The New 'Logan' Trailer is Seriously Depressing

Fox's X-Men franchise is all over the place. It's got dizzying highs (Deadpool) dismal lows (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and daunting middles (X-Men: Apocalypse), so it's hard to gauge just what a new entry in the franchise will bring to the table. On March 3, we get Logan, an odd film that will likely be Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart's last outing as Wolverine and Professor X. It has the trappings of a road trip movie, with the titular Logan and Chuck Xavier on the move and encountering a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen), who bears a striking resemblance to Wolverine in the "disemboweling people with metal claws" department. In the film, Laura is likely Logan's clone, or at least we can assume that's the case given what's happened in Marvel's comic book universe, where she has taken up the Wolverine mantle after her "father's" death.

Logan seems to be loosely based on Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's Old Man Logan, taking place in a dreary near-future where our favorite adamantium-infused mutant has lost a step in his advancing years. The film evidently makes full use of its R rating, with plenty of bloodshed and an older, decrepit Prof. X that has developed a bit of a potty mouth. It looks like a weird, sad movie, but by all accounts, it could be the satisfying sendoff that both Jackson and Stewart deserve.

Watch the second trailer for Logan below.

Final 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Trailer Features Gloom, Doom and a Familiar Face

Well, maybe it's not a familiar face, necessarily, but I could swear I've seen those claws before ...

Yes, although it seemed like Wolverine would be sidelined for Bryan Singer's X-Men: Apocalypse, it now looks like Logan will play a limited role in the Days of Future Past sequel.

The final trailer for the May 27 film arrived yesterday, giving us an expanded look at Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse, his four Horsemen (including Olivia Munn as Psylocke and Alexandra Shipp as Storm) and the young X-Men roster led by Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence).

As is normally the case with Fox's X-Men flicks, you can pretty much take everything you know about the Marvel Universe and chuck it out the window when you sit down to watch the ninth film in this franchise (assuming, of course, that your theater has windows). Still, like First Class and Days of Future Past before it, Apocalypse looks like one hell of a ride. Watch the trailer below.

Watch: 'Deadpool' Trailer for a Trailer

Fox ("the studio that inexplicably sewed his f***ing  mouth shut the first time") has released a teaser for a Deadpool trailer that's set to premiere tomorrow, and if the tone of this clip is any indication, we're all in for a treat when the Ryan Reynolds film hits theaters in February. Check it out!

 

‘Fantastic Four’ Cast Hasn’t Seen the Movie

This can’t be a good sign for Marvel’s First Family.

BBC Newsbeat reports that the leads in Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot hasn’t even seen the finished movie yet, even though it’s set for release on Friday.

The film hasn’t been screened for critics either. When Newsbeat asked Miles Teller, the new Reed Richards, whether the film will prove the doubters wrong, he said, “Rarely are films of this size critically well received. This is not a movie we're going to go on Rotten Tomatoes and it's going to be at 80 or 90 percent.”

Wortman’s Note: Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89 percent last year, while Guardians of the Galaxy is sitting pretty at 91 percent. The Avengers got a score of 92 percent in 2012, and Iron Man got a 94 percent wayyyy back in 2008. Rare indeed. 

A Perfect Storm of Marvel Promo Images

Wow, and here I thought it was a slow week. Just today we got first looks at how four Marvel characters will look in live-action in the very near future.

First up, Marvel Entertainment has posted Daredevil's red suit in his Netflix-exclusive series, which drops tomorrow:



But that's not all! We've only gotten glimpses of Paul Bettany's Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but today we got a full-on poster of the avenging android, sparking much speculation about his role in the film as its May 1 release date approaches:

Meanwhile, the folks at Fox are keen on reminding us that they, too, have Marvel franchises, releasing this image of The Thing from this summer's Fantastic Four reboot:

Finally, Fox has also released, via Empire.com, this concept art showing Ben Hardy as Archangel in next summer's X-Men: Apocalypse:

Not a bad day to geek out, eh?

'X-Men: First Class' Trailer Hits the Web

I’ll come right out and say it: I haven’t been paying all that much attention to Fox’s X-Men: First Class, set to debut in theaters on June 3. After the disastrous X-Men: The Last Stand and the downright idiotic X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I doubt this franchise can be salvaged at this point, but director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) is nevertheless making an attempt to do just that. If he fails, the number of bad X-Men movies will officially outweigh the good ones.

Set in the 1960s during the Cuban Missile Crisis, X-Men: First Class recounts the formation of the legendary mutant superhero team. Of course, central to the story is the burgeoning rivalry between Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Other characters appearing in the prequel include Beast, Mystique, Havok and Emma Frost (played ever-so-seductively by Mad Men’s January Jones).

Marvel.com posted the first trailer for the film earlier this week, and I have to say that it looks somewhat promising. The shattered relationship between Xavier and Magneto has always been the cornerstone of the X-Men mythos in any of its incarnations, and as long as the film is semi-coherent, it’ll be a step up from Wolverine.

Watch the trailer below.

Ridley Scott's 'Alien' Prequel Dead

Remember how Alien director Ridley Scott was poised to resurrect the ailing sci-fi/horror franchise for Fox with a prequel film? Well, as Private Hudson might say, “Game over, man! Game over!”

According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog, the canceled Alien project—which would have taken place long before the 1979 original film—has been reconfigured into an original film called Prometheus. The new film is slated for a March 9, 2012 release date.

“While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place,” Scott said in a statement. “The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative. I couldn’t be more pleased to have found the singular tale I’d been searching for, and finally return to this genre that’s so close to my heart.”

Sounds intriguing, but it’s odd move for Fox to cast aside such a lucrative property in favor of a wholly new one. Then again, perhaps Fox is looking for its next Avatar, which was helmed by Scott’s fellow Alien franchise veteran James Cameron. There’s no word whether this film will also be in 3D.

Click here for the full story.

Original Cast Returns to Futurama for New Episodes

After extended (and allegedly heated) salary negotiations prompted 20th Century Fox to threaten replacing Futurama’s voice actors with sound-alikes, the original cast members will officially be reprising their roles when the show returns on Comedy Central in 2010, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The principal voice cast—which includes John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Billy West, Tress MacNeille and Katey Sagal—had reportedly asked for several times what the studio was offering initially. While terms of the agreement have not been made public, the actors have apparently reached a financial compromise with Fox, surely to the delight of hardcore fans rallying against potential cast changes.

So not only are we getting more Futurama, but Fry, Bender, Leela, Dr. Zoidberg and the rest of the gang will sound as they should. As Professor Farnsworth might say, this is “good news, everyone!”

Confirmed: Ridley Scott Returns to Direct Alien Prequel

After months of speculation, Variety confirmed on July 30 that Ridley Scott—who directed the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien—will return to the series to helm a prequel film. Twentieth Century Fox has hired Jon Spaihts (Passengers, St. George and the Dragon) to write it.

The film will apparently take place before the original, in which the crew of a commercial space ship is terrorized by a toothy, acid-blooded monster.

Do we necessarily need another Alien movie? Not at all. The series peaked in 1986 with James Cameron’s breathtaking sequel, Aliens, and unless this “reboot” aspires to that level of filmmaking there’s no real point in going through with it (save for the obvious exploitative monetary benefits). It’s also yet another prequel from the studio that brought us the half-assed X-Men Origins: Wolverine earlier this summer, which proved that adhering to established continuity is not only completely optional in doing these backstory films, Fox seemingly discourages it. That’s the only plausible explanation for how that film turned out.

However, with Scott now officially attached, consider my skepticism subdued.