Archive for December, 2011
17 items.
Late last night the first part of the two-part prequel to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy – and Dear Lord, that’s a mouthful. I present the teaser trailer to The Hobbit.
At first blush, I get a distinct “gettin’ the band back together” vibe coming off this thing. Maybe that’s to be expected since Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom will all be reprising their roles from the LotR movies.
I know when I saw the title card reading “Next December…” I was taken aback. Mostly because it seems like a long way off to start an advertising campaign. But, when you consider that The Fellowship of the Ring first premiered in theaters almost a decade earlier, I can kind of understand wanting to capture that symmetry of time.
I was also struck by the sheer amount of footage they managed to cobble together for the trailer. With a year to go, it makes me wonder how much effect work is left to lay in? I’m sure WETA’s render farm will be overclocked in 2012.
What’s your reaction to the new trailer for The Hobbit? Personally, I’m a little underwhelmed. It feels like more of the same to me. But then again, I like the idea of revisiting these characters and hanging out with them again for a little while.
Good times, man. Good times.
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Earlier in the week, Fox released a teaser video promoting the soon-to-be released trailer for the Alien prequel Prometheus. That’s a bit of unconventional marketing. Basically taking the teaser aspect of promotion out of the hands of Entertainment Tonight, or what have you. It made me excited to watch the first trailer and write about it here.
Then I watched it.
The trailer isn’t bad, really. I just had a hard time latching on to it – I think because of how the title card came up so slowly in front of the rapid, flickering images from the film.
Maybe it was a clever tactic to get people to pour over every frame and study the trailer like an ancient text. I just don’t have the time for that kind of stuff, man.
Luckily, Movieline does. They posted 50 stills from the trailer that you probably want to check out.
I’ll be honest… looking at those stills made me more excited for Prometheus than watching the trailer did.
What was your reaction to the Prometheus trailer? Leave your comments below!
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I’m more of what you call an “indoor kid,” so I’m not a very big fan of man-vs-nature movies. Into the Wild, The Edge, Alive, The River Wild, 127 Hours – they make me anxious and bore me at the same time.
But the innate charm of Liam Neeson attracts me like a moth to a flame. So I was willing to give the trailer for The Grey a try.
First things first. I have a theory about Liam Neeson that he’s basically become a fult-tilt workaholic after the death of his wife Natasha Richardson in 2009. That’s why you’ve seen Neeson is so many paycheck movies over the last few years.
I certainly don’t mean to make light of Richardson’s death or what I am certain is Neeson’s very real pain. If I were in his situation, I’d probably do the same thing. All I’m saying is that scenes of Neeson tenderly holding hands with a wife he’s afraid he’ll never see again kind of drives this theory home.
I don’t know. Pet observation.
Secondly, I don’t know what I can say about this movie – not being a fan of the genre. Although I give it points for making a hungry pack of wolves the antagonist and not just the elements themselves.
I would say that I was completely won over, however, with the last scene of Neeson strapping single-serving whiskey bottles to his knuckles and breaking them over rocks to create jagged edges to fight the wolves one on one.
…just like a real Irishman would fight!
GO GET ‘EM, LIAM!
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Sony recently released a batch of stills from the forthcoming Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.
You can follow the link above to Screen Rant if you want to see the actors in question looking about pensively. But I’ll save you the trouble. This is the only shot that matters…
Mechanical web-shooters.
BOOYAH.
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Dec28
First things first. I know the comic is late, but if you could click on the little image to the left and vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics, I’d appreciate it. We’ve been hovering around the Top 100 all week and I want to break through. I think if we can get everyone into the habit, we can find permanent placement on the list next month when the vote tally resets.
C’mon. Click the link. You want to see Cami’s Yoshi tramp stamp, right?
My apologies for the lateness of this comic. It’s late. Like, really late. Wanna hear my excuses? No? Here it goes, anyway.
As you might recall, Sunday was Christmas. Sunday’s are usually the nights I work on Theater Hopper. Since I foolishly work without a buffer: no comic.
