Month: September 2021

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While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings provided no shortage of unexpected twists for the MCU, perhaps the biggest was the return of not one but two long forgotten faces–Tim Roth’s Abomination, last seen in the Edward Norton Incredible Hulk movie, who was teased in the trailers, and another (arguably more surprising) special appearance who went on to play a core role in the film.

This article includes spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, please proceed with caution.

That’s right, we’re talking about Ben Kingsly’s Trevor AKA The Fake Mandarin, from Iron Man 3. Poor Trevor has apparently been living in the Ten Rings compound for years after Wenwu captured him with the intent of executing him. Instead, however, Trevor did what he does best and improvised some acting, which inadvertently landed him a job as Wenwu’s personal jester-slash-prisoner. Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing find him in the bowels of the compound having apparently lost even more of his marbles since the last time we saw him.

Speaking of, the last time we saw him was all the way back in Iron Man 3. By all accounts, Trevor was a one-off for the MCU prior to this point, which wasn’t all that surprising. During Phases 1 and 2, one-and-done villains were the trend with bad guys like Iron Monger, Whiplash, and Ultron taking center stage while the slower burn villains with repeat appearances like Thanos or Loki drifted in and out of the spotlight. However, through Phase 3 and now into Phase 4, the MCU has seemed more and more interested in looking back for self-referential pulls (think Red Skull on Vormir or certain episodes of What If…?).

Trevor’s return represents one of the most surprising outcomes within that push–say what you will about Iron Man 3, but its Mandarin twist could have been very easily glossed over and never referenced again. Wenwu even has a brief bit of exposition in this movie explaining how he watched these events from afar and thought they were completely absurd. It would have been easy to just leave it at that and let the memory of those Phase 2 choices go gently into the night with a new, more legitimate Ten Rings introduced to replace them.

But, according to director Destin Daniel Cretton, getting Ben Kingsly back on board with the MCU was as simple as a phone call–and something he definitely wanted to do. In speaking with GameSpot, Cretton explained that “yes, it really did just take [a phone call]. I feel very lucky and privileged to have worked with Sir Ben Kingsly, and the conversation with him beforehand–it was such a pleasant surprise to learn how deeply he cares about that character, Trevor, and how much he wants to see Trevor go to the next stage of his life. It was so fun to watch him get into that character, it was one of the highlights for me.”

Of course, Cretton was unable to confirm or deny whether Trevor would be making any more appearances in the MCU after Shang-Chi. Presumably he was able to leave Ta Lo with the others, but we never actually see him in the aftermath of the battle, so it’s entirely possible that he will spend the rest of his life hanging out with his little monster buddies and practicing his sonnets. Maybe that’s the best possible ending for him.

As for Tim Roth’s Abomination, we’re left with even more questions–namely what this could mean in terms of the Multiverse and the Norton Hulk movies, which the MCU has bobbed and weaved around since the introduction of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner back in The Avengers. We do know that he and Wong are apparently working with one another, however, at least in terms of their little magical fight club racket, so regardless of when or if Abomination shows up again, he probably won’t be all that bad a guy.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

The new Jackass Movie, Jackass Forever, was scheduled to be released on October 22, but due to the pandemic, it was delayed to February 4, 2022. Series star Johnny Knoxville staged his own delay announcement for the film, and it’s exactly what you’d expect.

Knoxville climbed onto a billboard for Jackass Forever and and spray-painted “February 4, 2022” onto the advertisement, high above the ground. After the person taking the video asks Knoxville to move over to better showcase the date, Knoxville does so, but asks, ‘What?’ The video then promptly cuts out, adding to the silly nature of the stunt.

Jackass Forever was delayed earlier this week as part of a wider shifting of dates at Paramount. Top Gun: Maverick is now slated for May 2022, while Mission: Impossible 7 is now scheduled for September 2022.

Jackass Forever is the first Jackass film since 2010’s Jackass 3D, not counting the Bad Grandpa spinoff. It’s led to some amount of controversy, as former star Bam Margera was reportedly fired from the production and is now suing Knoxville.

