‘The Mist’ Tv Series – Spike TV Introduces Us To The Universe

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June 15, 2017

Spike TV has spoiled viewers excited for their new TV adaptation of ‘The Mist’ by releasing a number of featurettes and a new trailer for the show.

The action starts with a new trailer called “Out There“.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKe3znDCEMY[/embedyt]

The 2:14 trailer gives viewers a further glimpse into the factions of the town and teases us with a glimpse of what is lurking in ‘The Mist’. Whilst it doesn’t offer much more in terms of new footage, it helps to give viewers a better idea of the core characters.

Wait There’s More

Although ‘Out There‘ is a good trailer, it doesn’t offer much that we haven’t already seen. However Spike have also released a featurette titled – “Entering ‘The Mist‘”.

This 2:28 clip delves much deeper into the show and what they are aiming for with the story. It’s a good featurette with cast interviews, new scene’s and helps to give us a better understanding of the town. Listening to the cast talk about their characters and indeed the underlying theme’s of the show only makes the wait until the 22nd even harder.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also “Welcome To Bridgeville” featurette as well.

A great meet the cast feature, with the first direct link to the movie! Mrs. Carmody is not only in the trailer but directly mentioned by Eve Copeland! The producers have always said that this isn’t a direct sequel or tie in to the movie. In fact show runner Christan Torpe has said “It’s like a weird cousin to the [2007] movie or to the original story, with clear points of inspiration and plot points that are all the same,”. This means that whilst we’ve seen Mrs. Carmody, it’s clearly pre-mist. It will be interesting to see if they link her to the events in the supermarket or if the character is just in one scene.

Out of the 3 video’s this is one of the better ones. Aside from all the new footage, it’s great to hear the actors talking about their characters, their motivations and the human element of what is obviously going to be quite a supernatural heavy show.

‘The Mist’ on Thursday, June 22, on Spike TV. Will you be tuning in?

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E3 2017 Interview: Michael Frauenhofer, The Mind Behind “One Way Trip”

By

Aric Sweeny

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June 15, 2017

One Way Trip is an indie game exclusively on Playstation 4 and soon-to-be on Playstation Vita. I got a chance to talk to the game’s lead developer, Michael Frauenhofer, at E3 2017. He gave the scoop on what development was like, what inspired the game, and his company, Beret’s, first game. Read my interview below.

Monkeys Fighting Robots: What’s your game called? Give our readers a summary of what the game is about.

Michael Frauenhofer: One Way Trip is the name of the game. It came out late last year on PS4, and it’s coming to Vita soon – early next year. It’s a branching choice narrative style game, sort of like a lo-fi take on a Telltale style game. It’s in the future. There’s been a big poison hit; everyone has six hours to live, then they’re going to die. For those six hours they are going to hallucinate constantly and increasingly, so you have to make the choice: do you go on this big journey and search for a cure, or do you spend the whole game, ’till the end credits, at home, hanging out with your neighbors, talking about the meaning of life, how to live a good life, and what it means to live a good life?

Monkeys Fighting Robots: What inspired the game? When did development on One Way Trip begin?

Frauenhofer: Development on it began about three years ago, but we took a break for a year in the middle to make a different project, so it was only about two years. Our main inspiration came as this was our second game – finishing our first game, I was crunching a lot. It sounds kinda silly, but my dog got sick and then he died shortly after it came out, and I felt like I missed his last couple weeks ’cause I was crunching, trying to get the game done before the deadline. This whole game, with focus on limited amount of time and the choice based mechanic, is we wanted to make it less about exherting your will on the world. A lot of choice based games get judged on how much your choices change things, and instead we wanted to make a game where, no matter what path you took, you’re still missing so much. There is so many scenes, characters you’ll never meet, we wanted to use choice to reinforce opportunity cost about purposeness and intentionality in life, when you have so little time to do all the things worth doing.

Monkeys Fighting Robots: You said this is your second game. What was your first game, and is it at all similar to One Way Trip?

Frauenhofer: There’s a lot of similar narrative elements and themes. Our first one was Demon Sheep. It’s an action RPG for iPad. It’s since been pulled from the app store because they upgraded the operating system, but we’re going to be bringing it back to PS4 and Vita as a remaster. That one was about three roomates who were chilling, blazing together, and talking about their feelings. Their feelings materialize as demons that you actually fight within an action RPG system. The gameplay was very different.

Visit the game’s official website for more information on One Way Trip.

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E3 2017: Is ‘Sonic Forces’ The Franchise’s Return To Form?

By

Aric Sweeny

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June 15, 2017

Is Sonic Forces the franchise’s return to form? Quite possibly. The demo build I played featured 2D classic Sonic in a retro-esque Eggman boss fight. While it was indeed fun, I question the notion that it will win over fans that have given up on the franchise.

