Weird Mind News Room Episode 23: July 31st- August 6th

 *Theme song in a half shell, Turtle power*

Well hhhhheeeeeeelllllllllooooooo to you all once again with an all new episode of Weird Mind News Room. I am here once again to bring you all the information of the newest Releases, Trailers and News stories that has released this week based on information coming from my own country. So lets get to action and talk on what has come out of this week

Newly Released Media Content

Movies

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

For the first of the big 2 releases of this week, we are going Turtle Crazy with an all new version of the popular characters with the new film Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This new tale will follow the four brothers of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelangelo and the master Splinter as they set out to the real world to win the hearts of New Yorkers. They soon discover a group of other Mutants led by their leader Superfly who plan to take over the world and soon they must stop this from happening and save their home. Now the reception for this movie has been overwhelmingly positive with great praise for it length, Animation akin to Spider-verse and for the characters feeling like proper fleshed out brothers (and voiced by actual teenagers this time). I for one will be checking this out when I can and you can too as it is available now in cinemas. Cowabunga

The Meg 2: The Trench

If you are looking for Summer fun on a large scale then you take a dive over to our next big release of this week and that is with the to the 2018 shark film of the Meg with the Meg 2: The Trench. This new one sees Jason Stathem's Jonas Taylor return for this film as while leading an expidetion to the depths of the ocean, they soon come across that the 2 prehistoric predators from the previous film were not the only ones and there is in fact a pack of them, with one of them being the Alpha and they must stop at nothing to take them down and save everyone from becoming Shark Bait. Now reception for this film as expected is not going to be the most well recieved and have been hit with a fair amount of poor reviews but I mean it is expected for a film of Stathem fighting a giant shark on a jetski on his own. I for one enjoyed the original for what its worth and I am sure I will sink my teeth into the next one whe I get the chance to do so

TV Shows

Heartstopper Season 2

Now for the newly released tv show of this week, we are heading over to Netflix and back to a popular LGBTQ love story adaptation with the 2nd season of Heartstopper as we see the continuing growing relationship between Charlie and Nick as they continue to learn more about each other and their relationship while on a trip to Paris. Now I have seen some positive reception to the series first season and this sophomore season is also doing really well in reception and if you want something positive and a bit wholesome then I would say to check it out when you can (I know a good friend of mine will be checking this out themselves)  

Futurama season 11 episode 2

This one is just a brief one as I am mentioning the next episode of Futurama is available to stream this week and will see the birth of Kif and Amy's tadpoles after a long period of time and see them try to deal with the struggles of parenting which ties up an ending from a previous season and you check it out not on Disney+

Games

Baldurs gate 3

And the final release for this week is taking us to an all new mystical land with the 3rd in the popular series of Baldur Gate. Based on the DND Role Playing system and set 120 years after the 2nd game, the player controls their own customizable character as they must join forces with some other rag tag group of heroes and as they save the land of Faerún from an army of Mind Flayers. Now this game was in early access since late 2020 but has fully released this week on PC and has been universally acclaimed for the depth and story, gameplay and characters and enjoyment as well. Now I only really want to bring this up cause of the one scene that peaked my interest and that was the fact of a developer livestream that saw a romantic sex scene of the players character (I think) have sex in the middle of an open field with another male character that turns himself into a bear and have to say it was hot (even if is is technically a form of beastiality). Also I believe my Girlfriend had the writer of this game as a supervisor for her final year project of a game she was working on with her team so that is quite an interesting tale. Either way if you want to check it out it is available now on PC and is releasing a month later on PS5.

