Laughed. My. Ass. Off.
INTERMISSION has text-reviews of "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Beasts of The Southern Wild"
INTERMISSION has text-reviews of "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Beasts of The Southern Wild"
Friday, 29 June 2012
Thursday, 28 June 2012
...and it looks AWESOME!
IGN has the first red-band trailer for "The Man With The Iron Fists;" a gonzo tribute to the golden age of Hong Kong martial-arts films written and directed by the Wu-Tang Clan frontman with backup from Quentin Tarantino. My only regret is that thus far it can only be watched on IGN's shitty media-player:
Well, I'm on board - though to be fair like so many films before they had me at Lucy Liu.
It'll be interesting to how - if at all - this is recieved. The RZA has supposedly forgotten more about kung-fu movies than any mortal man could hope to learn; but I feel like appreciation for this stuff outside of the hardcore film-geek set sort of "peaked" with "Kill Bill." Either way, I'll be there day one.
IGN has the first red-band trailer for "The Man With The Iron Fists;" a gonzo tribute to the golden age of Hong Kong martial-arts films written and directed by the Wu-Tang Clan frontman with backup from Quentin Tarantino. My only regret is that thus far it can only be watched on IGN's shitty media-player:
Well, I'm on board - though to be fair like so many films before they had me at Lucy Liu.
It'll be interesting to how - if at all - this is recieved. The RZA has supposedly forgotten more about kung-fu movies than any mortal man could hope to learn; but I feel like appreciation for this stuff outside of the hardcore film-geek set sort of "peaked" with "Kill Bill." Either way, I'll be there day one.
Latino Review is claiming that Marvel Studio's "other" planned 2014 release (the first being "Captain America 2" with "Iron Man 3" and "Thor 2" in 2013) - set to be officially unveiled at SDCC - is going to be "GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY;" though it remains unclear which incarnation will appear. Where this leaves the supposedly also-imminent "Black Panther" movie (also first reported by Latino Review) is yet to be determined.
(SPOILERS FOR "THE AVENGERS" AFTER THE JUMP)
Originally a VERY-70s time-traveling space-opera series with the costume/character aesthetics of a superhero book (think "New Gods" - or "All Those Darkseid-Related Guys" if you mainly know DC stuff from the cartoons); "Guardians" has since been reimagined through multiple reincarnations/rebrandings as a kind of rotating-membership "All-Star Team" for Marvel's cosmic/outer-space/alien characters. As you might expect, ultimate-cosmic-heavy Thanos is one of their most frequent enemies, and according to the LR report that will be the case in the film as well - effectively making The Mad Titan's appearance in "Avengers" both a tease for "Avengers 2" AND this film (which will, in turn, serve as the direct lead-in for "Avengers 2."
The membership roster for the film has yet to be announced; and Marvel has a lot of cult-icon cosmic heroes to pick from - if you're hoping to see guys like Nova, Qasar, Drax The Destroyer, Adam Warlock or Mar-Vel turn up; this would be the most likely place for it. I would imagine that founding-member/frequent-leader Major Victory would have to play a key part - he's an astronaut from present-day Earth (real name: Vance Astro. For real) - time-displaced the the far-future whose "costume" is an anti-aging bodysuit, which makes him a perfect audience-POV character; plus (in a nice thematic "rhyme") he at one point carried Captain America's shield as a weapon and as a symbol (in the Marvel Universe, Cap is pretty-much worshipped as the one hero that every planet, culture, species and time-period universally admire.)
Personally, I'd hope to see more-recent Guardian fan-fave Rocket Raccoon make an appearance. He's exactly what you think he is, and don't tell me you don't want to see Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans react to a talking, ray-gun toting alien Raccoon.
P.S. If Thanos really is going to be the "rising big-bad" of the second wave of the Marvel Universe, the safest bet anyone can make right now is that some variation of The Infinity Gems will start popping up throughout the next few movies. We live in exciting times.
P.P.S. LR also reports that 2014 might also see the first official collaboration between Marvel Studios and Disney Animation: an animated feature-film based on "Big Hero 6;" a team of Japanese Marvel heroes (some were original to the series, some were Japanese-descended supporting-characters from across the Marvel Universe) who were part of an attempt to cash-in on the 1990s manga-boom. Something interesting to note about that: In the comics, The Silver Samurai is a member of the team... but he's also been widely-presumed to turn up as the villain of the still-cooking "Wolverine" reboot. Hm...
(SPOILERS FOR "THE AVENGERS" AFTER THE JUMP)
Originally a VERY-70s time-traveling space-opera series with the costume/character aesthetics of a superhero book (think "New Gods" - or "All Those Darkseid-Related Guys" if you mainly know DC stuff from the cartoons); "Guardians" has since been reimagined through multiple reincarnations/rebrandings as a kind of rotating-membership "All-Star Team" for Marvel's cosmic/outer-space/alien characters. As you might expect, ultimate-cosmic-heavy Thanos is one of their most frequent enemies, and according to the LR report that will be the case in the film as well - effectively making The Mad Titan's appearance in "Avengers" both a tease for "Avengers 2" AND this film (which will, in turn, serve as the direct lead-in for "Avengers 2."
The membership roster for the film has yet to be announced; and Marvel has a lot of cult-icon cosmic heroes to pick from - if you're hoping to see guys like Nova, Qasar, Drax The Destroyer, Adam Warlock or Mar-Vel turn up; this would be the most likely place for it. I would imagine that founding-member/frequent-leader Major Victory would have to play a key part - he's an astronaut from present-day Earth (real name: Vance Astro. For real) - time-displaced the the far-future whose "costume" is an anti-aging bodysuit, which makes him a perfect audience-POV character; plus (in a nice thematic "rhyme") he at one point carried Captain America's shield as a weapon and as a symbol (in the Marvel Universe, Cap is pretty-much worshipped as the one hero that every planet, culture, species and time-period universally admire.)
Personally, I'd hope to see more-recent Guardian fan-fave Rocket Raccoon make an appearance. He's exactly what you think he is, and don't tell me you don't want to see Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans react to a talking, ray-gun toting alien Raccoon.
P.S. If Thanos really is going to be the "rising big-bad" of the second wave of the Marvel Universe, the safest bet anyone can make right now is that some variation of The Infinity Gems will start popping up throughout the next few movies. We live in exciting times.
P.P.S. LR also reports that 2014 might also see the first official collaboration between Marvel Studios and Disney Animation: an animated feature-film based on "Big Hero 6;" a team of Japanese Marvel heroes (some were original to the series, some were Japanese-descended supporting-characters from across the Marvel Universe) who were part of an attempt to cash-in on the 1990s manga-boom. Something interesting to note about that: In the comics, The Silver Samurai is a member of the team... but he's also been widely-presumed to turn up as the villain of the still-cooking "Wolverine" reboot. Hm...
The deadline for ScrewAttack G1's to submit questions for the upcoming Game OverThinker Mailbag Episode will be Saturday night, June 30th. If you are (or plan to become) a G1 and haven't asked your question yet, you may do so in the comments on THIS video.
For more information, refer to said video below:
For more information, refer to said video below:
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Vintage PC Edutainment game fans (that surely must exist, yes?); you may finally be getting a Hollywood blockbuster to call your own: Walden Media (the folks behind the "Narnia" movies) has comissioned a screenplay for a feature film adaptation of "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?"
