Category Archives: Movies

Because Any New Hobbit Thing is a Good Thing

It’s been a slow geek news week, so anything as awesome as the first TV commercial for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is worth posting.

This movie just looks fancier and fancier with each new trailer and commercial. It’s going to be a good one, I can tell! Now we just have to hope that the world doesn’t come to an end before the movie is released in December. The cosmos couldn’t be that cruel…could they?

When You Stare Into the Iron Man 3, the Iron Man 3 Stares Back At You

The full trailer for Iron Man 3 has hit the Internet, and it’s actually kind of depressing.

Don’t get me wrong, it looks cool, but it also looks very, very depressing. Don’t they know that it’s the second act where the hero is supposed to be at their darkest? I fear that it may be too depressing. I’m sure everybody remembers the awesome Iron Man flying with jets moment from the very first trailer for Iron Man. That’s the kind of thing that gets people pumped for movies.

Not Tony Stark having an existential crisis. Or maybe a mid-life crisis?

Normally it might work, but I’m fairly certain I read somewhere that Marvel and Disney aren’t going to do Devil in a Bottle, the legendary Stark alcoholism story. So all of his depression comes from the awesomeness of the things he saw and did in The Avengers. At least that’s what he says in the trailer. Nice reference to the previous film, by the way. And that last shot is harrowing, but I dunno…are people going to respond positively to a dark, somber Iron Man film?

This isn’t Batman

We also got to see some of the major villain in this film, the Mandarin. While I liked his narration, I don’t think it had the villainous oomph that it needed to really sell this guy’s menace. It could have done with some more, I dunno, outright villainy maybe. Still, I’m sure we can count on Ben Kingsley to pull it off. And for the record, I have zero problem with the Mandarin not being Chinese and not being called the ‘Mandarin’, if that’s the case. I’ve thought that was a silly name all the way back to the 90s Iron Man cartoon…which I’m sad has never been revived or put on DVD following the new success of the Iron Man character.

Oh well. Here’s Kingsley as the ring-slinger:

Hoboish, but I like it

Oh Hey, Someone’s Making an Iron Man 3

The first trailer for Iron Man 3 is supposed to arrive on Tuesday. Until then, enjoy this trailer for the trailer:

Not much to see, I’m afraid. Pepper looks like she’s in trouble. And it appears that Robert Downey Jr. is back. As is Iron Man. So all good news! I don’t think we know much about the story yet, only that it will involve the Mandarin (who probably won’t be called that) and possibly Extremis, the funky intravenous Iron Man armor.

Or you could read the laughable official movie synopsis:

Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

I’m fairly certain that describes not only every Iron Man movie so far, but almost every movie ever made, period.

A Couple of Marvel Trailers

First up, the debut trailer of Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United confirms my suspicion that it will be crappy.

Stiff, stilted computer animation looks like it was done by a freshman design student. The dialogue appears to be nothing but cheap one-liners and weak banter. The villains are just a bunch of robots and/or additional Iron Man suits. This is a flimsy, boring work of drivel from a company that produces the best superhero stories and movies in the world. I expect better.

Next up is the latest trailer for Marvel Heroes, the upcoming Marvel-themed Massive Multiplayer Online game. I don’t know why I haven’t written about this game yet, probably due to lack of interest. And I don’t know why I’m not very interested in this game. It looks to be the next evolution of the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games, and those were great.

Marvel Heroes wisely forgoes DC Comics’ attempt at an MMO, and instead lets you play as the actual superheroes. DC went with a City of Heroes-style game, where you design your own superhero and then fight alongside the Justice League. Marvel is going with a Diablo-like game, where you get to play as their superheroes in a dungeon-crawler-like environment. They’ve done a good job with that kind of series in the past, like I said, but something about this game has yet to really grab me. I think it’s the generic-ness that I’ve seen from the previews so far.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 was based heavily on Civil War, the comic series that pit hero against hero. It was full of exciting cameos (Multiple Man! Prodigy!), and got really in depth for a video game. Marvel Heroes, so far, seems to be striving to be as generic as possible, probably to bring in as many players as possible. Plus all of the characters they’ve revealed so far are not among my list of favorites. So there’s nothing to get excited about…yet. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.

What do you guys think of movie and this game? Are you looking forward to both? Hating them both? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Who Needs a Live Action Justice League Movie

When we can have one made out of LEGOs instead!

Despite the mouthful title of LEGO Batman The Movie: DC Heroes Unite, this is going to be a full length LEGO Batman movie, based off the recent video game (which I sadly have not played). It’s going to star Batman and Robin teaming up with the entire Justice League to take on the Joker and Lex Luthor!

So why even bother with a live action Justice League movie? There’s no way it’ll be as good as this. Heck, why bother with traditional animation anymore? All future superhero movies should be made out of Lego.

We’re living in a golden age of superheroes