PENDRAGON'S POST: Nov 13, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

DVD News: Planet Hulk

Lionsgate is proud to announce the Marvel-ous DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of Planet Hulk, arriving on February 2nd.

This February, Marvel Animated Features and Lionsgate Home Entertainment will premiere the most anticipated animated feature yet with the release of Planet Hulk on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc. With artwork created by pre-eminent comic artist Alex Ross, the first-ever Marvel animated features inclusion of digital copy and loads of special features, the next big chapter for The Incredible Hulk has arrived!

Make way for Marvel's mightiest hero, as Bruce Banner's alter-ego takes on an entire planet after being banished from Earth. This legendary chapter in Marvel's comic book history has continued to thrill comic fans ever since it was written in 2006. Now Marvel and Lionsgate have taken the epic comic book and created a heart-pounding tale of intergalactic proportions that stays true to its comic book roots.

The 2-Disc Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc of Planet Hulk contain a standard definition digital copy of the film as well as smashing bonus materials that include audio commentaries, in-depth featurettes, music videos, a full episode of Wolverine and the X-Men featuring the Hulk, 2 complete Marvel motion comics and more! The standard one-disc DVD of the film will contain an audio commentary, a featurette and a glimpse at the opening sequence of the next animated feature film, Thor: Tales of Asgard.

Pricing: Standard DVD $19.98
Pricing: Special Edition DVD $24.98 (2-Discs)
Pricing: Blu-ray Disc $29.99 (2-Discs) Read more...

Dante's Inferno just got hotter

In the upcoming EA third person adventure, Dante's Inferno, you are Dante. Death has come to steal your love Beatrice's soul and take her to Hell -- but on his way out, you grab his scythe and follow behind. As in Dante Alighieri's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, the poet Virgil guides Dante through the circles of Hell, encountering the embodiments of the seven deadly sins along the way. In the video game, he rides on the backs of demons and slashes his way through each circle on his way to Beatrice, who is being held by Lucifer himself.

To celebrate this slab of videogameular awesomeness, NECA is proud to unveil our first Dante figure. Boasting 30 points of articulation, Dante is truly one of a kind. He carries a Cross in a sheath on his right hip, has an interchangeable right hand, and then, of course, there's the scythe...

An imposing site in itself, Death's scythe stands over eight inches tall! Not only that, but the blade is detachable for hand-held use. It might just be the coolest videogame weapon ever, and it's definitely given its due with the Dante figure. The Inferno will never be the same.

Dante's Inferno will be released February 9, 2010 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PSP. Our Dante figure will be available in North America exclusively when you pre-order the game from select video game retailers. Stay tuned for further details.

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We’ve got six all-new items in the November issue of Diamond Previews including two Minimates box sets, a time machine, Optimus Prime, the return of Battlestar Galactica action figures and a sneak peek at the Iron Man 2 Marvel Select Iron Man! Check out the full list complete with images and details after the jump!

Back to the Future Part III Time Machine
With the classic time machine in stores around the world, take a trip to Hill Valley circa 1885 in the all-new Back to the Future Part III Time Machine! This updated version of the classic vehicle design includes time-traveling lights and sounds plus a new “Old West” look complete with home-made hood components - just as seen in the epic finale of the Back to the Future trilogy!

Ghostbusters Minimates Series 3 Box Set
The top-selling Ghostbusters Minimate line continues with this exclusive set only available in specialty stores! This four-pack includes the marshmallow-covered Gooey Egon and Gooey Winston from the original film as well as the sequel’s Janine Melnitz and EPA lawyer Walter Peck! Each Ghostbusters Minimate stands two inches tall with 14 points of articulation and a wealth of pint-sized accessories.

Marvel Minimates Spider-Man’s Friends & Foes Box Set
Swing into the world of the Amazing Spider-Man with this all-new Minimates box set delivering the very best of Spider-Man’s deadly friends and foes. This set contains Battle Ravaged Spider-Man, all-new updated Black Cat and Doc Ock ‘mates plus the debut of the villainous Vulture! Each two-inch Marvel Minimate features 14 points of articulation and removable, interchangeable pieces!

Transformers Optimus Prime Bust Bank
Featuring the transforming Autobot that started it all, the new line of Transformers Bust Banks continues with none other than Optimus Prime himself! Sculpted by Art Asylum and measuring over seven inches tall, recreate the classic look and feel of the Generation 1 animated series, prepare your Matrix of Leadership and get ready to roll out!

Battlestar Galactica Series 4 Action Figure Asst
The much-anticipated fourth series of Battlestar Galactica action figures makes its triumphant return to specialty stores with a new assortment containing some of the most highly-sought characters in the line’s history! Replacing all previous orders, this new assortment includes the first-ever Dr Baltar, the long-awaited Admiral Cain and the debut of the mustache-sporting Admiral Adama! Standing over six inches tall with multiple points of articulation and key accessories from the hit sci-fi series, this is one relaunch you don’t want to miss.

Iron Man 2 Marvel Select Iron Man
The build-up for next year’s sure-fire hit begins here with the only full-size action figure based on the stunning Iron Man 2 designs! Exclusively available in the Marvel Select line, this upgraded Iron Man features top-quality sculpted detail, multiple points of articulation and a bonus deluxe Armor Assembly Station base. Perfect for six-to-seven-inch action figure collections, look for the companion War Machine figure in next month’s Diamond Previews! Read more...

Everything changes in FALL OF THE HULKS

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Find out on Monday at www.marvel.com!

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Either you like Kevin Smith’s work, or you don’t. That’s just the simple truth. Smith is one of those polarizing talents that either you love or hate; there isn’t much middle ground with his films. Now that we have that bit of information out of the way, I’m assuming that you’re a fan since you’re still reading. Since these films have been around for a while, I’m going to concentrate on the Blu-Ray presentations, rather than the films themselves.

Kevin Smith fans should be excited that two of his most popular films, Clerks and Chasing Amy are available for the first time on Blu-Ray. The previously available on Blu, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, is also included in this Blu-Ray three pack, but if you already have the later, Clerks and Chasing Amy are both available as separate Blu-Ray offerings. If you’re a Kevin Smith fan, not only have you seen these, but you probably also already own them. So, the real question here is, “If I already own these films on DVD, is it worth upgrading to Blu?” Let’s find out.

Picture:

Clerks: Being that the film is in black and white, there aren’t exactly any HD colors popping out at you. Now, that’s not to say that a film done in black and white can’t look amazing on Blu-Ray, but considering that the film was shot on a very minimal budget, it wasn’t exactly captured with the kind of precision that shines on Blu-Ray. That being said, this is the best the film has ever looked. Despite the lack of detail, the transfer is clean, and presents some nice blacks without darkening the overall picture.

Chasing Amy: The picture here fares about the same as it did on Clerks. While the film is in color, they seem a bit bland and washed out. As with the previous film, Chasing Amy had a very small budget, so the picture quality here is understandable. One of the drawbacks with Blu-Ray is that, while it emphasizes great picture quality with HD footage, older footage of a lesser resolution has its weaknesses emphasized as well.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: The picture on this Blu-Ray is the best of the set, but also the least acceptable. How’s that, you ask? Because this is the exact same Blu-Ray version of the film released in 2006. Did I compare the standalone Blu-Ray disc to the box set disc? Nope, I didn’t have to, because the Blu-Ray copy of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back included in the box set stands apart from the other two films as soon as you remove it from the box. The first thing that you notice is that the JASBSB cover art doesn’t use the same format as the other two films. Then it becomes painfully obvious that the previous Blu-Ray version has been stuffed into this box set when you turn the case over and clearly read, “2006 Blu-Ray Release”. Three years have passed since the original release of the film on Blu, yet no effort was put into this release for a better transfer. They could have at least tried to fool us by giving us some new, matching cover art. Why should they have put in the effort to redo this film, when it was already out on Blu? We’ll get to the special features in a minute.

Sound:

All three films feature similar 5.1 mixes. All three are adequate and have the dialogue mixed pretty high, which is good since these movies thrive on the dialogue and character interactions. None of these films are the kind of films you would use to show off a sound system anyway, so no problems here.

Special Features:

Clerks: Though “15th Anniversary Edition” is stamped on the front, all but two of the special features are carried over from the Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD Edition. So what are the two Blu-Ray exclusive features? An Introduction by Kevin Smith (how special), and Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party: The Making of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Wait-What? Why is this on the Clerks disc? Oh wait, that’s right, they just stuffed the three year old version of JASBSB in the box without bothering to update it.