Jennifer Lopez is one of the project's producers, and has been developing it as a potential star-vehicle for herself - the title character is a master-thief of (presumably) Latin/Spanish descent who prefers to pilfer items of historical/geographic significance. In the games, players took on the role of Interpol experts who had to use their knowledge of geography to suss out clues and chase Carmen and her associates around the world.
Outside of "The Oregon Trail," WITWICS? is probably the most successful/well-known franchise in the "edutainment" genre; and in it's heyday inspired tie-in books, school materials, museum/zoo events, merchandise and even an animated Fox TV series - however, it's probably best remembered by Gen-Xers for the uniquely-bizzare kiddie game show that aired on PBS...
Jennifer Lopez is one of the project's producers, and has been developing it as a potential star-vehicle for herself - the title character is a master-thief of (presumably) Latin/Spanish descent who prefers to pilfer items of historical/geographic significance. In the games, players took on the role of Interpol experts who had to use their knowledge of geography to suss out clues and chase Carmen and her associates around the world.
Outside of "The Oregon Trail," WITWICS? is probably the most successful/well-known franchise in the "edutainment" genre; and in it's heyday inspired tie-in books, school materials, museum/zoo events, merchandise and even an animated Fox TV series - however, it's probably best remembered by Gen-Xers for the uniquely-bizzare kiddie game show that aired on PBS...
Today's show is about Batman movies.
The next three shows will also be about Batman movies. It's Batman Month(s). Because Batman.
The next three shows will also be about Batman movies. It's Batman Month(s). Because Batman.
If "Wall-E" and "Up" made a baby and decided to raise it live-action, it would probably look a lot like "Robot & Frank;" which is amazingly NOT based on some forgotten/loosely-reworked Isaac Asimov story. Set in the near future, Frank Langella stars as an elderly man whose concerned kids buy him a )very Asimo-looking) caretaker robot; whose is programmed not only to protect and help him physically but also nudge him into psychologically-beneficial hobbies. Complicating matters is the fact that Frank's pre-retirement career was master jewel-thief; and when the opportunity to pull a heist on some obnoxious young riches, Robot becomes Frank's protege' for one last job.
This. Looks. AWESOME.
This. Looks. AWESOME.
Monday, 25 June 2012
In case you forgot, the reason we were all supposed to be tolerating the existance of Tyler Perry's appallingly-awful cinematic fusions of Bible-Thumping moralizing, soap opera histrionics and Minstrel Show "comedy" was that he was at least giving boxoffice exposure to criminally-underutilized black actors who might be able to use his bafflingly-popular films as a springboard to bigger A-list roles.
Well, the good news is, someone has finally jumped from the Perryverse into a high-profile lead role in a major studio tentpole/franchise-starter. The bad news? That someone... is Tyler Perry; who stepped in to replace a departing Idris Elba in the Rob Cohen directed "Alex Cross," intended to relaunch a new series of films based on the James Patterson detective novels that previously inspired "Kiss The Girls" and "Along Came a Spider."
The film now has a trailer; and if you've just been dying to watch Madea's male-half strap on guns and "badass-up" to do hilariously unconvincing battle with Matthew Fox as what appears to be an MMA-fighting ex-military hitman called "The Butcher"... you're in luck:
Well, the good news is, someone has finally jumped from the Perryverse into a high-profile lead role in a major studio tentpole/franchise-starter. The bad news? That someone... is Tyler Perry; who stepped in to replace a departing Idris Elba in the Rob Cohen directed "Alex Cross," intended to relaunch a new series of films based on the James Patterson detective novels that previously inspired "Kiss The Girls" and "Along Came a Spider."
The film now has a trailer; and if you've just been dying to watch Madea's male-half strap on guns and "badass-up" to do hilariously unconvincing battle with Matthew Fox as what appears to be an MMA-fighting ex-military hitman called "The Butcher"... you're in luck:
So... after three whole days of nothing chaotic or awful happening in my life; today I was in a car accident. Not a serious one - just a fender-bender. No injuries, no legal stuff, damage only (appears) superficial, etc; but a nice reminder from The Universe that there seems to either be no great transcendant force looking out for you OR that there is a great transcendant force and it doesn't like you very much. After all, what could be a nicer thing to have than car repair bills while you're in the process of moving-into and furnishing an apartment, right?
Egh. I know, I know - could be MUCH worse, could've gotten hurt, someone else could've gotten hurt, etc; but still... not what I needed, on top of everything else.
In any case, if you don't see "The Big Picture" go up on this blog at the usual time (it should be up on The Escapist as regularly-scheduled, though) tomorrow; that's why: After spending (probably) all morning dealing with automotive business I'll be out all day doing two preview-screenings - one is based on one of my all-time favorite fictional characters, the other is a crude lowbrow comedy seemingly built around a single joke, and my anticipation of them could not be more reversed from where you'd generally expect them to be. Joy.
Egh. I know, I know - could be MUCH worse, could've gotten hurt, someone else could've gotten hurt, etc; but still... not what I needed, on top of everything else.
In any case, if you don't see "The Big Picture" go up on this blog at the usual time (it should be up on The Escapist as regularly-scheduled, though) tomorrow; that's why: After spending (probably) all morning dealing with automotive business I'll be out all day doing two preview-screenings - one is based on one of my all-time favorite fictional characters, the other is a crude lowbrow comedy seemingly built around a single joke, and my anticipation of them could not be more reversed from where you'd generally expect them to be. Joy.
Yup, my first LIVE SHOW. Can't give you any more details than that, but I'm looking forward to it :)
Via Screencrush
"The Amazing Spider-Man" (which I still haven't seen) isn't a movie, it's a contract-law manuever - the purpose of its existance is to help Sony hold on to a lucrative brand in the short-term while they figure out how to hold on to it for the long-term. Its sole task next week is to open as big as possible (preferably hitting one of those meaningless "highest-grossing unadjusted whatever" boxoffice records) and get as far into the black as possible before "The Dark Knight Rises" comes out and wipes everything else off the map.
Sony's strategy for making that happen has been to BURY the internet and television with advertising - not just trailers and commercials, but a staggering number of extended promo-clips. And because of that, we have this: An enterprising fan has cut ALL of the publically-available footage of the film together in chronological order; effectively presenting (unless there's some HUGE twists being hidden) what seems to be a shortened version of the entire damn movie.
Sony has pulled this down a few times and probably will again (I'm not sure why, this is ALL just stuff they've already blanketed the planet with) so check it out while you can:
"The Amazing Spider-Man" (which I still haven't seen) isn't a movie, it's a contract-law manuever - the purpose of its existance is to help Sony hold on to a lucrative brand in the short-term while they figure out how to hold on to it for the long-term. Its sole task next week is to open as big as possible (preferably hitting one of those meaningless "highest-grossing unadjusted whatever" boxoffice records) and get as far into the black as possible before "The Dark Knight Rises" comes out and wipes everything else off the map.
Sony's strategy for making that happen has been to BURY the internet and television with advertising - not just trailers and commercials, but a staggering number of extended promo-clips. And because of that, we have this: An enterprising fan has cut ALL of the publically-available footage of the film together in chronological order; effectively presenting (unless there's some HUGE twists being hidden) what seems to be a shortened version of the entire damn movie.
Sony has pulled this down a few times and probably will again (I'm not sure why, this is ALL just stuff they've already blanketed the planet with) so check it out while you can:
Friday, 22 June 2012
Thursday, 21 June 2012
The real problem with the first cinematic attempt at "Judge Dredd" was that they somehow managed to miss that the comics were supposed to be funny; a brutal satire of contemporary American culture and American action-hero archetypes as seen by Brits. It also wasn't quite violent or nihilistic enough, sure, but without the sense of humor it didn't matter either way - a proper "Judge Dredd" movie needs to be a celebration of "for-your-own-good" facism turned up to eleven in order to point out the inherent facism in "straight" versions of the no-nonsense supercop subgenre.
Below, the trailer for an attempted "reboot" of the franchise (now just called "Dredd") with Karl Urban doing his best Christian Bale Growl in the lead. They've certainly got the grit and the violence down, and supposedly this version of Dredd is never going to remove his helmet... but it looks like they've once again missed the whole damn point, the trailer offering zero indication that any level of humor or satire is present. Pity...
The elephant in the room for action nuts will likely be that this seems to have the exact same premise as "The Raid" (the two films were in-production around roughly the same time) but I kind of like that about it. Too many franchise movies mistake a travelogue for worldbuilding, and I like the idea of Dredd as the hero of a very specific action-movie setup.
The buzz on this, incidentally, is exceptionally bad - it shot ages ago, and the studio was supposedly so unhappy with the result that the original director was shut-out of an extensive reworking/overhaul in post-production (the producers have downplayed these rumors, suggesting that an "unconventional" approach to authorship of the film was part of the project from the beginning.)
Below, the trailer for an attempted "reboot" of the franchise (now just called "Dredd") with Karl Urban doing his best Christian Bale Growl in the lead. They've certainly got the grit and the violence down, and supposedly this version of Dredd is never going to remove his helmet... but it looks like they've once again missed the whole damn point, the trailer offering zero indication that any level of humor or satire is present. Pity...
The elephant in the room for action nuts will likely be that this seems to have the exact same premise as "The Raid" (the two films were in-production around roughly the same time) but I kind of like that about it. Too many franchise movies mistake a travelogue for worldbuilding, and I like the idea of Dredd as the hero of a very specific action-movie setup.
The buzz on this, incidentally, is exceptionally bad - it shot ages ago, and the studio was supposedly so unhappy with the result that the original director was shut-out of an extensive reworking/overhaul in post-production (the producers have downplayed these rumors, suggesting that an "unconventional" approach to authorship of the film was part of the project from the beginning.)
"Breaking Dawn" (the book) is probably one of the most dissapointing endings to a "saga" I've ever come across, regardless of the quality of the rest of it. After briefly taking the final "Twilight" on a hard left-turn into the kind of high-end batshit-insanity that bad genre-fiction ought to provide; the whole thing opts to climax in a manner that would get you flunked at a Community College creative-writing class.
Below, the trailer for the movie version. If nothing else, it looks like we'll get a lot more Michael Sheen in this one, which is fine by me - he's one of the only people in the franchise who seems to understand they're making shit and has fun with it (unlike Stewart and Pattinson; who clearly know they're making shit but always look like they're attending their own career's funerals.)
Below, the trailer for the movie version. If nothing else, it looks like we'll get a lot more Michael Sheen in this one, which is fine by me - he's one of the only people in the franchise who seems to understand they're making shit and has fun with it (unlike Stewart and Pattinson; who clearly know they're making shit but always look like they're attending their own career's funerals.)
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Via AICN
I think I'm embargoed against telling you what I thought of "Brave" until Friday, but I will say that I think their investors are probably extremely happy that their next scheduled release is a follow-up to an established mega-hit a'la "Toy Story 3."
"Monster University" will be Pixar's first stab at the prequel game, featuring as it does James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski of "Monsters Inc." as college students. Admittedly, taking their ultimate "working class schmoe" characters and plunking them down into an Animal House/Revenge of The Nerds riff isn't exactly "How'd they think of THAT!!??" territory, but funny is funny.
I think I'm embargoed against telling you what I thought of "Brave" until Friday, but I will say that I think their investors are probably extremely happy that their next scheduled release is a follow-up to an established mega-hit a'la "Toy Story 3."
"Monster University" will be Pixar's first stab at the prequel game, featuring as it does James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski of "Monsters Inc." as college students. Admittedly, taking their ultimate "working class schmoe" characters and plunking them down into an Animal House/Revenge of The Nerds riff isn't exactly "How'd they think of THAT!!??" territory, but funny is funny.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
With shockingly little fanfare (as in, did anyone outside the UK actively know that "Amazing Spider-Man" was having it's premiere there early?) "The Amazing Spider-Man" had it's World Premiere in the UK last night, and the reviews have started to come in.
The good news? Mostly positive. Not the explosive enthusiam that hit after "Avengers" started showing, by any means; but also nowhere near the disasterous reactions that greeted "Green Lantern."
The bad news? One of the MOST positive reviews (from The Telegraph) calls it "The superhero film for the 'Twilight' generation." Which feels strange to read, given that I was told it was ridiculous of me to nickname the film "Spiderlight" during it's production, even though turning the franchise into a "Twilight"-competitor was widely-reported to be Sony's original pitch for the reboot. Oh, well...
io9 has a nice rundown of the other major UK Press reviews - one of which might have revealed something that probably shouldn't considered a spoiler but which I'm going to put after the "jump" anyway...
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!
The Standard's review (negative) is the first I've seen anywhere that seems to mentions Norman Osborn appearing in the film as a character. I think pretty-much everyone expected him to show up anyway, since his company plays such a big part in the new storyline, but this is the first time anyone has SAID it.
Interestingly, he's refered to as "dying plutocrat" Norman Osborn, which gives me a really icky feeling. The original films monkeyed around with The Green Goblin's origin, too, but at least preserved the original basic idea of a seemingly-decent corporate guy who unwittingly manifests his own Id "Jekyll & Hyde"-style. I don't know that there's a way to read "dying plutocrat" and not think that this won't be "Osborn is funding the research that makes Spider-Man and Lizard in order to cure himself;" which would be SPECTACULARLY trite - especially if it means he'll wind-up shooting-up with Spidey/Lizard-making-stuff and turning into some version of the shitty Ultimate-Universe Goblin in the all-but-innevitable "Batman Begins" Joker-tease stinger.
The good news? Mostly positive. Not the explosive enthusiam that hit after "Avengers" started showing, by any means; but also nowhere near the disasterous reactions that greeted "Green Lantern."
The bad news? One of the MOST positive reviews (from The Telegraph) calls it "The superhero film for the 'Twilight' generation." Which feels strange to read, given that I was told it was ridiculous of me to nickname the film "Spiderlight" during it's production, even though turning the franchise into a "Twilight"-competitor was widely-reported to be Sony's original pitch for the reboot. Oh, well...
io9 has a nice rundown of the other major UK Press reviews - one of which might have revealed something that probably shouldn't considered a spoiler but which I'm going to put after the "jump" anyway...
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!
The Standard's review (negative) is the first I've seen anywhere that seems to mentions Norman Osborn appearing in the film as a character. I think pretty-much everyone expected him to show up anyway, since his company plays such a big part in the new storyline, but this is the first time anyone has SAID it.
Interestingly, he's refered to as "dying plutocrat" Norman Osborn, which gives me a really icky feeling. The original films monkeyed around with The Green Goblin's origin, too, but at least preserved the original basic idea of a seemingly-decent corporate guy who unwittingly manifests his own Id "Jekyll & Hyde"-style. I don't know that there's a way to read "dying plutocrat" and not think that this won't be "Osborn is funding the research that makes Spider-Man and Lizard in order to cure himself;" which would be SPECTACULARLY trite - especially if it means he'll wind-up shooting-up with Spidey/Lizard-making-stuff and turning into some version of the shitty Ultimate-Universe Goblin in the all-but-innevitable "Batman Begins" Joker-tease stinger.
