Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2098

What If GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Were a Film From DC and Not Marvel?

The Marvel Comics vs DC Comics rivalry has been going on for decades, ever since Stan Lee started referring to DC as “Brand Echh” back in the pages of the old comics. But in our modern era, Marvel vs DC comics has given way to Marvel Studios vs Warner Brothers/DC Films: the movie edition. While Marvel Studios has established a particular brand with their films, emphasizing humor and adventure, Warner Brothers has decided to take an almost totally opposite approach with their DC Comics based films.

The first DCEU (DC Extended Universe) film was Man of Steel, a film in which Superman barely managed to crack a smile once. Although Warners got criticized for their somber, dark tone in that film, they inexplicably decided to double down on that tone for the next DCEU movie, Batman v Superman. By the time their third movie Suicide Squad rolled around, we knew there was a pattern here, and two competing styles had been established–Marvel equals high stakes adventure, but filled with jokes and fun, while DC equals grunting and brooding, and lots of TV news pundits decrying the need for superheroes.

But what if Marvel movies decided to go the DCEU route? Thanks to this fan made trailer, via the folks at Yahoo, we can now see the result. Someone took Marvel Studios’ most colorful, exuberant film, Guardians of the Galaxy, and replaced all the classic rock songs and jokes with a bleak, ominous score, and a color grading that drained the movie of all its brightness joy. And then, by focusing on the movie’s darker moments, like the alien villain Ronin’s execution of a captured man with a giant mallet, or the sad deathbed scene with Peter Quill’s mother that opens the movie, it makes the entire film look like an ultra-serious movie that you might not want to take your 8 year old to. You can check out the fan made trailer down below:

Now, before you DC fanboys come at me with torches and pitchforks, I should actually speak my truth: I rather enjoy Man of Steel a lot, despite its flaws. And it looks like both Wonder Woman and maybe even Justice League could be the course corrections that the DCEU needs. But until that happens, Warner Brothers has set the tone for their DC based films. They made their bed, now they’ve got to sleep in it–and expect scathing (yet hilarious and right on the money) fan parodies like this one.

 What do you think of the Guardians given the DCEU treatment? Give us your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: Marvel Studios / Warner Brothers

BATMAN/THE SHADOW #1 Teams Up the Two Legendary Crimefighters (Exclusive Preview)

Nearly a decade before the debut of Batman in the pages of Detective Comics, America’s favorite mysterious nocturnal avenger was The Shadow. Appearing on radio as well as in pulp magazines during the 1930s and ’40s, the character was an early example of a vigilante who wears a dark cape and fights injustice in the gritty streets of the big city, but in secret is a wealthy playboy about town. Sound familiar? It should, because the character of the Shadow was a huge influence on Bill Finger and Bob Kane when they created Batman in 1939.

While the Shadow would fade from popularity as Batman’s popularity grew more and more, the character would continue to make appearances on occasion in various media. In 1973, he finally met Batman in an issue of Detective Comics, the first time the two crime fighting icons would ever team up.

Now over forty years later, DC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment are bringing the two brooding, dark cloaked vigilantes together once more. Batman writer Scott Snyder together with Justice League of America writer Steve Orlando are bringing readers a modern version of a meeting of these two mysterious creatures of the night in a new limited series.

You can check out our exclusive preview of the first nine pages from Batman/The Shadow #1, together with all variant covers down below in our gallery.

Publisher: DC Comics / Dynamite Entertainment

Writers: Steve Orlando, Scott Snyder

Artist: Riley Rossmo

Cover Artists: Riley Rossmo (Variants) Tim Sale, Cliff Chiang, Riley Rossmo (coloring book variant)

Here’s the official synopsis:

“ Two of history’s greatest vigilantes are reunited at last! Murder has come to Gotham City, and Lamont Cranston appears to be the culprit…but he’s been dead for over fifty years! Batman will go to the ends of the Earth to unravel the mystery of Cranston’s life, but the mysterious Shadow will do everything in his power to stop him from learning too much…

The superstar team of writers Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando and artist Riley Rossmo brings you a dark and twisty modern noir like nothing you’ve seen before, with a brand-new villain unlike any either hero has faced! This is the unmissable crime series of 2017, so get on board now! ”

Batman/The Shadow #1 is due to hit stores on Wednesday, April 26.

