Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures had the single largest block of time in the Hall H schedule on Saturday, and it made me hopeful that we’d see something truly special to kick off the day in the hall.

The room buzzed with the idea that a major announcement would probably be made by the end and we were all hoping for something truly special. But we can get to that at the end.

First, we had Seventh Son, which looks far better than I could have expected.

Here are my notes as I took them live in the panel:

The clip showed first off was longer than the trailer, but only really expanded on the ideas portrayed there. Chris Hardwick brought Jeff Bridges out, as well as the director, and other members of the cast, including Kit Harington, Jon Snow.

The film looks awesome, but it’s worrisome that the release date is 1/17/14, not a traditionally confident release date.

Jeff Bridges basically is The Dude, reading snippets of quotes and notes about his character and needing to realize peace through imagination.

The panel moved at a very brisk pace. Jon Snow and the Dude were ushered off stage and we were treated to the sights of Godzilla.

This movie looks like it could be truly special. The trailer implies that it has the real world gravitas that Pacific Rim brought to the world of Kaiju, but it will also just kick ass.

At the start, we were shown a black and white clip of an A-bomb in the Pacific. They then played last year’s sizzle clip and then brought out the director, Gareth Edwards, and cast, including Bryan Cranston.

The crew finished their last day of shooting just two days ago on a night shoot in Hawaii. They came to San Diego straight from the wrap.

Cranston: “Godzilla was always my favorite monster when I was growing up. He was unapologetic. King Kong was… (mimes feelings)… I was a boy, I wanted to see destruction.”

Cranston wasn’t sure he wanted to take the role, but had a conversation with Gareth and watched “Monsters.” Because it was a monster movie that was character driven, that’s what attracted him to Godzilla. “You get all of the character stuff AND Godzilla, which makes it the best.”

The codename on the film was “Nautilus.”

Perhaps one of the best stories told was Gareth Edwards giving the codename of the film to Canadian customs on their way to filming and the customs guys not quite buying it, so they go to the Internet quickly as they’re holding them, do research, and come back and say, “You’re directing Godzilla, aren’t you?”

To which Edwards replies, defeated, “Yes.”

To which the customs agent says, “Don’t fuck it up.”

Just after Cranston almost whipped out his penis, they showed a teasing trailer that looked phenomenal. Cranston appears to be a scientist, Ken Watanabe looks to be in it, as well as David Straithairn. There’s lots of footage of people running and human destruction. Then a Mothra like villain attacks an airport. Hope looks lost… And then Godzilla arrives.

My god. The sound of his roar was incredible. This film hits theatres May 16, 2014

The next film on the docket was Warcraft.

Since this film doesn’t even start shooting until early 2014, it was obvious they were just making an announcement here. They played a sizzle reel of a human fighting an Orc. It looked pretty clearly like test footage.

After the trailer, Duncan Jones, director of Moon, was brought out and announced to be directing this film.

Anticipation in the crowd was very high for this one.

That’s it for Part 1. In Part 2 we’ll talk about 300, Gravity, The LEGO Movie, and… Superman/Batman.

Writer Corinna Bechko and writer/artist Gabriel Hardman discuss bringing Star Wars: Legacy Volume 2 to life, and give hints to what’s in store in the future in this exclusive video at Comic-Con. (more…)

Fans at San Diego Comic-Con were lucky enough to see the trailer for the upcoming fourth season of The Walking Dead.

With the new poster that was revealed earlier this week, no doubt fans are whipped up into a flesh-eating frenzy.

And what a trailer it is. Shot practically in my backyard here in Georgia, the show looks like it’s going for the heart and the gut in this upcoming season.  More characters appear to replace those we lost last year (though does anyone really miss Lori or Andrea?).

The prison, long considered a place of relative safety, appears to now be overrun with zombies. The fences are failing, and is there a saboteur in their midst? Fans of Darryl have no need to fear. At least, not yet. Norman Reedus features prominently in the four and a half minute trailer, crossbow in hand. The producers should know there will be a huge fan backlash if they kill off such a popular character. Personally, I’m more a fan of him in The Boondock Saints, but that could be because of who his co-star is in the film.

No sign of Little Asskicker, though. Did I miss the baby? So much is happening, and they’re stabbing zombies in the head and digging graves and looking scared. Characters on this show are no safer than those in a Joss Whedon show or George R.R. Martin story. Who will live? Who will die?

Enough talk. Check out the trailer.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 13.

From what I can tell from here in Utah and notin San Diego, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is looking to have a big presence at Comic Con. Looking to start the hype right from the get go, the following teaser was released earlier this week showcasing a quick look at Electro.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am very much looking forward to this movie and have high hopes for this new franchise. So far I have been very pleased with Electro’s look, and now hearing Jaime Foxx speak with the effects applied to his voice I am even more looking forward to what kind mayhem he causes for ol’ Web Head.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 SDCC panel is scheduled for later this afternoon in Hall H, so watch for even more exciting news to come out of that!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters May 2, 2014.

The following first appeared on The Huffington Post.

There were plenty of reasons to be disappointed in America over the weekend. Most of them have much more gravitas than this issue, but this one is no less important.

You see, Grown Ups 2 did more money at the box office than Pacific Rim for their opening weekends. In fact, Grown Ups 2 beat by at least $4 million.

This is a travesty of the highest order.

Pacific Rim is perhaps the best summer movie of the year, hands down. It’s an original idea, it’s a good story well told, and it’s from Guillermo del Toro, one of our most visionary directors. It’s a masterful deconstruction of summer movies as a genre, transforming into the film Michael Bay only hoped he could make. I was so taken with the movie, I had to go back and see it a second time, dragging my kids to see it with me this weekend. Not only did they love it, canceling the apocalypse is about all they’ve been talking about.

Every trope you’d expect in a summer movie is worked from a completely fresh angle in this film. It’s filled with strong heroines, powerful minority characters, and there’s not a negative racial stereotype to be seen.

And it’s full of brilliant, subtle social commentary: for instance, building a wall won’t keep the undesirable elements out, whether those “undesirables” are three hundred foot Kaiju looking to destroy a city or an immigrant looking for a better life.

Ever since I interviewed the screenwriter, Travis Beacham, and got a read on his passion for the project, I had an inkling this film would be special, and it was.

We got something Hollywood never gives us: an original story with new characters on a massive scale.

And what did America do? They went to see drivel like Grown Ups 2 instead.

There’s a reason that reviews for Grown Ups 2 were embargoed, it’s hovering at the 7 percent mark on Rotten Tomatoes. Pacific Rim, on the other hand, is receiving rave reviews and hovering closer in the 70-80 percent range.

Sure, Grown Ups 2 is “critic proof,” but we should know better, shouldn’t we?

Grown Ups 2 is never going to inspire further exploration into its universe. Its characters and built world aren’t so interesting that we’ll want games and stories told in it. There’s nothing rich about it and there’s nothing enriching about it. It’s pure lowest common denominator. And maybe that’s why it came out on top in the United States.

Look at this exclusive peek at a rendering of Gipsy Danger, the main Jaeger in Pacific Rim.

Artist Todd Slater put this dazzling piece of art together for Odd City Entertainment . After seeing images from the film, the artist said, “I was immediately struck by the
scale of the Jaegers versus the humans. These pictures served as a reminder of how fragile human life is and I decided to create my image around this thought. I wanted to depict these giant machines as the protectors of humanity from the mysterious beasts that have emerged from a portal beneath the ocean.”

Do you think that kind of artistic epiphany and introspection would be possible with Adam Sandler’s latest film?

I’m thinking not so much.

We deserve better, America. Pacific Rim is that much better. But if we don’t support it, we won’t get more of them. Instead, we’ll get dark and gritty, like today’s Superman. But everything Man of Steel does wrong, Pacific Rim does right. Everything Man of Steel did right, Pacific Rim did better. It’s truly the summer movie we deserve. And we won’t get more like it if we don’t vote with our dollars.

Let’s get our collective act together and put this movie over the top. We’ll all be better for it as a movie-going public.

