Did Mortal Kombat 11 Ruin Sindel?

     Our favorite scream queen is back! After a long wait and a lot of fan anticipation, Sindel is finally back as Mortal Kombat’s latest DLC. With Sindel’s recent addition to the roster you would hope that fans would be pleased, but alas their not. What is leaving some fans up in arms and disappointed is not how Sindel fairs with other fighters or her gameplay mechanics, but rather a recon to her story and in some cases the a rather huge change to the lore of the entire franchise. Warning, spoilers ahead. If you are interested or this doesn’t concern you or won’t deter from disliking our favorite serial siren, then grab some popcorn and go right ahead.

     Sindel, even though she hasn’t been in a lot of the games, has an equal part interesting and tragic part in Mortal Kombat’s story. She was the reigning queen of a realm called Edenia until the series’s antagonist Shao Kahn invaded it and merged it with his realm Outworld. He kept Sindel and her daughter Kitana to be his bride and daughter and killed their king, and Kitana’s father, Jerrod. Sindel later claimed her own life to free herself from Shao Kahn, or that is how the story goes. The series is going through a reboot period and a lot of revisions in its original lore but Sindel’s backstory is a doozie. In an ending to Sindel’s character in Mortal Kombat 11 we’ve are met with a disturbing revelation. Not everything was what it seems and Sindel’s backstory is a lie as Sindel herself killed Jerrod and took Shao Kahn as her new husband in a scheme to eventually rule all the realms. A lot of fans are upset about how this changes Sindel, who was a good character aside from her debut in Mortal Kombat 3, but that was an evil resurrection and brainwashing (like we haven’t been through that ourselves, big whoop). Some fans, in their disgust have cried that creator of the series, Ed Boon, and the company Netherrealm Studios have reduced her to a “scheming thot.” But have they? Is there a justification for the direction Boon has placed the character?

     I can understand where the people are coming from as they feel. There's an old saying that when you live long, you live long to see yourself become the villain. Well, Sindel has lived twice and I'm sure it does hurt a lot of fans to see Sindel go bad and to them it feels like it does away with a lot of the character, but they do have to keep in mind that MK 11, as well as the last two games were a part of the new reboot and certain characters had revisions and alliances changed. Good guys like the series’ protagonist Liu Kang, along with Kitana and mostly a lot of the heroes were, or at least the reboot versions of those characters, are not evil except for Sonya Blade, Jax, Johnny Cage, and Raiden to say the least. It doesn’t really make sense to complain about good characters going bad or have Sindel being a villain who backstabbed one character to form an alliance with another villain in the pursuit of power. A lot of the series’ villains have aligned and backstabbed each other to get what they wanted, especially the characters Shang Tsung and Quan Chi who both can name former alliances they betrayed like Ariana Grande can make a song about exes. Again, it doesn’t make sense to be mad at a villainous character being deceitful and is all about betrayal. 

  It is a case of how things are now and fans of the old has to learn to be accepting of the change and the now. We learned this from current reboots like Ghostbusters, the 2016 reboot and the new one coming out, as we as continuations of old series like Star Wars where old favorites are dying off, making way for new characters to take their places.

     If anything the fans who are upset of the new Sindel and the recon can be glad about is that the current recon does give her a sort of agency in the series with her being active and a force, and in some ways an actual threat to protagonists and even some villains instead of her being a bystander in the old story with things happening to her like watching her realm be taken over, her husband dying, her dying herself, and her being brought back to life and brainwashed for an evil scheme. It’s not the character growth that we want but it’s more so the character growth that we need, which is a lot better than her growth in the original story where she didn’t do much as a hero other than be a good mother to Kitana. Also, there are probably worse versions of Sindel so we can’t really complain. What are your thoughts?

Where's Buffy in the New Buffy Reboot?

     Every generation a tv network decides to reboot a former tv show in order to get us to watch and try to get as much money and ratings from old fans as they could. Yes, you heard me or you may have been buried under a Hellmouth or have been a rat for a while, you may have not heard the news that we are getting a new Buffy reboot. The only tid bit we know about the new reboot is that Joss Whedon is involved and it will feel more like a sequel than a full on reboot. Oh, and that we will have a black actress as the lead. After everyone freaked out about the new lead being recast as the Buffy Summers we knew and grew up loving, showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen has clarified that we will be following the reboot with a new slayer, not a new Buffy.

pic.twitter.com/Sdz4oKh3gM

— monicaowusubreen (@monicabreen) July 26, 2018

     So, since we are going to be introduced to a new slayer and not a new Buffy, or the old one, where exactly in this reboot/sequel is Buffy? Here are some possibilities.

