Welcome to the Hype?

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WE GOT A DOCTOR STRANGE!!! YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH BOOOOY!

I don't know what's going on lately, but man... every day seems to be an explosion of hype in popular culture.

Let me see if I can recap what happened just this past Thursday (in no particular order of importance):

• The title of the new James Bond film (the 24th in the series) was revealed to be Spectre and the cast was announced to much fanfare.

• Benedict Cumberbatch was confirmed to play Doctor Strange in the next Marvel film of same title.

• Ryan Reynolds was confirmed to play Deadpool in the next Marvel film of same title (but for the Fox branch of the universe).

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• Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter are (unconfirmed) to be playing Jessica Jones and Luke Cage for the Marvel Netflix series of same names.

• The writer of the upcoming Pan was announced as the writer of the new Wonder Woman film.

• A new trailer for Terminator: Genisys (I think I spelled it right without looking for the first time just then) came out, and it's not entirely terrible.

• The Magnificent Seven is apparently being remade, and it's apparently starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.

Whew... I think that's it? Maybe? But it's a little nuts that all of this happened in one day. And all of that was hot on the heels of the day previous seeing casting announcements for Suicide Squad (Jared Leto playing The Joker in the new DC Cinematic Universe among others), and of course the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer having blown up the internet this past weekend. And before that, a Jurassic World trailer. And before that...

How is anyone supposed to keep up with it all? And if it's Christmas every single day, are we going to get sensitized against all the gifts and the massive bombshell announcements? Don't get me wrong, I'm eating most of this up like an eight year old kid sitting at the foot of the Christmas tree every time that it's revealed, but I'm starting to worry that it's getting to be overwhelming for people. Go take a spin through any movie blog website like /film or Collider and every day has been major casting announcements, huge trailers, poster reveals, all sorts of things vying for your attention.

It used to be religion in Hollywood, and one of the first things you learn as an intern after how to page-check scripts, that you need to read the trades every day and scan them for each and every detail. But now all of the above information was widespread on blogs and social media instantly accessible. In fact, you'll notice that none of the links in the above are to the traditional Variety or Hollywood Reporter publications. These casting announcements used to be on the front page of trades traditionally and now they're all over your news feeds on a daily basis.

The big wave-making announcements are great, but when they increase in frequency it ends up being a lot like walking outside the San Diego Comic-Con in its present state. Crowds and crowds of people yelling loudly for your attention and your senses are so inundated that you can't process one of them let alone all of them. And I'm worried that the end result will be people tuning out. 

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The curious part of this embarrassment of riches is that it seems like a good deal of it is being met with negativity, nitpicking, and in some cases: some baffling backwards thinking. Chris Pratt rides a motorcycle among velociraptors? Nerd rage! A lightsaber that looks like a broadsword? Nerd rage! The more that's being presented, the more opportunities for such fussy complaining seem to arise. And that's not even bringing up the absurd "controversy" around John Boyega appearing in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser as a Stormtrooper. If there aren't nits to pick, let's turn the clock back to the 1960s for some ridiculous comments apparently. LSU professor Isaiah Lavender told The Huffington Post, "Evidently, there are still pockets of people out there in America and across the world that don't believe black people have a future."

Maybe this is all just a primer for the outrageously jam-packed 2015 that's on the horizon. Every studio is now trying to launch brands and franchises. And it's a whole lot of fun to try and keep up with anything and everything, even if it's all a bit intimidating. But you can't help but have that nagging feeling in the back of your mind that the bubble might be about to burst. Is all of the hype taking the fun out of the spontaneity of everything?

Are we losing the surprise and awe that used to be evoked when things were fresh and new because we've been so bombarded with trailers and photos and posters and featurettes and so many other things that have been so highly scrutinized (and, to be completely honest, I'm guilty of it too having frame-by-frame compared the Jurassic Park teaser trailer to the Jurassic World teaser trailer)?