Below, another new trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises." I've gotta say, it really is awesome to see a big studio like Warner Bros. doing both the right and smart thing by pouring all this advertising into small, offbeat, auteur fare like this that actually needs a big marketing push to make people aware of it; instead of blowing it all on some gigantic, bloated, pre-sold blockbuster that everyone on the planet already knows is coming out in a ridiculous scramble to assure that some sort of headline-grabbing-yet-ultimately-pointless boxoffice "record" either gets hit or broken, y'know?
A brief announcement about the immediate-future of "The Game OverThinker."
Remember, The Episode 72 "MAILBAG" show is only open to questions from ScrewAttack G1's posted to THIS VIDEO. Thank you.
Remember, The Episode 72 "MAILBAG" show is only open to questions from ScrewAttack G1's posted to THIS VIDEO. Thank you.
Sunday, 17 June 2012
This is a few days old, but I'm a little surprised it hasn't made more impact. The "Resident Evil" movies were the poster-children for bad-adaptations of video games (at least until we had "The Legend of Chun-Li" to kick around) but I've come to appreciate them as a B-movie institution unto themselves - not so much "films of the games" as they are working-holiday projects wherein director Paul W.S. Anderson photographs his unspeakably-beautiful wife in a series of increasingly-abstract scifi/martial-arts ballets with characters and monsters from the Resident Evil games as scenery.
The first film was terrible and boring - a rote "Aliens' but with zombies" riff; but the second one was terrible in a funny way and the third and fourth were actually pretty solid. If that trend continues, this series could actually turn full-good if it makes it to the teens. As is, there's some interesting-looking stuff in here...
It feels slightly-unnecessary for them to spoil what looks like it could've been a great "cold open" in the trailer, but the idea of Umbrella setting it's enemies up in a virtual(?) alternate lives instead of just killing them fits in wonderfully with their "needlessly-elaborate-plans-with-no-clear-goal" operations from the rest of the franchise (what are they trying to accomplish in the games, again?) It's a little odd that Chris and Claire Redfield aren't back in this one considering the wink-wink fanfare their first (movie-universe) meetup with Wesker was given in the last one.
Supposedly the various previously-killed characters who're back for this one are back with a twist: they're clones, and there's two of each - one good, one evil. You can't say they aren't trying in this series.
The first film was terrible and boring - a rote "Aliens' but with zombies" riff; but the second one was terrible in a funny way and the third and fourth were actually pretty solid. If that trend continues, this series could actually turn full-good if it makes it to the teens. As is, there's some interesting-looking stuff in here...
It feels slightly-unnecessary for them to spoil what looks like it could've been a great "cold open" in the trailer, but the idea of Umbrella setting it's enemies up in a virtual(?) alternate lives instead of just killing them fits in wonderfully with their "needlessly-elaborate-plans-with-no-clear-goal" operations from the rest of the franchise (what are they trying to accomplish in the games, again?) It's a little odd that Chris and Claire Redfield aren't back in this one considering the wink-wink fanfare their first (movie-universe) meetup with Wesker was given in the last one.
Supposedly the various previously-killed characters who're back for this one are back with a twist: they're clones, and there's two of each - one good, one evil. You can't say they aren't trying in this series.
A few hours ago, Evangeline Chipman - my last surviving grandparent and one of the strongest best people I'll ever know - passed away after having been in ill health for some time.
I'm not interested in getting into any more details than that. I share only because - while it's my intention to not interupt the workflow of my sites and projects (if anything, I really need the focusing-effect of work-to-be-done right now) - I can't say what sort of things arrangements and obligations will do to my schedules and output. So, if this blog or other venues seem to be either less active or less "upbeat" than usual, I ask your patience and understanding as to why that probably is.
This is going to be a very difficult period for me and for my family, and your support and understanding is deeply appreciated.
I'm not interested in getting into any more details than that. I share only because - while it's my intention to not interupt the workflow of my sites and projects (if anything, I really need the focusing-effect of work-to-be-done right now) - I can't say what sort of things arrangements and obligations will do to my schedules and output. So, if this blog or other venues seem to be either less active or less "upbeat" than usual, I ask your patience and understanding as to why that probably is.
This is going to be a very difficult period for me and for my family, and your support and understanding is deeply appreciated.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Crack the bubbly and break out the unconventional pizza toppings - Paramount has indefinitely shut-down production of the (awful-sounding) Michael Bay produced TMNT reboot! The reason? Apparently, the script is terrible - who could've guessed, huh?
This is almost-certainly good news for Turtles fandom, and even better news for film critics who'll now have one less Michael Bay movie to endure next year (the film is still on Paramount's "schedule," in much the same way that Warner Bros. is still super suuuuper cereal about "Green Lantern 2;") but it's just the latest in what has been a spectacular slow-motion implosion at Paramount. Just last month, the studio was "forced" to yank it's mega-hyped, highly-anticipated "G.I. Joe" sequel from the Summer schedule for massive (expensive) reshoots and retooling so close to 'last minute" that the merchandise is already in stores. Last week, it was revealed that the already troubled production of the zombie-actioner "World War Z" now includes a ballooning budget and the shooting of an entirely new third-act.
It sucks to be Paramount right now - they had a huge few years in the blockbuster business, but it was for distributing movies made largely outside the studio itself i.e. the Marvel Studios films and the Spielberg/Bay/Hasbro-backed "Transformers" trilogy. When Marvel started being absorbed by Disney (the only reason your not seeing mass-layoffs at Paramount now is that a contract agreement entitled Paramount to a bigger-than-you'd-think share of "The Avengers" massive haul) and it briefly looked like Bay would bow-out of the robot business after "Dark of The Moon;" Paramount scrambled to get new tentpoles set up to take their place... and it looks like the haphazard results of that scrambling are now coming home to roost.
It's likely that the film will still get made, though probably not in the form that was taking shape at this point: The project was set up principally by Paramount's fellow Viacom-underling Nickelodeon, which paid a small fortune to buy the rights from multiple sources including Haim Saban (who, in turn, went and bought his "Power Rangers" baby back from Disney, who suddenly had other things to pay attention to in the "action figure farming" department, and round-and-round it goes...) and is still set to launch a new series this year.
Bay is still supposed to be making "Transformers 4" for the studio as part of a deal to get his Mark Whalberg/The Rock bodybuilder-crimespree project "Pain & Gain" released. I was getting the sense that TF4 was on it's way to falling by the wayside, but at this point they kinda HAVE to make it - it's the only sure thing they've got in the pipe now.
This is almost-certainly good news for Turtles fandom, and even better news for film critics who'll now have one less Michael Bay movie to endure next year (the film is still on Paramount's "schedule," in much the same way that Warner Bros. is still super suuuuper cereal about "Green Lantern 2;") but it's just the latest in what has been a spectacular slow-motion implosion at Paramount. Just last month, the studio was "forced" to yank it's mega-hyped, highly-anticipated "G.I. Joe" sequel from the Summer schedule for massive (expensive) reshoots and retooling so close to 'last minute" that the merchandise is already in stores. Last week, it was revealed that the already troubled production of the zombie-actioner "World War Z" now includes a ballooning budget and the shooting of an entirely new third-act.