Are you looking forward to the long overdue team-up between these two dark defenders of the night? Let us know what you think down below in the comments.

Images: DC Comics

Two Brothers (Unwisely) Revisit an Old Cult in THE ENDLESS (Tribeca FF Review)

There’s something innately disconcerting about cults, which is why they often serve as the backdrop for some memorably effective indie thrillers. Highly disparate psychological thrillers such as The Sacrament, Jug Face, Holy Ghost People, Starry Eyes, Sound of My Voice, and Faults have all touched on the ominous side of cults in various ways, and now, here comes a decidedly fresh spin on the whole premise. Most movies of this sort are about people on their way out of a religious cult–in one way or another–whereas the offbeat, low-key, quietly fascinating The Endless (from the gents who gave us Resolution and Spring) focuses on a pair of aimless brothers who are seemingly intent on moving back into the cult lifestyle.

Now there’s an interesting wrinkle. The Endless is not about two brothers trying to escape from a freaky religion. They’re actually rejoining the same wacky crew they escaped from ten years earlier! Not only that, but Aaron and Justin (our co-directors are also our co-stars, and they do a damn good job on both counts) have been pretty damn vocal about the hardships they once withstood under the cult’s thumb, and they have no idea if they’ll be greeted with open arms or closed fists. There’s also the issue of a mysterious videotape that serves to kick-start the brothers’ fresh interest in their freaky old home…

As they did with the cleverly askew Resolution and the unexpectedly touching Spring, Benson and Moorhead take a potentially familiar premise, shake it up with all sorts of novel themes and interesting ideas, and do all they can to keep the viewers on their toes. Of course we all know that returning to visit your old cult-mates is a bad idea–doubly so when you basically “betrayed” them in TV interviews–but if you’re expecting some sort of basic “drink the Kool-aid” premise or some standard occult/evil spirit material, well, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised by the smoothly circuitous and enjoyably unpredictable nature of The Endless.

Yes, it does get pretty darn creepy. It’s just that Benson and Moorhead have a decidedly unique way of telling a scary story, and it’s one that’s loaded with clever, insightful dialogue, and unexpectedly engaging moments of backstory and character development. There’s also a sly sense of humor that prevents The Endless from ever feeling obvious, conventional, dull, or, well, endless. If Spring was an unexpectedly romantic spin on “monster movie” conventions, then The Endless works remarkably well as a frank, honest, and insightful perspective on fraternal relationships. Also there’s a definite Lovecraft vibe going on at the old cult campgrounds and I just love it.

And just when you think you have the movie pegged, it takes some wonderfully strange left turns–none of which will be even remotely spoiled here–but suffice to say that if you’re a fan of this duo’s previous features then you’ll probably get a kick out of where The Endless winds up going. Benson and Moorhead continue to prove that they’re as capable in front of the camera as they are behind it, and The Endless marks their third fascinating genre film in as many tries. (Three and a third if you count their colorfully twisted short from V/H/S Viral.) Like Resolution and Spring, The Endless sort of defies easy description; it’s a “cult” thriller, a dramatic piece, a two-headed character study, and a quietly freaky Twilight Zone episode all rolled into one.

4.5 strange but undeniably compelling burritos out of 5

Images: Snowfort Pictures

10 Marvel Comics Heroes Who Still Need to Debut In Live-Action

Over the last several years, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has flourished on both big and small screens, not to mention the X-Men movie universe at Fox, it seems almost no Marvel hero is too small or obscure for the live-action treatment. Everyone’s getting their 15 minutes of fame it seems.

Just in the next few years alone, Marvel Comics fans will be getting to see live-action versions of Cable, Domino, The New Mutants, The Inhumans, The New Warriors, Cloak and Dagger,and even Squirrel Girl. Recently, it was revealed that Adam Warlock was announced as being planned for a future film too. So who’s left??

Quite a few actually. There are still a handful of important Marvel Comics characters that don’t seem to be on anyone’s radar when it comes to getting the live-action treatment. And these are some pretty important heroes in the pages of the comics we’re talking about here. So without further ado, here are our pics for the top ten Marvel superheroes that still need to make it into the big time world of film and television.

