Movie Trailer: Wonder Woman

Here's the trailer for another of Warner Premiere's continuing line of straight-to-DVD animated flicks, this one focusing on Wonder Woman.

The voice talent on this one is the most interesting so far with Keri Russell (Waitress) as Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion (Desperate Housewives) as Steve Trevor, Virginia Madsen (Sideways) as Hyppolyta, Oliver Platt (Nip/Tuck) as Hades, Alfred Molina (Spider Man 2) as Ares, and Rosario Dawson (Sin City) as Artemis.

It is set for release on February 2009.

Click on the picture below for a look at the trailer.


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Movie Review: The Dark Knight - Gotham Story: The Tragedy of Harvey Dent, or Part Two: The Actual Film Analysis

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is the second act of the epic he started in Batman Begins (2005). It is now becoming clear that he is not satisfied in simply rehashing the familiar story of The Batman (Christian Bale). Slowly emerging from behind the vigilante's cape is a more ambitious crime saga that is really an examination of the corrupt, made-up city of Gotham. There are nods to other directors that have with equal ambition taken on the dissection of a crime-ridden burg. But Nolan has the advantage that Gotham is fictional, and its tale is represented in the tragedy of the movie's true protagonist, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).

The movie picks up shortly after the end of the first film. The Batman has inspired a wave of copycats that hinder more than help in his crusade against Gotham City's criminal elements. Mobsters like The Chechen (Ritchie Coster) and Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts) are uniting against this common enemy. Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) of the Gotham police has now formed a Major Crimes Unit staffed by his most trusted cops, some of which may have fallen to the corruption plaguing the town. All of this is just setting the stage for the introduction of two important players. The Joker (Heath Ledger), an element of chaos, is a psychotic who reflects the evil underbelly of Gotham. Harvey Dent, an element of order, is the new District Attorney. Though coming up through the ranks of Internal Affairs investigating some of Gordon's own MCU cops, he is not above bending the law as a means to an end, the salvation of Gotham City. Dent represents Bruce Wayne's best hope for stepping out from behind the mask allowing him to reunite with the love of his life, A.D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Together The Batman, Gordon and Dent form a powerful troika that is Gotham's best chance for vanquishing its criminals. But will the new unknown variable of The Joker disrupt the equation?

That all of these protagonists share the stage serves to spotlight that it is in this chapter that Gotham City emerges as the central character. It had been alluded to earlier, in Batman Begins, when Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) explained that his goal was to bring down the morally compromised Gotham. Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache), Bruce's father, had been at the opposite end of the spectrum, trying to save the city. Both served as metaphorical fathers to The Batman, the outcast with his finger in the dike, trying to keep the flood of evil from overtaking Gotham, but resigned to the fact that his battle may be a perpetual one.

Nolan took great care in the casting of the fictional Gotham. Perhaps it is no coincidence that he chose Chicago, a city whose past is rooted in corruption as well, to double for Gotham. It's geography serves Gotham well, with its elevated trains running high over the dangerous streets. Its prohibition era story of outlaws hijacking the law, as told in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) is obliquely referenced, when The Batman intimidates Maroni on a rooftop, and the response is laughing skepticism that The Batman would ever kill a criminal and break his moral code. This scene is a quote of De Palma's finale when G-Man Elliot Ness similarly threatens Capone henchman, Frank Nitti.

More explicitly referenced is Michael Mann's Heat (1995), in the film's opening bank heist scene. Loud, violent, and committed in broad daylight, like in the climactic bank heist of the previous film, the nod to that film is made more apparent by the appearance of William Fichtner. Playing a doublecrossing financial mastermind in Heat, here he plays a bank employee literally packing some heat, as a gun-toting bank manager protecting his mob employers' financial interests. And like in this movie, the crime saga Heat is an exploration of the moral decay prevalent at all levels of the law in a city, L.A.

Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is haunting. I won't say much about it here, because it has been talked about plenty. But it does merit all the praise being lavished on it, and it is sad that it is Ledger's final role. The spectre of evil hangs over this Joker like no other one before. While Jack Nicholson's iteration of the role seemed to erase any notion of Cesar Romero in the part, Ledger's take on it reduces Nicholson's performance to a mere postmodern, hipper imitation of Romero's. Because the character bursts forth fully formed, that is with no origin story to tell you how he became The Joker; because Ledger so completely subsumes himself into the part; and because of Ledger's untimely death, there is a spooky dimension to the performance that so disarms the viewer, that the very appearance of the villain in the frame is cause to sit on the edge of one's seat.

The rest of the cast, from Christian Bale to the smallest cameo by Tiny Lister, is equally exemplary, without the added attention brought to their performances by an unfortunate death, as in Ledger's case. But Aaron Eckhart must be singled out for his ferocious, swaggering performance as Harvey Dent.

Dent is the "White Knight" to The Batman's "Dark Knight." He is the local boy, who rose up through the ranks of Gotham's corrupt political system the hard way. Not born to privilege like Wayne, not working outside the law like The Batman, Dent has had to play by the city's rules to withstand its evil influences. Fighting corruption from within, he shows a sardonic tendency to nonetheless be open to it. Bending, though not breaking, the law, he has been able to circumvent the city's decay, and emerges as a heroic option to take up the crusade started by The Batman, bringing it out of the shadows and into the light. So it is all the sadder when The Joker's metaphorical defacing of Gotham leads to the literal defacing of Dent himself.

Taking on the nickname given to him while at Internal Affairs, Two-Face, The Batman and The Joker now serve as the metaphorical fathers to Gotham's twisted new incarnation of fairness. Harvey "Two-Face" Dent now embodies both justice and vengeance, order and chaos. Trusting his two-headed coin - one fine, one scarred - to make all of his decisions, Dent now personifies the only system he's ever considered to be fair, random chance.

At the end of this film, it is on the edge of this two-headed coin that Gotham stands, precariously capable of falling to either side depending on whether The Batman's crusade succeeds or fails. Gotham's story... to be continued?

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Movie Review: The Dark Knight - My Dark Night, or Part One: How My Wife Always Comes Through in a Crunch

All summer, I had slowly been getting caught up in the Batmania gripping the country this weekend... as I did when I was a five-year old catching episodes of the Adam West series on The Skipper Chuck Show on WTVJ in Miami... as I did in June of 1989, when I went to the midnight screening of Tim Burton's Batman at the General Cinemas' Miracle Center 10... as I had been doing now, trying to convince my wife to find us a babysitter for this weekend so we could go see the movie together. Movie geekouts are so much more fun to share with someone else. And the hype on this movie had built to such a crescendo.

Alas, my wife displayed little interest. Who could blame her? Knowing only the Batman from TV and cinema, she was not far off when she explained that the character always seemed a little stiff, especially compared to the more dynamic Marvel characters she knew from the multiplex. I, of course, knew the seventies-era Darknight Detective interpreted by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, the one we got a glimpse of in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005)) where he faced Ra's Al Ghul, an O'Neil and Adams creation. Would I be expecting too much in hoping we'd see more of him in The Dark Knight?

I secured tickets for one of the many Thursday midnight screenings blanketing North America, ostensibly an effort to have my review up on Friday, but really caught up in a Batmania relapse. This action may seem unimpressive, but in fact, it is pretty major once you consider that I have a tendency to fall asleep at any movie I start watching after 10pm. This results in me confusing it with hating the movie since the only other movies I fall asleep at are ones that I despise. However, when I am confident that I can have a nap sometime during the day before catching the movie, I can neutralize any ambivalence I have towards seeing it so late.

Yeah, I know... I'm only 36, but I've got one foot in the nursing home already.

I make it to the theater, sit through some astounding trailers for Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, Quantum of Solace, Watchmen, and the teaser for Terminator: Salvation. The film starts, and immediately my attention is riveted by the opening bank heist scene. As the movie rolls past the one hour mark, I continue to grow enthralled. Just after the police funeral march setpiece, many of my fellow theatergoers start running out of the theater and yelling. Suddenly, the movie stops, and the theater management comes in to explain that a reel of the film was spliced out of order. I've had bad luck with this before. Due to the late hour, they aren't able to fix it, or keep the theater open since their staff will be leaving soon for the night. So we are all given two passes to make up for the problem.

