This is what Awesome looks like

I never thought an album cover would get me to buy a CD, but then I saw soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy. Available now for pre-order at Amazon, it features Hooked on a Feeling, Spirit in the Sky, plus some Bowie, Jackson 5, and a lot more. Track listing at The Playlist.

Ranking the Marvel Universe

It's been a while since I posted, and since I've missed out on reviewing the last couple of entries into the Marvel Universe, I figured I'd do what everyone else is doing and rank the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, based on the incredibly objective scale that is my own personal preferences.

Star Wars VII cast announced

Good morning and here's your cast for Star Wars Episode VII a few days earlier than rumored, via press release from starwars.com.

The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film. 

Director J.J. Abrams says, “We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.” 

Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, and John Williams returns as the composer. The movie opens worldwide on December 18, 2015.

So this is exciting, and probably means Andy Serkis wins some sort of prize. No information on who the new characters are, but this can be your excuse to see the excellent Attack the Block. 

The Guardians are here

Can we just take a moment to talk about how awesome the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer looks? Rocket Racoon's rap-sheet: 13 counts of theft, 14 counts of escape from incarceration, 7 counts of mercenary activity, 15 counts of arson. Star-lord has a walkman. Chris Pratt (star of The LEGO Movie, the best thing I've seen this year) looks perfectly cast. Zoe Saldana is green (which is hotter than blue) and wielding a huge sword (which is always hot). Basically, Marvel's riskiest gamble to date looks like it's going to pay off.

2014 Film List

Ready for the 2014 movie list? Here it is:

20 Movies I'm looking forward to in 2014

Here are the 20 movies I'm looking forward to in 2014.

Cap Trailer, Thor "review" etc.

There are trailers out for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past. They both look awesome, and I saw both on the big screen today in front of Thor: The Dark World, which was also awesome, though I think it missed few opportunities. I still call Iron Man 3 a better film. I'm not sure how to fault a story for being character-focused (Thor's major problem). Anyway, Thor: The Dark World is my #2 for the year. It's problem is possibly that it doesn't have any action that's as badass as what you'll see in the 5-minute Winter Soldier trailer that plays in front of the 3D shows... or maybe it did but I've been desensitized by seeing that scene in every trailer.

Has Age of Ultron found its new Avengers?

It's been a few months since Joss Whedon suggested he was adding Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch to Avengers: Age of Ultron, and now it looks like he's found the actors to play the Maximoff twins.
According to a source no less than Samuel L. Jackson himself, Elizabeth Olsen has been cast as Wanda Maximoff, the reality-bending Scarlet Witch. Deadline says the deal is all but done, and that means that the Olsen twins' little sister will be joining--and probably fighting--the Avengers and Ultron in 2015.
Meanwhile, reports say that Aaron Taylor-Johnson has signed up to play her twin brother Quicksilver. Taylor-Johnson is best known for playing Kick-Ass, so he's no stranger to super hero roles. Quicksilver (effectively) has the same super-speed powers as DC's Flash and The Incredibles' Dash. Plus Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past is going to be bringing another version of Quicksilver (played by Kick-Ass co-star Evan Peters) to the big screen next year, while Glee's Grant Gustin will be playing the Flash on the CW's Arrow. Taylor-Johnson is going to have his work cut out for him. Meanwhile, Marvel announced that James Spader has signed up to play the villainous AI, Ultron.

Finally, Zachary Levi as Fandral

Edit: Now with U.S. version from Marvel.com. German version here. Original: Chuck was one of my favorite shows, so I was pretty excited when Marvel added Zachary Levi to Thor: The Dark World. Now, just a month ahead of release we finally get a chance to see the new and improved Fandral on this German version of the poster (note the alternate title), and he looks awesome. You can check out the trailer over on YouTube, plus there's other posters of Thor and Sif, and others floating around the interwebs. Thor: The Dark World opens on November 8.

Rumor: Bale offered $60 million to play Batman again

As you may have heard by now, the sequel to Man of Steel will feature Batman vs Superman. The big question has been who will play Batman. A few names have been tossed around, including Orlando Bloom and Josh Brolin. However, a new rumor suggests that Warner Bros. is willing to pull out all the stops to bring back Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. It's good news for fans of the Nolan films, and the arrival of Superman on Earth could be a good reason to bring Bruce Wayne out of retirement.

