Jack Beresford for Den of Geek:

John Carpenter’s 1982 classic remains a source of adoration and debate online, not least when it comes to working out who The Thing actually infected and when…

This is a fun read that, even as a longtime fan, made me realize I’d missed some of the smaller details of the movie. Might be time for a rewatch.

Aaron Perine for ComicBook.com:

It looks like the movie only grossed $85,000 on Friday. That’s a wild number and projections have it only pulling in $280,000 over the weekend according to Forbes. Memes have been exploding around Morbius for almost two weeks now. But, it’s clear the jokes might not be leading to the massive stampede to theaters that Sony might have been banking on.

Imagine your movie is so bad that it flops twice.

Mike Sampson for ComicsAlliance:

The first critic reviews of Batman v. Superman hit the web last night and early word was… not kind. The film currently sits at 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. By comparison, the divisive Man of Steel had a 56%.

Having now seen the film, I feel like the majority of the hatred for the film seems to stem from pretty minor details. It almost feels like the press was compelled to dislike the movie from the onset and people have just sort of run with it. I mean, it certainly wasn’t great but was it entertaining? I guess, yeah.

Mariella Moon for Engadget:

Sean Parker, Napster co-founder and ex-Facebook president, is cooking up another big project.

[…]

If it sees the light of day, it’ll cost you $150 to buy the set-top box that transmits movies the same day they come out in the theatres. Every title will be available for you to watch within a 48-hour period, but you’ll have to pay $50 every time you view it. Steep, but at least you can watch movies in peace, without screaming kids and loud adults in the background.

$50 might seem steep but with the prices of movies going up because of new features, costs, things like 3D, D-Box, etc, it’s really not that much of a stretch. Going to a movie with a friend would run you close if not over this amount when you include concessions and whatnot. Personally, I’d see a heck of a lot more movies on release day if this where an actual service.

Alex Abad-Santos for Vox:

While a First Family reunion and subsequent integration into the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be a sentimental and feel-good story, the Four aren’t what Marvel needs (or, at this point, likely wants). What Marvel needs are good villains, and it just so happens that one of most iconic Marvel villains ever created is actually bundled into Fantastic Four’s film rights.

That’s right: The best part of the Fantastic Four is actually Doctor Doom.

It’s easy to overlook Doctor Doom’s impact on superhero films, given that he’s been a part of some serious duds over the past few years but his presence in Marvel’s comic book universe is a completely different story.

While Marvel seems to have all but forgotten about the comic book incarnations of Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny, the Doom has been ruling over the Marvel U for some time within the pages of Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers and Secret Wars.

He’s arguably the most important villain in Marvel’s comic book universe right now and would likely make for a pretty amazing Avengers villain on screen, if he were even given the proper treatment. If there’s any aspect to get really excited about with the rumoured discussions between Marvel and Fox… it’s Doom.

Rob Leane for Den of Geek:

We have the freedom to pull from anything, but I really like what [Brian Michael] Bendis did. A lot. That felt like… that was Peter Parker back in high school. And, spending as much time with his high school problems as it did with his superhero problems, which I think is really a lot of fun.

There’s also some really funny comics stuff, like, the Archies. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Spider-Man Loves Mary-Jane series, but they have this really great anime-style illustration, and it’s all just about Peter Parker’s relationships. It’s like the soap opera of Peter Parker in high school.

I can’t say enough good things about Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, it’s definitely one of the most under-appreciated Spidey books in recent memory.

I read the entire first and second volumes of the series back when they were released in 2005–2006 and always really enjoyed the lighter take on Spider-Man, his villains (the few that actually make appearances) and his relationships with Mary Jane, Flash, and the rest of the gang. The art by Takeshi Miyazawa, previously of Runaways, as Watts mentions in the interview, is also a fun change of pace too. If Watts is planning on using any of the material as a basis for his Spider-Man film, it’s off to a good start.

Steven Lloyd Wilson for Pajiba:

Snyder setting the two up to be enemies so that they fight? Bullshit. The two are friends, brothers in arms, and that is exactly why their fights matter. They are friends because they are both good, and they both believe in most of the same things. But they believe in mutually exclusive routes to that justice. And they’re both right and they’re both wrong.

Good Batman and Superman stories set it up so that neither of them is right, so that they are both the causes of and solutions to the problems that exist. Snyder has no sense of that nuance, and that trailer really drove home just how little concept he has of these two characters.

This post echoes many of the thoughts I’ve had since seeing the trailer.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’re judging this purely on the trailer, which isn’t exactly fair, but many of the larger points are already addressed in the trailer itself, the press releases surrounding the movie, and the slate of films that WB’s announced spinning out of it.

Again, as I said in the previous post, I don’t want to see this movie fail but I’m finding it harder and harder to shake the feeling that it will as we see things trickle out about it.

Alex Abad-Santos for Vox:

“Tell me, do you bleed?” a Batman with glowing eyes asks Superman. The sky is dark and rainy. The city looks like it hasn’t seen the sun in years. And the trailer closes with an ominous promise from Batman. “You will,” he says.

While the trailer doesn’t look terrible, assuming this is legit, it’s certainly a Zack Snyder movie, for better or worse. The whole thing feels like nothing more than a bar fight between two bros with the volume turned way up.

Whereas we had a huge departure, especially in Dark Knight Rises, with what many would consider to be a “traditional” Batman story, this looks like the safest, most cliché route that Warner Bros could take. Hopefully that changes when we see more of it in future trailers.

It seems a little strange to me that they’re hinging an entire movie on the controversial events of Man of Steel, in which Superman’s disregard for the world around him led the destruction of a huge part of Metropolis and the deaths of countless people.

With a ton of movies coming down the pipe, I’m really hoping this works out. I definitely don’t want to see DC fail here but this trailer certainly doesn’t fill me with confidence.