New Star Wars Movies

          So, this is really old news (if you haven't heard it yet, where have you been?) but I've been too busy to talk about it.  Disney bought LucasFilm and are planning on making another trilogy (which take place after the original three), JJ Abrams is set to direct Star Wars: Episode VII, and they are making some spin-off films staring Han Solo, Boba Fett and possibly Yoda.

          I don't know how I feel about this.  I like Star Wars but this sounds like too much of a good thing.  But then again, I don't know when these films will be released and how close together, but with all the news coming out now, it just sounds like the market will be flooded with new Star War films.  I don't want to see Star Wars become like the Saw franchise where a new movie is released every year.  But, we will have to take that as it comes.

          But the thing that concerns me the most is the Han Solo spin-off movie. The problem with that is A) Harrison Ford is too old for a stand alone film and B) Harrison Ford is Han Solo.  They just can't cast another actor to replace Harrison Ford; that's just stupid.  Who ever they cast will always be in Harrison Ford's shadow.  I think they should just move on, leave the original characters alone, and make movies with new characters and new stories, but in the same universe.  I would be more interested in the rumored Star Wars movie based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (though, who knows if the rumor is true or not.)

          Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see the future of Star Wars.  There's not much we can do now except wait to see what happens next.  But, I don't think we will have to wait too long as there is already a trailer for the new Yoda movie out...

     But that's just my opinion...

Upcoming Sequels

          So, a lot of people have problems with sequels.  Me, as I have explained, not so much.  But, that doesn't really have anything to do with this post; I'm here to report some news.  And all of these newes all have to do with upcoming sequels.



               Transformers 4

          So, as we all know, Transformers 4 is happening.  I have already talked about it here and here.  But here is some more news.  Mark Wahlberg is attached.  And now some guy named Jack Reynor is also starring.  Marky Mark seems like an odd choice to me; and I know nothing about Jack.  But, what I am excited for is the context of the new movie.  It's going to be same universe, different story.  And that just makes me happy.

     Head over to Michael Bay's WEBSITE to check it out.



               The Host 2

          Yea, they are making a sequel to this too.  When I watched the first one, I didn't think much of it; but I keep hearing a lot of people praising it.  So, I think I need to re-watch it.  But anyways, the sequel will have a different writer and a first time director.  And it will have 2 monsters instead of one.  I'm interested to see how this turns out, so I'll be keeping an eye on it.

     Read the article HERE.



               The Raid: Berandal

          I new they were thinking about a sequel when the first came out; they changed the name from The Raid to The Raid: Redemption.  But, I thought they were just planning ahead for a possible sequel;but apparently they've been working on it the whole time.  So, I'm a little surprised.  I'm curious as how this will play off of the first one.  The Raid: Redemption didn't really have a story or characters to continue with: it was 100% fighting with no plot or character development.  I wonder what the connection will be.  But either way, I thought the first one was amazing, so I'm excited for anything else by the same creative team.

     Learn more HERE.

               Jurassic Park 4

          There have been rumors about JP 4 for a while.  But it is finally official; and I'm pretty excited.  It has been a while since I've seen some good dinosaur-eating-people action.  The first JP was incredibly well done; and the others, while they progressively got worse, were still entertaining movies.  But, the part that got me the most excited was this statement, made by one of the producers:  "the movie would still rely on animatronic dinosaurs, despite the advancements in visual effects technology in the intervening decade."  The phrase 'animatronic dinosaurs' makes me as giddy as a school boy.  I think JP (and Terminator 2: Judgement Day) are perfect examples of how VFX should be done: using mostly practical with CGI to accentuate.  They could have easily gone for 100% CGI, but that would be dumb.

     Look at THIS.

          So yea, that is a lot of sequel news to come out in about a week.  And I'm excited to see them all.  Which ones are you most looking forward to?

Hopefully JP 4 will look like this.

     But that's just my opinion...

More Transformers 4

          So, some new news(?) has come out about the new Transformers movie.  And I found it a little interesting as it does not concern directors, actors, plot or any of the news that normally accompanies new movies.  It has to do with the Transformers themselves.  And it comes from Hasbro, not Paramount.

          So, apparently Hasbro is a little disappointed with the Transformers franchise.  And their complaint is that the movies didn't generate enough toy sales.  Cuz, I mean c'mon, what is the point of making movies about giant robots if nobody buys the toys?  So they are going to use all different Transformers for the upcoming installment to try and sell more toys.

          That came as kind of a surprise to me because I never really connected the two (movies and toys) together like that.  But it makes sense financially.  But it seems weird that they would complain about lack of sales considering a huge part of their toy-line was Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.  And I was a little disappointed that they didn't have an action figure for Dino/Mirage.

I didn't buy any toys, but if I did, he would have been one.  I thought he was one of the cooler supporting Transformers.

          So that is the news.  There is nothing official, as far as I know, as to whether they will just introduce new existing Transformers (such as Hound or Kup) or create entirely new ones like they did with the Twins or the Fallen.  But either way, I'm interested to see where this goes.

          Oh, and HERE is the article.

     But that's just my opinion...

The Robocop Remake

          So far I've been fairly unbiased about the news for the upcoming Robocop remake.  I knew it was being remade and was incredibly excited to see which direction they took it.  I knew that Jose Padilha was helming it.  But I had no idea who he was so I had no opinion.  And a few weeks ago they announced that Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) was going to be donning the iconic helmet.  I've only seen him in The Darkest Hour and I barely remembered him from it, so I didn't have an opinion to give.

