If you have seen or heard anything about the highly anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron, you might have thought, "Good hell, that movie has a lot going on." Here is a non-exhaustive list of things we knew were in the movie before we saw it: the creation of Ultron, the creation of the Vision, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, 100 villains (slight exaggeration), the early set up for Civil War, a romance, and a Hulk/Hulkbuster fight, plus the large regular Avengers crew. That’s a lot, and it’s a big challenge to work so many elements into a cohesive story, and writer-director Joss Whedon admitted as much at a press conference this weekend. Asked about the biggest challenge in creating the sequel, Whedon replied,

There’s like 47 of these people. I really didn’t think that through. I regret very much doing this at all. It’s just making sure that everyone’s got their moment, that everyone’s got their throughline, and that it’s connected to the movie. I have all these people. I love all these people; they’re extraordinary, but making sure that they’re not just all being served but they’re all within the same narrative structure, that they’re in the same movie, that it’s all connected to the main theme. 

So how did he even begin to approach the project?

With the smallest thing I could think of. The thing that drew me back to the movie was: what little moments are there between these characters that I haven’t gotten to do yet? What conversations have they not had? How can I... What haven’t I shown? It’s never the big picture stuff, it’s never, And we can have an army of robots! Although that’s cool too… It’s always just, where do they live? How can I get inside their hearts? What’s funny about them? Those are the moments I write just reams and reams of paper just thinking about the tiniest part. That’s really the heart of it. 

Did he rise to the challenge? We aren’t allowed to tell you yet, but this is what star Robert Downey Jr. said about reading the script.

I read Joss’s script, I said, I think this is great. Now, ask Kevin [Feige], didn’t I say that? I said that. I said, I think this is great. Kevin said, You never say that, you can’t mean that. I said, yeah, I think it’s great, let’s go shoot it. I really thought it was a Swiss watch to begin with, and Joss really created some great new situations for Tony to be in, and so, rather than digging my heels and try to rewrite every scene - to make them even better, if possible - I just, I showed up, and it turned out great.

“A Swiss watch to begin with” is pretty high praise. You decide for yourself when the movie opens on May 1st.

We've got a fun video for you to watch today in which we watch a man interact with and fight his own shadow. The live performance was completed with the help of a projection-mapping multimedia tool that combines cool animation with reality. It then escalates into a stunning fight sequence as he and another martial artist fight each other while interacting with the animated backdrop. The show took place in March of this year at the Hamdan International Photography Award in Dubai.

Via: Geeks Are Sexy

A new trailer for Terminator Genisys was released earlier today that changes everything I've expected about the movie, but I'm not sure if this is a good thing. It feels like the trailer just spoiled its own plot and I really hope that this is deliberate misdirection. If you haven't seen the trailer, stop, and go watch it now.

So John Conner travels back in time as some kind of terminator or cyborg. In either case, he's given up his humanity — mind blown, exceptions raised, so many new questions. There is a slight possibility it's an elaborate ruse by Skynet, but I think the filmmakers are going for something more horrifying. So the end of goal of the movie now looks to be how to save John from himself, time travel is trippy.

I've taken 83 screenshots and give a purely speculative analysis of what we see. I don't use all 83 in this post but I've conveniently put all of them in a single zip file for easy downloading.

Young John Conner fixing his bike. Guardian Terminator and Kyle Reese in the distance on the right. 

What looks to be John's foster parents in the background.

The youngest John we've seen on screen yet is shocked to see his mother. Maybe it's because she's younger than the last time he saw her.

Assault to gain access to the TDM (time dilation machine).

Kyle Reese going back in time.

T-1000 hiding in a mirror.

Weird T-800 smile, a.k.a. meme this Internet.

Genisys 01:11:19:34 — Anyone know what this means?

John?!?!

I wonder why they're at a hospital.

Sarah and Kyle don't look injured.

The Guardian is not fooled or detects that John is not human. Blasts a shotgun into John's chest.

A worried Sarah

Thats not normal blood

Introducing John-Bot-8000, also WTF?!!!

Look ma, no scars, because why pretend?

Loaded

Ready

FIGHT!

John-Bot-8000

John-Bot-8000 getting torn apart by an MRI machine which has very powerful magnets. Magnets might be how they stop John-Bot-8000.

The T-800 from the first Terminator going back in time.

A partial built TDM in present day or near future. John-Bot-8000 and the Guardian look to be having one final battle.

They keep improving this shot.

This CGI T-800 is really looking good.

One thing is clear, everything about Terminator is going to change. If it works — and I hope it does — they will have revitalized the franchise. But it if fails, they have not just shot themselves in the foot, they have likely killed the franchise for good.

Terminator Genisys jumps into theaters July 1st (USA).

A lot of Marvel fans spent this last weekend shut up in their homes watching Marvel's Netflix series Daredevil. If you've seen it, then you know that they delivered one hell of an amazing series, and I really hope that they give us a second season. They pulled off some stuff in this show that we'll never see in these films that Marvel is making with Disney. I guess we can thank Netflix for that! I loved how they brought the hero to life, and the villain Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin was perfect. He's seriously one of the best and most complex villains that I think has been introduced into the MCU. 

Earlier today we posted an article with a video that points out all of the Easter eggs and references in the series. We also posted a video showing you one of the most badass fight scenes from the series, along with some information on how it came to be. Now we have a couple new photos from the series showing off the costume, and some thoughts about the series from respected Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who praises the series saying:

"I have loved the character of Daredevil since I was a little boy. Outside of Batman, Daredevil probably has more great comic book arcs than any other character. From Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli to Kevin Smith to Ed Brubaker and on and on, the character has elicited some of the best work from some of the greatest comic book storytellers.

"So I was a bit frightened last night when I dug into the new Marvel’s Daredevil Netflix series. I’m a rough TV critic – I love five or so shows on the air right now, but that’s about it – and I didn’t want to see one of my favorite characters come up short. On top of that I really like Steven S. DeKnight, the showrunner, and Drew Goddard, the creator, both as people and as creative forces (Spartacus, Cloverfield, Cabin in the Woods, etc).

"Well, I love it. The cast is great. Charlie Cox is just awesome, and Elden Henson is about as an amazing a Foggy as I could have imagined. The fight sequences stand alongside Spartacus and Rome as some of the best TV fight sequences ever (so, the best TV fight sequences ever not performed in togas). And the scripts have been touching and on point and true to the character. In the first few episodes, I cried twice: once in a scene between young Matt and battling Jack, and again when I realized this character I loved so much for so long had been brought to television with such spirit, love, and care.

"What I’m saying is, there’s a huge Marvel event going on right now, and it’s Daredevil on Netflix I hope you guys check it out."

What did you all think of the series?

Like many of you, I was looking forward to seeing Captain Marvel make her appearance in the Marvel cinematic universe in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Carol Danvers was originally supposed to be included in the film, but was cut out during the development process. 

In case you're wondering why she was cut out, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige explains the reason that she's not included. Here's what he said about it in an interview with MTV:

We didn’t want to introduce her fully-formed flying in a costume before you got to know who she was and how she came to be.

He's then asked about the casting of Captain Marvel, and he says an actress has not been cast as previously rumored. They are in the "very early days" of casting, and as of right now they are more focused on finding writers to take on the script for the solo film. You never know, though, Feige might just be trying to cover his tracks. 

I'm excited to see what they do with Captain Marvel. There's a lot of potential with this character, and it will be awesome to see her finally introduced into the MCU. I'm really curious to see who they will end up casting in the role, but in the meantime, here's an article where we list eight actresses we think would make a good fit for the hero.

Captain Marvel will be released on November 2nd, 2018, so we have quite a long ways to go.

Director Bryan Singer has announced that Olivia Munn has been cast in the role of Betsy Braddock a.k.a. Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse. I'm not the biggest fan of Munn, but I guess she'll be fine in the role. For those of you not familiar with the character here's some information on her, thanks to Marvel:

"Psylocke can generate a telekinetic katana, or direct her telekinesis through her fists to strike as if she had superhuman strength; she is also immune to telepathic probes and attacks. Psylocke's original powers were precognition, telepathy, mental bolts, mind control, and generating illusions. After Roma resurrected her, Betsy was briefly invisible to all mechanical detection devices. She could generate a "psychic knife" to stun or kill opponents. The Crimson Dawn gave her the power to travel via shadows, and to become virtually invisible in same. After swapping powers with Jean Grey, Betsy could create force fields, move objects with her mind, and generate energy blades."

Hopefully Singer will let her badassery shine in the movie. Munn joins returning cast members James McAvoy as Professor Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, and Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Other newcomers include Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Lana Condor, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as young versions of Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Jubilee, and Nightcrawler, respectively. Then, of course, there's Ben Hardy as Archangel.

X-Men: Apocalypse will be released on May 27th, 2016.

After a confusing mix-up at an airport scanning machine in which four people had MacBook Pros, I've since personalized my laptop. Thanks to Kickstarter project Brik Case, you can now customize your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with LEGO bricks, Mega Bloks, PixelBlocks, KRE-O, or K'NEX bricks. For only $35 you can back this laptop case project that has already doubled its goal.

While Spider-Man fans have yet to see an adaptation of the Green Goblin that matches the design from the comics, a silicone mask by Composite Effects is sure to make fans applaud. If it weren't $600, I'd be buying this as my next Halloween costume. In the video you can see how convincing the mask is. With just a touch of makeup around the eyes, this would be a near seamless effect.

