Month: November 2019

After a galaxy’s worth of hype, The Mandalorian–the first live-action Star Wars TV show–has arrived on Disney+. The series, from creator Jon Favreau, was a launch title for Disney’s new streaming service and practically everything about the series was kept top secret. Now, though, Disney+ is here, and with it the first episode of The Mandalorian has premiered.

As far as first episodes go, The Mandalorian is a bit of a mixed bag. It manages to set up the ongoing plot of the series, introduce a few key characters, throw in quite a few of the Star Wars nods fans are going to be looking for, and end with a twist that’s sure to have viewers talking. However, it does a poor job introducing you to the characters. What’s more, this one episode alone expects viewers to soak up a lot of information that, unless you’re a diehard Star Wars fan, will seem rather pointless.

The story is simple. The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) is tasked with tracking down a mysterious bounty by someone we only know as the Client (Werner Herzog). Along the way he meets an Ugnaught named Kuiil (Nick Nolte) and a bounty droid called IG-11 (Taika Waititi). If you don’t know any of their names, don’t worry–they’re not actually said in the show, and several of these actors are unrecognizable for various reasons (Pascal never takes his helmet off and Waititi voices a droid). But they are listed in the end credits.

That’s one of the issues with the premiere: So much information is packed into any given moment of the episode that it can be hard to track. The premiere only runs 40 minutes, and throws a lot of elements at viewers–very quick flashes of the Mandalorian’s childhood, nods to the history of the planet Mandalore, a number of familiar alien creatures, and more than one battle.

Visually, the first episode of The Mandalorian is stunning. Favreau and his creative team have gone to great lengths to make this story feel like a Western set in space. What’s missing, however, is a reason to care about a lot of what’s happening. You are immediately dropped into this character’s world with no real indication of why he’s someone you should be rooting for. Never seeing his face doesn’t help; neither does the fact that he says about 30 words the entire episode.

Star Wars is at its best when there’s a hero you can identify with and root for. Thus far, the protagonist of the Mandalorian remains a mystery. We know practically nothing about him, his motivations, or whether or not he’s actually the hero of this story. He just looks cool, is great at fighting, and hates droids for some reason we might learn about in future episodes.

But there’s a lot to love about The Mandalorian too–the cinematography, the setting, the cast, the nods to what’s happening in the Star Wars universe post-Return of the Jedi. It’s also easy to love because, simply, it’s a live-action Star Wars TV show and it’s not outright bad. There’s potential here for a show that can become great. For that to happen, though, the characters we’ve met thus far–and the ones that are still to come–need a better introduction.

As exciting as a Star Wars TV show is to Star Wars fans, this is a show that needs to work for general audiences and those that aren’t hardcore fans too. As much fun as it might be for diehards to hear two people talk about the importance of Beskar ore, character development should also be in there somewhere.

With its first episode, The Mandalorian has made a statement about what a live-action Star Wars TV show looks like. Now, with the remaining seven episodes in Season 1, it needs to make a statement about how a Star Wars plot should unfold over a longer form of storytelling.

1. Meet Captain Carter and friends.

Disney+ wound up dropping a bit before schedule on the evening of November 11, rewarding fans who were willing to stay up late on their Monday night with their first taste of the brand new streaming service. The first episode of the first live-action Star Wars show, The Mandalorian has finally arrived, as well as a whole slew of classic Marvel content from the MCU and beyond–but mixed in with the highly anticipated titles and the classic fair was a mysterious 12-minute documentary called Marvel Studios Expanding The Universe.

All in all, the documentary isn’t much to write home about–it’s mostly just rehashing the same talking points that Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and his teams have been drumming since San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year. The MCU TV shows on Disney+ provide a great opportunity to explore character beats more than the movies, they’ll have the same budget as the movies, they’ll definitely come into play for future big screen MCU phases, and so on. If you’ve been following the MCU side of the Disney+ news at all, you’ve heard this all before–and if you haven’t, we’ve got you covered from both SDCC and Disney’s D23 Expo.

But carefully hidden within all the rehashed and recycled footage were some brand new clips of the upcoming animated MCU show What If…? Which will feature Jeffery Wright as Uatu The Watcher touring around the Marvel universe, watching alternate versions of events as they unfold.

