Pacific Rim: Uprising Trailer Breakdown

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Four years ago the geek world was changed forever with the release of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim.  The film helped kick off the Kaiju craze that’s continued with a new entry every year like clockwork, as well as introducing the term Kaiju into the common parlance.  More than that, the film redefined what it meant to be a success in the modern era.  Despite failing to make back its budget in America and losing the #1 box office spot to Grown Ups 2 the film made big bucks overseas- 3X its American gross.  That overseas success combined with a massive cultural impact that’s continued to fuel fan hype and purchasing power has finally translated into a new movie, coming next year.  Directed by Steven DeKnight and starring John Boyega, Pacific Rim: Uprising finally has its first trailer- let’s take a look. 

Cover Story - Top 15 House of Mystery Covers

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This year has marked the second season for Syfy’s shockingly excellent new horror anthology series Channel Zero, a show that takes Internet Creepypastas and transforms them into riveting, experimental, and challenging horror stories.  It’s really an excellent show and this season’s story, The No-End House, has managed to surpass season 1 in every way.  Given that it’s a show blending together a creepy haunted house and horror anthology I figured the time was right to dig into one of my favorite comics: The House of Mystery. 

The House of Mystery was a horror/weird science anthology comic published by DC Comics starting in 1951 and running to 1983.  During the ‘50s the anthology format ruled the comics medium and House of Mystery was a very popular title.  Eventually, the format shifted from horror stories to superhero tales in the ‘60s when the book started publishing Martian Manhunter comics.  However, when the ‘70s rolled in and comics became a bit freer and more mature the book returned to its horror roots with a vengeance and that is what I come to honor today. 

Hellboy Reboot Announced

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One of the strange things about the modern age of blockbusters is that despite ‘superhero’ being the biggest genre in the world heroes that don’t come from Marvel or DC just can’t manage to break through.  This rule has been in place pretty much from the dawn of the modern blockbuster/superhero romance in 1978, though there are a few notable exceptions.  

There was a time in the ‘90s when Savage Dragon and Spawn commanded genuine respect, the Witchblade/Darkness franchise has always flirted around the edges of relevance,  and even now the folks at Valiant Comics are committed to turning Bloodshot and Ninjak into multimedia success stories. 

Still, for every one of those examples, there are five or six superheroes that never break through or fail within their first year.  By in large, the public will just never care as much about the likes of Supreme, X-O Man of War, the Occultist, or Green Hornet.  However, we cling to exceptions to this rule that we’ve managed, like the continued viability of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Static Shock.  As such, it really shouldn’t come as this much of a surprise that Hellboy is getting rebooted. 

Static Thoughts - Beauty and the Beast (1987)

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This Friday marks the premiere of Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.  The hotly anticipated film will be Disney’s 7^th live-action fairy tale blockbuster and is basically the company’s way of planting their flag onto the fantasy genre.  There were sporadic competitors but ultimately Disney’s brand of big-budget fable has become the defining name in post-Game of Thrones mega-fantasy.  What’s more, the film is the first major live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast in decades, certainly the first major attempt to try and realize the Beast with CGI. 

Given the occasion, I thought it’d only be fair to take a look back at the last time this particular fairy tale was given a major release.  Back before Disney’s animated adaptation became the Oscar-winning success that completely defines this story there was another Beauty and the Beast, a bizarre 1987 TV series that time has more or less rejected despite featuring Linda Hamilton, Ron Perlman, and George RR Martin, the father of modern fantasy.  With such a pedigree how is this series not more widely known; let’s find out. 

4 DC Films That Could Join Aquaman & Flash in 2018

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Edited by Robert Beach

We’re three movies deep into what’s being called the DC Entertainment Universe. So far none of those entries have managed above “passable,” but they’ve all scored profit, so we’re going to be getting more of these films regardless. However, there might be some hope left for the DCEU as we blaze forward to the end of the decade. Most of the problems with the entries so far come from the meddling of the studio and directors who hold the material in general contempt. And yet, upcoming movies like Flash, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman seem to be helmed by people with real energy for the material. 

There’s still some ambiguity awaiting us, and that’s where I’m going to focus today, specifically on what’s happening with one of DC’s unclaimed movie slots. We know that DC will be releasing a film on October 5, 2018, after Aquaman but before Shazam, but we have no idea what that movie is. Thankfully, DC has a ton of projects in the works that could fit that slot. With that in mind, here are four DC movies we might see in 2018. 