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Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins has shared her thoughts on the ongoing changes in the movie landscape as more films launch on streaming services day one. She said the decision to bring Wonder Woman 1984 to HBO Max was a “very, very, very difficult choice,” and it was the best the company could do under trying circumstances with the pandemic. But she said releasing on HBO Max was “hugely detrimental” to the movie, and she went on to criticize movies that come to streaming services as being “fake movies.”

“I was looking at what is actually turning out to be true, which is, we have no idea when this pandemic is going to get under control in the way that we hoped,” she said at CinemaCon recently, as reported by the LA Times. “It was the best choice of a bunch of very bad choices at the moment. It was a heartbreaking experience and hugely detrimental to the movie, and I sort of knew that could happen.”

Jenkins acknowledged that she was “happy to give the movie to the public,” and it was the right choice overall with all factors considered. Looking ahead, Jenkins said she hopes her movies can avoid the day-and-date release strategy in the future. (Warner Bros. has announced it won’t bring back day-and-date movies in 2022, instead opting for 45-day exclusive windows with theaters).

“I’m not a fan of day-and-date and I hope to avoid it forever. The truth is, I make movies for the big screen. I’m OK with people watching it for a second or third time on their phone, but I’m not making it for that experience,” she said. “I love the theatrical experience, and I don’t understand why we’re talking about throwing it away for 700 streaming services that there’s no room for in the marketplace. It doesn’t make sense for studios that have billion-dollar industries to throw them in the garbage so they can roll the dice at competing with Netflix. It’s crazy to me. All I’m saying is that one studio should make a huge commitment to the theatrical experience and plant the flag and the filmmakers will go there as a result.”

CinemaCon is a convention put on by owners of movie theaters, so her comments railing against streaming are not that surprising. In another jab at streaming movies, Jenkins said they are “like fake movies.”

“All of the films that streaming services are putting out, I’m sorry, they look like fake movies to me. I don’t hear about them, I don’t read about them,” Jenkins said. “It’s not working as a model for establishing legendary greatness.”

Jenkins has a deal with Netflix, but for TV instead of film. “Streaming is great for massive amounts of content and bingeing TV shows. I think they are two very different skill sets and I see them succeeding as two very different things. That’s why I think it’s a mistake for the film industry to throw something away so valuable,” she said.

Jenkins is lined up to direct the next Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot, along with a Cleopatra film also set to feature the Wonder Woman star in the title role. Additionally, Jenkins is lined up to direct a Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie for Disney.

Just about every week brings something new to Destiny 2, whether it’s story beats, new activities, or interesting new combinations of elements that let players devastate each other in the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what’s going on in the world of Destiny and a rundown of what’s drawing our attention across the solar system.

I have to say, I’m loving the way Destiny 2 has been telling stories this year. Weekly seasonal story beats coupled with new activities to explore has provided a great way to drop into the game, even just for an hour or two, and watch the world expand and unfold. This week, we got a new creepy conversation with Savathun, listened as Mara Sov let the mask slip as relates to her late brother Uldren, and wandered around an excellently fragmented new Shattered Realm area. But just as with the seasons before it, it’s the story that continues to enthrall me.

Queens’ Gambits

On a stream last week, Destiny 2’s new creative director, Joe Blackburn, described the Season of the Lost as being something like The Silence of the Lambs with the presence of scary Hive god Savathun just hanging around. Like the frighteningly calm Hannibal Lecter in that movie, Savathun is already working on us. This week, she said a lot of cryptic things about what’s really going on in Destiny’s story, hinting at there being something more frightening and more powerful over and above the game’s central conflict between Light and Darkness.

