I know it’s a bit early to be showing you a new game, what with everybody running around the streets of Gotham City. Truth be told I’ve had the game since Tuesday and have yet to even start the game. But I did see this, a teaser trailer for the upcoming sequel to War for Cybertron, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. It’s got all the spectacle and flash of the BayFormers but with the storyline and attention to Canon of both the original cartoon and comic series. Plus the Decepticons don’t look like pincushions. The story follows the last days of Cybertron, just prior to the Autobots climbing into the Ark and bailing for Earth.

This month’s GameInformer magazine has a great article on the game. Follow the link to check it out.

And of course, here’s the Teaser Trailer.  Dinobots, roll out!

My wife accidentally let slip last week that she pre-ordered Batman Arkham City for me. My wife has now become my favorite person on the planet (sorry kids, you lose) and I cannot wait to get my hands on this game. I may have to burn a few vacation days. My friend Torrey posted this up on his Facebook page and I had to share it. Here’s Walmart’s commercial for Batman Arkham City along with a few wallpapers to tide you over until the game’s release on October 18th. Enjoy.

I apologize for the lack of content lately. We’ve all been out of pocket with family-related stuff (nothing bad, just the usual) but I had to post this up. It’s just too good to ignore.

Ten years ago, at 8:46 in the morning, the lives of all Americans changed forever.  We witnessed an attack by terrorist forces in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania.   A combined total of 2,977 lives were lost at these sites and each and every day we mourn their losses.  The 19 attackers are not included in that total because they don’t deserve to be mentioned with the innocent men, women, and children that were lost.  They will remain nameless and faceless because I choose to remember the people that matter, those in the Towers, Pentagon, and on the planes.

Last year, I was lucky enough to travel to NY with my wife, my younger brother Keith, and his wife Elaine.  We were given the opportunity to stay at the Millenium Hilton on the 55th floor.  Each day from sun up until midnight, workers pushed on tirelessly on the grounds that once held the towers.

Now just a year later, most work has been complete and the city of New York has a place, not to mourn but to help move forward.  This will stand as a reminder that in the face of terrible, terrible attacks, we stood strong as a nation and fought together.

To those who doubt our resolve or question our beliefs, the attacks were not just against us.  In 2005, London was also attacked by Islamic terrorists.  These are not focused just against Americans but all those who hold freedom as their flag.

And to the conspiracy theorists who attack each move by the US government during this time, fuck off.  To believe that our government had a hand in this or to question how President Bush handled himself is taking away from all the innocent Americans that died.

Now we all must move forward.  Ten years later, it still seems so fresh.  Watching some of the ceremony brought back the same feelings of sadness and anger.  So each and every day we must make sure to tell the important people we love them, both by words and by actions.  To our allies such as Great Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and others who showed such support, we thank you.  Mankind must use this event to grow and change.

On days like today, I am lucky to live in the greatest country in the world.  The United States of America, while struggling through a murky recession, fighting on Capitol Hill, unemployment up the ass, and the debt total rising, shows that during times of trouble, all that is put aside to focus on our neighbors in all 50 states.  We are Americans, we are one, and we are strong.  God Bless America.

I heard that the Muppets released their Green Album, a cover of some of their greatest hits covered by today’s up and coming Alternative artists and thought I’d sample it on iTunes.  My initial assessment was that other than the clip of Mnah Mnah, it kind of sucked.  After seeing OK Go’s cover of the theme to the Muppet Show on youtube however, I may change my opinion.  Check it out kids.

I’m getting the feeling that the maze guy at the placemat factory just doesn’t give a crap about his job anymore. Zoe solved this in about 10 seconds flat. I think the kicker for me was that “Clyde” the chicken

A. Is pointing at the answer to the maze.
B. Is lost in this piece of crap maze DESPITE knowing the way out.

This is from a local Maine chain of restaurants (okay, 6…it’s a short chain) called Governor’s Restaurant. The mascot, otherwise known as “The Gov” was modeled on the owner and proprietor of the original restaurant. I think it’s only coincidence that our current Fearless Leader bears a striking resemblance. The food is good. The placemats blow. FYI Zoe’s 11. When the waitress saw that she’d completed the “maze”, she replied “yeah, that one’s a hard one. Took a group of us about an hour to finish”.

I’m glad to see my favorite Batman rogue showing his face in this game.   This is looking more amazing with every release.

Thanks to Comingsoon.net for sharing this with us.

Last night Boy and I attended the Summer “Blockbuster” Transformers:  Dark of the Moon, courtesy of free tickets given to us by my wife’s co-worker and best friend (thanks to Sue-Ellen & Jim).   I’d heard bad things and a few good things, (for the bad things, see the link below) but thought the price was right, no matter the quality of the movie.  My take?  That may very have been the most expensively polished turd I’ve ever seen on the silver screen.  Bay cut his teeth directing music videos and it shows more in this movie than any other.  I will give him this much, he provided some of the best action sequences and special effects I’ve seen to date.  The problem is that they’re tied together so loosely and poorly the movie has no backbone and barely stands under its own weight.

