We have all seen “Thor: Ragnarok” and we have a lot to say! We give our thoughts, go deep into spoilers, and rank the new movie among the other movies in the MCU.
Join hosts Joe Hogarty, Jack McCarthy, Ron D’Anna, Taylor Katcher, Eric Lancy and Jay Hart!
WDWNT: Nerd Alert – The “Thor: Ragnarok” Roundtable is now available for download through WDW News Today: Original Programing and iTunes!
This brand new featurette takes us behind the scenes of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”. Director Rian Johnson and cast talk about what it’s like working on the newest chapter in The Star Wars Saga. Love that new shot of the Millennium Falcon being pursued by TIE Fighters!
Source: JoBlo.com
Looks like Thor has a new team that consists of Hulk, Loki, Valkyrie and The God Of Thunder himself. They call themself “The Revengers”! Check out this new featurette for “Thor Raganarok”.
In Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok,” Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok—the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization—at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger—the Incredible Hulk!
“Thor: Ragnarok” is directed by Taika Waititi and returns Chris Hemsworth starring as Thor and Tom Hiddleston reprising his role as Loki. They are joined by Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson and Karl Urban, with Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins.
Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok” thunders into U.S. theaters on November 3, 2017.
Source: Marvel Entertainment
We recently learned that EA had made the decision to shut down Visceral Studios and shift the focus of their Star Wars game that was in development.
What we are now discovering about this “Ragtag” Star Wars game, thanks to a recent post from Kotaku, is that it was set to be one of the most unique and narrative focused experiences set in the Star Wars universe.
The team at Visceral Games was attempting to tell a new kind of story that would explore the world outside of Jedi and Sith, the dark side and the light side, lightsabers and the Force. This game, codenamed Ragtag, set out to tell the story of Dodger, a “cracked mirror version of Han Solo,” and a group of scoundrels who would join together on heist missions. Others in the group included Robie, the daughter of a mob boss named Oona, and Buck, the team’s mentor. While we aren’t quite sure who is who, the picture below shows the cast of scoundrels.
Source: Kotaku
The game was set to take place between the events of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes back, and would use that period to tell the story of how Alderaan’s destruction had lasting effects throughout the galaxy.
Ragtag was being written by games industry legend Amy Hennig, who wanted very much for this game to feel separate from her previous work, the Uncharted series, while still being a linear, story driven, action game. To successfully accomplish this, the team was creating a game where players would get to take control of each member of the team. Each member had unique AI so that players would easily take to the distinct personalities of each character, even when not controlling them.
Players would also be able to opt out of killing enemies by instead using strategic plans to manipulate environments. For example:
“Picture the Death Star, and they all have jobs,” said a person who worked on the game. “One Stormtrooper was on a command unit, moving boxes around. Some guys would be droids. It was supposed to be set up so it was all real, and it felt like they had jobs to do. We wanted to tap into emotions, so you could mess with Stormtroopers’ emotions. Go into a room, turn the lights off. He goes back in and turns them back on. Then you turn them off again. At a certain point he starts getting spooked, acting irrationally, and bringing friends in.”
Unfortunately, EA felt that the project was too ambitious, as Visceral was having a hard time putting together a full demo for the publisher to experience. While a lot of work had already been completed, the team was still behind on getting environments and shooting mechanics developed. EA responded to this by adding their Vancouver team to the project in 2016 to expedite development. With more hands working on the game a demo was created for EA that featured an AT-ST chase, a look around Jabba the Hutt’s palace, and a shootout on Tatooine.
EA was still not pleased with where the game was headed. The company grew concerned that the game seemed too much like Uncharted 4, the game that Amy Hennig left behind to work on Ragtag, and also felt that the game lacked some of the more iconic Star Wars characters and elements such as the Force, lightsabers, and Jedi. According to one former Visceral Games employee:
“EA would get obsessed with market research and start asking people what’s important to them about Star Wars. You’d get, ‘Oh, the Force, lightsabers, the usual Jedi continuum.’ They’re hyper focused on that stuff, and it’d be a topic of conversation in every pitch meeting.”
