Yet Another Movie Blog

New Wolverine Trailer

2013-03-27T09:08:00.002-04:00

More commentary will come later, but for now enjoy!

Monday Morning Link Round-Up

2013-03-25T10:30:00.000-04:00

Let's check out the big movie news stories that happened in the last week! These links will be from a whole host of sources. All of these blogs are excellent, and if you don't already, you should follow them! Plus, this link round-up makes my Monday's way lighter...

I will probably end up doing this every week, regardless of how many blog posts I get to. I'm hoping to regularly post movie news, even though I'm also juggling (real life) work and college. I realize that I probably only have a max of 6 faithful viewers, but I like to use this blog as a creative outlet. Sure the writing style is pretty lax, but I just like to have fun with it!

If you're interested in Guest Writing for Yet Another Movie Blog, click here! It would be awesome to get new perspectives on movies and even a review or two each week (seriously! I do NOT have time to watch movies... let alone write a review! Plus, I'm awful at reviewing movies).

Don't forget to Like us on Facebook, Follow on Twitter, and we're with the Google employees on Google+, too! Feel free to shoot YAMB an email at yetanothermovieblog@gmail.com.

Treat this kind of like an Open Thread that we used to do, and sound off on what you'd movies you're interested in!

All right, link time!

J.J. Abrams dishes on the some Star Wars VII rumors
via /Film

With rumors that Ryan Reynolds may drop out of a Justice League Film, here are 6 possible replacement choices
via ScreenRant

Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jerk. No really.
via IGN

How did the latest releases, like Olympus Falls and The Croods fair on Friday?
via Box Office Mojo

Rebel Wilson unveils the MTV Movie Award nominees as only she can
via MTV

Some movie characters tend to overreact...
via Cracked

A really clever Spring Breakers parody with Disney Princesses
via CollegeHumor

A huge HUGE star may be signing on to join Chris Evans in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
via IGN

Judge sides with Warner Bros. in Superman dispute
via Variety

Well there you have it! Hopefully, you were able to spend some time with Akira Kurosawa films which were free this weekend on Hulu to celebrate his birthday. If not, well, his films are definitely worth every penny spent!

Don't forget to check out these YAMB articles from the past week:

Nina Dobrev eyes Lara Croft role
A possible Deadpool film may be stuck in developmental hell
Emma Watson denies those pesky Fifty Shades of Grey rumors
The Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign and what it could mean for other long cancelled TV shows
Warner Bros. is off to a slow start to 2013
Sounding off on Michael Bay's Ninja Turtles project
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and its ever growing A-list cast

What are some blogs that you all follow? Let me know in the comments below!

As a bonus, here's the epic trailer from Star Trek: Into Darkness

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 A-List Cast Keeps Growing

2013-03-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

Amazing Spider-Man 2, complete with new suit.

This post requires more Emma Stone.

If you want to know who are the hot, rising stars in young Hollywood, look no further than the ever growing cast of The Amazing Spider-Man sequel. The rebooted franchise already boasts top young talent in Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, but that talent list keeps on growing with the additions of Dane DeHaan, Shailene Woodley, and Felicity Jones. To top it off, Chris Cooper, Jamie Foxx, and Paul Giamatti have signed on to the Marc Webb directed film with Sally Field and Martin Sheen set to return. However, with such an elite ensemble, there is a fear that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 could become weighed down by an influx of stars and their respective storylines.

While true to the comics, Webb's first film took a different approach than Sam Raimi's Spidey trilogy by choosing Gwen Stacy to be the one true love of Peter Parker. However, things may be changing in Parker's life with the introduction of Mary Jane Watson, to be played by Shailene Woodley (The Descendents).

Now the next paragraph may contain spoilers, so click here if you don't want to be spoiled.

Okay, don't get mad at me for spoiling this. Now, most Spidey fans know that Gwen Stacey ends up kicking the bucket, which is why Peter ends up hooking up with MJ. However, Gwen ends up dying when Spider-Man fails to save her when she is tossed off a bridge by Green Goblin. Well, sort of. Spider-Man is able to catch her with his web, but Peter is not sure if the whiplash snapped her neck or she was dead before he caught her. Obviously, this is a huge moment in comic book history, and one that any comic book fan should read.

Now, this is where Mary Jane comes into the picture. MJ was a close friend to Gwen, and Gwen's death brings Peter and Mary Jane closer together. After grieving the loss of their mutual friend, the two begin a blossoming relationship that ends up with Peter and MJ getting married. So at least two of them get a happily ever after (sorry, Gwen).

Peter Parker: Giving hope to socially inept nerds since 1962

It remains to be seen if Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey will meet her demise in this film, but since Shailene Woodley's Mary Jane wasn't in the last film, the most likely scenario will have Gwen being killed off in a third installment. Other reasons that this will be the case is that the main villains in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will not be Green Goblin, but rather Electro and The Rhino.

Okay, spoilers semi-over.

To recap a bit without spoiling, Mary Jane and Gwen are close friends in the comics. However, a romance between Peter and Mary Jane seems unlikely to begin until the third film for reasons that would be spoilers.

Top Left to Right: Stone, Garfield, Woodley, DeHaan
Bottom Left to Right: Foxx, Jones, Giamatti, Cooper

Also in the spoiler section, it was noted that the main villains would be Electro and The Rhino. Electro will be portrayed by Jamie Foxx, while Paul Giamatti will be rampaging as The Rhino. Foxx has mentioned that Max Dillon (Electro) will have quite a different origin story than the comic books. In an MTV interview, Foxx said:

"You'll see that in his whole life, no one is talking to him. People have stolen his ideas at the big company. He's a nobody. At a certain point, Spider-Man bumps into him and says, 'You're my guy. You're my eyes and ears on the street.' And he says his name - no one has ever said [Max] Dillon's name. He goes, 'Wow' and, when Spider-Man leaves, he sort of thinks that, 'I am Spider-Man's partner!' He's cutting out Spider-Man's face and pasting it on all his boards..."

Foxx also stated that the suit will most definitely not be like the one in the comics, calling it "new age." While Electro is a bit of a campy villain, expect Webb and crew to make the villain seem realistic and fitting within the universe created. After all, Webb did make Dr. Curt Connor, aka Lizard, come alive and look not half bad. The real challenge will be Giamatti's Rhino.

Electro and Rhino wreaking havoc.

If you thought the Lizard was pretty "far out" there, The Rhino is a bit more so. Aleksei Sytsevich is a science experiment gone wrong. His skin became super hardened that helped increase his strength and speed. Because science. Rhino also wears a suit that further aids his super-strength, and it features a horn-like spike, which explains the name. While the concept may seem similar to Connor's Lizard, Sytsevich is notorious for being one of the dim-wittiest villain in the Spider-Man comics. While I don't doubt Giamatti's acting skills one bit, I am a bit apprehensive when it comes to what exactly Rhino will end up looking like. The villainy doesn't end with these two either.

As fans of the Raimi trilogy will know, Norman Osborn is a man up to no good. Chris Cooper is booked to play the President of Oscorp. It has yet to be known if Cooper's version of Osborn will feature his villainous alter-ego, Green Goblin. Cooper's Osborn is most likely saving his villainy for the third film.

Spider-Man's Rogue Gallery

If two villains seem like a lot, well, Webb keeps on dropping subtle hints that Venom may be making an appearance as well. However, this Venom may not be attached to Eddie Brock, as seen in Spidey 3, but rather, as Norman Osborn's son, Harry. When looking for an ideal candidate for Harry, Sony said they wanted an actor with "athleticism and good looks." Enter Dane DeHaan, who can be seen in the underrated Chronicle, Oscar winning film, Lincoln, and Lawless. DeHaan definitely has the looks and acting chops to pull off the role. He is also bulking up to pull off the athletic look.

Webb has teased various pictures via Twitter that Venom may make an appearance with Harry being the alter-ego. A recent picture of yet another Spidey suit may be further evidence of a possible Venom introduction.

While The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will feature the classic comic book suit design (fanboys gave a collective sigh of relief), the suit from the first Amazing installment will still be present (fanboys are now sharpening their pitchforks). The reason for the switch to the classic design is yet to be known, although it is quite feasible that instead of the first suit becoming damaged by Venom, it could well be shredded by any of the many nemesis Spidey will face.

With Lizard in the last film and the introductions of Electro and Rhino, Webb may be gearing up for a Sinister Six party. If a Doctor Octopus is mentioned in the film, this will most likely be the case.

said photo to the right.

Hopefully, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man will be ready for the onslaught of villains he will face in this film (Electro and Rhino) and the next (possibly Green Goblin and Venom) and beyond (Sinister Six, perhaps?). There is potential for many more super-villains, as Webb tweeted a picture of The Ravencroft Institute and recently released photos show the institute. The Institute holds some of the most dangerous criminals that Spider-Man faces (Ravencroft is the equivalent to Arkham Asylum or Blackgate Penitentiary in the DC Universe). Colm Feore also appears in the photo to the right in an unspecified role.

Spider-Man will need all the help he can get, and perhaps his crusade has spawned more like-minded crime fighters. While still in the shadowy depths of the rumor pool, Felicity Jone's character has been tied to Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat (I would defend the role and say that it's different from Catwoman, but for the sake of time, yeah, it's a Spider-Man version of Catwoman). While Jones' role is still undefined, whomever she plays will most likely be more than a bit role, as she is a rising star in the industry.

Wow. Spidey gets around.

But wait there's more! The latest tagline attached to AS2 is "High School Graduation Can't Come Soon Enough." Even though Spidey will be battling villains, perhaps Peter Parker will have to juggle his web-slinging and book studying along with an ever growing social circle. Rumors also mention that Pete may be entering college, as well. College scouting, villains running amok, love life, and being a brilliant student will sure make life pretty stressful for Peter Parker and his alter-ego Spider-Man.

One more Emma Stone pic is necessary.

Even though the casting may be overwhelming and seem crowded, Webb's Spider-Man has a much different tone than super-hero film counterparts, Batman and the Avengers. Not overly gritty and realistic, the introduction of a wide range of villains and characters may actually work well. It did not work to have more than one villain in Spidey 3 and undoubtedly fans are having sick premonitions of history repeating itself. However, as someone who will always be skeptical of the hastily rebooted franchise, I expect a fun web-slinging film with some excellent talent.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be swinging into theaters May 2, 2014, and like its predecessor, the sequel will be available in 3D.

Proof that the Cinema Gods Hate Us: Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2013-03-23T12:18:00.001-04:00

This is the coolest thing about this post.

Ruining your childhood since forever.

Yes. Let this soak in for a hot sec. Michael Bay is producting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action/CG mix. To top it off, Bay has tapped Jonathan Liebesman to direct. Leibesman has previously directed critically acclaimed films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Battle: Los Angeles, and Wrath of the Titans. Oh wait. Those weren't critically acclaimed. They were just bloated, CGI-infested excuses for movies. So Liebs and Bay are a match made in heaven. If heaven was full of crappy VFX and explosions. The only redemptive quality of this project are writing duo Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, both of which worked on the script to Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol, which wasn't terrible.

Obviously, the news that Bay is producing a TMNT film reboot has caused quite a frenzy amongst fanboys of the pizza-loving, sewer dwelling reptiles. To further rub salt in fanboy wounds, Bay has renamed the film to simply, Ninja Turtles. Why? Well, they're not really "mutant" anymore. According to Bay, these turtles will be from space. So Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles. TANT. One letter away from what this project actually is to the film world. Cowabunga.

Remember when this was a thing?

Two cast members have actually allowed themselves to be attached to this pathetic project. Since a Bay "film" needs at least seven butt-tracking shots of a scantily clad girl, Megan Fox has been signed on to lend her, um, talents. She is going to be playing April O'Neil. This casting choice is especially interesting, as Fox was reportedly fired from Transformers for likening Bay to Hitler. So that's a thing. However, Bay wrote on his blog "TMNT: we are bringing Megan Fox back into the family!", which is further proof that working with Bay is less like Hitler and more like a really crappy Corleone mafia thing.

Actually there are no not shirtless
pics of him on the Internet.

