Trailer of Interest - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Teaser)

So I wasn't too keen on the sixth film. It wasn't quite the blunder the fourth movie was, but as time goes by I look on it less and less fondly. After the incredible fifth entry and the "holy shit" trailers cut for the sixth film I expected a lot more.
It's really clear this trailer was cut from footage they were scraping at the bottom of the barrel for-- I mean how much have they really filmed by this point? I'm surprised they got the footage they did for such an early teaser-- And a good one at that. Oh, I don't think it's anything to wet your panties over just yet, but the potential is there. Lets get excited, yet again, and hope, yet again, these movies deliver.

HYPE-O-METER Scale 1-10: 7

Terminator Franchise Gets New Home in February

The Terminator franchise is still for sale and the bankrupt Halcyon, current owner of the franchise, apparently wasn't swooned with Joss Whedon's $10,000 bid. Originally, the franchise was estimated to be bought by January 2010, but now negotiations (with who?) seem to be set to end in February.

Anyone want to buy it? Hell, if I had the money, I would! Then I'd put The Sarah Connor Chronicles back in production faster than you can say, "I'll be back!"

It looks like Halcyon is really hurting though. They're selling every prop, set piece and lights (almost "trashed" by Bale) to movie collectors crazy enough to love a brick you might have seen on screen.

Was Terminator Salvation worth the pain guys? Regardless, I hope Warner Brothers gets the franchise, makes some badass movies and gives The Sarah Connor Chronicles a proper send off. No, I haven't given up hope. Nor should you.

SAVETHESCC.COM

How Cool Is This?

So movie mag Empire Magazine went all out with their 20th anniversary, asking twenty-seven actors to recreate iconic roles in stylish clothing. This is quite entertaining. Click on any of the below to enlarge.

Can we guess all the characters and movies kids?















And my favorite:
Solid pictures. I'm not big on celebrity photo shoots, but this is easily the coolest shoot I've ever had the good fortune of flipping through. Bravo Empire. Do more!

The Harry Potter 7 Trio

And in a rather uninspiring picture. I suppose we always start with lame pictures don't we? But with this being the final film(s) I thought it would be fun to compare their last adventure with their first:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone


Well Ron doesn't look like a deformed horse anymore and I want to give Ms. Watson a round of applause for growing up so, SO well. Finally I can admit she's attractive without feeling like Roman Polanski. (I'd say Michael Jackson, but that ship has sailed hasn't it?)

Now I'm going to compare the Harry Potter franchise to one that's trying to be like it:



Failure's a bitch.

Potter 7, November 2010.

It Speaks For Itself...

But I'll say it anyway...

Badass!

I'm sure the general, non-comic book geeks out there are wondering who the silver Iron Man is. The answer is War Machine, piloted by Col. Rhodes played by Terrance-- Oh... Right... Played by Don Cheadle.

REALITY CHECK Now as awesome as this is I do want to skeet some of my doubt on this post. As the time draws nearer for Iron Man 2 I begin to have the same weary feeling I had for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. What type of weary feeling you ask? Lets just say my concerns came to fruition.

It's very possible Iron Man 2 will NOT walk in the footsteps of great super-sequels like X2, Spider-Man 2 and, of course, The Dark Knight. Something about the amount of villains, heroes and recent knowledge of Mr. Downey Jr.'s hand in writing the thing stinks.

But until its release, I'll enjoy the really swank poster. You should as well.

Spanish Trailer Gets Creative With Lost Promos

Been keeping up with the plethora of Lost Season Six footage? If you have you're lying because none has been released. As show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carton Cuse have said, they're keeping a tight lid on the Lost spoilers and showing no new footage until the season airs. So what do we get in the meantime. Trailers like this:



Wow. Pretty terrible right? I understand the need to use old footage, but does that excuse a shitty trailer? There is an absurd shitstorm of fanmade trailers that are lightyears more exciting than what ABC has regurgitated here.

In the meantime check out this Spanish trailer to Season Six. Like the American promos they don't give us any new footage, but the superimposed chess theme works well. Very cool:



Why isn't this ours? Good work ABC. My girlfriend should enjoy the Radiohead-ness as well. The final season premiers Feb. 2nd, 2010.

IMAGE - Worst Choice for Best Picture Nom.

Ha! That's pretty terrible alright. Before some of you leap out of your chairs screaming at the sky in either victory or melancholy look closely at the picture. It notes "Comedy + Musical," which is a category in the Golden Globes. Not that this pile of crap is worth even that, but really, who cares about the Golden Globes?

Hangover blew.

