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After smashing her way into our hearts, "She-Hulk" ended season 1 with a loving homage to comic writer John Byrne's fourth-wall-breaking approach to Jennifer Walters. Series writer Jessica Gao opted to close the Disney+ show's debut season with Jennifer's self-aware commentary, discussing how the Marvel Cinematic Universe tends to end its storylines with explosive fights that weaken the narrative. (Yes, I'm still upset with the head-scratching choice to end "WandaVision" with a bombastic, "Avengers"-style face-off). "It felt natural that not only that she was in a show, but that she would have opinions about the show, especially since she just was completely betrayed by the makers of this show," Gao told Marvel.com. 

Byrne's "The Sensational She-Hulk" inspired several beats in Marvel Studios' "She-Hulk" series. However, the show cleverly takes some creative detours. Sure, she experiences similar frustrations as her comic counterpart — like struggling to find a fitting balance between a demanding career and her savage alter ego. But Tatiana Maslany's She-Hulk imbues joy, agency, brawn, and wit into the beloved character that'd make co-creators Stan Lee and John Buscema smile. Here, we'll explore where the show's adaptation of familiar storylines excelled.

Jennifer's Revamped Origin Story

Jennifer Walters entered the world of Marvel Comics with 1980's "The Savage She-Hulk." After a crime boss attempts to assassinate the quick-witted lawyer, Bruce Banner saves his cousin's life by giving her an emergency blood transfusion. Of course, his gamma ray-radiated blood transforms Jennifer into a Hulk, too. In hindsight, having Bruce use his blood — while knowing the epic costs — without consent from Jennifer is a huge downside to her superhero origin story. No one asked if she wanted to be a Hulk. Other methods of saving her life (like maybe using a non-mutated blood donation) aren't explored. Throughout her first comic series, a lot of the stories revolve around her attempting to process what was done to her and how she has to change everything about her life to adjust to it. Men like Bruce swoop in and try to control her, urge her to calm down, and keep her out of harm's way — despite her being more than capable of handling herself.

Thankfully, 2022's "She-Hulk" television series rewrote how Jennifer (Tatiana Maslany) gets her powers. Yes, there's still a near-fatal car crash. Sure, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) still causes her to transform into a Hulk. However, it's completely an accident. Jennifer doesn't need to be saved, and Bruce's interference in her life only makes her life more complicated. Refreshingly, the series explores how much Bruce has to learn about being a supporting player in Jennifer's story.

No Superhero Team-Ups!

"She-Hulk" makes it clear that Jennifer Walters puts herself and her career first. Despite the show's Hulk-smashing training montage and spandex jokes, this series doesn't position Jennifer as a contender for a new Avengers lineup — at least for now. The series' central focus is Jennifer's life, the stakes of becoming a Hulk, and her dreams of success and romance. What works best about this approach is how much it lets the audience connect to Jennifer and She-Hulk as characters who don't need to tie into some grand MCU puzzle to seem vital. Her failures and triumphs are enough to carry a show.

As a comic character who belonged to several superhero teams (Avengers, The Defenders, Fantastic Four) this series easily could have pushed Jennifer more directly into being recruited into a crime-fighting group. Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) and Bruce could have dropped a leading line of dialogue or proposition for a team-up, but as with writer Rainbow Rowell and artist Rogê Antônio's 2022's "She-Hulk" run, this Jennifer wants to figure out her way to serve justice as a lawyer and superhero. Maybe there will come a time in Jennifer's future when she might need some help to save the day, but Gao's Jennifer positions her as being savvy enough to discern the answers to these questions for herself.

Jennifer And Titania's Fresh Start

She-Hulk met her enduring nemesis Titania in 1984's "Secret Wars" #3, during an epic battle between the forces of good and evil. Aligned with Doctor Doom on Battleworld, Titania attacks She-Hulk and utterly fails to defeat her. Their one fight inspires Titania's lifelong jealousy of Jennifer Walters and desire to beat her — even if it nearly kills her! At times, her seething feelings towards Jennifer become comical. Jennifer is almost always dealing with a more serious matter when Titania arrives to challenge her, though we all know Jen's quippy comebacks and blows will win. 

As you can imagine, a rivalry that began in the '80s and persists until 2022's "She-Hulk" run carries a lot of history. Instead of bringing in a nefarious character like Doctor Doom, the "She-Hulk" series simplifies their antagonistic relationship. Why does Jameela Jamil's Titania hate She-Hulk? She wants to protect her brand! While having Titania punch her way into a courtroom seems like it came out of nowhere, her motivation works way better. Titania's fear of losing public recognition for being a uniquely smashing and hulking hero feels more understandable than her devoting her life to destroying Jen just because she's a sore loser. 

My only complaint is we never get to see these two reconcile and start a fight club as they did in 2022's "She-Hulk" #1. Fingers crossed that this will happen in Season 2!

Hulking Out Isn't An Issue

Throughout the first episode of "She-Hulk," Bruce warns Jennifer that she'll need to control her anger, which makes her laugh. Poignantly, she explains to Bruce how women deal with anger much differently than men. "I do it pretty much every day because if I don't, I will get called emotional or difficult or might just literally get murdered," she says. "So I'm an expert at controlling my anger because I do it infinitely more than you." Throughout the series, this remains true. The only time she does Hulk-out angrily is when she's publicly doxxed at a work event that ends with footage of her having sex blasted on the big screen.

In several comic runs, Jennifer struggles with controlling her inner Hulk. Scarlet Witch once tricked She-Hulk into unleashing her rage. That incident ended with Vision ripped in half. Due to her anger, she lost her license to practice law for some time. She's gone into seclusion in fear of hurting others when She-Hulk emerges. The focus is consistently on Jennifer's sanity.

However, the show focuses on the external pressures adding stress to Jennifer's carefully arranged life. "She-Hulk" examines how much the world wants Jennifer to lose control and succumb to smashing through the patriarchial vitriol targeted at her. Her biggest struggle is letting go of the idea that she needs to be perfectly composed. She learns it's healthy to express her anger and stand up for Jennifer Walters — especially when no one else will.

Her Bestie Doesn't Die!

For decades, She-Hulk spent a lot of time with machismo-fueled guys like Tony Stark and Bruce Banner in the comics. It's refreshing that the television series gave Jennifer a ride-or-die bestie in Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga). When I heard that Dennis "Buck" Bukowski (Drew Matthews) was a character in "She-Hulk," I was worried that Nikki was going to be killed off. In the comics, the reason why Jennifer and Dennis butt heads is that they hold the other responsible for the death of Jilly Stevens, Jennifer's best friend. (However, the truth is Jennifer and Dennis' disjointed efforts to save Jill ultimately doom her.)

However, Nikki doesn't die! Most importantly, she plays a vital role in the series, grounding the legal comedy with a close friendship that keeps Jennifer in touch with her humanity. As one of the few characters who knew Jennifer before her transformation, she helps her adjust to She-Hulk life in ways that feel genuine and realistic. While Jennifer wants to outwit Matt Murdoch in court, Nikki reminds Jennifer to take care of herself by having clothes that can fit every shape of her body or experimenting with dating apps to meet someone new. 

With the exception of the "Ms. Marvel" television show and (arguably) "Loki," friendships outside of crimefighting teams are rare. We seldom see superheroes have human friends, which limits how deeply we can connect to their journeys.

She-Hulk Is A Better Hulk

In the comics, it's hard to tell whether She-Hulk or Hulk is stronger, although Marvel.com ranks Hulk as a more formidable opponent thanks to his durability, energy, and intelligence. In some storylines, writers explain that She-Hulk's lesser strength is due to not going through a full transformation, as her blood transfusion isn't quite the same as direct exposure to gamma radiation. Still, She-Hulk once destroyed a Thanos copy all by herself, so it's always open to debate as to who is the stronger superhero!

However, Disney+'s "She-Hulk" makes it clear that Jennifer is better than Bruce at being a Hulk in its premiere episode. Unlike Bruce Banner, She-Hulk's body quickly synthesizes the gamma-radiation and allows her to retain her personality, intelligence, and control of her powers. While it took Hulk several years (not to mention colossal amounts of destruction!) to tweak his formulas and give the MCU Smart-Hulk, She-Hulk naturally adapts to her new form. There's no internal struggle. The "A Normal Amount of Rage" episode playfully compares the two during Bruce's training montage with Jen. While Bruce is physically larger and can lift more than Jen, she moves quickly and strategically, knocking Hulk off his feet.

Hulk's Tiki-Bar Set Piece

Hulk's tiki bar is an invention that adds much-needed levity to the MCU. Hulk and She-Hulk hang out at the bar to bond over their statures, drink, and gossip about other superheroes. Fittingly, this set piece also clears up a question that has plagued MCU fans: Where did Hulk go during the Blip years? He and Tony Stark went to a quiet island and built a bar! (or more likely, Hulk built it while Tony sat, drank, and vented about how much Captain America annoys him.)

Due to Hulk's tiki bar, we hear one of the funniest debates in the superhero universe: Did Captain America (also known as "that ass" by Jennifer) die a virgin? What's so fantastic about that story beat isn't just that it was fun but that it acknowledges that individuals in the MCU do have sexualities. Despite the MCU's romantic pairings, we've yet to see any characters have sex, openly discuss pleasure, or desire sex. "She-Hulk" proves out of the gate that this series will embrace sex positivity and Jennifer's smashing.

Choosing To Use Her Love Life As Evidence

She-Hulk has had several flings, romances, and exes, including the likes of Tony Stark, Luke Cage, Wyatt Wingfoot, and Jack of Hearts. In 2007's "She-Hulk" #19, Jen was once asked under oath to list out the names of everyone she's ever dated. The stenographer needed pages to document it, leaving Jennifer horribly embarrassed. 

However, the television series homages this moment in a way that gives agency back to Jennifer. Instead of having Mallory Book force Jen to discuss her sex life on public record, Jennifer volunteers this information to support herself. During the trial against Titania, Jen realizes that she can prove that she used She-Hulk as a name before Titania by inviting all her past sexual partners to testify on the stand. Not only does her plan work, but she uses the oath to interrogate her partners and gain closure to what did or didn't work between them. She uses the stand to get the honesty from her partners that they couldn't give her otherwise. Although it's painful to hear, Jennifer learned that most people wanted She-Hulk, not her, a hurtful fact that would later inspire her to find someone who likes both sides of her (see Daredevil's future walk of shame in Episode 9.)

She-Hulk And Jennifer's Connection

In several comic runs, Jennifer struggles to accept becoming She-Hulk. Often, she makes lists comparing how she is when she's Jennifer versus how she is when she's She-Hulk. Sometimes, she vows off transforming into the emerald giant. Other times, she prefers to walk around as She-Hulk. Often, Jennifer feels torn that she needs to choose at all.

Disney+'s "She-Hulk" series excels in how this is depicted. Most importantly, the show highlights how Jennifer's struggle has way more to do with how others treat her than how she treats herself. Sure, she loves walking around as the gorgeous She-Hulk with thicker locks and increased strength, but she doesn't love how people tend to prefer her as a Hulk — making her human side feel alienated. One of the best ways the show handles this concept is by bringing She-Hulk into Emil's (Tim Roth) group therapy session. The audience hears that it hurts Jennifer when people only want to see her superhero side and not spend time with the hardworking, quippy lawyer that she is, too. Jennifer has confidence as herself or She-Hulk, but what she wants is for others to appreciate her no matter her form.

No Tony Stark Shenanigans!

Yes, I know Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is dead. "She-Hulk" takes place years after the events of "Avengers: Endgame," so it was never likely that Iron Man would show up. However, when a Sorcerer Supreme (Benedict Wong) is in the mix, you can't be too sure of anything. Thankfully, the "She-Hulk" series doesn't resurrect Tony or bend time. There's power in knowing that characters can die in the MCU — unlike in comics, as the second a new writer joins or launches a Marvel title retconning abounds.

Why was I worried about that? Tony Stark and She-Hulk have a long and fraught history in the comics. Despite their team-ups and past of fighting together, it usually doesn't take Tony Stark long before he ruins their working relationship. Between launching her cousin into space without telling her and stripping away her powers permanently (well, for a time), Stark is not high on Walters' list. He's often arrogant and belittling to her, not to mention skeptical of trusting any Hulk. Tony doesn't trust anyone with powers greater than his (see Marvel's "Civil War" event that swayed Jennifer into siding with him).

