Technology has always existed as a means of making our everyday lives easier. And in our tech dominated world, there is a gadget to satisfy even the most weirdest of your needs. Think of any situation where an appropriate gadget might have saved you time and effort, and you can bet that someone somewhere have made a device to do exactly that, from letting you take selfies while simultaneously combing your hair to making sure that your significant other does not even dream of cheating on you with rings that imprint “I am married” on their fingers.

We have already shown you how some people are more than happy to spend big bucks on ridiculously expensive gaming gears that beats almost all attempts to justify their purchase. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.Because, here are some weird gadgets that you might never have known existed (at least I didn’t till a few days back); but believe me, exist they do.

Hollywood has always come under fire for their often lazy approach to films. First it was sequels that were deemed unnecessary and didn’t contribute anything, especially in the 1980s where sequels dominated most of the industry. Nowadays, Hollywood is taking less and less risk as the film industry is a ruthless business where profit margins are king. With original films, there is usually a large amount of risk attached to it whether it will be a success at the box office or not.

Waterworld is the most infamous example of big budget epics going disastrously wrong for the studio. Costing over $172million back in 1995 (adjusted for inflation, this figure is closer to around $266million), is still in the top 10 most expensive film productions of all time. But the film bombed at the box office and only made $88million at the US box office.

Film studios since then, understandably, have become far more conservative when it comes to green-lighting projects. Instead, opting for sure-fire success in films that have already garnered a fan base and/or critical success. Films that were a huge success on release will more than likely repeat in a sequel. Films like Transformers, The Hobbit, Hunger Games, X-Men were all films that lead to sequels. Coincidentally, all featured in the top 10 grossing films of 2014. The only film within that list that wasn’t a sequel, prequel, existing franchise or based on an existing story, was in fact Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.

The latest trend in Hollywood, which has guaranteed ticket sales with very little risk are reboots. This is a relatively new trend which has seen Hollywood no longer making sequels or prequels, but in fact just taking a previously film and simply remaking it. Arguably, the film series that started this trend was Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins back in 2006. Tim Burton’s Batman from 1989 started the series which unfortunately lost its way and ended with the much laughed at Batman and Robin, starring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the iconic and pun-crazed Mr Freeze. Nolan’s foray into Gotham was a far more grittier, darker version, closer to that of the source material in the DC comics.

Since the hugely successful Dark Knight trilogy came to a close in 2012, Hollywood had been at the reboot game for a while now. But where does the line end? At what point should films stop being remade, or at least a certain amount of time needs to pass before a film truly requires a re-telling? Spiderman is such franchise. Toby Maguire’s Spiderman, directed by Sam Raimi back in 2002, went on to relatively good box office success, resulting in the weakest of the series in Spiderman 3. As a trilogy, the Spiderman series did reasonably well. The dust hadn’t even settled long for Spiderman 3 when the reboot was already announced. The era of unnecessary reboots had begun.

The Amazing Spiderman, starring Andrew Garfield, bought very little new to the table, again spending most of the first film to cover the back story everybody is already familiar with. The problem doesn’t lie with the quality of the remakes/reboots, The Amazing Spiderman was received with relatively positive reviews. But the issue goes hand in hand with the ever rising prices of cinema prices and the film industry’s ongoing battle with piracy. Why would people necessary spend their money on films that have already been made, in the case of Spiderman something that has only been made within the last 10 years.

The other side of reboots, the positive aspect, could be seen as a way to fix problems with the original film by remaking it. Or even taking an old film, and remaking it for a modern audience. Films that have been mentioned of a possible remake that could be a fresh and new idea, would be the Power Rangers, the original series’ fans have all grown up now and a possible film to appeal to these fans have been proven with the release of the recent fan made short film. Another reboot that could be feasible and one that would make sense is a remake of I Am Legend. Even though the film only came out in 2007, the film took a completely different take on the source material, and the ending completely altered the message of the film. A reboot/remake would rectify this and appeal to fans of the original book, which itself was an influence to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968).

There are of course some films that will hopefully never be remade, this list includes such classics such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future. Up until this year, Ghostbusters was one of those franchises that should never be remade. But unfortunately that is exactly what is happening, and this is the way the film industry is moving, further away from originality and instead, going the tried and tested route of simply remaking existing, successful films. This technique is arguably worse than the trend of unnecessary sequels in the 1980s and 90s, and can only potentially harm the industry, worse than piracy, as it will genuinely stop talented filmmakers from making truly original films.

