A Loss I Can’t Get Over Right Now

I have had a tremendous loss. My mother passed unexpectedly. This, after my close friend and brother’s father passed. My grief is quite strong, and I apologize I won’t be posting anything here in the foreseeable future. My mom was the world to me, and I will miss here every day. I’m sorry if I am letting anyone down who reads this blog. I’ll be back when laughter and fun has returned to my life. Until then, keep enjoying your passions, and keep writing me. I look forward to returning to this, I just can’t do it right now. Love to all, peace to the rest.

The Last Skywalker: Final Trailer

I know, I know...I've been gone a while.  My apologies, but life happens.  People die, you mourn, you work, you keep going.  Somethings get pushed aside, and I apologize that I haven't kept you all up to date, the fanboy stuff was one of them.  I'm done mourning, and I am back.

What better way to jump back into things than by breaking down the final trailer for the LAST   saga film.  Everything from this point on will be "new stories" that may refer to the Skywalker family, but will never deal with them again. Dun Dun Dunnn...

Okay, that may be too sinister.  Disney will find a way to make more money off of the three trilogies of this family.  Until then, let's break down the final trailer.

The trailer starts with Rey running through a forest. Could it be Endor?  She jumps over a ravine, and then lands on a metal structure that looks like something that she was scavenging off of on Jakku from The Force Awakens.  Could these two scenes be a Jedi "vision quest?"  Possibly, but we see her with a training droid on this forest planet.  That seemed pretty concrete, right?  That it was actually happening.  What if she is running a gauntlet of "visions" that came from herself and Luke?  Or what if she is traveling to places that Luke has been to learn and train from his Force Ghost?  Just something to think about.

The Rebels are returning to the fourth moon of Yavin.  We haven't seen this place since...well, Rogue One.  I was going to say A New Hope, but the show of this base in the "stand alone" movie kind of ruined this "surprise" for me.  Wow.  They went back to where the started.  Just doesn't feel as dramatic after it was featured in Rogue One.  But it is shown, so "Yay."

Here's where things start to get interesting.  Enter the Emperor!  Okay, we don't "see" him in this trailer, but we do hear him.  He says, "Long have I waited...and now, your coming together is your undoing". Is he talking about the Rebels, or is he referring to Rey and Kylo Ren joining forces?  Don't look at me, I'm just posing the questions!  We are going to have to wait until December 20th to find out.  But let's move on, there are other questions that need to be raised.

Rey, like the Emperor, has a spoken dialogue that is a "voice over."  She says that many claim to know her, but don't.  Then Kylo Ren jumps in and says that he does.  Is this before or after Rey turns him to the Light side of the Force? Do they team up against the Emperor?  We see them both striking down an object that is dark and human sized...much too obvious, but possible.  

Then there is C3PO.  They are talking to him like he is going to kill them.  This must mean that all of the rumors that we have heard are true, that C3PO turns "evil" when the First Order tried to discover a lost fleet of the Empire.  It seems that they find it, and that the Rebels are ready for them.  There seem to be a boat-load of spaceships in this final trailer!  And the most exciting one we see?  Lando reclaiming the Falcon!  Here's too Billy Dee Williams for making it back after 30/40 years!

So tell me what you see in the final trailer.  There is enough that anyone could possibly see what they want to see. I told you what I see, now tell me what you see.  Leave your comments in the section below, or reach out to me on Facebook.  Until next time, loyal followers! :)

The 3 Shells From Demolition Man

I have to admit that I have an unhealthy admiration for the movie Demolition Man.  I also have to thank DenofGeek UK edition for giving me something to write about on a freakishly slow day in movie news.

As the author of the article Simon Brew states, Stallone was more Judge Dredd in this movie than he was in the movie of the same name.  Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock and Nigel Hawthorne (may he rest in piece) all starred in this absurdly fun action comedy.  It really had no plot, except a killer wakes up from hibernation and sets out to kill and destroy.  My kind of film.  But there was one scene, well..actually it came up a couple of times, for the need for our recently thawed out hero to "use the facilities."  The problem was, toilet paper apparently was obsolete and was replaced by 3 shells.  The picture above is a scene where after Stallone can't figure out how to use them (famously mocked by Rob Schneider) he curses his way into enough tickets to wipe his ass.  When you are given a problem, you create a solution.

But the question has been, at least since 1993 when the movie came out, was how did you use the 3 shells to clean yourself?  The question was never answered in the film, and inquiring minds want to know..how did they work?

While we may not know the how they work, we are one step closer to understanding them.  We now know how they came into being.  Screen writer Daniel Waters explained their inspiration at a question and answer period in 2014 at a screening of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane ("My hair!")  Here's what Waters said:

There's a scene where Stallone has to use a restroom.  I'm trying to come up with futuristic things you'd find in there.  I was having trouble, so I called my buddy, another screenwriter across town, asked him if he had any ideas.  Ironically enough that guy was taking a dump when he answered the phone, looked around his bathroom and said, 'I have a bag of seashells on my toilet as a decoration?'  I said 'Okay, I'll make something out of that.'"

So we still don't know how the 3 shells work in the future so one can wipe their ass, but at least we know how the idea came to be.  Maybe in another 25 years the true meaning behind this world changing device will be known, and we can enjoy the 3 shells while listening to Bill and Ted's music changing the World!