While the MCU retconned Hulk and Tony's relationship to be a beloved bromance, it remains to be seen how Jennifer's relationship with Tony would be explored. In this television series, Jennifer has no connection to Tony, and that inevitably saves her a lot of frustration and gives her one less male adversary to tackle.

Read this next: Disturbing Comic Book Moments The MCU Will Never Show You

The post She-Hulk Season 1's Best Changes From the Comics appeared first on /Film.

Evidently, you can't have a modern streaming service without an epic fantasy television show. HBO Max has "Game of Thrones" and its spinoff, "House of the Dragon," Netflix has "The Witcher," and now Amazon has "The Rings of Power." Amazon spent an astounding $465 million on season 1 of "The Rings of Power" alone. Fortunately, you can tell that a large portion of that money went where it counts the most. 

Though "The Rings of Power" is nowhere near the caliber of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, there are moments that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the films. Alas, there are just as many that feel like bad fan-fiction. "The Rings of Power" may be pretty, but the writing is frequently just plain bad. That's a true pity, as much of the rest of the show — the cast, the score, the CGI — is quite good, with gorgeous cinematography and an epic scope that befits the world of Middle-earth. Here are the seven best and worst moments from "The Rings of Power" season 1.

Worst: The Prologue

The comparisons between "The Rings of Power" and Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are both unfortunate and inevitable, but Amazon's television show does itself no favors by deliberately mimicking familiar story beats from author J.R.R. Tolkien's epic. The handsomely scruffy outsider who's actually a long-lost human king, but his ancestor did bad things so he feels personally tainted. Little people inexorably swept up in the tide of a big adventure. Dwarves and elves who hate each other for no good reason.

But the most painful example of this "same but worse" philosophy is found in the opening moments of the series. Just like Jackson's trilogy, "The Rings of Power" begins with a prologue narrated by Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). Prologues are generally unnecessary, and must earn their place by telling the audience something they would not otherwise know. In the films, we get a succinct 5-minute prologue that gives us the gist on the ring and its history. The show goes in a different direction, spending 4 long and boring minutes with Galadriel and her paper boat. Only 2 minutes out of the 8-minute prologue are engaging and informative. The rest is a bland and boring introduction to the series.

Best: Galadriel Hunts Sauron

The first episode of "The Rings of Power" is almost a complete wash. It's slow and frequently boring, bookended by that dreadful prologue and the long, poorly-written dialogue between Galadriel and Elrond (Robert Aramayo). Fortunately, the premiere includes one stand-out scene that makes the slog worthwhile.

The one thing the prologue makes abundantly clear is that Galadriel has good reasons for wanting Sauron dead. The first real scene of the show involves an exciting sequence in which Galadriel and a band of elven warriors track the Dark Lord across a bitter, frozen wasteland. The sequence is full of arresting visuals and a great atmosphere. We're given to understand this hunt has been going on for a long time, and that everyone but Galadriel has had enough. It's a far more effective and interesting introduction to the show than the prologue.

As the small band braves an abandoned fortress, the episode adopts a more horrific aesthetic, one that's punctuated by an ambush by a cave troll. The ensuing fight is brutal but short-lived, as Galadriel quickly and stylishly solos the monster. It's immediately clear that this is not the Galadriel you knew before. Here, she's a beast.

Worst: Theo Destroys The Floor

There's a potential companion piece to this one entitled "Theo's 7 Worst Moments." To put it bluntly, Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) is a doofus and an idiot. His primary contribution to the story seems to be introducing complications and making things insufferably worse for everyone. It's doubtful that any viewer would've been disappointed if Theo had taken up Waldreg's (Geoff Morrell) offer to join with the orcs, although they probably wouldn't have put up with him for very long.

All of which is to say, Theo has an abundance of bad moments to choose from. His worst, though, is probably this one. Theo is alone at home, staring angrily into the hearth. A typical Saturday night in the Southlands, probably. He hears some scratching under the floorboards and just snaps. His default setting is "angry and confused," but he immediately jumps up to "foaming mad." We still don't know why.

Grabbing a poker from the hearth, Theo goes all Jack Torrance on his mom's floor while ranting about mice. It's worth pointing out that their home is barely a step up from a hovel. Stuff is already falling apart — one of the cabinet doors doesn't have hinges and sort of just sits in place. There's no reason to ruin a perfectly good floor, even if there are mice scuttling around underneath. Unfortunately, an orc arrives before Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) can assess the damage and ask Theo the question we've all been wondering: What is wrong with you?

Best: Elrond And Durin Reconcile

Elrond eagerly sets out for Khazad-dûm to enlist his old dwarven friend Prince Durin IV's (Owain Arthur) help in building a special sort of tower. He doesn't receive the sort of welcome he envisioned, and is left sitting on the doorstep until he submits a challenge that Durin can't ignore. It's very much a "Han Solo arriving at Bespin" sort of moment. Like Lando, Durin is even a bit duplicitous. 

Durin is rightly salty that Elrond hasn't visited in 20 years. He missed Durin's wedding and the birth of his children. Twenty years is nothing to an elf, of course, but Durin lived a lifetime in that time. The two ultimately reconcile over a tree; Durin planted a seed that Elrond gave him and nursed it to life in the cold dark of the mountain, even when everyone else mocked him for trying. The tree is a beautiful metaphor for their relationship. For 20 years, Durin cared for that tree as though it was his friend, and he found his way back to Elrond because of it.

Worst: Durin Gives Elrond A Piece Of Mithril

Shortly after Elrond and Durin reconcile, we are introduced to a mysterious intrigue via the dwarf and his father, king Durin III (Peter Mullan). They talk vaguely about something in a small chest that we can't see, but they seem to be conspiring against the elves, which is surprising given that Durin and Elrond have just patched things up. Sometime later, we finally get a glimpse of the big mystery: The dwarves discovered a powerful new ore called mithril. 

Durin goes out of his way to hide this discovery from Elrond, avoiding him and straight out lying about it. He even entangles his wife in the deception. For the dwarves, mithril offers the potential for great wealth and power. Elrond finally gets Durin to admit what's going on by promising to keep his secret, and Durin comes clean. Then, he sends Elrond away with a parting gift: a fragment of mithril. This seems like the absolute worst way to ensure secrecy. Even if Durin trusts Elrond — which he clearly does — there's no guarantee the mithril won't be seen by someone else, even accidentally. Elrond didn't need to be told the mithril was special. He just knew. It's likely most elves would similarly recognize the significance of the light within the ore, as well as its great potential. Dumb move, Durin.

Best: Bronwyn And Theo Versus The Orc

The first scene in which we finally see an orc up-close is one of the show's best. To this point, we'd only gotten hints and glimpses as to what the orcs look like, most notably when Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) runs from something underground and then is abducted by that same something. Here, Brownyn returns home to find her floor all busted up — thanks, Theo — and her son hiding in a cupboard. She gets the gist of what happened from Theo, and hides in a closet. Then, the orc enters from below, long nails gripping the shattered floorboards.

The orc is unlike any we've seen before, garbed in animalistic headgear and flowing clothes (the better to hide from the sun, though we don't really know that at the time). We don't even know for sure that this is an orc.

Eventually, the orc finds Brownyn, and then all hell breaks loose. The combat is frenetic, close-quarters, and frenzied, like something out of a medieval "Jason Bourne." The orc is ferocious and dreadfully strong, and Theo actually rises to the occasion and does something worthwhile. But this is really Brownyn's moment, as she doesn't cower and lands the killing blow. Then, she deposits the orc's head in the tavern, as if to say, "Things aren't right around here, so maybe you should listen to me already."

Worst: The Sabotage Of The Númenórean Boats

How do we put this delicately? The Númenórean political subplot is dumb. A large percentage of the Númenóreans hate elves for reasons that are vague and unclear. As a result, this storyline feels like a wannabe version of "Game of Thrones." There are no interesting machinations or surprising revelations. People are just mad, and they won't take it any more. Then, a tree starts losing its leaves — apparently autumn doesn't come to Númenor — and then the hate is more or less forgotten. 

But there remains one true-born zealot, and he doesn't intend to take the alliance between men and elves sitting down. Kemen (Leon Wadham), son of the Númenórean chancellor, concocts a plan so stupid that you have to wonder how he gets dressed every morning. In order to stop the queen from sailing to Middle-earth in order to aid Galadriel and Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), Kemen burns down the boats Númenor intended on using. 

It's at this point that we'd like to remind you that Númenor is an island, and the Númenóreans a proud seafaring people. The island is lousy with boats. The act of sabotage did nothing to stop the mission, and Kemen got caught red-handed. You might suggest the scheme worked more to signal his displeasure, making it a kind of political stunt. But given that it does nothing at all to affect the plot, let's just agree this is stupid and move on.

Best: Elves Try To Escape From The Prison Camp

Once Arondir awakes in the orc work camp, he's surprised to find his elven comrades already there, as are we. Elven warriors are ferocious. How did this happen? And why are they still there, digging away and doing the orcs' bidding?

Perhaps they were just biding their time. Maybe they needed one more elf to enact their escape plan. Either way, they finally make their move, using their digging implements to strike off their shackles. Arondir does a nifty, Legolas-esque run along the chains to split the log holding up the canvas overhang, exposing the orcs to the sun. It's all going pretty well, and then the orcs let out a warg. Not even a pack of them. Just one hungry warg.

The warg brutalizes most of the elves. Apparently, elf belly is a delicacy along the lines of pork belly. Watchwarden Revion (Simon Merrells) climbs out of the pit, but is pincushioned by arrows before he can take more than a few steps. Arondir, the sole survivor, is dragged back down. The scene is a great bit of action and a chance to show the elves punching back, but there will be no escape.

Worst: The Logistics Of The Númenórean Charge

Like a lot of "The Rings of Power," the Númenórean's charge is a faint echo of a far better sequence in the Peter Jackson films. After literally bringing down the house when they make the watchtower collapse on Adar (Joseph Mawle) and his minions — and yet, somehow, killing very few of them — the humans and Arondir hightail it back to the village, because few things are more indefensible than a cluster of ramshackle homes surrounded by open fields. There, they put up a spirited if illogically convenient defense, are duped into killing humans cosplaying as orcs, and take shelter in the tavern once Adar's true posse arrives. The orcs storm in and take everyone prisoner.

This is all occurring at night, by the way. By the utter lack of any light, we can surmise it's around 3 or 4 AM at the latest. We then cut away to a majestic scene of the Númenóreans racing across green fields under a bright sky. They are coming to the rescue! But it's at this time that we recall that the Númenóreans are coming from the west. If it's pitch black in the village, it should be even darker wherever they're at. 

The scene in the tavern takes five minutes, tops, and is interrupted by the rumble of horses. From the look of the sky, the Númenóreans arrive shortly after dawn, breaking all known laws of nature. Are they traveling backwards in time? Better not to think too much about this one, because there are no good answers. (The likely true answer: the director wanted that epic shot of armored horses racing across the field, ala the Rohirrim in "The Two Towers.")

Best: Mithril's Origin Story

There is a beautiful little moment in episode 5 that details how mithril was created. Elrond recounts "The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir," a poem that tells of how an elf of pure heart fought a balrog over a tree in the Misty Mountains. This was no ordinary tree, you see, but one that contained the last of the Silmarils. As such, the elf poured his light into the tree, and the balrog countered with its hatred. The stalemate continued until lightning struck the tree, creating a new metal: "A power as pure and light as good. As strong and unyielding as evil."

The story is accompanied by beautiful visuals, and has the feel of myth. Indeed, Elrond says that most consider the story to be apocryphal, but the show later confirms that it's true. A chunk of mithril magically revives a dead leaf. The mithril lode resembles the twisting branches of roots. When a stray leaf finds its way into the depths of Khazad-dûm, we get a Balrog cameo. As storytelling, it's perhaps a bit cutesy, but given the epic scope of Middle-earth and the close infusion of myth and magic, it just works.

Worst: Nori Tries To Deceive The Easterlings

Let's take a brief aside here to comment on the entire Stranger subplot, and also the harfoots at large. On the whole, it's eye-rollingly boring, and detracts from the really excellent stuff, namely Elrond and Durin's bromance (can we get a spin-off already?). The Stranger is mostly a lumbering goof, until he finally and magically groks English in the final episode. (But, since he's Gandalf in all but name, maybe that convenient bit of magic shouldn't be surprising.)

The Easterlings arrive and start sniffing the Stranger's trail, and you just know that they're no good. No, you can't judge a book by its cover, but some books are just better left on the shelf, especially if they show up at night in the middle of nowhere.

Nori, mistakenly believing that she's the hero of this story, sees the three shadowy figures. Instead of cowering and waiting for them to leave, as any logical person would do, she draws attention to herself. Then, she lies to them about where the Stranger went, which seems pretty dumb considering that they'd followed him this far. The Easterlings burn up the harfoots' mobile homes in response. Frankly, they sort of deserved it.

Best: Durin And Elrond Mine Mithril Together

The bond between Durin and Elrond is probably the single best thing "The Rings of Power" has going for it, and one of the few places where it surpasses "The Lord of the Rings." Gimli and Legolas may have become great friends by the end of the trilogy, but their relationship pales in comparison. Durin and Elrond are more than friends. They're brothers.

After Durin's father declines to mine the mithril and save the elves, Durin decides to take matters into his own hands. He and Elrond delve the depths together. At one point, they take a breather, during which Elrond admits he didn't really lose the contest so much as let Durin win, claiming that he was only a bit winded. In each other, they both see a certain resemblance to their own race."I always thought you were a mite dwarvish for an elf," Durin says, which leads to the most moving moment of the series. 

Durin admits that all dwarves have a secret name, one they only reveal to their families. Durin implies that Elrond is his brother, and is about to reveal his secret name, but Elrond stops him. "Save it for the far side," he says. Durin, teary-eyed and choked-up, agrees. Somebody pass the tissues.

Worst: Galadriel Finds Sauron And Tells Nobody

The final episode of "The Rings of Power" season 1 briefly tries to fool us into believing the Stranger is Sauron, but that seems pretty unlikely given that he fell out of the freaking sky. Amazon would really have to go off the reservation with this version of Middle-earth to make Sauron some kind of intergalactic traveler (although, given some of its "enhancements" to Tolkien's lore, that wouldn't be terribly surprising).

Galadriel's only goal for the entire season has been to find and kill Sauron. So, what does she do when she finally realizes that Halbrand — gasp! — is actually the Dark Lord? She is quickly and easily bested by him, does a spot of crying in a weird dreamscape, and then goes on as though it never happened. Worst of all, she doesn't tell a single person the truth. Not Elrond, her elf bestie. Not the elven king, Gil-galad. Not even her diary. Halbrand slips away; apparently, out of sight, out of mind. Given how driven Galadriel was to track him down, it feels super odd for her to basically shrug it off.

Best: The Forging Of The Elven Rings

Though Prime Video's show makes it painfully clear that it is Tolkien-adjacent at best — "Tolkien-inspired" is probably the better description — there's still something exciting about seeing the fabled elven rings forged. In Jackson's trilogy, we only get a fleeting glimpse of the elf lords' rings when Galadriel narrates the prologue, modeling the stunning jewelry in a fleeting shot. By contrast, "The Rings of Power" waits until the waning moments of season 1 to reveal the items from which the show takes its name.

As in the official lore, Sauron proves instrumental in helping guide the crafting of the rings. Prime Video introduces mithril as a plot-pushing MacGuffin and makes it necessary for both the continued survival of the elves and the construction of the rings. Unnecessary plot snafus aside, seeing Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) forge the rings still feels like watching history brought to vivid life. How the elves might use the rings to curtail their doom remains to be seen, as does the forging of the other rings of power. Though everything is preordained, it is still a nerdy thrill to witness.

Read this next: Movies Like The Lord Of The Rings That Are Definitely Worth Watching

The post The 7 Best and 7 Worst Moments in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power appeared first on /Film.

The post Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 3 – Netflix Review appeared first on Heaven of Horror.

CableMod has heard the consumers and is going to offer a 90-degree angled 16-pin connector to make installing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 easier.

NVIDIA's Massive GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics Card Has Installation Issues In Smaller Cases, CableMod Has The Solution With Its 90-Degree Angled 16-Pin Connector

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card launched last week and several PC enthusiasts and gamers already have their cards shipped to them. As we have all seen, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards, both Founders Edition and custom models, are some of the largest designs ever made and that is causing a bit of trouble with installation. The problem is that the RTX 4090 can easily be twice or even bigger than the GeForce RTX 3090, both in length and width. As such, the side clearance is minimal.

This installation of the card isn't the main issue but it's rather the 16-pin connector which is very bulky. Unless or until you are using an ATX 3.0 PSU and using a 16-pin to 16-pin connector, you'll be stuck with a 16-pin to 4x 8-pin adapter. These adapters are not easy to bend and it is definitely not recommended to bend them at all. As such, the cable will always touch the side panel and it looks unappealing.

I can't believe that barely any tech reviewers (except maybe @JayzTwoCents) are talking about the issues with fitting RTX 4090 cards in their cases when installing the included power adapter. This is a big issue that a lot of people are talking about in Reddit. What a mess!

— Sebastian Castellanos (@Sebasti66855537) October 16, 2022

That's where Cablemod's latest 12VHPWR Right Angle Adapter comes in. The cable manufacturer and the modding company is going to offer a 90-degree angled cable that eliminates bending & also extends the cable adapter far below so you can easily adjust and route it on the back while keeping your cable management top-notch. There's no word on pricing yet but the cable launches in 13 days and will definitely be a hot seller.

The post CableMod Makes NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Installation Easier With Its 90-Degree Angled 16-Pin Connector by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

According to Obsidian Entertainment co-founder Feargus Urquhart, he and his team would, without any doubt, make another Fallout game.

Urquhart, who worked on the first two Fallout games as the founder of Interplay division Black Isle Studios, as well as Fallout: New Vegas with Obsidian, said as much during a recent interview with Dualshockers as part of Fallout’s 25^th anniversary.

The question is, however, whether the opportunity will present itself.

"Of course, if we ever got the opportunity to make another Fallout game, we'd make it”, he said. “There's not even a question of whether or not we would do it, it's just 'Will the opportunity arise? I hung around at Interplay for probably an extra year because I wanted to work on Fallout more. I love Fallout."

But what if this opportunity actually arises following Obsidian’s work on Grounded, Pentiment, The Outer Worlds 2, and the highly-anticipated Avowed? According to the Obsidian co-founder, if his team would do another Fallout, it must have ties with Bethesda’s work on the series.

"At some point, we'll start looking into what those next games are going to be, and I would be surprised if Fallout is not on that list," Urquhart explained. "If we were to do Fallout, it has to tie in with what Bethesda is doing with Fallout and a lot of other things, but I would always personally say my hope is that before I ride off into the sunset, I'd love to make another Fallout game."

Some interesting stuff for sure, and quite honestly, we would love to see Obsidian make another Fallout entry.

Avowed is currently expected to release somewhere next year. A release date for the sequel to The Outer Worlds hasn’t been revealed just yet, but we do know that the game entered pre-production in 2019.

Would you like to see a new Fallout game from Obisidian? Hit the comments down below.

The post Obsidian Entertainment Co-Founder: We Would Make Another Fallout Game Without Any Doubt by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

Wallace Shawn has had a long and impressive career, and yet he is best known by pretty much everyone for a single word: "Inconceivable!" Just about every character in "The Princess Bride" has at least one line so iconic that even those who've not seen the movie have heard the words uttered at some point. As far as what people are remembered for, the actor could do far worse than the beloved film, which was released in 1987 and is widely regarded as a timeless classic.

Directed by Rob Reiner and adapted for the screen by William Goldman, who wrote the novel of the same name, "The Princess Bride" is a clever twist on fairy tales that truly has it all. As a child, it informed my dreams, my nightmares, and certainly my idea of true love. Westley (Cary Elwes) was one of my earliest crushes — right up there with the cartoon fox from "Robin Hood" — and his romance with Buttercup (Robin Wright) still makes me swoon. Let's also not forget about Fezzik (André the Giant) and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin).

It wasn't just the film's protagonists that were memorable, but its antagonists as well. Shawn played Vizzini, the Sicilian criminal who challenges our hero to a battle of wits and pays the ultimate price. He isn't in the movie for very long, but the actor certainly makes the most of his screen time, eliciting laughter from the audience even as his character drops dead. Interestingly, Shawn wasn't the first choice to play Vizzini and that knowledge haunted him throughout the film's shoot.

'Danny Is Inimitable'

Wallace Shawn explained to Entertainment Weekly that he felt his performance was influenced by the long shadow cast by the actor first considered for the role: Danny DeVito. Shawn explained:

"I was not the first person they wanted [for the part]. Unfortunately, my agent at that time believed that it would be helpful for me to know who they actually wanted, so he told me — it was Danny DeVito. Looking back on it, it didn't help. Danny is inimitable. Each scene we did, I pictured how he would have done it and I knew I could never possibly have done it the way he could have done it. It made it challenging. I've mentioned it to Danny since. I said, 'You know, of everything that I have ever done since birth, the thing that is most well-known is a part I had because you were unavailable.' He might have laughed nervously when I said that."

It would be intimidating indeed to know that not only were you not the first choice for the part, but also that said first choice was a truly larger-than-life actor. Of course, it worked out for the best because imagining anyone other than Shawn in the role, even someone as formidable as DeVito, is truly inconceivable. Shawn made Vizzini his own and there's not a hint of any anxiety he may have felt at the time. 

"Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

Read this next: Celebrities You Didn't Know Were In Star Trek

The post Wallace Shawn Felt Like He Was Living In Danny DeVito's Shadow During The Filming Of The Princess Bride appeared first on /Film.

In the 1975 musical comedy horror "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," a recently engaged couple, Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) and Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick), seeks help at a nearby castle after their car breaks down on a dark, rainy night. The castle belongs to Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist and flamboyant "transvestite" (his words) who's in the middle of throwing a lively celebration called the Annual Transylvanian Convention. Dr. Frank-N-Furter invites the couple to spend the night and shows them his "favorite obsession," his creation of Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood), an artificially made muscle-bound man with blond hair and gold undies. Trapped in the castle, the naïve couple's relationship is tested by Dr. Frank-N-Furter's antics. The movie is a parodic homage to the sci-fi and campy horror films that came before it. 

In his breakout movie role, Tim Curry plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Almost a half-century later, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" remains one of Curry's most memorable performances and a midnight movie staple that still plays in some local theaters. But the one person who won't be in the crowd singing and dancing along to the cult classic is Curry -- and not because he once got thrown out of an after dark showing of the movie. "I can't really relate to the film very well," he told Interview Magazine in 2015. "I still feel sick when I see it."

Tim Curry Is Iffy On The Glam Makeup

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is based on the stage musical penned by Richard O'Brien, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Tim Curry first portrayed Dr. Frank-N-Furter during 1973 to 74 productions of the play in London and Los Angeles before reprising the role in the feature film adaptation. For the movie, the producers hired Pierre Laroche, the makeup artist who worked for David Bowie and Mick Jagger and helped pioneer the androgynous glam rock look. "He kind of adapted the makeup that was already in my case and did a very kind of high fashion version of it," Tim Curry told Interview Magazine. Even today, he's not sold on the glam version of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. 

The '70s is way before my time, so I didn't see the first stage productions of the play, but I found some black-and-white photos online. It's hard for me to distinguish any real differences between the two depictions of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Perhaps, I need to step my cosmetology game up. Curry did, however, mange to find a silver lining. Actor Bruce Campbell worked with him on the 1995 sci-fi adventure action movie "Congo." In a 2022 tweet, he shared what Curry told him what he liked about "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." He said:

"[Curry] said one of the coolest things was that [The Rocky Horror Picture Show] saved a number of small indie theaters from going under, because they knew that two nights a week Rocky was going to do big business."

It's remarkable the movie is still helping small theaters stay afloat after all these years.

Read this next: 13 Box Office Bombs That Are Truly Worth A Watch

The post Tim Curry Still Feels 'Sick' When Watching The Original Rocky Horror Picture Show appeared first on /Film.

"Once Upon a Time in the West" has one of the greatest opening sequences I've ever seen. Three sinister outlaws descend on a train station in the middle of nowhere, lock up the station master, then wait a wordless eternity for the next train to arrive. For the next eight minutes, we watch them kill time; in Sergio Leone's hands, the tedium is riveting. One gunslinger sits by a water trough, cracking his knuckles. Another tries catching 40 winks but finds himself harassed by a persistent fly. The third stands under the water tower, catching drips in the brim of his hat. In the background is the singsong whine of a creaky windmill.

In a sudden burst of smoke and noise, the train gallops down the track. Pulling in at the station, it seems their target isn't onboard. Then a haunting harmonica melody rings out as the train pulls away, and there, on the other side of the track, is Harmonica (Charles Bronson). He finishes his tune, in no hurry. Noticing three horses tied up, he asks if they brought one for him. The men smirk. "Looks like we're shy one horse," one says. Harmonica shakes his head slowly. "You brought two too many." A breathless moment passes, then Harmonica shoots all three dead.

The sequence is a distillation of all the elaborate showdowns Leone orchestrated in his "Dollars Trilogy;" the desolate sunbaked location; terse dialog; mega close-ups of hard-worn faces; the moments of quirky humor; the director's ability to stretch a critical moment out for a lifetime before releasing the tension in a sudden flurry of violence.

This masterful overture sets the tone for Leone's epic tale of greed and revenge in the Old West, but the scene managed to turn the director's biggest star off the part of Harmonica.

Clint Eastwood's Rise To Stardom

Perhaps more than anyone else, Clint Eastwood owes his stardom to Sergio Leone. He struggled to find significant film roles in the '50s before landing a role in the TV western "Rawhide." The show made him known, but he was still a long way from the superstar he would eventually become. 

After "Rawhide" was canceled, he was offered the role of protagonist in Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars." Eastwood jumped at the opportunity. He said (via Real Clear History):

"I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat... the hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an anti-hero."

Eastwood's instincts were correct, and he slipped right into the role of the laconic stranger with a deadly draw. Now in his 30s, his face was more weathered, lined, and lived-in, a captivating face that looked great in Leone's massive close-up. Eastwood also insisted on removing lines from the screenplay to make the character more enigmatic, saying everything with his steely gaze and trademark squint.

"Fistful" became a major hit and catapulted Eastwood to international fame. He played variations on his "Man With No Name" persona in "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," further cementing his iconic western status. 

After the success of the three films, Leone wanted to move away from westerns and adapt "The Hoods" by Harry Grey, a project that would eventually become "Once Upon a Time in America." Nevertheless, Paramount tempted him with a hefty budget and the prospect of working with Henry Fonda, Leone's favorite actor. He agreed and "Once Upon a Time in the West" was the outcome. Once again, he turned to Eastwood for the role of vengeful Harmonica.

Eastwood Didn't Like Leone's Pitch For Once Upon A Time In The West

After the outstanding success of their previous collaborations, you might think it would be a no-brainer for Eastwood to sign on to another project with the director. That was not the case, however, and Leone's pitch did not go down well with the actor. The first sticking point was the opening sequence, which Leone explained in elaborate detail. Eastwood was particularly baffled by the outlaw catching the annoying fly in the barrel of his gun. According to Eastwood's biography:

"'It took [Leone] fifteen minutes to get past that part,' [Eastwood] says, and he remembers asking, 'Wait a second, where are we heading with this?' But Leone was not to be hurried, and continued his synopsis at his own overly detailed pace."

While Eastwood eventually understood the artistic scope of "Once Upon a Time in the West," he still saw it as "just another pasta dish." He also realized that he would still be the poncho and the squint to the film's more colorful characters, roles eventually filled by Henry Fonda and Jason Robards.

He was right in some respects. The most memorable character in the film is the villain of the piece, Frank, played devastatingly against type by Fonda. Leone knew the power of using the actor's famous blue eyes, usually deployed in kind or noble roles, for an avaricious killer with no qualms about gunning down a little kid.

Eastwood turned Leone down and the part went to Charles Bronson, who originally passed on the lead in "Fistful." He had made a big impression with a series of striking supporting characters in "The Magnificent Seven," "The Great Escape," and "The Dirty Dozen," and the monosyllabic actor brought a different approach to the deadly stranger role.

How It Turned Out With Bronson In The Role

Charles Bronson was an actor whose hard-as-nails upbringing in a roughneck mining town informed his tough-guy persona, and he played Harmonica far differently than I imagine Eastwood would. While the Man with No Name was aloof and quick on the draw, Eastwood also gave the character a sense of ironic, deadpan detachment. There was often gallows humor in the way he delivered his lines; just consider "My mule don't like people laughing," or "Get three coffins ready" and its sardonic punchline in "A Fistful of Dollars."

Bronson, on the other hand, plays Harmonica as more elemental. Perhaps because he was used to supporting roles rather than the lead, he seems fully content playing an enigmatic force of nature compared to Fonda and Robards' more earthly characters. When he appears on the station platform in that long opening sequence, it's as if he was carried in by the wind rather than the locomotive. The mournful notes from his harmonica seem to arrive before he does, a harbinger of the quick death he is about to deliver to his enemies. It would have been different with Eastwood in the same role, standing there silent, monolithic, as if he'd been there all along.

Just imagine the line, "You brought two too many" coming from Eastwood; it would have just been another wry kiss-off line. When Bronson delivers it, there is no trace of humor. It's a genuine threat that sucks the air out of the scene as the three outlaws, suddenly realizing the danger, enter their showdown stances. That shift in tone sets the stage for the rest of the film, which is far more somber than the up-tempo "Dollars Trilogy." Sometimes losing out on your big star is a blessing in disguise.

Read this next: The 20 Best Westerns Of All Time

The post Pitching Once Upon A Time In The West To Clint Eastwood Didn't Go Well For Sergio Leone appeared first on /Film.

"You know you're a nerd when you store DNA in your fridge," says Dina Zielinski, a senior scientist in human genomics at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research tells the BBC — holding up a tiny vial with a light film at the bottom: But this DNA is special. It does not store the code from a human genome, nor does it come from any animal or virus. Instead, it stores a digital representation of a museum. "That will last easily tens of years, maybe hundreds," says Zielinski. Research into how we could store digital data inside strands of DNA has exploded over the past decade, in the wake of efforts to sequence the human genome, synthesise DNA and develop gene therapies. Scientists have already encoded films, books and computer operating systems into DNA. Netflix has even used it to store an episode of its 2020 thriller series Biohackers. The information stored in DNA defines what it is to be human (or any other species for that matter). But many experts argue it offers an incredibly compact, durable and long-lasting form of storage that could replace the many forms of unreliable digital media available, which regularly become defunct and require huge amounts of energy to store. Meanwhile, some researchers are exploring other ways we could store data effectively forever, such as etching information onto incredibly durable glass beads, a modern take on cave drawings. Even before the issue of the energy required to power (and cool) data centers, Zielinski points out that data stored on hard drives "lasts on average maybe 10 to 20 years, maybe 50 if you're lucky and the conditions are perfect." And yet we've already been able to recover DNA from million-year-old wooly mammoths... Olgica Milenkovic, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, acknowledges that DNA can be damaged by things like humidity, acids, and radiation — "But if it's kept cold and dry, it's good for hundreds of years." And if it's stored in an ice vault, "it can last forever, pretty much." (And unlike floppy disks — DNA-formatted data will never become obsolete.) It's not the only option. Peter Kazansky, a professor in optoelectronics at the University of Southampton, has created an optical storage technology that etches nano-structures onto glass disks. But Latchesar Ionkov, a computer scientist working on DNA storage at Los Alamos National Laboratory, believes we're just decades away from being able to store the estimated 33 zettabytes of data that humans will have produced by 2025 in a space the size of a ping-pong ball.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

She's also calling for a boycott of the game

Because we live in an era where so many of the best things in life carry more baggage than a member of the royal family going on a weekend holiday, there are now calls for a boycott of Bayonetta 3 coming from the actor who gave Cereza her voice in the English-speaking world.  As was recently reported, voice actor Jennifer Hale is taking the reins of the title character in this month's big Switch release.  In an interview with Game Informer, Yusuke Miyata, who is directing the series' third entry, said Hale was offered the role because "Various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role."  Today, Taylor, who was the English Bayonetta voice actress in the first two games of the series as well as Anarchy Reigns, Super Smash Bros., and Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, offered a different account of why she didn't return for the threequel.

In a series of social media posts, Taylor said she reauditioned for the role and was given an offer she considered "insulting."  She said she then wrote a letter to Hideki Kamiya asking for what she was worth.  According to Taylor, Kamiya responded by saying he values her contribution to the game before offering her a flat rate of $4,000 for the role, an amount that would cover the entirety of work on the game.  Calling that amount an insult, Taylor is now asking fans to boycott Bayonetta 3 and instead take the money they would have spent on the game and donate it to charity.

"I understand that boycotting this game is a personal choice and there are those who won't, and that's fine," Taylor says in the second of four videos she released on Saturday.  "But if you're someone who cares about people, who cares about the world around you, who cares about who gets hurt with these financial decisions, then I urge you to boycott this game."

https://twitter.com/hellenataylor/status/1581290543619112960?s=20&t=MecPNqGIXmKdmsDm597aIw

Shortly after Taylor's tweets went live, Kamiya did post a short response to the allegations on Twitter, writing, "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's what all I can tell now."

I shouldn't make more money than the Bayonetta voice actress

While there are some questionable points made by Taylor in her posts, including suggesting the Bayonetta franchise has somehow made $450 million not including merchandise and all the religious stuff in the fourth video, the alleged offer of $4,000 seems pretty in line with what has been said about pay rates for voice actors in games and anime.  While SAG-AFTRA has made strides to help actors in these areas, it's clear its reach is still quite limited.  As an aside, following the video game voice actor strike of 2017, SAG-AFTRA came to an agreement with 11 western video game developers on a three-year contract for voice work.  That contract was extended in 2020 and is set to expire or be extended again on November 8.

It is a touchy situation because I know many people, myself included, have been looking forward to Bayonetta 3 since we first got wind of its existence at The Game Awards in 2017.  I know a lot of people are going to feel for Ms. Taylor and reject the idea her voice is worth so little but still buy the game anyway.  It's possible that PlatinumGames will offer a more concrete response on the matter than a single tweet.  I don't think I'm in a position to tell you what you should or shouldn't do with your money.  Go with what your heart is telling you in this situation.

Whatever people choose to do when Bayonetta 3 releases later this month, it's not difficult to see that a fundamental change in attitude is needed with how actors are treated when lending their talents to a video game or anime or anything of the sort.  Video games are a $100 billion industry and are the primary form of entertainment for huge swaths of the population.  As games become bigger, bolder, and more profitable, it's important that everyone contributing to their development is compensated in a just and fair manner.

The post Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Taylor details ‘insulting’ offer to reprise her role in Bayonetta 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

The shows Amazon invested in that you should also invest in this weekend.

Not long ago, I made a brief mention of Events Ripper, a proof-of-concept tool I wrote to quickly provide situational awareness and pivot points for analysts who were already on the road to developing a timeline. The idea behind the tool is that artifacts are compound objects, and have value based not just on their time stamps, their value can also be predicated on the analysis questions or goals, or just the nature of their path, or some other factor. 

The tool leverages the fact that analysts are already creating timelines, and uses the intermediate events file format to develop situational awareness and pivot points to facilitate analysis. Many times, we're looking through a timeline for some root cause or predicating event, but we're dealing with the fact that there was some normal system behavior (such as an update) that's caused a large number of events to be generated.

At the moment, the available plugins target Windows Event Log data, in many cases producing output similar to what analysts are used to seeing in ShimCache or AmCache parser output. So, of course, the output of the various plugins are going to depend upon the Windows Event Logs you've included in the timeline, as well as how long it's been since the activity in question occurred (i.e., logs roll over), and what specifically is being audited (although that pertains more to the Security Event Log). Further, they're doing to also depend upon what's being logged, something you can check via the auditpol.exe native utility (or the auditpol.pl RegRipper plugin). For example, I've once saw a Security Event Log with over 35,000 records, and they were all successful logins. Yep, that's it...just successful logins, and because of the nature of the system, most of them were type 3 logins...which is why I wrote a plugin to just get a count of logins by type, so that it's easy to see this information about your data quickly.

That's one of the keys to this tool...to be able to quickly and easily distill and discern some important insight about the data that you have from a system. As such, the real value of this tool comes from analysts using it, exploring it, and asking questions, talking about how to view and manage the data they have. 

Tools like this are especially useful in diverse environments where you are likely to encounter data sources with disparate content, such as consulting environments. During my time in consulting, I never...never...saw two identical environments. Ever organization is different. In fact, it wasn't unusual to find different application loads and audit configurations between departments, or sometimes even within the same department. So when you find something new, you create a plugin to parse it out and provide context, because you never know when you, or another analyst on your team, is going to see it, or something like it, again.

