Check out HBO’s special on The Dark Knight. I’m not sure how long this will be up before it gets pulled, so don’t wait to watch it.

Part One:

Part Two:

Our friends over at JoBlo.com were gracious enough to share this clip online.

Seriously, I think this movie is as good or better than Batman Begins. Certainly they’re horses of different colors, two different takes on Batman entirely, but I’m going to be honest here. I still watch this one more than Batman Begins.

And the reporter played by Robert Wuhl, Knox, is one of the greatest characters in cinema history.

Swank-mo-tron: I caught Hellboy on Thursday night and I have to say I was really into it. It was funnier, more epic and better designed than the first one to the point where you could tell that they really let Guillermo Del Toro loose in the wake of how good Pan’s Labyrinth was. I was really excited to see how they pulled Johann off and it was even better than I could have expected. I was also surprised by their choice of voice talent for him (Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy) but it worked out perfectly. The way it differs from the comics and the cartoons is also quite refreshing. It’s good to see that Del Toro and Mignola realize they’re dealing with different worlds in different mediums and so movie Hellboy is different than comic Hellboy. It’s just a nice touch.

What did everybody else think?

Mookatron: I caught an opening night show of Hellboy and walked out with a big smile on my face. I loved that they had so successfully balanced the action/adventure with the humor. A couple times I had visions of Ben Grimm from the FF and thought “why couldn’t they have made THAT work like this?” Oh well. Screw the FF, Hellboy works just fine. Perlman slides right back into character and runs rampant in the role. Selma Blair, who I don’t enjoy in much else, pulls off Liz Sherman with the right amount of edge and stress. Strauss was fun, and Abe sees his role increased from film one. I did notice that David Hyde Pierce isn’t back as Abe’s voice, but whoever did it was close enough that it took a bit for me to realize the swap had happened.

The huge jump in quality for me was seeing the obvious influence that Pan’s Labyrinth has had on del Toro’s work. The tooth fairies, the troll market, and the spirit of death are awesomely awesome. The bad guy elves look great too. I think my favorite piece though is the story told to a young Hellboy at the beginning of the film. Looking like it was animated with your basic carved wooden art model, the story and history of the Golden Army is explained in way that took me back to the way they did it in the first LotR film. Some practice for del Toro as he readies himself to work on the Hobbit films? Maybe so. Some special bonus points for del Toro regular Doug Jones who once again portrays Abe, as well as about 98 other roles in this film. Worth seeing for any self-respecting geek or robot and I definitely hope we see more of everyone’s favorite red-skinned demon spawn from the del Toro/Mignola team.

One other thing, easily the best use of a Barry Manilow song in a nerd flick….ever.

Humanjunk: I want to see the human/pryro/demon babies Liz and Hellboy made… And I want to see them make the babies.I found the movie incredibly entertaining, and was incredibly satisfied to see that the film and comic as two different things. The movie still holds the same spirit that the comic does whilst adding an element of hollywood to it. Ten bucks says that Lobster Johnson is in Hellboy III.On a fanboy note, as much as I love Abe’s character in both the first and second movie, I wanted to see him kick some fucking ass. He’s a nimble, slippery fishman. Let’s see him slide around and do all kinds of cool shit. Next movie, next movie…

Oh yeah, and sit through the credits: nothing happens.

Swank-mo-tron: I’ve been to more than one con where Del Toro and Mignola appear together and Del Toro always publicly begs to be allowed to use Lobster Johnson but Mignola always seems annoyed by that and says that he’ll never let that happen.

Humanjunk: Lobster Johnson should be in every movie. From Hellboy to Superman Returns to Glory.

Swank-mo-tron: Agreed.

Dr. Cyborg: Hellboy II kicked a lot of ass, I think I liked the Angel of Death the most, I thought there was some really cool action in it, I think I liked the parts that felt closer to the comic book the best. This movie was good for lots of reasons, and it has much better comedy in it, then most comedy’s that come out. I want to go watch it again.

Kill-tacular-tron: I loved Hellboy 2. I will admit the opening scene with “Hellkid” felt a little out of place to me. It just felt awkward. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the story about the Golden Army. I can’t wait to see where they take the story next.

Humanjunk: Hellkid was a nice touch.

Dr. Cyborg: The coolest part of the movie, is that the architect of the golden army is such a simpleton, looking for shiny objects. The movie is twice as good the second viewing, so everyone get back to the movie theatre and watch it again.

Swank-mo-tron: Agreed.

Clang! Boom! Steam!: It was great to see Del Toro unleashed with more resources and fewer restrictions. I loved the careful blend of creepy horror and tough guy comedy that makes the comics so fun to read. I do wish that the story was a bit more Hellboy-centric instead of the prince stuff, which was still cool (especially the wooden doll bedtime story) , but I’m still a hopeless nerd for the Anung un Rama stuff that dominates the comics. The movies and the comics are separate, and that’s cool, but I really would have crapped myself for a Conqueror Worm movie with some more fan favorites like Roger and Lobster Johnson – expand the universe a bit.

I’m sure I’ll see it again, the detail in the design work makes you feel like you have to since you probably missed lots of cool stuff, like the first time you saw the cantina scene in A New Hope.

My vote for coolest monster has to go to an underdog even though the Angel Of Death was incredibly cool, my personal favorite was the shop keeper with the cathedral sprouting out if his head at the Troll Market. Only Del Toro could pull something like that.

Holy freakin’ crap. Here are three videos Sierra released showing off the engine they built for the game. No need to really talk about it, just check ’em out:

Whysoserious.com/overture counted down to zero last night. Once the timer hit zero, a digital green HA HA HA appeared on the display, followed by a bunch of “hand written” “HA’s” filling the screen. Finally, “Making My Mark” showed on the bomb display, which was a link. When you click the link you are taken to the Citizens for Batman site, which has been vandalized:

That’s not the only thing that happened last night though! Not only was the Citizens for Batman site defaced, but ALL viral marketing sites were! As well as the official The Dark Knight site! You can view all the defaced sites via the Joker’s page, whysoserious.com!

And finally, it looks like this may have been the crescendo of The Dark Knight viral marketing campaign. A site was released whysoserious.com/kickingandscreening/ which stated:

“You’ve played your part, now here’s your rewards. Meet at the rendezvous point below. Don’t be late, don’t forget your ticket, or heads will roll. Casual attire, smiles optional.”

At the site there was a link to get free tickets for two to an IMAX screening of The Dark Knight on Tuesday, July 15th! Unfortunately, this bot got the e-mail a little late it seems as by the time I visited the site, all showings were sold out. It wouldn’t surprise me if something cool happened at these screenings. If any of you BSR! readers out there were quick enough on the draw to get tickets, shoot us an e-mail and let us know if anything exciting happens at the screening!

In January 2009 we will all be treated to Marvel/Lionsgate’s sixth straight to DVD animated movie, “Hulk Vs.” The DVD will actually contain two separate movies roughly 45 minutes each. The first will be Hulk Vs. Thor, and the second will be Hulk Vs. Wolverine. While there has not been much information released about Hulk Vs. Thor, there has been quite a bit released about Hulk Vs. Wolverine; check out the official synopsis below and you can check out the trailer here!

“ALBERTA, Canada. Over the past week, The INCREDIBLE HULK has been tearing a line across the Canadian wilderness, leaving a swathe of destruction in his wake. He has to be stopped, and there’s only one man up to the job.

He’s the best at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice.

He’s WOLVERINE, an elite agent of Canada’s top secret Department H, and he’s been put on Hulk’s trail with a single objective: stop the Green Goliath… at all costs.

Hulk and Wolverine are about to enter the fiercest battle of their lives. And they have no idea that there are a few unpleasant surprises waiting for them on the other side.”

Judging just by the trailer, I think this looks pretty epic. Hopefully it will be a full 45 minutes of knock down, drag out Wolverine and Hulk action. Even though “Hulk Vs.” won’t be released until January 2009, the full feature will be shown this year at the San Diego Comic Con! We will have some bots on location at the SDCC so hopefully one can attend this screening and provide an early review! For anyone attending the SDCC this year the world premiere screening of Hulk Vs. Wolverine takes place on Thursday July 24th at 4:15PM in Hall H.

It has been confirmed that trailers for the following movies will be shown preceding The Dark Knight:

Body of Lies

Watchmen

Terminator 4: Salvation

On a note about Watchmen, as reported by The Geek Show Podcast, the Watchmen trailer will be attached to prints of The Dark Knight one week after it opens. However, my guess is that it will probably show up online around the same time, if not maybe a little earlier.

Well, I went and found some pictures of Two-Face.

I wasn’t looking for them and the post wasn’t clearly marked Spoiler and to be honest, I didn’t exactly want to see these.  In fact, I’ll post a link at the bottom where you can see even more spoilerish pictures.

So…

Seriously.

Turn back now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

I’m not screwing around.

This is serious.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1:

There’s some other ones here. I don’t expect these to stay online for very long, so take up an eyeful while you can.

Ok….

I’ll post the big spoilery one here:

Roughly four months from now we should all be taking time off work to play the new Ghostbusters Game. For those that haven’t heard about the game yet, push that rock off of you and read my original post about the game. I’ve decided to start a countdown of news and interesting facts about the series until the game comes out.

For starters, let’s go over all the news since my original post:

• Not all of the actors from the original movies are coming back. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis will not be providing their voices for the game. Moranis made enough money off of the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movies that he has retired. And who can blame him?
• Ernie Hudson claims the script for the game to be effin’ huge. He had this to say:

“You know, I read the script, and it’s a really good script,” he said. “It’s huge. It covers every possibility. A regular film script is 120 pages, this thing’s 480 pages, or something.”

• Master Replica has semi-announced the production of Ghostbusters props. In their most recent newsletter, in the coming soon section it said “Back off man, I’m a scientist.” I’m crossing my fingers for a ghost trap. Or a Stay Puft diorama, at the very least.
• Screen shots of the Wii version have been released. They look a lot like Dan Schoening’s art.
• Tokyopop is releasing a manga digest to bridge the gap between Ghostbusters 2 and the game. You can preorder it at your local comic shop.

Whysoserious.com/overture has come online… approximately 53 hours and counting from the time of this post…

Click the picture to visit the site.