Month: December 2024

The reviews make it clear: just as we expected, Nosferatu will be a great film

Robert Eggers is one of the most interesting directors of the last decade. The filmmaker behind The Lighthouse and The Witch has proven to be a gem to watch for Hollywood in the present and future, and despite his leap to big-budget films not going entirely well with The Northman, he now has a new project in hand that aims to win over his audience again. Nosferatu, a readaptation of the classic 1922 film, will arrive in theaters on December 25, 2024, so we can all have a great Christmas […]

Robert Eggers is one of the most interesting directors of the last decade. The filmmaker behind The Lighthouse and The Witch has proven to be a gem to watch for both present and future Hollywood, and despite his leap to big-budget not going entirely well with The Northman, he now has a new project in hand that aims to win over his audience once again.

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Nosferatu, a readaptation of the classic 1922 film, will arrive in theaters on December 25, 2024, so we can all have a great vampiric Christmas. But some critics have already seen it, so it already has a rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With a 93% positive reviews from 56 reviews, it’s clear that it will be the blockbuster we all expect.

The darkest movie you’ll see this year

With a star-studded cast that includes Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, and Ralph Ineson, the film undoubtedly stands out as the most anticipated of the upcoming season. And this is what the critics are saying about it:

“A monument to dark desire and the corruption it breeds, and a masterpiece of unholy terror that instantly takes its place alongside the consecrated greats of the genre” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“There has never been an adaptation of Nosferatu or Dracula in the raw period style of Eggers, so that is the justification for this incarnation. Even Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Dracula was glamorized and stylized in comparison” – Fred Topel, United Press International

“What really sets Eggers’ Nosferatu apart from the rest is the depth with which it explores the imagery and themes of the vampiric tradition. There aren’t many Dracula films that give you so much to sink your teeth into” – Nicholas Barber, BBC

Success or failure? What does the critique say about Skeleton Crew, the new Star Wars series?

Star Wars is not going through a good time. Since its last trilogy, which ended in the most terrible way possible due to a lack of agreements in its direction between J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, the franchise created by George Lucas has been floundering in recent years. And, despite some exceptions like The Mandalorian, it is generally more sunk than ever. The Acolyte doesn’t help with this, the recent series that promised to be the salvation of the Star Wars universe and ended up being a major public failure […]

Star Wars is not going through a good time. Since its last trilogy, which ended in the worst possible way due to a lack of agreements in its direction between J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, the franchise created by George Lucas has been floundering in recent years. And, although there are some exceptions like The Mandalorian, in general, it is more sunk than ever.

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This is not helped by The Acolyte, the recent series that promised to be the salvation of the Star Wars universe and ended up being a major failure with audiences and critics. But they are not giving up, and Disney Plus is already going all out with their next big series: Skeleton Crew. Starring Jude Law and several children who form a modern-day Goonies, the series has just received its reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But are they good or bad?

We can be at ease: this time, yes

With an 87% approval rating from critics and 93% from the audience (after its first episode), we can say loud and clear that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is being a great success. Obviously, it remains to be seen how the season progresses, but everything seems to indicate that it is a small respite amid so much disaster. This is what some of the main critics are saying about the series:

“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew hits the mark with the use of known elements. It borrows elements from classic children’s films of the 80s to create a children’s adventure with a strong pirate component. The audience will perceive a familiar Spielberg and Zemeckis atmosphere” – Julian Roman, Movie Web

Star Wars Skeleton Crew

“It offers a fresh and exciting adventure in a galaxy far, far away, combining the classic charm of Star Wars with the undeniable spirit of The Goonies: an exciting mix of camaraderie, curiosity, and storytelling about coming of age” – Big Gold Belt

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“Disney has made such a big mess with Star Wars that it will take more than an adorable children’s show to get it back on track. But Skeleton Crew succeeds on its own terms as a wild Spielbergian parody” – Ed Power, The Telegraph