Chasing Amy: The original DVD release was almost barebones. It included Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, and the Trailer. All of these have been included again with the Blu-Ray release; however, the good news is that there are an ample amount of Blu-Ray exclusive features. These include audio commentary with Kevin Smith and Producer Scott Mosier, Tracing Amy: The Chasing Amy Doc, Was It Something I Said? – A Conversation With Kevin And Joey, 10 Years Later Q&A – With Kevin Smith And The Cast.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: As previously mentioned several times already, this is the same Blu-Ray release of the film that we got in 2006. Same transfer, same box art, and you guessed it, same features. Actually, same lack of features, would more accurately describe what is presented here. What we get is audio commentary with Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, and Producer Scott Mosier, as well as an option to jump to certain scenes that were magically selected as being worthy of this feature by the makers of the disc. The later feature seems particularly useless; don’t we already have scene selection if we want to jump to a certain scene? This lack of special features is particularly frustrating when you consider the original 2-Disc DVD release, which included the following: - Feature Commentary Track with Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier and Jason Mewes, Deleted Scenes with Intros by Kevin Smith and members of the View Askew family, Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash w/Intros, Gag Reel with intro, Internet Trailers with intro, TV Spots, Still Galleries, Storyboards, Behind The Scenes Featurette, "Morris Day and The Time - Learnin' the Moves" Featurette, Afroman "Because I Got High" video, Stroke 9 "Kick Some Ass" video, Comedy Central's Reel Comedy special, Cast and Crew Filmographies. All of these features, which were included on the original 2-Disc DVD release, were left off the 2006 Blu-Ray release, and by extension, are still missing. This box set was a golden opportunity to correct that error, but sadly they went the cheap route instead.

Final Thought:

So, is it worth it? That depends. Are you a Kevin Smith fan who for some odd reason doesn’t own any of these three films on DVD? Then by all means pick up the Blu-Ray Box Set. Are you a Kevin Smith Fan who owns all three on DVD? Then, if you aren’t completely anal about having movies in full HD quality, and can live with up-scaling, Stick with the 10th Anniversary Clerks, 2-Disc JASBSB, and consider whether or not the new features on Chasing Amy justify a $25 price tag. If they do, Chasing Amy is the most worthy of the set for upgrading, but the other two, especially the lackluster presentation of JASBSB, are passes.

Terry Barnhill
Staff Reviewer Read more...

Leading the line up in the 3rd Wave [Round 3] of SOTA Toys 15th Anniversary Street fighter action figures was Guile. And he proved to be a fan favourite not just in the game, but in the toy form too. And here’s why.

Guile features a variety of accessories, which consists of an alternate head, 2 sonic boom effects, and 3 extra interchangeable hands. He has 5 hands in total and this provides a lot of options for interesting and dynamic posing. Although not really an accessory as such, Guile also comes with a really cool chain around his neck, which holds the 2 Dog tags, as were seen when the character was first introduced in Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior.

The sculpting of the Guile figure is fantastic, he looks and feels very solid and durable and is a very accurate rendition of the World Warrior to Super Turbo artwork era. He does not have so many Anime Alpha inspired influences as some of the other characters in the SOTA Line, and personally I think that it actually works to this particular figures benefit.

After seeing the recent Street Figure IV inspired action figure offerings from NECA, I came to the conclusion that while those figures are really well made and very faithful renditions of the Street Fighter 4 art style, they can also have a tendency to alienate some of the fans who may prefer something a little bit more traditional and perhaps not such heavily stylized depictions of the characters. And this is where the SOTA Guile figure shines.

He stands at around 6” tall, and it is an ideal height for those who may also collect 6” Marvel toys, and makes recreating scenes from cross over games like marvel VS Capcom possible.

The paint job is great. There are a lot of subtle gradations in the skin tone, and there were no areas of sloppy paint work. Since its initial release I was fortunate to purchase 2 of these figures and they were both painted to a very high standard.

Guile also features around 33 points of articulation. But all of the cuts and joints are well hidden, and the articulation does not in the slightest way detract from the overall cohesiveness of the figure.

It is very difficult to fault this figure, but if there was one thing I would say it is that the alternate open mouth head does not really convey the right emotions. While his mouth is open his eyes do not seem to reflect the expression of his mouth, making the overall head look a bit lifeless, when viewed from the front. However, that is a very minor issue, and the head does look great when viewed from diagonal and side views.

