Image courtesy of hipwallpaper.com
The preceding image is for use until I have a proper logo for non-review posts on the site, upon which it will be adjusted to that.
Hello, everyone. I am aware that it’s been a few weeks since the Underwater review, but I have decided to change the original plan a little bit to make some of the newer reviews come sooner so you are still being given some new content. Unfortunately, given how the events of the past several days have affected the world of entertainment, I have to make changes anyway.
Several movies that I had been looking forward to reviewing for you have been delayed due to the events of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to spread as we speak. I will recap the original plans for them so you know some of what’s been delayed.
The first planned reviews I mentioned were of every DC Extended Universe movie up to this point. The series consists of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, and Shazam!. At the time of the original post being made, Shazam! was the most recent release. As mentioned there, I had originally intended to do it for Birds of Prey, but it has now been included in this series of reviews before the release of Wonder Woman 1984. This was for two reasons:
1: It ensures I have more time to cover these properly rather than rush them out just to be sure I’m able to see it as soon as I can.
And 2: It was also because of what I had thought might be best to start with, which was one of the longest-running film franchises ever.
Even if Wonder Woman 1984 is delayed, this plan will hold, and in the event that it is indeed delayed, that, too, will be included for when the next installment, The Batman, arrives next year.
The aforementioned long-running franchise is of course the James Bond franchise. The plan is still to cover the previous ones, from Dr. No all the way up to Spectre. There are benefits to this one, which is really the only case in regards to all the delays announced so far. We do have a new date, and it is still coming out this year. Around Thanksgiving, we can expect to see James Bond in action with No Time to Die. Plus, this may ultimately prove to be the right call, as Bond has done pretty well opening in November anyway, compared to the second weekend of April as originally scheduled.
Following that delay, there was one delayed almost a whole year, but since it’s the biggest one by far, I’ll go over that one last.
The next delay that happened was a movie that was going to come out in just under a week at the time of this writing, which was A Quiet Place Part II. The only thing we know so far is that it is still scheduled for later this year. As for when, no new date has been set for that or any of the others I am about to mention, which were originally scheduled to open as far out as just around a month later.
Then we get to the three most recent delays for other well known movies. The first was supposed to come out at the end of this month, which was the remake of Mulan. However, considering how big it was going to be, particularly in China, it was inevitable that this would happen.
The one that surprised me was Antlers, a new horror movie produced by Guillermo Del Toro. That was set to come out around this time next month. I did not think they would pull that.
The one that didn’t surprise me, because it’s been delayed before, was The New Mutants, which is something I’ve really been looking forward to. It was so close to coming out this time, too, having been set to open the weekend after Mulan. This is the one that I really hope they find a date for within the rest of the year so it can finally come out, and I can finally see it and review it for you. Of course, I still hope it’s good, and it looks like it will be, as the newer footage that’s been released of it certainly shows promise that it hopefully lives up to. Although the reason for it being delayed (which is hopefully the last) is understandable this time, it still disappoints me that they had to delay it again. There are so many reasons why I hope this overcomes its unfortunate reputation that they deserve a post of their own.
For now, though, it all comes down to this: I hope it comes out so it can help the Fox era of X-Men movies go out with some dignity and allow us to have even more hope for when the characters we know and love make their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. There is something else pertaining to that franchise, but first, I’ll go over the biggest delay.
The biggest delay came after the announcement for No Time to Die. I had originally stated that the reviews for this franchise would most likely happen this year, but would be a certainty for next year if they didn’t, as that was supposedly when it would end. Now, it sounds like it’s no longer the case, as the latest installment of the main series was delayed by close to a year. These reviews would be for the Fast and the Furious franchise (or The Fast Saga, as it’s apparently called now), because the ninth main installment, titled F9, would have come out towards the end of May. This and No Time to Die are the only movies that were delayed but had new dates planned. Since this has been bumped to next April (when the supposed final installment in the main series was set to come out), we’ll have to wait for that finale a little bit longer, too.
These delays most likely will not be the last. In the days and weeks to come, there are guaranteed to be more.
What makes these delays worse is that since most, if not all, of these movies might end up being bumped to (at the very latest) the fall and winter season, some of the ones that had been scheduled will be pushed back to sometime next year just to accommodate these.
