Dateline Movies : March 2018

Friday, March 30, 2018

Story Pitch: Marvel's Strange Tales Presents - Spider-Man (Part 2)

This post is a continuation of Story Pitch: Marvel's Strange Tales Presents - Spider-Man. Click here for the first part. Also, welcome back to Dateline Movies, and this is the second part of our post.

Episode 8: Hide and Seek

Without a costume to help him out, wearing his so-called "Amazing Bag-Man" suit, and fighting while under the hallucinogen, Spider-Man is forced to fight the enhanced police officers, lead by Officer Abner Jenkins, who are all secretly hired by The Tinkerer to kill Spider-Man, all the while badly injured. All the pieces of the puzzle start coming together, as Hammer, by creating an incident that not only proves the superiority of one product, but also the necessity of having a countermeasure, would effectively gain a fortune for his maniacal efforts, and Hammer hints that he hired Mysterio, The Prowler, and The Shocker through The Tinkerer, a disgruntled former Hammer Industries engineer whom he will betray yet again. He also gets an added bonus by also showing-off The Tinkerer's updated weapons catalog through The Prowler and The Shocker. Eventually, a newly upgraded Vulture comes to Peter's rescue, just before Jenkins and the rest of his team pass-out from the stress of their painful flashbacks at the Break Room of Tomorrow, as well as the imperfect construction of their enhancements. Clash, upset that Hammer left him out of the deal to get upgrades, decides to fight Spider-Man as well, only to also gain second-thoughts at looking through his past memories, including his time witnessing Spider-Man fight at a wrestling cage at his younger days, eventually surrendering.

While this is happening, the crew of the Apogee-1 Space Station are then challenged by Mysterio, who is getting bored with Spider-Man, but only a little bit, to fight Molten Woman. They all engage in combat, and under the leadership of John, they manage to escape with about more than half of them. However, with Mysterio "going against the script", Mysterio then commandeers the space station, sending it into a collision course towards New York City.

Meanwhile, Justin Hammer is upset that Mysterio went against the deal, since they all agreed that once they all got their money, they would let the crew of Apogee-1 free. However, Mysterio, tired of being the "fall guy", since he was only hired to take credit for the crimes, decided that it was time for him to step into the spotlight by becoming a criminal mastermind, instead of just being another "bit part actor". With this, Mysterio drugs Hammer with the hallucinogen and then allows The Tinkerer's Beetle Drones to beat him near-death, after Mysterio tells The Tinkerer that Hammer is planning to betray him to the police once the smoke clears.

Episode 9: Shock and Awe

Being treated by May for his injuries, Peter and May begin to mend fences over their different perspectives on Peter's superhero career, with May being happy to have raised Peter despite his questionable lifestyle. As he heals, with M.J. remaining oblivious to Peter's alter-ego, Peter awkwardly thanks The Vulture for saving his life. They then discuss about The Vulture's potential redemption, to which The Vulture retorts that it is far too late for redemption, and that he is not willing to do everything that he can to give money to his family. Peter then asks as to why is he still alive if he already knows too well his secret identity, to which The Vulture says that it is "because you're not Stark's lackey", and also that "those knock-offs could go global and harm my family".

When M.J. mentions how much she both loves and hates "the superhero problem", Peter asks her further, all the while they tend to the injured. M.J., believes that every good thing can inspire the good and the bad, and so as much as she respects Spider-Man for his valiant efforts, much like Flash does, she also hates the fact that many more problems will be coming, solely thanks to him being there. Despite that, she is glad that people like Peter strive for the common good, even admitting that it is one of the many reasons why M.J. did not kick Peter out of the decathlon team, despite his absences, which leads M.J. to slightly blush in front of an oblivious Peter.

Both The Shocker and The Prowler, after coming to a huge disagreement as to who would get this loot and that loot, battle one another, and their fight is causing major damages to Horizon Labs. Spider-Man reports to the scene in order to diffuse the fight, and in the process, he saves Flash and the others who came with him, bringing both The Shocker and The Prowler to justice. While this is happening, Mysterio has initiated the destruction of Apogee-1, and Mayor Jameson has to call in The Avengers in order to save his son, while also searching for Hammer's location, after Jenkins confesses that Hammer hired him and his team.

During the battle, Quentin suggested that Mysterio might even be one of them, considering that he seems to know more all about them. Flash rebukes this and believes that Quentin is Mysterio, since for the entire time, he has been plotting something. This is later revealed to be some form of a stronger hallucinogen, created from improvisation with the recovered Beetle Drone's fuel, which in-turn increased the aggression levels for both The Prowler and The Shocker, resulting into their battle. In another attempt to impress his audience, Quentin sacrifices himself to shield Flash from a blast from The Shocker's gauntlets, traumatizing Flash, and forcing him to reconsider his life choices.

Episode 10: With Great Power ...

As Ned proposes the idea for him to use his own secret project, the "Steel Spider", and as M.J. provides cynical commentary on heroes and villains, pertaining to the Ultron Problem, they then respond to the emergency that is the downing of Apogee-1. During this time, Quentin is taken to the hospital, where he is treated for his injuries, and manages to gain the respect of his classmates.

