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E3: Meet Nintendo’s Next Console, the Wii U
Nintendo’s E3 press conference just wrapped up and it ended with a bang: the reveal of their next console, the Wii U, and specifically its controller. It confirms the rumors that their next console had a controller with a massive (6.2″) touchscreen on it, as you can see below. Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata said Nintendo’s goal is to appeal to both the casual and hardcore markets, “The goal of innovation is to serve every player, then though each brings to video games an individual appetite, a personal passion and a distinct gaming history.” Nintendo is definitely trying to address the concerns of core gamers, a majority of which never warmed up to the family-friendly Wii console.
The Wii U’s controller might not be the most attractive thing on the market, but its large touchscreen, twin analog sticks, a front-facing camera, and gyroscope are still easier for my mind to wrap itself around then that Wiimote, which after years of using controllers for the PlayStation and Xbox, it just never felt quite right. The rumors that you could take the Wii U controller on the go, making it a portable gaming device, were squashed. However, if someone wants to use the TV you can switch the screen to the one on the controller and continue your gaming uninterrupted. Head past the break for some of the console’s announced games, a look at the console itself, and when we can expect this exciting new device. Many, including myself, thought Nintendo would surprise the world by unveiling their new console and giving it a Holiday 2011 release – but this didn’t happen. Instead we got the controller and a pretty wide release window of 2012. Microsoft and Sony are expected to unveil their followups to the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively at E3 next year, so that should make for a fun June next year.
Developer support for the console is already looking better than the Wii, Many top developers expressed their excitement for the platform and several games were announced for the console, including (but not limited to): Batman: Arkham City, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3, Lego City Stories, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Metro: Last Light (that last one was a bit of a surprise).
I should also mention that the Wii U is backwards compatible with the Wii as well as its peripherals, like the balance board and zapper (you can even combine the controller with the zapper to create an entirely new experience). So, does our first look at Nintendo’s next console have you excited or are you withholding comment until we see what Sony and Microsoft do?
Oh, and you can totally use a stylus on this thing.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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