Monthly Archives: May 2015
FOX Cancels The Mindy Project, Hulu Might Save
Word has come down that, after three seasons, The Mindy Project is no more.
Per TVLine, FOX has cancelled the Mindy Kaling sitcom - though there may be a chance for the show to live on over at Hulu.
Chris Messina and Mindy Kaling on The Mindy Project.
Mindy Project owner Universal TV is very eager to take the series to 100 episodes (the sweet spot number for syndication) and is currently shopping it to Hulu, which would pick it up for multiple seasons if the deal goes through.
Unlocked: We Guess Titanfall 2’s Release Date
DOWNLOAD PODCAST UNLOCKED EPISODE 194
EA drops some vague release date windows for Titanfall 2 and Mirror's Edge on their quarterly earnings call, so we take more specific shots at pinning them down – as well as detailing why DICE's E3 presentation of Mirror's Edge will likely either send the game's hype train ahead at full speed or derail it completely. Plus: Disney Infinity 3.0, more Star Wars Battlefront talk, our thoughts on The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and more!
Whedon Fought for More Thor in Avengers 2
Joss Whedon, writer-director of Avengers: Age of Ultron, has explained why Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) subplot in the movie feels clipped (spoilers follow).
Speaking on the Empire Podcast, Whedon revealed the original cut for Age of Ultron was a lot longer.
“There was a 195-minute cut of this movie.
, the original scene was that Thor went to speak to the Norn and how it would work was that he’d go in the pool and the Norn possess him, basically, and Erik Selvig
asks all the questions, and the Norn, speaking through Thor, give the answers."
Kevin James, Kick-Ass 2 Director Team for Assassin Comedy
Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown Ups) and Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow have teamed up for comedy film The True Memoirs of an International Assassin.
Here's an outline of the film, courtesy of Variety:
"James will play a mild-mannered accountant and would-be author who is mistaken for a killer-for-hire when his fictional novel about an international assassin is published as a true story. Trying to escape his sudden fame and celebrity, he heads to Belize but is immediately entangled in an assassination plot."
Emily VanCamp Reportedly Back for Cap 3
Just days after her TV series Revenge was canceled, there's some good news for actress Emily VanCamp.
Deadline reports that VanCamp will reprise her role as Agent 13 -- aka Sharon Carter to Marvel fans -- in the forthcoming Captain America: Civil War.
VanCamp first played the role in last year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Remnants of Isolation Review
If you chip away at Remnants of Isolation's outer shell--its piano-heavy soundtrack, turn-based combat, and vibrant color palette--you're left with a lifeless love story. This dyadic core leaks into each subsequent layer, from the party system that never expands beyond a twosome to the title screen overpowered by two tightly clutched hands superimposed over a gang of silhouetted fiends unmoved by the romance. The narrative drives the experience, but the ride is neither touching nor inspiring. The bond between hero and heroine is hampered by the female character's lack of a voice, and the inconsistent writing makes it difficult to care when the male lead fumbles his way through conversations. The surrounding elements have their charm, but Remnants of Isolation falls far short of making a believable or memorable emotional connection.
The stage is set with a scene of isolation. Stowed away in a castle is a lilac-skinned girl with eyes of mismatched colors, absent a voice but masterful with an acoustic instrument that she can summon from thin air. She's alone and seems to have been that way for some time, but that changes once she's mysteriously freed from her prison and runs into a brash, out-of-sorts mage, quick to make friends. Unfortunately, the girl cannot speak to the nature of the castle (or speak at all, for that matter), so the couple must explore its many corridors to discover their purpose for being there and, more importantly, how to escape.
Learning both characters' connections to the castle can be interesting, but Remnants of Isolation runs just shy of three hours. That gives these two strangers a remarkably short window to get to know each other, let alone foster any sort of tender relationship. Additionally--and I'll continue to press this issue--the female lead is mute. Maybe it's her prolonged confinement that's kept her silent, but robbing such a substantial character of opinions, personality, and any opportunity to connect with the player at a deeper level is a missed opportunity. The text boxes are dominated by the hero, Melchior, who alternates between exposition-heavy blurbs and uncomfortable romantic gestures that he often retracts in embarrassment. The scattered notes that provide context for your environment tend to be well-written and mostly interesting, but the dialogue leads to more eyes rolled than hearts warmed.
