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Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 28, 2014 in Comic Books 
Here’s some fairly big news: the Jack Kirby estate and Marvel have reached a settlement. Jack Kirby, despite creating some of the most famous super heroes ever, was under a work-for-hire contract and thus never received copyright ownership of his work. His estate has been engaged in a lawsuit with Marvel for a very long time, and were about to have a legal showdown in the Supreme Court. However, days before it was about to occur, the settlement was announced. As you might guess, we’re not privy to the details, but it’s not like we’re going to stop getting Captain America movies. That’d be bad for both parties involved. Marvel might have thought they couldn’t take the risk of losing in the Supreme Court and just decided to settle. Fun! Read more…
Tags: Jack Kirby, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 27, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Let’s be honest: we’ve seen Batman’s parents die too many times now. We all know the story. So let’s squish them together into one video and watch them all at once, to experience maximum childhood tragedy. There are plenty of dark alleys, gunshots, screaming Bruce Waynes, and trigger-happy criminals to go around. Vulture put this video together after seeing the opening of Gotham, making them ask “how many times do we have to see this?” At least nine, apparently. Possibly more. Watch all nine below in one deathly supercut. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman Begins, Gotham
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 27, 2014 in Fandom, Television 
You know, I’ve always enjoyed dubbed videos, ever since, well… Dayjob Orchestra‘s Star Trek dubs. I mean, you have to be good at choosing words and lip-syncing, but if you can do it well, it’s incredibly convincing and funny. Bad Lip Reading is clearly not that bad — they’re doing a pretty good job. Sometimes the nonsense coming out of characters’ mouths isn’t the cleverest, but those spots of genius are pretty hilarious. In fact, this Walking Dead video is one of their better videos, although I’m not really sold on Carl’s mad rhymes. The pizza delivery scene at the end got me, though. Check out the video below! Read more…
Tags: The Walking Dead
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 26, 2014 in Cinema 
It might be hard for the Wachowskis to strike gold again, but they sure are trying. Jupiter Ascending has a new trailer out, and it looks deliciously sci-fi — drenched in fantastic visuals and over-the-top creations. I’m positive it won’t be for everyone. It might not even be that good, story-wise… but I think at the very least it’ll be impressive visually and stylistically. In addition, the new poster evokes an 80s sci-fi novel cover. It’s kind of endearing, although it could be too cheesy for some. Jupiter Ascending is showing up on February 6th. I wonder if its style will grab people’s attention? Check out the trailer and poster below. Read more…
Tags: Jupiter Ascending, the Wachowskis
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 26, 2014 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
Hot Toys continues to knock it out of the park with every figure they make, but this new Chewbacca figure might just take the cake. He has brown fabric hair across his entire body, and it looks just like the real thing. I’m honestly surprised it looks this good, because typically, hair on figures is hard to do right. A whole figure of hair? A nightmare! But somehow they pulled it off, and Chewie looks great standing next to Han. As usual, he comes with a bunch of accessories, such as his bowcaster and bandoleer, as well as a figure stand. Check out some more images below, then see the full gallery here! Read more…
Tags: Chewbacca, Hot Toys
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 25, 2014 in Videogames 
It may not be quite as good as a hands-on demo, but Japan’s first ad for the New 3DS does a good job of showing off the system’s new design. There’s a new C-stick (more of a nub), more meant to control the camera than act as a stick. You can also use the new Amiibo toys (think Skylanders toys) without needing a separate NFC adapter. What’s missing is a good view of the new extra shoulder buttons, as well as the movement of the card slot and stylus holder to the bottom of the handheld. The increased horsepower also gets no mention. Still, I know that I’ll be picking this up for the various upgrades, if only Nintendo will announce it for release. While the New 3DS is out in Japan next month and has just been announced for Australian release on November 21, the system won’t be released in North America or Europe until 2015! Read more…
Tags: New 3DS, Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 25, 2014 in Anime, Cinema 
The previous US teaser trailer for The Tale of Princess Kaguya sure looked stunning, but we didn’t get to hear the movie’s English dub. But this new trailer fixes that problem, letting us hear the voices of Chloë Grace Moretz, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, and Lucy Liu. This is currently the second-to-last film from Studio Ghibli, with just one more film awaiting international release; after that, any future movies are currently uncertain as the studio has winded down production for now. Read more…
Tags: Studio Ghibli
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 24, 2014 in Tech, Videogames 
While I think the 2DS has a place as a budget-friendly, kid-friendly alternative to the 3DS, I could never see myself buying one unless it was just to add to my videogame collection. The 3DS XL has 3D screens (if you’re into that like I am), bigger screens, and it folds in half to protect those screens. The 2DS just looks bulky, albeit more comfortable. But oh lordy, Nintendo keeps putting out more limited variants of its handhelds, and even though I already own great-looking systems, I keep wanting to spend more money on things I don’t need. These red and blue 2DS systems are coming out in Europe on November 28, bundled with a copy of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, respectively. But the coolest thing about these is that their plastic is transparent. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Nintendo, Pokémon
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 24, 2014 in Videogames 
Those expecting the successor to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft to release anytime soon should probably stop waiting. Though it was never officially announced to begin with (despite numerous confirmations of its development), Blizzard’s next MMORPG, codenamed Titan, has been canceled. Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime spoke on the project, noting that after creating the gold standard MMO with WoW, Blizzard thought it knew MMOs well enough to try to create “the most ambitious thing you could possibly imagine.” But after things didn’t gel, the developer questioned whether they were even passionate about the project, not finding the game fun enough. That’s when Titan entered a reevaluation period. Read more…
Tags: Blizzard, MMORPG, World of Warcraft
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 23, 2014 in Tech, Videogames 
I’m curious how PlayStation TV will fare outside of Japan. The little device allows you to play almost 700 digital games on your TV, from PS Vita, PSP, and PS1, as well as some Vita game cards that generally don’t require touch controls. In addition, you can use PlayStation Now to rent streaming PS3 games, as well as stream your PS4 console to the device in another room. It’s a neat little device, but I’m wondering how many people will pick one up in the US and Canada for $99.99 on October 14. The standalone system doesn’t come with a DualShock 3, which is required to play, so that price point is mainly appealing to those who own a controller already (likely from their PS3). But if you don’t have a controller, you can get the system, a controller, an 8GB memory card, and The LEGO Movie Videogame for $139.99. (Buy that bundle at Wal-Mart to get Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time added for no extra cost!) In Europe, the box is releasing for £85/€100 on November 14, with OlliOlli, Velocity Ultra, and Worms Revolution Extreme included for free. Read more…
Tags: PlayStation 4, Playstation Vita, Sony
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 23, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Hey, remember when Fox leaked that Deadpool test footage, but it wasn’t really them? Well whoever leaked it, it must have kicked Fox into gear, because director Tim Miller’s film is finally getting greenlit at Fox. Happy days! Now for the somewhat more iffy news: the movie is reportedly aiming for a PG-13 rating. Many fans assumed that a Deadpool movie would be a good fit for an R rating, allowing the character to slaughter enemies with as much cursing and gore as necessary. But considering how many superhero movies get an R (almost none), this shouldn’t be a surprise. And considering that Miller, a huge fan, has reportedly approved of a script that supposedly is PG-13 while managing to “not lose its soul,” I wouldn’t expect a PG-13 rating to negatively effect the film’s production. Read more…
Tags: Deadpool, Fox, Marvel
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 22, 2014 in Television 
One of the most likely candidates for True Detective season 2 has just confirmed his involvement: Colin Farrell will be playing one of the three leads in the series. “I know it will be eight episodes and take around four or five months to shoot,” he said. Right after that he added, “I know very little about it, but we’re shooting in the environs of Los Angeles which is great. It means I get to stay at home and see the kids.” That’s sweet to hear. Sounds like it’s also still early in the whole process if he doesn’t really know anything about it either. The second series “looks set to pick up on the bloody murder of a corrupt city businessman found dead the night before a major transportation deal.” No, not the… Department of Transportation! The horror! (I kid, I kid.) Read more…
Tags: HBO, true detective
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 22, 2014 in Science, Tech 
Yup, Oculus is still at it, and they’ve announced a new iteration of their Rift virtual reality headset. Once again, this isn’t the final consumer-ready version — it’s another prototype for developers to use to create games for the platform. This new hardware, named Crescent Bay, was announced at Oculus Connect, an official event set up by Oculus to give developers the chance to try the latest hardware and help them overcome any challenges VR might have. It features additional track sensors for a full 360 degrees of movement, a lighter design, an improved screen with less gaps between pixels, and integrated optional audio with 3D positioning. We’re getting closer and closer to consumer VR, and I’m so very excited. As you might guess, there’s no word on when the final version will come out, but so far 2015 seems a solid bet. Read more…
Tags: oculus rift, Virtual Reality
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 21, 2014 in Cinema 
Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four is getting a slight delay: it’ll be moving from June 19th to August 7th, 2015. Now, the movie was going to make its release date no matter what, but this is interesting because Fox is clearly moving it out of the way of the biggest June releases and instead putting it into the same slot as Guardians of the Galaxy from this year. I imagine they hope to replicate the same success. Apparently, as long as you have a good movie, people will come to see it anytime, not just during the peak summer months. Surprise! Also, in related news, Fox has taken the Assassin’s Creed film off its August 2015 release date and move it to “to be determined.” Only time will tell if this is a minor scheduling change or a sign of a film stumbling already. Read more…
Tags: Assassin's Creed, Fantastic Four
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 21, 2014 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
Revoltech, Japanese maker of all things figures, have started a new Star Wars line. At least, I’m pretty sure they are, given that their first figure, Darth Vader, is labeled “#001.” That probably means there’s more to come. Revoltech has done a great job in the past of creating pose-able figures that also look great. Vader, thankfully, is no exception. He’s got lots of great poses, and about the only nitpick I have is the cape: it looks great in the default position, but when bent along the hinges, it creates some gaps. Nothing terrible, but I suppose that’s the price you pay for a cool sculpted cape instead of a cloth one. You can pre-order Vader here — he comes out in December. Read more…
Tags: Action Figures, Darth Vader, Revoltech
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 20, 2014 in Animation 
And… it looks pretty good! I mean, a CGI Popeye is perhaps not the most ideal situation in the first place — but if that’s your only option, doing it with Genndy Tartakovsky is a great way to tackle it. After wrapping up Hotel Transylvania (which was a bit of a rescue project for Tartakovsky), he had a chance to point Sony Pictures Animation in a different direction: Popeye! They’re definitely applying a lot of traditional animation techniques to the CGI, giving it a flexible, unique look. I think it’s safe to say the visual style of the film will be in good hands — I hope Tartakovsky and the script-writing crew can make the story worthwhile, too! The test footage is below. Read more…
Tags: Genndy Tartakovsky, Popeye
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 20, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
Will it finally happen? So many people have been trying to make a female-led TV series or superhero movie for a while now, but now we’ve finally got a solid step towards one. Supergirl has been picked up by CBS (THR describes it as a “hefty” series commitment). The executive producers are Greg Berlanti (of Arrow) and Ali Adler (No Ordinary Family). There’s no news yet on whether this’ll be a total reboot of the character (most likely) or if it’ll spin off of her Smallville incarnation. I imagine at this point they want to go the Arrow route with the series, and make Supergirl stand on her own. Given the praise that Arrow has been receiving, hopefully Supergirl turns out well too. Read more…
Tags: CBS, Supergirl
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 19, 2014 in Cinema 
Not long now — Interstellar will be arriving in theaters November 7th (and we’ll be getting a new trailer soon), but here are some new posters to make the wait a little easier. This trio of promotional posters aren’t crazy special (aside from that space ship one, above), but they definitely drive home the themes of the film: hope, exploration, and survival. I’m hoping that the film can deliver on all the hype, as Nolan has faltered before when things get too bloated (e.g., Dark Knight Rises). Yet, despite the grandeur, this movie appears to be a bit more personal, so with any luck, that’ll come through. Two more posters below! Read more…
Tags: Christopher Nolan, Interstellar
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 19, 2014 in Videogames 
We’re getting a fresh look at Dai Gyakuten Saiban — the next game from Shu Takumi. You probably know the series as Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright here in the US. This new game was announced several months ago, and will feature a new protagonist in the Meiji era of Japan, and then he’ll travel to London for the majority of the story. Why London, you ask? Because Sherlock Holmes and Watson are part of this game, too! It definitely looks to combine many of Takumi’s favorite things into a fresh spin on the Ace Attorney series. Plus, the music sounds amazing. Check out the trailer below (turn on annotations for subtitles). Read more…
Tags: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 18, 2014 in Videogames 
Swery65’s Deadly Premonition was a true cult hit, a b-list Japanese version of Twin Peaks that was far more than just the sum of its parts. I’ve been anticipating his next game D4, or Dark Dreams Don’t Die, a strange, cel-shaded, episodic adventure game played with Kinect motion controls (or regular controls if you don’t like motion controls/if the motion controls suck). Apparently at Tokyo Game Show, it was revealed that the prologue the first two episodes are releasing Friday in North America and Japan for $14.99 on Xbox One. What a surprise! Here’s hoping it is as appealing as Deadly Premonition. Read more…
Tags: Deadly Premonition, Xbox One
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 18, 2014 in Videogames 
Many have had Final Fantasy XV on their wishlists for years, from back when it was called Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Even with the stunning trailer from E3 2013, we still don’t have a ton of information on how it plays, but that will change within a year. Whenever Square Enix decides to release Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, the console port of the PSP game that also spun off from Final Fantasy XIII, is the time we’ll get access to a FFXV demo. Square Enix has stated every copy of Type-0 will come with a code to download Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae, a playable demo of the game’s opening scenes. Read more…
Tags: Final Fantasy, square enix
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 17, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
It’s pretty cool that Marvel will be airing Agent Carter in-between the two halves of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season two. Many have wondered if Dominic Cooper would return to play Howard Stark (Iron Man’s father), since he played the role in Captain America: The First Avenger and subsequently cameoed in the Marvel One Shot Agent Carter that inspired this series. While the jury is still out on that, considering he’s a movie star, but it seems that he will have a butler: Edwin Jarvis, to be played by James D’Arcy. In the original comics, Jarvis was Tony Stark’s butler, but since the Iron Man in the movies has the AI J.A.R.V.I.S. as a butler, it’s clear that this is the original Jarvis who now works for Howard. Still though, it would be strange to have Howard Stark’s butler in the show, but not have Howard Stark appear… Read more…
Tags: Agent Carter, Marvel
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 17, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
It seems that Gotham won’t be the only DC comic adaptation on Fox. Californication creator/executive producer Tom Kapinos is working with Warner Bros. TV to adapt Lucifer for Fox, which has given it a put pilot commitment. Though from DC Comics, the character Lucifer mainly appeared in its older Vertigo imprint, first appearing in The Sandman as a supporting character. Later, in the 00s, DC put out Lucifer, the character’s own series in which he opens a piano bar in LA after becoming bored of ruling Hell, which is likely what this series will be based on. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Lucifer, sandman, Vertigo, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 16, 2014 in Videogames 
Capcom has finally rereleased Mega Man 7 on the Wii U Virtual Console. The first six games were originally released for NES, but Mega Man 7 was released for SNES. With the change in platform came a new graphical style to keep up with Mega Man X, which resulted in split opinions on the game’s quality. Regardless, it’s pretty cool that retro fans can now play Mega Man 1-7 all on one system, as well as Mega Man 9 and 10 from the WiiWare backwards compatibility. Granted, the system won’t be getting Mega Man 8, since it was only released on PS1, but barring that, you’ve got access to all Mega Man games released on old Nintendo consoles. Add that to the Game Boy Mega Man games on 3DS Virtual Console, and you’ve got a fun weekend! Read more…
Tags: Capcom, Mega Man, Wii U
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