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I am aware that the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike which meant that actors are not allowed to promote their films as one of the reasons to why the pre-sales for the Marvels hasn't been quite stellar, but it also comes down to a couple of past films and shows that didn't quite match the quality standard that Marvel Studios usually delivered. Hence why a lot of films and shows adapted under former Disney CEO Bob Chapek had suffered.

The Marvels will really need to depend on the word of mouth as well as reviews in which I do hope it does get the right reception it needs and perhaps it could end up doing an Elementals run?

But whatever remains of other projects left during the Chapek-era, hopefully all studio divisions within Disney including Marvel Studios can pull themselves back on track (after Chapek's departure.)

I've recently purchased a book called "The Reign of Marvel Studios" by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards and it is a really interesting read which covers the history behind Marvel Studios from the beginnings to its current phase. (Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the MCU)

There are some interesting tidbits from a podcast in which one of the authors Joanna Robinson took part:

black panther and widow movies were'nt done earlier in the MCU because Ike and the creative team didn't think they'd "push plastic", feige wanted widow and black panther from the beginning.

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Its probably a good thing that Perlmutter is no longer with Marvel. I do also recall that he was the one who pushed for the "Inhumans" to act as the replacements for the X-Men (during a time when Marvel Studios did not acquire the rights to.)

chapek turned on the "content taps" right on his way out the door, hes the one who pushed all these movies and tv shows. and this caused problems because feige then wasnt able to give notes on all of the projects like he did in the past and thats a big reason why current MCU isn't working. Feige isn't replaceable and they've been trying to "replace" him because they had to due to the amount of content being greenlit.

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Chapek made so many inconsistent decisions and mistakes that had impacted the quality of all studios within Disney that include Marvel Studios.

Chapek isn't exactly someone who is on the quality aspect as he is someone who is more on the quantity side in which he shifted the control to marketing over the creatives which is what I believe to be the source and reason to why a number of Disney projects had a mixed bag.

But now with Chapek no longer being CEO and with the power and control handed back to the creatives, hopefully there will be a shift in momentum where all studios (including Marvel Studios) to provide the quality aspect that had been missing throughout Chapek's reign.

I'll probably discuss my thoughts and concerns are for Marvel Studios' upcoming "The Marvels" box office pre-sales in my next post.

Decided to watch the Super Mario Bros. the Movie for a second time and whilst I still enjoy it as someone who is familiar with the Super Mario franchise since my childhood, I still feel that parts of the pacing and story could had been a little bit better.

Whilst I do predict that a sequel is highly likely to happen and if it does happen I do think that they do need to perhaps look in to bringing a good writer who can elevate the plot and add further depth and development within the characters.

What could had been.

For those who do not know, Dr. Octopus and Frank West were both planned to be in Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and were eventually scrapped with West eventually making the cut for Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3.

It was stated that Dr. Octopus did not make the cut due to having specific issues with his move set that caused glitches that led him to be scrapped. Even former MvC 3 producer Ryota Niitsuma stated that they even had a character portrait and character theme in the works for him.

More recently, modders found remnants of CSS portraits for both Frank West and Dr. Octopus within the Xbox 360 version that proved he was in the works.

It is a shame that Dr. Octopus did not make the cut for Marvel Vs Capcom 3, but I do hope that he will eventually be a playable character within a future Marvel Vs Capcom game.

Source: Xeno's Twitter

Just finished watching the live action tv series adaption of One Piece on Netflix and I'm really surprised at how well it mostly stayed respectful and faithful to Eiichiro Oda's manga and anime franchise.

But overall despite several notable changes such as giving Koby and Buggy more screentime, the entire episodes (whilst it had some flaws) but it was still enjoyable to watch for anyone who is a fan of One Piece.

In addition, the performances of its cast were also well done. From the likes of Mackenryu, Taz Skyler, Jeff Ward, Aiden Scott, Morgan Davies and espeically to Inaki Godoy who really knows how to bring the character Monkey D. Luffy to life.

Just finished watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

I remembered a time when people were sceptical about the Smash 3DS ESRB leak until it was proven legitimate once the likes of Shulk and Baby Bowser were officially unveiled.

