The Movie Paradise

Solo: A Star Wars Story  made headlines this past weekend when it opened to a measly $84 million dollars domestically. To put this in context, the last Star Wars  film to be released, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi , made $220 million dollars domestically opening weekend. Even the previous anthology film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , made $155 million. So Solo 's $84 million dollar debut is nothing short of disastrous. A question we have to ask ourselves is why did Solo  open so low? I mean, it's a Star Wars movie for God's sake! Shouldn't it automatically be guaranteed to make a billion worldwide? Well, no. There's a few aspects of this story we have to look at first in order to fully understand why Solo  opened as low as it did, before getting into how this will effect Star Wars as a whole moving forward.  One important element in this whole scenario is understanding the change that has happened within the Star Wars fan community. Over the past c

Run Time : 2 hours, 15 minutes  Rating : PG-13  Directed by : Ron Howard  Starring : Alden Ehrenreich, Joonas Suotamo, Donald Glover  My apprehension about Solo: A Star Wars Story  began long before Phil Lord  and Chris Miller  were fired from the set. I never particularly cared to see a Han Solo origin story. He is a character who works better with some mystery behind him, and I didn't want the veil to be lifted. But Lord and Miller's attachment did interest me, and so I gave the film the benefit of the doubt. However, LucasFilm  then fired Lord and Miller with just three weeks left of shooting, and Ron Howard  came on and reshot over 80% of the movie. So considering the fact that I never wanted a Han Solo movie, paired with the film's production problems, I haven't been all that excited for Solo: A Star Wars Story . I always planned on seeing it and hoped that the movie would surprise me, but I never had that internal feeling of pure excitement that I

Panelist Rob Giachinta  and host  Nathanael Molnár  go in depth talking about  Deadpool 2 . There will be  spoilers . If you have not seen the film yet, you can check out our spoiler-free review here  instead. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content! What do you think? What did you like about  Deadpool 2 ? What didn't you like about the film? What were your overall thoughts on the movie? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.  Written by:  Nathanael Molnár Email us your movie questions at:  themovieparadise999@gmail.com Like us on Facebook, and Follow us on Twitter and Instagram  @movieparadise99

Welcome to this week's  Nerd Round-Up . Essentially what we do here is we take a look at all things circulating in the world of nerdom. We break down these down, anything ranging from superheroes to  Star Wars , and every other geek-centric thing in between. We analyze the smaller bits of news that weren't big enough stories to necessarily warrant an entire article, but are still significant and important and worthy of discussing. Perhaps it's casting news, a contract detail, a set image, or something else that's more on the minor side, but is still definitely worth talking about. This is a time and place for all of us unabashed nerds to come together and talk about the things that we love so much in the movie-sphere. So, without further ado, let's get started with this week installment of Nerd Round-Up. While it may be a picture of a picture, we now have our first official look at Zachary Levi  in costume for Shazam . I've got to say, I really like

Ever since Disney  announced their plans to do Star Wars  anthology films alongside their episodic installments, one of the potential films we have always heard about was one centered around Boba Fett. The infamous bounty hunter, who made his (real) debut in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back , has been a fan-favorite in the Star Wars universe for decades. While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  was a film we didn't think we needed but turned out to be incredible, and Solo: A Star Wars Story  was never asked for, a Boba Fett  movie is an anthology film fans can rally behind. Chronicle and Fantastic Four  director Josh Trank  was announced to be helming a Star Wars anthology film way back in 2015, but was cut loose by LucasFilm  after the Fantastic Four  debacle. It was later revealed that Trank was working on a Boba Fett  film, and since then we have heard nothing new about the project. That is, until now. It is being reported that James Mangold , the man behind last yea

Run Time : 1 hour, 59 minutes  Rating : R  Directed by : David Leitch  Starring : Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz  Mix the "big, red, sex toy" in with the "gender inclusive" X-Force, and what do you get? A fucking funny movie. Yes, there will be swearing in this review. If you aren't old enough to see the movie, you probably aren't old enough to read this review. Sorry not sorry. Ryan Reynolds returns in the highly anticipated sequel to the 2016 mega-hit,  Deadpool . The original was one of my favorite movies of that year and, as Deadpool himself points out in the sequel, it was the second highest grossing R-rated film of all time, coming in just behind The Passion of the Christ . If you were entertained by the action and thought the comedy was gold, prepare for more of the same with Deadpool 2 . This time, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) must protect a young mutant named Russell, played by Julian Dennison  ( Hunt for the Wilderpeople ), from

