47 Ronin
Okay, some of this looks kind of neat. And by some of this, I mean Dragon Lady. Dragon Lady looks pretty awesome. I suspect I will be voting heavily for Dragon Lady.
Sadly, I’m not really sold on the rest of this trailer. Keanu Reeves is not the absolute worst thing in the history of cinema — although possibly in the history of Shakespearian cinema — but he doesn’t make a super compelling lead, either, and this movie looks less like it’s about 47 awesome warrior dudes and more like it’s about Samurai Neo and 46 Asian extras who are bound to get killed off. I could be wrong, but I’m not thinking this is theater-worthy just yet.
Riddick
First, this is a red-band trailer for unrepentant violence which, yay. Second, I never though I’d say this, but I’m kind of interested in this one. This trailer looks much more Pitch Black than Chronicles of Riddick, and that’s a big bonus in my book. Plus, Katee Sackhoff. And supposedly Karl Urban, although he’s nowhere to be seen in the trailer, which makes me wonder if he plays a very small role. Still, Bones and Starbuck? I’m in.
The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire
I’ve been meaning to read this book and keep putting it off for other novels I’d rather read, even though I enjoyed The Hunger Games well enough. I’m sure I’ll see this movie, but I’m not super psyched about the trailer. I guess I thought it would be less games, more revolution? I don’t know. When Haymitch is all, “Last year was child’s play compared to this year,” I’m just like, Come ON. Really?
I can tell you this, though: I’m definitely Team Peeta, at least as far as the movies go. I’ve enjoyed Josh Hutcherson in everything I’ve seen, whereas Liam Hemsworth . . . well, let’s just say I’m waiting to be impressed by Liam Hemsworth.
The Walking Dead
This is a four-minute trailer for the fourth season of The Walking Dead, and it looks pretty good. But all of the trailers for The Walking Dead have looked pretty good and, so far, it’s been a hugely hit-or-miss show. All the goodwill Season Three earned kind of fell apart by the end of it, so I’m trying not to get my hopes up.
Still, this seems like a good start. Maybe the newest new showrunner will be awesome sauce. And maybe they won’t immediately kill Sasha now that they’re introducing a new black character.
And finally . . . two short clips of Gravity
One:
And two:
I don’t usually watch actual clips of upcoming movies, but I kept hearing such good things that I decided to try these ones out. I’m still a bit concerned how this story is stretching into a two hour movie, but I can’t deny that it looks incredible. The first clip, in particular, is done in a single take, and it’s pretty amazing. I could potentially see Gravity in theater, just to really get that feel of infinity on the big screen.
My Geek Blasphemy 
It’s absurd that Keanu Reeves is the lead protagonist in 47 Ronin. I’ve heard some people say it’s okay because he’s part Asian. So I looked up his ethnicity. Turns out he’s 1/64th Chinese, so clearly it makes perfect sense for him to play the lead role in a film about a group of dishonoured samurai from Japan. – No problem…
Seriously???
I’d be fine with him having a smaller role in this thing, but another white protagonist in a movie about a foreign culture? And it’s not even like he’s playing a western outsider. He’s playing an actual Japanese samurai. What the hell?
Some people familiar with the original tale are also annoyed because they’ve turned it into a magical fantasy story. One commenter on Youtube said they were expecting to see “based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller” at some point during that trailer….
I thought the white protagonist thing was weird-verging-on-not-good when I saw the trailer, but I also wasn’t sure what Keanu’s ethnicity actually was and didn’t feel like looking it up at the time. Now that I know . . . yeah, that’s ridiculous and lame.
If they can make Perry White a black guy, they can make a Japanese samurai a white guy. Fair’s fair. They could give him a backstory of being the son of a Portugeuse sailor who saved a samurai’s life, but he died, and the samurai raised him as his own.
Yeah, it kind of sounds fair on paper, until you realize that white people just don’t have the same trouble scoring leads in films or on television shows. White protagonists are a dime a dozen — black protagonists, Asian protagonists, Latino protagonists? Not so much. And really, that’s not limited to just main characters. An entirely white cast on TV is not a big deal, or maybe a white cast with one black actor. That happens and no one blinks. But an all black cast? Only on BET. Same applies to movies, too, and also to gender. An all male cast is nothing, but an all female cast has to be a movie with some kind of Statement.