Apple TV+ signs Anya Taylor-Joy to star in Lucky, its next big series

The streaming platform Apple TV+ is known not only for its great science fiction series but also for creating dramas starring top-tier stars. It has already demonstrated this with projects like “Wolfs,” the movie featuring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and now it has teamed up with a trending star for its new series “Lucky.” Anya Taylor-Joy, the star of “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Furiosa,” will be the lead in this adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Marissa Stapley. Beyond being the lead, Taylor-Joy will also serve as an executive producer. Developed by Apple Studios and […]

The streaming platform Apple TV+ is characterized, beyond its great science fiction series, by producing fictions starring top-tier stars. It has already demonstrated this in cases like Wolfs, the movie with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and now it has teamed up with a trending star for its new series Lucky.

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Anya Taylor-Joy, the star of The Queen’s Gambit and Furiosa, will be the lead in this adaptation of Marissa Stapley’s acclaimed novel. Beyond being the lead, Taylor-Joy will also serve as an executive producer. Developed by Apple Studios and Hello Sunshine —Reese Witherspoon’s production company—, Lucky promises to be one of the major offerings on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ continues to bet on quality

Lucky follows the story of a young woman raised in a world of crime who has left that dark past behind. However, in a desperate struggle to escape her roots, she will have to once again embrace her darker and more dangerous side. The production will feature Jonathan Tropper (See, Your Friends & Neighbors) as creator and co-showrunner alongside Cassie Pappas (Silo, Griselda). Tropper, who has a global deal with Apple, will also serve as executive producer under his Tropper Ink banner, while Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter will do so for Hello Sunshine.

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James Gunn does it again: Creature Commandos debuts with a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

Despite being built slowly and carefully, the DC Studios universe that James Gunn and Peter Safran are creating couldn’t look better. Everything that has been released as part of it is being a great success, from the recent The Penguin to Peacemaker, and next year’s Superman seems to be up to par. But the real test now lies with Creature Commandos, an animated series about a group of monsters that form a team against evil, which will premiere on December 5th. The trailers and […]

Despite being built slowly and with great care, the DC Studios universe that James Gunn and Peter Safran are creating couldn’t look better. Everything that has been released belonging to it is being a great success, from the recent The Penguin to Peacemaker, and next year’s Superman seems to be up to par.

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But the acid test is now on Creature Commandos, an animated series about a group of monsters that form a team against evil, which will premiere on December 5th. The trailers and previews already predicted it would be a great success, but now it’s clearer than ever. The series has premiered with a 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 16 reviews. A success that clearly indicates the future of this universe.

James Gunn is here to make a mark

In a world where the darkest experiments have created monsters with extraordinary abilities, the Creature Commandos, a group of supernatural misfits, carry out covert missions for the government. Together, they face global threats while grappling with their own internal conflicts, trying to prove that even monsters can be heroes. Amidst action, horror, and dark humor, the series explores the limits of humanity in those whom society fears and rejects.

Google Gemini is better than ChatGPT in these 5 points

In just two years since the launch of ChatGPT, artificial intelligences have evolved to become a fundamental part of our daily lives. The competition is enormous and the advancements are continuous. In this context, and with ChatGPT as a clear reference in this field, let’s look at five points where Google’s artificial intelligence is better than OpenAI’s. A deep integration with the services we use daily Google Gemini integrates directly with services like YouTube, Gmail, Docs, and Drive, offering us unparalleled access to our own tools and data. This means that […]

In just two years since the launch of ChatGPT, artificial intelligences have evolved to become a fundamental part of our daily lives. The competition is enormous and the advancements are continuous. In this context, and with ChatGPT as a clear reference in this field, let’s look at five points where Google’s artificial intelligence is better than Open AI’s.

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A deep integration with the services we use daily

Google Gemini integrates directly with services like YouTube, Gmail, Docs, and Drive, offering us unparalleled access to our own tools and data. This means that we can, for example, ask Gemini to search for a specific email, summarize an email in Gmail, or have its responses saved directly in a Google Docs document.