Another key value indicator of this tool is corporate knowledge retention. For example, our team worked an incident were we saw a Windows Defender event with event ID 2051; I'd never seen such an event record before (and haven't since), and no one else had any information about such an event record. So, after researching it, I wrote a plugin, so that what we learned about such an event is now available to every analyst who uses the tool, regardless of whether or not they're on our team. The same is true with respect to the hitman.pl plugin; we saw via the Application Event Log that the customer had had the Sophos HitmanPro product installed at one point (the Windows Event Logs also showed that it had been removed), and that the product had alerted on the file we were interested in, demonstrating that the file existed on the system for some time prior to the incident time frame.

Something else that a few analysts are familiar with is that Application Event Log records can often contain references to malicious software, in DCOM errors, Application Hang event records, and Windows Error Reporting event records. As such, I wrote plugins for each of these event records that lists the impacted applications in a format similar to what's seen in ShimCache or AmCache parser output. 

How To Use It
Here's example output from the ntfs.pl plugin:

D:\erip>erip -f g:\ntfs_events.txt -p ntfs
Launching ntfs v.20221010

Get NTFS volumes

System name: enzo

Mounted Volumes:
C:\ -  WDC WD5000BEKT-75KA9T0
D:\ -  WDC WD5000BEKT-75KA9T0
F:\ - Msft     Virtual Disk
F:\ - WD       My Passport 0741
F:\ - WD       My Passport 25E2
G:\ - SanDisk  Cruzer

Analysis Tip: Microsoft-Windows-Ntfs/145 events provide a list of mounted volumes.

From the above output, we can see that the C:\ and D:\ drives (the system named "enzo" has one hard drive split into two volumes), but we can also see other drive letters listed, along with their associated friendly names. We can likely find similar information in the Registry, and I'd definitely want to include that info, as well, but this is immediate, valuable insight from a limited data source, as I can quickly see drive letter mappings. However, I do need to keep in mind that this information may not be complete, but it's a good start.

Here's example output from the mount.pl plugin:

D:\erip>erip -f g:\vhd_events.txt -p mount
Launching mount v.20221010
Get VHD[X]/ISO files mounted

System name: Stewie

Files mounted (VHD[X], ISO):
D:\test\iso\b91c8f5adb81a262b2b95e2bf85fd7170e100885600af1f9bde322f10ac0e800.iso
D:\test\billid0574.iso
D:\test\iso\test.iso

Analysis Tip: Microsoft-Windows-VHDMP/1 events provide a list of files mounted or "surfaced".

Let's say that you look at the above output and think, "I want to see a timeline of all instances where 'test.iso' was involved"; well, that's easy enough to do, in a few simple steps:

type g:\vhd_events.txt | find "test.iso" > g:\iso_events.txt
parse -f g:\iso_events.txt > g:\tln.txt

Now, you have a timeline of all of the events that include "test.iso".

Interestingly enough, the above output is from one of my own systems, and once I saw it, I checked the values within the RecentDocs/.iso Registry key and found all three of those ISO files listed.

Using the two above plugins, I'm able to get a quick look at drive mappings for devices, as well as mounted ISO files, with minimal effort.

So What?
So, why does any of this matter? Red Canary recently shared some open reporting on Raspberry Robin, where they stated that this malware was spread via infected thumb drives. However, they also stated that there were "several intelligence gaps around this cluster", mentioning one of these gaps. Note that Cisco Talos also reports that Raspberry Robin spreads via "external drives"; however, Cybereason indicates that it could be "removable devices or ISO files". I'm not suggesting that this is a disparity in primary sources, but rather that it's pretty straightforward to gather insight and some solid answers based solely on one or two Windows Event Log files.

Conclusion
Tools like this provide for:

- Creating situational awareness and "pivot points" from your incident data
- Creating context and insights from your incident data
- Corporate knowledge retention, particularly for diverse environments, such as you find with consulting
- An alternate/additional means for analysts of all levels to contribute
- Fully exploiting limited data sets

However, tools like this (and timelines, as well) are limited by:

- Which Windows Event Logs are included
- The applications installed on the system
- The audit policy of the system
- How long it's been since the incident occurred

Gandalf the Grey has been around for a long time. Long before he met Frodo Baggins, or even Bilbo, J.R.R. Tolkien's works say he was created as a Maiar, a celestial-like being that forged the earth before the First Age. Yet the author's texts only give us the specifics of Gandalf's history during the Third Age. So what was he doing before that? Why, hanging out with more hobbits and halflings, of course.

The reveal that The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) who crashed into the countryside on a star is an Istar, or wizard, came partway through the finale this week, when he rejected the title of Sauron that the three hooded figures tracking him tried to thrust upon him. In a moment that solidified this version of Middle-earth as a place of choices over fate, his new friend Nori (Markella Kavenagh) coaxed him into standing firm in his instinct to be good, saying, "Only you can show what you are. You choose by what you do. You're here to help, I know it."

These Guys Go Way Back

I'll admit: I don't care much in particular that The Stranger is probably Gandalf, but I do care that he's a good guy. The moment in which we finally know for sure that he's not Sauron had me breathing a sigh of relief, and every scene that featured him afterwards felt like a warm hug. So of course he's Gandalf, because who else has a presence that feels that benevolent? The season ends with the formerly disoriented gentle giant gaining enough clarity to know that he needs to go to Rhûn. It also ends with him speaking some familiar lines that make it clear that his fondness for hobbits goes way further back than we realized.

"Alone it's just a journey," The Stranger tells Nori when he invites her to come with him. "Adventures, they must be shared." Folks who have read "The Hobbit" will recognize the sentiment there, as that book begins with an auspicious invitation: ""I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone," Gandalf tells Bilbo, but by this point, the hobbits have evolved from wandering harfoots to creatures of habit. The man in question takes some convincing to leave his tobacco pipe behind and go adventuring.

An Odd Couple Friendship That Spans Centuries

This isn't the only line from "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" that has shown up in some form before. When Nori confesses she's nervous about their journey and unsure which way to go, The Stranger delivers a comforting and quaint bit of wisdom: "When in doubt, Elanor Brandyfoot, always follow your nose." Not only is this adorable, but it's also the best evidence viewers have that The Stranger is, in fact, Gandalf, rather than one of the other Istars. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose," Gandalf (Ian McKellan) tells Merry (Dominic Monaghan) in "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

Tolkien's works contain multitudes: they're full of sweeping stories about good and evil, complex mythologies and fully realized histories, and characters who make strong impressions. But for all the great moments he's created, few are as endearing and iconic as the interactions between Gandalf and the hobbits. There's something special about a nearly all-powerful being, imposing in stature, choosing to break bread with a humble and small group of people. The relationship between the wizard and the halflings was already delightful before, but the story of Nori and The Stranger supplements it even more. The result is the exact opposite of our worst fears about The Stranger -- a sweet and pure cross-generational friendship that turns out to be thousands of years in the making.

Read this next: Every Fellowship Of The Ring Member From Lord Of The Rings Ranked

The post The Rings of Power Strengthens the History Between Gandalf and Halflings appeared first on /Film.

Framework isn’t your typical laptop manufacturer. Instead, it builds modular laptops that allow users the ability to customize, upgrade, and even repair parts on their own. While the idea is to give users more control over their products, the company also wants to make an impact by reducing e-waste. In an effort to further advance this message, the company has started offering refurbished models that come with a promise and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Framework states that it’s able to offer discounted refurbished models due to a small number of customer returns. Despite being refurbished, the company promises that the laptops will be in like new condition and will also come with a full warranty. Each laptop goes through a thorough testing phase, making sure that nothing is wrong with the unit. If there is anything wrong, parts are replaced, and once again, the laptop is tested to ensure it is in proper working order. After the test, the laptop is fully cleaned and made available for sale.

In this process, Framework doesn’t repair minor cosmetic issues, but it does set high standards for each refurbished unit being sold. According to its website, it will allow small scratches on all surfaces to exist, but no more than 10 or 15 total, depending on which panel the scratches exist on. Also, they can be no more than 2 cm in length on most panels, and any cracks, breaks, and chips are not allowed. Of course, buying refurbished isn’t for everyone, so be sure to read the full details before making a purchase. But you can always give it a try because, as mentioned before, the laptops can be purchased worry-free thanks to the money-back guarantee. In addition to laptops, it is also offering refurbished accessories, like its various expansion packs.

Currently, there are a few choices up on the website, with the lowest being priced at $599 and the highest at $1,069. While these are 11th Gen Intel models, you can always feel a bit more relieved knowing that as long as the company is around, you can upgrade later down the line. The firm more recently announced its 12th-gen update, giving users the option for more power and new accessories. If interested in any of these laptops, new or used, be sure to head to the link down below.

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Source: Framework
Via: Engadget

The post Framework pushes its sustainability efforts by offering refurbished laptops appeared first on XDA.

In Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien," the sinister android Ash (Ian Holm) describes the killer creature loose aboard his spaceship as "the perfect organism," admitting that its "structural perfection is matched only by its hostility." He also says that he admires its purity. The alien is "a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality." Little else is revealed about the xenomorphs in that original film, with the murderous alien remaining very, well, alien. The one detail that Ash seems to drop is that the creature could be harvested as an invasive species intended for combat purposes.

The notion that the xenomorphs are a pure destructive force -- a life-form that only exists to take lives -- is one that runs throughout multiple "Alien" sequels. In James Cameron's 1986 follow-up "Aliens," for instance, Paul Reiser plays a suspicious wonk for a mysterious company that aims to gather and weaponize one of that film's many monsters. That film proves that no military force, no matter how confident or well-equipped, will be able to stand up to the xenomorphs. "Aliens" also introduced the notion that the xenomorphs were a naturally pervasive, semi-intelligent species that are born of an insect-like queen. This stands in opposition to a deleted scene from "Alien" wherein a xenomorph transforms singular victims into eggs.

David Fincher's troubled "Alien³" and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's whimsical "Alien Resurrection" each took the series in its own direction, with one being a delightfully depressive look at the futility of fighting a pervasive and undying alien death machine, and the other being a kooky "Aliens" riff full of goop, clones, and creatures. It wouldn't be until Scott returned to the series in 2012 with "Prometheus" that the true function of the xenomorphs would be revealed. 

Prometheus Is A Christmas Movie

"Prometheus" takes place many years before the events of "Alien," and involves no common characters. It also ignores all of the continuity laid out by all the films made since 1979, including the pair of movies where xenomorphs engaged in fisticuffs with Predators. "Prometheus" begins millions of years in the past with an enormous, white-skinned Adonis -- an Engineer -- drinking a mysterious black substance on a primordial Earth. The alien's body breaks down, its DNA seeding Earth's waters. Fast-forward to the year 2089, and a group of space explorers have found a cave painting on Earth that may clue them in to the origins of the planet. They trek out into the galaxy with a very human-like android, and land on a planet called LV-223.

On LV-223, the astronauts discover an enormous, mysterious alien edifice that contains a host of mysteries. They find a dead alien body and Lovecraftian chambers -- some similar to the one seen in "Alien" -- full of unusual, ancient amphorae. Through various misadventures, the crew learns that the planet is chock full of unguents and spores that infect human bodies, impregnate their abdominal chambers, and spawn any number of destructive animal species. Eventually, the lead astronaut Shaw, a Christian character played by Noomi Rapace, surmises that the large white-skinned Engineers artificially grew a killer menagerie specifically to be let loose on Earth. Given the amount of time it takes for information to travel from Earth to LV-223, she finds that the Engineers began their project some 2053 years before. 

And what significant Christian event occurred on Earth back in A.D. 33? And how does that relate to the fact that "Prometheus" also takes place at Christmastime?

Space Messiah

Ridley Scott seems to heavily imply that Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, an Engineer. Just as humankind's ultimate creator was an Engineer who sacrificed his body in a river, so too was Jesus. It seems that Jesus was a being sent to Earth to check up on this little human experiment that the Engineers had been running for the past 3.7 billion years. One might even extrapolate that the Messiah Engineer was sent to Earth to spread a philosophy of pacifism and togetherness. When humans rejected those philosophies by crucifying the visiting Engineer, the rest of our alien overlords declared us a failure and began making organic weapons to wipe us out. 

In so doing, however, they lost control of their creatures and were wiped out themselves. This proves to be doubly true when the android David (Michael Fassbender) hijacks an alien craft and uses the Prometheus spores to lay waste to the Engineer homeworld in "Alien: Covenant." The Engineers made humans, were upset with the result, and tried to make monsters to kill us. We, meanwhile, made suspicious androids obsessed with purity, and our own creations wiped out our creators. The levels of meaning are myriad. 

