 Though I was unable to attend Hall H due to the ridiculously long line, but the word out of the hall was that the Warner Bros. panel went extremely well. In addition to blowing people away with footage from Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, and a teaser trailer for a possible Godzilla remake, they released two new posters. While both are pretty basic, it’s nice to see some more imagery from Man of Steel, which will premiere a teaser trailer in front of The Dark Knight Rises. Check them out after the jump!
Read more on Comic-Con: Warner Bros. releases ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Godzilla’ posters!…
 I’ve been trying to see ‘Shanghai’ for what feels like years now. I even duped myself into thinking the recent Bollywood release ‘Shanghai’ was actually the John Cusack project that I’d been waiting for and trekked out to see it before realizing my mistake (I should have known better, to be honest). Anyway, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, as in a recent interview on Movies.com (here) Harvey Weinstein himself said that the film is actually on the slate for a 2012 release through The Weinstein Company’s new shingle Radius. After the jump you can see his exact words, but I’m glad that I can finally see the film I’ve been foolishly predicting would get John Cusack an Oscar nod for many moons. Read on below for more…
Read more on ‘Shanghai’ finally hitting theaters this year?…
 The Ice Age series of films is akin to that person who drifts in and out of your life from time to time and you are happy to initially see, but grow weary of very quickly. Those Scrat vignettes, common to the Ice Age franchise, where a wayward acorn consistently causes much pain and agony to a saber-toothed squirrel, have long outstayed their welcome, and yet with Ice Age: Continental Drift, we have the fourth theatrically released entry in this franchise. And not surprisingly, Ice Age: Continental Drift is, once again, a bland, mediocre, and uninspired mix of comedy, action, and youth-oriented humor and suspense. And yet, these films make money. Each film more than the previous one. I imagine audiences will come out in droves for this one as well.
The issue is not that Ice Age films are badly made below-the-line. Quite the contrary. The animation is crisp and innovative and the technical aspects of the films generate a pleasing aesthetic. These characters though, their stories and narratives, are simply, if not always, boring and unimaginative. With the inroads this franchise has made since its arrival in 2002, Manny the Mammoth (Ray Romano), his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo), Diego the Sabre-Toothed Cat (Denis Leary) should all be megastars like Shrek and Donkey, Woody and Buzz, or even those Madagascar Penguins. Honestly, do you know anyone clamoring for these characters to return? I know of no kids that have Ice Age merchandise or toys or even talk about these characters, leaving me to think that perhaps kids and families just sort of tolerate these films when they come along every few years, begrudgingly buying tickets as a stop-gap until the next family film event arrives at the multiplex.
Read more on Ice Age: Continental Drift (*½)…
 When Kevin Smith announced 2 years ago at the Sundance Film Festival, after the initial screening of ‘Red State’, that he was going to retire from directing after his next flick ‘Hit Somebody’ in order to focus on podcasting and other ventures, it was met with a lot of derision and confusion from the media. Furthermore, there was skepticism when it was announced that he’d also now be focusing on distributing the movies of up and coming artists as one of his new ventures, since after all, he was a filmmaker, not a distributor. Well, now we have the first non Smith directed SModcast Pictures release, and it’s the uneven but funny indie comedy ‘Bindlestiffs’, so at the very least you know Smith wasn’t lying. The film looks like a home movie or a student film (and in some ways, it is…but more on that in a bit), but the voice of filmmaker Andrew Edison is far better than that. Edison directed and co-wrote the film with Luke Loftin (both also co-star in the flick as well), and he’s someone with a strong future ahead of him. This is a great calling card for him and one day will be looked back on with pride. At the moment, it’s a little too amateurish to justify going out of your way to see, but it certainly is when you factor in that it’s going to be released roadshow style this year, with an intro and Q and A with Smith as (much like he did last year with ‘Red State’). In that form, it’s easy to recommend. On its own however, it’s not quite there yet. I’ll leave it up to you (along with this review) to decide if it’s worthwhile or not…
Read more on Bindlestiffs (**½)…
 With the familiar strain of the theme song and mastermind George R.R. Martin presiding, the Game of Thrones panel featured highlights, fond memories of the second season and perhaps the best Q&A of the day. After showing highlights from the second season, Martin introduced a new clip which previewed some of the new additions to the cast like Clive Russell as Brynden “Blackfish” Tully and Diana Rigg as the Queen of Thorns. Then it was time for the panelists, producers Carolyn Strauss and actors Richard Madden, Michelle Fairley, Alfie Allen, Rose Leslie, and Emilia Clarke, to come out. Carolyn treated the audience to a recap of how the show started and that it fit the HBO aesthetic of genre busting a la The Wire challenging the style of a cop drama. She also talked about the logistics of shooting in 4 countries.