The link that the duo shares during battle is much more substantive. Along with a standard physical attack, each character can launch either an "innate" ability or a spell. Using your fire, ice, or lightning magic on its own doles out significant damage, but leading with one character's innate ability and following with the other's spell produces a combination attack that might do double damage, hit multiple targets, or cause myriad status effects. As you gain levels and acquire new abilities, your arsenal of offensive and defensive maneuvers expands, and you often need to experiment mid-battle to come up with combos that hit the hardest.
For a two-character, turn-based system, there's plenty of strategy here. Both players start each battle with just three MP--gaining two additional points per turn--so it's critical to balance your attacks and not lean too heavily on a single spell or character, lest you run your MP dry. The enemies you run into don't go down easy, either, and the creatures you encounter don't often respawn after being defeated. Grinding out levels and currency isn't a viable option, so Remnants of Isolation trusts you to fight the fights presented and choose well-timed techniques over brute force.
Creating new gear and optimizing your characters is rewarding, but the game's linearity and brief runtime don't allow for much variability in how you outfit your party. You earn souls from each battle, and this currency is used to create weapons, armor, and items. If there were a deeper weapons cache--multiple status effects tied to specific items or armor that heavily favored magic defense over physical defense--this system might be more interesting. There's an optimal permutation for each character, and as long as you engage in most battles and smartly spend your souls, you'll easily maximize your gear before the final encounter.
The most emotionally resonant aspect of Remnants of Isolation might just be its sound design. The sweet, soft soundtrack is expertly accented by the satisfying pings and hums associated with even the most ordinary actions. Opening chests and surfing through menus just sounds good, but the visual counterpart does little to complement the sound. Remnants of Isolation was crafted in RPG Maker, so its familiar assets and a run-of-the-mill fantasy aesthetic make for an uneven visual package, and being forced to play in windowed mode doesn't exactly benefit the experience, either.
It just doesn't strike as many chords or hit as many notes as it should. Remnants of Isolation is a truncated RPG that never allows its story or progression system to properly develop, and while the focus on a pair instead of a full party pays off in combat, the woefully undercooked bond between the protagonists never does enough to make you care about any of the three possible endings. It can be sweet, but Remnants of Isolation has far too many potholes to be worth its notably short ride.
Ghostbusters Reboot Starts Filming Soon
Director Paul Feig's female-led Ghostbusters reboot begins shooting in Boston soon.
The Boston Herald reports that the movie "is scheduled to get underway in the coming days," while The Boston Globe reports that "preproduction has already begun."
Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones star in the Sony project. McCarthy and Feig previously filmed in Boston for The Heat.
Kentucky Company Makes KFC Double Down-Scented Candle
If you want your home to smell like one of the most famous fast food sandwiches around, you're in luck.
Kentucky for Kentucky has revealed its new "Scents of the Commonwealth" candle line, which includes scents like Hot Brown, Mint Julep, and yes, the Double Down -- which, if you've forgotten, is a bacon and cheese sandwich that replaces bread with fried chicken.
iZombie Renewed for Season 2
The CW have renewed iZombie for Season 2. The decision is hardly a surprise, as the DC Comics/Vertigo adaptation has been a nice success story for the network this spring, doing a notably strong job of maintaining its ratings - most impressively, even on weeks its great lead-in, The Flash, was in reruns.
Executive producer Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) tweeted about the renewal.
#iZOMBIE officially renewed for a second season!
— Rob Thomas (@RobThomas) May 6, 2015The Hamburglar Returns, Creepier Than Ever
McDonald's has teased the return of its impish sandwich thief, the Hamburglar.
Except now, he's not the rosy-cheeked costumed character you might remember. Instead, a new teaser portrays the Hamburglar as a suburban dad, apparently tempted back to a life of crime by a new set of sirloin burgers.
The new ads are set to start premiering today, alongside a social media campaign which will have Hamburglar popping up in unexpected places--presumably when burgers are nearby.
"We felt it was time to debut a new look for the Hamburglar after he’s been out of the public eye all these years," McDonald's VP of U.S. marketing Joel Yashinsky told Mashable. "He’s had some time to grow up a bit and has been busy raising a family in the suburbs and his look has evolved over time."