Ghostbusters surpassed my expectations in every way. It was funny throughout, well paced, with no huge downswing. If I have one criticism about the movies structure, its that the ending falls slightly flatter than the rest; but as a huge fan of the 1984 Ghostbusters (it holds special childhood movie status with me), I have to say the 2016 movie is just as good as the 1984 movie. Sony has a hit on its hands.
The movies villain, Rowan (Neil Casey) is a disgruntled asshat who thinks hes had it hard all his life. To get revenge against his bullies, Rowan stirs up trouble in Manhattan. He aims to command a ghost army by placing devices around the city that break ghosts into the human world. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) are working on ways to defend against and capture ghosts. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) later joins them, followed by MTA subway worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones). Together the Ghostbusters fight back against ever-increasing odds to save the city.
Stand out characters include Chris Hemsworths Kevin, who has awesome comedic timing. Kevin is a brilliantly simple and a fun role, essentially the eye candy/ puppy dog that the women love and look after. I think some of the men in the audience may cringe, but guys women have had this done to us in thousands of movies. This one character doesnt even begin to rebalance those scales.
The movies absolute standout is Kate McKinnons Holtzmann. Shes the inventor of the Ghostbusters gadgets, and shes so delightfully over the top. Shes d**n hot and youre going to see her cosplayed everywhere.
One justified criticism from the first trailer was the portrayal of Leslie Jones character, Patty. The trailer was put together in a way that emphasized that she was the only non-scientist and it made the movie look flat-out racist. Jones took to Twitter to provide some perspective to her character that we couldnt have had before the movie came out. Patty may not be a scientist in Ghostbusters, but shes smart in a number of ways and provides the team direction and information at critical points. In the end she makes the decisive call that leads to the resolution and shes exactly what the team needed. Its a shame shes the only non-scientist but its not as bad as the trailer made out when you have the context of the rest of the movie.
I know Ghostbusters 1984 is problematic but its still something of a fave of mine. As a long time fan, with my own uniform and props, I feel well placed to say that Ghostbusters 2016 is as good as Ghostbusters 1984. The original has an amazing first half but the second half falls away slightly. Ghostbusters 2 is a pretty terrible movie, it hits the odd high note but generally its like watching your dad try to rap; it really isnt how you want to spend your time. Ghostbusters 2016 doesnt quite reach the highs of the first half of the original but it never sinks to the lows of that movie either.
The movie is very safe for kids as young as 8 or so as it does have a couple spooky ghosts and a few jump scares. If those dont bother your kid then its fine for the younger ones, too. Girls are going to love having an action movie where they can see themselves on screen. This really is a first and its worth celebrating. Make sure you stay to the end of the credits as there is an extra scene that hints to where the sequel might go. This is easy to do as the credits themselves are fun with Chris Hemsworth dancing through them.
Paul Feigs Ghostbusters is straight up fun that you cant miss. Go bust some ghosts.
Marcy (@marcyjcook) is an immigrant trans woman and writer. This includesTranscanuck.com, a website dedicated to informing and helping trans Canadians. She also has a nerd job, too many cats, is a part time volunteer s*x educator and has an ongoing sordid love affair with Lego. Those last two are not related probably.
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Still not impressed. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney denies that she got lip injections. The Olympic gold medalist, whose unimpressed face went viral four years ago at the London Olympics, told Seventeen.comthat despite showcasing a plumper pout on Instagram, she hasnt enhanced her lips.
Plastic Surgery Nightmares
I literally have not done anything to my face, Maroney, 20, told the mag when asked about the allegations. Growing up in the social media world, it"s tough. Your face changes, you get older, your face fills out, and you fall into liking makeup and different stuff like that. Makeup and a camera can really make you look like a different person. (The athlete-turned-singer/actress told Seventeen that lipliner and highlighter are to credit for her lush lips.)
The gymnast, whose Instagram account is filled with sexy selfies nowadays, also addressed the rumors via Instagram on Monday, July 11.
Olympic Athletes: Where Are They Now?
Me thinking about how to get my face to look like Ive never done anything to my face when Ive never done anything to my face, she captioned a photo of herself in deep concentration.
