Movies

For a while, the upcoming reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise seemed destined to be heading to theaters in 2014 under the sleekly abbreviated title, Ninja Turtles. Well, according to a report from fan site, TMNT Lair, that destiny has been changed. The film will now forgo any edgy naming attempts and tout the more traditional title of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The report comes after the film's presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas inexplicably touted the (yet-to-be-released) logo displaying the full "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" title. It's a move that could help make progress in placating picky fans whose heads are still spinning from the idea that this reboot from producer, Michael Bay and director, Jonathan Liebesman plans to make the foursome into aliens.

Nevertheless, the film, currently in production and working off a recently-rewritten script by Snow White and the Huntsman scribe, Evan Daugherty, has also seen its share of defenders. Most notable, among them, is actor, Alan Ritchson, who plays Raphael in the film. Still sworn to secrecy on the plot details, Ritchson has expressed frustration on the project's notorious reputation, wishing to set the record straight, and reiterating his own love for the franchise. This reported return to a traditional title will no doubt help in that cause.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles uses badass martial arts techniques to reclaim the first two words of its title at theaters on June 6, 2014.

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Thor: The Dark World has made a first official act of hype with the release of its debut teaser poster and it's a thunderous throng of coolness.

The image that's being used is certainly not taking the cryptic or metaphorical route as some teaser posters would dare to indulge. Here, we have Chris Hemsworth in his return as Thor wielding the monstrous Mjolnir, overloaded with lightning while working through some tumultuous tides of weather that would send any storm-chaser flying back to their makeshift SUV headquarters. 

As Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige tells USA Today on the unveiling of the lightning-laced image:

"It doesn't get much badder than Chris Hemsworth as Thor. It's rare that you have a poster that is just Chris Hemsworth shooting on the set. But he just looks like Thor. We just put in some lightning, and he's got his hammer and you're there. It's just an incredibly striking image."

In the film, the newly-matured and responsible Thor helps defend his realm of Asgard against an invading army led by a powerful dark elf overlord, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston.) It seems that, based on the (yet-to-be-confirmed) eyewitness descriptions of the once-screened trailer, that Malekith will be more than a match for our coffee-mug-smashing Asgardian son. He may just have to juggle the toughest enemy of his life and the continued safety of his Earth-born-beau, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) by having to resort to the help of his half-brother nemesis, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), whose level of trustworthiness is problematic, at best.

Thor: The Dark World ignores extreme weather to strike a badass pose when it hits theaters on November 8. Check out the full poster below!

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Kick-Ass 2, the seemingly unlikely sequel to the 2010 amateur vigilante epic has released a two minute treat of a clip showing us a bit of the titanic tussle that will occur within the film.

While the debut trailer that dropped last month hinted at some kind of gigantic super-scrap between Kick-Ass' (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) newly-assembled army of amateurs and The Motherf**ker's (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) repulsively pusillanimous posse of pain, we certainly didn't imagine it would be in this scale. Thankfully, this new clip sticks with the story just fine and walks the fine line of giving you a bit of what you want to see without making the business mistake of giving you everything.

Indeed, this scene seemingly revels in the abundance of absurdity it contains, while simultaneously carrying forward the tension built between our protagonist and his obscene antagonist which stems back to events in the first film. That tension is certainly released here at the Evil Lair. From the ballistic brawl between the regiments of rookies to what looks to be an ever-building and epic showdown between Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and the monolithic Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina), you will no doubt leave with the impression that this film will live up to its awesomely unambiguous title.

Kick-Ass 2 channels Enter the Dragon for mass mega-fights when it hits theaters on August 16. Check out the (potentially spoileriffic) clip below!

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R.I.P.D., a film that can honestly be given the accolade of being "this summer's best film to feature undead cops that utilizes the Men in Black mold" has released its debut trailer.

However, don't get the impression that this film intends to charge up any Noisy Crickets and ride alien-tech-installed autos upside-down while listening to Elvis on an 8-track player. This film, based on a comic book by Dark Horse Entertainment, gives us a buddy cop dynamic with Deadpool and The Dude, which should "abide" well by fans of several genres.

It seems that police prodigy, Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) gets taken out by some lucky thug on a raid of some kind. However, that's only where his story begins. Upon his death he meets a quirky recruiter (Mary-Louise Parker) who offers him a chance to join a new kind of police force and put on "the last suit you'll ever wear." (Okay, no more MIB references, I promise.) Paired with an old-school gunslinger named Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges), Nick must adjust to the nuances of this bizarre beat quickly. It seems that the living world is actually full of hidden monstrous undead criminals who have escaped judgment and its up to a force consisting of the greatest lawmen that ever lived and died called the R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department) to bring them to non-corporeal justice.