She's Fronting Her Own Slayer Organization

     In season seven of the original series we were introduced to the ideal of potential slayers, women who were predestined to take up the powers of the slayers should the current slayer dies. Think about it like being on a supernatural evil fighting waiting list. In the end of season seven Buffy and Willow made it that there could be more than one slayer and every potential slayer will actually become a slayer. What to do know that there are thousands of slayers in the world? Make your own slayer task force. Later on in the comic books Buffy started her own organization just like the Watchers Council to recruit her own team of slayers to fight vampires around the world. If the reboot is following the comic books, the new series could be the new slayer fighting vampires and demons in the new organization. The new reboot could be not only the new slayer coming to terms about her powers and growing up, like Buffy did in the original, but also doing it with other slayers who are dealing with the same thing, unlike Buffy. If Sarah Michelle Gellar is signed on to reprise her role, she could act as a mentor.

Buffy is Dead

     Why the new focus on a new kick ass slayer? Simple because the old one died. Like Spike said, every Slayer has a death wish and death is the slayer's gift. It isn't shocking that all slayers eventually die and Buffy is no different. Yeah, she died twice but third time's the charm right? So the new series could have Buffy could go down as one of the great ones and the new slayer trying to live up to the mantle. Hard, right? But it could make some great drama and show how she is doing things a bit different than Buffy. They could also go all Halloween on us and recon things that happened in season seven and in the comics where there are not thousands of slayers running around and it is back to the chosen one format. But that would mean Faith is dead too. That's not five by five...

Buffy is M.I.A

     I know, very Supernatural where the Winchester Bros. spent the first couple of season looking for their father, but it could happen. Something happened to Buffy so it's time for someone to a new slayer to lead and take charge and to do all the main kickassery in Buffy's absence or find out what happened to Buffy. Hopefully the new show will know how to not stretch things out to far and reveal where in the world is Buffy Summers, you like what Supernatural does alot.

     Again, these are all speculations (for fun) and we may find out where is Buffy in this new reboot when new details emerge. I've made mine, but that doesn't mean you can't make yours and I would love to hear them. What are your thoughts?

Is There an X-Men Reboot Coming?

     So if you haven't heard Disney has just struck a deal with Fox and is now the proud owners of most of their entertainment divisions. As of now Disney are the proud owners of Fox Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and other studios. But we're not here for that. We here for superheroes. If you are a Marvel fan this should excite as this means that Marvel has legal rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men again. Since Marvel can use the properties again that means that we might be seeing the X-Men and Fantastic Four in the MCU, most importantly the X-Men.

Disney and Marvel have two options to bring the X-Men into the MCU. Marvel can keep things the way they are as the recent films, First Class all the way until Dark Phoenix, already serve as a soft reboot to the many X-men films that have came out in almost a couple of decades. The characters can somehow be shoehorned into later films in the MCU. But alas this will cause some problems. 

     There's a lot going on in the current X-Men movie continuity that can make the current franchise hard to fit. Even with Days of Future Past which was Fox's attempt to start anew and get rid of some of these continuity issues some are still a problem. I'm looking at you two Archangels, two Deadpools, and pretty much rest of the mess that wasn't fixed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It would be much better and simpler just start things over. There are still some big problems with continuity.
     The other issue and reason for a reboot will be the actors themselves. You have some actors that have or are considering moving on from the franchise and retiring from their roles. Logan was Hugh Jackman's final swan song from the franchise with him playing Wolverine one last time after going back and forward on stating on whether he'll quit the role for years. With Logan being Jackman's exit, it might be hard to explain a new actor as Wolverine when we had Jackman digging his claws in the role for 11+ years. Jackman is not the only one as other actors in the franchise have or are deciding to leave after the filming is done as Jennifer Lawrence is another actor who has said that she is pretty much done playing Mystique or has until Dark Phoenix where she only came back to give her Mystique character a proper sendoff.
     So yeah, a reboot would seem to be the move that makes sense. It made much sense when Marvel made a deal with Sony and borrowed and gave us a brand new Spider-Man for Civil War and Spider-Man Homecoming instead of having Andrew Garfield put on the Spidey suit. Whatever the case they be hopefully it'll be a smooth choice that'll make X-fans happy, unlike Last Stand.

Ghostbusters: Did It Suck?

The original Ghostbusters is one of the classic comedy movies of all time. It harbored famous comedians Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd. It has won fans alike who still to this day quote lines from the movie. When the movie came out it was a hit. We've gotten a sequel, a cartoon, and let's not forget the Ecto Hi-C. There have been trouble getting a third Ghostbuster movie started ranging from script troubles to cast fighting. We wouldn't have anything Ghostbusters for years until now. Is the franchise back from the dead or is it time to put it to rest?
      Ghostbusters, just like the original movie its rebooting, is a comedy. It was a bit different than the original as it kinda went for less of the dry humor and went for a bit more slapstick and the stuff you'd usually find in Paul Feig, the director, movies. It is full of jokes. The beginning did start off slow with some witty writing, but as the movie progresses, things build and things do get outrageously funny. Despite it having some funny moments, I felt the jokes were kinda tame compared to Feig's previous movies. There were a lot of funnier moments and the movie could've gone out with certain moments. Feig brought the funny, but it wasn't necessarily his A game.
     The story was pretty much your standard Ghostbusters story. It's up to the Ghostbusters to save New York, and maybe the world but mainly New York, from a spiritual catastrophe. the only difference this time is that the antagonist is not some powerful ghost, but a human. Neil Casey plays the villain and like the Ghostbusters he is doing some ghost hunting as well for some really bad reasons.
    Watching Ghostbuster was almost like remix of the original in that it seems like a completely original movie and it had some moments that were inspired by the original movie. The first encounter in the mansion was the library scene. The rock concert was the hotel scene where they caught Slimer. And the subway scene was from Ghostbusters 2 even with one of the ghost brothers that was electrocuted. Also their are a ton of cameos. The movie is almost one big Ghostbuster reunion as it featured almost the whole cast in different roles except for Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis you know because he's dead. You even got one from the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man.
     As for the female Ghostbusters, everyone did their job well. Melissa McCarthy was classic Melissa McCarthy is almost every role she's mainly been whether you like that or not shame on you if you don't. Kristen Wiig is in full comedy prime quirky Erin Gilbert. They were the Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd of the reboot. Kate McKinnon was great playing the pretty much out there "Egon" of the group, Jillian Holtzmann  The highlight of the movie clearly was Chris Hemsworth. He played a ditzy male receptionist well. He has amazing comedic timing. It was shocking to see him able to have a comedic side and him doing it so well. Also cred to due to Lesie Jones. She was amazing and despite some claims that her character was too "stereotypical" (and like they even care?) it wasn't nor did she come across that way. She was a sassy and witty New Yorker who wasn't just sitting back on the side lines to say something witty compared to the other girls' characters. And to boot Jones' was funny as hell delivering her lines.
     Overall the movie was fantastic. Is it better than the original? No. Definitely not. But it's not trying to be. It was made to show love for the original Ghostbuster movies and bring it to a new generation, with a modern twist. It's a great popcorn movie. It was fun. The audience I was with had a good time dancing when the original Ghostbusters theme played as well as during the ending credits. The people who are spending all their time hating this movie and crying over their "tarnished childhoods" are seriously missing out. I'd give it 4 out of five stars.

Who You Gonna Call When You Hate the New Ghostbusters?