All of that said, this deluge of nerdery in the form of comic books, movies, TV shows, video games, and all sorts of other media sure is a lot of fun and I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts. But sooner or later the 5 Hour Energy that's powering it all is going to start to fade, right?

Bits & Bobs - 7th Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A MOVIE THEATER FAR, FAR AWAY...

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StarWars.com announced on Monday morning that a new 88-second trailer for the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in 30 select theaters on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The 88-second teaser trailer will be the first (official) look at the production but has a lot of fans in an uproar that it's such a limited and short-timed release. After weeks of hearing rumors that the teaser trailer would be revealed with something "much bigger than being attached to the new Hobbit film," the confusing marketing and messaging has a lot of Star Wars fans scratching their heads wondering if they'll be able to see the trailer online officially and sadly the overwhelming consensus is that many will most likely be viewing the teaser for the first time as some shaky hand-held iPhone video. Not exactly the ideal viewing conditions for the first live-action Star Wars footage in almost ten years. We'll see what happens later in the week and if the marketing message becomes clearer. Always in motion, the future is (apparently).

HOLD ON, LET ME TAKE A SELFIE

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While it wasn't a big surprise, when ABC canceled the much maligned but incredibly misunderstood show Selfie, I'll go ahead and admit it: I was a little bummed. On the surface level, the Karen Gillan and John Cho starring show appeared to be a vapid reflection of Kim Kardashian culture incarnate. I was apprehensive about watching it at first. But sharp writing and a comment on the socially networked culture was to be had and the show actually really grew on me. That and David Harewood's Seinfeldesque boss character really tickled me. The good news is that show runner Emily Kapnek has "unofficially" Tweeted that the remaining episodes of the show will eventually make it to Hulu, where hopefully it will find an audience that will give it a chance.

HE WEARS THE PAN...

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Joe Wright, the man behind Atonement, The Soloist, and Hanna has been hard at work on a retelling of the Peter Pan legend simply titled, Pan. The trailer for the film was released amidst the fully of trailers this Thanksgiving week and it's an interesting take on the story. Shades of Spielberg's Hook in there, a little bit of Guillermo del Toro feeling storytelling, and a whole lot of Hugh Jackman in heavy make-up playing Blackbeard. Check out the trailer through YouTube here and let us know what you think in the comments. Have reboots gone too far? Is this a good approach to retelling a classic story? Let us know how you're feeling (even if the answer is "hungry for massive amounts of turkey tomorrow").

Star Wars Rebels Mid-Season in Review

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Obi-Wan and his on the edge of giving into hatred Padawan Learner Anakin... wait... just kidding, that's Kadan and Ezra from Rebels. JK.

Star Wars Rebels, much like its predecessor Star Wars: The Clone Wars got off to a bit of a rocky start. While the "mini-movie" that kicked off the series had a lot of fun elements to it, there wasn't a whole lot of substance there, following in footsteps reminiscent of the Clone Wars "mini-movie" premiere which showed glimmers of promise but was ultimately forgettable.

The good news for Star Wars fans is that Clone Wars found its footing and became an incredible journey that, I could argue, was more satisfying and impactful than the three prequel movies. 

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"Don't worry Tseebo, you have a long career ahead restoring artwork at the New York Museum of Fine Art and you'll meet a beautiful woman named Dana Barrett. Don't sweat the rest of the details..."

And good news for Star Wars Rebels: it appears to continue to follow in the Clone Wars series' footsteps. Progressively getting better and better with every passing episode. Now seven episodes into the series with "Gathering Forces", and at its mid-season hiatus, the one-off character building exercises seem to be out of the way and the show is spreading its more serialized wings. Seemingly one-dimensional characters are finally getting a little bit of depth and intrigue to them, and the stakes are abundantly higher for all the characters than they were in the first two or three episodes out of the gate. Ezra, the character meant to be the audience's point-of-view in this first handful of episodes has journeyed from street-rat, to vicarious aspiring Jedi, to a conflicted youth who is on the edge of giving into his anger and hate. His master, Kadan (who at first seemed like a Hollywood pitch meeting of, "It's Han Solo MEETS Luke Skywalker!") is now showing his lack of experience and training himself, having been a young member of the Jedi Temple at the time of Revenge of the Sith. 