I just hope they let him keep that stache...

But, today I read some new news and decided it was time to speak up.

     You can read the same news HERE

          So, the reason that I was excited for the remake was to see how they interpreted it.  Robocop was a big, bulky slow-moving character.  And for the 1980s, I imagined that it worked fine.  But, 20 years later, the world is a different place and movie audiences want different things.  In a world where Iron Man gracefully kicks butt, I imagine it would be hard for a character like that portrayed in the original Robocop to find place.  I anticipated to see what the design would look like.  Would they be faithful and make him bulky?  Or would they modernize him, making him more Iron Man-ish?  I would imagine it would look something like this:

Click HERE for artist's blog

And I would totally be fine if they used a design similar to that above.  It's still Robocop, but looks modern.  And I was excited.  But then I read the following statement:

     "Our vision of how a robot is going to be in 2046, it's going to be a very human skin, it's gonna look very human."

...and died a little inside.  Human?!?  Robocop can't look human!  At first I just thought it sounded stupid.  Why would you want to see a robot cop that looks like a human?  Just go watch The Blade Runner or something.  One of the things that make Robocop so appealing is his sweet design.  He is definitely a recognizable character.  But, I was thinking some more and thought the following:  By making him look more human, they are compromising his character.  One of the main themes of the original classic was Alex Murphy's fall from human and his slow journey to regain his humanity.  The reason his journey was so hard was that he only had a few fragmented memories and his face.  But, other than that, he was a machine.  He could never regain his former life as Alex Murphy.  While he regained his humanity, he could never be human again.

          But, if they make him "look very human" than that...um, well...makes him human.  I see that whole struggle going out the window.  If he looks human and still has his memories, what is going to keep him from going back to his life as Alex Murphy?  That was the whole character's arch.  If he doesn't fight for that, then what will he fight for?  I don't know; maybe it will all make sense once I see the final product.  I still have hopes for the remake and am looking forward to it.

          But, now the next big question is:  Will ED-209 be in it...?

     But that's just my opinion...

TMNT vs TANC

          Ok, I've heard about this a while ago but forgot until my friend posted about it on his blog.  (Check it out HERE).  But, it seems that Michael Bay is going to reboot TMNT.  Which, in and of itself, I don't have a problem with.  I think it would be interesting to see what he does with it.  However, I found out one thing he does want to do with it and no me gusta.

     HERE is what he said about his upcoming project.

          First of all, that sentence barley made sense.  (But that's besides the point).  The real problem is that he wants to change them from being "mutants" to being "aliens".  What? Why?  That doesn't make any damn sense.  No, no it doesn't.  But, I guess Bay wants the kids to believe that these turtles do exist.  So, logically, by making them aliens, they become more realistic.  Cuz everyone knows that aliens are more real than mutants.  Wait, what?  Don't these kids know that they are going to see a movie and that, kind of by default, those things don't exist?  Yea, well, I don't even know.  Maybe Bay is talking about a specific group of kids that are very impressionable.  Hang on.  If they are "alien", doesn't that mean they won't be "turtles" either, since turtles are kind of from around here?  So, instead of making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bay is going to make Teenage Alien Ninja Creatures.  (And that is assuming that the aliens have a similar life cycle as us and are teenagers).  Why doesn't he just make Ninja Aliens.  Or, better yet, why don't we all just watch Alien vs Ninja?

     HERE is the trailer.  I'm serious.  It's a real movie.

          So now, I'm just confused.  I'll just leave it as this:  Michael Bay is making a movie which may, or may not, involve ninjas, aliens and turtles.

They should speak Klingon too.  That would be sweet.

     But that's just my opinion...




          *authors edit (23 March 2012)
     HERE is a funny, different view on the subject
          (warning: contains mild profanities.  and by profanities i mean the f-bomb)

Transformers 4

          There has been rumors of a fourth Transformers movie, but now I guess it's official.  I, personally, am very excited.  I'm a big Transformers fan.  The 1st was a solid action movie.  The 2nd was entertaining in its visuals, but was lacking in plot.  The 3rd was good all the way around and was the best of the three.  So, if they build off of the 3rd, the next one should be epic.

          So, according to the internets, Transformers 4 will not be a direct sequel, but rather a re-makesque "evolution".  The impression I get is that it will take place in the same world, but will not be a continuation of the same story.  For me, this is exciting news,  I think it would be sweet to have another trilogy.  Honestly, no one really cares about the characters (except for Optimus Prime).  So, take him and place him in a different storyline.  There are so many different characters and stories and lore that could be implemented in another movie.

          Personally, I think they should lose Sam and company.  But keep Lennox and the military.  Make the whole movie focus on NEST.  As for the villain, the most obvious one is Unicron.  They could essential remake The Transformers: The Movie (1986) and have Unicron rebuild Megatron as Galvatron.  That would be cool.

One of the greatest movie villains of all time

          So basically, I'm stoked for this.  There's so much material that they could easily make another move (or three).  As long as they keep the momentum from the 3rd, a 4th should not disappoint.  As of right now, it will hit theaters 29 July 2014.

     Click HERE or HERE to read the articles.

     But that's just my opinion...