Entertainment
X-Men ‘97 Is Going To Kill The MCU
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Right now, X-Men ‘97 Season 2 is absolutely killing it, maintaining the almost impossibly high standard created by Season 1. Understandably, fans are wondering exactly how much of this awesome animated revival we are going to get. The exact answer to that question is something of a moving target. Previously, executive producer Larry Houston said that Marvel Animation is currently working on Seasons 3 and 4 and that the goal is to hit at least five seasons, which would match the original X-Men: The Animated Series. While that’s already an ambitious goal, one power player at Marvel is dreaming even bigger.
In a recent interview with POC Culture, Houston confirmed that Brad Winderbaum, the Head of Streaming, Television and Animation at Marvel Studios, would love to do 10 seasons. Unsurprisingly, the writers, producers, and voice actors support this goal, as that means we’d be getting more of this hit series for the better part of a decade. However, there’s one potential downside that none of the movers and shakers at Marvel have considered. If X-Men ‘97 can maintain this same level of quality for 10 seasons, it may effectively kill the MCU by forcing fans to ask the obvious question about live-action Marvel movies: “why can’t they be as good as the cartoon?”
Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy
It’s an open secret that, after Avengers: Endgame, Marvel really fell off, both creatively and commercially. Once, this franchise regularly pumped out billion-dollar movies; however, that became a rarity (last year, neither The Thunderbolts nor The Fantastic Four: First Steps came anywhere close). Major warning bells began to sound when The Marvels, a direct sequel to one of those billion-dollar films, actually lost the studio money. Because of this, MCU guru Kevin Feige created a daring strategy. With Avengers: Doomsday and the return of Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., he hopes to channel Endgame. And with Avengers: Secret Wars, he’d reboot the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
That reboot will allow for recasting popular characters like Captain America and Iron Man while adding some major players (like the X-Men) to the MCU. Because the mutants are headed to the big screen, you might think that X-Men ‘97 lasting for a decade would be a good thing because it creates synergy across multiple platforms and media. However, this cartoon knocking it out of the park year after year could be a problem because it naturally invites fan comparisons to the MCU. No matter how good the X-Men movie is, its two hours will be compared to entire seasons of X-Men ‘97. If the movie is bad, fans may cry for yet another cinematic reboot.
It’s Not Just In Our Heads
The decline of the MCU had already happened long before the premiere of X-Men ‘97 Season 1. Media outlets began tossing around the term “superhero fatigue” to pretend this decline was out of Marvel’s control and that millions of people suddenly lost their appetite for tights-and-flights movies overnight. In reality, these movies stopped making as much money because so many of them weren’t as good as earlier films. All it took was a handful of lukewarm Marvel movies to nearly destroy the franchise because all of us remembered how, not that many years ago (there were only four years between Endgame and The Marvels!), the studio knew how to make good films.
Now, maybe Kevin Feige’s dream comes true and both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars provide Endgame-level quality and revive major public interest in the franchise. But what happens if the subsequent movies suffer a major dip in quality like so many of the post-Endgame movies? We’ll just be in for “superhero fatigue” 2.0, which will be accelerated because X-Men ‘97 will constantly remind us how good these films could be. It was bad enough when we were simply comparing new, mediocre movies to excellent ones from the past. How much worse will future flops be when we know Marvel has killer writers and they are simply working on another project?
When You’re Destined To Die
Obviously, this isn’t to blame X-Men ‘97; the show is perfect, and if we get eight more seasons after this, this ‘80s kid’s heart will fill with joy. But as far back as Season 1, fans were comparing this show to the live-action films and actively questioning why Marvel could create a consistently awesome series but kept dropping the ball with feature films. If the MCU experiences a similar post-Secret Wars decline in film quality while X-Men ‘97 keeps knocking it out of the park, the box office for these movies will shrivel up and die. Why spend a small fortune to see a mediocre movie when better superhero stories are streaming on demand?
In the end, the perfect cartoon might kill the most ambitious cinematic franchise ever created. Should the MCU die, though, they could always take their cue from X-Men ‘97: just wait nearly three decades and pick up right where they left off!
Entertainment
The Very Adult Space Sci-Fi Killed By Hollywood And Buried By Its Own Name
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Modern sci-fi owes a lot to the 1967 one-season wonder, The Prisoner, a surreal masterpiece that left the viewer wondering what the hero did to be trapped in such a bizarre seaside village, why he was trapped, and how he’d get out. Referring to its hero as only Number Six, The Prisoner’s influence can be felt in countless other series, but one of the best to pull from it aired on the SyFy channel for three seasons, from 2015 through 2017: Dark Matter.
Six strangers wake up on a spaceship with no memory of who they are or how they got there. They use the order they woke up in for names and start working together to solve the mystery. Unlike The Prisoner, they eventually figure everything out, but once they have all the answers, the questions are changed.
Dark Matter Opens With A Twist
Dark Matter opens up with a dark, beat-up ship as one by one, the six passengers, four men, one woman (The Rookie’s Melissa O’Neil), and a teenage girl, wake up, each with no memory of who they are. On the ship designated Raza, they find a cache of weapons and an android, and learn that the last destination was a mining colony where the workers need protection from the Ferrous Corporation. On any other sci-fi series, this would be a no-brainer, except the first big twist of the series is revealed at the end of the pilot: the passengers are the bad guys.
Learning from the android that all of them are wanted criminals, except for Number Five, puts the recovered cache in a new light. They stole it from the group contracted to help the miners, and it’s up to them to kill the miners. It’s the first of many, many twists that Dark Matter throws at viewers during its three seasons, and as far as even the Season 1 reveals go, it’s fairly tame.
The question remains: who wiped their memories, and why? For as long as that goes unanswered, the crew is left wondering, who can they trust? Who knows more than they are letting on?
The Prisoner Influence Goes Beyond The Pilot
The universe of Dark Matter is small, as far as sci-fi universes go, with the story placing more emphasis on the characters themselves than any universe-shattering conflict. It has that too, but watching the group of bad guys grapple with their past actions, develop into better people, or fail to become better and embrace being the villain of someone else’s story, drives the story forward more than a hunt for a technological MacGuffin.
The Prisoner was significantly smaller in scale, while Dark Matter lets the passengers out into the world, and yet, they can’t escape their past. From the pilot to the final episode, who they were will always define them.
Had the Patrick McGoohan classic series been allowed to continue, that was what was going to come next. Number Six would journey across the world but always remain under close watch, control, and unable to escape his fate as a prisoner.
Dark Matter And Stargate Share The Same Creative DNA
Dark Matter is heavily influenced by another sci-fi series: Stargate. The series was created by Joseph Mallozzi, one of the most prolific writers for the other Star franchise, contributing to SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and the upcoming Amazon series. If you’ve seen the back half of SG-1, you’ll feel right at home in the world of Dark Matter.
Like Stargate, Dark Matter was also treated unfairly by SyFy, which picked up the series but didn’t develop it, relegating it to the network’s lower-priority original programming in terms of budgets and marketing.
There’s a good chance you haven’t ever watched the series, or even heard about it. Those who have given it a chance, though, have fallen in love with the ragtag crew.
A Sleeper Hit Streaming For Free
Finding Dark Matter is both easy and surprisingly difficult. It’s streaming for free on the CW website, but try to find anything about it, and you’ll wander into the 2024 Apple TV series, Dark Matter.
It’s such a common problem that even the Reddit for the SyFy series has been overtaken by fans of the new series. Like “Redemption” or “Rise of,” it’s time for the words “Dark Matter” to be retired from Hollywood for a few decades.
Once you find it, you’ll enjoy Dark Matter. Yes, there are a lot of plot holes explained away by the memory wipe, but there are also a lot of expertly crafted character development and further twists to the story. For better or for worse, this is the type of sci-fi we always need more of: a crew, a spaceship, and morally dubious missions that may or may not save the day.
Entertainment
Get a free month of streaming on Fox One with this BOGO deal
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$19.99 for 2 months (save $19.99)
Watching live sports is one of the most frustrating things about the streaming era. Well, that and how often we see price increases. But Fox One, the direct to consumer streaming service Fox launched last year, has made things a bit easier for sports fans.
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Through July 19, when you sign up for a month of Fox One for its usual $19.99 per month, you’ll get a second month for free. That’s two months of streaming for the price of one, saving you $19.99.
If you want to tune into the final matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026, this is the best way to do so in the U.S.
Mashable Deals
Fox is America’s home for the World Cup, so if you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time. Previously, the only way to watch live Fox channels without cable was through a pay TV provider like YouTube TV or Fubo, which cost upwards of $90 per month. Now, Fox One is the one-stop shop for the entire Fox TV portfolio, allowing you to tune into live local Fox stations, Fox Sports, FS1, and FS2. And $19.99 certainly beats paying $90.
Once the World Cup has wrapped up, you’ll have access to select NFL games (including preseason), live Fox TV shows, Big Ten college football games, local news and weather, and so much more. If you don’t want to stick around after the two-month promo period, be sure to cancel before your subscription auto-renews for the following month.
Entertainment
Horror Mystery Thriller With An All-Star Cast Will Disturb Everyone
By Robert Scucci
| Published
I’ve never been a fan of the whole Airbnb thing. If I’m throwing down my hard-earned cash to go on vacation, I don’t want to be up-charged by some overbearing property owner because they didn’t like how I touched the thermostat. I’ve also heard a bunch of horror stories from my friends about how they thought they were being recorded with a hidden camera while trying to have an unforgettable weekend. The Rental takes the idea of an overbearing property owner and makes it so believable that you’ll probably start booking hotel rooms again instead of looking for a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Next Time, Just Book A Hotel
The Rental starts out like your typical “cabin in the woods” kind of horror flick but attempts to offer so much more because its tension doesn’t just come from some unknown outside source of terror but also the pair of couples (and their dog) who party just a little too hard during their stay.
When husband and wife, Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Michelle (Alison Brie), decide to bring Charlie’s brother, Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and his girlfriend, Mina (Sheila Vand), along for a weekend getaway, they’re immediately rubbed the wrong way by Taylor (Toby Huss), the property owner.
Taylor is one of those suspicious property owners who show up at inopportune moments, suggesting he’s keeping a close eye on his tenants during their weekend stay. Mina has reason to believe that Taylor will be an unwelcome presence because he enters the rental property to deliver a telescope so they can look at the stars while the group isn’t present.
Getaway Turned Nightmare
After partying while indulging in a healthy amount of recreational drugs, Charlie and Mina have a romantic rendezvous in the shower, which they immediately regret. The next morning, after swearing they’ll never engage in such an unfaithful activity again, we learn what’s truly at stake in The Rental. Mina discovers that there are cameras hidden in the shower heads, and Charlie decides that it’s best if they find and destroy the footage before Michelle and Josh find out.
Josh, on the other hand, is distracted because his dog, Reggie, goes missing on the second day. Josh, who is so hotheaded that he was once in prison for his violent tendencies, plans to confront Taylor because the rental property has a strict no pet policy, and he suspects foul play. Mina also has her own plans to confront Taylor about the cameras, which results in a violent altercation between Taylor and Josh, who is unaware of Mina’s one-night stand with Charlie.
A Must-Watch For Fans Of The Bear
The Rental is an effective horror thriller that will make you think twice about whether booking a place with a hot tub for a weekend getaway is a good idea. If you’re a fan of The Bear, you’ll appreciate Jeremy Allen White’s ability to convincingly portray a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown when tensions run high. Though he later masters the craft of epically melting down in the award-winning FX on Hulu series, his innate ability to convey such raw emotions at the drop of a hat is evident in this film.
But still, The Rental is a film that somehow doesn’t feel whole when you sum up all of the parts that should, in theory, make this an excellent film. While there is a considerable amount of tension throughout its tight 88-minute runtime, I felt like writer and director Dave Franco had the intention of starting a new franchise without first seeing if his directorial debut was a suitable proof of concept in the first place. Given how open-ended the film’s conclusion is, I smell a sequel in the works, but nothing has been officially announced as of yet.
That is to say, if The Rental turns out to be a stand-alone film, you may find yourself wishing there was a little more to it than what it ultimately offers.
Despite its shortcomings, The Rental is well-acted and has great production values. It’s just not enough to make it the memorable film that I wanted it to be. If a potential sequel picks up where it left off, I may have to reassess my feelings, but for now, I’m left wondering how much better this movie could have been if it fully explored its setting and characters.
As of this writing, The Rental is streaming on Hulu.
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