Transformers 4 teaser trailer is long but promising

Aren't teaser trailers supposed to be short, mysterious, and well... teaser-y? The Transformers: Age of Extinction teaser clocks in at a whopping 2 minutes and 33 seconds, begging the question: how the hell long is the theatrical trailer going to be? Will it be 6 minutes of Baysplosions, Nicola Peltz being ridiculously good looking and Wahlberg doing an admirable job of adding some gravity to proceedings? 

I went into this trailer expecting the worst. The Superbowl snippet left me completely underwhelmed. The inclusion of the Dinobots doesn't excite me and the focus on the effects and big action scenes just didn't make my jaw drop the way it did the first time I saw Bay's Transformers. After the two robotic and head pounding sequels, I was ready to give Age of Extinction a miss. I always liked the comedy that Shia brought to it too so the thought of Mark Wahlberg getting all serious with the franchise wasn't too appealing.

But this teaser actually brought me back from the brink. It might not strictly be much of a tease, looking like it reveals a hell of a lot more than it should but at least there is some sense of the characters and the new story that will bring the Transformers back to life. There are also hints that it will not ignore the events of past Transformers movies which is kind of cool. Though Nicola Peltz looks like a very typical Michael Bay hand picked 'hot girl' in need of rescue, Wahlberg and his mechanic character and father looks like he might be interesting enough to keep us all engaged beyond the promise of explosions and giant robots beating the shit out of each other.

Teaser Trailer



Superbowl spot



There's also three new posters that declare that 'the rules have changed'. I don't know what rules they are on about but at least we get a good look at the three main characters.

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The Lone Ranger: Too Dark for Disney?

The Lone Ranger is a Disney movie with a bit of a difference. Like Pirates of the Caribbean before it, The Lone Ranger gets away with some pretty harsh scenes of violence due to its 12 rating. Disney used to mean princesses, knights, enchanted castles and charming romances. It does not mean murder, revenge and slaughter. And yet The Lone Ranger reaches beyond your typical Disney moments of darkness and includes the gunning down of lawmen, a terrifying villain in William Fichtner and the slaughter of the Comanche by the United States army.

The Lone Ranger sees the titular lawmen turn outlaw after teaming up with more-than-just-a-sidekick, Native American Tonto. After his brother is brutally murdered (and has his heart cut out... see kids it's full of fun!) John Reid turns vigilante with the help of new spirit horse (eventually named Silver) and damaged Indian Tonto played wild and weird by Johnny Depp. Seeking the men responsible and their leader Butch Cavendish (freaky Fichtner) The Lone Ranger takes to wearing a mask and must get to the bottom of why the Comanche are being blamed for attacking settlers before a war (or just plain old genocide of the Natives) breaks out. With the trans-continental train track being built as a back drop, the quest for revenge and justice sees the mismatched pair uncovering corruption at every turn.

Armie Hammer nails the stoic hero while Depp tones down the Jack Sparrow excess while still making Tonto memorable, noble and fun. Hans Zimmer's score is brooding, dark and occasionally mournful until the glorious final set piece unleashes the William Tell Overture to rousing effect. Verbinski mounts a hell of an action packed set piece with trains, horses and plenty of characters to throw around but it's all a bit too ridiculous at times and as a result has to frequently rely on grating CG visual effects. However after sitting through two hours of nearly as much talk as action, kids and adults alike will undoubtedly be relieved to see some spectacle.

The Lone Ranger is bloated. Some scenes feel unnecessary and one late in the game character reversal is so obvious that it feels like a long wait for the revelation. Helenha Bonham Carter is completely sidelined but makes the most of very limited screen time while the slaughter of the Comanche is talked about but barely shown. After all no matter how dark and violent this gets, it is still a Disney film. The film is admirable for flipping the old Western traits on its head and showing a hugely sympathetic side of the Native Americans while also relegating their representation to the odd, amusing but also wise Tonto. It's no Dances with Wolves but it goes some way to showing the dreadful treatment of the Indians at the hands of settlers, particularly for a big dumb fun summer blockbuster.

