Pocket full of Kryptonite.

Ugh. Michael Bay replaces MG at the helm of Superman. Hoo boy, this’ll be a stinker.

MSN gets an early look at the Blade: Trinity trailer. It’s basically just a lot of action shots in fuzzy WMP format, but, still, this could be promising. If you enjoyed the first two (as I did), this looks like more of the same. Update: Now in Quicktime.

Captain Kinsey and the Phantom’s Treasure.

Several new trailers have emerged since the last update around here: Along with a new look at Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (looks bluescreen-ish, to be sure), Liam Neeson channels Alfred Kinsey, Joel “I tanked the Batman franchise” Schumacher goes after Phantom of the Opera, and Nicolas Cage, Sean Bean, and Helen of Troy undertake a search for political booty in National Treasure. Of these new three, I might pay money to see Kinsey.

Eat the Piano Player/Sirius Blacker.

In fanboy casting news, The Pianist‘s Thomas Kretschmann joins PJ’s King Kong, while Gary Oldman thinks of signing on as Episode III’s General Grievous.

Prince of Gotham, King of the World.

In the movie bin, some some news of a Batman Begins teaser (and a first look at Liam Neeson), and James Cameron speaks about his top-secret 3D Sci-Fi project, now starring Brian Cox. If Cameron is really serious about resurrecting 80’s action film stars, one of his favorites, Michael Biehn, is probably waiting by the phone…

When Antarctic Aliens Attack.

Here’s another look at Paul Anderson’s Alien v. Predator, and it’s about as lame as the last one. Plus, as a purely fanboy grievance, Lance “Bishop/Company Guy” Henriksen seems to be screwing up the series’ continuity for a quick paycheck. Ah well.

Riddickulous.

(I know, that pun’s been made everywhere – still it applies.) I neglected to mention last update that I saw the truly terrible Chronicles of Riddick last Friday. Between this and the just ever so slightly worse Van Helsing, there seem to be some considerable quality control issues over at Universal Pictures these days.

Life’s too short to spend a lot of copy on this flick, so I’ll keep it brief. I generally like Vin Diesel, I thought Pitch Black was an enjoyable, low-key B-movie, and I liked the first 80 minutes or so of David Twohy’s submarine ghost movie Below. But The Chronicles of Riddick doesn’t make a lick of sense…it’s just a lot of glamour poses and wrestling moves. The only thing that stands out is the goofy, over-the-top art direction, which comes off as a pastiche of David Lynch’s Dune, the Joel Schumacher Batman movies, and the video to Duran Duran’s “Union of the Snake.” There’s a long, drawn-out, and unnecessary sequence in the middle of the film where Riddick and his motley band of Road Warrior castoffs are trying to outrun the fatal sunrise of the planet Crematoria, and, frankly, I haven’t seen something so nonsensical in a movie since Keanu Reeves outraced an atomic blast wave in Chain Reaction. (Ok, I never saw Chain Reaction, but you get the point.) Simply put, this film is embarrassing to all involved and will probably give I, Robot and The Stepford Wives a serious run for their money as the worst science fiction film of 2004.

Tag: Cinema