*Disclaimer! This review contains spoilers for Game of Thrones up to this point. Proceed at your own risk*
Game of Thrones is finally back. After over a year of waiting, season 7 has aired its very first episode and it gives us a lot.
I really like that the story is a direct continuation from last season with no real time in between. Game of Thrones has had season premiers that are very close in time to previous finales, but rarely has the continuation been so seamless. Arya and Jon Snow both pick up in scenes that could very well have been in season 6, with Arya finishing off the Freys and Jon preparing for the White Walkers respectively. This seamless flow from season 6 to season 7 will certainly be helpful for those who like to binge watch the show. It adds a level of cohesion that isn’t very common between seasons on this show.
One of the best scenes in this episode does what Game of Thrones does best. It highlights the fact that the factions in this show are black and white. The scene in question has Arya traveling through the Riverlands where she meets some Lannister soldiers eating a meal by a campfire. With each and every interaction between her and the soldiers, the only thought I had in my mind was “they’re going to try to rob/rape/kill her”. The dialogue is also seemingly purposefully written to imply this, but they turn out to be just genuinely good people who are looking out for a straggler in the woods. It’s a great scene where not only are we shown that the Lannisters, the “bad guys” of this season, are not all bad but we get Arya’s motivation for the season in a natural way. She tells them she’s going to kill Queen Cersei and, of course, they laugh it off since Arya’s a little girl and they have no idea what she’s capable of.
What didn’t work so much in this episode is a complaint that many fans had last season, especially towards the end. People travel and communicate information way too fast in this episode. Either that, or the showrunners have gotten worse at portraying the passage of time. With scenes like the ones with Arya at the Twins and Jon in the same room he was proclaimed King of the North last season, it’s implied that the story takes place directly then. However, somehow, Euron Greyjoy already has his new Iron Fleet and has made it to King’s Landing. Only a few scenes after Arya finishes off the Freys, everyone already knows and soldiers have already been deployed to the Riverlands. The worst offender is Jon being in the King of the North scene then Cersei immediately knowing what happened with him the next scene and then him already getting a raven from her the scene after that.
There are a smattering of other cool scenes as well, such as Daenerys finally reaching Westeros and Jorah being confirmed to be at the Citadel, but there really isn’t much to say about those scenes. We all have a general idea of where they’re going and we didn’t really learn too much besides Jorah’s location being 100% confirmed, the family the Hound robbed in season 4 is dead, and Cersei is negotiating with Euron Greyjoy. Overall it was a solid episode, but it was still mainly set-up and had its own issues. Regardless, Game of Thrones season 7 is off to a good start.
Trailer for Next Week’s Episode:
Generally, The Marvels is good. It has a 59 on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t great, but it’s better than Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Disney+’s Secret Invasion. Perhaps director Nia DaCosta’s video game inspirations contributed to that.
The American filmmaker said Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children influenced her latest film at a press junket with IGN. “It’s just an amazing movie, with great fight scenes and a great ending sequence with the main character being thrown into the sky by all the other characters,” she said.
Despite poor reviews upon release in 2005, Advent Children has become a Final Fantasy cult classic. DaCosta seems to agree that the film is a classic. PlayStation exclusives also influenced the Marvels.
In the interview, she said she didn’t want the superhero film to look “too much like a video game” but did draw from Sony’s biggest franchises, like The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn. “For me, it was from the best games, the best stories that you get, that sort of inspires me to play, and I think inspires people to watch movies like this,” she said.
Since movies have shaped video games since their inception, it’s interesting to see the dynamic slowly changing. Now that technology and interactive storytelling are more complex, filmmakers are looking to PlayStation for inspiration.
Netflix reported third-quarter earnings and is doing well. Revenue increased as the company added 9 million subscribers worldwide.
Netflix is also using this opportunity to raise the prices of some of its U.S., U.K., and French plans to differentiate ad-free plans from its entry-level ad-supported plan. New subscribers to the most expensive plan will pay $22.99 per month.
Let’s step back and examine Netflix’s current situation. Netflix cracked down on password sharing in its home market and dozens of others in May. The third quarter is the first full quarter under the new rules, so we can see the effect of password sharing.
The company removed the basic tier in the U.S. and U.K. two months ago to simplify its offering. People must pay a lot to remove Netflix ads.
Reports suggest that many customers are experiencing subscription fatigue and considering canceling some streaming subscriptions, but Netflix still has room for growth, especially with advertising revenue.
The company has 247.15 million subscribers. The number of subscribers increased 8.76 million this quarter. Netflix subscribers haven’t grown that much since Q2 2020, when Covid lockdowns were enforced worldwide.
Netflix earned $3.73 per share on $8.5 billion in revenue this quarter. As ads plan subscribers rise almost 70% quarter-over-quarter, ads are contributing more to the bottom line. Nearly a third of new subscribers use ads.
Netflix shares are up 13.75% pre-market ($393.79 per share) on good news for shareholders. However, subscribers will be unhappy because the company will raise prices for some plans again in three key markets. Full breakdown here.
In the U.S.:
- Standard with ads: $6.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (no longer available): $11.99 per month (up from $9.99)
- Standard: $15.49 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): $22.99 per month (up from $19.99)
In the U.K.:
- Standard with ads: £4.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (no longer available): £7.99 per month (up from £6.99)
- Standard: £10.99 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): £17.99 per month (up from £15.99)
In France:
- Standard with ads: €5.99 per month (no change)
- Basic (still available in France for now): €10.99 per month (up from €8.99)
- Standard: €13.49 per month (no change)
- Premium (with 4K streaming): €19.99 per month (up from €17.99)
New subscriptions start at these prices today. Bills for existing subscribers will rise in the coming weeks.
When your writer—one of Hollywood’s hottest—tries to hide their involvement, it’s a bad sign. The Borderlands film’s original script was written by Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl), who recently asked the WGA to use the pseudonym “Joe Crombie” instead of his name.
We hope this means Mazin considers Joe Abercrombie, Lord Grimdark, the grittiness GOAT, but that theory is unproven. Since Mazin wrote the script in 2015 for Eli Roth to direct, a steady stream of writers has been brought in. Aaron Berg, Chris Bremner, Sam Levinson, Zak Olkewicz, Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor, and Oren Uziel have put around 70 fingers in the honey pot.
The name change likely avoids confusion. Mazin probably doesn’t want to be blamed for Jack Black/Claptrap madness, but he wants to keep his rights.
To clarify, the Borderlands film finished filming in 2021, but Roth was replaced by Tim Miller (Deadpool) in January.
When this surprising star-studded film (Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cate Blanchet) limps out, what are your expectations? We think this was supposed to coincide with Borderlands 3’s 2019 release, but it’s overshot the mark.
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