Since this is a Michael Bay film, pretty people need to be in abundance (excluding Shia LeBeouf). Alan Ritchson has been cast as Raphael, the red bandana'd, dual-wielding sai turtle guy with the temper. Personally, the guy should play Casey Jones. Just imagine him and Fox awkwardly flirting. Ritchson will be coming to work on Ninja Turtles after Catching Fire where he plays District 1 tribute, Gloss. The former Abercrombie model Ritchson was also Aquaman in Smallville, so a step from hunky Aquaman to hunky Gloss to mo-capped turtle is kinda amusing. And yes, the turtles will be motion captured CGI. Will it end up as awesome as The Avengers Hulk? Don't make me laugh. At least it won't be actual turtle suits. Then again, the movie would be so bad it would be good.

Look, I get that making a kid's TV show turned Hollywood blockbuster that's not underwhelming to critics is difficult. Bay's track record seems to show he cares not what critics think. Still, making a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action film sounds like a horrible idea. How does one make four talking reptiles acting like pubescent humans look not like a train wreck? Oh, right. Leave it to the guy who made these guys to think that this is a feasible task.

$125 million later and a trail of fanboy tears, it looks like this project is actually happening. Ninja Turtles has had its fair share of production problems, and after multiple delays and scheduling changes, Bay's 'slosion porno will hit theaters in May of 2014. So. Yay?

Warner Brothers' Rough 2013 Start

2013-03-22T21:36:00.000-04:00

And we act surprised
that this flopped?

While the multi-billion dollar corporation isn't necessarily stressing out just yet, Warner Bros. should be a bit concerned over the recent under-performing flicks they have released. Even with an all-star cast, Gangster Squad had a disappointing release and theatrical run. Warner was hoping to tap into the male audience with its release of Sly Stallone's Bullet to the Head, but it looks like there is a serious disinterest in the macho man style films these days. Fantasy film Beautiful Creatures didn't live up to expectations either, even though it boasted a solid cast. Recently, Jack the Giant Slayer stumbled at the box office, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone failed to light up the box office, even with a trifecta of Steve Carell, Jim Carey, and Steve Buscemi.

Help with a JLA film.
PLEASE!

In a recent statement to The Times, Jeff Robinov, President of the WB Picture Group, expressed his disappointment with Warner's dismal box office return. However, Robinov doesn't seem too concerned with the slow start, as "...the last three or four months of the year looks incredibly strong." Even though the summer to winter lineup looks good, Warner Bros. easy money years seem to have passed.

In the past, Warner Bros. could bank on Nolan's Batman trilogy and the Harry Potter franchise to rake in the cash. However, this year features no Potter film or sure-fire successful superhero film for the studio.

When taking over in the beginning of March, freshly minted CEO Kevin Tsujihara was probably hoping for a bit better in terms of box office success. However, like Robinov, Tsujihara doesn't seem too fazed by the slow start. Some outside concerns about the studio's future remain, though.

There's no way Zack Snyder can mess this up. Right? right...?

Even though Robinov has gone on record saying that he won't leave the studio, there is some speculation on whether or not he will stay. Robinov and President of Warner's TV Group, Bruce Rosenblum, were passed up for the CEO spot in favor of Tsujihara. Obviously, both were miffed at the snub. Rosenblum stated that he was "disappointed" at not getting the position, but that's an obvious. Robinov would have been exceptional in the role, as he is well know in the industry for nurturing relationships with directors and a-listers. However, Tsujihara brings a lot of experience in the ever changing digital distribution in the industry. Both Robinov and Rosenblum are still at Warner, and both have been supportive of Tsujihara's efforts in the company.

Most likely, Tsujihara at the Burt Wonderstone premiere.

Robinov praised Tsujihara saying that "Kevin knows the economics [of the industry]." Tsujihara was influential in bringing in the blockbuster The Hobbit and staving off a brewing labor dispute in New Zealand.

Drastic changes are doubtful to come, and it looks as if Tsujihara should be just fine in the CEO slot. However, we have seen studios give top execs the boot for backing poorly received films (Disney's Rich Ross and Tom Rothman of 20th Century Fox). Warner Bros. does have a hopeful summer to winter film lineup, but outside The Hobbit, there is not really a sure-fire franchise bet.

After this summer's The Hangover, Pt. III, it looks as if that franchise will stop at three (here's to hoping). In another risky undertaking, Warner backed Baz Lurhman's The Great Gatsby adaption. While it boasts an amazing cast, with a summer release, it better be a blockbuster because it stands little chance to make a strong run during the award season. Zack Snyder's Man of Steel could really be a giant step for Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment. This would make both companies feel much better at going forward in a Justice League of America film franchise, with solo superhero flicks from the DC Universe.

Even though Warner Brothers has been slow out of the gate, their box office returns should start picking up. Again, it does not have Batman or Harry Potter to fall back onto when times get tough. They could have a potentially huge franchise in the Justice League. However, if Man of Steel doesn't wow critics and audiences, it may put the usually stable company a little on edge.

In the meantime, enjoy this epic trailer of Man of Steel. Lookin' good so far...

Veronica Mars and the Power of Kickstarter

2013-03-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

A recent Kickstarter campaign for a movie based on the formerly popular show, Veronica Mars, received an inordinate amount of money. The Kickstarter raised well over the target $2 million in under 12 hours, a Kickstarter record. Needless to say, the film will be going into production soon, and is set for a limited release in 2014.

Fans of Veronica Mars are most likely beside themselves with glee (almost as much as Kristen Bell is when she sees a sloth. Almost.), as they have waited 6 long years for some Mars news. While Kickstarter isn't a new thing to filmmakers (over 30 films are Kickstarter funded at this year's SXSW and YouTube channels are no strangers to the site), this recent Kickstarter project does have fans of other long-cancelled shows eagerly anticipating a possible Kickstarter of their favorite show.

However, fans of Terriers, Pushing Daisies, Firefly and Chuck need to chill out. Seriously. Don't get so excited. The odds of a Kickstarter campaign for any of these shows are marginal at best.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Bryan Fuller (creator of excellent but defunct TV shows such as Pushing Daisies, Mockingbird Lane, and Wonderfalls) tempers fans' excitement when he tells of the harsh realization from his agent that "Pushing Daisies is going to take a lot more than $2 million to make a movie." Seeing as how a single episode of Daisies cost ABC studios nearly $4 million a show, it's not too difficult to say that a Daisies movie would cost around $10 million. This obviously makes it a longshot for any Kickstarter potential.

As for the other projects, Firefly fans should be happy with Serenity because that's all they're going to get. Terriers producer, Shawn Ryan tweeted this:

Very interested to see how this Veronica Mars kickstarter goes. Could be a model for a Terriers wrap up film.
— Shawn Ryan (@ShawnRyanTV) March 13, 2013

...which inevitably put Terriers fans in a frenzy. Chuck fans were teased when Zachary Levi tweeted an idea to start a Chuck Kickstarter. However, Levi expressed his concern with a possible Chuck project, as it could prove difficult to get non-Chuck fans to see the film, and even harder to convince studios that non-Chuck fans would even be interested in one.

Don't get me wrong, this Veronica Mars Kickstarter thing may be the start to other similar projects taking place, but unfortunately I don't see it becoming such a big thing for other cancelled TV shows. It is simply too expensive of an undertaking, and it would prove too challenging to engage non-fans of a show.

It also helps that Mars producer Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell along with the rest of the cast were very enthusiastic about the project. Other TV shows may have more difficultly recruiting its former stars and crew.

In the meantime, Mars fans rejoice, and even Arrested Development fans can thank Netflix for backing a 4th season of the show and an eventual movie.

Believe! It's back!

What do you think, has the Veronica Mars Kickstarter paved a way for other TV shows to get their own wrap-up film?

Emma Watson Denies Fifty Shades of Grey Rumors

2013-03-20T09:00:00.001-04:00

It looks like teenage boys and creepy men with pencil-staches will be quite disappointed with this news, but it looks like Hermione just isn't into bondage and S&M. The Harry Potter starlet took to Twitter to debunk the many rumors swirling around that had her playing Anastasia Steele.

Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life.
— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) March 17, 2013

Emma Watson's reply comes on the heels of an apparently leaked report from a German movie studio, Constantin Film, by the hacking group Anonymous claimed that Watson is attached to the Fifty Shades project. The studio was quick to state that all the records that were hacked were "out of date and widely accessible" to employees. However, it didn't stop the Internet to start salivating over the thought of the Potter star headlining the erotic E.L. James adaption.

Reports of Watson being tied to a Fifty Shades of Grey film have pretty much been swirling around since the film was announced. While Watson is certainly attempting to branch out from her "good girl" image she had with the Potter franchise with The Bling Ring and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it remains doubtful that she would go so far as to take on such a role as Anastasia Steele.

With no male or female lead and no director in sight, Universal Studios may have been too ambitious when they said the film would be released in the summer of 2014. E.L. James hand-picked Oscar nominated producers Michael De Luca (The Social Network and Moneyball) and Dana Brunetti (The Social Network) back in July of 2012, but very little has been announced since that point.

It is certainly no surprise that the project is having difficulty finding a willing cast. Fifty Shades is notorious for its hyper-sexualized material, and it could very get slapped with an NC-17 rating. Although not always the case, such films can prove to be career killers, just ask Elizabeth Berkley. Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan also starred in the 2011 NC-17 film, Shame, directed by Steve McQueen that featured explicit sex scenes; however, their careers do not seem to be in jeopardy because of it.

If done in the same veins as Shame, a Fifty Shades of Grey film has the chance of garnering similar critical acclaim. Regardless of the rating, the film adaptions will most likely not have trouble at the box office as Fifty Shades is one of the fastest selling books of all-time. However, the book itself has a mixed to negative reception from critics, which is understandable as it started off as erotic fanfic of the Twilight series.

Left to Right: Bledel, Kunis, Woodley, Gosling, Bomer, Somerhalder
aka Gorgeous People

While Watson has denied reports, the casting rumors will inevitably continue until the role is actually filled. Alexis Bledel, Mila Kunis, and Shailene Woodley have heard their names as possibilities, with Ryan Gosling, Matt Bomer, and Ian Somerhalder have been attached to the role of Christian Grey. Obviously, none of these actors have confirmed reports, and most have laughed off the rumors.

Who do you see in the role of Anastasia Steele? Who might play the role of the alluring Christian Grey?

Deadpool Might be in Dev Limbo

2013-03-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

This is most likely the news that no Marvel fan wants to hear. Although 20th Century Fox has yet to release any type of statement about the upcoming Deadpool movie, the Merc with the Mouth film adaption may be in developmental limbo. Former VFX wiz and Deadpool director, Tim Miller has been tapped to helm Fox's Artemis. No this won't be an Artemis Fowl series adaption (thankfully... because that would mean the Deadpool film would probably be dead), but rather a sci-fi action thriller set in deep space (think Lockout). Again, no official statement has been released concerning Deadpool, but it looks like Artemis will be a project that Miller focuses on first.

Well, bummer. Since Fox chose Miller to direct the untitled Deadpool film, there has been virtually zero news about it. Ergo a delay in production is really no surprise. Nonetheless, this is a pretty big disappointment, especially because many were under the impression that all it needed was the green light from Fox. Miller was the studio's third choice as director, as Robert Rodriguez and Swedish commercial director Adam Berg turned down the director's chair. While it is a bit surprising that Fox decided to use Miller for a big named, big budgeted film, he could very well be the right man for the job. He has worked has on the visual effects for Planet of the Apes, X-Men, and X-Men 2, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

The movie already has Zombieland writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, on the project, and Ryan Reynolds eagerly awaiting to wield a whole assortment of weaponry. Sure the version of Reynolds' Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was absolutely nothing like the Deadpool in the comic books, Reynolds was an awesome Wade Wilson. He brought the right amount of sass and attitude to the role in an otherwise dismal movie.

Reynolds also noted before that he read early drafts of the script, and he really expects it to be a different type of superhero movie that people will love. For those unfamiliar with the character of Deadpool, this is a good thing because Deadpool is far from the traditional superhero (or in his case, super-anti-hero). Reynolds also confirmed that the Merc with the Mouth will indeed break the fourth wall in the film as he does in the comics. Miller has also expressed interest in making it dark and gory, pushing the rating to an R-rating.


