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06 May

Thunderbolts* Writer Reveals Who the Original Villain Almost Was and Other Marvel Secrets

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This article contains THUNDERBOLTS* SPOILERS. Back in 2009, a still-nascent Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Writers Program in which the studio selected a small group of promising new screenwriters to literally sit in the company’s offices for a year and develop different projects based on the vast Marvel canon. Some of the scribes who toiled in the program went on to become successful screenwriters in their own right for Marvel and other properties. One of them is Eric Pearson. Some 15 years after launching his career with Marvel, Pearson has co-written (with Joanna Calo) the latest MCU entry, Thunderbolts* and…

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06 May

Thunderbolts Review: the MCU’s B-Team Rises to the Occasion

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Marvel Studios is in a dark place. They know it; you know it; and they know that you know it. Their latest effort Thunderbolts even appears determined to kind of address this, complete with the studio’s logo in the opening title cards slowly succumbing to a shadow. Despite the rousing Alan Silvestri fanfare, soon the entire storied brand is overcast in a gloom so overwhelming that the metatextual irony writes itself. But is Marvel ready to do something about it? It’s an open and deliberately self-aware question that bleeds into the following scene: an image that succinctly summarizes the studio’s…

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06 May

Thunderbolts* Box Office Leaves Marvel in Ambiguous Position

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Thunderbolts* is a good movie. Full stop. It is refreshing to be able to write that about an MCU effort considering the equivocations, debates, and second-guessing that has circled many recent Marvel projects like Captain America: Brave New World, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Marvels. By comparison, Jake Schreier’s Thundebolts* mostly stands on its own while also progressing the future of the MCU in genuinely exciting ways. So what are we to make of this fairly well-received Marvel joint opening in the U.S. at an estimated $76 million, a respectable if muted-by-MCU-standards number? That figure is below all…

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05 May

Where Every MCU Hero Is After Thunderbolts* and Before Avengers: Doomsday

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Marvel’s Phase Five really ended with a bang in this weekend’s Thunderbolts*. Granted, the phase really ends for real with the much-delayed Ironheart, but in terms of movies, Phase Five has finished up. Ever since Avengers: Endgame brought a climax to the original version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have been so many projects on TV and movie screens that it has taken on a scattershot appearance. But as shown in the post-credits, things are finally about to get interesting as we approach Avengers: Doomsday. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps kickstarting Phase Six and the MCU Multiverse Saga…

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04 May

May The 4th Gift Guide: The Best Star Wars Merch and Collectibles of 2025

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May the 4th be with you. Star Wars Day 2025 is upon us, and the galaxy far, far away is climbing back on top of the world of pop culture. With Andor Season 2 currently enthralling fans on streaming and the rerelease of Episode III setting box office records, Star Wars might be back in the public’s good graces once again. To celebrate the franchise that means so much to fans across the globe, some of the best pieces of Star Wars merchandise available to purchase right now below! And you’re looking for retro Star Wars collectibles and vintage sci-fi…

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03 May

Thunderbolts* Ending Explained: Where This Leaves the MCU Ahead of Doomsday

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This article contains Thunderbolts* spoilers. The Thunderbolts are here!! Yes, after many Marvel movies that didn’t hit the mark, our first Marvel movie of the summer has arrived and, as our reviewer put it, “Marvel’s shaggiest movie in ages proves to be a good time.” Another way to put it is this isn’t your daddy’s Avengers. Instead this is a ragtag group of villains and antiheroes trying their best to make amends for the horrors of their past by helping stop their one-time-almost teammate and supernatural mind-f#*k, Bob (Lewis Pullman) A.K.A. The Sentry A.K.A. The Void. It’s intimate, thrilling, and…

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03 May

Thunderbolts*: The Sentry Is Much Darker in the Comics

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This article contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*. Within seconds Thunderbolts* announces itself as a special type of Marvel movie. Instead of the “evolution” style Marvel Studios logo used for the past few years, which begins with comic book panels and transitions from script pages to movie scenes, Thunderbolts* is all comics, just like the logo that first debuted with 2002’s Spider-Man. The throwback imagery fills longtime fans with joy… until they realize that the pages all come from Sentry comics. A certain dread rises in their stomachs, just as the logo turns black and Michael Giacchino’s familiar fanfare becomes muddled. The…

