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There will be spoilers for "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" in this article.

Wanda Maximoff, known by her nom de guerre as the Scarlet Witch, is one of the most powerful characters in the entire Marvel Universe. In the 616-universe (the comic book 616 universe, not the cinematic 616-universe) she was believed to be the daughter of Magneto and is the twin of Pietro Maximoff — Quicksilver. She has unnaturally strong magical abilities and can rewrite reality itself.

Using a spell to alter reality, she fashioned a pair of twin boys to form a family with her husband, the android Vision. When the spell broke, her boys vanished, and Vision was dismantled, trauma took over for Wanda and her grip on reality became tenuous. When trauma and mental illness mix with the ability to control reality, bad things can happen. Professor Charles Xavier did what he could to keep her sedated, but a gathering of heroes of Earth had to decide her fate and thought that a mercy killing might be in order. But Wanda snapped and altered reality completely, creating an entirely different universe where the House of M reigned. The superheroes who could remember their previous realities fought back against Wanda and she changed reality once more, whispering, "No more mutants..." This single act rewrote the entire 616-universe and mutants became a scarcity.

For many years, Wanda rejoined the Avengers, haunted by her actions and seeking redemption to set right the things she'd done.

The fact that she could snap in a moment and rewrite reality is proof of her ultimate power.

WandaVision

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some of these events have definitely come to pass. In the television show "WandaVision" on Disney+, Wanda definitely grapples with the grief of Vision's death by retreating into a fantasy world of her own making. Naturally, she created her twin boys and fell in love with being a mother and wife in her idyllic television life.

This all came crashing down as Wanda began to realize what harm she had caused the citizens of Westview that she had trapped into playing parts in her world. Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch, came to take her power, but Wanda defeated her and retreated to the woods where she acquired a copy of the Darkhold — an unspeakably evil book full of spells for dark magic that come at a cost.

Marvel's producing brainchild, Kevin Feige, has often said that the comics are the north star for the cinematic universe. In a Reddit AMA, he said that one of the cornerstones of Marvel's success on the big screen was to, "Respect the source material."

Knowing this, many fans had specific ideas of what might come next for Wanda. Would we see this as a way to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes colliding into the cinematic 616 universe? Would Wanda break things before going on a tour of redemption, rejoining the Avengers? Would Wanda be allowed to process her grief and find forgiveness for the things she had done?

Fans needed to wait and see until we got to "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness."

The Multiverse Of Madness

"Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" casts Wanda as the de facto villain of the story. Her drive to invade the multiverse in order to find a reality where she can be with her children is an overriding goal that has taken over every bit of good sense that Wanda has. Doctor Strange and America Chavez fight across the multiverse to try to stop her before she can bring multiple realities crashing down around them.

As Wanda takes increasingly destructive steps toward reuniting with her children in a different universe, the very fabric of reality is threatened. The film casts Wanda as the big bad, putting her on par with Madds Mikkelsen's Kaecilius in the first Doctor Strange film. Granted, Strange approaches Wanda with more empathy in this film, he gives her a chance to right the wrongs she's committed against reality on her own. The film ends in a neat and tidy bow, with Wanda having apparently died in a noble, self-sacrificial bid to destroy every version of the Darkhold across every plane of reality in the multiverse so that no one can misuse it again. Sure, it's heroic, but the status quo of the reality-bending multiverse is reset back to the cinematic-616 status quo at the end of the film.

Like a sitcom, it feels as though nothing has changed and the universe goes back to normal.

Pulled Punches Or More To Come?

With the long history of Wanda in the comics, this very much feels like it was a pulled punch in the grand scheme of things. Kevin Feige and the braintrust at Marvel had the opportunity to do something world-shattering with Wanda on the board and instead reset back to its pre-multiverse normal.

But with "WandaVision" mirroring a sitcom, maybe there's a method to their "Madness." Have they pulled a punch? Or do they really have bigger things planned for Wanda as the Marvel universe rolls forward into its fourth phase? There is no reason to think that Wanda absolutely died destroying the Darkhold across the multiverse, and there's nothing that says that she killed every iteration of herself. There are still plenty of opportunities for Marvel to bring her back and respect Wanda's source material, giving her something to do to shake things up even further. If not, this "Multiverse of Madness" will end up as nothing more than a discrete adventure that doesn't add to the larger whole, no matter how entertaining Sam Raimi made it.

"Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" is in theaters everywhere now.

Read this next: Every MCU Post-Credits Sequence Ranked From Worst To Best

The post  Did Marvel Just Pull Its Biggest Punch With Wanda — Or Are They Planning Something Bigger? appeared first on /Film.

It's always an exciting time when a popular book series is adapted into a television show, leading a new generation of fans to get acquainted with the source material. It's more exciting when Henry Cavill is leading it. The story of Netflix's Polish-American fantasy drama "The Witcher," starring the former "Man of Steel" star as a mutated monster-hunter for hire, first gained popularity thanks to the video games set in the same fantasy universe (think of it as a sequel to the books). 

But the stories set against the backdrop of the Continent initially began in the pages of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's series of novels, which have sold over 30 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 20 languages. Thanks to Netflix's adaptation (which has earned a mark approval from Sapkowski himself), the books have grown extremely popular in the last few years. If you ever decide to experience "The Witcher" universe by its pages, you ought to know that it's slightly complicated — there are specific short stories that you must read before the saga begins. It can get overwhelming to figure out where to start (and trust me, I've been there), so we're compiling a guide with the proper reading order for "The Witcher" books to guarantee you have a stellar reading experience.

The Last Wish

Before writing "The Witcher" books, Sapkowski wrote a short story collection in the 1980s (that he entered into a competition) that was based on Eastern European folklore and set the very foundations of the adventures of Geralt of Rivia. Despite being published a year after "Sword of Destiny," "The Last Wish" is a prequel text that contains seven short stories following Geralt resting in a temple as he heals from an injury. While he regains his health at Melitele, he has flashbacks to various events in his life, including his deadly battle with a striga, an encounter with a man cursed to look like a beast, the tale of Ciri's parents, and his first meeting with Yennefer after an altercation with a djinn. "The Last Wish" is an excellent introduction to "The Witcher" universe and the events that follow, so you should read this one first!

Sword Of Destiny

"Sword of Destiny" introduces a new group of characters that later become major players in "The Witcher" universe. The short story collection acquaints readers with Ciri, describing essential events such as the fall of Cintra at the hand of the Nilfgaardians. It serves as a direct prequel to the original novels and focuses on Geralt coming to terms with his destiny being tied to Ciri and Yennefer. "The Last Wish" and "Sword of Destiny" primarily comprise the events featured in Netflix's first season of Netflix's adaptation. The prequel also contains shorter tales that follow Geralt on a hunt for a dragon, his search for Ciri, and his ultimate reunion with his child surprise.

Once you've read "The Last Wish" and "Sword of Destiny," you're ready to move on to the rest of "The Witcher" saga — the novels!

Blood Of Elves

The first book in "The Witcher" saga, "Blood of Elves," witnesses Ciri training as a witcher under Geralt's direction while a threat of war hangs over her land. Her relationship with Yennefer is also explored in the book, and several characters, including the Emperor of Nilfgaard, Emhyr (who seeks to find and marry Ciri to establish his rule over Cintra), are introduced. Despite the threat to Ciri's life, she and Geralt remain in Kaer Morhen, the old, remote keep where witchers used to live and train. The book also discusses a mysterious sorcerer who is trying to locate Ciri. The inhabitants of the Continent — main characters included — are soon embroiled in a state of total war as the Continent's political situation declines, with danger looming above them all. The second season of the Netflix adaptation covers most of this book.

The Time Of Contempt

"The Time of Contempt" begins right where its predecessor left off. The conclave of Northern Kings still conspires to lure Nilgaard into war right when Ciri is expected to be enrolled at Aretuza to begin her study of magic. She meets with the most powerful conjurers on the Continent, but as war inches closer, Ciri finds herself on the run and is taken in by a group of bandits. On the other hand, Geralt finds himself caught up in a coup within the magical community after he attends a gathering of mages and meets with the sorcerer Vilgefortz.

Baptism Of Fire

In Sapkowski's third, thrilling entry into "The Witcher" universe, the future of magic is under threat. Geralt is gravely injured after a dangerous coup shatters the Wizards Guild. Geralt has always been a guardian and a protector of the world against monsters that prey on the innocent, but this time, the witcher is left helpless until he recuperates from his injuries. To add to the impossible situation, war wages across the Continent, terrorizing men and children and endangering sorcerers determined to safeguard their magic. Geralt finds himself struggling to protect his child surprise — Ciri — who has disappeared. When rumors reveal the Princess of Cintra's location, Geralt assembles a group of ragtag characters and sets off on a rescue mission, disregarding his own safety.

Side note: This is the book where Geralt earns his "of Rivia" title!

The Tower Of Swallows

When the fourth book in "The Witcher" series begins, war has engulfed the world. Ciri is being hunted by every key player on the Continent, while Geralt and his gang continue working towards rescuing her. At the same time, the Princess moves in with a man named Vysogota and shares her life story, including her recent run-in with a bounty hunter. Yennefer searches for the sorcerer Vilgefortz and the details of Ciri's prophecy become clear. That's pretty much all I can say without giving away too many spoilers ... because many things happen in this book that advances at breakneck speed.

The Lady Of The Lake

In the concluding chapter of "The Witcher" saga, Ciri is transported to an Elven realm, where the elves reveal their grand plans for the Princess and the power that exists within her. A fellow sorcerer captures Yennefer for their own means, and Geralt still looks for a way back to the child tied to him by destiny. The war between the Northern territories and Nilfgaard continues (really, it never stops). "The Lady of the Lake" is teeming with political scheming, the uncertainty of living in a world torn by war, and the effort it takes to form order. The final book in the series asks meaningful questions about the nature of war and politics, gives us the perspective of multiple other characters, and makes massive revelations that can make or break everything you know about "The Witcher" universe. But is it a satisfying conclusion to the long-running series? That's a decision for the reader to make.

Season Of Storms

Though "Season of Storms" isn't a sequel to "The Witcher" books — it is set between the stories in the first short story collection, "The Last Wish." If you want to read the story in a chronological order, you could read this one second in the series ... but mind you; there will be spoilers. I'd suggest you take "Season of Storms" as an action-packed companion story to "The Witcher" and stick to reading it at the end. Most of the plot follows Geralt's quest to retrieve his stolen swords and sees the witcher just killing it in general. Slaying monsters, clashing with influential political figures, forming odd allies — Geralt does it all. If you're still interested in his journey at the end of "The Lady of the Lake," then "Season of Storms" will be a pleasant surprise!

Netflix's third season of "The Witcher" is currently in production — the season's events will be inspired by "The Time of Contempt," and a coup will cause our beloved trio to separate again. It's expected to release sometime in 2023 (the streamer is yet to confirm), so it's probably a good time to get started on the books. Happy reading! Prepare yourself to experience one of the most epic fantasy stories of all time. Most of all, don't forget to have fun. And however you feel about it once it's done, just keep the gods out of it.

Read this next: The 15 Best Netflix Original Series Of 2021 Ranked

The post The Proper Reading Order For The Witcher Books appeared first on /Film.

When Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff first arrived on the scene, she was a Mind Stone-powered science experiment gone wrong. Who could've known that she'd end up becoming one of the most important and undeniably powerful beings in the MCU? Since teaming up with Ultron to take down the Avengers, Wanda has come a long way. After losing her brother in the "Age of Ultron" showdown, she opted to fight alongside Earth's defenders, backed into the shadows with Captain America following the whole Sokovia Accords debacle, and eventually, made some startling discoveries about the truth behind her magic. From four major film appearances to her own Disney+ miniseries, Wanda's journey has meant suffering loss after loss. Her latest outing in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" sees her funneling that pain into action, transforming into a villainess and becoming a formidable opponent not just for the titular sorcerer, but anyone who stands in her way. So is this descent into darkness that last we'll see of Wanda Maximoff?

Spoilers follow. 

The Witch's Road So Far

Before "Multiverse of Madness," Wanda's latest appearance was in the post-credits sequence of "WandaVision," where she embraced duality by peacefully making tea in a remote cabin whilst astral projecting a second form to continue studying chaos magic. Wanda was brushing up on her magical knowledge from what "Multiverse of Madness" reveals to be the Darkhold, an ancient spellbook with unspeakable power. Performing its spells ends up corrupting Wanda, just as she learns more about the multiverse and realizes that in alternate dimensions, her twin boys do exist. Determined to begin a new life alongside them, Wanda sets her sights on America Chavez, the mysterious young girl with the ability to hop between dimensions.

Unfortunately, Wanda wants much more than to negotiate with America — she wants to absorb her power and doesn't care that this would lead to the teenager's death. Having access to infinite universes would be the ultimate safety net, should she lose her children again. Between her grief and the influence of the Darkhold, Wanda has the blackened fingers and soul of someone losing touch with their humanity. She spends the film laser-focused on getting America, never hesitating to kill heroes and innocents to achieve her goal. The only thing capable of shaking her from that tunnel vision is the children she's so dead set on reuniting with.

The two-hour chase sequence comes to a head at the top of Wundagore Mountain, where Wanda faces down America Chvez and a zombified Strange. Realizing his magic won't be enough to fend her off — even with the Sorcerer Supreme by his side — Strange opts against taking Chavez's magic for himself and convinces her that she's powerful enough to defeat the Scarlet Witch. Knowing she won't be able to fight her head to head, America gives Wanda what she wants, opening a dimensional portal to Earth 836, and exposing her to the twins, who cowers in fear. Through their eyes, Wanda realizes what she's become and after sharing a moment with her other self, she accepts that they'll be loved elsewhere. Her redemption is sacrificing herself to make sure no one will ever follow her down such a dark spiral, so she destroys the Darkhold and goes down with it. The burst of red chaos magic that follows is presumably a sign that Wanda's magic has been snuffed out of the world for good.

Is Wanda Maximoff Really Dead?

In a lot of ways, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" feels like the end of Wanda Maximoff's arc. Whether or not it's a satisfying end is up for debate, but the movie certainly wants us to believe that the Wanda we've seen grow and transform is really dead. Even the final credit card reads "Doctor Strange will return" but makes no mention of the Scarlet Witch. So is Elizabeth Olsen's magical tenure over? Only time will tell ... but probably not.

Naturally, Marvel is keeping tight-lipped about whether or not Wanda is set to return, but by the rules of movie logic, we all know her death isn't set in stone — no body means she could very easily be alive. And even if the temple does end the life of Earth 616's Wanda, there are infinite Wanda Maximoff's throughout the multiverse. So far, the MCU hasn't been shy about reintroducing characters through different iterations — they made an entire series about a new version of a much-beloved character. Per Comicbook, Elizabeth Olsen is certainly interested in returning, saying, "If they have a good story to tell, I'll be there." The possibilities for more Wanda are endless thanks to the multiverse, but what about the version of Wanda we've known for the past 8 years? It would be a shame for this to be the end of her arc. Before Wanda, um, snaps his neck, Professor Charles Xavier says "just because someone stumbles and loses their way, doesn't mean they're lost forever."

I know, I know, Wanda did a lot more than stumble in "Multiverse of Madness." Last year, audiences were grumbling about her unforgivable actions in "WandaVision" (enslaving an entire town of people was very uncool of her) and I'm guessing those people might take issue with her spending 120 minutes trying to murder a child. But that complexity shouldn't go unexplored. Wanda isn't one of the MCU's cut and dry hero types, nor is she a straightforward villain. We've empathized with her just as often as we've rooted against her. So while there are many possibilities for exploring an alternate reality Wanda, why leave behind a version that's so full of depth and potential?

How Might Wanda Maximoff Return?

The obvious answer is a Wanda Maximoff solo outing. She sort of had this opportunity with "WandaVision," which was a vehicle to really delve into the titular characters who previously served as tiny elements of the overall Infinity saga. But "WandaVision" doesn't quite tell a complete story, especially given the way "Multiverse of Madness" goes back on so much of Wanda's presumed growth.

Wanda has been trapped in a stasis of grief for nearly her entire MCU existence, whether grieving her brother, those lost during the Lagos incident, Vision, and then her own children. "Multiverse of Madness" operates like an accidental Wanda movie, delving further into her grief and how it manifests. By the end, she accepts the loss of her love and children, so how might she move forward from here? A solo film could pick up right where the Doctor Strange sequel left off. 

Presuming Wanda survived the destruction of the Darkhold, will she truly continue along the path of light or delve back into darkness? There's an abundance of Marvel comic storylines to pull from. Remember when "WandaVision" was airing and literally every tiny detail birthed its own Mephisto conspiracy theory? Perhaps there's actually room for the MCU's devil to rise up. Plus, somewhere out in this universe, White Vision is running amok. That wasn't all for nothing ... right? There's also James Robinson's "Scarlet Witch" solo series, which follows Wanda on a globe-trotting adventure to defeat villainous magic-users and restore witchcraft to the world. With the right adventure to get her back on a path towards either light or darkness, Wanda could easily lead a story all on her own! Sans a solo outing, here are a few other places Wanda could appear.

• House of Harkness: Agatha Harkness is a powerful centuries-old witch. She's been around, so her spinoff series could easily be a prequel tracing the events that led her to cross paths with Wanda. But on the other hand, she makes it out of "WandaVision" alive and trapped within her own mind. Should she escape, she probably won't take very kindly to all Wanda's done. Or who knows, maybe they could team up and be friends! Wishful thinking? Either way, should the spinoff pick up where "WandaVision" left off, there's a good chance that Wanda comes face to face with her fellow witch once more, presenting a prime opportunity to learn more about MCU magic.

• Halloween Specials: That Wanda Maximoff sure knows how to conjure up nightmares. Half of "Multiverse of Madness" sees her going monster mode, chasing down the heroes and killing her foes in increasingly creative ways. Wanda could easily be the monster leading her own horror special, and since the MCU has a Holiday special and Halloween special already on the way, why not add another to the slate?

• Quantumania or Loki season 2: We only get to meet a single alternate universe Scarlet Witch and she's just a very chill lady in mom jeans. With two MCU projects set to dive straight back into the multiverse, there's always the opportunity for other Wanda's to pop in and showcase some chaos magic of her own. Given the rise of Kang, it would certainly help to have the MCU's most powerful magic user by their side, so maybe Wanda will reunite up with Ant-Man or make friends with her follow former villain, Loki.

• An X-Men project: With the introduction of Charles Xavier, it's only a matter of time before an X-Men project is officially announced. Wanda Maximoff has deep ties to mutants in the comics, and while her previous appearances have already brushed up with the infamous "House of M" storyline, the word mutant has yet to be uttered. If the MCU goes the X-Men route, it's not hard to imagine a space for Wanda to return.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post What's Next for Wanda After Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Here's What We're Hoping to See appeared first on /Film.

Not to be confused with David Cronenberg's early film of the same name (which is only available on this Blue Underground release I think), his new film Crimes of the Future has just received a new red band trailer which you can watch below.


Synopsis:
As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.

Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed... Their mission – to [Continued ...]

[link] [102 comments]

This isn’t a Google Stadia fanboy write-up. I want to clear that up right away. I started out as a skeptic. With that out of the way, let’s get right to it. Google Stadia is very good and I wish more people appreciated this. You can point fingers directly at Google for how Stadia has been handled throughout its short life so far. Go ahead, I’m there with you. Point away. But the people actually working on Stadia, the product, should be very proud. It’s superb.

But Stadia is also troubled. From Google shutting down its first-party game efforts to shopping out the tech to third-party suitors. There is still an apparent commitment to Stadia, which is good. But this is Google. And Google has a penchant for canceling good products whether people like them or not. I still haven’t forgiven the Mountain View overlords for killing Google Reader, or the original incarnation of Google Podcasts.

Stadia is truly very good, though, and I feel it gets drowned in memes and negativity where it just isn’t deserved. Player counts probably aren’t the greatest, and I still have that nagging feeling Google will pull the plug sooner or later. But right now Stadia is alive and I love it. Here’s why, and why more should give it a chance.

Google Stadia’s tech is phenomenal

There are two aspects I want to touch on when it comes to the actual technology that makes up Google Stadia. The first is the Linux backend. In hindsight, this was probably a bad idea, and I love Linux. But here’s the thing. PC games are made for Windows, not Linux. The primary reason Linux gaming is as good as it is on hardware like the Steam Deck is down to Valve. And a thriving community of people working together to make it better so game developers don’t have to. Because they wouldn’t.

Google Stadia basing itself on Linux means it needs a dedicated port. By contrast, Amazon Luna is based on Windows servers with NVIDIA GPUs, so the process of adding games is less complex and more appealing to developers. Google, it seems, has seen the light on this, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and it should have used Windows, to begin with.

That can probably explain at least part of why the catalog of games on Stadia isn’t bigger. And without games, you won’t get people to use the service.

The front end of Stadia, though, the cloud streaming tech and the experience for players is truly outstanding. Compared to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass streaming and Nvidia GeForce Now, Stadia has been my favorite (I can’t compare it to Amazon because I’m not in the U.S.). Until recently I was limited to a 60/20 internet connection and Stadia is the one that handled that best. Where the others would struggle to let me game from the cloud on a regular basis, Stadia just powered through. Now I have fiber, it’s pulling 4K games down without breaking a sweat.

Stadia also pulls ahead of Microsoft, at least for now, because it supports a keyboard and mouse. For a game like Destiny 2, a keyboard and mouse are still the best way to play, and Xbox doesn’t give you that yet. GeForce Now does, but I’ve never been as happy with the overall performance compared to Stadia, even if visually it’s more impressive. That’s basically the tale of Stadia for me. There’s often a bit of a visual sacrifice, akin to a performance mode on a console, but the experience of streaming and playing games has been more reliable and of better quality than competing services.