We've seen a ton of Marvel movie news today regarding Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and Daredevil. I thought I'd take a break from all of that Marvel insanity to bring you a little clip from Pitch Perfect 2! There's a decent sized audience out there that are fans of this franchise who are looking forward to this movie. I'll admit, I'm kind of excited for this sequel — it looks like a lot of fun.

The movie is being directed Elizabeth Banks, and Universal Pictures has released a clip from the film that features David Cross hosting an a cappella duel which lands on the category “90s Hip Hop Jamz.” That leads to a musical rendition of "This is How We Do It," followed by a similarly fun version of Lauryn Hill’s “That Thing”.

Pitch Perfect 2 hits theaters May 15th.

Games of Thrones returned to HBO last night and it was a great start to what is sure to be another incredibly insane season. In celebration of the return of the fantasy series, AWE me released a new episode of "Super Fan Builds" showing off the build of an Iron Throne crapper that they made for Game of Thrones fan John Giovanazzi. Even though it seems like it would be appropriate, I wouldn't recommend trying to flush the heads of your enemies down the toilet, as it would probably clog it. 

Rumors and hopes of a solo Hulk film have been floating since Mark Ruffalo's appearance as the Hulk in the first Avengers. Having been the lead character in two films (one in the Marvel cineverse), it seem odd that we've yet to see a new solo film. Collider interviewed Ruffalo while he was promoting the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron, and learned a possible reason why.

Ruffalo on Hulk solo films:

As far as a Hulk movie, a standalone Hulk movie, Marvel doesn’t really have the rights to that yet. That’s still Universal’s property, so there’s that issue. That’s a big impediment to moving forward with that. Now I don’t think that’s insurmountable, by the way, but I don’t know where it’s going from here for me.

Because Universal has distribution rights for a solo Hulk film, that puts the film in direct conflict with Disney, Marvel's parent company. But if an elaborate deal can be made with Sony around Spider-Man, it seems like co-distribution would not be impossible. With a solo film likely to make hundreds of millions, I think the biggest/real barrier is Marvel's slate of scheduled movies, which has two films in 2016, three in 2017, three in 2018, and at least two in 2019.

I'm a big believer in free speech and would not want to limit anyone's ability to express themself. But anyone punching and yelling at my house guests is a bully I will happily toss to the curb.

If you frequent our comments you might have noticed my benevolent dictatorship over my small corner of the internet. We don't allow comments that are racist or attack anyone's gender, orientation, or religious beliefs. We allow only specific kinds of foul language, so you can drop the f-bomb until your fingers bleed, but use a vulgar word for your genitals and your comment gets auto filtered into moderation.

The auto filters are far from perfect, and most are targeted to fight spam, but I do as much as I can, to do nothing and let the readers be self moderated via up and down voting.

Over the last couple months I have woken up to an inbox full of flagged comments, of which I approved nearly all. Most were innocuous and in disagreement with one single Disqus user: Throt the Unclean. He started several flame wars with many level-headed readers, forcing me to close comment threads earlier than they should have.

Flagging the comment of some who disagrees with you is pure cowardice. I'm strong enough in my opinions that if some hates a movie I love, I don't need to attack them personally. After weeks of flame wars, Throt the Unclean reveled himself to be a troll and true to his name.

I finally banned him this morning after he left some very clearly racist comments on the site. He's also the most annoying kind of racist/bigot — he's an unaware racist/bigot who tries to justify his ignorance by starting flame wars.

I need to apologize any reader who has been offended by this trolls comments, and in hindsight, I should have banned him sooner. Shortly after banning Throt a new user showed up named "GeekTyrantCensorsSpeech." I've since blocked both IP addresses.

I would happily defend this troll's right to free speech on the internet, but he's not going to shit on my guests' coats and expect to be invited back to my party.

Details are scant, but Warner Bros. just dropped the bombshell that Michelle Maclaren (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad) will no longer direct Wonder Woman.

The studio said in a statement:

“Given creative differences, Warner Bros. and Michelle MacLaren have decided not to move forward with plans to develop and direct Wonder Woman together.”

I cannot wait until the gossip about what happened here gets going. In the meantime, the studio will be looking to replace MacLaren to keep the film on track for its 2017 release date. They were previously adamant about hiring a female director. Who do you think they’ll look to next? (Don’t say Kathryn Bigelow.)

Source: EW

Just yesterday we learned from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige that the studio was currently on the hunt for writers take on their Captain Marvel project. Well, the hunt is over because they are going to hire two writers to develop the screenplay.

Guardians of the Galaxy writer Nicole Perlman and Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve are currently in negotiations with the studio. There’s still no director or actress attached to the film, but I’m sure those things aren’t too far behind.