Hopefully, Domino makes an appearance. And Cable. And Psylocke. Heck, just make an Uncanny X-Men film.

This complicates the project even further, as studios are no doubt hesitant to drop top dollars on R-rated movies. For example, R-rated superhero flick, Watchmen, while making a decent box office draw, was not the blockbuster Warner Bros. had hoped. This is may be one of the reasons Fox is dragging their feet when it comes to the Deadpool flick. I mean, Watchmen was cited as one of the reasons it killed a potential Bioshock movie.

That being said, in this MTV interview, Hugh Jackman hinted the possibility of an R-rated Wolverine. The interview also pointed out that the recent Nolan Batman franchise really pushed the envelope when it comes to the PG-13 rating.

With the news that Artemis will use Miller as director, and the fact that Ryan Reynolds may end up being too busy with a potential Justice League movie and a Green Lantern ~~reboot~~ sequel, the silence from 20th Century Fox does not bode well for Deadpool.

Have no fear, Deadpool fans, while you're busy crying over the loss, you can vent your frustration by creating copious amounts of carnage playing the upcoming Deadpool video game. If this video game sells well (which I remain skeptical), it may entice Fox to move forward with a movie project. If the game fails, well, the Deadpool project may be moved from Limbo to the 9th Circle.

Those unfamiliar with the character, check out this fan made film below (Mature Audiences Only):

Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev as Lara Croft?

2013-03-18T16:35:00.001-04:00

With the release of the newest Lara Croft video game, Tomb Raider, rumors of the possibility of a film adaption have swirled. While video game adaptions have been, too be blunt, awful, there seems to be a renewed interest in basing films on video games. Uncharted (to be directed by David O. Russell, which is kind o the best), Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, and even an Angry Birds movie are in the works, and now it looks like the Tomb Raider film franchise will be rebooted like its video game counterpart.

Producer, Graham King, the man that backed The Departed, Aviator, Hugo, The Town, and Rango has teamed up with Tom Headington and both have acquired the reboot rights from Tomb Raider franchise company, Square Enix. King has expressed interest in making it a true reboot of the film franchise, as he wants to focus on a younger Lara Croft. It should be noted that her origin story is also the basis of the newest video game.

While I remain skeptical of video game adaptions, King's magic touch could very well vault successful VG-to-film adaptions to the forefront of Hollywood. We saw it done when Sam Raimi started the comic book craze with his version of Spider-Man, and we may see a video game film kick soon as well.

Even though Angelina Jolie played the Tomb Raider heroine of the 2001 and 2003 movies, it is doubtful she will be back on board. Seeing as how King wants a younger Croft, the possibility remains very minimal that Jolie would reprise her role; although, there could be two versions of Lara Croft (aka a younger version in flashbacks as an older version tells of her adventures).

The latest version of Lara and her voice actress, Camilla Luddington

In the recent Tomb Raider video game, Camilla Luddington voiced the role of Lara Croft, and she remains tied to the film adaption. It should be noted that Croft a British archaeologist, and Luddington is indeed British. Her voice work in the video game is exceptional, and she would be an excellent choice (and an obvious one at that) to play Croft. Even though she is 29, Luddington could easily pass as a younger version of Croft.

However, another young Hollywood actress has been knocking on the door to play the role.

The Vampire Diaries starlet, Nina Dobrev has expressed serious interest in the role. In an interview with Ocean Drive magazine, Dobrev states that: "...if they did another Lara Croft, or even a prequel to Lara Croft, I’d want to do that..."

While teen vampire romps may not be your thing, Dobrev should have the acting chops to pull off the role of Lara Croft, in my very humble, unnecessary opinion. I also may or may not have a giant crush on her, but alas, she is hooked up with her Diaries co-star, the uber-swoon worthy Ian Somerhalder.

Dobrev is also beginning to slowly emerge onto the big screen, and she can be seen beside fellow young Hollywood hotshot, Emma Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

She makes another case for the role of an action heroine in her latest appearance on Conan. Take a look and see if she's "action hero" material.

Anyway, do you think Dobrev would make a good Lara Croft? Or should another actress be considered (Jennifer Lawrence or Olivia Wilde perhaps)?

If you haven't seen or heard of the latest Tomb Raider game check out this footage below. It's awesome and you should definitely pick it up if you have a PC, XBox 360, or PS3. Definitely worth the money and time.

85th Academy Award Winners

2013-02-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, the 2013 Oscars have come and gone. From Seth MacFarlane's moderately awkward attempt at hosting (seriously, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, WE ARE BEGGING YOU!!!) to J-Law face-planting on the steps to Ben Affleck's Argo taking home the Best Picture prize, the Academy Awards offered few surprises, but plenty of fun for viewers. And plenty of fun for the many films, as there wasn't a clear dominating film this year.

Life of Pi ended up taking home the most naked, gold men statuettes with 4, followed by Argo's 3. While Lincoln was an early award season favorite, Spielberg's epic finished with 2 awards. A bit disappointing for sure, but nonetheless, not surprising as Argo was sweeping up the award circuit in the past months. As it has been painstakingly noted to death, Argo is the only film since the 1989 film Driving Home Miss Daisy to win Best Picture without having a Best Director nomination. In the biggest surprise of the evening, a tie between Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall for Best Sound Editing became only the sixth tie in Oscar history. The audience was so startled that equally stunned presenter Mark Walhberg said, "No BS, we have a tie." Ergo, nobody, I repeat NOBODY could have filled out a 100% correct Oscar ballot. So there.

One event that attracted attention was the post-Oscar protest of concerning Visual Effects. After being played off a bit early during the acceptance speech of Life of Pi Visual Effects winner, Ben Westenhofer, many people took to Twitter to point out the possible conspiracy. They claimed the Academy cut Westenhofer off early out of fear that he would mention the plight of VFX studios everywhere. It certainly is a problem, as Life of Pi (a film that based itself on visual effects) has been a big box office draw, yet the studio behind the visual effects, Rhymes & Hues had to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Westenhofer was able to get his message out, though, and in a statement he said:

"At a time when visual effects movies are dominating the box office, [the] visual effects companies are struggling. And I wanted to point out that we aren’t technicians. Visual effects is not just a commodity that’s being done by people pushing buttons. We’re artists, and if we don’t find a way to fix the business model, we start to loses the artistry. If anything, Life of Pi shows that we’re artists and not just technicians."

While the hubbub has been dying out, this might become a bigger problem in the future, especially due to the fact that, as Westenhofer pointed out, visual effects are becoming more and more necessary in big box office films.

Here are the winners of the 85th Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Argo
Best Director: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Walz (Django Unchained)
Best Supporting Actress (Les Miserables)
Best Writing for an Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio (Argo)
Best Writing for an Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)
Best Animated Feature: Brave
Best Feature Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short: Inocente
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Film Editing: William Goldenberg (Argo)
Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi)
Best Art Direction: Lincoln
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Costumes: Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina)
Best Makeup: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell (Les Miserables)
Best Production Design: Rick Carter and Jim Erickson (Lincoln)
Best Live Action Short: Curfew
Best Animated Short: Paperman
Best Original Score: Mychael Danna (Life of Pi)
Best Sound Editing: Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers (Skyfall) AND Paul N.J. Ottosson (Zero Dark Thirty)
Best Sound Mixing: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes (Les Miserables)

You can view the complete list of Winners and Nominees here at the Oscar site.

70th Annual Golden Globes and their Oscar Implications

2013-01-14T16:47:00.000-05:00

Even though Ben Affleck's directing in Argo seemingly went unnoticed by the Academy, the Hollywood Foreign Press would not deny him at least some recognition. Affleck, while not nominated for Best Director in the upcoming Academy Awards, won the Critics' Choice Award and now the Golden Globe for the category that the Oscar voters snubbed him from. Argo also went on to win Best Picture for a Drama further muddying the waters for who will come out with the top prize at the Academy Awards.

The other big winner at the Golden Globes was Les Misérables. Tom Hooper's film took home Best Picture for a Comedy or Musical, along with actress Anne Hathaway winning Best Supporting Actress and Hugh Jackman winning Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. While previously not projected to be a big player for Best Picture in the Academy Awards (musicals never do well, and the critics were mixed at best), Les Mis may be a force to be reckoned with.

The Golden Globes may not have the biggest impact on the Academy Awards, but it can give people a bit of a clearer indication on who will come out on top during the Oscars. However, this year added further complications with Argo and Les Mis winning big, along with other surprising, "un-Oscar-esque" picks.

The complete list of winners at the Golden Globes after their effect on the 85th Academy Awards:

Best Picture Race

While Argo surprised the Oscar-bait film, Lincoln, at the Golden Globes, it should be no surprise that an association such as the Hollywood Foreign (emphasis on the Foreign part) Press would give the top prize to Affleck's film. The film dealt with a real-life crisis that was over-seas and had a clever Hollywood aspect to it. Not saying that Lincoln isn't worthy of the award, but the American history track doesn't necessarily bode well when going with something exotic like Argo. Spielberg's film should not be too afraid of a film like Argo winning, let alone one as a non-traditional Oscar pick like Les Misérables.

Life of Pi may make a late run, but it seems that Ang Lee's film might only receive awards for its technical prowess.After all the controversy surrounding it, it is doubtful that Zero Dark Thirty will win this one. If Kathryn Bigelow's film does, it would definitely be an unorthodox Oscar pick, as many a time, the Oscars steer far clear of controversial films (see Brokeback Mountain getting robbed by the inferior Crash). Argo and Zero Dark Thirty have history working against them too, as the last Best Picture to not have a Best Director nominee was Driving Miss Daisy in 1990. Driving Miss Daisey these two films are not, further diminishing their chances. Silver Linings Playbook is making every attempt to jockey into position, as the Weinstein Company knows how to parade a film during the Academy Awards season (see The King's Speech and The Artist).
While the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild will be a better indicator, Lincoln should still be the favorite going into the Academy Awards. Safe pick. Ho-hum.

Best Actor Race

The winners in the dramatic and musical/comedy categories were Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) and Hugh Jackman (Les Mis) respectively. No big surprise for either. While Jackman's performance was dominating in Les Mis, it remains doubtful that anyone in the Oscar field will overtake Day-Lewis. Unfortunately, this means once again, Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) will be left in the cold. Honestly, Denzel Washington (Flight) does not deserve to be here. Please insert John Hawkes. Bradley Cooper may have an outside chance, but Weinstein may choose to keep Lawrence's momentum going.
Again, Lincoln is such a stereotypical Oscar film, that Day-Lewis remains the favorite in this category. Winning the Golden Globe just solidifies this.

Best Actress Race

Expect this one to go to either of the two winners of the Golden Globes in drama and comedy. Jessica Chastain's Golden Globe winning performance, Zero Dark Thirty, has drawn rave reviews, despite the film's controversy. However, it remains to be seen if it has enough to beat out her Golden Globe Best Actress counterpart, Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). The upcoming SAG awards should be better indications for this category.
Even though it could go to any of the women nominated, the best chances as of now go to Chastain or Lawrence.

Best Supporting Actor

This category is so open that even after Christoph Walz's Golden Globe win, the Oscar pool remains murky. The past five years have been so easy to predict, the award for Best Supporting Actor was due for a tricky pick. Walz beat out his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, who many (myself included) believed to have been a major snub for the Oscars. While Robert DeNiro was not a competitor during the Golden Globes, he is probably Walz's biggest hurdle. Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) was a sure-fire bet to win this a month ago, but now even he is not a given. Look out for Phillip Seymour Hoffman, from the underrated, underloved movie, The Master, who won a Critics Choice Award for this category.
Once again, it looks like the SAG awards will be better indicators than the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress.

Best Supporting Actress

While many of the women in this group are very much deserving, this award seems to be Anne Hathaway's (Les Mis) to lose. After winning the Golden Globe, she solidifies her chances to add a golden statuette to her growing award collection.
Not much more to say about this one, as it would be stupid to bet against Hathaway.

