Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Teaser

Back in 2011, I was actually pretty surprised at how decent Rise of the Planet of the Apes was. Now I'm even more surprised to learn that a sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is coming out on July 11th. And here's the first teaser trailer which is basically just showing about 30 seconds of apes. But the CGI continues to be pretty damn good.

Who is Arkham Knight?

Credit: nerdist.com

Arkham Knight is not just the title of the the upcoming Batman game from Rocksteady Studios, but it's also the name of a brand new character, possibly a villain or anti-hero in the game. He looks like a more rugged version of Batman Beyond. Aside from this picture, details on the character are non-existent so your guess is as good as mine as to who he is. With the wealth of villains in the Batman Universe, and a ton of them used in the previous Arkham games, it makes sense for Rocksteady to design a new character to fit into their universe.

Polygon also has this great report detailing how the Batmobile gets used in the game. On top of transportation, you can use it to take out enemy vehicles, solve Riddler puzzles, escape sticky situations, and even using it in conjunction with grappling in order to glide around Gotham city.

With the series coming back to Rocksteady, and Arkham Knight being touted as the final game in the Rocksteady trilogy, it gives us a great reason to pick up a next gen console later this year.

24: Live Another Day: Risk Trailer Breakdown

Enough of these trailers that disappoint. I apparently have to go to TV to get something I want. If you haven't seen the latest trailer for 24: Live Another Day, here it is!

X-Men: Days of Future Past Trailer Breakdown

Apparently it's underwhelming trailer day because I've decided to give another breakdown to X-Men: Days of Future Past. Well maybe not a full breakdown, but definitely a glimpse into one of my least anticipated movies of the year. I really don't know what it is. Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellan can do no wrong. James McAvoy is a fine actor. Hugh Jackman & Jennifer Lawrence are extremely likable. I've been on the Michael Fassbender bandwagon since 300. And Peter Dinklage has been riding a wave of goodwill from Game of Thrones. With all this talent, why am I not more excited? Maybe the franchise has finally exhausted me? Maybe another post-apocalyptic movie isn't what I want to see? Or maybe too much, is just that- too much! In any case, let's take an abbreviated look at this trailer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles First Trailer Breakdown

The first trailer of the Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just dropped and I'm well... I honestly don't know what to think about it. I keep telling myself to keep an open mind about things, and not lose my cool over stuff that ultimately I have no control over, and I know it's just a teaser, but it feels like they've changed so much to the point it's not even identifiable as TMNT. The trailer alludes to the mythology of how the turtles came to be as an experiment, not an accident, and was contributed to by both April O'Neil (Megan Fox)'s father and the Shredder (William Fichtner). You got that? Shredder is one of the pilots from Armageddon. He's the evil prison guard captain from The Longest Yard. He's the guy who adopted and abandoned Jimmy MacElroy in Blades of Glory. Bill Fichtner is a fine actor, but was Ken Watanabe busy that day? Also, the Turtles are friggin' huge! They're tall, they're beefy, basically completely Bay-ified. And they're super ugly too! I know they wanna go in a different direction but this feels like an off-ramp to another dimension. Anyway, the action moves super fast in this trailer so let's examine it a little more closely and see how well I can keep my cool.

Green Goblin is so... Gobliney

The Wrap has a great close up photo of what Dale DeHaan will look like as the Green Goblin in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2. It's so organically disgusting, rotting teeth, pointy nose, it looks like it's straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie. Sam Raimi's Goblin was such a letdown looks wise. This new Goblin look is a step in the right direction, although the lack of green skin is a bit bothersome. Of course the wrong shade of green skin and you have the Wicked Witch of the West or the Hulk. But so far, I'm just glad it's not a mask.

LEGO Simpsons!

Credit: gizmodo.com

Gizmodo has pix of all 16 LEGO Simpsons mini-figs! And I must have them all! They are set to release before the LEGO themed episode of The Simpsons premiering on May 4th. Check them out here!

Indiana Jones Reboot/Recast?!?

The fine folks over at Latino Review always seem to break some big stories, or at the very least report some juicy rumors concerning some of my favorite franchises. This time, word is Disney/Lucasfilm has plans to recast the role of Indiana Jones, and at the top of the list is Bradley Cooper.

Now let's look at this logically. Harrison Ford is getting a bit long in the tooth, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was by far the worst outing for our favorite archaeologist. If Disney/Lucasfilm is indeed moving forward with another Indy movie, wouldn't recasting be a good idea so you can avoid having to watch a septuagenarian running around getting into and out of trouble?

Now I'm not saying this is a good idea. Bradley Cooper is a fine actor who's been nominated for 2 Oscars, was great in The Hangover, and I've known about him since his days on Alias. I'm just saying I'd much rather see Cooper in an Uncharted movie, which for all intensive purposes is pretty much the same as Indiana Jones. Does that even make any sense?!?

Indiana Jones is one of my all time favorite franchises, and rebooting it SHOULD be blasphemy for me, but you know what? Star Trek got recast and I was okay with it. James Bond gets recast and I'm okay with it. The world moves on, and those original movies will always exist in my memories and in my Blu-Ray boxed sets. If Bradley Cooper becomes the next Indiana Jones, it is NOT the end of the world, although some nerds out there would have you think so.

Remember, this is just a rumor. We could all be getting into a hissy fit just for nothing. But it's fun to talk about isn't it?

So what do you think? Is the recasting a good idea? Or should Harrison Ford don the fedora one more time? And do you agree with my opinion or am I just a coward not taking any sides?

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Final Trailer Breakdown

The final trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 released today and it really shows way more action than we've ever seen before, which may be a good or bad thing depending on how you feel about spoilers. But it any case, it does make me pretty excited to see this film. Spidey seems to have dropped some of his angst ridden emo-ness and adopted his more familiar snarky attitude.

Optimus Prime: Year of the Horse

I recently picked up a Masterpiece Year of the Horse Optimus Prime which is part of the 30th Anniversary Platinum Edition line. This figure is a must have for any Transformers fan. Let's take a closer look.

First off the packaging is pretty awesome. The box is bright, has some great artwork on it, and the front opens to reveal Optimus already in his robot form. He's also fairly easy to remove as there are only about 5-6 twist ties keeping him in place.

 






The actual figure is amazing. It's the same mold as the MP-10 Prime which came out in 2011, and I unfortunately missed. The chrome that is typically on Optimus is replaced with gold plating, and he is a darker shade of red than normal. So he's sort of blinged out and muted at the same time. Even the ion blaster has changed from black to a dark bronze color, and it also folds up to fit in the back while Optimus is in vehicle mode. While the toy is mostly made of plastic, it has a sturdy feel, and all his joints are tight to provide great posing opportunities.

Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer: Secrets

Another trailer! Sansa's sad, Cersei's angry, Littlefinger "advises," and Dany shows her righteousness. Plus, Tywin on the Iron Throne & a big ass dragon!

The First Rule of 8-Bit Fight Club Is:

You do not talk about 8-Bit Fight Club. But this is more 16-Bit, so I'm gonna go ahead and talk about it. CineFix turned Fight Club into Streets of Rage, complete with penguin slide, fat stealing, and starting a fight with a stranger scenario. It's obviously not real, but looks like it would be a fun co-op game. CineFix has a ton of other 8-Bit Cinema mashups including Pulp Fiction whose funniest bit is how they turned injecting adrenaline into Mia much like making a field goal, and The Dark Knight which is turned into a top-down Legend of Zelda game. And they all have great 8-bit music. Check them out!

Monday March 10, 2014 Catchup

Watch Dogs finally has a release date. The open world stealth hacking game comes out May 27th for all current and next-gen consoles. The fine folks at Ubisoft, who are responsible for the Splinter Cell, Far Cry & Assassin's Creed series are behind the game and it looks quite promising. It looks like a blend between Assassin's Creed and the Batman Arkham Series where hacking computers is a major feature of completing objectives. I'm not particularly a fan of open world games, but I might try this one out.

Thor: The Dark World is What Man of Steel Should Have Been

Earlier this week Zack Snyder gave an interview to Hero Complex where he defended his unconventional casting choices for the upcoming Batman vs. Superman film. It's clear from the interview that Snyder has a ton of passion but is fairly frustrated with all the hate directed at him. I don't want to pile on, but I thought this would be a good time to talk about why I thought Man of Steel was a good film, but Thor 2 suits my tastes better.

Warning: There be spoilers for both films below.

Another Captain America 2 Trailer?!?

UPDATE: It would seem the first video was removed. I've found another and replaced it, but it may be removed as well. I'll keep you updated if that happens again.

Actually the first 3 minutes of this video are straight up a scene from the movie where we see Cap, Black Widow, and a team of SHIELD Agents infiltrate an enemy base in order to rescue hostages held by Georges Batroc, one of the movie's secondary villains. The last minute has all the trailery bits we've come to expect, but the whole video is a great look at the action and tone of what Captain America: The Winter Soldier might be. Marvel has really amped up the hype machine for this one. Can you wait for April 4th?

Captain America 2: Trailer Breakdown

Captain America: The Winter Soldier had another trailer debut last night during Agents of SHIELD.

Transformers 4 Trailer Breakdown Part 2

Here's the 2 1/2 minute trailer for Transformers 4: Age of Extinction!

Batman: Arkham Knight Announcement Trailer

The trailer to the latest Batman video game: Batman: Arkham Knight just got released and it looks kick ass! The trailer is subtitled "Father to Son" and features the reading of Thomas Wayne's will, all while an assortment of villains including Harley Quinn, Two-Face, & Penguin wreak havoc on Gotham. Bruce Wayne also readies himself for battle with a brand new Batsuit and Batmobile. Arkham Knight is the final game in the Arkham series, and will feature the first drivable Batmobile. It will be available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC later this year. You can read more about it over at kotaku.com.

Monday March 3, 2014 Catchup

Credit: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/59181

Doctor Who is something I've only recently gotten into and to find out that there were no LEGO sets available was disappointing. Apparently the merchandising license was owned by another toy manufacturer so LEGO had no rights to make any sets or to accept any fan made sets submitted to LEGO Cuusoo. But now that license has expired and Doctor Who is fair game. This is very similar to the process the Ghostbusters set went through. Fans submit their ideas, we vote on them, and then the folks at LEGO decide whether it's feasible to produce a version of the most popular set, like this one. So head on over to LEGO Cuusoo, check out some of these fan submissions, and hopefully we'll get a Doctor Who LEGO set sometime in the future.