Now Comic Book Trends Are Bleeding Into The MCU

When the Russos were asked why Tony Stark got a funeral and Natasha Romanoff didn't, Joe Russo answered,"Well, Natasha has another movie coming out.  Tony does not have another movie coming out." Simple answer, but what if there's more to it than this?

According to "inside sources," which tend to be quite reliable in these Disney matters, Marvel is planning on a Black Widow resurrection.  Not just with another actor taking on the title role of Black Widow, but Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.  

How they plan on doing this is still a bit unclear, but considering that they have introduced time travel to the mix, I'm sure that this will play some sort of part into it.  After all, they brought back Gamora when she was supposedly lost for good.  If this indeed turns out to be true, it won't happen any time soon.  It sounds like they are aiming closer to the Phase 5 chapter as opposed to the upcoming Phase 4.

If this turns out to be true, I think that it would dampen her death in Avengers: Endgame.  I myself hope that they don't do this, but as in the comic book world, heroes never truly stay dead.  If they are popular enough, they always find a way to come back to life (hello Wolverine.)

What are your thoughts on this? Would you want to see her come back to the MCU?  Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments down below, or you can leave them on my Facebook page, The Comconoclast.

Resistance Reborn May Give Clue To Another Original Trilogy Character's Appearance

With this being the final movie in the Skywalker Saga, as many have come to name it, they seem to be pulling out all of the stops.  Billy Dee Williams is returning, as is Mark Hamill, the late Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, and Ian McDiarmid.  Now, there may be one more Original Trilogy actor that will be making an appearance.

There is a prequel book that is soon to be released that while on it's American cover doesn't lend to any rumors, however...the Spanish cover of the book Resistance Reborn has none other than Wedge Antilles on the cover.  Does this mean that Denis Lawson (the actor that played Wedge in the first three movies) will be in the finale? We are just going to have to wait until the movie is released on December 20th.

What do you think of this possibility?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or you can leave them on my Facebook page, The Comconoclast.

Screenrant Thinks Spider-Man Will Be Written Off In Avengers 5

I was reading Screenrant.com, and Thomas Bacon's article claiming that Spider-Man will be written out of the MCU with Spider-Man's second movie under the new Sony/Marvel agreement possibly being Secret Wars.  

The Secret Wars comic book mini-series began back in the 80's, but was more recently remade in 2015.  In the most recent adaptation of the series, the multiverse was collapsing so Doctor Doom fused different parts of different realities into one planet, dubbed "Battleworld."  It brought together different zones from different multiverse realities, such as "Old Man Logan," "Mile Morales," "Weirdworld" and others.  In the end, Franklin Richards broke through Doctor Doom's control and returned everything back to the way it was and recreated the multiverse.  Some of the characters from the other realities, however, stuck around in the main universe.

There was a mention of a Secret Wars movie by the Russo brothers, who said that they would come back to write and direct this movie if it was ever to be made, but that has been the only real talk about it.  So back to Bacon.  He knows that the first of the two movies that are going to be made will be Spider-Man 3, and there were rumors that Kevin Feige was planning ahead this time and working on a story that would write Spider-Man out of the MCU.  A Secret Wars movie would be the perfect way to do this, and that was Bacon's point.  However...

It was recently announced that Marvel was going to make Captain Marvel and Spider-Man the new faces of the MCU, now that Iron Man is dead and Captain America is old and retired.  If they are making Spider-Man one of the new faces of the MCU, wouldn't that suggest that they have bigger plans for the Web Swinger past the two movie deal?  They have already shown that they can work out agreements with Sony, and with Sony being able to use Tom Holland's Spider-Man in their own Spider-Verse, it seems possible that a third agreement will be reached.

Like I said, Bacon made some good points, but I don't think that his reasoning is sound with all of he new information that is coming out.  But what do you think?  Do you think that Spider-Man will be done with the MCU after his two movies are completed, or do you think that Sony and Marvel will continue their partnership?  let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or you can leave them on my Facebook page.

Is there something that you want me to look into that you want to know about?  Send me your questions in the comments section or on The Comconoclast Facebook page.  I will do some digging and do a post on them after getting all of the information.

TWO New Matrix Movies Are Coming...

When it was announced that Keanu Reeves had company had signed on for a new Matrix movie, it caused quite a little stir.  Rumors had been running around that Zak Penn had been writing a Matrix movie, and with the announcement that Lana Wachowski is producing a new Matrix movie, many thought that Penn's movie was getting pushed aside.  That, however, doesn't seem to be the case.

Penn took to social media to set the record straight.  Here's what he said:

"People keep asking, so let me clarify there are two different Matrix projects at WB.  I wrote one set earlier in the timeline of the Matrix universe.  Lana Wachowski is directing a sequel that I did not work on but can't wait to see.  Neither of them are reboots."

With these comments, it's easy to presume that WB is letting both creators produce their movies, with Wachowski making another chapter that will feature Neo, and Penn working on a movie that is more of a sequel.  Rumors have it that Michael B. Jordan will be playing a young Morphius in Penn's movie.

Whatever happens with either of these films, expect great things in the battle between humans and machines at a whole different level that the new Terminator movie will give us.  As more details emerge, I will keep you up to date.  Let me know your thoughts on this sequel and prequel.  Leave them in the comments section below, or you can leave them on my Facebook page.  Either way, I want to know your feelings on this.