Film Spotlight: Assassin’s Creed
Director: Justin Kurzel
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Michael K Williams, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson.
Plot: The Assassin’s Creed movie follows a character by the name of Callum Lynch who, through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, is able to experience the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.

Thoughts: Let me start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of the Assassin’s Creed games. Lately they have sort of regressed with the move to next gen; Unity had to deal with some bad pre-release buzz due to a graphics glitch. Syndicate was a bit disjointed in its missions and gameplay. I enjoyed both but they never came close to how good Black Flag was. Fans of the game have long thought that the series is probably more suited than any other video game to be adapted into a film. The view of videos games not getting great adaptions might be broken with Assassin’s Creed. First of all Ubisoft who make the game set up their own production company to make sure they get the film right. Secondly they have gathered some great talent in the casting and hiring of the director and finally and perhaps most crucial is they decided not to adapt any of the games, instead they have gone for an original story but it is still set in the same universe as the games. That is something which I thought Warcraft got wrong this year, adapting a story from the games instead of creating one.

Now there is still a chance that it might not work but from the trailers that have been released the footage looks very promising. They have captured the essence of the games from the parkour running, the combat and that final shot from the trailer of the iconic leap of faith. Even the modern day sequences of Fassbender’s Callum Lynch inside an Abstergo facility. The redesigned Animus which is the tool that allows the present day Lynch to access his genetic memory of his ancestors looks pretty bad ass. I expect there will be some cool little mentions and Easter eggs in reference to games. I am pretty hopeful this will break the trend of bad video game movies and hope it will kick start a new era in video game movies.

Assassin’s Creed is out December 21st, 2016.

Insurgent
Release Date: March 20, 2015
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Director: Robert Schwentke (RED, The Time Traveler’s Wife, R.I.P.D.)
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Jai Courtney, Mekhi Phifer, Miles Teller, Zoë Kravitz, Octavia Spencer
Plot: THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the ruins of a futuristic Chicago. Tris (Woodley) and Four (James) are now fugitives on the run, hunted by Jeanine (Winslet), the leader of the power-hungry Erudite elite. Racing against time, they must find out what Tris’s family sacrificed their lives to protect, and why the Erudite leaders will do anything to stop them. Haunted by her past choices but desperate to protect the ones she loves, Tris, with Four at her side, faces one impossible challenge after another as they unlock the truth about the past and ultimately the future of their world. (Official Website)

Thoughts: The first movie in “The Divergent Series” was a little hit and miss for me. It had an interesting future/sci-fi world and enough going on to get my attention, but sadly it also had some logic leaps and a perplexing ending. (next comment includes spoilers for the first movie) After taking some hits, the good guys saved the day. They defeated the “evil” Jeanine and stopped her plan. Then for unexplained reasons, they let her live and they fled. That is very frustrating as our heroes (Tris & Four) were very willing to kill their enemies- heck, earlier in the movie, Tris even had to kill a brainwashed friend. Now in the new movie they are fugitives on the run from Jeanine. Wait, really?

I just hope the movie isn’t the first one recycled and doesn’t follow the recent book adaptation trend of just being a middle entry in a series that has absolutely no beginning or end. Nothing is more frustrating for this viewer than a movie that just ends with no resolution.

Check out these Divergent Series products…

A new clip has been released for the video game to webseries/movie adaptation of Dead Rising. Check it out…

Description of Video Clip: In this bloody clip from DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER, the anti-zombification medicine turns out to be… ineffective.

Dead Rising: Watchtower premieres on March 27th, 2015. It stars Jesse Metcalfe, Virginia Madsen, Meghan Ory, Dennis Haysbert and Rob Riggle as fan favorite Frank West. It will be available to watch exclusively on Crackle.

Will you be watching as the dead rise?

In recent years, the highest grossing films are often adaptations of best-selling books. When there’s a lack of good story to tell in Hollywood, they resort to literature for ideas. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is currently raking in the big dough by the minute. And who can forget two of the biggest film franchises ever: Harry Potter and Twilight? For the delight of science fiction junkies, Ender’s Game finally takes on the big screen this year, after decades of movie adaptation rumors.

If Hollywood needs more ideas on which books or series to bring to the theaters, they can take note of the following:

Vampire Academy (series) by Rachelle Mead
Please don’t relate it to Twilight, because Mead’s take on the vampire phenomenon is fresh, exciting and full of interesting characters. Teen vampires and half-humans take center stage in this series, and to make it even more interesting, an academy is the setting of this harrowing series.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
This is a Tim Burton film waiting to happen. Gaiman has always crafted rich worlds for his characters, and American Gods probably has the most diverse number of engaging characters. Where are the gods in this modern times? What are their roles in society? It’s an interesting look at mythology, and it will definitely make for an engaging and visually-stunning movie.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
There’s no more creative book than House of Leaves. A horror story that will make you turn your book upside-down and tilt your head every which way, Danielewski’s novel tells the plight of a family who moved into a house that’s bigger on the inside than the outside. Through the jumble of differently formatted pages, House of Leaves creates an eerie tale that can echo screams of terrors in cinemas worldwide.

The Stand by Stephen King
Regarded as King’s best novel, it’s surprising that a movie adaptation of The Stand hasn’t materialized yet. The unapologetically thick novel covers a wide array of genre from post-apocalyptic to horror to fantasy. For years, there are reports of movie deals but nothing came after. Producers should make up their minds because they have the best sci-fi movie in their hands.

Looking For Alaska by John Green
It’s surprising how Green’s other novel Fault in Our Stars got to be adapted into a movie first. Looking For Alaska is another of Green’s famous works. Miles enters a preparatory school for his junior year and meets Alaska, the beautiful mess. No other character in young adult fiction has characterized the beautiful mess as well as Alaska, and I demand that we see it on the big screen soon.

We are getting closer to Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, every day. In order to go in blind and enjoy every twist and turn the film has to offer I’ve been staying away from news for the flick. I even passed the writing of the Film Spotlight over to our contributor Kris Greet so I wouldn’t accidentally get spoiled. While we slowly march to July 20th, lets change paces like we did for The Amazing Spider-Man and speculate on possible villains in a Batman reboot (which I don’t think will be very far away if this is indeed the last Nolan/Bale Batman adventure).

Nolan was very smart to stay away from villains that appeared in other Batman films with Batman Begins when he used Ra’s al Ghul and Scarecrow, two lesser known villains that still have a lot of history. I think a new director/writer team will do the same and stay away from Nolan’s main baddies, including the Joker, Ra, Scarecrow, Two-Face, and now of course Bane, at least for the first movie in a new series. I also think the new series will start with Batman already being established, maybe a short montage origin recap (as used in The Incredible Hulk). So, who might they bring into the mix to face off with the Dark Knight?

Professor Hugo Strange. Not to be confused with Marvel Comic’s Doctor Strange, Hugo Strange might not be a house hold name, but he definitely has his place among Batman’s classic rogue gallery having first appeared in 1940. Strange is an insane psychologist who invented a serum to drive his victims in to mindless killing machines and him obsession with Batman lead him to want to become him. He is as smart as he is insane and is a formidable opponent for the Dark Knight. To take things one step further, you can have Strange’s serum create some of Batman’s other classic villains, like Man-Bat or Clayface, giving the movie a more superhuman vibe which could separate it from Nolan’s super realistic take on the hero.

Man-Bat. Playing off my last entry of Hugo Strange, I think this combo of villains could work really well. On the flip side, if done right, Man-Bat could work for the main villain also. You can make Dr. Kirk Langstrom a Wayne Enterprises scientist who has the best intentions who accidentally mutates himself in to the Man-Bat. Of course this would be very similar to the movie Spider-Man’s Green Goblin, Doc Ock and the remake’s Lizard stories. But just think how cool a Batman vs Man-Bat fight flying across the Gotham skyline would be! None of Nolan’s villains were any bit as monstrous as this guy, none nearly as scary either. (and for Warner Brothers, just think of all the toys they could sell!)

