Planet Markus » Movies

Avengers Assembled

Mark Rosario — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:55:46 +0000

I guess many would agree when I say the main highlight of the recently concluded San Diego Comic-Con is the cast announcement for Marvel’s highly-anticipated Avengers movie.

Fanboys and fangirls all over the world delighted when Nick Fury himself (that’s Samuel L. Jackson, in case you were just born yesterday) introduced the team and was accompanied by Robert Downey Jr a little later.

Man! Robert IS definitely Tony Stark. He doesn’t need to act at all to make you think that. Its always been a challenge for me to separate the actor and the character really. They’re just too much alike, if you know what I mean! Haha!

Anyway, this marks the first time the Avengers cast had their photo taken. Now lets all dream and look forward to the day when we finally see them wear their costumes together.

Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark/ Iron Man, Clark Gregg is SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson, Scarlett Johansson is Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth is Thor, Chris Evans is Steve Rogers/Captain America, Sam Jackson is Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner is Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo is Bruce Banner/Hulk and Joss Whedon, the Avengers director.

Image grabbed from MTV Splash Page.

Thor’s Helmet – Finally!

Mark Rosario — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:09:03 +0000

You’ve waited long for it and now you have it – the actual Thor helmet (far right) to be worn by Chris Hemworth for the 2011 movie!

What sayest thou?

Image taken from Marvel.com.

Exclusive SDCC Cap And Thor Concept Art Posters

Mark Rosario — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:06:24 +0000

Today, Yahoo just gave us a peek at two Marvel concept art posters which will be exclusively distributed during the SDCC (or, for the uninitiated, the San Diego Comic-Con – the grand mecca for all comicbook geeks worldwide).

The first poster shows Captain America in the middle of a war while we see Thor and Loki battle it out on the second one.

As we all know, these are two upcoming movies from Marvel and while the films are still a year away (Captain America will be on 22 July 2011 while Thor comes earlier on 20 May 2011), its nice to see these images for a few reasons. First, it verifies that the heavily-circulated Cap concept art indeed comes from reliable “sources” (although this SDCC poster shows us the costume isn’t as skin tight) and second, it gives us a closer look at Loki wearing his trademark ridiculous helmet.

Check out the posters below. Then click it if you want it enlarged so you can view it closer. Then use it as a wallpaper. Or print it!

Gatchaman Teaser Trailer

Mark Rosario — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:31:16 +0000

I grew up watching the animated G-Force: Guardians of Space way back the 80’s so I’m just all awed to catch a teaser trailer for an upcoming Gatchaman film from Imagi Studios – the same one that brought us the recent Astro Boy movie, yes.

The video shows the team battling a giant mantis robot and this is really exciting for me. I’m just glad the characters look very close to the way I remember them on the TV show.

This Gatchaman CGI movie doesn’t hit theaters worldwide until 2011 and so let’s all just take a look at a few screen shots as of the moment!

Here’s Ace Goodheart (Eagle):

Dirk Daring (Condor)

Agatha June (Swan)

Pee Wee (Swallow)

… And finally, we have Hooty (Owl)!

Can’t get enough of that? Click the link then and head over to YouTube to catch these five teenage champions in action!

G-Force: Guardians of Space

Captain America: The First Avenger

Mark Rosario — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:34:13 +0000

I’m sure you’ve already seen it by now. I’m talking about the heavily-blogged about concept art for the upcoming superhero flick Captain America: The First Avenger.

Fans reaction to it were mixed, although generally positive. Some fanboys say they like the retro-vibe while there are also those who observed that the costume looked too modern for a World War II battlesuit. Some missed the little wings and the scales!

Either way, its exciting that the movie is finally on a roll and the next best thing perhaps would be to see another preview of Chris Evans wearing the actual costume.

With that in mind, lets take a brief moment and compare one of those concept artworks with this photo-manipulated image of Chris Evans as Captain America we’ve seen online a few months back.

While there are notable differences, the similarity of the over-all idea is still so striking you cant help but suspect this is more than just a “fan made” image.

Anyhoo, Captain America: The First Avenger hits the theaters come July 22, 2011, starring Chris Evans and will be directed by Joe Johnston.

Lets keep our eyes peeled for that and lets expect more previews from Marvel in the near future!

Iron Man 2 Movie Review

Mark Rosario — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:46:08 +0000

Just finished watching Iron Man 2 with my friends days ago. Naturally, I tried to avoid each and every review I saw online so as to prevent that from me enjoying the movie totally. I don’t like spoilers (who does?) since I believe it takes away something from the entire experience.

So far, I’ve been successful at avoiding reviews and spoilers but while watching Iron Man 2, I felt like there were too few surprises for me to expect anyway. I think Marvel showed too much previews! Several scenes became too easy to predict because of it. For example, I realized the suitcase scene would’ve been more awesome if it was my first time to see that while watching. Please don’t feed us too much next time, Marvel, I beg you!

Now let me write this entry and play the part of the spoiler! Hahah!.. First off, I think Scarlett Johansson surprised me the most. She makes a compelling Black Widow. I’ll admit I initially had hesitations and thought she looked too cutie-cutie for a super spy role but she did prove me wrong. She’s really more than just a pretty face – she’s got the moves and she gets the job done! Those few minutes of stunts were really a show stopper!

As for Don Cheadle donning the War Machine armor (a little pun intended there), I think he did well. I almost didn’t miss Terence Howard. If there’s one thing he lacked, I’d say its the super hero physique. He looked a little too frail for a superhero, don’t you think?

Mickey Rourke as an actor sure fits the role as Whiplash. As a character, he was convincingly creepy. The end was disappointing for me though. I’ve always been afraid he’d be a lame villain ever since I saw his first pictures as Whiplash and my suspicions were confirmed.

Although he had his own Whiplash armor (which looked nothing like the supposed hint from a recent Iron Man Vs. Whiplash comicbook), he was too easily defeated and that didn’t sit well with me. Think about it. Videogame big bosses are supposed to be the hardest to beat but Iron man and War Machine took him down almost effortlessly. It looked like Tony and Rhodey had a harder time with the drones. Whiplash seemed deadlier during the racetrack scene even when he was armor-less at the time and was only wearing his infamous orange pants.

Now I don’t know if I still need to say anything about Robert Downey Jr. He IS Iron Man. Fact is, Its almost always impossible for me to separate him and the Tony Stark persona. He’s so natural and doesn’t seem like acting at all. Watch any Downey interview and compare that to his on-screen role and there’s almost no difference. He’s really that impressive!

Jon Favreau’s role as Happy Hogan is also worth-mentioning. I loved it when he “slipped” plus his “I got him” line.

And oh! Captain America’s shield makes a brief appearance once more in the movie. I think I died laughing with what Tony used it for. Man, the upcoming Avengers film will really be hilarious with Tony around.

Now I patiently hung around for the after-credits and – woohoo! – it was totally worth the wait! That New Mexico scene was totally thrilling and seeing Mjolnir gave me geeky goosebumps I couldn’t refrain myself from clapping out of sheer fanboy excitement!

Catch Iron Man 2 now if you still haven’t done that. You wouldn’t want to miss the fun. Still I won’t say that this one is better than the first Iron Man film.

Chris Evans Will Wield The Shield

Mark Rosario — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:44:23 +0000

Who would have guessed that Chris Evans – the same actor who played Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies – would eventually get to wear the star-spangled costume?

Not me, for sure! I admittedly didn’t see this coming. He looks young and skinny to be a super solider!

Anyway, Chris definitely needs some serious work out if he wants to become a convincing Captain America. Hope he pulls it off and does a great job for the role. Not all actors get the chance to play superhero and represent America at the same time anyway

Reactions, anyone?

*image taken from ComicsAlliance.com

Iron Man 2 Trailer 2

Mark Rosario — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:48:45 +0000

We’ve all been blown away. The 2nd trailer for Iron Man 2 totally erased every doubt – if there were any – that this could be a better film than the first one.

Scarlett Johansson looked perfect as the Black Widow. Justin Hammer and Whiplash unites to make our armored hero “look like an antique”.. and oh! That suitcase armor just drives every fanboy insane!.. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I wish Iron Man 2 hits the theaters tomorrow.

I have one question in my head though. Let me begin by posting this image:

Of course, everyone’s aware that James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is the one donning that cool War Machine armor (by the way, totally love that awesome gatling gun, man!)

But hhmmm… is this really him wearing the Mark 2 armor?

I don’t know. I’m a bit hesitant to say “yes”.. I thought I heard a girl’s voice during this part of the fight scene – well, at least right after Iron Man hits Mark 2!

Noticed that one? Go watch the trailer again and listen closely.

What do you think? Who could possibly be wearing the armor this time around? Hhhmmm…

More About Toy Story 3

Mark Rosario — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:27:49 +0000

Being a superhero geek, I am naturally most excited about this May’s Iron Man 2. Comes June 18 though, I’ll make sure I am seated once more in my favorite theater to catch Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3.

I admit I liked the Toy Story 1 better than the second but being a Pixar fan, I definitely don’t mind giving this third film a try. I’m thinking it would be cool to see how effectively could Pixar deliver their promise of introducing fourteen new characters for Toy Story 3, two of which are Peas-in-a-Pod and Ken (voiced by Michael Keaton himself).

This should be fun.. Anyway, let’s let the official trailer show us more!

Okay, I Think I’m Ready For The Spider-Man Reboot Now

Mark Rosario — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:36:15 +0000

We can’t do anything about it anymore, guys so I guess the best thing is to move on… And let’s all look at the brighter side!…

As amazing (pun intended) as the Spider-Man trilogy was, Tobey Maguire’s portrayal simply lacked the humor and witty sarcasm we’ve all grown to love from our favorite wall crawler, right?.. I’m pretty sure you’d agree with that if you’re reading the comics.

So now I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next actor and director, whoever they may be, would use those sides of Peter Parker really well. It deserves some exposure and maybe here’s our chance to see that on screen.

So bring the next movie on, Sony!

But better make it good. Please!.. Or else you’ll forever be hated by fans for losing Maguire and Sam Raimi.

And please keep the mask on at all times! I really didn’t like the fact that too many people at the train saw Peter’s face at the second film.