Three New Images from Guardians of the Galaxy

As the release date for the trailer for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy comes closer, Marvel Studios has unveiled more photos from the James Gunn directed movie which also stars Chris Pratt, Batista, Zoe Saldana and featuring the voices of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel.

The movie will also star John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Lee Pace, Benicio Del Toro and Karen Gillian. 

Check out the Guardians' sweet ride...

Of course I might be wrong and this might actually belong to the bad guys and the not-so-bad guys like the Nova Corps.

... and here's Emmett  Chris Pratt as Star Lord, Peter Quill...

Late last week we also a teaser featuring the look the film will have for the adorable Rocket Raccoon and his ever loyal partner Groot. 

BLAM! Murdered you!

Lest I forget, the first official trailer for GOTG will be making the rounds in the interwebs starting February 18. 

Guardians of the Galaxy will be released here in the Philippines August 1, 2014 from Walt Disney Studios Ph.

Credit: Superherohype

Michael Douglas Added to Ant Man Film as Hank Pym

Veteran actor and tapper of Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas has been added to the cast of Edgar Wright's ANT-MAN film slated for 2015. He plays the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym.

TBH, I got confused when I tuned in, because there were reports that suggested that Douglas would be playing a villain but then Variety updated their article and revealed that Douglas was playing the older Pym.

This does makes sense in a way because the script tells of two adventures for the superhero. One is set in the past, particularly the 60's following a "Tales to Astonish" vibe which will probably where we'll be seeing Douglas and a modern MCU where Scott Lang (Rudd) will be assuming the mantle. 

It's interesting to note that this is the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that follows the grand old tradition of "passing the down the mantle". This gives me the feeling that they saw these things as a risk but are now moving past this. 

Could this choice see other things such as Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/ The Winter Soldier) assuming the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in the near future? Too early to tell and probably unlikely. Still the prospect is nice.

Douglas joins Paul Rudd who at this point in time, might be Scott Lang. 

The First Official Photo for Guardians of the Galaxy

Walt Disney Studios just sent over a hi-res photo of the first official photo for Marvel Studios' GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

Pictured from Left to Right: Gamorra (Zoe Saldana), Peter Quill/ Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista/ Batista) and Groot (Vin Diesel).

Here's a rather lengthy synopsis from Marvel Studios:

The first official photo has gone online from Marvel Studios' "Guardians of the Galaxy." The still shows the five major characters who make up the team - Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, and Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot.

From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of “Iron Man,” “Thor,” “Captain America” and “The Avengers,” comes a new team – the “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

An action-packed, epic space adventure, “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits–Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer.

But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand – with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

Directed by James Gunn, the live-action "Guardians of the Galaxy" will take fans to new corners of the Marvel Universe when it hits theaters August 1, 2014.

The Winter Soldier Spotted with Captain America's Shield Foreshadowing Things?

A new still photo featuring Sebastian Stan who plays Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier has been making the rounds online and I must say. WOW!

You can check out the rest of the photos on POPGOESMANILA. 

I'm a big Bucky fanboy and can you just imagine how pissed off I was when Marvel decided to kill off Bucky in Fear Itself? Good thing it was all a dupe for the character and a way to push Steve Rogers back into the role of Captain America.

I definitely want to see this, not now, but in the future. Please MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) please don't kill off Bucky.

Empire has Captain America: The Winter Soldier in it's Cover

Empire Magazine must be feeling really proud what with the reveal of who they have on the cover of their next issue. It's none other than Marvel Studios' next superhero flick - Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The film will be coming out next year and will star Chris Evans who reprises his role as Captain America together with fellow Avenger Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) with Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier and Anthony Mackie who plays Sam Wilson aka The Falcon.

This is coming out 2014 together with another great Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy.

Paul Rudd is Ant-Man

The Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU just got bigger (or smaller) with the announcement that actor Paul Rudd has been officially cast as one of the two Ant-Man characters for the Edgar Wright adaptation for Marvel Studios.

Yeah, it's an AN because there are plans to have two Ant-Man guys in the film. One would be the original Ant-Man and Avengers founding member Hank Pym and the other is the con-man turned good guy Scott Lang. 

The Superherohype news did not mention which character Rudd would portray but I'm going ahead on predicting that Rudd would taking the Scott Lang role, should they decide to go with that original plot of having two Ant-Man stories in one movie. 