Aside from defending her au natural pout, Maroney has been busy working on her fledgling singing career.
Golfer Stacy Lewis Calls Sports Return to Olympics an Honor Body Parts Wash Ashore at Rio Olympics Volleyball Site Why Did Stephen Curry Withdraw From the Olympics 2016 Roster?
Ive loved writing songs since I was really young, she told the mag. "I thought I was going to be like Sia and sell my songs to people but I want to sing them. My biggest inspiration is Drake. I love the way that he tells stories. It has a little bit of a Calypso jam vibe. He"s political and real and always lyrically-driven in all the melodies. If there"s one person I want to sound like, it"s him.
Maroney plans on releasing a single soon and will be cheering on her former teammates Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Celebrity Selfies
The Rio Olympics begin August 5 and will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app. The Rio Paralympics begin September 7 and will be streamed live on TeamUSA.org.
Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox!
McKayla Maroney USA Team Final Vault 2012 London Olympic Games McKayla Maroney Credit: Courtesy of McKayla Maroney/Instagram
Still not impressed. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney denies that she got lip injections. The Olympic gold medalist, whose unimpressed face went viral four years ago at the London Olympics, told Seventeen.comthat despite showcasing a plumper pout on Instagram, she hasnt enhanced her lips.
Plastic Surgery Nightmares
I literally have not done anything to my face, Maroney, 20, told the mag when asked about the allegations. Growing up in the social media world, it"s tough. Your face changes, you get older, your face fills out, and you fall into liking makeup and different stuff like that. Makeup and a camera can really make you look like a different person. (The athlete-turned-singer/actress told Seventeen that lipliner and highlighter are to credit for her lush lips.)
The gymnast, whose Instagram account is filled with sexy selfies nowadays, also addressed the rumors via Instagram on Monday, July 11.
Olympic Athletes: Where Are They Now?
Me thinking about how to get my face to look like Ive never done anything to my face when Ive never done anything to my face, she captioned a photo of herself in deep concentration.
Aside from defending her au natural pout, Maroney has been busy working on her fledgling singing career.
Golfer Stacy Lewis Calls Sports Return to Olympics an Honor Body Parts Wash Ashore at Rio Olympics Volleyball Site Why Did Stephen Curry Withdraw From the Olympics 2016 Roster?
Ive loved writing songs since I was really young, she told the mag. "I thought I was going to be like Sia and sell my songs to people but I want to sing them. My biggest inspiration is Drake. I love the way that he tells stories. It has a little bit of a Calypso jam vibe. He"s political and real and always lyrically-driven in all the melodies. If there"s one person I want to sound like, it"s him.
Maroney plans on releasing a single soon and will be cheering on her former teammates Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Celebrity Selfies
The Rio Olympics begin August 5 and will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app. The Rio Paralympics begin September 7 and will be streamed live on TeamUSA.org.
Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox!
Matt and Ross Duffer (Wayward Pines) are taking EW behind the scenes of every single episode in their thrilling new Netflix drama, Stranger Things, an 80s-set supernatural show starring Winona Ryder and a slew of fantastic young stars. Heres their insight on Chapter 2: The Weirdo on Maple Street
This chapter is really focused on our weirdo Eleven (or El, as Mike dubs her). We dont know much about her at this point, but we get the sense that shes spent the majority of her life in a laboratory, like a mouse in a cage. So when she escapes that lab at the beginning of our story, she becomes the quintessential stranger in a strange land, unfamiliar with our customs and lifestyle. Everything mystifies her especially boys. The Hawkins suburbs might as well be another planet.
Speaking of other planets, there are many not-so-subtle nods to E.T. in this chapter. Just as E.T. is about the connection between E.T. and Elliot, this chapter is about the connection between Eleven and Mike. Over the course of the day, they begin to bond and empathize with one another in surprising ways. Is there first love blooming? Of course there is! All of this is fun, but we also wanted to keep a sense of danger alive. Eleven isnt a normal girl, and shes no gentle plant-collecting alien either. She has unpredictable supernatural powers that will most definitely put our boys in jeopardy. So while E.T. may have been our biggest inspiration, there is plenty of Elfen Lied and Akira in the shows DNA as well (albeit with quite a bit less bloodshed).