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02 May

The Surfer Cements Nicolas Cage’s Late Career Renaissance

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Early in The Surfer, Nicolas Cage‘s character confronts the local toughs who have chased him off the Australian beach he’s come to surf. Worse still, they’ve stolen his board! At first Cage tries to simply and request the return of his gear. But when the hooligans’ leader Scally (Julian McMahon) pretends to not understand the request, our hero loses his cool. “Dude…” Cage says, his voice wavering and his finger wagging. “That’s my board, and I want it back!” Even five years ago, Cage’s line reading would be the stuff of memes, shared in viral videos and turned into kitschy…

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02 May

Thunderbolts* Post-Credit Scenes Explained

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This article obviously contains ALL THE THUNDERBOLTS* SPOILERS! I don’t know it for a fact, but I just feel like Alexi Andreovitch Shostakov—aka David Harbour’s lovable Red Guardian—is a New Coke kind of guy. Like a lot of blokes of a certain age, this Super Santa in too-tight tights has an affinity for all things 1980s from his youth. He’s a walking throwback to the Soviet Union’s final glory days, and an era where ironically many such comrades romanticized American capitalist curios like this first New Coke commercial from McDonald’s; an ad that trumpeted, “Look who’s got the new taste…

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02 May

Another Simple Favor’s Most Shocking Twist Underscores Its Biggest Problems

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This article contains plenty of spoilers for Another Simple Favor. Like most sequels, Another Simple Favor goes bigger than its 2018 predecessor. Gone is the rustic northern Michigan summer camp of A Simple Favor, replaced here by the Italian island of Capri. It’s there that luxurious murderer Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) has been living since the end of the first film. Meanwhile no longer a mommy blogger living a life of quiet upper-middle-class desperation, Stephanie Sommers (Anna Kendrick) has also parlayed her story from the first film into a successful career as a true crime podcaster and author. But perhaps…

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01 May

The Strength of Hunger Games Stories Is Their Rejection of Hollywood Happy Endings

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This article contains spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping. Since its inception, the Hunger Games has never been shy about the horrors of war. In fact, Suzanne Collins was inspired to create her blockbuster franchise while flipping through TV late at night where news coverage of the conflict in Iraq clashed with the ever popular reality shows of the time. It was that juxtaposition which sowed the seeds for the televised battle to the death that became the epicenter of the Hunger Games universe. Though death matches are rife in fiction and film—from Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game from…

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01 May

Summer Movie Preview 2025: From Superman to Fantastic Four and Beyond

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For some people, the summer months mean beaches and long days outdoors. For Den of Geek readers, the summer means staying inside air conditioned movie theaters and watching big budget spectacles! And boy, does summer 2025 have spectacles. But if superheroes and dinosaurs aren’t your bag, you don’t have to skip cinemas altogether this season. Everything from comedy revivals to existential horrors will be hitting screens over the next couple of months, promising cool entertainment for all. And we got it all here for your viewing pleasure. Another Simple Favor May 1 Paul Feig continues to be one of the…

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29 Apr

The Dark Avengers Shadow Hanging Over Thunderbolts*

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“We are the Thunderbolts!” shouts Alexei Shostakov the Red Guardian in the trailers for the next MCU entry Thunderbolts*. “We can’t call ourselves that,” responds an exasperated Bucky. It’s a weird exchange, one that goes beyond the usual snarky humor that’s marked the Marvel Studios brand since nearly the beginning. Why, exactly, can’t they call themselves Thunderbolts? Who cares? For most comic book fans, the answer is obvious. What he probably says is “we are the Avengers!” And Bucky, an Avenger in practice if not in name, objects. However, comic book readers know that Red Guardian is onto something. The…