I’ll thank you for it. Guillermo del Toro will thank you for it. Our children will thank us for it. Our children’s children will thank us for it.

Bryan Young is an author and the editor-in-chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot.

It still astounds me how trailblazing a company Archie Comics is turning out to be. I could go on and on about the things they’ve done in recent years, we at BSR have reported on a good amount of it, after all. This week’s announcement  though? It has the potential to be the greatest thing to happen to digital comics since the advent of tablets. On the other hand, it has the potential to be a disaster of epic proportions as well. Archie Comics/iVerse has teamed with mobile ad firm TapJoy to offer free comics in exchange for the consumer watching/interacting with ads. Here’s the press release, and I’ll elaborate on my thoughts afterward.

ARCHIE COMICS TEAMS WITH TAPJOY TO BECOME FIRST COMIC BOOK PUBLISHER TO OFFER ADVERTISING SPONSORED DIGITAL COMICS 

Archie Comics furthers expansion into digital content, offering fans new ways to acquire their favorite comics

 Archie Comics, one of the leading mass-market comic book publishers, iVerse, a leading digital content distributor, and Tapjoy, a leading mobile advertising and monetization platform, today announced a partnership that will offer fans a new way to acquire their favorite digital comics for free.  Beginning July 18, the Archie Comics App, available in both iTunes and Google Play stores, will integrate the Tapjoy Mobile Value Exchange® model where consumers engage with advertisements to earn virtual rewards to spend on more than 2,000 Archie Comics.

The new digital offering from Archie Comics and iVerse marks a significant shift in how publishers are making their premium content more widely available to consumers. Archie Comics will be the world’s first digital comic publisher to utilize virtual rewards and the mobile value exchange model to enable consumers to buy their digital comics.

“The teams at Archie Comics and iVerse are pioneers when it comes to digital distribution of some of the most beloved comics ever created,” said Steve Wadsworth, President and CEO, Tapjoy.  “Enabling consumers to simply watch a video or engage with an ad to obtain their favorite comics is an industry-first, and makes Archie and the town of Riverdale more accessible to consumers across the globe.”

“We’re thrilled to partner with Tapjoy and embrace a new way for our consumers to get the comics they love,” said Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics Publisher and co-CEO.  “Making our great content catalog available through a new free-to-own model establishes a new opportunity for how people read comics and will bring even more fans to the Archie universe.”

By simply watching a video, taking a survey or engaging with an ad, users will be able to earn credits to unlock Archie Comics via the Archie Comics app.  This will give fans an opportunity to add to their digital comics library without going over budget.  Archie previously broke new ground by becoming the first comic book publisher to release digital comics the same day as the print edition and continues to blaze trails in unique and innovative steps towards maintaining its status as a leader in the digital marketplace.

Tapjoy is a global leader in helping app developers and publishers monetize many different types of mobile apps including games, movies, books, videos, and text messaging apps.  This partnership further expands Tapjoy’s developer network in the publishing space and opens the door for all types of premium content publishers to offer their content to more fans globally.

At first glance, this is amazing. I mean, who doesn’t want free digital comics? I’ll gladly sit through some advertisements to get the latest issue of Jughead or Mega Man. If it’s successful, this initiative could drastically change the current digital comics model. If it catches on, how long will it be until other publishers follow suit? Free is obviously a better entry point for new readers that 3 or 4 dollars. So, I hope beyond hope that this works out for everyone involved.

Looking at this a bit deeper though? I just don’t know. TapJoy has been surrounded by controversy almost before its inception. Apple themselves have cracked down on TapJoy and their incentiveized app download model. Causing TapJoy to migrate heavily to the Android platform. While that in and of itself doesn’t affect Archie, since it seems that they’ll be exclusively using just the advertising side of things. People who are concerned for their privacy should be a bit wary, however. TapJoy requires access to your unique device ID, to better get a read on what you use, and therefore recommend more apps based on your likes/dislikes. On iOS, it even requires you to install a provisioning profile to do just that, something that Apple themselves may not be too happy with.

