Review: HBO’s Game of Thrones, Season 2, Episode 1 – ‘The North Remembers’
Things have picked up almost right where they left off in Westeros… except now there are a few different kings running around the lands culminating into the conflict that is known as the ‘War of the Five Kings’. If you’re wondering who the fifth is, you’ll find out soon enough as the show moves on. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the next episode to come.
Obviously…SPOILERS
Our first king is Joffrey who is just the same old little shit head throughout this first episode. He is reveling in his newfound rule and doing whatever he wants to despite his mother’s guiding hand. To complicate things for Joffrey and Cersei, Tyrion has arrived in King’s Landing to execute his father Tywin’s command to be Hand of the King in his absence. Although it was good to see Tyrion back in the show, there wasn’t a whole lot of time spent in the royal capital, which is where the majority of the action and intrigue will take place this season.
The same could be said of Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch who are making their way beyond the wall to investigate what the Wildlings are up to. Besides Jon getting reprimanded by Commander Mormont not much happens aside from the character of Craster being introduced. He is the same piss pot many of us know and love from the books, having a pretty liberal brain-mouth filter due to knowing that the Night’s Watch needs him. Even though you know it won’t happen you can’t help but wish Jon Snow would just go and punch him in the mouth.
Robb Stark is still doing a good job of being a bad ass, as he confronts Jaime Lannister in his cell along with his dire wolf Grey Wind. That scene was probably one of the best as Robb set the direwolf loose on Jaime, and I have to commend the crew of Game of Thrones for making the dog look about as big as dire wolf is supposed to be. Robb’s strategy at this point while he is still winning is of course to gain some allies. Theon urges Robb to allow him to go to his father Balon on the Iron Islands, and convince to join with Robb, who sends his mother to the Storm Lands in order to ally with King Renly Baratheon who we don’t get to see in this episode.
Star Wars – The Clone Wars Season 4, Episode 22 : ‘Revenge’ Review
*FULL SPOILERS*
The Clone Wars finale wasn’t what I expected in the first half, but it was still pretty excellent. This is episode was ALL Darth Maul, and only a little bit of it being “crazy” Darth Maul. Witwer turned that character off to give us the cold and calculating Darth Maul who kept his rage in check for the most part… until his first confrontation with Obi-Wan Kenobi since the bisection he dealt out to the horned Sith Lord on Naboo.
The first half of the episode involved Savage taking his twisted, spider-legged brother Maul to see Mother Talzin on Dathomir in order to “fix” him. Not only does Talzin repair Maul’s damaged mind to help give him some focus but she also fashions him some new sturdy legs that are far superior to the rickety old spider ones he had. After appearing in about five episodes at this point, Talzin remains to be a mystery to me. She obviously wouldn’t mind seeing Dooku dead, could care less about the Jedi being killed, and she helps Ventress and the Maul/Savage siblings without either one being aware of it. So it remains to be seen just who’s side she is on. She’s obviously on her own side, but to what end is uncertain. It will be interesting to see next season what all of her plans finally culminate into.
It was very interesting to hear a couple of things that Maul had to say after his enlightenment by Mother Talzin. He stated that the Clone Wars had began without him, which makes it clear that the plan to use the clones was known to him through Sidious far in advance. Also involving Sidious was Maul’s statement that he was apprentice to the most powerful being in the galaxy once and that he had a greater destiny than the one that befell him on Naboo. That has me thinking that Maul not only has business with the Jedi, but perhaps with Dooku and Sidious as well. It makes me wonder what the future has in store for us. Possibly some sort of future confrontation between Sidious and Maul? Personally I’d like to see a clash between Maul and Dooku sometime also. I can’t wait if those things actually end up happening next season!
After Talzin departs we are treated to some mercilessness from Maul as he lands on a planet to lure Kenobi to him. I felt a little chilled as children gathered outside of their spaceship, under the impression that it was a routine supply ship and Maul calmly declared to his brother- “In a galaxy at war Savage, there is only one way to get the attention of the Jedi…. Slaughter of the innocent, mercilessly and without compromise.” After a decapitation by lightsaber ridden hologram message to the Jedi council, Obi-Wan is off to a date with destiny… and one pissed off half Sith Lord.
