Archive for: Marvel

Iron Man’s Post-Traumatic Stress

The just-released Iron Man 3 trailer picks up after the Avengers save the world from Loki and Tony Stark’s crashing hard. “Nothing’s been the same since New York,” admits Tony. And that’s before Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley) sets to work destroying Iron Man’s world.  +Continue Reading

Keeping ‘The Avengers’ Honest

Someone forgot to send us a review copy of The Avengers on Blu-ray even though we really liked the movie when it hit theaters last spring. So enjoy this Screen Junkies Honest Trailer parody instead of our usual insightful commentary about the extras and image quality.

A Visit to Comic-Con

Pro Tip: Click once on the photo above and they’ll open up into a large slideshow.

If you read about San Diego’s Comic-Con at most news sites, you might get the impression that the convention is a Hollywood showcase for superhero and sci fi movies. That’s not really accurate. It’s more a thin layer of Batman and Marvel comics movies spread over a giant pile of vintage comic books, Star Trek costumes and Star Wars action figures.

What you won’t see on the show floor at Comic-Con: sports (there’s even a trading card booth that’s called Non-Sports Cards), rock music (unless you count reality TV star Gene Simmons) or cop movies (unless they’re science fiction Cops From the Future). It’s like the organizers got together and created a space free of all the stuff that tortured them in junior high school. +Continue Reading

Avengers Hangover

Now that The Avengers has established all kinds of box office records, it’s time for the studio to start thinking about a sequel. We like this idea: Fear and Avenging in Las Vegas, a mashup that bolts the plot of The Hangover onto the Marvel comics universe.

Protecting the Pentagon Brand

Obviously, in a culture tasked with making life-and-death decisions about the fate of the free world, making decisions about Pentagon support of Hollywood movies doesn’t qualify as the most critical task on the national agenda. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly difficult. How can someone look at a few typed pages and maybe some concept drawings and decide which movies will reflect well on the men and women who serve our country?

When things turn out well, you get Act of Valor. It may not win a truckload of Oscars next spring, but the filmmakers did a great job of putting at a part of the Navy SEAL culture onscreen for regular Americans (and foreigners) to see.

And then you have Battleship and The Avengers. The Navy went all-in on one and the Pentagon passed on the other. Why? +Continue Reading

Captain America’s New Team

So we’ve reached this moment: Captain America has decided against a leadership role in the United States Military and aligned himself with some sort of shadow organization that may or may not have close ties to the government yet definitely has an affiliation with defense contractor Tony Stark. The new trailer for The Avengers debuted this week and Mark Ruffalo looks like he’s the best Hulk yet. There have been five movies setting this one up (2 Iron Mans, 1 Hulk, 1 Thor and last summer’s Captain America), so writer/director Joss Whedon better deliver on a lot of expectations when this one hits theaters on May 4th.

(Since the U.S. trailer is exclusive over on the Apple site, this is the UK version with an alternate title designed to keep the Brits from confusing it with their own beloved TV show.)

Captain America Takes on Blu-ray

Captain America: The First Avenger is out now on a three-disk Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy combo pack. There’s also a two-disc pack that leaves out the 3-D version and a single DVD that doesn’t come with the digital copy.

Captain America is the fifth movie in a confusing-to-outsiders-but-totally-logical-to-comics-fans Marvel film series leading up to next summer’s The Avengers. The others (in order: Iron Man & The Incredible Hulk in 2008, Iron Man 2 in 2010 and Thor in 2011) were of varying quality, but this one is the best Marvel film since the original Iron Man. +Continue Reading

Countdown to the Avengers

The official first trailer for next May’s Avengers movie has hit the Internet and it’s pretty much by-the-numbers with no huge suprises. Loki from Thor is back as the bad guy and both Iron Man and Captain America have infinitely more charisma than the rest of the team, if you discount organizer and not-exactly-a-superhero Nick Fury. Still, already looks better than Green Lantern.

Captain America: The First Avenger — Patriotic & Proud!

I like to call them the 12:01s, the film fans that flock en-masse to the late-night screenings of the latest and greatest screen adaptations of classic comic books — last night in a balmy Washington, DC, I once again joined these legions of comic fans and college kids for the ‘local premiere’ of Captain America : The First Avenger. +Continue Reading

Do We Need Another Spider-Man?

It’s Comic-Con week in San Diego, so we’re getting flooded with hype for next year’s movies. No way was Marvel going to let DC have the last word with Batman, so today we’ve got the trailer for next summer’s reboot called The Amazing Spider-Man. +Continue Reading