Earth's Mightiest Heroes

So I've been really getting into the Avenging spirit lately, have you?

Last week I saw Captain America: The First Avenger and it was one of my favorite superhero films of all time. Director Joe Johnston just nailed the tone and look. Everyone keeps referencing his work on The Rocketeer, which was great, but Don't forget he also made a few clunkers so I'll say I was really pleased to see he brought his A-game to this one. Minor nitpicks like the way they killed off Bucky aside the film delivered on all fronts especially the cast. The film has pitch perfect casting and really great performances all around. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet I'd obviously, highly recommend it.

So as we all should know by now, Caps story is dovetailing into next summer's big Avengers film, being directed by none other than Jon Favreau. The movie will bring together every geek's wildest comic to film dreams, with Captain America joining Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow on Marvel's premiere super team The Avengers. There's already a short teaser trailer up for the film, and if you missed it the first time, the ending and credit sequence to The First Avenger, give us a bit more teaser goodies on the upcoming film.

I'm pretty stoked about The Avengers movie, since I've been a Marvel fanboy for a very long time. While I was never a huge Avengers follower, preferring to stick mostly with Spider-Man and some of the cosmic guys like Silver Surfer, I always enjoyed seeing my favorites interact with the Avengers, and whenever there was a big company wide event storyline I was always excited. The trick as with any ensemble cast is to make sure everyone gets enough screen time, and that it all serves the story. With this creative team involved though I am heartily optimistic.

I also just recently finished watching the first season of the latest Marvel cartoon on Netflix, and it couldn't have gotten me more in the mood for some Avengers action. The cartoon, which launches into its second season this October on DisneyXD, is of course The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

The first season consists of twenty six 22 minutes episodes and will set you up really well with everything you'd want to know about the Avengers and more. All of the major players are introduced and explored, as well as most of the major villains, and even a few of the bigger storylines are tackled in this first season. As anyone who's read The Avengers comic even a little bit like me knows, the team has had a few different makeups over the years and Earth's Mightiest Heroes is no different. After the obligatory origin episodes, which I'm actually very glad they didn't rush through, the team lineup features: their team leader Iron Man, along with Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Ant Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, and Black Panther. Additionally a few other 'Avengers-to-be' make regular appearances, like Black Widow, and Wonder Man. What's great about these characters and the writing, headed up by Christopher Yost, is that everyone is given time to develop organically, we get a great balance of character moments where the players actually grow throughout the season and amazing battle sequences where the viewer is treated to just minute after minute of perfectly choreographed battle scenes.

If you think you're even remotely interested and you have Netflix streaming, I'd really recommend checking it out. The season is available for instant streaming right now, and if you only want to give one or two episodes a try, jump ahead to the two parter The Breakout, which kicks the season into high gear and gives a good sample of the action to come.

While I was on a Netflix streaming kick I realized that there are a lot of other Marvel superhero shows online. The 90s cartoons of X-Men, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Silver Surfer are all available in their entirety right now; although Fantastic Four, and perhaps to be expected the pretty awful Avengers: United They Stand cartoons are not there. Other great Marvel cartoons are though, including the Spider-Man 1967 series, the first of the excellent two season Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, X-Men: Evolution, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, and the first season of the currently airing Iron Man: Armored Adventures (season 2 is in full swing now on Nicktoons). Unfortunately, none of the other more recent Marvel animated series (Wolverine and the X-Men or any of the Marvel anime projects) are available yet; nor are any of the other older Marvel animated series like the classic Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. That said there is also one more cool new series that is available on instant Netflix streaming that should be checked out: Black Panther the animated series. While I understand why fans we're a bit disappointing to learn that this miniseries (its only 120-ish minutes long in its entirety) wasn't much more than a souped up motion comic, I'd still really urge you to have a look. If you like motion comics, then you're in luck, this is probably the best produced motion comic ever with voice talents that include the amazing Djimon Hounsou, Alfre Woodard, and Kerry Washington. Also it's got a pretty kick ass opening title sequence with a catchy song.

If from all my babbling you can't tell yet, I am a pretty huge fan of these Marvel superheros. I love seeing how they work solo, getting in depth on their backstory and rogues gallery; but I'm also a huge fan of when they meet, crossover, and have excellent adventures together. That's why I'm so looking forward to the Avengers movie. A great crossover crossover is in the making and I don't think anyone would have anticipated that it could be done on such a scale in a live action form. For us fanboys this is a dream come true, and for everyone else, we'll this is the best time ever to get into a hero or three. I'm sure we'll get into more Avengers goodness as the film approaches release next summer, but until then count me very excited!
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A long list of quick hits

There is a lot of coverage on the San Diego Comic Con out there, but much of it is buried in panel reports and drawn out press events. Also the world has not stopped turning just because of the con. There is other cool entertainment news to be had as well. But I just don't have the time to write up posts about everything. So maybe a few quick hits are in order. I mean, theres a lot of cool stuff going on, I wouldn't want to miss it. And with that said here are a few quick stories or links for you.