‘Chronicle’ Director in Talks for ‘Venom’ Movie
Amongst the greatest movie atrocities ever committed, aside from Jar Jar Binks and all of George Lucas’ terrible Star Wars alterations, Spiderman 3 stands alone from many others. I don’t remember being quite so disappointed by a movie in my life as Peter Parker went Emo, Sandman was just a “guy trying to get his kid back” and Venom? Venom was saved as the closing act jobber played by That 70’s Show’s ‘Eric Foreman’ – Topher Grace.
What happened? Where was the Venom from the comics who was cold, calculating and basically a mountain of muscle? Instead, we get possibly the most whiny Eddie Brock imaginable, and a Venom who sounds like a velociraptor and has to peel back his face to show us Topher Grace with sharp teeth every time he wants to talk. It was a complete and utter betrayal, and nauseating display of a studio grabbing for the almighty buck right out of our pockets. Sam Raimi himself even let everyone in on the secret that this wasn’t even his vision of Venom at all, but the studio wanted him in there because he was sooooooo cool to the fans. Nevermind story or any of that kind of shit Sony, just fit him into your already horrible movie during the last fifteen minutes because, ya know… it’d be cool. UNCOOL!
But anyways, onward to the subject at hand. (more…)
Grizzly Review: John Carter
After all of the buzz surrounding the budget of John Carter, the aggressive marketing campaign leading up to it’s release and the many clips released by Disney, was it all worth it? In my opinion, yes. John Carter was a fully realized world filled with a group of characters brought to life by a very well rounded out cast of actors. I had thought the movie would appeal to a much wider audience, but after watching the movie it’s obvious that a lot of kids would be lost upon many of the story points. Or they would just not care and want to see more of the four armed Thark aliens and John Carter’s faithful pet Woola.
On the planet Mars, known to it’s inhabitants as Barsoom, the residents of the mobile city Zodanga threaten to overrun and conquer the world after gifted with the use of an ultimate weapon provided by the mysterious Therns. The only people left to oppose them on Barsoom are the noble people of Helium (Not the stuff you put in balloons.) led by Jeddak Tardos Mors (Ciarin Hinds), the father of the beautiful princess of Helium known as Dejah Thoris. That’s the first piece of the story, while the seconds lies in the form of former Confederate cavalry man John Carter. After practically stumbling upon a Thern in a cave, John Carter is transported via the Thern’s medallion to the world of Barsoom where he will play an integral part in it’s fate and that of the princess Dejah Thoris.
‘Rambo 5′ Still a Possibility?
For those of you wanting to see 80 year old Sylvester Stallone running around killing more random foreigners, then look no further than Rambo 5: Rambo kills Mexicans! Okay, so that’s not really what the title is but there is more talk about there being a fifth installment of the franchise which last saw a tired looking John Rambo owning people left and right in Burma. Supposedly this would be the final installment in the Rambo saga, being more of a small town affair as First Blood was. I see John causing some carnage against cartel folks in a small border town and I’m good with that. I hate cartel guys.
This guy is so excited for RAMBO 5, Sly had to subdue him.
Mission Impossible 5: Definitely on the way
Hold onto your butts, because it looks like M:I 5 is now officially… official I guess. It was pretty much a forgone conclusion but I would think that word directly from the mouth of the current VIACOM CEO, Philippe Dauman, is pretty definitive. Check out the snippet below from The Hollywood Reporter:
And a brief statement made by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman at the Paramount parent company’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday in New York confirms the studio’s intention to make a follow-up.
Dauman was asked by a shareholder if there were “any plans to develop an additional sequel.” His response: “Oh, yes.”
Seriously though, let’s face it, the fourth Mission Impossible movie made over half a billion bucks at the box office this past year and in a way brought Tom Cruise back to prominence as an action star. Personally I think it’s more of the Mission Impossible name and awesome action sequences that brought people back for this most recent mission, but it for sure doesn’t hurt to have a very recognizable star such as Tom Cruise headlining your movie.
