Iron man 3
The ‘Iron Man 3‘ trailer. It’s finally here, after a number of trailer teasers. And you get a good look and listen to Ben Kingsley‘s Mandarin, a taste of Guy Pearce‘s role in the film, and the sense that this is a film of scale, and that nothing is going to come easy for Robert Downey Jr.‘s Tony Stark.
There’s a size and vision (from director Shane Black) that is of universe, but seems completely different than the party atmosphere present in the first two movies. This looks like it’s going to put Stark and company through the ringer. There’s also glimpses of Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle‘s characters, but the main thing on display is the size of the mayhem.
Here’s the film’s synopsis:
Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, “Iron Man 3” is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black and is based on Marvel’s iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of “Tales of Suspense” (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with “The Invincible Iron Man” (#1) in May of 1968.
In Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” Tony Stark/Iron Man finds his world reduced to rubble by a malevolent enemy and must use his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him as he seeks to destroy the enemy and his cohorts.
And here’s that trailer. The film hits theaters May 3, 2013:
There’s a size and vision (from director Shane Black) that is of universe, but seems completely different than the party atmosphere present in the first two movies. This looks like it’s going to put Stark and company through the ringer. There’s also glimpses of Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle‘s characters, but the main thing on display is the size of the mayhem.
Here’s the film’s synopsis:
Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, “Iron Man 3” is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black and is based on Marvel’s iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of “Tales of Suspense” (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with “The Invincible Iron Man” (#1) in May of 1968.
In Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” Tony Stark/Iron Man finds his world reduced to rubble by a malevolent enemy and must use his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him as he seeks to destroy the enemy and his cohorts.
And here’s that trailer. The film hits theaters May 3, 2013:
Resident Evil
The ‘Resident Evil’ movies could probably go on forever. There’s seemingly no serious narrative goal, and each installment is little more than a guilty pleasure for its fans. While the latest sequel, ‘Resident Evil: Retribution,’ debuted to the lowest numbers since the first film, its opening weekend box office take is still not much lower than the series best. They’re not huge money makers, but they are pretty consistent, and it shouldn’t be overlooked that they also earn about 70% of their total gross overseas.
So, as the final cliff-hanging moment of ‘Retribution’ promises, yes, there will be a part six.
That isn’t to say that the final scene will have anything to do with the plot of the next movie. Each ‘RE’ film has ended with a hint of continuation, but they don’t always pick up directly from the previous installment in perfect serial fashion. And even when they do, as in the way ‘Retribution’ begins with the last scene from ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife,’ they might immediately move on. ‘Retribution,’ for instance, quickly disposes of the initial freighter setting, relocating Alice and the action to an undersea complex in the Russian Arctic.
Will anyone care if ‘Resident Evil: [Title to Be Added Later]’ doesn’t actually take place in the White House nor involve Alice and friends defending the landmark from the infected and mutated millions that we see surrounding the place? It’s a neat add-on for ‘Retribution’ given that we’ve got a presidential election coming up, even if there’s very little relevance involved, but depending on what’s going on in Washington for real in two or three years it could provide a more or less interesting backdrop. “Zombie Romney” has a nice ring to it, no?
Of course, the ‘RE’ series isn’t exactly concerned with political and social subtext like George Romero’s zombie movies, and we just don’t see it doing a whole lot with the location in that way, especially given that they need to be primarily accessible to the international audience. The White House simply provides a recognizable set piece for our global bearing, like the buried Las Vegas strip in ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’ or the artificial Times Square, Red Square and Shibuyu Square in ‘Retribution.’
All that the next ‘RE’ sequel really needs is any easily explained (but not necessarily logical) scenario that can barely fit with what’s happened before, plus a lot of slow-motion action and, most importantly, Milla Jovovich in a tight outfit.
Jovovich is, unfortunately, the one thing that isn’t everlasting, and even she admits that she has to stop at some point. Or, at least take a mentoring backseat to a younger lead. Too bad she doesn’t actually have clones like her character does. But at least she will return for the sixth movie along with her husband, writer-director-producer Paul W.S. Anderson. There was a time when they had planned on shooting ‘Resident Evil’ 5 and 6 back to back, but Anderson scrapped that idea, which fits more with his usual attitude that each of these movies is developed from scratch once they’re given the go-ahead, with concentration on the story at hand rather than an overarching plot.
