Month: March 2018

First Match begins streaming on Netflix on March 30.

A coming of age story. That’s what I would liken First Match to. Monique, a troubled teen who spends years in foster care, turns to wrestling as a way of getting close to her father. The premise is familiar, if only by the idea that a sport is used to overcome some form of adversity. A 2018 Karate Kid if you will. That said, I would be remiss to leave my description at such a basic level…

The film opens with Monique’s clothes being tossed out of an apartment window. Accused of sleeping with her caretaker’s boyfriend, she’s being ousted in front of random bystanders. Bouncing from one foster home to another is nothing new though; after exchanging some choice words, Monique grabs what she can before departing in contempt. From here we witness a series of scenes that paint her current reality. Bad choices, a begrudged reunion, and a serious attitude problem. And that’s all before she bumps into her estranged father. Darrel, fresh out of jail, is working a part time gig in Brooklyn. It’s only by happenstance that he sees Monique. Their awkward meeting informs the viewer of a few facts. Namely that he doesn’t want to be a part of her life anymore and that Mo is desperate for her father.

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After 13 seasons and 280 episodes, Supernatural has once again done the impossible — pulling off a concept that’s so inventive, ambitious, and downright insane, no other series would dare attempt it.

Episode 16 of Season 13, “ScoobyNatural” (airing March 29), is a crossover between the fan-favorite CW series and Warner Bros. Animation’s classic animated franchise Scooby-Doo, and despite the sheer audacity of the idea, it succeeds on pretty much every level thanks to the efforts of the cast, writers Jim Krieg and Jeremy Adams, and the team of animators, who aren’t afraid to blur the lines between Scooby-Doo’s kid-friendly approach and Supernatural’s decidedly more mature tone.

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Director Michael Gracey has provided an update on the potential live-action Naruto film, saying if series creator Masashi Kishimoto isn’t on board, the project won’t happen.

In an interview with Collider, Gracey explained he’s concerned about getting the movie right and doing justice to the original anime. The filmmaker wants to closely work with Kishimoto on the project and won’t do it unless Kishimoto is “excited” about the script.

“So many Hollywood adaptations of really popular manga series just don’t get it right, and for me what was really important was that if I was gonna do Naruto, I wanted to actually work with Kishimoto and get a script to a stage where he would look at it and be excited about realizing it,” Gracey said. “Because no one knows the world better than the person who created it.”

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The Titan premieres on Netflix on March, 30th

Starring Avatar’s Sam Worthington, Orange is the New Black’s Taylor Schilling, and Batman Begins’ Tom Wilkinson, The Titan is a mild sci-fi offering that feels perfectly designed to nest and reside within Netflix’s “Because You Watched…” scroll.

The Titan, from writer Max Hurwitz and director Lennart Ruff, isn’t a bad film, it just never pops. And it spends the bulk of its body focusing on the wrong story. By the time the tale ends, you feel like you’ve just finally reached something interesting because the hour and a half leading you there contained a ton of filler and unnecessary fat. If we’re talking Netflix Original sci-fi flicks, The Cloverfield Paradox immediately springs to mind here, as it too felt like an unnecessarily reverse-engineered backwards race toward a much more interesting story happening elsewhere.

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If a movie was entirely about setting a mood and sticking with it, Aaron Katz’s Los Angeles murder mystery, Gemini, would be an unbridled success. Katz, serving as writer, director, and editor of the movie, sets the scene brilliantly. What he fails to do is serve up a story that is remotely worthy of its trappings.

At the center of the movie is Jill (Lola Kirke), an assistant to movie star Heather Anderson (Zoë Kravitz). They may be friends, but there is no question that Jill works for Heather, so when Heather—for no reason the movie cares to delve into—decides she wants to drop out of a project, it falls to Jill to make Heather’s desires known. It is Jill who has to try and keep away adoring fans. It is Jill who has to keep Heather out of trouble. It is Jill who is deemed a suspect when a dead body is found in Heather’s home.

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Less than two weeks after release, a Sea of Thieves player has sailed the high seas enough to achieve “Pirate Legend” status, opening up post-game content not yet seen by players.

Twitch streamer Prod1gyX has been broadcasting his playthrough of Sea of Thieves and his journey toward Pirate Legend, which means he has maxed out the level cap of 50 for all three of Sea of Thieves’ pirate factions.

Achieving this status is meant to open up a new secret quest for Sea of Thieves players, as well as additional secrets yet uncovered. Ahead of launch, Sea of Thieves Executive Producer Joe Neate told IGN that “Becoming a Pirate Legend is really just the start for players.

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Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN’s weekly video game talk show. This week we’re discussing Far Cry 5 and so much more. Watch the video above or download the podcast below.

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