As Apogee-1 begins to make its way to New York City, the crew do their best to prevent the space station from striking the city, while also fending-off a highly radioactive Pepper Potts, who is mindlessly out to kill them. With no more hostages, The Avengers, comprising of Iron Man, War Machine, and The Vision have joined in the attempts to stop the station from crashing, but because of the thick metal, Iron Man, War Machine, and later, The Vulture can only cut through some of the walls, and because of the radiation from the Molten Man, The Vision is having difficulty using his phasing abilities, saving only John, due in-part to his newfound abilities, a crippled Alistair Smythe, whose legs were crushed by Pepper, under a metal cabinet, during a fit of rage, and Agent Hill, while the rest of the crew sacrifice themselves by splitting the various parts of the station into pieces, so as to lessen the effect of the crash. Spider-Man catches much of the debris through his webbing.

Episode 11: The Avenging Spider-Man

Pepper Potts is still alive, and the crash, while it destroys parts of New York City, leaves her unscathed, and now she proceeds to cause some serious damage. To make matters worse, John goes completely berserk in his attempt to kill Pepper for her involvement in the deaths of his friends and colleagues. The Avengers, Spider-Man, with his newly acquired "Spider-Armor" prototype suit, his secret project, The Vulture, and Steel Spider work to contain the damage, as a media frenzy circles around them.

Iron Man realizes that an updated version of the Extremis, with the base substance being recovered from the dead bodies of Aldrich Killian's former teammates, done by none other than Hammer Industries, is in Pepper's body. Not only that, it would appear that the Extremis never really left her body, and instead remained dormant, and that her body only reacted to the introduction of the updated version of the Extremis. Working to create a different antidote while also containing the chaos, Spider-Man manages to help make a nanobot cocktail, which knocks Pepper out, and seemingly removing her powers. Mysterio also sends more waves of Beetle Drones to fight The Avengers, but are quickly dispatched.

John is later calmed down by his father, and The Avengers are forced to take them to the underwater prison for enhanced beings, The Raft. This is to ensure that as they are being treated, no one else would be harmed, much to Mayor Jameson's dismay. Mayor Jameson vows to put those responsible behind bars, permanently. Distraught over what Hammer has done to Pepper, Iron Man implores Spider-Man to bring Hammer to justice, as he tends to a resting Pepper.

Meanwhile, Mysterio enacts his own version of the plan, and that is to use the Spider-Slayers to destroy New York City, not only cementing his status as a serious villain, but also to prove to everyone that heroes are indeed needed in society, inviting Spider-Man for another "game". Justin Hammer is helpless to watch as his reputation sinks lower once more.

Episode 12: The Menace of Mysterio

Enjoying the calm before the storm, Peter and Ned, and later M.J., dine-in at Delmar's sandwich shop. They both discuss their roles as public servant, with Peter being both a scientist in the making, and a superhero, while Ned being a news writing intern for the Daily Bugle, which he received as a summer job. Ned breaks the sentimentality of their conversation by revealing that "The truth is Pete ... I'm not writing for the Bugle for this whole 'sense of right' thing ... I'm just ... well ... I'm trying to impress Betty". "Betty Brant? The news anchor Betty Brant?", asked Peter, to which Ned replies with a resounding "Well, you would do the same thing for Liz too, right? If she was still studying here".

With The Avengers departing to The Raft, Spider-Man and The Vulture, plus the limited assistance of Ned and M.J., unite to fight Mysterio's army of Beetle Drones, armed with hallucinogen canisters, as they destroy everything in sight, and forcefully merge with people, which Mysterio later programmed to explode afterwards. The Tinkerer quits helping Mysterio citing that he is "done with this spectacle", forcing Mysterio to control the robots without any sort of knowledge. As they make their way back to Horizon Labs, to fight-off what is left of Mysterio's army, they are surprised by Mysterio's lack of knowledge in controlling the robots, proving that he really is not the "puppet master" that he claims to be, and as such, the Beetle Drones become uncontrollable and even the machines turn against Mysterio, forcing him to retreat.

Spider-Man, under time pressure, works to pull each and every one of the people who are caught inside the suits. With their assistance, Spider-Man asks The Vulture and Ned to help him set-up his new Spider-Pulse, which he upgraded back at Parker Industries, all across the city, creating a larger electromagnetic pulse to decommission the rest of the Beetle Drones, which are all being reproduced in three different locations in the city. These locations are provided by May, which she recovered from Doctor Buddy's office. Enraged, Mysterio refuses to admit defeat, and he forces Spider-Man to fight him in Metro-General Hospital, his hideout, which is funded by Hammer Industries prior to its acquisition, and is now being taken under control by Mysterio and the last of the Beetle Drones. With both The Vulture's and Steel Spider's suit decommissioned, Peter goes in alone.

Episode 13: Curtain Call

The final episode. As Spider-Man follows the trail of Beetle Drones, all of whom are trapping people, including Quentin, while listening to Mysterio's further insults, which reveals that Mysterio is a professional stuntman who grew bored with his life, and has made it his calling to ensure that villains like him are around to keep the audience "entertained" with superhero battles, as he had such experience long ago when "my own face was broadcast all over the freaking world". Peter is puzzled, because he does not recall seeing him in television, to which Mysterio replies over the P.A. system that "I was there, but like before, no one really knew me until I got caught-up on the wrong side of the law. Typical Hollywood". Mysterio later answers Peter's question that he only does not hack into Peter's suit if he wants to, and that there are things such as his secret identity that he cannot discover, due to fail safes.

Agent Hill, recovering from her wounds, fights a machine flawlessly, and with May and M.J., they escort the rest out of the patients out of the hospital. At the same time, Mysterio reveals the plan to Spider-Man, pointing-out that his future plans would be needing "a clean slate". Mysterio reveals that Hammer hired him, The Beetle, Clash, The Prowler, The Shocker, and The Tinkerer to create some sort-of exposition for their weapons, including the Beetle Drones, and even Pepper Potts herself. This was all orchestrated by Hammer, all in a desperate attempt to regain his financial losses.