Get In Line for Spidey 4's Black Cat

I'm shocked this is as big of a deal as it is. (Or maybe it's not.) Oh, don't worry. I promise this won't be a glorified comic book-to-movie fanboy rant like my last post. Actually, I hardly touch comics and I certainly don't know much about this post's title character. (No, not Spidey.)But the attention around it is what gets me.

Rumors are flying that the Black Cat will be the next pseudo-villain in the Spider-Man lineup. At first I thought, "Oh, okay. So it's Spider-Man's Catwoman basically?" Apparently that's almost too much of the case as I've only read negative feedback from fans since this rumor began.

Now for those fretting about the idea of Black Cat serving as the web-slinger's next antagonist hold on to this bleak hope. Sony has apparently denied the rumors. Regardless, the possibility of Black Cat in Spider-Man 4 is looking inevitable. With so many rumors flying about actresses trying for the part I think it's safe to say she's in.

So who's up for the role? Well lets plow through the list of rumored cats. Rachel McAdams was the original rumor, and heavily favored by fans who were okay with Black Cat's break in to live action. But the actress has since denied those rumors. Shame really. I think she would have really nailed the part. (And the Spider. Gigiddy.)

Next up, British babe Romola Garai. Don't know who that is? Don't worry, no one does. Admittedly, she looked the part, but with credentials like Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights I think we can boot her out.

My personal favorite out of the lot is Julia Stiles. I know, I know. Why? Admittedly, she may not look the part, but she takes on the tough-babe persona pretty well. (Bourne anyone?) I feel like Black Cat would be the next big step for her. Granted, I don't know much about the Black Cat, but I do know if you're going to do the whole Catwoman/Batman relationship with Spider-Man the chick better be one tough cookie. Lets just say the bell collar would fit around Julia's neck pretty well.

Finally, we have Anne Hathaway. Supposedly the producers are very interested in giving her a staring role. Now, I like Anne Hathaway, she's a fine actress, but the Black Cat? I did grab the right picture from the internet, right? Very white, (or really blonde?) hair and all? Does she fit the complexion? Would white hair be a bit much for Hathaway? Aw, whatever. With all the advances in special effects and what not I'm sure it isn't a big deal. Even still she doesn't strike me as someone who could pull off the look.

So what about you crazy Spider-Man fanatics out there? Is it worth seeing Black Cat on the big screen? I don't have too much of a problem with it, but, again, I don't know much about her beyond wikipedia. I will say this. It might be worth it if we can get Kirsten Dunst out of these flicks. Can we all agree she's the worst love interest for a hero in any of these superhero movies? Yeah. You agree. She's a bitch. Go ahead. Bring in the home wrecker.

HA-HA!

The Shadow of the True X-Men 3

Reading this kind of stuff infuriates me, but at the same time it fascinates me. It’s incredible to see a bad idea come to life and a good idea left in the trash heap. To be fair X-Men: The Last Stand actually had some intriguing ideas, but besides being executed terribly they also paled in comparison to what could have been.

“Huh? What could it have been?” For starters it could have been good, but that’s the obvious answer. During a Slashfilm podcast co-writer of X2, Mike Dougherty, mentioned story ideas for the third movie he had on the drawing board with director Bryan Singer.

For those using the Internet for the first time, Bryan Singer directed the first two X-Men films. When he was asked to direct his dream project, Superman Returns, he left Fox’s X-Men franchise at the mercy of director Brett Ratner-- The man responsible for arguably the worst conclusion to a single franchise: X-Men: The Last Stand.

But before Brett Rat-Fink mutilated the storyline and Dougherty left with Singer for Superman Returns, there was a very solid blueprint for the third movie. Screenrant was nice enough to extract Dougherty’s X-Men 3 story from the podcast.

THE SETUP:

“The idea – you open up with Alkali Lake [where Jean Grey supposedly died in X2] but it’s completely barren and dried up and there are these odd reports of strange phenomena going on around the world accompanied by bright lights in the sky.”

“The idea would be that both the X-Men and the Brotherhood realize that, essentially, a very god-like force had entered their reality and that it was causing disruptions around the world – mutant prisons being decimated. I had pitched an idea about a fleet of cargo ships getting torn apart in the Atlantic and you found out that they were shuttling mutants as slave labor.”

THE MEAT:

“So basically you found out that the Phoenix [Jean Grey] was going ‘round the world taking things into her own hands and that she had basically returned as a god, which they did touch upon in X3. She had viewed herself as above the conflict, that she was here to end things on her terms, she was basically sick of the fighting and she was going to take things into her own hands and she didn’t give a shit what the X-Men or the Brotherhood had to say about it.”

I think Dougherty is giving the actual third movie too much credit. When was comparing the Phoenix to a god touched upon in The Last Stand? Sorry. Minor rant. Dougherty continues…

“The one idea that I loved, that I really wanted to do, was that Cyclops would build the Danger Room. Cyclops felt guilty-- He felt that the X-Men were too weak. They weren’t strong enough; they weren’t fast enough, [and] that was the reason Jean died. If they were a little bit better at fighting, then she might still be alive. It was all about this guilt he had about her death and so he built the Danger Room to train them to be better. But in the end it really was about him not being able to let go of her, so that causes all the chaos and disruption in the movie. But in the end it’s about him letting her go.”

Okay, okay, so wait. Not only was Cyclops going to be front and center in the storyline, like he should’ve been, but it was going to develop him as the true leader of the X-Men? This sounds like the best idea for an X-Men movie yet… Alas, it wasn’t to be… Oh wait. It gets better:

THE END:

“Ultimately she kind of becomes that cosmic force that Phoenix is known to be, she chooses to leave Earth and become a god, or at least a higher level of intelligence, and she goes into the cosmos possibly to kick-start life somewhere else… The final scene for me would have been her telling Cyclops, or her telling the X-Men, ‘I’ll be watching.’ Essentially she becomes a god.”

I love the “I’ll be watching” part echoing the end of the second film. But unlike this story The Last Stand had no regard for what happened in the first two movies. (Like the forgotten allusion that Magneto’s machine on Liberty Island [in the first movie] triggered the Phoenix mutation. Good catch Rat-Punk!) A razor sharp Cyclops sounded so much more interesting than the pitiful, tormented man that served as little more than a cameo in The Last Stand. And actually utilizing the Phoenix as the integral plotline instead of watching her turn to marble as a third tier subplot is *INSERT CLICHÉ GASP AGAIN* far and away more desirable.

So I want to applaud director Brett Rat-Shit for his duties on The Last Stand and taking strides to do the exact opposite of Dougherty’s plan: Deliver a damn good idea. I mean seriously? This is what we could have had? Superman Returns was decent, but not worth this sacrifice. Imagine if you will, the deep fire representing the vengeful Phoenix, scorching the night sky as Cyclops and Wolverine stand battle ready on a crushed Earth below. The stakes are high. Not even Magneto and the Brotherhood are as great of a threat. Why? Because this “god” is the women these two men love. That’s brilliant shit right there!

Now think back to The Last Stand. It’s like self-mutilation isn’t it? If you’re a sadist you’ve gotta’ love this article. With rumors of Bryan Singer possibly returning to the X-Men franchise, these ideas would be beautiful for a strong return to form. I refuse to believe it’s too late to clean up Brett Rat-Fuck’s menstruating curd of bile that is the third X-Men movie. Will someone save this franchise?

MUSIC REVIEW - The Killers - Live from the Royal Albert Hall

The thing about most live shows is that we all want to hear what the hits sound like live. Yes, Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” sounds great, Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer” rocks hard, Drake’s “Closer to My Dreams” is—Hm. Pothole there. Can’t do much for lip-syncing can I? But The Killers grant us a lot of great “second tier” songs that grab your attention in a way their album counterparts don’t.

Oh, sure, “Somebody Told Me” is still as sexy as ever and “When You Where Young” provides a badass finale that I wasn’t sure The Killers could even deliver. I also want to shout out to “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine,” a personal favorite that could have easily been the night’s closer. But overlooked masterpieces like “I Can’t Stay,” “Loosing Touch” and “Bling” make you want to go back and relive their album counterparts. They all just sound great, and the acoustics of the Albert Hall compliments Brandon Flowers’ vocals beautifully.

At times these less popular sings tend to outplay the many singles that are stretched across the set list. This can be both a great and terrible thing depending on how you look at it. For me it was nice to get the wake-up call of rediscovering non-singles. It literally got me to re-love The Killers.

Most of the songs are from the recent album, Day & Age. (That’s fine by me!) Their prior album, Sam’s Town, is mostly absent from the live show, (thank God) but the better songs do strike a chord. It almost makes me want to re-listen to Sam’s Town—Almost…

I won’t say The Killers “killed it,” because that’s probably been used for every executive-handjob review of this record. I will say they’re still appropriately named though. If only “Midnight Show” were added to the set. It would’ve really matched the energy of the rest of the show. Killers fan? Get it. And get it now. Semi-Killers fan? Keep it on your list of goodies to grab. You might find there’s more to love than you thought.

***½ out of ****