On a side note, for the time being, Onward will probably be my last review of a newly released movie until this whole situation is under control. The main reason I say that is because theaters have been closing down with all of these delays happening, and it won’t be long before it affects every theater in America, including the ones in my area. I was hoping to have my last review of a new release be for Bloodshot, but as it is right now, Onward is still the most recent movie I was able to see in theaters. I do still plan on seeing Bloodshot, of course, but it likely won’t be in theaters. Once this situation has improved enough, I will get back to newer releases as soon as I can. In the meantime, I can catch up with ones I haven’t gotten to yet, and I have quite a few. There are even some that I had planned for this year that won’t be affected by this situation at all.
I’ll get to the ones that can still be expected first.
The DC Extended Universe reviews, from Man of Steel up to Birds of Prey (or up to Wonder Woman 1984, provided it’s not delayed first).
The Bond franchise, from Dr. No up to Spectre, since I now have more time to do this one.
A Quiet Place, which is long overdue anyway.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe Catch-Up Reviews, from Avengers: Infinity War up to Spider-Man: Far From Home. Hopefully, Phase Four still kicks off this year with the releases of both Black Widow and The Eternals.
These ones can now be added to the list:
The Fast Saga up to this point, from the original up to Hobbs & Shaw (and yes, even though it’s a spin-off, it’s still part of the franchise, so I’m counting it).
I can officially announce a review of the original Mulan is coming, despite being among those I wanted to be a surprise, alongside a review of the remake.
The X-Men franchise can be added as well, which goes from the original up to Dark Phoenix (and yes, I am including both Deadpool movies).
Numerous other catch-up reviews, as well as some very special reviews.
With our current situation being bleak and dire, and the current output of new offerings looking barren, as new content gets put out here, there is one thing we can do.
The best we can do is hope and pray that the release schedule for the rest of the year can at least somewhat be saved. Even with that, at the moment, it’ll be a miracle if it can, folks.
That being said, no matter which review comes next, I’ll see you there.
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UPDATE #1 (March 26th, 2020): Since this post’s upload, both Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984 have been delayed. Unfortunately, no new release date has been set for Black Widow. Although it’ll more than likely still come out later this year, this means that The Eternals will possibly get bumped to around this time next year at the earliest. Thus, this also means that the rest of Marvel Studios’ entire slate for Phase Four, and possibly even beyond that, depending on how long this crisis persists, will be affected. It’s not just the movies that’ll be affected, either. Their first few shows for Disney+ have been postponed, too.
However, there is a bright spot to these two announcements: Wonder Woman 1984 did receive a new release date, which ended up not being as far out as I thought. I thought it would have been bumped similarly to No Time to Die, if not F9. It turns out that was actually not the case. It was only bumped back a couple months. Instead of the first weekend of June as originally planned, it has been bumped to the middle of August. The wait may be a little bit longer, but it’s not by that much.
So as I said when mentioning Birds of Prey, the plan still holds. I will cover it prior to this.
If need be, I will be providing further updates if they affect the schedule in any way.
On a side note, pretty much the majority of theaters across America have been closed down, save for maybe drive-ins in a couple areas. Among that majority of theater closures for the time being are indeed the theaters in my area, which didn’t surprise me, because it was inevitable.
However, as stated in the original post, I do have a plan in place during this time. Once everything is back to normal (or at least as close to that as it was), the same case will apply to the schedule. There might even be some surprise reviews in between that were not originally planned that I later ended up deciding to add.
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UPDATE #2 (April 4th, 2020): Over the course of the past week, since the previous update, several more movies have been delayed, and some of the ones that were previously delayed have now found new dates.
This means my reviews of both the original Mulan and the remake are not the only reviews I intended to keep a surprise until I uploaded them.
Therefore, now I have to spoil even more surprises, only this time, it’s beyond my control. At least in the reviews themselves, I am capable of trying my best to do them with as few spoilers as possible. Since this is a schedule for reviews to come, though (which more than likely will have no surprises left in regards to new releases by the time this is all over), the only thing I can do is adjust my schedule to match the actual one.
Now, without further ado, let’s dive into the biggest announcements as we did last time. I’m going by the original list of what I had planned based on the schedule as it was before all of this went down to keep it consistent.
The first on the list was actually one of the first to be delayed, but has now found a new date. This one is A Quiet Place Part II. Originally, it was scheduled to come out just under a week after the original post was made. It has now been rescheduled for Labor Day weekend. Even though I have plenty of time to review the first one anyway, I’ve decided when to upload that review. I plan on it being at least sometime this month, but a perfect time would be within the next few days to match the timeframe of both when the first one came out and when the sequel was set to come out.
