April 8, 2018
On the Docket
Black Panther is now the third-highest grossing film in domestic history, sailing past the once unsinkable Titanic. – [THR]
A new trailer has been released for Solo: A Star Wars Story. – [YouTube]
A League of Their Own is being optioned for television by Amazon Studios. – [THR]
Keith DeCandido continues the 4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch with the second Sam Raimi Spider-Man film. – [Tor]
Into The Chronic Rift
Presenting the Transcription Feature: Fibber McGee and Molly & Boston Blackie
First up, on “Fibber McGee and Molly,” the duo race around town trying to reclaim a very valuable coin accidentally spent on some cigars. The comic coincidences and tongue-twisters will leave your head spinning. Then we present, for the first time, an episode of “Boston Blackie.” Blackie is a righter of wrongs, a reformed safecracker and jewel thief. He first appeared in 1914, and his tough-but-clever style has taken him from magazines to films, television, and, of course, radio. This is a baseball-themed episode.
The Chronic Rift Classic – Episode 36: Vampires
Andrea Lipinski and Keith DeCandido welcome author Greg Cox and editors Ellen Datlow and John Betancourt to the studio to discuss the appeal of vampires in our literature and movies. Plus, James Frenkel shares a selection of books to try and Keith reviews “Billi 99” by Sarah Byam and Tim Sale.
Originally Aired: October 21, 1991
The Batcave Podcast: From the Files of the Batcomputer 29: “Wonder Woman: Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince?”
We move into the post-review era with the first in a series of episodes looking at the Batman-related works of the producers and stars of the show and at the pop culture influences from the series. First up, a look at William Dozier’s attempt at adapting another DC property – Wonder Woman. In this curious short, “Wonder Woman: Who’s Afraid of Diana Prince?” we are only given a taste of the potential of the series. Which begs the question, why wasn’t a full pilot produced, especially in light of the fact that a full script was commissioned, co-written by Batman scribe Stanley Ralph Ross? This question and possibly a few more will be asked by John and his guest, Chris Franklin of the Super Mates Podcast.
The Chronic Rift Classic: Episode 35 – Heroes & Villains
Andrea Lipinski and Keith DeCandido welcome writers Chris Claremont, Joe Nazzaro and Ellen Kushner to our Roundtable discussion on heroes and villains and their use in popular literature and cinema. Plus, the Man in Black returns with a new video release report, Keith reviews “Curse of the Molemen featuring Big Baby” by Charles Burns, and the Memorable Moment is from “Aliens 2”.
Originally Aired: October 14, 1991
The Weekly Podioplex: April 3, 2018
The Watchlist
Current
Supergirl
The Flash
Black Lightning
Arrow
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD
Blindspot
MacGyver
Legends of Tomorrow
Taken
Designated Survivor
Timeless
The Crossing
Waiting room
Jessica Jones: Season Two
The 100 (Season Five premieres April 24)
The Orville (Season Two premieres Fall 2018)
Doctor Who (Series Eleven premieres Fall 2018)
The Good Doctor (Season Two premieres 2018/2019)
The Good Place (Season Three premieres 2018/2019)
Game of Thrones (Season Eight premieres 2019)
Star Trek: Discovery (Season Two premieres 2019)
Catching up
Madam Secretary (via CBS All Access)
The Punisher (via Netflix)
Backlog
Marvel’s Inhumans – Episodes 5-8
Movie Night
This week
Ready Player One – 8/10
With zero expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.
I’ve mentioned before that the trailers gave me near-zero indication of the actual story. Everything in them was about video game characters fighting and DeLoreans racing in a simulated world that was bright and shiny in comparison to the financial apocalypse of the real. I also have never set eyes on the book, so with that in mind, I was anticipating an absolute failure of a movie.
The film itself is pretty paint-by-numbers 1980s-era Spielberg, but the story and moral snagged me once I stopped watching for pop culture call-outs. After I stopped hunting for them, my inner soundtrack nerd was pleased to hear Spielberg and Silvestri nod to Zemeckis with the Back to the Future “twinkle” theme.