Gaming on the TV with Google Stadia is just like a console

I’m at something of a loss as to why Stadia on the TV hasn’t taken off more than it has. Again, you can probably point fingers at Google somewhat. The latest Chromecast with Google TV didn’t even support Stadia at launch. What kind of message does that send?

Like, it seems most other Stadia players I know, I grabbed the Stadia Premiere Edition pack as a bonus offer on my YouTube Premium subscription. If little else it was a cheap way to upgrade to a Chromecast Ultra in the living room. But boy was I surprised by how good Stadia on the TV is.

The UI could use a spruce up and the controller certainly isn’t my favorite design, but the overall package has been every bit as good as the Xbox console that’s been sitting under the same TV for years. In fact, by using the cloud, Stadia is much faster to load than my old Xbox One X that I can’t part with. Until recently, my internet wasn’t good enough for 4K gaming, but that’s fine, what it could handle it handled with ease.

It’s been a particular favorite of my children. My son has logged 36 hours in Terraria to this point on Stadia and actually prefers it to the same game on his Xbox. It loads quickly, it virtually never stutters and it looks incredible. And thanks to Stadia Pro, I’ve been able to add a decent selection of child-friendly games to my library without having to buy them upfront.

I can’t live without a Chromecast, even with a smart TV, and building Stadia in was a nice bonus. I’ve traditionally used it as a secondary device, playing the odd hour here or there, but now I have fiber I’m seriously considering putting more time in on Stadia. I could even get back into gaming on the sofa.

Stadia Pro is such great value

I pay £8.99 a month for Stadia Pro, and even without using it heavily, I consider it a great value. Not least because that pretty affordable subscription has supplied me with many hours of keeping the kids entertained! Stadia Pro gives you the opportunity for exclusive discounts on buying some games, but its real value is the library of titles you can get from it at no extra charge.

Here are just some of the titles I’ve added to my library with Stadia Pro.

• Outriders
• Control Ultimate Edition
• Dirt 5
• World War Z: Aftermath
• Wreckfest
• Mafia III
• Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

That’s just a handful of the 112 games I’ve added to my Stadia library with Pro. There’s a solid mix of AAA titles from big-name studios and indies, some that are definitely just for me and plenty my kids can enjoy. They don’t just disappear after a month like Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus, either. As I write this there are still 50 titles available to claim through Stadia Pro. And you get a month’s free trial to give it a go as well.

Stadia Pro really does have a pretty insane amount of gaming on offer for not a lot of money.

Play anywhere, anytime

The beauty of cloud gaming is the freedom to play anywhere, anytime. Well, as long as you have a data connection. The days of needing to lug around a heavy gaming laptop are getting closer to being over. Stadia games can be played on Android and iOS, on a Windows laptop, a Mac, Linux, or a Chromebook. You can enjoy games at home on a TV or on the road on a portable device.

I hope that Stadia sticks it out and ultimately gets some traction. It’s too good to simply wither and die, but I do fear still that will be the ultimate end.

Stadia (Free, Google Play) →

The post I wish more people appreciated how good Google Stadia actually is appeared first on XDA.

The fourth season of the wildly popular Netflix series "Cobra Kai" ended on a bit of a down note. The big showdown between Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) ended in a draw, the good guys lost, Daniel closed his dojo, and baddy Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) seemed poised to have Cobra Kai-style karate take over Southern California. Thankfully, the folks behind the show wrapped filming on the fifth season before the fourth even debuted, so fans wouldn't have too long of a wait to see if Johnny, Daniel, and the rest of the former karate kids can figure themselves out and take down Terry Silver and the Cobra Kai. In fact, the wait is even shorter than fans presumed.

The first "Cobra Kai" season 5 teaser has been unveiled, along with a release date that's way ahead of schedule. 

Teaming Up Against The Ultimate Villain

Daniel knows that the "No Mercy" style can get kids hurt, and he will do whatever it takes to stop Terry Silver. With many of his old allies either stepping aside, or in tough situations of their own, he will have to look for help from another one of his former rivals, Chozen Toguchi. Chozen is the nephew of Mr. Miyagi's rival, Sato Toguchi, and there was a nasty rivalry between Daniel and Chozen until they settled their beef in season 4. Daniel needs to figure out how to incorporate offensive moves into his style, and Chozen is the perfect candidate to teach him. 

The plans for "Cobra Kai" and the expanded "Karate Kid" universe are still tenuous, though season 5 likely won't be the very end. Creator Jon Hurwitz has tweeted that the "endgame" for the series is somewhere beyond the fifth season, and there are plans to expand into a whole "Cobra Kai" universe. Those could be anything, from a Mr. Miyagi prequel series to a series entirely about the Okinawa dojos. The possibilities are endless, but until Hurwitz and his crew work their magic, we'll have to just be content with these new episodes. 

Here's the official synopsis for "Cobra Kai" season 5:

Following the shocking results of the All Valley Tournament, Terry Silver is expanding the Cobra Kai empire and trying to make his "No Mercy" style of karate the only game in town. With Kreese behind bars and Johnny Lawrence setting karate aside to focus on repairing the damage he's caused, Daniel LaRusso must call on an old friend for help.

"Cobra Kai" season 5 hits Netflix on September 9, 2022.

Read this next: The 15 Best Netflix Original Series Of 2021 Ranked

The post Cobra Kai Season 5 Trailer: It's Time to Cut off the Cobra's Head appeared first on /Film.

In Marvel Studios‘ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, the MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

Recently, Nightmarish Conjurings took part in the global press conference for the release of Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Attending the press conference were Benedict Cumberbatch (“Stephen Strange”), Elizabeth Olsen (“Wanda Maximoff”), Benedict Wong (“Wong”), Xochitl Gomez (“America Chavez”), Director Sam Raimi, screenwriter Michael Waldron, and Executive Producer Kevin Feige.

As we wrote about in our “Moon Knight” coverage, the MCU has begun the process of leaning into the weird and terrifying by blending genres and dipping its toes into the horror realm. With the return of Sam Raimi, one of the masters of horror as well as the director of the first Spider-Man trilogy, it’s no surprise that horror fans are chomping at the bit to see what he has in store for us with MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.

It’s been X amount of years since Raimi last directed a Marvel movie and much has changed in our world, especially in the advancement of technology. When discussing the topic, Rotten Tomatoes moderator Jacqueline Coley discussed with Raimi what he looked forward to now that there weren’t the technological limitations he had back in 2002.

“The technology has changed and it’s become a lot easier. But mostly, the technological difference that really enabled me to work on this movie so effectively was Zoom, the modern telecommunication system,” Raimi laughed. “I could speak to tons of crewmembers at once. We could show a storyboard from an artist. The editor could bring up a piece of the cut. We really had great communication with audio/visual. And you were able to speak to a hundred people at once. It’s fantastic.”

No matter how good the CGI is, a film isn’t a film without the dedication of the actors. And to Raimi, that was the most important part of the film and the one thing that didn’t need to be changed:

“The most important thing is having great actors, like [these people]. And then they know that the most important thing they can do is within themselves. That’s how people connect to our superheroes. And these are great actors and they know what it’s like to be a human being. They’ve got a vast set of experiences that they’re not afraid to pull into their performances. And they also know their characters very well. These three [points to Cumberbatch, Olsen, and Wong] have played their characters for so many years now in so many important Marvel movies. It’s great to see the knowledge of the characters that they had in this film because what they meet is the Multiverse. And in the Multiverse, it’s basically a mirror and they meet altered versions of themselves. And these actors are so good, they just have to change the slightest aspect of their character’s personality to make an interesting conflict with the alter-self.”

Now with the structure in place, Raimi was able to use his craft as well as his experience in horror with such classic genre films like Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell, and more, to bring about an MCU film that features a much darker, sinister tone. During the conference, Jane Seltzer from Whiskey + Sunshine brought up the topic of Raimi’s involvement in the horror genre and what it was like for him to bring back those horror elements to the MCU:

“It was great. When Kevin announced that this movie would be the first entry into Marvel putting their toe into the world of horror, I was thrilled that he called me to come in and talk about the possibility of directing the picture. I was able to take those horror films that I made in my youth and what I had learned from them in building suspense sequences, titillating the audience, gonna give them the scare now? No. Now, I’m gonna give it to them. That’s stuff I was able to apply in the spooky sequences in this film. So, it was very helpful.”

Whether you’re a fan of the MCU or a die-hard horror fiend, one thing is for sure, DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is going to be a Marvel film unlike any other we have seen.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS opens exclusively in theaters on May 6th. For more on the film, check out our review here.

The post [Article] DOCTOR STRANGE & The Superhero Return of Sam Raimi appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

Mother’s Day is upon us, and Father’s Day is not far behind, which has many adult children everywhere scrambling to figure out what to get the man or woman who already has everything. At this point in their lives, our parents often want nothing and need nothing—because when they do want or need something, they simply…

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Satire is one of the hardest forms of comedy to do, let alone do it well. If done too subtly, it can come off as thinly-veiled sincerity, with the label of "satire" becoming a bit of a smokescreen. If done too broadly, it can either miss its target entirely or rob its critical observations of their power.

Threading the needle between mockery and sincerity is so key to making an effective and powerful satire, and that's something director David Fincher is well aware of. Since the beginning of his filmmaking career, Fincher has proven time and again to be one of the master satirists of cinema, his movies saturated with bitter, cynical irony, their moments of high drama and despair tweaked just slightly askew by the director. It's this Fincheresque tone he sought to capture in his 1999 masterwork "Fight Club," a movie so reprehensible on the surface that star Edward Norton's natural instincts were to underline the critical and comedic commentary underneath, something Fincher refused to let happen.

'We Are The Middle Children Of History'

As Fincher recalled to Brian Raftery at The Ringer (via Indiewire), he came across Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Fight Club" at just the right time in his life: "I was in my late thirties, and I saw that book as a rallying cry," he explained, finding that Palahniuk's book "was talking about a very specific kind of anger." Producer Céan Chaffin observed Fincher's reaction to the book firsthand: "I remember him reading it in galley form and laughing the whole time."

Fincher brought his most subversive instincts to bear on the material right from the pitch meeting, going to studio 20th Century Fox and presenting them with the choice to either "do the $3 million version of this movie and make it on videotape," or commit a real "act of sedition" and "put movie stars in it and get people to go and talk about the anti-consumerist rantings of a schizophrenic madman." Fincher was given the go-ahead to develop a script, eventually ending up working with Jim Uhls, who wrote the script that Fox greenlit. The director made his intended tone explicit up front, explaining how "we were making a satire. We were saying 'This is as serious about blowing up buildings as 'The Graduate' is about f—ing your mom's friend.'"

Ironically, before the script ended up with Uhls, the book was sent to "The Graduate" screenwriter Buck Henry, in the spirit of Fincher's satirical model for his approach. According to the director, Henry declined by simply saying "I don't think there's anything funny about it."

Fincher's Special Brand Of Humor

Initially, Fincher and Norton were on the same page when it came to adapting "Fight Club" to the screen. After reading the book and finding it "sardonic and hilarious," Norton asked Fincher "you're going to do this as a comedy, right?," to which he says the director replied "'oh, yeah — that's the whole point.'"

