Talkin' Trailers: Bumblebee and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I occasionally lament that I don't blog about trailers the way I used to.  I've shared this lament before.  It's become so much easier to just throw up the link on my Facebook or Twitter and go, "OMG!  Check this out!" rather than sit down at the blog and write out, "Oh my gosh!  Check this out!"  I've thought about maybe doing something like "Trailer Tuesday" where every Tuesday I blog about a trailer that caught my eye, but then the problem becomes content.  Trailers seem to come in surges.  We'll get a week full of really, really good ones, and then we'll hit a dry spell for a while.

And this past week, well, it was a week of good ones.  For animated sequels, we got our latest look at Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, and our first look at The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.  For Oscar bait, there was a thrilling one for First Man, a biopic on Neil Armstrong from the creators of La La Land.  And there was much buzz about the trailer for A Star Is Born, the latest remake of the oft-remade tale of a famous singer who begins romancing and mentoring a young ingenue, only for the relationship to start crumbling when her star starts taking off as his starts to fade.  In this latest remake, Bradley Cooper is the singer and Lady Gaga is the ingenue.

But there were two in particular that made me feel like dusting off the blog and jotting down a few thoughts.  The first one is Bumblebee.

Yes, Paramount and Hasbro want some of that sweet, sweet, cinematic universe action, and so they're trying to build one out of Transformers.  First out of the gate, Bumblebee, a solo film for everyone's favourite little yellow Autobot.  A prequel to the Michael Bay films, Bumblebee takes place in 1987 -- 20 years before the first Bay film -- and follows Bumblebee's adventures as he begins settling into his life on Earth.  Hailee Steinfeld plays Charlie Watson, the teenage girl who winds up buying Bumblebee as her first car, and WWE superstar John Cena plays Agent Burns of Sector 7, whom you may remember as the secret organization monitoring Transformers on Earth.

Michael Bay takes the producer's chair on this one.  Directing it is Travis Knight, who gave us the stop-motion animated film Kubo and the Two Strings.  (And he's also the son of Phil Knight, the founder of Nike.)




All I can say is...wow.  I'm almost taken aback at how this lacks the bombast of the Michael Bay films, and instead looks to be almost a smaller and quieter film.  I'm especially picking up a strong E.T. vibe between Charlie and Bumblebee in those garage scenes.  Which is weird, because that's how Bay and Steven Spielberg sold the first Transformers film, before Bay made them all explody.  Oh, yeah, didn't you know?  Spielberg has been a producer on every Transformers film.

And from a nostalgia standpoint, I love that Bumblebee is a Volkswagen Beetle again, Starscream is in his original red and white colours, and Bumblebee's general robot design tends to have a smoother, sleeker, G1 inspired look.  While the commercials alone for Transformers: The Last Knight made me give up on the franchise in exasperation, this is actually kind of getting me excited again.

Bumblebee hits theatres December 18.

Next up, we have Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.  I will never not get excited for a Spider-Man movie.  Way back in college in the 1990s, when I discovered the Internet late one night in the Augustana computer lab, the first words I ever typed into a search engine were "Spider-Man movie," because I wanted to know if the rumours I'd heard for years were true.  And that's when I discovered the lawsuit.  There had been some shenanigans over the years over the movie rights to Spider-Man, which led to a long and drawn-out court case to figure out who owned them.  But it was in Y2K when it was finally determined that belonged to Sony, Sony fast-tracked the first Spider-Man movie for a summer 2002 release, and the rest is history.

That was also a time when we were coming off a period in animation known as the Disney Renaissance.  I'm a guy who's always believed that animation and superheroes are a medium and a genre just made for each other.  Whenever there's an animated superhero movie coming along, I'm there.  Loved The Incredibles, loved Big Hero 6, and I still believe that the 2007 animated Ninja Turtles film is the best Ninja Turtles film.  So when Sony announced they'd be expanding the Spider-Man franchise by doing an animated Spider-Man film, I was in.

To set it apart, though, they decided to focus on Miles Morales.  For those who haven't been keeping up with the comics, Miles Morales started off as the Spider-Man in a parallel universe...the Ultimate Universe.  Morales was also bitten by a radioactive spider, but he was too frightened of his powers to use them.  When the Peter Parker Spider-Man made the ultimate sacrifice in his final battle with the Green Goblin, Morales was guilt-ridden that he didn't help out in the battle.  Learning the lesson that with great power comes great responsibility, Morales took on the mantle of Spider-Man.   Since then, the Ultimate universe has been merged with the regular universe, and Peter Parker has taken on a mentor role to the young Morales.

And that looks to be the general plot they're taking with the animated film.  When Morales starts discovering his powers, Peter Parker steps in to start mentoring him and teaching him the ways of the Force...er, I mean, spider-powers.  Shameik Moore voices Miles Morales, and Jake Johnson is voicing Peter Parker.

The script was written by The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and they also take on a producer role.




Ok, so when the first teaser premiered back at Christmas, I wasn't quite sold on the animation style.  But now that I get a better sense of it in this trailer, I'm starting to come around.  I get what they're going for now, in making it look literally like a comic book come to life.  And I may have let out a little  yelp when Spider-Gwen showed up at the end.

OK, Spider-Gwen.  For those who haven't kept up with the comics.  In yet another parallel universe, Peter Parker's longtime girlfriend Gwen Stacy was bitten by that radioactive spider on that fateful field trip instead of Peter Parker.  So she became that universe's Spider-Woman and started fighting crime.  But because there have been like, eight people to carry the mantle of Spider-Woman, the fans dubbed her Spider-Gwen to set her apart.  And, looping back to Bumblebee, that's Hailee Steinfeld voicing Spider-Gwen. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hits theatres December 14. 

Superbowl Trailers -- Jurassic World and Mission: Impossible

My week off is winding down, so let's do something else I've been putting off...blogging about some of the new trailers released during the Super Bowl, almost a week ago.

I've been lamenting recently that I don't blog about trailers as much as I used to.  It's so much easier to throw up on a link on my social media pages rather than sit down and try to come up with an insightful critique.  One complaint I did get about those blog posts in the past was I spent too much time talking about the film itself rather than offering my opinions.  So I figure I won't waste the energy blogging about a trailer unless I have a really strong opinion about it.

Case in point:  Jurassic World:  Fallen Kingdom.  I wanted to blog about the first trailer when it came out in December, but never got around to it.  Why?  Because it looked so much like all the Jurassic Park we've seen before.  "Oh noes!  We're trapped on an island with dinosaurs!  How will we escape?"  Looks like the big twist this time is now they're trying to escape a volcano, too.    Yay.    When are they finally going to pull the trigger and give us the "dinosaurs loose on the mainland" film they've been threatening ever since Spielberg tacked on the "T-Rex loose in San Diego" third act to The Lost World?

Which is why I'm still one of the few defenders of Jurassic World.  Say what you will, but finally having a fully operational theme park full of people when the poop hits the fan...that was one of the most simple and obvious twists to the premise you could do.  It finally gave us something new.

And which is why the Super Bowl spot for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom finally piqued my interest.



That opening scene?  Of some freaky mutant dino in a kid's bedroom?  That's got my attention.  The unveiling scene at the end, with "Welcome to the future?"  I want to know what's being unveiled.  Probably the freaky mutant dino.  My interest has gone from "meh" to "mild."

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits theatres June 22.

---

Back in college, I had this one teacher who sat me down one day I told me that I was a strong 7.  See, my college, Augustana, graded you on a 9 point scale.  0 is a total failure, 9 is top of the class.  After seeing this teacher for help, he got off on a tangent and started sharing his observations of me.  He said, "I see you putting in the work, Mark.  You work harder than pretty much anyone in class.  You put in so much effort, but your net results are only worthy of a 7.  I mean, I want to give you an 8 or 9, because of all the work you do, but these results are only worth a 7.  But it's a strong 7."

That's my impression of the Mission: Impossible franchise.  It's a strong 7.  I see Tom Cruise, putting in the work, going through his Jackie Chan-esque "watch me do all these dangerous stunts by myself" midlife crisis.  I've always loved the superspy genre, so I really, really, really want to love the Mission: Impossible franchise.  But, like my teacher looked at me that day, I look at Tom Cruise with a mild disappointment that his best efforts didn't earn more than a 7. 

It's also funny in that we're starting to get this backlash against Tom Cruise doing these kinds of films.  When the last one, Rogue Nation, came out, someone pointed out that Cruise is now as old as Jon Voight was when Voight played Cruise's boss in the first Mission: Impossible.  And back then, Voight's character was portrayed as on the cusp of retirement.  Last year, in The Mummy, there was much eye-rolling when Russel Crowe's Dr. Jekyl described Tom Cruise as a "young man," when Cruise is actually two years older than Crowe.  So, yeah.  There's this push that Cruise should, quite literally, start acting his age.

Anyway, we got our first trailer for the next in the franchise, Mission: Impossible -- Fallout.



So, yeah.  It's looking to be more of the same.  I do like the line about how maybe Cruise's character of Ethan Hunt may be getting annoyed at his situations.  The formula in all these films is that a mission goes sideways, Hunt is framed, and he has to go rogue to clear his name and/or uncover the conspiracy.  After five films, I'm sure he'd start going, "You still don't believe me when I say I was framed?" 

I saw Rogue Nation in the theatre because I had a free weekend and just felt going out and doing something.  I'll probably be in the same boat with Fallout when it comes out July 27. 

Solo: A Star Wars Story Trailer

Well, it's finally here!  Our first look at the second of the Star Wars Stories, Solo, telling us the secret origin of Han Solo.

It was first announced back in the summer of 2015.  Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, was writing the script along with his son Joe.  And to direct it, they hired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of such hit comedies as 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie.  They started filming almost a year ago under the code name Red Cup.  Get it?

But then the poop hit the fan in June of 2017.  With filming about 75% done, Lord and Miller were fired, under the age old reason of "creative differences."  We've heard some of the stories as to what those creative differences were.  It sounds like the main one had to do with tone.  Given their comedic backgrounds, Lord and Miller were hired to bring a comedic touch to the film.  But, Lord and Miller were allegedly directing it as an outright comedy.  As they did in their comedies, Lord and Miller were encouraging a lot of improv from their actors, which led to a very grumpy Kasdan.  Kasdan was soon hovering over them on the set, leading to a very grumpy Lord and Miller.  So many grumpy people, someone had to go eventually.  Fare thee well, Lord and Miller.

Given that situation, it was heavily rumoured that Kasdan would take over as director, but the various Hollywood unions actually have laws in place to prevent that.  To finish off production, and to supervise reshoots, Star Wars boss Kathleen Kennedy brought it Hollywood legend Ron Howard.  Howard had actually been circling Star Wars for a while, believe it or not.  Howard is good friends with George Lucas, having started in Lucas's American Graffiti back in the day, and directed the Lucas written and produced Willow.  A few years back, Howard even revealed that Lucas asked him to direct The Phantom Menace, but Howard declined, instead choosing to encourage Lucas to get back on that directing horse.

Howard took charge and the re-shoots grew longer...and longer...and longer.  The longer reshoots went, the more people started worrying about how bad the film would be.

The fear kicked into overdrive back in November.  With this being a May release, November is usually when they hype train starts.  Gotta get the trailer in theatres to run in front of all those Christmas blockbusters.  November came and went.  No trailer.  December came along.  People were like, "Hey!  In front of Last Jedi would be very appropriate!"  But still, no trailer.  January was coming to a close.  Sheer panic was setting in among the fans.  How bad is the film that it's five months from release and they won't let us see any footage from it yet?

Some mild relief finally came back on Thursday with the revelation that there would be a Super Bowl spot, followed by a full trailer the next day.  Kicking off the hype for a May blockbuster at the start of February.  Not unheard of, but no longer common.

When that Super Bowl spot aired, I got pretty jazzed.  I mean, it's new Star Wars.  I'll always get excited for new Star Wars.  I was there opening day for the shitty Clone Wars animated movie, so I'll be there for Solo, no matter its productions woes.



Speaking of The Clone Wars, I'm digging that rock/electronic/Clone Wars-style music rockin' in that trailer.  John Powell (The Jason Bourne movies and a bunch of DreamWorks animated films) is doing the score, with Star Wars composer emeritus John Williams providing the main theme.

Anyways, a day later, we get the full trailer.  I'm sharing them both, because there's surprisingly very little recycling of footage.



I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.  I mean, it's Star Wars.  We've got spaceships going fast, I love that shot of a the Star Destroyer emerging from the clouds.  I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, but we're going to have to wait for when it comes out on May 25 to see if the whole thing comes together. 

Alden Ehrenreich is our young Han Solo, Donald Glover of Community fame is young Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones is someone named Qi'ra, Woody Harrelson is Solo's mentor, and Joonas Suotamo begins taking over for Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca. 

Solo: A Star Wars Story comes out May 25. 

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

How did we get here?

In the late 1990s, Marvel Comics was growing tired of selling off the movie rights to their characters, only for no movie to be made.  So they hatched the idea for Marvel Entertainment.  Rather than simply license out their characters, they would provide the movie studio with a complete script, character designs, a director...essentially walk the studio through the pre-production process.  It was a success, with the strategy finally getting X-Men and Spider-Man on the big screen.

But it didn't take long for Marvel to start thinking that, if they're doing all this work, they may as well just make the darn movies themselves.  And so plans began to create Marvel Studios, a movie studio dedicated to making adaptations of Marvel characters.  As Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige described the reasoning, "Yeah, we didn't have the rights to our heavy hitters like X-Men and Spider-Man, but we had the rights to Marvel's 800 other characters.  Could all of them sustain their own film franchise?  No.  But a lot of them could...."  Once financing was secured, Marvel held a panel at the world-famous San Diego Comic Con to announce the creation of Marvel Studios, and their first three films would be Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Ant-Man.

Marvel Studios made their entry with Iron Man in the summer of 2008, and it was a smash hit.  But the very first of those post-credit stingers got everyone buzzing, when Nick Fury appeared to invite Tony Stark to take part in "the Avengers Initiative."  Fans started salivating.  "Oh my God, are they really going to do The Avengers some day?"  I've heard conflicting stories.  Iron Man's director Jon Favreau said at the time that there were no plans to do The Avengers yet...he just slipped that in to be one hell of an Easter egg.  In publicity today, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says yup, it was the plan from day one.

Either way, it immediately became the plan.  Before 2008 was out, Marvel Studios had announced "Phase I."  Ant-Man was put on the back burner, replaced with Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, before all building up to The Avengers.  It was an announcement to get Marvel some serious respect in Hollywood...enough that they were snapped up by Disney in 2009.

And here we are.  It's 10 years later, Marvel Studios has almost 20 films to their name, and along the way, they created the new concept of the cinematic universe, where all their characters share the same fictional world.  Well, they didn't really create it, as many will say that Universal created it with their monsters back in the 30s and 40s.  In which case, then, we can say that Marvel Studio updated the concept quite well for the 21st Century.

The culmination of that 10 years of work is what brings us to Avengers: Infinity War.  Marvel Studios wants Avengers: Infinity War to be significant in 2 ways.  Firstly, 2018 will be the 10th anniversary of Marvel Studios, so Infinity War is to serve as their 10th anniversary party.  Secondly, they promise that it'll provide what many superhero film franchises rarely receive:  an end.  They keep telling us that this will provide a conclusion to what began when Tony Stark uttered those words, "I am Iron Man."  Does this mean it's the end for Captain America, Thor, et al?  We'll know when the film comes out this May.




