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Thoughts on the Batman v Superman Official Trailer

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

ahletwx18dkogwhiihxq Is Superman a false god or a prophet? Just who is he and what is his purpose on Earth? These are the questions raised in Zack Snyder’s reimagining of the DC Universe. In fact, this comics company has this “New 52” in place for sometime. and this director has been following along a similar line of themes for DC’s theatrical presentation and reimagining of some iconic heroes. In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, not everyone approves of this new mighty man of steel poised to look like Atlas holding the weight of the world upon his shoulders. In the voice-over, one individual asks if the biggest demon might be someone who fell from the sky — is this an allusion to Lucifer, the Morningstar? We’re not talking about the devil here, but that’s the feeling some folks might get. Literary analysts might wonder if this person is playing on the idiom, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

Given another frame where there are soldiers bowing to Superman, some may wonder just what kind of hold he has upon the fair people of Metropolis. The city has recovered from the events of Man of Steel, but not everyone approves. And is it a vault that he’s entering into?

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By the time Bruce Wayne aka Batman emerges, this version of the caped crusader is going to be nothing like former iterations seen on-screen. He’s staring at an old costume and is perhaps wondering if its time to put it on again. The dialogue is sharp as a new narrator speaks about how dark feelings can turn a good man to bad. There’s this fever and rage that festers, and that’s essentially Batman as visioned by Frank Miller. Viewers of this trailer get to see this version don some mechanical threads that gives him a wicked glowing eye look. Wayne is going to need it if he’s going to fight Superman.

Perhaps the biggest question here is just how far gone has Batman become? Is he there to do what’s right for the people of Earth? Does he even know about Superman’s weakness to Kryptonite? When this film’s subtitle is known as Dawn of Justice, that means other types of superheroes could potentitally emerge to side with either the caped crusader or man of steel in hopes to find freedom from being ostracized. The villain is not so clearly defined yet. As any follower of DC’s films will know, Lex Luthor is waiting in the wings.

Thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Second Trailer

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The second trailer to Star Wars: The Force Awakens is certainly signalling the passing of the lightsaber. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) narrates this second piece by saying, “The Force is strong in my family. My father has it, I have it, my sister has it (whereupon Luke gives his original lightsaber away to who may be Leia) … you have that power too.” Just who is it? There’s no direct image to indicate exactly who, but it may well be with the Poe (Oscar Isaac), the X-wing pilot or Rey (Daisy Ridley), the lady running in the foreground. Usually, when constructing a trailer, it’s best to have the images flow with the text. When the trailer is meant to tease, it should not reveal exactly what’s going on, but instead suggest one of a few possibilities to have watchers guessing.

If the editors and J.J. Abrams are clever, it’ll be neither of the above, and just who is in the family bloodline has not been revealed yet. In the Expanded Universe created by Dark Horse Comics and various authors, Han and Leia are married, and they have children: Jaina, Jacen and Anakin. When the Walt Disney company acquired the franchise, they declared all of that as “Legends,” or rather an alternate universe that’s no longer considered canon. To be fair, to work the new film based on what’s created with no consortium would have led to a less than stellar screenplay, and to wonder what’s new, or if Poe or Rey are related to the Skywalker family is more exciting.

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Looking into Danny Collins Tangled Music Career, A Movie Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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Danny Collins is one of those films that looks at how tough life is for some musicians who are groomed by commercial success and who seek to escape from its trappings. Before they got their big break, some might have had an idea in what direction they wanted to go with for expressing themselves, but when they broke into the industry, the producers see something else. Just like Begin Again, just what some musicians can become, namely in what Dave Kohl (Gretta’s musician boyfriend) became, may well be their own beasts of burden.

Dan Fogelman (Cars, Tangled) wrote a very thoughtful screenplay that certainly explores the difficulties in starting anew. Danny Collins (nicely played by Al Pacino) finally receives a letter from John Lennon decades later as a gift by his long-time manager Frank, (excellently played by Christopher Plummer), and if he read it sooner than later, maybe his career would have gone to different places. He is a commercial success, but was that what he really wanted?