#10: Hercules

The son of Zeus from Greek mythology, Hercules is a longtime mainstay of the Marvel Universe in the comics, first appearing in the pages of The Mighty Thor in the ‘60s before becoming a member of the Avengers. Herc’s position as an Avenger would come and go throughout the decades, and he was usually a member when the team’s other most famous mythological deity, Thor, was unavailable.

When Thor is around, though, there doesn’t really seem to be a need for Hercules, which is probably why he hasn’t appeared in the MCU yet. But one of these days Chris Hemsworth is going to bow out from these films, and good old Herc would be the perfect buff, battle-loving God to replace him. Plus, Greek mythology stuff is cool. Who doesn’t want to see Herc if it means we also see Pegasuses and gorgons and stuff??

#9: Moon Knight

If there were ever a Marvel hero who was seemingly made for headlining his own gritty, adult oriented Netflix series, it would have to be Marc Spector, the Moon Knight. A former soldier of fortune who died and was brought back to life by Khonshu, the Egyptian Lunar-God of Vengeance, Marc Spector is maybe the most popular superhero with multiple personality disorder.

The character, whose enhanced strength hits its pinnacle during a full moon, has headlined several series over the past 35 years, with different writers giving very different interpretations of whether Moon Knight has mental issues or not. But somewhere in there, a really decent premise for a harder edged Moon Knight TV series is just waiting to be found. If this were the next Netflix Marvel series to be greenlit after The Punisher, I wouldn’t be at all shocked.

#8: Spectrum

Some of you reading this might be saying “who the heck is Spectrum?” Although the character of Monica Rambeau currently uses that name, she was the first hero to take the name Captain Marvel after the death of Mar-Vell, the original Captain, long before Carol Danvers took on the mantle. In the ‘80s, the cosmically powered hero was a hugely important character in the Marvel Universe, even leading the Avengers. Aside from Storm, she was easily Marvel’s most prominent African-American female hero for a period of time.

For unknown reasons, she was then totally sidelined by Marvel editorial for decades. She lost her powers, and when she got them back she was relegated to B-list teams. She changed her name from Captain Marvel to Pulsar, Photon, and finally, to Spectrum. She’s a big character in the Avengers’ history, regardless of how terribly she’s been treated in recent years. She definitely deserves the chance to shine as a live-action Avenger one day.

#7: Nova

Although the Nova Corps, Marvel’s interstellar police force (and answers to DC’s Green Lantern Corps) has already been introduced in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the Nova I’m talking about is Richard Rider, who had his own series in the late ‘70’s, The Man Called Nova, and then regularly appeared as a cast member of the cast of  New Warriors. Rider was a working class teenager, in the Peter Parker mold, who inherited the title and cosmic powers from a dying member of the Nova Corps (told you he was Marvel’s answer to Green Lantern).

The character has had a comeback in the last few years, mostly due to Marvel Comics doubling down on their cosmic heroes with events like Annihilation. A new teenager named Sam Alexander recently took on the mantle of Nova, but either he or Richard Rider would make for ideal candidates for a TV series or a movie. The fact that Nova isn’t being included in the forthcoming New Warriors TV series suggests Marvel Studios has some kind of solo plan for the character.

#6: Spider-Woman

Despite what her name might suggest, Jessica Drew is anything but a female carbon copy of Spider-Man. Created in the ‘70s, Spider-Woman headlined her own ongoing series for over 50 issues, and even had a short lived cartoon series on Saturday morning TV. In the comics, Jessica Drew had parents who were scientists, who gave her powers as a child based on arachnids, as a side effect of trying to cure an early childhood disease that was lethal. Her origin story has been tweaked over a few times, but the character always has ties to both SHIELD and HYDRA in any version.

Marvel put her on the shelf for nearly two decades years for inexplicable reasons. It was Brian Michael Bendis who brought Jessica as Spider-Woman, back in 2004 in the pages of New Avengers, and she’s remained a Marvel mainstay ever since. With her ties to both SHIELD and the Avengers, she’s an obvious choice for the MCU either on film or TV, and she was even recently given a more live-action friendly costume. Coincidence? It may be time for your close up, Ms. Drew.

