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.

The Monday Supdate: 25/07/11

Woah, a Supdate! Haven't seen one of those in a while! And on a Monday! By heck this is a rare occasion!
Well, actually, it's not. The Supdates are coming back, and at a weekly basis like before. Thanks to the Summer, I've got a lot of free time, so there's no excuse for any mishaps. They may not all be on Sunday (I'll try though!), like today, but they'll be Supdates none the less.

    So, for the return of the Supdate, I'd like to start off by thanking everyone for the 4000 hits I've now got. These past couple months haven't been as strong as the mighty 1077 hits-April that we had, but it's gaining more momentum now and should be back on track for something special. And look, just another 939 until 5000!

 
This weekend just passed was of course the San Diego Comic-Con, and a lot of stuff went down. The thing that got me the most though was this awesome concept art for The Avengers movie, coming out 4th May 2012. The movie features Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and more in a big Marvel Super Hero team-up to end all Super Hero movies. And the best bit for me is the fact that it's being helmed by the superb Joss Whedon, creator of DMb favourite, Firefly, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, not to metion his deep history in comic writing. His knowledge of the heroes combined with his expertise in big ensemble casts full of strong characters makes me have no doubt that this film will rock. Here's the poster:

Click to enlarge and properly appreciate it

  Along with that, the Con also saw the release of a slew of new trailers for Film and TV, which you can expect to see on Tuesday. While we're on the subject of Films and Comics, Captain America: The First Avenger hits cinemas this week for us Brits and I for one am seriously excited about it. Expect me there opening day and perhaps a RE:View afterward.

   So I also did a presentation in English class this week about the Blog and Blogging in general, in a pretty shameless plugging attempt for 3 minutes. Meaning we may see a rise in viewers soon, or a loss depending on how it went. Fingers crossed?

While preparing the presentation, I delved quite deep into my future plans and where abouts it might be going. In fact, I've got several bits and pieces planned for over the Summer which could see a rise into a new medium and networking. YouTube, anyone? And I've been searching the net for some semi-famous candidates for an Interview section. Heck I've even got this global idea that could find its feet over the next few weeks! But I fear I have said too much, and in fear of eating my words, I'll give this a rest. For now...

Until next time readers.

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?

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...