Have you ever been at the dead center of an angry mob with no way out? I was seriously fearing for my life about the time that one guy that always instigates these kinds of things starts yelling, "I don't want your stupid passes. I paid to see The Dark Knight tonight, and I'll wait till 3 or 4 a.m. if I have to. And I think everyone here will do the same," with echoes of "Yeah, Dark Knight," heard throughout the mob.

Needless to say, we were unable to see it that night. I lost precious sleep and time for no good reason, and I couldn't get my review up on Friday as I had hoped.

But the good news is that my wife moved heaven and earth to get us a babysitter last night, and slipped out of work on time (which is rare for her line of work on a Friday) allowing us to see the film together in its entirety... which is, funny enough, the way I wanted to see it in the first place. I was happy. I loved the film. She loved it, and all is right in my world, again.

This article is therefore dedicated to her for being so supportive of me, this site, and my sometimes obsessive love of cinema. I love you, Dee.

Gotham Story: The Tragedy of Harvey Dent, or Part Two: The Actual Film Analysis will follow later today.

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Movie Trailer: Watchmen

The release of The Dark Knight today, and the upcoming San Diego Comic Con, bring us the start of a new wave of publicity promoting next year's genre films.

One to definitely keep your eye on is Watchmen, Zack Snyder's adaptation of the graphic novel widely considered to be one of the best of all time, and in fact, one of the best pieces of literature of the last hundred years (by Time Magazine, no less).

Click on the picture above to be directed to the revamped website, where you can see the new trailer, and learn more about the story, relatively unknown by the mainstream.

Let me know what you think of it.

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Movie Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Everyone Involved Stands to Win Big with the Summer's Latest Comic Book Hero Installment

Mexican Guillermo Del Toro has had a curious bifurcated career thus far. While the average viewer would claim that he is simply a horror/fantasy director, that slash has been a much wider one than one would think. In this country, he's been known for his fun horror flicks, Mimic, Blade II, and Hellboy, which are terrific B-movies. On the other hand, his Spanish language films, while rooted in horror, are more in the fantasy vein. Their tragic stories, usually revolving around a child, carry no small amount of poignancy. And while Cronos and The Devil's Backbone (aka El Espinazo del Diablo) flew under the mainstream radar, Pan's Labyrinth (aka El Laberinto del Fauno) finally brought him the attention he's been due. Lucky for the big, red Anung un Rama, Hellboy to you, because if not it's doubtful that Hellboy II: The Golden Army would have gotten made. And we get a much more assured filmmaker in this one, as the two divergent career paths he's forged finally converge in this film, on the way to his next big production, The Hobbit, a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Like in his earlier American films, The Golden Army enjoys poking fun, and having fun with our hero and the motley crew of compatriots he fights evil with at the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development, or B.P.R.D. Beginning with a flashback to 1955, where a young Hellboy is eagerly awaiting Santa with his adopted dad Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt in a cameo reprise from the first film), we get a look at the humorous dichotomy that our hero personifies. At once cute and fearsome, young Hellboy holds the same attraction that Blade held in Del Toro's earlier film. Blade was the most badass in a group of badass vampires, but also the most vulnerable, and human. The grown-up Hellboy (Ron Perlman), fearful of his destined role in vanquishing mankind, holds on to any vestige of humanity he can, keeping pet kittens, smoking Cuban cigars, drinking Tecate, a Mexican beer (I'm guessing this is a Del Toro touch).

He's now shacking up with pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), who discovers she's pregnant early on in this film. Sherman, unsure of their future, keeps it secret while the B.P.R.D. gets roped into its latest adventure. They must stop Elf Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) from warring on the humans to reclaim Elfdom's place in the world. Amphibian psychic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), meanwhile, falls in love with Nuada's twin, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton). And the whole crew is shaken up by the assignment of a new leader, the ectoplasmic spirit, Johann Kraus (voiced by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane), who Hellboy objects to principally because of his German nationality, an allusion to his time fighting Nazis in Mike Mignola's comics.