Best Director

Poor Ben Affleck. Any other year, this Golden Globe win would have strongly increased his lead in the Oscar race, especially after receiving the Critics' Choice Award for Best Director. Many times in the past, the Globes and the Oscars split, and this year will be no different, as unfortunately, Affleck didn't hear his name when the five other directors were announced. If Lincoln remains a heavy favorite, this one looks like it will go to Steven Spielberg. Look out for Ang Lee to sneak up and steal this one, even though Life of Pi may have dropped a bit after both the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice Awards.
This may be similar to the 78th Academy Awards where Ang Lee won Best Director, but his picture, Brokeback Mountain was robbed by Crash. David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) doesn't look like to be a factor, even though his film may get increasing attention from voters. It is doubtful that Michael Haneke (Amour) or Ben Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) have a chance, but the nomination is still an honor, as they beat Affleck and Bigelow. Although, I wonder if the Oscars have a "write-in" option...
Look to the DGA awards to get a better indicator on this one, as only Rob Marshall for his incredibly overrated musical, Chicago, failed to win the Oscar for Best Director in the last decade. However, Affleck is also a nominee, so this year may look to break that trend.

And now, to make this article longer, here is the complete list of Golden Globe nominees and winners for film...

BEST PICTURE, DRAMA

WINNER: Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

BEST PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

WINNER: Les Miserables
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

BEST DIRECTOR

WINNER: Ben Affleck, ArgoKathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA

WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA

WINNER: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL

WINNER: Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Ewan McGregor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL

WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Judi Dench, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Maggie Smith, Quartet
Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

BEST SCREENPLAY

WINNER: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Chris Terrio, Argo

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

WINNER: Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transvylvania
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

WINNER: Amour
A Royal Affair
The Intouchables
Kon Tiki
Rust and Bone

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

WINNER: Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
Alexandre Desplat, Argo
Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina
Tom Tywker, Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Cloud Atlas
John Williams, Lincoln

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

WINNER: "Skyfall" Skyfall
"For You" Act of Valor
"Not Running Anymore" Stand Up Guys
"Safe and Sound" The Hunger Games
"Suddenly" Les Miserables

Well, once again, you made it to the end. Congrats. Here's a funny video of the opening monologue by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.

Oscar Nominations for 2013

2013-01-10T10:29:00.001-05:00

Earlier than I care for, the Oscar nominations were announced by Emma Stone and, to-be Oscar host, Seth McFarlane. There were certainly more than a few surprises (and huge snubs) for the 85th Academy Awards. Not surprisingly, Steven Spielberg's ~~Oscar pandering~~ sweeping epic, Lincoln, leads the way with 12 nominations. Ang Lee's ~~self-righteous film snore~~ visually stunning, Life of Pi, follows closely behind with 11.

Without any further ado, the official selection for the 85th Academy Awards!

~~EDIT: Just the Big 5 (more will come later)~~
Now that I'm out of class, here is the complete list.

Best Picture

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)
Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
Denzel Washington (Flight)
Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables)
Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Best Actress

Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)
Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)
Naomi Watts (The Impossible)
Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin (Argo)
Christoph Walz (Django Unchained)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)
Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)
Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams (The Master)
Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)
Helen Hunt (The Sessions)
Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)
Sally Field (Lincoln)

Best Director

Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Michael Haneke (Amour)
Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Best Original Screenplay

Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Moonrise Kingdom
Amour
Flight

Best Adapted Screenplay

Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Argo
Life of Pi
Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Animated Feature

Frankenweenie
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It-Ralph
Paranorman
Brave

Best Foreign Feature

Amour (Austria)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
No (Chile)
War Witch (Canada)

Best Visual Effects

Life of Pi
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Avengers
Prometheus
Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Cinematography

Skyfall
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln

Best Costume Design

Anna Karenina
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Mirror Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Documentary

Searching for Sugar Man
How to Survive a Plague
The Gatkeepers
5 Broken Camera
The Invisible War

Best Documentary Short

Open Heart
Inocente
Redemption
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine

Best Film Editing

Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Hitchcock
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Misérables

Best Music (Original Score)

Anna Karenina
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Best Music (Original Song)

Before My Time from Chasing Ice
Everybody Needs a Best Friend from Ted
Pi's Lullaby from Life of Pi
Skyfall from Skyfall
Suddenly from Les Misérables

Best Production Design

Anna Karenina
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln

Best Animated Short

Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'
Paperman

Best Live Action Short

Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)
Henry

Best Sound Editing

Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Sound Mixing

Argo
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Congratulations on making it through the whole list.

I will certainly be sounding off on the nominations and snubs. Such as, Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck not being nominated under the Best Director category, while Ang Lee gets a nod for his bloated Life of Pi, and Benh Zeitlin for the underrated (but not undeserving) Beasts of the Southern Wild. Or perhaps I will sound off on how Leonardo DiCaprio gets the short stick, as his co-star Christoph Walz gets the nominations for Best Supporting Actor. But that shall come later.

12 Big Film News Stories of 2012

2012-12-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

Looking back on 2012, records were shattered, hearts broken, dreams were made, and nightmares came to life. From the box-office glory of Joss Whedon's The Avengers to the grim death of Tony Scott, 2012 gave us plenty of highs and lows.

Let's take a look at 12 triumphs and tribulations in movie news from 2012.

12) DreamWorks Animation Leaves Paramount

for 20th Century Fox

While certainly not as big as another media acquisition (more on that later... Spoilers!), the end to the seven-year relationship between the animation studio and its distributor, Paramount, leaves the mountain's future looking a bit less solid. Fox, however, has very little risk in this partnership, and should reap some nice rewards with their new five-year pact. While they already own an animation studio, Blue Sky (makers of Rio and the Ice Age franchise), Fox did not shy away from acquiring another animation maker. Release date conflicts are really the only worrisome part to this partnership; however, since Fox will not have to shoulder any of the budget load from DreamWorks Animation films, 20th Century Fox's scheduling headaches should be easily cured with gobs of cash flowing their way.

11) Two Big Film Franchises Come to a Close

While Paramount is left looking to fill a hole in their animation branch, two studios will be looking to make up for losing two of the most lucrative film franchises in the last decade, Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy and the Twilight saga. Love it or hate it, Twilight was a major film franchise and a huge cash cow for Lions Gate Entertainment (distributed under Summit Entertainment). Making well over $3 billion worldwide, believe it or not, Twilight left a mark on cinematic history.
After the Harry Potter franchise ended last year and Nolan's final installment released this year, Warner Bros. Studios must be a bit apprehensive about their future. No longer will they have these two shoe-in cash creators; however, The Hobbit being made into three films should ease their worry. The studio also anxiously awaits Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, The Man of Steel, due out next year, as does every fanboy and fangirl, alongside the DC Entertainment branch. If successful, WB and DC could have a very lucrative film franchise that could open the doors to a long awaited Justice League movie/franchise. Fingers crossed!

10) Two Big Studios Dump Execs

Speaking of studios scrambling to fill giant holes, Disney and 20th Century Fox both showed their respective top dogs the door. After a slew of horrible film financial decisions, Rich Ross, the House of Mouse's Studio Chair, was finally given the boot after the bloated cesspool of awful that was John Carter. While Ross's intentions were good (fewer films with bigger budgets to streamline marketing for franchise merchandise/rides/toy lines), the results were lackluster at best. The now-former Disney exec landed on his feet, though, and is now CEO of Shine America, a production company under News Corp.
Another News Corp. unit, 20th Century Fox, had a serious power-shift as well. It canned its co-chair/CEO, Tom Rothman, after eighteen-years of eyebrow-raising decisions. Failing to secure Fox TV's star, Seth MacFarlane, and his new movie, Ted, and instead, opting for other R-rated comedies that utterly flopped (The Sitter, The Watch) and the absolute mess of a film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, seemed to be the final nail in the coffin Rothman. Along with failed franchises such as The Fantastic Four and Daredevil, both of which were sold back to Marvel, Rothman's tenure at Fox was tumultuous, at best.

9) Seth MacFarlane and Channing Tatum Hit Adult Comedy Gold

Both of these moderately fresh faces made it big in 2012. MacFarland made his big screen debut with the critical and commercial successful film, Ted. While not quite to the level of Bridesmaids from last year, MacFarlane's foul-mouthed teddy bear certainly helped keep the ball rolling for adult-centered comedies. Speaking of which, Tatum starred in two, Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street. Both were critically praised and the box office numbers showed that audiences loved Tatum's performance as a male stripper and a hapless cop respectively.

8) Tony Scott Commits Suicide

While 2012 brought the laughs, it also came with tragedy. One of these sorrows was the passing of an iconic director, Tony Scott. The Top Gun creator allegedly jumped to his death on the 19th of August. The younger brother of Ridley Scott certainly had no problem stepping out of the shadow of his brother with action hits such as the aforementioned Top Gun, Crimson Tide, and Unstoppable to name but a few. Scott was 68 when he died. He will be greatly missed in the film world.

7) Violence in Media Under Scrutiny

In some of the nation's most tragic moments in history, two shootings left everyone stunned and utterly shocked at what had occurred. Closely related to the film industry, the film theater shootings in Aurora, CO dramatically decreased theater attendance. While security at the theater was never an issue in the first place, a madman decided to change all that. 70 people were shot and wounded; 12 died due the random act of violence.
The media's obsession with violence and the violence in film were again dragged front and center in the aftermath of the Newtown, CT Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. 20 children were killed, along with 6 adult staff members. While currently no direct correlation with violence in the media, NRA leader, Wayne LaPierre blamed films such as American Psycho and video games such as Grand Theft Auto for the increased gun violence in America. Pretty much everything was blamed but guns. I stayed away from posting about this, as this blog isn't meant to cause political waves.

6) The Artist wins Best Picture

With the 2013 Oscar season heating up, it's easy to forget who won big in 2012. Winning five of the ten awards The Artist was up for during the Academy Awards, this homage to the silent film era was simply outstanding. The four winners after Best Picture were Michel Hazanavicius (Best Director), Jean Dujardin (Best Actor), Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design. Not to be overlooked, the spunky, budding young actress Peppy Miller was played extraordinarily well by Berenice Bejo. One of the coolest technical aspects of this film is that it was shot in 22 fps, slightly slower than the 24 fps standard. This definitely adds to the look and feel of the black-and-white silent film.

5) Tech Hype and 48 fps

Speaking of frames per second, Peter Jackson's decision to shoot The Hobbit in 48 fps caused quite a stir in the film world. While I haven't seen the new technology in person, I have heard mixed reviews. Certainly, the higher frame resolution should decrease the obnoxious blur and choppiness seen more prevalently in 3D; however, the fear that the film will look "too real" reared its head. Love it or hate it, higher frame rates are here to stay. In fact, James Cameron, who has long been an advocate for digital media and higher frame rates, wants his next installments of Avatar (yes, plural) to be shot entirely in 60 fps.

4) James Bond Comes Back with a Vengeance

After a pathetic follow-up to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace failed to wow audiences and critics alike. The lackluster box office performance and criticism coupled with the financial instability of MGM studios, the future of 007 was murky. However, after the release of Skyfall, the 50th Anniversary Celebration for the suave British spy went much better than expected. Drawing in the audiences with the best opening weekend for any Bond movie and already the highest grossing Bond film, as well as being heaped with critical praise, it looks like James Bond is back.

3) The Avengers Destroys the Box Office

Joss Whedon is really good at his job. And while critically and commercially successful, I'm not talking about Cabin in the Woods. No, this is all about The Avengers. While no one doubted the superhero flick would be a hit, no one thought it would be as big as this. It shattered oodles of box office records and is currently sitting at number 3 on the highest grossing films of all-time. Not only was this movie a commercial hit, the critics heaped Whedon with praise on how he masterfully wove together the superhero team with such grace.
The success of The Avengers bodes quite well for the future of Marvel Studios and Disney. Now set to initiate Phase 2, Marvel is well poised to keep pumping out superhero blockbusters for many summers to come. Here's to hoping Whedon decides to stay on the job.

2) Women Kick all kinds of Butt

From Jennifer Lawrence's spectacular performance as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games to Anne Hathaway's sleek, sassy, sexiness in The Dark Knight Rises to Rebel Wilson's fiery hilarity in Pitch Perfect, Girl Power reigned supreme this year in cinema. Pixar even pitched in with their first ever female lead in Brave. Not only were these girls's performances and movies successful with the critics, they swooned over audiences with their awesomeness. Look out guys, it looks like the age of the damsel in distress has finally stepped into the light of the 21st Century.

