By Steve Watts on Mar 14, 2019 10:30 pm
Hearthstone "Rise of Shadows" Expansion
The next expansion for Hearthstone, Rise of Shadows, is coming on April 9. It will add 135 new cards to collect and play along with new mechanics and more. This time the Arch-Thief Rafaam has gathered a cabal of villains for a daring heist, in the first entry of a planned ongoing story for the Year of the Dragon. The villains are bringing their Lackeys, 1/1 minions with specialized Battlecries, and Schemes, spells that grow more powerful the longer you hold them. The crime-fighters the Defenders of Dalaran fight back with Twinspells, a new keyword that gives you back another copy of a spell once you've played it. On April 5, players can login to receive a free Legendary card from the set that will be playable immediately, before the April 9 launch date. Then roughly a month later, the Rise of Shadows single-player campaign will launch. The first chapter will be free, and subsequent chapters will cost 700 gold apiece. You can buy the full bundle for $20. You can purchase packs of Rise of Shadows cards in two pre-release bundles. The $50 bundle includes 50 packs, a card back, and a Legendary card, and an $80 bundle for 80 packs, the card back, a Golden Legendary, and the Madam Lazul Priest Hero. The store will also offer a "Shadow Bundle" for the first week of the expansion launch with nine packs and an Arena ticket for $10. Check out all the new cards we've seen so far below.
By Mat Elfring on Mar 14, 2019 08:16 pm
Breaking down the newest trailer from Marvel
The second trailer for Avengers: Endgame dropped out of nowhere on the morning on March 14, and no one was prepared, just like the Avengers when Thanos collected all of the Infinity Stones in last year's Infinity War. However, the new video from Marvel gave us a few bits of information about the new movie, to let fans know what the heck is going on in the Endgame, aside from the fact everyone has multiple hair styles. Are they all Skrulls or fashion forward? That's the real question. We also got to see the first appearance of Captain Marvel in this latest Endgame trailer, something we all knew was coming anyway, and it was a pretty fantastic moment as she interacts with Thor. There were also some unique superhero team-ups, new outfits--which some fans speculate are tied to the Quantum Realm--and a heavy reliance on flashback sequences, as we see parts of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America: Civil War. The new trailer was also accompanied by the release of a new poster. Below, we're taking a closer look at the latest trailer and breaking down what we think is going to happen in Endgame. Who will live? Who will die? Who will keep their same hair style into Marvel's Phase 4? Bear in mind, there's also the very legitimate question of whether anything in this trailer is meant to mislead audiences. Marvel knows we're going to examine each shot with a fine-toothed comb and could be effectively lying to us to throw us off. We saw just that with Infinity War, which for instance featured a shot of the Hulk running around Wakanda (when in fact Bruce Banner was piloting the Hulkbuster at that point in the movie). If you're looking for more on Endgame, check out the first trailer for the film, our theories about the story, and new thoughts about Infinity War after a recent rewatch. Avengers: Endgame releases in theaters on April 26.
Where It All Began
The trailer opens up with Tony Stark in the Mach 1 Iron Man suit, from the original 2008 film, which is now 11 years old. Stark can be heard discussing his life as the superhero. Much like other flashback moments, everything is in black and white, with certain things highlighted red.
One Last Message For Pepper
Stark is leaving a message for the love of his life, Pepper Potts, as he's aboard a ship, floating through space. He doesn't think he's going to make it back home, or maybe, he just doesn't think he'll see Pepper again, as she's been dusted. This may be for his own sanity more than anything else, just to get his feelings out into the ether.
Lost In Space
From the previous trailer, we know both Nebula and Tony Stark are trapped on this ship.
"Scrawny" Steve Rogers
There is a scene of Steve Rogers before he became Captain America, when he wanted to join the military for WWII, but was too weak to do so. The red stripes on the American flag are highlighted here.