According to Box Office Mojo, The Lone Ranger may have only just managed to scrape back it's over $200 million budget with a particularly poor domestic take. It looks likely that instead of becoming a Pirates size franchise, this might be the Standalone Ranger after all.

Watch the trailer:

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The Summer of 2050 at the Cinema

Picture it. The summer of 2050 at the cinema. The studios probably already are. They've already got their sure thing tent poles already picked out and ready to grab the masses, pulling in ridiculous profits. Their market research has led to more 'sure things' than ever before.

Marvel Phase 14 is well under way with Avengers 14 out next summer. Star Wars Origins have seen spin offs of every major character in the original Star Wars trilogy from birth to puberty to retirement and episode 16 is due any day now. Spiderman is on his sixth reboot, Fast and Furious 50 promises to be a landmark in the franchise and vampire and zombie movies are still selling well.

J.J. Abrams and his two offspring will of course be directing most of these with Christopher Nolan producing from his death bed. Elderly stars like Tom Cruise and their increasingly important stunt doubles are mo-capping for digitally rendered versions of their younger, prettier selves and still making the studios a mint.

The summer schedules are filled with blockbusters and the trailers are now six minutes long and feature excerpts from every major set piece expertly edited together with juicy sound bites of increasingly ridiculous and repetitive dialogue. 

The cinemas all have bouncers who patrol the aisles with night vision goggles, looking for pirates at work. They watch you endlessly as you try to watch the film, trying even harder not to notice them. There are now nearly 10 minutes of messages warning you not to pirate movies or you will kill cinema.

The average length of a film is now just shy of 3 hours and cinemas have gotten wise, having an interval in most and sending staff in to sell you food and drink, scratch cards, merchandise...you name it. The second half is usually filled with kids waving light sabers excitedly in the air. Many people take the option of a three course meal for the duration of the film and wear bibs due to the difficulties of eating in the darkened cinema.

The norm will be to tweet, text and Facebook your friends during a film (even if they are in the seat next to you). Thankfully most phone batteries don't last as long as a film anymore, so by the second half most have died and all those bright white lights have disappeared (to be replaced by kids with replica plastic lightsabers).

Franchises rule, originality is dead, but at least audiences still love the movies. 

More moaning at I Love That Film:

The Cinema Experience

Is modern marketing ruining the movie experience?

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

In my mind, what J.J Abrams has done with the Star Trek franchise is nothing short of a miracle. The Star Trek of 2009 and its sequel have made space, the final frontier exciting, sexy and a bold step forward/backward. Whereas the last film was pretty much Enterprise Assemble and had to deal with bringing the crew together, Into Darkness wastes not a moment, plunging us straight into the action at warp speed and rarely slowing down.

I'm one of those people who never saw a single Star Trek film before Abrams came on board and I never really had an interest. Speaking from this perspective, Star Trek Into Darkness makes perfect sense to me. It all comes down to the central relationship between Kirk and Spock, brilliantly played by Chris Pine and particularly Zachary Quinto. Right from the opening set piece, their contradicting personalities and priorities are to the fore and the bromance sizzles with bust ups but also a deep mutual understanding.

The supporting cast are also fun though they get little to do compared to Benedict Cumberbatch's villain. Spurting monologues like a true thespian, Cumberbatch goes for grand, strutting around with steely eyes, and excels as the terrorist threatening the crew and more. John Harrison is a fearful creation with a worthy cause and he raises the dramatic stakes incredibly going from foe to (sort-of) friend to foe again.

The action and special effects are spectacular but never overwhelm in the same way as some of the more CG assisted scenes in other summer blockbusters (namely Man of Steel). All in all Abrams has nailed the reinvention and whether he chooses to return for a third Star Trek film or not, he has set the franchise up beautifully for further adventures. Let's all cross our fingers and hope that he can he can do the same for the galaxy far far away...

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What's going on with The Wolverine?

Don’t call The Wolverine a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, no matter how much it looks like one. This is being forcefully billed as a standalone picture, most likely to distance itself from the disappointment of Gavin Hood’s 2009 prequel.

The Wolverine follows the original X-Men trilogy, the Wolverine prequel and the X-Men prequel First Class to become the sixth instalment in the series.

Based on a hugely popular limited series of early 80s comics by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, it has taken some perseverance and determination from Fox and Jackman to see the return of everybody's favourite X-Man.

With Christopher McQuarrie’s script in place and director Darren Aronofsky set to helm the film, all looked good for the return of Wolverine in 2010. Then despite signing contracts with Fox, Aronofsky suddenly jumped ship.

The directors considered to replace Aronofsky included the likes of Jose Padilha (now shooting the Robocop remake), Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen), Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) and Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 6).

However in June 2011 a new director was found. James Mangold, the director of the Oscar bothering Walk the Line and modern classic Cop Land took the reigns with Mark Bomback hired for a rewrite.

James Mangold’s film will see Wolverine get out of his depth while in the Land of the Rising Sun. He will be at his most vulnerable; being pushed to his physical and emotional limits and forced to confront samurai steel and his own immortality. 

It features Svetlana Khodchenkova as Viper, a villain torn straight from the pages of the comics. A girl who likes to play with toxins, Viper is snake-like and cares little for other people.

 

Most importantly is the addition of Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day) confirmed to be playing Kenuichio Harada a.k.a. The Silver Samurai. His mutant ability to charge his weapon with energy capable of cutting through anything and his silver coloured samurai style armour will make him a formidable enemy.

Mangold has been tweeting his influences while making the film; influences that include classics such as Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales, Powell and Pressburger’s Back Narcissus and Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Vertigo. 

The Wolverine opens nationwide July 26, 2013.

Here is the brand new trailer:

What do you think? Is this the Wolverine movie you've been waiting for?

Get ready for Pacific Rim!

Everything you need to know about Guillermo del Toro's latest, Pacific Rim:

The auteur has not directed a film since comic book sequel Hellboy II in 2008.

His version of The Hobbit failed to emerge due to scheduling conflicts and then his long-awaited passion project At the Mountains of Madness was refused a green light by a nervous studio.

He has completed his trilogy of vampire horror novels The Strain with Chuck Hogan which will now be turned into a series of TV movies.

Synopsis

When a portal beneath the sea opens unleashing mega-monsters (known as Kaiju) from other dimensions, the human race must fight back by building 250 foot tall mecha-titans, known as Jaegers. Two human pilots control these giant robots as they get strapped into circuitry suits, each controlling a hemisphere (left or right) of the mechanical beasts.

Set in the not too distant future, the Kaiju that have emerged from the portal have devastated earth leading to masses of destruction and millions dead and the fight back has dwindled human resources leading to a sense of desperation. Charlie Hunnam’s former pilot is forced to team up with an untested trainee to ‘cancel the apocalypse’ in the words of Idris Elba’s commanding officer.

Inception

Travis Beacham, writer of The Clash of the Titans remake wrote a 25 page script treatment back in 2010 which was immediately purchased by Legendary Pictures. Del Toro then came on board developing the screenplay with Beacham for two years before principal photography began on the 103 day Toronto shoot in November 2011.

Inspired by the Fransisco Goya painting The Colossus that also inspired video game Shadow of the Colossus, the initial idea of Pacific Rim was to go back to the earliest tales of monsters that mankind would tell around campfires.  

Casting

Taking a risk, del Toro managed to secure the cast he wanted without any of the huge star names that usually hold up a tent pole movie of this size. Legendary Pictures backed his decision, arguing it is the creation of the world and the concept that will be the main attraction to audiences.

Idris Elba is the commanding officer Sensi who will go head to head with the Kaiju. It was a role originally developed for Tom Cruise who had reportedly shown an interest. Charlie Hunnam from TV’s Sons of Anarchy takes the washed up Jaeger pilot role as hero Raleigh.

Monsters

Steering away from the archetypal monsters of mythology, anime and previous Kaiju movies, the completely original designs have been at the forefront of del Toro’s mind since the beginning. 

3D?

Del Toro resisted the pressure to shoot in 3D because he felt that the 3D effects would miniaturize the robots and monsters and audiences would not get the full sense of the scale and awe he intended.

Then came the shocking news that del Toro had agreed to a dreaded 3D post-conversion. Del Toro supervised the process, taking 40 weeks to do the conversion where it normally only takes a few weeks to complete on previous movies.

The latest trailer

Could this trailer be any bigger?

 The teaser

The poster

Excited yet?

More Star Wars Sequels and Spin Offs Every Summer

Disney has announced that every summer for the foreseeable future will now see a new Star Wars film unleashed on audiences. Starting in 2015 with J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII, every summer will now be dominated by a sequel or spin off from George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away.

The news comes as little surprise to any fan keeping their eye on the internet for updates on the new Star Wars films since Lucas decided to sell the rights. What is slightly disconcerting is the sheer regularity of product that Disney intends to dish out for fans of Star Wars.

Following hot on the heels of Abrams’ hotly anticipated trek into a new science fiction franchise, what can fans expect from future Star Wars films?

Created by Josh Lange

With the announcement that Abrams’ is responsible for the seventh entry in the main timeline of films, following on from the prequels and the original trilogy, it is safe to say that once every two or three years, we will be getting a Star Wars: Episode VIII and Episode IX. With those potentially taking up the summers of 2017 and 2019, the next question is will there be an extension in the future? Could the summers of 2020 and beyond feature a fourth trilogy of Episodes X, XII and XII? Will Abram’s stick around long enough to shepherd the franchise boldly forwards?

In the meantime, my thoughts have turned to what will be the Star Wars films filling multiplexes between the main episodes of the franchise and who will be taking the reigns for Disney?

Spin offs have already been rumoured for a young Han Solo, Boba Fett, Yoda and Lando Calrissian. The prequels already gave us the back-story on Anakin, Leia and Obi Wan but there is still plenty of room for further expansion with a huge range of characters from the universe.

The spin offs have an impossibly huge universe as set up by Lucas but also by the endless amounts of fan fiction that have already been written around the characters and even the most minor and insignificant ones at that.

Created by Josh Lange

The trick for Disney will be to keep the franchise fresh and approachable to newcomers without alienating the long term fans. Too much introducing of new cute and fluffy characters will lead to accusations of trying to sell toys as with the introduction of the Ewoks back in Return of the Jedi. Too much focus on existing characters might take away some of the mystery and allure surrounding particular characters.

With J.J. Abram at the helm of the first in the new summer Star Wars films, Disney has made a smart move and will likely get off to a good start. His Star Trek managed to appease long term fans while attracting a whole new audience to that science fiction franchise. The question is will he be able to do the same with Star Wars and what will his involvement be in the further sequels and spin offs?

More to the point, will this Disney cash cow continue to deliver the goods for may summers to come or will the Star Wars udders dry up pretty quick?

Hathaway to Rage Against the Machines in Spielberg’s ‘Robopocalypse’?

Exciting news brewing with casting rumours of Anne Hathaway and Chris Hemsworth sniffing around Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson’s 2011 book Robopocalypse.

The Hollywood Reporter states that not only are Hathaway and Hemsworth negotiating to take leading roles, but also the film is set to be produced by Tom Rothman, the outgoing chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. Rothman has been confirmed by DreamWorks in a statement yesterday and casting confirmations should follow soon.

Read more of this story at Filmoria.

To read more about Robopocalypse, see my review here.