1) Star Wars is Bought by Disney

Disney has had no problem wooing young girls to their product line with the princess power it possesses. However, they just weren't reeling in the boys. Even after acquiring Marvel for a small fee of $4.24 billion, Disney wasn't satisfied. For a little over $4 billion, Disney bought Lucasfilm and with it, the Star Wars franchise. While this caused many a nerd to quiver at the thought of Darth Vader with Mickey Mouse ears, the Star Wars franchise seems to be in good enough hands. Oh yeah, and a Star Wars VII is going to happen. Love it or hate it, Disney wants a film by 2015. Also, VIII and IX are in talks. Well. That's interesting.

Feel free to add your own opinion in the comments!

Zero Dark Thirty, Les Mis, and Django Unchained Poised for Strong Award Season Runs

2012-12-13T23:41:00.001-05:00

While it's far from being a three horse race for Best Picture, the trifecta of films set to release in December are rapidly garnering copious amounts of Oscar buzz. The early favorites such as Argo, Lincoln, and The Master should certainly not be forgotten, but the December newcomers are quickly overshadowing their Oscar-hopeful counterparts. Headlining this group is Katheryn Bigalow's bin Laden manhunt film, Zero Dark Thirty. Not to be ignored is Tom Hooper's gorgeous adaption of the musical, Les Misérables, and rounding out the trio is Django Unchained, the latest brutally brilliant film by Quentin Tarantino.

Although this group may not seem to have much in common (seriously, who'da thought that a musical, a gritty war film, and a slavery romp with Tarantino would be mentioned together?), all three are poised to make strong award circuit runs.

Even though the general public has not been able to view it yet, Zero Dark Thirty has already won Best Picture awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, Boston Society of Film Critics, and the National Board of Review. Jessica Chastain is also getting critics all abuzz with her performance as a steely CIA agent driving the search for 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden. Director Katheryn Bigelow is no stranger to the Academy Awards, as her last film, The Hurt Locker, exploded during the 2009 award season. While the praise is nice and the awards Zero Dark Thirty have amassed are flashy, it should be noted that no film that has won the prestigious National Board of Review Best Film award has gone on to win the Oscar since Danny Boyle's ~~incredibly overrated~~ feelgood flick, Slumdog Millionaire. It will be interesting to see if the political controversy Zero Dark Thirty is already stirring up will end up hurting or helping the film. The movie is by all reports, a pretty tough pill to swallow. However, it remains to be seen if this will turn off the Academy or not.

If gritty torture scenes are hard to watch, add some inspirational singing and sit back and enjoy the tear-jerker of a movie, Les Mis, the film adaption of the Tony Award winning musical of the same name. Set to debut on Christmas Day, this film has all the ingredients necessary for a strong award show running: an Oscar-winning director in Tom Hooper (The King's Speech), Oscar-winning/nominated cast members (Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sascha Baron Cohen), as well as incredibly talented actors not to win/be nominated for Oscars (Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfriend, and newcomers Eddie Redmayne and Samantha Banks). Not only is the acting superb, but the music itself is beyond incredible. While most musical to film adaptions record musical numbers prior to filming, Hooper decided to have his actors sing while act. This adds an incredible amount of additional depth to the emotionally charged songs that comprise much of Les Mis. Musicals don't usually fare well at awards shows, especially the Oscars; however, Hooper's adaption looks far from being the usual run-of-the-mill musical.

Last but not least comes Tarantino's Basterds follow-up, Django Unchained. While certainly a wild card when it comes to the Academy Awards, Tarantino is no stranger to them either. Even though Inglorious Basterds was good, Django Unchained may be the best Tarantino film we've seen since Pulp Fiction. The brutality in the film is said to be as hard to watch as some of the most infamous scenes from Pulp Fiction and even that ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs. Cringe. Led by Academy Award winners (for Basterds) Christoph Walz and Jamie Foxx (Ray), along with Academy nominated Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond, The Aviator), this film should make plenty of noise in the thick of the award season. DiCaprio's performance as sadistic plantation owner, Calvin Candie, has already won him the National Board of Review for Best Supporting Actor, and plenty of other award circuit buzz. While overly violent films are often overlooked by the Academy as being petty, Tarantino's mastery of this device is usually universally lauded in every project he's worked on.

While there is plenty of time for other films to pick up steam, these three will be definite forces to be reckoned with come the award show season.

Third Hobbit Movie Possible

2012-07-24T23:47:00.001-04:00

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is Part I of the potential trilogy.

EDIT: The Hobbit franchise has been broken down into three films, the first (An Unexpected Journey) set to release the 14th of December of this year, with the other two (The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again) projected for 2013 and 2014 respectively.

In news that is already rocking my world, it was just released tonight that there's a possible third film coming to the Hobbit movies, directed by Lord of the Rings mastermind Peter Jackson.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is due to be released on December 14, 2012, with The Hobbit: There and Back Again coming out on December 13, 2013.

While a third film is certainly not guaranteed, it has been verified that Peter Jackson has been in talks about another sequel, possibly with actors Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman also participating in the discussion.

One of the largest obstacles to a third film is working out a budget between the directors, producers, and Warner Bros.

The decision to split The Hobbit into two films was greeted with some controversy, as the book is significantly shorter than any of the Lord of the Rings books. Jackson assuaged some of the anger by informing us that the movies would extensively cover topics not explicitly discussed in the books - topics that Hobbit and Lord of the Rings creator J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about in his notes, but never in published material. These topics cover in large part the comings and goings of Gandalf and The White Council, including their overthrowing of The Necromancer (Sauron) from the fortress of Dol Goldur in Mirkwood.

Rumor is that a third movie would draw more from those notes, but also from the Appendices located at the end of The Return of the King. The Appendices cover most of the history of Middle-Earth in very little detail, from brief snippets of the ancient Elves in previous ages through a close look at the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. It's unclear what exactly Jackson would choose to adapt, if the sequel is approved.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

2012-07-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

Pictured: two good actors.

The Dark Knight Rises was not at all what I was expecting, but neither was I at any point surprised while watching it. In short, The Dark Knight Rises was really just another superhero movie, despite all the hype. Many have gushed over the ostensibly intellectual nature of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but The Dark Knight Rises is not a superhero movie for the thinking man. It is, however, a great superhero movie.

Of course, spoilers ahead.

The plot is fairly coherent, despite clearly suffering from the loss of Heath Ledger’s Joker. The plot instead goes back to the first Nolan Batman movie for its villains’ motivations, which works surprisingly well even though it turns The Dark Knight into a rather jarring break in between the first and third Nolan movies. One can hardly blame Christopher Nolan for having to change some details following the death of his main villain, but many of the characters in The Dark Knight Rises fail to attain the appropriate development because there simply isn’t enough time in the movie to properly introduce and build up their character.

"I'm too good for this movie."

The best example of this is the actual main villain, Talia al Ghul, (Marion Cotillard, playing roughly the same role as she played in Nolan’s Inception) who is intended to be one of Bruce Wayne’s allies who then reveals her true nature and betrays him. Unfortunately, the punch of this betrayal is lost because her character isn’t given enough development for her relationship with Bruce Wayne to feel genuine.

Although Talia al Ghul is the mastermind of the evil plot of The Dark Knight Rises, her lackey Bane is far more interesting of a villain, and it is disappointing that in the end, he gets roughly zero actual character or motivation. For the entire first half of the movie, Tom Hardy’s massive, imposing, masked villain dominates the screen, and his iconic showdown with Batman midway through the movie which culminates in the famous breaking of the Bat is possibly the best part of the movie. This makes his ending all the more anticlimactic. We discover that Bane has no personal motivation and has simply been acting on orders from Talia the whole time. Even his final battle with Batman is interrupted, first by Talia and then by Catwoman, when he is summarily blasted out of the movie without even the dignity of a death speech. Part of this is due to the unfortunate sound design choices with Bane, whose mask garbles his speech somewhat. The fix for the mask problem is only to make Bane’s voice jarringly louder than everyone else’s, which makes him more understandable, but hurts the sound quality of the movie.

In unrelated news, that coat is fantastic.

The biggest disappointment of the movie, however, is Batman himself. It has long been clear that Christian Bale is not actually a good actor, but this movie makes that fact painfully clear. The movie persists in revolving around Batman, even as it attempts to thematically focus on the necessity of Batman moving on, and even as it becomes increasingly clear that Christian Bale’s Batman is just not that interesting any more. Bale is convincing only in the first half of the movie as a burned-out relic and in his defeat to Bane at the end of the first half of the movie, but he is unconvincing and boring during the entire “rise” part of The Dark Knight Rises.

Stupid perfect baby.

The biggest casualty of this focus on Batman is the supporting characters, who suffer from caring more about Batman than about most of their own motivations. The only supporting character who pulls this off is Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Caine, but all the other characters unfortunately have the same tendency to act like Batman’s humble servants. One example of this is John Blake, the scene-stealing beat cop played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who spends the whole movie wishing he was Batman but never gets a chance to actually do anything.

Also stupid perfect baby.

The same goes times a million for Selina Kyle, whose potentially interesting character and excellent actress gets stuck with the most trite character arc in the movie. Her femme fatale betrays Batman to Bane, feels bad about it, comes back to aid Gotham only because Batman asks her to, and then makes out with him. The worst part is that if Selina Kyle didn’t spend all her time focused only on Batman she could be an excellent character. She shows occasional flashes of her own budding heroism independent of just doing what Batman tells her, and Anne Hathaway does a stellar job of turning what could easily have been an awful cardboard character into a relatable human being, albeit one who spends all her time worrying about Batman.

Pictured: the actual climax of The Dark Knight Rises.

The ending of the movie makes it abundantly clear that while you thought you were watching a gritty movie for the thinking man, you were actually just watching your average fluffy superhero movie. The climax is a painfully cheesy bomb-defusing scenario that may have also been in The Avengers, and all the good guys lived and got what they wanted and probably lived happily ever after, a jarring contrast to the grim tone of the rest of the movie. However, at least some of the elements of the ending seem almost too good to be true. We are led to believe, for instance, that Bruce Wayne has finally reached the point where he can accept not being Batman, and has left to live a normal life while letting his friends believe he is dead, but then also he has apparently taken Selina Kyle with him on his normal life? Firstly, it seems strange that he would let everyone except her think he was dead, secondly it makes no sense for Selina, who has just discovered her own inner heroism, to just up and spend the rest of her life frolicking in meadows with Bruce Wayne, and thirdly, our only reason for believing this is that we see them together in a scene observed by Alfred, who has previously described the exact scenario as his “personal fantasy.” It may be a stretch, but I prefer to believe that Bruce Wayne did not take any of his old life with him, not even Selina Kyle.

Plus, this paves the way for my dream: in five years, everyone gets tired of all the gritty reboots of superhero movies, and Joss Whedon gets hired to direct a happy, fluffy Batman reboot that continues from the Nolan canon, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Batman and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman cavorting around Gotham arguing about the best way to beat up bad guys and secretly being in love, and the movie is actually basically a rom-com. Except that because it’s Joss Whedon, the movie ends up being way more heartbreaking than The Dark Knight Rises.

At the end of the day, you should go see The Dark Knight Rises, because it is a truly stellar movie, and especially makes for an excellent foil to The Avengers. However, you should not expect anything more than a superhero movie with a dark tone, or you may be disappointed.

Review: Like

The Dark Knight Rises Spoilers

2012-07-18T17:37:00.003-04:00

It Goes Without Saying That This Is Completely Read At Your Own Risk

I told myself I wasn't going to do it.... but I did. The Dark Knight Rises comes out Friday at 12:01 in the States, but has been out overseas for a short amount of time. That being said, a lot of people know what happens already, and are posting it on the internet. If you're the person that likes to know these things before you see a movie, then by all means keep reading. If you're not one of those people, seriously, just stop now. This is a film that's going to be much more worth i if you go in blind. You've had your final warning, so here it is.

SPOILER ALERT***

Here we go. Until I see the film myself, this is in list-form. After that I'll update to summarize each point.