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25 Apr

The 15 Best Heist Movies Ever Made, Ranked

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Movies and heists are the perfect pairing. Both require a perfect crew, a ton of charisma, and clockwork precision in an environment where everything is ready to go wrong. Though we’ve been trained to understand that the perfect crime is as rare as the treasures that movie thieves endeavor to steal, few things top the satisfaction of watching it all come together and fall apart. The best heist movies draw us in time and time again to the illusion of it all.  And while we’re here to celebrate the best heist movies, please note that identifying a heist movie can…

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25 Apr

Havoc Ending Explained: How The Raid Director Redefines the Gritty Cop Movie

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This article contains full spoilers for Havoc. For all the blood and guts and general nastiness it contains, Havoc is toughest to watch in its first three minutes. That’s when we watch as Detective Walker sits pensively and thinks about what he’s done. Under a monologue about tough choices made for one’s family intercuts shots of Walker gearing up for duty, pulling out his badge and service revolver, and shots of Walker stealing cash from a drug bust and standing over a bloody victim. Right away, Havoc establishes itself as yet another movie about a morally conflicted cop, a tough…

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24 Apr

The Accountant 2 Review: Enjoy Some Dumb Fun with Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal

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In half of his scenes in The Accountant 2, Jon Bernthal‘s character Braxton eats something sweet. Sometimes he’s finishing a quart of ice cream. Sometimes he’s sucking on a lolly. But he’s always eating. And yet, during an extended comic scene in which Braxton wears nothing but black undies and black socks, there’s not a single inch of body fat to be seen. Anyone who wants to enjoy The Accountant 2 must be willing to overlook these glaring departures from reality, because the movie outdoes its 2016 predecessor with its absurd portrayal of autism, handling the condition with as much…

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24 Apr

Captain America 4’s Carl Lumbly Discusses His Complicated Superhero History

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Early in Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson takes his pal Joaquin Torres to get some training. At first Joaquin scoffs at the trainer chosen by Sam, a physically imposing, but decidedly older man. But when Sam tells Joaquin the trainer’s name, Joaquin is overcome with awe. After all, the man is Isaiah Bradley, the lost Captain America, who gained powers when the Super-Soldier serum was forced upon him. As we learned in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Isaiah went on several missions for the U.S. government in the 1950s, only to be captured by Hydra and disavowed…

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23 Apr

Beyond Meta and the A.I. Mining of Books: We Need New Copyright Laws

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If you recall the days of VHS tapes, you’ll also probably remember the scary FBI warnings at the beginning of movies that cautioned against piracy. Although a little heavy-handed, it always acted as a staunch warning: You own the tape, but you don’t own the content. Today these types of warnings still exist with piracy laws protecting copyrighted work across movies, TV, books, and art. By definition, piracy involves the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work. However, when it comes to the gray area of AI, piracy and copyright laws tend to lose all their power. That certainly seems…

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22 Apr

James Bond: How George Lazenby’s Bluffing and a Violent Screen Test Changed the Franchise’s Future

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Sean Connery quit the role of James Bond in 1967 during the production of You Only Live Twice. Burned out by the pace of production (five films in five years), his abrupt rise to superstardom in the series and the endless press scrutiny that came with it—not to mention Connery’s increasing suspicion that he wasn’t getting paid his due—the actor walked away, leaving the massively successful franchise in doubt. It also opened up what became one of the most coveted characters in show business. According to Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury’s book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of…

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21 Apr

The Greatest Black Vampires in Cinema

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This article contains SINNERS SPOILERS. Black representation within horror movies, specifically of the supernatural variety, is becoming increasingly extensive these days. No, not in that way where we are the first to die in slashers. I’m talking about ones where we are the protagonists or supporting characters with supernatural abilities.  Many might attribute this to the cultural impact left by filmmaker Jordan Peele. And sure, that’s played a role, but truth be told, we made our mark in the genre eons ago, beginning at the height of the Blaxploitation movement with William Crain’s Blacula starring William Marshall. Ever since Blacula…

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