Anderson does claim to have an outline for where the next part will go, however, and does expect it to be the final installment. He has said that six movies means two full trilogies, though it’s hard to see how he means for the first three films to be a complete arc or all that separate from the two (later three) films since. The only real difference is that the second trio will, when finished, be distinguishable as the shot-in-3D group.
Other clues we have for where the ‘RE’ series will go next are slim. Anderson says that since it will be the finale, part six will see a lot more of the characters killed. But we’ve always seen main characters die in this series, and with ‘Retribution’ we saw some of them resurrected, so unless Alice dies, that sort of promise means nothing. And even Alice’s death doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal since there could always be doubt that it was the real Alice we saw die. Or, since Anderson tends to borrow from the Alien franchise, he could always just continue with one of her clones.
Anderson has also acknowledged that the movie will be influenced by the new ‘Resident Evil 6’ video game, which probably just means he’ll lift some of its new creatures, such as the variety of C-virus-mutated “j’avo.” The fact that the new game involves the U.S. president presumably has no link to ‘Retribution’ ending in the White House, but who knows? And who cares, right? We can bet on seeing some very cool-looking insect-like zombies and flying zombies, the latter of which we see teased in the closing shot of the current film. And so plot details be damned.
One thing we do hope, even if part six is the very last ‘Resident Evil’ movie ever, is that it still ends with another “to be continued” sort of cliffhanger, because that’s such a major part of this series, and no kind of complete closure of the book on these films is going to be satisfying anyway.
So, as the final cliff-hanging moment of ‘Retribution’ promises, yes, there will be a part six.
That isn’t to say that the final scene will have anything to do with the plot of the next movie. Each ‘RE’ film has ended with a hint of continuation, but they don’t always pick up directly from the previous installment in perfect serial fashion. And even when they do, as in the way ‘Retribution’ begins with the last scene from ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife,’ they might immediately move on. ‘Retribution,’ for instance, quickly disposes of the initial freighter setting, relocating Alice and the action to an undersea complex in the Russian Arctic.
Will anyone care if ‘Resident Evil: [Title to Be Added Later]’ doesn’t actually take place in the White House nor involve Alice and friends defending the landmark from the infected and mutated millions that we see surrounding the place? It’s a neat add-on for ‘Retribution’ given that we’ve got a presidential election coming up, even if there’s very little relevance involved, but depending on what’s going on in Washington for real in two or three years it could provide a more or less interesting backdrop. “Zombie Romney” has a nice ring to it, no?
Of course, the ‘RE’ series isn’t exactly concerned with political and social subtext like George Romero’s zombie movies, and we just don’t see it doing a whole lot with the location in that way, especially given that they need to be primarily accessible to the international audience. The White House simply provides a recognizable set piece for our global bearing, like the buried Las Vegas strip in ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’ or the artificial Times Square, Red Square and Shibuyu Square in ‘Retribution.’
All that the next ‘RE’ sequel really needs is any easily explained (but not necessarily logical) scenario that can barely fit with what’s happened before, plus a lot of slow-motion action and, most importantly, Milla Jovovich in a tight outfit.
Jovovich is, unfortunately, the one thing that isn’t everlasting, and even she admits that she has to stop at some point. Or, at least take a mentoring backseat to a younger lead. Too bad she doesn’t actually have clones like her character does. But at least she will return for the sixth movie along with her husband, writer-director-producer Paul W.S. Anderson. There was a time when they had planned on shooting ‘Resident Evil’ 5 and 6 back to back, but Anderson scrapped that idea, which fits more with his usual attitude that each of these movies is developed from scratch once they’re given the go-ahead, with concentration on the story at hand rather than an overarching plot.
Anderson does claim to have an outline for where the next part will go, however, and does expect it to be the final installment. He has said that six movies means two full trilogies, though it’s hard to see how he means for the first three films to be a complete arc or all that separate from the two (later three) films since. The only real difference is that the second trio will, when finished, be distinguishable as the shot-in-3D group.