The next one is Mulan. As mentioned in the original post, that was supposed to come out the week after A Quiet Place Part II. With this latest update coming more than a week after its initial release date, a new one has been announced. Mulan is now slated to open towards the end of July.
It was actually among the most recent bunch of delays, which come from Disney. Also among them was a new release date for Black Widow.
Originally scheduled to open at the beginning of May, Black Widow has been moved to the November spot previously occupied by Eternals. I stated in the previous update that should this indeed happen, the latter would possibly get bumped to the beginning of next year at the earliest. That also meant that the rest of the entire slate of Phase Four would be affected, and I was right. The way in which that would happen I also predicted: Each movie following Eternals would take the date originally occupied by the one that followed it. Basically, a domino effect happened here.
Several of the new dates announced by Disney were for those, in fact. There were some others, but the only huge one worth noting outside of them was Mulan.
Another huge one that has been highly anticipated is Top Gun: Maverick. I can now announce plans for a review of the original alongside this one. This one was delayed, but also given a new date. Instead of close to the Fourth of July, it’s now opening close to Christmas.
In the “Schedule Adjustment” post I made at the beginning of the year, I mentioned Ghostbusters as a possibility. I can now fit that series in, as Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been bumped from mid-July to early March of next year.
There were more than just these (and there will continue to be more), of course, but some I can still keep a surprise.
Plus, there were some others I mentioned in the original post that had been delayed, but as of this update, no new dates have been set for them.
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UPDATE #3 (June 27th, 2020): A couple months have passed since the last update, and everything seemed to be smoothening out. We had some delays here and there, but nothing really worth noting for another update… until now. I’ll start with the one that was the deciding factor for me on whether or not to do another one. If it happened, I’d feel I would then have enough material. If it didn’t, I probably wouldn’t. I’m also starting with the most recent ones, as these were just announced earlier this week.
Shockingly, this one is the least bad of the bunch for this update, as it was only pushed back by a few weeks. That would be my most anticipated movie of the entire year (as I established in the original schedule): Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. This was originally set to come out on July 17th, but was then bumped back two weeks to July 31st. Then a couple days ago, it was bumped by almost another two weeks. At the time of this update, it is now set for release on August 12th, a Wednesday. This is probably to give it more of an advantage to hopefully do well.
Now we get to the ones that have not only made things worse, but also more confusing for everyone, especially me, despite my best efforts to piece everything together for you.
One of the other most recent ones is actually Wonder Woman 1984. A lot of you may be wondering why this one is being mentioned here when I already covered it in a previous update. Yes, folks, this one was indeed delayed again as well. It is now set for release on October 2nd.
The most recent one that’s noteworthy was set to come out on November 20th, which up until now had it set to open against Pixar’s latest movie Soul (currently set to open that same day) and No Time to Die, the new James Bond movie (which was set to open five days later). It has now been bumped to towards the end of May.
That would be the culmination of the MonsterVerse so far (and hopefully, there are more after this, because I for one have really liked all of the previous entries), a new Clash of the Titans, if you will… known as Godzilla vs. Kong. I’m actually fine with this one, for two reasons:
1: I was somewhat expecting it.
And 2: May is a better spot for it anyway, because had this stayed in November, both of the aforementioned movies would have more than likely crushed it.
Speaking of which, what was more concerning for me and now even more so, was where they originally placed Tenet. Its original date was a week before Mulan’s first rescheduled date. Then Tenet was set for the week right after it. Here’s why: There was always a possibility Mulan would annihilate it either way.
Then around the same time Tenet was moved, Mulan followed. As mentioned earlier, Tenet was slated for the 17th, with Mulan set to open the following week. Then Tenet was moved to the week after Mulan, which still hadn’t moved yet.
This resulted in Wonder Woman 1984 having to be bumped again, but I’ll get back to that in a second.
Now Mulan is set to open after Tenet again. However, there is a bit of breathing room in between this time. Mulan is set for August 21st.
A newer one, which is one of two surprises I now have to spoil (again; thanks a lot, COVID, for making me spoil my plans!), would be Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Up until recently, that was one of the few movies left that had not been affected, as it was scheduled to open towards the end of the summer, on August 21st, which of course would have placed it against Mulan. They then bumped it up a week to August 14th, which was where Wonder Woman 1984 had been slated to open upon being moved from June.
