Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1774

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR is Marvel’s EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (Review)

When I was very young, I remember my first exposure to Marvel Comics.

I was at the store with my mom, and I saw several paperbacks, each one containing some early issues of Marvel series. I went home that day with The Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1, Fantastic Four Vol. 1, and Incredible Hulk Vol 1. Each of them started with the origin appearances for the characters, reprinting their earliest story arcs. By the time I finished those three books, I was completely onboard, sold on not only those particular characters but also the Marvel approach. At the time, the character had been around for just over fifteen years. Marvel was definitely a commercial force, but it also still felt young enough that I was able to claim it as my own. My parents may have had Superman and Batman growing up, but Spider-Man and The Human Torch and Ben Grimm and the Hulk… they were mine. They were human and they were fallible. They fascinated me immediately, and in the four decades since then, comic books have been in and out of my life, depending largely on time and money.

Even when I stopped actively collecting or reading titles, I would try to occasionally check in. There was something about the characters that made them feel like they were part of my life, like friends I’d lost touch with but who I knew would always be there if I reached out. Every time I came back to Marvel, there’d be some new twist, some reinvention, some way they would try to keep the characters alive and relevant. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. But there was always a sense that they’d built that foundation strong enough that they could experiment and fumble and still find a way to make it all work.

Covering the last decade of Marvel movies has been a challenge and a pleasure. I was there early, covering the production of comic book movies starting with Batman and Robin and Spawn, two films I sent information about to Ain’t It Cool News back in the prehistoric days of the Internet. Even before Nick Fury mentioned a larger world to Tony Stark onscreen, I’d had those conversations with Kevin Feige and Avi Arad, and I knew they were hungry to create a larger world where these heroes could interact. Avi saw that as the ultimate toy commercial, a chance to create endless variations on the same basic action figure line, but Kevin saw it as a toybox for storytellers. He saw it as a chance to try to convey to the larger mainstream audience the exact things that made the Marvel faithful fall in love in the first place.

That’s what works best in comic book movies. You have to love the thing you’re making. You can’t do it because it’s cool, or because it’s a trend, or because you think it could be commercial. You have to love these things. Richard Donner’s Superman The Movie is brimming over with affection for the Man of Steel, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man is absolutely giddy about web-swinging, and Tim Burton’s Batman feels like it is dizzy in love… maybe with the Joker instead of Batman, but the love is real nonetheless. From Iron Man on, the Marvel Studios movies have been made with a genuine and deeply-seeded passion for the source material and for the characters themselves. Over the course of the 18 films they’ve made so far, they have had good films and mediocre films and, occasionally, great films, but one thing has been true in every one of the films they’ve made so far: they care about these characters and the way they fit into this world they’re building.

And what is that world? What is the cumulative weight of 18 films of world-building? Because the world they presented in the original Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau, was pretty much ours, complete with MySpace. Tony Stark was a weapons dealer, a billionaire, and a giant asshole. Steve Rogers was frozen in ice somewhere, Bruce Banner was already on the run, and the nation of Wakanda was a secret, carefully guarded from the outside world. Hank Pym had done some secret government work as well, so clearly there had been some superpowered shenanigans at some point, and I’m sure we’ll learn even more about the past in next year’s Captain Marvel, which is set largely in the ‘90s. Much has changed in the Marvel Universe since then. There was a Vice-President arrested for attempted murder, for example, and most of our military arm was revealed to be compromised by Hydra at one point, including the secret super-police with the flying battleships. Aliens poured from a hole in the sky over New York and murderous robots tried to destroy us all by dropping a European city on itself. There are real gods, evidently, and they sometimes come to Earth and mess stuff up real bad, and every now and then, all of these super good guys seem to fight each other for some reason. Most significantly, Wakanda has come out from under cover now, radically reshaping the world’s socio-economic character. We haven’t seen that last part, but how can it not? Marvel has set an amazing stage for Avengers: Infinity War, and my only real question walking into the theater was, “How can they possibly bring all of this together in a way that works as an actual movie?”

You’ll be shocked how well they pull it off. I was.

First and foremost, this is the Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you treat everything they’ve made so far as one giant franchise, then this is the chapter where everything lands on our heroes with both feet. Everything has built to this, and they somehow make it still feel like a story, not a whole bunch of fan service thrown in front of a camera. That was not a foregone conclusion, and one of the things I’m curious about is how hardcore longtime comic book fans are going to react to the film versus people whose love of these characters comes primarily from the films. I suspect they will be very different reactions at first, because the longtime faithful are going to walk into this film feeling like they already know most of what they’ll see. That is not the case. This film is not terribly concerned with adapting any previous takes on Thanos or his quest for the Infinity Stones, and anyone expecting a date with Death is going to go home disappointed. Thanos and his reasons for killing half the universe (still very much his goal) have been reimagined, and it’s clear that the only thing that matters is the world that has been created for the movies. These versions of the characters. These relationships. This history, established over the last decade.

You’ll see reviewers tie themselves up in knots to tiptoe around this plot point or that plot point, or they’ll spoil something but claim they had to. Why? Plot is not what matters here. Broken down to the essentials, you already know the plot. There is a bad guy. He wants to do something. The heroes don’t want him to do the thing. So they all head off in different directions to get the things to stop him, and they have to race the clock to come together and save the day. That’s the plot of every movie like this, and it will likely continue to be the plot of every movie like this. Avengers Infinity War simply does it on a larger scale.

What I found most interesting was how the film managed to make most of its 19 million characters feel essential. Far more of a sequel to Thor Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 than Black Panther or even the other Avengers films, Avengers Infinity War does a remarkable job of juggling all of the different tones and characters that Marvel has introduced. When we’re in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum, it feels like we’re in Doctor Strange. When we cut to space, it feels like you’re watching Guardians of the Galaxy. The stuff inside Wakanda has its own feel, its own style. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo haven’t just made a Marvel movie that pays full respect to the various characters in it. They’ve also made a Marvel movie that pays tribute to the filmmakers who got them here. It is more than a greatest hits or another crossover. It is a movie that finally pulls back far enough for us to glimpse the full scope of the Marvel Universe that’s been created, even as it is all put to the test.

