Trailer Tuesday: The Avengers Super Bowl Trailer

Not an official poster, but still a sweet fan attempt. 

It's that time of the year again, when America celebrates its national, irrelevantly named sport in the annual football play-offs. While I may be scratching my head at the sheer hype around this (coming from a purely British point of view), I struggle to deny the awesomeness of the many trailers that get rolled out through the ad-breaks. Last year I covered the Captain America Super-Bowl spot, and this year I guess it's only fitting if I do the same for its "OMGWTFTHISISGOINGTOBESOAMAZING" predecessor, in the shape of The Avengers. 


   It may only be a minute in length, but by-jove it's SO tantalising for the ol' Nerd Glands (is that or thing, or does it just sound dirty?). Anyway, let's get on with this:

• 0:11 - After a brief into featuring the usual "Citizens running from explosions" and a lead in from Captain America, we're treated to the brief appearance of the Quinn-Jet (or at least something along those lines). This may or may not be on the mighty Helicarrier (a flying aircraft carrier)...
• 0:14 - More of NY getting bombed, but this time we can see the secret aliens behind it; flying bike things, eh? More on them later.
• 0:17 - The Chrysler Building as an electric conductor for Thor (supposedly)? That's some powerful voltage...
•  0:26 - Thor also gets to ride a jet himself, Norse style (which involves surfing it like a frigging bad-ass).

• 0:30 - Whoa, whoa, whoa: pause your players a second! That right there is our currently unknown alien force that allies with main villain, Loki. So, Bipedal: Check; Greyishly Skinned: Check; Lightly Armoured: Check; Tribal-Looking: Check; and 3 Toes: Check. Conclusion: Uncertain (still). While producer, Kevin Feige, has said that the alien menace have been in the comics, it's hard to determine exactly which ones from this. Feige also stated that their actual identity isn't going to be "impactful", teasing perhaps a lesser known race (no Skrulls for sure, then). My money is on the Badoon, a race of war-hungry, reptilian creatures with no superpowers to speak of, but a high disregard for the female gender. Now this is where my theory comes into play; the Badoon look like they have their spines on their front, and if you look at the armour of the aliens at this point, they look like they have a part running down that area. Also, the Badoon despise and enslave the females of their planet, and Writer/Director/My God, Joss Whedon is renown for his strong, female characters (just don't ask him why). For him, who better to write in as villains, than a race that opposes the very things he stands for? Of course that's just one idea, and there are dozens of other speculative thoughts out there (the name Thanos has been thrown around a lot...)

• 0:36 - Iron Man's little battle here looks to be one of the film's finest action sequences, with some beautifully colourful CGI in play, as well as some realistically shaky camera work (not unlike Whedon's Serenity flight sequences).
• 0:42 - Oooh, the money shot. Our six heroes in a badass, surround pan - yep even the Hulk's there. Have I mentioned yet that I'm rather excited for this movie?
• 0:50 - Ah, time for some Tony "Snark", courtesy of Whedon's Wit: "Earth's Mightiest Heroes, type thing" and "We have a Hulk" are certain to become quote classics. And may I say that Loki looks lusciously dapper in that Green/Black outfit of his, while Stark's Black Sabbath T-Shirt is another great example of Whedon's work; pop-cult references all the way, baby!
• 0:56 - And SMASH time. Hulk's new CGI upgrade and Motion Capture system sure does show here, in a great Jump'n'Smash example of rage. 
• 1:00 - Le fin... for now. Note: For Americans, that May 4th is correct, but here in the UK we have been blessed with an April 27th release. Midnight launch, anyone?

                                                                                                                                               

This is in fact the third trailer for The Avengers that I've broken down so far, but what can I say? April 27th, hurry the heck up! For more on The Avengers, as well as Trailers, Reviews and other kinds of Entertainment Awesome, make sure you stick with me, right here, at Dude Meister Blogs.

ATR

HULK SMASH OTHER PUNY TRAILERS!

Trailer Wednesday: The Avengers

HELL-FRIGGIN-YES! The OFFICIAL trailer for The Avengers has arrived and is jam packed with awesome. I think I can skip the synopsis, so shall we begin?
(Full screen please. It deserves it!)



Breakdown, anyone? Hit the jump for it!

