Month: May 2018

Solo: A Star Wars Story Theories

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to another edition of my Theories series. If you read the title, you should already know this article is on Solo: A Star Wars Story, which releases in the United States in theatres this Friday, May 25th. The reportedly 2-hour-and-15-minute-long movie is set to star Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra, Thandie Newton as Val Beckett, Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, and Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos. Before I start, I just want to say there are MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL PREVIOUS STAR WARS MOVIES and POSSIBLE SPOILERS for Solo: A Star Wars Story, so proceed with caution. Anyways, let’s get into it.

First and foremost, I think Woody Harrelson’s character of Tobias Beckett is going to die before the end of the movie. It would make sense to kill him and even the rest of his crew besides Han, Lando, and Chewie to die before the end of the film. The logic behind this theory is that none of the characters on Beckett’s crew are mentioned in the original Star Wars trilogy or the sequels so the studio can do essentially whatever they want to those characters. The most logical thing to do with those characters would probably be to kill them off to give Han an even more tragic backstory, and to strengthen the bond between Han and Lando.

Secondly, I think I have a good idea what the last scene of the movie will be. In keeping with the tradition that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story started by having one of the major characters from past Star Wars movie appear in a cameo, I believe that the final scene in the movie will be of Han and Chewie sitting in the Mos Eisley Cantina, and a CGI version of a younger Luke Skywalker walks up to them, attempting to hire their services before the film cuts to black. Personally, I think it would be a really cool shout out to fans to include this scene in the final product of the movie. Maybe Greedo could even show up, and then immediately get shot again by Han.

Finally, I think that this movie is going to lead into a spinoff for Lando himself. This isn’t so much a theory about what will happen in the movie as much as what I think will happen as a result of the movie, but still. If Solo does well enough in theatres, and Lando is as well liked as I hope he will be then I could definitely see him getting his own spinoff, but hopefully not before Obi-Wan Kenobi gets one of his own. I could see the movie delving into his ascent to the administrator of Cloud City, or maybe his life after The Empire Strikes Back.

Alright, guys, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Please remember to come back Friday for my review on Deadpool2. Once again, thank you for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Deadpool 2 Theories

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to another edition of my Theories series. If you read the title, you should already know this article is on Deadpool 2, which releases in the United States in theatres this Friday, May 18th. The reportedly 2-hour-long movie is set to star Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/ Deadpool, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Josh Brolin as Cable, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Julian Dennison as Russell, and Brianne Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Before I start, I just want to say there are MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL PREVIOUS FOX MARVEL MOVIES and POSSIBLE SPOILERS for Deadpool 2, Deadpool 3, and X-Force, so please, proceed with caution. Anyways, let’s get into it.

First and foremost, I don’t think that the film will even remotely relate to the clips shown in the trailers. If the marketing campaign for both the original movie and the sequel has taught us, it’s that these movies aren’t to be taken too seriously and with a heavy dosage of salt. In all honesty, from the trailers for the last movie, I figured that a pivotal part of the movie would be taking place on that highway where Deadpool drops into that van, and instead, that was only the first couple minutes of the movie. So realistically, we have zero evidence that says anything from the trailers will play a major part in the actual final product.

Secondly, I don’t really think that Cable is the true villain of this movie. My reasoning for this is that at some point in the movie, I think Deadpool and Cable have to make up with each other. The reason for them to make up would obviously be to provide a way for the X-Force movie to happen sometime in the near future. I could potentially see Black Tom Cassidy playing a much larger role in the movie that he’s been made out to have by not appearing in any marketing, or it could be a completely different, completely secret character that FOX also has yet to show in the marketing for this movie.

Finally, I believe that not all of the members of X-Force are going to make it out of this movie alive. If I were to pick who will die, I would probably have to say Zeitgeist, Bedlam, and Peter are the ones most likely not to live to the end of the credits. The actors playing Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard) and Bedlam (Terry Crews) both have major projects that they’re going to be involved in over the next few years; Skarsgard has IT: Chapter Two and Crews has the recently-revived Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In addition to those two, I think Peter (Rob Delaney) is just a castoff character who’s there for comic relief in a couple scenes and has no reason to still be with the team when the credits roll.

Alright, guys, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Please remember to come back Friday for Theories article on Solo: A Star Wars Story. Once again, thank you for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Character Of The Month: June 2018: Lando Calrissian

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to the Blog Of Hell’s Kitchen. This week, we have a Character Of The Month article about Lando Calrissian, most famously known as the administrator of Cloud City and good friend of Han Solo in the Star Wars Universe. Lando has appeared in live-action before, but he has appeared in animated Marvel shows many times over the years. He will make his first live-action appearance in over 35 year1 in Solo: A Star Wars Story, which will debut this month. As per usual, this article will only go over the featured character’s history from the comics, or in the case of Star Wars, the Original Trilogy, and not what they’ve done in other film and television projects. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

Lando first appeared in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back as the administrator of Cloud City. He typically chooses to stay away from the antics of the Empire and the Rebellion publicly. Han Solo, Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca are forced to stop in Bespin because the Millennium Falcon was damaged. However, before the Rebels reached Bespin, Boba Fett tracks them down and figured out they’re headed to Bespin. Boba Fett alerts Darth Vader and the Empire to their destination, and Darth Vader forces Lando to surrender Han to the Empire, with the promise that the rest of the Rebels would be left alone.