The universe itself made sense once I thought about it. Without spoilers, since the entire world is completely absorbed in a virtual reality that centers around the pop culture of a particular era, it wasn’t too large a leap to understand why so much marketing and product in the story’s universe also remains there. One example is the 1980s Doritos bag that makes a couple of appearances.
What doesn’t make complete sense is that no other creators have made something new to either compete with or complement the existing worldwide tech craze. So much of history’s best creative periods spring from times of deep tribulation, destitution, and conflict. But, I guess when the prize is valued in the trillions of dollars, what corporation would ignore the immediate return on investment on nostalgia?
It meant a lot personally to see the moral of this story echo something that I try to live by, even though it is ironic that the advertising focused so much on the pop culture world to pass a message to audiences on how much they should spend more time with flesh and blood interactions.
As an aside, this was a good test of our MoviePass cards. I think they were a good investment.
Upcoming
Apr 27 – Avengers: Infinity War – (Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase III, Chapter 7)
May 11 – Life of the Party – (A close friend of mine was an extra with significant camera time on this project)
May 18 – Deadpool 2 – (X-Men series #11)
May 25 – Solo: A Star Wars Story
Jun 15 – The Incredibles 2
Jun 22 – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Jul 6 – Ant-Man and the Wasp – (Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase III, Chapter 8)
Jul 27 – Mission: Impossible — Fallout – (M:I #6)
Oct 5 – Venom – (Sony Spider-Man Universe revival)
Nov 2 – X-Men: Dark Phoenix – (X-Men series #12)
Nov 2 – Mulan – (Disney live-action remake)
Nov 16 – Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – (Fantastic Beasts #2, Harry Potter #10)
Nov 21 – Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 – 11/21
Dec 14 – Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse – (Sony Spider-Man multiverse)
Dec 21 – Aquaman – (DC Extended Universe #6)
Dec 25 – Mary Poppins Returns
Future
Feb 2019 – The New Mutants – (X-Men series #13)
Mar 2019 – How to Train Your Dragon 3
Mar 2019 – Captain Marvel – (Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase III, Chapter 9)
Mar 2019 – Dumbo – (Disney live-action remake)
Apr 2019 – Shazam! – (DC Extended Universe #7)
May 2019 – Avengers #4 – (Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase III, Chapter 10)
May 2019 – Aladdin – (Disney live-action remake)
Jun 2019 – Gambit – (X-Men Series #14)
Jun 2019 – Men in Black Untitled – (Men in Black #4)
Jun 2019 – Toy Story 4
Jul 2019 – Spider-Man Homecoming #2 – (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Jul 2019 – Top Gun
Jul 2019 – The Lion King – (Disney live-action remake)
Jul 2019 – Terminator sequel – (Terminator #6)
Aug 2019 – Artemis Fowl
Nov 2019 – Wonder Woman #2 – (DC Extended Universe #8)
Nov 2019 – Frozen 2
Dec 2019 – Star Wars: Episode IX
Dec 2019 – Wicked
Jul 2020 – Indiana Jones #5
Jul 2020 – Minions #2
Night at the Theater
This week
None
Coming soon
Something Rotten at The Fox Theater in Atlanta.
Literary Pursuits
Currently reading
Diving into the works of H.P. Lovecraft
Podcasting for Dummies (3rd Edition) by Tee Morris and Chuck Tomasi
Reviews
None
On the Virtual Air
Notes
None
Spotlight
None
Adventures in Creative Criticality
The Timestamps Project
This week was a detour with the Sixth Doctor in Real Time. Next week is A Fix with Sontarans before starting the Seventh Doctor’s run.
Other Musings
None
Upcoming Podcasts
None
Upcoming Appearances
May 5-7: WHOLanta 2018
Aug 30-Sep 3: Dragon Con 2018
Until next time, enjoy the journey.
Creative Criticality 