Author: Nigel G Mitchell

The press tour for Avengers: Infinity War is the greatest press tour in the history of everything. It brings together a massive lineup of great actors eager to do anything to sell tickets for a movie most of the world is already planning to watch. Ya’ll need to savor it. As proof of this defining moment in pop culture, check out this clip from The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon where the crew performs “The Marvel Bunch.” You know, “The Brady Bunch” theme song but with Marvel characters instead? 1) Wakanda Forever 2) What’s with superhero actors wearing mustaches in…

Stan Lee is well-known and revered as the creator of the Marvel Universe, credited with inventing such classic heroes as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Captain America. His name and writing style have been associated with comic books throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and right now he’s getting a lot of press as the man who created the Black Panther. However, there has been controversy arguing that his contribution has been overstated. In fact, longtime Marvel artist Jack Kirby has claimed he created Black Panther. One incident of Kirby’s claims came in 1990 with an interview with the Comics Journal.…

Star Trek’s costumes are some of the most beloved in all of science fiction. In fact, it wouldn’t be a sci-fi convention if there wasn’t at least one person dressed as a Starfleet officer from the show. The original series that aired from 1966 – 1969 set the standard for all the other costume versions to follow, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing. With the small budget of the show and the eccentricities of the cast, the original costumes had a lot of hidden secrets and drama behind the scenes. In part of our continuing series of Star Trek costumes,…

One of the most surprising things about Star Trek: Discovery is the name Michael Burnham. It wouldn’t seem like such an unusual name if it weren’t for the fact that the name’s owner is an African-American woman. Why did the show decide to give the female lead a typically male name? Here’s the secret behind it. Star Trek: Discovery was developed by Bryan Fuller who became the showrunner. Fuller had a long history of writing episodes and developing stories on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager and became a co-producer for Voyager’s seventh season. However, Fuller is better known…

On the classic TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deanna Troi was a half-Betazoid, half-Human Starfleet officer. She served as ship’s counselor aboard the USS Enterprise-D and the USS Enterprise-E using her power to read emotions in other species. She was also beautiful and smart, making her a big hit with audiences. While there’s been a lot written about the character and Marina Sirtis (the actress who played her), you may not know all about her. Here are 15 facts you probably didn’t know about Trek’s favorite empath. 1. Marina Sirtis Was Desperate It might seem like a cliche…

Most prequels are met with disinterest or frustration and there’s a reason for that. In most cases, prequels like The Phantom Menace feel unnecessary because we already know the “end,” which is where the original story picked up. For long-running TV shows like Smallville and Gotham, the show will keep pushing away the “ending,” delaying it to a frustrating degree. In both cases, the show started changing and contradicting the original story until it became its own universe. Then there are the knowing winks and cameos to storylines and characters that can become more annoying than entertaining. In the worst case scenarios,…

Until Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Starkiller Base, the Death Star was the most terrifying and powerful weapon in the Star Wars universe. It’s mind-boggling to imagine the sheer scale of construction of such a massive artificial moon which may be why it was sort of glossed over. We saw a hint of its construction in Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith while we saw the moment of its completion in Rogue One. That’s why this video showing a time-lapse of the Death Star being built is so fascinating. It’s not an official video but a great…

Pacific Rim: Uprising is coming on March 23, 2018. and will bring back the giant-robots-vs-giant-monster action we know and love. In the last movie Pacific Rim, we met a bunch of awesome giant robots called jaegers with cool gadgets like spinning blades and rocket-powered judo so the bar is high for the robots in the sequel. However, Pacific Rim: Uprising isn’t the first or the last movie or TV show to have awesome giant robots in it. Here at Geek Twins, we decided to honor these metal behemoths with the 10 coolest giant robots of all time. 10. The Iron Giant In…

On November 22, 1963, John F Kennedy was on his way to give a speech when he was shot and killed in his motorcade. A lot of attention has gone to the shooting and not much attention has been given to the speech, but someone has changed that. The planned speech to the Dallas Trade Mart is a matter of public record, so we don’t have to wonder what it was. We can wonder what it would have sounded like, though. The Times commissioned the company CereProc to go through 831 of his recorded speech, and used computers to generate…

Professor Stephen William Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018 at the age of 76. Professor Hawking was a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. Not only did he revolutionize theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, but he achieved an unusual level of fame because of his best-selling book A Brief History of Time and his frequent appearances and references in pop culture. He did it all while restricted to a wheelchair due to ALS that left him almost completely paralyzed. We here at Geek Twins would…