The ability to access our most used tools makes Gemini more than just a simple chatbot: it is an assistant fully connected with our digital daily life. ChatGPT does not offer this integration, which forces us to do part of the work ourselves, such as manually copying and pasting information between applications. A big difference? It depends a lot on the importance of our privacy and also on the complexity of the task, because in cases where one AI provides better answers than another, copying and pasting text becomes less important.

A subscription with more added value

The Gemini Premium plan includes 2 TB of storage in Google Drive, in addition to access to the advanced Gemini Pro model. This additional space, which we can use in Photos, Drive, and more, adds considerable value, especially when we need storage for our files. For practically the same monthly cost as the ChatGPT plan, Gemini offers us its most advanced chatbot, along with other services.

Multiple responses for each query

Something very interesting about Google Gemini is its ability to generate three different responses automatically for each question. This allows us to compare options and choose the one that best suits our needs without wasting time regenerating content manually, as can happen if we use ChatGPT.

Although this behavior is especially useful when working on creative tasks, such as drafting emails or writing documents, as it provides us with varied perspectives immediately, it is also true that, with time and practice, we will get the response we expect from the assistants on the first try. In any case, especially if we are just starting, having more than one option in view without having to press the regenerate button is interesting.

A more concise and direct experience

Gemini usually does a great job of summarizing information clearly and concisely, ideal for when we need quick answers and don’t have time to read too many texts. If we ask Gemini to explain something to us, it usually gives us a brief response that covers the essential points. ChatGPT, on the other hand, tends to be more verbose, which can be useful in some cases but unnecessary in others.

A much larger context limit

Finally, it should be noted that Gemini surpasses ChatGPT in its ability to handle more extensive queries thanks to its context limit of one million tokens. This is very important when processing really long documents, such as PDFs, and something that, at least as of today, ChatGPT cannot handle in the same way.

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The competition between Google Gemini and ChatGPT benefits us all, without a doubt. The points we have discussed make it clear that Gemini has advantages in certain areas, while the story is equally true if we talk about the advantages of ChatGPT over Gemini. For now, remembering how to use ChatGPT to transcribe our handwritten notes for free or these 5 tips to better use ChatGPT from OpenAI’s product manager, let’s get to know the strengths of Google’s AI, because ultimately, the key is to be able to use the AI that best suits each of our tasks.

In the United States, the purge of books has begun—and the first thing was manga

Let’s collectively pretend to be in shock with this news: it turns out that the arrival of Donald Trump to power (not yet fully effective, but very close) has led to an almost immediate rollback of rights and the censorship of books, oppressing the weakest. To be more specific, and hiding it as “protection of childhood,” censorship has begun in the school districts of Tennessee, which will soon be left without manga to read in their libraries. Yes. Without manga. Little tolerance. Obviously, we can all agree that there can’t be hentai manga in student libraries […]

Let’s collectively pretend to be in shock with this news: it turns out that the arrival of Donald Trump to power (not yet fully effective, but very close) has led to an almost immediate rollback of rights and the censorship of books, oppressing the most vulnerable. To be more specific, and hiding it as “protection of children,” censorship has begun in the school districts of Tennessee, which will soon be left without manga to read in their libraries. Yes. Without manga.

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Little leeway

Obviously, we can all agree that there cannot be hentai manga in student libraries in any country in the world, but under the pretext of banning any material that contains “nudity, shows sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excessive violence or sadomasochistic abuse” in schools, titles like Attack on Titan, Akira, My Hero Academia, Hunter X Hunter, Fire Force, or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, among many other titles, have been removed from the shelves, taking us back to past times we thought were long gone.

And in their attempt to ban “pornographic books,” classics like Wicked, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or Tower of Dawn, a novel from the Throne of Glass series, have also been removed from the shelves. And we can add up to 150 titles that have absurdly been thrown into the fire without reason due to fear of the unknown. And if all this reminds you of 1930s Germany more than it should, perhaps it’s time to consider why.