However, when that was moved to October, they put Bill & Ted there. Then with the new date for Tenet, they bumped it back to August 28th to avoid competition with it.
Thus, another surprise I had planned was reviewing Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey to prepare for this one.
I considered mentioning one that had also been moved to that date a few months ago, but with how everything’s going right now, I don’t want to end up getting everyone excited for something that could very well be delayed yet again. All I’ll say is this in regards to that one: I still want to see it and hopefully be able to own it to complete my collection for that particular series.
With that out of the way, and having established that it’s not that one (since I was planning on covering that series anyway; I still won’t mention the name, but some of you may have figured it out since I mentioned it in the original update), I unfortunately have to mention one that kind of broke my heart, because it was part of my childhood.
Oddly enough, both of these surprises feature Keanu Reeves, except in this one, he has a smaller part. With how they decided to approach this one, Tenet being moved may have been what made me decide whether or not to provide a further update, but the way they decided to handle this one is actually what solidified it for me. This is the one that made me feel I had enough material to do one.
For those who are very nostalgic for a particular Nickelodeon cartoon, like myself (something about a pineapple under the sea…), you may have been looking forward to heading out to the theater a third time to see him on the big screen again.
I was hoping to, because I had done so for the first two movies. The animation style they decided to go with for this one had me interested, and then a few weeks ago, I heard that the director of this one (as with the director of the second one) was among the original writers for the show. In other words, he gave the fans some of the most quotable lines in numerous iconic episodes.
It gave me a little bit of hope, since it felt like they knew the source material, so I was genuinely looking forward to this, because it’s always nice to look back on fond memories of something you grew up on.
Folks… we are still getting the movie, don’t worry. However, it still hurts that I have to disappoint you with how we’re getting it.
This sort of thing is nothing new, as it’s happened with several others, but this is the first time I’ve felt it was worth mentioning. This is the latest movie to have its theatrical release cancelled, and be put on streaming instead.
The subtitle has a whole new meaning, then, because The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is no longer coming to theaters. Instead, it will be put on VOD and CBS All Access early next year.
Hopefully, it’ll eventually find its way to home media, as most of the others put on streaming ultimately did. Even if it doesn’t mean a Blu-Ray release (as much as I’d love that), if I have to resort to Digital, then I’ll take it.
The best I can say about that one is that at least we’re still getting the movie.
Since we have to wait a little bit longer, there is something positive that came out of this: The same week this announcement was made, the remaster of Battle for Bikini Bottom (the best, and possibly definitive, SpongeBob game) also came out. So for those who want to relive their childhood, particularly that part of it, you at least have that to hold you over.
If any further announcements and delays are made, and they more than likely will be at this point, I will gladly provide the updates.
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UPDATE #4 (July 25th, 2020):
Well… it’s happened, folks. Even more delays have occurred, a couple even being pulled indefinitely until they know when it’s safer to put them out.
I’ll just say a couple things before we get started in going over this new batch.
The first is that I will do a separate post where I go over the list of every delay that has happened so far, including those that were not originally scheduled to come out for at least another year. Besides, there might be some who are interested in hearing what might have been delayed beyond next year. I am also planning on doing another one going over one particular movie that was delayed even before the pandemic started, but its status at the moment I felt it’s probably best that I save for that.
All I’ll say is this: I’ll be doing something a little different with this one.
The second is that at least a couple of the ones I will be going over in this update are sequels to which I’ve already covered everything I needed to that came before. I’ll get to those momentarily.
With that out of the way, let’s go over these.
I’ll start with the ones that I’m sure will infuriate quite a few of you if they haven’t already. These two were delayed indefinitely. There are so many people I know who have been looking forward to them.
The moment this first one was announced to have been pulled indefinitely, I had a feeling I would end up having enough material for another update. Flash forward to now, and evidenced by the fact that I’m doing one, I was right.
This was my Most Anticipated of the entire year, and now it might end up dethroning The Batman as my Most Anticipated of 2021*, if the pandemic persists hard enough to where they end up being unable to release it before the end of 2020.
If you’ve been following these updates, and recently saw my review of The Prestige, you would know that it was Tenet. As mentioned earlier, this was originally set to come out just last week. Then I mentioned in the previous update that it was bumped back twice, first to the 31st, and then again to August 12th. Now it has been pulled indefinitely.
