Here's All The News Announced At The 2017 Warner Bros. Comic-Con Panel

Warner Bros. is back at Comic-Con this year and come 1 PM Central time, I'll be live-blogging their Comic-Con panel. No, I'm not cool enough to actually attend the panel but I'll be keeping tabs on all the big announcements and reveals that go down and post them here for you to enjoy. Plus, WB has been, starting with the first Mad Max: Fury Road trailer three years ago, putting their Comic-Con trailers online too, so expect a bunch of new trailers today, particularly the first trailer for Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One and the new Justice League trailer. Maybe we'll even get some footage from Aquaman's movie, who knows...

Before we get to all the Comic-Con craziness, WB held a panel for The LEGO Ninjago Movie yesterday and premiered a new trailer for that film. It actually looks better than the last film and the way they pay homage to classic Kaiju movies with a live-action "monster" is clever. Check the trailer out below!

OK, the panel began with Chris Hardwick doing the moderating (shocker, I know), and the first thing WB stepped up to the plate with was....

READY PLAYER ONE

Spielberg is here at Comic Con to tout READY PLAYER ONE #comicon2017 pic.twitter.com/b8yYo724PA

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) July 22, 2017

Steven Spielberg returns to his summer blockbuster roots for the first time (discounting Indiana Jones 4) since War Of The Worlds and Spielberg himself showed up to promote this new science-fiction feature! Before the trailer even started, Hall H (the location where this panel took place) had massive screens popping up showing off all kinds of pieces of 1980's pop culture. Looks like they're totally going all in on the 1980's pop culture references that the book it's based on was apparently drowning in. The cast of the film also showed up once they got done showing off an extended trailer for the movie, which, in true WB Comic-Con fashion, the studio has released and you can watch below!

This looks neat! I wish some of it was brighter so I could see all of the video game coolness better but this feels total go-for-broke fun and I love that in one trailer Spielberg's action sequences have so much personality in life to them. Really good teaser too in terms of clearly establishing the world of the protagonist and what he does for escapism while also leaving plenty for us to discover. Not sure about calling the source material a "holy grail of pop culture" (I haven't read the book for the record) but if anyone's earned the right to be called a cinematic game-changer, it's Spielberg!

Next up is...
BLADE RUNNER 2049

We already got a new trailer for this earlier in the week (I'll embed it below since I haven't linked to it anywhere), so no new publically released footage here, but lots of new plot details showed up and plenty of footage was shown to attendees of the panel. Here's that new trailer that went up earlier in the week, it's a truly spectacular trailer!

After Blade Runner, it was time for...

THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE

After three movies that got receptions ranging from mixed to vehemently negative, the DCEU finally got itself a critical and financial smash hit with Wonder Woman, a movie that's well on its way being a bigger domestic grosser than all but two of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Today, gave us a peek at the future of their cinematic universe. To wit, they confirmed the following movies are happening in the DCEU:

Shazam!
Suicide Squad 2
The Batman
Justice League Dark
The Flash: Flashpoint
Flashpoint
Wonder Woman 2
Green Lantern Corps.
Batgirl

Loooots of movies on that slate, no release dates for any of 'em as of yet. I guess Flashpoint is what that solo Flash movie has become. Interesting that Gotham City Sirens (which has a director, writer and lead actor) and a new solo Superman movie (which has a script and was in talks with Matthew Vaughn to direct) are nowhere to be found on that slate as far as I know. Anywho, after that opening salvo showing off the future of the DCEU, they showed off some brief footage from Aquaman and then had the Justice League cast (sans Henry Cavill) come out to chat it up before showing off a new trailer that you can watch below.