Update: While Rudd's announcement as Ant-Man is big news, we shouldn't factor out Joseph Gordon-Levitt yet. However the dude is busy with his Sandman adaptation with David S. Goyer for WB.

Source: SHH

Hot Toys Bruce Banner 1/6th Scale Figure

Hot Toys is still not done with the Avengers as they're about to release *gasp* the 1/6th Scale Bruce Banner figure based on the likeness of actor Mark Ruffalo.

Dr. Bruce Banner was one of the great highlights of The Avengers. Mark Ruffalo’s wonderful performance as the gamma radiated doctor has been well-received by fans and critics.

Now Hot Toys is excited to present this widely anticipated 1/6th scale Bruce Banner Collectible Figure from the movie for fans to complete their Avengers collection. The movie-accurate collectible is specially crafted based on the image of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner in the film, featuring the newly developed head sculpt, highly-detailed costume and accessories.

Check out more photos below:

Not too impressed. Can't say they nailed it. For me, it's really so-so. Still it's a must have for collectors and completists.

Also it's the perfect figure if you're a big fan of Ruffalo's other big movie "Now You See Me" where he plays the role of the Fifth Horseman/ Mastermind behind the "Four Horsemen" outfit.

How the Real Mandarin Can Enter the MCU

Latino Reviews broke the news recently about Ben Kingsley working once again with Marvel Studios on a 'secret project'. Turns out, as LR reports, that Kingsley will merely be reprising his role as Trevor Slattery, the actor hired to play the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

The report states that the real Mandarin will make an appearance in order to extract revenge on Slattery (Kingsley) after the latter and Aldritch Killian (Guy Pearce) made a mockery of his name [as seen in IRON MAN 3]

Details are very scarce and honestly, it's not yet confirmed. But on the flipside, it's pretty obvious that there's no other character that Kingsley can portray except the faux Mandarin/ Slattery. So here's a thought, what's a very plausible entry plot for The Mandarin? Obviously Marvel Studios does not intend to let the character and the epic fail-ness of Iron Man 3's main twist lie dead. 

Here's how it's possible to inject Mandarin into the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe:

- The Mandarin looks for Slattery's whereabouts using agents of the TEN RINGS in 'Murica. 
- Agents locate Slattery in prison (where he was being led to in his last few seconds in IM3). 
- Agents kidnap/swap Slattery and bring him to a secret location. 
- There's a confrontation between Slattery and the 'real' Mandarin from the shadows, with the scene focusing on the ten rings of power. 
- Threats and humor are injected
- Slattery is seen being hauled to an operating room where they... 
- Remove his face/ or change his face
- We see the 'real' Mandarin now wearing Trevor Slattery's face. 

Relax it's my theory anyway. The thing here is that the reason The Mandarin wanted to use Slattery's face is because it's already established. He might have been outed as a fake but let's come back to the classic line in IM3; "You'll never see me coming". By using the fake's face, the governments and people like Tony Stark won't see him coming. They would even see him as a joke, a farce; which will serve him better because he's a terrorist and he wants to always surprise his enemies. 

What do you think? Does this sound feasible? 

THOR: THE DARK WORLD Spoiler Review

So this is it, the real spoiler-heavy review for THOR: THE DARK WORLD. Took me long enough but here it is.

Compared to the first THOR movie, the second had so much meat. Again I refer to it as meat not the whole package. But's lets go back to that later.

Malekith The Accursed here was under-utilized. I mean here we have a powerful enemy for Thor and Asgard with technology that made the feared Asgardians look like chumps and we rarely get to see them do anything other than infiltrate Asgard, threaten Natalie Portman's character Jane Foster and kill Rene Russo's Frigga. That's it for them. It would have been better if they get raided throughout the Asgard scenes seeing that Malekith's got a lot of Dark Elf fodder at his beck and call.

Underused is also how I would describe the Warrior's Three and Lady Sif. They all have their cool moments somewhere in the film but it's really not enough. These aren't you average foot soldiers after all; these are the most trusted advisers for the future king of Asgard. Amongst them four, I really felt bad for Hogun the Grim who was practically written out of the story. The moment the battle was won in his world, he stayed behind and then towards the end, we see a glimpse of him; just a glimpse.

