And by all appearances, the hype is well-deserved. Several members of the original 2000 film’s crew (most notably director-producer Ridley Scott and lead actress Connie Nielsen) are back on board for round two, and with such talents like Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and the great Denzel Washington also among the ranks, Gladiator II certainly makes a case for itself as a worthy rival to Jon M. Chu’s musical juggernaut.

The post Is ‘Gladiator II’ a Sequel? appeared first on The Mary Sue.

The film is the first in a tetralogy’s-worth of Western epics directed, co-written, produced by, and starring Costner, and suffice to say he hasn’t exactly put his best foot forward with Chapter 1. Indeed, the cast is committed enough, but Horizon doesn’t seem to have the first clue about treading dramatic water without melodrama, nor does it seem to realize that threading together the stories of all these characters can go very poorly if you’re not extremely careful about plotting (Chapter 1 was not, in fact, extremely careful about plotting).

The post We Won’t Have To Wait Long for ‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2’ appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, between Talk To Me, I Saw the TV Glow, Civil War (make no mistake, Civil War absolutely counts as a horror film), and countless others, it’s easy to count on A24 to deliver the macabre goods in equal measure that they supply us with the Everything Everywhere All at Onces of the world.

The post ‘Heretic’ Will Compete With Robert Zemeckis and Dwayne Johnson for Viewership appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, for every lifeline that the ragtag posse of mercenaries happen upon (such as the recruitment of a reluctant A-Train as their inside man), a disaster or two is all too happy to accompany it. Their biggest one at the moment? Vought’s live broadcast of Annie beating Firecracker to a pulp after the alt-right Supe succeeded in agitating her with a piece of very personal info.

The post ‘The Boys’ Isn’t the Firecracker Actress’ First Superhero Television Rodeo appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Fresh off the Godolkin incident, the Eric Kripke-schemed cape mythos may have just entered its darkest era yet, with Victoria Neuman inching ever closer to the White House as Homelander gets a taste of unthinkably dangerous messianic power. Even worse is the tension-riddled state of the show’s titular mercenaries, who must somehow become comfortable enough working with Butcher in order to prevent the most severe, Vought-funded bloodbath since … well, yesterday, probably.

The post There Are Three Certainties in Life, and a Renewal of ‘The Boys’ Is One of Them appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, at this point, there’s blood on just about everyone’s hands, and that’s likely only going to escalate as time goes on; the Seven are looking as merciless as ever, especially with the notorious Firecracker joining their ranks. Even Hughie, whose relationship to violence has tossed and turned as he gets deeper and deeper into this world, might find himself on the other wrong end of a smoking gun more than a few times this season.

The post All That’s Missing From ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Is the Word on Jensen Ackles appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, after Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire made waves as one of the worst films of 2023—courtesy of being no more than a cynically gutted Star Wars ripoff whose plot can be entirely summed up with the act of banging action figures together—dread was quick to set in as audiences realized that Netflix still had at least four or five more of these things on the docket. And as if that weren’t dire enough, two of said things are simply going to be longer, more vulgar versions of the movies we were already getting. Indeed, the Snyder plan of attack remains as baffling as ever.

The post Looks Like Netflix Is Gearing Up for the Most Cursed Double Feature of 2024 appeared first on The Mary Sue.

In fact, that idea is so generally perplexing that its ultimate manifestation demands to be witnessed. That manifestation will come in the form of The Smashing Machine, the very A24 film that Dwayne Johnson will be leading.

The post Meet ‘The Smashing Machine,’ the Film That’s Hoping to Give Dwayne Johnson a Shot at the Oscars appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Of course, a good movie and a profitable movie tend to be two very different things these days (though exceptions abound), and where there’s profit, there’s sequels; enter Mortal Kombat 2, the follow-up to Simon McQuoid’s 2021 film adaptation of the wildly popular, famously violent fighting game, and which will hopefully boast a script that—unlike its predecessor—at least pretends it’s trying.

The post ‘Mortal Kombat 2’ Finally Has a Release Date appeared first on The Mary Sue.

But, despite the promises Kingdom has made, alongside being a fantastic movie in its own right, it’s hard not to feel a bit nostalgic for the Caesar days. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, after all, was a stroke of cinematic genius that gifted us this lightning-in-a-bottle reboot in the first place, and first-time Apes enthusiasts would be wise to take a peek at the history of this particular canon.