The Sunday Supdate: 11/09/11

Wassup home dogs!? Would you like me to start over in a less douchey way? Well touch luck, cause I'm sticking with it! Late night Sunday = tired blogger = rough post (?), so try to stick with me for this.

In Remembrance
We all know what the date at the top says and we all know it's been 10 years. That fateful day of heartache and destruction, immortalised by this haunting date. So let's all spare a thought to those who lost loved ones and have since as a result of the tragic events that took place that day. When people say it was one of those "where were you?" moments, they're really not wrong. Even me, as a 5 year old can remember my Dad's urgency to get home after picking me up from school, and then seeing all this stuff on the TV. It was as if an image of two burning towers had been etched into every screen for the next few weeks. And then being there, in New York itself a couple years ago, I could still sense this feeling of tragedy around the Ground Zero site, despite the fact it was mostly blocked off for construction purposes. RIP Victims and Heroes of 9/11.

A Photo of Epic Proportions (and Questions?)
Anyone on Twitter earlier today may have noticed a whole load of Nerdgasm coming from one image tweeted by Nathan Fillion:

For those not in the know, that's (from left to right) Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Serenity), Felicia Day (The Guild), Simon Pegg (Shaun of The Dead, Paul), Edgar Wright (Writer/Director of Shaun, Hot Fuzz) and Anthony Head (Buffy, Merlin, Little Britain). And they're in Joss-Freakin'-Whedon's house! So much awesome in one place!

     It's no surprise then that my head (along with many others out there) has been buzzing about what this meet up could mean. My theory? Well, Edgar Wright has recently finished writing the script (along with Attack The Block creator, Joe Cornish) for a movie adaptation of Marvel hero, Ant Man. This links into the rumours that Nathan Fillion could be the one to play him (YES PLEASE), and that Joss is writing and directing The Avengers, another Marvel property. So, could this be a meeting to discuss plans on working Ant-Man into the Marvel Cinematic continuity, with possibly the other actors involved. Pegg as villain, perhaps?

Or maybe something else from the many Whedon properties? Dr Horrible related? Buffy? Dare I say, Firefly!? Or something new entirely? If it was any of these, I don't think I'd really care what because the thought of seeing all these guys working together makes my head explode. Fillion and Pegg, two of my favourite actors teamed up with Wright and Whedon, two of my favourite writers/directors, with some Felicia thrown in: I don't think I could take the amount of happiness that it would fill me with.

  But this kind of wild speculation always gets me kind of depressed when it turns out not to be nought but that. So for now let's just assume that it's a bunch of Hollywood (and Geekdom) A-listers hanging out together just for the sake of awesomeness. (Ah but come on, that "Shhh" expression from Edgar's gotta count for something?) Still the sweetest thing I saw today!

School's Back

Of course, this being September, the old school routine had kicked back in and is live and swinging. Final year of secondary school, GCSE's and all that. Big year ahead, or so I've heard (from pretty much EVERYONE). Will it all affect the blog? Hopefully not, if I can effectively maximise my time management (working on it!) then we may see a rise in some enjoyable writing. RE:Views incoming, and maybe a new "RE:Commend" section, devoted to suggesting some great things in life. Be it a TV show, book series, food, activities, websites or whatever, RE:Commend could be like a mini review feature, minus all the hard hitting critique, and a place with me just trying to introduce you to something I believe is awesome. Cool beans, eh?

So until next time, my intrepid viewers. Stay safe, stay smart, stay reading and most importantly, stay awesome. Over and Snout.

ATR

         More Marvel              More Supdates    

Trailer Tuesday: The Avengers

Do I have a treat for you! Obtained through an undisclosed source, I present to you the first ever The Avengers teaser trailer, exclusive to Dude Meister Blogs! It's not great quality (sound or visual), but boy does it still look sweet! Try and keep it on the down-low though, as this might not be completely "okay", so to speak, and it's on a private YouTube link. So if it doesn't stay up forever, don't be too surprised... Anyway, enough jibber-jabber, here it is:




Alright, so I'm not going to break it down, because the shots are so quick that it'd be written like 0:15.23 to get it all in. So if you want to see it all, just quick pause throughout the whole thing to get each piece of footage of the new team, assembling next May 4th. There's new costumes (a lot borrowed from the Ultimates it seems) and locales shown, and also a great deal on Loki, Thor's devious brother. If the Thor post-credits scene is anything to go by, the plot might be revolving around him along with Captain America's Tesseract cube.