Yet, as shooting on the film began, the director and star's opinions on just what kind of a comedy "Fight Club" was began to clash. As Fincher recalled, "Edward had this idea of, 'Let's just make sure people realize that this is a comedy,'" and the two debated the film's tone "ad nauseum." On Fincher's part, he wanted to draw the line between approaches, explaining how "there's humor that's obsequious, that's saying, 'Wink-wink, don't worry, it's all in good fun.' And my whole thing was to not wink." Fincher's aggressive, gadfly-like ethos was to take the movie and have people confused whether the filmmakers were on the level or not.

Although that intentional confusion over the film's tone led to long debates on set and numerous takes to be filmed, Fincher and Norton eventually found an equilibrium. As Norton recalled, "I was doing something in one of those office [scenes], and I looked at Fincher, like, 'Is this what you're thinking?' And he goes, 'A little less Jerry, a little more Dean.' And I knew exactly what he meant." Thanks to the director and star finally seeing eye-to-eye, "Fight Club's" special blend of satire was achieved.

'Let's Evolve, Let The Chips Fall Where They May': Fight Club's Reception

One of the many virtues of Fincher as a filmmaker is the trust he puts in his audiences. As editor Jim Haygood observed while editing "Fight Club," "David's thing is 'You've got to assume that people are smart — you want them in on it.'" Thanks to this ethos, "Fight Club" is not a movie that panders to the viewer, with both its twisty narrative and subtextual satire dropped into the laps of the audience as opposed to being spoon-fed to them.

That approach became dangerous to the film in a number of ways. As producer Bill Mechanic said upon viewing the finished movie, "anything that makes you this uneasy is great," but selling it was going to be "a knockdown battle." In a year that included the likes of the Columbine mass shooting and the rioting at Woodstock '99, "Fight Club" didn't just seem distasteful, but borderline irresponsible when taken at face value.

"Fight Club's" reception ever since its release in October of 1999 has been decidedly mixed. Not just in terms of raves or pans, either — the phenomenon of men idolizing Tyler Durden and other such characters is a media literacy issue that persists to this day. Norton believes that most of "Fight Club's" critics "missed the satirical edge of it ... with 'Fight Club,' you have to feel threatened by what it's saying to think it's an authentically nihilistic movie. And if you relate to what it's saying, you think it's a comedy." While the movie's virtues and sins are still being debated, in a world where corporate brands tweet like they're people and toxic masculinity continues to run rampant, it's safe to say we're all a little bit more in on the film's joke.

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

The post David Fincher Didn't Want Edward Norton to Let People In On Fight Club's Joke appeared first on /Film.

After "Spider-Man: No Way Home" delivered multiverse mayhem that brought together the heroes and villains of the "Spider-Man" film franchises that came before it, anticipation was high for what kind of shenanigans were in store for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." Not only does the Marvel Studios title clearly state that we'll be caught up in the multiverse yet again, but the marketing teased the identities of those who make up the mysterious organization known as The Illuminati.

Now that the "Multiverse of Madness" has been unleashed in theaters, it's time to rank all the major cameos from the "Doctor Strange" sequel, including a surprise appearance by an entirely new character in the mid-credits scene.

Warning: massive spoilers for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" ahead.

Charlize Theron As Clea

Sorry to take the wind out of your sails if this cameo excited you, but I'm just calling it like I see it. The cliffhanger of an ending left audiences wondering just what the hell was wrong with Doctor Strange when he screamed in agonizing pain in a New York City street until a third eye revealed itself in the middle of his forehead. That's a hell of a way to end a summer blockbuster, but unfortunately, Marvel Studios completely undercut that in favor of a mid-credits tease for the next "Doctor Strange" adventure.

Strange is walking down the street, complete with a fancy little scarf around his neck, and his day is suddenly interrupted when Charlize Theron shows up, decked out in a purple witch wardrobe as only Marvel can deliver, including a pop of purple eye makeup. This is Clea, a frequent companion of Doctor Strange in Marvel Comics, and in "Back to the Future" fashion, she tells Strange that he caused an incursion (the collision of two different universes), and that he's going to help her fix it. 

Clea then slices open a hole behind her in midair, which appears to lead into a universe that resembles the Dark Dimension, where Strange trapped Dormammu in a repeating loop in the climax of the first "Doctor Strange" movie. In a taunting fashion, Clea adds, "Unless you're afraid." Strange says, "Not in the last." Then that third eye returns in his forehead as an electric guitar riff wails on, and the two are off to the races.

As much as I love to see someone like "Mad Max: Fury Road" star Charlize Theron enter the MCU, this mid-credits scene completely undercuts what would have been a great ending to keep fans hungry for more Doctor Strange. Furthermore, it's far too vague to even be worth shoehorning in there. I'm willing to bet that the incursion in question is just a small problem that will quickly be resolved and leads to a completely different major plot. Ugh. 

Lashana Lynch As Captain Marvel

Now that we have Clea out of the way, let's dig into the most disappointing member of The Illuminati. Lashana Lynch returns as Maria Rambeau, who we last saw in "Captain Marvel." It would appear that this version of Maria Rambeau is from a universe where she became Captain Marvel instead of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson). That's not necessarily uncool, but it's simply not all that exciting of a revelation. Maybe that's because rumors ran rampant that Marvel tried to get Tom Cruise to appear as an alternate version of Tony Stark/Iron Man, even going so far as having fans speculate that the bright blur of light seen in the "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" was Superior Iron Man armor. 

Beyond that, what makes Lashana Lynch's appearance so disappointing is that there's nothing remarkably different about this version of Captain Marvel. Even though that's technically true of a couple other members of The Illuminati, almost all of the other characters come with some kind of history in the MCU or legacy in Marvel Comics that gets fans excited. But with Maria Rambeau, we spent such little time with her in "Captain Marvel" that there's no real joy in seeing Lashana Lynch as Captain Marvel. That's a shame, because I'm sure Lynch would be great if she had more screen time. Perhaps "The Marvels" will have even more multiverse adventures and she'll make a bigger splash, but since she got crushed by a giant statue and seemed to die like almost everyone else in The Illuminati, maybe not.

John Krasinski As Reed Richards

This is undoubtedly the cameo that is getting the biggest cheers and most excitement from fans in theaters. They've been waiting for a proper big screen version of "Fantastic Four" for a long time, since before Marvel Studios even announced that they would be rebooting Marvel's first family yet again. Add into the mix that "The Office" star John Krasinski has been the most frequently requested actor to be cast as Reed Richards, and you've got fan service to the max. 

Admittedly, it's cool to actually see Krasinski suited up as Reed Richards, and this likely means that he will be leading the "Fantastic Four" movie that Marvel Studios has in development. However, I can't help but point out that there wasn't anything particularly thrilling about this appearance other than the character himself. We don't even get to see Richards properly use his stretchy superpowers to fight Scarlet Witch. Before he even gets a chance to lift a finger, Wanda unravels him like rubber ribbon until his head pops off. I'm sure Marvel wants to save any real Mr. Fantastic stuff for "Fantastic Four," but they could have given him a little more to do here. 

Anson Mount As Black Bolt

All right, there probably weren't many people keeping their fingers crossed for the return of Anson Mount as Black Bolt, let alone anyone from the failed Marvel TV series "The Inhumans." But in Marvel Comics, Black Bolt is a member of The Illuminati, and this gave Marvel Studios the perfect opportunity to give longtime comic fans the version of Black Bolt that they deserved, albeit ever so briefly. 

Strengthening Black Bolt's appearance is giving him the pivotal but tragic task of destroying Earth-838's version of Doctor Strange, after The Illuminati (which Strange formed himself) deems him to be a lingering threat due to his use of the Darkhold to defeat Thanos in their universe. That flashback where Black Bolt obliterates Doctor Strange 838 by sadly saying, "I'm sorry," is pretty devastating, and Anson Mount achieves a lot with very little. Plus, I gotta say, that moment where Black Bolt freaks out after Scarlet Witch removes his mouth, resulting in his muffled voiced exploding his own head? That's gnarly as hell. RIP Black Bolt. 

Hayley Atwell As Captain Carter

Even though this cameo was teased in brief bits of footage from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," it's still incredibly cool to see Marvel's "What If" cornerstone, Captain Carter, brought to life in live-action with Hayley Atwell reprising her role. Damn, she looks great in the Union Jack superhero suit, and with that jetpack situated on her back, she's like Captain America and The Rocketeer all in one (where the hell is that movie?). You can't help but respect Captain Carter's courage and power in facing Scarlet Witch with just super strength and a vibranium shield to assist in her fight. But Carter's best moment is when she makes a satisfying Captain America callback by saying, "I can do this all day." Unfortunately, that day ended early, because she was gruesomely sliced in half by her own shield. Hope she got that dance in with Steve Rogers in Earth-838.

Patrick Stewart As Professor X

Excitement was high when the "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" trailer that debuted during the Super Bowl teased the unmistakable voice of Patrick Stewart as Professor X. The anticipation grew even more when a recent TV spot revealed that Charles Xavier would be moving around in that signature yellow hoverchair from Marvel Comics and "X-Men: The Animated Series." So we're happy to report that this is easily the best cameo in the entirety of the sequel. 

First of all, when Professor X arrives in The Illuminati chambers, you can hear an orchestral version of the beloved theme song from "X-Men: The Animated Series." Even though Professor X is mostly responsible for delivering exposition that reveals the dark turn that Doctor Strange 838 took, hearing Stewart talk about Thanos is simply cool. No one ever thought anything like this would happen, especially after the "X-Men" film franchise came to an end. The closest we came was having "X-Men: Days of Future Past" co-star Evan Peters appear as Quicksilver in "WandaVision," and that didn't really go anywhere. On top of that, Xavier is the only one who still has faith in Doctor Strange, despite the mistakes of the 838 version of the sorcerer.

Unfortunately, not even a mutant as powerful as Professor X can survive the angst of Scarlet Witch. However, before Xavier has his neck snapped, at least we get to see him using his psychic powers, complete with VFX bringing animated psychic waves into the live-action universe. Man, I wish we could get the 1990s X-Men on the big screen. Maybe the multiverse can make it possible. At least we have "X-Men '97" to look forward to. 

Read this next: The 15 Most Anticipated Comic Book Movies And Shows Of 2022, Ranked

The post Every Major Cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ranked appeared first on /Film.

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Chip designer NVIDIA Corporation has been fined $5.5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to disclose revenues from cryptocurrency sales in its fiscal year 2018. NVIDIA's fiscal year is a year ahead of the calendar year, and the Commission revealed earlier today that the chip firm did not report that it had sold a significant amount of graphics processing units (GPUs) to the miners despite having adequate information and knowledge about the sales. As a result, the firm's investors were unable to adequately assess the riskiness of the company's business, which then harmed them once the cryptocurrency 'bubble' burst in 2017 and sent NVIDIA, and its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices, Inc's (AMD) revenues plummeting.

NVIDIA Deliberately Misled Investors By Shifting Attention Away From Cryptomining Contribution To Its Revenues By Focusing On Other Departments

The regulatory body's press release also outlines that as part of its deal with NVIDIA, the company has chosen to adopt a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its gaming disclosures. As the Commission states:

"Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, NVIDIA agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay a $5.5 million penalty."