I believe other than the pandemic, there’s another reason why they decided to pull this one: The movie that was bumped to around this time. It was originally scheduled to open towards the end of March, but then after Tenet was delayed, this one followed. At the time, Tenet was still set to open on the 17th. This one was delayed to the week after it (meaning it would have opened this weekend, and more than likely crushed Tenet).
Then Tenet was delayed to the week after it, in which case it still probably would have been overwhelmed by this one, as at the time it had not moved yet.
Then they were bumped to just a few days apart in August: Tenet on the 12th, and this one on the 21st.
Now, this, too, has been pulled indefinitely. That would be the remake of Mulan.
As for the ones that have been delayed to next year, I’ll start with one of the first to be delayed because of the pandemic. That would be A Quiet Place Part II. Originally set to open a few days following the upload of the original post back in March, it was rescheduled for Labor Day weekend a few weeks later. Earlier this week, however, it was bumped back to April of 2021, which is around the time the original came out.
There’s one that up until now had not been affected, and it would have come out the week after A Quiet Place Part II. Originally set for September 11th, this has now been rescheduled for June 4th, 2021. This does give me more time to cover everything that came before, though, so there is that.
It’s another horror sequel, ironically enough, and that would be The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It**. It does make sense why they would put it there, however, as the first two Conjuring movies came out during the summer anyway.
A couple more horror sequels were delayed. The first one is Halloween Kills, the sequel to the 2018 film, which in turn was a direct sequel to the 1978 original. As you would probably expect, this one was supposed to open this October, but was bumped to next October (and by extension, the sequel to this one, Halloween Ends, was bumped back to the following year). However, another one took its place.
Originally set for release on June 12th, but then bumped to September 25th before being bumped back three weeks to October 16th, which was the original date for Halloween Kills, we have Candyman.
This one, oddly enough, shares the same name as the original, much like Halloween did. It also takes the same approach as Halloween by being a direct sequel, despite being a further installment in the franchise.
The delay for Candyman is actually one of the few to be mentioned on this one that are the least bad. There are a couple more positive things, but I’ll get to that in a second.
Now for the latest ones that are not horror movies. Another one that’s not too bad is Death on the Nile, which was bumped back a couple weeks from October 9th to October 23rd.
The biggest one to note is another one that was delayed a few months. It took a similar approach as A Quiet Place Part II by going back around to the time it was supposed to come out. This one was originally scheduled for June 26th of this year, but then was bumped close to Christmas, only to just recently be bumped back to near the Fourth of July again.
The highly-anticipated sequel Top Gun: Maverick has been moved to July 2nd of next year, which was actually partially due to a different reason than you may think. I will go more into that in the post about the delays themselves.
One more thing, and this is a rather interesting approach, especially for a sequel that people have wanted for so long. This one is Bill & Ted Face the Music. It was previously slated for August 28th, but was bumped back a few days to September 1st, and this is how they’re doing it with this one. They’re releasing it in select theaters (as there are a few that are open) and on VOD that same day. That’s probably the best way to see if it’s safe for people to slowly start flocking back out to the theaters once again. They take a movie that isn’t huge like Tenet, Mulan or even Top Gun, but people are still looking forward to it nonetheless, and try that with it.
I wanted to end this one on a slightly brighter note, so here we go.
Another one of the first to be delayed was another horror movie, Antlers. Up until recently, it had not received a new date. Now it does have one. We can expect to see it in February, which I for one am happy about, because I’ve been looking forward to this.
I’ll also have a few less reviews to do with some of these, and here’s why: I’ll ultimately have already covered what I needed to prior to them.
Even at least one that will be mentioned in the upcoming post applies to this.
There are three among the ones mentioned at the time of this writing, with more likely to follow sometime later.
The three that apply are:
A Quiet Place Part II (as I reviewed the first one earlier this year)
Halloween Kills (I reviewed the original and the 2018 sequel when the latter came out)
and Death on the Nile (I have reviewed Murder on the Orient Express).
So if there’s one good thing to take away from this update, folks, it’s that for once, I am actually free to review some newer movies when they’re released.
Even with that having been said, I will provide further updates when necessary (not if… when), and be on the lookout for the couple other posts to come later.
If the pandemic’s not over, you can guarantee that these updates are not over.
*Apologies for having to spoil that, by the way, but blame COVID for that, not me.
**Why they couldn’t just call it The Conjuring 3, I have no idea. If they were going to use a subtitle, it could have used some work. The same can be said for another sequel that I didn’t originally mention, but I digress.
