Tag / RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Streaming Wars

With the announcement that Marvel (and Disney) have pulled Luke Cage from Netflix one has to ask, what are they thinking? Iron Fist was canceled because it was pretty bad. Luke Cage on the other hand was well received by fans and critics. What could Disney’s motivation be for doing this?

Money.

It’s not because they are broke or having problems by any means. No. They want to join the streaming wars. There has been rumors floating around that Disney is making its own streaming app. The biggest scare came out last year when Disney dropped its app that had every Disney movie, to buy. But that was quickly abandoned by fans because Netflix still carries most movies.

But Disney and DC Comics are hoping to change that. They are just the latest in a long line trying to make a streaming service. Netflix continues to make a profit and this hasn’t gone unnoticed. Other media companies are considering what DC and Disney are trying.

This is all going to fail. For a while before Netflix and Hulu people would pirate all the shows they wanted. Then things started getting carried by the two streamers. For a while piracy rates went down. But not for long. With the rise of “premium content” that you have to pay for fans are going to find other ways to watch the content. Illegally.

Disney and DC need to rethink their ideas before it’s too late.

-RytheGeek

#Disney #DCComics #Netflix #Hulu #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 5: AI Haven

Earth is destroyed. Humans and robots have waged a war that has destroyed most of humanity. All that remains is a broken planet. And that’s where Wall-E comes in. After the Robot-Human was earth was left decimated. All that was left of humans was left on the Axiom. At the end of Wall-E humans return to earth. But it doesn’t work. The humans quickly die out leaving just robots and AI on earth. The robots thrive and you end up with the Cars trilogy. The cars thrive for years until they begin to have an oil shortage. Just like humanity the cars/robots go too far and in the end kill themselves.

Because in the end even robots will wipe themselves out.

Next week we end our Pixverse series. Well until Toy Story 4.

-RytheGeek

#Pixverse #Disney #Pixar #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 4: Robot-Human War

Part 4- The Robot Human War

We left of with robots rising in power and animals rising in intelligence. We briefly saw the rise of the supers but they quickly died out. Humanity had lost its greatest protectors.

Up plays a pivotal role in the beginning of the war. We see the takeover of BnL. BnL is the company that destroyed humanity and let robots rise. BnL is the company that takes over Carl’s house. Or tried to at least. They were the ones leading the urban expansion.

Inside Out and Coco let us see the use of magic and science working together. It also lets us see the last few years of “normal” life before the war.

We never actually see the war. But the aftermath is evident. Wall-E lets us see what happened. The robots won. It seems pretty easily too without the supers. All that’s left are a few humans controlled by an AI in space. Leaving earth totally abandoned…

Till next time when we find out what happened to earth

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Predator (the decent one)

It’s the 1980s (again. That’s where all the good movies come from) and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the highest paid action stars of his era. Conan the Barbarian came out in 1982 and Terminator came out in 1984. Now comes an action movie that all geeks recognize.

Predator.

Classic Geek Sci-Fi. I’m talking about the one from 1987. That’s pretty much the only one anyone should be talking about.

Predator first came to theaters June 12, 1987. With only a $15 million dollar budget the film did surprisingly well and grossed over $98 million. It was not critically acclaimed due to a flimsy plot but it has grown quite a fan base in the past 31 years, enough fans to make a bunch of crappy sequels and spinoffs.

The story follows a team of American Special Forces in the jungles of South America. They are on a rescue mission to find a buddy of the teams leader who is a CIA agent.

The team discovers a downed helicopter with dead US military on board. The team continues to search for the CIA agent and arrive at the town he is being held captive at. The team kills the terrorist only to find out there mission isn’t to rescue anyone but o find out information on the Soviets.

As the team leaves they are tracked by a mysterious figure that turns out to be a killer alien. The alien is one of the best hunters in the galaxy. Through traps and an assorted weapons the alien kills most of the soldiers. The final battle between Arnold and the Predator is very explosive.

This movie was the first use of one of the most iconic lines Arnold has ever said, “ Get to the Choppa!” As far as quality it’s not a bad movie. It’s a lot of fun and very interesting to watch and see that man isn’t always the top of the food chain. Overall the special effects are typical of 80s movies and for the most part the plot isn’t super crazy. It’s all pretty straight forward. I enjoyed it and I think it’s the best in the series. Which isn’t saying much.

I give it a 6/10 😐

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Venom: Turd in the Wind or Surprisingly Sweet?

Venom

I was wrong. The critics are wrong. Every opinion I had about this movie was wrong.