I particularly like this take on Savathun’s head games from developer and podcaster merritt k:

Destiny 2 has broken the fourth wall on a few occasions. The Emissary of the Nine has made comments like that before, and there’s lore on the Skull of Dire Ahamkara Exotic helmet that refers to the reader as “O Player mine.” There are a lot of theories as to what these things are all about, but generally, Savathun seems to, at least, have more knowledge about the inner workings of the universe than we’ve yet heard. Since we have some idea what we’re building toward with The Witch Queen expansion–Savathun and her Hive brood wielding the Light, a major twist–it really seems like things are about to get weird(er) in Destiny 2, both through the Season of the Lost and the next expansion.

I’ve had a lot of theories over the last year about where Destiny 2’s story is headed, a few of which seem to have been borne out, but it’s interactions like this that are my favorite, because they’re some pretty intense head-scratchers.

There was also some suggestion in the first week that helping Savathun fight the worm gods might draw the attention of some giant worm bosses, like Xol, who we fought in a Strike back in Warmind. But just because Savathun is anti-worm generally doesn’t mean she’s against all of the remaining worm gods. Saniya Ahmed dug into some old Savathun lore to explore the possibility that more worms are coming back, and that at least one might still be an ally to the Witch Queen. We might know where Savathun is headed thanks to Bungie’s Witch Queen expansion showcase, but there are still a whole lot of potential plans within plans going on right now.

Speaking of plans within plans, let’s talk about that Ahamkara egg in Mara Sov’s chamber. Theories are already floating around that Mara is going to use that egg, the Wall of Wishes, and the Techeuns we’re currently working on rescuing from around the Ascendant Realm, to bring back at least one Ahamkara for the sake of wishing Savathun free of that worm god she’s trying to ghost on. Personally, I’ve always found the concept of the Ahamkara–paracausal wish-granting shapeshifting monsters–to be super compelling, but they’ve never existed in the game the way they do in the lore. It seems like Mara is working to bring the Ahamkara back from extinction, partially as a means to defeat Savathun, but ultimately for her own ends.

Earlier this week, I speculated that the return of Ahamkara to the game could be a hint at what Destiny 2 could look like in a few years, after Bungie releases The Final Shape and we get the conclusion of the Light and Darkness saga, the current story arc. If the story of the conflict between the Light and Darkness has to end, that suggests that we’ll likely see Destiny 2 become a world without either the Traveler or the Darkness, or both. But since paracausal powers are so essential to Destiny 2 gameplay, it seems like the game will need ways for those forces to continue to exist, even without the gods responsible for them. Adding more paracausal creatures like the Ahamkara might provide a good story reason for some of the reality-bending video game things we can do in Destiny 2.

But even without making guesses that are years down the road, we can tell that both Mara and Savathun have a lot more going on than we realize. Both queens are executing larger plans, and neither has a single goal in mind. We know Mara works to consolidate her power all the time and that she ultimately has Awoken interests–and not necessarily ours–at heart. She also is, uh…meaner than I realized. Complete this week’s Tracing the Stars quest step to hear her talk shit about her dead brother Uldren, now risen as the Guardian Crow. Is Mara this season’s Lakshmi-2? I feel like we could be headed in that direction, discovering that the Awoken queen is actually a gossipy political maneuverer who sees us as pawns as much as Savathun does. Expect the Season of the Lost to reveal that maybe the machinations of Savathun, Xivu Arath, and the Black Fleet aren’t all we have to worry about.

Now, on to the goofy gameplay stuff that happened this week.

Dancing Is Banned

Last week was the first chance for Hunter players to snag Radiant Dance Machines, a reprised Destiny 1 Exotic that’s back in Season of the Lost–and they immediately discovered it was hopelessly, hilariously broken. When you use your Hunter dodge near enemies while wearing the Exotic, you get a short period where you can do a bunch of dodges in a row. Players immediately thought of the Dynamo mod that gives you Super energy when you dodge and the Stasis Aspect Winter’s Shroud, which slows enemies near you when you dodge. They slapped those things on their Hunter builds and went on ridiculous tears in the Crucible.

