Disney Plans Maleficent Sequel

Maleficent screenwriter Linda Woolverton has been hired by Disney to write a follow up to the Angelina Jolie fantasy adventure that managed to magic up $760 million at the box office.

The big screen re-imagining of  Disney’s classic Sleeping Beauty animation wouldn’t have seemed a likely candidate for a sequel, but giving Jolie the biggest box office success of her career has give the studio hopes of potentially luring her back . It’s unclear yet whether or not Jolie would be willing to sign up for another star turn, but it’s hard to imagine a sequel actually making its way into production without  her on board.

Jolie has previously been involved ind developing sequels to both Salt and Wanted without either of those films ultimately becoming a reality to date.

Jurassic World Breaks Global Box Office Records

Universal has  confirmed that Jurassic World officially surpassed The Avengers opening weekend haul of $207.4 million, with a new record high of $208.8 million just from American cinemas. The film has already pulled in over $511 million worldwide thanks to impressive hauls in China and across 66 countries. The film has now even eclipsed the final film in the Harry Potter series to become the biggest worldwide opening weekend in history.

Marvel president Kevin Feige  showed his appreciation for the achievement in the most fun way imaginable, by having Chris Pratt pictured riding atop a T.Rex wielding Thor’s hammer. Full Picture below in all its triumphant glory.

X-Men Gambit Movie Lands Director

Channing Tatum’s X-Men spin off Gambit has officially found a director, with Twentieth Century Fox confirming the Rupert Wyatt will direct, aiming to meet a release date of October 2016.

Wyatt was most recently responsible for delivering Rise of Planet of The Apes and seems to have the confidence of Fox to now try and expand their lucrative X-Men cinema universe. With X-Men Apocalypse already on the way,  Fox is keen to take full advantage of Gambit’s popularity. The character was a big part of the successful X-Men 90s cartoon series and has quickly become established as  fan favorite in the more recent comic book runs.

Jurassic World Review

The Plot

22 years after our first glimpse of man and dinosaurs reunited, the park is finally open. With a new name to distance itself from it’s past horrors, the island of Isla Nublar is now home to Jurassic World. But when a newly created dinosaur starts to outsmart its captors and roam free, no one is safe.

The Good

It’s been over two decades since audiences were first introduced to the idea of a dinosaur theme park and quickly terrified by the events that occurred in the original trilogy. But Jurassic World turns the terror up to 11 with four simple words: The Park Is Open.

With attractions galore, including a water show with a shark eating dinosaur, the park has definitely had a dramatic technological upgrade. Holograms have replaced the iconic T-Rex skeleton and human sized hamster balls have replaced jeeps. Jurassic World is everything a Jurassic Park fan needs in their life. Even the raptors are our friends now! Or more specifically Chris Pratt’s, playing a trainer/alpha raptor. Of course it’s not long until things go wrong. And if you thought there was no way to top the previous films, let me remind you: The. Park. Is. Open!

Director Colin Trevorrow mixes spectacle with sheer terror beautifully. Also providing warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia through that familiar swooping soundtrack and plenty of nods to the original trilogy. It will have fans squealing with delight, before their squeals turn to screams as each dino attack brings even more adrenaline than the last.

Pratt is ultimately the star of the show for most of the 2 hours and it’s clear to see why. This is one actor who shows no signs of stopping any time soon. As proved by Guardians of The Galaxy, Pratt is a rare commodity, an irrepressibly charming and genuinely amusing action star. His beautiful co-star Bryce Dallas Howard also delivers some great action moments of her own.

Among all the mayhem and prehistoric carnage  Jake Johnson (New Girl) with the help of Lauren Lapkus (Orange Is The New Black) gives audiences some much needed comic relief to slow our frantically beating hearts.

The Bad

The park itself looks fantastic but it feels as though we barely scratch the surface before the main action begins. Seeing as it’s our first proper look at the park in spectacular working order it does feel like a slight disappointment. It also seems that we can’t survive an entire movie without at least one slightly cheesy bit of romantic melodrama popping up. Though the tense atmosphere is continuous, it is occasionally broken up with an ever so slightly bonkers script that at one point ends up feeling like a Godzilla movie.

The Ugly Truth

Jurassic World is an almost perfect summer blockbuster, bringing constant nostalgia for fans of the original trilogy. Unfortunately it does fall short in completely wowing when it inevitably shifts its focus from the wonders of an actual working theme park to the predictable and at times ridiculous finale. One things for sure though, you won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen for a second!