Other clues we have for where the ‘RE’ series will go next are slim. Anderson says that since it will be the finale, part six will see a lot more of the characters killed. But we’ve always seen main characters die in this series, and with ‘Retribution’ we saw some of them resurrected, so unless Alice dies, that sort of promise means nothing. And even Alice’s death doesn’t seem like it would be a big deal since there could always be doubt that it was the real Alice we saw die. Or, since Anderson tends to borrow from the Alien franchise, he could always just continue with one of her clones.
Anderson has also acknowledged that the movie will be influenced by the new ‘Resident Evil 6’ video game, which probably just means he’ll lift some of its new creatures, such as the variety of C-virus-mutated “j’avo.” The fact that the new game involves the U.S. president presumably has no link to ‘Retribution’ ending in the White House, but who knows? And who cares, right? We can bet on seeing some very cool-looking insect-like zombies and flying zombies, the latter of which we see teased in the closing shot of the current film. And so plot details be damned.
One thing we do hope, even if part six is the very last ‘Resident Evil’ movie ever, is that it still ends with another “to be continued” sort of cliffhanger, because that’s such a major part of this series, and no kind of complete closure of the book on these films is going to be satisfying anyway.
‘Taken 2’
The fictional family at the center of the ‘Taken’ movies joins the Freelings (‘Poltergeist’), the Brodys (‘Jaws’), the Connors (‘The Terminator’) and the McClanes (‘Die Hard’) as those which will never be free of their respective threats. Sharks and Grubers and robot assassins and cult leader ghosts just don’t rest as long as their and Hollywood’s objectives remain unfulfilled, and the same goes for the vengeful Albanians who will just keep coming after Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and his ex-wife and daughter (Famke Jansen and Maggie Grace) until they’re satisfied.
But will there be a ‘Taken 3’ to depict the next step in this ongoing family feud, which we saw in ‘Taken 2’ is focused primarily between the Millses and the clan of kidnapping kingpin Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija)?
There’s definitely some hint of more family members retaliating in the latest installment. But as we heard a couple weeks ago, Neeson seemed pretty certain that there wouldn’t be another sequel, confessing “I can’t see a possible scenario where audiences wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, come on…! She’s taken again?’”
Yeah, and people said that already with the second film, and that just opened in the U.S. to $50 million, more than twice what the original started out with. Whether Neeson thinks it’s a good idea or not, there will be another installment and maybe another and possibly even more. Maybe he won’t be back. Maybe he could be explained away as having died of a heart attack between films, a la Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) in the Jaws series.
His demise wouldn’t stop the Krasniqis from coming after the others any more than Brody’s death kept the voodoo-influenced great whites at bay (never see ‘Jaws: The Revenge,’ but do have a laugh with the novelization). If anything, Murad’s sons would probably hear of how Kim Mills had a good part in the deaths of all the men in Istanbul, including their father, and was in fact the root of this drama from the beginning by allowing herself to be taken in the first place. They’re probably even the sort of misogynistic group that believes it’s a girl’s own fault when she’s abducted and sold into sex slavery.
EvEn though we all love watching Neeson punch people to death — though preferably not in anticlimactic extreme close-up shots as the incompetent ‘Taken 2’ director, Olivier Megaton, gives us — if he didn’t return, it might be interesting to see Grace take over the series with ‘Taken 3’ or later (Neeson agrees too).These films do come from writer/producer Luc Besson, who once had a great handle on action heroines with ‘La Femme Nikita’ and ‘The Fifth Element’ (not to mention that sequel to ‘The Professional’ he owes to his fans before he dies). Grace got more of a taste of the action earlier this year in the Besson-scripted sci-fi movie ‘Lockout,’ and since her role in ‘Taken 2’ is already more kick ass than in the first film, we could see the character getting stronger and more involved in future installments.