Again, it’s too early to tell how things are going to play out, especially since it doesn’t go live until July 18th. I for one will be extremely curious for what this means for digital comics as a whole. As someone once said, time will tell.

More information about Archie Comics can be had here, iVerse here, and TapJoy here.

Yesterday, we got a sneak peek at the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s Comic Con issue which featured Spider-Man facing-off with Electro, giving us our first good look at Electro and the costume he’ll be wearing. Today, we have a bunch of new images from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, courtesy EW (gallery below).

Featuring shots of Spidey in action, Electro looking menacing, The Rhino struggling with a bout of road rage, and Gwen smiling, these photos really give us our first official clear glances at the film, especially regarding Electro. Frankly, I like the look of Electro. I think this villain may be one of the more difficult to adapt to a Spider-Man movie world and I think they have done a bang-up job with his look. He actually looks like a guy who got jolted with electricity (the burned ears) and is now empowered by it (the cool lighting effects) – yet, he’s still recognizable as the Electro from the comics, namely Ultimate Spider-Man.

Also, I’m really digging Spider-Man’s costume changes. The bigger eyes, the darker tones (though, I quite liked the lighter colors of the previous film’s costume), and the lack of sneaker-looking boots. For me, it really conveys a look that Peter has grown up a bit since the first film and perhaps has started to settle into his role as a superhero – and every hero needs a well-put-together costume.

I really enjoyed the first film, despite some of its issues and the fact that we, once again, had to endure his origin story. I am very much looking forward to what’s in store for us when Spider-Man tangles with some more villains in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 when it hits theaters on May 2, 2014!

[Source: Spiderman News]

What do you think of Electro’s look? What about Spider-Man’s new duds? Are you or are you not looking forward to this film? Could I ask you anymore engaging questions to start a dialogue in the comments below? You know the drill: Sound Off!

You can follow Arse-bot and all the pointless thoughts he puts out into the interwebs on Twitter @Arse_bot

If you’ve ever been to this site before, you know that we like Big Shiny Robot!s. It’s kind of our thing. If you’ve read the site for a long time, you’d probably know that we’re big fans of Guillermo Del Toro as well.

It’s no wonder we’d be interested in this film.

I’ve been interested in it from the beginning, given Del Toro’s body of work, but I’ve tried to stay as far away from the hype as possible. I’ve watched a couple of trailers and had an extensive conversation with Travis Beacham, the writer of the film, but that’s about it.

But even staying away, I couldn’t help but feel some glimmer of excitement before I saw the film.

Now, settling into this movie, and having little frame of reference and expecting nothing more than giant robots fighting giant monsters, I wasn’t expecting a well-written, smart take on all the classic summer movie tropes. I wasn’t expecting to love this film so much. I wasn’t expecting to be completely blown away. I wasn’t expecting such a wholly engrossing film.

Pacific Rim tells the story of a world ravaged by monsters that come up out of the sea without warning and terrorize the population. The human response is to build giant robots to fight them.

That’s about all I was hoping to get. I was surprised to find a well-constructed world with that lived-in feel we all hope so much for in science fiction films. I was also surprised to find gravitas in the shared sacrifice of destruction caused by the Kaiju. That was, for me, one of the chief problems of Man of Steel. We were supposed to buy the human response to the Kryptonian invasion and instead we were given two dopey military men and they worked to stop Zod. The public in danger was represented by Perry White and we weren’t given a sense whatsoever of the human cost. Where Man of Steel failed in that regard, Pacific Rim knocks this out of the park. When a Kaiju attack happens, there’s a cost to all of humanity. Del Toro came as close to capturing national sentiment from something like, say, 9/11, on a global scale in this film. The world came together to fight this and it’s represented in all of the choices made about the film. Even if you like Man of Steel, you’ll have to admit that it’s simply done better here.

Del Toro imbued this film with the visceral feeling that ALL OF HUMANITY was at stake here, and that we could very well lose.

The film establishes its world and the stakes of it quickly and we’re left caring about who wins in the the fight between the giant robots (called Jaegers) and the Kaiju.

We’re also given a hero’s journey story, a few of them, from different characters, that all build to one of the most satisfying climaxes I’ve ever seen in a summer movie.