The movie benefits from some of the trappings of Del Toro's Spanish language fantasy films. The Angel of Death that the B.P.R.D. crew encounters is very reminiscent of his Pan's Labyrinth creatures. And the slow fade into obscurity of Nuada's kind is a poignant plot point that gives the movie more emotional weight than the first Hellboy's more Lovecraftian storyline. Here we are as fascinated by the Elf Prince's stubborn refusal to let his fairy-tale world disappear as we are by the elegant mythic world Labyrinth's Ofelia loses herself in when she is in distress. In fact the two world's bear a strong resemblance to each other, and nowhere is this more evident than upon the B.P.R.D.'s visit to the Troll Market, populated by its odd fairy-tale menagerie.

The single most representative moment in which Del Toro's poignant sensibilities and his appreciation for B-movie humor converges in a film full of such small moments is in a scene with Hellboy and Abe. Hellboy gets drunk after Liz asks for some space and he overhears a Barry Manilow song emanating from a room down the hall at home base. He discovers a miserable Abe lamenting his unrequited love The two otherworldly creatures share a Tecate as they both join Manilow on a chorus of "Can't Smile Without You" in a scene that's as touching as it is amusing.

So thanks to Pan's Labyrinth's success, Del Toro gained enough cachet to be able to rescue this Hellboy sequel from the dust bin. Universal bought the rights from Sony, as they are reportedly seeking to get into business with more international directors. And with Del Toro's anticipated triumph as Peter Jackson's handpicked successor in The Lord of the Rings saga, Universal takes advantage of Sony's shortsightedness. Dark Horse Entertainment, Hellboy's comic book distributor has now hung its film production shingle at Universal for the next three years. And Del Toro successfully finally merges pathos and humor in this film, great practice for the similar effect he'll have to achieve in The Hobbit. Consider this dry run a triumph in that respect.

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Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk - How Universal and Marvel Successfuly Course-Corrected the Struggling Franchise

Place me firmly in the camp of those that think that Ang Lee's Hulk (2003) is almost criminally underrated. Bringing his art house sensibilities to the project, Lee chose to focus on the complex, rage-filled father and son relationship that fueled Bruce Banner's anger management issues.

Giving it an icy counterpoint in the father-daughter relationship between his girlfriend and her dad, the movie dug beyond the superficial gamma radiation explanations of the comic book origin. Instead it showed the underpinnings of Banner's rage to be firmly rooted in real world psychology. And the film managed to tell its tragic story without ever forgetting its graphic heritage, with Lee choosing to frame the images in a dynamic, split-screen effect that replicated the artistic masterworks of a Steranko or an Eisner, masters of the comic book panel layout.

The movie failed to meet expectations at the box-office making only $132.2 million domestically after a rousing opening of $62.1 million in its first weekend. Much of the blame was laid on the feet of Lee, though I feel he was only the scapegoat for Marvel's ambitious plans for the Green Goliath. After all, if there was one franchise where they could afford to be a little riskier, it was this one. The Hulk was a property that was pre-sold even beyond such other Marvel heroes as Spider-Man or the X-Men. Those characters had been successful on the page, yes. But the Hulk had been successful on TV for five seasons in a popular series with a beloved actor, in Bill Bixby, as its lead. Marvel's directive, however, was to ignore the TV show, and be faithful to the comics. Poor Lee was blasted in the fan community for committing what amounted to an act of heresy (by the same fanboys who lash out at film producers for casting a blond instead of a dark-haired 007), for doing what fans generally prefer in these types of movies, sticking to the established comic book continuity.

When the idea to revisit the character was introduced, great pains were taken to assure its success. The fans were assured this would not be an art house retread of their beloved idol, but rather an action-packed take on the monster. The motivations behind the Jekyll and Hyde metamorphosis would be left unexamined, in favor of getting down to the nitty-gritty hulkouts that were being clamored for. I was holding my breath, unhappy that what was essentially being said was that the movie would be dumbed down for its target audience. Was it really necessary? Especially since comic fans long for the day when their favorite medium will earn the respect of others as a viable and thriving mode of delivering artistic masterpieces on the order of Alan Moore's Watchmen or Maus by Art Spiegelman?