Of course, our heroes won't be fighting these undead d**ks without an inconvenient twist. It seems that in the world of the living, our dead deputies appear behind an avatar (the non-giant smurf variety) and they're not quite appropriate. While the younger upstart in Ryan Reynolds' Nick appears to the mortal muggles as an old Chinese man (James Hong, minus his Lo Pan powers), Jeff Bridges' grizzled gunslinger appears to the world as a bodacious blonde bombshell of a woman played by sizzling surfing star, Marisa Miller. It's a dynamic that will certainly make their interactions with the living awkward and creepy. (Mostly creepy.)

R.I.P.D. saves the living world from desperadoes of the damned when it hits theaters on July 19. Check out the trailer below!

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The Lone Ranger, the "pirated" western revival by the team of director, Gore Verbinski and producer, Jerry Bruckheimer has released an explosive new trailer.

This latest preview delves a little deeper into the character development of the titular Ranger himself (Armie Hammer), who, as we learn here for the first time, was previously just a city boy straight off the train named John Reid who was deputized by his ranger brother with their late ranger father's badge on a whim. Of course, the first mission didn't go quite so swimmingly since everyone was massacred in an ambush by some scruffy scum led by an unbathed bandit named Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner). However, it turns out that after being presumed dead along with everyone else, that John is discovered by a Native American warrior, Tonto (Johnny Depp), who believes him to be some kind "spirit walker;" a man who's been to the other side that can't be killed in battle. Now, they ride together for justice...and a touch of vengeance.

While we've had theme-focused trailers for this film spotlight the "justice" aspect, showing Tom Wilkinson's greedy robber baron character and another fixating on the "spiritual" aspect of the Ranger's resurrection, this one seems to be more focused on the motivations of the man himself. While bringing justice to a crop of corrupt cops seems to be the righteous motivation, this trailer does reveal that when it comes to the Ranger's quest, seeking revenge for his brother's death does kind of sweeten the deal, as well. As for Johnny Depp's Tonto...well, he's just kind of there. -- Which is all the explanation you need for why Helena Bonhan Carter is in the film. (Sporting a leggy weapon that might be a tribute to Rose McGowan's in Planet Terror.)

Pirates of the Wild West...err, sorry, The Lone Ranger screams "Hi-yo, Silver! Away!" as it rides into theaters on July 3. Check out the new trailer below!

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The new Disney-sized Lucasfilm coalition dropped a major announcement concerning the release strategy for 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII, its ensuing sequels, and standalone films. It seems that as of 2015, we will be in for several years of successive Star Wars movies set for the summers.

At CinemaCon in Las Vegas today, they would reveal that Episode VII will be targeted for a summer 2015 release. Yes, that bit of news may not be quite the bombshell, considering the fact that Star Wars films have traditionally launched in the late-spring/early-summer period. However, that tidbit would be accompanied by what may be the real game-changer: The long-discussed standalone films will be released in alternation each year between the Sequel Trilogy films. This means that starting with Episode VII in summer 2015, we will be treated to the first standalone film in summer of 2016, starting a pattern that will apparently repeat for at least the rest of the Trilogy.

It's quite an ambitious (presumed) plan to pump out a proper "Episode" film every other year, breaking the traditional 3-year gap between films practiced by George Lucas and company during the first two Trilogies. However, filling the yearly gaps with the standalone/spinoff (call them what you will) films does risk a bit of overkill which could chip away at the vitality of the franchise. I suppose fans will probably just have to trust in the will of The Force...which, in this case is owned by an anthropomorphic mouse with a high-pitched voice who cranks out theme parks and seemingly wholesome teen idols. Besides, those standalone films are rumored to focus on cool characters like Yoda, Han Solo, and Boba Fett, so that certainly can't be all bad.

This is quite a bit to digest and it may be the case that some clarification will be made on the specifics of the schedule. However, what does seem to be set in stone, is the fact that our future summers will be dominated by the Star Wars universe. 

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Iron Man 3 has provided yet another sneek preview, this time exclusive to Gizmodo showing off some of the tremendous tech that Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark will take into battle against the forces of Ben Kingsley's The Mandarin. This time we are enlightened as to how the tech is a reflection on the state of the man.

The last bunch of trailers and TV spots have already made perfectly clear that this film will be teeming with tremendous troops of titanium, all of which were constructed by a shockingly-prepared Tony Stark. However, as the featurette reveals, the 42 armors that will already exist by the beginning may actually be a reflection of Tony's psyche coming into the film. In the past, he clearly made himself a target for shadowy psychopaths across the world, which has complicated the fact that he now has things in his life he values more than himself; specifically an evolving romance with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Now, the formerly cocky and hubris-emanating genius playboy has become a man desperately trying to protect the key pieces of his life. The result? Well the aforementioned 42 ass-kicking armors, each of which are designed to handle a multitude of specific scenarios which must float in Tony's mind constantly.

Of course, the most notable piece of tech we've seen so far from the film is his latest armor, the Mark XLII (42), which was earlier assumed to be just a Mark VIII. We also learn that subdermal implants are the explanation for the process in which this latest armor flies to Tony in pieces and assembles on his body at will.

Iron Man 3 takes doomsday prepping to an awesome new extreme when it hits theaters on May 3.

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300: Rise of an Empire, the blood-soaked sequel to 2006's original 300 gets set for another tour de force of ferocity with the debut of its first teaser poster.

The image would come via tweet from the previous film's director, Zack Snyder (certainly riding high from that awesome new Man of Steel trailer), who stays on as producer and has penned an entirely original script in same spirit of the Frank Miller graphic novel that inspired the predecessor project. Because of that originality, much of the details of this film were somewhat of a mystery. -- That was, until last week, when the first ever images and some plot details from director, Noam Murro hit. At that point, it was clear that, while the visual composition would be aligned with Snyder's original film, the setting of this film's signature stylized grandiose battles and its protagonists would actually be quite different.

The poster fully sports our new protagonist in the Athenian general, Themistokles played by Sullivan Stapleton. Unlike Gerard Butler's vicious and diplomat-dispatching King Leonidas, Themistokles is not a king, but rather, a figure who must walk the line between being a military leader and a politician. It is that dynamic which he will carry into the film's six reported battles, including the introduction to a new theater to the quasi-historical warfare of the 300 mythos: The seas. While the Au-obsessed wannabe deity, Xerxes is back as overlord of the Persian empire, Themistokles' primary opponent will actually be someone far fairer in the calculating female Persian general named Artemisia, played by Eva Green.

300: Rise of an Empire possibly uses sexual tension to dramatize massive bloody massacres when it hits theaters on August 2. Check out the poster below!

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Man of Steel, this summer's big screen Superman revival soars with a spectacular new full-length trailer filled with enough action to satiate any fan's craving for vicious visual stimuli and enough optimism-packed pathos to talk a failed stockbroker off a ledge.

This, indeed, is THE trailer that fans have been longing to see. While the trailers and TV spots up to this point have effectively conveyed the more dramatic aspects of the personal and a physical path down which Henry Cavill's Clark Kent will delve, certain important elements of the plot like what he's doing and why were still rather ambiguous. Moreover, the villains like Michael Shannon's General Zod and his Kryptonian cohorts remained nothing more than a mystery. Well, in essence, the veil has truly been lifted on all of those things with this new trailer. In fact, never has Superman's life mission and conversely, General Zod's lust for his blood been so clearly articulated.

The trailer even manages to shine some light on the motivations of Amy Adams' Lois Lane, who, based off her monologue and what we're seeing, seems to have devoted quite a bit of her journalistic career towards investigating the various Bigfoot-like sightings of the "super" deeds anonymously performed by Clark. As she states: "For some, he was a guardian angel, for others, a ghost. He never quite fit in." Wow. Have we just heard this film's "The hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now" speech?

Overall, it's one of the most powerful trailers we've seen in quite a long time, packing an equal amount of psi in its punches as it does in hope. If there were any skeptical questions about how director, Zack Snyder's take on the many-times-told tale would fare, then they were lessened significantly in just a little over 3 minutes.

Man of Steel gives people of Earth an ideal to strive towards when it hits theaters on June 14. Check it out below (again, if you must,) before General Zod breaks out of his space shackles!

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Star Trek Into Darkness has unleashed what is apparently its final full-length trailer before the film's impending release next month.

In keeping with the continuing promotional strategy for this sequel, we're treated to quite a bit of awe-inspiring new footage that leaves us fans in, well...awe. Yet, it's a state that wears off afterwards when we realize that we still don't know anything more about the film than we did before we saw the clip. (A feeling which fans who followed director, J.J. Abrams' legendary TV drama, Lost might know all too well.) However, this trailer certainly does bring a lot to the table for hype-hoarders looking for that quick fix of previously unseen milliseconds.