     The Ghostbusters reboot just around the corner. We haven't had anything Ghostbusters related in a while with the last movie, a sequel, made in 1989, a couple of failed projects to get a third movie made, and a video game made almost 6 years ago in 2009. With the smell of nostalgia in the air, you can can feel the excitement or better yet the hate.
      The new Ghostbusters has been the subject of internet hate. Fanboys have taken to repeatedly  down vote trailers and have even gone as far as to harass director Paul Feig and cast members. It's has gone pretty much downhill ever since it was announced that who was directing it and that the reboot would feature a mostly female cast. The most recent of the negativity has come from YouTuber cinemasscre. Cinemasscre, real name James Rolfe, has pretty much made a 6 and a half "non review" discussing about how much he is not going to see and review the Ghostbusters movie. I could talk about how absurd, childish and the lack of professionalism that a supposed amateur movie reviewer on YouTube would go to make a 6 minute rant about how much they're not going to see a movie, but that's another day and another topic. This inspired me to finally talk about the movie and address the hate that the movie has brewed.
     Some opponents of the movie claim that the movie is just another cash grab for the studios to make money off a popular franchise. Hollywood has been the culprit of doing this for the past years and this could spark a debate on truly if Hollywood should should stop the trend of making remakes or reboots just to make quick cash instead of coming up with new innovative ideas and concepts and that is a actual problem. Whether that is the case for this particular movie or not is up to debate. One thing is for sure is that issue will not be resolved with giving the director and cast death threats and harassment.
      Bottom line it's just a movie. It's no need to get this worked up over a movie. No movie is worth this much hate. No movie is worth sending the cast and director harassment and death threats. For the people citing nostalgia and claiming that the movie will ruin the franchise, if one reboot is capable of doing that, then your childhood nostalgia and the franchise itself had nothing to stand on. If this is truly bad then I think the franchise is be just fine, it survived Ghostbusters 2. You can still watch the original Ghostbusters movie and enjoy that. You can even watch Ghostbusters 2 which wasn't as charming and funny as the first one. The new reboot doesn't take anything away from those movies. The new Ghostbusters reboot might be fine after all, then again you wouldn't know that if you're too busy downvoting trailers and making "non review" videos.

P.S. Harold Ramis probably wouldn't be upset over the new reboot. We tried contacting his ghost but reportedly its held in storage in a firehouse in downtown Los Angeles.

What are your thoughts on the negative wave of hate on the new Ghostbusters reboot. Is it justified?

The Power/Rangers Fan Film: Does it Suck?

     So, if have been living under a rock, we were blessed with a Power Ranger fan film. This wasn't not just your filmed in the backyard fan film. This was a fan filmed that featured talent like actors James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff, producers Joseph Kahn, and Adi Shankar. The film has currently over 12,000,000 view on YouTube. Saban and the creators of this fan film have been in a bit of dispute this week as Saban has shown disapproval with the gritty fan film and has threaten to take legal action if the video wasn't taken down. Apparently a deal has been made and Saban has agreed to allow the video to stay up, for now. Good? Probably so, unless it sucks. But does it? Let's find out.

Story
     The fan film opens with an epic battle with good and evil to get you in the mood and let you know just how intense this battle is. The setting is in an Angel Grove a la Blade Runner. Everything is futuristic and robots of the Machine Empire are running everything. The Power Rangers are a resistance team set on overthrowing this tyranny. The whole film revolves around former Ranger Rocky interrogating Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, for the whereabouts of Tommy, the Green Ranger. As the interrogation goes on, you get a backdrop of how gritty and fucked-up things are as well as the background of the other Rangers. Zach is your stereotypical black celeb loaded up with money, drugs, & women and Billy is basically Tony Stark. The fan film plays every cliche in every gritty and mature film. Ton of drugs, a crime boss fights, an over the top betrayal scene, and throw in a ton of really gruesome deaths. It was nice that they've kept a few things from the series like Kimberly's relationships with Tommy and Jason, Tommy's power issues being referenced, and Zach's in his parachute pants and getting his Shaun T on, just like he did in the series along with some easter eggs like Klank from Zeo, Divatox from Turbo, and Scorpina making cameos. It was also cool to see them do a nod to the actress that played Trini, Thuy Trang, who died in a car accident.

Effects
     The effects, considering who was aboard with the film, were cool. Of course it was low budget and of course we all know we will know that watching this fan film we would not be getting the Avatar treatment of CGI. For the most part, it was as good as it got. It was cheap, but it didn't look cheap at all. And we've known we've seen worse.

Cinematography
     The Power Rangers fan film has been credited as a Joseph Kahn  film, he is the director. For those who don't know Khan's work he has been the guy who you would go to to make music video all throughout the early 00s. Most of Kahn's work was filming music videos. It's interesting to see him not only do something like this, but do it well. It looked like an actual film was being made. It doesn't look like the stuff Kahn usually makes so it's nice to see a director improve or do something different.

Final Verdict
     Does it suck? Not really. Yes it does every gritty action movie cliche, but it does it well that you're not really bothered with it. The only problem I had was trying to fit everything together. There were some inconsistencies in the script, like how did Rocky become a Ranger and betrayed everyone while Jason was still there, unless he was the White Ranger or something? We've been begging for a more adult Power Rangers theme and we kinda got it. With Saban and Lionsgate doing a Power Rangers reboot of their own in the near future, this fan film show what creativity and what direction they can go or do better. This gets a 3 out of 5.

What are your thoughts on the fan film?