"Prometheus" ambitiously attempts to blend science with the divine, all using iconography from Scott's 1979 creature feature. The aliens were, effectively, demons. Living weapons that only serve to kill. It's why they were made. That is why they are obsessed with killing humans. It's in their very DNA. "Prometheus" owes more to the heady, semi-theological sci-fi of "2001: A Space Odyssey" than the military mayhem of "Aliens." 

The Drake Equation

If one wants to take a daring gander into the extended universe of "Alien," one will find that Marvel Comics began a new title based on "Alien" in 2021. In the sixth issue of that series, an android pointed out that the xenomorphs were made for a different purpose than divine revenge. An android refers to the animals as "Prometheus' cleansing fire," implying that the aliens are used regularly to wipe out great swaths of living beings. The xenomorphs are used to keep any and all sentient creature populations at bay. 

Why are there so many living extermination tools? While the comic book does not answer that question, it does explain a great mystery about the galaxy summed up by the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox. The equation, named by Dr. Frank Drake in 1961, is a means to calculate the probability of other intelligent species in the galaxy. Given the sheer number of stars, it seems probable that human-like life would inhabit other worlds. The Fermi Paradox, however, posits that if life can so easily evolve on other worlds, it stands to reason that at least one alien species would have invented interstellar travel by now and come to visit us. Indeed, it's illogical that they haven't.

If, however, there is a species of genetically engineered monsters in the mix -- and one that was bred specially to wipe out other species -- then it would explain why no one alien species ever meets another. As soon as one species takes to the stars, xenomorphs appear to kill them all. Then, once sated, the xenomorphs return to a dormant state in eggs until the next time around. 

With xenomorphs in the mix, the Fermi paradox is solved! 

Read this next: Sci-Fi Movies That Accurately Predicted The Future

The post Why Xenomorphs Are Obsessed with Killing Humans appeared first on /Film.

Quentin Tarantino is frequently cited as one of the best living directors in Hollywood. Through films like "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," he demonstrated his encyclopedic understanding of movies and his ability to remix familiar genres in original ways. In a 1994 interview with Empire, (via Far Out Magazine), Tarantino freely admitted, "I steal from every single movie ever made. I love it — if my work has anything it's that I'm taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together." 

Throughout his career, Tarantino has recreated popular sequences by Federico Fellini, John Ford, and Mike Nichols, just to name a few. He created his own distinctive style by blending these familiar images with shocking violence, witty dialogue, oddball protagonists, and impeccable needle drops. By watching and mimicking great films, Tarantino learned to craft successful characters and stories, and he also knows how it looks when it's done badly.

Before he made it big in Hollywood, Tarantino survived by selling scripts, two of which became films. Tony Scott's "True Romance" and Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" were both originally penned by Tarantino, but he has very different opinions about the movies. Tarantino told Empire that his version of "True Romance" would have been different than Scott's, but that the director "made the right choice for the movie he made." 

He isn't nearly as accepting of what happened to his other script. In an interview on Brian Koppelman's podcast, The Moment, Tarantino revealed that he was so disappointed by Stone's version of "Natural Born Killers" that he still hasn't seen the entire film (via The Playlist).

Rewriting Tarantino

It might appear that Tarantino swaggered into Hollywood and became a go-to filmmaker, but he sacrificed to make it, including selling his original work and watching others bring it to life. This can be a very hit or miss experience for a screenwriter especially when the new director makes changes to their original work. "True Romance" originally ended with the death of Clarence (Christian Slater), which Scott changed, but Tarantino respected that rewrite and believed it was the right choice. However, Tarantino isn't as gracious about Stone's changes to "Natural Born Killers."  

Tarantino sold "Natural Born Killers" for $10,000 to producers Jane Hamsher and Don Murphy, which must have felt like a steal when Academy Award winning director Oliver Stone was later hired to direct it. Despite his enthusiasm for the project, Stone wasn't all that impressed by certain elements of Tarantino's story -- so he rewrote it. In an interview with Roger Ebert, Stone compared Tarantino's original script to grindhouse films, and described Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) as "crazy, stick figures." He told Ebert that the killers were the most intriguing part of the story, so he chose to focus on them:

"I think [Tarantino] was hurt that I rewrote it so much. But I told him that I really can't make what he, as a 26-year-old, would make as a first film. As a 47-year-old filmmaker, it doesn't interest me. I want another level of socio-political comment and I want to deal with the whole justice system. I want to deal with the killers; where they come from, who their parents are."

In his conversation with Ebert, Stone said that Tarantino was too focused on using "violence in the most new and shocking and unconventional way," but Tarantino insists that "Natural Born Killers" is about love.

'It Was Done For Him!'

Despite Stone's claim that he focused solely on the characters, Tarantino believes that Stone fundamentally misunderstood Mickey and Mallory and their motivation. On Koppelman's podcast, Tarantino expressed frustration about Stone's rewrites, especially the addition of the couple cheating on each other. Tarantino insisted his version of the characters would "never" have done that, and that Stone didn't understand the strength of the love between Mickey and Mallory, which kills the entire point of the film. 

"The point of the thing," ​​Tarantino explained, "is they unnaturally live for each other at the expense of everyone else on the planet earth." Koppelman and Tarantino agree that the couple's "killing spree is the sacrament of their love," and the reason for all their violence, but it's hard to buy that when the supposed ride-or-die couple cheat on each other. 

Tarantino believes there is no excuse for Stone's obliviousness because his writing did all the hard work for him:

"One of the things about that script, in particular, was that I was trying to make it on the page. So when you read it, you saw the movie. And it's like why didn't [Oliver Stone] do at least half of that! It was done for him!"

Accusations Of Violence

Despite Stone's claims that he objects to Tarantino's obsession with violence, his rewrites in "Natural Born Killers" continue the tradition. Originally, Tarantino's script depicted two people who have such a deep, albeit toxic, connection that they are willing to sacrifice everything and everyone to protect it. It would have featured a dramatic love affair, a Bonnie and Clyde romanticism, and a deeper explanation for their brutality.

Instead, Stone belittled the couple's attachment by making them unfaithful, and created two unlikable psychopaths who kill for fame and pleasure. According to Stone, "Natural Born Killers" was meant to be a critique of the media and its obsession with crime, but the movie has been accused of inciting violence and inspiring murder, so it's safe to say that message didn't translate well.

"Natural Born Killers" has become a cult classic, but it's impossible not to wonder if Tarantino's version would have been better. He certainly seems to think so.

Read this next: The 23 Best Heist Movies Of All Time

The post Quentin Tarantino Has Never Seen Natural Born Killers From Beginning To End appeared first on /Film.

A study of tens of thousands of people in Scotland found that one in 20 people who had been sick with Covid reported not recovering at all, and another four in 10 said they had not fully recovered from their infections many months later. From a report: The authors of the study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, tried to home in on the long-term risks of Covid by comparing the frequency of symptoms in people with and without previous Covid diagnoses. People with previous symptomatic Covid infections reported certain persistent symptoms, such as breathlessness, palpitations and confusion or difficulty concentrating, at a rate roughly three times as high as uninfected people in surveys from six to 18 months later, the study found. Those patients also experienced elevated risks of more than 20 other symptoms relating to the heart, respiratory health, muscle aches, mental health and the sensory system. The findings strengthened calls from scientists for more expansive care options for long Covid patients in the United States and elsewhere, while also offering some good news. The study did not identify greater risks of long-term problems in people with asymptomatic coronavirus infections. It also found, in a much more limited subset of participants who had been given at least one dose of Covid vaccine before their infections, that vaccination appeared to help reduce if not eliminate the risk of some long Covid symptoms. People with severe initial Covid cases were at higher risk of long-term problems, the study found.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SpaceX's donations of Starlink satellite service to Ukraine might not last much longer. CNN says it obtained documents indicating that SpaceX sent a letter to the Defense Department in September claiming the company is "not in a position" to fund Starlink internet in Ukraine as it has without tens of millions of dollars in monthly funding. The company estimated that data access for the Ukranian government and military might cost $124 million for the rest of 2022 and almost $380 million per year, and asked the Pentagon to take over that financing.

Elon Musk elaborated on the reasoning in a tweet on Friday. SpaceX couldn't afford to fund the current infrastructure "indefinitely" while simultaneously delivering more Starlink terminals and managing data use "100X greater" than typical homes, Musk claimed. The satellite technology has not only been used to coordinate Ukranian military campaigns, but can be used to provide data to cell towers and other civilian networks that serve many people. The executive added that the "burn" was close to $20 million per month and included the cost of defending against Russian "cyberattacks & jamming."

The documents apparently contradict one of Musk's earlier claims, however. Where he said last week that only a "small percentage" of Starlink terminals and service received external funding, the letter suggests about 85 percent of the 20,000 Ukraine systems at the time (now 25,000) were at least partly funded by the US, Poland and others. A leak in April indicated that the US had already spent millions to get Starlink hardware to Ukraine. Even so, resources may have been tight. Ukranian commander General Valerii Zaluzhniy directly asked Musk to provide close to 8,000 additional terminals in July, but SpaceX answered by pointing the military leader to the Defense Department.

Word of the letter comes at a bad moment for Musk. He recently drew flak from Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky and diplomat Andrij Melnyk for proposing a peace deal that included conceding the illegally annexed Crimea region to Russia. Musk even half-joked his firm was "just following [Melnyk's] recommendation" to "fuck off" following the proposal. We'd add that Musk's net worth of roughly $220 billion is more than Ukraine's 2021 GDP — there have been numerous calls for the entrepreneur to personally fund Starlink service. There are doubts SpaceX is fully committed to supporting Ukraine's fight against Russia, and the funding request doesn't help matters.

"The Rings of Power" may not have been the "Lord of the Rings" TV show we were expecting, but by the end of its first season, the show proved to be the "Lord of the Rings" TV show we needed. Like the Peter Jackson movies, it drastically changes the source material, moves events and characters around, and otherwise alters the lore to tell its own version of the story.

Some of these changes were for the worse, particularly the keeping things secret to the audience in order to force a mystery around the identity of Sauron and The Stranger. Other changes, however, managed to make the TV show feel like its own version of the tales, grabbing what works best and adapting the rest to fit the medium. And much like with the movie trilogy, you can see some of the changes becoming the new canon in the mind of fans.

One example of this is the show's portrayal of the Dark Lord Sauron. Though his identity ended up being the single most predictable answer imaginable, it was fine, because we just got the best Sauron we could have possibly got, and it's all thanks to [REDACTED].

Full spoilers for the season one finale of "The Rings of Power."

It's All 'Who Is Sauron? Not 'How Is Sauron?'

So, it ended up being true that H=S. Halbrand, the pretty boy from the Southlands, ended up being Sauron the hot evil Maia and future collector of fine jewelry. This was the obvious choice, considering how many ominous lines Halbrand dropped throughout the season, from saying that "appearances can be deceptive," to telling Galadriel he once did evil deeds and stole the kingly crest of the Southlands from a dead man.

Now, this storyline changes a lot from the books, starting with the idea of Sauron the deceiver. If you think about it, he technically never lies in this season. Halbrand hides the full truth, sure, but he never outright lies, he just happens to be surrounded by imbeciles who instantly trust this guy. Likewise, by already showing us the reveal of Halbrand being Sauron, and Galadriel casting him out of Eregion, "The Rings of Power" seems to be skipping the entire story of Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. In the books, Sauron disguised himself as an emissary of the Valar, and tricked Celebrimbor into making the titular 19 rings of power.

And yet, the moment Halbrand enters Eregion and starts speaking to Celebrimbor, he stops being human and fully becomes the Dark Lord Sauron, with Charlie Vickers delivering one of the best subtle changes in a character's demeanor since Bryan Cranston's Walter White told Hank to "tread lightly," or since Christopher Reeve went back and forth between Superman and Clark Kent in a single scene. 

He's Something Of A Smith Himself

Halbrand's demeanor, the pitch of his voice, and his pose all change the moment he meets Celebrimbor, as Sauron the Deceiver starts manipulating the elf through praises, without even hiding the fact that he is more familiar with elven craftmanship than any human should be. Halbrand mentions how the "master" he used to apprentice to was a fan of Celebrimbor's craft, referring to Aulë, the smith who created the Two Lamps of the Valar. When he tells Celebrimbor of the secret to smithing using mithril, and calls his suggestion "a gift" (a reference to his role as Annatar) Vickers delivers the line in what can only be described as the Middle-earth version of Horatio Caine putting on his sunglasses before The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" starts playing in the background.