There is no word yet as to what the plot might be or if this will be Cruise’s last hurrah, but rest assured that the newest Mission Impossible can’t be more than a couple of years away. The studio is going to want to streamline this thing while it’s still blazing hot. I for one am hoping that Cruise will soon be making way for another leading man in the franchise, not only so we can see how it fares in his absence, but to give us something fresh. I wouldn’t be against him eventually being a background character, perhaps the head of the IMF division but I just want to see if they’ll give Jeremy Renner a chance to be the main character. Renner’s star is burning bright at the moment after starring in Ghost Protocol last year and coming up this year in his role as Hawkeye in the Avengers and as the newest operative in the continuing Bourne franchise.
Star Wars – The Clone Wars Season 4, Episode 21 : ‘Brothers’ Review
*SPOILERS FOLLOW* The wait is over for the last two weeks of Clone Wars season 4 and it seems like we’ll be waiting a little longer until next week to get a little more of Darth Maul onscreen. This episode deals mainly with Savage Oppress still searching for his brother, a search that takes him to the planet of Lotho Minor. Lotho Minor was a very interesting planet, akin to the junk planet of Raxus Prime, and it had it’s very own collection of hazards and residents. One character who I really couldn’t stand was one of these residents in particular who guided Savage through the wilds of Lotho Minor, a snake like alien that reminded me unfondly of an evil Jar Jar Binks. I still cringe at the thought of him.
The reveal of Darth Maul of course was the best part of the episode. He was very dark and menacing, though more along the lines of a rabid dog than a carefully calculating Sith Lord. Maul has definitely gone through some mental wear and tear over the years and it shows through Sam Witwer’s voice acting of the character as he moves fluidly between sobs of sadness into yells of rage. His body itself is quite the mess with his upper torso being covered in dirty bandages and his legs replaced by an amalgam of metal parts to form spider legs. It appeared in the trailer as if we will get to see him next week with a little more functionality in the form of two sturdy legs instead of the nearly broken down spider body he was sporting this episode.
Disney’s Lone Ranger and Depp’s Tonto Revealed!
After a few delays and moaning and groaning about an overinflated budget, Disney’s Lone Ranger movie is finally making headway. Sure, we knew that filming was underway but now we have our first glimpse into the movie by way of a photo of the Lone Ranger himself and his faithful companion Tonto. Tonto as you probably heard about a million times is being played by Johnny Depp, who has a penchant for the ridiculous ever since bringing the world Jack Sparrow, possibly one of the best on-screen characters in recent memory behind Heath Ledger’s Joker in the Dark Knight. So, without further adieu, here is the picture:
And yup, Johnny Depp is there in all of his ridiculous glory. Though I must say that this version of Tonto is way better than what could have been if they had stuck with the old TV show version of the sidekick. I’m actually hoping they change it up a little bit in the movie and make Tonto not so much a sidekick, but perhaps the Lone Ranger’s mentor or something more useful. Of course there is only this picture and no details on anything else, so everything including what I just typed is all speculation at this point. This official film synopsis is all we have to go on thus far:
“The Lone Ranger” is a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.
I have to say I was never really thrilled with the Lone Ranger, it’s definitely a franchise that needs updating to make it more intriguing to modern audiences including myself, but look at what they’ve done with a literary classic like John Carter. The movie isn’t out yet but all of the clips shown thus far promise us at least an entertaining movie going experience. I’m also faithful that Pirates director Gore Verbinski will be helming the movie because aside from the story of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie being utterly convoluted he still has a knack for giving us a very aesthetically pleasing movie. It was almost a given he could only give us two out of three good Pirates movies. Let’s hope the cycle doesn’t repeat with the Lone Ranger being a certified hit that spawns mediocre sequels.
Now comes the wait for the first trailer and more than likely a slew of production and set photos before that. I’m not overly excited for the Lone Ranger movie, but I am cautiously optimistic. Most of that is to see exactly what Depp has done with the Tonto character and to see if he outshines the main character as Depp normally tends to do when he’s not the leading man.
10 Minutes of Disney’s ‘John Carter’!
Disney is not messing around with it’s final big marketing push for their blockbuster hopeful John Carter, because now they’ve made what appears to be the first ten minutes of the sci-fi action flick available for all to see! Just don’t be expecting to see anything taking place on Mars or even a glimpse of any type of alien. But I have to say the creepy voice over at the end is worth it at the end. He made me very uncomfortable:
Not too shabby in my opinion. I think after seeing almost 20 minutes of the movie via various clips that have been released and all of the positive reviews thus far that John Carter is almost guaranteed to be a damn good movie not only for fans of the sci-fi genre, but even the casual movie goer as well. Disney is banking a lot on this high budget flick to spawn into a franchise and it definitely has a shot if it can draw out the moviegoers even with current box office champ The Lorax only going into it’s second weekend. The Lorax made $70 Million plus this weekend and is sure to still snag the family audiences away from John Carter and it’s PG 13 rating. Best of luck to him and all those four armed green fellas though!
Yet Another Game of Thrones Season 2 Trailer!
Okay, this is getting ridiculous, but there is yet ANOTHER Game of Thrones Season 2 trailer. This one shows a little bit more than the last one, but quite a bit we’ve already seen. Most interesting is the Seven Devils song by Florence and the Machine that is playing throughout the trailer. I don’t typically listen to Florence and the Machine but the song went along with the trailer beautifully. Take a look below:
Most chilling and powerful to me is Tyrion’s line at the end. It’s times like this when you realize how powerful something can be when it is said on film instead of the book. Sure it packed some punch on the page but to hear it from Peter Dinklage is simply amazing. I cannot wait for this season to start and almost wish they would stop showing us these little morsels…. Awww who am I kidding? I’ll take another trailer please!
Spartacus Season 2: Vengeance – Episode 6 “Chosen Path”
With many shows on the pay channels such as HBO and Starz, it’s very hard for them to follow up brilliant episodes with anything even close to the potential exhibited the week before. Spartacus this season, I have noticed, is the exception. Last weeks assault and basic massacre at the arena in Capua was nothing short of epic and Glaber’s murder of his wife’s father was a bold move for him to make. This week’s episode, though not as action packed as the last was just as good and even more so story wise.
Spartacus and his makeshift army are now based at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, holed up in a rundown temple awaiting the inevitable Roman counterstrike. As before, you at first believe the group of slaves to be united after such a morale boosting victory, but instead they are a bit divided as to what their next move should be and that morale is not helped by the nay-saying and dire warnings of Gannicus. At this point, Gannicus is somewhat of a beaten man despite being ex-champion and freed slave. He is now without his rudis, which is the wooden sword signifying his freedom, and needs it to prove that he is not a runaway slave. He also had words with Oenomaus who never really forgave him for what happened with Melitta and told him the truth of what a selfish and lost person he truly is. Even though we get to see an awesome clash between Spartacus and Gannicus, that is not the only reason he was brought back to the show. Gannicus is a great character who we will see in the coming episodes even after he has left what he sees as a futile cause against the Romans. We’ll see how he deals with the newest predicament next week when he returns to Capua to recover his rudis.
Star Wars – The Clone Wars Season 4, Episode 20 : ‘Bounty’ Review
At least the Clone Wars is providing us with some entertaining filler before the final two episodes of the season featuring Darth Maul. Last night’s episode ‘Bounty’ was rather excellent, featuring a new planet and a couple of species that I’ve never seen before. Not to mention the newest addition to the growing cast of bounty hunters. Not only do we get to see some of the soon to be veterans such as Bossk, Dengar and Boba Fett but also a couple of newcomers.
The episode follows Ventress after last weeks defeat and general annihilation of the Night Sisters on Dathomir by the Separatist forces of Count Dooku. It seems like Ventress is basically on a path to nowhere, perhaps letting the force lead her to her next point in life which in this episode happens to be on Tatooine where she runs afoul of Boba Fett and his motley crew of bounty hunters. After killing one of their number for the huge mistake of hitting on her, Ventress is sort of forced into joining their team for a job, even though I’m pretty sure that she could have killed them all in about ten seconds flat if she wanted to. And so begins the episode which is ultimately not linked to the storyline for next week’s episode but filled with plenty of action which was beautifully shot against the backdrop of a unique planet where all of the action takes place well below the surface.
The Sinister Six Returns in ‘Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth!’
Happy 50th Birthday Spidey! Just in case everyone missed the memo, it’s our resident wall-crawler’s 50th anniversary this year! And what better way to celebrate than getting his ass kicked back and forth between a newly formed Sinister Six? That’s exactly what ole’ webhead has to look forward to in the upcoming ‘Ends of the Earth’ story arc hitting shelves this month in March and carrying over into the summer.
And who is the main villain spearheading this new assault not only on Spiderman, but the world itself? Well who else but Doc Ock himself, who hasn’t been too credible of a threat in the years past to his arch nemesis but has been making power plays throughout the Marvel U, as writer Dan Slott points out in an interview with Comic Book Resources:
As for Dr. Octopus himself, the villain has shown up in a number of other titles, which Slott said has been building to the story he has planned. “We’ve seen Doc Ock and the Sinister Six slowly building and percolating this master plan,” he said. “On the way it’s stretched out into the Marvel Universe proper. We’ve seen Doc Ock totally smack down Iron Man. He totally wiped the floor with Hank Pym’s team in ‘Avengers Academy.’ Over in ‘Spider-Man’ during an FF team up, Doc Ock pwned Reed Richards! He took over the Baxter Building and stole all kinds of stuff. Doc Ock’s been taking out the biggest brains on his stomp to global domination.”
The Iron Man issues featuring Doctor Octopus were excellent, and not to mention beautifully drawn by Salvador Larocca. It showed us a glimpse of Otto in the past and his dealings with Stark’s family business and not to mention he pretty much beat Iron Man in his own way. To me, this arc is huge in terms of the Sinister Six. The Sinister Six, although cool in theory was only a big thing because it was a villain team up and their main goal was to destroy Spidey. This time though they are going to be helping Doctor Octopus in his bid for world domination and from the looks of some of the teasers it appears that they will be going to some extremely grim measures.
Slott also mentioned that even though the Sinister Six would be starting off with certain members that they would be different by the end of the arc. Does that mean deaths or good old fashioned ass whoopings from Spiderman? We’ll have to wait and find out. Check out the starting lineup and awesome cover art for the Sinister Six in Ends of the Earth:
The Dictator (1) – Ryan Seacrest (0)
If there’s anything I hate more than the Oscars, it’s Ryan Seacrest and last night had plenty of both. The walking joke was on the red carpet as usual last night spouting off the mindless drivel about what everyone is wearing as only Seacrest can do, but I’ll bet he didn’t plan on running into Admiral General Aladeen. Yes the Dictator was in rare form in his political stance of “death to the West” and even brought a date to the Red Carpet event in the form of Kim Jong Il… in the form of an urn supposedly filled with his ashes. What happens next can only be enjoyed visually, so enjoy it below:
I have to say it wasn’t really that funny of a joke, I just kind of get personal satisfaction seeing it happen to Seacrest and then watch him try to maintain his cool to no avail. Granted, I’d be pretty pissed if someone did that to my tux, but I’m not rich and odds are he was renting that for the Oscars. Sacha Baron Cohen continues to bring his characters to the world at the expense of many people’s tuxedos and dignity. I have to say though, he is very good at it. It looks like this might be the one character of his that doesn’t really fool anyone. His other stereotypes might ring true to many of us, but we see so many idiotic Middle East leaders on TV nowadays that there’s never going to be one that we might have missed. Plus the guy’s an effin’ Admiral General. Be sure to give the Dictator a look on May 11th 2012 as it hits theaters, it’s bound to be offensive and funny.
Four Minute ‘John Carter’ Clip – v.s. the White Apes of Mars!
I swear I’m not being paid to promote this movie, but seriously it is shaping up to be pretty damned awesome as is evidenced by the following clip which shows John Carter in action against some crazy looking beasts in an alien gladiatorial arena that is reminiscent of the Geonosian arena on Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones (John Carter came first though):
This movie just looks better and better every time I see a new trailer or clip from it. The visual landscapes are beautiful and the CG aliens and spaceships as good as anything to come out of Star Wars and Avatar. It remains to be seen if the story and acting are up to snuff, but it looks to me from the many glimpses of the movie that it will fare just fine.