That doesn’t have to mean she’s the action star of the next sequel, though. Kim could just find herself kidnapped again, possibly while she’s on tour. Because they have to bring back the fact that she’s an aspiring singer — and by ‘Taken 3’ could be a successful recording artist. Besson could rip off the plot of ‘Streets of Fire’ or look to a recent news story about an Australian singer who was kidnapped in the Ecuadorian Amazon and then rescued by at least 100 soldiers. Say that Bryan is no longer in the picture and his old CIA buddies, including those played by D.B. Sweeney and Jon Gries) and maybe even her boyfriend (Luke Grimes), are part of an ensemble recovery next time around.
Not enough like a ‘Taken’ movie? Well, do you want sequels that exactly copy the plot of the original or do you want sequels that expand on the series’ world and go to new places? One thing that could still be consistent is the number of kidnappees. In ‘Taken,’ Kim is the only family member. In ‘Taken 2’ the bad guys have taken two, namely Bryan and his ex. Therefore in ‘Taken 3’ there has to be three people abducted — maybe Grace, Janssen and Grime. This will be very fun by ‘Taken 10’ when, by name, it will have to be a full-on hostage situation during a family reunion.
But will there be a ‘Taken 3’ to depict the next step in this ongoing family feud, which we saw in ‘Taken 2’ is focused primarily between the Millses and the clan of kidnapping kingpin Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija)?
There’s definitely some hint of more family members retaliating in the latest installment. But as we heard a couple weeks ago, Neeson seemed pretty certain that there wouldn’t be another sequel, confessing “I can’t see a possible scenario where audiences wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, come on…! She’s taken again?’”
Yeah, and people said that already with the second film, and that just opened in the U.S. to $50 million, more than twice what the original started out with. Whether Neeson thinks it’s a good idea or not, there will be another installment and maybe another and possibly even more. Maybe he won’t be back. Maybe he could be explained away as having died of a heart attack between films, a la Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) in the Jaws series.
His demise wouldn’t stop the Krasniqis from coming after the others any more than Brody’s death kept the voodoo-influenced great whites at bay (never see ‘Jaws: The Revenge,’ but do have a laugh with the novelization). If anything, Murad’s sons would probably hear of how Kim Mills had a good part in the deaths of all the men in Istanbul, including their father, and was in fact the root of this drama from the beginning by allowing herself to be taken in the first place. They’re probably even the sort of misogynistic group that believes it’s a girl’s own fault when she’s abducted and sold into sex slavery.
EvEn though we all love watching Neeson punch people to death — though preferably not in anticlimactic extreme close-up shots as the incompetent ‘Taken 2’ director, Olivier Megaton, gives us — if he didn’t return, it might be interesting to see Grace take over the series with ‘Taken 3’ or later (Neeson agrees too).These films do come from writer/producer Luc Besson, who once had a great handle on action heroines with ‘La Femme Nikita’ and ‘The Fifth Element’ (not to mention that sequel to ‘The Professional’ he owes to his fans before he dies). Grace got more of a taste of the action earlier this year in the Besson-scripted sci-fi movie ‘Lockout,’ and since her role in ‘Taken 2’ is already more kick ass than in the first film, we could see the character getting stronger and more involved in future installments.
That doesn’t have to mean she’s the action star of the next sequel, though. Kim could just find herself kidnapped again, possibly while she’s on tour. Because they have to bring back the fact that she’s an aspiring singer — and by ‘Taken 3’ could be a successful recording artist. Besson could rip off the plot of ‘Streets of Fire’ or look to a recent news story about an Australian singer who was kidnapped in the Ecuadorian Amazon and then rescued by at least 100 soldiers. Say that Bryan is no longer in the picture and his old CIA buddies, including those played by D.B. Sweeney and Jon Gries) and maybe even her boyfriend (Luke Grimes), are part of an ensemble recovery next time around.
Not enough like a ‘Taken’ movie? Well, do you want sequels that exactly copy the plot of the original or do you want sequels that expand on the series’ world and go to new places? One thing that could still be consistent is the number of kidnappees. In ‘Taken,’ Kim is the only family member. In ‘Taken 2’ the bad guys have taken two, namely Bryan and his ex. Therefore in ‘Taken 3’ there has to be three people abducted — maybe Grace, Janssen and Grime. This will be very fun by ‘Taken 10’ when, by name, it will have to be a full-on hostage situation during a family reunion.