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Disclaimer: The first half of the review will be spoiler-free. The second half of the review will include exceedingly specific praises/grievances and will very much have many, many spoilers.
When you first boot up Gotham Knights, you are treated to a 21-minute cut scene that deals with Batman’s final stand and the immediate aftermath of his death. The majority of the time is spent in the expansive Batcave, and my first thought was, “what an impressive set piece with an incredibly questionable foundation.” As the game went on, this became a more or less apt metaphor for Gotham Knights as whole.
After leisurely completing the main campaign and side cases over the course of the week, dabbling with endgame and co-op, and starting the New Game Plus, I hold two states of mind:
- When this game hits, it hits incredibly well providing a high strung power fantasy playing as different Batfamily members.
- When this game misses, it instills a deep-sated rage I have not experience in many years and wanted to throw my controller at the television.
Living Up to a Legacy
As you’re probably already aware, Gotham Knights is the latest action RPG from WB Games Montreal that lets you take on the mantle of four of Batman’s proteges as they take over protecting Gotham, uncovering various secrets, and taking down various criminal organizations and villainous fronts. And while it takes some cues from the Arkham games that came before Knights, it is very intent on making sure you know it’s a separate entity.
It certainly doesn’t help that even on a next-generation console (a PlayStation 5 in my case) that the 30FS look and gameplay took several sessions to get used to. Immediately after your introduction to combat, the game then forces to you to learn how to navigate with the clunky Batcycle mechanics and makes it your primary mode of transportation through the several boroughs of Gotham (for many hours) before you can unlock fast travel points and character-specific traversal methods.
Gotham Knights’ core gameplay cycles between instance missions, where you’re tasked with various objectives, and an open free roam, where you patrol around Gotham taking down criminal in both randomly occurring and premeditates crimes. Gotham itself is an expansive city and each of the districts has its own character and charm with different landmarks and enemy factions. In the moments of patrol and directed missions lies Gotham Knights‘ greatest strength: you get to really embody the characters as time goes on.
At the beginning of the game, the combat feels exceedingly similar between the characters. Given that you start with no abilities, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, and Red Hood are limited to a bare-bones melee/dodge/ranged attack kit, and the combat with the random fodder becomes a simple game of dodge repeatedly until an opening is revealed. After you get a few levels, you’re able to start distinguishing the characters’ kits in big ways. Red Hood’s able to invest in both “totally non-lethal ammunition” and a grapple heavy kit. Nightwing gets various acrobatic feats and co-op centric support baths. Batgirl’s surprisingly has the most health of all of the characters and features a straightforward bruiser style with some Oracle shenanigans mixed in. And finally, Robin has improved stealth combat capabilities and increasingly potent elemental effects.
A significant part of the Gotham Knights’ kit lies within the Knighthood skill tree which is unlocked individually for each character for clearing 10 premeditated crimes, three mini-bosses, and doing the basic. It’s a grindy looter-shooter relic that culminates with your character having an understated epiphany that doesn’t fulfill the promise that the Knighthood would be a unique experience that helps the characters grow, but further allows you to customize their playstyle.
That being said, the game writers very clearly love the characters. While the main story is fairly paint by the numbers as you pick up Batman’s last investigation case and eventually get involved with the Court of Owls, the character interactions are entirely point. The bits of dialog between characters perfectly captures each of the character’s natures whether it is Red Hood’s curt snark or Nightwing’s flippant quips. The contextual dialog in the different scenes is a great touch, and the various mini-cutscenes that show the Batfamily interacting with each other in different contexts were both laugh out loud funny and emotionally sweet.
None of this is more evident than when playing co-op. While the game struggles at times, the majority of the time either while playing with friends or randomly matchmaking in another player’s world, the experience was surprisingly smooth. Whether we stuck together to tackle harder missions or divided and conquered to maximize objective clearing, it became very clear that the game intended to be played with a friend, especially with all of the fun banter between the characters. The idle dialog and exchange really capture the spirit of the comics, and I personally adore it. And in particular, I want to highlight Stephen Oyoung’s performance of Red Hood as one of the best interpretations of the character right up there with the original Batman: Under the Red Hood.
It’s largely because of this fantastic distillation of the Batfamily that makes me want to love this game. But more often than not, the game made it very difficult for me to love it. Although, we ended up coming to an understanding.
The UI is clumsy on controller with several layers of prompts and button inputs that lead to several mistakes and mis-presses forcing you to restart the process of viewing a specific objective or a piece of gear. You randomly acquire loot while playing and have to individually check each piece or lore in order to get rid of the annoying blinking new item notification. Lesser mods can be fused, but the mods’ effects are hard to feel in the moment-to-moment gameplay. The loot itself feels entirely inconsequential while leveling up until it suddenly becomes mandatory and then again when the gear trivializes the encounter design entirely. There’s a weird five elemental affinity mechanics that is only ever explained during briefly loading screen tips that are able to make combat easier, but more crucially are able to completely neuter your ability to do anything to certain enemies. Some character progression is locked behind open world collectibles (a known anathema of mind) and others are locked behind awkward objectives. Later enemies completely mitigate certain combat tactics and at various times there are instant-kill mechanics that ruin otherwise interesting set pieces and moments.
At various times, I questioned whether or not I actually liked the game or whether I was just playing because of the specific itch to want to play Red Hood. I’d play for a few hours reluctantly grinding through objectives and then spend several hours gleefully domineering over groups. My enjoyment oscillated so much it was almost as vertigo inducing as the finicky camera or the awkward grappling hook that always picks the worst possible anchor point. But I did indeed find myself itching to play more and more once I got through the low lows.
Spoilers Inbound (Not the Batfamily One Though)
In this section, I shall be discussing some specific instances of the game that constitute as spoilers and if you’d like to avoid that, you can just skip to the summary.
The game constantly teeters between “good idea, rough execution” and an exasperated ask of “who hurt you,” which is probably no better emphasized with the three major side missions in the game. At some point in the story, you go head to Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface in a little sequence that takes you through a small reflective journey.
Mr. Freeze’s introductory mission takes you through the hall of S.T.A.R. Labs and eventually through various missions and petty crimes that brake up progress until the point where you scale a frozen Eliot building to confront Freeze while a storm engine blares in the background. An incredible set piece that is immediately ruined by the bullet sponge nature of the fight and unforgiving area of effects of charged freeze beams that can track you aggressive and homing missiles that need a very wide berth to avoid.
This fight took forever as a solo player, at least in part due to the fact I had inadvertently equipped cyro weapons, but the second and final version of the fight where Freeze had a mecha was similarly infuriated and despite being over-leveled and using the correct fire weapons, I had to turn the game difficulty down to keep my sanity and even then it still me twenty minutes.
Harley Quinn’s route was less rage inducing but only by a hair. After breaking into a theater, the game eventually places you in a death pit with two large bruisers of mini-bosses, wave after wave of re-spawning adds, and then on top of that has the audacity to introduce insta-death mechanics in the forms of one to three bombs that have to be disabled, all of which can be easily interrupted by the camera or any enemy attack in the small arena. That particular encounter was so painfully obvious designed with two people in mind, and once I did hop onto co-op, it was manageable and fair in a way that the solo-ing could never.
With Clayface, I had reached the max level of 30, so combat wise nothing was too egregious, but in the final Clayface there was a mandatory auto-scroller bat sequence that killed me about 7 times because I hadn’t used the Batcycle after unlocking fast travel points and heroic traversal methods. Most of the fails were due to user error, but at least three simply felt that the game decided to kill me randomly for being hopeful.
And the main campaign isn’t exempt for this nonsense, as higher end enemies seem to have a much more responsive dodge command than mine. The Court of Owls in particular have ridiculously mobile Talons, and the League of Shadows units straight up can’t be grappled which is terrible as 50% of my skill tree as Red Hood is dedicated to being able to grab enemies. This high variance and parity in encounter difficulty really hampers the play-through, and at any given point, I am either fighting for dear life or causally clearing mobs, freaks, and regulators with ease.
But the small story beats are absolutely incredible. Between an exchange between Dick and Jason over an incident with a can of tomatoes, the different lines of dialog, the memory of Batman encouraging his proteges with post-mind’s eyes training, to the the most endearing cut scenes between the cast, coupled with a somewhat satisfying endgame grind, it is all enough to keep a semi-vested interest.
At the End of the Knight…
Ultimately, I liked the time I spend with Gotham Knights. The foundation is admittedly shaky with what feels like weak technical optimization and various questionable design choices intended to prolong play time, but the game itself is fun. When the game isn’t swinging wildly between ends of its challenge, getting to play as your favorite Batfamily character is a ton of fun, and playing with a friend as you utilize different skills to tackle a surprising variety of objectives is very cool. But, it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone outside of the dedicated Batfanatics. While the game is fun, it also suffers from repetition, and there are long stretches of the game where I was engaged only on the promise of it getting better. But it was fun, and there are several opportunities for continuation and more playable characters that make it even more enticing. While the game isn’t a true live service game, the fact remains that DLC introducing other members of the Batfamily and adding more factions and villains to the mix would definitely be welcome.
So while I can’t endorse the full $70 price tag, I do think that Gotham Knights is worth picking up at some point in the future, and perhaps the Heroic Assault game mode will also add some much needed life to the game, but that doesn’t come out until the end of the month. At the end of the day, you have a fun adaption of the Court of Owl mythos in a game that as fun as it is infuriating at times. As I slog through the New Game Plus making me replay the worst parts of the game with the same number of enemies, I question why there was a NG+ in the first place, but the end promise of a more powerful Knight has me invested just enough to play to a point where my friends and I can eventually partake in co-op and enjoy the frenetic streets of Gotham as WB Games Montreal intended.
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The post A Case Report from 7 Days in ‘Gotham Knights’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Disclaimer: The first half of the review will be spoiler-free. The second half of the review will include exceedingly specific praises/grievances and will very much have many, many spoilers.
When you first boot up Gotham Knights, you are treated to a 21-minute cut scene that deals with Batman’s final stand and the immediate aftermath of his death. The majority of the time is spent in the expansive Batcave, and my first thought was, “what an impressive set piece with an incredibly questionable foundation.” As the game went on, this became a more or less apt metaphor for Gotham Knights as whole.
After leisurely completing the main campaign and side cases over the course of the week, dabbling with endgame and co-op, and starting the New Game Plus, I hold two states of mind:
- When this game hits, it hits incredibly well providing a high strung power fantasy playing as different Batfamily members.
- When this game misses, it instills a deep-sated rage I have not experience in many years and wanted to throw my controller at the television.
Living Up to a Legacy
As you’re probably already aware, Gotham Knights is the latest action RPG from WB Games Montreal that lets you take on the mantle of four of Batman’s proteges as they take over protecting Gotham, uncovering various secrets, and taking down various criminal organizations and villainous fronts. And while it takes some cues from the Arkham games that came before Knights, it is very intent on making sure you know it’s a separate entity.
It certainly doesn’t help that even on a next-generation console (a PlayStation 5 in my case) that the 30FS look and gameplay took several sessions to get used to. Immediately after your introduction to combat, the game then forces to you to learn how to navigate with the clunky Batcycle mechanics and makes it your primary mode of transportation through the several boroughs of Gotham (for many hours) before you can unlock fast travel points and character-specific traversal methods.
Gotham Knights’ core gameplay cycles between instance missions, where you’re tasked with various objectives, and an open free roam, where you patrol around Gotham taking down criminal in both randomly occurring and premeditates crimes. Gotham itself is an expansive city and each of the districts has its own character and charm with different landmarks and enemy factions. In the moments of patrol and directed missions lies Gotham Knights‘ greatest strength: you get to really embody the characters as time goes on.
At the beginning of the game, the combat feels exceedingly similar between the characters. Given that you start with no abilities, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, and Red Hood are limited to a bare-bones melee/dodge/ranged attack kit, and the combat with the random fodder becomes a simple game of dodge repeatedly until an opening is revealed. After you get a few levels, you’re able to start distinguishing the characters’ kits in big ways. Red Hood’s able to invest in both “totally non-lethal ammunition” and a grapple heavy kit. Nightwing gets various acrobatic feats and co-op centric support baths. Batgirl’s surprisingly has the most health of all of the characters and features a straightforward bruiser style with some Oracle shenanigans mixed in. And finally, Robin has improved stealth combat capabilities and increasingly potent elemental effects.
A significant part of the Gotham Knights’ kit lies within the Knighthood skill tree which is unlocked individually for each character for clearing 10 premeditated crimes, three mini-bosses, and doing the basic. It’s a grindy looter-shooter relic that culminates with your character having an understated epiphany that doesn’t fulfill the promise that the Knighthood would be a unique experience that helps the characters grow, but further allows you to customize their playstyle.
That being said, the game writers very clearly love the characters. While the main story is fairly paint by the numbers as you pick up Batman’s last investigation case and eventually get involved with the Court of Owls, the character interactions are entirely point. The bits of dialog between characters perfectly captures each of the character’s natures whether it is Red Hood’s curt snark or Nightwing’s flippant quips. The contextual dialog in the different scenes is a great touch, and the various mini-cutscenes that show the Batfamily interacting with each other in different contexts were both laugh out loud funny and emotionally sweet.
None of this is more evident than when playing co-op. While the game struggles at times, the majority of the time either while playing with friends or randomly matchmaking in another player’s world, the experience was surprisingly smooth. Whether we stuck together to tackle harder missions or divided and conquered to maximize objective clearing, it became very clear that the game intended to be played with a friend, especially with all of the fun banter between the characters. The idle dialog and exchange really capture the spirit of the comics, and I personally adore it. And in particular, I want to highlight Stephen Oyoung’s performance of Red Hood as one of the best interpretations of the character right up there with the original Batman: Under the Red Hood.
It’s largely because of this fantastic distillation of the Batfamily that makes me want to love this game. But more often than not, the game made it very difficult for me to love it. Although, we ended up coming to an understanding.
The UI is clumsy on controller with several layers of prompts and button inputs that lead to several mistakes and mis-presses forcing you to restart the process of viewing a specific objective or a piece of gear. You randomly acquire loot while playing and have to individually check each piece or lore in order to get rid of the annoying blinking new item notification. Lesser mods can be fused, but the mods’ effects are hard to feel in the moment-to-moment gameplay. The loot itself feels entirely inconsequential while leveling up until it suddenly becomes mandatory and then again when the gear trivializes the encounter design entirely. There’s a weird five elemental affinity mechanics that is only ever explained during briefly loading screen tips that are able to make combat easier, but more crucially are able to completely neuter your ability to do anything to certain enemies. Some character progression is locked behind open world collectibles (a known anathema of mind) and others are locked behind awkward objectives. Later enemies completely mitigate certain combat tactics and at various times there are instant-kill mechanics that ruin otherwise interesting set pieces and moments.
At various times, I questioned whether or not I actually liked the game or whether I was just playing because of the specific itch to want to play Red Hood. I’d play for a few hours reluctantly grinding through objectives and then spend several hours gleefully domineering over groups. My enjoyment oscillated so much it was almost as vertigo inducing as the finicky camera or the awkward grappling hook that always picks the worst possible anchor point. But I did indeed find myself itching to play more and more once I got through the low lows.
Spoilers Inbound (Not the Batfamily One Though)
In this section, I shall be discussing some specific instances of the game that constitute as spoilers and if you’d like to avoid that, you can just skip to the summary.
The game constantly teeters between “good idea, rough execution” and an exasperated ask of “who hurt you,” which is probably no better emphasized with the three major side missions in the game. At some point in the story, you go head to Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface in a little sequence that takes you through a small reflective journey.
Mr. Freeze’s introductory mission takes you through the hall of S.T.A.R. Labs and eventually through various missions and petty crimes that brake up progress until the point where you scale a frozen Eliot building to confront Freeze while a storm engine blares in the background. An incredible set piece that is immediately ruined by the bullet sponge nature of the fight and unforgiving area of effects of charged freeze beams that can track you aggressive and homing missiles that need a very wide berth to avoid.
This fight took forever as a solo player, at least in part due to the fact I had inadvertently equipped cyro weapons, but the second and final version of the fight where Freeze had a mecha was similarly infuriated and despite being over-leveled and using the correct fire weapons, I had to turn the game difficulty down to keep my sanity and even then it still me twenty minutes.
Harley Quinn’s route was less rage inducing but only by a hair. After breaking into a theater, the game eventually places you in a death pit with two large bruisers of mini-bosses, wave after wave of re-spawning adds, and then on top of that has the audacity to introduce insta-death mechanics in the forms of one to three bombs that have to be disabled, all of which can be easily interrupted by the camera or any enemy attack in the small arena. That particular encounter was so painfully obvious designed with two people in mind, and once I did hop onto co-op, it was manageable and fair in a way that the solo-ing could never.
With Clayface, I had reached the max level of 30, so combat wise nothing was too egregious, but in the final Clayface there was a mandatory auto-scroller bat sequence that killed me about 7 times because I hadn’t used the Batcycle after unlocking fast travel points and heroic traversal methods. Most of the fails were due to user error, but at least three simply felt that the game decided to kill me randomly for being hopeful.
And the main campaign isn’t exempt for this nonsense, as higher end enemies seem to have a much more responsive dodge command than mine. The Court of Owls in particular have ridiculously mobile Talons, and the League of Shadows units straight up can’t be grappled which is terrible as 50% of my skill tree as Red Hood is dedicated to being able to grab enemies. This high variance and parity in encounter difficulty really hampers the play-through, and at any given point, I am either fighting for dear life or causally clearing mobs, freaks, and regulators with ease.
But the small story beats are absolutely incredible. Between an exchange between Dick and Jason over an incident with a can of tomatoes, the different lines of dialog, the memory of Batman encouraging his proteges with post-mind’s eyes training, to the the most endearing cut scenes between the cast, coupled with a somewhat satisfying endgame grind, it is all enough to keep a semi-vested interest.
At the End of the Knight…
Ultimately, I liked the time I spend with Gotham Knights. The foundation is admittedly shaky with what feels like weak technical optimization and various questionable design choices intended to prolong play time, but the game itself is fun. When the game isn’t swinging wildly between ends of its challenge, getting to play as your favorite Batfamily character is a ton of fun, and playing with a friend as you utilize different skills to tackle a surprising variety of objectives is very cool. But, it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone outside of the dedicated Batfanatics. While the game is fun, it also suffers from repetition, and there are long stretches of the game where I was engaged only on the promise of it getting better. But it was fun, and there are several opportunities for continuation and more playable characters that make it even more enticing. While the game isn’t a true live service game, the fact remains that DLC introducing other members of the Batfamily and adding more factions and villains to the mix would definitely be welcome.
So while I can’t endorse the full $70 price tag, I do think that Gotham Knights is worth picking up at some point in the future, and perhaps the Heroic Assault game mode will also add some much needed life to the game, but that doesn’t come out until the end of the month. At the end of the day, you have a fun adaption of the Court of Owl mythos in a game that as fun as it is infuriating at times. As I slog through the New Game Plus making me replay the worst parts of the game with the same number of enemies, I question why there was a NG+ in the first place, but the end promise of a more powerful Knight has me invested just enough to play to a point where my friends and I can eventually partake in co-op and enjoy the frenetic streets of Gotham as WB Games Montreal intended.
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The post A Case Report from 7 Days in ‘Gotham Knights’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
If you’ve ever snacked on a rice cake, you may remember that the texture (and flavor) is pretty close to Styrofoam. It’s just that quality that made engineers think to use rice cakes as the wings of an edible lightweight drone. The craft’s wingspan of just over two feet provides about 300 calories, which could make a big difference to someone lost in the wilderness. And there’s still 80 grams left for the payload, which could include more food or about a third of a cup of water to wash down those rice cake wings.
In order to make the round rice cakes fit together, they were cut into hexagons with a laser cutter. The glue that holds them together also needs to be edible. The scientific team tested different adhesives made out of gelatin, chocolate, or cornstarch. They found that gelatin is the strongest option. The researchers next plan to experiment with making more parts of the drone edible. Using 3D-printed food could further lighten the craft.
The scientific team shared the research paper at a recent robotics conference. The design is part of the RoboFood project, a European initiative aiming to make edible robots. We learned about the tasty feat of engineering in IEEE Spectrum, which includes an Q&A with the project’s leader. It doesn’t answer a lingering question though. If you know where someone is well enough to fly a drone to them, why not just rescue them while you’re at it?
This is only one of the interesting search and rescue ideas we’ve come across recently. If you were lost or trapped, would you prefer a backpack-wearing rat, a lizard-shaped robot, or a rice cake drone come to your aid? If only those promises of drone-delivered burritos and pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream had come true, we wouldn’t have to resort to eating rice cakes.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
The post You Can Eat This Rescue Drone’s Rice Cake Wings appeared first on Nerdist.
Fans of Indiana Jones were shocked to read the news that Steven Spielberg bowed out of directing the fifth Indy movie. Instead, Logan’s James Mangold is helming the film. That means for the first time, both of Henry Jones Jr.’s creators won’t be at the helm. As of now, the only remaining member of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark creative team is Harrison Ford himself. We wish nothing but the best for Harrison in his sure-to-be final outing as the adventuring archaeologist. However, after this movie hits theaters, I think it’s high time for a new approach to Indiana Jones. Well, a new/old approach I should say. Because I believe it’s time for Indiana Jones to return to television, specifically on Disney+. Happily, Variety reports that may be in development. Sources told the outlet Disney “is actively looking to develop an Indiana Jones TV show for Disney+.” Here’s why it’s an excellent idea.
Lucasfilm
Why Now Is the Time for a Disney+ Indy
From a studio standpoint, I could see why Disney and Lucasfilm be skittish about casting another actor to replace Harrison Ford. He’s one of the most iconic movie stars in Hollywood history, and Indiana Jones is arguably his most iconic role. Many people resisted seeing Solo in theaters, simply because having another actor as the big screen version of Han Solo seemed like sacrilege. I could see where the suits would be terrified of that same reaction happening again.
Lucasfilm
But what if a recast, younger Indy wasn’t for theatrical release? Because there’s already been another Indiana Jones before, in the 1992 TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. That show wasn’t exactly a high adventure series, and was more about Indy’s journey meeting various famous historical figures in the early 20th century. But having seen a younger Indy on the small screen before, it at least set the precedent. People might be more accepting of a different Dr. Jones if the medium is an all together different one. If it works, it breathes new life into the franchise. If it doesn’t, then the whole thing doesn’t tarnish the movie series. It’s a scenario in which you can’t really lose.
One Season, One MacGuffin
Lucasfilm
Imagine a big budget Indiana Jones steaming series, with the same care and big name creative involved as The Mandalorian recently had. It could feature a young Indy, only recently having become a professor. So perhaps late 1920s/early ‘30s. Everything before Raiders, but long after his teenage adventures in the ‘90s TV series. Each season, which would presumably be the standard 8-10 episodes, would feature one specific quest, for one specific Macguffin.
Season one of the series could be Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny, or Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Atlantis, and so on ans of forth. There is a metric ton of novels and comics which could serve as inspiration for these. And like the old serials which inspired Lucas and Spielberg, each episode could also end on a spectacular cliffhanger.
Lucasfilm
These potential seasons don’t have to tie explicitly into any of the pre-existing movies, but it would be fun to address certain things if they wanted to. How exactly did Indy’s relationship with Marion Ravenwood and her father go sour? How did Indy meet (and later adopt) Short Round? In Temple of Doom, the character of Wu Han says he “followed Indy on many adventures”. We get hints about those backstories in the movies, but a show could flesh out the details. Even if the show never addresses those things, we know there are still dozens of untold adventures that Indy had over the years. We haven’t even scratched the surface.
Why It’s Time for Harrison to Hang Up the Whip
Lucasfilm
While I wish for nothing but good things for the latest Indiana Jones adventure on the big screen, truth be told, the entire project as-is sounds destined to disappoint. When this film reaches theaters in 2021, Harrison Ford will be 78 years old. Not that I’m against the idea of an “Old Man Jones” as it were. I thought Ford was brilliant as an elderly Han Solo in The Force Awakens. But the part of Han Solo mainly has him flying spaceships and shooting blasters. Indiana Jones calls for fist fights, swinging on vines, and jumping on moving vehicles. That’s a wee bit harder to do when you’re pushing 80.
There’s also the time frame issue. The movies have so far moved along in real time. Last Crusade took place in 1938, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull took place in 1957, exactly 19 years since the previous film. Which means that whatever the fifth film is, it will take place in or about the early ‘70s. Now, I love ‘70s period films to death, especially as a child of that time. But the era of high adventure pulp novels and Republic serials was roughly the ‘20s through the ‘40s. This is just Indy’s milieu. I’m not sure he fits in as a concept in the time of hippies and The Brady Bunch.
Lucasfilm
No one can ever take away Harrison Ford’s status as “the original Indy.” But just as James Bond eventually moved on from Sean Connery, it’s time for Indiana Jones to move beyond Ford. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg envisioned Indy as “the American 007” after all. This would be the most Bond-like thing to do for the character.
All of this would keep the franchise viable long term. Believe me, Disney and Lucasfilm don’t want to make the property seem like one of Indy’s old relics – they want it to stay current. And by having it in a different medium with a new actor, it would be far less likely to ruffle the feathers of those who claim there can only ever be on big screen version of Indiana Jones. A younger Indiana Jones on Disney+ is the best “you can have your cake and eat it too” option for everyone.
Originally published February 27, 2020.
The post Why INDIANA JONES’ Future Should Be on Disney+ appeared first on Nerdist.
One of the most anticipated shows coming this fall is Netflix’s Wednesday, which chronicles the adolescent adventures of everyone’s favorite member of the Addams Family. The series will showcase the titular Wednesday Addams adjusting to her new “school for outcasts,” the Nevermore Academy. The new series is continuing the vibe of the brilliant ’90s Addams Family movies. And it also marks the return of director Tim Burton to his Gothic aesthetic. The Addams Family has always been well known for its theme music, and now, Burton and Danny Elfman have collaborated to bring you a whole new theme song and opening credit sequence.
We bet there are a whole lot of fun Easter eggs for fans to uncover in Wednesday‘s opening credits.
Behind the Scenes of Wednesday
Additionally, in a brand new look from Netflix, we go behind the cameras of the new Wednesday series. It features interviews with X star Jenna Ortega, our new Wednesday Addams, as well as Burton and the series’ writers. You can watch the full 3-minute featurette down below:
This sneak peek at the series gives us a better look at what the creators have in store. Showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar make certain the audience knows “this isn’t a remake or a reboot. This is just a new chapter in Wednesday Addams’ life.” For the first time in the Addams franchise, Netflix’s Wednesday will show us what the Addams children look like as teens. Jenna Ortega explains all the preparation she went through to play Wednesday, including fencing and cello lessons twice a week.
It certainly looks like the Nevermore Academy is the dark and brooding cousin to Xavier’s School from X-Men. And as the former showrunners of Smallville, Gough and Millar know all about schools with unusual students. Unlike previous Addams Family projects, Wednesday will have a plot-driven throughline, all about our heroine solving a bizarre murder mystery.
Wednesday and Tim Burton
You can also check out this shorter featurette where Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia Addams), and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar further discuss the genius that is Tim Burton.
The rest of the cast includes Gwendoline Christie (Principal Larissa Weems), Luis Guzmán (Gomez Addams), and Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley Addams), and original movie Wednesday herself, Christina Ricci as Marilyn Thornhill. Netflix’s Wednesday premieres on November 23.
Originally published on August 24, 2022.
The post Danny Elfman and Tim Burton Bring You WEDNESDAY’s Opening Credits appeared first on Nerdist.