Miranda Tate (Bruce's love interest) is Talia Al Ghul, Ra's Al Ghul's daughter

Bane breaks Batman's back, and sends him to the same prison where he himself was kept

The film takes place over several months, and Bane holds the city of Gotham hostage with a nuclear bomb.

Bane is carrying out the vengeance of Ra's and the League of Shadows on Gotham

Although the world believes that Batman sacrifices himself, Bruce actually lives on and falls in love with Selina

Alfred does not die

There is a Bat-cave as well as a Bat-Bunker

Gordon discovers the threat of Bane, and is brutally savaged by Bane

Marvel's Expanding Universe: Comic Con in Short

2012-07-17T08:30:00.000-04:00

Because Otherwise We'd Be Here Forever

Finally found a cover picture for these articles!

Due to complaints that the superhero-movie posts are too many, and the "other stuff" movie posts are too few on this site, I'm going to compile the 10 posts I wanted to put up these past few days into one summarized post of all the excellence that happened at Comic Con. From an intergalactic raccoon to cream-colored armor, here's the finest bits of Marvel news for you.

New Armor

It has long been rumored that Iron Man III would be based on the Extremis story line from the comics. We could only wonder then what the most awe-inspiring suit of armor ever created by Tony Stark would look like? Thanks to the Marvel folks at the Iron Man III panel at Comic Con 2012, we have our first look at the new suit of armor.

Giggity

It's a very interesting design that flips the color scheme of the previous armors to incorporate more gold and less red. It's barely even a gold color, and more along the lines of a cream. At first I was a little taken-aback by the, shall we say, ostentatious factor of the armor? But then I remembered it's Iron Man. Some footage was shown of Tony working on the armor, and it seems it attaches to him in small pieces. The clip was humorous, as some of the pieces wouldn't fly right or would hit him in the head. Whether this was post-extremis injection or not is up for speculation, but it appeared he was controlling them by will alone.

The gold armor Tony bonds with his body

Going back to the color scheme, it seems to borrow from the current Iron Man armors, which are all plate armors that encase his whole body, and the original gold armor that was more of a mesh cloth the character first appeared in. There were smaller plates that attached to parts of his body after he combined the mesh armor with his body biologically. The new armor seems to borrow from both, with the pale gold color scheme, but also the full plate armor. I can't wait to see this thing in action, just like every previous Iron Man film.

New Characters

Due to the overwhelming amount of new characters Marvel is putting into their films, you'll have to bear with me through this shorter list, as I can't give every character the attention they need. Over the course of time, we'll get to the important ones eventually.

The Wolverine:

Will Yun Lee: Kenuichio Harada/The Silver Samurai

Will Anthony Mackie play the first
African-American Superhero?

Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier:

Anthony Mackie: Sam T. Wilson/Falcon (in negotiations)

Iron Man III:

Rebecca Hall: Maya Hansen

Ben Kingsley: The Mandarin (or a similar character)

Cobie Smulders: SHIELD agent Maria Hill

New Movies

Again, since the list is lengthy, you're getting the shorter version, with a brief summary of each.

Confirmed titles

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - It appears Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) will be returning as Captain's-best-friend-turned-brainwashed-cyborg-spy the Winter Soldier. Steve Rogers will work alongside SHIELD to take down this new threat.

Thor: The Dark World - Now needing to re-cast it's main villain after Mads Mikkelsen took his leave, little is known about this film except it will feature a more natural viewing of Asgard. Also, the main ensemble from Thor will return, including love interest Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).

Reboots

The Fantastic Four - The remake of the two-film tragedy that was the original Fantastic Four franchise is being reworked, and officially has a director in Josh Trank (Chronicle) and a writer in newcomer Jeremy Slater.

Good riddance! Also with this picture we increased
our views from teenage girls and their moms.

Daredevil/Twilight director David Slade appears to have lost his shot at directing the quasi-reboot/sequel to one of Marvel's first comic-book movies. Instead he is going to work on the Hannibal TV series. Fox has about 4 months to get production underway, or they risk the movie rights going back to Marvel and Disney. If they do manage to start in time, get ready for a mess of a movie... I for one hope they scrap it and let Marvel get one of their best characters back.

Special Footage

Ant-Man - Edgar Wright appeared at the Marvel panel at Comic Con, and showed some unfinished footage he shot for the character Ant-Man. It's been heavily rumored that Henry Pym would appear in a later Marvel film as a SHIELD agent. This footage does NOT confirm that an Ant-Man movie is going to be made by Marvel! There are numerous reports saying it is going into production. This is false, right now it is just a fun project for Edgar Wright, who has much bigger things on his hands.

The Punisher - Recently, Thomas Jane appeared in a 10 minute short-film reprising his role as the Punisher. Whether this means we'll see a new Punisher movie soon or not remains to be seen. For now, it seems the film was made just for fun. It has music from The Dark Knight soundtrack, so I wouldn't view it as anything official. The material is NSFW and inappropriate for viewing on our site, however you can view it here.

New Film

Marvel studios has officially declared their next ensemble film, which is going to involve characters unknown to most people. Guardians of the Galaxy will include heroes Drax the Destoryer, Groot, Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, and Gamora. This recently released concept art shows the characters from left to right.

"What's cooler than Tony Stark and a new suit of armor," you ask?
Rocket. Friggen. Raccoon.

GOTG is definitely under the class of "unknown." It would take me 4 articles and probably some money spent on comics in order to explain them fully. Rest assured, this will be the film of a lifetime, especially since Rocket Raccoon will be appearing. Also look for a character like Nova to be the main protagonist. This is a direct tie-in to the Avengers mid-credits scene (spoilers).

A character like Nova allows the guardians to have connections to earth, and would also allow for an Avengers crossover. Eventually once I've done thorough research of these characters, their stories, and learned enough about them, I'll release something to educate you on these wonderful guardians. Be on the lookout for casting and production rumors!

Avengers 2

This is just a small tidbit that was released shortly after the premiere of The Amazing Spider-man. Nothing is confirmed as of yet. Sony producers talked publicly about having Andrew Garfield's Spider-man appear in a future Avengers installment. A deal would have to be cut between Sony and Marvel, but Spidey's presence is entirely possible now.

2012 Part II: 6 Most Anticipated

2012-07-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

6 Films to Look Forward to Before the World Ends

Continuing the 2012 series

If you read our articles, you've probably seen our 5 best and worst movies from the first half of 2012. In anticipation for the second half of our last year alive, let's look ahead at the second half of the year and see what movies are definitely worthy of a theater visit. Also, stay tuned for the 5 movies to stay away from in these next 6 months. Originally this list was going to consist of 5 movies, but the second half of the year has a bit more going for it than the first.

Hugh as the convict Jean Valjean

Les Misérables

Tom Hooper's adaptation of the incredible stage musical looks to be a huge success already. They (wisely) decided not to have Taylor Swift in the film, and instead have Amanda Seyfried playing Cosette. Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe star in this French Revolution-era musical. The re-make theme in Hollywood grows much stronger with this film, as yet another classic is getting reworked.

The Bourne Legacy

Seemingly taking place around and after the time of the previous Bourne movies, The Bourne Legacy stars Jeremy Renner as the incredibly dangerous Aaron Cross. Edward Norton will get a shot as the antagonist in this film, and we've seen him do this successfully before. Edward Norton and Jeremy Renner are both remarkable actors, and should perform in their respective roles. I have not read the book, but Robert Ludlum's novels rarely fail to impress, as with the film adaptions. Though this is the first novel to be written by someone other than Ludlum (Eric Van Lustbader), the film looks to have the potential to live up to its predecessors. Rachel Weisz also plays a major role in The Bourne Legacy as Aaron's main love-interest. Again, I haven't read the book, so I don't know that for sure. I'm still excited for the 4th Bourne installment.

Django Unchained

I love him, but this is one strange dude

Although I may not be as excited as my fellow bloggers for this film, unarguably Quentin Tarantino is a unique and talented filmmaker, and the cast filling out this movie is equally talented. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, and Jonah Hill should all be names many of you are familiar with. This won't be a movie to take the kids to, as it will contain plenty of profanity and gore. However, the script will dazzle and the plot will no doubt have twists, turns, and a good message to go with. For more on Django Unchained, click here.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

There's not really much to say here, except Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, and the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch. PJ's return to Middle Earth should dazzle, impress, and make a lot of money. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was one of the most successful movie franchises of all time, and the two-part semi-prequel to the series should be just as successful. We have to wait until December for this one, but seeing as how the world should end soon after, I'm glad we have this to look forward to. There are some worries about the increased frame rate used for this movie, but I have faith in Peter Jackson to deliver.

The Dark Knight Rises

Pictured: epic incarnate

There's also very little to say about Christopher Nolan's epic finale to what is arguably (but not really) the greatest comic-book movie franchise to date. Chris has revolutionized these films, and given us something we may never see the likes of again. The cast is mind-blowingly awesome, the scale out-of-this-world, and the story should amaze every person in the theater. You can connect to our many TDKR posts here, and see the Legend end this Friday.

Skyfall

Some of you (as well as some of my fellow bloggers) may be wondering why I put this at the front of my list. There are some other movies that may be deserving of this spot, and I agree that very solid arguments could be made for both second and third on my list to hold the top spot. Hear me out though, as I plead my case.

When Casino Royale came out in 2006, it provided a much needed revamping of the 007 franchise. There were quite a few Craig-haters at first, but these days I don't hear near as much criticism towards him. He's charming, handsome, and funny, but he also has this raw part that is his dark side. Overall he's an engaging and complicated character. The reboot also changed the tone and style of the Bond films. There's no longer any crazy gadgets like the Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan eras. Everything is grounded in reality and set in modern times. Casino Royale also took right from the source material, which gave the cast and crew something wonderful to work with, and produced an excellent film.

Sad to say, when the sequel, Quantum of Solace, came out in 2008, audiences were let down. Although not an awful movie, Quantum suffered heavily from the writer's strike and lacked a coherent plot. It was a direct continuation of the first installment, but seemed to raise more questions from the first than it answered.

No Bond film has managed to contain this car and suck. Daniel knows this.

Skyfall looks to turn things around, with a new story that doesn't directly continue the events of the 2008 sequel. In summary, M (Judi Dench) is haunted by her past and all of MI6 is put at risk. We don't know much else except for what we saw in the teaser trailer. Bond is in some kind of questioning room, and is asked to do some word association. When the questioner says the word "Skyfall", Bond hesitates. Then he simply says "done." This is probably a reference to the Skyfall mansion that belonged to the Bond family in Ian Flemming's novels.

Let me get to my point though, which is why this movie is number one on my list. Skyfall looks to borrow from the source material. It is already established that this new franchise has incredible potential (Casino Royale). On top of that, everyone there wants to make something that will blow audiences away, and make up for what happened in QOS. Skyfall also adds some big-name actors to it's roster. Ralph Fiennes (The Harry Potter series), Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men), Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3), and Helen McCrory (Hugo). An addition of Ben Wishaw is being made as well, who will play a young version of MI6's tech-savvy Q. With great source material, a good plot, terrific actors, the addition of a fan-favorite character, and a chip on their shoulder, I'm definitely most excited for Skyfall this year.

Guest Writer, Ethan Smith - The Dark Knight Rises Trailer 5 - “Journey”

2012-07-13T16:41:00.000-04:00

YAMB Welcomes Guest Writer Ethan Smith from Ethan Unscripted

The Dark Knight Rises is only a week away, and if you’re between the ages of 5 and 95, you’re excited about it. As if Warner Bros. needed to add any more fuel to the fire, they have released one final trailer that highlights some key moments from the previous two films. This is especially exciting for those of us who are nerdy enough to go see the marathon before the midnight showing on the 19th. (9 hours of Batman! I hope we get bathroom breaks!)

The trailer begins with a quote from good ol’ Alfred, one of the many characters who provides moral direction for Bruce Wayne. “I never wanted you to come back to Gotham. I always knew there was nothing here for you, except pain and tragedy.”

Creepy Batman is creepy...

Well, that’s kinda depressing! Alfred never wanted Bruce to come back (he was probably enjoying having the mansion and the cars to himself), but it is a good point. As long as Bruce is in Gotham, he will always be reminded of his parents’ deaths, and as long as that reminder is there to drive him, Bruce will never be able to escape the Batman.

