Jordan Peele's Us Has Screened, Here Are The Early Reactions

Jordan Peele's Us Has Screened, Here Are The Early Reactions

Moviegoers have been greatly anticipating the release of Us, the next horror film from the Oscar-winning Jordan Peele. Peele knocked it out of the park with his first film, Get Out, and people are eager to see what else the writer-director has in store. Us has looked great and super creepy in trailers, but the film finally got in front of an audience during the SXSW film festival this weekend. Critics were quick to share their thoughts and they had some extremely high praise for the movie.

CinemaBlend's own Sean O'Connell praised the film's storytelling, scares, and "gut punch of a twist." He was one of many critics to single out Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o's performance in particular.

Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us follows a family of four as they are taken hostage in their home by twisted doppelgangers, bringing to life the notion that we are our own worst enemies. Given what a success Get Out was, people have high hopes for Us and it sounds like there will be no sophomore slump for Peele. Critics are teasing that this is a great film worthy of plenty of rewatches and it's especially strong work from Peele.

Wow! Masterpiece is not a word that is thrown around lightly, and critic Clayton Davis was not afraid to put it to use. Davis has loads of praise to give Jordan Peele, writing that we are witnessing the birth of a modern day Alfred Hitchcock. Again, wow! That's seriously high praise and, ordinarily, I would say to temper expectations to avoid being over-hyped, but this isn't the only critic gushing about Us.

Critic Jen Yamato writes the the film is a precise challenge to your nerves and that it will likely traumatize the young people who sneak in to see it in theaters. She also pointed the spotlight on star Lupita Nyong'o, who gives one hell of a performance as the family matriarch and her creepy doppelganger. Plenty of other critics also praised Nyong'o's and co-star Winston Duke's acting.

So, the film is extremely well put together, but this is a horror film. How scary is it? Well, it sounds like it's going to curl your toes.

If I was going to trust any critic about the scariness of a movie, it would be one whose last name is Fear. Critic David Fear simply writes that the movie is "fucking terrifying," so horror fans are in for a real treat.

Other critics have said that the film isn't quite the same as Get Out, and it might push its runtime a bit with ambitious ideas, but it's still thrilling and very well put together. At least a few critics have said that the film resembles an extra long episode of The Twilight Zone, which is especially good news for the upcoming reboot.

We'll all be able to see Us for ourselves when the film arrives on March 22.

Mark Hamill Isn’t Buying That Leaked Episode IX Poster

Mark Hamill Isn’t Buying That Leaked Episode IX Poster

We’re approximately nine months away from the release of Star Wars: Episode IX, and a lot of Star Wars fans are eager for an official first look at the movie. While Disney and Lucasfilm have yet to provide anything on that front, earlier this week an Episode IX poster made the rounds on social media. Some assumed this was a legitimate peek at the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga, but Mark Hamill doesn’t believe it’s the real deal. When a fan inquired if this poster had been leaked and tagged Hamill in the Twitter post, the Luke Skywalker actor responded:

Doubtful. Looks like the work of a #UPF.

UPF apparently means Ultra Passionate Fan, and you could definitely count on someone like that putting in the time and effort on a Star Wars poster. Granted, unless Disney and Lucasfilm outright come out and debunk that this Star Wars: Episode IX poster is legitimate, we don’t know with 100% certainty that’s the case, but Mark Hamill made it clear on Twitter that he’s not buying its authenticity, and he’s sticking to his guns. When another user, Indie Revolver, followed up on Hamill’s original comment and said that the Episode IX poster is indeed legitimate (though not necessarily meant for the public), Hamill posted:

Mark Hamill is referring to how C-3PO is holding a bowcaster, the kind of blaster Chewbacca frequently uses. The prospect of C-3PO firing on First Order stormtroopers is frankly hilarious given that aside from that time his head was attached to a battle droid’s body, the beloved, golden protocol droid has largely been a pacifist in the Star Wars universe. There are other interesting aspects of this Star Wars: Episode IX poster, like what looks to be the other Knights of Ren and red-colored stormtroopers resembling the Revenge of the Sith-era clone troopers, but for now, it’s unclear if it’s a true leak or a fan creation.