Orange Is The New Black Season Three Review

The Plot

With Vee gone for good, season three focuses on some of the less known characters back-stories. Meanwhile, Litchfield is threatened with closure before a corporate company steps in to save them. But their new rules and regulations create hostilities between the guards and upper management when new untrained staff are hired. Meanwhile our leading lady Piper begins a new moneymaking scheme involving her fellow inmates used underwear…

The Good

Opening with a Mothers Day themed episode in which Litchfield organises a ‘bring your child to prison’ day for the inmates, the tone for this latest season is set instantly. While the present day goings on are still very much going on, it’s mainly the back stories that are what keeps this latest batch of episodes interesting.

With most of the bigger characters pasts explored widely enough, Orange Is The New Black season three instead turns to the last few dregs, with episodes focusing on Chang, Big Boo, Norma and even Litchfield’s new boss Caputo. Caputo’s episode is one of the standouts this series as not only do we get to see a great piece of character development for him, which sees him sacrificing a potential future in a rock band to become a devoted father, we also get a brief glimpse of Rosa, our first since her escape from the prison at the end of season two – more on that later…

On the subject of character development, season three also shows just how much Pennsatucky has grown. From being the bible bashing villain of season one to Big Boo’s new bestie and even accepting her as the brilliantly sassy lesbian she is, Pennsatucky has slowly grown from a hated character to a fan favourite over the past three seasons.

Though much of the present day happenings of season three aren’t particularly interesting, one exception is Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren’s storyline. After becoming a new critically acclaimed writer (if you can call her fellow inmates critics) when she pens a time travelling sex story that EL James would no doubt be jealous of, Crazy Eyes experiences the effects that no doubt every fan fiction writer can relate to as her fan base grows larger and larger and demands for new chapters come flooding in. It’s a fun storyline which also shows her insecurities in love and sex which come to a satisfying cliffhanger in the shows finale.

We can’t finish this section without mentioning the chicken though. Last seen in season one, the chicken’s triumphant return is a brilliant way to answer the question that has been hanging on fans’ minds since it’s first appearance. Sure, Doctor Who may have cracks in the wall and lost planets, but neither are as satisfying as finally finding out once and for all whether the chicken is a myth or not!

The Bad

Though there are a whole host of highlights to be found in the latest season, it’s undoubtedly the weakest of the three. Jumping back to Rosa for starters, even though we get a glimpse of her in Caputo’s flashback episode, her story isn’t really finished satisfyingly enough. Last seen driving off for freedom and killing Vee in the process, season three starts off with a small throwaway scene to signify that the cancer did indeed kill her. But the question of whether she managed to stay free or had to spend her last weeks stuck in prison isn’t truly answered.

Then there is the overlaying theme and story in season three. Or rather lack thereof. While the past two seasons had a clear endpoint to where the final episode would undoubtedly take us thanks to the villainous roles of Pennsatucky and Vee, season threes lack of a clear antagonist makes it somewhat unorganised. Instead we get Piper starting up a Breaking Bad style empire in which she hires her fellow inmates to surrender their dirty underwear for her to sell to perverts on the outside. It could have been an interesting story for the entire season but starts a little late and doesn’t have an ending yet nor does it have an enticing cliffhanger to whet our appetites for season four.

There are of course some additions to the cast, but the one highlight has got to be the incredible Ruby Rose, who comes in as Piper’s new assistant/possible love interest. Unfortunately it only takes three episodes before she is unceremoniously thrown aside seemingly never to return.

Piper and Alex seem to have switched roles this season, with the newly returned Alex being paranoid and needy for much of the show while Piper becomes more and more manipulative. It’s odd to think that she was once the driving force of the entire show and admittedly it’s somewhat refreshing to see that she has been turned into a mere supporting character giving the less known characters a chance to thrive. But with her gone as a main lead, there doesn’t seem to be a replacement. And though it’s certainly nice to see the show try to pack more into each character, some have completely uninteresting story lines. The main example being Norma. For season three she has left Red’s side for good and has now somehow become a new messiah for many of the inmates in a story that seems incredibly dragged out and never-ending.

The Ugly Truth

Orange Is The New Black’s return has some interesting additions to it’s already strong host of characters. But ultimately it becomes unhinged with the lack of a decent running storyline, antagonist of even protagonist. Perhaps it was time for a breather after the intensity of the first two seasons, allowing us to see more back stories for other characters. However season four really needs to have a change in order to stay interesting…