Next we get a shot of Bruce in the well, being swarmed by bats from Batman Begins, before seeing the screen title: “The Beginning of a Legend.” This is followed by the often repeated lines, “Took quite a fall didn’t we, Master Bruce?” (Alfred) “And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.” (Bruce’s dad) We see Bruce kneeling over his fallen parents.

It's interesting that all the clips which are shown are from the exposition segment of Batman Begins. There are no scenes of Scarecrow or Ra’s Al Ghul or any moments from the climax of the first film. The focus of the trailer is on Batman’s journey and how he has grown and changed as a character throughout the series. We are not shown action scenes or scenes in which Bruce gets his suit or the tumbler. Those are “how” moments. Rather, we are reminded of his fear of bats and his parents death. It’s the “why” moments of inspiration that are key here.

Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight

This brings us to the screen title “The Fall of a Hero” with a Bruce Wayne voice-over saying: “I was meant to inspire good. Not madness, not death.” We see the Joker and a ravaged Harvey Dent. Then the Bat-signal is broken as Harvey says, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” The final piece of this segment is of the final shot in The Dark Knight, as Batman flees Gotham PD on the Batpod.

We are reminded that Harvey Dent’s prediction comes true, and that Batman is now considered a villain, although he might not technically be one. The focus of this flashback is on the concluding scenes of The Dark Knight, with Batman sacrificing his reputation. If The Dark Knight was about Batman’s “fall,” then The Dark Knights Rises will be about . . . well, you can probably guess.

“The End of a Journey” flashes on screen before we revisit the football stadium scene coming up in The Dark Knight Rises, followed by a quote from Bane. “We will destroy Gotham,” he says in his creepy, muffled accent as footage is shown of a stock trade being ambushed and the bridges collapsing. That's followed by another voice-over – “People of Gotham, we have not abandoned you” – which confuses John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but Gordon clarifies: “It means we’re on our own.” The trailer gets really intense as we see the city on fire, torn American flags, a prison breakout, two masses of people about to violently collide, and two tumblers chasing each other down the street.

Clearly desperate times will lure Batman out of retirement, but this will no longer be Bruce’s home turf. The criminal landscape of Gotham has changed (there’s a woman running around dressed like a cat for crying out loud) and Batman will clearly be forced to fight out of his element. This is given physical shape as we’ve seen more and more of Batman having to take action in the middle of the day, instead of at night in his comfort zone, and against Bane, who can actually challenge Batman physically. The new TV spot shows us that this is a Batman who has taken a beating over the years as Batman, and his body is already falling apart as it is. We’re also given a sense of the scale of the film. The climaxes of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were largely Batman versus an individual or two. Here Gotham is engaged in civil war. The scope of this movie is going to be insane and it seems things are going to be desperate.

Which is probably why Alfred offers up some more advice: “You see only one end to your journey. But sometimes a man rises from the darkness.” We see shots of some as-of-yet unexplained prison before John Blake asks Batman, “What now?” to which Batman responds, “War.” See? I told you it’s gonna be huge!

The trailer concludes with the screen titles, “On July 20th” … “A Fire Will Rise.” These are intercut with Catwoman telling Batman, “You don’t owe these people any more. You’ve given them everything.” Batman replies, “Not everything. Not yet.” (Ugh! Stop hinting that Batman may or may not die! It’s driving us crazy to figure out what’s going to happen!) We see the new Bat-transportation, called simply the Bat, chasing a tumbler, Batman and Bane throwing their first punches during what is possibly the climax, and Batman declaring, “I’m not afraid - I’m angry.”

"Bat-Hulk smash!"

Again, they’re really teasing us with the whole will-Batman-die bit, but the focus is still on the character journey. Much of this series is focused on fear, and finally it seems the character ultimately overcomes his own doubts; that he finally knows exactly who he is as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman. That line at the end is my favorite part of the trailer and I can’t wait to find out how he, at last, fully embraces who he is (likely right before kicking a ton of butt!).

And finally, there was The Dark Knight Rises. Wow. A week feels like forever!

Note from YAMB: We're very luck to have Ethan writing for us. Expect to see more from him over the next few weeks, as well as other guest writers. Thanks Ethan!

Why Was The Amazing Spider-man A Successful Reboot?

2012-07-10T05:20:00.000-04:00

What Did Webb and Co. Do Right?

Well, they had him take his shirt off. That's a pretty good start

Hopefully you've read our article about why Spider-man was in desperate need of a reboot. If not, here you go. Now we're going to take a look at why Sony's second run at the webhead was superior to the original trilogy. Remember, this is mostly my opinion, and I'm not trying to pick a fight with Raimi fans. Rather, I'm trying to provide solid evidence from the comics, and also use knowledge about film-making and of the making of The Amazing Spider-man. Again, three reasons, and they won't quite be direct arguments against the points made earlier, but some will regard them slightly.

Before you go on, let me add that in its debut, the wall-crawler reboot made 62 million dollars. Not quite the huge amount Raimi's made, but the skepticism of fans probably drove away some viewers. The sequel will most likely make more, since the film is now a blockbuster and critical success (for the most part). Also, this article contains major plot points for The Amazing Spider-man and Never Let Me Go. You've been warned.

Why was this a successful reboot?

3. The Story

Yeah, he looks just like the movie
version here

Marc Webb made a bold but smart move in deciding to borrow from the Amazing Spider-man comics as well as the Ultimate Spider-man comics. His story is more in vein with the former, while Peter Parker is more like the latter. We'll focus on Peter later, let's give the story a good look.

Something that comic book movies didn't do at first, but has become a theme recently, is take their plots and character-arcs straight from the comics. We know that Ironman III will be loosely based on the Extremis story-line from the comics. X-Men First Class hopes its sequel will borrow from the classic narrative Days of Future Past. Comic books include some of the greatest stories ever told, so why not borrow from them?

The Amazing Spider-man did a lot more borrowing from the comic-books than I had even expected, some of it may not have even been intentional. One of Spider-man's first enemies was the Lizard, who had much more of that flat-faced look in his first incarnation. Honestly once the film started playing I couldn't have cared less whether he had a giant snout... He also fights the Lizard injured, and in the comics he once fought the Lizard with one arm broken. Irony? Yup. But more on the intentional stuff.

Gwen Stacy was and always will be Peter Parker's first love. Emma Stone did a phenomenal job pulling her character straight from page to screen, and her chemistry with Andrew was intense and real. Gwen was funny, intelligent, and independent. Spoiler alert, in the comics Gwen does die, and Captain Stacy's warning at the end of the film about the people closest to Peter getting hurt was distinct foreshadowing. Granted, Gwen never discovers that Peter is Spider-man in the comics, but for the sake of the movie, I found the changes Marc Webb made to help more than they hurt.

Another great thing that was drawn from the comics was Peter's artificial web-shooters. I enjoyed the tie-in to Oscorp's materials there, and how he was able to use their own stuff to make his web, and how it was actually processed from real webbing. The web-shooters make Spider-man more interesting, as they can be broken, taken, or run out of web. Being a hero isn't as easy as just shooting web out of your wrists.

Pictured: Logic. Tobey, how did your web even work? Veins?

Overall Marc Webb managed to change the story enough from the Sam Raimi movies that this is most certainly a different film. Oscorp is the centerpiece of this new franchise, and that's how it should be. Marc didn't try to throw in unnecessary elements. Peter will meet MJ later. He'll work for the Bugle later. Norman Osborn will appear later. Harry Osborn will appear later. It makes me more excited to see the following installments, knowing that classic Spider-man staples will be coming back.

2. The Vibe

Tom Cruise did something like this in MI 4, but he used
wires. Andrew Garfield used superpowers.

The Amazing Spider-man was, yes, grittier than the original trilogy. However, there was also more of a lot of other things. For one, the stunts were for the most part real. Excessive CGI was not used, and the 3D shots were spectacular. Stuntmen, and also Andrew, were climbing up the sides of moving buses, swinging on wires, and falling large distances. It's possible there are shots you thought were all CGI when actually only part of it was green-screen.

The heart and humor of this film blew away Raimi's movies. The jokes were ~~existent~~ funnier, and they happened more often. Aunt May and Uncle Ben felt much more connected to Peter, and Martin Sheen brought his own humor and heart to this film. The line "with great power comes great responsibility" wasn't used, but Sheen paraphrased it in a way that still built it up, without it being overly cheesy. Even though fans didn't hear their famous mantra, nobody missed the part where the same idea was made.

The characters are multi-dimensional. The villain isn't a bad person, his priorities are just majorly screwed up. Connors still wants to do what's best for humanity. In Spider-man, we never really learn why the Green Goblin wants to fight and kill Spider-man so bad. Even Willem Dafoe couldn't make his character more complex than he was written. The love interest cares a lot more for Peter as a person, and isn't the "damsel-in-distress." Gwen actually throws herself into harms way on multiple occasions to help her boyfriend out. The girl has guts and heart. Speaking of her boyfriend, we now get to the number one reason why this reboot was a success, and it is a fine reason indeed.

1. Andrew Garfield

Andrew has taken himself from a nobody to the somebody in a short span of time. He was good in The Social Network, showed some great acting chops in Never Let Me Go, and has now proven himself one of the best young actors alive. Peter Parker didn't feel like a comic-book character, instead he felt like a real person. At 28 years old, Andrew was able to convincingly play a high school student. He had real emotional issues, with his parents leaving and dying, Uncle Ben dying, trying to be Spider-man without upsetting Aunt May too much, getting bullied at school, and trying to care for the people he loves. His relationship with everyone on-screen is natural and tangible, from Uncle Ben to Captain Stacy.

Oh, you know, just being tangible.

He's also hilarious. I don't know of any other actor who could pull off one-liners like Andrew did in the red and blue. His various quirks and expressions were crowd-pleasers, and he made me think a lot about myself and who I am. One, because his character was remarkably similar to myself in real-life, and his emotional struggles really make you focus on the issues in your life and how you can deal with them.

In an interview I recently saw with one of Andrew's stunt-doubles, the double revealed that Andrew had come up to them and director Marc Webb with a list of ideas for the character of Spider-man. He wanted it to really seem like there was spider DNA in his body. So he asked that the wall-crawling look and feel as though Peter had 8 legs. He came up with the idea for the web-trap in the sewer. He instinctively grabs at flies, he contorts his body when he dunks the basketball to look like he has multiple limbs. Spider-man used webbing to wrap up the Lizard in the school scene. Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker and Spider-man were different in that when the suit came on, Spider-man was violent and too powerful. He just hit everything really hard. A spider would have a hard time fighting off a lizard, so Peter can't just hit the thing over and over again. He needed to avoid the Lizard with agility, creatively use web to trap it, and he still barely defeated the Lizard. This Spider-man is intelligent, not overly powerful, and still similar to who Peter is.

Andrew mocking the Tobey-crying-face

My favorite thing about Andrew is his ability to take a sad scene and make the whole world cry. James Horner's score at the death of Uncle Ben, Captain Stacy's death, and the scene where Peter tells Gwen they can't see each other anymore adequately convey the sadness Peter feels, but Andrew has a unique ability to bring real emotion to the screen. He breaks down when Ben dies, and the emotion lasts for nearly 10 minutes following the scene. Half of the theater I was in was crying the first time I saw it, and in IMAX 3D the second time, even more people were crying. It was heart-wrenching and frustrating to see Peter in such anguish. Captain Stacy's death was likewise sad, and considering how Peter and the Captain weren't exceptionally close until the end, it was more depressing when Peter let out that raw scream of emotion. There aren't many sounds that convey anger and pure grief more than the ones Andrew makes. If you want the best example of a scene where Andrew is in complete anguish, check out the scene in Never Let Me Go, where (SPOILER ALERT) he just found out he won't be able to spend much time with the woman he loves, because his organs need to be harvested for the person he is a clone of.

I thought I'd be done crying, but no, they had to throw in the breakup with Gwen. It was short, but the dialogue was perfect. "I can't do this - I can't see you anymore." It was hard to watch him wrestle with his want for Gwen and his promise to her father. But as the movie said, the best kind of promise is the one you can't keep. Look for Peter and Gwen to be together again in the sequel.