After destroying the last of the Beetle Drones, Peter reaches the basement levels, where Mysterio says he is hiding, only to find a heavily injured Justin Hammer threaten Spider-Man. Mysterio is already long gone, and he is only communicating to Spider-Man through hacked communication relays. Desperate to get his revenge on Iron Man for his misfortune, Hammer, given control over the robots by Mysterio, activates the self-destruct sequence for the machines in the hospital, hoping to at least "kill the little Spider-Boy". Spider-Man, with Agent Hill on a jetpack, which she used to fight Molten Woman and John aboard Apogee-1, fights, and beats him in his unique, red and silver-colored version of the Beetle Drone, and he proceeds to dispose all of the fifteen machines mid-air, merely one minute away from exploding, saving the hospital, and effectively, temporarily ending Mysterio's threat.

Quentin is later arrested after evidence suggest that all of the recordings of Mysterio's were transmissioned from him and pre-recorded, and he has been joining forces with Hammer, as revenge on their school for not recognizing his genius. This means that Quentin Beck is Mysterio. All attempts to prove his innocence failed, and Quentin is left frustrated and saddened in a juvenile detention facility.

A few days after the attacks, Horizon Labs, under reconstruction from the Department of Damage Control (D.O.D.C.), is finally reintroduced to the world by Pepper Potts and Tony Stark at the reinstated Stark Expo. It can be seen that M.J.'s romantic affection towards Peter are becoming clearer and clearer when she asks him if Peter would want to see her perform with her band for the after-party, to which Peter says "You sing?", to which M.J. says yes to, while Ned successfully asks Betty out for coffee.

While Peter enjoys the company of his friends, M.J.'s band performing, and his more approving Aunt May, Mayor Jameson is saddened by his son's transformation into an enhanced human being, and he hires Phineas Mason, whom he does not know is actually The Tinkerer, to re-purpose the Beetle Drones for police uses, which he willingly accepts. The Vulture, still not trusting Iron Man, willingly returns to jail, and in an attempt to redeem himself in Liz's eyes, accepts an offer by third-parties to do some "conditional hero work", while The Prowler and The Shocker are invited by cellmate Mac Gargan for a potential team-up. And speaking of John Jameson, Tony Stark offers him the "Jupiter Suit", which can help him control his newfound abilities, but his mind is ridden with survivor's guilt, while Agent Hill consoles Pepper after her uncontrollable transformation.

In the closing scene of this finale, Trevor Slattery, who is actually Mysterio, and not Quentin, after managing to escape the real Mandarin's attempt to kidnap him, and tired of being made into a "lackey", types in his computer his latest "script", stating that "a sequel is in order". Trevor framed Quentin, whom he intentionally matched his persona with, in order to avoid suspicion, and managed to hack Spider-Man's suit in order to plant the false evidence, leaving an innocent man like Quentin set on the same path that lead Trevor to finally embrace the life of a professional criminal.

In the mid-credits scene, Justin Hammer, in prison, makes contact with Ten Rings agent Jackson Norris, who was Trevor's original kidnapper, and had failed to do so when authorities intervened. He offers them his remaining weapons, and the whereabouts of Trevor Slattery, in exchange for giving him money to do "my own dirty work", tired of being double-crossed twice.

In the post-credits scene, members of Horizon Labs, and Agent Hill, notices that there is a strong energy signature from space that is heading their way, leaving all of them terrified, and setting-up the events of Avengers: Infinity War.

And there you have it, my pitch for a darker Spider-Man animated web-series. I hope you enjoyed it, despite the length. And since we already featured some concept artwork for the unmade Spider-Man 4, you might as well get to know it more by watching the video below. Stay tuned for more Dateline Movies!

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Story Pitch: Marvel's Strange Tales Presents - Spider-Man (Part 1)

It is now summer vacation here in the Philippines, and finally, for the first time in a really, really long time, we are back with another movie pitch. Only this time, I am not here to pitch to you a movie, but rather, an animated web-series. So yes, you can forget about that one pitch about the The Mighty Avengers, because we believe that what the Marvel Cinematic Universe really needs is something else entirely. (Also because, in retrospect, my Mighty Avengers proposal needs a lot of work). Welcome back to Dateline Movies, and this is our series proposal for Marvel's Strange Tales Presents - Spider-Man!

Also, while the story is completely original, I might give out a barrage of potential spoilers for upcoming films and series, since I have no idea what is cooking-up within the creative minds of Kevin Feige and company. Hold on to your seats, boys and girls, because this is going to be one heck of a long post.

The Concept:

Now, what is "Strange Tales", you ask? Based on the former Marvel Comics title of the same name, this version of Strange Tales will explore currently uncharted territory in the M.C.U., and this place is explored by neither the movies, although they did hint about them, nor the television shows. This animated web-series will be darker and much more serious in contrast to the films, but it will not reach the same amount of grit as the Netflix shows have reached, and will still retain some of the lighthearted elements that the films have been known for. Each season, such as this one, will give in-depth exploration of usually underdeveloped characters, be it villains, supporting cast members, and even main protagonists. Unlike the movies, the web-series would actually address the events of coinciding in-universe events from other media, which means that characters prohibited from interacting with The Avengers such as Daredevil, would be referenced explicitly, or even cameo, so as to establish a stronger sense of continuity.

For Spider-Man's case, there is not that much ground to cover, with the exception of that one glaring timeline plot hole. (See our review of Spider-Man: Homecoming for more information) And heck, the characters have only begun to grow. However, given that Tom Holland, the actor playing Spider-Man, is only contracted to do a limited number of films, the one thing that bothers me is that we would not be able to see all of Spider-Man villains come to life, and done justice. This would be a huge shame, since the web-head has one of the greatest rogues' galleries in history. Plus, the hero has numerous stories that are yet to be adapted. As such, this season of Strange Tales could hopefully answer those concerns.

I propose that the animation should be done by the same people who did The Spectacular Spider-Man animated show. We really cannot trust Disney to handle that, considering how awful the animation for the new Spider-Man animated show is. The duration of each of the thirteen episodes per season would last from 30-40 minutes. Finally, although it might be a little costly, perhaps the best way to truly establish continuity is by having all actors and actresses reprise their roles from the films. In turn, those who voiced newly introduced characters here should be able to translate their roles in live-action format.

For the story, I chose Mysterio as the main antagonist, who was supposed to be played by Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead Series) in the unmade Spider-Man 4, simply because I would want to see Spider-Man fight-off a realistic, semi-non-comical villain. The characters from the M.C.U. that will receive character development through this series include Justin Hammer, played by Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), The Tinkerer, played by Michael Chernus (Men in Black 3), Virginia "Pepper" Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow (Contagion), The Prowler, played by Donald Glover (Solo: A Star Wars Story), The Shocker, played by Bokeem Woodbine (The Rock), Maria Hill, played by Cobie Smulders (The Intervention), and one other mystery character who I am not directly going to mention, since it will ruin the twist later on. I am pretty sure that you have an idea on who it might be. I would also not be using villains that we have already seen before in the big screen, like the Green Goblin. Note that its storyboards, made by Jeffrey Henderson, are used for this post as visual aids.

The Series:

Episode 1: Lift Off

Set between the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War, Peter Parker, more popularly known by his alter-ego Spider-Man, is now working full-time for Stark Industries, as an intern for Pepper Potts, the wife of his mentor and fellow superhero, Tony Stark. In preparation for the upcoming commemoration of the annual "Stark Expo", which will introduce the world to "Horizon Labs", the latest subsidiary of Stark Industries composing of recruited child proteges from Stark's spearheaded "September Foundation", of which Peter, his friends Edward "Ned" Leeds, who now works as a freelancing reporter for the "Daily Bugle", outcast students Quentin Beck and Clayton Cole, and Michelle "M.J." Jones, and rival Eugene "Flash" Thompson are members of Stark Industries, in partnership with several other major companies and geniuses have come together to build the "Apogee-1 Space Station", an orbital space colony expected to launch during the Stark Expo, which is to be done in the newly constructed testing site for the project, located right next to Midtown School of Science and Technology. The crew of the station is lead by the son of former Daily Bugle editor-in-chief Mayor J. Jonah Jameson, astronaut John Jameson, accompanied by Pepper's bodyguard, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, Peter's classmate Alistair Smythe, and Alistair's mentor and father, Spencer, who, alongside his son, developed the "Ultron Problem".

The Ultron Problem, a favorite topic of M.J.'s and Quentin's, refers to how one, who is feeling unsafe, can lead to even more catastrophic results, similar to the Domino Effect. In this case, machines have reached a level which intimidates people, inviting chaos in the process.

However, the testing site is being attacked and robbed by gangster Aaron Davis, also known as "The Prowler", who has been hired by the designer of his newly obtained re-purposed Chitauri weapons, Phineas Mason, "The Tinkerer". To make things much more complicated, one of the lead designers of the project, Pepper Potts, an expected member of the expedition, has been missing for two weeks already, delaying the launch of the space station for several days. Peter, as Spider-Man, is able to foil The Prowler's theft of the space station's supercomputer.

As Peter celebrates the final phases of their project, his Aunt May Parker, resuming her career as a nurse at Metro-General Hospital, gets into an argument again over the phone about his own safety, which he scoffs, saying that he has a project to handle in his private workshop by the piers. They also argued about May's decision to buy a revolver, due to her fear that "he'll be needing his help soon, and not the 'buying a new bag' type", Unknown to Peter, however, the robbery was a success, and the supercomputer that he retrieved was merely a decoy.

Meanwhile, Pepper creeps her way to the testing site, then suddenly passing-out from high fever, and is retrieved by security personnel.

Episode 2: Failure to Launch

Only two days until the space station launches in front of an adoring crowd, and Ned, M.J., Flash, plus a surprising appearance from Justin Hammer, now in an embarrassing role as the unwilling public-relations officer of Horizon Labs, continue to reassure Mayor Jameson that Apogee-1 will indeed be a success. Hammer admits that "it's a long story". Much to everyone's almost surprise, Peter does not attend the meeting, because secretly, he is fighting against Herman Schultz, The Shocker, who has been hired also by The Tinkerer to damage the communication satellites for Apogee-1, and to torture Spider-Man with a new invention of his and his other partner's experimental hallucinogen. The powerful, upgraded weapons of The Shocker, who is furious at Spider-Man for costing him his job, leading The Shocker to lose custody of his two daughters, and for having him be the butt of every other prisoner's jokes for being webbed-up by "Spidey's pal", are enough to give Peter a hard time, forcing him to chase The Shocker all throughout the subway tunnels of New York City. Eventually, Spider-Man succeeds in defending the satellites, but is unable to apprehend The Shocker after being knocked unconscious on their final battle.

As the Stark Expo arrives, everyone is thrilled to see the beauty that is the Apogee-1 Space Station. Pepper, despite experiencing serious headaches and other symptoms, insists to partake in the deep space exploration operation. As Apogee-1 launches on the gala night, Pepper suddenly passes-out once again, and as communications between the control room and the space station are being interrupted by static, Pepper suddenly bursts, horrifying John, Alistair, Spencer, and Agent Hill.

In reality, Justin Hammer, frustrated at having to see that Stark Industries had to buy his entire company so as to limit the manufacturing of illegal weapons, is working behind Peter's back. After evidence was discovered that Hammer was involved with funding The Vulture's operations to build new Chitauri-based weapons recovered from "The Incident", which he also sold to other criminal organizations from prison, Hammer, desperate for money, is humiliatingly made into an employee of his own corporate rival. Hammer simply smiles through his laptop in his private office, being in contact with Mysterio, The Prowler, The Shocker, and The Tinkerer, the latter three are former employees of his whom he promised free lives, and muses that it is time to begin the next part of their plan.

Meanwhile, John Jameson and the rest of his crew barricade themselves in the medical bay of the space station, keeping themselves away from "Molten Woman", while arming themselves with standard weapons. Mysterio hacks into the communications hub of the station, and tells them that "the fun has only begun".

Episode 3: Web of Doom

As communication returns to normal, it has become apparent to everyone that the Apogee-1 Space Station has been taken over. Pepper Potts has transformed into something else entirely, complete with a shiny golden, metallic, lava-like appearance, and is seen to be manipulating and generating fire out of nothing. The ground control team have no power over the station, which is now stranded in the stratosphere. Peter and his friends are forced to watch a live broadcast by someone who is claiming to be "Mysterio", the master of illusions. He has come forward with a challenge for Spider-Man: play his game of survival, mockingly titled "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends", or blow the space station out of orbit, and have its remains crash over New York City. In addition, Mysterio sets-off some bombs all across the facility, engulfing the place with his hallucinogen, which everyone to feel a little bit more aggressive, and see various monsters, causing paranoia among Horizon Labs staff, except Peter, whose suit air0filtration system helps-out a lot.

With no choice but to accept, and with no aid from any other superhero or authority, because Mysterio forbid them to ask any of them, so Peter must find a way to keep his identity a secret, while also doing battle against Mysterio's employer, The Tinkerer's army of robotic "Beetle Drones", purple, beetle-themed humanoid automated suits of armor almost similar to that of Iron Man's, from its capabilities such as flight and repulsor-based combat, to its other features. He does defeat the first wave of attackers, which is lead by The Shocker, but he does not save Justin Hammer from being taken away by the Beetle Drones to another location in the testing site. As they fortify the basement level, Peter, Ned, M.J., Flash, and Quentin plan their secret escape through the subway systems.

Meanwhile, after a lengthy, heartfelt talk with his daughter, Liz Toomes, who is staying with her mother Doris Toomes, and decided to show-up and admit that she will always love her father, Adrian watches as the hostage situation commences, with the police setting-up perimeters.

Episode 4: Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

As Peter and the rest of his allies search for a safe haven, the group is ambushed by The Shocker, and his small army of Beetle Drones, and are forced to barricade themselves in the building containing the "Break Room of Tomorrow", an upgraded version of Tony Stark's "Binarily Augmented Retro Framing" (B.A.R.F.) technology which is supposed to let users travel 24 hours into the future, but only allows users to see various memories from their pasts, including all of their perspectives on the "Battle for New York".

As Peter, Ned, M.J., Flash, Clayton, and Quentin fight-off the waves of robots through recreated memories, and while Peter does everything that he can for others to not discover his identity by rewiring the system, with various Stark Industries weapons hidden in the area, until they are saved by The Prowler, who has a proposal for Spider-Man. While this is happening, John is exposed to some toxins in the station, experimental "botanic preservatives" for the vegetation in the station, which have had some genetic alterations from their exposure to the station's Arc Reactor, which gives him some form of enhanced strength, which he then uses to fight an uncontrollable Pepper. The crew also has to deal with the effects of Mysterio's hallucinogen.

Peter then must help his friends defend themselves when they have to launch a massive air-filtration machine to remove the hallucinogen, and wait for a few hours for the effects to wear-off, which he succeeds in.

Episode 5: No Honor Among Thieves

Peter and the rest of the trapped guests and employees have found a way out through the subway systems, which Peter can hack through Karen, his suit's artificial intelligence. However, while Flash and some of the others are willing to run away, with May, through a secret phone call, just asking Peter, who is under the guise of Spider-Man at the moment, to let the authorities handle this, because "Since when has The Avengers not save the day?", Peter, Ned, an M.J. decide to stay and try to repair and recover one of the Horizon Labs' prototype projects, a space pod that is capable of travelling at fast speeds, which can be used to travel to Apogee-1, and have Spider-Man save John and the rest of the crew. Ned was initially hesitant, as his secret crush Betty Brant, is unwilling to go out of fear, but was convinced to help and come-up with a back-up plan. Unable to convince her nephew to stand down, May simply asks Spider-Man to "find Peter for me".

The Prowler then sends a transmission to Spider-Man, proposing to form an uneasy alliance. As Ned and M.J. head to Parker Industries, under the presumption that Peter might be there coming-up with a plan to fight back, and as Flash, Quentin, wanting to prove his worth by defending the group with his knowledge on chemistry and technology, make their escape with Clayton Cole, now possessing seismic-based technology.