Bungie almost immediately responded by disabling Radiant Dance Machines in the Crucible and Gambit because that was obviously not what was supposed to be happening, and we’ve now gotten a nerf that ratchets back RDM’s power to keep you from exploiting it in different builds. It sounds like RDM won’t get multiple boosts off mods like Dynamo, even when you do multiple dodges in a row. From a practical standpoint, though, RDM is still a goofy cool Exotic even without the mod synergy it afforded. Dodging around a player is hilarious–even if it gets you killed a lot because if you’re too close, people can still just easily punch you in the face.

That, however, means that RDM is an Exotic may not have much use anymore. Apart from the meme opportunities of dashing around other players, and top-tier players who can use it to utterly confuse people before they take them out, RDM isn’t going to fit into many builds without some added benefits to all those dodges. I’m hoping Bungie takes another look at this Exotic and finds a fun middle ground in the future, creating a situation where, in specific cases, having those extra dodges lets you do something cool with a thoughtful build. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I like the idea of Exotics such as Radiant Dance Machines offering more weird, super-specific build benefits that go beyond just letting you annoy people in the Crucible.

Bungie also tweaked the new Exotic linear fusion rifle, Lorentz Driver, after some PvP complaints. The gun randomly targets and highlights a nearby enemy, marking them as a sort of “bounty” for you to take down; kill three of those enemies and collect the item that drops off them and the gun gets a sick power boost. The bounty part of Lorentz Driver wasn’t particularly useful in PvP, but the targeting was–it would briefly highlight a random nearby enemy even through walls, giving you a quick look at their location. Even with the randomness and the brevity of the highlight, though, a lot of players felt like that was a big advantage, especially against small teams. So Lorentz no longer gives you a brief wall hack in PvP. It’s another good change, really, although I hope Bungie lands on a slightly different solution in the future that makes the targeting system more active in PvP, maybe just adding the highlight when you actually aim at your targeting bounty and giving you a brief glimpse of their actions as they move behind walls. Other Exotics and abilities do something similar, and removing the highlighting sight altogether in PvP feels like Lorentz loses a bit of what makes it unique.

That said, the gun is extremely fun to use in PvP situations (and still works as it originally did in PvE), so even if this is the version we’re using from here on out, it’s a great gun you should be messing around with. The rifle is quick and snappy like The Queenbreaker in its heyday, and there is nothing more satisfying than hearing that satisfyingly deep “WOMP” sound and then snagging an extra kill or two from an unfortunate soul who was standing too close to your target, disintegrated by a Void explosion.

Banter About Banner

Before this gets too much longer, it’s worth a second to look at the new Iron Banner guns. The last few seasons have provided an impressive arsenal of Iron Banner weapons that make jumping into the event worth your time, even if you’re not usually a fan of PvP activities or of the generalized chaos of Iron Banner itself. I’ve been finding myself ripped apart by the fast-firing Forge’s Pledge pulse rifle, which really seems to slap if you can get it with high range and solid damage-boosting perks. It’s great for tearing through unsuspecting players at a distance they might not expect, and its fire rate is so fast that, if you’re landing headshots, you can often take people out before they have a chance to fight back. Forge’s Pledge will stand up pretty well against other pulse rifles generally, thanks to its rate of fire; I’ve lost the matchup while using an un-proc’d No Time To Explain a few times now.

Between Forge’s Pledge, the new bust-firing sidearm Peacebond, the stupidly good Multimach CCX submachine gun, and the reliable Riiswalker shotgun, you can put together quite an armory by dumping some tokens on Lord Saladin. The new armor isn’t too shabby either–now, wearing the new Iron Banner armor while playing Iron Banner gives you a chance at earning Enhancement Prisms at the end of matches. Anything that makes it easier to get Masterwork materials sounds good to me. I’m in debt up to my eyeballs with Spider trying to make new armor builds.

One last thing: Read the lore entries on the new Iron Banner gear, because it’ll give you an interesting perspective on what’s going on outside the Dreaming City. Mara Sov might have a plan, but nobody is happy about Savathun just chilling out in a big crystal in the middle of town. In one entry on some of the seasonal gear, you can read about how Caiatl considered just dropping a bunch of bombs on the Dreaming City, and even asked Zavala if he wanted to team up on that endeavor. Sure, it might start a war with the Awoken, but Caiatl was thinking that might still be worth it to have Savathun off the board. (For his part, Zavala decided it wasn’t okay to wipe out a bunch of innocent Awoken for a chance at dropping Savathun. Wonder if we’ll get some alternative views on that decision when The Witch Queen expansion rolls around.)

Lord Saladin, however, might not be so merciful. The Iron Banner guns suggest he’s meeting with Caiatl and putting his differences with the Cabal aside to broker further peace and face the greater threat. Saladin is pissed about the whole Savathun-is-Osiris thing–not to mention shaken by his inability to see through the deception–and it seems like he might be on a background path to revenge that could soon come to the forefront, much in the way we saw the faction coup develop in the lore in Season of the Splicer. Keep paying attention, because there’s a lot of story going on right now.

That’s it for our inaugural installment of Iron Banter, and there’s a whole lot we didn’t get to. If there’s other Destiny stuff you want to talk about, and if this column is something you’re enjoying, drop it in the comments below.

When I was a kid, Japanese anime wasn’t prevalent like it is now, but there were still entry points into this world. From Robotech, Thundercats, and other series invading Saturday morning cartoons, the ’80s gave us a glimpse into the growing popularity of anime in Japan. While I’ve dabbled with anime in the ’90s and ’00s, I never really got into it and didn’t know how to find it. Considering how immensely popular anime has become–and how widely available it is–I figured now is probably a good time to start watching.

On this journey to discover new anime, I decided to try and find things I’ve never heard of before. I’ve watched Death Note, got eight episodes into One Piece before deciding I don’t have the time to watch all of it, and even tried my hand at Attack on Titan at one point. However, I haven’t found that one show that really speaks to me, and considering how broad a medium anime is, there has to be something for me, right?

Through the magic of Funimation’s large catalog, I decided to go on a journey to find an anime I could get into that was brand-new to me. How did I do this? Did I ask a friend who loves anime anime for recommendations or find something I vaguely knew about? No. I did this the way that I would quickly find is the worst way to pick out an anime: by the title alone.

Please, save your laughs, for I did not know what I was doing. Upon this journey to find an anime that I connected with, I found out one thing about modern-anime that I didn’t know: a lot of it is super horny. This was documented the one day I was tweeting about this, before taking my journey private.

Looking back, my criteria for finding a new anime on Funimation was a poor choice: find a series with an amusing name or cover art that catches your eye, and dive right in. At first, I didn’t even read the details for the show I was planning on checking out. I regret this decision.

Stumbling upon Prison School

My first discovery with ill-conceived plan was Prison School. The anti-establishment punk rocker from 1999 in me gravitated towards this title. “Yeah, school is like a prison. I bet this will really speak to me.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mat Elfring in 1999 and Mat Elfring in 2021 have very little in common, aside from the fact we both like ska and hip hop. While the intro music was radical–I came to find most theme songs for anime were straight fire–Prison School wasn’t what I was looking for in an anime by any means.

I’m not going to sit here and shame what people like and want in anime. You like what you like, and that’s cool. However, Prison School is exactly what I personally don’t want from a series. It takes place in a high school and starts with a group of very horny teenage boys trying to spy on girls in the shower, much like the movie Porky’s–which is where I decided to hit the stop button. These are the only boys in the school, as it’s strictly an academy for girls, that lets in one male student for every 1,000 females. From there, it gets into some BDSM stuff featuring the boys getting punished.

Upon telling some of my anime-watching friends that I started this journey with Prison School, I received messages akin to “Oh god, you really dived in there!” There were also some laughs as well.

Look, I know I can jump into Demon Slayer, and I’ll probably love it. It is one of the most popular anime to date–Japan even used the show’s theme song during this year’s Olympics, and that’s probably the coolest thing I saw/heard during the games.