According to THR, Leonardo DiCaprio and his Apian Way production company are looking to possibly make a series of movies out of old Twilight Zone stories. They've put the call out to writers for pitches.

Some descriptions of the 3 minutes of Tr2n footage that was screened at the con can be read here and here, with more follow up details at AICN. And just a note, the footage was NOT actually from the new movie.

Cartoon Network is developing 3 comic book titles into tv movies. The first is Firebreather, a story about a teenager growing up in a divorced family with a typical worrying mother, and a fire-breathing dragon for a father. The next is The Mice Templar, a book about templar mice, a prophecy, and oh so much more. When I was at Wizard World the creator gave me a full 5 minutes on the book after I guessed that it was probably just like Mouseguard... And the third is The Vanishers, about a fifth grader who travels through time to rescue his friends after they start disappearing from existence.

Bryan Singer is developing a feature based on the comic miniseries Freeedom Formula , a sci fi about a high speed illegal mecha racing circuit and the cost of freedom in a fascist techno-future. Seems reminiscent of IGPX with a bit of Akira.

You can watch the trailer to Afro Samurai: Ressurection at Spike TV right now, or read more about the show here.

You can watch a painfully bad clip with Paris Hilton singing from Repo! The Genetic Opera over at MTV right now.

An honestly pretty cool trailer for Sam Raimi's new family friendly tv show Legend of the Seeker (formerly Wizards First Rule) has landed online. The show is based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth book series, and premieres on ABC on Nov 1st, '08.

Kevin Feige said at the SDCC Marvel panel that FOX was waiting the see how well the Wolverine movie does before moving forward on the Silver Surfer solo film.

NBC has posted videos of their Knight Rider and Kings panels on their website. Also catch this new one minute KR trailer.

The will be NO Dinobots in Transformers 2 say the writers.

Care of IGN watch the trailer for the upcoming animated film Resident Evil: Degeneration. No word on a western release date yet.

MTV interviews The Rock on Shazam, and Sam Jackson on Nick Fury.

AICN has a review of what is apparently a terrible script rewrite on Escape From New York by Jonathan Mostow.

IESB has heard that The Rock may appear in the Johnny Quest film, as Race Bannon!

Watch almost 4 minutes of new footage from Star Wars Clone Wars right here on Yahoo!

MTV has a preview up for the upcoming direct to dvd Marvel animated film "Hulk vs Wolverine" and it is killer.

Read Comingsoon.net panel reports and coverage on The Spirit, Watchmen and here, Day The Earth Stood Still, Prince of Persia, The Wolfman,

Read AICN panel reports and coverage on Wolfman, Watchmen, Twilight, Wolverine, Batman: Brave and the Bold and here, and a non-con Star Trek report

Read Latino Review's reports on the Hasbro panel (G.I. Joe), the Fox panel (DTESS, Max Payne, Wolverine), Watchmen, Punisher WZ, The Spirit, Ninja Assassin, Star Wars, and a video interview for Red Sonja,

Read IESB.net's well written reports on Watchmen, Twilight, the Fox panel, the best Wolverine footage breakdown online, and video interviews on Wolverine, Max Payne, and DTESS

And that's about all I can handle for now. That's sure a ton of info, And there'll be even more tomorrow after the Saturday panels get going at Comic Con. It's kinda crazy, but very cool stuff overall. Anything in this list really stand out to you as awesome? In my opinion the Star Wars footage steals the show so far. I'll post it up on its own later this weekend. Until then, I'm off to bed.
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JMS on Silver Surfer and more

Last week, AMCTV got a chance to interview J Michael Straczynski, and they turned up a number of great updates on his various projects including one that you should know is very near and dear to my heart Silver Surfer.

After talking about how the studio was disappointed with Fantastic Four 2, he elaborates "The script is pretty good, I like it, but whether or not it goes into production, I have no idea.

Q: Does this pick up where Silver Surfer left off in Fantastic Four 2?

A: I was writing it as FF2 was about to come out, and the theory was for it to pick up literally the next frame after the FF2 movie, where you find out why Silver Surfer was there and what happened to him. We would have seen Galactus, his home world, what happened and him trying to get back there, because now that he's betrayed Galactus, he's concerned his home world might be in jeopardy.