  Anyway, no matter what the plot is, I'm sure writer/director Joss Whedon will make one hell of a superhero movie. Full stop. Now go forth, and replay the trailer over and over until your hearts content! And remember, shhhhhhh!

ATR

RE:View: Captain America: The First Avenger

As the final Marvel piece before next year's The Avengers, a lot was riding on the Cap to bring home the bacon and deliver on a solid origin story of America's mightiest hero, while keeping in mind that behind the Super Soldier physique lies a simple kid from Brooklyn with a big heart. Not only does it succeed in this, but it leaps ahead in terms of character driven narratives vs certain other comic book movies to date.

   So it's 1942 and Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans) is this puny, 90lb kid from Brooklyn NY, who just can't seem to get accepted into the army - after desperately trying 5 times - despite his golden spirit. But when a government scientist, Abraham Erksine (Stanley Tucci) offers him a chance to be more than just a soldier via a new serum, Steve leaps into action and becomes America's first Super Soldier, bringing bulk, brains and bravery like no over to face Hitler and his Nazi hoards. But the evil Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) - or Red Skull - and his Nazi research team, HYDRA, are using an unseen technology capable of great destruction, and could tip the tide of the war in Germany's favour, unless the Cap and The Howling Commandos can stop him.

Trailer Tuesday: Games Special 2

As if I haven't said it enough already, the San Diego Comic-Con was on last weekend, and that means new game trailers to go along with it. So, like I did with the E3 ones, I've compiled a lot of them for your viewing pleasure.

First up, Battlefield 3:

Showcasing a new map based in and around the Paris Metro system, as well as tooting their own horn about awards, this trailer has me pumped for the explosive, vast and awesome multiplayer the game has to offer when it releases October 28th.

Zelda returns to Wii! Could this game make me pick up a Wiimote again after all this time?

After over 3 years in development, Star Wars: The Old Republic is finally nearing, and here's a trailer showing off the different classes the new MMO has to offer. I call Smuggler/Jedi! Hey, there should be Jedi Smugglers! *Jots down idea for future writing*

Trailer Tuesday: The Amazing Spider-Man

For today's Trailer Tuesday, I'm going to be mixing it up a bit and (with a lot of effort) posting at least 3 separate trailers with breakdowns! The majority will be coming straight from the San Diego Comic-Con, held last weekend, and will be from movies, TV and video games. To start us off we've got the Teaser for The Amazing Spider-Man, which was released alongside the theatrical debut of Captain America. Want a synopsis? You got it:

"In this reboot of the classic Spider-Man series, The Social Network's Andrew Garfield steps into the role of Spidey as we once more witness his incredible origin story of how he came by these strange spider powers. But with great power comes great responsibility, as Peter Parker will find out when he does battle with Rhys Ifans' Lizard, as well as wooing the glamourous Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Expect a moodier and darker take on the Spider-Man legend when it hits theatres, 3 July 2012." - Yeah, I wrote it. I apologise for the cheesiness... 

Okay, so here it is:

And the analysis:

• 0:15 - After a fly over of New York, we see a very young Peter and his Father, presumably just before his death. It would seem that the film's going to delve into the history of his parents, unlike the original Spider-Man films. 
• 0:30 - Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker in the present day now. I for one am looking forward to seeing Garfield in the role, and hopefully he'll be able to play the character in a way Tobey Maguire never could. I don't know about you, but Maguire never sold it for me. 
• 0:36 - Let the moodiness begin! Peter walks down a crowded High School corridor looking lonely while some creepy music plays. Note that he is in High School, and will be throughout the movie, giving us a chance to see a younger Spider-Man, which could add a coming-of-age element into the mix.
• 0:44 - And there's a shot of Peter in class, looking very distracted as he scribbles in his dark hoodie. Hopefully they're not going for an emo Spidey again like they tried in Spider-Man 3 and epically failed, what with it falling into an irrelevant, uncomfortable and all around misplaced scene... That's Gwen Stacy looking back at him by the way, who is the main love interest here. No MJ I'm afraid. (That's Mary Jane, not Jacko). 
• 0:59 - Peter turns up at the lab where Gwen works. Here comes the powers... Also, it would seem they're playing up the geeky nerd angle on Peter, with the glasses and the subsequent awkwardness. 
• 1:01 - Now here is the villain of the piece. Dr Kurt Connors aka Lizard. According to the reports from the footage shown at Comic-Con, the good Doctor only has one arm and while attempting to regrow it using reptilian stem-cells it all goes South, turning him into a huge Lizard. Hence the name. Refer to What The Fridge?!: Week Five for more details on that.
• 1:04-1:11 - "She told you not to touch anything!" Peter somehow finds his way to this dark testing room, where there seems to be some sort of experiment involving spider webs going on. Then, of course, a spider that's been altered in some way finds our hero and blesses/curses him with that fateful radioactive bite.
• 1:19 - Peter starts finding webbing coming out of his neck. A very different, perhaps more natural, discovery than how the first Spider-Man film handled it.
• 1:25 - My theory on this shot is that Peter is running from muggers/bullies and ends up discovering his new found acrobatic capabilities.
• 1:28 - He's even starting to catch flies! Looks like The Amazing Spider-Man is going to draw out the "freaked out by discovery of powers" thing for a while. It certainly has his Aunt Mae confused, this time played by screen legend Sally Field. And it should be pointed out that Martin Sheen is portraying Ben Parker, Peter's Unlce.
• 1:31 - Peter and Dr Connors meet up before the accident, suggesting that Connors is responsible for Peter's powers. 
• 1:35 - Peter looks to be either sowing his costume or threading out more web from his skin. He could even be working out his webshooters which have been confirmed for the movie. These are just contraptions put on his wrists to allow him to shoot webs, a part which the last films skipped over with the all-natural wrist shoots.
• 1:41 - It's a quick shot, but it's badass. Peter, in costume, sitting by a window. There's something very dark about that shot. 
• 1:44-2:17 - An epic first person sequence of Spidey free-running and swinging across the Manhattan sky-line. If you look at about 2:12 you can see the webshooter on the wrist as he shoots one out of it. And at the end we finally see a proper short of Peter in costume. Looks sleek and more poignant. This sort of Mirrors edge style sequence has me really wanting a FP Spider-Man game! Oh and the dialogue sounds awesome. "The secrets we keep and the ones that are kept from us." Mysterious, eh?
• 2:22 - Title and date. And although it doesn't say, I'm fairly sure it's 3D. See you next year Spidey.

Hows that for a trailer then? There's been a lot of mixed opinions on this film so far, with many criticising how a reboot of a franchise only a few years old is just too early. But honestly, the old Spidey's were getting stale towards the end, especially the "Let's bung in as many villains as we can for no good reason" 3rd film. So I say Horrah for this one, and can't wait to see how it turns out next July. 

ATR

What The Fridge?!: Week Five

Okay, so I found this while reading some stuff about The Amazing Spider-Man movie, including details on the villain, Lizard. One quick witted reader got on the comments right away with this belter of an image:

Funnily enough, the image was pretty much bang on to what the reporter was describing. Read for yourself over at io9.com, it's some pretty sweet tid-bits on the film.

Thanks to io9 commenter, JimmyDTU, who used to look like this, but thanks to a little luck and a lot of moisturiser, he's now gleaming!

ATR

RE:View: Thor

 

    The God of Thunder gets the Hollywood treatment in Marvel's latest comic-book adaptation of the mighty Thor. Directed by Kenneth Brannagh and boasting a high-profile supporting cast of Natalie Portman and Sir Anthony Hopkins, Thor aims to take the super-hero movie by storm with it's whizzy effects and complex Norse back-story. But does it live up to the hype and expectation? Will it leave you hammered with disappointment, or struck with excitement? And, most importantly, can it manage to pull off fantasy-like Norse costumes without coming off overwhelmingly camp?