While the trailer starts with the standard narrative we've been seeing of a cocky young Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) getting lectured on the state of that cockiness by his ship's former Captain, Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), it then veers off into the varied acts of explosive futuristic terror waged by the film's deep-voiced villain, in the mysterious John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Clearly, Kirk and company get more than they bargained for when the brash Captain volunteers everyone for the pursuit of this powerful and vengeance-fueled individual and it results in the iconic Enterprise taking a nosedive into the neighboring waters of Alcatraz in San Francisco. (After crashing through the historic penitentiary.) However, like all heroes who fall, the eventual rise is made ever more satisfying and that, indeed, is what we get. Unlike the previous trailers which sported similar footage, the "rise" aspect is put into better context this time around.

Star Trek Into Darkness rises from the sea to hit John Harrison so hard, he might admit who he really is and sport a Ricardo Montalban accent when it hits theaters on May 17. (Although I still say he's a mutant Tribble.)

Check out the new trailer below!

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Ninja Turtles, next year's reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has acquired the fearsome foursome's furry father figure. Actor, Danny Woodburn has been cast as the team's mutated rat mentor, Splinter.

Perhaps one of the, if not the most consistently visible little people actors working in the entertainment industry, Woodburn has a vast array of television and film appearances like last year's Mirror Mirror attributed. However, he's probably still best remembered as Kramer's buddy, Mickey Abbot on Seinfeld, who was once blackballed by his peers of child actor stand-ins when it was exposed that he "lifts." He now takes a key role in this Michael Bay-produced blockbuster of the sewer-dwelling sensei who, as the classic theme song indicated, "taught them to be ninja teens."

No details have been revealed on how the Splinter character, who typically sports a Japanese accent will be reflected in this film. Various versions of Splinter have drastically different origin tales with the original comic books and 1990 film portraying him as a murdered karate master's pet rat who learns his master's moves and is eventually mutated. Others, like the classic animated series, as well as the current one on Nickelodeon portray Splinter as the human karate master himself who was mutated into a human rat. Considering that producer, Michael Bay has hinted that the Turtles could be aliens of some kind, this film might completely reinvent Splinter's story.

At this point, Woodburn joins a cast featuring his character's adopted sons and reptilian rookies, Leonardo (Pete Ploszek), Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), and Donatello (Jeremy Howard), who will also be joined by (as evidence from recent photos,) a rapturously-red-headed version of actress, Megan Fox playing the franchise's signature damsel, April O'Neil. Comedy star, Will Arnett has also been recently confirmed for the cast for a yet-to-be-revealed- character.

Ninja Turtles revs up the Party Wagon for a trip to hit theaters on June 6, 2014.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has unveiled actor, Jamie Foxx as voltage-infused villain, Electro. While shooting in New York City's Times Square yesterday, the proverbial cat was out of the bag when a flood of photos surfaced showing Foxx's take on the classic comic book villain...glowing blue and veiny, sporting a hoodie.

It was certainly no big secret that Foxx would be coming into this role in director, Marc Webb's reboot-sequel with the intent of a drastic reinvention from the green and yellow spandex spark-shooting villain we knew from the pages of the comic books. The luminescent blue look (contributed by lights installed under the hoodie) does seem to be inspired from Electro's look in Marvel Comics' "Ultimate" universe and in all likelihood, what we're seeing physically is only half the final look. Do not be surprised to see the final product display him amidst loads of digital effects with popping sparks and pulsating lights. As Foxx previously described his getup to Blackfilm back in December:

"It won’t be green and yellow. It will be a different color. They (the producers) want something for the future. They want to have it more grounded and not as comic book-y, so it won’t be green and yellow. They want to try new things, like a liquid rubber and things like that, and there are all these bolts and stuff in my arms when they are hanging me upside down and trying to figure out what happen. How did he become this way? So, it will be some new stuff."

One thing that will be somewhat consistent with the more popular classic comic book rendition of the Electro character is the idea of his origin being somewhat of a sympathetic victim tale. He was previously known just as an Average Joe blue collar worker named Max Dillon, whose wife left him due to an apparent lack of ambition. That all changed when an accident transformed him into a living electrical capacitor. Endowed with incredible electrical powers, he became the deranged villain we all know. You get the sense from looking at Foxx that these scenes in the hoodie are probably the initial post-transformation period where he's still running scared.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sports villainy resembling a walking motel room stain in a black-light at theaters on May 2, 2014. Check out a few more pics of Foxx as Electro below!