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Changing the Broadcast Mold Dragons: Race to the Edge! 13 Episodes to Debut & Trailer!

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The good news is that the next part of the How to Train Your Dragon saga is all coming in almost one fell swoop. Thirteen episodes of the 26 episode season, Dragons: Race of the Edge, is coming to Netflix on June 26th. In the weeks prior, fans can expect a new swarm of toys from Spin Master based on what the DreamWorks panel at WonderCon has revealed. Two ominous dragon names include the Death Song and the Snow Wraith. There’s even a video game being made to feature more!

In what’s spilled to the Internet grapevine, the third season will help bridge further details leading up to the second film, like in how Stoick trained the Skull Crusher. No word was said about the first dragon he trained, namely the Thunderdrum. Also, just how Hiccup made his flight suit will get looked at. And for many fans wondering if this Netflix world is self-contained, thankfully not! Hiccup’s rival, Dagur, is set to return! This panel also revealed that Tuffnut forms some kind of relationship with a chicken and a mysterious dragon rider will be spotted. If that’s Hiccup’s mother spying in at the scene, most likely not. With plenty of tension being developed between episodes, the huge volume release is going to be welcomed.

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At the same time, the demise of weekly serials, even for animated products, will no longer have people tuning in for more much like how the 60’s Batman kept viewers glued to the sets. Have viewers become that impatient? Some folks do binge watch, or do marathon viewing sessions with DVD releases of television programs. With Netflix, their idea is to do away with that by getting folks to watch their programs anytime, however little as they want it or a lot. When a few countries are setting “Internet bandwidth” usage caps and penalizing them, the idea seems counterproductive unless those viewers have subscribed to the right data plan or are pumping streaming content through special set-top boxes.

But as some television critics may well wonder, can this new model of pushing out content in one huge lump be good in the long run? Will putting out entire shows in its entirety, like what Netflix has done with Marvel’s Daredevil, forecast the demise of the traditional television watching in a serial format? For some folks, they can moderate what they watch. At least CW’s Supernatural keeps that formula alive, but for some folks who just want to eat up every episode released in one day, they just might call in to work to register a sick day just to watch one of their favourite shows in one go.

For some series, it’s worth it.

Source: Nokki Doki, Berk’s Grapevine

A Look at Camosun’s 3rd Annual Comic Arts Festival

Camosun’s Comic Arts Festival (CCAF) is growing, and just what this event does is to put ownership back to the artists who decided to make the visual storytelling medium their career.

Camosun’s Comic Arts Festival (CCAF) is growing, and just what this event does is to put ownership back to the artists who decided to make the visual storytelling medium their career. It’s been used as old as time, since the caveman days, to tell a story on a surface. In Ancient Egypt, the paintings on the tombs can evoke a magic like quality to help the deceased continue on to the Afterlife. The immortality is not just with their souls’ journey but also with how their legacy upholds when their life is told in illustrative form.

Interestingly enough, one of the students, Raphaël Pirenne, takes inspiration from this land, and will be hoping he creates a comic out of it.

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The college that’s located in the garden city of Victoria, British Columbia, has played host to some special events, and unlike bigger shows that tends to spotlight brands more than with the independents, to get back to the basics is all that’s really needed for this show. The CCAF is simply starting small, but it has bigger plans.

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IMAX’s FANFIX’s Into Darkness variant poster vs Man of Steel

Sadly, there will not be a FANFIX poster for Superman: Man of Steel. Collectors may feel disappointed but thankfully marketing is not going overboard in making every blockbuster movie event “special.”

Strangely enough, for this Friday, a 2nd variant poster will be made available for people going to see Star Trek: Into Darkness in IMAX 3D. This print will be available to the first 300 people, presumedly after leaving the show. The glow in the dark coating will be a different color to distinguish between the two editions.