But EA executives weren’t the only reason why the game was struggling to come together. Reports indicate that Amy Hennig was being stretched thin and teams were beginning to become mismanaged. The project was extremely ambitious and expensive, and at some point it became improbable from EA’s perspective to continue with the game as planned.
The day the project was canceled, the team at Visceral did not even know about the game’s shift in development or the studio’s closure. One former employee recounts, “I woke up that day thinking it was a perfectly normal Tuesday. I went into work, and we had a mandatory all-hands meeting at 11:30am. That was when they told us. It came out of nowhere. I had no idea that anything like that was going to happen.”
Star Wars Battlefront II, EA’s next Star Wars game
For now, the game has shifted over to EA’s Vancouver studio, with assistance from some of EA’s other studios. The game is likely to be completely overhauled and reimagined to the point where the original concept is unrecognizable.
Ragtag seemed like it was shaping up to be quite a unique single-player Star Wars game. The kind that fans have been waiting for since the canceled Star Wars 1313. It is unfortunate that this game won’t ever see the light of day, and even more disheartening that the team at Visceral has now been disbanded. Hopefully whatever game comes from the ashes of Ragtag turns out to be a great one.
Source: Kotaku
If you were hoping to see lots of new footage in the international trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”, you may be disappointed. This trailer, from Japan, is basically parts of the teaser trailer, combined with the official domestic trailer, plus a few new shots of Rey, Kylo’s helmet, BB-8 and C3PO. It’s nothing like the international trailer that was released for “The Force Awakens”, which added a lot more additional footage. Lucasfilm is trying to keep as much of this film as possible under wraps and they are doing a very good job of it!
https://youtu.be/I_tNoPEa5Oc
This, however, is a little more interesting. Japan has also released a new international poster for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and in it we finally see Luke igniting his light saber. This is very similar to the domestic poster that was released recently but Luke and Rey have traded places. Does that mean anything? We’ll soon find out.
Source: JoBlo Movie Trailers
During Sony’s press conference for Paris Games Week, a new trailer for the upcoming Marvel game Spider-Man was shown.
The teaser trailer offers a first look at the game’s story, as well as some characters we haven’t had the chance to see yet, such as Peter Parker, Aunt May, and Mary Jane Watson.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man will be released in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation 4.
Last night, I was lucky enough to attend an early showing of the latest Marvel entry, Thor: Ragnarok. I’ve been a fan of the Marvel cinematic universe since Nick Fury appeared after the credits of Iron Man and I’ve seen every movie since. I’ve enjoyed them all as well, and although I would perhaps rank some higher than others, not one would I consider bad as they were at least all enjoyable. Well, Dr. Strange was kind of boring, but I’m digressing. They’ve all be fun rides, so how was the third entry for Thor?
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
L to R: Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth)
Well, it was great! Not as strong as Civil War, or Avengers, but extremely entertaining, tightly packed, and fun. The thing it WASN’T was a Thor movie. I’ll explain, but first let’s talk about all that worked.
The story is very fast paced, never lingering too long, and it works. The action travels fast, and you get the sense of urgency Thor himself is facing. It never drags or gets too ponderous. The film itself is obviously very influenced by Guardians of the Galaxy, in both tone and art direction, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The film is crisp and great to look at, but does its best to distinguish itself so the Guardians influence isn’t obvious. The only time it’s a little too obvious is when an older song scores an action sequence, but it only happens once or twice and Thor doesn’t have an ‘Awesome Mix’ of his own. Also, the action scenes are so greatly choregraphed and eye catching it doesn’t matter. While this might not be Marvel’s strongest film in balancing all its elements, it might be a contender in Marvel’s funniest film. Seriously. The actors and the writers all turn in hilarious work and I don’t remember the last time I laughed this much at a Marvel movie. This is honestly where it surpasses even Guardians. The greatest thing is it’s not stupid or dumb humor, it’s all based on character and situation, so even if you see a bit coming it’ll make you smile if not make you laugh out loud.