#5: Wonder Man

Another mainstay of the Avengers for years, Simon Williams was rumored to be played by Nathan Fillion in a small part Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. but apparently all references to Wonder Man got cut. (although we still heartily endorse Fillion for the role should it come up again). In the comics, Wonder Man was given “ionic” powers which included strength, flight, and energy blasts, giving him a career as a superhero and as a Hollywood actor and stunt man.

Wonder Man has a tendency to die and come back over and over in the comics, which could be a funny ongoing gag in a live-action incarnation. As Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog proved, Nathan Fillion was perfect as Captain Hammer, the full-of-himself, ego driven superhero, so if they ever do get around to introducing Wonder Man, hopefully Fillion will still be considered.

#4: Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu

The general consensus is that Marvel’s recent Iron Fist series on Netflix pretty much dropped the ball for several reasons, among them the fact was that there weren’t nearly enough actual martial arts in a show about a martial-arts character. Marvel can help make up for this (and for their lack of Asian leading characters) with a show about their longest running martial-arts hero, Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu.

First appearing at the height of the Kung-Fu movie trend of the early ‘70s, the character far outlived that particular fad and held his own series that lasted over 100 issues. He recently became a member of the Avengers as well in the more recent Marvel comics. A Master of Kung Fu series, hopefully made by Asian-Americans and featuring an Asian lead, could start Marvel’s amends for some of the insensitivity of the Iron Fist series.

#3: She-Hulk

Although she began her existence as nothing more than a female version of the Hulk as her name suggests, Bruce Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters, a.k.a. the Sensational She-Hulk, quickly evolved beyond that, and became one of Marvel’s most important players and most high profile female heroes. A member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Defenders and more, she’s become one of the Marvel Universe’s primary characters over these past several decades.

Since She-Hulk is a practicing lawyer as well as an adventurer, that aspect of her character could make for a pretty funny superhero themed dramedy style TV series. Or, if you just need her as a the Avengers’ big bruiser, she fits into that mold too. Few heroes in Marvel are as versatile as She-Hulk in terms of the kinds of stories you can tell with them, and it is high time she made her live-action debut in the MCU, either on the big or small screens. It’s time the non comics-reading world discovered how kick-ass She-Hulk is.

#2: Ms. Marvel

The most recently created hero on this here list, Kamala Khan is a young Pakistani American from Jersey City, New Jersey with shapeshifting abilities, who discovers that she has Inhuman genes. Seeing as how Kamala is a huge superhero fangirl, once her Inhuman powers kick in, she takes on the name of of Ms. Marvel from her idol Carol Danvers, not long after Danvers becomes the new Captain Marvel.

Kamala was the first ever Muslim-American character to get her own ongoing comic book series from Marvel, and the book is consistently fun and endearing. Based very much on Kamala’s journey trying to navigate adolescence while saving the world, a Ms. Marvel show would make a wonderful Buffy the Vampire Slayer–style television series, and would probably be even better than getting a movie. She might not have been around for decades like most on this list, but Ms. Marvel has proven herself a Marvel icon in a very short time, and its time for her to be brought to life.

#1: Namor, the Sub-Mariner

Atlantean ruler Namor the Sub-Mariner is probably the biggest Marvel hero on this list yet to appear in live-action, and his non-appearance so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe probably has more to do with his rights being tied up by previous deals that Marvel made with other studios than with anything else. It’s possible that Namor’s live-action film rights are tied up with Universal Studios at the moment, although I’ve read that Marvel had the rights back, so who knows what the truth is. Obviously, something has held up Namor making it to the big screen thus far.

But with DC hero Aquaman making it to theaters in 2018, it could be that there’s no point in making a Namor movie since the two characters are so very, very similar. Both are the half breed rulers of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis, and both are often portrayed as surly bad-asses who don’t play well with others. It used to be that the only big difference between Aquaman and Namor was that one was a blonde and the other a brunette, but with Jason Momoa playing Aquaman, even that’s not different anymore.

Still, even if he doesn’t get his own film, Marvel Studios should bring Namor to life in live-action at some point. He could be a member of the Avengers in Phase IV, or maybe they could include him as a member of the WWII era super team the Invaders, fighting alongside Captain America in a ’40s period set film. Namor is simply too important to the overall Marvel mythos to leave out of the MCU forever.

