Today at Comic-Con saw less news, but much more high-profile announcements. Most of the action took place in Hall H, which was bogged down with some serious line management problems, but we’ve got it all summed up right here for you.

The first big presentation of the day was from Warner Bros. First, the first footage from Green Lantern was screened. Although nothing spectacular, the fans enjoyed it overall, but were disappointed with the lack of Reynolds in the suit. This only confirms the fact that the suit is a work-in-progress. Still, I am looking forward to this film and hope that it can be a simple, fun superhero origin story, which we haven’t seen a lot of recently. Also, I’m looking forward to the more fantastical elements of the hero. Producer Donald DeLine said that many other Green Lanterns are featured and that the movie is part space opera, which is a good sign that they’re not ignoring that area of the Green Lantern mythos. And although the Green Lantern announcements are cool, DC has really not stepped up their game to challenge Marvel’s cinematic dominance. Geoff Johns is now in charge of their creative decisions moving forward, which is a great move, but the company has not centralized their film properties as Marvel has to such enormous success. Also, there was no word on Batman, which was a huge missed opportunity. Still, I’m hoping that after Green Lantern DC gets their act together and makes something great, maybe a Justice League movie? (Although I’m torn on whether or not Chris Nolan’s Batman should be a part of anything like that.) After a short Harry Potter trailer and panel, Zack Snyder came onstage for Sucker Punch. This new movie is based on his idea and stars an ensemble cast of women who are breaking out of a mental institution and includes Carla Gugino, Jamie Chung, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone and Emily Browning. I’m not sure what to think about this movie, but the footage got a fantastic reception and it sounds truly unique. Hopefully the trailer gets released online soon so we all can see it.

Let Me In, the American remake of the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In, has had an enormous 360 when it comes to the public’s view. After a period of resenting the fact that such a movie was being remade, it seems like every detractor has been shut up by footage from the upcoming movie. I know I wasn’t too excited for this, but now its definitely on my radar. Matt Reeves (Cloverfield), from what I can tell, is doing a fantastic job helming the movie. He talked about how Steven Spielberg gave him tips for interacting with young actors, and that is what has me most excited for this film. Both Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) and Chloe Grace Moretz ((500) Days of Summer, Kick-Ass) have a lot of potential to give amazing performances and I hope they both pull it off. Check out this trailer for the film:

At this point, Hall H screeched to a halt after a fight broke out. It’s still unclear what actually happened, but the prevailing rumor is that someone asked another guy to move and when he didn’t, he stabbed him in the face with a pen. That’s speculation, but the scene was pretty grisly with blood everywhere and the victim being taken out on a stretcher, all with 8 or 9 cops in the vicinity.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost then introduced their new film, Paul. In the movie, the duo travel to Comic-Con and then embark on a road trip to Roswell, New Mexico. On the way they meet an alien named Paul, who is voiced by Seth Rogen. Paul is directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad) and the supporting cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Jason Bateman, and Jeffrey Tambor. I am really looking forward to this movie as Pegg and Frost are consistently hilarious and the story is pretty original. Paul is not your typical alien – he basically thinks of himself as an everyday Joe. Road trips are always pretty fun so having one with this trio of comedians and an alien should be awesome.

Once again Jon Favreau showed his skill at captivating the geek demographic by creating huge anticipation for Cowboys & Aliens, his new movie starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, and Sam Rockwell. Although the idea is great, it takes skill to blend such two very different genres, but Favreau is going for a very Western feel. After explaining that he is trying to emulate the Sergio Leone/John Ford films of the 40s and 50s, while using practical effects from the 80s as well as CGI for the aliens, he decided to just screen some early footage. Although the crew has only been shooting for three weeks, attendees were very impressed by the scene. In a surprise appearance, Harrison Ford was brought on stage in handcuffs by two security guards. It was his first appearance at the convention and the crowd went nuts. This a natural reaction, of course, to the man who played Han Solo and Indiana Jones, as well as many other awesome characters. I hope Favreau can really nail the Western feel and deliver a really fun, interesting film due out next summer, July 29th.