Perlman is also set to write Guardians of the Galaxy 2 with James Gunn. Captain Marvel will be LeFauve's next project. Before she wrote Pixar's Inside Out, she wrote The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys, which was an entertaining indie film that I really enjoyed.

As far as I’m concerned ,Captain Marvel is great hands, and I’m sure this writing team will deliver a great script for the awesome character. The movie is set to be released on July 6th, 2018.

Source: Variety

For you geek girls out there looking for a fun outfit to wear to Avengers: Age of Ultron, I've found the perfect dress! As you can see, the dress is inspired by Captain America's latest costume, and it even includes the shield on the back. The dress comes from Think Geek, and it only costs $44.99. It's also the perfect dress to wear out to any geek conventions you attend. 

A new clip and four new TV spots have been released for Avengers: Age of Ultron, and they all include some cool new footage that you might want to see. The clip features a confrontation between The Avengers, Ultron, and the twins, which leads to a battle between Iron Man and Ultron.

We also have four new TV spots for you to watch. One of them features The Vision assembling with the superhero team, which is pretty damn cool. I can’t wait to see him fighting alongside them when the movie is released on May 1st! Another one spotlights Scarlet Witch. The others just contain various footage. You can also check out three other clips from the film that we posted yesterday here and here.

Hot Toys has revealed several of their Avengers: Age of Ultron action figures, and I've been waiting to see Paul Bettany's The Vision added to that collection. The toy company has now released a teaser image showing us a side of the character we haven't really seen before. The image shows him from behind hovering over Earth, and we get a detailed look at the cool design of his cloak. The full reveal of the collectible figure will be released soon, so stay tuned.

Is Vision the savior of the world from the terrifying Ultron? Is he the secret weapon of the Avengers? We will all find out when the epic Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron starts to hit theatres worldwide later this month.

Get ready for more Avengers: Age of Ultron collectibles with astonishing likeness and incredible details by Hot Toys coming soon!

We’ve recently learned that the next version of Peter Parker will be a 15 or 16 year old high school teenager, and thankfully, the studio is going to skip the origin story. In case you’re wondering how long Peter Parker/Spider-Man is going to be able to play around in the Marvel cinematic universe, you’ll be happy to know that he will be around with The Avengers for years to come. 

In an interview with Badass Digest, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige spoke about the deal they made with Sony Pictures, and how long Spider-Man will be in play. Feige explained,

"For as forward thinking as we always try to be, there’s only so far you can tend to think, and our plan is fairly solid for those four or five years. I’ve never considered it in the Rom Spaceknight vernacular, necessarily.

"So much of the anxiety at Marvel has been ‘Who do we have contracts with, who is still involved’? You want to plot out all these years of imagination based on amazing comics, but you need real people to make time in their lives to do, and to make career decisions to do it. That has been the hardest thing to manage… but for the first time, that’s all settled. It’s all settled through [2019]. It’s all set. And we’re able to focus now just on [telling stories].

"It’s everything we announced last October, and we’ve added your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to the mix… and it’s all set."

Who knows what will happen after the Avengers: Infinity War saga in 2019, though. Maybe they will have to renegotiate terms. Asked about what happens after that, Feige said,

"Here’s what I know: the movies will continue. With whom and how? I’m not even thinking about it now."

I ready do hope that Marvel will be allowed to play with Spider-Man as much as they want for as long as they want, but that has yet to be seen. I’ve also included an interview from IGN in which Feige talks a little bit more about Marvel’s take on Spider-Man and compares the reboot to Batman Begins.

This daddy and daughter cosplay team is spending some quality time together dressed up as big Groot and baby Groot from James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. These costume designs are pretty incredible. The detail on the normal Groot costume is impressive, and the baby Groot is just insanely adorable. The photo comes from brianfroud, Thanks to Fashionably Geek for the tip!

The classic 1983 National Lampoon’s Vacation is getting a new sequel, and today we have our first look at the Griswold family in a couple of photos from the film. Ed Helms leads the film as a grown up Rusty Griswald, who is going to take his own family on a road trip to Wally World just like his dad and mom did when he was a kid. As you might have guessed, their trip isn't going to go smoothly. It will be filled all kinds of comedic craziness.

As you can see in the photo above, Chevy Chase and Beverly D’ Angelo are reprising their roles in the film, which is something I am really looking forward to seeing. Then the photo below features the family at Wally World! It doesn't look like they had to hold anyone up to get in this time around. 

The next generation of Griswolds is at it again—and on the road for another ill-fated adventure. Following in his father’s footsteps and hoping for some much-needed family bonding, a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Helms) surprises his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate), and their two sons with a cross-country trip back to America’s “favorite family fun park,” Walley World.

Vacation was written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. They are the writers of Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, and they are making their directorial debut. Warner Bros. plans on releasing the comedy on July 31st.

Source: USA Today