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UPDATE #5 (September 5th, 2020):
Another day, another update, folks.
With the previous update coming nearly a week after uploading the Tremors review, I have some more news in regards to schedule changes, both for my own and for the release slate itself.
Some good, some bad, and some in between.
I won’t just start with the bad news this time. I’ll be going into the worst of the worst, and go up from there.
So two updates ago, I mentioned that The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run was no longer coming to theaters. This actually applies to the US. The streaming plans for it here are still happening, but it does still have a theatrical release somewhere, as it recently opened in Canada. Not only that, but there’s also this: A mere ten days before the last update was made, Netflix acquired the international distribution rights outside of three territories: The US, Canada, and China.
A similar thing happened to another movie, and at first, I felt it was actually worse up until some new information about it came to my attention just a couple days ago, which I will get to in a moment.
Mulan is now being shown in some areas where theaters are open, China being one of them.
America has also now received it, but on Disney+. The reason why I initially thought this was even worse was because it would be available for those who are both subscribed and willing to pay an extra 30 bucks to watch it through Premier Access.
A lot of people were not happy to hear this, myself included, and for good reason. Then just a couple days ago, some more news came out about it. It turns out this is temporary, as it’s only set to go through November. Once that time is up, it’ll be available for everyone in December for free, so the only thing you’ll be having to pay for is the service itself.
A lot of people are jumping at the chance to watch it now, which I understand, because they were as interested in this as I was. As for me personally, I actually feel waiting is a better idea, because on top of saving 30 bucks, I still get a chance to see the movie regardless. They stated this is supposed to be a one-off thing, so let’s just hope they meant it.
There is another positive to Mulan ultimately being sent to streaming instead of in theaters: They no longer have to risk directly competing with Tenet in theaters yet again.
Speaking of which, now we start getting to the good news. In between the previous update and this one, a plan was ultimately put in place for Tenet. Early screenings were held from August 31st through September 2nd, and then the release itself followed on September 3rd.
September 3rd also had some significance for me, because up until then, two of the three theaters in my area had opened back up.* Now the moment has come where I can finally say this.
I did not think I’d be able to do so before the end of the year... but this is one of those times where I’m glad I was wrong for once.
Folks… I have all my theaters back now… and I could not be happier. If you either follow the site (particularly these updates), know me in general, or both, you have a pretty good idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.
The first one to reopen was my local Regal just a little over two weeks ago. I took full advantage of celebrating it by seeing the first new movie to open in six months. I am working on the review right now as we speak, along with several others, but I might start with that.
Not long after that, one of the other two theaters in town had reopened, and now both of them are back in business, and I can get back to reviewing new releases again.
In the previous update, I mentioned doing two separate posts, one going over every delay we’ve had thus far, and one going over one particular movie that had faced several delays well before the pandemic for numerous reasons. In fact, only the last delay was due to the pandemic.
I held off on revealing what it was because I didn’t want to hold out hope for it, only for it to be delayed yet again.
The date held this time, and it has finally been released, so I can say this: I won’t have to do the latter post now. I’ll go over the delays in the review.
However, while I plan on seeing it within the next couple days or so, I have to go by one of my rules before I can review it. Whenever a new release is part of a franchise, I feel like it’s best to have covered everything that came before in order to provide a proper context.
There are a couple more I have planned to see, so I will go into at least one in the next update, so stay tuned for that.
*Technically, four, but the other one is a dollar theater for movies that are on their way out before they hit home media, and that’s usually a last resort for me (plus, that one is the only one in my area that is still closed anyway). The three I’m mentioning here I’ve been waiting to reopen because I usually go as soon as I can the moment a movie I’m interested in is released.
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UPDATE #6 (September 25th, 2020):
Well… this was unexpected. I’m having to do two updates in the span of a month. There have been more delays that happened in between, folks.
Before we get to that, however, I do have some good news. I have seen three movies since the previous update.
The first one came the day it went up.
This is the first time in as long as I can remember where I was equally looking forward to both seeing the movie itself and doing the review of it, and for those who have been following these updates especially, you’ll probably know what it is.
The second I saw a few days later. I hinted at it in the previous update, even though everyone probably already knows what that one is, too.
The third was one of the surprises I had to spoil back in Update #3. The first of these three is an original movie, while the other two are both new entries in a franchise, so I still have to follow my franchise rule for them.
Now on to the new delays.
We’ve had quite a few on this one, folks, as they’ve started picking back up again.