Now the presentation you’ve all been waiting for: Marvel. What Marvel is doing with their properties on film is incredible. By going independent and forming Marvel Studios where writers can collaborate and come up with great, interlocking stories for all of their superheroes, the company shows that it knows what its doing. Hopefully the result will be incredible, but there are a lot of moving parts, and all of them must come together perfectly. Captain America was first, as a short teaser showed Chris Evans in full costume throwing the iconic shield at the camera. After some discussion, the filmmakers actually had some footage to show which involved Hugo Weaving as Red Skull searching for an artifact that has something to do with Odin. I really like the Indiana Jones/World War II period piece vibe I’m getting for this movie. I hope Joe Johnston can create a very good atmosphere and seeing Cap killing Nazis is going to be sweet. Next up was Thor, which is much farther into production. A lot of footage was shown, and I can’t wait to see the trailer. Apparently the costumes are not nearly as cheesy as they looked in the first images we were shown. Reactions were very positive, which is a relief. Finally, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige brought on The Avengers. After years of rumors, this movie is finally actually happening. The final lineup was announced: Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman/Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Donald Blake/Thor, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk (see the full cast in the photo from the event). It’s going to be insane seeing so many heroes on screen at the same time. I hope Joss Whedon can bring together all of this madness and deliver an amazing film.

Behold the cast of "The Avengers"

Well that was a very big day at Comic-Con, and while we knew most of this going in, it was still awesome to see all of these projects materializing before our eyes. Its going to hard, but we can’t fuel the hype too much. I’m looking forward to all of these films as much as anyone, but I’m not going to let the anticipation ruin my enjoyment of the movies as movies.

Hugo Weaving, best known for his work in the Lord of the Rings and Matrix trilogies, not to mention V for Vendetta, will play the villainous Red Skull in Captain America:  The First Avenger, according to a press release from Marvel Studios.

Weaving had been in talks to play Red Skull, aka Johann Schmidt, since March. Schmidt is a Nazi military genius whose preferred weapon is his “Dust of Death,” which kills in seconds and leaves victims with a shriveled red skull. Schmidt kills to the music of Chopin’s funeral march. However, the character will be updated for this version of the tale.

Chris Evans is slated to play titular Captain America, and Hayley Atwell will play Peggy Carter, Captain America’s wartime love interest.

Captain America:  The First Avenger will be directed by Joe Johnson with a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Kevin Feige (Marvel Studios) will produce, and comic-book genius Stan Lee is on board as one of the executive producers.

The story will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. The First Avenger is scheduled for release on July 22, 2011 and will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Chris Evans will reprise his role as Captain America in Marvel Studios’ The Avengers, set to be released on May 4, 2012.

With Marvel bosses and director Joe Johnston still hard at work on apparently auditioning every young male actor in Hollywood for the titular role in The First Avenger: Captain America, it seems that some other casting news has just dropped. In a decision that comes as both surprising and wholly appropriate, Cap’s arch-nemesis, the Red Skull, will be portrayed on screen by none other than Hugo Weaving.

Filmgoing audiences are most familiar with Weaving as well-dressed computer-baddie Agent Smith in all three of the Matrix films and as Elven Lord Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with more daring roles in indies like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and comic-book experience in V for Vendetta, Weaving has become an established and much-beloved character actor.

The selection of Weaving came as a small surprise to many who were expecting a younger pick or a German actor for the part of the evil Nazi supersoldier, but considering his work with Johnston in last month’s The Wolfman, the choice doesn’t seem so shocking.

Okay, so now that Captain America has its lead villain, we can hope to hear some definitive news soon on who will be picking up the shield and putting on the mask, and you can bet your flag that Atomic Popcorn will have the news when it breaks.

From macho Spartan warriors to conflicted superheroes to… heroic barn owls? Really Zack?

