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Tag Archive: David Wenham


First look–Netflix ups the action in second season trailer for Marvel’s Iron Fist

Filed under: Comics & Books, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
August 17, 2018

In three weeks we’ll see the return of Danny Rand to Netflix, continuing the ongoing Marvel television universe we last saw in this summer’s excellent sophomore season of Marvel’s Luke Cage.  Finn Jones’s martial arts master and corporate exec Danny Rand–the Immortal Iron Fist–returns in season two of Marvel’s Iron Fist and Netflix just released its first trailer for the season, providing a glimpse at what fans of the Marvel franchise can expect.  More action is takeaway No. 1.

The first season of Marvel’s Iron Fist was a bit rough after a dark season of Daredevil, a spectacular first season of Jessica Jones, and a knockout first season of Luke Cage.  Compared to the other series it approached its origin character with a slowly building story, with co-lead Colleen Wing, played by Jessica Henwick, carrying most of the emotional and dramatic excitement through the season.  A heavily corporate boardroom plot with siblings Joy and Ward Meachum (played by Jessica Stroup and Tom Pelphrey) didn’t help matters.  Not even the inclusion of genre-favorite David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) could lift the ho-hum plot.  And the parallels in Iron Fist and CW’s Arrow were plentiful starting with the similarity of the leads.  Marvel’s The Defenders then brought together Rand, Cage, Jones, and Daredevil’s Matt Murdock, but when the characters even acknowledged they didn’t want to be a team that projected to viewers a team-up that wasn’t quite ready.

So can Iron Fist re-engage this season?  Star Trek and Men in Black III’s Alice Eve appears briefly in the trailer as supervillain Typhoid Mary.  Mike Colter and Finn Jones’ brief team-up as the classic Power Man and Iron Fist hinted at something fans would love to see much more of.  Although we don’t see Colter in this first trailer we do see Simone Missick’s Misty Knight will at least return for an episode–something to look forward to.  Fans of G.I. Joe won’t be able to resist comparing the conflict between that series’ Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow to Danny Rand and this season’s rival Davos aka Steel Serpent, played by the returning Sacha Dhawan.

Take a look at this first look at Season 2 of Marvel’s Iron Fist:

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Who is the Iron Fist?

Filed under: Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
February 23, 2017

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It all leads into the Netflix series The Defenders coming this September.

First we met Matt “Daredevil” Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung) in Daredevil, then Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke “Power Man” Cage (Mike Colter) in the series Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.  Next month we meet the last member of Marvel’s newest incarnation of the team from the classic comic book series The Defenders.  Danny Rand, the Iron Fist (played by Finn Jones) in next month’s series Iron Fist.

For the most part the Disney-backed Marvel empire has maintained quality storytelling (excluding only a few standalone character sequels along the way) since Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige lit up the franchise with Iron Man in 2008.  Efforts with the networks included good efforts with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter (and a new X-Men series Legion gaining steam), but the real serial success has been seen with the Netflix series.

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So who is this last member of The Defenders?  Netflix sheds some light on Iron Fist in these two previews: Continue reading →

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First look–Dead Men Tell No Tales, Javier Bardem joins Johnny Depp in fifth Pirates adventure

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Movies — Leave a comment
October 3, 2016

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The Pirates of the Caribbean series is a rare franchise in Hollywood.  Any other film based on a game or something like an amusement park ride would have died after the initial movie.  But Pirates has withstood critical acclaim, and Jack Sparrow, the lead in each adventure, gave Johnny Depp one of several well-deserved Academy Award nominations.  The fifth installment in the series, Dead Men Tell No Tales, is coming next year, and we have the first trailer for the film, a brilliantly moody clip where we meet the new undead antagonist Captain Salazar played by Javier Bardem.  Call them ghost pirates or pirate ghosts, the inhabitants of this fantasy world continue to excite fans of a good adventure story.  Thank Sir Walter Scott and later Robert Louis Stevenson for getting generations excited about a good pirate story.  Add in a ghost story and just tell us the time and place to show up and we’ll be there.

The last Pirates entry, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, was such a visually stunning production with–more importantly–an interesting story, that it could be the franchise may just be hitting its stride.  On Stranger Tides kicked up the film’s action compared to the prior two films, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End.  Check out my review here.  It was almost as good as The Curse of the Black Pearl, which made my Top 10 fantasy movie list.

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We just can’t get enough of Johnny Depp and the roles he takes on, especially with this character–a character he has been able to develop over a 14-year span.  Depp and Ethan Hawke, who we discussed here at borg.com last week in our review of The Magnificent Seven, are the best actors of their generation.  It’s hard to beat Depp continuing on with a recurring role like this.  And just look at the guest stars of this series:  Jonathan Pryce, Bill Nighy, Naomie Harris, Stellan Skarsgaard, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, and Keith Richards?   Geoffrey Rush is back as Barbossa in Dead Men Tell No Tales, and its rumored David Wenham and Paul McCartney will appear.

So check out this preview for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales:

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First look–The “300” sequel: Rise of an Empire

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies — Leave a comment
June 15, 2013

300 Rise of an Empire poster

The adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300, based on the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, was met with both critical and popular success.  Known for its in-your-face blood-and-gore battle scenes, it may be the most graphic battle film ever made.

The original film starred Gerard Butler (Timeline, The Phantom of the Opera) as King Leonidas, Lena Headey (Game of Thrones, The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as his wife Queen Gorgo, and supporting genre actors David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, Van Helsing) and Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, X-Men: First Class, Jonah Hex, Hex, Inglourious Basterds).

Headey and Wenham are back for 300: Rise of an Empire, and an interesting choice, Eva Green as lead character Artemesia.  As she did in her role in The Golden Compass, she is wielding bow and arrow, this time apparently as a villain.

Check out the first trailer for 300: Rise of an Empire:

Note the preview highlights Zack Snyder as director–his Man of Steel is in theaters this weekend and he directed the original 300.  300: Rise of an Empire is scheduled for a March 7, 2014 release.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

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