Kapow! Comic-Con: The Full Report

 As you should know by now, I took a trip to Geeksville yesterday when I attended London's "Kapow!" Comic Convention. Here's how it went, including some razzle-dazzle photos and a few interesting new announcements:

After an... interesting train ride (which included a chubby man feasting on his nose cuisine.) and consequent tube rides, me and my Dad found ourselves here, at the London Business Design Centre. Awesome Green Lantern poster here too.

Hit the link below for the rest:

Trailer Tuesday: Thor

I am a horrible person...

Yeah that's right, I broke a promise; another Marvel movie. And, I'm sorry about that, but they literally only just released this. What could I do? I had no choice, you got to believe me! It was either this or Mars Needs Moms... And beside, this formula's been working so far, so why not again? I hope you find some mercy deep down in your hearts and forgive me. Please, just grant me one more chance...

Okay, groveling over, lets get down to business.

"The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth." - Wikipedia Plot Summary

Here, for proper link with bigger screen and better quality. 

• 0:08-0:15 - Thor's crash site, or soon to be crashsite, is being checked over by who we can only assume to be S.H.I.E.L.D., the group behind assembling The Avengers. This is actually the site glimpsed at the end of Iron Man 2, once the credits had rolled, where the agent finds the hammer, Mjolnir. 
• 0:16 - A storm is brewing... The same storm that Thor falls from to crash down onto Earth.
• 0:22 - 0:26 - Warp speed, anyone? No, this must be Thor falling from the skies.
• 0:30 - Natalie Portman as Jane Foster with her friend, Darcy, and Dad(?) finding Chris Hemsworth's Thor for the first time. As you can see, he's not very happy about just being hit by their car, old viking speak included.
• 0:37 - And I don't think he's going to be very happy about being tazered either...
•  0:47 - Thor's been taken to hospital and he still does not look happy...
• 0:50 - Definitely not happy now that he's throwing doctors around. First glimpse of his impressive strength though.
• 0:54 - One for the ladies; ripped Hemsworth. Kat Dennings' Darcy definitely approves...
• 1:02 - The ladies certainty have a lot of questions for the weird, semi-god, homeless viking man they've just found. Can't think why.
• 1:07 - INTERNET MEME ALERT! Thor, at a small-town diner, is rather impressed with his coffee and smashes it on the floor for more. Just read some comments on the actual Youtube link to see how popular it's become. My favourite is "I like this woman, ANOTHER *smashes Natalie Portman*". 
• 1:13 - A close encounter with Portman gets Thor talking about magic and shit. Stay off drugs, kids.
• 1:18 - Epic ice place: where Thor comes from, Asgard, I'm guessing.
• 1:19-1:22 - Action time! Thor faces off against some Frost Giants. Not the use of his hammer, Mjolnir, as a boomerang. Whether these section will be in flashbacks or not, is unknown, but I think it is.
• 1:25 - Hello big futuristic city! Asgard in all its glory.
• 1:29 - Thor kneels before Zod Odin (the legendary Anthony Hopkins), his father, and swears to protect the innocent.
• 1:32 - Frost Giant army. Looking chilly. And I do believe that's their King, Ymir, standing at the front.
• 1:34 - Close up of Mjolnir.
• 1:35 - Meet Loki, the movie's antagonist. He's the adopted brother of Thor and has all kinds of crazy-ass abilities. Here's hoping for an awesome showdown at the end of the film.
• 1:39 - Loki all suited up. By the sounds of it, he wants to destroy humanity with that staff he just picked up! 
• 1:42 - Is it a man? Is it a robot? Is it a god?
• 1:51 - No, it's... a suit of armour? Yeah, it's called Destroyer. Basically it's this thing controlled by the almighty leader of Asgard (Thor's daddio), Odin. But he's not actually in it, he just controls it. So either Odin is testing Thor, to see if he will protect the people, or Loki's somehow got hold of it and is attacking. Either way, looks like an awesome fight's in store, especially after it blows cars up.
• 1:56 - STOP!
• 1:57 - HAMMER TIME!
• 1:58-2:04 - Various explosions, battles and people running.
• 2:05 - Now this has been quite a topic of controversy. This is the Norse sentry, Heimdall, who stands on the rainbow bridge, Bifrost, and keeps Asgard safe from attack. But the problem is he's being played by a Black actor (I so wanted to just put Blacktor.) and this wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for this:  "Heimdall was said to be the 'brightest of the Gods' or the 'whitest of the Gods'". Now, I'm not bothered in the slightest of who plays him, but some hardcore mythologists are getting pretty pissed about the fact that all Norsemen were white and he's obviously not. I can see where they are coming from, but seriously, who cares? It's just a film and if he plays the role well then it's fine. And the irony is that it's the RAINBOW bridge he sits on. Something of many colours...
• 2:06 - That's the rainbow bridge i just mentioned, called Bifrost. Kind of trippy, right?
• 2:08-2:12  - Lots of hitting and fighting, including old timer Odin (Hopkins) getting in on some.
• 2:15 - King of the Frost Giants, Ymir, unleashes some crazy yeti dog for Thor to deal with.
• 2:27 - May 6th, 3D, Curtain.

So there you go, that's Thor. It does look pretty awesome, but out of the 3 Marvel movies coming this year, this is the one I'm least hyped for. Should still be good though. Well, hopefully that'll end my streak of Marvel movie trailers and I should be back next week with something different. Honest this time.

Oh, and sorry for the delay on the next RE:View. It'll be coming, by Friday at the latest. Still more doodles and quotes to come too, so stick around, you might just learn something.

Trailer Tuesday: X-Men: First Class

I know, I know, another Marvel movie... I was going to do something else, but this trailer just blew me away, so I just can't resist. I'll try and do something different next week... Promise.

Anyway, onto the trailer at hand, here's the Wikipedia Plot Summary:


"Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men." 

Click here for the actual link, especially if you want 1080p HD goodness.

And the rundown, including some of my own included facts and speculation:

•  0:00-0:30 - Some dramatically done character intros for Magneto and Prof X (or, should I say, Charles and Erik), featuring some tight snippets from the original X-Men trilogy. Plus, first shots of James McAvoy (Wanted) and Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as their respective characters.
• 0:44 -  Here's the whole mutant gang together in Charles' mansion, atop a JFK speech regarding the Cuba Missile Crisis of 1962. That's right, it's set in the 60's.
• 0:48 - Same scene as above, but what's interesting here is that Erik/Magneto is holding a gun in his right hand. ???
• 0:53-1:04 - Now here each individual mutant gets a shot, so I'll detail them each in chronological order, starting with:

1.  Emma Frost - a future villain who posses powers of Telepathy and the ability to shape shift into diamond form (see 1:19) - inside a glass box/prison cell.
2.  Next shown is the mutant known as Angel/Tempest, who has magnificent bug like wings on her back, as demonstrated as she shows Charles and Erik while...topless. Note the tattoos on her left shoulder, which resemble her wings, so maybe that's her way of concealing them. 
3. Then it's Beast, who you may remember form the original films as the big blue monster guy. Here he's in human form, as played by Nicholas Hoult (Skins,  About a Boy), and is holding a needle, presumably holding a serum linked to his powers of beastliness (see 1:12/1:17).
4.  After that, Havok is shown in some sort of boiler room. Havok is Cyclops' younger brother and like him can fire energy beams, but from his chest rather than eyes (see 1:21). 
5. Token black guy, Darwin here; a mutant who has the strange power of radioactive evolution, (hence Darwin) which means he adapts and develops an immunity/resistance to anything he was injured by or exposed to. Cool, right?
6. Now this is Moira MacTaggert, the only human one of the team. She acts as the group's link to the CIA...Interesting.
7. Finally, it's original films classic, Mystique (you know, the weird blue shape shifting lady...), looking like she's ready for some sexy-time.
8. Although not in this section, but seen in the mansion part is Banshee, a mutant who can emit super sonic screams (something I can also do from time to time).