Not to mention Michael Giancchino’s score seems absolutely brilliant during the presented scene. This guy is well on his way to becoming the next John Williams who is by far my favorite composer in regards to movie soundtracks. Giancchino has been able to capture the spirit of pretty much every project he has worked on since his days as the Lost composer, none more so thus far than 2009′s Stark Trek which had one of the most invigorating soundtracks I’ve heard in almost the last ten years. I can’t wait until March 9th to see this movie!
New ‘Robocop’ Lead Offered to Star of ‘The Killing’
The reboot of the Robocop franchise has been on and off again for quite some time. There was news that Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct the movie and filming was continually rumored to be imminent. Well now the film has it’s director in the form of Jose Padilha, but the bigger news is that they may have finally found the right actor to play the title role of cyborg law enforcer, Robocop. Or Murphy as his friends call him. As for who is playing Robocop, look no further than Joel Kinnaman off of AMC’s The Killing, which according to the reviews done up by Dr. Kronner is one of the best shows on that network, behind Walking Dead of course.
Theater wise, he was most recently in the sci-fi alien invasion flick called The Darkest Hour and Safe House also starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds.
If anyone out there is worried about the guy’s acting skills then it’s all for naught because how hard could it be for an actor to mutter some choppy and slowly articulated words and one liners throughout the movie. I don’t remember Robocop in the movie dishing out any Oscar worthy performances. That’s not to say that the Robocop in this reboot will be exactly, I’m actually hoping for the opposite. I don’t want a drastic change in his look and demeanor but the franchise needs a little change for sure. I’ll tell you one thing, it had better still take place in Detroit!
Movie Trailer #2 – Wrath of the Titans
Clash of the Titans was a decent enough movie. I went into the theater to see it, knowing to only expect a dumb action movie, and I was well satisfied by it upon leaving. It wasn’t a movie that got better the second time you watch, but you just have to take it for what it was. The next installment entitled Wrath of the Titans looks to outdo it’s predecessor in every way. Even though we saw Medusa and the Kraken in Clash, now we get to see the titans whom the Gods imprisoned as they are breaking free to wreak havoc on the world, and Perseus seems to be the only one who can stop them. He’ll fight a hydra, the cyclops, a minotaur and many other mythological beasts in this one and the action throughout the trailer looks pretty phenomenal compared to the first one.
Much of the cast returns including Sam Worthington (now with more hair!), Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades. I’ve noticed in the trailers that Hades has lost his raspy voice which so vexed me in the first one. Did they hear complaints about this or is it just the fact in the movie that Hades is growing stronger through everyone’s mistrust and dissent? Among those returning are also a few new faces to grace the Titans scene. The obviously beautiful and terribly underutilized Rosamund Pike will play warrior Queen Andromeda and Billy Nighy takes a turn at Godhood as Hephaestus.
The movie promises at least to be entertaining due to the crazy amount of action and visuals shown in all of the trailers up to this point. But do we really just want another dumb, action popcorn flick out of the filmmakers? The first movie was entertaining but lacked the heart and soul of a movie you care to watch more than once. I’m hoping they do a little better job with story and character development in this movie rather than waste time with 3D conversion and constant mindless action.
Transformers 4: A More Serious Approach on Mass Robot Mayhem
It would seem that Michael Bay may be seeing the error of his ways. I remember by the time that Revenge of the Fallen had found it’s way out of theaters that I would ask questions like- “Why do we need the human characters?” “Can we just have a movie with only Transformers in it?” “Why all the forced toilet humor?” And even though it seemed like Bay had started to tone it down a little and just focus on his craft of blowing shit up, Dark of the Moon still had that wasted human element to it. I liked the character of Sam Witwicky and think that Shia LaBoeuf is a great actor, but after three movies of the character, his parents and his girlfriends, I’m kind of ready for a Transformers movie just about…. Transformers. It seems like the movies are at least 70% CGI with the Autobots and Decepticons onscreen for the majority of the movie so why not just have a movie focusing on their war against one another? I don’t mind the human characters acting as support but I don’t need a lovesick kid running around trying to prove his self worth to everyone.