2018 will be remembered as the year that Marvel nailed the bad guy. First there was Killmonger in Black Panther, beautifully written and masterfully played by Michael B. Jordan. What made Killmonger so provocative was how clearly he made the case for his anger. His fury was justified, even if his actions weren’t. Here, Josh Brolin’s Thanos emerges as the most fully-written bad guy any of the Marvel heroes have had to face, and I was surprised by how quickly the performance capture creation of Thanos stopped looking like an effect and started feeling like a performance. Brolin makes a captivating case for the Mad Titan as genuinely believing that killing half of the universe will deliver the other half to a paradise where they no longer have to fight for survival. Because his fight is a righteous one, Thanos is as driven by his own moral compass as the Avengers are, and that’s what makes him especially dangerous. Thanos doesn’t want to rule. He doesn’t want power for the sake of it. He’s not looking for praise or worship. What he wants is simply to redistribute the wealth of the universe through one act of sheer brute force.

It’s strange to think there was a time when playing a superhero was silly, when the entire genre was approached with a good degree of skepticism. The list of actors who are all giving this film everything they’ve got is impressive: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olsen, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland, Paul Bettany… at this point, it’s almost impossible to make a film and not have some sort of overlap with someone from the Marvel Universe. Johansson feels like she’s the most short-changed of the longtime franchise regulars here. There’s a quick nod at resolving some of the dangling story threads between her and Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, but the end of the world hardly seems like the time for them to clarify whether or not they’re dating. Not having powers is one of the things that makes me like Black Widow overall in this series, because she’s putting herself in harm’s way knowing full well that she’s the least equipped person on the battlefield, every single time. She’s long since established herself as loyal and brave and capable, but in some ways, her normalcy is what hinders her in terms of being valuable to the Russos and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

That’s especially true here, because Avengers Infinity War is the most comic booky comic book movie that Marvel has ever attempted, and it’s not a film they could have gotten away with ten years ago. They had to use a decade of these movies to slowly educate the mainstream audience about what kinds of things might happen here, and it feels like they have been saving up moments they could finally drop here. A good portion of the fun simply comes from seeing these characters all finally meet one another. Some of those meetings go well. Others decidedly do not. But because we’ve gotten to know everyone, all of the meetings ring true. In some cases, our knowledge of what’s come before helps set up the reactions the characters have, and in some cases, the characters have been forewarned about each other, leading to fun friction. The honesty of the reactions also extends to the way they fragment the various groups into new configurations. For the most part, it makes sense for characters to end up divided the way they are. It works because it pushes familiar characters into new contexts, and it sets new characters right up against beloved oldies in ways that make them both seem fresh.

As someone who fell head over heels for Spider-Man all those years ago, and who still considers Peter Parker to be the perfect Marvel creation, I was delighted to see how well Spider-Man is used in the film, and how well Tom Holland embodies the character. He continues to be a perfect foil for Robert Downey Jr’s. Tony Stark, and I’m impressed by how well they pay off the storyline about the PTSD that Tony’s been grappling with since the Battle of New York back in the original Avengers film. After all, Stark was our way into this new movie universe in the first place, and it makes sense to keep his emotional journey front and center here. The film also nimbly exploits the bonds between the Guardians of the Galaxy characters and Thanos, and while the Guardians provide some of the film’s biggest laughs, their story arc also provides some of the most difficult, emotional material. I have a soft spot for the Guardians, since they are the Broken Toys of the Marvel universe, the team that shouldn’t work at all, and it feels like the Russos know just how much the emotional well-being of that team matters to us as viewers.

One of the best big action scenes in the film comes early in New York, but every single set piece here offers a wealth of things to love. Seeing the various combinations work together, seeing how they try to problem-solve their way through the sequences, it’s clear that they’ve worked hard to justify every character’s inclusion. The sheer size of the final sequence in Wakanda is too much for all of it to register, and there’s a surprising amount of what feels like The Phantom Menace influence in the way it’s been staged. Even so, the film keeps throwing oversized gauntlet-sized punches right to the end of the closing credits, landing the majority of them. Where I think some mainstream audiences may be confounded is with the way this film closes. It is not a conventional choice, nor will it be a popular choice. But it’s the right choice, and it is a huge provocation. I can’t wait to see Captain Marvel and Ant-Man and the Wasp and see how they play with us as an audience, because one thing’s for sure: Marvel is still just warming up and stretching their legs. By building this world the way they have, and by bringing to life this incredibly deep bench of characters, they have built the single biggest playground in pop culture.

Even if they did just burn the whole damn thing down.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 burritos

Avengers: Infinity War opens on April 27, 2018.

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Will We Really Get 3 Standalone HAN SOLO Movies?

We’re a month away from Solo, but just how many more scruffy nerf herder movies are we going to get? On today’s Nerdist News Talks Back we discussed the possible future for Han Solo, along with our reaction to the Venom trailer, and if the massive Disney-Fox merger could fall apart.

Today’s guest host Amy Vorpahl was joined by producer Jesse Gill, editor Kyle Anderson, and our social media manager Michelle Buchman, and they started by getting symbiotic with the first full Venom trailer. What did we think of it? Who will be film’s standout? Evergreen question: what’s up with Tom Hardy’s voice? Why are they saying “Symbiote” like that? And how successful can this movie be without Spider-Man?

They also broke down Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige’s comments when he was asked whether the Disney-Fox merger would change plans for the MCU’s next phase. Do we believe him when he says no? Could the deal really still fall apart? Is this just all a major misdirection before things get fantastic (four) for Marvel? Do we think the X-Men can even be integrated into the the MCU? And do we buy his comments about why they have kept the title for Avengers 4 a secret? Did it really blow up in their faces?

