Uber Cool

You know how in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun orbited by an utterly insignificant little blue green planet at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles? And you know how the ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea? Well, being a member of those life forms I am sad to admit that I am always late to the party. I still think analogue watches are a pretty neat idea. Anyhoo, all I am saying is that I am behind when it comes to all the cool things. The current cool thing is the Uber taxi service that originated in the good ol’ US and has since been spreading in major cities around the world. I live in Cape Town and tried the service out yesterday and it was pretty freakin’ rockstar as all hell!

I live in Cape Town’s CBD and though the public transport is better than what you’d find in my home city, Johannesburg, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Living in the CBD it’s easiest for my housemates and I to get around using cab services, which are quite cheap in and around the city but are rarely on time and some of the companies have vehicles that are nowhere near roadworthy. Some of the companies provide great service though but the thing that really grinds my gears is when meter taxis refuse to use their meters! I hate having to haggle for a fair price every time I’m out and just want to get home. Then there are the overpriced meter at Waterfront that make me want to pull the little hair I have out. The driver tells you his meter charges R10.00 a km and 5 km later the meter is sitting on R100.00! These things make me very angry so I was pretty happy to give Uber a go.

Get to the UberCHOPPER! 

The whole service is quite seamless. You download the app and add your credit card details. Some people are a bit concerned about this part but I figure I buy stuff online on the regular and trust all those folks with my details so I’ll give this a go. It’s still early days though so if something shady does go down with my bank account I will let you know and we can go to Uber’s house together and beat them up. Once that’s done you’re ready to ride. I got my first ride free because of the whole referral thing they have going on. If you refer a friend to the service and they enter your promo code you both get R90.00 free credit. A friend referred me so that was pretty nice. I see they have an offer of R150.00 a referral for both parties now so support a Charlie boy and enter my promo code when you sign up: mnqxg. I love me some free stuff and I bet you do too.

Anyhoo, once you’re all signed up and want go out you simply request one of three types of rides: UberX, UberXL or UberBLACK. X is the normal one and you get something in the line of a TOYOTA COROLLA, HONDA BRIO AMAZE SEDAN or VOLKSWAGEN POLO picking you up and it’s charged at a base fee of R5.00, R0.70 per minute in addition to R7.00 a km. The minimum fare is R20.00. The XL is an SUV when you want to bring more of the gang along and is charged at the same rate as the XL but with a minimum fare of R30.00. The last option, the BLACK is the classy one where you get picked up in a BMW 3-SERIES, AUDI A4 or MERCEDES-BENZ E-CLASS. It’s R15.00 base fee, R1.10 per minute in addition to R11.00 per km if you feel like balling. If you feel the need to channel your inner Arnie and yell, "Get to the chopper!" Uber has you covered with their UberCHOPPER service. I'm not sure on the pricing for this one though.

The GPS in the app picks up where you are (you can adjust if it gets the location a little wrong) and then you can type your destination in and it shows you an estimate of the costs for the vehicle type you’d like to use. If you’re happy you just click to request a taxi and they send you the details and photo of the nearest driver. They even show you the driver’s location as they drive to you on the map. When the taxi arrives you get a text and are ready to be on your merry way. I took to UberX service and got picked up in the HONDA and it was very pleasant. The driver didn’t drive at breakneck speed, he asked if my partner and I would like the aircon on and it was just all very professional. The driver on the way back even had bottles of still water in cool holders in the car. When you jump out at your destination you don’t worry about paying and arguing over price. You get an email with a receipt of your trip and how much you were charged. In the app you get to rate the driver as well.

My first Uber experience was uber cool and I’d recommend it to the masses. Download the app and give it a bash. Enter my promo code and both of us get R150.00 credit: mnqxg.

Stay cool.

DC v Marvel: Age of Justice, the Future of Comic Book Movies and Television

We all love superheroes and over the last few years DC and Marvel have been showing us a lot of comic book love on television and on the big screen. DC is struggling at the box office at the moment with Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy being the only venture that really worked out well for them. Green Lantern was a bit of a disaster and Man of Steel didn’t quite succeed in capturing what Superman is really about, what with the big blue Boy Scout probably killing more innocent people in Metropolis than he saved in his fight against General Zodd. While DC may be lagging behind on the big screen they are dominating the small screen, with shows like Arrow, The Flash (which is just pure gold, you guys) and Gotham. Marvel has Agents of SHIELD, which goes from annoying to really good and then back to annoying again. Agent Carter is nice too, I guess. The Peggy Carter character is less tiresome than most of the people on the Agents of SHIELD roster at any rate. Marvel had a great 2014 at the movies with Captain America: Winter Soldier and The Guardians of the Galaxy being absolutely amazing. They are looking to do the same in 2015 with Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. Marvel also has more things lined up for television to compete with DC on that front.