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Which Marvel heroes do you think deserve the live-action treatment? Do I hear any love for Morbius, the Living Vampire, or the Black Knight? Let us know who you would want to see down below in the comments.

Images: Marvel Comics

Because Every ’80s Toyline Attempts a Comeback, SECTAURS Return!

For kids who grew up during the ’80s, it was inevitable that at some point, your living room floor became the battleground for forces of good and evil to battle for control over a fortress of power on alien planet. He-Man versus Skeletor! Lion-O versus Mumm-Ra! And, um…Dargon versus Spidrax?

The short-lived Sectaurs didn’t last long enough to have their storyline enter the pop-culture lexicon to the same extent as “By the power of Grayskull!” and “Thundercats hoooo!” But if you were around back then, you would definitely have seen the toys: insectoid and arachnid-infused warriors that rode on giant bugs that were actually hand puppets. If you weren’t, well, you owe it to yourself to watch this commercial:

Pretty dark even by ’80s standards, right? Despite a Marvel comics tie-in, that may be why the toys by Coleco didn’t last long. But guess who’s coming back (not a hard guess, since it’s right up there in the headline, but what the hey…).

Zica Toys has obtained the license for the Sectaurs in a smaller, 4-inch scale (the originals were more like 6 inches), and will be rolling out 10 figures in the first wave before launching a Kickstarter to fund them. No hand puppets for them to ride are being planned yet, but they’re a possibility if the new line makes it to wave 2. Rather ambitiously, Zica also want to make the Hyve playset, which was one of the largest of its kind back in the day; even scaled down, it would be quite an undertaking both for those making it and those who’d like to afford it.

One issue with the original Sectaurs was that they weren’t quite in scale with anything else, being taller and slimmer than He-Man and Lion-O; these new ones will be reasonably compatible with Star Wars and G.I. Joe, and include “army builder” troops to set up an entire squad. It’s difficult to know how many people have been pining for the return of Prince Dargon, but if they redo the glow in the dark Dargon who had a giant fly larva stuck to his back, I’d be into buying that again.

How do you feel about the Warriors of Symbion? Buzz down to comments and let us know.

Images: Marvel Comics, Zica Toys

5 Video Game Schools That We Wish Existed In Real Life

Before I started playing Dungeons & Dragons every week, I thought the tabletop game would be too nerdy for my tastes. Just hearing the name conjured images of players wearing black hooded robes, gathered around a circular table tucked away in the basement to spend hours hunched over miniature figurines and toss dice around. It turns out that I was wrong about D&D, because there are activities far geekier that don’t involve character sheets, like enrolling for the Witcher school. Inspired by The Witcher games and the fantasy book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, the school is essentially a LARP (live action role playing) experience for adults.

During the session, you will become an apprentice going through rigorous witcher training. You’ll learn fencing, archery, and alchemy before moving on to hunt monsters. There will be challenges along the way to test your resolve and put you in situation where tough decisions need to be made. Oh, and you’ll be going through all of your training in an actual castle in Poland, where other characters from the franchise will be present to aide you. According to the website only 50 participants can enroll at a time, and it looks like there are 4 games a year.

Excuse me while I make space next to my Bachelor’s degree for the certificates from fictional schools I plan on graduating from. Now that The Witcher training exists in the real world, here are some other video-game related schools and programs that I’d like to enroll in:

College of Winterhold, Skyrim 

Every time I went back to play Skyrim, I started off with good intentions. “I’ll follow the main quest line this time.” I said. “I might make one or two stops along the way, but I won’t get distracted.” I lied. With every play through, I always made a point to stop by the College Of Winterhold. This was more for role-play purposes, but I wanted to feel like my mage character went to class and learned how to shoot fireballs from her hands as opposed to maxing out the skill tree for that specific vein of magic. Not only does the College of Winterhold have an incredibly easy entry exam (you prove your merit by casting a spell–that’s it!), you can sit in and listen to lectures on Doomstones and Restoration.