I'm already seeing that same pattern that happened for Street Fighter 6 (when the entire concept art for all the characters were leaked), Mortal Kombat 1 (when Amazon Italy leaked the entire season one pass that consist of Omni Man, Peacemaker, Takeda, Ermac and Homelander) and recently with Tekken 8 (when a screenshot leak of the character select plus the details of Azucena's character were legitimate.)

Further brief thoughts on films that I have recently watched:

• Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny: Overall, whilst I do feel that there were some areas that could had been better, I still enjoyed watching the entire film that perfectly provided a satisfying conclusion to Harrison Ford's iconic heroic adventurer.
• Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken: Even though Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken does have an interesting concept, however its plot fell rather generic and not well executed in which it almost felt like a mash-up of Luca, Turning Red and The Elementals. Not Dreamworks Studios' best unfortunately.
• Barbie: My sister wanted to watch Barbie in which I decided to join in. Anyways, Greta Gerwig's direction worked really well that provided a fun and humorous plot courtesy of its cast performances especially from Margot Robbie (which I felt was her best performance so far) and Ryan Gosling who was hilarious as Ken. Oh yes, there was also a small Zack Snyder Justice League joke inserted in the film too.

Hollywood studios need to learn that going AI is not the way to move forward and it will only do more harm than good especially for writers and actors involved who also require a fair and decent pay as they are part of the key players within the industry.

I do hope that there will eventually be a compromise with all parties (especially for the writers and actors as they deserve better terms and conditions) involved to achieve something that is reasonable, respectful, meaningful and to ensure that their demands are met although I do feel that this is going to take a while for the storm to be settled.

Here are my brief thoughts on several films that I had watched this year so far:

• Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumania: The third film was neither good or bad but could had been better even though Paul Rudd still shines in his role as Scott Lang.
• Shazam: Fury of the Gods: I was left rather disappointed with Fury of the Gods' as it was not able to capitalise what the first film was able to achieve.
• Power Rangers: Once & Always: Once & Always is able to not only craft a decent story that stays true to the iconic 90's hit show, but also paid a fitting tribute to the late Thuy Trang and David Jason Frank.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol: 3: What a perfect way to end a trilogy of superhero misfits with a well built story and characters that highlights James Gunn's talents.
• Little Mermaid: This was certainly one of the better Disney live action adaptions that not only featured brilliant performances by its cast, but a story that stays closely toward its animated version.
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Not only this ups from Into the Spider-Verse in terms of its plot, the characters and vivid animation.
• The Flash: So much for the "best superhero film of the year" hype that seemingly failed to match those expectations.
• Knights of the Zodiac: If you think that Dragon Ball Evolution is really bad, wait until you see how much worse Knights of the Zodiac.
• Elementals: Disney Pixar's Elementals was a very well that crafted a meaningful and heartfelt story and characters that were well built and driven within a colourful visuals and vibrant animation.

Finally got the opportunity to watch Disney Pixar's the Elementals today and here is my review:

After watching what was the most disappointing and underwhelming finale, if the Razzies were to award the "worst television series of 2023", I would not be surprised if this show won this.

My review of Knights of the Zodiac:

Sony Entertainment Pictures's the Knights of the Zodiac live action film was absolutely dreadful from start to finish that almost gives out Dragon Ball: Evolution vibes.

In addition to the lack of depth within its characters, plot and mediocre performances, not even the likes of Sean Bean and Famke Janssen could prevent this disaster of a poorly adapted film that does not respect the anime's source material.

Imagine what would happen if a Kingdom Hearts film/tv series were in the works by Disney Animation Studios.

So I decided to browse around Youtube and spotted a really bad video titled "14 Reasons Why Super Smash Bros. Series Sucks" in which whilst a load of his reasonings lacked any context, he stated that one of the reasons was that "Super Smash Bros. series is worse than the Marvel Vs Capcom series."

This is a rather ridiculous reason to say since I don't see the resemblence between the two as someone who is a long time fan of Smash and the MvC series.

My response to this particular channel's reasonings:

I feel like they are taking another risk with tying the Blue Beetle as part of James Gunn's DCU films, as they should had wait to see how well the film has been recieved on its theatrical release before they could have plans to whether or not it can be associated within the DCU's future.

Diddy Kong Racing was the first game I had ever purchased when I first bought the Nintendo 64.

What drew me in to the game in the first place was the lively characters and soundtrack, unique courses and the fun adventure mode.