The post Whatever Happened to the Father of ‘The Planet of the Apes’? appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, with part three of “Tolerance Is Extinction” having officially wrapped up, we’re in for the most unprecedented Marvel waiting game yet as we dream of news on season two. After all, you can’t just drop Cyclops and Jean Grey into the year 3960 A.D. and expect us to not struggle under the need-to-know weight of such an event, especially when the likes of Nathan Summers and Mother Askani are in that picture.

The post The ‘X-Men ’97’ Finale Gave Us the Final Piece of the Immediate Summers Family Puzzle appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, hardly at any point throughout its 10 inaugural episodes did X-Men ’97 show any signs of artistic weakness, instead taking every opportunity to show off its pristinely stylized animation, superhero combat that was both subversive and bombastic, and steadfast, steely support of every idea that has made up X-Men stories since day one.

The post Meet En Sabah Nur, Who We’ll Be Seeing Way More of in ‘X-Men ’97 Season 2 appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, we’ve reached the end of X-Men ’97’s “Tolerance Is Extinction” arc, and while the day thankfully ended with Asteroid M not smashing into the eastern coast of North America, it wasn’t without a whole new, potentially worse problem taking its place. And now, with the X-Men scattered across three different time periods (3000 B.C., their present day, and 3960 A.D.) and their dreaded enemy Apocalypse looming in each one, whatever breather they can take after the defeat of Bastion is going to be short-lived.

The post The First Stage Is Denial, So When Is Episode 11 of ‘X-Men ’97’ Coming Out? appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Indeed, between an alleged use of AI that led to a lawsuit against Amazon, Liman’s planned boycott of the SXSW premiere in protest of Road House being released on Prime Video exclusively rather than theatrically, and the fact that the film itself—entertaining as it is—is so markedly different from the original Road House that it might as well have not been inspired by it at all, Road House is one curious critter.

The post Jake Gyllenhaal’s Adventures as Elwood Dalton Aren’t Over Yet appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Suffice it to say, however, that Beau DeMayo and company look all but ready to earn our patience with “Tolerance Is Extinction – Part 3,” the aforementioned tenth and final episode in the first season of X-Men ’97. Expect an unprecedentedly impactful finale that concludes the team’s plight against Bastion and Operation: Zero Tolerance, all whilst laying the groundwork for a whole new plight against Magneto, whose rancor has never known the heights it’s at now.

The post Marvel Animation’s Golden Goose Will Soon Be Taking a Well-Earned Break appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Television has never had a shortage of shows indulging viewers’ obsessions with the ups and downs of the lives of fictional medical professionals. Now, Netflix is set to dip its toes into that lake with Pulse.

The post ‘Pulse’ Will Be Netflix’s Way of Proving You Can Never Have Too Many Hospital Dramas appeared first on The Mary Sue.

The state of affairs we were left in last week—namely Magneto’s declaration of war against humanity and its newly-acquired legion of Prime Sentinels—was only the beginning. Between Rogue and Sunspot defecting to Magneto’s side and that jaw-dropping final moment involving a particularly indignant Wolverine, the thought of the tenth and final episode somehow topping its finale brethren is supremely tantalizing.

The post ‘X-Men ’97’ Just Brought Back One of the Most Exciting Rocks in Marvel History appeared first on The Mary Sue.

There’s a first time for everything and Eric looks to be a particularly singular “first time” for Netflix, even amongst the streamer’s eclectic library of originals.

The post ‘Eric’ Is Almost Here, and Netflix Will Soon Be Home to Bizarro Jim Henson appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Sure, it may not have impressed the shareholders with its box office numbers. But that it wound up being so much more than a two-hour-long commercial for 101 Dalmatians is impressive on its own—and perhaps a testament to the idea that Emma Stone and Tony McNamara are to never be underestimated no matter the context.

The post Here’s the Handful of Things We Know About ‘Cruella 2’ appeared first on The Mary Sue.

With Charles Xavier having crashed back down to Earth, Jubilee and Sunspot becoming the latest prisoners of Bastion’s Prime Sentinel new world order, and Magneto not-so-subtly declaring war on humanity (to say nothing of how unnervingly reasonable the legendary villain continues to look with every passing day), “Tolerance Is Extinction” is shaping up to be one hell of an Operation: Zero Tolerance adaptation.

The post We’re Not Even Halfway Through the ‘X-Men ’97’ Season Finale appeared first on The Mary Sue.