It's official: Robert Downey Jr. to return as Iron Man

Marvel.com announced today that Robert Downey Jr. has signed a two picture deal to return as Iron Man/Tony Stark for Avengers 2 & 3. It's good news for Marvel fans, even if this news implies that no more Iron Man solo films are in development. I really can't imagine an Avengers film without RDJ, though I hope the future films don't focus on Tony Stark as heavily as the first Avengers did. The Avengers 2 is scheduled to start production in March 2014 and open May 1, 2015.

First look at Evangeline Lilly in "The Hobbit"

Entertainment Weekly has the first official look at Evangeline Lilly from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (unless you bought the Lego set) She's playing Tauriel, an elf invented by Peter Jackson and company to make the film a little less sausage-fest (and my math still puts this at 15:1). Of course, you probably remember Lilly as Kate from Lost, unless you've repressed that memory. Still she looks great as an elf, though I'm concerned about the fact that the arrow looks like bad CGI.

Review: The villains of Iron Man 3 and Star Trek 2

Time for a couple of quick movie reviews. Two big May sequels: Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness (aka JJ Abrams' Star Trek II). Both films are continuations of successful franchises, both heavily advertised their villains, both use insane amounts of CGI, and both have a fairly controversial twist, which means that most of everything I want to say is incredibly spoiler heavy. On the spoiler-free side, both films strike a fine balance action and humor, and well neither is perfect (and both make questionable decisions) both are excellent summer movies. Okay, spoilers now.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Official Trailer

ABC has released a full-length trailer for this fall's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It covers the "isn't Coulson dead?" issue, and shows off the various cast members, seemingly including Angel's J. August Richards. Is he Luke Cage? Probably not. Rage? Maybe. A one episode guest star? Likely. More importantly, does Lola fly? So many options. So long to wait. In related news, Joss Whedon is now on Twitter.

Movie News: New suit for Captain America and more!

Lots of news on the movie front, especially from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Get a look at some revealing concept art after the jump. Plus, a Star Trek actor joins Guardians of the Galaxy. Click on.

First look at Captain America 2

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has begun filming, and Marvel has released the first official image, along with a press release confirming many rumors about the film. Anthony and Joe Russo are directing from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Captain America: The First Avenger). Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers/Captain America, along with Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). Robert Redford has joined the cast as Alexander Pierce, a senior leader within S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set for release in the U.S. on April 4, 2014, a month earlier than the norm for Marvel films, but the first weekend in May has been claimed by Amazing Spider-Man 2.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” will pick-up where “Marvel’s The Avengers” left off, as Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and teams up with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, to battle a powerful yet shadowy enemy in present-day Washington, D.C.

The supporting cast includes Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Frank Grillo as Crossbones and Georges St-Pierre as Georges Batroc, with Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola and Emily VanCamp as Agent 13.

Pepper Potts to the Rescue in new Iron Man 3 TV spot

Fully revealing a rumored plot point from the LEGO sets, here's the latest TV spot for Iron Man, showing Gwyneth Paltrow getting into the action (via ComicBookMovie).

News: Jurassic Park, Norman Osborn and more!

There's some awesome news this week for several franchises, starting with one of my childhood favorites: Jurassic Park 4 has finally found a director. Plus, Guardians of the Galaxy has cast another character and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has added yet another major character, and we can finally see Amy Adams as Lois Lane. It's after the jump.

New Iron Man 3 trailer confirms the awesome

The theatrical trailer for Iron Man 3 is here, and it confirms, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the presence of the many rumored suits of armor. Heartbreaker, Hulkbuster and more. Not only that, but they seem able to fly autonomously (or Tony found a shit-ton of trusted pilots somewhere). Less than two months until release.

Christian Bale rumored to return for Justice League, potentially sets fans up for massive disappointment

It's the mother of all rumors for the long-suffering Justice League film. After failing to get Ben Affleck to direct the film (a move that would also have seen Affleck take over as Batman), a new report from LatinoReview (via ComicBookMovie) has Warner Bros. trying to secure the return of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, and bring back Christopher Nolan as a producer (Zach Synder too, so this would clearly depend on the success of Man of Steel). Bale has previously said he'd consider returning provided Nolan was on board, while Nolan has said he wasn't interested. However, Warner would probably be willing to move Heaven and Earth to get this done, as such a move would allow the film to overcome the hurdles that other options would face. Basically, this would let the Nolan films serve as setup for the Justice League, instead of requiring audiences forget everything they've seen in those films. Unfortunately, even if rumor is true, it doesn't mean Warner is going to be able to pull off the deals, as they'd likely be be looking for a long-term commitment from both Bale and Nolan. There's a spoiler for the end of The Dark Knight Rises below. You've been warned.