Month: February 2020

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 14th century legend set during the time of King Arthur, in which a Knight of the Round Tale enters into a deadly pact with an otherworldy being known as the Green Knight. It’s been adapted to the screen twice so far, and this summer, a new version arrives. It’s simply titled The Green Knight and the first trailer has been released.

Dev Patel (The Last Airbender) stars as Sir Gawain in this new version, with Sean Harris (Mission Impossible: Fallout) as King Arthur and Ralph Ineson (The Witch) as the Green Knight. The movie looks like a striking blend of fantasy and horror, with lots of weird, stylish imagery and a frankly terrifying Green Knight. Check the trailer out below, and see the movie’s equally weird poster at the end of this story.

The Green Knight is directed by David Lowery, whose previous movies include the 2016 Disney remake of Pete’s Dragon and the 2018’s crime drama The Old Man & The Gun, which starred Robert Redford in potentially his final performance. The Green Knight also stars Joel Edgerton (Bright), Alicia Vikander (Tom Raider), and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk), and releases on May 29.

For more check out, GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming movies of 2020.

Microsoft announced that its ambitious game streaming service, Project xCloud, would begin limited testing on iOS devices, following months of Android-only testing. The company warned that it expected spots to go fast, and sure enough, it’s already reached capacity.

Microsoft spokesperson Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) gave the word on Twitter. He did note that this is initial capacity, so more will probably be added from the waitlist as the test continues. In the initial announcement, Microsoft said that the limited space meant it would be cycling through registrants, and so those who got in early may not keep their access for the duration of the testing.

This initial test is only available in a few territories–namely the US, UK, and Canada–and doesn’t enable Xbox console streaming like the Android version of the test. It’s also limited to a single game, the Halo Master Chief Collection. To participate you need an iPhone or iPad running iOS13.0 or later, a Gamertag, a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One controller, and a data plan that supports 10Mbps-down bandwidth.

Microsoft is ramping up its cloud gaming plans, most recently announcing a partnership with Samsung to bring xCloud to its mobile devices. Though it hasn’t detailed how this will tie into its plans for Xbox Series X, cloud gaming is definitely a big part of the future for Microsoft–to the point that Xbox head Phil Spencer says its chief competition will be Amazon and Google.

1. The Three Musketeers

Sonic the Hedgehog has been around for nearly 30 years and there have been a lot of variations on the character in that time. His key characteristics are generally summed up as “runs fast,” “is blue,” and “has attitude.” The Sonic we see in the live-action-meets-CGI Sonic the Hedgehog, thankfully, abandons the emphasis on ’90s buzzwords for something a little more real and vulnerable. Sonic in 2020 is quick with a quip and a pop culture reference, but he’s also just really excited to be here.

Sonic the Hedgehog foregoes pulling much from the video game and cartoon takes that came before it, choosing instead to set up something new for the character. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) in the film is something of a Superman character: an orphan with incredible power he’s not quite sure how to handle. It’s an interesting setup that the movie should have leveraged more, especially after a very brief opening that shows Sonic being chased from his home planet by a bunch of unknown bad guys for unknown reasons, who never come up again.

That backstory serves to get Sonic out of the video game world and into ours, where he’s been hiding out for years, observing everybody in the small town of Green Hills from afar and wishing he could reveal himself and end his loneliness. In his frustration, Sonic accidentally taps into his latent super-speed-induced powers, and the resulting explosion alerts the US government to his existence. Cue an ET-like story of shady G-men hunting an alien, who then happens across a friendly human–local sheriff Tom (James Marsden), or Donut Lord as Sonic knows him from afar–who helps him evade the men in black and their maniacal, mechanically inclined leader, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

Sonic the Hedgehog is really a buddy comedy about Tom and Sonic, and it’s at its best when it leans into that dynamic. Schwartz is a perfect choice for this version of Sonic, who’s a little irreverent and intensely tuned in to American pop culture somehow, but also earnest and upbeat. Schwartz’s Sonic is more of a Michaelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than the combination of Bugs Bunny’s mouth and Road Runner’s feet that first hit the small screen in the ’90s. It’s something of an expansion of Schwartz’s Parks and Rec character, the lovably enthusiastic but clueless and entitled Jean Ralphio, with Schwartz keeping the former parts and jettisoning the latter to make Sonic relatable but not annoying.

Marsden, meanwhile, avoids the formulaic position of the put-upon straight man in the comedy duo, instead quickly embracing the absurdity of making friends with a cartoon hedgehog and pretending Sonic is just a regular person in disguise. Marsden brings an easygoing likability to the team-up, selling that Sonic isn’t as exhausting to be around as one might expect, and the two quickly establish a rapport that’s a lot of fun to watch, whether they’re just hanging out or actively fighting off Robotnik’s many ridiculous robotic threats. Schwartz and Marsden are having a good time, so you are, too.

