years ago this week, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was directed by J....

December 5, 2022 · 8 min · 1504 words · Elizabeth Bartolome

How Pok Mon Snap Helped Pioneer The Photo Mode Era

When New Pokémon Snap is released for Nintendo Switch on April 30, Nintendo fans everywhere will have a chance to experience the long-awaited follow-up to one of the company’s most fascinating and beloved experiments: 1999’s Pokémon Snap. As an on-rails FPS game where the only shooting you did was take pictures of wild Pokémon, Pokémon Snap was a true oddity. While developer HAL Laboratory elevated that premise through Metroidvania-like unlock mechanics and a fantastic photo grading system, most of Pokémon Snap‘s gameplay really was based on the thrill of capturing in-game moments with a camera....

December 5, 2022 · 2 min · 356 words · Dale Meade

How Stargirl Finally Brings The Green Lantern To The Dc Tv Universe

Stargirl Season 2 Episode 2 Every fan of the DC TV universe has been waiting for what feels like forever to see some form of the Green Lantern pop up on our screens. Arrow’s John Diggle has felt like the most likely candidate, ever since he found a strangely glowing green box in that show’s series finale and then proceeded to bounce through almost every other superhero series on the network this year, dropping awkward hints about inexplicable headaches and destiny along the way....

December 5, 2022 · 4 min · 809 words · Paul Frye

How The Little Mermaid Saved Disney Animation

Originally a creature of tragedy in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the once nameless heroine was reshaped by Disney, and more precisely Walt Disney Animation Studios during a moment of crisis, into an animated life so vibrant it is recognized as the beginning of the Disney Renaissance: the era in which Disney Animation reclaimed its legacy by influencing millions of children to embrace newly revitalized fantasies of princesses and castles, musicals and magic....

December 5, 2022 · 14 min · 2961 words · Barbara Richardson

How The Sopranos Changed Tv Analysis Forever

There is arguably no journalist who has covered The Sopranos in greater depth for the last two decades than Alan Sepinwall. Now Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic, Sepinwall helped shape the narrative of television discourse just as Sopranos creator David Chase forged a revolutionary subject to evaluate. The New Jersey native started his career writing at the Newark Star-Ledger, putting him in an intimate position to cover The Sopranos close to the show’s setting....

December 5, 2022 · 7 min · 1368 words · Ryan Best

How The Star Trek Strange New Worlds Finale Brings Classic Lore Back To Canon

Expecting easter eggs and nods to Star Trek: The Original Series in any contemporary Trek series is normal. Discovery season 1 had a Gorn skeleton and a tribble. Picard season 2 basically hinged on the underrated TOS episode “Assignment: Earth.” Lower Decks season 2 had an entire episode focused on how to pronounce “Mugato.” And of course, nearly every episode of Strange New Worlds has had a least one wink-or-nod to something from The Original Series....

December 5, 2022 · 11 min · 2329 words · Harry Stewart

How Underworld Mixed Werewolves Vampires And Shakespeare

To be clear, from its 2003 inception Underworld has always known exactly what it was: The Matrix aesthetic of shiny black leather-numbers now adorning beautiful people who may or may not transform into gruesome monsters. With bullets, guns, and just enough horror conventions to allow it to cross-pollinate genres, it wasn’t that different on a surface level from a number of early-2000s actioners, particularly the equally indissoluble Resident Evil franchise....

December 5, 2022 · 7 min · 1357 words · James Schilling

How Vikings Valhalla Forged Its Epic Battles

When it comes to action, Vikings: Valhalla has some big tunics to fill. Its predecessor, Vikings, delivered many thrilling sword and axe skirmishes worthy of these legendary warriors. The new series reassembles the same stunt team and prop makers in hopes of capturing even more honor and glory for the noble Norsemen. Fighting through gore and muck is the Viking way, and this crew strives to engage us viscerally with the ferocious spectacle of medieval war....

