News Around the Net!
Let’s start with this amazing creation:
Topher Grace and Jeff Yorkes wove together footage from every single Star Wars film so far to create a gorgeous, emotional five-minute tribute to the Star Wars saga. I have watched this thing a LOT of times so far. What an incredible expression of love for Star Wars, and what an impressive achievement of editing. I love the way they juxtaposed moments from the different films in order to connect events and characters. And I love that they even included snippets of deleted scenes from Episode III, A New Hope, and Return of the Jedi. Most impressive!
The second trailer for Dark Phoenix recently appeared:
I’m not sure what to think. X-Men: The Last Stand broke my heart because it bungled the Dark Phoenix storyline. I’ve long hoped for a reboot. But so far what we’ve seen of Dark Phoenix doesn’t look any more faithful to the original comics (by Chris Claremont and John Byrne) than The Last Stand was. For example, the trailer’s opening moment in which a tearful Jean asks “why did you make me do that?” implies that she’s not in control of her actions, which in my opinion is a complete misunderstanding of the Dark Phoenix story, which is about how ultimate power can corrupt even the most noble of souls. (True, the later comic book stories that returned Jean to the Marvel Universe retconned the Dark Phoenix Saga to suggest that the Phoenix power wasn’t from within Jean, but was an alien entity that had bonded with her. But even so, I still think it’s incorrect to depict Jean as being controlled by that entity.) Also, from what we can see on this recently-released poster, Jean’s Dark Phoenix attire doesn’t look anything like her iconic look from the comics, but instead looks almost exactly like the sort of silly dark red jacked that Famke Janssen wore as Dark Phoenix in The Last Stand. What a weird choice! With the X-Men characters returning to MCU control following the Disney-Fox merger, Dark Phoenix feels like a “lame duck” movie, as I expect these characters and stories to soon be rebooted and incorporated into the MCU. I still want Dark Phoenix to be amazing… but as of now I’m not expecting too much…
(And, actually, there is one other remaining Fox X-Men film — the much-delayed New Mutants. Apparently the planned reshoots for that film still haven’t happened… will they ever…?)
We also recently got our second trailer for the rebooted Hellboy film:
As with Dark Phoenix, I’m not blown away by what we’ve seen of this film so far. I desperately want this film to be great. This second trailer is HUGE, and I’m excited to see these fantastic characters from Mike Mignola’s comics brought to life on such a grand scale. I guess I can understand why they’re trying to sell this film on its action and attitude, but I’m not yet getting a sense of whether any of these characters actually work. I love the comic book for the characters more than anything else, and if the characters don’t work, this film isn’t going to work. Guillermo del Toro’s first two Hellboy films have plenty of flaws, but they got the characters right, so I can overlook the flaws. I love David Harbour and think he’s a great actor to play Hellboy… but so far in these trailers I’m not sold on his version of Hellboy. I’m not loving the look of his makeup, and in this trailer especially I found his dialogue very hard to understand. The jokes didn’t land for me. I’m hoping that in the finished film this all comes together the way I want it to.
Here’s a fantastic new trailer for The Tick season two:
I loved season one, and this look at season two looks great. It looks like the show is expanding its scope somewhat — I love all the glimpses of new heroes and villains that we get here. I also love what I see of the Tick’s redesigned costume. (I wasn’t wild about the Tick’s look in the pilot or the tweaked version used for the rest of season one. This third try, so far, looks much better.) That “Tick some butt” tagline at the end was painfully stupid, but I blame that on the marketing department. I’m jazzed for more episodes of The Tick.
I haven’t been too excited that Marvel Studios is working on an Eternals movie as part of Phase Four. I’m not at all familiar with that old Jack Kirby series. But this interview with Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has, for the first time, gotten me excited about the idea. An epic spanning tens of thousand of years…? OK, that sounds interesting…!
Wow, writer Greg Rucka has several adaptations of his (terrific) comic-book work coming up! Cobie Smulders is going to star in a TV series version of his crime-comic Stumptown, for ABC… and Charlize Theron will be starring in a movie version of The Old Guard for Netflix. Wow!
This is a great look back at Chris Claremont’s incredible two-decade run writing X-Men comics, and how incredibly influential his work was on so much of today’s entertainment landscape. I agree wholeheartedly. I adored those X-Men comics when I was a kid. They form the basis of so much of what I’m looking for today in my entertainment, in any medium (be that comic books, books, TV shows, or movies).
Kevin Smith has begun filming for Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. I loved those early View Askew films, but it’s been a looong time since I’ve enjoyed a new Kevin Smith film. Still, I want to believe that his return to these characters will be fun and worthwhile. Hope springs eternal…