Video: The DOCTOR WHO/TORCHWOOD Gang at Comic-Con!

G.I. JOE Gets Much Needed Geek Boost from AICN!

Stephen Sommers G. I. Joe has been getting some bad buzz from both the industry and online geek community.  Words like “bomb” were the lightest of epithets tossed around about this film, there were rumors of re-edits, of Sommers being dumped from the film,  and some Internet mavens even took to derisively calling the film “C.G.I. Joe” or “G.I. Joke.”

But Ain’t It Cool News founder, and geek royalty, Harry Knowles wants to change that.  He recently posted a very positive review of the film, calling it  “Sommers’ most fun film and possibly his best work to date,” and suggesting he plans on seeing the film a second time.

Some may not think much of these comments.  As many feel Knowles has become little more than a shill for the studios in recent years.  But this has to be good news for Sommer’s film which looked like it might pass into obscurity before it was even released.

It should also be noted that Knowles openly admits he isn’t a fan of the eighties cartoon series or comic books.  Most of the negative reaction online comes from fans of these incarnations of G.I. Joe.

You can read Knowles’ full review here.

Photos: UPDATE: (This is Fake) Another Pic of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger!

Update:  The above photo is a fake.  It’s a photoshopped version of this photo of Jackie Earle Haley from Little Murders:

Didn’t take long to disprove this one.  So much for the credibility of Forces of Geek.

A few days back we posted the first official photos of Jackie Earle Haley as “Freddy Krueger” in Platinum Dunes remake of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. They were pretty dark.  And didn’t show much.  You can see them here.

Then Forces of Geek posted the photo above, without stating its source, and claiming it be Jackie as “Freddy.”   But not all movie watchers are so sure about the pic.   Dread Central thinks it might just be “a make-up test,” and questions whether it’s even Jackie under that make-up.

Looks like Jackie to us.  But what do we know?  Dread Central promises to get to the bottom of this.  We too will update this story if the information warrants it.

Comic-Con: Geek Fight Over AVATAR Screening!

In the last day or so, a geek smackdown is brewing over the screening of 24 minutes of footage from James Cameron’s Avatar at the San Diego Comic-Con.

It all began when Devin Faraci posted his thoughts about the screening on his highly regarded movie site CHUD.  A few quotes sum up his reaction:

not as alien as advertised

He also found it:

an evolutionary jump, not a revolutionary leap. Avatar left my eyes unfucked. I didn’t experience movies in a whole new way, and nothing I saw on screen left me feeling more than impressed.

Of the CGI he said:

Avatar looks like a very advanced CGI toon. When CGI Navi are interacting with CGI monsters in CGI landscapes, it all looks very CGI.

This is, frankly, not photoreal.

In short, he wasn’t crazy about it.  He’s entitled to his opinion and all that.  But one wonders if his oft-stated poor relationship with Fox colored his reaction intentionally or not.

But whether his comments were part of an agenda, or the honest reactions of a movie blogger, doesn’t really matter.  Because it didn’t end here.  An unnamed member of the Avatar crew posted a reaction to Faraci’s comments, blasting the blogger:

Avatar IS photo real. and you will believe it is a real place once you have seen it in its final form. you Devin and the rest of the negative druids will eat everyone of your words come December 18th. and if fox hates you, who could blame them. you come across as a hateful person.

He also said:

are you for real ? what kind of movie knowledgeable journalist can look at what they saw and say its nothing short of a technical miracle. and what you saw was most assuredly the tip of the iceberg.

And he concluded this way:

what is the in word for the online community ? EPIC FAIL ? NOT US

Faraci could have ignored all this.  Always the best reaction to such things.  But he decided to go on.  And in an article he posted entitled “An Avatar Crew Member Can’t Take Criticism” he expanded his earlier thoughts:

Everyone walked into the San Diego Convention Center on Thursday thinking that the winner of the buzz sweepstakes was going to be Avatar; it was, in fact, a foregone conclusion.

Everybody was wrong.

He then added:

You either walk out of San Diego with major buzz or you don’t. Avatar may be walking out of San Diego with fourth place.

And he said of the letter:

It’s a pretty dopey letter, all told, but it’s interesting to see that my reaction – which was overall positive! – elicited this reaction from someone who actually worked on the film.