The Incredible Hulk opened on June 13th, and guess what? The reviews weren't bad. But they were a bit in the backhanded compliment vein. Glenn Kenny, formerly of Premiere, but now blogging at Some Came Running wrote, "some CGI issues aside, it was a credible (ar ar ar) enough action thriller in the contemporary commercial comic-book-adaptation mode, and that its quality is such that it'll be better received by audiences than its initial and persistent "bad buzz" had indicated." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman writes that the audience "may not mind that The Incredible Hulk is just a luridly reductive and violent B movie — one that clears a bar that hadn't been set very high." Not bad, but certainly not great reviews.

Here are some ways Universal and Marvel Studios circumvented the fickle fans, and successfully course-corrected their struggling franchise to the tune of $96 million-plus and counting in only its second week at the box-office.

Hire an action film director. I don't know Louis Leterrier. I have never seen a Louis Leterrier film. But I do know this... Louis Leterrier is an action director. All I have to do is see a trailer for The Transporter or Transporter 2 or Unleashed, and I can tell he knows how to direct action. Now, does he know how to direct a performance?

Recast the entire movie with actors who won't let you down. That's not to say that the first cast would have let anyone down. You had Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Josh Lucas, Nick Nolte, and Sam Elliott as the villain, General Ross... wait a sec, Sam Elliott. I like Sam Elliott, but he's not exactly villainous. And Eric Bana is great but he won't open a movie the way Edward Norton does. Okay, Ed Norton it is. and for the villain? William Hurt. Throw in Tim Roth to support him. And Tim Blake Nelson to set up the inevitable sequel's next villain. Love interest? Liv Tyler's kinda hot, and she can act, too. Oh, and by the way, Norton loves the Hulk, so he can help you rewrite the script. He's a smart guy. He'll make it even better. Louis Leterrier (you must always say his entire name)? You worry about the action... these guys have got the performances covered.

Pay homage to the character that got the butts in the seats in the first place, stupid. That character was TV's Incredible Hulk, David Banner, not comic's Hulk, Bruce Banner. Little touches throughout the movie evoke the nostalgia of watching the well loved series. From an appearance by Bill Bixby on TV (in a rerun of another of his series, The Courtship of Eddie's Father) to original Hulk Lou Ferrigno as a security guard, to a cameo by intrepid reporter Jack McGee (here working for a college newspaper), to a blisteringly quick refresher on the Hulk's origin over the credit sequence (complete with blinking red Danger Light) that paraphrases the show more than the last movie, the film is targeted at the core fans of the show. Even the title pays respect to the series.

Hedge your bets by making this movie a reboot AND a sequel. Sure, it's a new movie... I know you didn't like the first one. Oh, you did? Well, it's a sequel. See how Banner ended up in South America at the end of the first one? He's still down there at the beginning of this one. And see how he became the Hulk while working on secret government projects for his girlfriend's dad at a University lab? He returns to the lab to find his girlfriend in this one... just ignore that this one is called Culver University while the original was Berkeley. That's just to throw off the folks who hated the first flick. Ala the 007 series, the films are loosely related and invoked on an as-needed basis only, in order not to load things down with too much continuity.

Remember, it's a comic book... play by comic book rules. Ah, but you like continuity. Well, this movie is for you. Starting with the opening credits, you see documents that belong to Stark Industries, and the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division or SHIELD, both organizations that appear in Marvel's other 2008 film Iron Man. You have Banner seeking help from an expert in gamma radiation, Dr. Samuel Sterns, fated to become one of Hulk's arch-enemies, the Leader, in the comics and presumably the next film. Ex-girlfriend, Betty Ross's new boyfriend? Well, I believe they cut out the explicit reference to his name, Dr. Leonard Samson. A noted psychologist, he later becomes the green-tressed hero, Doc Samson. And Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky is warned by Sterns that he may become an "abomination" if he chooses to test one of Stern's serums in combination with the Super Soldier serum given him by General Ross. The Abomination is Hulk's greatest comic book opponent.