Next stop: Space Dandy

Without looking back at Prison School, I found Space Dandy. I liked the title. The star of the show had a cool pompadour. This time around, I read the details for it, and nothing seemed alarming. Also, it was only two seasons, so this is something I could watch without feeling bogged down by the weight of hundreds of episodes.

Space Dandy follows the titular Dandy, a bounty hunter who travels through space, searching for aliens. Of course, he’s being pursued by Dr. Gel.

Once again, Space Dandy’s theme music was right up my alley and got me pumped for the show. Very quickly–but not as outlandishly as Prison School–I found out that Space Dandy was also a pretty horny series, especially when the first major stop for the titular character was a space restaurant named “Boobies.”

Finding a much better, less horny groove

At this point, I questioned what I was looking for in an anime. Did I want comedy or did I want something serious? Did I want an action-packed adventure or more of a slice of life story? Anime is so incredibly broad, that I had to narrow my focus. This eventually led me to Cells at Work! CODE BLACK–which I later found out was actually a spinoff.

Cells at Work! CODE BLACK featured anthropomorphic white and red blood cells, attempting to maintain the human body. Even though this show was a continuation of the original, I never felt alienated from it. CODE BLACK did a fine job at explaining the world to someone who has no idea what’s going on, and the show was exciting and interesting.

That being said, it didn’t excite me. It wasn’t something I got pumped to watch, and that’s what I wanted to find. I want to find an anime that I want to talk to everyone about–one that will unite me with other anime fans in the gigantic community. I tried Psycho-Pass and All Out!! next, and I stared at the titles for Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love with a Pervert, as Long as She’s a Cutie and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Senpai–wondering who came up with those bizarre titles.

On the right track

It was at this point that I felt that this wasn’t going to work for me. Then, it happened. I found a show that gripped me past episode one: Sk8: The Infinity. The show revolves around a skateboarder trying to beat others in downhill races. He befriends a Canadian now living in Japan and finds his new friend is great at skateboarding–mainly because he is a snowboarder.

It’s a mildly comedic The Fast and the Furious (the first movie) on skateboards. The villains are way over-the-top, including Hiromi Higa–a metalhead who wears clown makeup and throws firecrackers at opposing skaters–and Ainosuke Shindo–a masked skater who essentially dances with his opponents while racing them. Side note: I am super-into Shindo. He’s so weird and wonderful.

What I find so gripping about Sk8: The Infinity is that it’s comedic without being cheesy or too silly, and it somehow makes downhill skating action-packed and interesting. For the first time, I found something that wasn’t even the tiniest bit horny with a story I found to be engaging. This felt like a big win.

The journey was a bit longer than I would have thought–as I also checked in with a few other random anime series as well that weren’t mentioned in this piece that I found to be a tad bland. But as I very quickly realized, anime has become such a large and unstoppable force, that it’s a medium that’s expanded to have multiple sub-genres. Anime is no longer just “anime.” It’s comparable to saying “I want to get into American one-hour dramas” and just diving right in–and very quickly landing on one of Dick Wolf’s shows about police officers doing police things.

The lesson to be learned here is that when people give you advice for what to watch, when you’re dipping your toes into the world of anime for the first time, you should take it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t venture out on your own and try to find something new, but why not start with something that’s already beloved?

But for now, I’ll continue trying to venture out and find things that appeal to me. What do I have to lose? Do you have recommendations for me? Let me know below.

Labor Day is this coming Monday, September 6, which means it’s another opportunity for retailers to blow out some stock at deep discounts for you to pounce on. That’s certainly true at Best Buy, where you can already find some great deals on TVs, laptops, wireless earbuds, gaming monitors, and more.

Although the sale is rather large, we’ve combed through to find some of the best ones you can grab right now, with many at some of their lowest prices ever. If you’re looking more for software as opposed to hardware, Amazon has a bunch of deals on videogames that we’ve rounded up separately, with discounts on titles such as Demon’s Souls, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Monster Hunter Rise, and more. All these deals are available through Labor Day (or while supplies last), giving you all weekend to take advantage of these offers.