Eleven was the most difficult role to cast because she has to convey many emotions with very little dialogue. Child actors, even the great ones, almost always have difficulty listening. Theyre able to deliver their lines well, but to stay fully in character in a scene when theyre not talking thats another skill set entirely. Theyre kids after all; focus is not their strong suit. To find a girl who didnt just have this skill but excelled at it made us concerned. Then we met Millie Bobby Brown, and we werent so concerned anymore. Millie broke out in a 2014 British show called Intruders, which we hadnt seen at the time, but one of our idols had. Back in the fall of 2014, Stephen King tweeted: Millie Brown, the girl in Intruders, is terrific. Is it my imagination, or are child actors a lot better than they used to be? We agree with the King: Millies something special, alright, with a downright spooky preternatural talent. She inhabits every moment so intensely, with some alchemy of intelligence, preparation, and instinct. By the end of production, we found ourselves listening to Millie as if she were one of our most seasoned adult actors.
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Millie is still an 11-year-old girl about, well, other things. Bring up boys, crushes, or kissing, and she freaks out. Boys are really gross and stupid, and kissing one of them is just downright unfathomable. Another example of her youth: During the filming of this episode, Millie showed up to set covered head to toe in glitter, halting production for 30 minutes. To this day, the origin of this glitter remains a mystery, but it seems like something that could only happen to an 11-year-old girl.
Of course, we cant talk about our weirdo without also talking about that buzzcut. When Millie auditioned, she had long brown hair down past her shoulders. But Eleven was written as having hair buzzed almost to the scalp. Millie and her parents were understandably hesitant to chop it all off. Would it look ugly? Would it cost her other roles? Fortunately, Mad Max: Fury Road was about to come out, so we pulled out a magazine photograph of Charlize Theron as Furiosa and showed it to Millie. Charlize looks totally badass, right? Millie agreed; Charlize looked badass. And that was it: She agreed to buzz it all off.
When the day of the haircut finally arrived, Millies mom brought out a camcorder, while her dad ran away with tears in his eyes, unable to watch. It was a pretty dramatic scene. But also very quick. Within 10 minutes we had shaved it all off and slapped a fake 11 tattoo on Millies wrist. Millie looked at herself in the mirror, gave her best Furiosa scream and Eleven was born.
Random trivia: The shooting style, music, and cutting pattern of the scene when Eleven sees the picture of Will is modeled closely after one of our favorite scenes from Peter Weirs classic film Witness, when Lucas Haas points out the evil Danny Glover to Harrison Ford. In extreme close-up, we think Millie even looks like the young Lukas Haas. Its downright freaky!
Be sure to visit EW.com Sunday for more from the Duffer Brothers on Chapter Three.
Star Trek: Beyond: Behind the Scenes Movie Broll - Chris Pine, Simon Pegg
By Scott Huver
07/15/2016 AT 05:00 PM EDT
As Star Trek Beyond readies to beam into theaters on July 22, the cast and filmmakers are hoping the memories of two late costars, Anton Yelchin and Leonard Nimoy, live long and prosper on screen.
During a press conference Thursday in Beverly Hills to promote the latest entry in the rebooted sci-fi franchise, co-stars remembered their colleague Yelchin the actor who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in three films died at age 27 in a freak car accident on June 19 both fondly and poignantly, but expressed hope that fans would revel in the late actor"s performances in the new film and throughout his impressive body of work.
"It"s devastating to lose a family member," said Karl Urban, the film"s Dr. McCoy, reflecting on Yelchin"s loss. "We"re at a point where we should be celebrating, not only this film, but this beautiful man, this talented man. For all of us, it"s almost incomprehensible to be at a point where we have to talk about him in the past. The pain of his loss is still very raw."
"He was just a good guy," offered Chris Pine, who plays Captain Kirk and shared many scenes paired with Yelchin in the latest outing. "He was very sweet. He"s very beautifully, authentically Anton. There was not much of a sensor on the boy."