It’s tough to judge the game based on what I played, as I legitimately only got my hands on one third of the mechanics presented. Classic Sonic gameplay is easy to grasp and entertaining to tinker with; Sega has been delivering this style in Sonic games since the 1990s, and it’s no different now. However, combined with the solid visuals and appealing art style, Sonic Forces is a title that, in my view, sets a path for the series to move beyond the internet meme it’s become in recent years.

Sonic Forces’ music is enjoyable, from the short amount I heard. It will be interesting to see how the style of sound changes as the gameplay style changes. Classic Sonic is more laid-back than modern Sonic – will the atmosphere set by the soundtrack follow suit?

I’m happy to report that Sonic Forces really impressed me. Over the last few years, the series has had pretty dramatic ups and downs. The upcoming multiplatform title will be a solid entry into your console’s library of games.

Old school Sonic fans will be pleased, as will younger fans that were introduced to the Blue Blur from games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.

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‘Cars 3’ Review: Audiences Have Been Down This Road Before

By

Dewey Singleton - Film Critic

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Cars 3 is at times a visually stunning tale which attempts to be empowering but comes off as heartless and extremely predictable.

Summary

The third installment of the Cars franchise seeks to get back to its character-driven roots. The film starts off where it all began, on a race track. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is still the king of the racing world. However, Father Time has a funny way of sneaking up on everyone as a new young hotshot racer, Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer) starts taking the spotlight away from McQueen and turning his wins into humiliating defeats. McQueen quickly realizes that he can’t race forever and begins to think this could be the beginning of the end. His sponsor understands the signs are pointing towards their star racer’s retirement and decides to sell their company to another owner. The new owners bring on a trainer, Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) in hopes of holding off Father Time just a little while longer. After the regiment doesn’t seem to be helping him, McQueen is told that he must win the next race or he will be forced to retire and become a pitchman. Will Lightning be able to regain his past form? Will Cruz be able to whip him into shape or will destiny take them in a different direction?

What Worked

The attention to the animation is crisp and incredibly intricate in any of the racing sequences. A few months ago at a preview for the film, Pixar made the announcement that NASCAR played a key role in helping to develop this movie. This surely was evident as the crashes appear to be bolder, the tires seemed more intricate than in recent films, and even the track debris was mostly dirt and debris from the tires which are often found on any track. Those are just some of the details that stood out to me.

The storyline certainly made way more sense than the spy narrative we endured while watching Cars 2. It made all the sense in the world to focus on the idea that Lightning McQueen isn’t getting any younger. Also, the idea that another unlikely racing superstar could emerge was incredibly neat to watch.

I loved the use of Paul Newman’s voice in flashback sequences. It was a creative use of old vocal recordings, and it created the strongest emotional beats all film.

Loved the animation on the beach when Cruz and Lightning as McQueen try to get his speed back. My favorite shot was they were able to capture the moon reflecting off the water as the two of them go up and down the beach, all the while still seeing little tiny sea creature on the sand.

Loved the Animated Short L.O.U., which tells the story of a bully and how he comes face to face with the “monster” lurking in lost and found. Loved the message of kindness it taught and the creative use of the items in the lost and found to form the beast.

What Didn’t Work

While I certainly feel the narrative in Cars 3 is leaps and bounds better than the one from Cars 2, that doesn’t make the story great by any stretch. It’s merely a generic retelling of the Rocky narrative that achieves a purpose which appears to be selling merchandise.

Cars 3 attempts to tell a story of empowerment centered around the character of Cruz Ramirez. The idea behind her story arc is to show that anyone can achieve the highest of dreams even in male dominated sports like racing. There was nothing organic about her ascent into the racing world; it was all about the male character (Lightning McQueen) finally getting over himself and seeing that she had talent. Once he does, he immediately thrusts her into the spotlight. Is that an empowering storyline or is that demeaning? If they had simply had Lightning retire earlier in the film and have him stumble upon Cruz the way his mentor found him, we might be talking about something unique. In the end what could have been a heartwarming tale of passing the torch with a mixture of empowerment ended up a generic story that we’ve all seen done before.

Overall

Cars 3 sets out to achieve individual objectives and does so with great aplomb. It’s certainly better than Cars 2. The narrative is quite vanilla and doesn’t take any risks. While I understand that the core audience for this film is certainly not myself, that doesn’t afford Pixar a free pass to be lazy. Cars was such a special heartfelt treat that it set the bar extremely high for the next two films. No one with a clear conscience can tell you to avoid Cars 3 as there’s nothing wrong with it on the surface. My only advice doesn’t go in expecting to see something reminiscent of the first Cars film.