Honestly, after seeing this, I don't think anyone can do Peter Parker better. Ever. Andrew changed the character only slightly into a punk-skateboarder, but that's so he could still be outcast despite his intelligence and charm. The Ultimate Spider-man comics focus on Peter Parker's struggles as Spider-man, a young man, and a student. Andrew and Marc Webb portrayed this perfectly. After a performance like this, I expect to see an Oscar nomination soon for Andrew Garfield.

To read my review of The Amazing Spider-man, click here.

Zack

2012-07-10T04:01:00.001-04:00

Age: 20
Writer/video crew/site manager
Favorite Film: The Amazing Spider-man

As a lifelong comic-book fan, and in the past few years a film buff, it's been great living in a time when comic-book movies are the big thing in cinema. It took until my senior year of high school for me to realize my love of film, and now it's a large part of my life. I didn't want to see this blog my friends made go to waste, so I did everything I could to revive it, and now we're back and better than ever. When it comes to movies, I like supporting my reviews and critiques with lots of evidence. I love when readers give their opinions on what I write, so please leave me a comment or two so I know what you like and don't like to hear!

Movie Quote
"If you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things. That's what's at stake here. Not choice, responsibility." - Ben Parker, The Amazing Spider-man

If you'd like to reach me, please email me at yetanothermovieblogzk@gmail.com

Marvel Geekery July 9

2012-07-09T22:20:00.001-04:00

First Live-action Spider-man Film

This fan-made film was the first ever documented live appearance by Spider-man in a film. Talk these days is all about reboots and remakes, but every Spider-man movie is a reboot of this, I guess you could say. Has The Amazing Spider-man improved upon this film? Judge for yourself!

Why Did Spidey Need a Reboot?

2012-07-09T05:34:00.000-04:00

Was That Really Necessary?

Spidey's next reboot. Awww yeah.

The critics have spoken, the money is being counted, and it's time to end the debate. What debate? The one regarding Sony's decision to re-boot the Spider-man franchise. Was this really necessary? The cynical man would say they did it for money, and although that may be true, they did have a choice between a 4th Raimi film, or a new story altogether. They went with the second. Still people are crying out that the reboot was unnecessary, that it wasn't good, and that Raimi's films were fine. I'm here to throw in my two cents, and will do my best to settle the score once and for all. Although there are at least a dozen good reasons I can think of why Spidey needed a reboot, and why The Amazing Spider-man did the job, I'm going to stick with 3 reasons only. The faults come first, and tomorrow will feature the success of The Amazing Spider-man.

The Shortcomings of Sam Raimi

3. Casting of the Leads

Tobey's reaction to the reboot.
Just kidding! He's proposing.

At first glance, the cast of the original series looks solid. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Willem Dafoe, Rosemary Harris, and many other great actors were in that movie. That's some solid talent right there. The issue wasn't with the acting talent itself, it was with the original characters from the comic books. Although Tobey Maguire may look a lot like the original Peter Parker, he didn't have the character down right. We didn't get to see the intelligence of Peter as much as the romantic side, and the romantic side was lacking.... romance. He was a decent social outcast, but in the comics Peter Parker is quite attractive, charming, and engaging. This Peter spent most of his conversations with Mary Jane stumbling over words and making everyone feel rather uncomfortable.

Speaking of Mary Jane - Kirsten Dunst? Mary Jane is supposed to be a rebellious girl, who has a smoking problem, models because of her insanely good looks, is quite forward and overall is much more of a "bad-girl" that KD could ever play. She was too sweet, wasn't good-looking enough in my opinion, and was repeatedly the damsel in distress. Kirsten had very few similarities to Mary Jane from the comics, and two of them were red hair (which should have been a much darker red) [Editor's note: Let's be honest, having the wrong shade of hair color isn't a real critique] and that she is female.

There are other casting issues I had, but for the sake of the article, as well as my sanity, I'm just going to post this picture instead.

Some images speak for themselves.

2. The Story

Sam Raimi is not a bad director, and I don't think that even a film like Spider-man 3 should discredit the man who brought us the Evil-Dead Trilogy. Spider-man 2 was a wonderful comic-book movie, despite it's flaws. However, he made some big mistakes regarding the source material.

Organic webbing was something that took along time to happen in the comics. Peter needed extra powers to make it, or the use of the symbiote suit. The web shooters were a way to show Peter's genius. In Spider-man 2, we got to see what happened when Peter ran out of web, but in the comics it was a lot more challenging to be Spider-man, because he could run out of web, his shooters could break, or they could be taken from him.

Green Goblin, the Daily Bugle, Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, Peter's move to the city, and the death of the Goblin were all some pretty huge and popular elements from the comics. Sam Raimi decided to put all of them right into his first film, and because of that, he set the bar too high for himself. The one time he took a villain that would take Goblin to school (that being Venom), he ruined the character completely. Since so many things were crowded into his first film, none of them got proper development, and everything turned out to be quite superficial. There isn't enough time to really connect with any of the characters. Sam should have taken small stories and plot points straight from the comics, and not tried so hard to make his own story.

1. The End

The number one reason why these movies needed a reboot was the third installment in the series. From casting errors to story errors to drastic character changes, Spider-man 3 did a fantastic job of showing the world that a movie can make millions of dollars and still be horrible.

The casting for Sandman was good, but they messed with the death of Uncle Ben, which in my opinion should never have been re-visited. Uncle Ben's death was rushed, cheesy, and they ruined it by having Peter "kill" the guy who "murdered" Ben. Then Peter decides that he never learned any lessons from the first two movies, and "kills" the Sandman! I read a review of The Amazing Spider-man claiming that through the 3 Raimi films, Peter Parker always lives by the "with great power comes great responsibility" mantra, and he doesn't in the new film. Besides being wrong about the new film, they are also incorrect about the first 3. In every movie Peter stops living by that code, and has to fix that error. It got old to see him have the same character arc in each film. It was better in Spider-man 2, but if I never see emo-Peter again, it'll be too soon.

So Peter and Sandman were ruined for me, as well as the death of Uncle Ben. Raimi decided to throw in Eddie Brock and Gwen Stacy as well. I don't know if he was planning on killing off Gwen or Captain Stacy in a later installment, but he won't get the chance now. Gwen was nothing like her comic-book counterpart. She is independent, has a strong personality, and as far as I'm aware, was never in a MJ-Peter-Gwen-Eddie love square.

Eddie. Brock. Was. Not. In. Spider-man 3. Why do I say that? Let's bring back that previous image.

It's okay, I won't do it again

Here is Eddie Brock/Venom from the comics.

Also sexy Spider-man

What might you notice here? For one, Spider-man is a skinny, lean twig. Some people might say that Tobey had exactly the right body-type to play him, because Spider-man is insanely ripped and on the buff side, but you need to compare your heroes. When you make a comic-book movie adaption for a hero like Batman, Superman, Captain America, or any of the massive guys, you have to remember that real people aren't that big. Those are the guys who are big and buff. Sure, Henry Cavil is huge right now, and Chris Evans is sickly buff, but they aren't close to the characters they play. With any hero then, you need to strive for similarity. If you take 50 pounds off Captain America, you need to take 50 off of Spider-man. In the comics, Spider-man is described as lanky, and in the Ultimate Spider-man comics, he's even more so.

But not like this. Never like this.

Now going back to the point I was making previously, compare your Brocks. In the comics, Eddie Brock is huge. Like, The Dark Knight Rises Bane huge. In the Ultimate comics, he isn't huge, but he's trashy looking, and has a long blonde ponytail. He's also very good friends with Peter before going crazy. So although Topher may be closer to the Ultimate version, he's still miles away. We won't even compare him to the Amazing Spider-man original character, because the lack of similarity will make me cry.

In either version, the character of Venom is massive, and the story surrounding Venom is one of the longest in either series. In the movie, Venom gets about 20 minutes of screen-time, never gets the name Venom, and is about the same size as Spider-man. If you're going to introduce a character like him in the final act of a movie, you can't finish him off at the end. You need to have him able to come back as the main villain in the 4th installment.

Here's my final beef with Venom and final part of this argument. Venom hates one person, and that is Peter Parker/Spider-man. This is because Peter discredited his work, and so Brock wants to see Spider-man dead. Thank you Sam Raimi for at least getting this right! However, besides that vendetta, the character of Venom is a superhero! Little-known fact, although he's more violent than other heroes, Eddie Brock spends most of his time doing the same stuff as Spidey, and he does a good job! For the most part, he's one of the good guys. Thank you Sam Raimi for screwing that up big-time.

In summary,

The Spider-man franchise needed a reboot because the characters and story differed far too much from the source material. They say comic-book fans are the harshest critics of films, and that may be what accounts for the lower audience percentage on rottentomatoes for all 3 films. So far The Amazing Spider-man's 84% bests even Spidey 3, despite having a lower critic rating than 1 and 2.

Chris Pine Discusses the Future of the Star Trek Franchise

2012-07-05T15:44:00.001-04:00

In 2009, J.J. Abrams released his big-screen reboot of the Star Trek franchise, which garnered success on a popular, critical, and financial level. Three years later, details continue to emerge involving the film's sequel. But can the cast and crew that managed to create such a fine product the first time manage to build upon their previous achievement?

Quick Poll: Who is more attractive?
Chris Pine . . .

Chris Pine, who will resume his role of Captain James T. Kirk and also act as co-writer for the currently untitled sequel to Star Trek, remains confident that this task can be accomplished. What especially excites Pine is the prospect of developing a highly character-focused story which will delve deeper into the relationships between the crew members manning the Enterprise. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek franchise on an alternative timeline, meaning that the film has the freedom to differentiate the way its crew operates from the way the crew operated in the original television series. This provides an avenue to explore how the crew developed before they became the sort of cohesive and highly functional unit presented on the show. “Even though they’re a crew from what we know about the original team, the fun of getting there is following that journey to where they become that tight-knit crew. It’s no fun if they’re already a tight-knit crew. So suffice to say, they’re still learning how to get along,” says Pine. “The crew from the original series had gone on many, many journeys, they were a well-oiled machine in terms of how they function, and these characters are still figuring out who they are and who they are to each other. And I did not want to jump so far ahead that we missed a really important emotional connection to that transition for them.”

Despite the fact that this sequel holds no obligation canonically to make their characters act similarly to the way they acted in the television series, it appears unlikely that the writers will stray far from the source material. The franchise has a wide enough fan base to not necessarily need to worry too much about alienating the die-hard Trekkies in attendance. However, there seems to be little reason for the makers of the sequel to Star Trek to want to write drastic diversions from the original series that would inevitably anger the series’ most devoted supporters. As this new Star Trek franchise continues to unfold, one can expect to see a sort of balancing act between innovation and Trekkie tradition.

. . . or Benedict Cumberbatch?

Returning once more to discussion of the Enterprise’s crew, Pine states that each member will have their work cut out for them as they become enveloped in the story of the Star Trek sequel: “What I’m more excited about [than the visual aspects of the Star Trek sequel] and what I think [the creators of the Star Trek sequel] did so well is that really the story is that much better, and the journey that these guys go on is that much more.” One member of the crew who, as expected, will be especially developed over the course of the sequel to Star Trek will be Captain Kirk. “['Star Trek 2'] is structured so that the antagonist brings out all of the qualities in Kirk that need to happen in order for Kirk to grow,” says Pine.

The antagonist to which Pine refers will be played by Benedict Cumberbatch, a man Pine seems to love working with and who works excellently as an opponent to Captain Kirk. “As you know from Benedict, just watching him, vocally, he’s fascinating. He’s got this deep resonant voice. He has a fascinating face. He’s a lovely guy and just super smart. You want to see something firing in his brain, so he’s not just a blood-dripping-from-the-fangs bad guy. Benedict brings those kinds of smarts.” Hopefully those working on the story of Star Trek’s sequel can “bring those kinds of smarts” as well and craft a tale worthy of the characters that fill it and which pleases critics and Star Trek fans new and old alike.

Let's hope Abrams and company don't try too hard to please the old fans, though.