Deadshot. Yeah, I know he was in the last season of Smallville, but who cares? The “second greatest assassin” in the DC Universe could give Batman a run for his money. Sure, I can’t see him being the main villain, but imagine he is sent to kill Bruce Wayne in public during the day. Bruce has to hide the fact that he is Batman, but still get out of the situation alive– maybe enter Robin or Batgirl to come to his aid? This would be another thing to separate a remake from Nolan, the introduction of the Batman “family” of allies. Of course, who would send an assassin to kill Bruce Wayne? How about…

Lex Luthor. Yes, Superman’s top villain. Why would he be in Gotham going head to head with Batman? Luthor could be bank rolling Hugo Strange or he could send Deadshot to take out the head of Wayne Enterprises, one of his top defense competitors. Hopefully Luthor will be in Zack Synder’s upcoming Superman reboot, Man of Steel, in a cameo and maybe he can do the same in a possible Batman reboot. Luthor could be in the background, pulling the strings, in all of the upcoming DC Comics movies creating an actual shared universe. Setting up an epic World’s Finest crossover with Superman and Batman, or maybe he could be forming the Injustice Gang to go head to head with the Justice League in a future crossover of all of DC’s top heroes.

If DC Comics and Warner Brothers are going to reboot Batman so soon after Nolan’s acclaimed trilogy, then they better give us something special. And Batman in a fantastic universe sharing scenes with the likes of Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman would be the perfect hook and give a reason for the reboot that no one would complain about. Now, who should play Bruce Wayne/Batman?

Release Date: July 20, 2012
Studio: Warner Brothers
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine.
Plot: Eight years after Batman took the fall for Two Face’s crimes, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham’s finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy. (via IMDB)

Thoughts: Well the end is in sight for a journey that began eight years ago and is arguably one of the greatest cinematic trilogies of all time. Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise took comic book movies to a new level. Placing the character in the real world and giving the characters and story that sense of realism that could make you believe that this could actually happen. The Dark Knight Rises is shaping up to be THE movie of 2012.

The Dark Knight Rises, like it predecessors, boast an impressive cast. Joining the returning Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I think out of three films, this cast seems to be the best by far. Nolan has said that he didn’t want to save anything from this movie and this looks like it. While not a lot is known officially about the story, that hasn’t stopped the fanboys and internet writers from speculating.

From the trailers and other footage that’s been released, It seems like Nolan is sticking true to his word. There’s already a sense of epicness to this and a feeling that this will easily top anything that’s been done in the two previous films. Hardy and Hathaway look impressive as Bane and Selena Kyle/Catwoman. I like the fact that the film is set quite a while after the events of The Dark Knight. (8 years is official figure I keep hearing). Not only is this a great story setting but this could be a great move for Warner Brothers. With Nolan definitively stating this is the last Batman film he is directing. It’s been rumoured that he will be on the reboot as a producer much like his role on next years Superman Reboot “Man Of Steel”.

If that is the case, this reboot or next series of films could take place in those eight years. Bale has recently said he would up for a fourth film if the story is right- but we’ll have to wait and see. The Dark Knight Rises will be giving an epic conclusion to this wonderful journey and I think it will be the best movie of the summer. I’ve seen The Avengers and loved it, but I just think that TDKR will be better. Nolan hasn’t let us down yet and I think he will be able to top everything else we’ve seen. Either way, July 20^th can’t come quick enough for this Bat-Fan.

I’ve shared my love for the epic-ly bad Resident Evil movie series in the past. These movies from Paul W.S. Anderson are so bad, that I can’t help but love them and be amazed that they just keep coming and coming every year- this will be the 5th movie in the series since 2002.

While not following the story of the games, the movies have interwoven the familiar characters in and out of the sequels. New for Retribution are Johann Urb as Leon Kennedy and Bingbing Li as Ada Wong (pictured right with Milla Jovovich as Alice). A surprise return to the series are Michelle Rodriguez as Rain, whose character (SPOILER ALERT) died in the original movie. Another deceased character making a return is Oded Fehr’s Carlos Oliveira, who appeared in both Apocalypse and Extinction. While I could care less about Rodriguez’s annoying character returning, I’m really glad to hear that Fehr’s Olivera is back as he was one of the most likeable characters introduced in the first four movies. Also returning characters from past films are Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine, Colin Salmon as James One Shade, Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker, and Boris Kodjoe as Luther West.

Click to enlarge the images. The left image features Jovovich as Alice, and the right image features both Jovovich and Li.

Resident Evil: Retribution will be hitting theaters on September 14th, 2012. Are you excited for more zombie killing action?