I like some of what I see here and also remain apprehensive about what's to come. Smart move heavily emphasizing Wonder Woman and her mythology (looks like her home island is the one that inadvertently brings Steppenwolf to Earth) into the trailer given how popular her movie is, more Wonder Woman can't be a bad thing! Cute Batman Returns reference, Jeremy Irons looks fun and more color showing up here is also good to see, particualrly in the big superhero vs. Parademon showdowns which now take place against a red sky instead of the nighttime backgrounds of the initial teaser that made scuffles visually incoherent.

Some of the stuff still isn't quite gelling for me, namely in how they keep telling the audience how Superman stood as a beacon of hope without offering the slightest bit of evidence to that in the last two movies. Classic case of "telling instead of showing" there. Steppenwolf I'm worried about too, not only have they gone and altered actor Ciaran Hinds voice digitally for the role (I've always said you should always keep the voice of actors doing motion-capture roles so the audience has something clearly human to relate to instead of adding more digital trickery to the proceedings) but the brief glimpses we get of him in the trailer make him look indistinguishable from the likes of Ares and Ronan The Accuser. Some clunky looking sets, over-use of slow-motion and a bungled final trailer tag teasing the return of Superman (Though good luck on general audiences knowing that's him) and I must say this trailer is very much a mixed bag for me, though it's a notable improvement on that dumpster fire of a teaser we got a few months back. If nothing else, Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa look like a lot of fun as The Flash and Aquaman respectively.

Alright folks, that's it for WB at Comic-Con this year! Tune in tonight when I live-blog the Marvel Studios panel!

The Matrix Is Getting A Reboot Because Screw Original Filmmaking

Late last night, word broke out that Warner Bros. was looking to put together a room of writers to concoct ideas on how to continue the Matrix franchise with Michael B. Jordan reportedly eyeballed for whatever lead role the project eventually creates. There is no word yet on if The Wachowski Starship will be involved but I doubt it. I wouldn't be shocked if Keanu Reeves or Laurence Fishburne showed up though for the sake of fan-service though. This endeavor is in super early stages but it's basically happening, especially given how franchise-hungry Warner Bros. is right now.

Storks Gives Birth To Some Funny Gags And A Slipshod Story

Do people still tell their kids the tale of babies coming from storks instead of the more sexually explicit truth? Me not being a father myself (as far as I'm aware), I have no clue if that's still a thing, but maybe it's being kept alive solely by the surprisingly notable presence the tale has in the world of American animation. Let's not forget that it was a stork calling for "Mrs. JUUUUUMMMMBBBOO!!" that brought Dumbo into the world in that 1941 Disney film, while PIXAR had a short film entitled Partly Cloudy that went attached to every screening of the 2009 motion picture Up. And now, the second feature film from Warner Animation Group (the animation studio responsible for The LEGO Movie), Storks, centers its entire plot on the idea of storks bringing humans their offspring.

The First Trailer For Wonder Woman Is Online (Plus, Other News And Trailers From Warner Bros. 2016 Comic-Con Panel!)

The amount of movie themed panels may have diminished at this year's Comic-Con compared to years past, but today brings two major panels in the esteemed location of Hall H that will surely rock the geek world. Those panels in question are the Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios panels, with both planning to divulge information about their upcoming movies. WB is going up first, with trailers for upcoming movies King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, Kong: Skull Island and Wonder Woman planning to debut at the convention and will be appearing online shortly afterwards directly from the Warner Bros. YouTube page!

I'll be updating this post as news begins to pour in. The panel starts at 1:30 PM central time, so stick around and refresh this page for updates!

OK, so, panel moderator Conan O'Brien (whose talk show, Conan, is aired on TBS, a Cable TV station owned by Time Warner which also owns Warner Bros. Synergy in action folks!) kicked off the panel with an extended look at...

THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE 

The DC films got a big push today, as the directors of the next three films in the DC Extended Universe (David Ayer for Suicide Squad, Patty Jenkins for Wonder Woman, Zack Snyder for Justice League, Rick Fumuyiwa for The Flash and James Wan for Aquaman) came out to chat about their individual projects with the swarm of people in Hall H. Speaking of directors, after months of speculation, Ben Affleck was officially confirmed to be directing and starring in a solo Batman movie and the film was confirmed to be released in between The Flash and Aquaman movies.