The love triangle between Lady Sif, Thor and Jane Foster was also non-existent. That's one of the things I was looking forward to in this Alan Taylor-helmed film yet it never resurfaced. We're only relegated to a few dirty looks and that was it.

Kurse was cool here. I loved how he transformed from Angrim to Kurse. Those scenes also could lead to future Agent of SHIELD territory but really, that's a long shot. What's definite is that monster that got left behind in London during the 'big' battle scene between Thor and Malekith and the rest of the Dark Elves. Coulson, Ward and the rest of our team would have their hands full that's for sure.

With regards to the special Avengers cameo here - It's Captain America.

This happens after Thor busts out Loki from his cell and Loki keeps on transforming to annoy his brother. One of the transformations that he undergoes through is as Chris Evans' in his Captain America costume from The Avengers. It's short, sweet and totally caught me off guard. Good one Marvel Studios.

Like what I've said in the non-spoilery version, I loved how the filmmakers gave Asgard. What was once an empty and dull civilization is suddenly full of life with actual people and with actual soldiers to boot. Kudos to Alan Taylor for his experience in directing episodes of Game of Thrones, at least this doesn't look like a ghost town. And they actually have MRIs and Gun turrets in Asgard too.

The two post credit trailers were up there in my list. Benicio Del Toro as The Collector was very interesting, almost Mugatu-ish. Still pretty and it also gives us more insights with regards to what the INFINITY GEMS will look like in the MCU. The dialogue was just.... wow. It does open the world of hurt for the good guys as it's implied that The Collector too is after the gems. Also wow again for making both the Tesseract (re: Cosmic Cube) and the Aether are both the gems. 

The second post-credit scene was OK. I mean it doesn't change anything other than having Thor at the ready for Avengers: Age of Ultron. That and that scary looking monster that got stranded in Midgard following the transdimensional fight between Thor and Malekith. 

Fuck I almost forgot that Marvel wasn't quiet about showing us Surtur's fiery realm in the climax. That alone is a huge easter egg if fan clamor/rumor is to be trusted. Surture and the fire giants, here we come! 

Finally, the ending was great. I read somewhere that the trilogy for the big three always wanted to emulate the formula for the Star Wars trilogy. THOR: THE DARK WORLD definitely hit the right chords if it wanted to become the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK for the film franchise. Oh and if you're asking me how I saw that ending, I'd say Loki got Odin trapped somewhere in a deep, dark recess of the dungeons. Somewhere only he knows or everybody's forgotten. Heck he could've forced Odin to tell him the location of this dungeon. 

THOR: THE DARK WORLD did not have a mission statement so it's really hard to gauge it on anything other than the previous movie. It does open new doors for both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the TV-verse spearheaded by the Agents of SHIELD series. 

THOR: THE DARK WORLD is still showing in all cinemas nationwide! 

Guardians of the Galaxy Banner Spotted

I've got newfound respect for the Facebook group Marvel Cinematic Universe as they have been giving out some pretty neat info. 

A friend pointed out to me that this group was where he found out the identity of that surprise guest-star in THOR: THE DARK WORLD and now they've shared this little bit of promotional material for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

This was plastered in the cinema where THOR 2 premiered in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Nothing really to go by but it's a pretty sweet connection especially if you've seen the post-credits scene from the Chris Hemsworth starrer.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Hot Toys Thor: The Dark World Thor Preview

Hot Toys can't cash in too much on Thor but they've done the next best thing, preview two new figures at the same time.

The next highly anticipated Marvel Studios film this year – Thor: The Dark World is soon hitting the theatres. Following the events of The Avengers, Thor returns to the big screen and sets upon a journey to confront a new enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand.

To celebrate the launch of this epic sequel of Thor, Hot Toys is proud to present the new 1/6th scale Thor Collectible Figure. The movie-accurate collectible is specially crafted based on the image of Chris Hemsworth as Thor in the movie, featuring the newly developed head sculpt, muscular body, highly detailed costume, weapon and accessories.























Mind you this is the standard armor for the Thunder god, there's another 1/6 scale figure preview waiting in the wings!!!

Also this head sculpt is spot on with the likeness of Thor actor Chris Hemsworth. In fact, I daresay that it's actually better than what we've seen from The Avengers Thor figure.

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