Swank-mo-tron: Well, the summer has yielded yet another nerd aimed summer blockbuster for us to prop up and tear down with our incredibly popular and influential Big Shiny Robot! roundtables. Today’s topic is Louis Letterier’s pseudo-reboot of the Hulk franchise.

I for one, enjoyed the hell out of it and feel like it was on par with Iron Man. Having said that, though, I think there were elements of the Ang Lee film that I liked more and elements of this that I liked more than the Ang Lee version, but overall, this is the ultimate fan version of the Hulk story. He gets to do and say all of the cool Hulk shit that he does (“Hulk Smash!” as he does his ground breaking move and how he gets to put out a fire with his thunderclap…)

All in all, I’m excited to see how this movie fits together with the Avengers. This could be a really interesting dynamic.

What did you guys think?

Humanjunk: Initially in the opening credits of the flick I was a little peeved that they re-did the origin of the character rather than just using the first movie as a basis for this one. But, Edward Norton’s acting, and the man on the road concept peaked my interest and within the first 30 minutes of the movie I had one thought: this is the Hulk.

Neotron: Is it a sin to say that I liked this flick as much, if not more, than Iron Man? Well, not as a whole. But there’s something about the nitty, gritty physical drama involved in Hulk that hits homes. It way exceeded my expectations and I had a blast. After reading The Ultimates, and having more a feel for Banner and the Hulk, I thought Ed Norton was the perfect Bruce and the Hulk was perfectly super-duper pissed and primal. The CGI was the only thing that I was worried about going into the theater. And I was pleasantly surprised. It was believable and often forgotten that I was looking at computer animation. I’ve always thought CG characters should be darkened, with a high concentration of light and shadow realism (i.e. Gollum). The darker greens on Hulk with dingy dirts and grime made it stand out above Ang Lee’s version. The Hulk simply looked intimidating and ferocious. The work done to his facial expressions were a real added charm. I’ve heard people rip on some of the acting in the film, but I thought it was superb. William Hurt and Tim Roth both did amazing jobs as supporting characters and Norton and Tyler sold the romance and then tension. And, holy shit, the audience went nuts when Tony Stark walked into the bar at the end. Can’t fucking wait for The Avengers.

M.C. Frogger: I really liked this Hulk but, of course, I really liked Ang Lee’s Hulk too. Edward Norton was perfect, the way that he would run looked like a scientist, and he was scrawny, too. I thought I was going to hate Liv Tyler, but I didn’t, she wasn’t that bad.

All and all it was a good movie, the Hulk emoted like no other (in fact, he reminded me of my puppy). You could actually tell how he felt from his eyes alone.

One last thing, when do we get to see The Leader?

Swank-mo-tron: For some reason, I just don’t see Marvel racing out to tell the quintessential Hulk vs. Leader story on film anytime soon. That would be like a Batman movie racing straight to The Calculator. Maybe not that bad, but you get the idea.

Dr. Cyborg: I went to the midnight viewing of this movie and was forced to sit next to an ass-hole the whole time, no, I am not talking about Swank-mo-tron, there was another, bigger ass-hole. He clapped whenever someone got hurt or whenever Edward Norton didn’t have a shirt on, and laughed annoyingly loud when they made any of the many one liners.

It felt kinda like hell.

The worst moment was when Edward Norton was in the glass annex and they shot gas bombs into the windows, Edward Norton took off his shirt. The man next to me let out a “whoooooooo.” Then Edward Norton put the shirt over his face to act as a sort of gas mask. The revelation that Edward Norton was not stripping for him forced him to recall his “whooooo” by saying “oh never mind.”

The fact is that I liked this flick, but I wouldn’t put it above the Ang Lee version at all, I think they were equal for different reasons. I didn’t think that Edward Norton brought anything special to this roll but was acceptable. I liked the Hulk action, and I thought that this was one of the best Stan Lee cameosto date. I thought that Tim Roth was really good, and that his action sequences I.E. him running faster then all the soldiers, then standing a chance against the Hulk were the coolest moments in the film.

Humanjunk: That dude you sat next to was me.

This is pretty much the same thing we’ve seen but with slightly different footage we’ve never seen before.

Admit it, everyone knows this movie is going to be twice as good as Iron Man or Hulk.

In honor of Father’s Day, I’ve compiled here a list of 10 fathers from the world of nerd-dom and why they were great. Maybe not great fathers, but great in comics, films and TV anyhow.

10) Abe Simpson – Number 10 on the list is good old Abe Simpson. Some might wonder, “Why not Homer?” I’ll tell you why not, Abe is funnier. To me anyway. You got a problem with that?

9) Dr. Christian Shepherd – Jack’s Dad on Lost is a lynchpin of the series. His role has changed a lot on the series (exactly what the hell he’s doing now on the show is one of the big mysteries left) and it always stays interesting and connects with an ever widening web of characters.

8 ) Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. – Henry Jones begat the worlds most famous archaeologist and adventurer and all around bad-ass, Indiana Jones. And his adventures with his son in The Last Crusade proved how much of a bad-ass a doddering old school professor could be.

7) Odin -How could we leave the all-father off the list?

6) Captain James T. Kirk – People forget about Star Trek a lot. I know I do, but who could forget the Wrath of Kahn? Klingon’s kill Kirks son with the Genesis device and he’s forever seeking revenge on them and is ever distrustful of their entire race. Kirks paternal grief would define his character for all of the later missions and cause a distinct racist hatred for Klingons that would take quite a bit to overcome.

5) Batman – Read “A Death in the Family” and you’ll have no doubts that Batman deserves to be on this list.

4) Jonathan Kent – There’s no doubt that Superman wouldn’t be what he was today if it weren’t for the indelible influence of a man like Jonathan Kent (read Mark Millar’s “Superman: Red Son” for definitive proof of that). My favorite version of him is Glenn Ford in the Superman movie. He didn’t have a whole lot of screen time, but what little screen time he had was dripping with all the paternal hallmarks that would make Superman Superman.

3) Omni-Man – If you haven’t been reading Invincible, then you need to, if for no better reason than to see how bad-ass Omni-Man is. As a viltrumite tasked with taking over the Earth, Omni-Man realizes that there’s more to being powerful than domination and his family becomes important. Only coming to that realization after he massacred his worlds version of the Justice League, though. The fight he has with his son after this treachery is legendary and you should pick up the first hardback of Invincible and check it out immediately.

2) Norman Osborne – In every iteration of this character, the guy is just as crazy as a bedbug, but that’s why we love him. The best father moment in movies or comics for Osborne? Ultimate Spider-man. When we accidentally pummeled Harry to death and then allowed agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to kill him, knowing that as crazy as he was, he’d never be able to live with the death of his own son hanging on his shoulders.

1) Darth Vader – I don’t care who you are, you have to admit that the most bad-ass, iconic father in the galaxy is Darth Vader. And no one in comics, film or TV has ever been able to reveal the fact that he’s your father with as much impact on the pop culture or his children than the Vader did. And no one ever went to the lengths to try to protect his children that Anakin did, going so far as to slaughter hundreds of Jedi in a hamfisted attempt to save Padme’s life.

If anyone has anything to add do it below. If you feel someone on the list shouldn’t be, let me know that, too.

Check out my Mother’s day list here.

It’s been an incredible last few weeks. Ever since the vicious smear campaign collapsed and Harvey Dent’s remarkable courage at the hostage crisis at Rossi’s Deli, our campaign has ridden a wave of support I have never seen in all my political life. Our Headquarters reopened and thousands of volunteers show up here every day, every night, fighting for change. Fundraising has reached incredible heights, with over 100,000 Gotham citizens contributing their hard-earned money in support of Harvey Dent’s vow to take back Gotham. We’ve expanded our reach, opening branches in neighborhoods that haven’t seen political campaigns take them seriously for decades. And we’ve harnessed the incredible grassroots support by sending volunteers to knock on doors throughout the city. Amazingly, we will achieve our two millionth door knock sometime in between now and Election Day. Harvey Dent has committed himself to lead the charge to take back our city, face down the criminal and corrupt and restore hope for our future. Now, we need your help. We need to get out the vote!. And we need you to vote yourself. If you can’t make it to the polls, go to www.gothamelectionboard.com and find out how you can vote online. Working together, we will take back Gotham! Allan Cypes Media Manager

The Dark Knight viral campaign is at it again. This time, registered users were sent an e-mail asking us to go and vote for Harvey Dent. The polls are now open and you can vote online at the link above! I have already been to the site, registered, and voted. After registering you are presented with the a form to vote on various propositions and candidates.

I cast my vote and it thanked me for voting… Nothing too exciting, but it does ask for name, address, etc. and the results will be revealed this Friday, so who knows what will happen. I will post here with updates as they come in. Until then,
GO VOTE!

Here is your one and only warning. The following article pertains to a Marvel Character who is rumored to have an appearance in The Incredible Hulk. If you would rather wait and be suprised, just click your back button. If you want to hear this pretty exciting news, scroll down below the poster. And no, it’s not Tony Stark.

In a video interview done with G4’s Attack of the Show, Incredible Hulk directer Louis Leterrier states that you “may” see ol’ Captain America himself in the new Hulk flick.