And then, we got our first trailer for....

WONDER WOMAN

After years of development, Wonder Woman's first live-action movie is hitting the big screen next year and director Patty Jenkins, Gal Godot, Chris Pine and Connie Nielsen showed up to talk about the movie and introduced attendees at Warner Bros. panel to the world premiere of the first footage from the motion picture! Luckily, the studio was kind enough to upload the trailer for Wonder Woman onto the interwebs so you can watch it below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lGoQhFb4NM

So, aside from the blue color grading in the battle scenes (an odd choice that I wonder if will make sense in the movie itself), wowza, what a trailer! There's humor and color in it! And the action is coherent! And Wonder Woman looks as confident and awesome as can be! Honestly, the entire last minute of this trailer had me just fist-pumping constantly, it looks that awesome! To say the least, Wonder Woman looks like it has some serious potential!

Then, it was time for...

JUSTICE LEAGUE

This awesome promo image (seen above) of Justice Leauge got released that not only shows the full team assembled, but shows them in (GASP!) sunlight!! The visual language of this shot indicates a tone of hopefulness! What madness is this??

Ya know what else got released? Some Justice League footage. Yeah, you read that right. Check it out. It actually looks pretty good to me, the guy who considers Batman v. Superman one of the worst movies of the year. Jason Mamoa as Aquaman is particularly a highlight of this trailer and Ezra Miller already looks like he could be lots of fun, even if his costume seems a little too visually reminiscent of Iron Man for my taste.

#FlewAllNight #NeverMissHallH #JusticeLeaguehttps://t.co/PH2loOdHOY

— ZackSnyder (@ZackSnyder) July 23, 2016

David Ayer and the cast of Suicide Squad then came out to talk about their forthcoming movie, which entailed KING a Hall H exclusive trailer that you can watch below!

Thank Squad. The wait is almost over. #SuicideSquad #WBSDCC #SDCC https://t.co/S28CCS5duehttps://t.co/c3s429nFB8

— Suicide Squad (@SuicideSquadWB) July 23, 2016

Not as big of a fan of the second song in this trailer and the more melancholy opening doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the trailer, but I like a bunch of the visuals here and it's so good to see Will Smith back at being the charming cocky guy we all knew and loved back in the day after his performances in movies like After Earth. And woah, did Jai Courtney just make me laugh his fire joke? Also cute how the "Thank Squad" title cards at the end got all meta about how long the marketing campaign for this one's been running.

After that, it was time to move on to a different side of DC Comics movies, The LEGO Batman Movie! Direct Chris McKay and Will Arnett were on hand to show off footage from the movie and (you guessed it!) an all-new trailer!

And then it was time for something not DC Comics related...
KONG: SKULL ISLAND

You want a Kong: Skull Island trailer? Here ya go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5hbs4LOI8

Very much a teaser trailer, but it's an eye-catching one no doubt. John Goodman monologues about humans insignifcant place in the world as some gorgeous shots build up to a kind of reveal of King Kong himself, or at least his head. I'm very curious to see more from this one, since it seems like they're smartly embracing it as a full-on "war movie" and that could lead to some interesting story possibilities. Oh, and the cast for this one is insanely stacked too.

And now for another non-DC Comics tentpole...

KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY

The fast-paced editing of Arthur telling his tale at the start of this trailer is very much classic Guy Ritchie, but the rest of this trailer looks like Peak Generic Fantasy Movie: The Movie. Washed out grey colors abound as does generic action that the trailer doesn't give much context or depth to. Hopefully the movie itself is far better than this generic trailer and that Jude Law as the bad guy of the piece finds plenty of time to chew up the scenery.

