All posts by Stephen Sanchez

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Teaser Trailer Has Arrived!

Finally the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is out! Set to run before Man of Steel in theaters this week, the next chapter of the Hobbit trilogy is available now online. The story continues as the company of Thorin Oakenshield continues their quest to reclaim their homeland of Erabor from the menace of Smaug the dragon. Along the way the company will encounter not only the wood elves who Thorin believes betrayed him during the fall of Erabor but the men of Laketown as well as they near the Lonely Mountain. And lets not forget the pale Orc Azog is still hot on their trail. Check out all of the action in the trailer below

Lots of exciting stuff going on, whether it’s from the book itself or added in for the movie. The movie looks just as gorgeous and eye popping as the first one, which also featured a good amount added to the film. We get to see more Elves, including Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel and the return of everyone’s favorite pointy-eared archer, Legolas! There’s also a quick glimpse of Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman and more of Bilbo and company, but honestly, let’s get to the elephant in the room… or dragon, as it were.

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“I… Am…. Kahn! Err… Smaug!”

Smaug the Terrible doesn’t look very terrible, visually. He actually looks breathtakingly awesome in the last seconds of the trailer as he finds our lead Hobbit in his treasure horde. I was surprised they show Smaug in his full glory onscreen instead of saving it as a surprise for when the movie is released. At this point the extra bonus will be hearing Smaug speak in the voice of actor Benedict Cumberbatch. I doubt they really could have hired a better actor for the role of the ancient and angry dragon. Cumberbatch has a very baritone and intimidating voice more than equipped for the likes of Smaug. Did you hear this guy in Star Trek: Into Darkness? I’ll walk over your cold corpses?! Can’t wait till December!

“Who you calling pointy-eared?”

What did everyone think of the trailer, and Smaug in particular? Sound off in the comments section below!

Arkham Origins: First Gameplay Trailer and the Return of The Joker…

We have yet another Arkham Origins trailer, except this time we get to see some actual gameplay. I’m of the mind that if ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and in the case of Arkham Origins the combat and other gameplay look to be about the same with only a few changes. As mentioned before Batman will be utilizing the Bat computer on the go to holographically reconstruct crime scenes. It looks pretty nifty, can’t wait to give it a go. But enough out of me check out the trailer:

http://youtu.be/A_ajUQ5hQ9I

I loved the trailer and the look of Arkham Origins so far. It’s so far confirmed that Bane, Deadshot and Deathstroke are in the game as assassins but no others have been confirmed. They definitely showcased the Joker in the trailer and he looked awesome as usual. He only had one line and a laugh in the trailer, but I thought it was decent. Obviously Mark Hamil is a hard act to follow for any voice actor involving the Joker but I have high hopes for Troy Baker, who voiced both Two-Face and Robin in the last game. Likewise, Batman’s new voice (Roger Craig Smith) didn’t sound too bad either.

Baker and Smith have worked together before too, as they voiced Hawkeye and Captain America for the Avengers Assembled cartoon...
Baker and Smith have worked together before this as well. They voice Hawkeye and Captain America for the Avengers Assemble cartoon…

Only time will tell however as we wait until October 18th when the game is released. Unfortunately it’s not till October 25th for everyone outside of the United States.

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So what’s everyone think finally seeing the gameplay action from the game? Any thoughts on the looks of Bane and the Joker or the new voices for the clown prince and Batman? Sound off below bat-fans!

Game of Thrones – Top 12 Kills (Season 3)

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Another season of Game of Thrones behind us and a whole plethora of kills for us to make a top 12 list of. Like last season, we couldn’t narrow things down to 10, but this season was by far the bloodiest. Like the Blackwater episode before it, the Red Wedding episode; The Rains of Castamere will definitely being filling multiple spots below. Enough chit chat!

Game Of Thrones Bad News + Cool Stuff- Tyrion 3Start the list!

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The Arrowhead…to the head

Before we knew the sick bastard was Ramsay Snow, he played a little game with Theon. He assisted him in escape after being tortured at the Dreadfort, seemingly saving him by killing his pursuers and then returning him to be tortured some more. As he finishes off the last of his men who chased Theon, Ramsay firmly plants a bow shot into the unfortunate man’s head at point blank range. Brutal.

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Karstark’s Treason

Rickard Karstark, or Rickard I’m-Such-a-Negative-Nancy, did some crazy stuff. He began doubting his king as he traveled to his grandfather’s funeral and let his lust for vengeance get the better of him by killing Lannister hostages. He was in direct defiance of his king, Robb Stark, not to mention the Lannister hostages were boys who had even reached their teens. Lord Karstark paid the ultimate price for that one by getting a good old fashioned beheading by his boss, spewing insults until the very end. Good riddance. Although that move didn’t help Robb in the long run.

