First official X-Men: Days of Future Past image

Say hello to awkward, 70's versions of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Professor X (James McAvoy). This isn't anything special seeing that a majority of the effects aren't close to done, but at least it isn't a random Twitter pic from Bryan Singer.

Halloween Horror Nights gets a monster remix

Yes, even more Halloween Horror Nights news.

There is a contest going via SyFy for original monsters created by fans to be included in a haunted maze at Universal Studios, but now the winning monsters will be joined by classics in Universal Monsters Remix: Resurrection. The classics being included are Frankenstein and his bride, Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Mummy spanning the scares from the early 20's to the 40's.

Universal Monsters Remix: Resurrection opens alongside Evil Dead: Book of the Dead, Insidious: Into the Further, The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, Curse of Chucky, The Purge: Survive the Night, and Black Sabbath 13 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood. Halloween Horror Nights kicks off in Hollywood and Orlando on September 20th.

Find Carrie launches via Facebook

A new site has launched for the upcoming reboot of Carrie. At Find Carrie, you can buddy up with a friend via Facebook to search through the White household and find Carrie. You can also enter with Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan as your lookouts. This is part of the new Facebook Connect feature.

Kimberly Peirce's Carrie stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Ansel Elgort, Portia Doubleday, Gabriella Wilde, and Alex Russell. It hits theaters on October 18th.

#WhatHappenedToCarrie #Carrie

American Werewolf in London joins Halloween Horror Nights

Universal is really pulling out the stops with Halloween Horror Nights this year. Holy cow.

It was just announced that Universal Studios Orlando will host a maze (aka, Scare Zone) for An American Werewolf in London. The maze will follow the events of the film but will amp up the terror and the intensity. Well, so they say.
Unfortunately this will only be at the Orlando park and not in Hollywood. The other Orlando only maze is The Cabin in the Woods. I mentioned the other day (link) the new mazes announced for Curse of Chucky and The Purge at Universal Studios Hollywood.

The film followed two college students backpacking across Europe. During a full moon in the moors of England they are attacked by a mysterious creature tainting one of them with the werewolf curse.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pushed to August 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been delayed about two months from June 6, 2014 to August 8, 2014. The new adaptation, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, will now face-off against the new Dracula film and The Hundred-Foot Journey. Apparently the push is to separate TMNT from Transformers 4 so each film can enjoy decent profits from toys and other merchandise.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, and Pete Ploszek. 

Is Simon Pegg our Ant-Man?

There have been some names thrown out for the role of Ant-Man but so far no one has been cast or even seriously mentioned. Now we have some rumor that Simon Pegg, the frequent collaborator with director Edgar Wright, is being considered for the role.

Apparently Pegg paid a visit to Marvel Studios and posted some photos via Twitter. If you recall, Vin Diesel recently did something similar and shortly after it was announced that he was in talks for the role of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, Pegg being at Marvel isn't confirmation of anything but it is some sort of proof that the wheels may be turning for Ant-Man casting.

Curse of Chucky and The Purge join Halloween Horror Nights

Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights just keeps getting bigger and bigger. In addition to mazes for Evil Dead, The Walking Dead, Insidious: Chapter 2, The Cabin in the Woods, and Black Sabbath 13, we now have word that mazes and "scare zones" for Curse of Chucky and The Purge are joining in.

Chucky has made several appearances at Halloween Horror Nights and this year they are utilizing the stage to promote the new Child's Play film, Curse of Chucky, which is out on DVD/Blu-Ray on October 8th.
The Purge is a bit of a surprise for me as the reviews on it wavered a lot. However, it did do pretty well at the box office so I guess I shouldn't be too shocked. The Purge: Survive the Night will push guests into the world where all crime is legal for 12-hours.

Ironically, both Curse of Chucky and The Purge come out on DVD/Blu-Ray on October 8th, so this very well could just be a good marketing tool. I still haven't seen The Purge but I didn't think it necessarily looked like a horror movie so the inclusion confuses me a bit.
So far there isn't anything posted on the HHN websites specifying which park these will appear at. So far the only park specific mazes are Insidious: Into the Further (Hollywood only) and The Cabin in the Woods (Orlando only).  I would assume at least one of these will be park specific and my bet is on The Purge: Survive the Night. I have no doubt the Chucky maze will be at both parks.

[UPDATE] - Apparently Curse of Chucky and The Purge: Survive the Night will only be at Universal Studios Hollywood. This comes with the announcement of Orlando's An American Werewolf in London scare zone. 

#UniversalHHN

Legendary exits Batman vs. Superman

It has already been announced that Legendary Pictures was ending their partnership with Warner Bros. and will begin partnership with Universal, but they were going to stick with them long enough to co-finance Zack Snyder's Man of Steel sequel, Batman vs. Superman (or Superman vs. Batman). In a change of events... that isn't happening anymore.

Legendary has decided to exit the Superman sequel and give up all their stake in the film in exchange for a portion of Christopher Nolan's upcoming sci-fi film Interstellar. Batman vs. Superman is not scheduled until 2015 while Interstellar hits theaters next year. This is also somewhat of a given as Legendary has partnered with Christopher Nolan for all three Batman films in the Dark Knight trilogy as well as Inception. Interstellar is being co-produced by Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., so Legendary is probably going to see a hefty payday from this one.

Batman vs. Superman has yet to enter production or announce who will be playing Batman, but the apparent top three is Ryan Gosling (Drive, The Notebook), Josh Brolin (Jonah Hex, Oldboy), and Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Magic Mike). 
Interstellar has already compiled a pretty interstellar (ha ha ha) cast which includes Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Topher Grace, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, etc.. Production officially began earlier this week and is set for a November 7, 2014 release. 

New viral imaging for Catching Fire

The one seriously bugs my eyes out, but these are pretty cool.

Check out my Catching Fire review here.

Sentinel blueprints revealed

Bryan Singer seems to be loyal to using the Sentinels in the viral marketing for X-Men: Days of Future Past as we have yet another image of a Sentinel. This time it is a blueprint of a Sentinel helmet.

If you aren't aware of what a Sentinel is, they are basically big mutant killing robots created by Bolivar Trask (played by Peter Dinklage). We have already had a couple images of the machines in the form of a poster and a set photo of Singer next to one. There is no real word on exactly how much inclusion the Sentinels will have yet, but they are sure to be relevant.

Twilight Forever box set revealed

We all knew this was coming.

A box set featuring all five Twilight movies along with over two hours of new bonus footage will be released on November 5th. Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga will feature each film (10 Blu-Ray discs or 12 DVDs), Ultraviolet digital copies for each, and a photo album. In addition to the previously released 10 hours of bonus footage, the two new hours will feature new behind-the-scenes footage as well as new cast interviews.

The box is two-sided featuring Edward and Bella on one and Jacob on the other.

 

As for pricing, the Blu-Ray is going to run you $74.99 and the DVD is about $65. That isn't bad considering what other ultimate sets can cost you. For a Twilight fan this looks like a pretty legit box-set. I won't be buying it but I'm sure the twihards will get their fix in this holiday season. I also bet certain stores will give away limited edition goodies along with it. Target and Best Buy like to do that sort of thing when it comes to Twilight.

Xbox One scraps the Kinect requirement

Slowly but surely, Microsoft is taking away just about every feature than made loyal Xbox users question their devotion to the new Xbox One system.

If you don't remember... at the E3 conference earlier this summer Microsoft revealed their new Xbox system, the Xbox One. Along with the reveal came several ridiculous features that made it one of the least user friendly consoles in video game history. It originally required an internet connection at least once a day or your system wouldn't play games that you own, you couldn't share games with friends or family, Microsoft points were required, boxing even more headsets, the $500 price tag, etc.. The list just kept going.
Since the backlash and the obvious ass whooping Sony gave Microsoft with the reveal of the Playstation 4, Microsoft has made a lot of changes to the Xbox One. They lifted the restrictive DRM policy that will continue to allow game sharing and selling, the required internet "check-in" was lifted, and Xbox Live will allow game downloads but they won't be mandatory over a disc. In addition to this, Microsoft announced the Kinect bar will no longer be required for the Xbox One.

The original idea for the Kinect in regards to this new system was to have a mandatory, always connected camera and microphone basically watching and listening to your every move. Even when you weren't using it for a game and that did not settle well with a lot of people, including myself. Now the Kinect will have the option to switch off and not be used. It's a simple settings option and if the Kinect is required the console will notify you that you need to go into your settings and update them.


At this point the price tag of $500 is just about the only thing Microsoft hasn't changed about this system. I personally think it's ridiculous. I would have scrapped the system entirely and just rebuilt it based on the feedback received. Users might as well just stick with their Xbox 360's because the Xbox One is essentially becoming the same system only more expensive. Sorry, but Sony is still winning this battle.

Vin Diesel in talks for Guardians of the Galaxy

Despite speculation that Vin Diesel was going to play Vision, Thanos, or Ultron, it seems that he is going to be part of Guardians of the Galaxy. Deadline is reporting that Diesel is in talks to voice Groot, an extraterrestrial plant monster.

News of this came with a rather interesting twist. Diesel apparently changed his Facebook picture to a photo of Groot, but it was quickly taken down and the photo was deleted. Now, this all could be a classic misguided trick by Marvel but I am not doubting it. It probably wasn't announced at D23 this weekend because Diesel hasn't secured any Marvel role yet. We will wait and see.

Guardians of the Galaxy opens on August 1, 2014.

Elysium - Review

Max finds himself in the year 2154 where Earth has become an overpopulated, disease ridden slum. After suffering a life threatening accident, he teams up with a group of rebels in an attempt to break into the wealthy operated, disease free space utopia in Elysium.


I had been looking forward to Elysium for one main reason. That reason being I really, really liked District 9. I mean I really loved that movie, so I wanted to see what else Neill Blomkamp could bring to the table. In the end I wouldn't say Elysium was bad but it wasn't all I thought it was going to be. I did enjoy it but there were certain issues that I had a hard time looking past.

Starting with the plot, I thought the basic outline was flawless. The story was good, the characters had purpose, and they had a great main character in Max. I'm not the biggest Matt Damon fan but he really put it all on the table here and it showed. I applaud him, for sure. The issues I had weren't so much with the plot itself, but with the script. I have seen others say this as well, but it didn't feel completed and the story was very underdeveloped. The first half of the movie was very focused and detailed and in the last half it got really fast paced and felt like they were skipping over a lot of key elements that needed a little more time. They just threw it in front of the audience and basically told us to roll with it. It had very poor pacing and parts that didn't need to drag did while other parts that needed the time didn't get it.
As far as the casting goes I think Blomkamp had a better cast this time around, but he didn't really utilize everyone to their full potential. I mentioned Damon already, but actors like Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley were extremely effective while on screen, but they weren't on screen enough, especially Foster. She was the main villain in this movie and I bet you she didn't have more than 15min of total screen time. The longest she was really on screen was when she was discussing contract renewal with William Fichtner. As for Copley, Blomkamp wasted his biggest talent. He is a fantastic actor and the character he was playing was so insane and villainous that he not only should have been the main villain, but should have had even more development than he did. They threw his character at us as a sleeper agent and then all of a sudden he is an evil guy who wants to take over Elysim. It was a bit out of sorts. Of course that has a lot to do with character development.
I think Blomkamp focused on certain characters a lot more than he needed to. I think Spider, the main rebel leader, had more character development than the villains they were trying to defeat. Hell, the minor characters had more connection to the audience and more development than William Fichtner's character and he was a pretty integral part of the plot.
Apart from that, I think Elysium just focused on special effects and action sequences. I mean, they worked and they looked great but they didn't have a very strong plot to back them up. It was basically telling us, hey we put Matt Damon in a cool robotic exoskeleton. Come watch him blow stuff up. Maybe that's why my theater on a Saturday only had 14 people including myself.
The set design was well done, though. I got to a point where I forgot I was watching a movie while watching scenes on Earth. The gritty feel and the depiction of Earth's citizens was very believable and well done. I will give them that.

And, just because I have to mention it, Jodie Foster had some of the worst ADR I have ever seen. About 90% of the time it was very obvious that her lips didn't match the words her character was speaking. It's almost like she filmed the movie and then changed her mind on what she wanted her character to sound like so they dubbed the audio. The only problem is the audio didn't match the film. It was terribly distracting.


Like I said, despite the problems I did manage to enjoy Elysium. It missed a lot of marks but I wouldn't give it an overall rating lower than a C. It is worth a watch but Neill Blomkamp had a lot more bite with District 9. I think he is just going to have a hard time beating himself out.

D23 Recap: Marvel presents Phase Two

Disney rounded off a solid second day at D23 in Anaheim, CA with the presentations from Marvel Studios. The films focused on were Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thor: The Dark World is the next release coming this November and some new footage was presented. On site was Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, and Anthony Hopkins.

"Thor: The Dark World continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself.  In the aftermath of Thor and The Avengers, Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos, but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness.  Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
It is based on Marvel’s classic Super Hero Thor, who first appeared in the comic book “Journey into Mystery “ #83 in August, 1962. The film releases November 8, 2013."

Captain America: The Winter Soldier doesn't hit theaters until next April, but we are getting some more tips to the plot. It does indeed follow Captain America with his struggles of coping with the current immorality of the world. On site was Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie.

"After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy—the Winter Soldier.
Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941. In theaters April 4, 2014."

Guardians of the Galaxy is still fairly new to everything as it began filming less than a month ago, but it came into D23 in style.  A new clip featured Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) attempting to steal an artifact but is disrupted by a trio of guards. The clip also introduced Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Groot, and Rocket Raccoon. There are still no voices for Groot and Rocket Raccoon. In theaters on August 1, 2014.


Aside from those presentations, there was a brief teaser for The Avengers: Age of Ultron. All there was to it was a shot of Ultron's head coming from a reformed, dented Iron Man helmet. Apart from that, Chris Evans confirmed that filming for The Avengers: Age of Ultron will begin in the first week of March 2014.