There, The Prowler convinces Spider-Man to let him help in one of Mysterio's challenges, and that is to recover pieces of technology from the ship assembly area of Horizon Labs. Spider-Man reluctantly accepts, and as Mysterio indulges in his little games, both Spider-Man and The Prowler, who seemingly surprised Mysterio by pointing-out that he is merely looking out for himself. But once they both manage to fight their way through all of the Beetle Drones, The Prowler double-crosses him. Instead of helping him get the craft, he instead detonates a bomb in the vault, destroying everything, and gives Mysterio the coordinates of the escape route, provided by Clayton Cole, who is upset at Flash for belittling him, leading to Flash and others being captured.

While Spider-Man defeats The Prowler, he is again knocked-out by The Shocker, who sends him spiraling down to the sewer levels. The Shocker, infuriated that The Prowler destroyed countless priceless items in the warehouse area, yet impressed that he is able to trick Spider-Man, although it was Mysterio who told The Prowler, just wanting to also provide for his family, who sights that "the ghetto has only one lesson: survival of the fittest", on what to do, invites him to instead force the other members of Horizon Labs to locate the remaining experiments, which he accepts.

Meanwhile, Ned and M.J. decide to enact their back-up plan into fruition. By reprogramming a Beetle Drone, through the use of one of the projects there, a potential form of unlimited access to the Internet, "Webware", Ned and M.J. decides to locate The Vulture, and recruits him in rescuing the crew, which he accepts. John slowly loses grip on reality while fighting the Molten Woman, trapping Agent Hill in a fight between two seemingly deranged superpowered people, resulting in Agent Hill snapping John back to reality. May also begins to suspect that something is not right about the hospital, where she discovers that Hammer is secretly escorted there via ambulance.

Episode 6: Friends in Lower Places

With the use of the reprogrammed Beetle Drone, Ned and M.J. help The Vulture escape prison, and even help him locate his exoskeleton. However, he is faced with animosity in the form of other hallucinogen-infected prisoners who are either angry at him for selling them "defective" gadgets, or for having his devices be the cause of several deaths. They, lead by Toomes' cellmate MacDonald "Mac" Gargan, as a sadistic means of distraction for him to escape during the ruckus, all have Beetle Drones as weapons, which are hidden through various packages as if they were clothes. All of them are actually hired by The Tinkerer, noting that Spider-Man, being unable to reach The Avengers, knew that he would reach-out to his former boss. As a prison riot ensues, The Vulture manages to escape custody, after going through police barricades, leaving Gargan arrested again. Afterwards, The Vulture sneaks through Horizon Labs unseen, although his Vulture suit is heavily damaged, and heads straight to Parker Industries.

While this is happening, Spider-Man is lost in the sewers, heavily injured from his previous battle, hallucinating his way out of the area, encountering nightmarish flashbacks detailing his motivations on becoming a superhero, while fighting endless waves of remote-controlled Beetle Drones. He is able to emerge victorious by creating an improvised electromagnetic pulse through the use of his experimental "Spider-Pulse", to deactivate all of the robots, but it renders his suit useless, and, for a couple of hours, he has to fight his way out without any costume, or even his web-shooters. Mysterio watches from the camera systems, remaining oblivious to Peter's real identity, due to the shadows obscuring his face, and taunts him. During the conflicts, Mysterio sheds light on what he is, and he reveals that is a huge fan of Spider-Man, and that he believes that it is his duty to keep him "relevant", which disgusts Peter, seeing that he does not want to be worshiped.

He eventually makes it out of the frying pan, and into the fire, after hallucinating, due to Mysterio's hallucinogen, "made of Beetle fuel", about Iron Man and all of his friends being disappointed in him, and later being encouraging. Mysterio also points-out that, through his commentary on the Ultron Problem, that his drug is made with hypnotic capabilities, which means that all they are seeing are products of him hypnotizing them. He also ventures through his past experiences before becoming a superhero, including nearly being killed by "the guy who hired the guy to make pre-Ultrons at the Stark Expo" in his youth, only to be saved by Iron Man, and during the time when he was rescued by his uncle Ben Parker from being crushed by debris during "The Incident".

As the captured students remain at the mercy of The Prowler and The Shocker, plus Clayton, now "Clash", Quentin is consoled by one of the students after being berated by Flash for being more or less useless, unlike him, who is going to be a soldier in the future. Quentin is contented with the fact that a smarter man like him who, despite wanting to be an actor like Trevor Slattery, will always find appreciation elsewhere. He is able to secretly hide a Beetle Drone fuel cell. Flash is also pretending to look not guilty, for contributing to Clash's turn to villainy.

Meanwhile, Justin Hammer makes contact to Mayor Jameson, who is having a meeting with The Avengers on the situation. Pretending as if he was tortured, Hammer prepares to bargain with Jameson for a solution to the problem: surgically-grafting Beetle Drone technology onto police officers, although they will be getting the latest version, complete with a more war-based aesthetic. This will make them stronger, since each will have their own unique fighting styles. May's attempts to search the hospital's records for any link to Hammer to the hospital is prevented by her superior, Dr. Norah Buddy.

Episode 7: The Price of Doing Business

Mysterio, who was actually stalking him all across the sewers, forces him to temporarily go out of Horizon Labs for another challenge. Still lacking a costume, but already having his web-slingers in hand, Spider-Man is then forced to locate five hallucinogen-based bombs scattered all across the city, each guarded by remote-controlled Beetle Drones. Two of them are located in trains that are about to collide on one another, and the rest are only hinted through Mysterio's vague tips. While this is happening, the media circus surrounding the laboratories is becoming more and more uncontrollable, and Mayor Jameson must contend with the idea that he might have to accept Hammer's deal in order to free his son.

During the meeting, The Tinkerer laments on his dissatisfaction at working for his former employer, who stole his rightful credit in the designs of the "Hammer Drones", originally made for construction purposes, and are the basis for the Beetle Drones. Despite this, he remains stern at the fact that he gets money from his endeavors, and also feeding his curiosity, and that eventually, The Tinkerer will have enough resources to overshadow his abusive boss. May follows Norah Buddy to her home, to learn that the hospital is funded by Hammer Industries, leading May to shoot her in self-defense, killing Doctor Buddy. May, while also helping Peter find the bombs via an ambulance, and also partly healing his wounds, updates her findings to Peter, and she returns to work.

Meanwhile, Hammer also laments to Christine Everheart, his one and only one night stand and current lover, about his plans. Christine, who has been interviewing The Avengers and Mayor Jameson about the Ultron Problem and the situation, has birthed a child, whom she named "Justine" in Hammer's honor, much to Hammer's delight. Promising to fund child support, and after sharing about his short-lived romance in prison, Hammer pleads Christine to keep the news outlets distracted, which she accepts.

Okay this post was becoming extremely lengthy. As such, please check-out the second part here, and also the theme song for the animated series, "The Spectacular Spider-Man". Stay tuned for more Dateline Movies.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Will The Masters of Evil Debut in Infinity War? (A Spotted Tie-In)

Avengers: Infinity War is roughly about a month away, folks, and boy, it really cannot come here any sooner. While everyone is busy talking about who will die in the forthcoming crossover, Dad and I are just here discussing, "Who the hell is going to help them?" When you think about it, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, plus with the combined might of the Wakandans, are still hopelessly outnumbered by Thanos' Black Order and his new alien army, the Outriders.

Considering that this is basically the end of the entire universe as we know it, our heroes should consider every single option in order to prevent Thanos from bringing about total annihilation. Yes, the Defenders (Y'know, Netflix's street-based Avengers) should might as well be concerned, but due to the fact that the movies are currently ignoring much of the events of the shows, it seems unlikely that we would see the two teams fight side-by-side, although there might be some few subtle nods to their actions during the film. Welcome to Dateline Movies, and we might have a pretty great idea on who our heroes will turn to, and they are none other than ... the villains?

Right, because the last thing the Avengers and the Guardians really need right now are a bunch of villains running around doing other evil things while a bigger threat gives them the advantage to do so. Although there has been no official confirmation that any other villain would be returning for the flick, there is still a chance that they could help out, and could even be referenced or be seen through cameos.

It is actually already a particularly cliched thing to do for heroes who are in desperate need of assistance, especially in the face of something as catastrophic as Thanos and his Black Order. We have seen that happen already before, with Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston (High-Rise) already teaming-up with Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth (The Ghostbusters Reboot) twice (Thrice, if you would be counting his appearance as a "fully reformed" villain in Infinity War). It is also a given fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a serious villain problem, and it does not help that much of their more interesting villains had already been killed-off unceremoniously. Luckily for us though, we still have a few living villains who are either incarcerated and are grinding their axes for future revenge schemes, or are turning a new leaf. What better way to finally flesh these evildoers out than a massive crossover with lasting consequences?

Given that, how would the likes of Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr. (Good Night, and Good Luck) considering he seems to be the man leading the battle, even convince them that they should help the very people that brought them behind bars? Not surprisingly, it really is not that difficult to convince them. And while the focus is still with the Avengers and the Guardians, the film does not really need to put one huge montage dedicated to their recruitment, but perhaps just one scene that showed all of them entering Quinjets, or going through portals made by Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch (The Current War), all ready for battle, but not before making harsh exchanges with their mortal enemies.

Tony realizes that they are indeed outnumbered, and despite Wakanda's technological advancements, they will not be able to combat the entire Outrider attack force. To make things worse, and considering that the directors Joe and Anthony Russo have confirmed that Infinity War works more like a heist film, Thanos, played by Josh Brolin (Sicario: Day of the Soldado) is allowing his forces to cause distractions worldwide, leaving the Avengers thinly spread-out. In a desperate move, Tony would gather the files of all of the currently alive villains, and recruit them, with some through other heroes, wherever they are currently located.

The "Masters of Evil", an obvious anti-Avengers team, which is a name that could be given by someone like Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland (Spies in Disguise), or Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd (Clueless) as a joke ("I don't feel like working with these 'Masters of Evil', Mr. Stark.", or something within that line), would be deployed to certain parts of Wakanda, or other nations, to hold-off the invasion.

Adrian Toomes / The Vulture

(from Spider-Man: Homecoming)

New York City looks as if its going to be ground zero for Thanos' first strike, and here I thought that the city itself did not sustain enough damage already from the events of The Avengers. Given the potential threat that the giant floating disc from space poses, Adrian Toomes, also known as The Vulture, played by Michael Keaton (The Founder) would be the first to accept Tony's invitation, despite his distrust and hatred of Stark, as seen in his debut film. In fact, he would be the only one who would accept it in a heartbeat.

Since he knows him well much more than Tony, Spider-Man might be the one to pick him up from prison, given that we see him incarcerated in a New York City prison. Toomes might be slightly hesitant, but being a family man, he offers his skills and knowledge of the Vulture harness to fight the invaders. His connections to two other villains from Spider-Man: Homecoming, namely The Shocker, played by Bokeem Woodbine (Riddick), and the man who made his gadgets, The Tinkerer, played by Michael Chernus (The Most Hated Woman in America) would lead to try and recruit them to the fight. However, both would decline. In The Shocker's case, provided that he is more or less just your average, money minded henchman, would rather run away, fearing for his own survival, while The Tinkerer is nowhere to be seen, since he managed to escape in Homecoming. This forces The Vulture to join alone, but not before getting enough Chitauri-enhanced weapons and supplies from his old workplace.