It sucks to be Paramount right now - they had a huge few years in the blockbuster business, but it was for distributing movies made largely outside the studio itself i.e. the Marvel Studios films and the Spielberg/Bay/Hasbro-backed "Transformers" trilogy. When Marvel started being absorbed by Disney (the only reason your not seeing mass-layoffs at Paramount now is that a contract agreement entitled Paramount to a bigger-than-you'd-think share of "The Avengers" massive haul) and it briefly looked like Bay would bow-out of the robot business after "Dark of The Moon;" Paramount scrambled to get new tentpoles set up to take their place... and it looks like the haphazard results of that scrambling are now coming home to roost.
It's likely that the film will still get made, though probably not in the form that was taking shape at this point: The project was set up principally by Paramount's fellow Viacom-underling Nickelodeon, which paid a small fortune to buy the rights from multiple sources including Haim Saban (who, in turn, went and bought his "Power Rangers" baby back from Disney, who suddenly had other things to pay attention to in the "action figure farming" department, and round-and-round it goes...) and is still set to launch a new series this year.
Bay is still supposed to be making "Transformers 4" for the studio as part of a deal to get his Mark Whalberg/The Rock bodybuilder-crimespree project "Pain & Gain" released. I was getting the sense that TF4 was on it's way to falling by the wayside, but at this point they kinda HAVE to make it - it's the only sure thing they've got in the pipe now.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
I have a soft spot of cheesy 50s/60s sitcoms, which definitely includes "Bewitched," but I don't know that I'd ever seen THIS episode before; which features the Stevens Family encountering a Christmastime houseguest/potential business-associate of Darrins who turns out to be a racist. It must have been pretty eyebrow-raising to even hear the WORD racist on a sitcom back then, alongside the bonus of one a rare instance of Samantha using her powers to "get" somebody (that was usually more of an Endora or Serena thing) - in this case zapping the bigot so that he sees everyone around him as black... and yes, the effect is accomplished by putting the "regular" white cast in tan makeup:
Yeah. The blackface is HILLARIOUSLY terrible. But Sam's final pre-commercial break zinger? How the HELL did that make it to air on network TV at that time?
Yeah. The blackface is HILLARIOUSLY terrible. But Sam's final pre-commercial break zinger? How the HELL did that make it to air on network TV at that time?
Friday, 8 June 2012
Note: I just wanted to publically thank Justin Clouse at The Escapist, who jumped in and helped finish this episode (re: assembling all of the audio/video files into a cohesive finished product) when my equipment went to shit with very little notice and only my own "unique" interpretation of editing-"plans" to work from. Guy did a bang-up job, in my estimation, and I'm just incredibly sincerely thankful.
Anyway! SPOILER WARNING on "Prometheus."
Intermission responds to Sasha Stone re: The Avengers and The Oscars.
Anyway! SPOILER WARNING on "Prometheus."
Intermission responds to Sasha Stone re: The Avengers and The Oscars.
The trailer for The CW's Green Arrow show "Arrow" (Green is apparently boxoffice-poison for Warners now) looks pretty awful - a textbook example of the Nolan-esque "realistic superhero" aesthetic in the wrong hands. Actually looks bad enough to be a parody of bad superhero adaptations, which is impressive considering "Smallville" stayed on the air for a decade.
One thing managed to catch my eye, though: Does this mask belong to who I think it belongs to?
So. It looks very much like Slade Wilson - aka Deathstroke The Terminator - one of the most iconic antagonists in the DC Comics canon... will be making his live-action debut in a series that looks SO BAD that this trailer contains the stuff they think will make you watch it:
Super. Think they'll be clever enough to try and get Ron Perlman (Slade/Deathstroke's voice from the "Teen Titans" series) to do the part - or maybe just the voice?
One thing managed to catch my eye, though: Does this mask belong to who I think it belongs to?
So. It looks very much like Slade Wilson - aka Deathstroke The Terminator - one of the most iconic antagonists in the DC Comics canon... will be making his live-action debut in a series that looks SO BAD that this trailer contains the stuff they think will make you watch it:
Super. Think they'll be clever enough to try and get Ron Perlman (Slade/Deathstroke's voice from the "Teen Titans" series) to do the part - or maybe just the voice?
Thursday, 7 June 2012
UPDATE: I'm leaving the original block-of-angry (which, just for perspective, was typed out on a phone while I waited to smother my angst in cheeseburger and beer) up after the jump for posterity/integrity's sake, but I think I should clarify a few things:
1. I see people are hitting up the Tip Jar. While I deeply, deeply appreciate that - I want to be crystal-clear that I didn't put this up looking for sympathy/charity in that regard. Those who chose to do so, thank you very, very much... but I don't rage-post actively seeking that.
2. The screening I missed was not for a movie I wanted to see... well, okay, to be fair I do want to see it, but that's not why missing it twice made my shit list. It's a movie I have to see to review it for the show, and missing these two opportunities puts my ability to do my job in this instance in a certain amount of jeopardy. Movie critics don't get to choose when they see movies - studio publicists contact us with a place/date where pre-screenings will be held, we have to show up, and if for whatever reason we are prevented from getting there 9 times out of 10 the critic is out of luck. Fortunately, in this case these will be at least one more opportunity (it's a big movie, no it isn't Batman) but if that weren't the case I would be looking at being unable to fulfill a professional obligation to my employer because of two consecutive traffic issues.
I am not someone who believes in either karma or any other kind of universal balance. The universe is not balanced. The universe runs on random, heartless chance through which Natural Selection occurs. Times like these, however, make me want to reconsider that belief (or lack thereof.) Here's what my last two days have been: FINALLY put a deposit on my first solo apartment after months of awful real-estate shopping. Good thing. Then, to "balance" it out? Boston traffic caused me to miss a screening. Next day: computer (the one on which ALL my work is done) decides to freak out - either a virus, software failure, burned-out board or all three. Repair bill on that? Don't ask - more than I want to be spending in the midst of trying to put a move together. After that, a second chance at the film (no I can't tell you which one) I missed at a screening an HOUR away out in the fucking sticks... which I have now managed to miss AGAIN because everyone and their mistress is trying to get into or out of Boston tonight and 93 was bumper-to-bumper all the way to fucking Dedham. So, yeah. This shit, on top of all the other rotten shit to deal with already? Fuck this universe. And if there IS some higher intelligence "in charge" of all this? Fuck IT; too.
1. I see people are hitting up the Tip Jar. While I deeply, deeply appreciate that - I want to be crystal-clear that I didn't put this up looking for sympathy/charity in that regard. Those who chose to do so, thank you very, very much... but I don't rage-post actively seeking that.
2. The screening I missed was not for a movie I wanted to see... well, okay, to be fair I do want to see it, but that's not why missing it twice made my shit list. It's a movie I have to see to review it for the show, and missing these two opportunities puts my ability to do my job in this instance in a certain amount of jeopardy. Movie critics don't get to choose when they see movies - studio publicists contact us with a place/date where pre-screenings will be held, we have to show up, and if for whatever reason we are prevented from getting there 9 times out of 10 the critic is out of luck. Fortunately, in this case these will be at least one more opportunity (it's a big movie, no it isn't Batman) but if that weren't the case I would be looking at being unable to fulfill a professional obligation to my employer because of two consecutive traffic issues.
I am not someone who believes in either karma or any other kind of universal balance. The universe is not balanced. The universe runs on random, heartless chance through which Natural Selection occurs. Times like these, however, make me want to reconsider that belief (or lack thereof.) Here's what my last two days have been: FINALLY put a deposit on my first solo apartment after months of awful real-estate shopping. Good thing. Then, to "balance" it out? Boston traffic caused me to miss a screening. Next day: computer (the one on which ALL my work is done) decides to freak out - either a virus, software failure, burned-out board or all three. Repair bill on that? Don't ask - more than I want to be spending in the midst of trying to put a move together. After that, a second chance at the film (no I can't tell you which one) I missed at a screening an HOUR away out in the fucking sticks... which I have now managed to miss AGAIN because everyone and their mistress is trying to get into or out of Boston tonight and 93 was bumper-to-bumper all the way to fucking Dedham. So, yeah. This shit, on top of all the other rotten shit to deal with already? Fuck this universe. And if there IS some higher intelligence "in charge" of all this? Fuck IT; too.
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Below, the trailer (in shitty Fandango-exclusive quality, sorry) for Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained;" which stars Jamie Foxx as a pre-Civil War slave who teams with a bounty hunter (Christophe Waltz) to hunt down and kill his former masters and free his still-enslaved wife. And in case any doubt was left as to whether or not Tarantino has just lobbed a slavery-revenge pop-culture cluster-bomb into one of the most racially-divisive periods (i.e. NOW) in recent American history; one of the money-shots is blood splattering all over a fluffy field of cotton. Sez Django: "Kill white folks and get paid to do it? What's not to like?"
Ooooh... this is gonna be fun to watch - and the movie, too, most likely...
Ooooh... this is gonna be fun to watch - and the movie, too, most likely...
UPDATED WITH SCREENSHOT!
"Wreck-It Ralph" was already on my most-anticipated movies of the year list. At 1:09 of this trailer, it became #1. I won't be more psyched for a movie this year...
I'm actually kind of amazed Nintendo signed-off on what looks like a couple of cameos - aren't they supposed to be REALLY hard to work with on that stuff?
UPDATED! Here's a high-res screengrab: Look at them! Look at them all! Holy shit - that's the final Rhino Boss guy from "Altered Beast!" And a fucking BEHOLDER!!??
"Wreck-It Ralph" was already on my most-anticipated movies of the year list. At 1:09 of this trailer, it became #1. I won't be more psyched for a movie this year...
This may not be a Pixar movie, but it has that "feel." I'm tearing up, just a little, on reflex.
The pitch is "Toy Story" for video games: Ralph is the villain of a "Donkey Kong" expy who wants to try out being the good guy, so he departs to try his hand in the new worlds of other games; two of which - representing Kart Racers and FPS, respectively - are glimpsed in the trailer. GREAT premise, and Jane Lynch as the Marcus/Samus hybrid is inspired casting.
I'm actually kind of amazed Nintendo signed-off on what looks like a couple of cameos - aren't they supposed to be REALLY hard to work with on that stuff?
UPDATED! Here's a high-res screengrab: Look at them! Look at them all! Holy shit - that's the final Rhino Boss guy from "Altered Beast!" And a fucking BEHOLDER!!??
I try not to cross-post the blogs too much, but it's kind of bugging me that the most recent TGO is getting somewhat "buried" coming out in the midst of E3 so I feel justified in giving it some space here, too.
For some reason I can't embed this one right now, but those interested can see EPISODE 71: EULOGii on ScrewAttack by clicking the links in this post.
For some reason I can't embed this one right now, but those interested can see EPISODE 71: EULOGii on ScrewAttack by clicking the links in this post.
Matthew Vaughn's "X-Men: First Class" not only brought a deader-than-dead franchise back to life, it did so by making the best one yet. So a sequel was kind of expected. What wasn't expected? That Fox would go ahead and quietly register the new film's prospective title with MPAA. But they did, and AICN, HitFix and multiple others have confirmed that that title is...
...X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The internet is now broken.
Quick-version, because I'm working at the moment: "DOFP" was a landmark story-arc during Chris Claremont's defining epic run on the X-Men comics. The basic idea? It's "Terminator" (which it technically pre-dates) but with The X-Men; involving a dystopian near-future where the human government is successfully carrying out that whole Mutant Holocaust thing that "bad guy" Magneto kept warning everyone would happen. In the original version, the older future-version of Kitty Pryde zaps her consciousness back in time into her younger self and tries to prevent The Brotherhood from carrying out a political-assassination (Senator Kelly, from the first "X-Men" movie) which kicks-off the anti-Mutant backlash.
Other than Fox apparently picking this title, nothing else is known at this time... though, obviously, the immediate speculation is that a time-travel story might allow the "21st Century X-Men" of the original trilogy to share the screen (and maybe patch some plot-holes) alongside the Cold War era X-Men of "First Class." Also, it's worth remembering that DOFP's future anti-Mutant infrastucture was based around - yes - The Sentinels.
...X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The internet is now broken.
Quick-version, because I'm working at the moment: "DOFP" was a landmark story-arc during Chris Claremont's defining epic run on the X-Men comics. The basic idea? It's "Terminator" (which it technically pre-dates) but with The X-Men; involving a dystopian near-future where the human government is successfully carrying out that whole Mutant Holocaust thing that "bad guy" Magneto kept warning everyone would happen. In the original version, the older future-version of Kitty Pryde zaps her consciousness back in time into her younger self and tries to prevent The Brotherhood from carrying out a political-assassination (Senator Kelly, from the first "X-Men" movie) which kicks-off the anti-Mutant backlash.
Other than Fox apparently picking this title, nothing else is known at this time... though, obviously, the immediate speculation is that a time-travel story might allow the "21st Century X-Men" of the original trilogy to share the screen (and maybe patch some plot-holes) alongside the Cold War era X-Men of "First Class." Also, it's worth remembering that DOFP's future anti-Mutant infrastucture was based around - yes - The Sentinels.
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
So, yes, Warner Bros. is still trying to get a Justice League movie together, with "Gangster Squad" writer Will Beall being the latest to take a crack at the long-stalled project. Honestly, that Warners is working on this isn't news until they say YES to the script itself (studios comission scripts for potential projects all the time) and I suspect that the only reason we're hearing about Beall's script officially is so to bury the less positive announcement that "Wonder Woman" is getting a script from the writer of the "Green Lantern" movie. Ah, well.
It's simple math: "The Avengers" is the movie of the moment and (unless "Dark Knight Rises" or something else pops in an absolutely stunning way) probably THE pop-cultural event story of Summer 2012. If you're a studio executive and you aren't a least exploring options for a "team of superheroes" movie of your own, you are not being responsible to your shareholders. And if you already OWN a team of superheroes - say, one that's already more well-known and widely-recognized than "The Avengers" - if you aren't already MAKING that movie you don't deserve to hold your job.
What I like about this is that they don't seem to be waiting around to try and do a multi-film buildup like Marvel did. It could end up working out that way anyway - I wouldn't be totally surprised to see a toe or two being dipped in the continuity-waters in "Man of Steel" - but I don't know that it needs to. "The Avengers" was a different story - apart from The Hulk, almost no one outside fandom knew much about the other characters. Everyone knows who Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are. Even Flash and Aquaman are more widely-known that Iron Man ever was before the first movie. To my way of thinking, the smartest move Warners could make would be to make JL a top priority, get people under contracts and then figure out who gets movies of their own when the numbers come back.