Lionsgate Studios announced recently that the planned reboot of Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is scheduled for an early 2017 release. Originally slated for a summer 2016 release, the project has been pushed back six months, most likely due to other films released at the same time which would make for stiff competition. The Ghostbusters reboot and Guy Ritchie’s Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur. Power Rangers first graced the screens back in 1993 in the form of a television series that has been going ever since, with a new reiteration every few years.

Originally criticised for being too graphic and violent for a children’s TV show, it is not known what tone the reboot film will follow. The Power Rangers debuted on children’s television in 1993 and went for three successful seasons before being rebranded as Power Rangers Zeo, which didn’t reach the same heights as the original show.

At the height of Power Rangers popularity came the first of three feature length films in 1995. But due to contract disputes, the original Black, Red and Yellow Rangers (Walter Jones, Austin St John and Thuy Trang) were replaced by new actors for the film, where Austin St John (Red Ranger) would return for the next film. A first for the Power Rangers is that all the fight scenes in the film are original and shot for the film, as opposed to the TV show which reused footage from Super Sentai series in Japan.

The Power Rangers were bought back into focus when a 14-minute fan-made film was released to the world in 2014, albeit a slightly darker and grittier feel. The film featured the Power Rangers as adults, jaded and disillusioned from defending the world from Rita Repulsa and featured several Rangers assassinated in violent and gruesome ways. Directed by Joseph Kahn and featuring some of the original cast, the film was received well by both critics and fans, but attracted unwanted attention from Saban Brands, the company who own the rights to the Power Rangers. Unimpressed by the film’s dark and ultra-violent take on the classic children’s TV show, the company issued several takedown notices on all the video hosting sites. Later on, the company backed down and allowed the film to be online again, it has since insisted that the dark and gritty version will not be similar to the reboot.

It is not known what the tone will be on the new reboot, but what is known is original series co-creator Haim Saban is onboard as producer, who also worked on the previous films too. The director attached to the film is Dean Israelite, previously known for Project Almanac (2014) and joining him as the writing team are Ashley Miller and Zach Stentz, who as a writing team collaborated for X-Men: First Class and Thor. As far as the cast is concerned, there are still no concrete details revealed, but rumours have it that Thor’s brother Liam Hemsworth is involved, as well as Chloe Grace Moretz and Liam Neeson.

The Power Rangers reboot is planned for a January 2017 release.

Technology (from Greek word means “art, skill, sunning of hand” and ) is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. It is machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge. Technology is the branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied sciences. It is a body of knowledge used to create tools, develop skills, and extract or collect materials from vast sources.

The term “Technology” has an array of implications and all people have individual perspective in looking at it in the way that they can relate with or to it. We can therefore describe technology as products, processes or organizations that we use – more often than not – to accomplish various tasks in our daily lives. We use technology to extend our abilities, and that it makes people the most integral part of any technological system when it comes to the logical and command execution processes/ Even though the use of technology, regardless of the simple or the advanced, as an extra limb; in the end, the final decision-making process is controlled by human hands and not machines.

Marvel’s greatest movie block buster in ten years has sealed the company’s place in history as the most profitable movie studio in America and probably the entire world forever! With Joss Whedon once again taking the helm in directing the darker and grittier sequel to the 2012 hit, Avengers; Avengers: Age of Ultron pits the team of Earth’s mightiest heroes against the alien A.I. sentient, Ultron – and thousands of his copies. It’s all about Marvel’s elaborate and ambitious plan for its Phase 2 movies and they have indeed played their cards well, because Marvel has not slipped yet in making movies since 2008.

 The Genre’

In the 1980s and 1990s the superhero genre’ didn’t do well due to technology constraints and very few writers, movie directors and movie studios would want to spend over $40 million just to make a Spider-Man movie. DC Comics’ Batman; however, was sold out due to a large fan base but after Joel Schumacher’s redundant and offensive take on the franchise, Warner Bros. shut down any future projects for the cape crusader. It wasn’t until they saw how Marvel sow the seeds that would make the superhero genre’ profitable again did they hire Christopher Nolan to reboot the Batman movies. The Avengers being one of the most popular ensemble in the Marvel Universe was welcomed with arms wide open by fans and regular movie goers worldwide.