Now come reports that the next Tranformers movie will still indeed be a sequel to Dark of the Moon, but will feature less comedy and not so many human characters. Josh Duhamel has been pretty candid about the fact that neither himself nor any other actors have been contacted in regards to the fourth Tranformers movie, courtesy of E! Online:
“I don’t think anybody’s doing it,” Josh Duhamel told us last night at the launch party for Sony PlayStation’s new PS Vita portable entertainment system. “I know Shia [LaBoeuf]‘s not doing it. I don’t think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it.”
“Whenever these movies make that much money they’re going to make as many as they can,” he said. “[But] I haven’t heard anything about it. They haven’t called me.”
If there were human characters that I didn’t mind, it would have been the soldiers including those played by Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson because they were all business about killing Decepticons and not how their girlfriend thought about their socioeconomic status.
I’d love to see the Autobots engaging the Decepticons on different planets throughout the galaxy as they did on the cartoon and the Transformers animated movie in the 80’s. I honestly doubt that the budget would be affected by having less “real” shooting locations, especially with how much money the studio knows that it’s going to make off the franchise. They could make the fourth movie about Optimus Prime trying to find his inner human whilst also looking for a female Transformer to settle down with and the movie would still gross almost a billion dollars worldwide. We can only hope that Michael Bay remains serious about toning down the cheesiness and five year old humor in his Transformer movies until the movie is finished. Am I expecting some sort of Academy Award winning performance from Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime? No. Nor am I looking for a deadly serious movie with the complexity of something like Inception because we all know that Transformers is a popcorn summer action flick. Just give us something true to the Transformers mythos and we’ll be happy.
John Carter Sequel Already in the Works: Too Soon?
As it goes with many of Hollywood’s potential blockbuster films, Disney hopes to make John Carter (of Mars) a very successful trilogy that will fill up their coffers even more. After the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise took off and started murdering box office records, Disney began developing new movies to add similar success to their name as Pirates and even National Treasure. Tron: Legacy was one of those movies, which despite underperforming for Disney is still on it’s way to sequel-dom. Prince of Persia didn’t fair so well and will more than likely not garner a sequel.
John Carter however, has not even hit theaters yet and it was discovered that a sequel is already being developed in the form of script writing. Check it out via Screen Rant:
Walt Disney Pictures is wasting no time on setting the stage for next month’s John Carter adaptation to become the first in a new blockbuster series for the studio. The plan all along has been for the sci-fi flick to kick off a new trilogy – something which co-writer/director Andrew Stanton has previously made no secret of – and now progress on the next installment is already heating up.
Screen Rant‘s own Roth Cornet has learned that Stanton and his John Carter co-writer, Michael Chabon, have not only written outlines for the next two films in the series, but they’ve also actually begun penning a script for the sequel, tentatively known as John Carter: The Gods of Mars (the subtitle comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ second Carter novel). But is Disney counting its chickens before they hatch?
John Carter undoubtedly looks spectacular in trailer form and I’m thinking I may have to go see this one in IMAX style, but it would seem that Disney is getting really ahead of themselves. I have nothing but high hopes that the film performs superbly at the box office so a sequel can be made. Because let’s face it, I’m all about that next big film franchise so I can be entertained and in the end it’s all about me. The movie has quite a handful of talent involved. Mark Strong is present as (Shock!) a villain and it also stars Dominic West, James Purefoy, Ciarin Hinds and Willem Dafoe. Not to mention the beautiful and talented actress Lilly Collins. Expect to see her as our Grizzly Girl during the week of John Carter’s release. But in the meantime check out a clip below featuring Mark Strong doing some hard villain work:
Star Trek 2 Set Photos: Benedict Cumberbatch!