All in all this really is a testament to the effort that was invested into the initial 4 waves of SOTA's 15th Anniversary Street Fighter Figures. And I would certainly recommend this to any Street fighter or general action figure fan.

Review and photographs by Dean René Middleton
Staff Reviewer

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INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #21 (OCT090511)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Art and 50/50 Cover by SALVADOR LARROCA
50/50 Cover by PATRICK ZIRCHER
Rated A...$2.99
On-Sale—12/9/09

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Set against the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the 4-part mini NOLA is, according to the synopsis, a tale of revenge. As the story opens, Nola Thomas is met with police resistance when she tries to get back into what’s left of New Orleans. Her face is covered, and she knows her way around a gun and hand-to-hand combat. The story skips back three weeks to a sidewalk café, where Nola, her mother, her friend Cinda, and Cinda’s father are finishing lunch. As the meal ends, the families part ways. Writer Chris Gorak does a good job of establishing that life in the Big Easy is good, but complicated. Nola has a boyfriend her mother doesn’t approve of, and she’s going out to meet him under the guise of going out with Cinda. This is where it should start to get interesting.

The thing that drew me to the book was the revenge angle. I was hoping for a Kill Bill or Sword-style story. We get insight into just what revenge she’s after, but I didn’t get enough information to really draw me in. From what the cops she encounters say, you get an idea that her reputation precedes her. I would hope with the next issue there will be more backstory. With only four issues in the series, they have to get to the story pretty quickly. Otherwise, it’s going to be a very bare bones tale of revenge. Without any point of reference, it seems like her actions in this issue are a little severe.

The biggest weak point in the book is Damian Couceiro’s art. The characters’ faces, especially Nola’s, seem to go between extreme detail and very generic expressions. For the first few panels, I wasn’t sure how old we are to believe Nola is. In some panels she looks as old as her mother; in others she looks very young and pretty. The same is true for Chevis Turner, Nola’s boyfriend. It’s hard to tell if it’s a May-December romance or if she’s dating a playboy her age. Couceiro is good with action, but the characters are not as expressive at times as the story requires.

Revenge makes for a good story most of the time, but I’m not sure I am interested enough to see how this dish is best served.

Stacey Rader
Staff Reviewer

http://geekyvixen.blogspot.com Read more...

This Saturday, at 7:30 PM Eastern on Cartoon Network, it’s time for the star-studded Super Hero Squad Show to bring you the greatest love story ever told (well, maybe that’s an exaggeration)!

The devious Enchantress casts a magic spell to make Thor love her, but instead Ms. Marvel falls in love with… M.O.D.O.K.! As this romance threatens to tear apart both the Squad and their enemies, Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg and Heroes star Adrian Pasdar respectively voice special guest stars Valkyrie and Hawkeye, who must help our heroes save the day! Plus, don’t miss appearances from Fin Fang Foom, Paste Pot Pete, Juggernaut, the Warriors Three and MORE!

Plus, don’t miss the new Marvel Super Hero Squad series, jam-packed with your favorite Marvel heroes and all-ages action, in comic shops now!

Tune into the Cartoon Network at 7:30 PM on Saturday to “Hero Up!” with your favorite characters in the Marvel Universe—or any other—in an all-new episode of The Super Hero Squad Show!

To learn more about The Super Hero Squad Show, please visit http://www.superherosquad.com/ and http://www.marvel.com/!

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Hot Toys is proud to bring you the second character from the Watchmen movie – The Comedian.

This Comedian collectible figure stands approximately 30cm tall and features Hot Toys’ muscled body with over 21 points of articulation. Dressed in his movie-accurate and intricately detailed costume of full body armor including patriotic shoulder pads, knee pads and boots etc.

This superhero collectible also features :

Tactical full body harness with holsters
Boot knife with a knife holder
Shotgun
Grenade launcher
Two (2) hand guns
Sixteen (16) cartridges with a cartridge belt
Cigar
Life-like head sculpt of the Comedian with his mask
Two (2) pairs of interchangeable gloved hands
12 inches figure stand with The Comedian nameplate and WATCHMEN logo

Artist:
Head Sculpt by Yulli
Head Paint by JC Hong

Release date: Q1, 2010

WATCHMEN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics.
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