This is the scene that sells Vickers as the perfect version of Sauron, and the show's decision to turn the Dark Lord into a human man (for now). That's because it still makes sense for the story as a whole. Sauron still participated in the creation of the rings, without having an input in the creation of the three elven rings. Galadriel suspects him, but no one else knows his identity because she kept it secret, so Celebrimbor can easily be persuaded to once again accept Halbrand's "gifts" later on.

Not The Sauron Story We Expected, But The One We Needed

More importantly, through Halbrand's story, his relationship with Galadriel and his speech to her, "The Rings of Power" pays homage to Tolkien's writing about Sauron's supposed repentance without actually making us feel sympathy for the Lord of Mordor. We don't know if he is genuine in his feelings or if he's just afraid of punishment from the Valar, but Vickers sells the conflict in Sauron, and manages to almost trick us into falling for him.

This may not be the Sauron story we expected, but it is the Sauron story we needed: a different, yet familiar, and ultimately faithful-to-the-novels adaptation that finally brings the Dark Lord Sauron to Middle-earth in physical form.

Read this next: The Best Easter Eggs In The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Episodes 1 And 2

The post The Rings of Power Scene that Proved [REDACTED] Is the Perfect Sauron appeared first on /Film.

Warning: major spoilers below for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" finale.

From the moment "The Rings of Power" first graced our screens, the (true) identity of Sauron was the question on everyone's lips. The fact that the dark lord is a notorious master of disguise injected the series with an exhilarating twinge of mystery. No one was exempt from the Sauron allegations, and with the series playing into our healthy paranoia with new hints and red herrings at every turn, it made an event out of tuning in each week.

The "Rings of Power" finale effectively answers the mystery it teased out for eight episodes, and it's exactly as most feared: Sauron is none other than Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), the supposed king of the Southlands. Such a revelation might have thrown a wrench into the promising dynamic blossoming between Halbrand and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), since the latter pledged her life to hunting the last remnants of Sauron on Middle-earth. If you ask me though, that just makes said dynamic all the more poetic ... and super, super hot. That Halbrand (or Sauron ... should we start calling him Sauron now?) tries so hard to seduce Galadriel to his side invokes some of the most popular tropes in fantasy romance. But after all that, should we be interpreting their dynamic as romantic at all? According to Vickers himself, it's probably best not to.

The Sea And The Sun

Vickers recently spoke to Variety about Halbrand/Sauron's shifting dynamic with Galadriel, especially in light of their charged temptation scene in the finale. Clearly, the two awaken something in each other that neither has recognized in another person in a very long time. "There must be something thrilling for him in meeting someone that's close to his level in terms of power and age and aura that must get his blood pumping," Vickers explained. "Inevitably, it brings him back toward his darkness and Galadriel doesn't realize it at the time, but she draws the lust for power out of him again."

Again, it's very easy to see the romantic implications in that. But for Vickers, the two characters are drawn together by a different force entirely. "I don't think of theirs as a romantic connection, but as a cosmic connection," Vickers admitted. "Morfydd taught me the word 'shipping' the other day, which I had no idea about. I think it's awesome that people have been reading into it, but my view on this scene is that it's for his own gain." Unfortunately, Sauron's aims begin and end with his quest for power, not a partner:

"When he says, 'Join me as a queen,' it's not to be misinterpreted as romantic ... He's thinking in this moment, 'If she joins me, it'll help me to enact my plan and it'll happen faster.' When she resists him, it angers him, but it's not the end of the world.

Binded By The Light

It pains me to say it, but Vickers makes a good point. Even if Sauron were interested in seducing Galadriel — better yet, if he actually cared about her at all — their partnership would undoubtedly be short-lived. When he offers to rule Middle-earth side-by-side, he does so out of fear of losing the power Galadriel possesses. "[T]hat's what she is to him in that moment," Vickers told The Hollywood Reporter. "She's a means for him returning to power with her by his side. That will be more effective in the short term, but I think in the long run, he will not be happy unless he is in power and alone."

As fun as it will always be to root for a pairing like Galadriel and Sauron's, there's probably no longer a place for it in "The Rings of Power." With Sauron headed to conquer his kingdom in Mordor, and Galadriel sacrificing everything anew to defend the elves from darkness, their paths may not cross again. That said, I'm still hoping for another showdown between these two crazy kids in a future season. You can't let all that chemistry go to waste!

The first season of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

Read this next: The Best Lord Of The Rings Characters Who Weren't In The Movies

The post The Rings of Power's Charles Vickers Doesn't Believe That Scene with Galadriel Was Romantic appeared first on /Film.

On the set of "Full Metal Jacket," life (unfortunately) imitated art. In Stanley Kubrick's 1987 war film, Private J.T. "Joker" Davis (Matthew Modine) and Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio) are thrown together by their drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey), who singles out Pyle as a target for bullying and berating. While Joker initially succeeds in helping Pyle improve by adopting a kinder, more patient approach, Hartman's sadistic tactics and peer pressure from the other recruits soon drive a wedge between them.

After being subjected to abuse by Hartman and brutal hazing by the other recruits, Pyle's mental health takes a terrifying turn for the worst, culminating in a violent outburst. But it was Modine who was almost driven to violence on-set, as he and D'Onofrio's contrasting creative approaches put them at odds with each other.

"I really wanted to [kill D'Onofrio]," Modine confessed to The Independent. He recalled that he even acted on those urges a little in a scene where Pyle is pinned down and Joker joins the other recruits in beating him with a knotted towel: 

"In the film, I give him a couple of whacks, stop, and then give him a few more. I often wonder if that was, 'Here's a couple for the movie, and here's a couple more from me, you f*****.'"

Modine didn't seriously hurt his co-star, but he did rough him up a bit. "We were doing it take after take. Poor Vince was covered in bruises," Modine added remorsefully.

D'Onofrio's Method Acting Freaked Out His Co-Star

Before starring in "Full Metal Jacket" together, Modine and D'Onofrio were actually very friendly. In fact, it was Modine who got D'Onofrio an audition for the movie. 

"Vince and I had met at an audition a couple of years before 'Full Metal Jacket,'" Modine recalled in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. When Kubrick told his lead actor that he was in search of someone to play Pyle, Modine recommended D'Onofrio. He credits D'Onofrio himself with actually landing the role, though: "All I did was open the door, and it was obviously Vince who had to walk through the door and convince Stanley Kubrick that he was the right actor to play the part."

The tension between Modine and D'Onofrio first arose from their contrasting acting styles. "He was studying with somebody from Lee Strasberg's school, and I was studying with Stella Adler," Modine explained. "Stella said that actors should work from their imagination, and Lee Strasberg said that you should work a different way ... a sort of theater of realism."

Once the two actors got on set, their varying creative approaches caused a rift between them. Modine found D'Onofrio's method totally disconcerting. "He just got weirder and weirder as he went into the world his character was entering into," the actor said. Meanwhile, D'Onofrio seemed to think that Modine wasn't as committed as he was, and chastised him for goofing around with extras between takes. 

"I asked him: 'What are you gonna do if I don't stop joking around?" And Vince goes, 'Well, I'm gonna kick your a**,'" Modine recounted, per The Independent. "That was the end of our friendship for the rest of the shoot."

Modine And D'Onofrio Later Rekindled Their Friendship

Pyle and Joker have a troubled relationship in "Full Metal Jacket," so it makes sense that the actors did too. Their contrasting acting schools drove a wedge between them before the film even began. "[D'Onofrio] had the school that he was going to, versus me working from the imagination, and as it got closer to Vince entering into the role of Private Pyle, our friendship started to separate," Modine explained to The Hollywood Reporter.

The distance and silence between them soon evolved into anger. "We stopped talking to one another to the point where we became so antagonistic toward each other," Modine recalled. "In many of those scenes where I'm teaching him how to make his bed or lace his boots or take apart and then reassemble a rifle, we wanted to kill each other. We were just so fed up and angry with each other."

"Full Metal Jacket" may have caused a rift in their friendship, but Modine knew that this tension made the conflict between their characters more believable onscreen. "I think it worked well for the film," the actor conceded. And luckily, the real-life story of their friendship has a much happier ending than poor Pyle's fate in the movie. "We're friends today," Modine confirmed. "We're very good friends and love one another. But yeah, during the making of the movie, it got really ugly."

Read this next: The 30 Greatest War Films Of All Time, Ranked

The post Matthew Modine And Vincent D'Onofrio Couldn't Stand Each Other On The Set Of Full Metal Jacket appeared first on /Film.

The problem with prequels is that you're limited by the knowledge of what happens next. This means you can only have so many surprises, and so many avenues to take the characters and story in. No matter what, you already know Anakin Skywalker will turn bad, and that the Jedi would be all but extinct by the end of "Star Wars" prequels, you know the apes would eventually take over the planet, and you know Sauron will eventually take over Mordor before being defeated in "Lord of the Rings." These are just the rules of the game. 

"The Rings of Power" is a show that does a lot to do justice to professor Tolkien's legendarium, and it does things the Peter Jackson movies never could, like expand on Tolkien's love of song and poetry, his obsession with trees, and his anti-war sentiments. 

But the show also changes the lore and story in significant ways, from condensing the story, changing the characters, and even breaking the single biggest rule from "Lord of the Rings."

Spoilers for "The Rings of Power" season 1 finale.

Apparently, One Does Simply Walk Into Mordor

The first season of "The Rings of Power" showed the origin of many elements from the movies, from the first eruption of Mount Doom and how it turned Mordor from a fertile and beautiful land into a hellscape, to the titular rings. We also saw the beginning of Sauron's journey to reclaim strength and corrupt the elves.

Though the identity of Sauron was not surprising, we did get a truly shocking reveal at the end of the season finale, as we see Halbrand wearing a cool and angsty black coat and entering Mordor, which he'll make his home. This is all well and good, and teases a confrontation between Sauron and Adar, but if you look closely you'll notice a tiny but significant detail: Halbrand is not on horseback, he is not mounting a fellbeast, he is on foot, entering Mordor. 

He literally just walked into Mordor.

What the hell, "Rings of Power?" Do you care not for tradition? Do you despise the source material? There is a lot we don't know about Middle-earth, but we do know one thing with absolute certainty: one does not simply walk into Mordor. Yet the show has Halbrand just going right through the front door on foot like nothing's happening? For shame. Canon ruined. Worst show ever.

What's next, showing us eagles flying around Mount Doom carrying hobbits around? Showing us the harfoots refuse to eat second breakfast? What about an orc refusing to look at the menu because there is no meatless option?

Adaptations are hard and we should allow room for interpretation and change, but some things are sacred. When adapting a beloved work of fiction, do not be like "Rings of Power" and show the Dark Lord of Mordor walk right into his home.

Read this next: Every Fellowship Of The Ring Member From Lord Of The Rings Ranked

The post The Rings of Power Broke the Biggest Rule From Lord of the Rings appeared first on /Film.

Season 1 of the most expensive TV show ever made is in the bag, and I have some thoughts on The Rings of Power.

The White House is coordinating a five-year research plan to study ways of modifying the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth to temper the effects of global warming, a process sometimes called solar geoengineering or sunlight reflection. From a report: The research plan will assess climate interventions, including spraying aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back into space, and should include goals for research, what's necessary to analyze the atmosphere, and what impact these kinds of climate interventions may have on Earth, according to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Congress directed the research plan be produced in its spending plan for 2022, which President Joe Biden signed in March. Some of the techniques, such as spraying sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, are known to have harmful effects on the environment and human health. But scientists and climate leaders who are concerned that humanity will overshoot its emissions targets say research is important to figure out how best to balance these risks against a possibly catastrophic rise in the Earth's temperature. Getting ready to research a topic is a very preliminary step, but it's notable the White House is formally engaging with what has largely been seen as the stuff of dystopian fantasy. In Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction novel, "The Ministry for the Future," a heat wave in India kills 20 million people and out of desperation, India decides to implement its own strategy of limiting the sunlight that gets to Earth. Chris Sacca, the founder of climate tech investment fund Lowercarbon Capital, said it's prudent for the White House to be spearheading the research effort.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Warning: major spoilers below for the season finale of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has a lot going for it, but if any aspect of the series has baffled me, it's its sense of pace. The show's many plotlines seem to gain incredible momentum, only to let it dissipate unexpectedly before ramping up again later. It's kept its connections to J.R.R. Tolkien's text pretty ambiguous, until the moments it suddenly reveals hugely important references to its roots. But the show's first season finale pretty deftly side-stepped the poor pacing allegations by delivering a satisfying, surprising, and heartfelt conclusion that revealed the secret identities of two of its major characters.