The only way we’ll know for sure whether or not this is an official Star Wars: Episode IX poster is when Lucasfilm finally starts marketing the movie, and that’s probably not too far off. Next month, the next Star Wars Celebration will be held in Chicago, and if it’s anything like the one in 2017, this could be when the first poster and trailer for Episode IX finally drop. It’ll be nice to finally have some footage/images to finally associate with Episode IX, although you can bet that keeping in ‘character,’ Lucasfilm will still remain as cagey as possible concerning what we can specifically expect from the plot.

No story details for Star Wars: Episode IX have been disclosed yet other than it will take place one year after the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with the Resistance still putting up a fight against The First Order using guerrilla tactics. Along with returning faces like Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver and, of course, Mark Hamill, the movie will also bring in newcomers like Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Dominic Monaghan and Keri Russell, as well as Billy Dee Williams finally returning to the big screen as Lando Calrissian.

Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. In the meantime, browse through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out later this year.

Captain Marvel Really Thought Out Goose’s Tentacles

Captain Marvel Really Thought Out Goose’s Tentacles

Captain Marvel may have been the title dominating box office numbers the past few months, but Goose the Cat came straight for our hearts with his adorable scene-stealing moments, namely when he goes full-Flerken and unleashes his tentacles during a space battle. Behind the scenes, a lot of work went into bringing the comic book character to life – in fact, according to VFX supervisor Christopher Townsend, the trickiest visuals to pull off amongst Captain Marvel were those concerning Goose.

Even though much of the cast worked with actual cats on set, about 80% of the shots of Goose are CGI, and creating his tentacles that line his mouth full of pocket dimensions took a lot of attention to detail. Just check out what Christopher Townsend recently said:

In this case, we liked the tentacles look and then we tasked (Industrial Light & Magic) with creating multiple pieces of artwork to try and come up with some ideas of, 'What do the tentacles look like? Are they silvery? Are they metallic? Are they totally organic? Do they look like octopus tentacles or squid tentacles? Should they look like larvae or snakes?' and they came up with a whole bunch of different looks and some with more or less tentacles.

Imagine sitting in a meeting like that discussing Flerken tentacles for actual work. That’s bonkers. In his interview with ComicBook.com, Christopher Townsend explained that whenever he works on Marvel projects, him and his team try to pay homage to the source material wherever they can. When it came to this feline Flerken, they ended up going with just about the exact design from the comic books.

While they created a bunch of different designs to consider, the one closest to what’s found between the pages of Captain Marvel worked out perfectly. The main change to the character was the name, since in the comics he is known as Chewie. The filmmakers decided to go with a Top Gun reference when naming the character set in the ‘90s instead of tying him to Star Wars, which isn’t as anchored in the period being depicted since it’s more of a hot topic today.

Apparently the CGI versions of the cat was so realistic that the film’s directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck couldn’t tell the difference. On set Brie Larson struggled with her cat allergy and while Samuel L. Jackson was great with the cats as it looks on screen, he gave us some mixed signals about whether he enjoyed working with his feline co-stars. Ben Mendelsohn, who played Talos the Skrull was apparently very patient with them and helped them get used to working with a green alien.

Since the Flerken was shown to not only be adorable but of a “high threat level” in Captain Marvel, fans are awaiting a return for Goose. While many were rooting for a comeback in Avengers: Endgame the character sadly didn’t get the invite. Maybe next time… given Fury’s forgiven the feline for their last encounter.

How Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Really Makes You Feel Like You Have Left Our Planet And Stepped Into Star Wars

How Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Really Makes You Feel Like You Have Left Our Planet And Stepped Into Star Wars

From the day it was first announced, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge was being promoted as not only the largest, but the most unique and immersive new land that Disney Parks had ever created. I'm here to say...it's true...all of it.

The first official guests are walking into Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge for the first time as i write this. However, I got to experience the new land yesterday and, quite simply, I've never experienced anything like it. For the fan who has always wanted to be part of the Star Wars universe, this is likely as close as we may ever get.