So here’s a couple of quick little glimpses of Benedict Cumberbatch on the set of Star Trek 2, as he is playing the new supposed mystery villain in the forthcoming (And eagerly anticipated) sci-fi sequel. But then again maybe it won’t be such a mystery once his name is revealed. I’m sure some mindless Trekkies will blurt out a dozen theories about which character he is supposed to be from the old show. Check out the first picture with Cumberbatch feeling the wrath of the Vulcan Death Grip:
Our next photo shows him being held at phaser point by the beautiful Zoe Saldana who plays Uhura in the new Trek films:
One can only hope that we’ll soon have a trailer for this bad lad. 2009’s Star Trek was by far one of the best movies that year. It re-invigorated that franchise and brought in tons of new fans, myself included. I always hated Star Trek, but absolutely loved the new one. Not to mention Benedict Cumberbatch from BBC’s Sherlock is in it to play the newest villain. I’ve not watched any of Sherlock, but Dr. Kronner talks like he would totally make out with Buttercup Cumberbatch because the show is so amazingly awesome. I’m sure in the coming days more and more set photos will begin hitting the web and eventually plot details. Stay tuned for more info as we get it!
Star Wars – The Clone Wars Season 4, Episode 19 : ‘Massacre’ Review
The Clone Wars is wrapping up it’s fourth season with a bang as the first of the last four episodes airs in the form of “Massacre“. We see Ventress making her return to Dathomir and swearing full allegiance to the Night Sisters of Dathomir and forsaking the Sith. Count Dooku in the meantime has ordered General Grievous to strike hard at the planet and rid the galaxy of the witches. These rich Sith types just tend to hold a major grudge ya know?
It was actually kind of hard to decide which group of scumbags to root for. I mean, Grievous and the Separatists are a no brainer, they suck. But the Night Sisters are equally as shady, with the hairless harpy leading the charge of laser bow wielding Night Sisters and even a contingent of zombie Night Sisters. Yes you heard me…. zombie Night Sisters. They were definitely creepy as hell, but nowhere near as creepy as the wrinkled old Night Sister who is even older than Mother Talzin. I thought Talzin’s double layered voice was unnerving enough but the oldest Night Sister blew it away with all of her crazy chanting.
So, even though the battle itself was pretty awesome there was no indication of why it would be best if one side or the other was to win. I’m actually a little sick of Grievous being bested over and over again in combat, but even as he lost to Ventress after a short spar he went on quite the killing spree and savagely killed the super old Night Sister and her guards. One might wonder what happened to Mother Talzin but I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of her.
Spartacus Season 2: Vengeance – Episode 5 “Libertus”
*FULL SPOILERS FOLLOW*
This episode of Spartacus reminded me a whole lot of the finale of season one, Blood and Sand. It starts off with Oenomaus, Crixus and Rashko facing death in the arena Ad-Gladium…. at the hands of Gannicus and several other gladiators. Yes Gannicus is back and the episode begins with him and Oenomaus exchanging sword blows and then the screen cutting away to days earlier as the Blood and Sand finale started with Spartacus and Crixus fighting before it showed us events of the day previous. I always thought that was a very cool aspect of that season and I am glad to see they brought it back in this season. However let’s not see that it gets overused or anything.
One storyline that I thought wouldn’t come to a head so soon was that of the game being played by Illythia against her husband Glaber. Thanks to the crafty machinations of Lucretia and Ashur, Glaber comes to find out that Illythia’s plans to abort their child and her further plans of dissolving marriage to get with Verinius soon follows. It’s clear that Glaber isn’t going to let this pass and it would seem even with Lucretia playing both sides, for the moment she will help Glaber out to somehow get back at Illythia. I still think that Glaber is going to get with Seppia after sufficiently humiliating Illythia and Verinius. Glaber is actually becoming a proper villain thanks to his “loving” wife after what he did to her father. I couldn’t help but laugh a little at the moment when Glaber told him that he wasn’t the fool that him and his daughter believe him to be. I believe this leaves Illythia in a bit of a tight spot after revealing her plans to Glaber. TOO BAD!
The Walking Dead Finds a Governor!
For those of you wondering which actor is going to be playing that sicko bastard The Governor in the Walking Dead TV series, then wonder no more as he has been cast!