Trailers in time

Loki Season 2

Starting off on our trailers for the week with the next entry in the MCU and the return of everyone's favourite god of LOKI with the 2nd season of his show. Now where the series left off at the end of season 1, LOKI and Sylvie had made it to the location of the One who remains who in this situation is this Saga's big bad of Kang (or at least one variant of Kang) who watched over the timeline and then saw his death, the multiverse being unleashed and Loki trapped in a different dimension. Now this new series will see him team up with Mobius (and make distinct here this is the character Owen Wilson plays and not the Leto Vampire) as they try to stop the corruption in the TVA and restore the Sacred timeline, while also having to get control of the sudden Timeslipping he has been finding himself stuck with (think of it similar to the glitching aspect of the Spider-verse films). Now I really enjoyed the first season and I am sure I will be checking this out when the season begins premiering on October 6th.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Raymann in the Phantom Show

Now for a trailer for DLC and this is coming to us in the form of some footage for the final part of the DLC pack for Mario and Rabbids Sparks of hope and this is not just a simple new expansion like the last spark hunter or Tower of Doooom, while it may be slightly similar there is one important aspect to it and that is the return of a popular character from the studio and that is the limbless action hero of Rayman, who is back for the new DLC of the Phantom show and will team up with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario to make it one hell of a spectacle. Now we haven't seen Rayman in a full game since Legends (and the mobile games) in nearly a decade, and we haven't seen Rayman in his 3d form since 2008 with Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (a game I remember from my childhood) and I will be checking this out (as well as getting more into the games sequel after saving Hyrule) when this DLC released on August 30th.

Disenchantment Final Season

We are returning once again to the animated series created by Matt Groening once again this episode with the release of the trailer for the 5th and final season of Netflix's Disenchantment. Now this series will follow on for the story of Bean trying to stop her evil tyrannical Mother Queen Dagmar and saving the kingdom of Dreamland and all who inhabit it from total destruction and despair. Now I have seen a good chuck of Disenchantment and I enjoyed it and may need to have a little bit of a rewatch of the series before the final season drops in a few weeks time on September 1st

Spy Kids Armageddon (SK5)

Now to keep this brief for the final trailer, some of you may or may not remember a series of films known as Spy Kids that saw 2 young Kids named Carmin and Juni Cortez discover that their parent are spies and soon they must take on that role and rescue their parents from the crazy tv host of Floop and his army of Thumb Thumbs. Now it is a guilty pleasure film series for me (the first 3 anyway) where the original was well liked, the sequel is often forgotten about, the 3rd movie is remembered for its gimmick of being in 3D and then the 4th had the 2 kids as cameos and had a dog voiced by Ricky Gervis and a weird gimmick when the film released where they has some card that had you smell what was on screen (which is a weird story in of itself of questioning why did they implement Smell-o-vision). But this new film will be a reboot to the franchise that will see the kids discover their parents are spies after they help a powerful game developer obtain a computer virus that controls all the worlds technology and they must becomes spies and save their parent and the world. Now it will depend if this will be decent or not as the last 2 films were not recieved that strongly and I may give this a look into when it releases on September 22nd

Secret of the News

Lando: A Star Wars Writers dilemma story

Now about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I talked about the case of some updates to the upcoming new Star Wars series that would focus on the Younger version of Lando Calrissian that was played by Donald Glover in the Solo film. I mentioned on the shows writer that they have not heard any word from Disney since its announcement of the development was still ongoing in 2020 and was ready to start working on the project. Well now it may be the case that they may be looking for other work so suddenly as it was announced at the end of last week or start of this week that the series was now being worked on and written by Glover himself and his brother Stephen will be taking on that job. Now it was not the case though that the original writer was told from the studio, but rather he was informed or found out about it through social media which kind of feels a little anticlimactic and really unprofessional from Disney and Lucasfilm. It may have had to do with the strike but it who knows and I am sure there will be some form of a reason behind the change to the writers.

But what do you think of this choice for writing the series in general, do you think the Glover brothers will do a decent job in writing the series or will it be a bit of a mess. Do let me know what you think down in the comments below

Nintendo Switch successor coming within the next year

Now we go to some tech news that does interest me and that is with us discussing the gaming powerhouse of Nintendo. Now Nintendo has been having quite the successful year this year, thanks in no small part to the Box office giant that was this years Super Mario Brothers Movie and of the Critically Acclaimed Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdoms release in Mid May and has so far sold nearly 20 million copies and the continued success of their switch line with nearly 130 million sold to this day and it is the console inn particular I want to focus on this week. You see the Switch has been out on the market for about 6.5 years at this point and it may be the period of the console soon heading into its Twilight years as most consoles have a lifecycle of around 6-7 years so it has come with no surprise that some discussion of the next successor is currently on the way and it also has a form of a release window. According to VGC, it is projected that the next gen console for Nintendo (dubbed right now as the Switch 2) is eyeing for a release sometime in the 2nd half of 2024. They have mentioned in some aspects that many developers have the developer kits for this new console hardware for making new games for the console and has been confirmed to have similar aspects to the predecessor like physical game support with cartridges and the console will launch in an LCD format for cost reduction but will receive an OLED in the future and it will have much more storage, better graphics and battery and are planning for more stock available at launch then the PS5 and Series X/S had at launch in 2020. Now I for one am interested to see what the console itself will look like and I will be for sure getting the console whenever it releases to the world and play all the games at the time and from my library.

But what do you think of all of this and are you excited for a new Nintendo console and have you enjoyed their previous hardware? Let me know down below and start a discussion of speculation

Gal Gadot may be back as the Amazonian after all

Now for the superhero news of this week and we are heading over to the DCU this time around and talking on some of the news from there. Now the DCEU has had its share of underwhelming or disappointing films to say the least but it has had its share of well received and great ones as well and the first one to be highly praised was 2017's Wonder Woman. Now this character has been a very popular and well liked in the DCEU and is probably the only character to have the most appearances in the DCU so far when it comes to films including 2 of her own solo outings. Now the reason I bring this up was that initally back in December of last year there was talks that due to the new heads of the DCU of James Gunn and Peter Safran that saw the cancellation of a 3rd Wonder Woman film that was being worked on by the director Patty Jenkins. However it seems to be the case that the film may not be entirely dead as it was announced earlier this week from Wonder Woman herself Gal Gadot, that a 3rd one is being worked on and there is discussions between her, Gunn and Safran to be a part of the new DCU. Now there is still some confusion to the whole thing but it could be the case that it connects back to the previous universe as it is now set for mainline DCU, Elseworlds (Matt Reeves Batman films and Joker films) and maybe the other DCEU universe but I am sure that we will hear more of the info on the project in the near future (and if Patty Jenkins will be back for this one as well).

But what do you think of Gal Gadot coming back as Wonder Woman and do you think that a film under the creative mind of James Gunn will do good? Let me know what you think down in the comments below

The passing of 3 great and memorable actors

And now the final story for this week is more of a sad note as this week saw the tragic passing of 3 respected actors that were known for particular roles and want to give each of them a respectful acknowledgement.

The first passing of this week was of the death of actor Paul Reubens. Now while where I am from he may not have been the most well known, to many he was known for his Iconic role as Pee Wee Herman in Pee Wee's Playhouse and the 2 films based on the character that released the years following the series. He was also known to some as the father to Oswald Cobblepott or The Penguin in 1992s Batman Returns the the 2010s Gotham TV series. He passed away this week at the age of 70 from his secret battle with Cancer.

The 2nd passing was a few hours after and was the young actor of Angus Cloud. Many known him as the character of Fezco in the Emmy winning HBO drama of Euphoria. The actor passed away a week after the death of his father (who was from Dublin, Ireland) and some say he may have died of a broken heart of his fathers passing. He died earlier this week at the young age of 25.

And the last actor that sadly passed away this week was Mark Margolis. While he was known for roles in films and series such as Scarface, Requiem for a Dream and Your Honor, many would really known him more for the role of Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and was well known to millions of a character that had no lines of dialogue but gave malice and power from the ringing of a bell. He passed away after a short battle with an illness at the age of 83. May all of these great performing men Rest in Peace and find that peace in the afterlife

And with that somber note, I will end this weeks Weird Mind News room there. I hope you enjoyed my shorter ramblings this week as with all the other weeks. Let me know down in the comments on the opinions of all that was discussed here today but for now I wish you all a good day, stay being wonderful people and good night, good news and powering down.

Signing off

Sam H