Big things are happening for both DC and Marvel this year and going ahead so let’s dive into some of the fun stuff from both of the studios, shall we. Let’s kick off with Marvel’s detailed plan for things to come and then look at how DC responds.

Marvel is taking the Avengers out on their second outing on the 1^st of May in Age of Ultron and geeks everywhere can’t wait to get some of that comic book goodness. Heck! People in general can’t wait to get hold of that comic book goodness. Then there is the bonus we South Africans have of seeing Hulk smashing downtown Jozi. Move over New York! Marvel knows how to make movies that appeal to everyone and they do it with such charm. Just to make sure that everyone knows that Marvel knows what they are doing they went ahead and announced their complete Phase 3 line-up. Just like that. BOOM! Phase 2 closes off with Ant-Man on July 17 this year. Ant-Man is looking to be the sleeper hit that The Guardians of the Galaxy was last year.

Donald Glover for Spider-Man!

Phase 3 kicks off with Captain America: Civil War set for May 6, 2016. Marvel Studios acquired the rights to Spider-Man from Sony and this is great news as he is an important part of the Civil War storyline and will finally get to play with the rest of the Avengers gang. I doubt that Spidy will be getting his own movie before then but let’s see. Also, a black Spidy seems to be a thing with Donald Glover’s and other names being thrown around. On the 4^th of November 2016 Marvel taps into the magical corner of the comic book universe by bringing in the Sorcerer Supreme in Doctor Strange. The lovable Guardians of the Galaxy go on their second space adventure on 5 May 2017 (so far away to see more of Groot) and things get all sort of apocalyptic in Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017. The Avengers (and probably the Guardians of the Galaxy) assemble again to face off with the big bad Thanos in Infinity War Part 1 on May 4, 2018. Black Panther makes his debut on July 6, 2018 (I imagine we will see him in some sort of cameo before this though). Captain Marvel gets her day in the sun on November 2, 2018. The Avengers continue their Infinity Gauntlet story in Infinity War Part 2 on May 3, 2019. The Inhumans are now a thing on Agents of SHIELD but the royal family gets their own movie on July 12, 2019. I doubt we’ll be seeing any of the royal family on TV before then.

Marvel is good at interconnections between all of its franchises and for all the flak I give Agents of SHIELD it ties in nicely with the events in the films and will continue to do so if all the plans on the table work out. The 10^th of April will see the launch of Daredevil on Netflix and by the look of the trailer it’s set to be a lot darker and grittier than the other Marvel stuff. It will also tie into the bigger Marvel universe like Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD. Later this year we’ll also get A.K.A. Jessica Jones. Iron Fist, Luke Cage and The Defenders will also be getting some love on the small screen but their dates have not been announced yet.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . The Justice League is clearly still a thing for DC with Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice scheduled for 25 March, 2016. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) will be a principal character in the movie, so that’s the big three in the Justice League right there. Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) has been cast as Aquaman and his character has been revealed in costume on posters with the tagline: Unite the Seven. This could refer to the seven seas of which he is king or the seven founding members of the Justice League. Cyborg (Ray Fisher) is also set to make an appearance in the movie.

The Big Three

DC is playing catch up with Marvel and so they also announced their line-up for their . . . DC Cinematic Universe. DCU? DCU 52? Well, whatever they call it, here it is! After Dawn of Justice we get to see the Suicide Squad in action on 5 August 2015. Who doesn’t like themselves some anti-heroes? Really. Look out for Jared Leto as The Joker, Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. Oprah Winfrey was one of the people being considered to play Amanda Waller but Viola Davis (Ender’s Game) got it in the end. The Suicide Squad makes a regular appearance on Arrow so I guess the TV and cinema worlds won’t be linked as the actors aren’t the same. Gal Godot returns as Wonder Woman on 23 June 2017. 17 November 2017 sees the biggie in the form of Justice League Part One. The Flash zooms in on March 23, 2018 and we take a look at what’s going on in Atlantis in Aquaman on July 27, 2018. By the power and beard of Zeus we will be graced by Shazam (Captain Marvel to some but Marvel has their Captain Marvel so yeah, that) on April 5, 2019. The Rock has been cast as Black Adam so you know this will be fun. Justice League Part Two is set for June 14, 2019, Cyborg for April 3, 2020 and DC will try again with Green Lantern on June 19, 2020.

There’s not much to say about DC’s TV presence other than that they are having a good time. In addition to shows like Arrow, The Flash and Gotham they have Constantine exploring the magical realm. Supergirl is getting her own show this year and Lucifer and Preacher are on the cards as well.

We have a lot of comic book movies and TV shows to look forward to over the next few years and the name of the game from both studios is clearly shared cinematic universes, which we love. DC seems not to be sharing storylines or characters between their TV shows and movies though but hey, it still looks like a lot of big things going on. Feel free to get excited about all the cool things headed our way. See you at the movies and on the couch at home.