When I walked in I was prepared to hate it. I didn’t pay for 3D or a huge screen, just normal movie tickets for my girlfriend and I. I had already been apologizing to her because I was sure this was going to be a crap shoot. Nothing even remotely interesting and probably pretty gross.

I was wrong.

**Spoilers**

Venom is a fun and interesting movie. It doesn’t throw a twist like Infinity War (or honestly any superhero movie since Dark Knight) but that doesn’t mean it was bad. Yeah I thought the predictability would bore me and because it was PG-13 I would be disappointed. I wasn’t. It did follow a pretty linear plot and that in of itself would be dull. But Sony did something that surprised me and worked really well.

Venom, the symbiote, was funny.

Surprising to say the least. The symbiote was the unexpected comic relief of the movie. It was aggressive and dark but also extremely humorous and polite. I enjoyed the banter between Venom and Eddie Brock more then anything. It was fun to watch the dynamic. They play off of each other and in many ways come to a fun understanding of what it’s like to be a crazed hungry human alien hybrid. There is one particular scene when Brock is being chased by the villains that the symbiote politely moves two cars aside so that Brock can escape. He didn’t flip the cars (like I expected), just politely moved them aside. The symbiote cared a lot more about not only Eddie but also most of humanity a lot more than I thought it would.

I really enjoyed Venom. Was it perfect? No. Was is predictable? Yes.

But it was fun.

Venom gets a solid 8/10 😃

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Aquaman worth all the waves?

Aquaman

…I guess I should finally talk about the newest trailer. I mean it did happen…

If you can’t tell I’m not terribly excited for this movie. I have about as much hope for it as I did for Venom, which wasn’t a whole lot. DC has been disappointing me a lot lately. They have issues with the comics, poor management of their new shows, misuse of current properties, not to mention the 80% failure rate of the DCEU movies.

I’ve tried to like the DCEU. I really have. Granted I though Man of Steel was at best a 5/10. But Batman v Superman was a 6/10 and Suicide Squad was another 6/10. Wonder Woman was fantastic. I bought it immediately when it came out. It’s an easy 9-9.5/10. But when I walked out of Justice League I had to apologize to my girlfriend. That was the first superhero movie she had ever seen and it was maybe a 6.5-7.

You can always say I’m just a Marvel fanboy who doesn’t know anything. That’s one excuse you can tell yourself. But you’re wrong. I do enjoy Marvel yes. But it’s also incredibly hard to argue against the quality and success of Thor Ragnorok, Black Panther, and Infinity War. Those three hit the MCU out of the park. I admit Marvel has had some bombs like Iron Man 2 and 3, Thor 1 and 2, Age of Ultron and a few others. But Marvel also made giants that put all others to shame.

I should stop myself. This isn’t why the MCU makes better movies. It’s Aquaman.

I mostly ranted because Mark Millar (wrote comics for both DC and Marvel) posted on Twitter “Aquaman trailer just made modern Marvel look like 70s TV Marvel, chums,” Millar wrote in a tweet. “The green gauntlet has been slapped down and DC back in the game. A 5 min trailer so damn audacious, [James Wan], you damn genius!”

I don’t agree.

The DCEU has time and time again shown trailers and cut anything the fans were excited about. Both Justice League and Suicide Squad suffered that fate.

But putting all that aside let’s talk about the trailer. I do think it spoiled too much being five minutes. Here is my plot prediction:

**Spoilers?**

Mera comes to Aquaman needing help. Orm, Aquas half brother is planning to take the throne of Atlantis. But to be king Orm needs the kings trident. So the married couple to be go in search of it. Along the way they are tracked by Black Manta and almost killed. Black Manta was hired by Orm to kill the duo and steal the trident. Manta fails and Aqua gets the trident. He is proven the “true heir”, dons the King Armor, and leads the armies of Atlantis against Orm and his dark demons. Orm turns out to be being controlled by some dark force Aqua has to fight. The final boss fight is poorly lit and the villain is grayish black making him hard to see. Aquaman wins and the movie is over.

Even with all the predictability there are some distinct moments worth mentioning.

Black Manta. He is the sole reason I want to see this movie. He looks absolutely amazing. I’m so ready for him to be on the big screen. As a villain I’ve always found him fascinating.

The King Armor. It’s a call back to the classic orange and green suit. It looks fantastic.

Summary? DC better be bringing something new because I’m very bored with them.

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Ghostbusters (the good one)

We are going to start Spooktober Throwback Thursday off right with a classic geek comedy

Ghostbusters

It’s the 1980’s and Dan Aykroyd is living the big life. SNL is at its peak and nothing can go wrong. Dan along with the help of John Belushi come up with a crazy script about a time traveling SWAT like team fighting ghosts. They titled it Ghostmashers. Seeing the budget (and technology) issues with the first script, Ivan Reitman told Aykroyd to rewrite it. And he did. We finally ended up with what was released in 1984.