Not sure why Warner Bros. is releasing the trailer for this one today considering all the attention the Kong, Wonder Woman and Justice League trailers are gonna get. Looks like this will be the second year in a row where Warner Bros. debuts a trailer for a new Guy Ritchie movie (last year it was The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) at Comic-Con that gets drowned out by the DC movie that also debut trailers at the event.

After King Arthur, it was time for more fantasy as the director and cast of...

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
As everyone came out to talk about their movie, a surprise was revealed that the panel would be giving away wands to everyone attending the panel! How cool! And then, wouldn't ya know it, they also had a new trailer to show off!

OK, that's the Warner Bros. panel for 2016! I'll be back tonight to cover the Marvel panel!

Badlands Proves Terrence Malick Making Inferior Movies Is Nothing New

The 1950's are widely seen as the era where the archetype of American teenager came into its own. And with that archetype came various stereotypes of teenagers that would emerge in media depictions of this age group, namely that of the "bad boy/good girl" dichotomy. Badlands stems from one single idea that is inspired by a true story, which seems to be to take that specific "bad boy/good girl" idea and take it to its most graphic extreme as a way to contrast with the seemingly idyllic vision many carry about the 1950's. White picket fences and automobiles from this era are set against a backdrop of violence and deceit.

Director Of Shark Tale Will Direct New Feature Film Adaptation Of Dungeons & Dragons

Do you know who Rob Letterman is? Well, if you're familiar with films like Gulliver's Travels, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Goosebumps and Academy Award nominated feature Shark Tale, you know his work all too well. His most recent feature, Goosebumps, was a solid effort, but his DreamWorks Animation efforts were as generic as imaginable while Gulliver's Travels was...the film that cost Emily Blunt the chance to play Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Watchmen Review (Classic Write-Up)

Perhaps the greatest testament to how much of a pop culture phenomenon 300 was upon its initial 2007 release was that director Zack Snyder somehow got Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to pony up $130 million for him to film an R-rated adaptation of one of the most beloved graphic novels of all time, Watchmen. This adaptation would have no A-list stars, tons of blue penis, graphic violence and would contain numerous monologues centered on weighty themes and concepts. Total crowd-pleaser right?

First Trailer For Our Brand Is Crisis Has Sandra Bullock Facing A....Well, Crisis, I Guess

After a dynamite 2013, a year where she headlining two $150+ million grossing movies and got another Oscar nomination for her leading turn in Gravity, Sandra Bullock has remained off the radar, sans providing the voice of Scarlet Overkill in Minions. Well folks, the star of one of the worst Best Picture nominees of all-time (yes, I'm talking about The Blind Side) has returned, this time starring in the motion picture Our Brand Is Crisis, which just released a trailer that you can watch below.

Scooby-Doo Is Returning To The Big Screen In 2018

The two live-action Scooby-Doo films always confused me as a kid for a number of reasons; for one thing, as a young animation and Hanna-Barbara buff, I was always curious why Frank Welker couldn't come back to voice the titular pooch. Not the new guy did notably bad work as the hungry canine, but would it be too much to ask to get a talented guy like Welker to come aboard the project? Other notable queries that I wondered when watching the movies included why the movies went for actual scares instead of just goofiness and who on Earth was this wooden guy playing Fred.

Vacation Review

Oh lordy was the opening sequence of Vacation dire. It was the sort of comedic misfire that filled my stomach with the sort of dread that kids feel when they've been sent to the principals office. The purpose of this opening was to introduce the personality of Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) in the confines of his airplane pilot job. While talking to a couple and their kid, some unexpected turbulence sends Rustys hands....straight onto the mothers breasts! Oh Rusty! You unintentional scamp! It was such a hokey sequence executed with negative amounts of flair that it left me wallowing in despair that the rest of the movie would be at this level of ineptitude.