Clint And His Daughter
Looks like we're finally going to find out what happened to Hawkeye's family during Infinity War. There is a scene with Clint Barton and his daughter--Lila--enjoying the outdoors. Lila is practicing her archery and hits a bullseye. This has to take place early on or in the beginning of the movie. We knew already that Clint was under house arrest after accepting a plea deal related to the Sokovia Accords (note his ankle bracelet in this shot), but we'll finally get to see what happened to him during this time. And we're pretty sure he goes rogue and becomes Ronin because his whole family gets dusted. Additionally, this may not be a flashback sequence, as everything here is in full color, and the flashbacks (at least in this trailer) have been black, white, and red.
Steve Rogers: Pallbearer
Although you may have forgotten about this, Steve Rogers was a pallbearer at Peggy Carter's funeral--his romantic interest in Captain America: The First Avenger. This scene happened during Captain America: Civil War in 2016.
More Flashbacks
We cut to Asgard--which was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok--and see Odin (RIP) with his son, Thor, whose cape is red in this flashback.
Scott Lang Is Confused
Ant-Man--in his Scott Lang costume--looks at a post with a bunch of "missing" fliers on it. Because of Scott's bewildered look, we can infer this takes place right after Scott escapes the Quantum Realm. However, here's something to think about: He might have been stuck in the Quantum Realm for quite a while, as the missing signs on the post look pretty beat up, and that doesn't happen overnight.
Black Widow Is There For The Widower
We see Black Widow and Hawkeye hold hands in an earlier shot, but don't think this is Clint cheating on his wife--Natasha is in love with Bruce Banner anyway. She's consoling Clint, like a good friend. She's there for him in his time of need because his family was dusted.
The Team Up You Didn't Know You Needed
Rocket and War Machine? Yes, please. This is such an odd scene because it's not a team up we ever would have expected. There isn't a whole lot to make of this, aside from the fact of this new Avengers team, for Endgame. No clue why War Machine is glowing red here. Could it be a "kill" mode?
Here's A Nice Shot Of Clint's Haircut
When humans go through something traumatic, they tend to do something drastic in order to move on. Whether it's our actions--like turning our pain into addiction or becoming an assassin in Hawkeye's case--or just doing something as simple as changing up our look, little things help put the past behind us. Hopefully, we get to see the scene of Hawkeye cutting his own hair. He totally did it to himself, right?
Stormbreaker Returns
Thor returns, fully powered--like at the end of Infinity War--with his new weapon, Stormbreaker. It's like his old hammer, Mjolnir, but with a sweet axe blade on one side.
Where Is This?
We see Ant-Man in action for a brief moment, and around him is firey carnage, as a shrunken Scott Lang rides a pencil. Could this be when Scott returns to Earth?
New Avengers Part 1
Before we get the title card, there are a few shots of the New Avengers team in brand-new outfits. Why are they in matching outfits like this? Well, that's probably a plot point. In any case, first, we see Steve Rogers.
New Avengers Part 2
Next is Scott Lang, Hawkeye, and Nebula.
New Avengers Part 3
War Machine pops up next.
New Avengers Part 4
Finally, we see Black Widow and Tony Stark.
Captain Marvel Appears
If you've seen Captain Marvel and watched the mid-credit sequence, you know Carol Danvers makes it back to Earth. We see her first meeting with Thor, where the God of Thunder calls his weapon to his hand, and Danvers doesn't flinch.
Black Widow Is A Blonde Again
Thor assesses Captain Marvel, as a blonde Black Widow looks at the two. Why are there so many hair styles here?
It's Not Mjolnir
If you pause the trailer at the exact right moment--which took some time to do--you can clearly see that Thor's weapon here is still Stormbreaker, no Mjolnir. I think it's time for all of us to accept that Thor's original hammer is gone forever. Frankly, we should have accepted it during Ragnarok when Hela blew it up.
Movie Poster Bonus!
Taking a look at the cast list for Endgame, you can see Benedict Wong and Jon Favreau are in the movie. Favreau has played Happy Hogan in the Iron Man movies and popped up in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wong played, coincidentally, Wong in Doctor Strange and Infinity War. We haven't seen either of them in the Endgame trailers.
