Avengers round-up.

I just want to make a little announcement pertaining to some Avengers news that has come to my attention.

But let's go back to the days of old when the first trailer came out and we all freaked out because THAT MEANT THAT IT WAS REALLY HAPPENING, AVENGERS, IT'S SO SOON. COME TO MEEEEE.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

We have clips. We have TV spots. We have all kinds of promotions (today I got a Tony Stark sticker from GetGlue. I LOVE STICKERS.) Below I've put the Loki and Nick Fury banter, which is probably one of my favourite, but I've listed the other trailers and clips below the video.

 

"Team" TV spot

"Head Count" TV spot

"Roll Call" TV spot

"Interrogation" TV spot

"Captain America" TV spot

"Hulk, smash!" TV spot

Official Trailer 2

Japanese Trailer because it's cooler than ours

Little Avengers Target Ad because it's so cute

Cabin In The Woods.

Here's a tip: if your jocky friend says that you should go spend a weekend with some friends at an abandoned cabin in the woods, don't do it. For the love of God, don't do it!

For your reference, this is a spoiler-free review.

Friday night my friend and I went to see the Joss Whedon movie (ALL HAIL JOSS WHEDON. *bows*) and let me just say that we were blown away. I'm disappointed that it was third at the box office behind Three Stooges and The Hunger Games (isn't everyone bored of that movie yet?) but I thought it was great and so we took another friend to see it again on Saturday.

The problem with this movie is that there are not a whole lot of things that I can say about it without completely giving away the story, but I will say that this movie was incredibly smart. Whedon has a penchant for suspense that makes this movie unlike other horror movies. I mean, it was funny. But not like other horror movies are funny in the way that they're so dumb that they're hilarious, the way the suspense was presented and the comic relief that one of the characters provided made the movie scary but awesome. It's not what you expect, and it's not just a regular horror story. It was brilliant.

Seriously--there aren't really any good movies coming out in the next few weeks, so you should go catch this. I've seen it twice and I would be more than happy to see it again because it was that good.

I mean, this movie is holding me over until Avengers comes out in three weeks. THREE WEEKS.

Looper.

Seriously, I can't even recognize Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
This movie looks great, yo.

I was going to make a giant master post regarding Gary Ross leaving the Hunger Games franchise, but I deemed this more important. There is a movie that's coming out called "Looper". Look at this BAMFing poster.

Looper. You can watch the trailer here since it's on Apple Trailers and I can't find a trailer on youtube.

I'm all for futuristic movies where things are kind of old school and instead of progressing we've regressed. Needless to say, it looks awesome. This is the reason I wish I could go to all the film festivals and see these movies ahead of time. Regardless, I'm looking forward to it. Comes out in September. I can barely recognize Joe Go Levitt in the trailer--half the time he was on the screen I wasn't sure that it was actually him and I had to do double takes! The synopsis provided on Apple Trailers goes as such:

In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented - but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper" - a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) - is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good... until the day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson and also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels. Ram Bergman and James D. Stern produce.

SEE DOESN'T THAT SOUND AWESOME?! Yes. Yes it does.

Gary Ross is NOT boss: an analysis of why he should NOT direct Catching Fire.

As fans of Hunger Games know all too well at this point, director Gary Ross's negotiations regarding him directing the next film in the franchise just aren't going well at all. While this has a great many fans upset about it, I actually have decided that I just don't care. Why? Well, let's look at the facts.

1. SHAKY CAM. He wants three million dollars for a movie where, for part of it, he took a handheld handycam and followed JLaw around that North Carolina forest that looked like my backyard. Yep. If people are going to get paid $3 million for that, plus 5% backend, I should be rich.
2. Everyone seems to be really upset about it because they think that Hunger Games was the greatest movie of the century (seriously, I follow a few Hunger Games blogs on my facebook and it's all "look at THG usurping Titanic and Wrath of the Titans and American Reunion and I just want to tell them all to shut the hell up.) But I want to point out that with the exception of Lord of the Rings (off the top of my head), a LOT of print-to-movie franchises have had different directors. Harry Potter, starting with POA, had Cuaron, who set the darker tone for the rest of the series. Then they switched to two more directors, with Yates ending the series (OotP through DHP2) I remember hating it when I was thirteen, but now it actually makes a lot of sense. The 'Avengers' series of Marvel movies all have different directors. 
3. These stupid websites that think that making a website called "Gary Ross Is Boss" or other stupid things like that are going to make Lionsgate up the ante and pay him more or get him to accept the lower pay that they're going to end up paying him because, let's face it, Lionsgate bit off more than they could chew here. Hashtags do not pay director's salaries. 
4. It has been established that Ross's favourite book in the series was the first one and that he's not nearly as passionate about the other ones as he was about Hunger Games. So if he's not as passionate, and would probably half-ass it, why do you want him directing it? Why not get someone who is more excited about the second book and will be willing to use more special effects instead of passing off the special effects to someone who made it look like a teenager with a macbook had done it? We've got a spinning cornucopia and blood rain that needs to be done properly and I don't think Ross can do it. Everyone says they love him but does anyone really know what all he's done? I doubt half the people that have seen Hunger Games have EVER seen Seabiscuit. EVER. And if they have seen Pleasantville, they probably don't remember it or get what it was about. 
5. It just drives me nuts that so many kids are so stuck on Gary Ross only because they thought that the movie was so true to the book, and maybe that's what bothers me the most. I've said it before, I'll say it again, books and movies should be mutually exclusive. A movie should have its own quirks and fun stuff, and then the books should have their own little things that make them unique. This always pisses people off because then they say "ugh, they left so much stuff out", but I think that in the case of Hunger Games, the problem was that Ross tried SO hard to stay close to the book that every little thing he left out was like a big gaping hole in the plot. Marvel didn't get shot in the neck. Buttercup was black and white (which makes no fucking sense.). The Mockingjay pin came from Katniss, to Prim, then back from Prim to Katniss. Gale was spot on as the boob of the series. Peeta didn't sell it for me at all, and while I love JLaw, she didn't exactly complete Katniss for me.The most perfect person in that film for me was a tie between Haymitch, Rue, and Caesar, because they were the most beautiful and accurate creatures of ever. 
6. Maybe this time we'll actually be able to hear the soundtrack instead of just having so. much. dead. silence. I didn't feel like I was watching a movie, and I didn't feel like I was living the Hunger Games through Katniss's eyes.
7. Maybe the ending won't be terrible.

I feel like I'm the only person who has a considerable amount of criticism for this film and it's because it was so bad. I really hated it, I couldn't stand it. Biggest disappointment of the year. And I think that having a new director will really change that for me by the time Catching Fire comes around. Maybe Katniss will have a soul. Maybe Peeta will be more Peeta-y. Gale, don't change, you're the most perfect boob ever. Your angry, brooding stares at the camera as just about as good as your character can get.

And that's my rant on Gary Ross. Please leave the franchise and give it to someone who will give me a movie that's a combination of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and Total Recall or something. I felt like I was watching a student film from a kid that goes to one of those for-profit film schools and thinks that they're actually going to make it somewhere in the world with their associate's degree in film. 

Total Recall: first full-trailer.

This looks too AWESOME. It's like Minority Report but with Colin Farrell playing Tom Cruise's character and the snowsuits from Inception. Looks good. But you have to remember that I'm a crazy sci-fi/future junkie so of course it's gonna look awesome to me.

I'm just tired of movies doing this Inception bullshit where they release a trailer for the trailer using footage from the trailer. BRAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM.