Captain America's New Costume From THE WINTER SOLDIER Revealed At Hasbro NYCC Party!

It looks like The First Avenger is getting another updated costume in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier. At Hasbro's NYCC party last night, we got a glimpse of the new movie tie-in toy line and what we can expect to see on the big screen. Although various images have gone online from the set showing the new threads, we have a clear look at the new design that ditches red from the color scheme and adds back some leather. This version takes cues from both his '40s era look in Captain America: The First Avenger and the modern one seen in The Avengers.

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See THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2's Electro Action Figure From Last Night's Hasbro NYCC Party

New York Comic Con kicks off today, but the fine folks at Hasbro host a party the night before to unveil some of their upcoming toys. Seen for the first time from the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the Electro action figure. Various stills of Jamie Foxx have surfaced online (both official and paparazzi set photos), but we get a good glimpse here of the full costume that will be seen in the highly anticipated sequel.

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Optimus Prime's TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION Redesign Unveiled At Hasbro NYCC Party!

During an exclusive party on the eve of New York Comic Con last night, Hasbro unveiled the newest addition to their Transformers toy line, and it was none other than the redesigned Optimus Prime from the upcoming Transformers: Age Of Extinction.

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New Poster For 'Thor: The Dark World' Revealed

We still are on hold in regards to the Comic Con footage from Thor: The Dark World making its way beyond its Hall H presentation, but we did get to see Tom Hiddleston slay the crowd when he appeared on stage in character as Loki.

Until out next sneak peek arrives, here is the new one-sheet featuring the cast for the sequel to 2011's Thor to hold us over for the time being.

Part of Marvel's cinematic Phase Two set after the events of The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World reunites Chris Hemsworth as the Norse God of Thunder with Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Stellan Skarsgård (Dr. Selvig), Idris Elba (Heimdall) and Jaimie Alexander (Sif). Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) joins the cast as Malekith the Accursed, the evil leader of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim.

Official synopsis:

"Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel’s “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all."

You can see the first trailer HERE and or check out my coverage of Thor: The Dark World at the 2013 Toy Fair where a full look at Malekith was revealed HERE.

Directed by Alan Taylor, the film is set for theaters in 3D on November 8th.


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Jamie Foxx Wants To Play Spawn. Is He The Mystery Oscar Winner Todd McFarlane Has Been Talking About?

Jamie Foxx was among the massive star studded list of guests at Comic-Con last week. The Academy Award winning actor sat down with Movies.com at Comic-Con last week to talk up many things, but specifically his role as the villain Electro in the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

However when asked about other roles he was eager to tackle, he revealed another comic book icon was on his short list.

"Spawn is one, yeah," he said. "And Mike Tyson. Those are two roles I would just love to do. I'm aggressively pursuing them."

Besides the general possibilities involved now that Foxx has fessed up to his extreme interest in playing the anti-hero, his revelation also lines up with what Image Comics co-founder and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has been saying in regards to casting the lead in the long time in-the-works big screen reboot for the popular character.

I caught up with McFarlane at the 2012 Toy Fair, and at that time he told me in vague terms some of the things going on with the film's progress, which in present context seem to fit Foxx's interest to a tee.

"An Academy Award winning actor came out to the office and wants to be in it," McFarlane told me last year. "He bugs me every week to get the script done cause he had an idea, and I told him my idea. He said 'Fine, I love your idea. Now let's get it done.'"

Given Foxx's Acadmeny Award for his portayal of Ray Charles in Ray, and unless there is a major reboot planned on behalf of McFarlane that includes re-casting Spawn as a non-African American Oscar winning actor, it seems safe to assume Foxx is our man.

Oh yeah, and then there is this 2011 pic from McFarlane's WhoSay page with the caption:

"August 26, 2011 Jamie Foxx came by the office today, great guy, I drew him a quick sketch of Spawn for the road. TODD"

McFarlane continued about his mystery actor, eager to see Spawn back on the big screen.

"So he or his agents phone every week: 'Is he done with it? Is he done?' I have to write, produce, direct, and I keep getting distracted with other things in my life. There's nobody to blame but myself," he admitted last year.

McFarlane also has a prioritized plan to see Spawn return to the big screen. "The feature is still the number one priority getting that one out," he said.

"I've had the story for ten years. R-rated, dark, sort of a psychological terror. It’s the world that we all know. Everything is real except for one thing. There is something moving in the shadows. Some supernatural force is moving around. And a couple of the people who think they see the shadow move aren’t in the best state of minds, so they don’t even know if its their own personal paranoia or not," he said about the tone of the film.

"No super villain. Nothing. Just a scary creep show that you and I intellectually know to be a being called Spawn. So as I get to the 20th Anniversary, I'll make the concentrated effort to at least get the script done. And depending on what happens there, production should come fairly quickly afterwards," McFarlane predicted last year.

"I just want to do a gritty movie that’s sort of about our world that feels like the movie The Departed, but there’s something moving in the shadows every now and then," he promised.

Jamie Foxx is a very in-demand actor, and we will have to see if he can move into a second comic book franchise.

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'The Walking Dead' Season Four Trailer Debuts at Comic-Con

I won't waste time with a lengthy write up. Enjoy your first look at the just debuted at Comic-Con trailer to season four of The Walking Dead, which returns to AMC on October 13th.

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Film Review: PACIFIC RIM ★★★★☆

If you grew up in the '80s like I did, and a fair, if not an unhealthy portion of your TV viewing time was spent on animated fare like Voltron and Robotech, Pacific Rim may be the answer your adolescent prayers. Guillermo del Toro's big screen giant robots versus giant monsters sci-fi extravaganza does not disappoint as far as taking CGI-heavy battles to a new level of intensity and intelligent storytelling in an age when Michael Bay's Transformers series had until now set the technical high bar for 3D mech FX-heavy acrobatics.

The plot is straight forward enough and easily best described by its tagline "In order to fight monsters, we created monsters of our own." But to elaborate further: In the future an inter-dimensional rift in the floor of the Pacific Ocean offers safe passage for invading giant alien monsters known as Kaiju to lay waste to cites all over the Earth. With casualties reaching the millions and conventional weaponry proving ineffective, humanity constructs giant mechanical warriors called Jaegers to counter the growing alien threat.

The human Jaeger pilots must jockey as neural pairs, one controlling the right hemisphere, the other the left of the 25 story high gladiators in order to effectively combat the ferocious threats. Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam leads the cast as Raleigh Becket, a troubled pilot who's still dealing with the loss of his brother years earlier in combat with a Kaiju (which means "Giant Beast" in Japanese). Idris Elba gives another stellar performance as Stacker Pentecost, the no-nonsense leader of the international Jaeger strike force. Few can deliver and pull off with the necessary weight and bravado a military pep rally speech capped off with the soon to be iconic "Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!" Attention Bill Pullman's Independence Day President Whitmore: You have been served.

The mind blowing visuals put forth come courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic. The jaw dropping battles between beast and machine have never been realized like this before on the big screen. For Rim's target audience, which I am unabashedly a part of, much of what we see may have been pre-visualized since our childhoods regarding the behemoths' battles, but it all seriously comes to deafening and tangible life when seen through del Toro's capable eyes. The director takes complete joy in staging sequences with epic scope and gritty weight you'd never think possible. Seriously who can't marvel at witnessing one of the massive mechanical gladiators double fisting train cars to pummel the living bejeezus out of one of the alien beasts?

I had three summer 2013 movies on my "insanely excited to see" list, Pacific Rim being the last of them to be released. I still find it hard to believe I left the theaters following the first two with a feeling of meh befuddlement at what I had just seen, instead of the "gee whiz" wonderment I had hoped for. The third time is a charm here with Pacific Rim, and when I reached the closing credits I felt like I had been taken back to my adolescent self right after a great episode of Voltron, Robotech, or a Godzilla Saturday afternoon movie double feature.

Much credit should be given for the human side to the story and the solid cast that pulls off everything that happens when the film is not in full throttle mode as an FX heavy extravaganza. Charlie Day brings his signature It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia cadence to Dr. Newton Geiszler, a high strung scientist who finds much nerd joy in analyzing the Jaegers' internal organs. Day's gift for comedic timing keeps the film from sinking too deep for too long into dark drama. del Toro's Hellboy himself Ron Perlman is also recruited here to do what he does best playing Hannibal Chau, an extravagant lord of the Hong Kong underworld who makes his fortune from harvesting and selling various parts of recently slaughtered Jaegers. The human cast, their stories, and the simple but nonetheless layered clever plot all add to Rim's big pluses that keep this from being a mindless one-dimensional big budget B-movie.

So let's talk the presentation. Hands down, IMAX 3D is seriously the only way to go. The kinetic energy, the spectacular big screen eye candy and the excessive (but welcome) primal pandemonium is a big screen triumph in tandem with both formats. There is nothing small about this movie. Go big. Go IMAX. You can also add del Toro to your list of directors who work with 3D with flawless results. Not once was I taken out of the moment with a sequence that didn't benefit, or worse was hindered, by poor conversion. Rim boasts one of the best conversions (shot digitally with the RED EPIC camera) I have ever seen for such a quick cutting, fast paced film. The past year has enjoyed improvements in leaps and bounds in regards to the technology. Sure its still vastly over utilized, but a year makes a huge difference in the big screen presentation. del Toro is never at a loss for a beautifully framed shot, and the film's extensive 3D conversion accentuates his layered canvass. Shallow depth of field makes the simpler wide shots epic while the battle scenes gain that much more of a deadly and mighty punch with the added dimension.

To write off this film with simple on the surface comparisons to Transformers, Godzilla, or various anime series would not be fair here, even though those respective franchises' DNA is easily detectable throughout. del Toro has drawn obvious influence from many sources to mash up their strongest and most familiar elements into intense high-tech big screen sparring matches in the ocean or in between towering buildings in Hong Kong. Pacific Rim is a fan boy homage made by a fan boy, and includes both overt and subtle nods to elements that made the climatic ending to battles on any given episode of Voltron exciting to viewers.

Pacific Rim, loud proud and intense, delivers everything promised to its intended audience on truly an epic scale, and in my book successfully hits all the right marks. Guillermo del Toro masterfully morphs his many influences into a stunning dark world of its own. Combating gargantuan metal gladiators and massive ferocious creatures from the underwater depths of hell have never been treated so well on the big screen and provide for a healthy amount of nerd cry worthy moments. Sure the film does skew heavily to a particular fan base, but it's by no means inaccessible. Rather I saw it as fun summer fare on a monstrous level. While it can be a violent ride at times, it manages to keep to the lighter side of its PG-13 rating. Pacific Rim is a spectacular ride, smarter and gloriously grander than anything else it can be compared, to and will rank as one of 2013's best action sci-fi crowd pleasers.

Pacific Rim opens in theaters in 2D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D on July 12th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★★☆
Director: Guillmero del Toro
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Screenwriters: Guillmero del Toro & Travis Beacham
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 131 minutes

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Bumblebee Will Also Get A 2014 Concept Camaro Upgrade in 'Transformers 4'

According to Michael Bay on his website, "Trumpets please . . . Bumblebee, a 2014 Concept Camaro! . . . the final jewel in the Transformers 4 crown."

Bay has been unveiling the sleek new fleet of various vehicles to be featured in the currently shooting Transformers 4 over the past several weeks, and now reveals Bumblebee will have two alternate versions in next year's film. We have already seen the fan favorite's redesign as a modified, vintage 1967 Camaro SS (check it out HERE), and now Bay has plans to unleash Chevy's 2014 version of the Camaro as well (which mirrors Bumblebee's vintage to modern upgrade seen in 2007's Transformers).

You can also check out the previous images Bay has released of G1 Autobot favorites Optimus Prime, the '67 Bumblebee, Hound and another yet to be named vehicle via his website.

Set for 2014, Bay returns to direct his fourth big screen round of Transformers, whose events takes place five years following the destruction of Chicago in 2011's Dark of the Moon. The film promises to jump start the series in a new direction with revamped versions of the familiar robotic alien heroes and villains. Mark Wahlberg stars with Kelsey Grammar, Stanley Tucci, T.J. Miller, Nicola Peltz, Sophia Myles, Bingbing Li and of course Peter Cullen (returning to provide the iconic voice of Optimus Prime).

SOURCE: Michael Bay Dot Com

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