1/15/2009 - Thundercats Movie trailer (fanmade)

The biggest cartoons for boys when I was growing up were the Transformers and G.I. Joe, and it's a wonder they took so long in coming to the big screen. We'll see the Transformers sequel this year, as well as the G.I. Joe movie. Even though the first Transformers movie was not entirely accurate to its source material, it was a fun summer movie with great special effects that didn't take itself too seriously. I hope that they use the same kind of approach to G.I. Joe, because looking back on the cartoon, it's clear that it was more of a vehicle to sell action figures.

Another movie that I would like to see made is one for the Thundercats. Even though it ripped off Star Wars in a lot of ways, it was a very cool cartoon for the tweens and it was a little more mature than G.I. Joe and Tranformers. I still remember being scared by Mum-Ra, being sad at the death of Jaga (in the very first episode!), and the excitement of the trials of Lion-O. This next video would indicate that I'm not the only fan of the series who wants to see it as a movie. It is a fan-made movie trailer that uses footage of various movies that have been Photoshopped FRAME-BY-FRAME!



While it is quite impressive, I have to disagree with the casting of Brad Pitt as Lion-O. My pick would be Tom Welling of Smallville.

11/29/2008 - SSF2THDR ROUND 1 Trailer

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix finally arrived on Tuesday and it was worth the wait! I'll give my review of the game in a later blog post, but I wanted to highlight the trailer Capcom released just prior to the game's release. As we all know, Capcom enlisted the artists at Udon to redraw the sprites and backgrounds of the game in the style of their popular anime-inspired comic book series. That art is on full display in this trailer, and as a fan of the anime movie, I can say that it is gorgeous. But we knew that would be the case with this HD version of SF2. Besides showing off the gameplay in a well-choreographed tournament style presentation, Capcom did something very special in this trailer that would prompt me to write this blog entry about it.

Yes, that would be the music in the trailer. The use of "You're the Best Around" by Joe Esposito is truly inspired. Before I knew of it's actual history from the Karate Kid movie, I heard it in a ScrewAttack Top 10 video that played it as a tribute to their fans who submitted their favorite video gaming music. Whoever made that video is probably a fan of cheesy 80's music and this song in particular is really cheesy, but really good! It wasn't until I found my King of Kong DVD that I learned that they had included the song in the classic gaming documentary as well. In fact, this is where ScrewAttack probably got the idea to feature the song, as it was included in the King of Kong soundtrack. So would this cheesy 80's song be some kind of anthem for classic videogames?

The answer would be cemented in this trailer for SSF2THDR. When I first heard it in the trailer, I said "No Way", and then I laughed with glee. I'm not sure if Capcom themselves knew of the links to videogaming this song has recently had, or if they just wanted to feature a retro song from a movie about martial arts, but everything just works in context. So much so that I had to download the MP3 to this song and am seriously considering renting the Karate Kid movie even though it looks so bad. I just have to say that Capcom "is the best arooouuuund!"

11/5/2008 - Spider-Man Web of Shadows-Launch Trailer

Have you ever watched an awesome movie trailer, only to be disappointed with the actual movie? I'm sure we all have. Apparently, the same phenomenon applies to videogame trailers as well. Check out this trailer for Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, for example:



It is really one of the best videogame trailers I have ever seen, and would definitely be my pick for Trailer of the Year. The Beethoven music really fits and gives it a whole new level of epicness. The premise of a Venom symbiote infected city seems really interesting, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw that as a future storyline in the comic book.

From all the reviews, however, it sounds like the game is on the mediocre side. Which is really a disappointment to me because I was looking forward to at least renting it.

2/16/2008 - The Dark Knight Trailer. IN LEGO!!!

After watching the sub-par Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in the theaters and realizing how much they have raised the prices to watch a movie, I decided that I'm watching ONLY superhero movies in the theaters from now on. Fortunately, this year is bringing forth a bunch of superhero movies. First, there's Iron Man, which looks awesome so far and has a perfect cast in my opinion. Then, there's the Incredible Hulk movie which is supposed to be a reboot after the unpopular Hulk movie from 2003. Personally, I liked the first Hulk movie, but I can see why the general movie going population didn't. What's exciting about the Iron Man and Hulk movies is that I hear they are going to have some crossover elements in them so that they can lay the foundation for an Avengers movie! Now that would be awesome. I know a Hellboy sequel is coming out too, but I've never read the books or have even been interested in the character, so I'm skipping that one.

I was going to skip Batman: The Dark Knight until I recently re-watched Batman Begins and found it to be a better movie that I originally assessed it to be. Yes, there are still those annoying plot holes I have problems with, but as a whole, I think it's a great origin movie with a pretty good cast (I still prefer Michael Keaton as Batman). The last scene of the movie sets up the Joker as the bad guy in the sequel and everybody was really curious in the Heath Ledger casting of the role. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but from what we see in the trailer, he looks pretty convincing as the hyena-like maniac. For those who haven't seen it, here it is... in Lego form!

8/23/2007 - Teaser video for the next Goldeneye stunt!

The "Undercover Filmer" is a true gamer. He performs these "stunts" on the Nintendo 64 phenomenon Goldeneye, which consists of maxing out all the difficulty settings in the game and (slowly) traverses select stages. Some of these stages take close to an hour, and it's all on YouTube. You get to see step-by-step how he manages to make something so incredibly difficult seem like a routine playthrough of a first-person shooter level. The fact that he can add voice-over to these videos without being boring or repetitive is amazing.

As he admits in this video, though, the stunts haven't exactly been a thrill a minute. While the difficulty of the stunts are ridiculous, the methodical approach he uses makes it incredibly slow-paced sometimes. His next pair of stunts, however, promises to be different and loads more exciting. In fact, this teaser video itself is incredibly exciting. It is perhaps one of the best example of advertising I've ever seen. The makers of movie trailers should watch this video to really see how to drive anticipation!

8/12/2007 - 5 Guys in a Limo

Is it just me, or has the amount of trailers before the movies grown more these days? I mean, you can literally show up 15 minutes late to the theater and still see the beginning of the movie because there are so many trailers. Normally, I wouldn't mind... I like watching previews of upcoming movies. But you would think that with all the advertising involved, they could at least lower the price of the movie ticket. Instead, it goes up and up... while you're forced to sit there and wait for your movie to begin.

So if you're a regular moviegoer, you'll recognize the guys in this video... or specifically their voices. Yes, they're all of the announcers you hear in the trailers of movies. These guys probably get paid lots of money just to read a few lines, but they deserve their earnings... just their voices alone lend some credibility to the movie they're peddling. They sound so alike (except for the Disney guy), you'd swear they were all one person. Just play the video and close your eyes and you'll see what I mean.