Geek Heaven! Sci Fi/Fantasy Movies of 2011

It's gonna be a good movie year for us Geeks!

I Am Number Four - February 18, 2011 (Michael Bay)
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

Thor - May 6, 2011
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

X-Men: First Class - June 3, 2011
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

Super 8 - June 10, 2011 (JJ Abrams)
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

The Green Lantern - June 17, 2011
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

Transformers: Dark Side of The Moon - July 1, 2011
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 - July 15, 2011
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

Captain America - The First Avenger - July 22, 2011
[youtube:1j8aopet][/youtube:1j8aopet]

OMG! This is gonna ROCK! New footage of Green Lantern from WonderCon: warning! language in review!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49121
GREEN LANTERN WonderCon Footage Must Not Escape Your Sight!

Published on: Apr 02, 2011 1:00:56 PM CDT

Beaks here...

After an uninspired showing at last year's Comic Con, and a fairly underwhelming first trailer, Warner Bros. needed to land a knockout blow at WonderCon yesterday with their GREEN LANTERN footage. The initial reaction (particularly from GL authority Jordan Hoffman) suggested they did, but these things are often in-the-room sensations. Remove them from the convention hall, and they tend to fall a little flat.

This is not the case with the GREEN LANTERN footage. At all. Truth be told, my colleagues might've undersold how emphatically they've nailed the look and tone of the comic.

If you're any kind of Green Lantern fan, you're going to be freeze-framing the Oa shots to see how many members of the Corps you can recognize. And that image of Hal Jordan sailing by space-walking astronauts on his way to Oa? Inspired. This is exactly what I wanted from a GREEN LANTERN movie.

Hopefully, WB over-relied on Reynolds's glib shtick with that early trailer, and this footage more accurately evokes the tone of Martin Campbell's film. I want to believe. I want to love this film. I want to get my ass to Oa now!

GREEN LANTERN hits theaters June 17th, 2011.
In HD at Apple: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/greenlantern/
[youtube:i681nz05][/youtube:i681nz05]

Analysis of how well they did with the science...

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49156
Copernicus on the astronomy behind the new GREEN LANTERN footage!!
Published on: Apr 06, 2011 9:23:25 AM CDT

Copernicus here.

For those who don’t follow the site regularly, I’ve been reviewing movies for AICN for years, but in real life I’m a professional astronomer. So sometimes I like to weigh in on the scientific accuracy of films. Last year, I did this for AVATAR and even got to talk to James Cameron about it. My take is this: you can have as much fantasy as you want in films if it is important to the story, but just don’t get the details wrong out of laziness.

I just saw the new GREEN LANTERN WonderCon footage......and I have to say I’m getting very excited!

There are billions of potential worlds in the Milky Way. If you are writing Green Lantern, why would you ever invoke other galaxies? It makes no sense. I read online that the so-called “Guardians of the Universe” on Oa have split the universe into 3600 sectors, with 7200 lanterns. Now there are approximately 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe (who knows how many in the whole thing). If they are truly guarding the whole universe, then there are about 15 million galaxies per Green Lantern. Each one of those has about 100 billion stars, so that is potentially 15 quadrillion solar systems per Green Lantern. If each Lantern lives for 100 years, and could teleport from solar system to solar system, he could only visit each one for 200 nanoseconds. These “Guardians of the Universe” are either the biggest morons in existence, or the universe is unbelievably sparsely populated, or they have delusions of grandeur.

There's lots more on the stars and galaxies, the space suits the astronauts are wearing and what the dead give-away is that they aren't in a vacuum, the physiology of the alien Green Lanterns, the lantern itself, and more!

New international X-Men First Class trailer!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49219
Wanna see an incredibly well-cut foreign trailer for X-Men: First Class that has some great new bits and pieces? Sure ya' do!
by Quint
Published on: Apr 10, 2011

At first it looks like the same trailer as the US version, but there's some really good new stuff in it, including Holocaust Magneto and a great exchange between Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy... plus I swear that Beast foot-changing moment is longer.

Even if it was just two seconds more footage I'd still post this as a great showcase of how to cut a big budget geek trailer. There's character, action, money shots, quiet moments and everything in between. And great music, too.

I had to watch this 3 times because there's so much to see! I'm still not sold on James McAvoy as Prof Xavier, but will reserve judgment until I see it for myself.

[youtube:3m806frw][/youtube:3m806frw]

YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!

Opening day Baby, 11am!!!!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49322
Harry is absolutely thrilled by THOR!
Published on: Apr 18, 2011

Yeah – I’m a very big fan of this film.

The second you see Hemsworth’s THOR begin twirling Mjolnir – the classic circular way – and you begin to see what it does… I swear – I squealed like a little girl playing with her older brother’s cooler toys for the first time unsupervised.

They made a very entertaining, engaging and fun THOR film. When Fandral lets out a laugh in the midst of battle – and is smiling… I just loved it. Hogun and his mace. Volstagg eating… Loki making duplicates… Thor swinging that f****** hammer. I’ve seen these things and they did not suck. They ruled. Oh – and Chris Hemsworth? He’s a star. How big? One that Natalie Portman seemed 1000% smitten with in this film. I’m very happy. This is so much more of THOR than ever really hoped I’d get in a first THOR movie.

NOW – get me some CAPTAIN AMERICA & GREEN LANTERN & 1960’s era X-MEN action stat! I’m giddy about this summer!!!

A 2nd viewing review (I am even more pumped, and I didn't think that was possible!):

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49498
Harry loved THOR even more upon second viewing! Updated with AICN THOR Pics!
Published on: May 04, 2011

Hey folks, Harry here... I've been a drunk monkey in love with THOR since I've seen it, but on the second screening, it actually played even better. SO - How did the AICN screening tonight go?

There were no guests, no big time studio types... this was a AICN THOR FAN screening - and those can go a number of ways. Amongst my personal group of friends - I'd say the 30 closest folks I know that love comic books, and flirt with loving and hating comic movies... THOR unanimously kicked their asses.

This does not occur. There was no stand out dismissive contrarian in the woodpile tonight. Everyone wearing a THOR shirt or wielding their on Mjolnir (and there were over about 40 of em... ranging in age from like 5 to 46. ...this was a screening that was loved. Afterwards the discussion in the hallway lasted for about 30 minutes. Then outside was a giant wall of geek geeking out. No fights, but celebrations. Girls that loved it, guys that loved it... folks that knew nothing of THOR and ones that could comic quote the scenes taken straight from Kirby or Simonson or Buscema...

And ya know what... that felt outstanding.

OH - and Chris Hemsworth... best superhero casting since Christopher Reeve as SUPERMAN... He is note frickin perfect!

When a geek critic loves it more the 2nd time, and when geeks don't tear a movie down afterwards, it was made right! I'll post my own review after I go see it Friday morning!


And yet another trailer for The Green Lantern, more info here http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49513
The New GREEN LANTERN Trailer Is Simply Fantastic! UPDATED!
Published on: May 04, 2011 3:30:00 PM CDT
Nordling here.

I don't have much to say except that this is the trailer we've all been waiting for. Not just a simple representation of the WonderCon footage, this now looks like the movie that Warner Bros. hoped it would be - a truly epic superhero film. Thanks to Yahoo! for the embed.

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/green-l ... 1#belowNav

Thor - yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! Visually breathtaking; I missed so much even though I was forewarned at the overwhelming detail to be experienced. The musical score was incredible, it made the movie flow and be felt. The acting rocked! The pace was good, the action exciting, and it even had some humorous moments! No disappointment at all. . And getting to see trailers for Captain America: The First Avenger before-hand, along with the teaser after the credits for The Avengers is just the cherry on top!

I can't wait to see this again and see what I missed!

This article put into words what I really loved the most about the movie - it hadn't hit me consciously until reading this article. The marriage of science and myth/story-telling in this movie was exquisite, obvious, yet understated. As if it isn't cool enough that the heroine is an astrophysicist, but the Rainbow Bridge is explained scientifically, the depiction of the Asgard realm took advantage of Hubble's images and put into popular media that which epitomizes the beauty of science - discovery. It doesn't hit you over the head with boring science stuff, it just puts it out there, sometimes with explanations, sometimes not, but in a way shows science as fun and exciting! Now I really want to go watch it again (and, no, not just for Hemsworth's abs, biceps, and accent! Although they are a thing of beauty too!).


http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/05/1 ... c=fb&cc=fp
'Thor' Blends Myth And Science
by Adam Frank
May 10, 2011

In the modern era our most ancient myths have to be recast in a vocabulary we understand and that means science. Watching Thor, the newest addition to Marvel's universe of comics turned into movies (and its next step towards the long awaited Avengers movie), you can see the explicit binding of mythic and scientific narratives. Equally apparent is a second kind of movement: the use of myth as an artistic expression that can open new perspectives on scientific truths.

As the great scholar of myth Mircea Eliade recognized, Hollywood's business has always been myth propagation. What is both new and fascinating, however, is the way myths now become braided with the language of science (consciously or unconsciously) so that we in a scientific culture can hear them. Thus Bifrost, the "burning rainbow bridge" linking realms becomes a mix of divine architecture and an element of general relativity (a worm-hole or Einstein-Rosen bridge). When you watch the film, be particularly mindful of the stunning visualization of Asgard — realm of the gods. Hanging above the golden realm is a starscape that is, literally, right out of modern science.

As an astronomer, I couldn't miss the variegated interstellar clouds in hues of cobalt and magenta that make up much of the film's cosmic background. They are taken right out from images captured by telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer and Herschel. Visualizing star-forming clouds in this way is more than just entertainment. It's a process by which the fruits of scientific cosmos building move from the rarified realm of theory into the imaginative resources of the culture as a whole.

It's not just that myth can find new expression in the language and concepts of modern science. The narratives of science itself can also find new ways of making themselves known to the culture through myth.