Read more on Comic-Con Panel: Game of Thrones…
 Remember the sheer joy on the face of Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in the first Spider Man (2002) when he was discovering his powers, strength and agility, leaping from building to building and eventually finding the magic to shoot webs and swing from them. Like a modern-day Tarzan he mastered the whole swinging from a web thing, and when the mask was off, he was thrilled with what was happening to him, and because Maguire conveyed that thrill so well to we the audience, we too were thrilled with him. There was a delirious joy in what had happened to Peter Parker allowing him, overnight to become a master athlete and super hero, and the film celebrated, from beginning to end one of Marvel’s most iconic comic book characters.
Which brings us to the new film, The Amazing Spider Man. Read more on The Amazing Spider-Man (*)…
 Hello everyone! Terence here, reporting live from Comic-Con where my endurance was put to the ultimate test today. With the crazy schedule today and after being alerted of the long line outside Hall H, I was forced to arrive at the hall much earlier than I would have liked to and spent the entire day within the expansive confines. From 10:45 am to 5:50pm, I was sequestered in the big hall to endure both panels good and bad, as well as get treated to some pretty exciting footage and star cameos. Check out my thoughts on the six panels that were held in Hall H today after the jump!
Read more on Comic-Con Diary: Day 3…
On Thursday we brought you the first trailer for Sam Raimi’s Oz The Great and Powerful, which will tell the origin story behind Oscar Diggs, the man they would eventually come to call the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (James Franco). Terence, representing the site at Comic-Con, also delivered an intimate press conference with the director and a few of the co-stars (including Michelle Williams – who will play Glinda the Good Witch – and Mila Kunis) which you can listen to here. Rachel Weisz, Abigail Spencer, and Zach Braff also star in this interesting and daring prequel to the tale most of us grew up on and consider one of the best films ever made. After the jump, there are five more pictures from the film for you to set your eyes on. Oz looks like a shoo-in for a few tech nominees in 2013, including Visual Effects, Art Direction, Costume Design, and Makeup, to name a few. But we’ll have to wait until March 8th, 2013, when the film is released in theatres to find out what else might be in store for us.
Read more on New Images from Sam Raimi’s ‘Oz The Great and Powerful’…
 Perhaps the most anticipated panel on Friday, Sony previewed footage from their three scifi films, Total Recall, Looper and Elysium before a packed Hall H. Total Recall was first up and with the main cast in attendance, director Len Wiseman previewed a 7 minute reel with a ton of action sequences. The cast and creative team spoke about how the movie is different from the original in that it’s much more dramatic and darker in tone. Wiseman remarked that though this is a big action movie, he was intrigued by the central mystery of the film.
Read more on Comic-Con Panel: Sony presents Total Recall, Looper and Elysium…
 Going into ‘Alps’, it’s both important and also a hinderance to have Giorgos Lanthimos’ prior film ‘Dogtooth’ in the back of your mind. On the one hand, Lanthimos is again working in the realm of absurdist black comedy/social commentary, so knowing what type of movie the man makes is a help, but at the same time it’s such a different side of that coin that you might wind up disappointed, depending on how much you liked his last film. I found ‘Alps’ to be a step down from that flick, but it’s still a very good riddle of a film. It’s just as surreal, but it tones down the disturbing sexual content and tackles things in a much subtler style. In a strange sort of way, this is even a more accessible film. It’s still unsettling and very weird, but ‘Alps’ is quieter and has a different sort of sadness to it. I think the movie may be frustrating for some, but it has more than a few rewards in store for the patient viewer. A little less vagueness would have helped me embrace the film even more, but perhaps that’s the point. In any case, I definitely liked it a lot and recommend it to any adventurous filmgoers out there who can embrace this decidedly unusual premise.
Read more on Alps (***)…
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Though I was unable to attend Hall H due to the ridiculously long line, but the word out of the hall was that the Warner Bros. panel went extremely well. In addition to blowing people away with footage from Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, and a teaser trailer for a possible Godzilla remake, they released two new posters. While both are pretty basic, it’s nice to see some more imagery from Man of Steel, which will premiere a teaser trailer in front of The Dark Knight Rises. Check them out after the jump!
