Assimilate this...

Zombie Star Trek comedy...

Consdier our fight begun...

Scott Pilgrim vs the World was never on my limited comic book radar, but this adaptation from the Spaced team looks like it may be as faithful to the original as Sin City was to to Millers comics. Lets hope it's more than style over content - knowing Edgar Wright - I'm sure it will be. Check out this new kick-ass trailer, I'm excited.

And it aint Bob Marley...

Hooray for Zombieland!!! It was a lovely refreshing take on a tired and overused horror device. The good news is that the writers have a go ahead for a sequel. More good news is that originally they planned on making it a tv series and so have "a wealth of material" at their disposal. After a sequel news is that a series is still very much on the cards. This twinned with the fact that Frank Darabont is still rumored to be directing "The Walking Dead" comic book franchise also as a series can only point out the obvious. Zombies just will not lay down and die...

Yeah. I can fly...

Looks like Mickey Rourke is playing Whiplash in Iron Man 2. I don't know a whole lot about the Iron Man comics, but Rourke looks kinda coool, a stripped down Iron Man. Any good? Who can tell...

Bleh...

I just don't know anymore.
I like comics, but enough is enough. Isn't it?

Magic: six. Strength: seven. Interest after 45 minutes: three…

I can’t for the life of me understand why Hellboy II: The Golden Army has got such glowing reviews. Nothing too unusual about the likes of Empire and Ain’t It Cool offering unstinting praise to a comic-based film (4 stars from Empire for Sin City? I mean, come on…Sin City?), no matter how average, but I was a bit surprised to read glowing reviews from The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw and from Time Out, normally bang to rights with every review.

Seemed to me Guillermo del Toro fell straight into the Tim Burton trap of caring far more about the production design than the camerawork, pacing, editing etc. If you care too much about what’s on screen and too little about the tools you use to put it up there then you’ve basically got the cinematic equivalent of prog rock.

The saving grace was some of the interaction between characters – Hellboy and Abe, pissed and singing along to Barry Manilow was a nice touch – but too often this just seemed like the usual semi-ironic approach you get to superhero films. It seemed like any other director could have directed that film and not much would have been different – as though del Toro spent so much time designing the things in the scene that he forgot to design the scene itself, if you see what I mean. One of the things that’s so beguiling about the comic is the sense of design in every frame – sparse, gloomy and impeccably laid out. In this, every scene was chock full of bloody goblins, making it a bit like how the inside of Games Workshop must appear to twelve year-old boys. And there was too much CGI.

And too many goblins.

And Harry Knowles loves it, and he’s a fat tit.

Who will watch the Watchmen...

Ok, here it is. Probably the most anticipated comic-book to film adaptation in recent memory. Its based on the Eisner award winning, Alan Moore scripted, Dave Gibbons illustrated cult graphic novel Watchmen. Probably my all-time favourite comic book ever, alongside Alan Moore's V For Vendetta and Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston's The Coffin. If you haven't read Watchmen I strongly suggest you buy a copy now and read it before the films release, its utter genius (not a word I use lightly). Anyway, Zack Snyder (of 300 fame) is directing this one and they have just released the first trailer. I have to say that it looks fantastic but whether they will do justice to the source material remains to be seen. Watch it here in glorious HD.

Robert Downey Jr, Cowboys & Aliens...

Just saw this article over at the Hollywood Reporter. Looks like our friend Robert Downey Jr has got a taste for graphic novel adaptations. This one looks pretty cool. It's Cowboys & Aliens. 'Av a butchers.

You won't like me when I'm hungry...

Right then, here we are again. Five years after Ang Lee's Hulk and I find myself sitting in my local flee pit watching The Incredible Hulk, again. I'm not gonna review it, leave that up to the professionals. What I was interested in was the Marvel crossover thing that appears to be occurring. Comics crossover and share universe's all the time, and it looks like it might be on the cards for comic derived summer blockbusters.
There has always been the odd nod to or mention of other characters in superhero films. In Superman Returns there is a news report that mentions Gotham City and there is usually a dig at the opposition. In Sam Raimi's Spider-man (Marvel), Parker says "Up, up and away, Web!" referring to the 1978 Superman the Movie (DC). There are loads more crossovers I'm sure, more than an unseasoned comic fan like me would ever notice.
But what looks to be happening is too big to miss. At the end of the knock about fun of Iron Man, post credits, Samuel L. Jackson turns up to chat to Robert Downey Jr. about some team stuff. Turns out this is Nick Fury inviting Tony Stark/Iron Man to join S.H.I.E.L.D. I never really followed Iron Man so knew little about what this meant, except of course a bigger better sequel.

Then I saw Ed Norton's Hulk, again with lots of nice crossover, mentioning Stark Industries and stuff. There was also a similar post credit tit bit, alough it was screened before the credits, probably something to do with Norton's heavy re-editing, it shows.

This teaser of things to come, not only features Tony Stark as played by the brilliant Downey Jr. but it possibly hints at an even bigger and better crossover to come. A crossover that even I had heard of; the Avengers. Not the abysmal '98 TV series remake, but the Marvel Avengers, "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", consisting of Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk.

From what little digging I've done it appears that the line up changed over the years and ended up including Echo, Ronin, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Fist with Luke Cage and included Spider-woman at one point.

Point is; if the new Marvel Studio is heading where it looks like they are heading, this could be a pretty special time for the tired comic-to-film industry. A film that includes all these characters would be great and there is loads of material to distill a decent script from, but more exciting is building it up and incorporating the different cast to make a powerhouse of a film.

Hulk wasn't so hot, I was having trouble understanding why it was out so soon and it wasn't until the end with Downey Jr. that the penny dropped. Edgar Wright is set to make Ant-Man for 2010, Matthew Vaughn with Thor and in 2011 Nick Cassavetes is supposed to be bringing out The First Avenger: Captain America, another character who later joined the Avengers comics.

Looking on IMDb I also found a very sparse entry for the Avengers:

When Captain America is awakened from an icey prison, and some of the greatest evils earth has seen are born, the Avengers go into action. Captain America, Iron-Man, Hulk, Wasp, Ant-Man and Thor. Will they be able to stop the likes of Loki and the Masters of Evil?

Looks as if they are moving the original lineup around a tad but what's new? (I'm being a little tight, Captain America originally joined the Avengers after the first four issues - almost like he was late turning up.)

Roll on the next few summers is all I say. This should be a doozey.



Bark...

WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY...

Hello fellow doghousers!!!!!

Does the world really need another studio? Marvel seem to think so! Having already put Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk through their shiny new baby, and with a long line of others in the pipeline (Captain America and Thor to name...well two) they could be contenders to the big boys. What this will mean for the Spider-man franchise is anyones guess but anything is better than the last dire outing for the friendly neighbourhood webslinger.

If the Hulk does as well as ol' shellheads underdog outing then expect all your Marvel favourites to come swimming, flying and swinging out of the woodwork. I only hope they know what they are doing...

I want you to do me a favour, I want you to tell all your friends about me...

I can't condone capturing films at the cinema on a shite camera phone...



...but the first five minutes of Nolan's Dark Knight looks damn good. Roll on July 25th.
From what I can make out there's something a bit 'Michael Mann' about it all...
Woof.