A lot of the McGuffins in Marvel films -- the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avengers and The Avengers, the Aether in Thor: The Dark World, the Eye of Agamoto in Doctor Strange -- have been revealed to be the fabled Infinity Stones.  These are gems of immense power, left over from the creation of the Universe, and to possess all six means to gain omnipotence.  And that's exactly why the alien warlord Thanos covets them, and comes to Earth looking for them.  To fend of Thanos, it's going to take the combined efforts of every hero the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shown us so far. 

This trailer just looks amazing.  As we can see, it looks as though a lot of it will take place in Wakanda, the homeland of the Black Panther.  At least, one of our biggest battles is going to be there.  This truly looks to be the biggest film Marvel Studios has put together so far.

We never thought we'd see this many heroes sharing the screen.  And now, here they are. 

Avengers: Infinity War hits theatres May 4. 

Star Wars and Black Panther Trailers

So when my Doctor Strange rant went online the other day, I noticed it was my 2800th blog entry.  I also looked at my blog over the past few months and saw I've pretty much been sticking to Fishing in the Discount Bin and not much else.  So, for number 2801, I decided to do some good ol' fashioned trailer blogging.  It's something I don't do as much anymore, mainly because of that darn social media.  I go, "Latest trailer for latest movie!" is up, post the link to my Facebook and Twitter, and call it a day.

And besides, I'd noticed I haven't done my usual thing of blogging about the latest Star Wars trailer.  Holy crap, you guys, that Last Jedi trailer!



You've seen it.  You love it.  I don't know what I need to tell you about it.  Rey begins her Jedi training with Luke, but Luke is apprehensive.  Kylo Ren is still destroying the galaxy, trying to live up to has grandfather Darth Vader's legacy.  Does he kill his mother, Leia?  Looks like Finn and Captain Phasma finally square off, the fight that many say should have been the "Traitor!" fight from Force Awakens.  And we finally meet Snoke in the flesh.

And the much-debated ending.  Is Kylo Ren pulling Rey to the Dark Side?  Or is it just trailer-bait, because everyone keeps screaming, "BUT THE SHOTS DON'T MATCH!"  Yeah, the shots don't match.  So let's keep debating!

December 15 is when we'll get all the answers.  That's 48 days away, according to the countdown app on my phone.

Not content to let us enjoy all that awesomeness, and because Disney is on never-ending quest to take all our money, it was just a few days later when they dropped the new trailer for the next chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther.




Chadwick Boseman returns of T'Challa, ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, and Wakanda's protector, the hero known as Black Panther.  For those who don't know the comics, Wakanada is one of the most technologically-advanced countries in the world, thanks to being the world's only source of vibranium, the metal that Captain America's shield is made from.  But, based on the hidden city we see in the trailer, it looks as though Wakanda has chosen to hide its technological prowess from the world. 

Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa returns home to resume his royal duties.  But, he soon dons the mantle of Black Panther once again to protect his land from Erik Killmonger, who seeks to overthrow T'Challa and take the throne.  Luckily, T'Challa has his allies, such as Wakandan secret agents Nakia and Okoye. 

Michael B. Jordan, last seen as Adonis Creed in Creed (and as the Human Torch in the crappy 2015 Fantastic Four) is Killmonger, Lupita Nyong'o is Nakia, and The Walking Dead's Dania Gurira is Okoye. 

Other returning characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe include Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, last seen as one of the administrators of the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War.  In the Black Panther comics, Ross is a US envoy to Wakanda, and becomes one of T'Challa's friends and advisors.  And we've also got Andy Serkis back as Ulysses Klaw from Avengers: Age of Ultron.  As in the comics, Klaw is an international arms dealer based in Wakanda.  And, thanks to Ultron ripping off his arm, he's got his trademark bionic arm with a built-in cannon that he sports in the comics. 

Don't forget, the epic Hulk/Iron Man battle from Age of Ultron actually took place in a Wakandan city, which is what led to Wakanda's support for the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War.  It's neat how they've been slowly building to this! 

What can I say?  The trailer looks awesome.  It's got some of that great action that Marvel has become known for.  I do have to agree with a friend of mine, though.  Based on the trailer, it looks like Killmonger eventually dons a suit similar to Black Panther's and they fight it out.  And we've already seen that in the first two Iron Man films and Ant-Man, so it's kind of overdone. 

But dude.  It looks incredible.  Black Panther hits theatres on February 16. 

Last Jedi Trailer! (And some other Star Wars ramblings.)

Good Friday.  The start of the long weekend.  Also, the start of a massive snowfall that would not let up until Easter Sunday morning.  But, I told my family I'd be coming home for Easter, so I gassed up ol' Bessie Lou (what I call my car) and set out down the road.  I knew I had to brave the snowy highways to get to a place with good WiFi, because something special was coming down from Orlando.

This past weekend, Orlando was host to Star Wars Celebration, the official Star Wars con.  Good Friday morning was the panel for the latest Star Wars movie, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.  Rumours abounded that we were going to get our first trailer at that panel.  And sure enough, as soon as I left Westlock town limits, the Star Wars app dinged with the notification:  the trailer was online.

With steady hands, I made it though the snow and slush until I was back comfortable in Entwistle.  I went inside, exchanged pleasantries with my parents, then went into the living room, commandeered the smart TV, brought up the YouTube app and took in...the trailer.





Much like the first Force Awakens trailer, we're not getting much of a sense of the plot yet.  We're just getting teases...glimpses of what's next for hour character.  Of course, the most anticipated part of this trailer was finally seeing what Luke had to say.  His closing line that, "It's time for the Jedi to end," has so many mysteries behind it.  Is he like Baron Mordo at the end of Doctor Strange now?  Has come to the realization that the only way to bring balance to the Force is by eliminating all Force users?  Or, as a friend of mine pointed out, is he just being dramatic because he's in some kind of funk and it takes Rey to pull him out of it?

Of course, in this day and age, and especially with a franchise like Star Wars, each new information must be picked apart with a fine-toothed comb.  I picked up on all the hushed dialogue in the sound mix, and used the production studio in some down time at work today to have a closer listen to it.  When Rey mentions "the Light," and we see the back of Leia, we hear Leia's iconic, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi...."  When she mentions "the Dark," and we see Kylo Ren's crushed helmet, we hear Obi-Wan's, "He was seduced by the Dark Side...."  And when she mentions "the Balance," and we see that book, we hear Yoda's, "Surrounds us...binds us...."  What does it all mean?  Is Rey the child of Obi-Wan?  Will we see the spirit of Yoda?

Right now, all we have our images.  Until then, it's all speculation.

And speaking of images, holy moly, that teaser poster.

Seriously, I'm more excited for this poster than I am for the teaser.  Add my voice to the lamentations that movies posters are no longer works of art, but just crowded Photoshop collages of the film's stars.  But this poster, my friends, is a work of art.  It's been a long time since I've seen a movie poster and thought, "I want that hanging on my wall."  And I want that hanging on my wall.

Sadly, though, we didn't quite get all the announcements we wanted out of Star Wars Celebration.  As this is year is the 40th anniversary of the franchise, we were hoping there'd be an announcement about the original theatrical versions coming to Blu-Ray, but there was no announcement.  It was hoped that they'd reveal what the third Star Wars story is going to be, or the title of the young Han Solo movie, but no announcements on those fronts.  And it's the young Han Solo movie that's led me to another rambling I want to make tonight.

So a few weeks ago, the CEO of Disney was talking about the Han Solo movie, and said one of the things we'll see is "how Han Solo got his name."  Of course, the Internet went abuzz.  "You mean...Han Solo isn't his name?  How can that be?  Why does it have to be a name he adopts?" everyone asked.  I don't know.  But I found it intriguing.

When I was home, I went digging through the boxes of stuff I have yet to remove from my parents' house, and I brought home this:

A post shared by Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox) on Apr 17, 2017 at 4:05pm PDT

My very first Star Wars merch.  Scholastic's storybook adaptation of Return of the Jedi.  I got this at the Grade 1 book fair. 

As I was leafing through it, I came upon this passage.  It actually describes one of Return of the Jedi's deleted scenes.  If you have the big 9-disc Blu-Ray set, it's among the bonus features.  After our heroes rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt, they go to their ships in a blinding sandstorm.  Before Han gets on the Millennium Falcon, he and Luke have a brief conversation.  Han gets all, "Thank you...for saving my life," but he's a little more emotional than the cavalier Han Solo we know and love.  This passage is Luke's internal reaction to that.

"Luke felt the change in Han, and he knew the he and everything the others had risked had been worth it.  'Solo' means 'alone,' he thought.  He had often wondered if that was Han's real name.  Maybe it was an alias Han had chosen -- one that Han felt described him better than his real name.  But now Han knew he didn't have to be a loner anymore." 

So.  Is "Han Solo" not being Han's real name something that George Lucas had been toying with from the very beginning?  Is this one of the first seeds we saw planted of that, way back in 1983?  Or is it just the author, literalizing the symbolism of Han's name for younger readers? 

Sadly, now I know it's probably the last one, because as I was about to hit publish, I spotted this interview with Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy in which she says that Han Solo has always been his name, and the Disney CEO misspoke when he said that.  But still, I though the coincidence was neat and felt like sharing it. 

Ya know, i don't think I ever read that storybook from beginning to end.  I just read passages here and there, and leafed through it a lot, taking in all the pictures.  I should finally read it. 

Rogue One Dispatches from Markworld

I've seen a couple of thinkpieces online pondering why the hype for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story isn't as huge as it was this time last year for The Force Awakens.  And all I can say is, well, I've been through this before with the prequels.

For those who don't remember, way back in 1999, the hype for The Phantom Menace was INSANE.  You just could not escape that film at all.  In fact, as the summer of 1999 drew on, and the backlash towards The Phantom Menace grew, the popular speculation at the time as to the growing hatred was that there was just no possible way it could live up to the hype.  So, the fanbase cooling their jets coupled with Lucasfilm figuring they should turn things down a bit resulted in less hype for Attack of the Clones.

If I had to put it on a scale of 1 - 10, I would say that hype for The Phantom Menace was at 11, Attack of the Clones about a 7, and Revenge of the Sith at about a 5.

Nerding Out Over the Comic Con Trailers

Alrightie, with the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend, there's been a ton of new trailers released, and these are the ones I feel like blogging about!

First up, Wonder Woman!


My thoughts:  Finally!  Been craving a Wonder Woman movie for so long!  I mean, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are the Big 3 of DC Comics.  The fact that this trinity has gone incomplete on the big screen for so long is blasphemous!  Hopefully, Gal Gadot will able to pull this off in the lead.  I mean, as awesome as she was in Batman v Superman, we got to see so little.  So, I'm hoping she can build on that.  Chris Pine looks like he's going to be a pretty good Steve Trevor, and I'm sure he'll bring the same amount of cockiness to the role that he brings to Captain Kirk.  The World War I setting intrigues me, as Wonder Woman was born in World War II.  Since I love it when superhero films are done as period pieces, I'm curious to see what the World War I setting brings to the table.  Colour me excited!

Next up, Justice League!


My thoughts:  Zack Snyder is back directing, and he assures us that he learned his lesson from Batman v Superman and he'll be lightening the mood this time out.  It's already showing in this trailer.  I'm really diggin' the scenes with Ezra Miller as the Flash.  As The Flash is one of my favourite TV shows right now, I can see Miller's doing a lot of things similar to Grant Gustin on TV.  What he's going to do differently, we'll have to wait for the movie.  Looks like much like the cartoon, the Flash is going to be the jokester in the League.  "Arthur Curry.  I hear you talk to fish."  Trademark "Ben Affleck smartass" smile.  I love it.  Hopes got a little bit higher.

Pallet cleanser from the superhero films:  Kong:  Skull Island!


My thoughts:  When this was announced a couple years ago, people were like, "Really?  Another King Kong remake?"  But, my excitement has gone up a bit when it was announced this is now in the same cinematic universe as 2014's Godzilla reboot, and they're setting up Kong vs. Godzilla for 2020.  Based on that, I see they've really increased Kong's size in this film.  I think they're skipping the New York stuff altogether, and this is mostly going to be on Skull Island.  My curiosity is piqued.

Across the street to Marvel:  Doctor Strange!


My thoughts:  Marvel can do no wrong at this point.  Might be worth spending the extra money to see it in 3D because I'm sure of those visuals are going to look trippy as hell. 

New Star Trek Trailer! (And Beauty and the Beast, Too.)

So, guys.  You may remember, I was not a fan of that first trailer for Star Trek Beyond.  I was ready to punch the monitor, it was so bad.  During Christmas vacation, forget all the contentious Christmas dinner conversation topics like politics and religion.  When my brother brought up the Star Trek Beyond trailer, I was ready to flip the table.  How dare they reduce Star Trek to just another big dumb space adventure.

I wasn't the only one who hated it.  Scotty himself (and the film's co-writer) Simon Pegg wasn't a fan.  Even the film's director, Justin Lin, didn't like it.  Like me, he had a problem with Capt. Kirk doing sick wheelies on a dirt bike.  Shortly after the trailer's release, I read an interview with him where the interviewer singled out that scene.  "I know, I know!" said Lin.  "I didn't like it, either.  [The studio] made me put that in cuz I'm the Fast and the Furious guy."   (Lin was the director of The Fast and the Furious 3 thru 6.)

Well, we got our second trailer.  And this one...well, I hate this one less.




This feels more like the continuation of J.J. Abrams' rebooted universe, and not a Big Dumb Space Action Film.  I like the new struggle they're giving Kirk.  He's now as old as his father was when his father was killed...is he really on his own path, or just following his father's?  And as brief as it is, I love the quick scene between Spock and Bones about the nature of fear and death.  I've been hoping for a while that we'd get some of that classic Kirk/Spock/Bones trinity in these films...hopefully that's a harbinger.

We're getting a bit of an official plot synopsis, too.  The last film ended with the Enterprise setting out on its historic five year mission of exploration.  Well, we catch up with the Enterprise about three years in, and the crew's starting to get a touch of cabin fever.  And then, they're attacked by an unknown alien and left stranded on a deserted planet.  It's up to our crew to survive and figure out how to stop this new evil, bent on destroying the Federation.  Idris Elba plays the leader of this new evil, Krall, and his sidekick, the female alien in all the trailers, Jaylah, is played by Sophia Boutella (the assassin Blades in Kingsman: The Secret Service.)

Star Trek Beyond hits theaters on July 22.

---

And that's not the only that premiered over the long weekend that caught my eye.  Next stop on Disney's live-action remake train, Beauty and the Beast.

I haven't made a lot of stops on Disney's live-action remake train.  I saw Alice in Wonderland because I like Tim Burton (sorry, Burton, but not one of your best), and I saw Cinderella because it piqued enough of my interest (it was pretty good).  Still on the fence about going to see The Jungle Book, but the reviews are so good, I may break down and see it.

Anyway, Beauty and the Beast.  Composer Alan Menken, who wrote the music and co-wrote the songs for the original animated movie 25 years ago, has said that this is NOT an adaptation of the Broadway musical, so none of the newer songs he co-wrote with Tim Rice for the Broadway musical are in the movie.  That being said, Menken and Rice are again re-teaming to provide new songs for the movie, and Menken will once again be doing the score.

Makes sense to me.  I read an interview with South Park co-creator Trey Parker about whether he'd ever adapt his hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon for the big screen.  Parker said that, one thing he learned about making movies and Broadway musicals is how completely different they are, so rather than adapt The Book of Mormon, he would just rebuild it completely for the screen.  Seems to me that's what they're doing with Beauty and the Beast.

Oscar-winning director Bill Condon is directing.  Condon won his Oscar for writing Gods and Monsters in 1998, but he directed it, too.  He also directed Dreamgirls and the recent elderly Sherlock Holmes adventure Mr. Holmes.  For our live-action cast, Hermione Granger herself Emma Watson is Belle, Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley on Downton Abby) is the Beast, Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman in the Hobbit trilogy) is Gaston, Josh Gad (Olaf the snowman in Frozen) is Gaston's sidekick LeFou, and Kevin Kline is Belle's father Maurice.  For the living objects, Ewan McGregor is Lumiere, Ian McKellan is Cogsworth, and Emma Thompson is Mrs. Potts.




I'm really diggin' this trailer.  Much like the first teaser for Cinderella, this is more concerned with focusing on the iconography of the original, rather than flooding us with money shots.  Really curious to see what the live-action Beast will look like.  In our days of CGI, I guess it's too much to hope for a Jim Henson's Creature Shop animatronic creation.  And that opening music from the original animated film still gives me goosebumps. 

Beauty and the Beast hits theatres next March. 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Trailer

So when Disney bought Lucasfilm a few years back and announced their grand plans for the Star Wars franchise, one of the most intriguing was the announcement of the standalone films.  These films would be set outside the main saga of Episodes I thru however many Disney feels like making, and tell some of the other stories that happen in this universe.  "It's about thinking of the Star Wars universe as a setting, not a saga," was one of the phrases bandied about when they started going into depth on this.  Of course, it's not new.  For precedent, we've got the Clone Wars movie and cartoon, and the Ewok TV movies of yore.  The umbrella title the Disney came up for this expanded universe was Star Wars Anthologies.  Some where along the way, though, they simplified it to Star Wars Stories.  And, we just got the first trailer for this first Star Wars Story, Rogue One.

Rogue One tells one of the most speculated-about stories in the Star Wars universe:  taking place shortly before Episode IV, it details the Rebellion mission to steal the plans to the Death Star.  The story itself was hatched by legendary ILM visual effects artist John Knoll, and fleshed out by screenwriters Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz.  Gareth Edwards, director of 2014's Godzilla reboot, came on board to direct.  In one of the earlier interviews about the project, Edwards mentioned how this is grittier than the rest of Star Wars:  "No one cares about the Force...there's no Jedi swooping in at the last minute to save you."

 

Not much is known about our cast of characters yet.  The only whose been named so far is the one named in the trailer, Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones.  She'll be leading a ragtag group of Rebel commandos on this mission, including Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker, Hannibal himself Mads Mikkelsen, Hong Kong action legend Donnie Yen, and Wash from Firefly, Alan Tudyk.  Of course we need villains, so we get Ben Mendelsohn as an Imperial admiral.

Watching the trailer today, I was amazed at how much the actress playing Mon Mothma looks like the original actress from Return of the Jedi.  A quick search online reveals that that actress is Genevieve O'Reilly, and she actually played Mon Mothma in Revenge of the Sith, but her scenes were cut!

In this trailer, there's definitely much to like.  They play up some of the classic Star Wars imagery quite well.  That scene of the Death Star's dish being lowered into place.  The Imperial Walkers marching along the landscape.  But we do get a few new things too, like some funky new Stormtrooper design and that one guy taking out a Stormtrooper with some martial arts moves.

In all honesty, I'm having a little bit of trouble getting excited for this one.  I think I'm still on a massive Force Awakens hangover.  I'm older now...I need more time to recover before the next Star Wars party comes along.  If anything, I think we're going to see Star Wars hype level out from here on out.  Force Awakens was very much like Phantom Menace in the "OH MY GOD!!!  IT'S BACK!!!" mentality in the advertising.

I'm cautiously optimistic.  Like I said, there's a lot of good-looking stuff in that trailer, but I need to take to Tylenol, crash on the couch, and wait for The Force Awakens to finish passing through my system.


Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theatres on December 16.

Star Trek Beyond Trailer

Wowie wow!  There have been so many great new movie trailers released over the past few weeks, as they all jockey for a slot in front of The Force Awakens.  Every time I think, "I'm going to sit and blog about this one!" another one comes along and I think, "OK, I'll wait until they're all released and just blog about all of them!"

Here's my brief thoughts on all of them:

• Captain America: Civil War - Marvel!  Yay!
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Doomsday!  Wonder Woman!  Yay!
• X-Men: Apocalypse - Jubilee looks just like the cartoon!  Yay!
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - Bebop!  Rocksteady!  Yay!
• Independence Day: Resurgence - Nostalgia!  Yay!
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Wait...the set-up to this Harry Potter spin-off is someone smuggling animals through customs?  I'm sorry, but prequels based on bureaucratic hang-ups rarely turn out well.  

But one finally came along where I have to put fingers to keyboard and blog about it.  And that's Star Trek Beyond.

Even though I'm all obsessed with the new Star Wars coming out this Friday, my first fandom is still Star Trek.  In fact, it's because of Star Trek that my hopes for The Force Awakens are somewhat...tempered.  "I have faith in J.J. Abrams!" one of my friends commented.  My response to that was, "Yeah, last time I did that I got Star Trek Into Darkness."

OK, here's my thoughts on the Star Trek reboot.  I love, love love the 2009 reboot.  I swear, there's more raw emotion in that pre-credits sequence than in all of the Next Generation films.  When I saw it in the theatre, and Michael Giacchino's score swelled, and we saw the Starfleet logo filling the whole of the screen, I got goosebumps.  Finally, my beloved Trek was getting the grand, epic big screen treatment I knew it deserved.

And a lot of that is thanks to J.J. Abrams.  He admits, he knew nothing about Star Trek when Paramount gave him the project.  All he knew was it was the thing with Kirk and Spock.  So when Paramount asked him what he'd do, he said, "Kirk and Spock...and how they met?"  Brilliant!  That's a story that's never been told, and a fresh perspective on the material.

But, I loathe Star Trek Into Darkness.  I was willing to forgive it.  I was willing to go along with it.  But then...one moment happened that pulled me out of the film completely.  You know the one I'm talking about, right?



Yup.  The death of Kirk and Spock yelling out, "Khan!"  What could have been a clever twist on a classic scene from The Wrath of Khan was executed horribly.  What happened was they took one of the most poignant death scenes in Star Trek, mashed it up with one of its cheeziest moments, and dropped it into the film with all the subtlety of a Family Guy cutaway gag.

What we discovered about J.J. Abrams was, like a lot of directors who don't know what to do with Star Trek, all he did was give us a half-assed rehash of Wrath of Khan.

So he got wooed away by Lucasfilm to work on that other franchise with "Star" in the name.  Good.  After the Into Darkness debacle, some new blood was needed.  And we found a new director in Justin Lin, who gave us The Fast and the Furious 3, 4, 5, and 6.  OK...not the typical director we were hoping for.  But hey...he's got blockbuster experience.  And they got Idris Elba to play the villain!  He's good in everything!  Simon Pegg, Scotty himself, and a bonafide super-fan in real life, got drafted to write the screenplay!  He's got geek-friendly writer cred.  He's one of the creators of Spaced, after all.

Cautious optimism was winning the day!  But then, it dropped.  The first trailer for Star Trek Beyond.



No. No. No. No. No.

This is not Star Trek.  Where's the Kirk struggling with rigors of middle age, like in Wrath of Khan?  Where's Picard, struggling to not get consumed with vengeance, like in First Contact?

There's none of that.  Instead we get...dirt bikes?  DIRT BIKES?  A dirt bike race in a Star Trek movie?  Witty one liners?  Random guys punching random aliens? 

This is not Star Trek.  This is Big Dumb Science Fiction Action Movie #378.

Star Trek Beyond rapes my childhood on July 22.  

So. A New Star Wars Trailer.

I've gotta get my podcast back up and running.  Too much of my nerdy proclivities are starting to leak into my day job.  Back on Wednesday, I spent far too much time talking about Back to the Future.

Last Wednesday, October 21, was officially "Back to the Future Day."  For those who are wondering why, it's because that date -- October 21, 2015 -- was the fantastic, far-off, futuristic date that Doc and Marty traveled to in Back to the Future Part II.  Plus, 2015 is the franchise's 30th anniversary, so it was a good excuse for the 30th anniversary party.

On Wednesday, a good chunk of my show was dedicated to talking about Back to the Future.  I just love that movie so much.  As many have pointed out, the entirety of the Back to the Future franchise now takes place in the past, as it was meant to be.  When franchise co-creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale came up with their time travel movie, they knew they didn't their heroes to go to the future because all movies set in the future always get it wrong.  "But Mark," you're saying, "The whole end of the first film where Doc takes Marty to the future!"  Well, Zemeckis and Gale never had any plans for a trilogy or a franchise back when they made the first one...they just thought it'd be a cute joke to end with.  So when the studio wanted a sequel, Zemeckis and Gale were all like, "Well...guess we gotta go to the future.  Painted ourselves into a corner with that ending, didn't we?"

But we're not here to talk about Back to the Future.  We're here to talk about the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

When that poster first broke the day before the trailer, my first reaction was, "OH MY GOD THAT'S SO COOL!!   It's kinda cluttered, though."  A friend on Facebook remarked that he loved my enthusiasm tempered with pessimism.

And as I explained...I've been through all this before, with a little film called Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace.  As much as everything gets me excited, there's a little voice in the back of my head going, "But what if BB-8 is the new Jar Jar?"

Another comment on Facebook told me to put my faith in JJ Abrams.  Last time I did that, I got Star Trek Into Darkness.  So, yeah.  I'm starting to temper my enthusiasm a little.

Which is strange.  I'm not one of those who felt massively burned by the prequels.  I'm a bit of an Episode I apologist, actually.  I didn't feel burned by the prequels until I saw the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie.  That movie is so bad,  you guys.

That might be why I haven't bought my advance tickets yet.  I'm getting old and paranoid, guys.  As much as I want to be there on opening day, it comes out in the middle of December, and there'll probably be 4 feet of snow outside, and I'll have to drive into the city on icy roads with my crappy tires.  Fear is starting to consume my life.  Fear of driving on icy roads with crappy tires.  Fear that The Force Awakens is going to disappoint.  Fear of getting out of bed most days.

But still, there's enough in these trailers to get one want to get out of bed.  We still don't know these new characters.  Who is this woman Rey, and why is she so prominent on the poster?  I subscribe to the theory that they're going to reveal her last name to be Solo, and she's Han and Leia's daughter.

And why haven't we seen old Luke Skywalker in any of these promotional materials yet?  You know that when he appears in the film, it's going to be a big reveal.  A growing theory is that he's actually going to be revealed to be evil...which would be cool.  One of the oldest fan theories is that the film is going to be "The Search for Luke" and he doesn't show up until the last 15 minutes or so.

And what's that Death Star-looking thing in the poster?

Anyway, on to the trailer!



Not gonna lie...I kinda like the last trailer better.  The way it builds up to the reveal of Han and Chewbacca at the end with "Chewie...we're home."  This one, though, finally gives us more glimpses of our new characters, and even though it's just a couple of lines, we're finally getting impressions of who they are and what they're about.

Although, my heart did quicken when they started reinterpreting the "Han Solo and the Princess" theme in the trailer.  Reminds me of another tweet I saw:  "I really hope the film has more to offer than nostalgia." 

My excitement is getting tempered as the day draws closer.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out on December 18. 

The Jem and the Holograms Trailer

"I'm a white male, age 18-49.  Everyone listens to me, not matter how dumb my suggestions are." - Homer Simpson

I used to be an avid reader of ToyFare magazine.  About 10 years ago, I remember reading an interview with Hasbro's brand manager for Transformers.  He said that Hasbro's corporate strategy for Transformers was to reboot it every 5 years or so, so it'd always be fresh for the next batch of kids growing up.  When the first Michael Bay Transformers movie came along, I went into the theatre with that mentality:  this is not my Transformers, but a reboot for the next generation.  And with that mentality, I found it more acceptable than most Transformers fans did.

The global success of Transformers taught Hasbro a very important lesson:  thanks to many of their brands having been successful media franchises back in the 1980s, those franchises grew up to be very valuable intellectual properties.  Adults raised on those toys and cartoons were now introducing them to their kids.  They could get two whole generations.  Transformers sequels, new cartoons, and new toys came out in droves.  G.I. Joe was next.  It all led to Hasbro launching their own TV network - the Hub - and its most unexpected juggernaut, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. 

For content for their new TV network, Hasbro dipped into their archives and dug out many of their classic cartoons from the 1980s.  That led to another unexpected hit...reruns of Jem and the Holograms.  I won't say too much.  My blog entry on when I binge-watched the entire series on Netflix a few months ago says it all.  But let it be known that I still believe Jem and the Holograms is the greatest thing Hasbro produced in the 1980s.  It is so mired in the fads and trends of the time.  It is the ultimate 1980s time capsule.  It is cheezy.  It is campy.  It is truly truly truly outrageous.

And it has become another valued intellectual property for Hasbro.

A live-action movie version was announced over a year ago.  Within months of its announcement came the announcement that production had wrapped.  This film has already been sitting on the shelf for over a year.  Directing it is John M. Chu, veteran of such modern-day movie musicals as a couple of the Step Up films and Justin Beiber concert film Never Say Never.  And, he developed a good working relationship with Hasbro, having done G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

But still, what from the classic cartoon would remain?  Would we still have a sentient AI be the source of Jem's transformations?  Would there still be high adventure as the Holograms and the Misfits battle for pop chart supremacy?  Would there still be music videos?

This film was flying so under the radar, that even blurry scans from magazines became huge news.  But now, we have a trailer   We have a trailer for a live-action Jem movie.




This trailer came out back on Tuesday.  I've watched it about a dozen times now.  And I can't.  Stop.  Laughing.

Am I angry and disappointed that Synergy isn't a sentient AI and the world's most powerful holographic projection system?  Yes.

Am I disappointed that there's no Misfits there, causing trouble? Yes.

Am I upset that it doesn't feature the classic theme song?  Yes.

But I can't.  Stop.  Laughing.

Does the plot look cliched as hell?  Yes.

Does it look like a made-for-the-Disney-channel TV movie?   Yes.

But I can't.  Stop.  Laughing.

Why am I laughing?  Because we now live in a world where they've made a Jem movie.  The beloved toys of my youth are no longer treasured memories.  They're valued intellectual properties.  They're brands to be exploited.   The only way such a thing could ever reach this position is if my generation became grown-ups and started running the world.

Guess what?  We are.

And the crazy thing is, we're responsible adults.  The reason this is cliched and looks like a made-for-the-Disney-channel TV movie is because we started thinking, "Well, this is what the kids are into these days, so this is the only way it'll ever get made."  We couldn't go all Guardians of the Galaxy and embrace the absurdities of the franchise because we stood up and said, "Think of the children." 