Q: When do you mean when you say,"We see Galactus"?

Q: In the script I come up with some ways to visualize him that are true to the original, but take it one step further using the current CGI technology that we have. So we would have seen him as a character on numerous occasions in the second movie, not inconsistent with the first distant shot of him in that that's just a way of concealing who and what he really is. Believe me, he would be not at all silly looking. "

is just the kind of writer that could bring it to life. I love the fact that it would pick up directly from where FF left us. And I think everyone agrees that another more fleshed out take on Wow, well that all sounds great to me. I would LOVE to see this movie get made, and Straczynski's take on Galactus would be a very good thing. I know Marvel has their whole plan in motion, but hey, maybe if the Iron Man 2 film gets pushed back something like Silver Surfer could jump in to take the place. At least that's my dream :)

Interestingly, JMS is working on a lot of cool projects though and he briefly mentioned a few others.

When asked about the World War Z script he was asked to write, refresh your memory here, he explained how it is a political thriller zombie movie that was definitely hard to adapt. "it's really sort of an investigation -- as the book is accomplished after the fact, the main character is a person working with the UN after the zombie wars, going around to see what went wrong, what was not known and who didn't connect the dots. In a way it's looking at the Katrina situation, it's not that far away from the Iraq Study Group Report, and everyone wants to cooperate to find out what went wrong."

Finally on the classic pulp sci fi series Lensman, which he is adapting he really got excited because he was always such a big fan, saying "we're going to look at this as something with the effects level of the Star Wars movies, and the seriousness of Blade Runner. And it's going to be hopefully three movies. The first one will be more or less self-contained, but will open up the ending for the possible sequels, and it's pretty exciting. I think they're probably looking for the first one in 2010."

All good stuff from Straczynski; his candor is appreciated. As is AMCTV for asking such good questions. I'm looking forward to all of these films, I just hope they really get made.
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Silver Surfer coming... one day

FINALLY we have some more news on the Silver Surfer film. A year or so ago Marvel was touting the Surfer as one of its projects on the horizon; maybe not for immediate action, but something that they were going to address eventually. But since then they haven't mentioned him at all. The last news we heard was in June after FF2 came out, that Marvel had hired the ever amazing writer J Michael Straczynski to write a screenplay for the proposed prequel film. Well at Wondercon this past week Straczynski had an hour long panel all to himself and he briefly touched on his work on the film.

According to this report from Newsarama he has finished the screenplay and turned it in to FOX. Specifically regarding the content of the film, Newsarama reports "it will cover the origin of the character. He said it will feature Galactus, noting that the latest Fantastic Four film held off on showing Galactus to reveal him for this film. "

Nice. I'm glad they at least have a script now. And the note that Galactus will finally be explained on film. Revealed to be... hopefully more than just the cloud of smoke we saw in Fantastic Four. It all sounds good. With Marvel's plans to release one film in '09, and then 2 a year each year following that I think it might be a little while before the Surfer hits our screens; I just hope its not too long. This is just speculation here, but 2011, or 2012 seem likely candidates for a timeframe.

More on this as it develops...
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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer review

I went into Fantastic Four 2 with high hopes and low expectations. And maybe that was for the best, because I ended up being really pleasantly surprised at how much this movie didn't suck.

Ripped from the pages of the FF comic, this film gives a platform to the introduction of my honest to goodness favorite Marvel superhero Silver Surfer. And thank god, they actually got him right! Silver Surfer has always had a rough go of it in the comics. Always the thinking mans protagonist; while SS can have some pretty dynamic action and of course the sweeping backdrop of the cosmos, he was always so inwardly focused that I know he often put readers off. He was always the character the question why, and muse openly on the themes rather than just the plot of his story. And so his translation to the big screen has been one that I've both eagerly anticipated and dreaded. Fortunately FF:ROTSS does an admiral job conveying the power and sadness of the Surfer. As you can tell from even a cursory glance, he looks spot on amazing, and his power cosmic comes across well on screen. My only complaint is that I think a bit more story development would have helped the audience understand his dramatic change of heart in the film. However, I liked that they referenced his past, they set up a spin off film, and that he managed to kick most everyone's ass and look good doing it.