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All Your Favorite X-Men are Back for ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’

By

Larry Taylor - Managing Editor

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June 15, 2017

We’ve heard rumblings that Patrick Stewart is done with the X-Men franchise, and there’s no reason to think he would be around for X-Men: Dark Phoenix. But Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Jennifer Lawrence have all confirmed their return.

From the Deadline report:

Fox has formalized plans for Dark Phoenix, the next installment of the X-Men franchise. This all just happened, but they’ve set Simon Kinberg as director (long rumored), and the studio set a release date of November 2, 2018. Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all reprising when production begins in Montreal.

Yes, we are getting another X-Men movie from 20th Century Fox. Make of this news what you will. But Bryan Singer isn’t on board to direct, Simon Kingberg is so that’s good news. At least I think it’s good news.

Stay tuned for more updates on X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

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QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Are Back, Prepare Your Hips For Shaking!

By

Brandon J. Griffin

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June 15, 2017

The triumphant desert gods of modern rock n’ roll have returned. After torturing and teasing diehard fans for a few months, the band releases their first new song since 2013. Queens Of The Stone Age are back in full force.

QOTSA.com was updated this week, giving fans an interactive television set full of album teases. The most notable being a hilarious video in which Liam Lynch gives Josh Homme a polygraph test, revealing album details and teasing the opening track.

Today was the big day, the band released their single “The Way You Used To Do.” Along with an August 25 release date for Villains.

Homme has always been about hip twisting and tail shaking, this new song is the deepest into “dancy” the band has ever gone. The Way You Used To Do is an infectious and groovy number, QOTSA is once again headed into uncharted territory.

The previous six installments in their prestigious discography are all very different from each other. The band evolves in every sense from one era to the next. If this single is any indication, Villains will be the light and loose response to the dark and heavy themes of …Like Clockwork.

Josh’s vocals and consistent hand claps are the driving force of the track. It’s a strange direction for the band, but not an unwelcome one.

Personally, I don’t like that the rest of the band takes a back seat, sitting further back in the mix. Initially, it sounded like drummer John Theodore had been reduced to a snare and bass drum. Upon multiple listens, and a drastic increase in volume, the full band is exposed.

Mark Ronson is producing the album, perhaps this was a decision he made. His most notable producer credits are pop singers and not necessarily rock bands.

I’m not crazy about the mix, but the instrumentation is a lot more interesting than I originally thought when I dove deeper into the background. Queens have always been a band that reveals its brilliance through the layers of sound they present, rewarding fans the more attention they pay.

Regardless of my initial impression, it’s undeniably infectious and I can’t stop listening to it. The best in the business are back, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more content as the August 25 release date for Villains approaches.

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Colin Trevorrow Gives ‘Episode IX’ Script Update, Plus How He Plans To Scare You In ‘Jurassic World 2’

By

Matthew Sardo

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June 15, 2017

Filmmaker Colin Trevorrow is out promoting his latest film ‘Book of Henry,’ and we caught up with the director to ask him how the script for Star Wars Episode IX was coming along.

“We’re working and we’re designing and you know there’s so many elements that go into these movies and the script is obviously the most important one but we have a lot of people who are brilliant at their jobs who are engaged in this right now so it’s an exciting time,” said Trevorrow.

That was almost Trump-like in his non-answer!

Trevorrow also explained his unique take on introducing fear in a film and how he would apply it to the Jurassic World sequel.

“I feel like oftentimes something that helps is being able to see fear through the mind of a child. So I think that we remember what it was like to be afraid then. There are only brief moments in adulthood where you relive that kind of fear. I don’t think we sit in our beds and wonder if something is going to come out of the closet as adults. To be able to tap into that with a movie like Jurassic World, certainly with Jurassic World 2 is something we talk about and think about a lot of that. In a case like this (‘Book of Henry’) you know being afraid of what’s beyond your neighbor’s front door about if there’s evil that close to you I think is a really universal idea,” said Trevorrow.

The complete Colin Trevorrow interview will be posted shortly, check back for more behind-the-scenes insight from the director.

‘Jurassic World 2’ will crush the box office on June 22, 2018, and ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ has an expected released date of May 24, 2019.

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A Standing Ovation For ‘Jem’ #26

By

Anthony Wendel

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Truly Outrageous Part Three! It all comes down to this oversized final issue! As the Holograms try to come together in paradise, their secrets (and their rivalries) continue to threaten to tear them apart.

Writing

All good things must come to an end. But why? This series became a great example of what IDW has been able to accomplish. Thanks to the writing of Kelly Thompson, the series was a must read with little to no dip in the quality of its storytelling or its art. Few others comics can claim such an honor. Sure, there is still a miniseries coming out after but it still seems like a finale just in case the next series doesn’t help things moving forward.

This “final” issue of Jem was filled with a lot of great moments. A search for Kimber, the Holograms playing a benefit concert, and a brief confrontation with the Stingers all occur in this book. The issue also features a really intense moment for Jerrica and Rio which gives fans the heart to heart talk they have always wanted these two characters to have. It’s almost too much of a good thing but the bitter reminder its supposed to be a send off does keep it from reaching perfection.

Artwork

The art by Gisele Lagace with color work by M. Victoria Robado is the ideal send off to this series. The characters are drawn with the right mix of emotion for the given situations which play out in the panels. The concert scene is drawn with a special attention to the detail work. It’s as if the team wanted everyone to know just how intense this concert was supposed to be to the readers. Solid work to say the least.

Conclusion

Buy this book. In fact, buy all of the Jem comics so this series keeps going. Jem was a testament to what happens when a nostalgic property is updated to modern times and the great stories which come from it. Hopefully whatever happens in Jem: Infinite will ensure the series continued longevity. For now, all fans can hope for something truly outrageous to happen in the future.

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Here’s a Pulse-Pounding New Trailer for Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Detroit’

By

Larry Taylor - Managing Editor

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June 15, 2017

If the Detroit teaser trailer wasn’t enough to whet your appetite for Kathryn Bigelow’s new riot drama, this new trailer should do the trick.

Detroit, based on the 1967 race riots in the city, stars John Boyega as the cultist for the entire picture, and the way this trailer is shot and scored, the tension here could not be any higher. Check it out:

A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest and most intense riots in United States history, leading to the federalization of the Michigan National Guard and the involvement of two Airborne Divisons of the United States Army.

Kathryn Bigelow has spent a great deal of time on wars overseas, and it appears she may be turning her attention back on wars at home. Her scope looks like it’s coming with her as well. This looks pretty incredible however you slice it, and it should definitely be on the lips and minds of awards-season voters.

Aside from Boyega, Detroit stars Will Poulter, John Krasinski, Anthony Mackie, and is written by frequent Bigelow collaborator Mark Boal. And here’s the best part… we don’t have to wait until November or some limited Christmas rollout to see this. Detroit will be here in under two months, August 4.

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Japan’s Idol Obsession and The Consequences

By

David Harada

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June 15, 2017

Japan, known for its kinky quirks beginning at anime/manga and ending with its adult industry. However, in between these two lies a middle ground that is almost endless with the wrong possibilities. One of such lies the idol industry. Within the recent years, we have begun to see how its effects in the States, but its effects can be even more consequential.

From Akihabara to Anime

Akihabara, the town of lights and electronics. Many know the city as an anime haven for all otaku alike, non-discriminatory based on one’s obsession. However, this city is also considered home to AKB48 where almost nightly mini concerts occur for hopeful new recruits. It is almost fitting that where one of the biggest, if not the biggest idol group, has become home to a new type of idol. Anime has begun to embrace the money-making machine as well. Shipping off younger girls to become fantasized by all ages of people. With Love-Live and other anime titles taking hold of the genre is this what we have come to expect? Whether it’s from anime or reality, Japan is slowly being defined by another weird fetish.

Idol Hell

Even one of the most controversial images in Japanese Television, Matsuko Deluxe, is completely opposed to the idea. Japan was debating on possible musical acts to introduce at the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. A possible JPN48, know as Japan 48 made up from these various idol groups, was to be considered. Matsuko stood against the idea stating that he absolutely did not want the group in the opening ceremony.

While some in Japan want to show the world of this “Idol Culture” many still believe it to be a negative aspect. Japan has enough negative stereotypes surrounding it and idol groups should not be the next one. I do agree that it has a profitable market, but when marketing younger girls (ages 15-25 usually on the younger side) for entertainment some reservation should occur.

Anime Expo 2017

Quite possibly one of the bigger talking points in America this year in regards to idols is their appearance at AX. This year a few idol groups have been making their way over due to its overseas popularity. Over the past few years, idol groups have consistently made their mark here. Yet with their constant exposure, it feels like anime has become defined by two major categories. Either the hot new Shonen Jump anime or whichever Idol Anime has made a debut.

Verdict

Idol Groups will stay a prevailing factor in Japan and probably in various other countries as well. Despite this, the concept has been taken to extremes with various groups popping up across Japan. Yet with these new groups causing for more idol otakus both in Japan and overseas I find it detrimental in general. If you disagree or agree please comment below. I’d love to hear your opinions on the matter.

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