TRAILER: The end is nigh! First X-Men: Apocalypse preview is here!

The first trailer for the latest part of the rebooted X-men saga is upon us! Seems to give us a good idea of the mood and general storyline (run for your lives!). The cast looks to be the biggest since the X-Men: The Last Stand. Here's a look at the end of the world:



X-Men: Apocalypse opens on May 27, 2016--nearly 10 years to the day that Last Stand debuted.

UPDATE: Check out the new poster just released for the film:

Top image courtesy: Entertainment Weekly

TRAILER: Some real chemistry going on in Fantastic Four

Somehow they snuck this one in over the weekend, amidst all the Star Wars and Bats v. Capes trailers out there. This looks much improved over the previous trailer that really didn't seem too connected to the famous quartet.

This new trailer though has some real spark to it--and while I won't say it makes me think of the comics, the characters seem to have something driving them, other than scenery this time. Maybe going younger with the main characters wasn't such a bad idea after all.

We get a glimpse of their powers, the Thing in full rocky-regalia, and finally a peek at Dr. Doom!

TEASER TRAILER: Avengers: Age of Ultron hits early!

If you watched Agents of SHIELD last night, you saw a quick mention about the teaser trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was to air with next week's episode. And then the trailer leaked today.

Marvel, being savvy to a good thing when they see it, released this official HD version this evening. Hopefully, they'll seize on next week's SHIELD as an opportunity to show even more. The film's U.S. debut--in all it's Hulkbusting glory--is May 1, 2015.

Enjoy!

Hat tip to io9.com

Zod is not the villain of Man of Steel

Yeah, this is a movie from 2013. Yeah, I should be writing other stuff, but the movie is on and the future of the JLA in movies has been on my mind of late, so....

For the most part, I enjoyed the Man of Steel when I first saw it, in the theater. But, there were of course some problems with the film. And let's not pretend that I think all movies should be perfect--enjoy a great many films on a relative spectrum of quality that can be described as "terrible-to-middling-and-beyond".

Still, there are issues that are difficult for me to reconcile. Here's a few. Oh, and--SPOILERS:

VIDEO: Superman straps on a GoPro camera!

The guys who made this are geniuses. Clearly, they had a lot of fun!



Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how they made it:

New Guardians of the Galaxy image with ROCKET RACCOON!

Feast your eyes on the Guardians of the Galaxy cast as their characters (click image to embiggen). And we finally get a look at Rocket Raccoon as he'll be realized on screen!

Via Newsarama



Via io9

TRAILERS! Jupiter Ascending! Godzilla! Spider-Man!

JUPITER ASCENDING (Film)

Here's a heapin' helpin' of the latest sci-fi trailers to hit the web. First up is a new space opera by Matrix-makers, the Wachowski's!



Jupiter Ascending opens on July 25, 2014.

NO MAN'S SKY (Video Game)

Next is another space-opera-y trailer for an immersive video game called No Man's Sky from Hello Games. Not only do the graphics look gorgeous--they're all in-game shots.


Apparently NMS was made by only four developers and no one had even heard of it until it's trailer debuted at VGX (formerly known as Spike TV's Video Game Awards) a few days ago. Can't seem to track down a release date yet, but it's being developed for PC, XBox, and PS4.

The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Film)

Here's the one for Spider-Man 2 (the re-boot). The visuals are pretty incredible. Hopefully the story is better than the first one.



Spidey returns to screens May 2, 2014.

GODZILLA (Film)

And for the grand finale, Warner Bros has FINALLY released a trailer after the one that was leaked, then pulled offline a few months back, for the Big G himself: GODZILLA!


Gozilla is set to stomp theaters May 16, 2014.

Enjoy!

VIDEO: Superheroes of the DC Universe

Wish Supes a happy anniversary with this awesome montage of him through the ages, plus some fan-made fare!



Wonder Woman Short Fan Film (2013)
THIS. IS. HOW. YOU. MAKE. A. WONDER. WOMAN. MOVIE.

Modern and mythic qualities perfectly blended. Seriously Warner Bros. get it together!

Batman: Dead End Short Fan Film (2003)
Sandy Corolla's take on Bats is 10 years old already and it's still a breath of fresh air in the Batman mythos. Some might say that it takes the genre-crossover a bit too far or the dialog isn't fully baked, but its fun take on the Joker is infectious. Plus, you couldn't do better than this for a "year one" type look for the Dark Knight himself.



P.S. Word is that Superman Vs. Batman starts filming this weekend. Seems so soon, especially when you consider the glacial pace at which WB has been weaving together their Justice League Plans!



Also posted over at Spellcard

Refining Rocket Raccoon for the big screen!

Marvel has dropped several new stills and illustrations (and a now redacted-from-the-web video) showcasing the next phase of their movie universe. From the look of this concept art for Guardians of the Galaxy, it appears my favorite interstellar rodentia, Rocket Raccoon is really starting to come along in the design process.

LITTLE PAWS. BIG GUN. BIGGER MOUTH.

I'm convinced! Now if they'd just tell us who's going to voice him. Here's another shot of RR with some of the other Guardians in a seedy space saloon...

Good stuff! Here are a few more of my favorites, including a couple'a spaceships from GotG...

Falcon spreads his (I'm guessing Ultimates-inspired?) wings in Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier...

And here's a still from Thor 2: The Dark World. I really liked the first one--just the right amount of Silver Age fun and frivolity!

And I'm THRILLED that Ant-Man is actually happening! I've been a Pym fan for many years.But if we can get an Ultron showdown out of this, then we'd be REAL close to finally seeing my personal favorite superhero on-screen for Avengers 3: THE VISION!

I think they did right by his helmet, giving it a real old-school look. (I should clarify though that these stills are from live-action test footage. So it could change.)

One can only hope. Anyway, I need to get caught up on Guardians of the Galaxy comics ASAP!

• Scifi blog io9 has more GotG goodness. 
• Images courtesy Collider. There's even more at the link.

Fleischer Superman toons now online!

They've been in the public domain for years (and consequently in dozens of DVD compliations) but Warner Bros. has uploaded the classic Superman cartoons from Fleischer Studios.

In my totally unprofessional opinion, these are among the very best early animations of ol' Supes, bringing together the best of the early rotoscope animation style with the classic wonder of the Golden Age. There's no time-defying Kryptonian to wind back the clock by circling the Earth here--just a guy leaping tall buildings in a single bound (okay, he does fly a bit). Oh, and tearing the shiznit out of some robots!

I've stuck with a properly themed sci-fi episode, Mechanical Monsters, which later went on to inspire some even BIGGER automatons in movies like the Iron Giant and Sky Captain: World of Tomorrow.

Check out the full list of the Fleischer toons at Cartoon Brew.

Incidently, Hydra Miniatures has some excellent "warbots" that look like good stand-ins for Iron-Sky-Fleisher-bots!

Rocket Raccoon = My New Hero

Sometimes you just have to buy a comic because of the cover.

RR and Groot on a recent issue of The Annihilators

Nevermind the fact that I currently don't read this series and couldn't care about the other characters. It has a picture of a ray-gun wielding anthropomorphic raccoon on the front, with rocket ships and some sort of wooden dude in the background.

$3.99? Sold--I can't get my debit card out fast enough.

Image: OHotMU

I vaguely remember reading about Rocket Raccoon in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHotMU) series from the late 80s. I thought he was a little childish then. I was into Star Wars and Avengers comics, so I couldn't be bothered with "kiddie" comics.

Part of my prejudice may be blamed on Howard the Duck. Not the laudable comic book, but the dismal movie that was relegated to cinematic shovelware as soon as it hit theaters. I'm not gonna lie, I looked at the raccoon and saw a man in a duck costume. 

Was I ever wrong. RR is about as pulpy-adventure as it gets. The  latest Annihilators issue (pictured above) has a solo adventure that's not to be missed.

"WHO SAYS I DIG THROUGH TRASH? 

Rocket's comeback is now in full swing. At San Diego Comic Con, Hasbro revealed that they're giving the lil' guy an action figure--which is like saying "you are now worthy to be duplicated thousands of times and lost in playground sandboxes all over the country". And really, that's something special.

In any case, RR is okay in my book.

• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (on Wikipedia)
• Official RR Marvel page. (FYI, Marvel's website is strewn with broken and bad links)
• Rocket's plant buddy, Groot

Props to Cool Toy Review for taking great photos ad SDCC '11.