While I went to see FF2 pretty much for the Silver Surfer alone, I was surprised and happy to see the team / family dynamic element VASTLY improved over the last film. While there were still a few dialogue clunkers between Alba, and Gruffudd I loved the interactions between Chris Evans as The Human Torch and Michael Chicklis as The Thing. Sure the writers took the silliness over the top a few times and some scenes just fell totally flat (I'm thinking the dance scene, ugh! or anything with Alicia) I really honestly enjoyed watching the Fantastic Four as a group in this film.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about the film is that I was sitting in the theater near a couple of kids who couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old and they really seemed to enjoy the heck out of the film. That makes it a success in all the most important ways my book.

I think this film is really solid film that's well worth watching. It's not mind blowing, and in a way it feels kind of small, and insular. But as long as you take it for what it is, I think you'll enjoy it. This film is not made on the scale of Spider-Man, or the X-Men films; but it has a charm and honest pulpy comic book feel that I liked a lot.

3.5/5

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That was another review from my Flixter page. Please if your interested feel free to friend me there. Or make any comments you like in the section below :)

One other very good piece of news that I thought I'd share, is that last week, in fact before Fantastic Four 2 even opened Marvel hired the excellent writer J Michael Straczynski to begin scripting the Silver Surfer prequel spin off film!!! This is exactly the news I've been waiting for ever since I was 9 years old and hung that Silver Surfer poster on my wall. I'm definitely going to be watching the word on this one.

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All that you know is at an end...

Wow, the Silver Surfer speaks, and I don't think thats Morpheus was it? or am i just hearing things...? We've also got power switching, the Fantasti-car in action, good effects shots of both Sue, and Doom, the military trying to shoot down the Surfer (with missiles no less, haha like that would work), and of course more of Johnny's zany shenanigans, scorching looks for the ladies, and general tom foolery. Really though, this trailer is mostly about how freakin cool the Silver Surfer is. I like everything I've seen of him so far. And I just hope the film can hold up well enough for us to get that Surfer origin story spin off I've been dreaming of since I was 13.

Check out the brand new full length trailer for Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer, due in theaters June 15th. watch below or go here for nice big versions.

Fish Lips

How wrong I was...

How wrong we all were. It's now being reported that in fact our old friend Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne) will NOT be voicing Galactus in the new Fantastic Four movie. He will actually be voicing the Silver Surfer.

Now, while I do really like Fishhead's voice I have to say I'm a little perturbed by this turn of events. I think Doug Jones is a good actor. He is the body behind the CG for the Surfer. He also was the man behind the body and voice of Abe Sapien in del Toro's Hellboy, and motion capture for the Faun in the mesmerizing Pan's Labyrinth. He is a solid actor who I think can put in a decent performance. Why exactly do we need his voice changed? Does he not inflect enough gravitas for the role? I think most people who know, see the Surfer as a thoughtful man, yes hes a man of action too, but he was always very deep in personal reflection and meditation. I don't know how much of that is coming through in this film, but I never really thought he needed the kind of deep, commanding voice Fishburne is sure to provide. He is a character whose deeds speak more towards his character than his voice... Maybe I just feel bad for Doug Jones though. Like the guy put in all this work, only to be screwed out of the vocal performance. It's like how everyone gives James Earl Jones all the credit for Darth Vader. Granted Vader's voice was a HUGE part of the character, but you shouldn't just discount the contributions of David Prowse. I don't like seeing actors gypped out of a spotlight like that.

Finally, I wonder about the CG work. The Weta guys are doing the Surfer using basically the same technology as they did for Gollum in the LOTR trilogy. I know that they did a lot of work in those films to make sure that Gollum's mouth moved in precisely the same way that Andy Serkis' did while filming. That was one of the subtle things that helped make Gollum so amazingly believable. So what exactly does this mean for the Silver Surfer? On the set when Doug Jones was filming did he actually speak the lines? Are we going to have unmatched dialogue? I can't imagine they'd do that. Maybe the Surfer doesn't move his lips when he speaks. I could see them doing something lame like that. But if that's the case, why does he even have a mouth. I don't know when this decision was made to put The Fishman in the film but do you think there's time to put his Fish lips onto the Surfer's body? Will that even work?

If the reports are true and the film is really as bad as it unfortunately sounds, then we might really only have the cool looking Silver Surfer to enjoy on screen. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this development doesn't screw that up for us too.

As a side note, the word is going around the net now that Galactus will look like a big scary cloud. This jives with what I had heard from my friend who worked on the film, and is exactly what I was suggesting the last time I blogged about this. Hopefully it'll work on screen, but I have my doubts...

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A Fishy Galactus?

Just a quick post today for you. Ain't it Cool News is reporting this as a reliable rumor based on a test screening from a few days ago is Seattle, but apparently the role (or voice at least) of Galactus has been cast in Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer. And the dulcet tones of the giant planet eater belong to none other than Laurence Fishburne.

Reliable rumor as they say, but I can see it. While I stick by my original first choice of Peter Weller, I can totally understand why they would go with Fishburne.

Additionally, and disturbingly the brief AICN article also states that people at the screening were seriously disappointed in the film... god i hope that parts not true. I really want this to be good. At least good enough for us to get a Silver Surfer solo film.... Until we get closer to the June 15th release date, and hear a few more solid reports though, I'm going to keep hoping for the best.

That's all for now. Peace.

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Silver Surfer poster

Oddly, some of the pics from my last Fantastic Four post have gone missing... hmm... I wonder what happened to them. Well, it doesn't really matter, I've got a new picture here for you today. This is care of AICN, but I know I saw it online at least a week or so ago. Oh well, enjoy it. Cool poster. Click for a bigger view :)

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some fantastic four 2 rambles

The new issue of Empire magazine has a good article on the kids from Weta and the work they did on the surfer for The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Unfortunately it's not available online, or at least as far as I can tell, but still if you're interested I'd recommend going out and reading through it at your local newsstand. Other than that check out this nifty new teaser poster for the film that was just revealed this weekend at New York Comic-con. Pretty sweet eh?

Are you guys stoked about this film? I'm not a huge fan of the first FF movie, but I don't know if I've mentioned this before here, but alongside Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer was always my favorite comic book character. He's got a great simple design, and an excellent backstory. Sometimes people complain that he's too cerebral, and not action orientated enough for mass appeal. He also, at least in the comics, spent a lot of time brooding... but wouldn't you brood if you one day woke up to realize that you'd been responsible for the deaths of more than a few entire civilizations, and were despised throughout the galaxy? Sounds kinda depressing to me.


We'll see how it all plays out in the movie. I'm sure they've changed things around a bit, but I know they are hoping the Surfer is popular as Avi Arad has said in the past that if FF2 is successful. they would like to spin him off into his own film (possibly an origin story). exciting! Anyhow, the real question isn't really about how cool the surfer will be, I have faith that he will be sufficiently badass, the real question is what exactly will Galactus look like? I suspect rather than a giant guy in a purple suit they'll go for something more akin to what they did in the recent Ultimate Galactus storyline, where Galactus was portrayed as a free consciousness manifested through a series of nearly indestructible swarm-like robots that destroy planets for sustenance.

Anywhichway, I'm getting excited. The film hits theaters June 15th, and expect marketing to kick into high gear around the time Spidey 3 is released in early May. Until then check out this cool Flickr site with all sorts of FF2 related photos, oh and watch this awesome new tv spot for the film...

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer trailer

So entertainment news does slow down a fair bit over the Christmas week, but there was one big new trailer to hit the web, just as everything was shutting down. In case you haven't seen it yet, please check out the trailer to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It is utterly awesome

Silver Surfer!

The first picture of the Silver Surfer has surfaced online! And I have to say... very cool. I really like it. USA Today got this first glimpse:


We should see even more tomorrow once the new trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hits theaters with Night at the Museum. It's made using the same techniques as they did on Gollum for Lord of the Rings, with as we should all know by now, Doug Jones, playing the silver man in question. What you might not know is that the Silver Surfer is one of the coolest superhero characters ever invented. He's the thinking man's hero; a tortured soul, constantly searching for his lost humanity. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this film goes.

UPDATE - I'm still trying to look around and find the trailer online. I did see a really blurry video of it this morning on youtube from someone who had snuck a camera into the theater, but the autofocus kept losing the picture. From what I did see though it was amazing looking. I can't seem to even find that anymore though. I'm sure it'll launch online officially soon but unfortunately I'm not going to be in a position to bring it to you right away. For more on that see the post above this.

Bits and Bots

Transformers movie screenwriters Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman are hosting a live video chat on Yahoo Friday morning. They plan to reveal the names of the characters being used in the film and answer questions from the internet! You can submit questions and join the chat tomorrow at 11am PST through the official website. I cant wait...

The title is now official - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. so says SHH! I say not bad. It could've been worse. And SS is my absolute favorite hero, so this should be good. Plot rumors abound at the moment, and we'll have to wait to see the story for sure but word right now says heavy on the Surfer, and Doom, light on Galactus...

Dominic Purcell of Prision Break fame looks to be in talks to take on the role of Bruce Banner aka The Hulk, in the Hulk 2, which is supposed to be some kind of reboot. This would leave the uber cool Eric Bana high and dry... bad move. Check it on AICN.

I've come to realize that I hate intelliTXT.