Get an assist from your bona fide, genuinely more successful superhero younger brother. Want to get fanboys into your less than promising new superhero flick? Bring your star hitter to the party. Iron Man is the first film of 2008 to break the $300 million mark. So when Marvel started promoting that Robert Downey, Jr. would appear at the end of this movie as Iron Man Tony Stark, offering to help General Ross with a team he's putting together, the sound of millions of fans simultaneously reaching orgasm echoed throughout the land. Now that Marvel Studios has most of its characters under one roof, it's far easier to cross-pollinate franchises, like they do in comics. Word is, that Thor and War Machine will be spun off into their own films after appearing in Iron Man 2. They'll all be reunited in The Avengers, the story of that super-team Stark and SHIELD's Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) are putting together to stop the rampage of... you guessed it, the Hulk. Luckily, since the Hulk is CGI you don't really need Edward Norton to return for that one.

Leak info to the press, no matter how untrue it actually is. Apparently, Edward Norton was going to be conspicuously absent from the promotional tour for the film since he was unhappy with a number of his script ideas being ultimately discarded from the film. Nothing like getting a lot of free promotional mileage out of actor vs. studio controversy. And the press was all over it. But wait, who's on Jimmy Kimmel promoting the Hulk on June 12th with a hilarious film making the YouTube rounds? And what about the widely promoted Captain America cameo rumors that circulated for days on the Internet (reported on Cinema Blend and Sci-Fi Wire) with Louis Leterrier only shooting it down after finding a way to flip it into a promo for the inevitable extended-cut DVD?

And given my appreciation for the Ang Lee version of the Hulk, what did I think of The Incredible Hulk? It wasn't bad, and it's an entertaining start to what appears to be a franchise with the potential to thrive for a long, long time.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 6/23/2008.

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Movie Review: Iron Man - Fun Flick Marks Start of Summer Movie Season

Iron Man, based on the Marvel Comics superhero from the 1960s, opened Friday nationwide. Directed by Jon Favreau, it tells the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), a less charitable Bill Gates-like (updated from Howard Hughes in the comic) multi-billionaire who makes most of his fortune from the lucrative weapons development division of his company. Injured when he is captured by rogue terrorists, he has a change of heart (literally and figuratively) about his role in the scheme of things, after seeing the terrorists using his weapons to subjugate the innocents of their country, and defeat American soldiers. Forced to make a missile for them in return for his release, he instead makes the first clunky version of the armor that will lead to his new endeavor as Iron Man.

The film is everything a fun summer flick should be. It's topical, updating the comic book origin to take place in Afghanistan rather than Vietnam. It's exciting, particularly whenever Stark takes exhilarating flight as he tests his armor. It has enough humor to let you know it doesn't take itself too seriously. One running gag involves a government agent frustratedly seeking a moment to debrief Stark after his escape from captivity. The gag is amusing on that level, but it's also a nod to the geeks (if they listen to what division he's from, they should get the joke right away). And it has a brilliant cast.

Downey is perfect for the party boy savant Stark, whose lifestyle parallels much of Downey's own brushes with addiction. Gwyneth Paltrow, as his assistant Pepper Potts, is clearly having fun with her role, but is integral to saving the day, a role rarely assigned to females in this genre. Terrence Howard as Rhodey is the everyman that must manage his friend, making sure he doesn't screw up his naive pursuit of justice, but secretly happy that his friend has the guts to go outside of the box in his crusade.

Jeff Bridges is a strong adversary. His Obadiah Stane is the real workhorse who's built Stark Enterprises to what it is today, and won't see it, or himself, flushed down with the refuse because the mercurial Stark has had a sudden notion to save the world. Bridges wisely plays the villain without twirling his mustache too much. Instead, he makes us understand the business obligations that drive Stane to do what he has to do, delineating the contrast between Stane's pragmatic persona with Stark's, until now, more flighty one.

By the way, if you're a fan of the comic books, stay till after the end credits for a special surprise that sets up future adventures. You will not be disappointed. Iron Man is a solid entertaining way to start the summer movie season, and I hope the rest of this season lives up to the benchmark established by this film.