And, honestly... while continuity-driven shared-universes are fun, Warners painted themselves into a corner in that regard by agreeing to Christopher Nolan's alleged "nobody touches anything Batman but me!" demands (which may still hold for Superman as well); and starting now would put them way behind the curve.
Obviously, my "best case scenario" hope would be that Warners has it's shit together and the already-cooking de-Nolanized Batman, "Man of Steel," Wonder Woman and Flash movies are being built to tie-in to this; but if not I don't think that many people would mind JL being a seperate thing, partly because (again, unlike "Avengers") these characters are bigger than any actor playing them could ever be: Whoever's wearing the Superman costume IS Superman.
It's simple math: "The Avengers" is the movie of the moment and (unless "Dark Knight Rises" or something else pops in an absolutely stunning way) probably THE pop-cultural event story of Summer 2012. If you're a studio executive and you aren't a least exploring options for a "team of superheroes" movie of your own, you are not being responsible to your shareholders. And if you already OWN a team of superheroes - say, one that's already more well-known and widely-recognized than "The Avengers" - if you aren't already MAKING that movie you don't deserve to hold your job.
What I like about this is that they don't seem to be waiting around to try and do a multi-film buildup like Marvel did. It could end up working out that way anyway - I wouldn't be totally surprised to see a toe or two being dipped in the continuity-waters in "Man of Steel" - but I don't know that it needs to. "The Avengers" was a different story - apart from The Hulk, almost no one outside fandom knew much about the other characters. Everyone knows who Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are. Even Flash and Aquaman are more widely-known that Iron Man ever was before the first movie. To my way of thinking, the smartest move Warners could make would be to make JL a top priority, get people under contracts and then figure out who gets movies of their own when the numbers come back.
And, honestly... while continuity-driven shared-universes are fun, Warners painted themselves into a corner in that regard by agreeing to Christopher Nolan's alleged "nobody touches anything Batman but me!" demands (which may still hold for Superman as well); and starting now would put them way behind the curve.
Obviously, my "best case scenario" hope would be that Warners has it's shit together and the already-cooking de-Nolanized Batman, "Man of Steel," Wonder Woman and Flash movies are being built to tie-in to this; but if not I don't think that many people would mind JL being a seperate thing, partly because (again, unlike "Avengers") these characters are bigger than any actor playing them could ever be: Whoever's wearing the Superman costume IS Superman.
Latino Review's El Mayimbe - who's just about the most scary-reliable movie news scooper out there right now, sez YES.
No official confirmation from Marvel/Disney yet, but these guys have been spot-on pretty-much every time they've made a call. If so, this will mark the first Marvel Studios production to feature a minority lead and will (unless I'm forgetting someone?) be the first comic-based film to star a black superhero since "Blade" back in 98.
More substantially, it's a terrific character with tons of cinematic potential:
I don't know how high awareness of the character is outside established comic fandom, but The Black Panther is kind of a big deal: The first black superhero in modern/mainstream comics, and also the first to hail (natively) from Africa.
Shortest possible version: Remember Eddie Murphy in "Coming to America?" He's that guy, if he was also Batman. Panther's real name is T'Challa, and he's the King of an isolated Sub-Saharan African nation called Wakanda; which maintains a surface-level facade of being a "primitive" jungle tribe but is actually a technologically-advanced super-civilization hidden deep underground. In the comics-proper, Wakanda sustains/defends itself primarily as the world's principal source of Vibranium - the super-special metal that Captain America's shield is made of.
The casting on this will be really interesting - the mega-success of The Avengers and the automatic high-profile that will come from being the first nonwhite member of what is now Hollywood's number-one "superhero factory" makes this instantly the biggest role specifically calling for a black male lead in Hollywood right now. Penny-pinching Marvel will almost certainly want to with a fresh face, but you can bet that LOT'S of established names are throwing their hats in as well.
Of less interest but still probably amusing-as-hell: The innevitable Fox News etc. freakout over the name (which predates the 1970s activist organization) and the positioning of an African leader as a superhero. This won't come out until well after the election, of course, but don't expect that to stop the fun...
No official confirmation from Marvel/Disney yet, but these guys have been spot-on pretty-much every time they've made a call. If so, this will mark the first Marvel Studios production to feature a minority lead and will (unless I'm forgetting someone?) be the first comic-based film to star a black superhero since "Blade" back in 98.
More substantially, it's a terrific character with tons of cinematic potential:
I don't know how high awareness of the character is outside established comic fandom, but The Black Panther is kind of a big deal: The first black superhero in modern/mainstream comics, and also the first to hail (natively) from Africa.
Shortest possible version: Remember Eddie Murphy in "Coming to America?" He's that guy, if he was also Batman. Panther's real name is T'Challa, and he's the King of an isolated Sub-Saharan African nation called Wakanda; which maintains a surface-level facade of being a "primitive" jungle tribe but is actually a technologically-advanced super-civilization hidden deep underground. In the comics-proper, Wakanda sustains/defends itself primarily as the world's principal source of Vibranium - the super-special metal that Captain America's shield is made of.
The casting on this will be really interesting - the mega-success of The Avengers and the automatic high-profile that will come from being the first nonwhite member of what is now Hollywood's number-one "superhero factory" makes this instantly the biggest role specifically calling for a black male lead in Hollywood right now. Penny-pinching Marvel will almost certainly want to with a fresh face, but you can bet that LOT'S of established names are throwing their hats in as well.
Of less interest but still probably amusing-as-hell: The innevitable Fox News etc. freakout over the name (which predates the 1970s activist organization) and the positioning of an African leader as a superhero. This won't come out until well after the election, of course, but don't expect that to stop the fun...
Source: Comicbookmovie
A pic snapped on the "Iron Man 3" set appears to set up yet the Marvel Movieverse debut of a huge part of Marvel Comics lore... and possibly open the door to hundreds of potential stories and characters - especially on the Bad Guy side. What a time to be alive.
POSSIBLE spoilers - though I imagine it's more like "possible stuff you didn't know about yet" - after the jump:
A.I.M. Advanced Idea Mechanics. Fucking A.
It's kind of mind-blowing that these guys haven't shown up sooner, especially in the "Iron Man" franchise. A.I.M. are a collective of mad-scientists who like to go about in matching clean-room hazmat suits and sell the fruits of their genius to be used for nefarious purposes (terrorism, espionage, etc.) "Where did so-and-so get that new super-weapon?" "Probably A.I.M."
Now that Captain America and Iron Man are officially teammates (if not "pals,") I wonder if they'll keep the background-detail of A.I.M. having been founded as a Post WWII outgrowth of HYDRA. It's the kind of "bonus continuity" you can take care of with a line of dialogue as opposed to expensive or distracting cameos/background-gags... though it would be incredible to see Toby Jones stomping around as the still-alive cyborg version of Arnim Zola ("Captain America" having implied that he wound up spirited-away by the Army like so many real-life Nazi mad-scientists.)
Of course, my mind goes to the same place I'm assuming a lot of your minds are going: Namely that A.I.M. is perhaps best known as the guys behind one of the greatest all-purpose comic book villains ever... M.O.D.O.K.
I want that. I want badly. I want to see Iron Man (or whoever) being menaced by a giant flying half-robot head with stubby little robot-limbs... and more importantly, I want to see an actual flesh-and-blood human actor in a legit, multimillion dollar studio tentpole have to intone with a straight face that his name stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.
