The Super Bowl not only ushers in one of the most significant sporting events of the year, but it also brings out the best commercials and highly anticipated movie trailers. One of the first to air this evening was the one for Red Sparrow. This film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian assassin who appears to be conflicted about her line of work (sounds terribly like Black Widow). Regardless the action sequences look great! Check out the spot.
Personally, this film doesn’t look it has the legs to compete with what will be a stacked slate in March. What do you guys think? Does Jennifer Lawrence sell the film? Will you see it? Be sure and comment below.
After so much anticipation, we FINALLY have a look at the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lucasfilm debuted a 45-second teaser trailer during Super Bowl LII:
At long last, get to see Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Woody Harrelson as Beckett, Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra, and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Han states his intentions of becoming the best pilot in the galaxy, and we get a glimpse of a clean, possibly brand new Millennium Falcon.
A full trailer is set to drop tomorrow during ABC’s morning news program Good Morning America.
Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25.
Are you excited for the latest installment from Lucasfilm? Are you worried about it being a flop?
For anyone who thought the idea of Danny Devito bathing in chocolate was weird hasn’t heard of the concept behind Skittles Super Bowl Commercial. Skittles is going over the top by promoting the most exclusive advertisement ever. Rather than showing the final product to a nationwide audience, they plan to show it to teenager Marco Menendez, the winner of a national search for their biggest fan. Check out this tweet.
Skittles is making a 60-second Super Bowl commercial — but it won’t be played during the game. It will only be played for a teenager from California… pic.twitter.com/ivMwDmK0tN
Skittles will likely be teasing their possible ads during the game. For those of you who are wondering which ad could be shown to this teenager, check out these links.
This one is undoubtedly creepy but check out this next one!
This one was just odd, but they get even stranger …
However, this one might be the strangest one of all.
Personally, this type of ad campaign does nothing for me as David Schwimmer doesn’t strike me as someone who should be selling candy to the world. However, superfans of Friends might be excited to see the spots. In the end, it doesn’t matter which ad is shown to the teenager as Skittles has indeed generated plenty of buzz with this tactic. Which commercial are you excited to check out during the game? Be sure and leave a comment below!
For those people who generally aren’t football fans or those whose team didn’t make it to the big game, watching the commercials during the Super Bowl is a popular reason to tune in.
With social media and YouTube being so mainstream, advertisers have gotten into a habit of releasing their Super Bowl commercials about a week early. Isn’t anticipation half the fun?
According to the LA Times, the trend began in 2011 with the Volkswagen commercial called, “The Force.” The ad featured a small child dressed in a Darth Vader costume who waves his hands and the vehicle’s engine starts. The ad was released about a week before the Super Bowl, and it gained over 11 million views on YouTube before airing during the big game. The commercial was a viral hit.
Now it seems that more and more advertisers release their commercials prior to the Super Bowl to help reach a broader audience. Does this still work? Let’s take a quick search on YouTube to find out how this year’s crop is doing.
Amazon’s campaign features its voice-activated electronic assistant Alexa losing her voice. The 30-second teaser has already been viewed over 10 million times, with the full 1:30 commercial hitting over 18 million views. Budweiser’s heartwarming advertisement showcasing its factories packaging canned water to send to disaster-stricken areas has garnered 16 million hits. So, yeah, something is working in their favor.
The more recent trend is for companies to offer a teaser commercial, with anticipation of a funny or meaningful payoff if you watch the commercial during the Super Bowl. Devout Super Bowl advertiser Bud Light has been building up to their commercial with a large campaign narrating a Game of Thrones styled “Bud Knight.” They’ve even recently produced team-specific ads, making mention of the Eagles and Patriots. Dilly dilly!
Advertisers are debating between the element of surprise versus being the one that’s talked about before the ad hits television screens. Regardless of their decision, at about $5 million for a 30-second spot, they all seem to be garnering discussion. Being talked about is what it’s ALL about, right?
At least 21 Super Bowl 2018 commercials have been released prior to game time. Have you watched any? Do you think it takes the thrill away from seeing these same ads during the Super Bowl?
One of the biggest draws during the Super Bowl isn’t just who is performing during the halftime show; it’s the great ads. Every year it seems that more Hollywood celebrities show up in them. Take a look at Danny Devito in this M&M’s commercial.
It’s not the most earth-shattering spot, but it does elicit a chuckle. If anything it does open the possibility of a live-action movie based on the popular candy starring Devito. Here’s the minute-long version of the spot.
My favorite one was the teaser!
What’s your favorite Super Bowl commercial ever? Be sure and leave a comment below!
Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool is an exceptionally well-crafted film anchored by terrific performances from Annette Bening and Jamie Bell. Writer-director Paul Mcguigan has adapted the memoir of Peter Turner (played by Bell) who regales us all with details of his May-December romance with Academy Award winner Gloria Grahame (played by Bening). Turner had a whirlwind romance with Grahame which made her diagnosis of terminal cancer much harder to bear. Turner came from a meek neighboorhood in Liverpool, while Grahame leads a glamorous life, but their love transcended socioeconomic boundaries.
Urszula Pontikos’s Cinematography was critical to how Mcguigan wanted to tell Turner’s tale. Pontikos used a slight tilt of the camera to allow the narrative to transition from what was unfolding in the present to a flashback to when Turner and Grahame were serious. Sometimes she would use a doorway, other times it was a window, each shot represented a transition between Grahame’s tryst with Turner to the bleakness of her outlook. She also was successful in capturing the tones of the two main threads which are woven through this storyline. During the portion of the story when Bening’s character is facing her grim outlook, a darker color palette is utilized, while the romance uses a much lighter one. The cinematography emphasizes the sobering reality that Grahame’s relationship with Turner was the happiest portion of her life.
Bening’s performance as the late Oscar winner was fantastic. She’s able to channel the essence of Grahame while projecting a real pain she tries to hide behind makeup and the bright lights of Hollywood. When the powder is removed, and she’s not on stage, audiences are witness to a woman who indeed isn’t happy. Her performance is nothing short of electric. Where has the award season love for this film been? If anyone were to take an honest look at Streep’s performance in The Post and Bening’s work in Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, they would see the injustice. While Streep is fabulous, her performance wasn’t the emotional backbone of the film.
Bell is excellent in the film as well. His portrayal of Turner was a mixture of warmth, sincerity, with a little confliction as well. While he realized that a relationship with Grahame would be complicated, that didn’t stop him from pursuing the starlet. He knew that their ages would be at times be problematic, but he persisted. There’s no doubt that he loved her and that comes off on screen. At points, it seems Turner is more caring towards Bening’s character, but a reveal towards the end dispels that myth.
Overall, the film is a compelling look at how love and death are intertwined. Sometimes the greatest act of love is respecting their last wishes even in the darkest of times. Grahame knew she didn’t have long and rather than be with her family; she wants to be in Liverpool with the one man who stole her heart. Turner granted that wish. Certainly sounds like true love to me.
We managed to catch up with creator Tony Moore at the 2018 Orlando Toy and Comic Convention (OTCC) on Sunday, January 28, and he filled us in on what it was like to work on the first issue of The Walking Dead, reminisced on past works and filled us in on what to expect from Image Comics regarding Fear Agent, this year.
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MFR: “So, it’s 2018. It’s been 15 years since you sketched one of the most-important first issues in the history of comic books. Did you have any idea The Walking Dead was going to take off the way that it did?”
TM: “No (laughs). Everyone hopes that is what is going to happen, but no one really expects it to happen. It’s been a wild and crazy ride, almost surreal. You start to think about how many books you have done before that go completely under the radar or even unnoticed. Everyone swings for the fences in this business, but if it was that easy, then everyone would be doing it.”
MFR: “Be honest. How many first printings of The Walking Dead #1 do you have stashed?”
TM: “I have a pretty fair stack (laughs). I have quite a few, but that is only because I stopped taking them to conventions. They’re heavy and I’m never really going to fully get what they’re worth. I thought they were all gone, to be honest. A few years ago, I was moving and cleaning out my garage, and I found the printers crate that they were all still in. These were all the ones I gave to my friends when I first got them. So, yeah, I still have a little pile of them.”
TM: “I fell behind a little while ago because I’ve gotten so busy. I hardly get a chance to watch television anymore. The effects and characters are amazing though, from what I’ve seen. I’ll catch back up eventually. There’s just so much awesome on TV now and, so many choices, that I just don’t understand how people find the time to watch all of them.”
MFR: “Tell us what you have going on right now. Do you have any exciting projects coming up that you would like to tease the fans a bit with?”
TM: “Right now, I’m just doing covers, here and there. At Image, we’re re-releasing Fear Agent, both old material, some new and collected. There’s actually some pretty cool news on the horizon for Fear Agent that I’m not totally at liberty to talk about yet, but people should be on the lookout for it (laughs). I’m also putting together some creator-owned stuff. I’ve been trying to build some new muscle and have extended to writing. I’m working on some horror stuff that I’ll soon be able to unveil before not too long. I’m super excited about it all.”
MFR: “Considering all that you have already accomplished, what kind of career aspirations do you have beyond what you have done?”
TM: “You know, eventually, the ultimate goal is to write and draw my own stuff. All my heroes have always done that. You know, guys like Frank Miller and Will Eisner. I don’t fit that bill at all (laughs), I still have to earn that right. That’s my goal though, to be a one-stop shop.”
MFR: “Is there a favorite project, so far, that you have worked on over the course of your career?”
TM: “I have a lot of fond memories of Fear Agent because it was not an easy project to keep going. The publishing climate and, really, the audience at the time, wasn’t super excited about sci-fi. It was a little before sci-fi was cool (laughs). By the time we wrapped it up, people were into sci-fi. That was always a really special project for me. I also had an absolute blast working with Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan on Deadpool. Yeah, so, whenever a goodie like that comes across the board, I get super excited.”