The first thing that you notice are the things you stop noticing. As I approached Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu for the first time, the din of the crowds at Disneyland faded away. Part of this was certainly because the crowd I was with was smaller than that which will normally fill the land, but beyond that, the land itself makes little noise. There's no ambient music playing as you'll hear anyplace else in Disneyland. What you hear is the sound of alien insects chirping all around you. Batuu isn't quite a wilderness but it's not a bustling spaceport either.

Black Spire Outpost itself isn't a collection of buildings so much as it's one massive structure full of passageways that take you from one place to another. I wouldn't say it's quite big enough to get lost, but figuring out your way around takes a minute. Most lands at Disneyland or Walt Disney World only have one path that takes you past everything you need to see. That's not the case here.

In fact, figuring out what you need to see can actually be a challenge. Other than the Millennium Falcon of course. Seeing that is a must, and when you witness it for the first time, it blows you away.

As part of the land's immersive theming, there isn't a great deal of signage. The normal Disneyland signs telling you which way to go to get to whichever land or attraction aren't there. Even when you walk by a shop, the sign above the door is in Aurebesh, the alphabet of Star Wars, and it's worn to show age so it's far from clear where you are. Some places, like Savi's Workshop, where one can build their own lightsaber, are supposed to be hidden (the First Order frowns on what they're doing after all) and I literally walked past the place twice looking for it before I realized where it was.

Disney uses the term cast member to denote all of its employees, based on the idea that everybody helps make the show happen, but on Batuu the word used is inhabitants. The people who work at Black Spire outpost are part of the experience. One inhabitant who was sweeping up got a big smile on his face as I walked by with my new lightsaber (discretely wrapped in a black case and slung on my back). He made it clear he knew I had done something underhanded. Another, who claimed to be a friend of Savi's, complimented me on my fine "walking stick."

Character experiences at Disney Parks are a staple of the trip. You get in line, you wait your turn, you snap a photo. Here you'll still see characters, but the circumstances are entirely different. You might see Chewbacca or Kylo Ren walking around the outpost, but not at the same time and certainly not near each other. Chewie might be willing to stop for a picture, but Kylo Ren is going to tell you to get away from him.

At one point I was simply having a seat when a pair of First Order Stormtroopers walked by. They approached a seemingly random guest and questioned him regarding rumors he was part of the Resistance. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice an inhabitant. She's holding up part of her costume as to shield her face if the troopers look her way. She waits for them to turn so their back is fully toward her, and then she quickly hurries away. She never drew attention to herself. This wasn't part of a show. This was simply how her character was to react if she ever saw Stormtroopers.

Disneyland's attention to detail is without parallel. Everything has been considered so that when you're on any given ride, you feel like it's the only thing that's real. However, in the end, there's never any question that you're inside a theme park.

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is something else. As I made my way out of the area during my all too short time there, I actually found myself prepping my bag for security. I figured it was going to need to get searched as it always is when you enter Disneyland Resort. I must have left Disneyland at some point, right? I had been somewhere else and was only now returning to my own world.

Yes, Zachary Levi Prefers DC To Marvel, Thank You Very Much

Yes, Zachary Levi Prefers DC To Marvel, Thank You Very Much

What started off as the MCU dominating the on-screen superhero sphere and DC playing catch up has switched up n recent years. Warner Bros has made a good case for the potential of its own universe with entries such as Wonder Woman, Aquaman and most recently with the success of Shazam!.

Zachary Levi, who played the titular hero, is one of the few actors who has played comic book characters in both the Marvel and DC film worlds. Naturally, fans are curious how working under the two mantles compare. When Levi took questions at a panel at MegaCon in Orlando, here’s what he said:

I mean I had more fun working for DC. I got to be my own superhero for DC. It was super cool. While I wasn’t able to do the first Thor, I was cast in that by Kenneth Branagh, who I think is an incredible talent… and then getting cast as Fandral the Dashing, this Lothario, swashbuckling, Douglas Fairbanks - I was like ‘this is so dope!’

