Dr. Strange Trailer & Set Photos

Edited by Robert Beach

My favorite thing about Marvel studios is even amid all the formula-driven plots and studio-mandated storytelling, there’s still a creative spark and vibrance for the material at the heart of these movies. Every time I’m feeling a little burnt out on the Marvel product something new pops up to drag me back in. When Thor: The Dark World and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exhausted me, Captain America: Winter Soldier brought me back to life. I liked Age of Ultron, but it was still a frustrating mess. Then Ant-Man and Jessica Jones washed all that away. 

A lot of that has to do with tone and style. Marvel’s simply at their best when they aren’t actively trying to make blockbuster hits, but are more trying to experiment with genre and visuals. And now we have Dr. Strange, Marvel’s latest “experimental risk” in a long line of experiments that proved to be not that risky. But is there a better film to be found in this first trailer, poster, and set photos or are we on track to another well-intended disappointment in the vein of Incredible Hulk. 

Static Thoughts - True Detective Season 2

Edited by Robert Beach

Follow-ups are always difficult. It’s a rule of life that a 2^nd installment of anything is severely hit or miss. The general logic behind this is sequels are faced with a number of difficult choices: whether to provide more of the same or take a different approach, for instance. 

Even if the creators decide to simply produce more of what’s already proven successful, there’s the question of what worked so well in the original piece. A story is made up of so many individual parts it can be hard to pinpoint the exact aspects of it that resonates with an audience. This is where True Detective season 2 goes horrible, terribly, catastrophically wrong.