I’m going to be honest. You should have seen this in the 34 years it’s been out. But if you haven’t I’ll give you a short recap.

Ghostbusters follows Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson around New York catching ghosts. Aykroyd, Murray, and Ramis are failed Columbia University scientists who get kicked out of school and have to start over. They put together enough money to start a small team to fight and capture ghosts.

New York is strangely exploding with ghosts at this time and the team is in high demand. They hire Hudson to help with the influx. The team is called by Sigourney Weaver to figure out why a demon is hiding in her apartment.

The EPA steps in and screws everything up (typical big government). The EPA accidentally starts the apocalypse by releasing all the ghosts the team had captured. The team discovered the demon in Weavers apartment is responsible and they have to fight it. I’ll let you watch the rest to see how they did.

Ghostbusters is a classic. It’s spun off a ton of material including cartoons, video games, and two other terrible live action movies. If you ignore all the crap it’s helped create you can actually enjoy the movie. It’s funny and charming and not too far down the science fiction path that it gets confusing. It’s very well balanced and includes some amazing talent. Rick Moranis even has a role that he does well. It will definitely make you laugh and probably even cheer as you watch the plucky team fight their was to fame and fortune. It’s iconic and incredible. It’s all memorable and enjoyable from the cast to the music.

I give it a solid 8/10 😃

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

DC you’re a disappointment

I’m going to continue the DC news.

I’m disappointed. DC you’ve done it again! Messed something up cause you’re a bunch of corporate twits that suck and have no decency to make decent content.

They are releasing the Teen Titans live action show on Netflix everywhere

…except the US…

I can’t express my anger at this. Now I’m officially not buying their service strictly because they are doing this. I may have to find… other ways… of watching the show.

DC you screwed up

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 3: Robot Rise

Part 3- Robot Rise

When we left off I had introduced you to two of the three factions that fight for dominance in the Pixverse, animals and man. I also showed you that animals are intelligent and magic exists.

Now you should meet the ones who destroyed humanity. And you can thank Syndrome for the end of mankind.

Syndrome was in many ways too smart for his own good. In the 1950-60s he created AI (artificial intelligence). You see the intelligence of his creations in the first Incredibles. The Omnidroid destroys part of the city and even learns that it can be controlled. The robot does it’s best to stop the humans from shutting it down.

The Omnidroid uses a special piece of technology. It’s the zero point energy most notably used by Syndrome to freeze the Incredibles in place. This energy seeps into everything over the next 60 years or so.

Supers eventually die out after Incredibles 2 but humanity remains. And so does much of Syndromes technology. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 introduce us to a company that becomes very important later, Buy n Large (BnL). This company was built off of the inventions of Syndrome. They continue to use the AI and zero point energy he created. In many ways they use it very recklessly because it has started to seep into inanimate objects, like toys.

This zero point energy feeds off of human emotions as seen by Syndromes anger and the humans around Woody and the gang.

By the early 2000s animals have continued to evolve. We see this in Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory. The same zero point energy that affects inanimate objects also changes animals. They have learned how to speak to one another and coexist in harmony.

This all leads us up to the first war. Which we will cover next week.

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 2: The Human Problem

Part 2- The Human Problem⠀
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The Pixverse, like many franchises, (looking at you Star Wars and Fast and Furious) was not filmed in order. The oldest Pixar movie is Toy Story which came out in 1995. The oldest movie on the Pixverse timeline is The Good Dinosaur. Based roughly 65 million years ago the Pixverse changes history drastically by having the meteor miss earth and the dinosaurs continue to live their normal lives. With life left unchecked, animals thrive and show large amounts of intelligence. ⠀
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We also meet humans at this time. What can easily be called “the human problem”. Throughout the Pixverse there are three factions fighting for power. We have the animals, humans, and the machines (robots). ⠀
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The Good Dinosaur sets up the existence of humans and animals. They both inhabit the planet and coexist for the most part in peace. Animals already show an aptitude for intelligence and humans not so much. ⠀
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By the 10th or so century we see humans have become significantly more intelligent and animals have not. Brave introduces us to one important part of the Pixverse, Magic! We meet the most important character of the entire Pixverse, the Witch. She is the little old lady who lives in the woods and uses magic, a lot of magic. Both of which will be very important later. ⠀
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Which is where we end off for this week. I leave you all wondering why magic and talking animals matter at all! Till next week that is!⠀
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-RytheGeek