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Joffrey’s Plaything…

Ros was a character who only showed up in the Game of Thrones TV series, but she was a mainstay throughout the three seasons, having minor interactions with a number of characters. I was just as dismayed as the next person when Littlefinger informed Varys that he found out she was spying on him. Then to add insult to injury we get to see that Ros was used as a plaything for Joffrey and his crossbow.

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Craster’s Comeuppance

Here’s a kill we can all get behind. Sure it wasn’t inventive, but it was surely deserved. For some reason, Craster decided it would be a great idea to invite a large group of seasoned warriors who are half starved and frozen into his home. Then get this, he lords his food and women over them without expecting some sort of backlash.

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Unfortunately he doesn’t take kindly to being called a bastard by the more mutinous members of the Night’s Watchmen, and takes a dagger to the throat. I would say I was sorry but this is a guy who had sex with numerous daughters and probably granddaughters and then sacrificed his sons to the White Walkers. Real class act there.

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The Old Bear

Jeor Mormont, or the Old Bear as he’s known in the Night’s Watch, was a casualty immediately following the death of the old bastard Craster. Mormont was a great character who I was sad to see killed off by Rast who I’ve hated since season one. At least Mormont was almost able to choke Rast to death before he finally succumbed to more knife wounds.

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Sam the Slayer

It’s hard to believe that Samwell Tarly had one of the coolest kills in the season. After being chucked a good 25 feet by a White Walker, Sam rebounds to use a dragonglass spearhead on the icy jerk resulting in him shattering into tiny little pieces. Sam the Slayer in the house!

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The Resurrection

When Beric Dondarrion fights the Hound in trial by combat everything seems to be going his way. How can he lose? The Hound hates fire and Beric has a flaming freakin’ sword! But lose he does as the Hound cuts not only through his flaming sword but half of his upper torso resulting in one of the most gruesome deaths of the season. Then Dondarrion is almost immediately resurrected by Thoros of Myr, but he was killed nonetheless. Well done on both accounts.

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Little Ned Stark

Talisa Stark wasn’t queen for very long, and was not able to be a mother at all after the Freys savagely murdered every Northman in attendance at Edmure Tully’s wedding to Roslyn Frey, which would later become known as the Red Wedding. It was truly brutal that they murdered an expectant mother, but what were they expecting naming him after a character played by Sean Bean.

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Long Live the King

Robb Stark was the second major casualty of the Red Wedding, being filled with crossbow bolts before he watched his wife and unborn son die in his arms. You would think it would be enough that his bannerman Roose Bolton killed him with a knife to the heart in front of his mother but even after the events of the wedding the Freys parade his decapitated corpse outside on horseback… with his direwolf’s head sewn onto his body.

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Mother of the North

Catelyn Stark’s death was quite haunting as her eyes went vacant after a scream that could only be that of a mother watching her son die right in front of her. The cutting of her throat seemed miniscule in comparison.

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Valar Morghulis

Arya’s first intentional kill was quite a sight as her and the Hound rode by a small encampment of Frey men bragging about killing her mother and brother at the Red Wedding. In a “your shoe’s untied” moment with a fatal endgame, Arya shows the Hound that she has what it takes to pull the trigger… err swing the sword.

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Dracarys

Master Kraznys of Astapor by far made up my favorite death this season. After a couple episodes of insulting Daenerys in High Valyrian, Kraznys has an “oh shit” moment realizing that it’s actually her native tongue. He frantically orders her killed but only succeeds in getting extra crispy in quite possibly the most bad ass moment in the series.

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Grey Wind

The Direwolf would have seriously owned some Freys had he not been locked away in the stables and riddled with arrows by them. It was truly heartbreaking watching his last moments as he made eye contact with Arya before closing them forever.

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It’s Time for a Timecop Reboot!

I often get ripped on for one of my favorite time travel movies being the Jean-Claude Van Damme starrer Timecop. Sure it’s not on the same level as a time travel masterpiece like Back to the Future or The Terminator, but I like the concept of people using the technology for financial and personal gain. Timecop was cheesy, but it starred Van Damme so what did you expect? It was almost like a less intelligent version of Looper.

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The story is about… well Timecops. Law enforcement agents who travel through time to stop those with rogue technology trying to get rich and gain influence for political gain. The time travel tech began in the government’s hands but soon enough was used by the wrong people. Of course Van Damme’s character, Agent Walker, runs afoul of a crooked senator and goes after him for more personal reasons than the guy just wanting to be President. Various one liners and splits ensue throughout. The most interesting concept in the movie was the whole “The same matter cannot occupy the same space” where if you so much as touch your past or future self while on the same temporal plane you merge and are effectively reduced into… nothingness.

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According to Heat Vision, Universal is in the initial steps of rebooting Timecop and it will be a “reimaging” of the concept from the old movie. Also, Jean-Claude will not be involved in the reboot of the movie so take that as you will. I can understand them not using Van Damme, his time has sort of come and gone. (That pun was not intended but it sure did work.) I look forward to them rebooting a movie I thoroughly enjoyed and can’t wait to see what they do with the concept. The closest thing that I can think of to compare Timecop with is The One, that involved agents traveling through a multiverse to stop criminals… but it was god awful. Cheers and good luck to Universal on their latest venture.

Is anyone upset that Jean-Claude won’t be returning for the reboot? Spout off below in the comments section!

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Will ‘The Walking Dead’ Live Forever?

Is anyone out there worried that the Walking Dead will end anytime soon? Well forget all of that because much like the Robert Kirkman comic series the show is based on, don’t expect to see the series going anywhere anytime soon. Especially since Breaking Bad will be ending with this next season. Most importantly this is according to a very reliable source, namely the CEO of AMC Josh Sapan. Check out the quote below from him via Superhero Hype:d

“We hope that zombies live forever and we’ve just begun to find out what the post-apocalyptic world is like,” said AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan (via The Hollywood Reporter), “so that we’ll be sitting here at the Barclays conference in 2022 discussing the fact that Walking Dead is not over.”

Walking Dead

Honestly, like the comic book this show could go on forever. The comic book has very few characters left from the start of the series but keeps on introducing new and compelling characters and situations. The show has killed off almost as many characters so far as the comic, yet has remained fresh without following the comics page for page. At first I was Walking Dead purist, getting angered whenever a character was missing or a new one appeared that wasn’t in the comics. The first season followed the comic pretty well, but after a writer shake-up it’s pretty much had its own momentum. I then started to ask myself –“Why do I need it to be the same?

I’ve finally come to grips that the show can be good on its own merit without having to mirror Kirkman’s comic world and it’s done just that by creating a rabid fan base of viewers who just can’t get enough of the show. It’s spawned its own fan favorite characters (Daryl) and made comic fan favorites (Andrea) effectively fan hated.

Walking Dead

So don’t worry fans, if you keep on watching, AMC will keep on making them because let’s face it: All of the characters are expendable save for Rick Grimes, but even in the comics that may one day not be true anymore. You can get your next dose of the dead this October with 16 all new episodes.

Riddick: New Trailer for the Franchise’s 3rd Installment

Pitch Black was the sci-fi/action/horror movie that introduced us to the always on the run convict, Riddick. who aside from being a total bad ass also has surgically enhanced eyes that can see in the dark. It was a wonderfully done movie with a simple premise and then based on Riddick’s popularity and Vin Diesel’s rising star at the time, they did a sequel based solely on Riddick which was aptly named Chronicles of Riddick. Summarily, that movie sucked super-duper bad. It was like they had to get away from the lower budget and simplistic story of Pitch Black just because Vin Diesel was involved and the movie suffered greatly for it.

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Fast forward almost 8 years later. Vin Diesel’s star power had been waning until the inclusion of the Rock into the Fast and Furious franchise and it becoming a half billion dollar juggernaut. Now apparently Vin Diesel is back to being able to carry a franchise on his own without the help of Dwayne Johnson, although another ex-wrestler, Dave Bautista will be joining him in this outing of Riddick. Bautista has been on a bit of a role lately. He was most recently in The Man With the Iron Fists, he’ll be starring in Riddick and has snagged a role as Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. Anywho, back to the Diesel. Check out his latest turn as Riddick in the trailer below:

http://youtu.be/tDxDEjDMreA

Looks entertaining enough to me. It looks like they’re going with the simplicity of Pitch Black. Basically Riddick is stranded on a barren planet with some ugly predatory life whilst the only humans posing a way off the planet are there to imprison or kill him. Aside from Bautista, the film will also feature Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, and Jordi Mollà.

I’ll be giving the movie a go once it hits theaters. How about the rest of you? Is Riddick old news or are you excited for his newest adventure? Sound off below!

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