"I remember one of the first times I met him, like nine years ago or whatever, he was 17," Pine continued. "I invited him back to my trailer to play guitar because I knew he played guitar, and he played guitar really, really, really well. And he said, "I can"t man, I"ve got to go back to my trailer." I was like, "Okay, why?" He was translating, like, an esoteric Russian novel into English, just because that"s what he wanted to do. Eight, nine years later I talked to him and he was still translating it."
"And he was still reading a book on physics that this French philosopher had written," Pine added. "And he was still trying to get all of us together ... We"d be in Vancouver and he"d want to see some German neo-expressionist film that none of us [knew about] ... he would talk about as if everyone has or should have seen it."
"I always looked forward to every day that he was on set and we would huddle up, and he"d have a hundred ideas, even if he was just in the background," said the film"s director Justin Lin.
"It still doesn"t feel real," said costar Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the film and remembers Yelchin as "an incredible soul."
"I spent a lot of time with Anton in Vancouver, this last year," Pegg recalled. "He used to call me up, in the middle of the night sometimes, just to talk. He was an incredibly intelligent man. He would talk about films, so fluently and so maturely that he"d make us all look like dummies. I used to have to engage my university brain, just to sit down and talk to him about movies because he was exhaustively encyclopedic."
VIDEO: Costars and Other Celebs Remember Star Trek Actor Anton Yelchin
The remembrance "For Anton ... " appears in the end credits of the film, as does a dedication to the memory of Leonard Nimoy, the iconic Mr. Spock of the original television series and films, who died last year at age 83 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
Nimoy"s death came before shooting commenced, but his character the original "Spock Prime" and last survivor of an alternate timeline from the new events established when the Trek films rebooted in 2009 is also importantly referenced in the upcoming film.
"If Leonard was well enough to be a part of this film, I"m sure he would have been," Zachary Quinto, who took on the role of Spock and became close with Nimoy during the filming of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, told PEOPLE. "And I know that there were early conversations with him about that possibility, which true to his incredible self, he knew himself well enough to know that that wouldn"t be possible at a certain point."
"And then I think it became important to all of us to figure a way to honor his legacy," added Quinto. "I thought [screenwriters] Simon and Doug [Jung] did a beautiful job of incorporating it into the narrative of the film."
"It became an integral part of the story, not just a kind of nod in Leonard"s direction," added Pegg. "That felt more right."
"We all carried him with us through this production for sure," said Quinto. "And it was definitely a different kind of feeling to make this movie without him, for me in particular. But I think he was very much a part of it in spirit, and certainly in the film now, and will be a part of anything we do moving forward, for sure."
Mischa Barton has apologised for an Instagram post paying tribute to the death of Alton Sterling which showed the bikini-clad actress on a yacht with a glass of wine in hand, staring pensively into the distance.
Sterling, 37, was killed on Tuesday when he was shot dead by police in Louisiana. An autopsy found the father of five was killed by multiple gunshot wounds. His death preceded the death of another black man Philando Castile who was fatally shot in Minnesota on Wednesday.
Both shootings were captured on camera, sparking a rallying cry denouncing police brutality against the black community.
In apost which has since been deleted, Barton wrote: Im truly heartbroken to watch videos like the #altonsterling execution. This may have been going on forever in the United States but thank G*d the pigs get caught on camera now. Its unthinkable and an embarrassment to America. The country I was brought up in. Somebody make change. We need gun control and unity. And a real President, so think about that when this election is around the corner. The world is a precarious place right now. #stop #reflect and #act appropriately.
Bartons response was branded out of touch by highlighting her own privilege. The post was deleted before her social media accounts stoked more controversy with a tweet apologising if the post had gone out of context, and a second tweet adding: All lives matter!. This tweet was then deleted from her page within half an hour of posting.
Barton"s now-deleted Instagram post provoked some critical response from users who mocked her picture choice displaying luxury and privilege while speaking out about a social justice issue which disproportionately affects black communities in the US.
After she deleted the post and shared a picture of a building on Friday, Instagram followers continued to debate the original post branding it tasteless, "disconnected" and calling out her privilege.
However, some on Instagram have defended Barton for, at least, speaking out on the issue.
Mischa Barton
Background:Barton was born in London in 1986 but grew up in New York City. She began acting as a child and starred in Notting Hill and The Sixth Sense in 1999.
Career: She landed her role in The OC in 2003 which catapulted her to fame, front pages and red carpets.
Post-OC: She has appeared in a number of horror films and theatre productions and last year finished 11th onDancing With the Stars.
Im sure you meant well. Ill just leave it at that, wrote one user. I appreciate you trying, said another. You take support wherever you can get it. Shes not the problems. Cops who shoot black people are, wrote another.
A representative for Barton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By most measures, 1983 was yet another miserable summer in New York for what had become the National Leagues worst franchise. The Mets finished dead last in the NL, 23 games out of first place, and came in under 70 wins for the seventh consecutive season. Worse yet, ace pitcher Tom Seaver, easily the Mets best player to that point in franchise history, was snapped up by the White Sox after the season because general manager Frank Cashen neglected to protect him from inclusion in the free-agent compensation pool.
But 1983 also had bright spots. In addition to the midseason acquisition of 1979 NL co-MVP Keith Hernandez, the Mets had in their minor-league system a pair of prospects who would soon dramatically improve the teams fortunes. Those players outfielder Darryl Strawberry and pitcher Dwight Doc Gooden are the subject of a 30 for 30 documentary that premieres tonight on ESPN, and their story highlights how quickly superstar phenoms can help remake a franchise in tatters.
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It also underscores how, just as quickly, everything can evaporate.
Strawberry was the first of the Mets two whiz kids to reach the majors, early in that otherwise ill-fated 1983 season. When he arrived from AAA Tidewater on May 6, the Mets were 6-15 and 10 games out of the NL lead. Things would get worse before they got better. During his first month in The Show, Strawberry hit just .164 and struck out once every 2.5 at-bats. But five weeks into his career, he finally started to figure out big-league pitching: From June 7 onward, Strawberry posted a .936 OPS (on-base plus slugging) better than eventual league MVP Dale Murphy. After the season, Strawberry was named the NLs Rookie of the Year.
Gooden didnt make his debut until the following season, but he quickly proved to be Strawberrys equal as a prospect. In his first two months of major-league action, Gooden struck out 73 batters, one of the highest totals ever in a pitchers first nine career starts:1
Only includes pitchers for whom their first nine games were starts.
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
And he was just getting started. Those strikeout-happy first two months actually were the worst stretch of Goodens rookie year; he would post a 2.27 ERA from June onward and finish the season second in the voting for NL Cy Young and first in the Rookie of the Year race. Goodens rookie campaign was so dominant that, according to FanGraphs wins above replacement, it was the most valuable debut season by any player pitcher or otherwise since 1901:
WARYEARPLAYERAGETEAMBATTINGPITCHINGTOTAL1984Dwight Gooden19NYM0.28.38.52001Albert Pujols21STL7.20.07.21939Ted Williams20BOS7.10.07.11911Pete Alexander24PHI-0.47.26.82015Kris Bryant23CHC6.50.06.51977Mitchell Page25OAK6.20.06.21943Lou Klein24STL6.10.06.11942Johnny Pesky22BOS6.10.06.12001Ichiro Suzuki27SEA6.00.06.01949Don Newcombe23BKN0.35.65.9Most WAR in a players debut season, 1901-2016
Does not include players who, by rule, retained Rookie of the Year award eligibility into subsequent seasons.
Source: Fangraphs
Thanks to another 25-homer, .800-OPS season from Strawberry and a strong performance by Hernandez (who finished second on the team and 14th among NL hitters with 5.7 WAR), the 1984 Mets ended the season with 90 victories, a 22-game improvement over the previous year.
