Entertainment
Explosive Action Rollercoaster On Netflix Is Here To Save Sci-Fi
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Original sci-fi is nearly extinct in movie theaters. Dune and Project Hail Mary are adapting best-selling novels, Avatar: Fire and Ash and Predator: Badlands are franchise films, which is why back in 2023, sci-fi fans were excited over visionary director Gareth Edwards bringing The Creator to the big screen. From the moment it was announced, the film was heralded as the savior of cinematic sci-fi. Weeks after release, it was largely forgotten, but now it’s available on Netflix waiting to be discovered by sci-fi fans craving another tale about sympathetic artificial intelligence and evil humans. Wait, what?
Don’t Watch The Creator For The Plot
In the near-future of The Creator, the world is divided between those who want to exterminate A.I. following the nuclear devastation of Los Angeles (the majority of the planet), and those who choose to embrace it (a unified New Asia). Sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) is sent into New Asia to steal the latest superweapon, Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles, in her first movie role), a supercomputer simulant in the form of a young girl. With a hole in the side of her head that marks her immediately as an A.I., one of many examples of how the film looks amazing, but the plot falls apart with the slightest bit of critical thinking.
Sergeant Taylot finds himself at the center of a new battleground between New Asia and the United States that goes from a coastal village to space, and his dead wife, Maya (Gemma Chan, star of the British A.I.-centric series Humans), was entangled in the origins of the latest conflict. It’s best if you don’t think too hard about who’s fighting and why when watching The Creator. Instead, let the amazing visuals and unique robotic designs wash over you.
The Creator Is Visually Stunning But Hollow
Shot for a reported $80 million, The Creator is the rare film where it doesn’t look like every cent can be seen on the screen; it looks better than the budget would make you think. Edwards unique style is a perfect fit for science fiction. There are simulants that have amazing moving parts to them, and then there are the American bomb robots, which look like running trash cans. The careful thought and design that went into the aesthetics of the world, combined with the excellent acting from both Washington and Voyles, is let down by the flimsy plot.
It’s a running joke at this point that the majority of the plot holes complained about online are from viewers playing on their phones while watching a movie, but if you watch The Creator, you can’t help but notice the logical fallacies. Soldiers using huge suit-mounted lights for a nighttime operation, a weapon system that scans the entire target area so far in advance it might as well send a warning via snail mail, advanced hover boats that only move at boat speeds even though they are, again, hovering over the water, and somehow, advanced A.I. robots have an airplane mode.
The Creator may not be the savior of original sci-fi that it was marketed as, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. It’s a throwback sci-fi of the early 2000’s. Gorgeous visuals, beautifully shot, but hollow. It’s sci-fi junk food in the best way possible. If you missed it in theaters, you can do worse than immersing yourself in the near-future A.I. apocalypse.
The Creator is currently streaming on Netflix.
Entertainment
Shark devices on sale ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale: Stick vacuums, stain removers, hair tools
A quick look at the best Amazon Shark deals ahead of the Big Spring Sale
There are few home categories that Shark doesn’t have a stake in. Floor care has been its bread and butter for a while, of course. But skincare, hair care, and and air care, too? It’s Dyson-level variety at this point. But when it comes to deals during major Amazon sale events, there are typically more good Shark deals than good Dyson deals. The early deals of Amazon’s 2026 Big Spring Sale tell the same story.
We’re tracking all of the best early deals on Shark vacuums, Shark beauty tools, Shark air purifiers, and more, live ahead of the sale’s March 25 kickoff. A handful of our absolute favorite Shark products are already on sale, but we’ll be updating this story as more deals on Shark devices trickle in throughout the week. (Fingers crossed for a legit CryoGlow red light mask deal.)
Best Shark vacuum deal
$249
at Amazon
$399.99
Save $150.99
Why we like it
It’ll be hard for any spring vacuum deal to beat this Shark Clean & Empty model as the best affordable stick vacuum setup. It automatically empties itself and charges every time you hang it back up on the dock (which also acts as built-in storage). That means you’re starting every cleaning session with an empty dustbin, and that means you’ll have unmistakeable visible proof of the gunk that’s been sucked up in the room at hand.
It’s not Shark’s most powerful self-emptying stick vacuum, but it is almost 40 percent cheaper than Shark’s most powerful self-emptying stick vacuum when it’s on sale. Weighing in at just under six pounds, this Clean & Empty model is lighter than most cordless vacuums out there — including 30 percent lighter than the popular Shark Vertex Pro, which doesn’t come with an auto-empty dock.
What about Shark robot vacuum deals?
The Shark robot vacuums on sale so far are decent if you really want a Shark, but I hesitate to hit full send on recommending one unless it’s the PowerDetect UV Reveal 2-in-1: The best Shark robot vacuum right now. The $1,299.99 robot vacuum and mop combo with blacklight stain detect hasn’t even been out for a month, and the chances of it seeing a discount this soon are iffy. If you have $300 or $600 to spend on a robot vacuum this spring, there are more value-packed robot vacuum deals from other brands live at Amazon.