It’s the bedroom that made the Kessel run in twelve parsecs! A user named Dericrw posted an album on Reddit of his renovation of his five-year-old son’s bedroom to build a full-sized cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. He and his wife spent a month on the build. It’s an impressive project inside with a dedicated area for a twin bed, and a cockpit area with windows and a pretend console. Outside the Falcon, there’s a wall of Nerf weapons, another wall of color-changing LEDs, a video screen that can be watched from inside the cockpit, and a huge mural of…

We’ll be doing a semi-regular series where my brother Maurice and I discuss various geek topics via email. This week, the round-table is on the movie Black Panther. WARNING: This article has spoilers for Black Panther. Nigel: Let’s start with what you said about it as an experience. Maurice: I’ll start off by saying that it’s the first marvel movie that really immersed itself in a new world. A world that you wanted to be a part of. It’s not the stereotypical utopia but it’s a world of hope and wonder. Great movies make you feel that and this delivered.…

In a different time, it would have been a cause for celebration to find out that Joss Whedon (creator of beloved female-centered properties such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was writing and directing the solo movie for Batgirl. It also would have been a tragedy to hear the news that he was leaving the project. It’s a sign of how much things have changed that the fans dreaded the former and celebrated the latter. Here are three five reasons why. 1. Joss Whedon Isn’t a Feminist One of the biggest changes in recent years has been to Whedon’s reputation. When he…

If you saw The Cloverfield Paradox, you probably have some confusion about the monster from the original movie. Without spoiling anything here or getting into theories, we’ll just say that Paradox has some connection to where the creature came from. However, that connection is not what J.J. Abrams and his crew originally intended. In case you haven’t seen it, Cloverfield was about a group of partygoers trapped in New York City while a gigantic monster attacked. In the movie, the main characters go through numerous assaults and even come face-to-face with the creature at one point, but there’s never a…

In Black Panther, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns from his cameo in Captain America: Civil War, still grieving over the loss of his father. With the death of the king, T’Challa is chosen to take on the mantle of ruler and defender of Wakanda, the Black Panther. However, his crowning is not without danger. Forces come out to challenge his rulership, and T’Challa finds himself defending both his crown and his way of life. Along the way, he faces new enemies and discovers a dark secret of his past. Right off the bat, let’s talk about diversity. A lot of people (mainly white…

The role of public relations has always been a necessary evil, especially if you tend to generate a lot of bad press. You know who generates the worst bad press? Supervillains. In a world with Lex Luthor or Darth Vader destroying cities and whole planets, how could they avoid a backlash? How would they continue to be seen as heroes and not the villains they are? By hiring their own press secretary, that’s who. This video by the Warp Zone imagines what it would be like if former White House press secretary Sean Spicer had to use his spin skills…

This movie reminded me of an old Saturday Night Live sketch by Mike Myers called “Coffee Talk.” Every now and then, Myers’ character Linda Richman would be so overwhelmed by tears that she would have to pause and would say “talk amongst yourselves.” She would make a suggestion that always involved saying something was neither this nor that, like “The Ancient Romans were neither Ancient nor Romans, discuss.” Or “The navel orange is neither navel nor orange, discuss.” The Cloverfield Paradox is neither about Cloverfield nor a paradox, let’s discuss. I think the Cloverfield connection, which gets people’s attention, really…

We’re just days away from the release of Marvel’s movie adaptation of Black Panther. Based on the classic African superhero, Black Panther is a prince of the hidden and advanced city of Wakanda who takes on the legendary mantle to protect his country. Black Panther will feature an ensemble of African-American actors, an African-American director, African-American writers and a huge budget for dazzling special effects and costumes. While we’re all looking forward to the movie, it’s certainly a huge step up from the last attempt on Black Panther which frankly would have sucked. We know this because Wesley Snipes was…

It’s pretty much agreed that Superman III was not a good movie, but we were recently reminded that this movie scarred us emotionally as children. No, not because of Richard Pryor pretending to be Superman with a tablecloth around his neck. It’s because of THAT scene. The one where a woman is turned into a cyborg by an evil supercomputer. We were reminded of the scene when Eric Alper on Twitter asked, “What movie traumatized you as a kid?” The answer immediately came to us: Superman III. If you’ve never seen Superman III, it’s about Richard Pryor as a genius…

Once again, the Internet proves that everything’s better with lightsabers, even Bruce Lee. Lee was a major force for popularizing martial arts in the West with movies like Enter the Dragon and Fists of Fury in the 1970s. He never lived to be a part of Star Wars, but he surely should have been. Patrick Nan filled the gap by creating this video of Bruce Lee fighting with lightsabers instead of nunchucks from Fists of Fury. He was apparently inspired by ameeeba’s artwork of Bruce Lee fighting Kylo Ren. It’s not the first time a Bruce Lee movie has been edited with…