Cover Story - Top 12 Tomb of Dracula Covers

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It is currently the dregs of August, and there’s really nothing going on in pop culture.  The dizzying high of summer blockbuster season has given away to the drippy sludge that is the late August offerings while the fall awards season has yet to begin.  If there is one small bit of comfort in the pre-labor day dark, it’s that we’re entering the season of fall TV premieres, which is perfect for someone like me that clings to media topicality as a guiding light in these troubled and rudderless times.  

This week will be bringing us the premiere of the latest season of The Strain, FX’s prestige vampire apocalypse show from the mind of Guillermo Del Toro (he wrote the books it’s based on.)  Even though I don’t like The Strain all that much it is pretty much the only name in vampire fiction these days, thank Twilight, which means I get to talk about the biggest name in comic book vampires- Count Dracula.  I’ll get more into this as we go along but for a time in the ‘70s Count Dracula was one of Marvel comics biggest success stories and today- we honor that legacy. 

John Boyega Joining Pacific Rim 2 Changes Everything

Edited by Robert Beach 

John Boyega, a talented actor who finally broke into the mainstream in last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has finally landed his first major post-Star Wars gig with Pacific Rim 2. The shaky sequel to 2013’s international hit has cast Boyega as the son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost from the first movie. This is a major announcement and a major stroke of good fortune for Pacific Rim 2. 

Since the announcement, the film's production has been on unstable footing after the Pacific Rim animated series dissolved on top of creator/director Guillermo Del Toro announced he wasn’t returning to direct the sequel, leading Legendary to drop any concrete premiere date for the film. Speaking of premiere dates, it was Godzilla 2 that slipped into Pacific Rim 2’s place on the schedule, forming an interesting rivalry. Additionally, Godzilla 2 is also facing down trouble as director Gareth Edwards won’t be returning for the sequel to his 2014 kaiju blockbuster. 

Female-Led Blade Reboot Coming?

Edited by Robert Beach

So the rumor mill has begun cranking once more over the future plans of Marvel studios. The latest word on the comic company turned studio juggernaut is that they’re currently in plans for a new Blade film that will apparently revolve around the vampire hunter’s daughter. This would be in line with the new upcoming Blade comic slatted for release as part of the All-New Marvel branding initiative this fall. 

The initiative is part of the company’s first major universe reboot in the wake of the ongoing Secret Wars comic and is very much a continuation of the current Marvel ethos of increased diversity and representation. Film wise, this rumor says a lot about Marvel’s priorities going forward and how far in advance they’re willing to try and plan things out. If Marvel is starting work on a new Blade movie, it’d have to be slotted for release in 2019 as part of the so far unrevealed phase 4. 

The Strain S2E1 "BK, NY" Review

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The Strain returned to televisions this past week and I was there to review it for All-Comic.  It's a mixed 90 minute premiere with a great opening sequence directed by Guillermo Del Toro himself.  Read the whole thing here:

http://all-comic.com/2015/strain-s2x01-bk-ny/

Movie Monthly - Bait 3D

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elcome back to Movie Monthly where we dedicate a whole month to just one kind of movie.  This month to coincide with both Shark Week and the 40^th anniversary of Jaws it’s Terror from the Deep, dedicating all of July to ocean horror films.  Last week we looked at the enjoyable sleaze and cheese B-movie Shark Night 3D, this week we go nearly clear across the globe for much of the same thing only from Australia with Bait 3D.  This month will probably be more inclined towards B-movies overall as I’ve always founds attempts at serious shark horror films to be taxing in the extreme. 

Most of the time the movie will only amount to “What Jaws did but less” and rarely transcends the limitations of a horror story where the central antagonist can’t survive outside of the water.  No I maintain that sharks, much like zombies, work far better in that often misunderstood subset of horror that is the B-Movie.  These are flicks that wear the trappings of a horror film in character and design as well as co-opting horror antagonists to drive the action but are focused more on cheesy thrills and sleazy action rather than scares to drive the story.  Bait 3D is, in many ways, a perfect example of this and makes a greater sister film to Shark Night 3D.