Here's All The News Announced At The 2015 Warner Bros./DC Comic-Con Panel

There's so much going on at Comic-Con today film-wise, that it's just boggling my mind. The Hateful Eight, Legendary Pictures and 20th Century Fox all have showcases today, but before all those get underway, Warner Bros. is going up first to Hall H to talk about The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Pan and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I'd suspect that the panel will also have some Suicide Squad footage, as well as some new pieces of info regarding future DC Comics motion pictures.

Pan Will Fly Off To Neverland In October

Looking over the 2015 release schedule, I was surprised to see Warner Bros. had nothing planned for October 2015. Considering they release more movies in any given year than any other studio, it was surprising they didn't have anything up their sleeves for October. That's changed today, as their reinvention of Peter Pan will arrive now on October 9, 2015.

The Official Batman v. Superman Trailer Is Here To Ask...Do You Bleed?

The trailer for Batman v. Superman leaked last night, and for some reason, major publications like The AV Club and Variety decided to run this bootleg version of the trailer instead of waiting for Warner Bros. to release something official. The studio has done just that now, with a teaser trailer (emphasis on teaser) for the 2016 film that you can watch below.

Two Of Quest For Camelots Songs Managed To Ape Disney While Creating Something Unique

Welcome to a new bi-weekly column called When Good Songs Happen To Bad Movies, in which I look at pretty well done songs that just so happened to debut in more subpar features.

Animation, like many other aspects of Hollywood that spawn success, seems to be a fertile ground for imitation, as seen by the surplus of fairy tale skewing animated features that were released in the wake of Shrek's phenomenal success or the insane amount of CGI animated films released in 2006 thanks to the success of Finding Nemo three years earlier. The 90's followed this sort of trend to a tee, with The Lion King's humongous box office managing to get every movie studio to create their own animation company to churn out would-be animation blockbusters.

Come On And Grab Your Friends...And Go See The Adventure Time Movie!

I've always thought Adventure Time would make a damn fine, with my dream scenario being that Guillermo Del Toro would handle a ballsy live-action version of the program. The next thing has just been announced though, as Deadline reports an animated feature film based on Adventure Time is in development.

Suicide Squad Casts Margot Robbie As Harley Quinn, Maybe Jared Leto As The Joker

The first DC Comics feature after Batman V. Superman will be Suicide Squad, which will be released on August 5, 2016. The film involves a group of supervillains who are recruited by the government to go on dangerous missions. It's the project I'm most excited for out of DC's forthcoming movies (even if I wasn't crazy about the last film, Fury, from the director of Suicide Squad, David Ayer), and now it looks like the cast is taking shape.

Dracula, Ben Affleck And Robert Downey Jr. Compete For Victory (Box Office Predictions)

Tons of new releases this week, four to be precise, and even some new stuff in the world of limited releases. Let's not waste any time and dive right into this weeks edition of Box Office Predictions!

Ben Affleck And An Evil Doll Compete For Your Money (Box Office Predictions)

A busy, busy, busy weekend at the box office this weekend, with three new wide releases and a limited release shaking things up. Shall we start with the newest film from David Fincher? I think yes!

The Crazy, Crazy, Crazy Trailer For Inherent Vice Is Here

I've only seen two films of Paul Thomas Anderson (I know, I know, I'm simply awful), The Master and Punch-Drunk Love. The Master I found to be a film I admired very much, especially the outstanding performances in it, but it kind of just left me cold overall. Punch-Drunk Love was actually pretty great, though I did feel it occasionally lacked focus. But man have I been anticipating his next movie, Inherent Vice, which just unleashed it's first trailer, which you can watch below.

Editorial: Warner Bros. And Disney Are Engaged In A Cinematic Civil War

 Recently, movie studios have made a release date for an upcoming movie far more than just a typical date. Oh no, it's as essential as any other part of the film, with studios grabbing release dates far, far in advance in order to give their film the best possible advantage financially. Studios have always been eager to pick the best release dates possible, but recently, two studios have been using it as a way to compete with each other on a massive scale.