Finally, Alden Ehrenreich let slip he is actually signed up for three movies with Lucasfilm. Are we excited about this? Or are we nervous about his performance as the iconic space smuggler? Does this mean Donald Glover has also signed on for more films too? If not, uh, why!? What would it take for Solo to be called a flop? How would that change the plans for future Star Wars standalone films? And does this confirm the theory Lucasfilm wants the third Han Solo movie to end with him walking into the Mos Eisley Cantina?

As always Nerdist News Talks Back airs live at 1PM PT on our YouTube and Alpha channels Monday through Thursday, and we end the week in entertainment with Nerdist News What the Fridays at 1PM PT, only at Alpha. We’re signed up for five shows a week! Every week. So join us live and get in on the conversation with us everyday.

We swant to hear your thoughts on today’s show though, so tell us what you think in the comments below.

Images: Lucasfilm

The Internet is Not Happy with the VENOM Trailer

Even with all of the hype around Avengers: Infinity War, the new Venom trailer did not go unnoticed when it had a late night debut earlier this week. And while the first Venom teaser didn’t show us the alien sym-BI-ote, the new footage didn’t hold back on its comic book origins and gave us an extended look at Tom Hardy as both Eddie Brock and his alter ego. This may be the most accurate rendition of Venom we’ve seen to date, but the internet’s still not happy with this Marvel adjacent film. Today’s Nerdist News is breaking out the sonic canons to explain why fans just aren’t satisfied.

Join guest host Amy “Does Whatever a Spider Can” Vorpahl as she goes over some of the reasons why the new Venom trailer is getting a frosty reception. Some of the excuses are a bit silly, like getting angry over the pronunciation of symbiote. There are some justifiable complaints about the trailer’s dialogue, but the biggest issue that fans seem to have with Venom is that Spider-Man isn’t in it.

Sony isn’t hiding its attempt to launch a shared universe of Marvel’s Spider-Man characters without Spidey himself. But the problem with that is Venom is intrinsically linked to Peter Parker. Spider-Man was the first person to bond with the symbiote, barring some retcons with Deadpool. When Spidey rejected the symbiote, it found Eddie Brock, a disgraced journalist with a grudge against Spider-Man. Together, the symbiote and Brock became one of Spider-Man’s greatest villains. And when Venom proved to be popular, Marvel remade him as an anti-hero.

As portrayed in the trailer, Eddie Brock isn’t the dark reflection of Peter Parker. He’s more like a crusading journalist who doesn’t appear to have the flaws of his comic book counterpart. By removing Spider-Man from the equation, Sony has had to completely rework Venom’s origin story. When the changes are this extreme, is it really the same character from the comic? Or is this Venom just someone who shares the same name and powers? We’ll find out when Venom hits theaters on Friday, October 5.

What do you think about the new Venom trailer? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Images: Sony Pictures/Marvel

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What Jessica Williams’ FANTASTIC BEASTS 2’s Role Might Mean for American Wizards

The focus of the wizarding world was on New York City this week with the Broadway premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Of course J.K. Rowling was in attendance and ended up making a seemingly minor but important reveal about the next Fantastic Beasts movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald. The author announced what role Jessica Williams, confirmed as part of the film’s cast in October 2017, will be playing in the franchise. And while it hints at much bigger things to come for America’s role in the Fantastic Beasts films, it also raises questions about how much terrible, real world events will be used as a foundation for the story.

Professor Eulalie (Lally) Hicks of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with some random woman during the interval of #CursedChildNYC pic.twitter.com/Kl7joRz8me

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 22, 2018

We don’t know any other professors at the great American wizarding school Ilvermorny, but we doubt we’d want to take their class more than Professor Eulalie (Lally) Hicks’ course. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like we will see much of Williams in The Crimes of Grindelwald, but that will change dramatically in the third film (remember, they’re making five Fantastic Beasts movies).

You only see a HINT of Lally in Fantastic Beasts 2. Her true glory is revealed in FB3. https://t.co/8vyhdlU71m

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 22, 2018

Rowling wrote four histories about magic in America before Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and the subject that got the most attention from her was the history of Ilvermorny, the famous wizarding school in the United States which is also one of the best in the world. Unlike the other topics she wrote about–Native American wizards, MACUSA and isolationism, and American wandmakers–it even got it’s own gorgeous video. That’s why we expected to see the American Hogwarts in the first film, a story set in New York, and why we were surprised when it was only referenced. It now looks like all of the Ilvermorny backstory will have a payoff though, possibly as early as the third movie.

The question though is, how? The franchise is primarily moving the setting of the next four movies to Europe, where the Dark Wizard Grindelwald wages his campaign to instill himself as a ruler over the entire world, Muggles and No-Majs included. So how will a wizarding school in Massachusetts play into that storyline? The answer might be found in the history of the real world the story is paralleling.

Grindelwald’s rise to power mirrors Hitler’s. Dumbledore and his former friend have their epic duel–the one we are positive Fantastic Beasts is building to–in May of 1945. Grindelwald and his army were defeated the same month as the Nazi regime. That’s why it’s likely there will be other parallels between the rest of the Fantastic Beasts films and World War II.

The American wizarding community lives in self-imposed isolation from No-Majs. Unlike their European counterparts, who befriend and marry Muggles, they want nothing to do with the outside world. And it’s hard not to think of the word “isolationism” when thinking about America’s stance during the early years of WWII, when the United States would not enter the war. That only changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Will Rowling also bring America’s magical community into the fight against Grindelwald in a similar manner? Will it take a tragic attack on American soil for MACUSA to formally engage in the campaign in Europe? Could that mean an attack on Ilvermorny? It would be a prime target, and attacking children would be the type of event to make even the most reluctant wizards willing to fight.

We can only guess what will happen in the story, but while speculating is fun it’s not the most important question to ask. The biggest issue will be how delicately Rowling treats any further WWII parallels. Using an event as tragic as World War II, where millions were slaughtered both on the battlefield and in concentration camps, means you risk marginalizing real suffering if you don’t handle it well. If your fictional story comes across as being insensitive or tone deaf it will be rejected–and rightly so–by audiences.