According to showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay and Halbrand actor Charlie Vickers, the Sauron reveal was always going to come at the end of the season. Why? Well, if the world-class deceiver was able to trick the people of Middle-earth into following him multiple times, it only makes sense for him to trick some of us too, right? "We didn't want to make a show that was about the hunt for Sauron, but we love the idea of Sauron as a deceiver who could, hopefully, deceive some of the audience," McKay told The Hollywood Reporter in the wake of the finale.

A Sauron Origin Story

He also explained that it was important that Sauron come across as a real person, as opposed to some faceless, looming evil. "We felt Sauron should be a character in his own right," he explained. "We wanted to study the currents running within him in a way that hopefully would reward audiences as they follow him moving forward as he becomes the Dark Lord." McKay goes on to say that the writers wanted viewers to know him as more than a name, and that season 1 in some way serves as "an origin story for Sauron."

Although the time period covered in season 1 doesn't actually line up with the very beginning of Sauron's story, it does adhere to a specific point in the villain's personal timeline of tyranny. "You have to think of it in terms of where we're meeting Sauron during his repentance stage. Tolkien says pretty explicitly in the 'The Silmarillion' that he is repentant — if not out of fear," Vickers told THR, referencing back to Sauron's textual roots. "So the question is not whether he was repentant, it was whether that repentance was genuine."

Vickers also addresses one of the questions Tolkien fans might have about the man formerly known as Halbrand, saying:

"Because I do think, "Well, why would the second-greatest Tolkien villain, in terms of power, why would he be getting a job as a smith in Númenor?" If his repentance is genuine, then he is seeking a new life and trying to really run away from evil. But if his repentance is not genuine, if he's faking it, then perhaps it's a tactic where he can buy some time and make himself look busy in Númenor while he waits for things to unfold."

Penance Or Manipulation?

The actor says he played the character with just one of these two interpretations in mind, but appreciates that both are possibilities. He also cites Halbrand's entrance -- as a castaway at sea -- as an example of him being "brought low," and "humiliated, almost humbled." As for his role as a smith, Vickers says it's a craft both Sauron and Halbrand know well, so it makes sense for him to lie low while taking on the job he's known for while he bides his time -- or repents, if you buy that story. "Tolkien talks of Sauron re-emerging, and that he lingered in Middle-earth for a long time, and very slowly came back to power," Vickers tells THR. "These are the words he used."

If the first season of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" could be summed up in a quote, it wouldn't be one by Tolkien, but by the French essayist and poet Charles Baudelaire. "The greatest trick the devil pulled," the most famous translation of his story "The Generous Gambler" says, "was convincing the world he doesn't exist." The same could be said of Sauron, hidden in plain sight. In the end, for all of fans' guesswork and prognostication, it still turned out to be a pretty great trick.

Season 1 of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is now available in its entirety on Prime Video.

Read this next: 13 Fantasy Shows Like The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power You Should Check Out

The post Why Sauron Didn't Reveal Himself Until The Rings of Power Season Finale appeared first on /Film.

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Details have emerged about a now-patched security flaw in Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) that could be exploited by an attacker to gain elevated permissions on compromised machines. Tracked as CVE-2022-37969 (CVSS score: 7.8), the issue was addressed by Microsoft as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for September 2022, while also noting that it was being actively exploited in the wild. "

Fans of weird and eerie German movies, rejoice! Your Halloween spooky viewing has arrived, and it's carved out a steady spot in Netflix's Top 10 trending watches. "Old People" is German-Romanian filmmaker Andy Fetscher's horror thriller wherein the old eat the young, bludgeon them, and sometimes vomit on them. It's the sort of concept that M. Night Shyamalan would have a field day with (and did, with "The Visit"), but Fetscher adds more chaos and a cadre of monsters at the door.

A title card at the opening reads:

In times of yore, an avenging spirit was thought to inhabit old people. A dark power that took possession of the frailest members of the clan and drive them into a seemingly blind rage.

That's right – this is functionally an elderly rage-zombie movie. What a time to be alive.

 

At its core, the story focuses on generational disconnect by observing lonely elders, excluded from local festivities, going feral from FOMO. Ella (Melika Foroutan) returns to her remote hometown with her two children for her sister's wedding. Despite the lack of invitations (and it's assumed that no +1's are allowed, either), a gaggle of older nursing home residents hear the reception revelry and decide to grab some weapons and crash the party anyway, racking up a few bodies in the process. What follows upon their arrival is post-wedding mayhem, a free-for-all that rivals the zombie wedding massacre of Paco Plaza's "[REC]3: Genesis" (which is hard to beat; that one has a chainsaw involved). To paraphrase Roddy Piper, the geezers came to chew bubble gum and kill youths, and they're all out of bubble gum.

Respect Your Elders...or Else

The movie is so conceptually wild that it confirms how good horror fans have it these days — there was a time when folks would have to search every nerdy nook and cranny to find a movie wherein a neglected grandfather bludgeons a bride and groom on their wedding night. It's part of a wave of elderly repulsion that's shown up in a few horror movies of late; elderly bodies, often presented as grotesque in some way, have wreaked havoc in Ari Aster's "Hereditary" and "Midsommar," Natalie Erika James' "Relic," and "Anything For Jackson," all the way up to the unhinged, pitchfork-wielding Pearl in Ti West's "X."

"Old People" isn't Fetscher's first feature; the Munich-born filmmaker graduated from the German Film Academy in Ludwigsburg with thesis film "Bukarest Fleisch," a TV horror movie that appears to feature cannibalism, perhaps an Eastern-European iteration of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." In 2011, Fetscher's "Urban Explorer," a.k.a "The Depraved," arrived to watch young folks enter spaces they've got no business being in and suffer the consequences – this time in subterranean Berlin catacombs formerly used by the Nazis. The movie stars Nathalie Kelley and Nick Eversman as leaders of the doomed trespassing expedition and like most of his work so far, Fetscher earned multiple credits as cinematographer and editor as well as directing Martin Thau's screenplay. Check out the trailer here:

"Urban Explorer" fits snugly into the sort of high-octane category where "Hostel" and "The Hills Have Eyes," and the movie earned a handful of trophies upon its run at Screamfest in Los Angeles including Best Picture – an award previously held by the unapologetically foul Tom Six feature "The Human Centipede (First Sequence)" in 2009 and Kim Jee-woon's "A Tale of Two Sisters" in 2003.

Monster Mashes And Graveyard Smashes

Netflix has attracted some static — now viewers will be able to pay to watch commercials before and during their streaming in an affordable "ad-supported" version of the service. But one thing the streaming giant has gotten right is its robust selection of horror movies; crucial in October, to be sure, but subscribers can find big studio fare and rediscovered indie features, and plenty of horizon-expanding foreign horror.

"Old People" is just a taste; for more German scares, look to vampires on a plane thriller "Blood Red Sky" on Netflix, featuring Alexander Scheer's sneering turn as a loose-cannon terrorist named 8-Ball (think John Malkovich as Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom in "Con Air").

Moving over to France, the French-Belgian horror comedy "Girls With Balls" pits a women's volleyball team against mountain people who want to play the Most Dangerous Game, with cartoonish gore and plenty of arterial spray to paint the town red. "The Swarm" is another recent French-language gem, slower-burning than "Girls With Balls" but based on another incredible premise — bloodsucking bugs.

There's enough Asian horror to go around for those looking for more supernatural spooks; highlights include Timo Tjahjanto's 2018 Satanic horror shriekfest "May the Devil Take You," which has since gotten a sequel and remains a highlight of the Indonesian horror genre. South Korea's greatest entry on Netflix is "Kingdom," a visual feast of a political period-horror series that puts "The Walking Dead" to shame — "House of Cards," but with zombies. 

Finally, the crown gem of Netflix's non-English speaking horror section is "Incantation," Kevin So's Taiwanese found-footage horror which arrived on streaming this summer. What sets it apart from its brethren is its early and strong insistence upon audience participation, immersing everyone in its well-intentioned curse from the first lines.

Happy viewing and remember — lights out, sound up!

Read this next: The Horror Movies We Can't Wait To See In 2022

The post The German Horror Film That's Taking Netflix's Top 10 By Storm appeared first on /Film.

George Romero has accrued well-earned praise over his 50-plus-year career. The "Godfather of the Dead" made a splash in 1968 with one of the first midnight movies, "The Night of the Living Dead," introducing audiences to the prototype for what we would recognize as the modern-day zombie: shuffling around, eating people, must be shot in the head, that sort of thing. His filmography is extensive enough to get its own Wikipedia page which includes further "Dead" movies over the decades – "Dawn of," "Day of," Land of," and the maligned "Diary of" — as well as the odd Dario Argento or Stephen King collaboration (as well as one that Could Have Been).

The latter worked with Romero over the years on the classic anthology "Creepshow" (King writes, Romero directs) and in adapting his own 1989 novel "The Dark Half" for the big screen four years later. Among the accolades, the multi-hyphenate received over his career and prior to his death in 2017, Romero's favorite came from a "Dark Half" review by critic Vincent Canby of the New York Times. He tells Filmmaker Magazine:

"As a filmmaker, there have been a couple of people who have written about my stuff that I think give it too much credit. [Vincent] Canby's review of 'The Dark Half' was probably the review I appreciated most because no one liked that movie and Canby was the only guy who saw what I was trying to do with it, and was able to get past Steve King. I mean, I got blamed by all these reviewers, and I got blamed because of Steve! [laughs] It was like, 'Steve, what are you doing to me here?!'"

There Are Two Wolves Inside Of You. One Wears More Hair Mousse.

"The Dark Half" is what Canby calls, "another nightmare vision by the best-selling author, who is fond of meditating, in his own singular way, on the cost and dimensions of his success." It concerns Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton, performing against type), a novelist who tries to retire his pen name, George Stark, which he uses to write bestselling murder mysteries. When Stark emerges in the flesh, he resembles Evil Ernest in "Ernest Goes to Jail" – slicked-back hair and a nasty grin separate Good Thad from Bad Thad. He terrorizes Thad's family until the two finally confront each other for supremacy. It's crisp, grim, and features a bonus Michael Rooker playing a cop!

Side note: King dedicated "The Dark Half" novel to "the late Richard Bachman," his own pseudonym used to write some of his greatest works like "The Regulators."

Canby's review is even-handed and filled with nuanced praise. He describes Romero's films as "so beautifully done that Hitchcock might have admired them, or at least their technical facility." What he appreciates the most is how well it works as one of the few solid King adaptations. Canby writes:

Only Stanley Kubrick has ever adapted a King novel ("The Shining") in such a way that the ending remains as satisfyingly spooky as the beginning. "The Dark Half" is not in the same league with "The Shining," but it out-distances every other King adaptation I've seen. Unlike Mr. Kubrick, Mr. Romero observes the conventions of the horror-film genre, but he observes them with inventive humor, and he holds off on the fancier special effects until virtually the last minute.

Conventional horror with humor and discipline, eh? Canby might as well have been describing any Romero work.

Read this next: All 59 Stephen King Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post The One Review That George Romero Appreciated The Most appeared first on /Film.

[Update 2] English Elden Ring 1.07 patch notes are now live. You can find them here.

[Update] The Elden Ring 1.07 patch notes are now live on From Software Official Japanese website, confirming a huge list of balance changes and a new feature that is set to change PvP quite a bit: damage scaling.

[Original Story] A new Elden Ring patch is now live following scheduled server maintenance, bringing the game's version to 1.07.

While the patch has been live for over an hour already, full notes have yet to be shared, so we do not know much about the changes it has brought to the game. Reddit user TheEldenCasual spotted a change for the Elden Stars Incantation FP cost, which has been lowered to 41 FP instead of 47, so it seems like this update brings balance changes. We will update this post once From Software releases the full patch notes.

Elden Ring launched earlier this year on PC and consoles, and it has since become one of the most popular games released by From Software. All the success is definitely deserved, as the game is an amazing open-world action role-playing game, as I highlighted in my review.

I tried hard to find any faults in Elden Ring, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find any outside of some technical issues that the developers could fix via patches. I firmly believe that perfection doesn't exist and that it is always possible to improve, but I really couldn't think of anything that Elden Ring could have done better. As such, the game wholly deserves a perfect score, an honor I would have given only to a couple of other modern games, not only for its extremely high quality but also for what it accomplished with its open world and for how it will surely influence video games as a whole in the future.

Elden Ring is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One worldwide.

The post [UPDATE: Patch Notes] Elden Ring 1.07 Patch is Now Live Globally by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.