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Nobody will expect the Sith Inquisition.

Even the bad guys are getting a little more well-rounded as "The Inquisitor" who looks cool and certainly has a super-cool lightsaber as seems to be the pre-requisite for all Sith after Darth Maul, is starting to feel like a bit more than just the heavy who is always running two steps behind our heroes. Though I still question why he's so dedicated to hunting and tracking Kadan and Ezra and not venturing out throughout the rest of the galaxy on the hunt for other Jedi? I know Luke Skywalker was the one and only hope of the Force, so does this mean that Kadan/Ezra are quite literally the last two standing Jedi at this point in time?

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One of these days, there'll be a Sith sporting yellow and blue lightsabers - and we shall call him Darth Ziplock.

But by far, the most intriguing aspect of Star Wars Rebels that's keeping me engaged at this point are the mysteries and larger storylines that it keeps hinting toward that I'm sure will play a bigger part in the remainder of this season and beyond. Hera continues to answer to a larger string-puller in the Rebellion who is known only as Fulcru" in these first seven episodes. There have been some theories as to Fulcrum's true identity, but in "Gathering Forces" the mystery source seems to be flying a vessel incredibly similar to Bail Organa's Tantive IV. This ragtag band of Rebels' destiny in the larger Rebellion is also a big question mark as it seems they're going to prove integral to plot points in the original trilogy (and possibly even the new J.J. Abrams headed sequel trilogy), so you can't help but hang on the introduction and current whereabouts of every character that the show introduces, including a Force-sensitive Imperial cadet who decided to hang back and investigate what happened to his sister at the Academy...

All-in-all, any worries that I had about the series being too squeaky-clean after the mini-movie seem to have been assuaged and the show has become must-watch television for me. You can feel it exuding potential for greatness now, much as Clone Wars did when it truly was firing on all cylinders. I have a feeling that the rest of the first season, and those to follow, are going to be a whole lot of fun. 

The New Star Wars Sequel: Adventure Has a New Name...

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StarWars.com slipped a huge nugget of cold hard fact through the interweb pipeline this morning when it announced via its Twitter, Instagram and the official site that the name of J.J. Abrams' forthcoming Episode VII will be Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Interestingly all of the graphics and announcements have dropped the cumbersome "Star Wars - Episode VII" nonsense that started back with The Phantom Menace in '99, which I find as a welcome nomenclature change. Nobody called Empire or Jedi "Episode V" or "Episode VI" and it's nice to have a title that rolls off the tongue like Awakens. (Though some have already snarked that they can see themselves slipping and calling it Awakenings, which yes - is a completely different film.

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The Force also tells me that this will be a lot of peoples' computer wallpaper in 3... 2... 

While fanboys are currently in the process of doing what they do best on the internet lately, complaining like there is no tomorrow, I'm pretty pleased with the title. It instantly tells you what the themes of the film will explore. It instantly gets the imagination going. And, as some have already pointed out, it's a little bit meta because it could also refer to the magic of Star Wars having been dormant for so long finally coming back into the spotlight.

I'm a little surprised with what little fanfare the title was released with however. Having been there at Comic-Con when Revenge of the Sith was announced and the huge hub-bub that surrounded that title reveal (even so much as creating a video that heralded it in the context of the other five films). So I'm wondering if something more is on the near-horizon, like an official photo, or a featurette, or something else to feed the marketing frenzy. There have also been rumors that a teaser trailer is in the near-distant future, though I would expect something like that closer to the end of the year at the soonest. 

One thing is for sure, this certainly is a whole lot of fun. The conversations that I've been having with my friend Jason are excited moments of pure joy that I haven't had since around 1998. Before the dark times... Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in theaters December 18, 2015.