Static Thoughts - What to Expect from Stranger Things Season 2

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Edited by Robert Beach

With the summer season drawing to a close, the time has come to look back on the many success of the last few months and inexorably ask: what’s next? For some, that may be a difficult question for Netflix’s Stranger Things, the breakout TV success of the summer. The answer is obvious: Season 2.  

As anyone who’s seen the show knows, there was a lot of dangling elements left in the retro sci-fi adventure series to be developed for the second season. Netflix has already announced plans for a follow-up to the massively popular series. Even though there are some obvious places to go with things, the question of what the second season will be about looms large over the production. As such, I’ve come up with a list of 5 major possibilities for what Stranger Things season 2 could be about. Obviously, there are spoilers to follow.

10 Questions for Man of Steel 2

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Edited by Robert Beach

In the wake of Suicide Squad’s monster success at the August box office, Warner Bros. has officially announced a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel. The sequel makes a certain amount of sense with the WB’s current approach to their superhero fare.  Pretty much from the word go WB has taken a very laissez-faire approach to their films, letting directorial demands fall as they are. And, at this point, accepting box office success as the only measure of quality they care about. 

After three high-profile culture flops, films that failed to make it into the collective psyche of pop culture, I’d be one to count my money as a victory too. I also speculated that this announcement might be more than just capitalizing on Suicide Squad’s moment, but actively trying to pivot from the general disinterest in their Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.  We may never know for certain, but for now, here’s ten questions and speculations about Man of Steel 2.

Static Thoughts - '80s Influences on Stranger Things

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Edited by Robert Beach 

The show of the summer has finally arrived. Surprisingly, it was a sleeper hit from Netflix that no one had ever heard of called Stranger Things.  Pretty much coming out of nowhere, Stranger Things won over audiences with its winning combination of small town stories, kid adventure tropes, horror-inflected sci-fi, and a smooth, creamy layer of ‘80s nostalgia so thick you could cut it with a spork.  

That last bit is what brings us here today as I maintain one of the best things about Stranger Things is being able to pick out the deliberate homages to 1980s pop culture and touchstones. Some of this comes in the form of direct shoutouts and references while others formed through a repackaged version of classic scenes from various movies of the time.  With that said, let’s look at the top 10 1980s influences on Stranger Things (and one ‘90s influence, but we’ll get to that in due course.) Needless to say, spoilers to follow. 

What's Next for the Suicide Squad?

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So, Suicide Squad is now a bona fide hit.  Granted a lot of that was the result of an exceptionally weak summer season and a middling box office response for most of the blockbuster flicks of the year but money is money, as WB’s new motto goes, and this movie made enough money that they’re counting it as the first real success of the DC Entertainment Universe.  While that success and the adoption of the “it made cash, that’s a win” philosophy mean a lot of things for WB, like the revival of Man of Steel 2 on the release slate, I’m looking now at what this could mean for the individual Squad members.  

After all, the whole point of a shared universe is that you can have characters from one movie appear somewhere else, that was the whole point of Batman and the Flash being in this movie so it stands to reason the assembled villain of Suicide Squad would appear in other people’s movies as well.  So, here’s where we might next see the members of the Suicide Squad.

5 O'Clock Shuffle - August 8th

Welcome to the latest installment of the site's news broadcast the 5 O'Clock Shuffle, coming to you every Monday with the news you may have missed over the weekend and a look at what's to come, all in just under 10 minutes.

This week I take a look at Suicide Squad's controversy and box office returns, Man of Steel 2, the prospect of new Marvel and Star Wars TV Shows, and a look at all the hot new DC Comics hitting the store this Wednesday.  

Cover Story - Top 15 Suicide Squad Covers

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Suicide Squad is finally upon us, and surprise, surprise, it’s pretty bad. I haven’t seen it yet, but the critical consensus has been overwhelmingly negative, to the point where Warner Bros. is already gearing up to damage control on Wonder Woman and talk up more Harry Potter spin-off movies. This move is all in the case this whole DC Entertainment Universe thing is a giant boondoggle. It’s a shame because I’m quite a fan of the Suicide Squad comics. 

Not the New 52 series, rather the late ‘80s series by Ostrander or the 2000s comic from Keith Giffen. Given that, and my pathological obsession with topicality, it’s Suicide Squad day here as we dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 15 Suicide Squad comic covers.

Static Thoughts - Task Force X

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Edited by Robert Beach

This Friday marks the premiere of WB’s latest film entry Suicide Squad. This most recent installment in the fledgling DC Entertainment Universe has a lot riding on it after the last two films in the series, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, became universally unpopular punching bags. Early reviews are only filtering through now, and they have not been good, but many fans still hold some hope for the film. 

Personally, I’ve been critical of this movie from the word go, and I’m not surprised we hear it’s not very good. The production design looked terrible; The very inception of the team, supervillains to fight super threats, doesn’t make any sense when every character involved is so patently incapable of the task. What’s more, we’d already seen a Suicide Squad movie did to perfection on the Justice League Unlimited episode: Task Force X, let’s talk about that.

Panel Vision - Seven Characters Benjamin Bratt May Play in Doctor Strange

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Edited by Robert Beach 

As we continue to march ever closer to Dr. Strange, several people have picked up on a pretty interesting minor detail from the latest trailer for the Sorcerer Supreme’s debut film. So far, the trailers, posters, and announcements have all been pretty sparse for Doctor Strange. Most of the news focus on showing off how strange and different the movie will be. Whether or not that’s the case, it does lead to a lot of lingering questions about what role the various characters in the film are actually playing or if there’s some secret agenda at hand.  

That particular brand of conspiracy speculation got a shot in the arm when the ending credits of Dr. Strange’s latest trailer named Benjamin Bratt as a featured actor. Currently, we have no idea who Bratt is playing or that he was even in this movie as he hasn’t appeared in any of the set pics, posters, or trailers. Now, the question has become “who is he playing?” I thought up seven possibilities. 

5 O'Clock Shuffle - August 1st

Welcome to the first installment of the site's new broadcast the 5 O'Clock Shuffle, coming to you every Monday with the news you may have missed over the weekend and a look at what's to come, all in just under 10 minutes.

This week I take a look at The Great Wall controversy, some Disney reboots, Sharknado 4 and of course, the weekend box office report and New Comic Book Day round-up.

Film Land - Dave

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Edited by Robert Beach

As I write this, it’s August 1^st, and here in America, that means one major thing: the general election is fully under way. The Republican and Democratic national conventions are finished; the candidates were chosen; in three months, we get to see who’s going to be President: the qualified woman or the fascist reality star. Understandably, such a choice weighs heavy on one’s mind as we barrel our way towards November 5^th, but it also made me remember a very bizarre 1993 political comedy that’s become strangely relevant to this day and age called Dave. 

Directed by Ivan Reitman, the director of Ghostbusters, the film stars Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, and Kevin Dunn and stands as one of the best installments of the relaxed idealism that informed a lot of ‘90s political fiction such as The American President or The West Wing. What makes Dave unique amid the era and why it’s all so important right now is the film’s central hook: what if someone with no political experience or knowledge of any kind became president.