That might seem like an obvious statement, but it’s a fair concern to raise since Rowling has already been accused by some of being insensitive with her fictional American magical histories. She has been criticized for appropriating Native American culture into her fictional magical world. Agree or not with that reaction, it shows how easy it can be to cross the line from “respectful homage” to “insensitive co-opting.”

The mere idea of something being the “magical Pearl Harbor” would be enough to sabotage the franchise, which is why any other parallels to WWII will have to be handled with the utmost care. Terrible things will happen in the story, just like they did in Harry Potter, but then it wasn’t intimately tied to a real world event. For Fantastic Beasts the key will be making sure any similarities are at most reminiscent of real events, not clearly inspired by or trying to recreate them.

It’s not easy to give Warner Bros. and Rowling the benefit of the doubt on anything going forward though, considering they have not only been comfortable keeping Johnny Depp, who has been accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife, in the role of Grindelwald, they have issued statements and defended their decision while barely explaining why.

It’s possible the rest of the Fantastic Beasts franchise won’t parallel WWII in any other way. Ilvermorny might be totally safe going forward, and American wizards might be brave combatants as soon as Grindelwald’s army poses a threat. This could all be much ado about nothing, but there is reason to be worried.

We just hope when we do see the American Hogwarts we’re transported to a magical place, and not somewhere that makes us feel like the suffering of millions of real, innocent people hasn’t been co-opted for a story.

What do you think though? Are we stressing over nothing? Or is this a real concern you are worried about? Tell us why in the comments below.

Images: Warner Bros.

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Who Will Become Sorcerer Supreme if Doctor Strange Dies in INFINITY WAR?

With Avengers: Infinity War hitting theaters this week, Marvel fans all over the world are waiting with bated breath to find out where the Soul Stone has been hiding all this time, what Thanos has planned for the Infinity Stones, and who will die at his giant purple hands. But there’s yet another thing we’ve got to consider: Finding a suitable replacement for the most powerful magic user on planet Earth if Thanos winds up taking out Doctor Strange. It may be a grim notion, but having the discussion with Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland still put a smile on my face.

While Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange seems like an unlikely candidate to bite the dust in Infinity War, anything can happen in Marvel’s hotly anticipated superhero slobberknocker. To find out who could take on the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme in the event of his untimely demise, we sent our intrepid reporter Markeia McCarty to speak with Cumberbatch and his co-star Holland (a.k.a. Spider-Man) about possible Doctor Strange replacements, why Spidey finally decided to become an Avenger, and much more.

Who would you want to replace Doctor Strange if he shuffled off this mortal coil? Let us know in the comments below!

Avengers: Infinity War opens on April 27, 2018.

The biggest Marvel news right now

Here’s your first look at Tom Hard as Venom
Look at how insanely connected the MCU really is in this chart
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Why Marvel skipping Comic-Con’s Hall H is bigger than you think

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

These Beer Dice Can Be the Life of Your RPG Party

We use a couple definitions of parties in everyday language. One usually includes a rogue, a paladin, a warrior, etc–you know, an epic roleplaying party. The other either includes a magician or a beer pong table, depending on your age group. The geniuses at Artisan Dice have found a clever way you can (sort of) combine both definitions into a great time. Behold, BEER DICE!

These “Beer Dice” are made with compressed hops and set into a crystal resin. This allows players to see all the fibers and details on the hops. The dice are then inlaid with brass to give them a polished, fancy finish. First used in beer during the ninth century, hops are the plant that gives beer its flavor. And now, the material gives these dice their stunning look. We know we shouldn’t have to say this, but we’ve seen enough viral videos around the interwebs, so: please do not attempt to open the dice and drink them. Eww.

Having the best-looking dice at your next Dungeons & Dragons or other roleplaying game does come at a cost. You can get one d20 die for $53 and the entire polyhedral set for $283. RPGs are already fun games about creativity. There’s no reason the accessories shouldn’t be made with a similar amount of creativity…and that’s Artisan Dice’s specialty. I mean, look at these fancy exotic woods dice.

So what do you think? Are you going add these dice to your next game night? Let me know on Twitter at @donnielederer or sound off in the comments below.

Images: Artisan Dice

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The Internet’s Best, Funniest, and Silliest VENOM Trailer Memes

The first Venom teaser Sony released back in February resulted in the internet losing its collective mind and getting really angry. (That doesn’t sound anything like the internet we know!) In fairness though, it was kind of frustrating to get our first look at the movie only to find out it did not contain any footage of, uh, Venom.

But let’s just say that was not a problem with the movie’s first trailer, which didn’t just feature a whole lot of looks at the Symbiote, it featured a full on–and full-tongued–look at his gruesome visage.



Which is why this time instead of responding in anger, the internet responded in memes. So many memes. And we gathered up our favorite ones, from the silliest, to the funniest, to the downright absurd.

here comes the choo-choo train, open wide baby #Venom pic.twitter.com/iGWMc8XEqH

— daniel IW TOMORROW (@ruffalosfluff) April 24, 2018

Freshman year VS Senior year #VENOM pic.twitter.com/IByFpFbQTF

— Eddie Brock/Venom (@VenomMovieNews) April 24, 2018

the new venom movie looks amazing pic.twitter.com/4aHO7YimxN

— nunu remake (@gustavocrata) April 24, 2018

ok this new venom trailer is not what i expected tbh pic.twitter.com/582Z7THCgu

— darth (@darth) April 24, 2018

Bane before using too much venom and after using too much venom

Cc: @komrikmania pic.twitter.com/ZOmOMzWo1Y

— Crowbar (@GalihWiseso) April 24, 2018

Footage of Tom Holland's Spidey trying to fight Tom Hardy's Venom pic.twitter.com/mdbYIU9Hfx

— Nick is in some 2018 mood (@niklander2) April 24, 2018

I just saw the new Venom movie trailer, and im super hyped for the final film! pic.twitter.com/7ubWRJqaIO

— Iudex Helion (@Mutztuz) April 24, 2018

friends: you're coming right. you're not going to wait until 10 minutes before and text everyone that you can't make it
me: pic.twitter.com/VlJ0byyaG1

— the hippo account (@InternetHippo) April 24, 2018

Saw this and had to laugh #Venom pic.twitter.com/UTvhBFQVq5

— Brett X (@MutantMadman) April 24, 2018

Great day for jokes, yes, but a tough day for Topher Grace.