This doesn’t seem too far fetched considering Captain America’s sheild makes an appearance in Iron Man. Yeah, that’s right, did you all catch it? I would like to say that my robot eyes spotted it, but they didn’t. So for all of you that missed it like I did, here’s a screen cap:

This probably isn’t so much of a rumor since the director himself stated this, but to what extent he will appear will remain a mystery until release. I seriously doubt we see a full fledged Captain America in uniform, but we will just have to wait and see. Even though the first Hulk sucked, Marvel may be on deck with this “do-over” to knock another one out of the park as they start to bring all their heroes to the big screen within the same universe. Luckily, we don’t have to wait that long, The Incredible Hulk opens this Friday.

UPDATE #1: Joblo.com ran our article and added some info to the story:  This story is to be confirmed soon with another Hulk TV spot sometime this week.

UPDATE #2: As reported my cinemablend.com:

Marvel Studios has made no secret out of the fact that they’re angling for the broadest possible appeal with their superhero movies. When you’re trying to make your movie all things to everyone there will be, inevitably, casualties. In the case of The Incredible Hulk, it’s meant 70 minutes of casualties. As we told you in our story here, there are a full 70 minutes missing from the movie which will make it onto the DVD.

We speculated earlier that those missing 70 minutes might contain the Captain America cameo director Louis Letterier promised (watch him tease it right here). Well consider that confirmed. Speaking to the site Judao, Letterier says: “There’s a point when Bruce Banner gives up on his quest for the cure and decide to kill himself. So he travels far North and reaches the Arctic Circle. You might have seen bits of it in some of the promos.” Sounds like an interesting scene, but having watched the movie on Monday I can tell you there’s nothing even remotely like it in there anywhere. The reason for that? Louis says, “The result was a very dark and strong scene, which Marvel, me and everyone else’s considered to be too hard to young audiences to take, so we’ve cut it.” The Incredible Hulk is after all, a kids movie. It’s practically a Pixar flick, right?

Anyway, in that missing scene was Cap’s meeting with Bruce Banner. Letterier confirms, “…when Bruce arrives at his destination he meets up with Captain America!” So the cameo he’s been running around all week promising us isn’t in the movie, and it sounds like it never was. It’s on the DVD. Letterier also makes a vague promise that they’ll also have it on the internet some time this week. Of course he also told us that it would be in the movie just a few days ago, and that didn’t pan out.

So to sum up: No Captain America in The Incredible Hulk, but it’s completely safe to take your kids to see a movie about a guy who gets mad, turns green, and beats the shit out of anyone and everything around him. Marvel is all about family entertainment

I just wanted to give everyone an advisory here: if you weren’t planning on seeing this movie, you should think about reconsidering. It was pretty god-damned entertaining.

If you have kids, they are sure to enjoy it.

Like a lot of Kung Fu movies, this film starts out with a loser who must train to defeat a dreaded enemy of the land. Like a lot of kids movies, the loser must first learn to believe in himself before he is able to vanquish the dreaded enemy of the land. The film centers around Po (voiced by Jack Black) and his deep love of Kung Fu leading to a most unlikely candidate as recipient of the Dragon Scroll which is supposed to turn him into the greatest warrior of the land. The man set to teach him, Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) has been teaching Kung Fu his whole life and finds no worth in him until he realizes that he doesn’t really have a choice.

The two of them make a great comedic pair, better than I would have expected from a goofball like Jack Black (I mean that in a good way) and a classically trained bad-ass like Dustin Hoffman.

I would have to say that the film is perhaps the most mature 3D animated Dreamworks film the studio has ever made and certainly the only one worth watching (with the exception of their collaborations with Nick Park). And the best part of the movie? No shitty pop-culture references that will date the film.

The Kung Fu in the film is really, really fun and exciting to watch and will draw the kids in and was quite impressive. The 2d animated sequences of the film looked rad and the sound design was pretty good, too. One thing I enjoyed that Dr. Cyborg pointed out was that all of Po’s action in the first half of the film before he learned Kung Fu was all taken straight out of the pages of classic Looney Tunes and it worked really well. Seeing anthropomorphic animals smashed by whipping trees, foiled by catapults and pole-vaults, cracked into walls and pounded into the ground is always entertaining to watch.

I’d read early on that Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon were the ones writing the script and that’s why I was looking forward to it, but by the time the movie was finished, their names had been removed. I can’t seem to find a reason for it, though I heard they were unhappy with Monster House, too, but that movie kicked a whole helluva lot of ass.

Long story short? It’s a quick movie and worth the time and the price of a matinée ticket. If you’ve got kids, you should probably go see it now.

I don’t know how accurate this information is and I haven’t seen it reported on any of the usual movie news sites I frequent, but IMDb is reporting it on the official Hobbit page. It seems as though James McAvoy is, at the very least, in the running for the role of Bilbo Baggins.

According to some additional reporting, it seems as though Daniel Radcliffe and Jack Black are two names that have also been tossed around as front runners, but, according to the British newspaper, The Daily Express, McAvoy is in the lead.

Each of these three guys would make very, very different Hobbit movies and I think any one of them would be completely valid and entertaining. I was still holding out hope that they could figure some way to get Ian Holm to do it, but the dude is 76. I don’t see that happening.

So far, the only confirmed cast member is Ian McKellan as Gandalf. If he didn’t come back, I think therewould be riots in the streets. I would assume Andy Serkis is back. Christopher Lee has also offered to come back if it was required of him to do so (read about that here).

So, I’d like to ask each of you robots your opinion about this and a couple of other things.

My next question is this: What role will Ron Perlman play? This is a Guillermo Del Toro movie and it would be silly to think he won’t be involved someway, especially in a film under lots of makeup.

Would he be a good Thorin Oakenshield? Or perhaps simply the voice of Smaug?

Also, I’m just throwing this out there, wouldn’t Clancy Brown make a good dwarf ?

ComingSoon.net/SuperHero Hype! talked to Sam Raimi about the prospect of Spider-Man 4, it was just a quick little blurb, but here you go:

“James Vanderbilt is writing the script and I’m excited to read it. I think it’s going to be done in a few months,” Raimi told us, adding, “I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and I’m hoping it feels right for me because I love Spider-Man. I’m hoping I’m well rested enough to embrace it and I’m hoping Sony wants me to do it. If all of those things come together, I would love to do it. There are a lot of unknowns about the future.”And how does he feel about re-casting key players if needed? “I’d hate to re-cast anybody in the future, I can’t imagine that.”

No mention of filming Spidey 4 & 5 together, but nice to see he still apparently has some passion about the franchise. It will certainly be interesting to see where it goes from here and is mistakes from Spider-Man 3 are acknowledged and fixed for the forthcoming sequels. I don’t think the damage done to the franchise is irreparable, but there’s certainly a lot of ground that needs to be made up. I still have faith in Raimi, hopefully more details of the fate of the next installments will bre revealed in a few months once there’s a script.

Watching Transformers was like passing a kidney stone.

How hard is it to make a movie about giant robots that turn into cars and airplanes that fight other giant robots that turn into cars and airplanes?

Michael Bay, a visionary has outdone himself, yet gain with a bitchin’ new subtitle for Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen.

Does Rise of the Fallen mean that this might rise up above the fallen expectations of the first piece of shit that was so tactfully marketed as a movie? Fuck no. It means that the turd that was seemingly flushed down the crapper is rising back up from the pipes so when we go to take a leak and look in the toilette it’ll be there, waiting for us, like some ominous presence, peering into our souls and breaking us down. I think Rise of the Fallen is the perfect title for the sequel. What can we expect in the sequel? Lots of loud noises, big explosions and hunks of metal wrestling around to the point where you have no clue what’s going on. Oh, and Shia LeDoufus and a hypersexualized 16 year old girl, who for some strange reason, has the “right” amount of sweat on her body to have horny teenagers and middleaged men forget that she can’t act, she’s just there for eye candy, like the cars and special effects.

Here’s a question:

Alien robots come to earth to wage war with one another, boy caught in middle of it with girl he has crush on. Will boy get girl?

Answer:

Who gives a shit?

Want a sequel to Transformers?

Take your toys from when you were a kid, a camera and film it yourself.

P.S.

Your car does not turn into a fucking robot.

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since Transformer’s was released to theaters, and I know that personally, this bot was pleasantly suprised with how it turned out. Michael Bay films aren’t exactly known for character development and plots that make sense, but somehow, I think he managed to finally pull a good movie off and I’m glad that movie was Transformers.

Now the time has come for the sequel, which already began production just this last Monday, June 2nd, announcing actors, etc. and Transformers 2 Producer Don Murphy posted a link on his official message board that directs you to Reserve Result who is reporting that DreamWorks/Paramount has announced the official title for the sequel:

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

This was followed up by confirmation at Hasbro’s official site that this is in fact the official title to the sequel. Now, personally titles really don’t matter to me, I am more of a substance bot and think the movie will either be good or not, regardless of the title. But of course, the nerd community is already split on this, with some very up in arms about this. I do think it maybe sounds a little cheesy, but it is what is it, maybe Revenge of the Decepticons would have been a little cooler, but with reports of Jazz being on set and Megatron more than likely making a return (you can’t kill off Megatron in the first movie for good) it does make a little sense.

I really enjoyed the first movie, it was a lot of fun seeing Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots on the big screen in live action and having Peter Cullen voice Prime was gold. I only hope Bay can make number two great without “Baying it Up” with too much special effects and action and not enough plot or character development. It will certainly be interesting to watch the news as it is released (keeping in mind Bay specifically said he’d be releasing false information) and hope for the best!

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, a DreamWorks/Paramount film, is set to release June 26, 2009, Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Ehren Kruger, and Stars Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Isabel Lucas, and Rainn Wilson