If you know me then you know I love Pacific Rim. More than I should. It struck the right chord in the theater and made me feel like I was 10 again watching a big, bombastic action movie. Now Sideshow Collectibles are trying to test my love with these new statues based on the movie.
How is that possible you might ask?
Well, while the statues of Gipsey Danger and the knife-head Kaiju are a wonder to behold, they also will cost a sweat-inducing $400 a piece. I am gonna need some more incentive for a purchase like that. If I pay 800 bucks for two statues I better get a romantic dinner with Charlie Hunnam while Charlie Day sings The Nightman Cometh by candle light.
Yesterday was Harry Potter’s 33rd birthday. We were born only a month a part and while he is a fictional character who defeated a dark lord and is world famous and banging Ginny Weasley, I am writing pithy comments about Playstations and X-Men.
Jimmy Fallon celebrated Harry’s name day by having his good friend Ron Weasley, who oddly looks like Sgt. Nicholas Angel, wish him the very best of birthdays.
We are only a few days away from a new trailer for Thor: The Dark World and today Marvel has released a new poster to get the thunder god talk going.
Literally every character is on this poster. It will be one of those posters that you want to take a glance at while you are at the theater, but can’t get to because of the two fu**tards that stand in front of it and analyze every single person on the damn thing.
Now here is a reason to get back playing board games. USAopoly has announced The Walking Dead versions of Monopoly and Risk that put a zombie spin on the games.
Risk will feature a map of the southeastern region of the United States (where the comic is based) and new decks of Event and Supply Cards will add the strategy to the classic game as you try to escape zombie hordes.
Monopoly will give players new tokens to choose from including: Michonne’s Katana, Dale’s RV, bucket of body parts, Rick’s hat, a telephone and the now infamous Lucille. Properties have been changed as well to include some of the series most recognizable environments like Woodbury, Greene Farmhouse and The Kingdom.
Risk retails for $49.99 and Monopoly will cost $39.99.
The writers of the CW series Arrow have revealed that we will see the introduction of The Flash in the second season of the show and that he will be spun off into his own series. The pilot will be written by series writers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Mr. DC Geoff Johns.
In a pair of interviews, Berlanti and Kreisberg gave some more insight on exactly what kind of Flash we can expect. Berlanti had this to say in an interview with Deadline:
“Barry Allen’s story always has been a favorite of mine, as well as of Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns. We wanted everyone to know about the show as that process commenced. We think it fits well both in terms of Arrow and as a stand-alone series.”
Kreisberg was asked about how The Flash will fit into the Arrow style in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“When we first meet Barry Allen, he’s just a forensic scientist … an ordinary man. Part of the fun for the audience … is to see how we view our Arrow take on the Flash legacy. Some of it will feel very familiar to DC Comics, some of it hopefully will feel different, fresh and exciting. The same way we approached Arrow is the same way we’re approaching Barry.”
I am more than interested to see what the guys behind Arrow can do for The Flash character. Arrow is one of my favorite shows and if you have not given it a try because it is on the CW then you are missing out. I also would like to know how this affects any plans for the rumored 2016 Flash movie that was talked about at Comic-Con.
Oh, and about the costume. Will it be some kind of Smallville-type crapfest? Kreiberg had an answer for that as well:
“No sweat suits or strange code names; he will be The Flash.”
As expected, there will be an extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. While not lengthening the film quite like The Lord of the Rings did, it will feature 13 minutes of new footage.
If that does not sound like enough to warrant another purchase for those that have the theatrical version maybe the nine hours of special features will change your mind.
Yep. Nine hours.
The Blu-Ray release last March was simply a bare bones version and if you are any type of LOTR fan you knew that meant that there would be a huge amount of special features coming when the extended edition was announced and Peter Jackson never disappoints. There will be a full chronological telling of the pre-production and shooting of the film called The Appendices just like in the LOTR extended versions.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition will release on November 5th.
I loved Pacific Rim. Like almost too much. Yet, there was one thing that bothered me and that was why in the hell did they wait so long to use that damn sword that was built in their Jaeger? If I am fighting beastly creatures from another dimension in a thirty story tall mech you can be damn sure I am whipping that bad boy out before getting into a fist fight.
Luckily artist Kelly Turnbull has answered that question. That’s cold blooded Mako.
I know there are more than one of you wondering how a second Wolverine movie even got made considering the complete abomination that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and you would be right to think that. The movie made money, but is universally reviled by most comic fans and let’s not even start on Deadpool fans. The simple answer is that Wolverine is the most bankable of all of the X-Men, so that is why director James Mangold was given the helm and the character has been given a second chance to make a first impression.
You would think the surprising part is the fact that there is another Wolverine movie given what I just said. That’s not the truth. The surprising part is that The Wolverine is actually really good.
Director James Mangold and screen writers Mark Bomback and Scott Frank have decided to take the character on a personal journey based on one of the greatest Wolverine stories ever written by the legendary Chris Claremont. Not only is Claremont’s Japanese epic the basis for The Wolverine, but there are plenty of nods to other historic stories in the Logan/X-Men universe including Fatal Attractions and Old Man Logan. When you notice these it becomes clear that some care was taken with the character this time instead of just having him wrestle The Blob, fight the shittiest Deadpool ever and deal with bad CGI.
The Wolverine takes place after X-Men: The Last Stand with Logan playing the part of mountain man recluse living his life as a Grizzly Adams look-a-like and deep in despair over having had killed his love, Jean Grey. There really is no reason to watch X-Men 3 to catch up (or any reason to watch it at all) because that is the only main part that connects to this movie. He is content to spend his days drinking whiskey and listening to the radio while dreams of Jean haunt him. A young Japanese woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) tracks him down and requests that he come to Japan with her so that her employer, Yashida, be given the opportunity to say goodbye and thank Logan for saving his life in World War II when the bomb hit Nagasaki. Through some coaxing he boards a plane for the Land of the Rising Sun.
Meeting Yashida becomes more complicated than anticipated when he informs Logan that he has the ability to transfer his healing ability to another and can allow Logan to live a normal life. And yes, you guessed it, Yashida would like it transferred to him so he can keep on living. Needless to say Wolvie declines with a simple “you don’t want what I got”, but that is not quite good enough for the dying man and has his associate Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) implant a device in Logan that robs him of his ability to heal correctly. It is still too late for Yashida as he passes and control of his corporation passes not to his son, but his granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). This puts a target on her back as the Yakuza try to kidnap her at her father’s funeral. Reluctantly, she allows Logan to help her flee and during their escape and hideout the two form a relationship. Eventually the Yakuza gets their tattooed, grubby mits on Mariko and Logan has to figure out a way to reverse what has been done to him and save his new found love.
Like I said, this isn’t On The Waterfront.
What The Wolverine manages to do well is pacing. The slow parts do not drag on for too long and the dialogue is believable for a action movie like this. It is always interesting, for me, to watch the Japanese culture clash with anything different. Of course, the different this time is a self-healing mutant with adamantium claws that calls everyone “bub” and it completely works. You can never adapt Claremont’s story perfectly and there is plenty to point out that has been altered, but the central heart of the story is still there.
The set pieces are handled well including a Yakuza shootout at a funeral which leads to a chase throughout the street of Tokyo and ends with a fight on top of a bullet train which you may have seen in the previews. As over the top as the train scene is, it is still handled with a deft hand. The fighting never really gets too over the top or for the lack of a better term, comic book-y, until the final moments of the movie and it is in the final 15 minutes of the film where the train doesn’t fly off the track, but it begins to wobble like someone put a penny on the rails.
The final showdown, while wrapping up the story, left a little to be desired when compared to all the good the story had set up in the first 90% of the film. Yes, there is a nine-foot tall robotic Silver Samurai and you have already decided whether you hate this decision or not. For me, I was not hot on the idea, but it received a pass from me because of a very guessable reason. I am not saying the end ruins the movie…far from it. It is just a decent end game to a very good movie.
The Wolverine has surprised me more than any other movie this summer. Going in with blinders on, not wanting to remember the horrors of X-Men Origins is the best way to view this. It is far and away better than its should-have-been aborted offspring. It also holds up on its own as a singular movie including Jackman’s best performance as Logan due to a much better script than he has ever had for the character. If this had been the first movie for Wolverine, we would be talking about what an amazing future the character has in his own set of movies, but with the stench of Origins hanging this feels like an apology to fans and a hope that maybe there is more in store for “The Ol’ Canucklehead”.
The Wolverine opened up at number one just like everyone thought it would, but its $55 million take was on the lighter side of expectations with studio estimates leaning more towards a $70 million opening. While initially this would be considered a disappointment, The Wolverine pulled in $86 million from the foreign box office and with a budget of only $115 million, the film is already sitting at almost $150 million after one weekend of release. The gross was on par with 2011’s [amazon_link id=”B004LWZW4C” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]X-Men: First Class[/amazon_link] which opened with $55.1 million.
The Conjuring held over amazingly well in its second weekend. Normally horror movies fall off the face of the Earth in their second weeks, but the James Wan-directed feature managed to pull in $22 million. After two weeks the $20 million film has grossed almost $100 million worldwide.
At the Star Wars Celebration in Europe, it was announced that John Williams would return to score the music for Star Wars Episode VII. There really was little doubt that the legendary composer would be returning to the galaxy far, far away, but there were very few out there (me) that was holding out a little hope that J.J. Abrams collaborator, Michael Giacchino, would get a shot at bringing something new to the franchise.
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to have Williams back on board, it just would be nice to get some new blood infused in the franchise. With Disney planning at least four more Star Wars movies, maybe there is plenty of film to go around for other composers.
Williams can’t do all of them…can he?
Here is Williams talking about returning to the franchise:
