Today's News: lots o' trailers mostly

The latest crop of news of the past few days consists of mostly trailer material:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/156970/nieuwe_trailer_serie_gotham

Seems somebody was inspired by Nolan's seminal Dark Knight trilogy. The whole look of this show, based on the trailers so far, screams Nolan in its display of realistic psychopaths and criminals and dark steel and glass canyons. No trace of the more outlandish, fantastic elements of Batman lore. Considering it's an origin show that can still come of course. You've got to show the everyday people behind these heroes and demons before going overboard with any otherwordly shenanigans they might offer. So for the time being, the villains to be set up will dabble in the more commonplace criminal enterprises instead of revealing their odd personality quirks out loud. I doubt we'll be seeing Poison Ivy controlling plant life with pheromones anytime soon, which is probably for the better. It seems that at the heart of the story remains young Bruce Wayne's loss of his parents and honest cop Inspector Gordon's subsequent quest to apprehend their killer, which forms a personal bond between the two of them based around their need for justice. That's as Batman as they come without introducing the alter ego of the Caped Crusader. It's also a basic element of the Batman make-up that the Dark Knight movies kinda raced through, which does make the show stand out more on its own. Question is, will Gordon catch the murderer, or will he fail at that, which makes the urgency for young Bruce feel all the more pressing? And how do all these token Batman villains, like Catwoman, Penguin and Riddler fit into the grand scheme of things? Despite the copycat style, still a lot to look forward to.

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/156979/eerste_trailer_outcast

Another medieval Sword & Sorcery flick starring Nicolas Cage as a wethered ex-crusader? Been there, done that, didn't work out so great before. It seems Outcast's plot just trades in the creepy witches and demons from Season of the Witch for angry Chinese overlords and royal family squabbles. And instead of Ron 'Hellboy' Perlman for a sidekick, we get Hayden 'whiny Anakin' Christensen. Also not much of an improvement. Cage's fondness of silly wigs remains, so at least there's some consistency to his career. The entire thing seems like a B-movie with a minute plot based around a string of action scenes, which is to be expected from a movie directed by a first-time director who usually deals with coordinating stunts only; though he has an impressive resumé in that department, no doubt there. Chances are that means the action scenes will be executed rather adequately, which seems like the least we should hope for in this film's case.

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/156980/eerste_teaser_woman_in_black_2_

The popular trend of giving succesful horror films a sequel of sorts that doesn't feature any of the characters from the previous installment continues, whether we like it or not. The Woman in Black was a very effective chiller, but its ending seemed fairly definitive, even though it was established that exorcising the vengeful spirit from the title didn't work. That's enough for any studio hungry to cash in on decent box office results (can't imagine they were stellar or anything), so the murderous ghost will soon be at it again. Hammer Studios has a history of fondly remembered horror movies and their many follow-ups, and in a way it's reassuring to know the recently revamped horror specialist studio isn't afraid to use its tactics of old. Do we want a second Woman in Black? Not particularly, but I'm all for period movies with Gothic looks. Hammer has always had a knack for those and the 21st Century seems no different for them in that regard. The premise isn't so bad either. Snotty kids evacuated from WW II London are relocated to a creepy countryside mansion, and instead of finding a delightful fantasy world in the cupboard they encounter a sinister spirit hellbent on enticing them to suicide there. Basically sounds like an evil Narnia, so what's not to like?

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/156982/weaver_niet_in_expendabelles

This is quite a setback for the ExpendaBelles project. If you consider old grunts like Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose primary decade of fame and fortune was the Eighties, as the prime action movie stars of their day, Sigourney Waver was their definite female counterpart, thanks to the first two Alien movies - groundbreaking pictures in that regard - and Ghostbusters. There's not that many well remembered powerful older action gals around that remain as active as she is. Terminator's Linda Hamilton maybe? What has she been up to since then? For any other similar femme fatales, you'd have to look for more recent fare. Weaver would have been the project's greatest asset in iterms of casting, so who could fill her shoes now? Sure, there's plenty of grand dames of the cinema who could, but not that many with a memorable action movie background that would warrant their presence. It just goes to show how rare such roles were for females back then. Which made this female equivalent of The Expendables a risky venture to begin with, as there was always a realistic chance those few girl power women of old would turn down a part. Considering The Expendables 3 is not doing so well at the boxoffice - to say the least! - maybe it's a clear signal there's no particular public demand for this type of film at present. However, it's the female bits (no pun intended) that would have made the difference here, and I was quite intrigued as to how that would play out. It would have been great to see theatres hosting a Ladies' Night that doesn't feature a typical romantic comedy for a change. Guess that's gonna take a while longer to transpire, if it doesn't fall through at all.

Today's News: women soon expendable too

Old news by now, but still new enough for posting, as it is mine and this is my blog so I post whatever pleases me anyway:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/151194/diaz_streep_en_jovovich_als_expendabelles

Expendabelles... I actually like that cheeky play on words. Of course it confirms this is basically just a rehash of the Expendables, except with an all-girl team, but I think most audiences would have picked up on that anyway, so why not exploit it to the fullest from the get-go? After all, the Expendables has become quite a brand name, so there's no harm in riding along its wake of success from a commercial viewpoint, especially if the rights belong to the same studio. A film like this was bound to happen, really; with all of the recent action films that feel like Eighties-throwbacks,  spouting their testosteron all over the place, a cry for girl power was to be expected sooner rather than later. I'm only surprised it took so long to get a project like this into gear. Coming from someone who got beat up by his sister regularly as a kid, I know there's plenty of strong women who take crap from no man, though not enough films have made use of this fact. Sure, there's the occasional female action star, but an all-girl team of commandos kicking butt? I can't think of a title that covers that angle. Charlie's Angels comes closest, so I'm not surprised at all Cameron Diaz' name has been revealed to be attached to this film. Same goes for Milla Jovovich, who alone has starred in just about as many action flicks - six Resident Evil films for instance - as all other female action stars combined. Meryl Streep however is an intriguing choice. Surely one of those olden goldies (which is not meant to come off as condescending to actors/actresses who were already active and successful in the Eighties, and still are today) that commands respect, though not particularly in a physical sense (and she better not sing!). In terms of acting it's certainly gratifying to see a woman of her caliber in a starring role. The names of Gina Carano and Katee Sackhoff also sound right up this film's alley, even though they may not be as familiar to general audiences as the previous trio. Still, I think there's room for more here. Linda Hamilton? Sigourney Weaver? Angelina Jolie? Rhona Mitra? Michelle Rodriguez? Seems like there's enough potential actresses to pick from for this film and two sequels at least.

Then there is this question, which just had to be asked at some point (though I haven't heard anybody else on the topic yet, surprisingly): if Expendables and Expendabelles are from the same studio, does that mean they share a universe from a narrative angle, which may lead to a crossover between the male and female departments, resulting in one super-ultimate, big-ass action flick-to-end-all-action-flicks? Or would people prefer to see gents and dames stick to their own corners instead of going at each other, which could only lead to the girls' defeat? I for one really can't see any female action stars surpassing the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger in terms of physical stamina, expertise with weaponry or sheer muscles. In terms of intelligence though...