Lights Out Has Some Bright Ideas When It Comes To Its Scares And Themes

I've been afraid of the dark my whole life and I doubt I'm alone in that feeling. A darkened room is full of uncertainty, an element human beings in general don't handle very well. What could be lurking around in the dark void? Imagining what kind of horrifying creations could be existing out there in the murky abyss that we can't see has consumed the imaginations of people for generations. And, Lights Out proposes that a monster may be out there in the darkness, one that will destroy any given person provided that the lights off.

MY GOD! It's Jason Bourne! He's Just Taken Over The Box Office! And Bad Moms Did Great Business Too!

After nine years off the grid, Jason Bourne returned to movie theaters with great results, grossing $60.2 million in its opening weekend. That's about 12% below the opening weekend of The Bourne Ultimatum, but above the bows of all four of the other Bourne films. It's also the second-biggest opening weekend ever for Matt Damon and third biggest live-action opening weekend for a movie thus summer just behind Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse.

Jason Bourne Lacks Thrills Or A Purpose

I am more than aware that Matt Damon has made more money in his career than I could ever dream of. The guy's rich and even a hefty multi-million dollar paycheck likely would only be a drop in the bucket for him. That having been said, his participation in Jason Bourne feels like the ultimate "paycheck" role, since there's really nothing in the script that I could imagine garnering his interest. But tt least Mr. Damon got a hefty check out of this project that he could put to use buying up another zoo. All I got out of watching Jason Bourne was intense boredom.

For A Movie Centered On Dares, Nerve Is Shockingly By-The-Numbers

Directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sure do love to contemplate the way technology informs the identity of modern day teenagers. Just as Akira Kurosawa frequently utilizes samurai in his tales or how Kathryn Bigelow examines the complex nature of modern-day warfare, Schulman and Joost seem to have a fixation on the way teens love their iPhone and internet judging by their past work like the 2010 documentary Catfish (which I haven't seen as of this writing) or the teaser trailer for their feature film Paranormal Activity 4, which centered on creepy things happening during a teenage girl's Skype call.

It's Matt Damon v. Monster: Dawn Of Great Wall Of China In The First Trailer For Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall

There's been a dearth of original blockbuster fare this summer, with multiplexes being jam packed with so many sequels to the point that original indie fare that could have worked as counter-programming (like Swiss Army Man or The Lobster) struggled to get a notable amount of screens to play on. For those looking for some originality, prepare yourselves for The Great Wall, a Chinese-American movie from Zhang Yimou that's...well, watch the trailer and see for yourself.

Raising Arizona Was An Early Hilarious Coen Brothers Effort

Sometimes, diving into the early parts of a well-known filmmakers catalog reveals movies far different from later efforts. Perhaps themes explored in a director's early work contrast with ideas presented in said director's newer pieces of cinema. For the Coen Brothers, Raising Arizona (their second feature film effort ever) certainly fits snuggly into their body of work. Oh sure, the duo would certainly go on to investigate heftier themes and concepts in far darker modern-day classics like No Country For Old Men and A Serious Man.

The Very Fabric Of One's Identity Is Pondered Within The Truman Show

Like fellow late 20th century movie star Mel Gibson, Jim Carrey is basically a no-show in the modern day world of pop culture. For a while there, Carrey was unstoppable at the box office and even at the dawn of a new millennium, he managed to crank out hits like How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Bruce Almighty that dwarfed the work of any other comedic actor on the scene financially. And then...it just stopped. I'd personally chalk that up to his public support of the anti-vaxxer movement, which made headlines in 2008 and cast a dark shadow over any future attempts (like his 2008 movie Yes Man) to mine that everyman personality that was at the center of many of his biggest 1990's hits. There was an element naivete to those characters that could be cute and charming at times, whereas his real life naivete was dangerous and ignorant.

Marvel Studios Brought A New Doctor Strange Trailer, Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 Footage And Captain Marvel Casting To Comic-Con!

Well now, this past Saturday certainly was a fun one for geeks everywhere, huh?