Every trope you can imagine from a big summer movie is on display in this film, from the rousing pre-battle speech and the gruff jock with a problem, to the down on his luck hero getting verbally abused by his commanding officer. Every twist and every turn of the classic summer film, which seems to be a genre on its own, is paid homage to in Pacific Rim, but it’s made fresh in every instance.

For most summer movies like this, Transformers, Battleship, etc. you’d be told, “Turn your brain off and you’ll enjoy it.” Not so with Pacific Rim. It’s a brilliant, careful reconstruction of this type of film and you’re rewarded for thinking deeper about things. After three days of processing this film, everything seems to get better with continued mental digestion, always a good sign for any film.

That’s not to say Pacific Rim doesn’t look pretty or punch hard enough. This movie is gorgeous and the fight scenes are spectacular. There are so many moments where the audience is practically begged to stand and cheer, but we were all too respectful of each other to actually do it.

Another thing I loved about this film was how it treated women and minorities. The woman in this film isn’t a love interest, she’s not a damsel in distress, and she’s not white. Mako, the female lead, is strong, kick-ass, and has to overcome reservations of her fighting on the frontline. She proves herself more than capable, though, and makes me twice as happy knowing I’m going to be bringing my daughter to this film. The other strongest supporting character is played by Idris Elba, who is the badass Marshal Stacker Pentecost. He gets so much cool stuff to do and be the guy in charge of everything.

It’s so much fun, it’s disgusting.

Seriously, this film made me happy in a way I haven’t been able to be in the theatre for a long time. Even Iron Man 3 didn’t provide it. It was so clearly put together by people who have a love of monster movies, but also great films. There were nods to classics like Chinatown, but also spiritual nods to things like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars. It was just a well-told, cleanly written story.

Hands down, this is the best summer movie of 2013, and I don’t see any on the horizon that can touch it.

The only question is: how soon until Marvel throws money at Del Toro to step into the Marvel Universe? Could you imagine him directing a picture with Dormammu as the bad guy?

I just got the chills.

Pacific Rim is not without its problems, but all of its enjoyable features more than make up for it. I’m giving this movie a perfect score.

See it, now and often. If it fails, then it’s your fault they don’t make good movies anymore.

President Obama awarded George Lucas the National Medal of the Arts at the White House today.

A high honor indeed for the man who’s fueled many of our dreams as a culture and a nation.

Here are Obama’s remarks on science fiction and Star Wars at the gathering to honor Lucas, among others:

According to Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page, he has now officially met with Marvel Studios assumably for a role in an upcoming Marvel/Disney film:

“Marvel meeting today, only the people in the room can tell you what was discussed…P.s. Thanks to Our page, for pushing to make it happen… you know I get tunnel vision with my work… and after that meeting today… wow!”

He also included the following picture:

This, of course, raises the question: “Who could Vin Diesel be playing?!”

Two possible hints from his post point to two different characters. In his post, he uses the word Vision – of course, not in any context that would imply that that is the role he is up for, but perhaps it was a word used for a very specific reason? In the photo, he is standing in front of a poster of an Avengers comic book cover that prominently features Giant Man (Henry “Hank” Pym) – perhaps this was intentional? Maybe this is more a hint towards that this mystery role will be in the Avengers sequel? At this point, this is speculation border-lining grasping at straws; it’s not like the word “vision” isn’t a common word in the English language and I’m sure the Marvel Studios headquarters’ walls are plastered with posters like the one seen in this photo.

I quite like Vin Diesel and his films and think he would make a fine addition to the Marvel Movie Universe. Could I see him playing Hank Pym? Not really, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t work – hell, I didn’t think Chris Evans would make that great of a Captain America and look how that turned out. It will definitely be interesting to see if he picks up a part in a future Marvel film, perhaps we will hear something at Comic Con? . . .

Which Marvel character do you think Vin Diesel should play in the Marvel Movie Universe? Sound off in the comments below!

You can follow Arse-bot and all the pointless thoughts he puts out into the interwebs on Twitter @Arse_bot