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X-Men: Days of Future Past has provided yet another important cast member glimpse. Director, Bryan Singer, as usual, took to tweeting set photos, this time revealing Patrick Stewart in his return as the team's tactful telepathic leader, Professor Charles Xavier.

While Singer has been dutifully tweeting images of various set pieces and recently of Nicholas Hoult as Beast, this raw image displaying the back of that famously follicle-free face sends the message loud and clear that this film will serve as the conduit between the two seemingly different movie canons of the X-Men trilogy started with Singer's 2000 film and the rebooted 2011 effort, X-Men: First Class. Of course, in adhering to that mandate, expect to see Stewart share the screen and a name with another Charles Xavier; the younger one from years past played by James McAvoy in First Class.

In this first image, we see Stewart sporting a black jacket with white straps positioned vertically on the shoulder blades. Either Patrick Stewart happened to be wearing some bizarre rejected Captain Picard couture, or this pic might have also given us our first extremely limited glimpse at the new style of uniforms that the X-Men team (the one from latter days) will sport as they go into battle in a timeline-altered dystopia where mutants are hunted by an army of giant humanoid robots called Sentinels. Of course, he won't be short of help since Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Halle Berry's Storm, Ellen Page's Kitty Pryde, and array of other returning cast members from the X-Men trilogy join him in battle and he may even get some help from a former rival in Ian McKellen's Magneto. Meanwhile, back in the 1970's theater of the film, Michael Fassbender's younger Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique and a bevy other cast members from First Class hold down the fort in past.

X-Men: Days of Future Past tries its best to bring the big shoulder look back when it hits theaters on July 18, 2014.

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has finally satiated Suzanne Collins fans by dropping its debut trailer last night on the MTV Movie Awards and now the web, just as Peeta Mellark would drop a marble rye in the mud.

When we last left our doting District 12 tributes, they gave the system a proverbial middle finger by breaking the rules of the 74th Hunger Games by, you know, living. That feat by Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) was accomplished with a concocted courtship, which stirred the once-ravaged and beaten population towards seeing that the rule of the Capitol government and its disingenuous director, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is not quite as powerful as they once thought, which apparently scares the crap out of them. It is this aspect that seems to be the prevailing theme of this debut trailer. The sinister Snow, now colluding with a new head gamemaker (seeing as the last one apparently met a "berry" ignominious death,) named Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman), seems to have a multitude of malicious machinations designed to fix this PR nightmare.

The trailer won't exactly leaving you hanging about the motives of the sinister Snow and Heavensbee. They want Katniss and Peeta DEAD...but they have to play it cool and calculated so as to not aggravate the newly-perked proletariat. While we see the plan go into action that's making people Katniss cares about (i.e. the dudes in her life stuck in "the friend zone") suffer like Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), it's evidently designed to chip away at the empowering nature of the heroic District 12 twosome. Eventually, the evil undynamic duo also come to the conclusion that ALL of the existing winners of past Hunger Games could represent similar potential threats and the trailer concludes with the part of the plan which will dominate the film: The 75th Hunger Games' "Quarter Quell" twist, which will bring back each and every one of them...to die.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire tries to eliminate beacons of hope with extreme prejudice when it hits theaters on November 22. Check out the debut trailer below...now!

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Man of Steel, this summer's big screen Superman smash has released a static-soaked sneak peak giving fans the debut of Michael Shannon's villainous General Zod...well, his voice, anyway.

The video seems to be in theme with a recently-launched viral campaign that was supported by billboards sporting similar static-laden visuals which carried ambiguous messages like "I will find him," directing fans to a similarly-named (and similarly-ambiguous) site. While the video might not bring much to the table as far as visual aesthetics, it does give us an introduction to the escaped Kryptonian war criminal and even manages to convey his maniacal motivations, which are clear: He wants Henry Cavill's Kal-El, aka Clark Kent, aka Superman to surrender to him, or he and his killer Kryptonian cohorts destroy our good Earth. (And if precedence counts for anything, a good "kneel" probably wouldn't hurt either.)

As we await the impending arrival of a substantive new trailer (the first since December,) this viral full of Zod vitriol may not exactly be as dramatic as a raid of the White House and subjugation of the U.S. made by the last big screen incarnation of Zod played by Terence Stamp in 1981's Superman II. However, it certainly leaves us more in the know about where the villain is heading. (Although, the static is, by default, more fashionably sensible than Stamp's black disco jumpsuit.)

Man of Steel threatens the world with the specter of horrible bandwidth at theaters on June 14.