Movie News And Trailers!

It's been awhile, so I thought I'd share some tidbits about some upcoming movies and my projections on whether they'll sink or soar. (Thanks to David Arington for tipping me off to a few of these bits!)


The Avengers movie is coming May 4th, but if you just can't wait that long (and Marvel is banking that many of you can't) there is a four-issue comic mini-series that takes place in the Marvel Movie Universe and leads up to The Avengers. The mini is called "Road To The Avengers" and will come out in March, giving more details about Nick Fury and what the "Avengers Initiative" is for.


The next DC Universe animated movie is coming out February 28th. Justice League: Doom will be an adaptation of the Mark Waid "Tower Of Babel" JLA story, in which the JLA's villains use Batman's secret files on each JLA member's weaknesses to take them all down! This story was a significant shake-up in the DCU when it came out, since it severely strained JLA team members' relationships with Batman. It will be interesting to see how it plays out next month!


A pair of new directors are in pre-production on Monsters 2, the sequel to the indie film about an alien invasion that focused more on human relationships under extreme circumstances than it did on aliens. This choice was carried out to great effect, which is why I'm nervous to hear the guys working on this film saying things like, "There will be more monsters, more tension, more action and more extraordinary effects. We will expand the world created in the original movie whilst upping the action ante. This is our Aliens to Alien!" Good luck guys. Sounds to me like you're doing all the wrong things.


The Resident Evil: Retribution movie trailer starts out looking like a Sony commercial (and in one sense it certainly is) but gets more interesting after 15 seconds or so. Still no indication that this series is wrapping up. I'll definitely see it. I've enjoyed all of the movies to some degree. I just have trouble getting too excited about a movie series that I suspect will die with a whimper, on a cliffhanger, killed by a poor box office before anyone gets a chance to actually finish this story. It's like investing yourself in a cool tv series that get's abruptly cancelled. (Oh, Sarah Connor Chronicles... I'll never forgive Fox.) Will this finally be the end? Doubt it, but we'll know for sure September 14th!







Mania.com reports that at a Tokyo press conference, Amazing Spider-man star Andrew Garfield talked about the new approach to the movie's action, describing how he collaborated with the stunt team to do as many in camera(as opposed to digital) stunts as possible.
"A lot of the stunts are practical and grounded in reality. That was something that Marc, the director, really wanted to make sure happened in this movie to set it apart from previous ones... I would exhaust myself every day and get into near-death experiences every hour on the hour..."
I'm ALWAYS up for practical over CGI, but in filming a live action version of Spider-man, it's always gonna be challenging to go practical, since the character moves in a very inhuman way. We'll see how it turns out when Amazing Spider-man hits US theaters on July 3rd!


The remake of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel comes out August 3rd of this year, but I'm less than thrilled to go see it at this point. I thought the original was a fantastic flick, and it feels a little too soon to be doing a remake. Mania.com posted a recent synopsis of the movie, and it sounds all but superficially identical to the original flick. I'd rather they went with different characters and a new story, if not a new concept. I have a feeling this movie will do well in the box office on the recognition factor of the original, but is also destined to be forgotten.


On Febuary 3rd, The Chronicle will arrive in theaters, and may be an interesting study on human nature in the vein of "Watchmen", though likely dumbed down a bit, given it's produced by MTV films. The concept is stated as: Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to them developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities, and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.

Personally, I'm hoping for a cool, emotionally intense "super-powers flick" and the trailer makes me think "The Chronicle" may just deliver.





Over the Christmas break when my wife and I went out to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie (which I LOVED by the way!) I saw a promo poster that I thought must be a joke. But Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter looks like an attempt to actually tell a serious vampire story. Well, mostly serious. Even after reading the article at mania.com I couldn't quite figure out how much intended humor will be in this flick. I haven't read the book it's based on by Seth Grahame-Smith, but I'll enjoy finding out on June 22nd!


All kinds of speculation surround Ridley Scott's Prometheus, coming to theaters June 8th. It started as a prequel to Alien, with the intent of answering the question "Who was the 'space jockey' and what was he doing on the planet they found the Alien on?" Scott has since revealed that the famous "Alien" will not even appear in any form in this movie, although it does take place in the same "universe" as the Alien movies. (Or at least the first one that Scott made.) One thing is for sure, millions of rabid fans will line up on June 8th to witness Ridley Scott's return to the sci-fi genre after a 25 year absence. Count me among them!





Principle photography on the new Star Trek flick has finally begun, and the release date set for May 17th, 2013. All the familiar stars and creative forces are returning, hopefully the disfunctional relationships will make a comeback as well and keep Roddenberry's once daring and now relatively boring execution of a utopian future far in the past.


If you haven't seen the trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey yet, your hopes for the prequel to the epic "Lord Of The Rings" movies are about to be renewed. Though some familiar faces (like Galadriel for one) indicate the movie will be mining Tolkien source material outside of "The Hobbit", the look and feel of the everything in the trailer says that the property is in trustworthy hands once again. Can't wait for December 12th!