It is not the first time that the company's troubles with the GPU mining boom and bust of 2017 have made their way into the public eye. One such occurrence was in 2020 when a lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Oklahoma Division alleging that the firm had misled investors about earning as much as a whopping $1 billion from GPU mining sales in its fiscal years 2019 and 2018.

The suit detailed that its claimants believed that the misrepresentation started in NVIDIA's second quarter of the fiscal year 2018 and continued for another four quarters to end in the fourth quarter of FY 2019. During these time periods, NVIDIA outlined that it had earned $600 million from cryptocurrency mining equipment sales while in reality the company had raked in $1.7 billion. This created a $1.1 billion gap alleged the lawsuit.

The SEC's release, while unrelated to the lawsuit, appears to build upon the claims that are present in it. It states that while NVIDIA did admit to having sold equipment to the miners, it was careful enough to ensure that these disclosures remained limited to the firm's other businesses that were separate from its gaming division.

It states that:

In two of its Forms 10-Q for its fiscal year 2018, NVIDIA reported material growth in revenue within its gaming business. NVIDIA had information, however. that this increase in gaming sales was driven in significant part by cryptomining. Despite this, NVIDIA did not disclose in its Forms 10-Q, as it was required to do, hee significant earnings and cash flows fluctuations related to a volatile business for investors to ascertain the likelihood that past performance was indicative of future performance.

As is evident, the Commission also narrows down the scope of the impropriety to two fiscal quarters instead of the five stated in the lawsuit. What is certain however is that at least one of the quarters mentioned by it also overlaps with the lawsuit.

It is also unclear whether the mining revenues and the evidence the Commission believes the company possessed, were related to mining by professional users or those NVIDIA gamers who had bought a GPU for themselves but chose to mine coins instead after looking at the lucrative nature of the sector.

The post NVIDIA Agrees To A $5.5 Million Cryto Revenue Fine Without Admitting Any Wrongdoing by Ramish Zafar appeared first on Wccftech.

Met·a: (of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.

In "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," meta storytelling becomes mainstream accessible. Writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten not only allow Nicolas Cage to play himself — well, a version of himself born from the "Memeification of Nicolas Cage" — but they shoehorn a self-referential plot about predictable blockbuster narratives ... by cheekily following a predictable blockbuster narrative. Humor exists because Cage and Pedro Pascal — the latter plays a ruthless drug lord's connected screenwriter relative — banter aloud about theatrical studio formulas they want to subvert in the movie they're unwittingly living in real-time. It's a balancing act between winks at the audience amidst actual plot development, something that's been gaining household popularity given how Marvel's Cinematic Universe incorporates smaller meta gags as multiverses explode (or on larger scales "Deadpool").

"The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" opens the door to meta understanding since Lionsgate, a formidable studio presence, greenlit what'd probably be deemed "too weird" elsewhere. Although, here's where the horror fan in me comes out and asks if "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" would exist without "Scream?"

In 1996, Wes Craven shattered the horrorsphere by introducing a would-be slasher franchise that directly subverts long-standing slasher trademarks. Craven and writer Kevin Williamson allow audiences to chuckle at the subgenre expectancies they love while remaining in a suspended state of slasher excellence. Every studio clamored for the next meta reinvention in this new frontier, with "Scream" getting most credit even though Craven's own "New Nightmare" and Joe Dante's "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" hit the '90s first.

Fans who worship names like Romero and Carpenter have forever been roasted as disciples of a "morally bankrupt" or "thoughtless" art form. Still, consciously fluent meta storytelling is something that horror writers had perfected long before "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" was a thought bubble. "Scream" sparked a movement that spread like wildfire, piquing with brilliant highs that pushed back against "horror is gross torture porn" biases coined by upturned critical noses. Milestones like "Cabin in the Woods" and "The Final Girls" are on the tips of most genre aficionado's tongues, but examples run rampant throughout the late 90s, remake-heavy 2000s, and as strongly now. I've always mused how "Scream" ran so "Bride of Chucky" could sprint right alongside, permitting Chucky the opportunity to humorously skewer his voodoo killer's absurd existence while perfecting its "Bride of Frankenstein" homage. Only two years later and the influences of "Scream" spawned both a teen slasher revival and meta brilliance abound.

In a post-screening Q&A, "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" creators leaked that Lionsgate cut specific sequences before they ever saw rehearsal. One such scene would have involved Nicolas Cage dueling with his younger, wild-at-heart "Nicky" — a figment of his past arrogance in spiritual form — through classic Cage action beats from Face/Off, The Rock, and more. Explained reasoning lightly pointed toward producers not being comfortable getting that "weird" because broad appeal is still the prime directive. Let Cage caress his imaginary self's own rump, and howl his vulgar catchphrase, but Cage going toe-to-toe with himself amidst Alcatraz explosions or John Woo shootouts was too much. That's the thing about mainstream studio projects — there are usually hesitations or cutoffs.

Meanwhile, horror's ambitious zero-rules environment allows its creators a no-breaks mentality that has evolved meta storytelling beyond what's thought possible. It's why my allegiance will always skew towards such a renegade genre.

In 2006, "Feast" flashed text cards as distractions before each character's introduction with life expectancies that teased horror character archetypes — "Losers and dorks go first ... and he's both." — only to throw the rules away as children are devoured and vomited on their mothers. The following year, "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon" hilariously joked about slasher villain tropes via a behind-the-scenes mockumentary while still including a third-act massacre for the ages. Keep going, and examples like "Detention," "You Might Be the Killer," and too many more would continue to push boundaries as viewers prepared for subsequent buck wild subversions to swing even harder. The foundation for meta storytelling has always been in the horror genre, whether or not that recognition is rewarded.

All Hail The Continued Exploration Of Meta Massacres

I intend not to come off as a pretentious horror fan who'll chew your ear about the genre's off-putting stigmas and negative press. "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" is as enjoyable a theatrical comedy as you can ask for and strikes a wholesome balance between Cage the Madman and Cage the Very Good Actor. This feature spawned from a healthy post-screening conversation with another Los Angeles critic who asked the filmmakers about the current "modern meta" boom within superhero cinema and mass-released films like "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent." My thoughts immediately jumped to "Scream," "Cabin in the Woods," "Scream 4," and a few other horror titles that held their ground years prior as theatrical releases alongside blockbuster competition. The question again became about why horror wasn't being mentioned and why the genre's only publicly credited when someone takes issue with "nasty" gore, "perverse" storytelling, or other complaints from afar.

Again, that's not a dig at the question-asker! It's just the starting point for a conversation within my mind, given how "Cabin in the Woods" rewrote the book on meta execution. Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon ingeniously rationalize horror tropes left and right using their approach of tie-wearing bunker technicians being responsible for increased hormonal urges, unleashed killers, or any other overused slasher norm that's been at least once mocked as ridiculous. April of 2013 was a momentous month between Joseph Kahn's meta Breakfast Club slasher comedy "Detention" ushering in 90s nostalgia and "Cabin in the Woods" going for broke as meta monster perfection — nearly a decade ago. Without acknowledging films like the "Scream" series and titles mentioned above that were released before "Cabin in the Woods."

Perhaps there's a discussion here about how meta-humor in screenplays can wrongfully be labeled as "unserious" takes on material versus the over-seriousness of blockbuster productions at times. Horror fans can be a prickly bunch when challenged, but we're also immensely fun-loving and comprehend how what we love can be considered ludicrous (well, most of us). Something like "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" pokes fun by reversing recycled slasher structures where backwoods hillbilly murderers hunt teens in a way that says, "isn't this all a bit goofy?" Which yes, it is! Horror has found evolutionary success through these obscure reinventions where, say, Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are seen as your garden variety "Wrong Turn" buddies by stupid-ass youngsters who keep killing themselves in fits of panicked defense. It's sensationally silly even to type out the premise for "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil," and yet the idea stands as one of the funnier horror comedies since its 2010s release because of horror's ability to laugh at itself remains unparalleled.

One might be able to argue that horror films are the easiest to "meta-tize" given how tropes quickly become egregious or content commentaries can be easily depicted through violence. ​Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" was ahead of the 70s/80s slash-and-kill popularization after O.G.s "Black Christmas" and "Halloween." In 1960, Powell implicated the audience by giving his killer a video camera weapon that captured women's last expressions of fear before death. It's a repulsive and affecting mechanism fashioned later by the 2013 "Maniac" remake that uses nothing but a perspective flip to voyeuristically comment on viewing habits that include such sinister obscenity. Powell executes a damn-sharp narrative about a genre he excels within, where meta storytelling becomes a superbly wielded double-edged sword.

As a boiled-down conclusion, I'm here with another story about how the horror genre holds more value than some might predict. Suppose you're not into Ghostface's diabolical games, carnivorous mermen, or Cinderhella's high school copycat. In that case, there's a reason you might not be aware of how horror filmmakers have been normalizing meta storytelling to rebirth fresh genre trends. Popular culture will always recognize the mainstream over outcasts, which doesn't make horror's impact any weaker — there will always be ones who share its triumphs. In this instance, let's not forget how Wes Craven made "meta" happen with the slice of a hunting knife into Drew Barrymore's ill-fated introductory victim. Before Robert Downey Jr. suited up as Iron Man, Nicolas Cage stared down a crazed fan's trophy room of Cage movie props, and Schmuckerberg insisted the Metaverse would be our future reality. Once again, we must recognize horror for being a few bloody footsteps ahead of the game — all hail the continued exploration of meta massacres.

Read this next: The Best Movies Streaming Right Now: Malignant, A Hero, And More

The post A Brief History Of Meta Storytelling In Horror Before The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent appeared first on /Film.

You rarely, if ever, need to remove earwax on your own. Earwax is good! I know this. I really do. And yet—even though I know better—sometimes I cannot resist the urge to use a cotton swab and clean my ears myself. Here’s what to know if you’re like me and occasionally go too far trying to clean your ears manually.

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For years, gaming on a Mac was possible but limited as many developers’ games were not ported to macOS, and while several popular titles are available, it is negligible compared to what is available for PC users. Fortunately, according to an interview with a game developer, Apple Silicon will make it possible to not just engage in creative work sessions but also partake in gaming sessions, as long as the technology giant opens up to the idea.

Before Apple Silicon, the Majority of the Mac Range Comprised of Intel’s Integrated GPUs, Which Was Not Sufficient to Game

The introduction of Apple Silicon materialized with the M1, and though the SoC’s 8-core GPU was not on par with dedicated solutions from NVIDIA and AMD, the increase in performance when compared to integrated GPUs was massive. An argument can be made that the Apple Silicon is capable of gaming at increased graphics settings, but according to several benchmarks, it is less than a stellar experience. MacRumors recently did an interview with game developer Feral Interactive, who states that there is an audience for high-quality games on the macOS platform.