Not to mention, Perry White edits a newspaper. Editors are not really a cultural thing. There’s nothing specifically American or white about being an editor. A samurai is kind of something else entirely.
Well, they need a bankable star. Not to justify their decision but that’s the obvious reason.
Is there a modern day equivalent to Toshiro Mifune?
Anyway I wasn’t being completely serious – Perry White, a relatively minor character, is the kind they’ll have played by a black guy, but would they ever make Superman himself black? No, of course not, or at least not for quite a while.
Y’know, I liked the trailer for Chronicles of Riddick. Never saw the movie, but the trailer made it look interesting. The actual movie of “Pitch Black”, on the other hand, bored me witless. I’m not really convinced that they deserve a second chance to make it and this new trailer looks like the same movie all over again. And Vin Diesel just looks so ridiculously smug.
“I’ve enjoyed Josh Hutcherson in everything I’ve seen”
For me, his name will ALWAYS be Clapton Davis!!!! 😀 … (*SQUEE!*)
“Gravity” is from Alfonso Cuaron. He’s the director of the GOOD Harry Potter movie, a rather cool little Spanish film called “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and the bleak but powerful sci-fi movie “Children of Men”. He also did that modernisation of “Great Expectations” with Ethan Hawke that I haven’t seen. I’m pretty sure he’ll have done something good with this Gravity movie and those visuals really look stunning.
Not seen Walking Dead Season Three. (Only seen seasons one and two.) Should I bother? (Serious question!)
He’s the director of the GOOD Harry Potter movie
That’s overstating it a bit. Being better than the others doesn’t mean good.
See, Pitch Black, I liked. It was Chronicles of Riddick that I found boring. (Although it has been a very long time since I’ve seen it.)
CLAPTON DAVIS!
Yeah, I knew Gravity was from Alfonso Cuaron, but unfortunately that’s not as huge of a selling point for me as it is for other people. I like the Harry Potter movie he directed (although there were other HP movies I liked as well), but I was not a fan of Children of Men. I’ll figure I’ll give it a second chance at some point and see if I was just having an off-day, but it seemed vastly overrated to me. And I haven’t seen Y Tu Mama Tambien yet or Great Expectations. (Nor am I likely to, at least not with Great Expectations. It doesn’t appeal.)
I still think season three of The Walking Dead is better than season two, so I’d say yes. It started out really strong, and there are some worthy moments later on. One of the very best episodes of the series, I think, happens in the second half of third season. But I was wildly unimpressed with how the season actually ended, and it made me sad. 😦
I plan to see Gravity in IMAX-3D once it comes out. I figure it’s the closest I’ll ever come to actually being in space. Maybe I can find an anti-gravity theater, too, so I can float around like Sandra Bullock. I’m sure places like that exist, right? Oh, they don’t? Shit.
No, but that would be pretty damn awesome.
About The Walking Dead. I know it would be a lot of work, but wouldn’t digging a ditch around the prison be a good idea? It would take a long time to do, but it seems like a good idea. And maybe scavenge some wood for a better wall…chain link doesn’t seem like the greatest for keeping out a horde of zombies.
I’m afraid of Season 4 ending up like Season 2 where they bored us to death staying at that farm until it was overrun.
I’m still hopeful. I don’t think the idea of the farm was fundamentally flawed, but in execution, it was pretty terrible. Mostly, I think that was writing. I do think the writing has improved some since then, and I don’t hate almost every character anymore, so I think the prison COULD work. I just don’t know if it actually will.
Gravity looks pretty cool. Too bad Sandra Bullock’s in it. I really, reallycan’t stand her.
I don’t particularly like her either but Gravity looks so good I still want to see it.
I actually kind of like Sandra Bullock, but unfortunately I’m not interested in at least half of her movies. Oh, if only actors would just pick the projects I choose for them.