Avengers: Infinity War promises to be one of the most significant cultural events of 2018 not only because of the film’s release but the merchandising as well. Funko is a big part of this, and to the shock of no one, they plan on releasing pops which tie into Marvel’s most prominent release ever. Thanks to some quick thinking members on Instagram (Funko Finderz and sw_up_wir20) we now have our first look.
This looks to be an unmasked version of Spider-Man in his new suit.
Here’s a good look at them all in a row.
Check out this masked version of Iron Spider!
Check out this gun-toting Groot!
Here’s a good look at the Ebony Maw pop.
This might be the coolest of them all. Who wouldn’t want a tiny Hulkbuster Bobblehead?
I’m sure we will see more images trickle out as we get closer to the release of Avengers: Infinity War. Which pop are you most excited about? Will you try to get the whole set? It is undoubtedly going to be a challenge to decide which ones to purchase as they look fantastic. At this rate, Funko might as well just start taking money out of my paycheck on a weekly basis.
One of the more popular series after DC Rebirth first launched is the newest run of Detective Comics. In that series, Batman recruits vigilantes to help him defend Gotham from a variety of threats. One of the more surprising choices to this team was the supervillain Clayface. The character has been a thorn in the Caped Crusader’s side since the 1940s. Since then, there have been many who have taken up the mantle, but since The New 52, it has been returned to the original character, Basil Karlo. With the reboot in 2011, his origin was assumed to be the same as the one in the ‘40s. This week’s annual we finally see the story told for the modern day! So who is the man behind the clay?
**Some Spoilers Below**
Story:
Basil Karlo was raised by a movie makeup artist who specialized in monster design. His father specifically used a chemical from Daggett Industries to mold any face like clay to create terrifying designs. This line of work inspired Basil to become an actor and a successful one at that. He pursues his dream of starring in one movie in particular but those dreams are dashed. A terrible car accident burns and mutilates his face, leaving his part in the film in question. Desperate to keep his film career alive, Basil turns to a life of crime in search of the Daggett formula his father used decades earlier.
There is plenty to like about this issue, especially with the lead character. You genuinely feel bad for Basil and see where he is coming from in his pursuit. We all have had a dream that we would pursue no matter the cost. This man grew up pursuing that dream and it was taken away in a terrible accident. It’s logical for him to use any method to keep the dream alive and you hope that he gets what he wants. Before this series, I honestly never thought I could feel bad for this villain, but James Tynion IV proved me wrong.
The biggest problem with the annual has to be the ending. While it does involve Basil becoming the villain we know today, it wraps up too quickly. It changes him from a relatable person to the mindless monster in the span of a single page. The last three pages of the story had him attacking a film set and scarring the one person who believed in him, rendering him unlikable. It feels like there are five missing pages to this ending that had to be cut due to length. I know he is supposed to be a villain at this point, but when there are 30+ pages making the reader feel for the character, you’d want a better ending than him in the middle of a rampage. A scene of him in Arkham Asylum watching one of his father’s old movies perhaps?
Art:
If there is one reason to read this issue, it’s the art. The art team has worked together masterfully to create a beautiful yet horrifying comic. Eddy Barrows penciled the issue with Eber Ferreira on inks to make fantastic illustrations. They range in emotion, creating genuine character emotions and horrific visuals. The image of Basil’s disfigured face is still burned into my mind, days after reading the issue. Adriano Lucas does amazing work with coloring, creating the perfect tone for every scene. Take these aspects and you have a beautiful chapter in the Detective Comics Rebirth series.
Conclusion:
Despite the lackluster ending, this annual is a great installment to this series. The story has a relatable and tragic lead that you genuinely feel for. The art is hauntingly beautiful and will stay in your head days after you first open the book. If you want to learn the origin of one of Batman’s oldest enemies, give this a try. You won’t be disappointed.
The Men In Black are officially back! According to Deadline, F. Gary Gray is set to direct the upcoming Men In Black spinoff. Gray most recently directed 2017s The Fate of the Furious, which was the third highest grossing film of last year. He’s also known for directing the 2015 smash hit, Straight Outta Compton.
Sony is enlisting Gray to revitalize one of their cornerstone franchises, one that hasn’t been seen on the big screen since 2012. The spinoff currently has a May 17, 2019, release date, with the script being written by Iron Man writers Matt Holloway & Art Marcum.
The film will be the first in the franchise to not feature Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the leading roles. Neither will be returning for this installment but the film will likely take place in the same continuity as the first three.
It was originally reported that the next Men In Black movie would be a crossover with the Jump Street franchise, another Sony linchpin. The film would have seen Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill being recruited to fight extraterrestrial foes. That idea was eventually scrapped for a more traditional spinoff idea.
Are you excited for F. Gary Gray to direct the upcoming Men In Black spinoff? Let us know in the comments below!