The way I explained it to my son was that this was the style for music videos in the 80′s and early ’90′s.  The director could string together a few random scenes that didn’t have to make much sense as the video was really about the song.  As music usually tells some sort of story (even if the message is extremely simplistic as it tended to be in the ’80′s), it did most of the work.  Take the song “Running down a Dream” for example.  The director could show shots of Tom Petty running down an alley, having a nightmare, rehearsing with the band, Tom in concert live on stage, a car chase, running in a field, a beautiful woman partially obscured in haze, and end it with Tom playing guitar in bed.  The viewer would tie the song to the images to figure out what’s going on.  This may be sufficient for a 5 minute music video (sometimes, there were occasions where even the viewer said “what the hell is going on here?”), but really doesn’t work for a 2 hour movie.  Bay obviously had a great idea for a plot, but had no idea how to tie it all together.  So all we’re left with are random shots to try to piecemeal together on our own.

Bay’s directorial weak points seem to be characterization, continuity, and humor.  I don’t think Bay has any idea how to develop characters other than through the path of the story, which limits any viewer attachment solely to the main character.  Tertiary characters were almost non-existent in this movie because they were just used as background.   There was very little fleshing-out of the characters, especially with most of the Transformers themselves.   You walk away from the movie knowing Sam, his girlfriend, and few others.  Some of the characters with the most potential, the new Autobots, Soundwave, and the new badass on the block Shockwave, received minimal screen time and were wasted on the story.

Bay’s attention to continuity was non-existent in Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen, and he continued the tradition in this film.  Characters disappeared for awhile (sometimes in mid-scene) then popped up an hour later as if they’d never left.  Scenes chopped from one to the next with no flow (getting back to the music video background I’d discussed earlier).  My son noticed that Bumblebee went from rescuing Sam to being captured with the other Autobots seconds later.  Bay tried to conceal this inadequacy with blinding flash of CGI, action, explosions, loud music, and metal flying in every direction.  To some degree it worked because it’s impossible to follow anything when being assaulted with that much sensory noise.  But the weak story couldn’t be hidden for long and I left the theater feeling cheated.

As in the second movie, I was unimpressed with Bay’s attempt at humor.  He tried a combination of potty humor an 8 year old boy would find hilarious, but mixed in the borderline gross sexual innuendo of a blue stand-up comedian, making the content unacceptable for the younger demographic who have more desire to see this movie and inclination to buy the tie-in merchandise.  Add to that the fact that every human antagonist for Sam came off as a lewd, creepy, perverted douchebag.  It’s like he took one antagonist character, ripped pages out of that script, and handed it to 5 actors, creating 4 new characters for the film just to add a few more big names to the credit roll.  Then there was Sam’s Girlfriend, newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (who for the record I didn’t think was all that hot) who seemed to be a bigger concern to Bay than say, telling a good story.  Nick’s first comment when leaving was “the movie was more about how hot she was than what was happening to the Transformers”.  That’s my boy.  I was proud of him when he caught that.  One shot of the girlfriend leaning over the hood of the car was enough.  We get it Mike, she’s hot.  Every scene she was in?  Overkill.  Add to that the fact that she’s a sub-par actress and not as hot as she thinks she is?  I say get rid of the girlfriend altogether and bring in a girl that can keep up with the boys.  How about wearing sneakers instead of heels when you’re running through a burning Chicago?

I’d heard that the first half of this movie was as bad as the second film, but the second half made up for that.  After seeing the movie, I disagree with that statement.  I thought the movie in its entirety was bad.  My friend Dave saw the film opening weekend and was rather vocal about his opinion, which I’ve got to agree with whole-heartedly.  Check out his review as well as it’s a riot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB6IhkoVUr0&feature=channel_video_title

The good news is Bay’s control over the franchise is at an end.  The bad news is the movie made so much money that Hollywood thinks the guy craps gold.  I’m guessing he’ll turn up in another year or so to destroy another childhood memory.

Thanks to SuperheroHype.com for sharing these great images of three of the Avengers.  I’m sure more are to come and I’ll post them up as they’re made available. 

Click on the thumbnails below to see the full-sized images.

I suppose I should line them up in order too.  I’ll do that once they’re all released.

Thanks to SuperheroHype for this one. Here’s the new teaser trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, slated for release on July 3, 2012. Give it a watch and let us know what you think. Personally, I’m a huge Raimi fan and wasn’t thrilled to hear the studio was “rebooting” the franchise. I also didn’t like the first released images of Spidey’s costume. This doesn’t look half bad though. I’m willing to give it a shot.