Once the Rebels land in Bespin, however, Darth Vader goes back his promise to Lando and kidnaps Leia and Chewbacca along with Han. Lando eventually goes to rescue Leia and Chewbacca, but after both are freed, they angrily rebuked Lando for letting Vader capture Han. He later helps Leia rescue an injured Luke from Vader, who had just revealed he was Luke and Leia’s father. Afterward, Lando joined the Rebel Alliance, swearing allegiance to the cause he had once betrayed.

Alright, guys, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed. If you want to see more of Lando, go check out Solo: A Star Wars Story, which comes out May 25th in the United States. Please remember to come back Friday for Theories article on Deadpool 2. Once again, thank you for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Featured News: April 2018

Ben DeSanti

Welcome once again to another edition of Featured News. First, we’re going to talk about the success of Avengers: Infinity War. Secondly, we’ve got major news on DC’s new streaming service. Finally, we’re talking about some major development on Amazon’s TV adaptation of Dynamite Entertainment’s The Boys comic book series. So without any further ado, let’s get into it.

Avengers: Infinity War will probably be the biggest cinematic event in 2018. The movie has already gained upwards of $850 million USD in just one week. This places it as the second highest grossing movie of 2018, only topped by Black Panther. It is expected to come close to, if not pass the coveted $2 billion USD by the end of its theatrical run. The movie has also been ranked highly by critics and audiences alike, garnering an 84% critic score and a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 9.0/10 average score from IMDb users.

DCTV has been on the up-and-up later, with Arrow, Flash, Legends Of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Black Lightning doing pretty well over on the CW, and Gotham still managing to bring ing viewers over on FOX, despite incredibly predictable and inane plot twists and lackluster performances. As of a couple days ago, DCTV has announced yet another addition to its library with DC Universe, it’s new streaming service. The streaming service was announced a while ago with the prospect of housing Young Justice: Outsiders and possibly Titans, but now, it’s been confirmed to house both of those shows, as well as two more; an animated Harley Quinn show, and a live-action Swamp Thing show. The cool thing about the Swamp Thing show is that it will be executive-produced by James Wan, legendary horror director, as well as the director of the upcoming Aquaman movie.

Ever since 2008, someone has been trying to develop Dynamite Entertainment’s The Boys comic book series. Columbia Pictures was the first to option the comics, and eventually, that attempt stalled. In 2010, director Adam McKay attempted to adapt the property, but that ultimately stalled as well. Back in 2017, Preacher executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg secured the rights to the comic and shopped their pitch around before landing at Amazon and almost instantly getting picked up for an eight-episode first season. The show has already cast Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Wee Hughie, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Anthony Starr as Homelander, Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk, and Karen Fukuhara as The Female.

Alright, thank you so much for reading. Please, remember to tune in on Friday for my Character of The Month for June 2018 on Lando Calrissian in anticipation of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Thank you again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.

Avengers: Infinity War Review

Ben DeSanti

Hello, and welcome once again to another one of my reviews. If you read the title, you should already know this article is on Avengers: Infinity War, which releases in the United States in theatres this Friday, April 27th. The 2-hour-and-40-minute movie is set to star Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Josh Brolin as Thanos, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Scarlett Johannson as Natasha Romanoff, and Tom Holland as Peter Parker. Before I start, I just want to say there are MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL CURRENTLY RELEASED MARVEL MOVIES and POSSIBLE SPOILERS for Avengers 4, so proceed with caution. Anyways, let’s get into it.

Let’s talk about my predictions from my Theories articles for a minute. My three theories were:

  • Hawkeye will die
  • Loki will die, presumably early in the film
  • Thanos will kill half of the universe, as inspired by the comics

First, Hawkeye isn’t in the movie at all. Not one fucking minute was the worst Jason Bourne in this movie, and it pissed me off, because I love him as Hawkeye, so that’s a pretty clear loss for me. Second, I said that Loki dies pretty soon into the beginning of the film, and my biggest and only piece of evidence towards this was that Loki was only in one location for all of his appearances in the trailers and television spots, which is pretty flimsy, but I’ll count it as a win. The third theory of Thanos killing half the universe is my personal favorite. See, in 1991’s The Infinity Gauntlet comic, Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to kill half the universe as an offering to Lady Death, whom he was obsessed with, and I had desperately hoped that Avengers: Infinity War would end with Thanos killing half of the universe. Guess what happened? I was absolutely right. The last 20 minutes I was smiling like a crazy person because it was probably the best ending to any Marvel movie yet. So two out of three isn’t bad.

Below is the list of characters killed in the movie and how:

  • Heimdall (Stabbed by a member of The Black Order)
  • Loki (neck snapped by Thanos)
  • Gamora (thrown off a cliff by Thanos to obtain the Soul Stone)
  • Ebony Maw (Froze to death in space when Iron Man threw him out
  • Vision (has the Mind Stone ripped out of his head by Thanos)
  • Black Panther (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Spider-Man (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Doctor Strange (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Bucky Barnes (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Falcon (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Scarlet Witch (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Star-Lord (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Drax (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Mantis (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Groot (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Nick Fury (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Maria Hill (disintegrated by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet)

That’s a lot more than I originally thought while watching the movie, but that’s not saying I can remember them all; all of the deaths were pretty memorable, I just can’t count. I give Avengers: Infinity War 5 out of 5 stars.

Alright, thank you so much for reading. Please, remember to tune in on Monday for my Featured News article for April 2018, and then next Friday for my Character Of The Month article on Lando Calrissian in anticipation of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Thank you again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.