Looking Deeper into Marvel Comics’ Avengers Movie & Guessing at What’s Next

Marvel Studio’s magnum opus The Avengers kicked off the 2012 season of summer blockbusters and with Robert Downey Jr. confirmed to play Stark in Avengers 2 for 2015, this universe will no doubt be sizzling

The Avengers Movie Poster

Marvel Studio’s magnum opus The Avengers kicked off the 2012 season of summer blockbusters and with Robert Downey Jr. confirmed to play Stark in Avengers 2 for 2015, this universe will no doubt be sizzling. Answers have to be made to address what Iron Man has witnessed after entering that worm hole. With more comic book films like Thor: The Dark World to come, the stories being introduced will no doubt concentrate on each individual hero and maybe tease at how each film will tie in to the next movie. The focus may move away from the mysterious cube that was introduced in this first film, but for fans in general, they will be asking the question of for what reason will the Avengers reassemble in the sequel coming up?

Like every other first movie in Marvel’s long line of theatrical releases, the first film develops the origins first, camaraderie second and the high octane fights last. In the case of this film, it is to resolve the story thread that started in Iron Man 2, where Howard Stark has in his notes a sketch of a hypercube, called the Tesseract, which is said to hold unlimited power. Just what’s next will have to be in locating Loki’s sceptor, said to hold another mysterious power just as equal to the hypercube.

Director and writer Joss Whedon is tasked to develop this plot. Instead of always focusing in about who has this magic cube now, this producer has to now showing how the team of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) gets along. As the first film concluded, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) revealed that not all of them are all that really interested in working as a team.

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The Times They Are a-Changin’ in Beware the Batman, a TV Review

By Ed Sum

Beware-the-Batman-Full-Poster-Image

*Spoiler Alert

Perhaps the new character designs are not the only thing viewers should be wary of in Warner Bros. Animation’s sixth iteration of what Batman means to the masses. In Beware the Batman, the character of Anarky (a political activist/vigilante) will be pivotal to the series run and the animation style will take a while to get used to. The characters have a similar look to that of the cancelled Green Lantern: The Animated Series that not everyone took to right away. GL made use of bold colors and caricature. This style worked great when most of the story took place in alien worlds. But with a human world as a backdrop, everyone is going to look like an over-emphasized archetype.

Interestingly enough, the Bats looks like a well polished land turtle. From a distance, the material of his cape looks more like a polymer shell and the skin textures appearing more plastic than natural. This new animation looks like it took a few computer shading algorithms from the latest iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just so it can be quickly rendered. When drawn, the character designs looks great, but when enhanced by CGI, the detailing cannot be appreciated as much.

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Transformers Prime “Persuades” Viewers to Wait for the Finale

By Ed Sum

New Persuasion Image of Transformers Prime Beast Hunters - Optimus Prime vs. Predaking__scaled_600

For every high in an episodic series must arrive a respective plateau where viewers get a chance to take a breather. Here, they can get caught up with the rest of the cast. This weekend’s episode,”Persuasion,” is basically a continuation of “Minus one,” and these two episodes are better off viewed back to back. While the fight from last week gets resolved, another story emerges.

Insights to how important the lives of the youths—Rafael, Miko, and Jack—are to the Autobots are explored in this act. Viewers have not seen the trio for much of the latter half of the season, and to show they are still important is a good sign. Perhaps the reason why they have not been seen is because of what the Deceptions know. If they get captured, Megatron will have no qualms in using them to gain leverage over the Autobots. He did it before in “Darkest Hour” and he will do it again. To keep the children away and under heavier protection must have been a job of Fowler. He has not been seen lately either.

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How to Train Your Dragon 2 Teaser Trailer Released!

by Ed Sum

If this teaser video is any indication, the animators for How To Train Your Dragon 2 has set the bar high. Hiccup has taken a cue from Top Gun and his new gear shows that he’s aspiring to be like Leonardo da Vinci. As for whether or not that is an important plot point, most likely not. This short is made to build interest for the next part of this particular Viking saga, due in theatres June 2014.

Pacific Rim Delivers Plenty of Scale and Memories

Plenty of heavy metal thunder can be found in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Once the action happens, this film’s many battle sequences are fast and furious.

Pacific Rim Poster

Plenty of heavy metal thunder can be found in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Once the action happens, this film’s many battle sequences are fast and furious, and that’s how real fights should be wrought. Anything drawn out makes those moments slow. Audiences must be tired of Matrix-style “hang-time” effects by now and this film is anything but. Plenty of striking visuals can be seen in this movie that is very different from del Toro’s previous products.

Even the 3D finally offers some punch. Out of all the movies that have been converted to 3D in post, this film is the best of them all. Not one moment feels flat.

Although there is plenty of familiarity to this product, fans of giant monster movies and anime will no doubt love this film. The pacing could have been better and the camaraderie further developed, but that would shift the focus. This movie is layered to introduce smaller conflicts for the hero, and to have more explanation happen would make this film run longer. In a tale that is like the classic anime of the previous century, the hero is introduced to a precarious situation, has to lose something (or someone) dear to him, and that drives him for the remainder of the series. If there are plans for another movie, the threat will have to come from the stars next. Del Toro may well finally get to make a Cthulhu inspired movie after all!

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What’s Next for the Penguins of Madagascar?

Skipper has a secret not only in The Penguins of Madagascar cartoon series, but also the film…

The Penguins of Madagascar

Skipper has a secret in The Penguins of Madagascar, and it involves some kind of covert operation that has him in trouble with Danish authorities. Throughout the series, references to this mysterious past of the leader of the Penguins has been made. He was declared Public Enemy Number One in Denmark. This tease is not the only reason to keep viewers coming back for more, but instead, its their crazy slapstick antics that keeps this series fresh. This style of storytelling has managed to keep this Nickelodeon series going for three seasons, and as for whether or not a fourth will happen, that may be stalled whilst a theatrical movie, is being developed by Dreamworks Animation.

Hopefully the big screen treatment that’s tentatively scheduled for a 2015 release will not be a mirror of the television series. Sometimes,the humour wears itself thin because the shorts are more in league to an Animaniacs moment. But when the world of the penguins is expanded to include the lemurs from the animated movies, the diversity is great. That managed to carry the Madagascar films until it got worn thin. Alex the Lion’s journey is over and someone (most likely Marty the Zebra) has to take his place.

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