Sometimes whenever I see someone in the comments stating that whatever they said are "facts" when in reality, its just nothing more than their own opinion.

Just finished watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse:


I will and hopefully be watching Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny and Elementals next and will post my thoughts and reviews on the two once I have seen them.

Is there really any point for Sony Entertainment Pictures to go forward with "El Muerto" at all?

This is worth a watch with an interesting view from Dan Murrell regarding to the DCEU.

As promised here is my review of the Flash film which I managed to watch last night:

Decided to bite the bullet and watched the Flash film. All I am going to say for know is that claiming this as "the best superhero film ever" is certainly a massive stretch that does not seem to live up to its expectations.

I'll collate my thoughts and provide a review for my next post.

Well, Tekken 8 is getting a closed network test. Also, Claudio will be making his return.

Whilst I don't feel there is anything wrong with their approach in terms of reveals, but I just wish they would had shown this during last night's Summer Game Fest which would had garnered more interest and hype.

Just finished tuning in to the Summer Game Fest. Other than Mortal Kombat 1 and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, I just felt quite "meh" on what had been shown as there wasn't any other games that caught my interest.

If there is one thing that I have learned about social media reactions, is that they are unpredictable.

This month is Summer Game Fest in which I do anticipate a number of video game reveals and updates.

From a fighting game perspective, Mortal Kombat 1 is already confirmed to have a first glimpse of gameplay to be shown there and I think maybe something on Tekken 8 too?

I do not think it is likely there will be anything Street Fighter 6 related news to be revealed at the Summer Game Fest since the game came out not long ago. But I predict Capcom are likely to share news of their first DLC character Rashid probably at the EVO event that takes place within a few months.

Youtube serously either need to remove videos that post clips from film theaters or perhaps consider adding a spoiler tag.

You can also throw in former CEO Bob Chapek's decision to focus on streaming and Kareem Daniel's decisions on what films were to be headed for theaters and streaming are also factors that contributed to tarnishing Disney's brand.

Whilst it is still hard to predict how Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny, Pixar's Elementals, the live action Haunted Mansion film, Marvel Studios' The Marvels and Disney Animation's Wish will fare as the months goes on, I do feel that Bob Iger has an awful lot of work to do to put Disney and their creative studios back on track and hopefully it will pay off.

Having watched the Little Mermaid live action film today:

Binge watched the first season of the Boys, Invincible and Peacemaker for the past few days which were all very well done.

Maybe this was because of the anticipation of the likes of Homelander, Omni Man and the Peacemaker rumoured for the Mortal Kombat 1's season pass leak. Whilst it is hard to say anything regarding to leak, I would assume that Netherealm Studios will reveal its contents some point after the game releases in September.

Having watched first season of Amazon Prime's The Boys and to summarise the Homelander's character, to reiterate what Spider-Man once said, "the Homelander may have great power, but he is not responsible with it."

This certainly does feel like a good time for fighting games for this year and next year.

I guess, it is only a matter of "time" before the new Mortal Kombat game is revealed.

Having watched the Super Mario Bros. the Movie twice this week, I will say that I do throughly enjoy it as someone who had played the Super Mario games since the Nintendo 64 days with a number of recognisable easter eggs and references to the franchise as well as other Nintendo properties from Punch Out to Kid Icarus along with a memorable soundtrack (even though I do question some of the song choices.)

However, when I saw the critics' score after watching the film and whilst I do understand what parts were being criticised such as there wasn't much character development as I'd hope for and the pacing was rather rushed, I do feel some of the critics were being quite harsh especially with one review saying that the 1993 live action film was better than the Super Mario Bros. film which something I do not agree with(I had watched the 1993 film and it was dreadful.)

As I said, as a someone who has been a fan of the Super Mario games, did I enjoy watching the film? Certainly. As a movie fan, could it had been better in anyway? Certainly as well.

My overall rating: 7.5/10

Man, I really do hope that there will be an official soundtrack to the Super Nintendo World theme park. And yes, I finally had the opportunity to watch the Super Mario Bros. Movie (in which I am looking to watch the film for a second time this week.) Will provide my full thoughts and review for my next post.

I wonder would a Tekken Collection (that contains past Tekken games) or a SoulCalibur Collection work if it were to be released the Nintendo Switch?

As Hideki Kamiya once said about Keiji Inafune, "He's a business man. Not a creator."