Ranking This Year's Comic-Con Trailers

1. Doctor Strange: Yeah, I'm gonna go with this one as the best (narrowly). The trippy visuals seems like something we haven't seen too much in American cinema as a whole, let alone in a major superhero blockbuster. Plus, Benedict Cumberbatch does look pretty damn awesome in the titular role, not gonna lie. And Mads Mikkelsen as a bad guy? Oh my God, this whole trailer was just two and a half minutes of me thinking "This is real and it looks so beautiful."

2. Wonder Woman: Speaking of things that are finally real and look amazing, how about that Wonder Woman trailer? There was far more color, interesting visual language and personality in this trailer than Man Of Steel and Batman v. Superman combined and Gal Godot looks like she's a perfect choice to play the part of Wonder Woman. The action looks quite great and World War One is a unique environment to set the film in. Really excited for this one, totally has the potential to be something special.

3. The LEGO Batman Movie: This movie looks like so much fun and boy howdy is it nice to have a more light-hearted Batman after a decade plus of various dark and brooding versions of the character. Despite being a kids movie that's also a ninety minute long commercial for LEGO's, it's also got a legitimately interesting thematic conceit for Batman; can he be an effective father-figure to Robin despite his own parental related hang-ups? Really excited for this one and Michael Cera looks to be the Robin of our dreams.

4. Kong: Skull Island: This may have been the biggest surprise of Comic-Con, mainly because nobody really knew what to expect from this new take on King Kong. Turns out, the idea behind this project is to take a 1970's war movie and toss in more fantastical creatures into the mix. Sounds good to me and the trailer made sure to highlight an ominous tones, an all-star cast and a ton of lovely looking visuals. Very interesting stuff and one I'm curious to see more of in the future.

5. Justice League: A whopping 16 months prior to its release, Justice League showed off some footage that emphasized a lighter tone compared to the last two Zack Snyder superhero movies. The more comedic beats were pretty fun, especially Barry Allen and Bruce Wayne bouncing off each other in a moment that delivered both laughs AND character information! Unfortunately, The Flash and Cyborg have some really clunky looking costumes and it's hard to really get excited for this one considering Zack Snyder's absolutely dismal track record with Man Of Steel and especially Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice.

6. King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword: I honestly forgot all about this one until I started writing up this piece. It's a generic looking fantasy movie to a tee, aside from some fast-paced editing at the start that does seem like vintage Guy Ritchie. While the best trailers released at this year's Comic-Con emphasized uniqueness and boldness, the trailer for this new King Arthur adaptation just seemed too derivative of past fantasy adventures to stand out.

Star Trek Beyond Has Decent Launch While Lights Out Surprises And The Ice Age Franchise Goes Extinct

This weekend saw the thirteenth Star Trek movie in 37 years, Star Trek Beyond, debut, an occasion that coincided with the overall 50th anniversary of the franchise. To wit, Star Trek Beyond launched with $59.6 million, a bow well below its two most recent predecessors (and that's not even taking inflation into account) but still a solid start given the more divisive reputation of the last Star Trek movie as well as the more skeptical responses early marketing materials (like the teaser trailer that I personally had no problem with but many took as nothing short of sacrilege).

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!

Krall, The Villain Of Star Trek Beyond, Is A Terrifyingly Timely Creation

STAR TREK BEYOND SPOILERS AHOY!

We all know what fear is. Nary a day can go by where the sensation doesn't penetrate our entire bodies. It's not a new feeling of course, but it's easy to see why many would feel particularly terrified in the wake of recent events. In the past month, the largest single massacre in American history occurred at a Florida nightclub, multiple police officers were killed in Dallas, Texas, a disturbing amount of incidents involving police officers killed unarmed African-Americans have occurred, a man drove through Black Lives Matter protesters, countless more individuals were slaughtered on Bastille Day in France. How could one not be gripped by feelings of fear at such events occurring?