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Movie Trailer: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Click on the picture above for the newest trailer for this sequel. The first Hellboy was directed by Guillermo Del Toro before his big art-house hit, Pan's Labyrinth.

Now, with the contract being all but final for him to direct The Hobbit, it will be interesting to see if this sequel becomes a sleeper hit.

Let me know what you think in the comments section.

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Movie Trailer: The Spirit

Click on the picture above for the trailer to the latest comics-to-film adaptation, this one based on Will Eisner's classic landmark hero, and directed by comics great Frank Miller (Sin City, 300).

It's so hot right now, the best I could do was link to this YouTube capture, but I'll update it when I can get a direct link to the official one.

Let me know what you think in the comments section.

UPDATED: The picture now links directly to the trailer on the official website. Enjoy.

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Movie Trailer: The Incredible Hulk

Click on the picture above for the trailer to the latest Marvel Comics film, starring Edward Norton.

Let me know what you think in the comments section.

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First Look: Zack Snyder's Watchmen

That's the Comedian from Zack (300) Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen. Watchmen is the only graphic novel selected by Time Magazine as one of "the 100 Best English-language novels from 1923 to the present".

Click on the photograph above to head over to the official site and see just-released photos of the rest of the Watchmen.

Watchmen is scheduled to be released exactly one year from today.

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DVD Review: Justice League: The New Frontier - Animated Spotlight On Real-World Issues

Taking advantage of the current superhero genre craze, Warner Premiere has just released its second DC Comics-inspired direct-to-DVD feature, Justice League: The New Frontier. Animated in a style reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke's original comics series, it is a sight to behold.

It also carries a PG-13 rating, so don't go running to the store to get it for your kids. Like the comic, it has decidedly mature themes. The story is seen through the eyes of test-pilot Hal Jordan, future Green Lantern. He embodies the type of new hero emerging at the dawn of the Kennedy era. While still cut from the cloth of "true American heroes" like Chuck Yeager, this generation has to deal with more gray areas than their predecessors. Even establishment heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman find themselves at odds with each other when it becomes evident that the new villains are not as clearly defined.

For Superman, it means realizing that the government he so dearly upholds the values of is capable of secretly conducting weapons tests. For Wonder Woman it means siding with women villagers raped and imprisoned by male oppressors in Vietnam, then known as Indo-China. When Batman, always with his guard up, confronts a new alien hero whose weakness is fire, he warns, "I have a $70, 000 sliver of radioactive meteor to stop the one from Metropolis. With you, all I need is a penny for a book of matches." This is not your average episode of Super Friends.

It is a nice capsulization of Darwyn Cooke's love letter to the Silver age of comics, DC: The New Frontier. A far more involved masterwork by the former animator, its cartoony style belies its serious examination of civil rights, anti-communism, and the turbulent late 50s-early 60s in which these concerns were distorting the notion of what the American Way really was. Much of the movie is shot with a definite eye to preserving Cooke's distinctive style. My only complaint, is that so much of the story is compressed into a 75 minute running time. By the story's end you may not be aware of what the film's villain represents without having read the original comic, or seen any of the DVD's featurettes for clarification. This movie would benefit from having a longer cut.

Warner Premiere is obviously attempting to pursue quality in their new direct-to-DVD feature series (check out the featurette promoting their anime-inspired Batman: Gotham Knight in this DVD's special features). The voice actors include such actors as David Boreanaz, Keith David, Miguel Ferrer, Neil Patrick Harris, John Heard, Lucy Lawless, Kyle MacLachlan, Kyra Sedgwick and Jeremy Sisto. And director Dave Bullock has since been busy directing George Lucas' new CGI-animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, to air this fall on TNT and The Cartoon Network. Justice League: The New Frontier is a fine entry to list on any one of these professionals' resumes.

This animated film demonstrates the full potential of what superhero stories can comment on in a way that no live-action release (with the possible exception of Unbreakable and The Incredible Hulk TV series) has as of yet. Check this DVD out to see what the superhero genre is truly capable of.

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