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Transformers fans can't even describe the fear they have that Elon Musk might buy it

We already mentioned it here: Elon Musk, upset because he believes that Dungeons & Dragons has gone too woke by saying that a game written by a white man back in 1974 may not meet the standards we expect today, has more or less seriously considered buying Hasbro. At first glance, it all seems like a humorous attempt to remind us that he is the richest man in the world and could buy our soul (but even then, we wouldn’t laugh at his jokes), but that’s also how the bravado of buying Twitter started, and look where that ended up. The […]

We already mentioned it here: Elon Musk, upset because he believes that Dungeons & Dragons has become too woke by saying that a game written by a white man back in 1974 may not meet the standards we expect today, has thought more or less seriously about buying Hasbro. At first glance, it all seems like a humorous attempt to remind us that he is the richest man in the world and that he could buy our soul (but even then we wouldn’t laugh at his jokes), but that’s also how the bravado of buying Twitter started, and look where it has led.

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The Compulsive Buyer

The reactions have not been very positive, of course. The most supported comments on his own social network indicate realities such as “There is probably no one with whom I would want to play D&D less than Elon Musk” or “D&D requires work, intelligence, and camaraderie to fully enjoy it, so I’m not sure why Elon cares about it, given that he possesses none of those qualities”. Oof.

Just like you impulsively buy a croissant one day just because you crave it, Musk wants to buy the largest toy company in the world, Hasbro, which owns not only D&D but dozens of other licenses including Star Wars, Magic, GI Joe, Action Man, and of course, Transformers. Giant robots are an indispensable part of popular culture and their toys have been sold (and continue to be sold) very lucratively for the company, and are considered milestones of the eighties.

However, everything can change with the arrival of Musk, and fans of Optimus Prime, Megatron, and company are already starting to tremble at the realization of how much this threat can affect them. On Twitter itself, comments can be read such as “The idea of Elon Musk buying Hasbro and by extension Transformers is a horrifying concept” or “Elon Musk better not buy Hasbro and ruin Transformers.” Seeing what he has managed to do with Twitter in just one year… Does anyone really expect him to treat it with care, respect, and love?

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In their day, they laughed at the idea of World of Warcraft earning a million dollars a month. They weren't exactly visionaries

Okay, okay: earning a million dollars a month with a video game is not, as of today, something novel nor is it going to be groundbreaking for anyone. But let’s go back to November 2004, when World Of Warcraft hit the shelves proposing a monthly fee to enjoy the online game. Back then, its biggest rival was EverQuest, and no one imagined how far Blizzard would go in expanding Azeroth. A quintillion dollars! According to Bo Bell, who worked on the development of World Of Warcraft, at first, they didn’t even dream of reaching the level of […]

Alright, alright: earning a million dollars monthly with a video game is not, as of today, something novel nor is it going to be groundbreaking for anyone. But let’s go back to November 2004, when World Of Warcraft hit the shelves proposing a monthly fee to enjoy the online game. Back then, its biggest rival was EverQuest, and no one could imagine how far Blizzard would go in expanding Azeroth.

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A Quintillion Dollars!

According to Bo Bell, who worked on the development of World Of Warcraft, at first they didn’t even dream of reaching the level of EverQuest, which was earning $500,000 in subscriptions each month. “We would say things like we could see ourselves beating it, reaching 800,000. Or how about a million? We laughed a lot at that, but we all thought it might actually happen”.

World of Warcraft not only gained a million almost from the first day, but just a few months after its launch, at the beginning of 2005, it was earning 15 million each month with more than a million registered users. Now, on its twentieth anniversary, they are more than consolidated as the leaders of the MMORPG and with no intention of stepping down from the throne, with more than 7 million subscribers. Quite something.

At first, at Blizzard they aimed high: 10,000 users. Nothing anticipated this leap. However, what happened with EverQuest? Of course, it remains open (despite the problems they had, precisely caused by the launch of World Of Warcraft) and will release its thirty-first expansion tomorrow. It may never reach the levels of the behemoth that is WoW, but it does have more than 80,000 active players per month. Many games born with the intention of revolutionizing the world of online games would love to reach this level!

