Trailer Thursday: Superman Vs. The Hulk

While not technically a trailer, this fan-film is so amazing I had to post it. I love how they chose the Chris Reeve version of Superman to fight the modern Hulk. I look forward to seeing how this one eventually ends (provided DC or Marvel doesn't shut him down for copyright infringement or something).

Trailer Thursday: Avengers Assemble

Yes, this is the UK version of the movie coming out, but this trailer is amazing and I love how we're finally getting to see the Hulk and Hawkeye do something. I'm really looking forward to this film:




Incidentally, if you live near an AMC theater (which I unfortunately do not) you can go ahead and buy your tickets now for a Marvel Movie Marathon which includes all six Marvel films (3 of them in 3D: Thor, Captain America, and the Avengers) for $40...and you even get a set of custom 3D glasses you can keep!

Trailer Thursday: The Amazing Spider-Man

Here's the newest trailer for the Spider-Man reboot. I can't really see how the Lizard is going to be a strong enough villain to carry the whole film by himself, but I'm still willing to give it a look.

Trailer Thursday: Batman - Death Wish

Cool looking fan film:

Trailer Thursday: World's Finest

If only this could have been made it would have been awesome beyond belief...

Trailer Thursday: The Dark Knight Rises

While work and other commitments have kept from from posting the last few weeks, I couldn't let this one slip by without notice. Looks like it's going to be pretty good, though I hate to see Nolan leaving the franchise.

Trailer Thursday: The Dark Knight 60's Style

I love the old series. I love the new movies. Here we have the best of both worlds.

Trailer Thursday: Batman and Space Ghost

Not a trailer, but because your Thursday needed more awesome...





I'm gonna miss this show when it goes off the air.

Trailer Thursday: The Avengers

I know you've probably already seen this, but it's a ton of awesome. Wish there had been more of the Hulk, but I'm sure they're saving that for later.

Batman Family Feud

Just saw this the other night and loved it. I'm a fan of Mad magazine, and so far the cartoon has been a hit-and-miss thing with some funny stuff and some stupid stuff (like the magazine, I guess). This was good...

Trailer Thursday: Batman Versus...

Gotta love this one. Not really a trailer, but so funny I couldn't pass it up.

Trailer Thursday: Luke Cage

Now here's a Marvel movie you probably won't see made any time soon, but you have to admit the guy does a good job of bringing out the essence of the character. Just kidding! Just for fun...enjoy...

Trailer Thursday: Jonny Quest

While this isn't technically going to be made...ever--but I still remember seeing this cartoon in reruns when I was a kid in the 70's. Plus the fact that this guy has some incredible talent in creating this stop-motion stuff.

Jonny Quest Opening Titles from Roger D. Evans on Vimeo.

Trailer Thursday: Ghost Rider 2

With all the big hero films for this year done and over, it's time to start focusing on the ones coming out next year, I guess. Here's the first for the year, due out in February, which basically means the studio has so little confidence in it that they're hoping stacking it against Valentine's Day romantic comedies will give it a shot to make some money. Anyway...

Plastic Man Cartoon

Really funny! I remember the old Plastic Man series from the 1980's, and I think this version of the character is closer to what the comics had in mind. This was a pilot for a Cartoon Network series, but it never got picked up. Instead we saw him appear in Brave and the Bold for a few episodes.

Superman Revealed!

So we now have a look at the new Superman from Zack Snyder's reboot:

Check it out! With this one picture we've seen this guy in costume more than we saw Tom Welling in one through 10 seasons of Smallville! Yeah, I went there.

Even though this film is two years away (Summer 2013), I'd say we're off to a good start with this look. No, it's not the Christopher Reeve suit--it leans more toward the "Superman Returns" look, actually--but at least it's not some absolutely crazy variant like the first X-Men film.

Snyder did a killer job with Watchmen and kept it close to the original concept in many ways. I'm confident he'll give us something good here as well. The thing he's got going for him is the fact that the comic book hasn't blown people away in a while (we'll see how it goes after the reboot, but "Grounded"? Not that great), so this may be the thing to jump start interest in the character again.

The Rocketeer

A favorite guilty pleasure of mine is the Disney film, "The Rocketeer". My sons grew up watching it and it's a lot of fun. This animated short pays tribute to that film and does it justice. I'd love to see an entire film like this since we'll never see a sequel any other way.



The Rocketeer 20th anniversary from John Banana on Vimeo.

Trailer Thursday: Lost...explained?

This may not qualify as comic book material necessarily, but this video from the SDCC was too good to pass up. Hate the ending of the series? So do these guys...

The Superhero Movies of 2011 - Winners and Losers

Well, the summer movie craze is now officially over, and with no other major superhero releases coming this year let's look back on what we had in 2011 for comic fans.

The Green Hornet

While more of a radio star than a comic book hero, comic fans everywhere went to see this one. Seth Rogan decided to turn his Green Hornet into a profanity-spewing, hard-partying slacker who survives only because Kato is such an awesome sidekic--um, partner.

The movie had some great moments, no doubt. Kato's fight scenes were amazing with him beating up the bad guys in slow motion. The car was cool. The story was okay. Britt Reid in this one was a very poor reflection of the character from the old comic books, radio shows, or even the TV show from the 60's. And the villain? A guy with such a poor self-image as to try to become his own "super villain" character...while he's supposed to be some super mob boss. If you were willing to forgive the shortcomings it was a cute movie that fit well into the January "death zone" for movies.

I doubt we ever see a sequel to this one though.

Thor

This movie was impressive! I went to this one excited to see a superhero film, but with not very high expectations simply because I've never been a Thor fan. I knew him from the Avengers and I occasionally picked up an issue or two if the guest star was interesting enough. I've honestly never understood the draw of the character.

But the movie blew me away. The storyline was interesting enough, and it managed to bring in enough iconic Thor moments (flying with the hammer swinging around him, throwing the hammer and having it come back) to really keep me watching.

Natalie Portman didn't really fit, but I'm looking forward to seeing Loki in the upcoming Avengers film! I actually felt sorry for him because I didn't know his origin until I saw it in the movie (as I said, never a big fan). Anthony Hopkins was a very convincing Odin, that's for sure. I'm really looking forward to seeing the character again next summer.

X-Men: First Class

This was a pretty interesting movie. It was a reboot that was attempting to be faithful to the original trilogy, which seems like a paradox. Still, you have to give them credit for trying.

The inclusion of Havok was a nice touch, even though it went against the comics of him being in the team before Cyclops. Still, given how they wrote the original trilogy it would have been impossible to have the comic book fabulous five there since all had been seen in the films in different ways already.

Instead, we have a movie that actually makes me feel sorry for Magneto. Though the first scene was almost exactly like the first X-Men film, they expanded upon it and gave us a satisfactory ending with Magneto's slow-motion revenge on his former Nazi captor. Even though January Jones brought the film to a standstill with that thing she does and tries to pass off as acting, there were too many incredible wow moments to let that kill the film. The greatest was the Wolverine cameo.

My biggest complaint about this film would have to be the fact that there was no after-credits scene! It has become a Marvel movie tradition in recent years to give us that reason to stick around and see what twist they might throw in for a future movie. How hard would it have been to give us another 90 seconds of some deleted scene?

Green Lantern

A financial disappointment, this film underwhelmed me as well in a lot of areas. The special effects were amazing, and when Hal Jordan finally started using the ring for constructs there in that last battle with Parallax I was cheering him on. Of course, that final scene of Sinestro putting on the yellow ring was a powerful way to end it all too.

Where this film faltered for me was Ryan Reynolds. I love the guy and love his movies, but I get the feeling he was just cast in this role for his name recognition...not because he was perfect for it.

Wally West? Yes sir, I can see that. Hal Jordan? Not so much. His Hal was really a whiner, and the whole "heroic" silent type doesn't work for him. As Deadpool, I think he'll have tons of success. And while I know there's a sequel in the works for Green Lantern, I can't help hoping we see a better-cast backup GL like Guy Gardner or Kyle Rayner in the next film.

Captain America

I couldn't believe it when they cast Chris Evans in the role of Cap. To me, he was a horrible choice. Then I saw the movie and was pleasantly surprised!

To me, this was the perfect movie to cap off the Summer with. It was the strongest Marvel film of this year's bunch. It managed to stay true to the origin of the hero for the most part, and even paved the way for a fairly interesting sequel with Winter Soldier showing up in the future (don't tell me that sniper shot scene with Bucky didn't make you instantly think of Winter Soldier). Likewise, the appearance of Nick Fury at the end was good to set up the Avengers film.

The after-credits sequence in this one was a disappointment though. The trailer for the Avengers film? That was what we got? We'll see that in a few months on television! That was just a cheap filler, but at least it was something.

Trailer Thursday: The Amazing Spider-Man

Don't know what to think, but I love the POV shots they give at the end as if you were really web-slinging.