[Weekly Updates] January 30, 2022

One month later, I'm kinda enjoying the way I type 2022. There's a nice rhythm to it.

Look, we all have to take solace somewhere. Anyway, happy Lunar New Year!

CHANNEL UPDATE

• Our new year video is currently being edited. In case you are curious, we'll be talking about Hi, Mom (2021). It's a film I highly recommend giving a watch. Although without a wide release, the only legal way to watch it is through ixigua.com. Hopefully the film will get a wide release soon.
• I'm also doing research on both Indonesian and Malaysian cinema, with intentions of making videos for both country. While good films are not hard to find, where to find them is a totally different story. A lot of these films are not streaming anywhere that I know of. Looks like I'll have to be creative for this.
• We also have some collabs planned this spring! Look forward to sharing more.
• Finally, I started planning for this year's April Fool's video, and it's going to be a big one. Originally we just wanted to do a tier list to save some time, because we thought we'd be busy with our kung fu short film. Now that the short film is put on delay due to lockdown and curfew, we have more times to do something elaborate. I don't want to spoil anything yet, but I hope it'll be a fun experience.

MEDIA TALK

• Now that the dead movie season is almost over, and Scream came out with no audience, let's talk about all of the hotly anticipated movies coming this year.
• Death on the Nile: Kenneth Branagh returns, following the 2017 Murder on the Orient Express. I actually really enjoy Orient Express, despite being a big fan of the original. I love its style. I love its pacing. I absolutely adore the acting. I love how the story is actually offers all the necessary clues to solve the mystery, yet still manages to surprise the audience at the end. The film took a surprisingly long time to make, hopefully, it'll be worth the wait.
• Uncharted: I did a whole bonus video talking about its trailer, and all signs pointed to it being bad. With the second trailer out using almost all identical portions of the film, I'm convinced this movie is gonna blow, because they have nothing interesting to show us.
• The Batman: I gushed about this film enough here, so I'll just say: I really really hope this movie will be good, and not end up some pompous self-important pseudo art movie. Director Matt Reeves isn't exactly prolific as a director, but he did wrote and directed two Planet of the Apes movies and they are both really good. Figures crossed.
• Turning Red: Disney seems to think this movie suck because it's coming to Disney+, on my birthday, no less. Think I'll do a video on it. Anyway, I think it'll just be another Luca situation, where the film is nice and fun, but forgotten almost immediately. At least James Hong gets top billed!
• Morbius: This is going to be Venom, but without Venom. Or worse, this is going to have Jared Leto, so you know it's gonna be cursed. It's been a while since we have one of those disasters like Suicide Squad, and this movie has all the right ingredients.
• Sonic 2: The trailer looks surprisingly okay. I say that because the movie seems like it knows what it should be: A meme movie. It has just enough self-awareness to be fun, but not enough to be self-deprecating. It also has Idris Elba.
• Ambulance: Yeah it's Michael Bay. When I saw the trailer in cinema, I was very intrigued by its premise. A film set almost entirely inside and around a moving Ambulance. This is kinda like Speed. It's the type of bottle movies that I love. But, you know. It's Michael Bay.
• Doctor Strange: Is it me or is this movie marketed kinda like it's the avengers already? It's definitely marketed as a big team up movie, that's for sure. It's directed by Sam Raimi, so I think it'll be good. It'll probably be one of the highest grossing MCU film if the pandemic allows it to be. But at the same time, I think I'll have a lot of trouble enjoying it. I can only watch so many super hero movies.
• Top Gun: This is just Mission Impossible, but with jet fighters. And since the Mission Impossible movies are good, I guess this one will be, too? However, director Joseph Kosinski made Tron Legacy, so there's a chance for Top Gun to just be an uninspired sequel with cool actions. But since I liked Tron Legacy, I think it'll just be a win win for me.
• Jurassic World: This series is still going?!
• Lightyear: After the unnecessary tech demo that is Toy Story 4, the technology is finally used in something that is a bit more original. I was a bit put off by the idea and the unnecessarily realistic looking aesthetic. And I still don't know why George Clooney is voiced by Chris Even when it was voiced by Tim Allen. But part of me still hopes this movie is good. I guess I just have a soft spot for Pixar, Toy Story, and sci-fi movies.
• The rest of the films has yet to began publicity, so let's lightning round them.
• Thor 4: Taika Waititi returns to direct. Will it be good? Not necessarily. Will it be funny? I think so.
• Fantastic Beasts 3: This is just Episode 9 of the Harry Potter universe.
• Nope: Jordan Peele returns with another critical darling.
• Black Adam: It has Dawyne Johnson which immediately makes the movie watchable, but also means it's probably not very good...
• Spider-Verse 2: They took about the same amount of time as the first film, to make half a movie. I think this will be amazing.
• The Flash: Welcome to the least anticipated multiverse movie. This is basically DC's answer to No Way Home, except it has none of the sentimentality and meme value.
• Black Panther 2: Eh.
• Aquaman 2: Eh.
• Avatar 2: Either this will make people want to go to the cinema again, or it'll mark the death of movie theatres everywhere. I lean more towards it being the Duke Nukem Forever of movies.
• Mario Movie: Chris Pratt as Mario.

And that is the update! What are some of your most anticipated movies of 2022? Crazy how there's more super hero movies than ever. I'm tired, and I think a lot of people are, too.

In any case, I'll see you in our next video in a few days!