Based off a collection of popular children’s books called The Guardians of Ga’hoole, this actually looks like a mash-up of 300 and Watership Down, except with owls of course. The imagery of the owls soaring and the idea of giving the standard quest film a makeover with these wooly birds is actually appealing. Just ignore the horrid pop song in the trailer and you will be fine.

Snyder has a good handle on visual style, but both of his last films fell flat for me outside of the first viewing. This one looks like it might hearken back to the days of Secret of Nimh and the like. I’m digging the flying effects and after just seeing How To Train Your Dragon in 3D, I admit that the format is perfect for animated films like that want to capture a sense of something thrilling like flight.

Guardians releases in September and has just landed on my list of anticipated movies. What do you think of it?

“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”

Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman opens with that portentous rhyme, lifted wholesale from the original 1940 film with Lon Chaney Jr. It’s the first sign that this new wolf will retain fidelity to its predecessor. Several others follow; there is a hulking Victorian mansion and moonlit moors, the make-up design and characters are remarkably similar, and Larry Talbot is once again a lost soul fearing the dread and torment that the next full moon brings.

What’s wrong here is the tone, which heads out into unintentional camp, and the script, that fails to make the audience feel Talbot’s pain and conflict.

On the level of recreation and re-invention, Johnston has done a stunning job with the surface details of his Wolfman. The film is actually set a bit later than the original, now moved to Victorian England, which provides endless scenes of horse drawn carriages careening over gray, wet country roads and characters scrabbling about in the dark, holding their oil lamps close to their faces so the shadows can dance sinisterly. Later in London, the werewolf scrabbles across gothic architecture to howl balefully at the moon.

Danny Elfman does a fine job with the soundtrack, creating screeching moments of diabolical terror and rising crescendos of melodramatic suspense. Rick Baker, the make-up artist who brought us that incredible transformation scene in American Werewolf in London, renders a wolfman instantly recognizable as the original beast, but decked out with a more savage, animal flare. There’s a stunning attention to detail in the features; you can see every mismatched tooth, and of course,  his hair is perfect.

On the acting front, there’s a team of great performers, some of which are wasted and others who break the chains of the script and run amok all over the film, mauling and tearing the scenery with a lupine glee. The wasted ones, unfortunately, are Benicio Del Toro as Larry Talbot and Emily Blunt as Gwen, Talbot’s late brother’s fiancee.  If you rewatch the original, and note Lon Chaney Jr’s nonchalant, laid-back performance as Larry, you can see what Del Toro was going for here. He captures Chaney’s look, and his mannerisms, but the script has him written as a cowering man-child, hiding in his father’s shadow and he never develops any further.

Emily Blunt is a beautiful and talented actress, and she looks stunning running through the woods, or dangling from a waterfall, or anytime the moonlight catches her frightened gaze (my, what big eyes you have!). Like, Del Toro though, she is left with very little to do but pretend that the proposed romance between them actually exists as anything more than a few throwaway lines.

The two actors who do come out on top despite the screenplay’s attempt to strand them are Hugo Weaving and Anthony Hopkins. They are working at the same level as the film’s visual effects and its surprisingly gory violence; way, way, over-the-top. Weaving is a Scotland Yard detective complete with bowler hat, mutton-chops and baffling ability to show up and make a complete and utter mess of things every single time. He sort of knows he is an after thought and he injects as much classic swagger into the character as possible. When he’s chasing the wolf through London he might as well be in one of those classic horror comics where characters stop and exclaim things like “Hark! Do you hear that? Silence!!”

Hopkins plays Lord Talbot, Larry’s father, and he’s one of the best reasons to see the new movie. When things start sagging in the middle, Hopkins puts on his best predatory grin, narrows his eyes, gnashes his teeth and starts making the elder Talbot as sinister as he possibly can. You get the feeling he only uses candles so he can sit in the shadows and leer out at his guests. He’s more paunchy and feral than I would have expected, and instead of channeling Lecter or Van Helsing, or any of his other notable madmen, he reminded me as nothing so much as a latter-day Orson Welles. Blustery, self-posessed and constantly sneering, I half expected him to growl the words ‘Rosebud’ before it was all over.

As a director, Johnston makes good use of those crazy performances and he tries to help the serious tone of the Larry and Gewn storyline, but the best he can come up with a repeated shots of a time-lapse moon racing behind billowing clouds or people galloping on horseback into the foreboding night. He does give us a few great action sequences, including a particularly effective assault on the gypsy camp where Talbot is bitten.

When the wolfman is finally seen in full, prowling about and ripping off heads and playing keep-away with the villager’s spleens, the visual effects are surprisingly good. It isn’t all cgi, and most of it is well used, save for the scenes where we see the wolf in full gallop across the rooftops or through the forest. Then, he’s nothing more than a furry animated ball, hopped up on Red Bull. When he pulls a Kong in London and starts leaping high into the air, the movie moves almost too close to a superhero tone.

Perhaps, that would have been the way to go; a completely over-the-top, comic-book approach. This new Wolfman is entirely too silly to work as a proper horror film, and right now there’s just too much ponderous dialogue and ham-fisted father/son melodrama to really enjoy the rest. I laughed through a great deal of the movie, but I am not sure that’s what the filmmakers wanted. For fans of the wolfman or of monster movies in general, I tend to think you will find things to like and admire here. I was entertained, but also sincerely disappointed. This was a missed opportunity, and the human soul that the first wolf had is absent in this one.

But, if you, like myself, are sometimes just in one of those moods that wants nothing more than to see a werewolf stalking his victims through the fog-shrouded forest, than The Wolfman might be what you are looking for. And if you too, come out disappointed, well, you can always go home and rewatch the original.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Atomic Popcorn has an awesome opportunity for 40 of you to attend a screening for Universal’s highly anticipated horror-action film, THE WOLFMAN starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt. THE WOLFMAN will hit theaters February 12^th and the promotional screening will be held Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at a local Baltimore theater.

For those of you not watching Atomic Popcorn or living under a rock, here is a short synopsis of the movie.

Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Oscar® winner Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Oscar® winner Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself…one he never imagined existed. Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) directs The Wolfman, and six-time Oscar®-winning special effects artist Rick Baker brings his design and makeup talents to transform Del Toro into the fearsome title character.

We have also included the trailer.

Now on to the part that you all have been waiting for: how do I win? That is the easy part. The first 40 people to sign up below wins an admit “two” pass – good for two to the above screening. Again, if you want to bring a date you still only need to enter once! This is a pass good for two of you! The only rule is that if you signed up for our last screening you are not permitted to attend this screening. If we have any doubts about a name it will be removed from our listing.

This screening is now closed. Thanks for signing up!

I do ask that due to the size of the screening that you try and be there by 6:30pm as this will guarantee you a seat. This will allow all of you fine folks to grab your passes and a great seat for the film.

Your email will be put on a “list” at the door and you will be notified of the theater and showing time via email!

Make sure you check out our other free screenings in the Baltimore Area.

The monster movies are back folks, and in a very big way. Going hand in hand with the recent release of James Cameron’s Avatar trailer is the trailer for The Wolfman. A remake on the 1941 horror film, this film directed by Joe Johnston stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving and many others. Due out for a February 12, 2010 release date, lets not keep you waiting any longer, look at it!

Decades from now, people will ask you where you were on June 24th? What’s so special about June 24th? It’s the release of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, that’s what. While you’re busy marking off days on your calendar until this momentous day, why don’t you kick back and watch some clips from the movie. Some have Megan Fox in them too. Others have Shia LaBeouf. All are cool.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen stars LaBeouf, Fox, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and according to IMDB, America Olivo will play “Frisbee Girl.” I hope DreamWorks realizes the danger if that flying disc is not a Frisbee.

Also note that Hugo Weaving continues his geek parade by returning as the voice of Megatron. What’s not to love?

Big thanks to FSR.