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Weekend Blast - November 18, 2016

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Fri, 11/18/2016 - 14:56

Welcome to the preview of my new weekly entertainment column.  Weekend Blast will be your one-stop for all Critical Blast and entertainment news each Friday.  With the holiday next Friday, we aren't really debuting until December, but I put together this preview to get all the bugs out.  Enjoy!

First look at Arrowverse Crossover!

Monday, November 28, CW is launching their “Heroes Vs Aliens” crossover featuring all four of their “Arrowverse” shows - Supergirl, Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow.  The Dominators are looking to take over the world...like evil aliens are inclined to do, and it falls on our heroes to band together to stop them.   Here’s the teaser:  

We don’t get to see much in this teaser, though the Dominators look pretty cool.  They were sort of lame villains way back in the Invasion! crossover back in the day, but they should work fine here.  This is the first time all four shows will be crossing over, and it should be a lot of fun. Especially since all four shows have been having really good seasons so far.  My one big wish for this crossover is that we get to see Winn, Cisco, and Felicity team up.  
 

Inhumans series coming to ABC and IMAX Theaters

Marvel announced that The Inhumans will be getting their own TV series on ABC in 2017, with the premiere episodes being show in IMAX Theaters.  The original plan was for Inhumans to get its own movie, but it seems like even the mighty Marvel Cinematic machine wasn’t sure they could find something movie worthy for the Inhumans to do.  We have had a lot of Inhuman activity on Agents of SHIELD, but they have been shying away from using characters like Black Bolt, Medusa, etc.  
 
Personally, I don’t care at all about The Inhumans.  And I ended up dropping Agents of SHIELD this season.  I am all for expanding the cinematic universe, but it has to be high quality like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage.  Agents of SHIELD has been rowing in circles for the last season or so, and Inhumans is pretty much a no-go for me.  Even putting one of my favorite writers (Charles Soule) on the comics couldn’t get me to stick with the comics more than an issue or two.   

Instead of Inhumans, I would personally rather have seen them bring back Agent Carter.  At least that was something very different, and didn’t require a huge effects budget.  And Hayley Atwell was absolutely brilliant in the role.  I would much rather see Marvel try something like that, then continuously reminding us, “We don’t have the rights to use X-Men...but the Inhumans are a close substitute!”  Uhm.  No.  They really are not.

 

RUMOR: Doctor Who to have clean slate for Series 11?

I typically don’t give a lot of credibility to rumors, but last week, Doctor Who TV reported the rumor that in order to give Chris Chibnall a fresh start when he takes over Doctor Who in 2018, Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie (who hasn’t even appeared as the new companion yet) would both depart after the 2017 Christmas Special.   
 
The whole reason I am even mentioning this is because it makes a lot of sense.  When Russell T Davies left the show, Steven Moffat started with a new Doctor and a new set of companions too.  It allows the new showrunner the opportunity to create their own version of The Doctor, and in theory, reduces the comparison to past seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I love Peter Capaldi, and I would love for him to stay in the role for a long time, but I could definitely see the BBC heading in this direction.
 
Another rumor swirling about is that they would be looking to cast The Doctor as someone younger, in the David Tennant or Matt Smith mold.  Eddie Redmayne (from Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them) has been rumored, though I imagine he would be rather busy in that series over the next several years.  And when I see Redmayne, he reminds me a lot of Matt Smith in terms of looks and personality.   I would rather them go someplace different with a new version of The Doctor, like they did with Capaldi.
 

Put Vader in the WWE Hall of Fame

I saw this depressing post on Mick Foley’s Facebook feed:
 

IT'S TIME...TO PUT VADER IN THE HALL OF FAME

I have been talking with Leon White the past few weeks, so I knew the news might be coming. But seeing it in print this morning was a shock nonetheless. Leon is dying. He has been told by doctors that he may have less than two years left to live. His legacy is so important to him, and he has told me that being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame would mean so much on both a personal and professional level. Many fans don't realize this, but on a global level, Vader was one of the greatest attraction to pro wrestling business has ever seen. I have talked with people at the highest levels at WWE, and hope and pray that Leon's name will be included in the class of 2017 Hall of Fame inductees

This news hit hard for me. I’ve always been a fan of Vader’s.  And in recent weeks, my youngest daughter has also become a fan.  She has a habit of picking random wrestlers in video games.  And when she played as Vader, she wanted to know more about him.  So I showed her matches and told her stories about him.  She will even start going “It’s time, it’s time, it’s Vader time!”  Which is kind of hilarious since my daughter is about the least intimidating six year old you will ever encounter.

Hopefully the doctors are wrong about the timeline here.  But whether or not that is the case, I agree with Mick.  Put Vader in the Hall of Fame!  Personally, I think it’s a crime that Vader is not in the Hall of Fame already.  There are people far less deserving than him (looking at you Koko B Ware, Rikishi, and Godfather).  So I hope that WWE rectifies this mistake as soon as possible!  

 

My Two Bits:  Movie Scores

I talk about movies with my friends pretty often.  One reoccurring conversation that keeps coming up is how forgettable movie scores have gotten in recent years.  When I was growing up, there were a lot of movies which had real strong theme songs or instrumental scores.  Music you immediately connected to the film, even years later.  
 
Just off the top of my head...
 

Even the Star Wars Prequels has some terrific memorable music like Duel of the Fates and Augie’s Great Muncipal Band.   

But this was quite a while ago.  Over the last few years, there just hasn’t been many (if any) instrumental scores or themes that really stuck with me after seeing the movie.
 
As much as I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I can’t think of any music that really sticks out.  My sister tried playing some music from Doctor Strange for me...this was literally two days after I saw the movie….and I didn’t recognize any of it beyond “Hey, that’s vaguely familiar.”
 
This was even a problem with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Up front, I want to say I absolutely loved The Force Awakens.  I acknowledge people saying it borrowed heavily from the original movies, but I thought that was a perfect way to bring Star Wars back to life.  BUT, the one thing I didn’t love about The Force Awakens was the score.  Even though it was John Williams, there was very little memorable about the music to me.
 
I honestly don’t know what it is. There are still plenty of good songs on movie soundtracks, but that memorable instrumental is quickly becoming a lost art as far as I am concerned.  I am curious what other people think about this.  Are there any scores in the last few years I am missing out on?