“The changes have been cyclical, but bringing games to the Mac platform over that time has had its challenges. Apple's move from PPC to Intel, 32-bit to 64-bit and, most recently, Intel to ‌Apple Silicon‌ – all of these required transitional periods and substantial work, but in each case they facilitated a situation in which better games could be brought to Mac. What has remained constant is that there is a community of Mac users who want to play games on their computers. There's an audience for good games that are well optimized for the platform.”

Also, Macs with dedicated GPUs were significantly more expensive compared to those with integrated solutions, but the arrival of the M1 makes everything consistent across the company’s lineup, though consumers still have to pay more for the better performing M1 Pro and M1 Max. Regardless, with affordable Apple Silicon Macs now getting access to better GPUs, one problem for the developer has gone away, to an extent.

“Before [‌Apple Silicon‌], nearly all the most popular Apple computers, particularly their entry level laptops, used Intel Integrated Graphics. That was a problem. We had to spend a large part of extended development cycles optimizing games to make sure they ran as well as possible on devices which were not intended or designed for gaming. The problem is that AAA games often push the limits on hardware, and we need to be confident that we can get a game to run well on a broad range of machines, often stretching back several years. However, the current transition to ‌Apple Silicon‌ opens up some exciting opportunities. In comparison to the previous generation of Intel-based Macs, it offers a big step up in power, and for games that translates to better performance and enhanced graphical fidelity.”

Apple is currently prepping the M2 for a launch later this year, and it should offer a small bump in performance thanks to its 10-core GPU. In addition, we should see the M2 Pro and M2 Max arriving next year with up to a 38-core GPU, which should encourage more developers to get serious about porting games to macOS. Back in 2020, Apple was rumored to be developing a Mac focused on gaming, but the product never materialized, for whatever reason.

The post Apple Silicon Will Enable a Better Future for Gaming on the Mac, Says Developer by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) announced on Thursday that South Korea, Canada and Luxembourg have become members.

South Korea is the first Asian country to join the Tallinn, Estonia-based cyber defense unit. While South Korea is not a NATO member, the two have been collaborating in several areas, including cyber defense.

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One of the most profoundly disturbing films to tackle the theme of marital loneliness, Polish director Andrzej Żuławski's "Possession" has become a veritable cult classic since its initial release in 1981. While it's a masterclass in directorial finesse and full-body acting, so much of what has fueled the film's cult status has been its comparative cinematic obscurity. Effectively banned in the UK upon its release, coming across a copy of "Possession" seemed all but impossible for casual viewers for decades. When cinephiles were lucky enough to come across a copy, it was typically a heavily edited 81-minute cut as opposed to the 124-minute version that originally premiered at Cannes.

Although the intricacies of the film's plot are best experienced totally unspoiled, a brief synopsis is nonetheless warranted. When Mark (played by an early-career Sam Neill) returns to his Berlin home from a secret espionage mission, he finds that his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), is suddenly demanding a divorce. Heartbroken and dumbfounded, Mark begins to uncover the increasingly disturbing reasons behind Anna's decision. She begins to neglect their son, Bob, leaving him alone unattended for long stretches of time while she's romancing with her new lover, Heinrich. After a while, Mark begins covertly following her around, realizing she spends most of her free time in a run-down, abandoned apartment building. What he finds enclosed within the mold-splotched walls defies scientific explanation, and it effectively ramps up the horror plot inherent to "Possession."

When the film finally hit UK theaters nearly a year after its Cannes premiere, it was immediately deemed unfit for public consumption. Yet the film's reputation as a demented descent into madness has kept viewers hooked on the prospect of coming across a copy. Luckily, Metrograph's recent 4K restoration has made this once unlikely dream into a tangible reality — take that, censors.

When so many so-called "video nasties" (aside from a lucky few) have fallen into obscurity, what's kept "Possession" so enticing over 40 years later? We're here to delve into just that.

Initial Acclaim At Cannes

While "Possession" might be largely relegated to the (albeit fun) realm of horror "cult classic," it was in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1981 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. While the prize was ultimately granted to fellow Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda's "Man of Iron," "Possession" left the festival far from empty-handed. Lead actress Isabelle Adjani won the Best Actress award (which was concurrently granted to Adjani for her role in the Merchant Ivory film "Quartet"), and it's easy to see why. Her completely unhinged, manic performance is a key factor behind the film's success. At the very least, a specific subway scene immediately comes to mind whenever one thinks back on the scariest scenes in the film.

In fact, "Possession" and Adjani's performance racked up prizes as it traveled from festival to festival and eventually hit the awards circuit. The same year, it won the Film Critics Prize at São Paulo International Film Festival. In 1983, the director was granted the Special Audience Jury Prize, while Adjani once again was bestowed Best Actress at Portugal's Fantasporto. Her performance hit the peak of French national acclaim when she won Best Actress at the 1982 Cesar Awards (after all, the film was a co-production between France and Germany), which is essentially France's equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Clearly, though, the critical praise directed at "Possession" was nowhere near enough to defy the pearl-clutching tendencies of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in Britain during the 1980s.

Video Nasty Classification

During the widespread conservative moral panic of the '80s, defined by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the UK, a ton of horror and exploitation films were subject to censorship. Colloquially dubbed "video nasties," the films were said to portray violence and gore so senseless it could potentially traumatize young viewers. Much of the term refers to the distribution of such films on tape as opposed to in theaters, but made acquiring such titles after their theatrical run incredibly difficult. Of course, brandishing a film as a "video nasty" also gave the films a mystifying power. Curious viewers would intentionally seek out "banned" titles such as Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead," Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left," Meir Zarchi's "I Spit on Your Grave," and Riz Ortolani's infamous "Cannibal Holocaust." Unfortunately, Andrzej Żuławski's "Possession" would never reach the same level of sought-after notoriety, namely because even in the U.S. the film was never released in its full, 124-minute glory.

For some reason, when the film was finally released on U.S. screens, distributor Limelight International Films opted to release an 81-minute cut of the film, meaning that a third of "Possession" was effectively missing. As opposed to removing excessive violence or disturbing imagery, though, the edit served to market it solely as a horror film. This meant all the intense scenes of marital strife were nixed in favor of promoting a more straightforward creature feature. The few critics who managed to catch a screening of the heavily tailored release totally panned it — an understandable backlash considering how far it strayed from Żuławski's original vision.

With no comprehensive home release for "Possession" available in the U.S. or the U.K., the film became a white whale for many horror aficionados. After all, Italian special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi (who worked on "Alien" and "E.T.") was involved in creating the film, so something impressive and outright horrifying is all but guaranteed. However, with its lack of the intense build-up of mutual marital disintegration included in the plot, the gimmicky 1983 Limelight release just didn't scratch the itch.

Recent Restoration And Renewed Intrigue

Thankfully, "Possession" has become much easier to, well, possess as time has passed. Despite its censorship in the UK, the film was released uncut on DVD and VHS by American production company Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2000. The film then became available on Blu-ray in 2014, when Mondo Vision issued a standard special edition of which only 2,000 copies were made available. Clearly, as the film became more accessible and was able to reach a larger audience, its status as an impressive, chaotic force of a film was incrementally solidified. As such, screenings of the still-comparatively rare film would draw large audiences, including a twisted programming slot by Anthology Film Archives in New York City, which would play the film annually on Valentine's Day to a horrified audience of lovers.

Most recently, Metrograph released a 4K restoration to honor the film's 40th anniversary. It premiered in its newfound glory at Fantastic Fest in 2021 before expanding to theaters across the country in October, perfect for an intense Halloween viewing session. But don't let the spooky season dominate as the one and only time to sit down and play horror classic catch-up. There's something about the romantic spring air that begs for a disquieting love affair — perhaps even involving a sexy suitor with tentacled extremities.

Read this next: The 19 Greatest Movie Couples Of All Time Ranked

The post Why It Took Decades For Possession to Become a Horror Classic appeared first on /Film.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against NVIDIA for inadequate disclosures concerning the impact of cryptomining on the company's gaming business. From an SEC press release: The SEC's order finds that, during consecutive quarters in NVIDIA's fiscal year 2018, the company failed to disclose that cryptomining was a significant element of its material revenue growth from the sale of its graphics processing units (GPUs) designed and marketed for gaming. Cryptomining is the process of obtaining crypto rewards in exchange for verifying crypto transactions on distributed ledgers. As demand for and interest in crypto rose in 2017, NVIDIA customers increasingly used its gaming GPUs for cryptomining. In two of its Forms 10-Q for its fiscal year 2018, NVIDIA reported material growth in revenue within its gaming business. NVIDIA had information, however, that this increase in gaming sales was driven in significant part by cryptomining. Despite this, NVIDIA did not disclose in its Forms 10-Q, as it was required to do, these significant earnings and cash flow fluctuations related to a volatile business for investors to ascertain the likelihood that past performance was indicative of future performance. The SEC's order also finds that NVIDIA's omissions of material information about the growth of its gaming business were misleading given that NVIDIA did make statements about how other parts of the company's business were driven by demand for crypto, creating the impression that the company's gaming business was not significantly affected by cryptomining.

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The timing for "The Pentaverate" debut couldn't be worse: it's a bloated Netflix original by an aging white male movie star that in no way justifies its cost. The six-episode series has a wacky premise: a Canadian local-news anchor, Ken Scarborough, is fired for being old and out of touch, leading him to investigate a secret underground organization that pulls society's strings from the shadows, hoping the "big story" will win him his job back. The comedy feels woefully outdated, the premise stupid, and the attempts at diversity forced (at least initially). The jokes are so crass they're uncomfortably unfunny. Generally, the show is all too much Mike Myers.

It would be very easy to write off "The Pentaverate" as an unfunny disaster, completely devoid of artistic merit; however, that's not quite the case. The series is weird, over-the-top, and definitely cringeworthy — but it has moments of being clever, sweet, and honest. The jokes that do land are laugh-out-loud funny, and some of the visuals are inspired. There's a heady mix of heart, action, and parody; it's not a series for everybody (I'm not sure who this show was made for, other than Myers himself, obviously) but it's not unwatchable either. This feels like a personal project for Myers that is unique to his comedic stylings, for better or for worse. 

Mike Myers Has Still Got It...

"The Pentaverate" is a comedy series led by Myers, who plays many characters: not just the lead Ken Scarborough, but also five Pentaverate members, the conspiracy theorist Anthony, Rex Smith (an Alex Jones parody), and more. It's a lot to handle, especially in the scenes where there are several versions of Myers acting with himself. It's a bold gamble that doesn't really pay off; sure, in small doses, it can be charming, but I often found myself wishing Myers had another comedian to collaborate with onscreen. 

Credit where credit's due: Myers remains a good impressionist, for the most part. While not every character here is really effective, I appreciate that some characters have real-life counterparts; for example, his media mogul character Bruce Baldwin is an Australian Conrad Black. Easily the standout though was Ken Scarborough, who is clearly inspired by the real-life local news anchors Myers grew up watching. As someone who regularly tuned into CHEX for my local news in Peterborough, Ontario, I can attest to its accuracy. I almost wish that Myers' Netflix project was simply "'Anchor Man' but small-town Canadian."