What If…? will arrive on Disney+ in the summer of 2021.

2. Skinny Steve 2.0

A look at the concept art for skinny Steve Rogers who enlists in the army despite not getting the super serum. In this What If…? story Steve pilots a mech suit designed by Howard Stark.

3. Poor Captain America.

Concept art of (presumably) another story featuring the Marvel Zombies universe.

4. Meet the mech suit

Our first look at Steve’s Stark-made mech suit, looking a lot like Tony’s Mach 1 Iron Man armor.

5. A new shield.

Captain Carter naturally doesn’t wield a shield identical to Captain America’s–she’s got her own flag to represent here.

6. Battle ready.

Captain Carter squares off against an armored vehicle.

7. Vroom, vroom.

And wins, obviously.

8. Hey, Bucky.

We got a look at Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Zombies universe squaring off against zombified Captain America.

9. Sorry, Steve.

Zombie Captain America seems, uh, less than thrilled to see his olf friend.

10. Still shield slinging.

Zombie Captain America also still carries a shield–it’s a little worse for wear but, hey, can you blame him?

11. Fight, fight, fight.

Not only does Zombie Steve still carry the shield, he still knows how to throw it. Apparently muscle memory is a thing even for the undead.

12. Mecha Steve.

Our first look at Steve actually inside the Stark Mech suit. How cute.

13. Flying in style.

Peggy hitches a ride on Steve’s suit while they fly around, escorted by the airforce.

14. What are you doing here Quill?

The only shot of a non-Captain America character in the clips was a brief scene of Star-Lord in what looks like the tomb from the beginning of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1–at least, that’s what it would seem at first glance. But in true What If…? fashion, there’s a twist.

15. Oh, wait.

Turns out, it’s not Peter Quill behind the Star-Lord mask at all, but T’Challa. How in the world is that going to happen?

16. Meet your host.

Our first shot of Uatu The Watcher is appropriately cosmic.

Red Dead 2 can push your PC to its limits, but Michael and Jean-Luc discuss how graphics and framerate can change the experience and cover other features unique to this version. Captured on PC.

Doctor Sleep, director Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation and direct sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, had a less-than-stellar opening weekend at the box office, and will probably lose money. But Warner Bros., which produced the film, is unlikely to be too worried considering some of their recent success stories.

Doctor Sleep opened this weekend to a lower-than-expected $14.1 million, well below the $25 million that was anticipated. The opening weekend tends to be a strong indicator of how well the film will ultimately perform at the cinema, and horror films are usually front-loaded (unless they become cultural phenomenons, like the original Paranormal Activity, which now has a seventh entry in the works). It’s very unlikely that Doctor Sleep will make back its budget in domestic ticket sales.

According to Deadline, the low performance of Doctor Sleep is likely to result in a $20 million loss, assuming the film is able to earn $100 million globally. Its global total currently stands at $34,100,000, with the film having not yet opened in several markets, so this remains a possibility. However, there is also the possibility of the film dropping off further and only making $80 million worldwide. Deadline speculates thatwith a budget of around $55 million and marketing costs to take into account, this would bring losses closer to $30 million. This likely comes as a surprise to executives at Warner Bros., as the film has reviewed moderately well (75% of reviews on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes are positive) and it serves as a sequel to one of the most iconic horror movies of all time.

This is not Warner Bros.’ only big loss this season, as Deadline points out that both The Goldfinch and Motherless Brooklyn also under-performed, but the company is unlikely to be too fazed considering the recent successes of Joker and It: Chapter 2 (also a Stephen King adaptation). These two films are the seventh and eighth highest grossing films in the US this year respectively, with Joker now standing as the most profitable comic book movie ever made; it will likely pass the $1 billion mark internationally soon. It: Chapter 2 has taken in $462,545,680 worldwide, including a domestic total of $211,345,680, and is successful enough for the studio to now be considering a prequel, despite a lack of source material to adapt.

Doctor Sleep is certainly not the biggest bomb released in November 2019, either–Terminator: Dark Fate is poised to lose up to $100 million, despite the popularity of the franchise in China and the fact that the movie is actually pretty good.