If the College of Winterhold actually existed it would probably involve more essay writing and reading than casting, but the trainers at the college who would teach me the way of conjuration or alchemy charge a lot of gold for their services anyway…so it’s not too far off from the actual experience of receiving a higher education. Instead of a fancy piece of paper, I’d be able to gloat about being top of the alteration class.

Jedi Training, Star Wars Franchise 

Unsurprisingly, Star Wars contains a lot of fictional programs that I would love to subject myself to. Even though lightsaber training exists, I feel like the entire experience of learning how to wield such a dangerous weapon doesn’t feel right unless you’re learning to become a Jedi in the process. Although the teachings of the Jedi Code are noble, they’re pretty hard to put into practice. With all the discussion around the light and dark side, I would need a teacher to help guide me through any inevitable existential crises’ I might have about my place in the galaxy. As a Padawan learner, I’d need to keep a relaxed mind, use the force for good, and build my own lightsaber to fight injustices.

Sure, there are a lot of negative things to be said about Jedi training and the entire philosophy in general, but not all of us are Anakins. I would never sass Ewan McGregor. The hustle it takes to become a Jedi doesn’t sound glamorous at all, but the payoff would certainly be worth it. I think if Jedi training actually existed it would be socially acceptable to wear robes in public. Besides, I’ve already begun honing in on my lightsaber skills. As a side note, it’s incredibly difficult to LARP with a lightsaber and not smack yourself in the face.

The Heroes Guild, Fable 

The purpose of the Heroes Guild in Fable is to groom men and women into becoming saviors of Albion. That doesn’t sound bad, right? Just ignore the low graduation rate because of stress and trauma; I want the glory that comes with being a hero! As a bonus after graduation, those who managed to make it out alive are awarded with a Guild Seal, which not only symbolizes your completion of the training, but also allows you to teleport.

If the Heroes Guild were to exist in our world, it would probably be like a boarding school. I would be shipped off for training as a young child and spend years working my way to the top .I would also have a roommate so we could complain about our vigorous training and wonder when we would stop collecting and killing beetles before being able to actually do something cool. Eventually (after squashing lots of beetles) I’d learn my way around a longsword by hitting straw dummies, and pierce their chest with arrows during archery lessons. If all goes well, the Guildmaster will reward me with a Guild Seal and send me off into the real world with a backpack of basic supplies and shut the doors behind me. At least I’m prepared!

Grissom Academy, Mass Effect 3

Although first introduced in the novels, Grissom Academy made its debut in-game during Mass Effect 3. Even though our first impression of the station involves Cerberus attempting to take control, the academy is actually a pleasant training facility for teenagers to embrace and control their biotic abilities. It’s essentially a private school for gifted space wizards. At first, having biotic powers isn’t as great as they seem because you’d need to get implants in order to take that dark energy and expel it. After recovering from getting those implants tucked into your body, you might also be gifted with migraines too!

Oh, and because of your biotics, you also burn a lot of calories and constantly need to snack so you don’t pass out. But if all of that hardship means I can perform actions like singularity or shockwave then I’m still game. If Grissom Academy existed, I like to think it would still be housed in outer space, probably near the moon instead of a different part of the galaxy. Since there would be a lot of teenagers it might be similar to high school, but with space magic…so way more tolerable.

Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, Psychonauts 

I wish Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp existed so I had somewhere other than yearbook camp to spend a few weeks. In Psychonauts, the psychic dojo served as a remote government controlled facility where paranormally gifted children could go and train to become psychonauts, an elite group of secret agents born with psychic abilities. Instead of gathering around a campfire and participating in arts and crafts, I would be exploring mental worlds and learning how to control my powers as a cool psychic kid. It’s not all fun and games, though. For example, every mental world I explore is within my camp instructor’s head and is ripe with challenges that I need to overcome. Every situation is different, depending on the person whose brain I’m invading. Whispering Rock is really more of a brain camp mixed with strenuous mental and physical activities, but it sounds way more exciting than roasting smores.

What kind of programs/schools from video games do you wish existed in real life? Let me know in the comments below!