Mashable Trend Report
More early Shark Big Spring Sale deals
Robot vacuums
Cordless vacuums
Corded vacuums
Hair tools
Skincare devices
Upright and portable carpet and upholstery cleaners
Air purifiers
Entertainment
The best early Big Spring Sale deals at Amazon include record-low prices on portable power stations
Table of Contents
Best early Amazon Big Spring Sale portable power stations deals at a glance
Amazon saw the sun setting later, smelled flowers blooming, and felt warmer temps and decided to celebrate. The Amazon Big Spring Sale is slated to kick off tomorrow, March 25, with big discounts. That’s proving to be great news if you’re in the market for a portable power station.
A portable power station has become a must-have tech item. It’s like your favorite noise-cancelling earbuds — no idea how we survived without them. A portable power station will be a savior during power outages, keeping the refrigerator running, phones charged up, and the WiFi router giving off a connection. A portable power station is also well worth packing along on upcoming camping trips. Think of movie nights under the stars thanks to a powered-up portable projector and with fresh popcorn.
The one snag here is that batteries aren’t cheap, and that’s especially true of high-tech and long-lasting batteries found in portable power stations. Because of this, shopping for a power station during major sales like the Amazon Big Spring Sale is a wise move. Here are some of our favorite models that are already seeing steep discounts before the sale officially begins.
Best Bluetti deal
$394.98
at Amazon
$799
Save $404.02
Why we like it
If you’re hoping to keep phones and small devices charged up during a power outage or while camping, the Bluetti Elite 100 V2 comes with 1,024Wh of battery power. Bluetti mentions this battery power will recharge a phone about 52 times or keep the WiFi router on for nearly 50 hours. Its compact size and weight of about 25 pounds makes it especially easy to pack along on the camping trip or carry around the house during a power outage.
The early Amazon Big Spring Sale price brings the Bluetti Elite 100 V2 down to $399, which is a 50% discount compared to its list price of $799.
Mashable Deals
More Bluetti deals
Best Anker Solix deal
$4,399
at Amazon
$7,397
Save $2,998
The massive Anker Solix F3800 is ideal for home backup should the power cut out. On its own, the Solix F3800 comes with 3,8400 Wh of battery capacity to keep your tech running without grid power, but Anker made this deal even better ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. The Solix F3800 comes bundled with BP3800 Expansion Battery and a 400W solar panel. The extra battery brings the total capacity up to 7,680Wh while the addition of a solar panels puts you in line for recharging off-grid.
More Anker Solix deals
Best Jackery deal
$429
at Amazon
$799
Save $370
Why we like it
If you’re looking for a portable power station to take along to the campground this summer, the Jackery Explorer 100 V2 is an ideal model. It’s a mix of portability, durability, solid port options, and it’s on sale for under $430. This Jackery model comes with 1,070Wh for recharging your phones while camping, keeping the speaker ready to go, and powering up the projector for movie nights. Plus, it weighs under 24 pounds, so you won’t have to struggle lugging it around camp.
More Jackery deals
More portable power stations on sale at Amazon
Topics
Outdoors
Amazon Big Spring Sale
Entertainment
Ads may be coming to Apple Maps as soon as this summer, report says
Apple Maps might get a fairly big change soon, and it’s one that few people will be excited about.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported this week that Apple will put advertisements in the Maps app on iPhone this summer, with an initial announcement as early as this month. Rather than bombarding users with annoying pop-up ads, it sounds like it’ll be more of a “sponsored search results” sort of thing, so you might see an ad for a specific restaurant or Uber Eats as part of a search query, even when that’s not exactly what you were looking for.
This idea also came up in a report last year, but it sounds like it’s actually happening soon. According to Gurman, the Apple Maps ads would operate similar to ads on Google Maps, with advertisers bidding on search terms like “coffee” or “thai food.”
Mashable Light Speed
Nobody likes it when a previously ad-free app gets ads, but in complete fairness to all involved, Google Maps has had sponsored search results for years, and that hasn’t stopped it from becoming the go-to navigation app. Users will put up with fairly non-intrusive ads as long as the app does its job, which has sometimes been a problem for Apple Maps over the years.
Despite all of that, though, the reception to the idea on social media has been pretty cold. Frosty, in fact.
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Perhaps people are just tired of constantly being advertised to in every part of their lives.
One reason iOS users might be angry? Apple is already reporting record sales in 2026, with Tim Cook calling the demand for iPhones “simply staggering.”
Topics
Apple
Apps & Software
Shark devices on sale ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale: Stick vacuums, stain removers, hair tools
The best early Big Spring Sale deals at Amazon include record-low prices on portable power stations
