craigoxbrow

... might give things away a bit early?

And is a reminder of the potential credibility gap issue that this was made before Chris Hemsworth became better known as Thor. (See also Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Grudge and Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman In Black. Your monster is not scary enough for our superhero.)

Still, gonna go see opening night obvs.

... was something I never really read as a kid, I went the Asterix route instead, as I could never really handle the mix of realistic-ish artwork and plotting with cartoony faces. On reflection, I should, as pulp adventure comics are rather my field of interest these days.

So I was largely ignorant as we went to see the movie, my interest piqued by Steven Spielberg directing, Peter Jackson producing, and Steven Moffat, Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright writing.

It moves at the pace of an Indy movie (and is about as hazardous to life and limb for bystanders - apparently the comics are as action-y as this shows). Most of the character comedy comes from Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, and much of the slapstick from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and Thomson and Thompson (or possibly the other way round) although a fair number of folk including Jamie Bell's Tintin and even Snowy the highly capable dog get knocked out in assorted funny ways.

Some great crazy only-possible-in-CG stuff, some heightened-reality cartoony stuff, the odd look-it's-3D gesturing with weapons at the screen. And ironically, the mix of realistic-ish artwork and cartoony faces is retained - there are medium and long shots where it looks like live-action with people wearing Tintin character masks.

Prolly watchable enough in 2D, although there are some fun playing-with-perspective bits, especially in an imposible-to-film-for-real one-shot chase through an entire city.

Trailers: we missed all the ads and 2D trailers (darn) apart from The Muppets (yay!) who also do the new Orange ad (yay!) so just the 3D ones - The Phantom Menace with a curious lack of Jar-Jar being visible for some reason... Arthur Christmas, Puss In Boots, and Hugo, which is a 3D children's film from Martin Scorsese starring Sascha Baron Cohen, Jude Law and HitGirl. Yes, you read that correctly.

I figured it'd be fun (just about up there with The Rocketeer) but it's the funnest of the summer. Standup two-fisted heroics, hyper-Nazis, great effects, heartfelt emotion and a catchy song.

Lots of little geek callouts, from the Synthetic Man to Zola's first appearance to the Wilhelm Scream to Rosie The Riveter.

Also, Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper together again for I believe the first time since The Watch House.

Trailers: Tom Hardy as a UFC fighter, Dominic Cooper as Uday Hussein and his double, Rosamund Pike as the Bond girl in Johnny English 2. And Troll Hunter, which doesn't feature anyone who was ever in The Watch House.

Oh, and The Avengers! It ain't even done filming yet. It's a long way till May.

3D Aardman Pirate Movie

I'll say that again. 3D Aardman. Pirate Movie.

X-Men: First Class is good (X-Men) but not great (X2). Could have done more with the setting, and the central characters, and some side characters could have been skipped entirely, and a death I won't spoiler was questionable, but fun was had and there was a big super-battle in broad daylight for a change.

Warning: no end credits scene AND a credits song by Take That. There oughtta be a law!

Trailers: Nothing of consequence not already seen. Romcom about Tom Hanks going back to college and studying with Julia Roberts. Green Lantern, Apes. New Orange ad met with stony silence.

Scream 4 was not Sydney Prescott And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

It was a'right. Which after eleven years off and the last sequel being a bit of a duffer generally was good going. Not as good as the original, but was that ever on the cards? Only one of the deaths was caused by brain-aching stupidity, and that character was pretty dumb as was.

Trailers: NotPoltergeistHonest, 13 Ninjas Kick Back, Saoirse Ronan Versus Cate Blanchett To The Death, And... Thor. M'colleague Doc Sordid pointed out that putting Thor there (a) seemed strange and (b) was the only one of any interest. So yeah.

Now one short of completion, Buffyverse Trailers

Nice little snapshots of each season - tending to a minute too long and spoilery to show to people who hadn't seen the season in question before, although the Buffy and Angel S1 ones would work, and I like the varying tones from Buffy S1's bouncy comedy all the way to the no-fun-at-all-except-the-last-gag fantasy action drama of the new Angel S4 one. Because, hey, Angel S4 is pretty much no fun.

Something to think about as I slowly bolt together Nationals Buffy characters. How much do I rely on the players to bring the funny and action and heartache in response to an otherwise horrible world of monsters and stuff? Back in the day, the answer in TWH was "quite a lot", with me providing setups for heroic smackdowns and feedlines for gags, and the odd funny line from friendly NPCs, because I knew they could and would. Not a luxury I have here, of course. So I load on relationship issues and sample hopefully amusing lines on the character briefings...

A bunch o' links to Empire and YerTube.

The Hobbit cast, albeit not in character. Check out Aidan Turner's beardiness.

Our own James McAvoy among others being all mutant-y in 1962.

Aaaaahahahahaha! Not remotely SFW. Um, anyway, Captain America has a good cast and director.

Trailer!

The first half being from the talking-to-the-audience teaser, but the second half being... not.