Cool bits from the interwebs

Comic-con has come and gone since my last post of links, and as expected, there were some exciting pieces of news and great reveals over the last couple of weeks. I'm not going to try to cover everything that came out of the con, but here's a few of things that particularly stood out to me.

"Captain America" is summer's superhero

Captain America was my most anticipated film of this year, and I was seriously worried that it would fail to meet my expectations. However, after seeing the film, I think I have to say that this is the most satisfied I have been with a film since The Two Towers, and this movie was everything I hoped it would be.

Much of my excitement sprang from trailers that showed the film would be a combination of war film and superhero movie. Fortunately, director Joe Johnson pulled this off perfectly, incorporating classic war film elements (a mission behind enemy lines, a squad of elite commandos) with the superhero origin story in a way that felt natural.

So happily, this passes X-Men: First Class and Thor to become my #1 movie of the year and I can only say that if you are a fan of any of these movies, than don't forget to stay through the credits, because that's something you won't want to miss.

Teaser shows off "Amazing Spider-man"

Here's the first teaser for next summer's Spider-man reboot, which sees Social Network actor Andrew Garfield fill out Tobey Maguire's old spandex. The inclusion of Peter Parker's parents is certainly an interesting addition, and it looks like Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy will be more than just Parker's high school crush. All in all, a nice trailer, though I'm not sold on the Spider-vision POV. My guess is it's supposed to look awesome in the 3D. Whether it will or not is a different story.

Harry Potter goes out with a bang

I went to a midnight showing of the final Harry Potter film. It was last-minute decision, but I felt like I was missing out on something important, and it turns out a lot of people felt the same. It's been almost ten years since the release of the first film, I've seen everyone on the opening weekend and picked up the last two books at midnight, so I won't pretend I'm objective.

However, I was disappointed at the pacing of the previous film, and since I'd loved the conclusion to the books, I was concerned as to how it would play out on film. I wasn't thrilled with the way director David Yates directed the action in Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince, with his style leaning toward the frenetic, confusing style that adds realism to The Bourne Identity but made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen a jumbled mess.

However, I wasn't disappointed as the film started with action and never let up. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of the characters, and there's no way Part II can stand alone as a piece of story-telling. So this is possibly the best Harry Potter film, but if you aren't serious Harry Potter fan, you're going to be left scratching your head. Heck, even I was confused a few times, and it'd only been six months since I'd seen the previous film. That's one of the reasons that makes this my #3 film of the year. There were some great parts, and few disappointing ones that I'll mention ahead, but they are spoilers, so you've been warned.

Dwarves, heroes, and other stuff

The dwarves from The Hobbit are revealed in all their bearded glory, news from Marvel on bringing their heroes to the screen, cool commentary by io9 on a TV show that shouldn't be good, awesome LEGO, and some steps toward becoming Iron Man or Captain America. That right, it's time for another collection of links from around the interwebs.

The Fourth of July

I was going to post about appropriate movies for the Fourth. My personal favorite is probably Independence Day, because setting aside details like the lack of alien firewalls, it's incredibly fun. Also, as this is a day dedicated to making things explode, anything from Michael Bay and most Jerry Bruckheimer films are suitable. However, this morning /Film referred me to this:

I'm probably overexposed to advertising, but this sounds like America. Alan Silverstri's score nails the patriotic tone that dozens of shows, movies, video games have created. Oh, and CBM points out the Australian trailer for Captain America has switched out "Heroes are made in America" for "When evil rises, a hero will stand." But today's the Fourth of July, so we're allowed to be patriotic.