 Images: Witcher School, Joshua Livingston, Star Wars/EA, Garry Damrau, Bioware, DoubleFine

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Extras Go Full Ravager in This Behind-The-Scenes Video

Based on all available evidence, it seems the Guardians of the Galaxy films are as fun to make as they are for audiences to watch. Writer/director James Gunn, as well as stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and especially Michael Rooker always seem like they are having a blast while filming the movies, at least in all the behind-the-scenes material fans have been privy to.

But it seems the fun times and overall positive attitudes aren’t just reserved for the principal cast, or even to the actors who have speaking parts. The background players are having a great time too, especially based on the latest video shared by James Gunn from the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 set.

In his #GuardianPicOfTheDay, instead of sharing a photo from the set like he usually does, Gunn instead shared a video with the fans, via his Facebook page. In the video, Gunn shows just how much fun the extras were having on set, most of whom were playing members of Yondu’s Ravagers. You can watch the entire video, along with Gunn’s explanation of just what the heck was going on that day, down below:

So there you have it folks — if you’re going to be an extra in a big budget Hollywood movie, try to get on the set of a James Gunn movie. Seems like that’s where they’re having all the fun. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 has got to be starting up at some point in the not too distant future, right?

What did you think of James Gunn’s behind-the-scenes video? And can you barely contain your excitement for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 just like us? Let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Disney/Marvel

Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Colbert Revisit ALIENS on THE LATE SHOW

Next month, director Ridley Scott is once again exploring the darker side of space in Alien: Covenant, the direct sequel to Prometheus. Although these prequel films haven’t quite caught up to the original Alien movie, we haven’t seen the last of Sigourney Weaver‘s Ellen Ripley. During last Friday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Weaver made a surprise appearance as Ripley during a comedic sketch.

In the skit, Ripley was forced to go to the Weyland Yutani space station’s medical bay to get treatment for the Xenomorph growing inside of her body. However, Colbert’s Randy wasn’t very interested in providing good customer service, despite the official motto of the Weyland Yutani health care provider.

In one of the funniest parts of the video, Ripley shares her medical history with Randy, including her multiple Xenomorph encounters and the time that she died at the end of Alien 3; which he calls a “pre-existing condition.” Both Colbert and Weaver drop several famous lines from the films throughout the clip, and the futuristic tech is hilariously dated.

At one point, Colbert appeared to improvise when Randy tells Ripley that her suspenders are from 1986. Although Weaver was able to finish her most famous line from Aliens, she could barely keep herself from laughing. Randy also made the mistake of calling Ripley “Sarah Connor,” which she did not take kindly.

Of course, Colbert couldn’t finish the skit without an appearance from a Xenomorph. And this time, it was Randy’s turn to be the host!

What did you think about Colbert and Weaver’s Aliens sketch? Burst out of our chests and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Images: CBS

The Lilium Jet Could Be the Flying Car We’ve Been Waiting for

As long as science fiction has been around, fans have dreamed of seeing flying cars that could replace our automobiles on the ground. Although technology has advanced exponentially over the past few decades, we’re still far from the future that was promised. However, a recent test flight may finally pave the way for flying cars to become a reality.

Via Wired, the battery powered Lilium Jet made its first test flight in Germany earlier this month, and it could potentially be revolutionary. As the report notes, Lilium hasn’t yet perfected the tech behind the plane or the battery and there are still years of testing ahead. But this flying machine really works, as you can see in the video below.

One of the advantages of the Lilium Jet is that it can take off vertically and still handle like a plane in the air. The downside is that the Lilium Jet can only hold five people, and the company has yet to come up with a solution to its biggest problem: finding a battery that can power the plane at a high speed for an extended distance. The company’s current goal is 190 miles at 190mph; and some of Lilium’s competitors don’t believe that problem can be solved with battery powered engines.

Lilium is far from the only company exploring the concept of flying cars. Elon Musk, Airbus, Aeromobil, and other companies are trying to come up with ways to make their own flying vehicles. But this competition between the companies may prove to be a good thing. In theory, each company will attempt to outdo the others, and hopefully at least one of the companies will emerge with a working flying car that can be safely used by the general public. That would definitely be a gamechanger, but it’s still several years away, at the earliest.

What do you think about the Lilium Jet? Take flight with your thoughts in the comment section below!