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The new Star Wars project was not going to be a series, but a high-budget movie

As you well know, the Disney subsidiary responsible for Star Wars, Lucasfilm, is about to release its second live-action Star Wars series of the year: Skeleton Crew. Set after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI, Return of the Jedi, the series follows a … Continue reading “”

As you well know, the Disney subsidiary responsible for Star Wars, Lucasfilm, is about to release its second live-action Star Wars series of the year: Skeleton Crew.

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Set after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI, Return of the Jedi, the series follows a group of children seeking adventures who end up stranded in space with a ship of unknown origin and are joined on their journey back home by a mysterious and potentially unreliable adult Force user (Jude Law).

The new series comes from the minds of Christopher Ford and Jon Watts, director of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and has the potential to become the Disney+ hit that Lucasfilm has been desperately needing for the past two years.

How Skeleton Crew went from being a movie to a series

As suitable as it may seem for the studio’s Disney+ model, Skeleton Crew was originally pitched to Lucasfilm as a movie years ago, Watts recently revealed.

“I proposed it right after the first Spider-Man Homecoming movie. Initially, it was proposed to Lucasfilm as a movie, and then I had to go make two Spider-Man movies because the first one did everything right,” the filmmaker told TVLine. “Over time, [Jon] Favreau made The Mandalorian and Disney+ emerged, so it evolved, while the Spider-Man movies were being made, into a series.”

According to Watts, the unexpected evolution of Skeleton Crew gave him and Ford the opportunity to delve deeper into the story and the world of the series more than they had initially thought (or imagined). “That gave us more time to explore the galaxy and get into this world of piracy and have a little more fun with it,” explained Watts.

Skeleton Crew is not the only Star Wars television series that will start as a movie. Obi-Wan Kenobi from 2022 was also originally conceived and developed as a feature film, but the poor performance of the Han Solo movie in 2018 forced Lucasfilm to reconsider their plans at that time.

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Despite the change, Obi-Wan Kenobi continued to be well-received when it aired on Disney+. Now, fans can only hope that Skeleton Crew achieves the same feat on Monday, December 2, the day of its premiere.

This beautiful video of Earth from the International Space Station is your relaxing moment of the day

On his fourth trip to orbit, NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared some wonderful images captured from the International Space Station (ISS) since his arrival there in September 2024. His latest work shows distant stars, city lights on Earth about 250 kilometers below, and what he describes as cosmic fireflies, which are actually Starlink internet satellites deployed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. As Pettit notes on Twitter, the flashes of light are sunlight reflecting off the small Starlink satellites while […]

On his fourth trip to orbit, NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared some wonderful images captured from the International Space Station (ISS) since his arrival there in September 2024.

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His latest work shows distant stars, city lights on Earth about 155 miles, and what he describes as cosmic fireflies, but are actually Starlink Internet satellites deployed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

As Pettit points out on Twitter, the flashes of light are sunlight reflecting off the small Starlink satellites as they orbit the Earth more than 100 miles above the space station.

Almost 7,000 Starlink satellites in five years

After the deployment of the first Starlink satellites in 2019, SpaceX has already sent more than 6,700 to low Earth orbit. It currently has permission to deploy up to 12,000 of the satellites, but its goal is to send up to 42,000 into orbit.

This means that the number of satellite sightings from the ISS will only increase in the coming years, at an even greater rate than currently, considering that other companies like Amazon also want to send small satellites into orbit as part of their own Internet initiatives from space.

And not only astronauts can see SpaceX satellites. Astronomers have long complained that the sunlight reflecting off Starlink satellites interferes with their ability to use ground-based telescopes to view deep space.

In fact, the problem seems to have worsened since SpaceX began deploying the new V2 version of the Starlink satellite in February of last year, and disturbances in radio astronomical observations due to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the satellites have also been reported.

With SpaceX launching about 40 second-generation Starlink satellites each week, astronomers have warned that the problem is becoming increasingly serious.

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SpaceX has been working to address the concerns of astronomers, but despite the efforts, some astronomers remain skeptical about the effectiveness of these measures, particularly for radio astronomy.