I had planned to work on this week’s strip Monday night, but our Christmas celebration was unexpectedly extended with a dinner invitation to my in-laws: no comic.
On Tuesday night, a good friend who had moved to New York City came back for the holidays and wanted to get together: no comic.
Wednesday night was the first night this week that I didn’t have some kind of external committment. So that was my opportunity to put together this week’s comic. And here we are.
I feel a guilty that the comic is late because I’ve basically hard-wired that deadline guilt into my DNA. But at the same time, I feel like I shouldn’t have to apologize for it. Spending time with family and friends? Dude, that comes first. I love my readers, don’t get me wrong – and I hate making excuses. I’m just explaining that I wouldn’t exactly give the time back, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, let’s talk about the comic.
There was actually a little debate about whether or not Yoshi was a dragon or a dinosaur that I instigated on Twitter. For the most part, people identify him as a dinosaur. Although some people told me that he has a power-up in Super Smash Bros. where he turns into a dragon. So I guess it’s in dispute.
I was primarily concerned that I might have shot my punchline in the foot. But then I realized it’s kind of funnier if Yoshi wasn’t a dragon, but Cami was convinced he was.
I think about these kind of things way more than I should.
I’m very eager to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I haven’t read the books. I haven’t seen the original Dutch films. But I’m a big fan of David Fincher and that’s my primary reason for going.
It doesn’t hurt that the Academy award winning duo behind the soundtrack to Fincher’s The Social Network are back for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I already own Trent Reznor’s and Atticus Ross’s soundtrack and have been listening to it for the past week. It’s creeping me the hell out and I love it.
I was thinking about how badly I want to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I realized that there are very few films at the end of the year that I feel I have to rush out to see.
Typically, I feel very overwhelmed at the end of the year. Studios pump out their awards contenders and fight for their piece of the critical pie. I don’t get the sense that is happening this year, do you? I can’t tell if my enthusiasm for movies in general has waned or if there simply aren’t that many thoughtful, reliable films for adults out there.
I mean, sure, dig deep enough and you’ll find one. But where’s the buzz? Where are the early contenders for next year’s Oscars? The Top 10 lists I’ve been reading over the last few weeks rarely seems to demonstrate and consensus. It’s interesting.
This is my last comic of 2011 which completes the first full year of my shift to a once-a-week schedule. I’ve actually been doing comics once-a-week since last May of last year. So I guess it’s been a little more than a year.
I’ve lost some traffic after going from 3 updates a week to 1. That’s to be expected. But I really didn’t expect so many of you to hang on and to become more resolved in your support of the comic. I wanted to take a moment to thank you guys for that. If you’re reading this, you’re one of the tried and true fans and I appreciate it.
I have some big plans for Theater Hopper in 2012. Things are going to change dramatically. I won’t keep you in suspense very long, though. With next week’s update, I’m going to tell you exactly what 2012 looks like. It’s going to be interesting, for sure. I’m anxious about it, but I think it’s the right decision to make.
Thanks again for your support in 2011 and for putting up with the late comics. May 2012 greet you warmly.
See you next year.
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Today a still from Sylvester Stallone’s forthcoming Bullet to the Head was released and I’m kind of unsure how I feel about it.
Please keep in mind that this man is 65 years-old. He’s in phenomenal shape, don’t get me wrong. I’m jealous and humbled as any man with a rotting gut full of Cheetos can be. But I’m not sure if Stallone’s physique is something we should be celebrating or not.
He’s all veins and sinew. He looks like Iggy Pop, or something – only less leathery and more plasticized. He looks like he was wrapped in cellophane and spent about 4 hours in a steam room before taking that picture.
Maybe I’d be a little more impressed with how Stallone looks if I didn’t know he was busted for importing steroids into Australia a few years ago.
For those curious, Stallone plays a New Orleans hitman who teams up with a cop played by Jason Statham to take down a mutual enemy. The film comes out April of next year.
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Artist Viktor Hertz recently made a few additions to his “Honest Logo” series including this one.
As long as we’re talking about honesty, I honestly wish I had thought of this first.
Check out all of Viktor’s “Honest Logos” here.
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