There was one that happened just last week, and we were so close to receiving another new release. They first pulled this with A Quiet Place Part II when they initially delayed it a few days before its original release date back in March.
Since it has now happened again, I’m starting with this one. The new Gerard Butler movie, the disaster film Greenland, we would have received this weekend.
The reason we didn’t is because they bumped it before we could. It’s now been bumped to Winter of this year, with a new date currently unspecified, as this is now the fourth time it’s been delayed.
Speaking of unspecified, there was one set for this weekend, but had been bumped prior. Oddly enough, it’s been the fourth time here as well, which is one short of how many times you say his name before he appears.
That’s right, folks. Candyman has been delayed again… and I had actually watched the original again for both my review of it and to prepare for this one, too. This has been moved to next year, with no specific date announced yet here, either.
To make matters even worse, there are more we were so close to getting, and I’ll start with the one that was set to open following Greenland. This one would have come out next week. It’s been delayed a couple times already. That would be Wonder Woman 1984, which has now been bumped back to Christmas Day.
That’s good for it that it still gets released this year (for now). However, this creates a problem: Warner Bros. is now more or less competing against themselves, as they have had Dune set for the week of December 18th. I have predicted pretty much since Day One that that movie would likely get bumped, and as much as they plan to keep it there (which they do, by the way), they’re going to have to bump it if they want it to have a chance, and if they want to be able to make the second part.*
This is especially true now, since another movie was recently bumped back to its spot. This one was originally set to open the week of October 9th, and then was bumped back a couple weeks to the 23rd, as mentioned in Update #4. That would be Death on the Nile, which now gives Dune competition again. The first time it didn’t seem like too much of a problem, but then Top Gun: Maverick was bumped back to around Christmas before that was bumped back again to pretty much its original placement, just a year later.
As for what was originally placed near Dune, that would be Steven Spielberg’s latest project: His version of West Side Story. This has been bumped back by almost a year, to next December (only a week off from its original date).
So for those who still have nightmares about Cats, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer before you can get rid of them. I’m just going to move on from that so I am not deemed liable for any potential PTSD flashbacks from any poor souls out there who sat through it so I don’t have to.
Speaking of nightmares, we get to the biggest one of this new batch. I thought the domino effect from last time was bad… this time was worse, because we also had a date swap.
The entire slate of movies in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been moved further out. With shows set in said universe, that’s a different story. We are still getting one of them this year, but more on that in a moment.
As a fair amount of you may be well aware of by now, Black Widow was set to kick this Phase off back on May 1st, before being bumped to November 6th. It has now been bumped back to May 7th, 2021. It’s still set as the first entry of Phase Four, but then this is where the date swap also comes in. The original plan was to have Eternals follow that up, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in turn following that.
When the pandemic first hit, Eternals was set for November 6th, with Shang-Chi to follow on February 12th to coincide with the first day of the Chinese New Year (keep that date in mind, folks). Then when Black Widow was moved, everything else followed suit. Then just recently, it happened again, except this time, Black Widow has the May date that Shang-Chi had. That movie is now set for July, but now Eternals is following it, having been scheduled for next November.
In other words, 2020 will be the first year since 2009 with no new installment in the MCU arriving in theaters (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk kicked it off in 2008, but it wouldn’t be until 2010 onwards that we’d get at least one a year, starting that summer with Iron Man 2).
I’m going to try to end this one on a more positive note.
We are still getting something in February, as it turns out. The King’s Man, the latest installment in the Kingsman franchise, was bumped back once again a couple weeks ago to February 26th, but then something good happened. They bumped it up a couple weeks to February 12th (see?), so we might just have something to do for Valentine’s Day Weekend.
In regards to the Disney ones, none of the aforementioned MCU films were announced as going straight to Disney+ instead. Thus, it seems they not only stated the Premier Access experiment with Mulan would be a one-off thing, but they actually kept their word.
We are still set to get at least one Disney movie before the end of the year, that being the other Pixar film this year, Soul, which was confirmed to still have a theatrical release on November 20th as planned.
Although Black Widow was bumped out, leaving us without an MCU movie for this year, we are still getting one of the Disney+ shows this year, with WandaVision set for a debut in December.
So even though fans of that franchise, especially huge ones like myself, won’t be able to get their fix for the year in the way they hoped with at least one movie and maybe a show, at least we’re still getting something with that.