The Vulture, with his Chitauri-upgraded arsenal, could be the one to provide air support for the villain's counterattacks.

Helmut Zemo
(from Captain America: Civil War)

How fitting it is that the man who is solely responsible for the disbandment of the Avengers, would eventually help them out. Tony could personally recruit him from his European prison, where we last saw him gloating to Everett K. Ross, played by Martin Freeman (Ghost Stories) of his master plan's success. While Helmut Zemo, played by Daniel Brühl (The Cloverfield Paradox) would be reluctant to assist the people, that type of people that he despises, the Enhanced, his own belief that no other Enhanced should be able to cause further damage to the world would convince him to join in. Since we did not see him show-off his military skills from his days as a Sokovian kill squad leader, this could be his chance to inflict some serious damage.

However, considering that he has no powers whatsoever, and it is more or less clear that simple bullets would not be enough, Zemo might become truly desperate. This would eventually force him to inject an unstable "Super Soldier Serum" that can give him advanced reflexes and strength. And as a reference to the comics, his face might become disfigured, which leads him to wear his signature purple mask.

Helmut Zemo could serve as the field leader, and the marksman of the Masters of Evil.

Karl Mordo
(from Doctor Strange)

Among all of the recruits, he is the only one whose existence Tony is not aware of. Doctor Strange, being his former colleague in the "Masters of the Mystic Arts", would be able to track Karl Mordo, played by Chiwetal Ejiofor (Children of Men) down anywhere in the world. Since we last saw him kidnapping Jonathan Pangborn, played by Benjamin Bratt (Coco), in the post-credits scene of Doctor Strange, we might be able to see him mastering his skills further. Strange would be able to convince him to aid the Avengers and the Guardians in the fight against Thanos by telling him that he can be better than their former mentor, The Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton (Okja) by making the world better. Although he would still abide to his "no more sorcerers" philosophy, Mordo's desire in making a better world would convince him to form an uneasy alliance with the heroes.

Karl Mordo could be the one to provide magical support, and additional air assistance, for the counterattacks.

Justin Hammer

(from Iron Man 2)

Now, it does make sense for someone with no powers, but has practically enough experience in battle to fight in an intergalactic onslaught. But what can a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, minus a certain suit of armor and a moral compass, can contribute in the battlefield? When we last saw him in the Marvel One-Shot entitled "All Hail The King", Hammer is simply living a rather pleasant experience in prison, until a riot erupted. Given that he practically has no fighting skills, there is no possible way for him to escape easily, and more or less he is incarcerated again, and never heard from again.

That might be the end of his story, but as evidenced in Netflix's Luke Cage series, it would appear that his company, which might be managed by him from prison, is joining the weapons dealing market, specifically on the Chitauri weapons side, similar to The Vulture's former operation. While we just saw some weapons such as a few upgraded state-of-the-art bullets, and a really terribly designed exoskeleton, perhaps Hammer might have finally gotten the edge that he has always desired in order to best Stark at his own game, and that is the right Chitauri technology, and the know-how, to build an alien armor, probably similar to how it was done for his animated counterpart in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, where he gained an armor from Stark's blueprints and became the "Titanium Man". With this in mind, Hammer, who might be convinced by Stark himself that he can one-up his corporate rival with his advanced technology in the battle against Thanos. Considering that Hammer possesses an ego and a happy-go-lucky vibe that matches Stark in more ways than one, Hammer would more or less accept the challenge, even at the risk of getting himself terribly altered from his vanity project.

Justin Hammer, with his upgrades, plus with some additional Wakandan weaponry, could be the primary ground support for the Masters of Evil.

Emil Blonsky / The Abomination,

and Samuel Sterns / The Leader

(from The Incredible Hulk)

And finally we make it to the two unfortunate black sheep of the M.C.U. rogues' gallery. Both of these villains have managed to survive the events of The Incredible Hulk, but after that movie, they are never heard from ever since, except for a few subtle references, which is a huge waste considering that these two villains have rather interesting stories in the comics. This could be the best chance to bring them back, and finally have themselves shine.

Bruce Banner, or the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) could be the one to recruit them in their prison, appealing once more to their inferior and insecure personalities. Arguably, these two would be the most difficult to recruit, considering that Emil Blonsky, The Abomination, played by Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) has no qualms about other people's lives, while Samuel Sterns, The Leader, played by Tim Blake Nelson (FANT4STIC), being one of the smartest superpowered beings yet, predicts that a new empire could be formed from the ashes. However, given that The Leader can predict any outcome, he might also predict that Thanos might see him as a threat, then eventually kill him. Because of this, The Leader, who convinces The Abomination, to join the fight, with The Abomination reluctantly joining, hoping that after the fight, he will be able to kill The Hulk himself.

The Abomination will most likely be the muscle of the group, while The Leader, with his telepathy, could be the wheelchair-bound compass of the team.

And there you have it. We have shown our case on how the Masters of Evil could debut in Avengers: Infinity War. There are notable excluded villains from this post, including Georges Batroc, played by Georges St. Pierre (Kickboxer: Vengeance), considering that he would basically be killed because of his limited fighting abilities, and the Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) whose status remains unknown after being teleported to outer space. Do you believe that the Masters of Evil will be coming to the M.C.U.? Let us know in the comments, and please enjoy this awesome second trailer for the obvious movie. Stay tuned for more Dateline Movies!