Surprisingly, Sonic the super-fast CGI hedgehog alien feels pretty down-to-earth in comparison to the movie’s villain. Carrey is in full ’90s effect as Robotnik, channeling the kind of intense goofiness that defined his more famously overwrought roles, like Ace Ventura, the Riddler, or the Grinch. It’s hit-and-miss–Robotnik is so far over the top that you wonder why any other human being would put up with him, and he chews so much scenery that you have to wonder if the filmmakers were concerned people would lose interest in Sonic if they weren’t constantly bombarded by Robotnik’s weirdness. Compared to the more effortless humor that develops between Sonic and Tom, Robotnik feels out of sync with the rest of the movie; a bit of a tonal anomaly that’s running at a slightly different speed.

Robotnik does have a few genuinely funny moments, but they’re mostly the surprising ones that play against his established bully personality or show some vulnerability–like when he screams in the face of his assistant, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub), but is actually giving him a loud and unnecessarily confrontational compliment. For the most part, though, Carrey’s goofball intensity is aimed squarely at the younger kids in the audience, and his biggest moments feel transplanted from a different movie–as well as a bit tiring.

The movie is mostly about Sonic, Tom, and Robotnik, but a few other characters pop up to bring some laughs as well. Though she doesn’t have a big impact on the story, there are some good moments between Tom and his veterinarian wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter), who gets to join in on the adventure toward its end. Maddie’s sister (Natasha Rothwell) acts as pure comic relief in trying to convince Maddie to divorce Tom, and she gets a few of the script’s better lines in her short screentime. It’s a bummer that both characters don’t get to play a bigger part in the story, but what time they do get adds to Sonic and Tom’s dynamic.

Sonic the Hedgehog manages enough genuine humor, likable characters, and well-built action to be a fun ride, even though it is definitely intended more for a younger crowd than the aging fans of the game franchise. A couple of standout setpieces portray Sonic moving at a normal rate through scenes where everything else is stuck at a near-standstill, just like those Quicksilver moments in a couple of recent X-Men movies, and they carry some inventive slapstick gags that go well with the special effects. His one-liners are also deployed just often enough, and with just enough awareness, that they’re funny without beating you over the head with try-hard references.

The movie is also knowingly reverential of the Sonic franchise without being beholden to it. Callbacks to the iconic music of Green Hill Zone or Sonic’s foot-tapping idle animation from the game are enough to raise a smile, but the references avoid being glaring. Sonic the Hedgehog is a movie that knows its fans are in the audience and gives them quite a few nods, but mostly in subtler ways that work in the story, instead of dropping a bunch of pandering, neon-clad reminders that You Are Watching A Sonic Thing.

As video game adaptations go, Sonic the Hedgehog is among the stronger ones. It’s smart enough to stand on its own, making use of longstanding aspects of Sega’s supersonic mascot and his franchise, while making sure that what really shines through are its characters. That restraint goes a long way to making Sonic the Hedgehog a light, funny movie, and while it definitely skews young, longtime Sonic fans should have just as much fun finally seeing the Blue Blur on the big screen.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie is expected to have a strong start at the box office. Variety reports that the CG/live-action film is projected to make between $40 million and $45 million for its opening weekend, which includes the President’s Day holiday in the US on February 17.

Sonic should have no trouble unseating Birds of Prey, which was last weekend’s No. 1 movie with $33.2 million for its first weekend. Sonic goes up against a raft of newcomers this weekend, including the thriller Fantasy Island, the Will Ferrell/Julia Louis-Dreyfus movie Downhill, and the romance The Photograph, all of which are expected to open below Sonic.

The Sonic movie is directed by Oscar-nominated director Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke). It was originally expected to hit theatres in 2019, but Sony moved the movie to 2020 in response to the social media backlash against the original design of Sonic.

The film reportedly cost $87 million to produce, before marketing expenses are factored in. The movie features the voice of Ben Schwartz as Sonic, with Jim Carrey playing the evil Dr. Robotnik. James Marsden also stars as a police officer who befriends Sonic.

Sonic is gearing up for a big 2020, with Sega planning on announcing Sonic news on the 20th of every month.

In other video game movie news, Sony Pictures has announced it will produce a movie based on the world’s most popular FPS, CrossFire.

Four episodes in, Star Trek: Picard is finally finding its footing, now that Picard is free of Earth and finally has some gravity plating back under his feet. After a slow start in the first three episodes, the captain is on his ship, he assembled most of a crew, and he’s on mission. And while Episode 4, “Absolute Candor,” is still something of a digression as we add more characters to the proceedings, it’s one that reveals more of who Picard is and finally feels like it’s pushing the story to pick up some forward momentum.