I was always looking forward to Spider-Man: Homecoming , but I wasn't prepared for just how much I was going to like it. It took everything great about the character's introduction in Captain America: Civil War , and expanded upon it. It was our first true high school-aged Spider-Man, and Tom Holland  captured the character perfectly. All in all, Homecoming  was a great film, and it got me really on board with the Marvel Cinematic Universe 's Spider-Man. Holland popped up again in Avengers: Infinity War  (read our review here ), and he was one of the film's stand-out characters. He had some of the best lines, as well as some of the best action sequences. But now, in terms of Spider-Man's future, all eyes are on the Homecoming  sequel. It comes out just a couple months after Avengers 4 , and is said to take place just minutes after that film concludes. What Marvel has in store for Spider-Man after the events of Infinity War  is not clear, but we do know the char

Every year on May 18, I post an update on the site. Four years ago today, I published my first article on The Movie Paradise , and I've been doing it ever since. Running this site is an incredible privilege. It always astounds me that there are people out there who are genuinely interested in what I have to say, and that there is a community of fans ready to discuss and analyze films. Movies have always been an important part of my life, and having an outlet where I can just talk about the things I love means the world to me. This has been a great year for The Movie Paradise . We have made incredible progress in growing our base, conducting bigger interviews, and introducing new formats and editorials. This year we changed the layout of the site, designed brilliantly by contributor Connor Murphy . Our page looks beautiful, and he did a fantastic job with it. Our outreach has skyrocketed this year in particular, with our followers on our various social medias more than doubling

Spike Lee 's new film BlacKkKlansman  is a movie that I have been looking forward to ever since I first heard it announced. Produced by Get Out 's Jordan Peele , the film follows a black cop ( John David Washington ) who uses a white surrogate ( Adam Driver ) to help him infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan. It's based on a true story, and it sounds absolutely fascinating. And the pairing of Jordan Peele with Spike Lee makes for a dream team. They have both proven themselves to be able to tell compelling and unique stories about race, and I think a story like this really plays to their strengths. I have had incredibly high hopes for this movie since the beginning. Though, I'm not crazy about the title. I preferred it back when it was just "Black Klansman". Putting "KKK" into the title just looks stupid, and I wish they hadn't done that. But it's just the title, and it doesn't mean anything for the actual movie. I have been really looking for

I don't think anyone was prepared for the phenomenon that  Get Out  ultimately became. It originally seemed strange that a comedy guy like Jordan Peele  was directing a social commentary horror movie. I know I had my reservations about the film. But he absolutely pulled it off!  Get Out  was a brilliant movie, and it went on to be nominated for a whole slew of Academy Awards . While it didn't take home the top prizes like Best Picture, Best Lead Actor, or Best Director, Peele did win for Best Original Screenplay, an Oscar that was well deserved. But ever since Get Out  came out, Peele has been hinting at his next project. Just over a year ago, Peele announced that he had been developing four other "social thrillers", as he described them, at the same time as he was writing Get Out . He explained that each of them would take on a new element of society, with race being the focus of the first one. You can read his comments here . Since then, we have heard bits and

Panelists  Nick Elliott  and  Matt Smith , and host  Nathanael Molnár , go in depth talking about  Avengers: Infinity War . There will be  spoilers . If you have not seen the film yet, you can check out our spoiler-free review here  instead. Fan questions sent in by loganbul66 on Google+ , Tony Roosevelt on Twitter , with robbyg52 , whatiwatchedtonight , and midlevelmoviereviews on Instagram . What do you think? What did you like about  Avengers: Infinity War ? What didn't you like about the film? What were your overall thoughts on the movie? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.  Written by:  Nathanael Molnár Email us your movie questions at:  themovieparadise999@gmail.com Like us on Facebook, and Follow us on Twitter and Instagram  @movieparadise99

Every year, so many great movies are released. Come December, when I usually wrap up the full year and draft my best/worst lists, so many good movies are reluctantly bumped off due to the sheer number of great movies that come out. At the same time, there are also a lot of shitty movies that come out in the early months of the year and, by December, I've blocked them all out of my memory! So, around this time each year, I always like to put out a list of my favorite/least favorite movies of the year thus far. It isn't exactly half way through the year, but we are transitioning into the start of the summer movie season, and I do think this is a good assessment point. It's always interesting to see how much of my midyear list ends up on my final list by the end of the year. These past few months have been pretty packed. We've already had some blockbusters, such as  Black Panther, Ready Player One,  and  Avengers: Infinity War . At the same time, we have also had some

Every year, so many great movies are released. Come December, when I usually wrap up the full year and draft my best/worst lists, so many good movies are reluctantly bumped off due to the sheer number of great movies that come out. At the same time, there are also a lot of shitty movies that come out in the early months of the year and, by December, I've blocked them all out of my memory! So, around this time each year, I always like to put out a list of my favorite/least favorite movies of the year thus far. It isn't exactly half way through the year, but we are transitioning into the start of the summer movie season, and I do think this is a good assessment point. It's always interesting to see how much of my midyear list ends up on my final list by the end of the year. These past few months have been pretty packed. We've already had some blockbusters, such as Black Panther, Ready Player One, and Avengers: Infinity War . At the same time, we have also had some sm