It was the start of a turnaround unlike just about any in modern baseball history. If youd taken those ghastly 1983 Mets and built a simple regression model predicting how many games theyd win over the next five seasons based on things like how many WAR they had on the roster (not many); how young their batters and pitchers were2 (not very); and the size of the market in which they played3 (large, but cramped by the crosstown Yankees slice of the New York media pie) youd have guessed the Mets would win about 77 games per season from 1984 to 1988. In reality, they averaged 98 wins a season over that span, the second-biggest positive differential between forecast and fact since the NL adopted the 162-game schedule in 1962:
Those five seasons were the apex for Doc and Straw. Strawberry had the effortless power and discerning eye of a young Reggie Jackson. He could also run, swiping at least 25 bases every season from 1984 to 1988. Among a stellar class of young outfielders in the mid-to-late 1980s that included Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines and Tony Gwynn, Strawberry was staking his claim near the top of the list.
Gooden, meanwhile, was a monumental talent, at his peak one of the most dominant pitchers this side of Pedro Martinez. In 1984 at age 19! Docs fielding independent pitching (FIP) was 1.69, still the seventh-lowest (relative to the league) ever in a single season. He followed that up with a 1.53 ERA as a 20-year-old, the 12th-lowest (again, relative to league average) ever recorded in a season.
It was one of the most masterful stretches by a pitcher ever, and it helped Gooden produce the 20th-best pair of back-to-back WAR seasons by a pitcher in major league history, all before his 21st birthday. It also included the bulk of a magical 50-start span that stretched from late in the 1984 season into early 1986, during which Gooden allowed an infinitesimal 1.38 ERA, struck out 4.6 batters for each one he walked and led the Mets to a 41-9 record when he took the mound.
During that five-year run, the Mets won at least 90 games every year, breaking the mythic 100-win barrier twice. They won the World Series in 1986 and came within a game of going to another in 1988. And Doc and Darryl were the driving forces. They finished 1-2 on the team in WAR over that span and became the 20th-most-productive pair of teammates under age 26 in baseball history.
With Gooden and Strawberry blossoming into megastars, the Mets seemed poised to build on their 86 Series victory and form a full-blown dynasty. But the duos on-field accomplishments were masking a variety of personal demons issues that would ultimately derail their careers and dash New Yorks hopes of long-term dominance.
Gooden and Strawberry were both products of alcoholic fathers; Darryls was abusive, Docs was relentlessly overbearing. And practically from the start of their pro careers, the two plunged into their own cycles of violence and substance abuse. Both men built an ugly legacy of violence against women. Gooden missed the Mets 1986 World Series parade because of drugs and tested positive for cocaine the next spring, the opening entries in a long list of personal problems. Strawberry clashed with teammates and spent multiple stints in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. Gooden contemplated suicide; Strawberry relapsed into drug use even after recovering from cancer. They became the faces of decadence, wasted talent and the full range of cultural pathologies attached to star athletes in the roaring 1980s.
For a time, both players were able to perform well despite the personal turmoil. (Each was able to produce at least 6.5 WAR the mark of a strong All-Star or borderline MVP in 1990, even as their off-field lives were crumbling.) But ultimately, neither players career lived up to the expectations set in their early careers. Depending on which WAR variant you use,4 Goodens career total fell about 10 wins shy of what could have been expected from similar players as a young pitcher. Likewise, Strawberry missed the career WAR totals of his comparables by 22 wins.
Just as the emergence of Gooden and Strawberry fueled the Mets surprising turnaround after the 1983 season, their twin downfalls contributed to the Mets collapse in the early-to-mid 1990s. After the 1990 season, when Doc and Darryl led New York to a 91-71 record in their last year together, the same next-five-years prediction model from above would have expected 87 wins per year from the Mets 1991-95 seasons. Instead, the team averaged 73 victories over that span, the 17th-biggest shortfall of the 162-game era.
Strawberry bolted to the Dodgers as a free agent in November 1990 and made the All-Star team his first season in LA, but he was never the same again. Gooden stuck around in New York for a few more years before a drug suspension cost him the entire 1995 season and ended his tenure with the club. And the Mets had the worst record in baseball from 1991 to 1996.
It was a stunning collapse for all parties involved and a reminder of how fragile a gifted core of young superstars can be. Just as quickly as extraordinary talent can breathe new life into a flagging franchise, it can also pave the way for disappointment, leaving a generation of fans wondering what might have been.