Most of “Absolute Candor” continues to fill in the blanks surrounding Picard’s role in the Romulan rescue from 14 years before the show started, with much of the action taking place on Vashti, a world where Picard (Patrick Stewart) helped settle Romulan refugees. Here, we get our first close look at how the Federation’s abandonment of the Romulans affected actual people–the failed rescue left once-prominent and successful people stranded on a dusty, underdeveloped world, where resentment has been left to fester.

A lot of that resentment surrounds Elnor (Evan Evagora), a Romulan orphan Picard helped rescue in the lead-up to the big evacuation and left on Vashti, with the expectation of finding a better home for him later. Fourteen years later, Elnor is all grown up–and angry that Picard abandoned him, and the rest of the Romulan people.

Picard’s visit to Vashti, where he attempts to recruit Elnor to the mission to save Soji (Isa Briones), shows a side of the Romulan situation we haven’t seen yet, in which the legendary captain isn’t viewed with so much reverence. His resignation from Starfleet meant he basically abandoned all the Romulans he had helped to their own devices. Plenty of them now view him as a man who made a lot of empty promises, an embodiment of a Starfleet that showed up to help them when they needed it in order to disarm a proud people who could otherwise have helped themselves.

Those challenges to the image we have of Jean-Luc Picard–as an accomplished leader and diplomat, and incredibly principled man–are the best aspects of the show so far, and Episode 4 leans into them pretty hard. What’s interesting about Star Trek: Picard is less its continuation of the story of a beloved character and more that it is deconstructing him by placing him in a world where he doesn’t fit. Picard’s view of Starfleet didn’t line up with reality, so he abandoned it, and that caused suffering for a lot of people, including people he cared about. Reckoning with those facts is humanizing Picard in new, fascinating ways, and those moments are the ones that make “Absolute Candor” really work.

There’s also a lot of potential in Picard’s relationship with Elnor, who has become a sword-wielding warrior monk in the 14 years since the two last saw each other. Elnor makes yet another member of the crew who’s following Picard but maybe not too happy about it, and while their confrontations are minimal in “Absolute Candor,” it’s exciting to see a group of people following Picard that don’t worship him the way the Enterprise crew did.

Meanwhile, the story with Soji on the Borg Cube gets a little advancement, while avoiding getting lost in the pseudo-technical side of her work. Soji’s development as a person is a lot more interesting, and we’re starting to see a little more humanity out of Narek (Harry Treadaway) that’s helping construct him as a relatable villain and not just the shadowy figure he’s mostly been up until now. The pair’s moment conducting an “ancient Borg ritual” feels like it does more for both of their characters than two episodes’ worth of scenes studying Borg drones managed to accomplish.

Star Trek: Picard is still in its ramping-up phase, and like Episode 3, “Absolute Candor” is another exercise is recruiting members of Picard’s team, rather than actually getting on with their mission. Where it excels, though, is in challenging its characters with their own history, and continuing to develop Jean-Luc and his team in fascinating ways. A lot of what we’ve seen from Star Trek: Picard so far suggests more potential than what it actually shows–but with Episode 4, it feels like the show is gathering momentum in all the areas that make it an interesting addition to the Star Trek franchise.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

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Reigning UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones made headlines recently when he pondered a future in WWE, once he’s done with MMA. “I think it’s inevitable,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I’ve always respected WWE, and I feel like the sports can be so similar.”

Should that come to pass, it sounds like he will be met with open arms by some within the wrestling company. While promoting the news that Wrestlemania 37 would be coming to the brand new SoFi Stadium in California, WWE superstar Roman Reigns had plenty of say about the potential of Jones becoming a professional wrestler.

“He’s definitely got tools. I mean, there’s no doubt he’s a bad man, no doubt,” Reigns told GameSpot and a small group of other press during the event. “But obviously what we do is a little bit different than the octagon. And it’s going to be a different travel schedule and different demands. But I definitely think he’s got a great name. He’s got a great work ethic. And he had a great, huge career still going in MMA. So I would absolutely say keep your eye on the ball from now, Jon. Don’t worry about WWE. But I definitely think there could be a future for him if he can put in the time and transition and develop the skills that we use.”

Should Jones end up in WWE, though, Reigns knows exactly who he should be matched against: himself. “Someone like Jon Jones, I mean, if you’re going to step in the WWE ring, you’re most likely going to want to be in there with the big dog,” the former WWE Champion teased.

Perhaps Reigns is planting the seeds now for a match at Wrestlemania 37, which will air live on pay-per-view and the WWE Network on March 28, 2021.