This is it!  We're adults!  We are the runners of the world!  We have reached the age where we
have the power to do whatever we want to make this the world we want!

And we used that power not to make the Jem movie we want, but the Jem reboot we think our kids want. 

Jem and the Holograms comes out on October 23. 

The Other Big Trailers This Week

Well, when I originally jotted this down on Friday morning, it was only dedicated to the trailers for Ant-Man and Terminator.  But then, we were all kinda surprised when Warner Brothers decided to release the first teaser for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

See, the original plan was they showed the "teaser for a teaser" on Wednesday night, premiere the trailer at a special event at select IMAX theatres on Monday, with the trailer officially going online on Tuesday.  But, it got leaked to the Internet on Thursday night, forcing WB's hand and giving it an official release on Friday night.

Obstensibly a sequel to Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice was quickly handed the task of establishing the DC Cinematic Universe.  So not only does a rebooted Batman show up, we're also going to get Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg, leading to the origins of the Justice League.

Of course, there was much outcry over the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman, but I think Affleck is a good enough actor to pull it off.  Assisting Affleck is Jeremy Irons as the new Alfred.  Rounding out our Justice League is Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg.

Returning from Man of Steel is Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.  Rounding out the Superman universe is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. 

So...how does it look?



Huh.  Well...yeah.  I'm not diggin' it.  I'm not liking Gritty Superman vs Darth Vader Batman.

I know that they're trying to take from the beloved Frank Miller graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns.  But that had a whole different set-up to their epic fight.  Batman and Superman were the only two superheros left.  Superman became a total government sell-out, and Batman was still sticking up for the little guy.  It was the clash of ideologies.  Granted, they could be going for that in Batman v Superman.  Batman could see that he has to stand up for the common person after Superman and Zod's godlike battle that utterly destroyed Metropolis in Man of Steel.

But still...in this film, Superman is just starting out.  In The Dark Knight Returns, it was at the relative end of Batman and Superman's superhero careers.  No doubt their relationship had become that of colleagues who tolerated each other and got along, but eventually started getting on each others' nerves after 50 years of the same ol' crap.  Do you really want them to start out that way?

Or maybe I'm just tired of gritty Batman.  Christopher Nolan did it so well in his Dark Knight trilogy, that we were ready for a new direction, and this isn't new enough.  Hell, they even rip off a shot from The Dark Knight Rises in that trailer, of Batman from behind, on top of the bridge, his cape flowing in the wind.

Perhaps a co-worker said it best.  We all loved the Star Wars trailer so much, that anything else by comparison is going to seem underwhelming for the next little bit.

But I love Batman.  I love Superman.  And I'm upset that this trailer has me going "meh."

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theatres on March 25, 2016.

My original trailer rants follow.

---

Before the new Star Wars trailer came along and blew our minds, there were a couple other trailers that come out earlier this week that I wanted to ramble about a bit.  First up, the new trailer for Ant-Man:



I'm still feeling kind of "meh" towards Ant-Man.  I mean, a hero with a supersuit?  Battling a villain with a similar supersuit?  Didn't Marvel already make this movie in Iron Man?  My original complaint of "generic superhero film" still stands.

Although, there are some clever bits.  I chuckled at the whole "I need you to break into a place and steal some stuff" gag.  And the end bit with the train was cute.  But I'm still going..."meh."

Meanwhile, we also got the new trailer for the big Terminator reboot, Terminator Genisys.

 


Now this one has me a little more sold on Terminator Genisys.  I complained that the first trailer had a whole "been there, done that" feeling to it, as we saw the Terminator running around battling a liquid metal Terminator.  But now that we're getting more into the plot and we're seeing what's going on, and that John Connor himself is now a Terminator of some kind...now I'm getting more intrigued.  Might be going to see this one after all.

Both Ant-Man and Terminator Genisys come out in July.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser #2

I keep saying I'm not going to get excited.  No matter how tantalizing all the new pictures and rumours from the set look, I can't help but have flashbacks to late-1998/early-1999 when I was also this excited.  Picking apart the trailers, pouring over every bit of information that was released, only to be greeted with...the prequels.

"Never again," I said.  "I'm done with this franchise.  It's only going to hurt me again."

But then, yesterday, with some downtime at work, I found myself doing this.

A photo posted by Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox) on Apr 16, 2015 at 9:59am PDT

Yesterday was the launch of Star Wars Celebration, aka the official Star Wars convention.  It kicked off with a special panel dedicated to the new film, The Force Awakens, and while there was no official announcement, it was heavily rumoured that the new teaser would be premiering at that panel.

I tried to get engrossed in the panel, but I kept getting distracted.  I was at work, after all.  So I missed a few things.  Like the revelation that the desert planet we've been seeing so far isn't the familiar location of Tatooine, but a new planet called Jakku.

They talked to the guys who built the droids.  The rolled out R2-D2, they rolled out that new bowling ball droid BB-8, which amazed the crowd by a being a practical puppet and not CGI.  The elaborated that they thought BB-8 would have to be done with CGI, but Disney CEO Bob Iger new of a robotics company that could pull it off.

They brought out the new cast members, who sadly couldn't say too much about their parts.  John Boyega, who plays Finn, the Stormtrooper in all the teasers, told a story (and did a great Harrison Ford impression) about asking Harrison Ford to sign one of his Han Solo action figures on the set one day.

They brought out a platoon of the new Stormtroopers, and then they brought out...the originals.  Mark Hamill.  Carrie Fisher.  Anthony Daniels.  Peter Mayhew.  It was them.  The original cast.  Back again.  And now...now I was truly getting excited.

More so than the prequels, they really seem to be playing up the nostalgia angle this time out.  They are working very hard to maintain the esthetic and the ideals of the original trilogy.  This looks and feels more like Star Wars than the prequels did.  The prequels played up the icons of the original trilogy, but this...this really is trying to evoke more than the icons...the feelings behind them.

Once the new and the original cast members gathered on stage for a photo op, it was time.  They promised us one last thing before they wrapped up.  And yes, it was the new trailer.  I could hear down the hall a co-worker of mine was also watching it, so I ran into his office to watch it with someone.




At the end of the trailer, we lost our collective minds.  We laughed.  We cheered.  We hugged.  You'd think we were watching the Moon landing on TV or something.  Everything about it...just felt right. 

I'm trying not to get excited.  Really, I'm not.  I've been down this road before.  But with the John Williams music, and the visuals, and how it's everything from the original trilogy but new, I can't help but think...I've come home.

According to my countdown app, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in 245 days. 

Superspies Unite!

It looks like 2015 is going to be a good year for the superspy genre.  We just had Kingsman: The Secret Service, which had a good time embracing and lampooning the cliches of the genre.  And I thought it was pretty darn good.  This Christmas, we get the original superspy, James Bond, returning in Spectre.  And this summer, two pretty sharp looking films in the genre.

The first up is The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  Based on the classic 1960s TV series of the same name (which was created with input from James Bond's creator, Ian Flemming), it follows the secret agency UNCLE, a multi-national task force established to take down threats to the entire world.  The primary threat:  THRUSH, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

Our heroes are the dashing and heroic CIA agent Napoleon Solo, and the enigmatic KGB agent Illya Kuryakin.  Of course, as this show was released in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, depicting the CIA and the KGB working together was quite groundbreaking.

This new movie version had been in development for quite some time.  Guy Ritchie, who brought us the legendary British crime films Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and also the Robert Downy Jr Sherlock Holmes films, is directing.  Solo is played by the current big screen Superman, Henry Cavill.  His partner Kuryakin is played by the current big screen Lone Ranger, Armie Hammer.

Here's the trailer!



I'm digging this trailer.  Given the now kinda dated premise, it was a good idea to set it in 1963.  Looks like with Solo and Kuryakin they're going with a "buddy cop" formula, depicting them as professional rivals who are forced to work together.  And is just me, or does the American accent/voice that Cavill adopts for Solo make him sound kinda like Christopher Reeve?  (Cavill is British, in case you didn't know.)

The Man from UNCLE comes out on August 14.

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Also coming out this summer, Tom Cruise gives us the latest installment in his Mission: Impossible franchise.  Man o man, can you believe this franchise has almost been going for 20 years?  The first one came out way back in 1996....

As I've blogged before, the Mission: Impossible franchise is one I want to like, but I always find the films kind of lacking.  I remember enjoying the hell out of the first two when I first saw them, but I barely remember them.  I have yet to see the third one, although I'm curious to see what JJ Abrams' reboot was like, because I'm one of the few trekkies who thought he did a good job rebooting Star Trek.  But I did enjoy Ghost Protocol, mainly because I adore the work of director Brad Bird.

This fifth installment has been given the title Rogue Nation, and to direct it, Cruise recruited Christopher McQuarrie, no doubt because they had a good working relationship on Jack Reacher.  And trying to forge some continuity in this series, it looks like the IMF team is made up of agents from previous films, such as Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner.

The trailer gave us our first glimpse of the plot, which involves Ethan Hunt and his team trying to take down the Syndicate.  In the original TV series, "the Syndicate" was just the catch-all term for organized crime rings.  But for the film, looks like they've been rebooted into an evil IMF...the THRUSH to IMF's UNCLE. 

Trailer ho!




Yeah, looks like it has this franchise's one defining characteristic:  Tom Cruise doing crazy stunts.  And I find it kinda weird that they music they use is a remixed bubblegum pop tune by a Disney kid.  And Alec Baldwin is in it!  Again, as I've blogged before, I find it tough to take him seriously anymore after his years on 30 Rock. 

As with the rest of the franchise, I want to like this but...meh.  It was originally supposed to come out this Christmas, but got moved up to this summer out of a fear that it would get crushed between the new James Bond and Star Wars films.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is go see it on July 31. 

Fantastic Four Trailer

Well, this past week, we finally got our first look at one of the most talked-about superhero reboots coming in 2015, and that's Fantastic Four.

Sadly, it's been talked about for all the wrong reasons.  First up, people were talking about the lack of promotion.  Usually, with superhero films, we start getting teases a full year before release.  The preview the costume, they showcase the sets, do everything to show you how faithful they're being to the comics.  But for this...nothing.  Just blurry spy photos until this teaser came out.

Then there was the report that Dr. Doom, one of the most iconic supervillains in comics, had been reduced to an angry, anti-social blogger with the online handle "Doom."  In fact, some fear the comics are being ignored altogether as Kate Mara, who's playing Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, revealed in an interview that she was told not to read the comics to research her character as they are "doing something never done in the comics."

And let's not get into the criticism of the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.  What's so wrong with the Human Torch being a black guy?

Director Josh Trank, fresh off his debut film Chronicle, has said that in his Fantastic Four, he's going for a David Cronenberg body horror kind of feel, citing The Fly and Scanners as his biggest influences on the film.  I dunno...much like Superman and the resulting Man of Steel, Fantastic Four is a property I never envisioned going dark and gritty.  Also, much like the recent Spider-Man reboot, they've decided to draw their primary inspiration from the Ultimate Universe, meaning now the FF get their powers from a teleportation accident, and not being bombarded with cosmic rays, so that makes references to The Fly rather apt.

Rounding out the cast, we've got Miles Teller as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Toby Kebbell as Victor Domashev/Doom, and Tim Blake Nelson as Harvey Elder, who'll hopefully become the Mole Man in the sequel.

So...here's our first glimpse.




Is it just me, or are they really trying to make it look like Interstellar?  The fact that they are taking more of a hard sci-fi stance than the usual superhero fare looks interesting, but it doesn't really look or feel like Fantastic Four.  The most FF looking this is the bit at the end with our heroes looking at a mysterious shimmering shaft of light.  Given all the negative stuff I'd been reading about this film, the trailer definitely comes across as...not as expected.

Fantastic Four hits theatres on August 7. 

Latest Marvel Trailer: Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron

Well, I'm just hangin' out at home, burning off some leftover vacation days, so I may as well get to some blogging I've been putting off.  We got our latest batch of Marvel movies, so I've wanted to ramble about them a bit.   First up, we've got our first trailer for Ant-Man.

Ant-Man has had a long and storied development that has been well-documented elsewhere, so I'll try to give you the Coles Notes.  Way, way back in 2006, when Marvel announced that they'd be going into business for themselves and starting their own movie studio, they said their first three films would be Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau, The Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier, and Ant-Man directed by Edgar Wright.  When Nick Fury's post-credits scene in Iron Man got everyone hot and bothered at the prospect of an Avengers movie, Ant-Man got put on the back, back burner so Marvel could launch their "Phase I."  But Wright remained attached to the project, and kept doing development work as he bid his time doing Scott Pilgrim and The World's End.

When Marvel announced their "Phase II," Marvel revealed that Ant-Man would finally happen as their first film after Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Wright finally got down to the nitty gritty.  Paul Rudd was cast to play the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang.  Michael Douglas came on board to play the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym.  Evangeline Lily signed on to play Pym's daughter Hope!  Corey Stall was going to be the villainous Darren Cross, who takes up the mantle of Yellowjacket.  It was finally going to happen!

And then, this past summer, mere months before filming, disaster struck.  After hanging in there since 2006, Edgar Wright left the project.  Creative differences was the official reason given.  The rumor and speculation was that Ant-Man was always intended to be kind of a standalone thing, but when the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off, Marvel started pressuring Wright to add more Marvel Cinematic Universe elements.  And finally, the director and studio reached an impasse.  Wanting to maintain the schedule they'd set up, Marvel quickly began the search for a new director.  Frequent Will Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay was approached, but negotiations fell apart after a weekend.  McKay did do enough work, though, that he's getting a co-writer credited on the screenplay.  Finally, a new director was found in Peyton Reed, who brought us the cheerleader epic Bring It On, and the Jim Carrey vehicle Yes Man.

(Fun trivia fact:  Reed was once attached to do Fantastic Four, but 20th Century Fox [who own the movie rights to FF] balked at his idea to set it in the 1960s and base it on the original Stan Lee and Jack Kirby run.)

New director in hand, last-minute re-writes done to satisfy the new creative direction, leading many to wonder what the final product is now going to look like.  And we got our first glimpse when they finally released the new trailer a couple weeks ago.




This trailer was...not what I was expecting.  Despite being a founding member of the Avengers and having a 50+ year history in comics, Ant-Man has always been seen as this goofy, B-list character (except for that one time when Hank Pym punched his wife and the name became synonymous with spousal abuse).  And with a comedy talent like Edgar Wright as director, the hope was that Ant-Man was going to be the next Guardians of the Galaxy, a film that embraced the goofiness and turned into a very funny, yet very solid action adventure.  But instead of the next Guardians of the Galaxy, this comes across more like "Generic Superhero Film #762."

I'm still holding out hope, though.  Being a sucker for superhero films, you know I'll be there when it opens on July 17.

Oh, and we also got the second trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron.



I know some people are fretting over how dark it looks (especially with the creepy version of "I've Got No Strings" playing in the background), but I'm still loving it.  We're getting some more Hulk vs. Hulkbuster action.  Lots of wisecracks, too, about the Hulk's red eyes in that battle, leading many to speculate that he's being mind-controlled by Scarlett Witch in that scene. 

I'm still excited.  May 1!