Chris Hemsworth is great (More on Thor himself later), and Tom Hiddleston is on point as usual as Loki. Hela, played by Cate Blanchett, makes herself extremely known as Marvel’s first main female villain. Her power level actually might be higher than any previous villain, and it’s not played off or written off to make the heroes win. She seethes and commands, becoming not just a villain but perhaps a force of nature turning all of Asgard on its side. Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson is a great strong female lead too. She brings a lot of pain to the role, in addition to being super tough and not to be trifled with. This is no token love interest or sidekick, she actually is another great warrior to add to the likes of Black Widow, Gamora and Wasp. Jeff Goldblum as does fantastic as the Grand Master. Every scene he’s in is a delight, and he’s so enmeshed in this character, it’s so seeped with his Jeff Goldblumy-ness you can’t help but love it and I hope to God he becomes a reoccurring character. Idris Elba returns and so does Anthony Hopkins, redeeming himself somewhat from his lunatic performance in Transformers: The Last Knight.
The star of the show however is Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo. Not just smashing, he actually balances comedy, badassness, and pathos better than the movie as a whole. Minor spoiler here, but the reason Hulk sat out the adventures since Age of Ultron was he’s been here in this arena, and for two years he’s been Hulk. As such, he’s evolved as a character, and we can see his loneliness, his frustration, his need to be loved. He’s no longer the big gun, he’s an actual Avenger who’s doing his best with his limited mind. There’s a call back to Age of Ultron that actually was my favorite emotional moment of the film. We won’t spoil that.
So the film was a great time. Laugh out loud hilarious, great turns by old characters like Hulk and some fantastic new ones like Hela and the Grand Master. A few emotional moments fall flat because they’re not allowed to sit very long, but in the end its still an excellent action film that delivers on basically every promise. The only thing, and it’s not even really a negative, more like something that depends on the individual, is that it’s not a Thor film.
I liked the first Thor. It was fun, the great type of sword and sorcery film that doesn’t take itself too serious but serious enough to have stakes. It was like playing World of Warcraft, where you could fight frost giants with hammers and use rainbow bridges but still have fun with the concept. It wasn’t Iron Man, but it was neat. Thor: The Dark world was even better, expanding on the lore of the film while still keeping the tone. I liked them both. Obviously someone higher up didn’t think that highly of them because Ragnarok goes far to distance itself. It wasn’t that they weren’t acknowledged, it was almost as if they were derided because most connections to them were burned.
First off, Thor’s funny now. Chris Hemsworth is a strong charming leading man and does great with the material, but the humor of Thor himself previously was more of being the stiff straight man. The medieval fish in a modern pond kinda thing. Not anymore. Now he’s quipping away, interrupting villains and being a little goofy. He sounds more like Iron Man or Ant Man now. Remember “Does Mother know you weareth her drapes?” Classic Tony Stark line, now something that Thor might say. If you get what I’m going for.
Here’s another minor spoiler: the ominous lead in ending from The Dark World where Odin is banished and Loki replaces him is completely blown within the first ten minutes. Loki ruins his own plan by making a giant memorial to himself, including a tribute play, because that’s the best way to keep your cover. It doesn’t play so much as Loki being out of character as wanting to get that plot point out of the way. Also, characters from the first two films are killed quickly. Sif is nowhere to be found, Jane Porter (and Natalie Portman) is explained away in a throwaway line, and the treasure vault that was a big part of the Thor lore is now openly derided by Hela, including the first films mcguffin. This film is a soft-reboot of sorts for the Thor series I suppose, heading in a new, more comedic direction that lines up with other MCU films.
This stuck in my craw despite enjoying the movie a ton. It’s not really a negative of the film itself, just something that was obvious to me. More Guardians, less Thor stuck out as a mandate. I saw the film with my sister, who wasn’t crazy about the first two, and she loved this one. Starting fresh, as it were, was the exact right thing to do in her eyes. My wife sees Thor’s new sense of humor not as a sudden character change like me but as a natural evolution. So, I’m not really counting this as a con. It’s more a personal preference. If you were a big fan of the Thor and Thor: The Dark World, or the more stoic Thor from the two Avengers films, some things might grind your gears a little. None of this, however, stops the film from being a real joy to watch.
Thor Ragnarok doesn’t forget the fun and humor that makes these adventures great, with great action scenes and some real character building moments. It doesn’t offer the joyous package of Avengers or Civil War, but it builds the world it’s playing in well and makes a real great time. So far, Marvel’s winning streak continues, with not a bad movie in the bunch. “Though Dr. Strange was kind of boring…”
THEME PARK NOTE: The dragon thing that is the main antagonist of Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark is hardly “featured.” It’s in the movie for like the first three minutes then promptly killed, so don’t expect any cool connection here.
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SURPRISE VISITS FROM MICKEY MOUSE TO DELIGHT HIS BIGGEST FANS AROUND THE WORLD
TO CELEBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY, DISNEY’S BRIGHTEST STAR WILL VISIT FANS IN ENGLAND, CHINA, JAPAN AND OTHER DESTINATIONS, CULMINATING WITH AN APPEARANCE ON “GOOD MORNING AMERICA.”
BURBANK, Calif., November 1, 2017 — To celebrate his upcoming birthday, Mickey Mouse is surprising some of his biggest fans in eight locations around the globe. Leading up to the big day—November 18—Mickey will take off to such exciting destinations as Japan, Chile, Canada, China, England and the United States. These magical moments will be captured and shared on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Facebook and Instagram pages. Mickey will bring a few more surprises when he visits the Good Morning America studios in New York City on November 15. Fans are encouraged to join the fun on social media using #HappyBirthdayMickey.
Disney Stores and shopDisney.com
In honor of the occasion, Disney’s e-commerce site shopDisney.com will feature special Mickey birthday merchandise from November 16–23, and on November 18, all Disney Stores in the U.S. will host celebrations throughout the day with entertainment and activities.
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
On Mickey’s birthday, the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts, as well as Disney Stores in the United States, will be distributing commemorative “Happy Birthday, Mickey!” buttons.
Disneyland Park in Anaheim will host a special cavalcade featuring some of Mickey’s friends along with the Disneyland Band; and at Magic Kingdom Park in Lake Buena Vista, FL, characters and performers will dance in a special birthday-themed song during Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! There will also be commemorative merchandise, treats and photo locations throughout both resorts. Celebrations will also take place at all of Disney’s international theme parks including Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort and Shanghai Disney Resort.
Disney Channel and Disney Junior
Special marathons of Mickey and the Roadster Racers and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will air throughout the weekend of November 17 on Disney Channel and Disney Junior, and a new Mickey Mouse-themed Disney Junior Music Nursery Rhymes short entitled “Happy Birthday” debuts November 17 on Disney Junior YouTube. On November 18, Disney Channel will air Mickey Mouse shorts every half hour throughout the day, starting with the premiere of “The Birthday Song,” a new short in which Minnie Mouse loses the notes to Mickey’s birthday song and needs to recover them to save the festivities.
Disney’s Digital Worlds
In addition, D23: The Official Disney Fan Club, Oh My Disney, Babble and other Disney sites will be posting Mickey-related videos, galleries, stories, crafts, recipes and shareables leading up to and on his birthday. And a selection of Disney games and apps will feature special Mickey-themed content and giveaways, including Disney Magic Kingdoms, Kingdom Hearts Union Cross, Disney Tsum Tsum, Disney Magical Dice, Disney Story Central, Disney Jigsaw Puzzles! and Color by Disney.
Mickey’s birthday is celebrated in honor of the release of his first theatrical film, Steamboat Willie, on November 18, 1928, at the Colony Theatre in New York City. Since then, he has starred in more than 100 cartoons and can currently be seen on Disney Channel in the Mickey Mouse cartoon series and on Disney Junior in Mickey and the Roadster Racers.
In this week’s episode, the gang talk about:
Join hosts Joe Hogarty, Jack McCarthy, Ron D’Anna, and Eric Lancy!
WDWNT: Nerd Alert – Season Three Episode 14 is now available for download through WDW News Today: Original Programming and iTunes!
Lucasfilm just released a brand new TV spot for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and unlike the recent international trailer, this one has a decent amount of new footage. Check it out!
Special thanks to Brian LaFrazia for the heads up!
Source: Star Wars