Summary: In the second installment of the new trilogy, Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up right where Star Wars: The Force Awakens ended. As Rey tries to convince a reluctant Luke Skywalker to train her and lead the Resistance, Finn and his new ally Rose Tico try to save the survivors of the First Order from annihilation. WARNING: This discussion will contain spoilers of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Nigel: You know, I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older or because I’m African-American or because I just think differently or I’m crazy, but lately, I’ve been feeling more and more…

Star Trek: Discovery, the new series on the streaming service CBS All Access has returned! The last new episode of Discovery “Into the Forest I Go” aired on Sunday, November 12 2017 with a major cliffhanger. The show finally returned on Sunday, January 7 with “Despite Yourself,” directed by veteran Jonathan Frakes and a shocking twist to the series. Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman for CBS All Access, the story of Star Trek: Discovery begins roughly a decade before Captain Kirk’s five-year mission (as portrayed in the original Star Trek from the 1960s). This season, the series follows the…

What if every time they used a lightsaber in Star Wars, it sounded like Owen Wilson saying “wow?” Here’s the answer to a question you never asked, because Josh Billinson (apparently) created this clip from Star Wars: Episode I where lightsabers sound like Owen Wilson instead of electricity. It works surprisingly well, and it’s hilarious. Then someone else made another version for Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Is Star Wars better with Owen Wilson? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter |…

On October 6, 1967, the original Star Trek series aired the classic episode “Mirror, Mirror.” The episode is not only consistently ranked as one of the ten most popular episodes of the original series, but it also established a template for the evil duplicate in pop culture. To celebrate the anniversary, here are 10 facts you probably didn’t know about your favorite episode. 1. Screenwriter Jerome Bixby loosely based the episode on his short story “One Way Street” published in the Dec. 1953/Jan. 1954 issue of Amazing Stories. 2. In the original story treatment, Captain Kirk was the only one…

By now, everyone who’s seen Justice League has been freaked out by Henry Cavill’s computer-generated upper lip. If you haven’t heard the story, here’s why it happened: Cavill was shooting Mission Impossible 6 at the time, and grew an enormous mustache for his role that his contract with Paramount kept him from shaving off. However, his shooting schedule overlapped with shooting for Justice League, which meant he couldn’t take the mustache off for his role as Superman. That’s why Warner Bros. had to pay to get Cavill’s upper lip reconstructed in CGI. The worst part about all this mess is that,…

Wayyy back in February of 2014, the state of Marvel movies was very different. Fans were still flush from the afterglow of 2012’s The Avengers and had chewed through Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World in 2013. We were looking forward to Phase Two with Captain America: The Winter Soldier that introduced the Winter Soldier and Falcon, and The Guardians of the Galaxy, which begged the question, “which other characters could we look forward to seeing?” The problem then was that Marvel’s movie rights to its characters had been sold off in the 1990s to different companies, leaving their entire…

Catwoman is one of those supervillains who gets a lot of attention, and not because she’s the smartest or the strongest of Batman’s enemies. She’s one of the sexiest. Over decades, she’s gone from a gimmicky supervillain to Batman’s lover and even (in recent issues) his fiance’. HalloweenCostumes.com created this awesome infographic that shows how she went from a woman in a dress and cat’s ears to Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises. What’s your favorite Catwoman costume? Let us know in the comments! We love your comments! But please be mindful of our comment policy when making comments. If…

One of the biggest things about Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the introduction of maintenance worker Rose Tico. She’s the first Asian-American lead character in a Star Wars movie, and she’s played by Vietnamese actress Kelly Marie Tran. Tran only started her career in 2011, and this is her first major role after spending years in small roles on short films and TV shows. Her only movie credit is “Butterfly Rave Girl” in 2016’s XOXO. Before she was cast, Tran was seriously considering quitting the industry because of all the rejection. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is also a highly anticipated movie…

In 2018, there will be two people named Spider-Man on the big screen (and possibly more) in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Donald Glover has been tapped to voice the character, and Sony Pictures has released the official teaser. In the comics, the Spider-Verse event was a storyline in 2014 where every version of Spider-Man in alternate realities were being hunted by the evil Morlun. No word on how closely the movie follows that storyline, but it will probably have some connection since we see Morales talking to another Spider-Man in this clip. What do you think of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?…

Whenever someone praises The Orville, they almost always point to this episode as the moment they realized the show wasn’t “just a comedy,” but was attempting to explore deep and dramatic themes that make it a worthy successor to Star Trek. So I’ve decided to use it as an example of why The Orville is the worst sci-fi show ever. Let’s review the third episode, “About a Girl.” Look, I get it. You grew up on Star Trek: The Next Generation. You love Star Trek: The Next Generation. That is what Star Trek is to you, and you want there…