Some DC Reboot Covers

Detective Comics 1

Catwoman 1

Nightwing 1

Swamp Thing 1

Movies I've Seen: X-Men - First Class

Just got back from watchin' X-Men: First Class, and I thought that it was a very well put together movie. I liked that the storyline riffed on both the Connery Era Bond movies as well as the superhero genre, but I'm always a sucker for retroscience fiction stories.

I thought that James MacAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Kevin Bacon were all great in their roles as Charles, Eric and Shaw respectively, but the real points I feel should go out to Jennifer Lawrence for her protrayal of Mystique, who managed to lift a rather one-note character from the previous films into something a bit more special.

The plot skipped along at a fairly good pace, though I especially liked the sections at the beginning which involved Eric in his Nazi hunting days. I have to admit that I may have seen too many movies at this point, but the fact that Charles' manor was the same mansion that they used for Wayne Manor in Batman Begins really amused me. As did a Soviet general having a summer home that was used in a Bond movie, Living Daylights I think it was, as a Mi6 safehouse.

I liked a number of the little touches in the movie, like a couple of cameos from the previous X-men movies (one of which was damn hilarious), as well as little things like how James MacAvoy's Xavier isn't really the wise and allknowing leader he'd be by the time he'd aged into Patrick Stewart. For example, his means of attempting to calm Eric down, considering Magneto's history, was really, REALLY a poor decision on his part.

If I have any complaints though, and they'll be pretty minor ones at that, is if they wanted this to be a straight-up reboot of the franchise instead of the prequel that they intended, they really should have checked it a bit more for inconsistencies. Like the difference between the ages of Emma Frost in this movie and Emma in her cameo in that crap Wolverine flick.

Oh, and Beast's facial make-up was awful.

All in all, I'd recommend this movie, if only because the team of Michael Vaughn and Jane Goldman have done a stellar job in turning what was rapidly becoming the Hugh Jackman Show, featuring some other mutants, into more of an effective team superhero movie.

Kind of saddened that due to Fox owning the rights to the X-Men movies we won't have a Michael Fassbender/Ian MacKellan Magneto versus Hugo Weaving's Red Skull fight, but c'est la vie.

The Dark Knight Rises Goes Viral!

Yup, it's around a year until the next Batman movie to come out, and you know what that means... Viral Videos!

Here are three I've found, which are apparently a breakout at Arkham Asylum and fires spreading across the city.






And here's the facebook link from the fourth video, because I'm NICE,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fire-Rises/219657001385788?sk=wall

Tangled Short In Production, Yay!

Should be completed by the end of the year!

http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/37151/tangled-short-in-the-works

Angry Joe Show: LA Noire Review

Yeah, he pretty much covers all the things I was going to mention.

Tomb Raider Trailer

A trailer of what I think is going to be a prequel to the rebooted series,

Casstoons: My Take on the DC Reboot

The DC Reboot: My Reaction by *EspanolBot on deviantART

Upcoming Movies I'm Interested In: Disney/Pixar's 'Brave'

Brave is being advertised as being Pixar's first fantasy movie, which leads to the question as to how the cars in Cars and the toys in the Toy Story movies were moving about on their own but I digress. It's also their first movie to have a female protagonist, which is good in my opinion. Pixar and Dreamworks have some up with some interesting female characters in the past, but the fact that Pixar hasn't had one in the lead role is kind of weird.

It's being directed by Brenda Chapman, who directed Prince of Egypt and who is Pixar's first female director, and the lead, Merida, was originally going to be played by Reese Witherspoon but they got rid of her midrecording and replaced her with an actual Scot, in the form of Broadwalk Empire's Kelly MacDonald.

Wait, Entertainment Weekly have a proper synopsis,
"Brave is set in the mystical Scottish Highlands, where Merida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). An unruly daughter and an accomplished archer, Merida one day defies a sacred custom of the land and inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom. In an attempt to set things right, Merida seeks out an eccentric old Wise Woman (Julie Walters) and is granted an ill-fated wish. Also figuring into Merida’s quest — and serving as comic relief — are the kingdom’s three lords: the enormous Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), the surly Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), and the disagreeable Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane)."

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/03/28/brave-pixar-first-look/

Some concept art and what is possibly an early screenshot,

New Arkham City Trailer, Now Featurin' Catwoman!

Jim Lee's perspective on the new DC direction

Not really that much new information, a lot of enthusiasm about the change, as to be expected. He DOES say that Kate Kane (the current Batwoman), Jaime Reyes (current Blue Beetle) and Vic Stone (Cyborg) will all be around still, but I'm still a bit worried about the future of Cass and Steph to be honest.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2011-06-01-dc-comics-why-the-change_n.htm