There is also a lot of history here, too, for cinephiles and lovers of classic comedy: interjections by Netflix that nod to the old "Monty Python" sketches; the inclusion of the "Ironside" theme song; and even an effective Shrek cameo. Myers is at his best when he has something to (lovingly) mock — that's what made "Austin Powers" so good. Clearly, the comedian has channeled some of that Man of Mystery fondness here, set-dressing much of the Pentaverate's base like a '60s-era James Bond film. The costumes are ridiculous and vivid. There's a great mix of cheap and silly with vibrant and detailed throughout — although leaning more into the more artificial look might have helped amplify some of the comedy. 

By the time "The Pentaverate" episode 6 ended, I was a bit sad to see it go; in just about three hours of runtime, the comedy series had grown on me. Myers takes risks here, including some full-frontal male nudity. There's also a real attempt to "do better" — despite the juvenile, potty humor. The series feels less sexist and more inclusive than his other notable works, and there's a sense that Myers really wants to promote being nice and good. That's not enough to elevate the comedy — there are so many jokes and gags here that just don't work — but it's a positive sign, regardless. 

...But The Pentaverate Proves He Needs Editing

Ultimately, "The Pentaverate" struggles under the weight of its main talent. Myers needs an editor: he is a funny man, and is capable of writing a clever, witty line, but he also returns too frequently to the same bits, many of which don't work in 2022. Today's audience probably doesn't think a Sasquatch pooping is funny, and definitely not enough for that to be a repeated visual gag. 

A lot of the sexual wordplay and jokes land like a cold, wet fish — at times, ruining a scene. One particular gag sees a profanity-laced exchange replayed with Netflix having removed the swearing, which results in the dialogue sounding overtly sexual. Is it funny? No, and neither was the original version with the profanity either. But, as a gag, I think it was a fun original idea, and perhaps with a little more workshopping, it could have been developed into a hilarious bit. 

It's impossible to really know what happened behind the scenes with "The Pentaverate." Myers had the assistance of experienced comedy writers Ed Dyson and Roger Drew for the teleplays — but having the same three people writing all six episodes of a comedy miniseries is not that common. Usually, there's a whole team. Just look at "Russian Doll" — yes, very funny comedians Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler wrote some of the episodes, but also people like Allison Silverman and Zakiyyah Alexander. 

"The Pentaverate" is now streaming on Netflix.

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

The post The Pentaverate Review: Mike Myers At His Most Unrestrained appeared first on /Film.

By this point, it should be a given that any story centered around human-like robots will inevitably reveal that one of its main characters, believed to be a regular human, has actually been a robot the whole time. Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner," centered around androids called replicants, is no exception. The 1982 sci-fi film introduces us to Rachael (Sean Young) early on, only to reveal quickly afterward that she's a replicant. Not only that, but she's just starting to suspect she's not a real human. "Suspect?" Deckard (Harrison Ford) asks Rachael's creator. "How can it not know what it is?"

Turns out, the science behind replicants has advanced to the point where they can be installed with fake memories, making them believe they've lived a long, event-filled life. When Deckard explains this to Rachael later, proving his point by bringing up a memory Rachael's never told anyone about, she quietly cries and leaves the room, but not before throwing the fake photographs of her fake childhood on the floor. The idea that someone might not know they're a replicant, that something as solid as their own personal memories can't even be trusted, is something that raises another question for the audience: Is Deckard himself a replicant? He doesn't think he is, sure, but Rachael didn't think she was, either. 

When it comes to this idea, however, Harrison Ford was not a fan. "I felt that the audience needed to have someone on screen that they could emotionally relate to as though they were a human being," he explained to Vanity Fair. Making Deckard a robot would, in his view, undercut that connection. But Ridley Scott had other ideas.

What It Means To Be Human

According to Paul M. Sammon, a journalist who was on the set and later wrote "Future Noir":

"Without telling his star, [Ridley] Scott started inserting visual clues that Deckard was non-human. Midway through the film, Deckard has a drunken daydream of a unicorn galloping through a forest. In the last scene, he finds that Gaff, a fellow blade runner, has left an origami unicorn at his front door — a sign that his innermost thoughts were actually implanted. When they shot the scene, according to Sammon, [Harrison] Ford realized what was happening and yelled, 'Goddammit, I thought we said I wasn't a replicant!'"

Although it's understandable why Ford would find this storytelling decision annoying — over 30 years later, this kind of twist has certainly been run into the ground — the movie at least leaves enough wiggle room for audiences to conclude that Deckard's a normal human. The ambiguity raised by the origami unicorn serves as a pretty smart emphasis on the questions the film raises about what it really means to be human. Deckard spends the whole movie chasing down and killing a group of rogue replicants. The replicants, while often scary and violent, are ultimately treated as sympathetic figures. They may not be human by the textbook definition, but they certainly seem to feel genuine human emotions. They fear death like a real person would, and they long for companionship in much the same way. 

By making it unclear if Deckard's a real person or not, the movie provides its strongest argument yet that whatever the differences between humans and replicants may be, it's not strong enough to justify treating them so callously. As the film ends with Deckard running away with Rachael to a start a new life, the film seems to argue that whether you're a "real" human or not doesn't really matter; you still deserve basic human dignity.

Read this next: Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Blade Runner's Big Unanswered Question Was Kept A Secret From Harrison Ford appeared first on /Film.

Sam Raimi's latest film, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," is in theaters now, giving fans of the famously frenetic director reason to celebrate. Raimi hasn't made a feature film since "Oz the Great and Powerful" in 2013, and in the nine years since then, he has only directed a few episodes of "Ash vs. Evil Dead" and a notable chapter in Quibi's "Fifty States of Fright." While Raimi has directed films in many genres — western, crime drama, noir, sports, superhero — it's his early horror work that many are still drawn to, and Raimi obsessives have happily catalogued the director's idiosyncrasies. Raimi is fond of tilted cameras, snap zooms, shrieking skeletons, masterful comedic pacing, Bruce Campbell, and tons of creative gore. 

Raimi also has a very particular trademark in his films: No matter the genre, timeframe, or context, Raimi has always managed to work his yellow 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 into the drama somewhere. 

The Oldsmobile is Ash's car in all three of the "Evil Dead" movies, as well as the TV show. It was impressively transformed into a massive, whirligig death machine in 1992's "Army of Darkness." It's parked outside a building in "Crimewave" (1987). It's involved in a car chase sequence in 1990's "Darkman." It can be seen parked in the snow in "A Simple Plan" (1998). It was Uncle Ben's car in "Spider-Man" (and again in a flashback in "Spider-Man 3"). It's parked in an alley in "Drag Me to Hell" (2009). According to Bruce Campbell, the Olds was stripped down to its chassis and covered with a wagon in order to fit it into "The Quick and the Dead." Raimi even said that part of the car's engine block and part of its cam shaft make an appearance in "Oz the Great and Powerful." The only film Raimi's Delta 88 did not appear in was his 1999 baseball drama "For the Love of the Game." Evidently its scenes were cut. 

Thankfully, the Olds returns for 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." 

In The 'Mobile Of Madness

As the title would lead one to believe, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is about a man named Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) tripping not-so-merrily into parallel universes wherein he meets parallel versions of himself, and — in the fashion of the 1995 sci-fi show "Sliders" — visit worlds where the rules of reality are a little bit different. For example, in one dimension, red traffic lights mean go and green means stop (also a gimmick from "Sliders"). The skipping from dimension-to-dimension will also reveal a new kind of cataclysm: Occasionally entire dimensions can "collide," causing reality itself to warp and dissipate. At one point in the movie, Doctor Strange and a companion who shall remain nameless find themselves wandering the streets of a ruined dimension, seemingly abandoned of people, with hazy skies and mysterious spots on the ground where gravity no longer holds. 

Although bright, the sky doesn't seem to have a sun in it. Large chunks of broken buildings float up into the heavens. And, most strikingly, ordinary objects hang freely in front of our heroes. Cars are suspended in midair. And, yes, wouldn't you know it, there is Sam Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile, hovering in the middle of a street.

The good doctor does not comment on the Olds. Although given the nature of the Multiverse, as well as the connection between the title character and the events of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," one could easily postulate that the Olds in "Multiverse" is the same one from Raimi's "Spider-Man." The director himself has always been teasing a kind-of multiverse of his own with his car, and having it as a central symbol of multidimensional shenanigans is wholly appropriate. 

Why THIS Car?

The Oldsmobile isn't just a cute gag for Raimi, however. The car has personal significance as well. Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi were friends back in high school, and in an IGN interview, Campbell said Sam's mom used to drive them around in the 1973 Delta 88. Campbell recalls a time when he and Sam and a few others were dropped off to watch "A Clockwork Orange" together, with Mrs. Raimi not knowing what it was. The film, one might recall, was given an X-rating in the 1970s. 

Campbell likes to make up stories. He famously perpetuated whoppers about "Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn," partly to expand the myth of the film's low-budget making, but also because both he — and Raimi, to a lesser extent — have a very "don't-really-give-a-s**t" attitude about publicity, putting on a game face for press events and interviews, but never adopting a precious attitude. Also, it must be acknowledged that Raimi and Campbell often stage themselves as rivals, with Raimi constantly pushing the boundaries of what Campbell is willing to tolerate, leading to playful public appearances wherein Campbell admits to abusing the Olds out of spite. 

All this is a way of saying that what Campbell has said about the Oldsmobile must be taken with a grain of salt. According to Campbell, not only was the Delta 88 Raimi's first car, but he has implied that Raimi had his first sexual encounter in it. Whether or not that's true, the car is still very dear to Raimi, and he will seemingly endeavor to including in all of his films moving forward. Even if he's making a gigantic-budget, studio mandated franchise picture, Raimi will find a way to include his two favorite workhorses: The Classic and Campbell.

Read this next: The 15 Most Anticipated Comic Book Movies And Shows Of 2022, Ranked

The post Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Features Another Sam Raimi Trademark appeared first on /Film.

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a memory-protection feature in Microsoft Windows that prevents malicious code exploits. It monitors certain memory regions or pages and prevents them from executing malicious codes.

When Sam Raimi wins, we all win. The fact that this article isn't just me screaming "GIVE ME MORE DARKMAN!" repeatedly should be an indicator of my excitement level, but according to The Wrap, Universal is allegedly interested in a legacy sequel to Raimi's first foray into the world of superheroes. 

What's that? You thought "Spider-Man" with Tobey Maguire was Raimi's first superflick? Don't worry, sweet baby birds, mama is here to feed your knowledge beaks. 

Raimi had tried and failed to obtain the rights to "The Phantom," so instead of accepting defeat, he said, "Screw it, I'll make my own superhero movie." What became of this decision is "Darkman," a gritty, Universal Monsters-inspired tale of revenge led by Liam Neeson and Frances Motherf****** McDormand.

The moderate financial success of the film spawned two direct-to-video sequels, a series of comic books, multiple video games, and action figure merchandising. It is easily one of the best superhero films of the 1990s, and is absolutely part of why Raimi was eventually given the directing job on "Spider-Man." Everything about "Darkman" rules, and a true to form legacy sequel would rule even harder. According to Raimi, Universal isn't just talking about a "Darkman" sequel, they've already got a producer attached. "I haven't heard the story yet or gone into it, I've been so busy with ['Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness']," he told The Wrap, "But I think it's cool."

Bring Back Neeson

Universal had intended for "Darkman" to become a series, but the lack of explosion at the box office relegated future stories to direct-to-video releases. "We were probably thinking if it'd been successful, there'd be more," Raimi said. Neeson didn't return for the sequels, with Arnold Vosloo stepping into the role of Dr. Peyton Westlake/Darkman. Neeson hadn't yet blown up into the massive action star he is today, which likely adds to the appeal of returning to the original world of "Darkman." Raimi's stock is the highest it's been in years thanks to the new "Doctor Strange" flick, and Neeson is still a highly sought-after action hero.

"I don't know if he'd do it," Raimi said. "But he'd be incredible." Fortunately, Neeson has already said that if the script was right, he'd be willing to make a return. The Darkman character is able to shift his visual appearance and take on a number of disguises, which would be incredibly easy to execute thanks to the massive technological advancements made since "Darkman" debuted in 1990. Watching Neeson continually transform would be an absolute blast, especially now that three decades have passed. Grittier, older, angrier Darkman? Shut up and take my money.

Read this next: Every Sam Raimi Film Ranked

The post Sam Raimi Says a New Darkman Sequel Is Being Discussed appeared first on /Film.

Whenever Marvel Studios drops content, whether it be a new TV show or a movie, someone is going to come along and call it a "game-changer." They may go further and say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will "never be the same again" after the latest chapter. And I'm sure to many, these phrases lose a little bit of power each time they're used. But sometimes that's just the best way to describe the insanity that just happened onscreen, right?

It's funny that I use "they," as if I'm not among the True Believers that say things like that, but to be clear: I'm certainly guilty of this as well. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "The Avengers," and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" are just a few of the films that I've made such claims about for one reason or another. And quite frankly, as hyperbolic as it sounds, I have to do it again: "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is a game-changer because the MCU will never be the same again after the events of this film. And though there is evidence all over the Master of the Mystic Arts' latest headlining feature, one of the post-credits scenes really hammers that point home.

From this point forward, there are massive SPOILERS for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." Proceed with caution.

The Eyes Have It

Before we get into the meaning of the post-credits scenes, let's lay out what happens in these bonus moments that tease what's next in the MCU. First, as soon as the animated credits wrap up, we see Doctor Strange leisurely walking down a New York street. He stops when an unnamed woman wearing purple cuts through the universe and walks through the hole. After this woman confirms that he is indeed Doctor Strange, she says, "You caused an incursion and we're gonna fix it ... Unless you're afraid." Benedict Cumberbatch's seasoned sorcerer opens the third eye in the center of his forehead (the same one that we just saw him scream in pain over when it first opened as a residual side effect of being exposed to the Darkhold) and replies, "Not in the least," before following her into the void.

Once the complete credits roll, there is one more post-credits scene that doesn't really have anything to do with the previous one or the future of the MCU. We catch up with Bruce Campbell's Pizza Pappa, who was last seen punching himself in the face after a run-in with Doctor Strange and America Chavez. After what we assume has been three weeks based on Strange's earlier estimate, the street vendor finally stops punching himself. Relieved, he looks into the camera and says "It's over!" before the screen cuts to black.

As fun as that last scene is, let's get to the real reason you're here: Who was that woman? And how can she and Strange fix incursions?

Which Witch?

The mysterious woman in the first post-credits scene is portrayed by Charlize Theron. Based on her purple motif in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," the award-winning actress from "Mad Max: Fury Road," "A Million Ways to Die In The West," and "The Fate of the Furious" will be playing Clea in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Daughter of the immortal magical being Umar and niece of the tyrannical demon Dormammu, she is a powerful Master of the Mystic Arts in her own right. Initially a captive of her mother and uncle, Clea eventually ascends to the throne of the Dark Dimension and earns the title of Sorceress Supreme of that realm.

After Clea meets Doctor Strange while he's on a mission to stop Dormammu, she realizes that she's much safer outside of the Dark Dimension and moves to the New York City of Doctor Strange's world. However, now that she was residing on Earth rather than the Dark Dimension, her powers began to diminish. That's when Clea became a student of Strange's so she could regain her magical abilities.

All the time they spent together as teacher and student resulted in Strange and Clea falling in love. They got married and continued their adventures as magical man and wife until 2021 when he died during the "Death of Doctor Strange" storyline by Jed McKay and Lee Garbett. At that point, Clea stepped in as the Sorceress Supreme of Earth and has contemplated resurrecting Strange against Wong's advice.

When we meet Theron's Clea, she already seems to be pretty autonomous and self-sufficient enough to use her powers outside of her own universe. After all, unless you're America Chavez with built-in dimension-hopping powers, it takes a lot of power and mastery for someone to travel the multiverse. With that in mind, while we may not get the student/teacher relationship from the comics (which is probably for the best), the pair could still catch feelings as they deal with the incursions of the multiverse.

Time Runs Out

Speaking of incursions, as we see in the new movie, when Strange travels to another universe with America's help and comes face to face with the panel of influential super-powered beings known as the Illuminati. They tell the former Sorcerer Supreme that their version of Doctor Strange used the magic of the Darkhold and cause an incursion, an event where something causes two universes to collide and either one or both of them perish. Though the Strange before them thinks that he could use the powerful spells found in the cursed tome without consequence, the counsel including the First Avenger Captain Carter, King of the Inhumans Black Bolt, Professor Charles Xavier, Sorcerer Supreme Baron Mordo, Captain Marvel AKA Maria Rambeau, and genius Fantastic Four founder Reed Richards are concerned that he will initiate another incursion and kill countless people.

In the comics, Jonathan Hickman's epic run on "Avengers" and "New Avengers" from 2012 through 2015 culminated in an event called "Time Runs Out." This story finds Earth's Mightiest Heroes trying to figure out ways to stop incursions. While the main title features more heroic solutions to save all the universes they can, "New Avengers" finds the Illuminati taking a more black ops approach to do as much good as they can for the multiverse while prioritizing their own universe. In the end, the Illuminati realize that their efforts would be better served if they focused on "not losing" rather than winning, so they build a "lifeboat" to save as many people from their Earth as they can. It's all moot since the final incursion between the last two universes still affects everyone in the end. But the day is saved when the latest version of "Secret Wars" found Doctor Strange, the Molecule Man, and Doctor Doom using the powers of the Beyonders to create a new multiverse called Battleworld that all fell under the rule of the infamous Fantastic Four foe.

A Future Foundation

So what does this mean for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, a few things. First, it seems to me that Phase Four will continue to lean into the multiverse moving forward. Based on the immediate slate of projects coming our way in the next few years like "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," "Blade," "Echo," and "She-Hulk," it likely won't be at the forefront just yet. But by the time we get around to "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," "X-Men 97," the second season of "Loki," and "Fantastic Four" (once it finds a new director), they could potentially further set the stage for an adaptation of "Secret Wars" on the big screen.

And with the introduction of the Illuminati on top of the tease that Doctor Strange and Clea are traveling the multiverse to stop incursions in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," we'll have these powerful entities gaining more and more power in the background of the MCU in one universe or another until it's finally time for them to emerge from the shadows. Don't forget, this is the same cinematic universe that didn't capitalize on the Thanos reveal from "The Avengers" for a number of years until he was out of our periphery vision. By the time Kevin Feige and company are ready to pull the trigger on the next "Avengers: Endgame"-style event, there's a very good chance that the first post-credits scene from this movie is the first seed. 

Ultimately, yes, this is all speculation since the MCU frequently diverges from established Marvel Comics lore often. But out of the possible fourteen million six hundred and five possible outcomes out there in the multiverse, this certainly seems like the direction things are headed after Doctor Strange's latest adventure.

Read this next: /Film's Top 10 Movies Of 2021

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The Cooler Master NR200P is, in my humble opinion, the best value Mini ITX case you can buy right now. For its street price of £110, you get a compact yet easy to build in design with a choice of mesh or glass side panels, plus a pair of low profile 120mm fans. Today however, you can pick up this brilliant little case for £76 in black or white, or £85 to £96 for colours like orange, purple, teal and pink. Either way you slice it, this is an incredible case for the money - and I should know, I've got two of them in my room right now.

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"Justified: City Primeval," FX's upcoming "Justified" limited-series revival starring Timothy Olyphant, has added eight new cast members, including Boyd Holbrook ("Logan") and Aunjanue Ellis, the latter of whom received an Academy Award nomination this year for her performance in "King Richard." And though Quentin Tarantino was in talks to direct one or more episodes of the series, there's no mention of him in the latest trade reports.

"Justified: City Primeval" is gearing up to begin shooting in Chicago this week, and in late April, the Chicago-based Screen Magazine indicated that, according to its sources, Tarantino was no longer attached to the project and "Justified" alum Michael Dinner would be directing the pilot instead. Now, a new Variety report with fresh cast details would seem to confirm that Dinner is directing, though the report doesn't specify which episodes he will helm.

Dinner and Dave Andron will act as writers, showrunners, and executive producers on "Justified: City Primeval." Andron is a showrunner on FX's "Snowfall," which just wrapped up its fifth season last month. Both he and Dinner served as executive producers on the original "Justified" series, with Dinner also directing the series premiere, the season 2 finale, and the 3rd through 6th season premieres, along with a couple of other episodes throughout the show's six-season run.

In addition to Holbrook and Ellis, "Justified: City Primeval" will costar Marin Ireland ("The Dark and the Wicked") and Vondie Curtis Hall ("Daredevil," "The Night House") along with Adelaide Clemens, Norbert Leo Butz, Victor Williams, and Olyphant's own daughter, Vivian Olyphant. "Justified" creator Graham Yost will co-executive produce with co-writers Taylor Elmore and Chris Provenzano, among others.

'A Walking Anachronism'

Tarantino already helmed one Elmore Leonard adaptation, "Jackie Brown," and he worked with Olyphant in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," so he seemed like a natural fit for "Justified: City Primeval." If he really has stepped away from the project, that's a bummer, but it's always possible, given the relative vagueness of the Variety report, that he could still be circling the project, though Screen Magazine's sources would appear to indicate otherwise.

"Justified: City Primeval," is adapted from the Leonard novel "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit," with Olyphant's character, Raylan Givens, substituting for the book's original protagonist, Detective Raymond Cruz. Holbrook will play Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, with Ellis playing Carolyn Wilder and Vivian Olyphant playing Given's daughter. Here's the synopsis:

Having left the hollers of Kentucky eight years ago, Raylan Givens now lives in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 14-year-old girl. His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind.

A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who's already slipped through the fingers of Detroit's finest once and aims to do so again. Mansell's lawyer, formidable Motor City native Carolyn Wilder, has every intention of representing her client, even as she finds herself caught in between cop and criminal, with her own game afoot as well. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.

"Justified: City Primeval" does not have a release date yet, but production will reportedly last through September. We'll keep you posted.

Read this next: The 20 Best Westerns Of All Time

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