• 1:09 - Okay, back to the footage now, and here is Erik and Charles on a jet plane over a certain ocean, readying for some sort of battle. Also seen here are the original yellow and blue outfits seen in the classic comics.
• 1:12 - Beast flying a jet in all of his over-sized furby glory.
• 1:13 - ...That's a lot of missiles...
• 1:16 - Aggressive looking Magneto making a Soviet soldier turn his own knife on himself. That's brutal, even if he was a communist....
• 1:17 - Ahh, the transformation of Beast. But the question is, who's the better blue? Avatar or Beast?
• 1:19 - First look at Kevin Bacon (no eggs included) as antagonist, Sebastian Shaw, leader of what's known as the Hellfire Club, a society for wealthy elites looking to "sway" certain world events. Alongside him is the previously mentioned Emma Frost, this time showing us her diamond form.
• 1:20 - Pre-fur Beast in action, followed by him possibly getting it on with Mystique. Ooh la la!
• 1:21 - A peek at Havok's chest beams power. Nice beans/beams.
• 1:22 - Magneto stabbing some guys hand in a bar. Standard UK pub stuff, really.
• 1:24 - An early version of the Cerebro machine, used by Professor X in the original movies to detect fellow Mutants.
• 1:25 - Remember Night Crawler, from X-Men 2 or X2? He was the blue guy who could teleport into smoke and had an awesome tail. Well here is his red-ass Daddio, looking Satan like as he uses similar powers to cut down some government looking guys. His name is Azazel, after an old Jewish demon thingy and is being played by Jason Flemyng (Lock Stock, Clash of The Titans). 
• 1:30 - Magneto in full costume standing in the same room Emma Frost was seen in earlier. Coincidence? I think not!
• 1:32 - The beginning of the fall into darkness... Charles tries to stop Erik from doing bad shit.
• 1:36-1:40 - Magneto picking up an entire submarine with one hand (only one!) over some sort of naval battle scene. Note the Russian flag flailing on one of the boats and the island in the background. Could this be how the Cuban Missile Crisis was really stopped?
• 1:42 - The iconic X-Men logo. June 3rd people, mark your calendars. 

Congratulations to anyone who managed to actually trawl through all that info and I hope you feel more knowledgeable for it. So that's X-Men: First Class, the official prequel to the original films. I love how it's actually set among real world events and how it will all play out in the cold war era. Definitely going to be an interesting one. I'd also like to point out that it's being directed by Matthew Vaughn, director of one of my favourite films ever, Kick-Ass. That's it for this week, but come back next Tuesday when I'll have a non-Marvel trailer to inform you all about.

Trailer Tuesday: Captain America

So here's the first trailer (well, more of a TV spot) for Captain America The First Avenger, aired during the Super Bowl last weekend. From the 30 seconds given, it looks pretty sweet.


"In 1942, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is deemed physically unfit to enlist in the U.S. Army and fight the Nazis in World War II. Volunteering instead for Project: Rebirth, a secret military operation, he is physically transformed into a super-soldier dubbed Captain America. With sidekick Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), he fights the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hitler's treacherous head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a seemingly magical object known as the Tesseract." - Wikipedia Plot Summary

 Here's the rundown of what's inside:

• 0:04-A rather thin looking Chris Evans as Steve Rodgers/Captain America (maybe a different actor for the 'thin' parts) getting strapped into a body enhancing machine.
• 0:08-Guys smashing through windows, obviously.
• 0:09-More 'thin' Evans, this time with a doctor, presumably telling him what's going to happen in this machine.
• 0:14-One for the ladies; beefy Evans emerges.
• 0:16/17-First glimpse of the Cap in action, shield and all. Plus some fancy ass-kicking acrobats.
• 0:19-Jet plane fly over (presumably transporting the Cap) and very short blink-and-you'll-miss-it clip of Captain America on his motorbike with shit blowing up around him-awesomeness-and then him running through forests with more explosions and shield swinging.
• 0:21-Steve Rodgers, in army gear, leading a team into battle including an Asian, who knew?
• 0:22-Underwater outfit-less Cap smashing some subs (not the sandwiches).
• 0:23-Cap surrounded by flamethrower dudes.
• 0:24-Another very quick shot, this time giving us our first look at Red Skull, looking... uh, red.
• 0:25-Love interest Peggy Carter(Hayley Atwell) proving just how indestructible the Cap's shield really is.  
• 0:29-Title and release date (22 July 2011) show along with 'Real-D 3D' logo.

Yeah, pretty cool. Definitely looks like the focus is on WW2 and the Cap kicking some Nazi bottom, which is always a good thing. Let's just hope the focus will remain more on character, like in Iron Man, and won't get too distracted with explosions and action. That's it for this Trailer Tuesday, and, if you stick around long enough, this might even become a weekly thing...