Yearly Archives - 2024

The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend: Kraven

Yeah, I can tell you’re surprised. The Spider-Man-free Spider-Man movies were an idea only a Hollywood producer could love.  Certainly, no one else did. As far as I can tell, Amy Pascal knew she was in the process of being fired.  She had been caught up in the Sony email scandal saying some excessively honest things about people like Angelina Jolie. That, plus a string of underperforming movies that had her name attached to them had her in Tom Rothman’s gun...

Dear Jag, This Is How You Take Care of a Brand

First a little background. Everyone except car dealers hates car dealerships. Yeah, I know and water is wet. Car dealerships were one of those FDR Goldilocks programs, they showed up for dinner uninvited and never left. The thinking at the time was that it would allow car manufacturers to concentrate on research and development. A few of its advocates had the nerve to claim it was a huge success because of America's automobile dominance in the 1950s, ignoring...

The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend War of the Rohirrim

I shall now damn this movie with the faintest praise I can give to anything. It’s not as bad as The Rings of Power.The story this is based on is in the appendices.  Here is the quick and dirty. The Dunelendings were the descendants of swarthy men who had sided with Morgoth. Like all of his servants they served unwillingly but serve him they did which gave the Numenoreans a beef with them when they got that far East. When the kings...

Never Apologize

REPOST: Originally posted Dec 2021Why was In the Heights #canceled?Oh, there is the official reason but that has nothing to do with why it got put on blast by all the major media outlets within twenty-four hours.  It wasn’t the real reason the film had its box office burned to the ground and its creator was forced to make a groveling apology.The Dark Herald will fill you in on that a little later.First the background.  In the Heights, was a 2008 Broadway...

The (Sony Exclusive) Game Awards 2024

Well that was hot garbage. At least I played one of these award winning Sony Exclusives this year.Astro Bot — 4 wins (including Game of the Year), 7 nominationsMetaphor: ReFantazio — 3 wins, 6 nominationsBalatro — 3 wins, 5 nominationsBlack Myth: Wukong — 2 wins, 5 nominationsHelldivers 2 — 2 wins, 4 nominationsSenua's Sage: Hellblade 2 — 2 wins (including lead actor Melina Juergens' win for Best Performance), 4 nominationsHelldivers 2 did win my heart last night.  During the awards what...

The Sony Buyout of Kadkowa Moves Forward

That headline either means nothing at all to you, or it makes you sick to your stomach.  I can’t think of a worse custodian for Kadakowa unless it’s Disney. It’s hard to come up with an anime studio with a richer history than Kadokawa. Yes, Ghibli is more beloved but when you compare the body of work… Well, you can’t compare the body of work because they are on two entirely different planes of existence. Putting the studio that created Your Name...

Sony Kills the Spiderverse

Tom Rothman has had enough. The chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures is done with superheroes. He got bumped up from Tri-Star to head Sony Pictures after his predecessor ran Columbia Pictures so far into the ground Sony Japan was seriously considering dumping it on the highest bidder. The problem was that Columbia was in such bad shape nobody was interested. In the post-DVD-crash world, franchises were king and Sony only had two. Spiderman and Adam Sandler. Everything...

Ubisoft Buyout Hits a Snag

Ubisoft's only hope right now is a buyout from Chinese giant Tencent. It looked like that was exactly what was going to happen. Except it turns out that Tencent isn't insane, which is a considerable stumbling block to this buyout going through. You see, the Guillemot, who has led the company into its current disastrous state wants to retain control of Ubisoft after the deal goes through. Tencent hasn't said why it's not cool with leaving Ubisoft's founding...

RE:Animation – My Neighbor Totoro

Tonari No Totoro like Rashomon is one of those films that a certain type of leftie likes to claim they totally love because it is so super deep on so many, many levels, and only urban sophisticates like themselves can truly appreciate how mind-bogglingly deep and complex the story is. And the odds are good they’ve never actually seen it.  I never met one that has actually seen Rashomon either. My Neighbor Totoro is a good and not very deep movie. It’s...

Map of the PERFECT Fantasy World