By Dan Auty on Mar 14, 2019 03:04 am
While true crime books have been hugely popular for a long time, it's really only in the last few years that the genre has become one of the most addictive things to watch on TV. In general, fans of procedural crime and murder case investigation had to make to do with fictional shows such as CSI, or feature-length movie documentaries liked those pioneered by Errol Morris. But the huge success of the Netflix production Making a Murderer in 2016 bridged both worlds. By taking the episodic format of procedural shows and applying it to a fascinating real-life murder case and trial, it created one of the year's must-see series. Its popularity inevitably led to a flood of true crime shows on Netflix. It would be a mistake to suggest that the streaming giant invented the true crime series--it obviously didn't, and some of its best offerings pre-date both Making a Murderer and the service itself. But there's little doubt that Netflix has become the go-to destination for true crime TV fans, with a wealth of gripping, disturbing, fascinating, and unusual shows hitting over the past couple of years. While the majority of these shows unsurprisingly focus on violent crime, there's a variety in the way they approach their subject matter. Some series document investigations and court cases in real time, while others take a more retrospective approach, using the passage of time to explore both the cases and their effects on those involved. There are shows that use a single crime as a springboard to examine a range of issues, and series that reveal some the darkest and weirdest extremes of human behavior. With so much on there, it's hard to know to where to start, so we've chosen 12 of the very best true crime shows currently available on Netflix. Let's investigate...
12. The Confession Tapes
This is one of the most disturbing true crime series around--but not because of any terrible crime. Instead the lid is lifted on the process of extracting confessions from suspects and reveal the levels of corruption, manipulation, and coercion that are used to get a confession. Each episodes features a different case, and while the cases themselves aren't necessarily that interesting, it's a fascinating and often infuriating look at the way the rules are bent (and broken) to ensure that justice is "served."
11. Cold Justice
Cold Justice is a bit glossier than some of the entries of the list, but it's no less enthralling. Produced by TV veteran--and Law and Order creator--Dick Wolf, it follows former prosecutor Kelly Siegler and her team as they attempt to solve a series of "cold cases"--unsolved murders that have been abandoned by the police. The show is as much about giving victims' families a sense of a closure as it is about catching a killer (not all of the cases are solved), and it frequently delivers a real emotional punch.
10. Murder Mountain
The set-up to this 2018 show is tailor-made for a true crime series. It's an exploration of the dozens of mysterious deaths and disappearances that have occured on an huge expanse of northern California's marijuana country, with the infamous "murder mountain" the center of these incidents. It's a sprawling saga that incorporates a variety of local weed farmers, law enforcement officers, private detectives, and families of the victims, and shows how disturbingly easy it is for someone to simply "vanish" in a sprawling wilderness where the rule of law does not seem to apply.
9. Wormwood
Over the course of nearly 40 years, Errol Morris has made a series most fascinative, gripping, and inventive true crime documentaries, from 1982's groundbreaking The Thin Blue Line to the more recent Tabloid. His latest effort is Wormwood, a six-part series that starts with the mysterious death of a biological warfare scientist in 1953 and expands into a story about psychotropic drug testing and CIA cover-ups. Like all of Morris's work, it's highly unconventional both in terms of its structure and its visual style and uses actors Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker in disorientating recreations of these covert experiments, alongside interviews with the relatives of those involved at the time.
8. The Staircase
This hugely influential 2004 French production help set the template for the true crime genre. It follows the trial of writer Michael Peterson, who was accused of killing his wife in North Carolina in 2001; her body was found at the bottom of a staircase. Peterson is a fascinating figure, and because the show predates the current wave of true crime shows, the participants are less guarded and conscious of the medium as they might be today. It's a slow and methodological show that really dives into the evidence presented during the trial. In 2017, Netflix produced several new episodes, which covered additional developments in the case over the intervening years.
7. Evil Genius
There are many dark and disturbing stories told in the shows on this list, but few as weird as the one covered in Evil Genius. It's the type of show that relies on not knowing too much going in, but in short, it begins when a pizza delivery man with a bomb attached to his neck is sent--by someone--to rob a bank in Pennsylvania in 2003. Things don't end well for him, but that's only the start of a crazy and totally unpredictable real life mystery that spans several years and many, many twists.
6. Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
The most recent show on this list, Conversations with a Killer is an accompaniment to Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the upcoming movie from director Joe Berlinger. While the film is a recreation of the life of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy (played by Zac Efron), Berlinger's series is a far more disturbing proposition. It truly delves into the mind of this infamous murderer using interviews with Bundy, law enforcement officials, and the families of his victims to attempt to find a clue as to why he killed at least 30 people between 1974 and 1978.
5. Partners in Crime
While many of the shows on this list spend many hours picking apart single cases, the Hong Kong-set Partners in Crime takes an approach more in common with fictional procedural series. Each episode presents several cases and explores how the police are assisted by forensic examiners, pathologists, dentists, computer whizzes, and other civilian experts. And these cases are seriously weird--the very first episode explores the notorious 1999 murder where a severed head was found crammed inside a Hello Kitty doll. Partners in Crime might be very dark at times, but each episode flies by and is a nice antidote to some of the more protracted true crime shows out there.
4. The Murder Detectives
There's something truly gripping about a true crime show that is filmed as a case is developing, as opposed to one that looks back on the past events. This three-part British series was shot over an 18-month period and explores the investigation into the murder of a young man outside a bar in Bristol and focuses as much on his family and the effect his death had upon them as it does the case itself. It's both heartbreaking and gripping in equal measure.
3. The Keepers
The stunning The Keepers explores the investigation into the 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a young nun at a Catholic school in Baltimore, who was about to blow the whistle on the sexual abuse taking place at the school before her death. Like many of the best true crimes series it quickly expands its scope beyond a single incident, in this case going on to expose a shocking conspiracy of silence that involved both the church and law enforcement agencies. It's a powerful and moving series that treats its subjects with great sensitivity but never holds back from revealing the terrible nature of the crimes inflicted upon them.
2. Wild Wild Country
True crime doesn't have to mean serial killers and gruesome murder. The highly acclaimed Wild Wild Country tells the story of a cult movement that moved into a small Oregon community in the late '80s and slowly began to take over the town. It's utterly compulsive viewing that goes into a some very dark and strange places but never loses a level of sympathy for those involved on all sides. It was one of the most talked about Netflix shows of 2017, so if you missed it, it's an absolute must-watch.
1. Making A Murderer
It was Making a Murderer that turned Netflix into the go-to service for true crime shows. The series reached way beyond hardcore devotees of the genre to a wider, mainstream audience and showed how the long-form binge-watching nature of Netflix could really lend itself to this type of epic, addictive storytelling. The story of Steven Avery, who was charged with the murder of a woman named Teresa Halbach after having already been wrongly convicted for an earlier killing, was as compelling and unpredictable as any fictional thriller. A second season was released in October last year, that added new details to this already fascinating story.
By Meg Downey on Mar 14, 2019 01:27 am
We've got plenty of things to ponder before Endgame.
If the last ten years have proven anything about the MCU, it's that it is extremely good at playing things close to the chest. Aspects of the film that may seem tiny and insignificant, one moment, wind up unfurling into whole plot points the next, and there's always something unexpected around every corner. And with Avengers: Endgame just over the horizon, there stakes for those mysteries is higher than ever. Captain Marvel may not be set in the modern day, but it did provide all sorts of interesting things to think about in terms of the MCU's future, both immediately approaching Endgame and beyond. So naturally, we found ourselves asking a bunch of questions. Some of them have answers we found in the comics, others, not so much. Almost all of them contain spoilers of some kind, so please, watch your step. And after you've sent yourself into a curiosity spiral with these, go check out some of our other Captain Marvel-adjacent MCU news. We've got a massive list of Easter eggs and references you probably missed, a breakdown of the new Skrulls, and a scene-by-scene analysis of those post-credits stingers for you to help fuel any conspiracy theories to make the wait to April 26 a little more bearable.
Why are some Kree blue?
There's actually a pretty decent answer to this one, thanks to the comics, and it has everything to do with the Kree obsession with genetics. As a society, the Kree practice selective breeding and crossbreeding to produce the strongest offspring, which means there are "pureblood" Kree, who have blue skin--like Minn-Erva--and Kree with other genetics that are not blue. Typically, the pureblood Kree are actually weaker than other Kree, but maintain a sense of status and pride thanks to their bloodlines. Of course, we don't actually know if this logic translates from the comics to the MCU since none of the Kree appearances so far have really dealt with the whole eugenics angle of Kree culture just yet. There's a pretty good chance it may never come up.
What's the story with Project PEGASUS?
Mar-Vell had been working with Project PEGASUS, a joint effort between SHIELD and the US Air Force, to study the tesseract, but we know that she had been secretly trying to develop a way to help the Skrulls escape Kree rule. This begs all sorts of questions about Project PEGASUS's programs and results--what sort of applications did the program see for Mar-Vell's inventions? Who else was working on the program? What did they find? Is there something buried in their archives that could help in Endgame?
Where are all the Skrulls?
Talos mentions that there are many, many more Skrulls scattered throughout the galaxy--which, all things considered, is probably true. But we have to wonder: where are they? What have they been doing? The MCU's Skrulls are pretty drastically different from their comics counterparts in that they don't seem to have any real interest in conquering worlds or destabilizing governments--but that doesn't mean they don't have an agenda of some kind. Also, we know at least Talos and his crew were escorted somewhere by Carol, so where did they go? Was she successful in finding them a new home?
What can Skrulls turn into?
There's a throwaway gag where Fury asks Talos if he can turn into any number of inorganic objects or animals to which Talos quickly replies he doesn't understand why he would ever want to. In the comics, Skrulls actually can turn into just about anything--animals, lamps, whatever you can think of, within some arbitrary limits of size and shape (c'mon, we have to at least sort of pretend that matter conservation still holds true for aliens) but it's pretty debatable whether or not that particular brand of ridiculousness will ever show up in the MCU.
Did Wakanda notice the Kree attack?
We know thanks to the first moments of Black Panther that Wakanda had active War Dog programs throughout the world in the 90s, which makes us wonder if any of them just so happened to notice all the explosions in the sky the day the Kree accusers very nearly destroyed the Earth. It certainly seems like something Wakanda would want to catalogue and be aware of.
Did anyone notice the Kree attack?
Speaking of the Kree almost destroying Earth--did anybody notice? There were a whole bunch of major explosions that day, and sure, they may have been over the desert, but, people have eyes. Somebody had to have seen something, right? Is Project PEGASUS just the MCU's version of Area 51? Was there some sort of weird "it was a weather balloon" cover-up put out in the aftermath?
Why didn't Nick call Carol in for the Battle of New York?
The question on everyone's minds is a real doozy. Why didn't Nick call Carol in sooner, if he had the pager on him since 1995? Sure, Iron Man and Thor may not have gone up against anything truly cataclysmic, but Loki's invasion of New York almost had the whole city nuked by the government. That certainly seems like something they could have used Carol to stop. Tony Stark almost died for the cause, and all Nick had to do was send a text.
What has Carol actually been doing since 1995?
Carol left Earth with the Skrulls to help find them a new home, so is that what she's been doing for the last decade? Has she been fighting the Kree? Rounding up refugees? What, exactly, kept her away from Earth for so long? We know that if she was fighting the Kree, she left Ronan alive to ally himself with Thanos during Guardians of the Galaxy, but that doesn't mean she wasn't after him. Or does it? We can't be sure, but we definitely want to know.
What happened to Yon-Rogg?
Carol left Yon-Rogg alive and sent him back to Hala--but what happened to him after that? In the comics, being defeated in battle is one of the biggest disgraces a Kree warrior can endure, so there's a chance he returned home and was executed for his weakness--but since that particular cultural quirk was never really, explicitly established in the MCU, there's a chance it was only his pride that really took any damage. If that's the case, what has he been up to since '95 and are we looking at a potential return somewhere down the line? After all, if Carol hasn't really aged in the past decade, he probably hasn't either (assuming he's alive at all, that is.)
Recent Articles:
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment