Entertainment
‘Fantastic 4’ – Strictly for Miles Teller’s fans
Film: “Fantastic 4”; Language: English; Cast: Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson and Toby Kebbell; Director: Josh Trank.
“Fantastic Four” is a science fiction film with the premise of superheroes saving Earth from getting destroyed.
Distributed by 20th Century Fox and stylised as ‘Fant4stic’, this is the third film and a reboot of the “Fantastic Four” film franchise, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name.
The narration begins in 2007 Oster Bay, New York. On Career Day, a young Reed Richards is introduced as a nerd who tells his teacher that he plans to build a “Bio Matter Shuttle”, a sort of a teleporter machine to transport matter inter-dimensionally. He is scoffed at as insane.
Later, Reed befriends his classmate Ben Grimm whose family owns a garage. With Ben as his confidante, Reed conducts his experiments, surreptitiously.
Seven years later, Reed (Miles Teller) and Ben (Jamie Bell) participate in a science exhibition-cum-fair, where they display the Cymatic Matter Shuttle, a prototype teleporter. Here, they attract the attention of Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his step-daughter Sue Storm (Kate Mara).
Professor Franklin is the head of Baxter Institute, a government funded research foundation for science prodigies. He willingly admits Reed on a scholarship to Baxter Institute. Two of his students; Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell) and Sue were working on a similar prototype teleporter. They, like Reed, were capable of sending and recording the transfer but Reed with his research could retrieve the matter.
At the institute, the three students along with Johnny Storm, the professor’s reckless teenage son, get down to making the actual teleporter. And when they complete the project, without Sue’s knowledge, the other three along with Ben sneak into the machine and get transported to the alternate Universe Planet Zero.
It is after an accident on Planet Zero where team leader Victor is left behind and a hurriedly violent return journey back, that they realise that they along with Sue have, inexplicably, gained superhuman powers.
Reed can stretch and flex his limbs and torso to unimaginable proportions. Ben is turned into a powerful man with a hide of stone. Johnny can manipulate fire, Sue is shielded by a protective bubble and can become invisible at will. These four are now forced to fight a force who would soon destroy Earth.
Though this is a tale of four superheroes, the film belongs to Miles Teller. Much of the narration revolves around him as he is the unassuming, low-key front-runner. He shares a cordial relationship with his colleagues and best friend. The rest of the characters are all perfunctory.
The story, written by Jeremy Slater, Josh Trank and T.S. Nowlin is uninspiring, lethargic and full of plot-holes. The script lacks punch and depth in character motivation. This is randomly exposed in dialogues like, “I don’t want to become famous, I just want my work to make a difference” or “The failure of my generation is the opportunity for yours”, and “We are about to make history”.
Also, the narration initially moves at a languid pace. The first hour of the 106-minute narration delves into creating the foundation of the teleportation device with experiments et al and then hurriedly in an inconsistent manner, wraps up in the last act with brilliantly manoeuvred computer generated images and effects.
These visuals along with the effects are dazzling, but common place in sci-fi films noted in the Marvel Universe. And the 3D effects do not help to raise the viewing experience either.
Overall, this one’s not an exciting superhero adventure film, but will appeal to Miles Teller fans.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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