Ross Marquand as Aaron, ,Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Dan Fogler as Luke – The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC
For ten years, The Walking Dead has graced our screens with our favorite characters, moments, stories, and even the walkers itself. Within those ten years, we got two spinoff shows (Fear The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond), video games, conventions, and more content of The Walking Dead franchise for the fans. But today, is the day that we all did not want to imagine happen.
AMC announced that the upcoming 11th season of The Walking Dead will be the final season. For this season, it will be 24 episodes instead of the normal 16 episodes. That is with the exception of the 10th season in which it will have six additional episodes after the season finale airs on October 4th. The 11th season will end sometime in 2022.
The other news that came with that announcement, is that fan favorite characters Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) will have their own spinoff series focusing on the characters which will premiere in 2023.
The Walking Dead:World Beyond is stated to last for two seasons and it is also supposed to lead up to the upcoming Rick Grimes films. Fear The Walking Dead’s first half of the sixth season will begin airing on October 11th and as of right now, there is no word if we will have a seventh season.
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The ongoing pandemic has made Disney to make an unfortunate decision to premiere Mulan on Disney+ on September 4th. Mulan has been highly anticipated ever since the reveal trailer has been released last year and I was also looking forward to the film as well since I am a fan of the original animated film. I knew going into this version of Mulan that it would be more adapted from the novel. Here are my thoughts of Mulan and whether if it is worth the $30 purchase, or to wait until December of this year to watch it without premium access.
The scenery and cinematrography of Mulan is breathtaking. I love how the locations were brought to life from the animated film. The battle scenes made me feel like I was watching an episode of Game of Thrones especially the avalanche scene. The tone and setting of the live action version of Mulan feels more of a war movie this time around. I also want to praise the music too and there were tunes that I reconized from the animated film during the sequences of Mulan and I think that this worked better and made this version of Mulan flow better as I feel that I was not interrupted when I wanted to digest a scene that I was looking at while I heard the music in the background.
For what I praised, there are also rough points and critiques I had in my head as the transition from animation to live action was not handled as good as I thought it would be. On the animated film, all of the characters had personality and their own characteristics that made them all stand out. On 2020’s Mulan, I did not feel the same way as I was watching how they all interracted with eachother. I also feel that the character Mulan should have not been seen in the public as a person born with all of these superpowers and abilities and rather be seen as this person who is smart, strong, and also bright.
Mulan’s father was not convincing enough for me to believe that he was very strick towards Mulan and her lover Chen Honghui barely had enough screentime for me to think that him and Mulan could build chemistry even after the reveal. In fact, there were many moments in Mulan that felt like it was over way to soon as they started that that was my issue with the rushed pacing of this film. As wonderful as Mulan looks, there is no denying that the story is way too fast.
Xian Lang is the best character developed in Mulan and she is a new character that is specifically made for the live action version of Mulan. It pains me to write this, but watching Xian on screen made me feel that she is a complex character that is also broken, hopeful, and fragile. Everything that I felt for Xian, I should have felt for Mulan and I did not during the entire time I watched her on screen. And I love the costume design of Xian Lang! But when you break it down, Xian was not needed for the overall story as Xian was a storybuild just for that final scene at the end of the movie.
The film’s villain Bori Khan is too one dimensional for me as his story is that he wanted revenge on The Emperor for killing his father. Just like Mulan’s father, I just could not buy him as a threat as Mulan was just too overpowered by the time they had their fight towards the end. I also did not feel engaged at all when his presence was known and I did not care to see him defeated. Jason Scott Lee tried, but there was little to no substance of the character.
In my eyes, I think it is worth watching Mulan when it is free for Disney+ in December. I totally understand why it is priced and I feel for the entire marketing team, script writers, and production crew members that poured their time, effort, and money to make this film possible. There has been an outrage over this when it was first announced and if you think that price is too much, think of how much Black Widow will be if it heads the same direction of availability that Mulan did. Of the Disney remakes, I rank this higher than all of the other Disney remakes so far. Especially since this follows the original story. Mulan felt like a brand new movie, but it falls flat more than it shines and I wish it could have been better.
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The news of Chadwick Boseman passing away last night shocked the entire world. Even on social media as everyone shared their memories about him and how he has impacted their lives. This ranged from actors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, athletes, professional wrestlers, musicians, and even comedians. The way Chadwick has brought together so many lives in different forms of the entertainment industry and fans worldwide, can never be taken away or forgotten as his performances and roles in films such as 42, Get On Up, and Black Panther has done exactly that.
This news really hits home for me because I loved him as an actor when he is on screen, and as a person outside of when he is playing a character. Chadwick Boseman will be missed and I would like to give my tribute to this iconic actor.
My first exposure of Chadwick Boseman was on the film 42. Me, my brother, and my dad watched it at my father’s house on Father’s Day and we were really impressed on his portrayal of Jackie Robinson. We also talked about Jackie Robinson because my father told us stories of our grandfather going to the games that he played at that time.
42 is a powerful film and I also recommend everyone to watch it because of Chadwick’s performance and to see a story of what was it like in the MLB for Africian Americans at the time.
Chadwick has also played as James Brown on Get On Up and when I seen that film at the time, I thought to myself of the many possibilities of Chadwick portraying influential Africian American entertainers, politicans, and athletes from black history that can bring more awareness in the mainstream level. I always felt like black cinema never gets the attention that is deserved and it was very frustrating to have those feelings for the longest time. By the time that Black Panther was announced to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a change was coming.
Chadwick Boseman made his debut as Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Captain America: Civil War. I can also personally say that it is my favorite film in the MCU and I was excited to see that he was going to portray Black Panther. Chadwick was the right person for it and the world wanted a Black Panther film and we would finally get it over a year and a half later.
The atmosphere was different for this film since Black Panther is the first black superhero and the character was created during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. I remember when I seen it in the theater, there were many people dressed up as Black Panther.
But what caught my eye, was the attendees dressed up in African fabrics, or clothing that was part of the Black Panther Party and the Black Lives Matter movement. This was an unique experience I witnessed and everyone in the theater cheered for the attendees that had that clothing on.
This also meant that this was more than just a superhero movie, but it is a cultural statement that needed to be out in the open. The fact that this is a superhero film with a strong black cast and that there were online groups trying to review bomb this film made me upset. But that did not stop the majority of reviewers to praise the film’s acting, story, VFX, music, and cast as it is universally loved.
When I seen Black Panther in the theater, I noticed the smiles and the cheering from the younger audience from different backgrounds for the majority of the film including the climax battle between Black Panther and Killmonger. That is what mattered the most in my eyes as younger fans who view this movie, have a black superhero to believe in, and to look up to. Also to note, the amount of charaites and celebrities that paid for a lot of tickets for black children and teenagers to see the film is heartwarming. That has never been done for a film with an entire black cast to this degree before Black Panther and since then, it has happen in various genres of black cinema.
I know that the majority of fans of the MCU will say that there are other characters to look up to, but it is entirely different with Black Panther as he is relatable to the black culture. Years from now, those same children and teenagers will tell the story of that day and how it impacted them. They are not going to care about what the critics said, or who is the better super hero. They will talk about the day that they have went to the movies to see a black superhero film and how much it meant to them, and how much it meant to their family that took them to see it. The opening weekend of Black Panther will be remembered as a cultural event and I am happy that I got to witness it all.
Personal note too, My mother recently watched Black Panther for the first time and she has never seen a superhero film before. She loved it because of what the film represented and how much the black actors meant to her. And my grandmother, Doreatha Brown Rahming passed away in early 2020 due to her cancer coming back.
And she did not tell anyone until a few days before her passing. I could understand why she did not want to to tell anyone at the time and I understand and respect why Chadwick did not want the public to know since he would be getting messages and calls every day about it in my opinion as the media would only focus on his appearence over his work if he told the world that he was battling colon cancer a few years ago.
Chadwick Boesman also acted in these films while he had colon cancer and nobody knew it at the time. That right there takes a huge amount of strength and determination and heart when you think about this. Chadwick has also been involved in a huge amount of charities around the wolrd since Black Panther as he touched the hearts of many children who are sick, and the many that wanted to meet him too at the convention scene. Chadwick Boesman will never be forgotten and his work in the industry has cemented a legacy in film and in black cinema.
I also want to add that I seen this minutes after the news broke about recasting for Black Panther 2. That should not be on anyone’s mind right now. Everyone needs to grieve and mourn Chadwick and have those discussions when the time is right.
Rest in Power Chadwick Boesman! Gone but never forgotten.
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Last month, San Diego Comic Con at Home took place and it was considered a flop. There was little to no promotion about it at all as Comic Con International assumed that everyone would know that it was transitioning into an online event. Even when it did, not many knew about it the week of and there were a number of people that did not know about SDCC at Home until days or weeks after. This year was a disaster for the event and we can all hope that it will not be an all-virtual event next year like it was this year.
DC and Warner Bros did not have anything planned for SDCC due to it being canceled because of the pandemic. But what they did over the weekend, was DC FanDome. Not only that the online event was successful, Variety reported that DC FanDome drew over 22 million views in the first 24 hours. Comic Con International must be looking at DC FanDome and realizing that they should have done almost everything that DC FanDome done in the first place.
What made DC FanDome successful, is mostly due to the anticipation and the hype around it. There were commercials on television and social media that were shown nonstop for about two weeks before the event. I even searched local ads in the San Diego market about SDCC at Home and there were none that I found. What was also satisfying about how DC FanDome, is that all of the panels, segments, and small skits were on one channel which was the official Warner Bros YouTube account. Nobody had to had different browsers open for different panels on different channels like how it was terribly handled during SDCC at Home. I also noticed the efford of making DC FanDome an epic event from the start where there were virtual stages starting with Wonder Woman 1984. All of those virtual stages were drawn by Jim Lee and it is little details like what we seen that makes this feel like a big deal. Over at SDCC at Home, they just went from panel to panel and that was really it.
Speaking of the panels, the length of most of them were all shorter than the hour long panels that were offered at SDCC at Home and this was a blessing because there was no filler or akward pauses at all during those panels. And DC FanDome is not all about the panels as we also got funny skits such as the ask Harley Quinn one, and the one where Batman Beyond and Bruce Wayne were watching and reatcing to Adam West’s Batman TV show. Those small skits in between usually happens at Comic Con and it sure felt that way when the majority of fans were watching. Also, there were times that cosplay whether if its humans or pets were showcased in between the panels during DC FanDome. San Diego Comic Con at Home had something similar to this, but it did not happen in between the panels.
The biggest interest of DC FanDome is The Batman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. There were other big announcements such as a Static Shock film being produced, the title of the Shazam sequel being revealed, and the reveal of the cast and characters of The Suicide Squad. All of the news that came out of DC FanDome was talked about for days unlike the little content we got at SDCC at Home. Don’t get me wrong, I love the news we got out of The Walking Dead panels and some of the other panels, but they were not talked about by people outside the fanbase like it was with the announcements that came out of DC FanDome.
I do not want to bury SDCC at Home six feet under, but if you compare the two events, DC FanDome knocks out all of SDCC at Home with a single punch and DC FanDome will return in a few more weeks to showcase all of the television offerings and have virtual events for fans. Something SDCC at Home did not have at all. I know that Comic Con international had a short time to come up with content to offer, but DC FanDome also had a short time too and they succeeded wheras Comic Con failed this year.
Looking at DC FanDome, I think of the future of what would happen if Warner Bros never return to Comic Con because when Nintendo never returned to E3, Nintendo produced Nintendo Directs and it has been successful as they still have them to this day. I would not say that DC FanDome will be an online virtual event every year as I believe that eventually, DC FanDome will have their own in person event similar to Star Wars Celebration, or D23. If that happens, we would also have to look out for Marvel Studios too.
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