No point in taking sides in this sort of thing.  Except to say that geeks shouldn’t fight.  They always end up looking silly.  Like a remake of Rocky III with the Muppets!

But Faraci’s characterization of people being underwhelmed by the screening doesn’t match the online reaction.  Comingsoon.net called it “a jaw dropping experience,” Io9 referred to it as a “weird masterpiece,” Marketsaw called it “historic,”  and IGN said it “surpassed all expectations.”

Ain’t It Cool News is one of the few sites to share Faraci’s reaction.  Site maven Quint echoed Faraci’s take, saying:

I will say lower those expectations. The footage was good, layered, incredibly detailed and full of imagination and incredible imagery, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s the next quantum leap forward in filmmaking.

But whatever the bloggers are saying.  Or whatever geek fights the screening has spawned.  We’re still hugely excited about this film!

Here’s a link to Faraci’s original article, and here’s his follow-up article which includes the full text of the Avatar crew member’s letter.

Update: Faraci continues his silly attacks on Avatar. For more on that click here.

Video: TRON LEGACY Teaser

This is the lightcycle sequence discussed here.  But not the other teaser we discussed.   That one has yet to be officially released by Disney.

more about “Video: TRON LEGACY Teaser“, posted with vodpod

Video: Anakin Skywalker Tens Years Later

Yup, it’s been ten years since The Phantom Menace.  And, Jake Lloyd, that little kid who annoyed Star Wars geeks everywhere turned into … a quite well spoken young man.  Good for him.

more about “Video: Anakin Skywalker Tens Years L…“, posted with vodpod

August 21, 2009 is AVATAR Day!

You’re probably jealous of those San Diego Comic-Con attendees who got to see fifteen minutes of James Cameron’s sci-fi, 3D epic Avatar. Well, you needn’t feel jealous for long.

On August 21, 2009 on IMAX screens all over the world fans will be able to see 15 minutes of Avatar for free!

Exactly how this will work hasn’t yet been made clear.  Will you need tickets?  How many showings will there be a day?  And so on.

But it’s good news for Cameron fans hungry to see even the tiniest bit of this film.

Update:  For an explanation of how to get tickets to this event click here.

Video: Comic-Con NEW MOON Press Conference, Part 3

You can view part 1 here, and part 2 here.

more about “Video: Comic-Con NEW MOON Press Conf…“, posted with vodpod

Photo: First Official Image from James Cameron’s AVATAR

This supposedly is an image of one of the film’s aliens called the Na’vi.  Hey, if they opened a used clothing store would it be called Old Na’vi?  We know … we know … we shouldn’t have done that.

An extended clip from the film was shown at this year’s Comic-Con, but so far that footage hasn’t surfaced on the ‘net.  But we hear through the geek network that it was “teh awesome.”

Update:  Check out our coverage of the online debacle caused by the Avatar screening here.

Comic-Con Brings News on TRON Sequel!

At a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con new information was revealed about Tron Legacy the sequel to the 1982 film Tron. The highlight were two teaser trailers, and the reveal of some conceptual art.

The first teaser (not available on the Internet yet) shows Garrett Hedlund as  “Sam Flynn” (the son of Kevin Flynn, the character Jeff Bridges played in Tron) entering his father’s dilapidated arcade.  The place is covered in dust and all the games are hidden beneath plastic sheets.  Sam hits the electricity and the games spring to life.

The Tron game, with its big neon logo, attracts Sam’s attention.  He moves over to it.  He puts a quarter in the game, but it doesn’t work.  Then he notices some grooves in the floor.  He pulls the game away from the wall, revealing an entrance.  He walks in.  The teaser ends.

They also showed a second teaser which was a  more detailed version of the lightcycle sequence they debuted at last year’s Comic-Con.  See that teaser here.  It’s very cool.

Jeff Bridges, who will be reprising his role in the sequel, had this to say about the project:

The first Tron, when we made that, there was no Internet,” he said. So what you saw was so new and fresh. I can guarantee you’re going to get that same pop with this one. Everything is going to be superized.

While the film’s director Joe Kosinski had this to say:

We’ve probably got three or four things in this movie that have never been done before, and we’re doing them all at the same time.  I promise you that next year at Comic-Con you’ll see some things you haven’t seen before.

Below is an edited video of most of the conceptual art they displayed: