Thirty Minute Reviews: Week of May 13th, 2024
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4c5Uhqfs8IG7H2C3IfHSpw?si=p2BL89VYQIGJtpBKJ1oG1w
We skipped a week because of Mother's Day so this week's five stories are a little bit of a grab bag from the last two weeks.
This Week In Podcasts & Housekeeping
Last week began the continued process to restore some of the lost episodes of Beware of Spoilers. Every week on Tuesday, old archived episodes will be re-uploaded to the Beware of Spoilers feed. Last week, our review of Venom was re-released and this week we will revisit The Hummingbird Project.
We have also finished phase one of the major site upgrade to MWPNews.com. Our index page has been completely updated with links to the majority of movie, video game, and streaming reviews over the last few years across Beware of Spoilers, The Backlog Files, and Thirty Minute Reviews. We also have added a new section to the About Us page where listeners can submit questions and comments.
Over on the YouTube channel, our Nuzlocke series will finally begin this Friday as I start out with a randomized version of Pokémon Red Version. Is the game randomized in my favor? Find out Friday.
Finally, here is this week's schedule of podcast episodes:
- Monday Evening: Doctor Who Episode 3 (Beware of Spoilers)
- Tuesday Morning: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team (The Backlog Files)
- Wednesday Morning: Embargoed Review (Beware of Spoilers)
- Thursday Morning: Retrowave World (The Backlog Files)
- Friday Evening: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Beware of Spoilers)
- Saturday TBA: Babes (Beware of Spoilers)
As always, additional content may be added in the future.
Winners From The Indie Space
The Seattle International Film Festival is (as of recording) still ongoing and award winners were not announced so we will talk about those next week. Also currently ongoing is the Cannes Film Festival and we will have a wrap-up of the big news there when it ends.
Story 1: Dune: Prophecy Trailer Finally Released
Warner Brothers' next attempt to pull money from the Dune franchise has a trailer that looks a little generic and appears to be repeating some of the mistakes of the various spin-offs. Time will tell how good this show actually is when it hits Max this fall.
Story 2: Nintendo Gives More Information Than Normal
Nintendo has formally announced that no news about the Switch successor console will be showed at next month's Nintendo Direct but they would show it by the end of the Fiscal Year. Could this console still be coming in the Fall? Could Pokemon Legends Z-A still be a launch title, maybe a bridge title like Breath of the Wild was? Are they concerned about GTA VI potentially coming in the same window? A lot to speculate about.
Story 3: Disney Probably Delayed Blade Again
During an earnings call, Disney announced plans to scale back the number of releases from Marvel Studios to two streaming series and "at most three" theatrical releases. Iger expressed optimism in both this year's slate (Deadpool and Wolverine) and three movies slated for release next year, specifically referencing Fantastic Four, The Thunderbolts*, and Captain America: Brave New World, notably omitting Blade which is slated for November 2025.
Story 4: Warner Brothers Announces Another Lord of the Rings Movie
On an earnings call, Warner Brothers announced a live-action Gollum movie directed by Andy Serkis. Past performance of Gollum standalone projects would indicate this is probably a bad idea but it's their money to piss away however they want as they try to use the brands they have to maximum efficiency.
Story 5: Marvel Re-Splits It's Media Divisions
After Disney finished its acquisition of Fox and started moving into the streaming era, Marvel rebranded it's scattered brands into one brand under the wider Marvel Studios logo. Now that this has proven to be a liability for audiences (when the issue is coopted by entities trying to push an agenda), Marvel has re-separated into four brandings and gone back to the "everything is as canon as you want it to be" mindset of the mid 2010s.
Winners at the Box Office
No major surprises this week, even if the returns were a little on the low side.
- IF: $35 Million
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: $26 Million
- The Strangers: Chapter 1: $12 Million
- The Fall Guy: $8.4 Million
- Challengers: $2.9 Million
Coming To Theaters
Two major releases arrive this Memorial Day weekend: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie. Both have already had some form of release (Furiosa debuted at Cannes and The Garfield Movie has been released internationally) and are being well-received by audiences.