The Storyline

Avengers: Age of Ultron was taken from the comic book series “Ultron Imperative,” but retold differently with the creative vision of Joss Whedon, who is popular among geeks to say the least. Ultron’s hate for mankind arises from the fact that humans are irrational. They have the same biophysical structure, they share a common ancestor, whether knowingly or unknowingly they understand that they need each other to survive and yet they fight endlessly to the point of the threat of extinction with their weapons of mass destruction! Ultron sought to end mankind’s age old conflicts by doing away with pesky governments and organizations like the Avengers, Hydra and others that constantly intervene half way through the problem but never resolves it.

Of course the Avengers couldn’t let him have his way no matter how politically correct he is, plus mass murder is a huge moral issue that robots – no matter how smart they are – are unable to comprehend. Much like in the comics, Ultron fashioned himself a vibranium alloy body which is the same metal that Captain America’s shield is made of. It’s practically indestructible! But a combined energy blast from Thor, Iron – Man and Vision seemingly melted it. Wait, what??? Isn’t it supposed to be, you know, un-destroyable? If Hulk pounded on Ultron, then that would be a more believable scenario, it’s not right, vibranium should be able to withstand the surface temperature of the Sun. Even Human Torch’s supernova blast couldn’t damage Cap’s shield, so why did it worked on Ultron? Plot holes! Plot Holes!

But we can just sweep that under the rug, the important thing is that the Avengers delivered what we all wanted to see…destruction, kicking @$$, awesome CGI effects, funny moments in the film and teaser end credits scenes! It will leave you craving for more Marvel movies even if you haven’t finished digesting the one currently playing in theaters.

The narrative, dialogue, special effects and action sequences made Avengers: Age of Ultron an epic live-action adaptation of the comic books! You will love the film from start to finish and even during the end credits scene of course. So much has improved since the first movie and it’s not just them being comfortable with each other, trusting one another but also the other aspects of the story such as the Avengers Tower, new team members being welcomed, new plot twists, new villains or possible villains in other Marvel movies tie-in and more. It is quite cool and impressive!

The Quinjet is just as we all expected it to be and the best part is when the fuel enraged Hulk battles with Iron – Man’s Hulk Buster armor! Personally, I think nothing could top that, although I believe Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim fight scenes echoes it. The final battle in Sokovia is twice as exciting as the battle in New York with the Chitauris and overall I’d give this film a 9.4 rating out of 10 on my most favorite movies of all time. Yes, because it deserves it!

Production

The film was shot in multiple locations across the globe which includes South Africa, South Korea, London, Bangladesh and Italy. Naturally, not counting the cost of CGI special effects, costumes, movie set props and others, it will already cost a lot; and that’s why Marvel guaranteed Whedon $279.9 million for production budget. Avengers: Age of Ultron has surpassed Avatar and Titanic in production cost and it could well be the most expensive movie ever made; however, the hype and positive reviews for the movie overshadowed this. Go back a decade and this kind of budget would have raised a lot of eyebrows, but not anymore as it’s becoming more and more of a trend. Who knows? The third sequel called Avengers Infinity War 1 & 2 might cost even more!

Promotion

Six months before the film was set to be released, Marvel teased their trailers in cinemas, TV, print media and the web; so this movie was promoted very well for a target audience. It has already doubled its budget in box office returns amounting to $695.1 million and rising; and it still has a week or two more in cinemas worldwide, so it may reel in more money for the studio. Recently, Fast & Furious 7 made over $1 billion in box office sales, so Avengers: Age of Ultron is expected to do the same or gross even more. Furious 7 success is much credited to Paul Walker’s death as it got the sympathy vote of most people – including me. But that’s just my opinion…even so; no one can argue that the movie was super cool to watch!

Acceptance

The movie opened to more than 4,000 theaters on April 22, 2015 and millions lined up to see the most anticipated movie sequel in recent memory! It garnered a lot of praise from film critics and fans alike and before it even played in theaters people are already clamoring for the third and fourth installment. Marvel’s 60+ years of entertainment both in print media, digital media and now the movies has created a large fan base globally. This proves that consistent publication of great stories – even in comic books – will essentially create a cult. The importance of which is more than just making millions or billions of dollars, but giving people a chance to experience something magical…something beyond our, sometimes, boring reality.