This isn’t a huge surprise. The actor was given an entire hero to call his own in the DC Extended Universe. For Marvel, he revealed that he was cast to play Fandral in the first Thor movie, but was unavailable. As a result, Josh Dallas took on the role for the 2011 film and Levi took over for Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. Although he seems to have loved his character in the Thor franchise as well, it didn’t live up to its potential. He continued with these words:

We had some fun, but we didn’t really do all that much. I mean anybody who saw the movie, as you know they really didn’t really go that direction with the movie, so I really didn’t have that much to do. So I couldn’t possibly have had as much fun and by going and being my own guy who is a 14-year-old in a superhero adult body. The fun and funny, joy and heart that comes from a premise like that, that’s a fun movie!

Fandral and the Warriors Three may have been a common thread in the Thor trilogy, but they continued to be on the sidelines as the films went on and didn’t get much screen time. Levi previously expressed interest for the Thor sidekicks to get a spinoff of their own, but they were killed off in Ragnarok. After The Dark World struggled to impress Marvel fans, Levi’s Fandral didn’t even get a line in Ragnarok. His last words (or any lines for that matter) were cut from the film.

Zachary Levi even admitted his relief that Fandral didn’t make it out alive for Avengers: Infinity War, because it may not have freed his schedule for Shazam!. He said he likely would have been a sitting duck on set for three months only to be killed off then too.

When you ask Zachary Levi to compare his experiences with the two comic book franchises, his answer isn’t tough to predict or understand. His time with Marvel may have been a bit of a letdown, but it was redeemed in a big way when he took on the role of the adult Billy Batson. His Shazam! role allowed him to really show off his acting chops and play a kid in a superhero’s body. He was far from disappointed by the product since the movie was met with positive responses from critics and fans.

Zachary Levi has also pointed out how proud he is of Shazam’s attention to diversity, as it portrayed a foster home full of different identities, including Billy Batson’s bestie, Freddy, who has a disability. Due to the film’s predominantly young cast, a sequel is already being fast tracked for Shazam! at Warner Bros.

There really is no comparison for the actor given his experiences. That said, he has spoken out to fans in the past to stop pitting the two franchises against one another when Captain Marvel and Shazam! were being placed side by side at the box office and since the two heroes once shared the same title.

Why pick a side anyway? Both the comic book universes are offering something different for fans and can be appreciated in their own lights as they both continue to stack its slates with exciting releases.

Why James Wan Loves The Trench Creatures Of Aquaman

Why James Wan Loves The Trench Creatures Of Aquaman

Aquaman was, for the most part, a pretty lighthearted superhero movie. The character of Arthur Curry is pretty laid back and he never lets much get to him. However, at one point, the movie's tone takes a serious shift when Aquaman and Mera end up going up against the creatures of the Trench.

From this point, for a few minutes, the film becomes something much more like a horror movie. Of course, when your director is James Wan, the brain behind the Conjuring franchise, you're in pretty good shape. Wan says he particularly loved the creatures of the trench because it let him go back to those horror roots. According to Wan...

I definitely love the trench creatures because it does allow me to hunt back to my horror roots and so I went all out and basically made those sequences just monster movies, like just sea creature monster movies.

James Wan maybe wasn't the most out of left field choice to direct Aquaman. He had done the seventh installment of the Fast and Furious franchise, and so doing a fairly traditional action movie wasn't an entirely new idea. However, Wan has always been more closely associated with the horror genre.

Back in 2004 he directed the first installment of the Saw franchise, where he has remained a producer ever since. After that, he developed The Conjuring, a franchise, which has spawned sequels and spin-offs of its own. Clearly, James Wan loves making horror movies, so it makes sense he would love the sequence in Aquaman that feels very much like something out of a horror movie.

The scene follows Arthur Curry and Mera as the take a boat out to open water, to the place where they believe the Trident of Atlan is being kept. However, that particular stretch of ocean belongs to one of the lost Kingdoms of Atlantis, one that has gone feral since the kingdoms fell apart.

The atmosphere is perfect for a horror movie. There's a storm going on. It's nearly pitch black, making it hard to see where the creatures are. First our heroes try to find shelter in the cabin of the boat, when that fails, they find themselves surrounded by monsters.

It's certainly an effective scene and while it's drastically different from anything else in Aquaman, it certainly works. Get a quick look at it, as well as hear James Wan's comments, in the exclusive clip from the Blu-ray extras of Aquaman, below.

Of course, James Wan clearly isn't the only person who loved the creatures of The Trench. The word is that a spin-off film is being developed that will focus on them, so there were apparently a lot of people at DC and Warner Bros. who loved that part of the movie.

Exactly what this new movie will actually be about is far from clear. Maybe it will be an origin story that explains how these Atlanteans became monsters, but it could just as easily be an actual horror movie, where the Trench creatures become the monsters that other characters are trying to escape from. Certainly, the stage has been set by one great horror director. maybe another could come in and make a superhero horror movie.

Aquaman is available in Digital HD and arrives on Blu-ray today.

Dark Phoenix Director Explains Why The Hellfire Club Wasn’t Included

Dark Phoenix Director Explains Why The Hellfire Club Wasn’t Included

Superhero movies are everywhere, but there was a time when the genre seemed like a serious gamble for studios. Before shared universes became commonplace, 20th Century Fox (RIP) brought X-Men to theaters back in 2000. The property hasn't been far from theaters in the nearly two decades since, although it will all come to an end with Dark Phoenix.

Dark Phoenix is the franchise's final run in theaters, and the second attempt at adapting the titular comic book story. On the page, the Hellfire Club is an integral part of the plot, manipulating Jean and the dark power that lives inside her. But they won't be in the upcoming blockbuster, and director/writer Simon Kinberg explained this choice, saying:

I think if I had four hours to tell this story I would've included the Hellfire Club, I might've included Lilandra. Because I wanted it to be so focused on Jean and I wanted to really tell a character story a little differently than we have in the past in the X-Men. In the past it's been a little more horizontal, meaning there was a breadth of character, there was a bunch of characters. In this one I wanted to go a little more vertical, I wanted to go deep with our main characters, and especially with Jean.

Simon Kinberg has been a long-time producer in the X-Men franchise, so he clearly knows the mutants and their adversaries very well. And while he may have liked to include the Hellfire Club and cosmic character Lilandra in Dark Phoenix, the full story is simply too dense for one movie. Instead, he pivoted his focus onto the psyche of Sophie Turner's Jean Grey, giving the title character the chance to carry the movie.

Related: Why Dark Phoenix Reshot Its Original Ending, According To Simon Kinberg

From the looks of Dark Phoenix's trailers, Sansa Stark is going to be given the true focus of the movie, with Sophie Turner getting the chance to show off a different side of her acting abilities. This should hopefully streamline the narrative, while also allowing the other mutants to split in their allegiances in the wake of Jean's dark power. Even if that means comic book characters ended up on the cutting room floor.

In his same conversation with Digital Spy, Simon Kinberg went on to explain how The Hellfire Club's inclusion may have weighed down Dark Phoenix. As he put it:

So while I loved the Hellfire characters and their role in the Dark Phoenix saga in the comics, and I loved the Lilandra storyline in the comics, all of those felt like they were going to start to compete with the main story of Jean and her emotional crack-up and the break-up of the X-Men family. And I didn't want to draw away from that main emotional through-line.

Simon Kinberg may be making his directorial debut with Dark Phoenix, but he's been working on the franchise since the very beginning. As such, he's seen all the peaks and valleys of the X-Men movies over the years. This no doubt helped his creative process with the upcoming blockbuster, as well as his decision to exclude certain comic book characters.

Members of the Hellfire Club have already appeared in an earlier installment in the franchise, so adding them to Dark Phoenix would make the timeline a bit more confusing and convoluted. Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost were antagonists in X-Men: First Class, and that's a timeline that is still being utilized in Dark Phoenix. The characters have a relationship with the Hellfire Club, especially Professor X, Mystique, and Magneto.

While Lilandra hasn't been adapted to live-action, there were many thought that Jessica Chastain would be playing the character in Dark Phoenix. Chastain's role still hasn't been revealed, although the trailers show her manipulating Jean to give into her new dark persona. Only time will tell who she ends up playing, and how similar to Lilandra the character ends up being.

All will be revealed when Dark Phoenix arrives in theaters on June 7th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.