You vs. the Venom she told you not to worry about pic.twitter.com/cFjXiXQVKN

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) April 24, 2018

Both of these dudes have played as Venom….. pic.twitter.com/JQ7x1My3SL

— Andrew. #SpursIn7 (@LatiNo_Chill) April 24, 2018

We’ve come so far. #Venom #VenomTrailer pic.twitter.com/abB6cM58rz

— Pretty Brown & Nerdy (@PBNtweets) April 24, 2018

Not a comic book reader but need an easy way to understand the character? Itsa meme!

If you're not familiar with Venom, here's all you need to know before the movie pic.twitter.com/Hm1KHGy9XK

— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) April 24, 2018

One complaint? Venom’s eyes could look a little bit better.

The Venom people forgot to give him pupils, but I have fixed it. pic.twitter.com/fOIlSo1va9

— Daniel Spenser (@DanSpenser) April 24, 2018

Now this is #Venom done right.

How JURASSIC PARK Could Predict WESTWORLD’s Future

Ah, Westworld. It’s the show to watch if you want an uplifting, happy story to make your Sunday nights shine with joy. Just kidding. The HBO drama is back for its second season, and neither human or host is safe. It’s a new world what with the hosts gaining awareness and Delos employees trying to clean up the mess…and with one host loaded with over three decades of valuable data trying to get out into our world. Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum) is a target. As Vanity Fair‘s pointed out, he’s kind of like Nedry’s shaving cream can in Jurassic Park.

Michael Crichton’s responsible for both Jurassic Park and Westworld, so what could the former tell us about the latter? Jessica Chobot sent me into the wilds of Hollywood for the season two premiere, and I tried to gather some clues from Herthum, Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores), James Marsden (Teddy), and Ben Barnes (Logan) about the future. Beware minor spoilers.

It’s a dark timeline for everyone. Survival is the struggle for humans and hosts. Arguably, humans are more at risk than hosts; if they receive a mortal wound, it’s not like they can be repaired for resurrection. But hosts are in trouble too, because there isn’t a team of employees at the ready to patch them up. So a permanent end is on the table for everyone…as all the actors seem to know.

Westworld airs on Sundays on HBO at 9PM ET/PT.

Who do you think is most likely to bite it first in season two of Westworld? Do you think Jurassic Park is a road map for Westworld’s future? Share your theories in the comments.

Images: HBO

Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow her on Twitter.

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When is a Sequel Not a Sequel? A Study of the RINGO Westerns

The idea of a “sequel” was a bit of a non-entity in Italian B-cinema of the 1960s and ’70s. Not because the audience didn’t want to see more adventures of particular characters, nor because the producers didn’t believe in making them. Rather, intellectual property was so fluid and unprotected that anybody could make a movie and title it anything they wanted to capitalize on another film’s success. So even if you didn’t think you were making a sequel to something, you might find out you had once it came out. Director Duccio Tessari had a bit of fun with this with his two 1965 spaghetti westerns, A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo.

Tessari’s first western (already his third film released in 1965) proved to be such a hit, introducing the handsome, fresh-faced and puckish hero Ringo, played by Giuliano Gemma (credited in both films as Montgomery Wood), that unofficial sequels followed almost immediately. Most notably, Alberto De Martino’s $100,000 for Ringo released only a couple of months later. The lead character in that film was originally named Lee Barton, but after A Pistol for Ringo‘s success, the character was given the nickname Ringo and the title changed to capitalize. And it worked. Even though there wasn’t any direct connection between the films, the presence of the name “Ringo” was enough to bring audiences in in droves.

Dozens more movies were made in the ensuing spaghetti western years by various different filmmakers using the name “Ringo” in the title, much the same way “Django” would get exploited following the success of Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 Django. But what makes A Pistol for Ringo‘s case so interesting is that Tessari wanted to get ahead of the rip-offs, and made his own, totally unrelated film featuring all of the same main cast and behind-the-scenes personnel. The Return of Ringo is truly the sequel that isn’t a sequel.

A Pistol for Ringo begins with the angel-faced Ringo killing four men in a gunfight. He’s arrested and taken to jail where he asks for a glass of milk and claims he only acted in self-defense. Meanwhile, the aging Major Clyde (Antonio Casas) and his daughter Ruby (Hally Hammond, real name Lorella De Luca) celebrate Christmas at their hacienda when its besieged by a gang of bandits. Led by Sancho (Fernando Sancho) and his Lady Macbeth-like mistress (Nieves Navarro) who uses her wiles to win over Major Clyde and keep him placated, the gang sit on the enormous loot they’ve just stolen.

The town’s Sheriff (George Martin) wants to send a band to liberate the family, and rescue Ruby whom he loves, but Sancho says he’ll kill two hostages a day unless the Sheriff allows them to go free. In a last ditch effort, the Sheriff releases and deputizes Ringo to go infiltrate the gang and keep everyone safe. He’ll have to use his wits, because the joke of the movie is that no one–not the Sheriff nor Sancho–will give Ringo a pistol, which is a shame since he’s the fastest gun in the west.

A Pistol for Ringo is first and foremost a fun movie. Tessari was emboldened by the success of Sergio Leone‘s A Fistful of Dollars, which he’d helped write the previous year and was given the freedom by producers Alberto Pugliese and Luciano Ercoli to make whatever kind of film he wanted, so long as it was a western more or less in the Leone style. Pistol has a lot of humor, including some outright slapstick comedy, and Gemma’s Ringo is a smiley trickster whom you know isn’t a bad guy, but you’re never quite sure he’s a good guy. His singular and complicated morality (stealing is fine, killing bad guys is fine, but mistreating women and not celebrating Christmas sure aren’t) is one of the standouts of the movie. He’s a character that absolutely could have returned in many more movies.