Now for the one to cap this one off. If there is one good thing that we’ve known all year we would certainly be getting, that would be Season 2 of The Mandalorian, which starts in just a few weeks.
Thus, I can announce something new to come in terms of reviews. Though my main focus is of course on movies, I never left shows out of the question, and in fact I had been considering it for some time.
I can announce the first one I plan to cover, and I knew from the moment I finished it that I would want to start here.
I have of course decided to start with Season 1 of The Mandalorian. As for when the review of Season 1 will be up, I don’t know. I just felt it was more important to announce it anyway.
I initially felt like waiting until the shows from Marvel Studios themselves started before I decided to go ahead and expand to TV reviews (since they do tie in with the movies), but then I saw that, and I changed it to that.
Having announced that, I will incorporate them when I can, and do ones that won’t cause me to shift the review schedule around too much, especially when there might be some that I really want to do.
I’ll start with shorter shows first, and maybe somewhere down the line, I’ll expand into longer-running ones.
*For those who don’t know, this new version of Dune is set to be a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel, with this movie set to cover roughly the first half, and a planned followup to cover the second.
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Update #7 (October 6th, 2020):
Not even two weeks later, and I already have more material for another update, folks.
This actually began with the same movie I started with last time, which was Greenland. Five days after the last update (the same day it was originally set for a theatrical release), it was announced that Greenland would be going straight to streaming. Those who happen to have HBO Max, you’ll be receiving it there if you’re in the US, while internationally (namely the UK, Canada, and Australia), those interested can see it if they happen to have Amazon Prime.
While we’re on the subject of streaming, one movie I was interested in, Run (the followup of Indian-American director Aneesh Chaganty, who made one of my favorite movies of 2018 with Searching) was also moved to a streaming service. It was originally set to open back in May right on time for Mother’s Day Weekend. You’ll be able to finally see it on Hulu starting November 20th.
The next two are ironically the first two that were affected when all this chaos started: No Time to Die and F9. The former was most recently set to open on November 25th, just in time for Thanksgiving. However, October 1st came and denied us of that yet again, as it was announced that they had decided to bump the movie back to April 2nd, 2021, and then another domino effect happened.
That slot was originally placed for F9 after being originally scheduled for release back in May. It has now been bumped to May 28th, 2021 in order to give the April slot to No Time to Die.
Making matters worse is this: The moment they heard that No Time to Die had been bumped back again, Regal decided to close a lot of their locations… including my own.
It’ll only be a matter of time before my two local theaters are affected as well.
I’ll close this update out with something that I had predicted pretty much since Day One. I mentioned this last time, too. It had been set for the week before Christmas, but then it had direct competition when Wonder Woman 1984 was moved to Christmas Day, thus making Warner Bros. compete with themselves.
I had a feeling that they would have to bump it if they wanted it to have a chance of both doing well on its own and doing well enough so they can make the second part.
And I was right.
Ladies and gentlemen, you’ll have to wait 10 more months before you can see Dune. It has been bumped to October 1st, 2021. This in turn caused them to bump what was inarguably my Most Anticipated Movie of 2021 out into 2022, a few weeks after they released the trailer promoting a 2021 release date:
The Batman.
I’ll be going more into that in the next update, because I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Until the delays stop and everything goes back to normal (or rather as close to normal as it was), the updates will not.
We might be approaching the point where there’s hardly anything left to come out in 2020, and I’ll have to move on to the second post I hinted at doing back in Update #4.
Yes, I mentioned originally doing two posts, one going over everything in regards to these delays, and the other going over the delays for one particular movie which had been delayed multiple times already, with only the last one being due to the pandemic. However, as mentioned in Update #5, I ultimately scrapped having to do that second one, because I didn’t need to.
I have now decided to still do a second post, but in regards to these delays. What was originally going to be two parts has now been expanded to three.
Part 1 is where I cover everything delayed from this year, as I’ve been doing for a good portion of it, which is also the reason why I haven’t been able to do as many reviews as intended. The pandemic resulted in me not having nearly enough new material to work with.
Part 2, which I’ll be moving on to next following this update, is where I cover everything originally scheduled for as early as next year.
Then Part 3 is where I just go over literally everything, and although I’ll be recapping everything from Parts 1 and 2, that’s necessary because it will also include every date change anyway, even some scheduled beyond next year.
That’s right, folks; even ones scheduled further out have been affected, too.
So I’ll be back soon with another Schedule Update post that can be considered Part 2 of the “Delay Dissection” Saga.