This Week in Pop Topix 2/18/22

And we're back for more cool news in pop culture for the week of February 18th, 2022. So, "in case you missed it.." Here are this week's topics!

Spider-Man surpasses Avatar as the third highest-grossing domestic box office movie in history!

They said it couldn’t be possible, but yes it has happened! The second sequel to the 3rd rebooted Spider-Man series, has managed to top James Cameron’s avatar as the new box office champ as it has surpassed the $760 million mark domestically taking down 2009’s Avatar a notch in a race to become the third-highest grossing domestic release.

Sony’s most recent Spider-Man feature, that may or may not be the bookend of Tom Holland’s web-spinning trilogy, has grossed around $760.9 million at the domestic box office since during its theatrical exclusive launch in December. The staggering ticket sales unexpected, especially within the midst of the pandemic era making it the highest grossing film since the covid 19 outbreak. Prior to that was Disney’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” which earned $224 million.

However, the news of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” accumulating the remaining $1 million on Monday thus unseating the North American box office king, “Avatar” further demonstrates that films based on Comic book intellectual properties, Marvel in particular, are here to slay..er, I meant stay!

"Lighten up Francis.."

Meanwhile… (As they say in the Comics.) Godfather Director throws shade on Marvel films, dismissing them as “one prototype movie made over and over again to look different"

The legendary filmmaker behind the Godfather films and Apocalypse Now, to name a few gave his unrestricted opinions about today’s film industry, as he discussed the difficulties having a film made in Hollywood, which of course using Marvel Studios as an example of scapegoating: “There used to be studio films… now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.”

 During his interview at GQ magazine, Francis further homed in his sentiment when giving advice to his children i.e. Sofia Coppola within the motion picture industry– ‘Let your films be personal. Always make it as personal as you can because you are a miracle, that you’re even alive. Then your art will be a miracle because it reflects stuff from someone who there is no other one like that.’ Whereas if you’re part of a school or ‘Yeah, I’m going to make a Marvel picture, and that’s the formula and I get it and I’ll do my best,’ sure it will still have your individuality, but as art, do that and do something else. But if you’re going to make art, let it be personal. Let it be very personal to you.”  

 But then, things got even more interesting as the infamous director had turned his “ire” towards Denis Villeneuve's Dune and Cary Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, referring how both directors are  “extremely gifted, talented, beautiful artists”, with films of that magnitude, “you could take both those movies, and you and I could go and pull the same sequence out of both of them and put them together. The same sequence where the cars all crash into each other. They all have that stuff in it, and they almost have to have it, if they’re going to justify their budget. And that’s the good films, and the talented filmmakers.”

First Goodfellas’ Martin Scorsese, now its Coppolla’s turn at bashing the MCU. But hey, both are very respected filmmakers who are entitled to their opinions, and who’s to say that either or both may consider making a Marvel movie? A Punisher Vietnam era film in the vein of Apocalypse Now or a crossover with Taxi Driver might work..okay, I’ll see myself out.

"When you’re strange."

So, one of the more talked about ads during the Super Bowl was Disney's Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which showcased more than what most viewers expected!

In this Sam Raimi directed sequel, the good doctor faces repercussions for tampering with the Multiverse, releasing an evil version of himself and a few other familiar faces within the Marvel U. While one of Strange's enemies Shuma Gorarh is obvious, there were at least two characters I recognized, one sounded like Patrick Stewart aka Professor X, and the other..Johnny Storm!

Obviously, this serves as a tentpole to introduce both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to the official Marvel Cinematic Universe that has everyone excited, especially since the Avengers saga wrapped with 2019's Endgame. Both ensemble Superhero teams would be highly reciprocated, especially after the unimpressive reception from last year's Eternals.

Netflix has plans to develop a Bioshock Movie??

Remember that planned movie based on Take-Two interactive's Bioshock before developer Ken Levine dropping Gore Verbinski's adaptation of the popular video games?

Well, it's on-again courtesy of your friends at Netflix! The streaming giant recently announced that it has signed a deal with Take-Two to produce a film exclusively for their platform.

As of this writing, we have no idea which Bioshock game the upcoming adaptation is based on, but more likely it will feature events based on the first Bioshock as opposed to Bioshock Infinite.  Considering Netflix's past adaptations of Cowboy Bebop, and Marvel's Iron Fist, some skepticism is warranted. And on a related note, for you gamers out there, the proposed Bioshock 4 has been pushed back to 2024.

 

"Peace Out!" Super-less Season Finale

At what may be considered, one of the more talked about season finales on television, episode 7 of HBO MAX's Peacemaker garnered praise for its unexpected wall-breaking scene towards the end, by reuniting the Justice League. Well, sorta. While there was a brief dialog between Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Ezra Miller's Flash, both Superman and Wonder Woman were shown in silhouette form. So don't expect an appearance from actress Gal Gadot until WW 3 that's "Wonder Woman 3" but by the way things are going in the Ukraine, a full-scale war could be a possibility, but I digress.

Over the past two years, both Warner Brothers and Man of Steel Actor Henry Cavil have been vague about his official return to the DCEU previously codified as the "Snyderverse" but after 2021's revamped Justice League, chances are, that Cavil's departure from the iconic Superhero role, is more finite than ever and that's unfortunate as many of us, myself included, thought he did a great job as the Man of Steel.

However, the 400lb elephant in the room is where the hell is Ray Fisher as Cyborg? Ok, that one is a bit self-explanatory as Fisher not only called out Justice League director, Joss Whedon for his mistreatment of actors on the set but also made accusations of racism within the Warner Bros studio. So once again unfortunately, Fisher has been ousted from any further DCEU projects post-Zac Snyder's Justice League.

Batffleck is also noticeably missing but that's an entirely different scenario altogether.

And that's it for now. And in the words of Dr. Dre ; "Til the next episode."