But, officially, he never did. After Pistol‘s release in May of 1965, when it was a huge hit in Italy and elsewhere, the team got back together to do another Ringo, and instead of having the character return as he was, he’s a totally different person, who just also happens to have the nickname Ringo. While Clint Eastwood’s character in the Leone films has a different name in each movie, it’s very clear he’s meant to be the same person, but, despite what The Return of Ringo‘s trailer said, nobody’s meant to be the same character, even though literally everyone came back.

This time, Gemma plays Capt. Montgomery “Ringo” Brown, a battle-hardened Union officer returning home to his wife and daughter, only to find they’re dead at the hands of a Mexican bandit called Esteban Fuentes (Sancho again). Going undercover as a Mexican peasant, Ringo learns his family isn’t dead, but his wife Helen (Hammond) is about to marry Fuentes as a means of saving her daughter. Navarro again plays the femme fatale, this time a saloon girl and fortune teller who has her own score to settle with Fuentes. This go-around Casas plays the good, if slightly ineffectual, sheriff of the town, and Martin plays the vile brother of Fuentes.

The Return of Ringo is a complete tonal opposite to A Pistol for Ringo, a steely revenge drama with some particularly violent set pieces, some commentary on racism in the American southwest, and a hero who’s just this side of being irredeemable. It’s fitting that even when he reveals his identity to Helen, she hardly recognizes him. Pistol is bright and sunny despite the danger, while the sun in Return is oppressive and blistering. The music to both films is done by the great Ennio Morricone, and the first is snappy and upbeat the the second is much crunchier and more ominous.

The two Ringo films are often cited as sequels but they’re closer to variations on a theme. In either movie, Ringo goes undercover to infiltrate the evil gang and save the girl–usual hero western stuff–but Tessari approached them in such different and fascinating ways that you’d be forgiven for thinking they were made by different people. Reusing the same principle cast was a genius way to capitalize on the earlier film’s success without having to kowtow to the creative stifling often inherent in making “another one.” Gemma’s performances in each movie are impressive in their own way; he fits perfectly into the role of fresh-faced ruffian and embittered, half-mad ex-soldier alike. Watching them side by side is a revelation whichever way you look.

A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo are available in a lovely set from Arrow Video. Each film has a commentary by Spaghetti western scholars C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke, a discussion of the making of the two films by critic Tony Rayns, and several archival interviews with the cast and crew. If you like Spaghetti westerns beyond the usual fare, these are two well worth checking out.

Images: Embassy Pictures/Arrow Video

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He is the writer of 200 reviews of weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!

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The 25 Best Space Capes in Film and TV History

From the earliest days of science fiction film and television, countless costume designers have been charged with delivering to viewing audiences one very important message: You’re in space now, baby. And the only garment that can duly handle such a message? The space cape, naturally. The Star Wars franchise alone has given us space capes numbering in the dozens, including the most iconic space cape in all of pop culture history. Paring the entire history of space capery down to 25 capes is a tough task, but one worth accepting so that you, the loyal space cape acolyte, can see what’s come before.

25) BRAIN GUY, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

Any man who carries around his own brain in a bowl knows how to accessorize. As with the rest of Mystery Science Theater 3000, there’s a certain charm to the cheapness of Brain Guy’s space cape; calling it RenFair-adjacent probably overestimates how much it cost to make. Brain Guy’s space cape is undeniably on the basic side of the space cape spectrum, but what it lacks in flair, it makes up in comfort—it is, after all, paired with what is essentially an old-school nightgown.

24) KANTOS KAN, JOHN CARTER

Extreme props to James Purefoy, who did his bit to even out the gender ratio of completely impractical armor with his midriff-bearing number—paired with a cape, naturally—in the underrated 2012 film John Carter.

23) KOSH, BABYLON 5

With the top-to-tails muchness of the encounter suit worn by Vorlon ambassador Kosh on Babylon 5, it can be tough to see that there is, in fact, a space cape in the mix here. But don’t let it slip by you. This cape is sparkly, it’s gigantic, it’s the a sci-fi version of the time Ralph Macchio dressed up as a shower curtain in The Karate Kid.

22) COLONIAL DRESS OUTFIT, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

The 2000s Battlestar Galactica series was a thoughtful, philosophically rich meditation on religion, what it means to be human, and post-9/11 cultural shifts. It wasn’t particularly campy, and the outfits were mostly military in nature. The OG Battlestar Galactica, though? Space cape central. Whenever Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) needed to get fancy, they would don their ceremonial capes, complete with gaudy gold trim. Is it velour? Is it faux suede? Whatever it is, it’s all ‘70s.

21) THE SIXTH DOCTOR, DOCTOR WHO

The Sixth Doctor is best known for an outfit that paired a colorful patchwork jacket with yellow striped pants, a blue spotted cravat, and a shirt with question mark-adorned lapels. If a man—well, time lord who can change genders, whatever—is that flamboyant a dresser, do you honestly think he never wore a cape? Please. Unlike the more staid, black cape worn by his first incarnation, the Sixth Doctor’s cape (seen here in “Revelation of the Daleks”) was a bright blue number with gold piping and frog closures in the shape of Six’s signature question marks. He looks a bit like he belongs in a circus, but hey, it fits.

20) TRELANE, STAR TREK

Trelane (William Campbell), from the first season of Star Trek‘s original trilogy, is defined by being a massive drama queen. And what says “drama queen” better than a cape modeled after 18th century France, paired with a cravat? Well, abducting a starship crew so you can use them as your playthings until your mommy and daddy tell you to knock it off. But also the cape.

19) NIOLANI, LOST IN SPACE

Given Coco Chanel’s old “before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off” advice, if you’re wearing a dramatic space cape, you probably don’t need to pair it with a giant, spiky hat. Unless, that is, you’re Lost in Space’s Niolani, who kidnaps men to work as slave laborers for the construction of her all-female colony. Niolani may be this list’s first black latex-loving, weird hat-wearing female alien and straw (wo)man argument about the would-be evils of feminism, but she will not be its last.

18) SKELETOR, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Yes, Skeletor’s cape counts as a space cape. He’s on a distant planet that boasts high-tech gadgetry, so I will give Masters of the Universe the space cape benefit of the doubt. The film actually has quite a few of them, with Evil-Lyn’s shiny silver number being the closest competition Skeletor’s more traditional black cape has. (I guess He-Man’s cape is cool, too?) But does Evil-Lyn wear her cape during any Shakespeare-caliber monologues like the one shown above? No. Does she go on about the “loneliness of evil”? No. Skeletor doesn’t just wear the cape. He is the cape.

17) ZARINA, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY

The entire history of Western civilization led up to the moment GIFed above, from the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode “Flight of the War Witch.” Julie Newmar, playing a character named Zarina the War Witch, does a dramatic turn to the camera, revealing a cape adorned with rhinestones and shoulderpads befitting the episode’s 1980 release. Joan Crawford weeps.

16) THE BATWING SUIT, FLASH GORDON

You may think of Star Wars as the OG of “You get a cape! And you get a cape! Everybody gets a cape!” brand of futurism. But the real pioneer is Flash Gordon, which started as a comic series in 1934 before being adapted as a series of film serials in the late ‘30s and early ’40s. It doesn’t take long until Earthman Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) clues into a fashion must of interstellar adventure: You just gotta have a cape. (Also: never wear pants when you can wear booty shorts instead.) In Flash Gordon: Deadly Ray from Mars, we’re introduced to the “Batwing suit,” which is essentially a cape that functions as a hang glider, allowing its wearers to jump from improbably high distances without being turned to mush upon landing. Your move, Batman.

15) COUNT ZARTH ARN, STARCRASH

Released in 1979, the fantasy space opera Starcrash is a blatant ripoff of Star Wars. Though the plot of Starcrash—or what plot there is in the thinly written cheesefest—isn’t particularly similar to that of what we now know as A New Hope, a lot of the details read as borrowed: a planet-sized weapon, laser swords, a mystical force, a neurotic robot sidekick with a thick accent. And, of course, space capes. Here’s a lesson in capery for you: what makes a cape great isn’t just the cape itself, but how it’s worn.

In order to achieve perfection, the cape and its wearer must operate as a single symbiotic being, with each half feeding off the other’s dramatic influence. Starcrash‘s Christopher Plummer—yes, Christopher Plummer is in Starcrash—wears a space cape, but he doesn’t really work it, possibly because that’s a tough thing to so when you spend half your screentime sitting on a chair, visibly drunk. Picking up his slack is Joe Spinelli as the resident villain, a Darth Vader stand-in named—wait for it—Zarth. The cape is red velvet. Spinelli flings it. He gives it maximum billow. He enfolds himself in its tender caress.

14) PRINCE BARIN, FLASH GORDON

When Flash Gordon got rebooted by director Mike Hodges in 1980, it got… well, “80s-ified,” which in this particular case means “everything is neon.” There aren’t as many space capes as there were in the ‘30s serials—there’s a vastly shorter running time in which to fit them, after all—but what this newer incarnation of the space-trotting classic lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Read this next part very carefully: Neon Space Robin Hood Timothy Dalton.

13) OSWALD CABAL, THINGS TO COME

Just as Flash Gordon was introducing eager moviegoers to the good word of the space cape, none other than H.G. Wells was doing his part with Things to Come. Okay, Wells probably didn’t have any input into the costume design of Things to Come, but he did write it, making the 1936 film the only movie ever penned by the sci-fi legend. The film is a passionate defense of scientific progress as a way to end war. In Things to Come, technological advancement means (among other things) a heckton of capes, worn by men and women alike. Raymond Massey, playing the pro-science leader Oswald Cabal, pairs his cape with man sandals and a RompHim, making Things to Come even more ahead of its time than originally thought.

12) SULU, STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK

The Star Trek franchise has never had as many capes as Star Wars, due to the latter’s more prominent fantasy influence. That said, the final frontier has a few characters who appreciate the way of the cape—primary among them is Sulu, who wore a leather jacket/cape in The Search for Spock. The armholes and relatively slim silhouette make the cape a more practical affair than than most of what you’ll find in the Star Wars universe; Sulu, at least, has no mobility issues when he needs to drop a dude who calls him tiny. For those who like this look, the blazer/cape combo has actually seen a resurgence over the last several years.

11) BARBARELLA, BARBARELLA

The most iconic scene in Roger Vadim’s camp classic Barbarella is notable for what its heroine doesn’t wear. Namely, over the opening credits we see a young, gorgeous Jane Fonda, playing the movie’s interstellar explorer heroine, writhing around in zero gravity as she sloooowly removes her space suit, piece by piece. Later on, Barbarella’s journey to Tau Ceti to retrieve scientist Durand Durand requires her to wear a variety of flesh-bearing outfits, several of which feature capes. In keeping with the film’s over-the-top, kitschy visual aesthetic, they’re mostly sparkly affairs that you could probably recreate with $15 worth of cheap, scratchy fabric from Wal-Mart.

10) PAUL ATREIDES, DUNE

David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic Dune is… not a good movie. Let’s go further: it’s very, very bad. Like, mind-bogglingly, “How did a major studio let this movie happen?” bad. However, it does have a few positive elements. Like: Sting’s metal bikini. Brad Dourif’s eyebrows. And space capes—particularly the space cape worn by Kyle MacLachlan at the very end of the film, when he’s standing there, literally slack-jawed at finally having been revealed as the long-foreseen Chosen One. His gormless expression isn’t the best acting choice, but it doesn’t take away from his the quality of his cape, which is, for some reason, embroidered with pink mold spots. Look, I don’t really know what’s happening here, but I do know it’s unlike anything else on this list.