The Purge: Election Year Is A Majorly Forgettable Piece Of Action/Horror Satire

The first Purge movie back in 2013 was a blah movie that was heavy on trite storytelling and low on genuine scares while 2014's The Purge: Anarchy, was a so-so voyage into a Purge night that expanded the narrative scope from its predecessor with some lackluster characters and one or two truly inventive sequences. I wish The Purge: Election Year managed to even hit the moderate hits of that previous entry in this series, when it is instead a major step down in form that's surprisingly low on memorable action or scares.

Set Phasers To Awesomeness For Star Trek Beyond

Each of the Star Trek movies that have emerged since 2009 seem to have taken direct inspiration from different noteworthy motion picture. That first feature in this rebooted franchise was very much inspired by the success of then recent reboots like Batman Begins and Casino Royale while Star Trek Into Darkness was an obvious attempt to mimic how most second films in major blockbuster franchises (think The Empire Strikes Back) are the "darker" story. Now Star Trek Beyond arrives very much as a post-Guardians Of The Galaxy Star Trek adventure. Colorful looking aliens have a greater presence than they did in the last two Star Trek movies, tunes from the 80's surface at critical moments, there's a greater emphasis on the dynamic of the main group of characters and new character Jayllah (Sofia Boutella) and her trait of not quite understanding certain aspects of the English language bear a notable similarity to Drax The Destroyer.

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.

Everybody Wants Some!! Is A Joyride Through The 80's Steered By Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater is absolutely in the zone with Everybody Wants Some!!, his newest directorial effort that has him setting his sights on the culture of the 1980's in the same way he thoroughly examined the 1970's in his landmark motion picture Dazed & Confused. And just like that 1993 film, human beings bouncing off each other in an academic environment is the name of the game, though in Everybody Wants Some!! the environment has shifted from the high school domicile of Dazed & Confused to college, specifically the weekend before one freshman's first college classes (and by default, a new chapter of his life) begins.

Four Helpful Tips For That Han Solo Movie

With Alden Ehrenreich confirmed this weekend at Star Wars Celebration to be playing the role of Han Solo in Phil Lord and Chris Millers spin-off Han Solo motion picture, one big piece of the massive puzzle that is this Han Solo movie has fallen into place. Plenty of names in the cast will be announced prior to the movies January 2017 start date (can we get Nate Parker or Michael B. Jordan as Lando Calrissian please?) as will big filming locations, but for now, the movie is shrouded in secrecy. But because this is the internet, an aimless land filled with speculation and Star Wars related content, I've decided to compile four helpful tips that writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller should keep in mind as they make the Han Solo movie. I'm sure this extremely accomplished writer/director duo that has experienced endless success in the past decade would love to hear advice on filmmaking from a nerdy 20-year-old Texan.

Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates Review

Sex-based humor can be funny. Swear words can be funny. Plenty of films have made both of those elements hilarious. But context, timing and grounding such things in engaging characters are just a few of the crucial elements that can differentiate a "funny" joke from a painfully unfunny one. For Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates, there's surprisingly little to be found in the gross-out gags beyond just the gross-out content. This is the sort of movie that thinks the very sight of a vagina is inherently uproarious stuff, just to give you more context into what kind of humor this movie traffics in.

Swiss Army Man Review

In case you haven't heard, Swiss Army Man is quite a strange movie. If the goal of directing duo Daniels (which consists of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) was to ensure that their first feature-length directorial effort had a premise was so singularly odd it was practically guaranteed to slot them some form of fame, it wouldn't be a shocking development. Thankfully, the two individuals are not just here to show off brazen weirdness for weirdness sake (though Lord knows there's plenty of that to be found in Swiss Army Man), instead managing to show off a real sense of identity in their initial foray into the world of longer-form storytelling.

Swiss Army Man Review

In case you haven't heard, Swiss Army Man is quite a strange movie. If the goal of directing duo Daniels (which consists of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) was to ensure that their first feature-length directorial effort had a premise was so singularly odd it was practically guaranteed to slot them some form of fame, it wouldn't be a shocking development. Thankfully, the two individuals are not just here to show off brazen weirdness for weirdness sake (though Lord knows there's plenty of that to be found in Swiss Army Man), instead managing to show off a real sense of identity in their initial foray into the world of longer-form storytelling.