At this point I have lost track of all the movie and music records KPop Demon Hunters has set, but at this point, after so long at #1 on Netflix, I’d consider it significant when something knocks it down to #2 (albeit this is not the first time this has happened).
The new movie that has unseated it and become #1 in Netflix’s Top 10 movie list is Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which as I’m sure you can tell, is not a Netflix original movie. Here’s the synopsis:
“An ancient relic with astonishing powers is the key to saving a world on the brink of destruction. Can the Autobots and Maximals find it in time?”
“Maximals” being the bots that can transform into animals rather than the cars, trucks and planes of the usual Transformers and Decepticons.
The film is not directed by Michael Bay (who is in fact supposed to come back for a new Transformers film soon), but Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr. This is the seventh live-action Transformers movies since the original in 2007, which Bay directing the first five (wow, I did not realize that).
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts unsurprisingly split critics and audiences with a 51% critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes and a 91% audience score. A dumb popcorn flick that’s a lot of fun, like the others. The cast is certainly interesting, Anthony Ramos, who I just saw in Ironheart and Dominique Fishback. It boasts a number of celebrity voices for the bots like Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Colman Domingo and Pete Davidson, a few Oscar-winners among them there.
There is another interesting story on the Top 10 list as Netflix has just yanked KPop Demon Hunters out of theaters, despite it winning the weekend box office, and now it has put its theatrical “sing-along” version on the service. That is currently at #2 behind the original film at #3. This version is one that has the lyrics onscreen for better sing-along potential. A lot of musical films end up having these, as evidenced by the ones I keep seeing all over Disney Plus. I thought it was going to just be a collection of the songs only, but I guess that’s not how it works. My kids tricked me into watching all of Moana again.
At this point, even two months later, I sort of expect KPop Demon Hunters to get back to #1 and Transformers to drop in a little while. The movie is unstoppable, and we are no doubt going to hear news about a sequel soon.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