9) HELA, THOR: RAGNAROK

Though superheroes are commonly associated with capes, the MCU is actually pretty light on them. Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow and most of the rest of the franchise’s principal lineup sport more tactical-themed outfits. Holding down the space cape front for the MCU is the Thor trilogy, where a dozen-plus characters get capes of their very own. Only one of those characters, however, is played by Cate Blanchett. Or shall I refer to Thor: Ragnarok’s Hela as… Cape Blanchett?

8) THOR, MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

Thor has undergone a lot of changes since he was first introduced in the MCU back in 2011. He gained a half-sister, lost an eye, gained and lost a girlfriend, lost his hammer, gained a sweet smoking jacket, and discovered the restorative powers of coffee. His red cape, too, has been through the ringer. In the first Thor (pictured), it was a voluminous affair boasting high shoulders. In Thor: The Dark World, the shoulders had come down to Earth (well, Asgard) a little; he goes from a full cape BumpIt to really aggressive shoulderpads.

By the time Ragnarok rolls around, the cape is flush against Thor’s shoulders. By the end of the film, the cape’s been ripped in half. Think of it like an inverted alien space God version of that old Texas saying: “The higher the hair, the closer to God.” Thor’s cape becoming less and less dramatic mirrors the character’s transition from the hubris-heavy God of Thunder to a more grounded, humble hero.

7) THIRD DOCTOR, DOCTOR WHO

In Doctor Who, each of the Doctor’s incarnations has his own distinct visual aesthetic. For the Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee from 1970 to ’74, that aesthetic is full dandy: ruffled shirts, velvet smoking jackets, and lots and lots of capes. It’s hard to pick one cape that stands above the rest, but—oh, no, who am I kidding? It’s not hard! It’s the tartan Inverness cape. Whenever you can choose a tartan Inverness cape, you always do.

6) ORSON KRENNIC, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

Rogue One’s Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) is a dramatic S.O.B. who wants to make sure everyone knows that they stand amid his achievement, not yours! And what says, “Look at me. I’m really important!” better than a cape? We’re not talking some subtle, over-one-shoulder-capelet affair, either. This thing is big and it’s white (a.k.a. difficult to keep clean) because Orson Krennic is a glorious, vain showboat. It’s not the most practical garnet for striding across a beach planet… but hey, that scene got cut, anyway.

5) KILAAK QUEEN, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

In the 1968 Ishirô Honda film Destroy All Monsters, an alien race known as the Kilaaks have a foolproof plan to take over the Earth: by mind-controlling an assortment of monsters—among them Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan—into destroying its major cities, then stepping into the ashes to claim the planet as their own. You rang, Pacific Rim? We don’t see much of the alien race that controls the kaiju in Guillermo del Toro’s 21st century reimagining of ‘60s monster movies, but we see enough of them to know they don’t wear space capes. The Kilaaks, however, wear glittery space capes, which—even better!—are paired with matching hooded jumpsuits that make members of this terrifying alien race look like nothing so much as giant, sparkly condoms.

4) PADMÉ AMIDALA, STAR WARS: EPISODE III -REVENGE OF THE SITH

Star Wars, if you didn’t know already, is rather heavy on the capes. It makes complete sense, then, that the galaxy far, far away’s resident clothes horse, Padmé Amidala, would own a few outfits that fall in the cape/cloak neighborhood. There’s the velvet one and the animal print one and the one from Delia’s and the one that looks like she just slung a blanket over her shoulders for maximum comfort and warmth on her midnight ice cream run. But Amidala’s best cape is also her saddest, and her last: the blue sequined number she wore with her “water gown”—in other words, the outfit she was buried in. If you’re going to be buried, be buried in a cape. And if you’re going to be buried in a cape, be buried in the best.

3) NYAH, DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS

Fulfilling this list’s “dominatrix space cape” requirement (yes, of course there is one) is the 1954 film Devil Girl from Mars. In in this film, Mars was home to a literal Battle of the Sexes—one that women had won, breaking the shackles of gender inequality to usurp men’s political power, eventually leaving the latter impotent and the entire Martian race at risk of dying out. Devil Girl from Mars’ attitude towards the feminist movement: Not great, Bob! On the plus side, this is a movie that gave us Nyah (Patricia Laffan), a Martian leather mama who takes a jaunt on down to Scotland so she can kidnap some Earth men to use for breeding stock. With her all-black outfit, voluminous cape and helmet, she’s kind of like a genderswapped Darth Vader, if Darth Vader were into black latex and liked to show off his gams.

2) DARTH VADER, STAR WARS

…and speaking of Darth Vader! What, did you think there’d be a list of space capes without the space cape? Stylistically, Darth Vader’s cape isn’t the standout entry on this list. It doesn’t have the funky fabric of a Barbarella space cape or the quirky design of the Third Doctor’s tartan Inverness. It’s… a big, black piece of fabric. It’s the most basic cape there is. But it’s also the most iconic cape there is, to the point that it’s unimaginable to try to conceive of any appreciation of space capes without including it. Billowing out behind Darth Vader as he strides down the halls of the Death Star, this cape tells you all you need to know about the pure, menacing evil of this character. It’s iconic for a reason. But being iconic alone isn’t enough to get you to the number one spot, even within your own franchise.

1) LANDO CALRISSIAN, STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

With space capes, as with Highlanders, there can be only one—and the one, in this case, is the space cape worn by Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in The Empire Strikes Back. At once futuristic and of its time, Lando’s blue-and-gold number brings some much-needed visual flair to the Original Trilogy. Not to knock the OT’s costume design, which is iconic for a reason, but… well, it’s a lot of white, black and beige, isn’t it? Why stick with that when you can have gold brocade?

Of course, there are far more spaces capes than just these 25. What are your favorites? Let us know!

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