Images: Lilium

DOCTOR WHO’s “Smile” Proves Again How Wrong the Doctor Can Be

Ah, I love that we’re back in Doctor Who land again for the next few months. I usually have a few weeks of ceaseless grinning because of it, which is particularly fitting for Series 10’s second episode, “Smile,” written by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Boyce wrote Series 8’s “In the Forest of the Night” which I really didn’t like, so I was hoping for better. Thankfully, “Smile” is a lot more up my alley (there’s an actual story, which is nice). It’s not amazing, but it is solid in a lot of ways, and also illustrates a trend with the Twelfth Doctor I hadn’t fully realized: he’s wrong a LOT.

“Smile” kept the Bill Potts train a-rolling. She’s truly a breath of fresh air; a fun and funny companion who is incredibly passionate about learning, gets giddy when visiting new places, and reacts–as the Doctor said in “The Pilot”–with a smile when she’s confused rather than with frustration. She’s incredibly insightful when it comes to the Doctor, too. Faster than either Amy Pond or Clara Oswald, Bill has picked up on what makes the Doctor the Doctor: that he goes around looking for problems to fix, bearing the brunt of the the universe’s issues. With (reportedly) only these 12 episodes, they’re certainly not wasting any time getting Bill up to speed, and it’s incredibly refreshing.

One of the things, however, that Bill hasn’t quite gotten yet is the ability to tell the Doctor he’s wrong; luckily, ol’ Numby 12 figures things out himself, because he’s incredibly wrong in this episode. After arriving on a futuristic planet, the Doctor and Bill quickly suss out that the seemingly idyllic welcome center/community is hiding a sinister truth. No humans are around, and the robots seem overly interested in whether someone is smiling or not. Naturally, the Doctor finds all the fertilizer-bones of the unhappy people and decides the compound and all the robots in it will need to be destroyed before the colonists ship arrives.

But this is where the Doctor is so spectacularly wrong. He jumps to the conclusion that the colonists ship hasn’t arrived yet, when in actuality the colonists are in suspended animation in the bowels of the original survey/set-up ship. But why would he just assume that ship would be empty, and why wouldn’t he therefore assume that the robots might be worth investigating further? They aren’t evil; they’re robots. Yet he thinks destroying the facility is the only recourse he has, and he would have done had Bill not met the boy looking for his (unfortunately super-dead) mother.

The Doctor always needs the companion to help him from making bad or rash decisions, but it seems to me that the Twelfth Doctor tends to make these leaps of logic a lot more than his predecessors. Most of the time, the Doctor will have a wild theory that ends up being true, but Capaldi’s Doctor isn’t. Examples of this include “Robot of Sherwood” where he is convinced Robin Hood is a myth and the person in front of him must be an evil robot, but isn’t; in “Listen,” he’s convinced there’s something evil in the dark and quiet but it’s just his imagination; “The Caretaker” has him being pretty prejudice against Danny Pink because he’s a soldier; and he’s so wrong in “Death in Heaven” that he even proclaimed himself to be an idiot.

You could write off those Series 8 examples as him being not only a new Doctor, but a physically NEW Time Lord, having his regenerations restored, but it happened the following season as well. Pretty much everything he did regarding Clara, and especially Me, was not only wrong in terms of his relationships with them, but also wrong on a macro level, leading to possible destruction of the universe. It’s strange to think about, given his initial iciness, but the Twelfth Doctor seems to be the most fervently compassionate Doctor of the new era. He makes snap decisions based on impulse and only later rethinks them and finds the correct answer. Even if Capaldi himself is the oldest actor in the role since William Hartnell, he certainly has the most angsty teen response to things.

Ultimately, “Smile” is a just-fine episode heightened by some gorgeous direction by Lawrence Gough and continued fabulous chemistry between Capaldi and Pearl Mackie. I’m liking the low-key sparseness of the episodes, and Capaldi seems so much lighter/breezier so far this year and I really love it. I’m hoping that continues, at least while it can. Next week’s ep, I’m very excited about: Sarah Dollard (writer of “Face the Raven”) is back with a script called “Thin Ice” about a giant monster living under the frozen Thames during the Regency period. In. To. It.

Let me know your thoughts on “Smile,” and Series 10 thus far, in the comments below!

Images: BBC

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!