A pic snapped on the "Iron Man 3" set appears to set up yet the Marvel Movieverse debut of a huge part of Marvel Comics lore... and possibly open the door to hundreds of potential stories and characters - especially on the Bad Guy side. What a time to be alive.
POSSIBLE spoilers - though I imagine it's more like "possible stuff you didn't know about yet" - after the jump:
A.I.M. Advanced Idea Mechanics. Fucking A.
It's kind of mind-blowing that these guys haven't shown up sooner, especially in the "Iron Man" franchise. A.I.M. are a collective of mad-scientists who like to go about in matching clean-room hazmat suits and sell the fruits of their genius to be used for nefarious purposes (terrorism, espionage, etc.) "Where did so-and-so get that new super-weapon?" "Probably A.I.M."
Now that Captain America and Iron Man are officially teammates (if not "pals,") I wonder if they'll keep the background-detail of A.I.M. having been founded as a Post WWII outgrowth of HYDRA. It's the kind of "bonus continuity" you can take care of with a line of dialogue as opposed to expensive or distracting cameos/background-gags... though it would be incredible to see Toby Jones stomping around as the still-alive cyborg version of Arnim Zola ("Captain America" having implied that he wound up spirited-away by the Army like so many real-life Nazi mad-scientists.)
Of course, my mind goes to the same place I'm assuming a lot of your minds are going: Namely that A.I.M. is perhaps best known as the guys behind one of the greatest all-purpose comic book villains ever... M.O.D.O.K.
I want that. I want badly. I want to see Iron Man (or whoever) being menaced by a giant flying half-robot head with stubby little robot-limbs... and more importantly, I want to see an actual flesh-and-blood human actor in a legit, multimillion dollar studio tentpole have to intone with a straight face that his name stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
I actually didn't even realize they were still doing The MTV Movie Awards, let alone that it was tonight. Apparently, the show climaxed with yet another arrangement of footage from "The Dark Knight Rises" - mostly showing off longer takes of stuff we've seen before, but now with perhaps a little more context...
The most interesting thing, obviously, is what seems to be definitive confirmation that Catwoman ends up as a good guy (or, at least, working on Batman's side at some point) which is... whatever, let's see what they do with that. The big stack of junk blocking the tunnel, alongside the previously-seen exploding bridges, implies that Gotham City (or a portion of it) is being deliberately cut-off/"contained" from the mainland; either by Bane or maybe by the authorities in response to Bane? Now I'm wondering if some of this is being taken from the "No Man's Land" story-arc from the comics, where an Earthquake turned Gotham into an isolated, lawless island for awhile. "Escape From New York" wiht Batman? That'd work.
What continues to intrigue me (and possibly put me a bit "on edge,") is what exactly Bane is "about." He's obviously an in-name-only adaptation of the character, so there's really no way to say what his story/motivation/etc. are supposed to be. What we can tell, moreso from some earlier trailers, is that there's a heavy "class war" theme at play in the film - as far back as the first trailer we saw scruffy-looking hordes ransacking mansions, dragging well-dressed people out of hiding places and trashing what looks like a stock-exchange. In this one it looks like Bane is leading (or at least "directing") the mobs; which sets up some troubling subtext when you consider the filmmakers' (scrapped) plans to incorporate real footage of the Occupy Wall Street protests into the film.
Is that the idea? Bane/whoever else using a villainized version of OWS as a tool of societal-destruction? If so, that plus Batman as the "good" side of this starts to feel a little "iffy" to me: Batman - the ultimate one-percenter/status-quo/order-as-justice superhero - swooping in to save us from a villainized version of the Discontented Poor? Are we following up TDK's "shut up and let Bat-Rumsfeld's surveillance network protect you from The Terrorists!" with "shut up and let Bat-Trump protect you from yourselves!"?
Maybe, maybe not. It does strike me that there's something oddly "feudal" about Nolan and company's conception of Batman. It's comic book tradition for superhero's to mainly focus on a single city, both because of logistics and... well, just because; but in this series Bruce Wayne's Gotham-fixation feels a little bit less like focused-benevolence and more like protective-ownership - Gotham City as a modern-day medieval castle-town, Bruce Wayne as the Landed Noble in charge. Hell, he's even an inheritor-by-birthright of his throne; "Batman Begins" having introduced the idea that the Wayne Family has long taken up maintanence of Gotham as a pet-project.
This isn't to say that it's necessarily "wrong" for this particular film to (possibly) be working from an anti-OWS (or, at least, "cut the upper-class some slack, kids!") angle; or that it's somehow ill-advised - being pegged in some quarters as a tacit endorsement of Patriot Act overreach certainly didn't hurt it's predecessor. But it's interesting, and this being an election year you can bet it'll come up.
The most interesting thing, obviously, is what seems to be definitive confirmation that Catwoman ends up as a good guy (or, at least, working on Batman's side at some point) which is... whatever, let's see what they do with that. The big stack of junk blocking the tunnel, alongside the previously-seen exploding bridges, implies that Gotham City (or a portion of it) is being deliberately cut-off/"contained" from the mainland; either by Bane or maybe by the authorities in response to Bane? Now I'm wondering if some of this is being taken from the "No Man's Land" story-arc from the comics, where an Earthquake turned Gotham into an isolated, lawless island for awhile. "Escape From New York" wiht Batman? That'd work.
What continues to intrigue me (and possibly put me a bit "on edge,") is what exactly Bane is "about." He's obviously an in-name-only adaptation of the character, so there's really no way to say what his story/motivation/etc. are supposed to be. What we can tell, moreso from some earlier trailers, is that there's a heavy "class war" theme at play in the film - as far back as the first trailer we saw scruffy-looking hordes ransacking mansions, dragging well-dressed people out of hiding places and trashing what looks like a stock-exchange. In this one it looks like Bane is leading (or at least "directing") the mobs; which sets up some troubling subtext when you consider the filmmakers' (scrapped) plans to incorporate real footage of the Occupy Wall Street protests into the film.
Is that the idea? Bane/whoever else using a villainized version of OWS as a tool of societal-destruction? If so, that plus Batman as the "good" side of this starts to feel a little "iffy" to me: Batman - the ultimate one-percenter/status-quo/order-as-justice superhero - swooping in to save us from a villainized version of the Discontented Poor? Are we following up TDK's "shut up and let Bat-Rumsfeld's surveillance network protect you from The Terrorists!" with "shut up and let Bat-Trump protect you from yourselves!"?
Maybe, maybe not. It does strike me that there's something oddly "feudal" about Nolan and company's conception of Batman. It's comic book tradition for superhero's to mainly focus on a single city, both because of logistics and... well, just because; but in this series Bruce Wayne's Gotham-fixation feels a little bit less like focused-benevolence and more like protective-ownership - Gotham City as a modern-day medieval castle-town, Bruce Wayne as the Landed Noble in charge. Hell, he's even an inheritor-by-birthright of his throne; "Batman Begins" having introduced the idea that the Wayne Family has long taken up maintanence of Gotham as a pet-project.
This isn't to say that it's necessarily "wrong" for this particular film to (possibly) be working from an anti-OWS (or, at least, "cut the upper-class some slack, kids!") angle; or that it's somehow ill-advised - being pegged in some quarters as a tacit endorsement of Patriot Act overreach certainly didn't hurt it's predecessor. But it's interesting, and this being an election year you can bet it'll come up.
Friday, 1 June 2012
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