December 5, 2022 · 6 min · 1129 words · Heather Fornes

How Wandavision Is Rewriting Our Understanding Of Wanda Maximoff S Story

Despite its many still-lingering questions, WandaVision has made one thing crystal clear: Wanda Maximoff is truly the most powerful Avenger. Not just the woman who destroyed an Infinity Stone and almost single-handedly defeated Thanos, she’s also managed to somehow power an entire town built on false realities and resurrect her dead boyfriend at the same time. But even as the show reaffirms the scope of her power, it also acknowledges one other truth that is too often swept under the rug: Wanda Maximoff is also incredibly depressed....

December 5, 2022 · 4 min · 819 words · Margarett Mccutchan

Into The Badlands Season 3 Episode 16 Review Seven Strike As One

Into the Badlands Season 3 Episode 16 I don’t like series finales. They tell you when the ride ends, when the party’s over, when you’re being kicked out of an entire universe. They take away all the possibilities that the show fostered within you, sealing them up in a jar that will sit on a shelf deep down in the basement of your mind. Oftentimes, these ceremonious episodes try to do too much and leave the audience with little left to go on in the name of closure....

December 5, 2022 · 5 min · 1005 words · Jeannie Thomason

Is It Better To Watch The Mcu In Chronological Order

Everybody loves the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Well, maybe not everyone. A lot of people do. We wouldn’t be on year 15 of this mega-franchise flourishing if it wasn’t for a lot of people loving it. With so many movies and shows, there comes a time when somebody just wants to watch a whole bunch of Marvel from beginning to end. Maybe it’s somebody watching it for the first time. Maybe somebody just wants to revisit the expanded universe....

December 5, 2022 · 8 min · 1699 words · Peter Spruill

Jason Blum And Reinventing The Haunted House In You Should Have Left

Like every other studio in Hollywood, Blumhouse had to shutdown nearly all production in March as the coronavirus pandemic sank its teeth into the world. The company’s last two projects, The Invisible Man and The Hunt, were just beginning their theatrical runs when movie theaters closed down. But Blumhouse’s distributor, Universal Pictures, responded quickly, making both titles available on premium VOD–which it has done now with Blumhouse’s new horror outing, You Should Have Left....

December 5, 2022 · 8 min · 1541 words · Michele Benedetti

Jimmy Wang Yu The Essential Martial Arts Movies

By younger generations, Jackie was referring to himself. Wang helped Jackie get a foothold in Kung Fu movies. In 1976, Wang faced Chan in one of Chan’s earliest Kung Fu films, Killer Meteors. Wang co-directed the film with Hong Kong movie mogul Lo Wei, and after Chan and Wei clashed, Wang helped young Jackie get things sorted out. Wang starred in nearly 90 films most of which were Wuxia films, the genre of chivalrous martial arts masters....

December 5, 2022 · 10 min · 2125 words · Jesse Mcgrew

Jurassic World Dominion Ending Explained

Something has survived. That was the tagline for the first sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World, which was released 25 years ago. Yet it can also apply to the Jurassic franchise as a whole, as this series has survived—thrived, even—across three decades and multiple generations of casts. And with Jurassic World Dominion now in theaters, we’ve reached the apparent culmination of the dino-action. Two eras of heroes, including Dr....

December 5, 2022 · 6 min · 1236 words · Linda Taylor

Kate Mara Calls Fantastic Four One Of The Horrendous Experiences Of Her Career

Mara recently opened up about the negative experience in question with Emmy Magazine (via Collider), citing Fantastic Four as one of the two worst experiences she’s had with directors. “I had a horrible experience on Fantastic Four,” Mara said. “I’ve never talked about it before. I married one off my costars, so I don’t regret doing the movie at all. But do I wish I had responded differently to certain things?...

December 5, 2022 · 2 min · 289 words · Carey Larson

Kevin Smith S Clerks Iii Script Left Rosario Dawson Shocked

By the end of that film, the sexually liberated, commitment-averse Becky had become pregnant with the child of Clerks mainstay Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and accepted his sudden proposal of marriage. But the thing about happy endings is they only work if you stop the story at a certain point. Hence why Dawson tells Den of Geek that she was surprised when she read the script for the new movie and learned that Dante and Becky’s journey veers in quite a different direction (which we won’t reveal here)....

December 5, 2022 · 5 min · 879 words · Jose Mattson