2016 is almost done with. And what have we learnt from modern pop culture? That rock ’n’ roll is dead? That nostalgia & fan service in movies trumps originality? That real life is slowly but surely upstaging science fiction for sheer bizarreness?
GEEK OUT! PASSENGERS / ASSASSIN’S CREED – THE SCIFI MOVIE AS FLACCID ENTERTAINMENT
In 1977, Star Wars made the scifi movie highly bankable, taking the concepts of the pulp serials of the 30s and the B-movies of the 50s into the commercial stratosphere. Almost 40 years later, Star Wars still reigns supreme in the form of The Force Awakens and Rogue One – massive worldwide blockbusters which have captured the imagination of the casual movie-goer.
GEEK OUT! MOVIES OF 2016
2016 promised to be the year of geek movies as Marvel, DC and Fox released superhero adaptations galore and Disney/Lucasfilm launched the first Star Wars standalone film. Geek blockbusters were once again thrown into the mix as young adult franchises were initiated. Let’s try to make sense of it all, alright?
GEEK OUT! GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY TEASER TRAILER 2
It’s no secret that Guardians of the Galaxy is one of our favourite comic book movie adaptations of all time and we have been eagerly anticipating the sequel due in 2017.
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GEEK OUT! ALIEN: COVENANT – PROMETHEUS SEQUEL REVEALED AS THE FIRST PART OF AN ALIEN PREQUEL TRILOGY. OH WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?
Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world, whose sole inhabitant is the synthetic David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
GEEK OUT! WONDER WOMAN – OFFICIAL TRAILER
The biggest superhero movie with a female lead (Elektra and Catwoman do not count!) arrives next year. By that time we might even have a female President of the United States.
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GEEK OUT! DOCTOR STRANGE – HOW MARVEL IS GETTING ROUND SUPERHERO MOVIE FATIGUE
Are you tired of superhero movies?
Considering that 2016 had the most superhero movies to date (SIX!) – a valid concern would be creeping fatigue – would the sheer volume of such movies turn people against superhero movies in general?
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GEEK OUT! ANIMATION NATION 2016 – THE RED TURTLE
The final film for the upcoming Animation Nation 2016, an animated film festival organised by the Singapore Film Society (SFS) is the award-winning The Red Turtle, a joint production between Wild Bunch (France) and Studio Ghibli (Japan), directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit.
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FILM NEWS: ANIMATION NATION 2016
(Press release)
Animation Nation is an festival held in Singapore featuring animation feature films, animation short, seminars, and workshops. It was founded in 2004 and is organised by the Singapore Film Society. The last edition of the festival was held in 2011.
GEEK OUT! FIRST LOOK AT GHOST IN THE SHELL
GEEK OUT! PASSENGERS TRAILER
A romantic scifi thriller targeted for the X’mas season, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt as two passengers on a spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet, who are awakened from suspended animation, 90 years early.
GEEK OUT! ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY TRAILER
When Disney paid big bucks for Lucasfilm, it was with a view to spinning the Star Wars franchise into a shared universe, very much like the hugely popular and successful Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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GEEK OUT! SUICIDE SQUAD
Synopsis
A secret government agency led by Amanda Waller recruits imprisoned supervillains (as Task Force X) to execute dangerous black ops missions and save the world from a powerful threat, in exchange for leaner sentences. Directed by David Ayer and starring Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jared Leto (Joker), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag), Viola Davis (Waller) and many others.
GEEK OUT! TRAIN TO BUSAN
Synopsis
Fund manager Seok-woo and his daughter Su-an are travelling from Seoul to Busan onboard the KTX. But the train is overrun by zombies which kill several of the train staff and other passengers. Seok-woo is in the fight of his life to survive and to save Su-an.
GEEK OUT! BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE
Background
Adaptation of the 1988 one-shot graphic novel featuring the characters Batman and the Joker written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Brian Bolland. The film is directed by Sam Liu and written by Brian Azzarello. Stars the voices of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong and Ray Wise.
GEEK OUT! STAR TREK BEYOND
Synopsis
The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test. directed by Justin Lin from a screenplay by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. Starring Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov) and Idris Elba (Krall).
GEEK OUT! DOCTOR STRANGE – TRAILER 2
The casting of Benedict Cumberbatch seemed a masterstroke and the early set photos set the internet abuzz.
GEEK OUT! WONDER WOMAN – OFFICIAL COMIC CON TRAILER
Yes, we have had movies about Elektra and Catwoman but surely finally the Wonder Woman film adaptation is the first proper major female superhero movie. Finally!
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GEEK OUT! JUSTICE LEAGUE – OFFICIAL COMIC CON TRAILER
GEEK OUT! LEGEND OF TARZAN
Synopsis
The latest film adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic story finds Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, being called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment.
GEEK OUT! BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE IS THE BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE SINCE THE DARK KNIGHT & WATCHMEN
If you have been paying attention, you will be aware that we loved Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice whereas most critics reviled Zack Snyder’s magnum opus to such an extent that it scored only 27% at Rotten Tomatoes. Mind you, the totally awful Independence Day: Resurgence managed to score 33%, so that gives you an indication of how much critics hated BVS.
GEEK OUT! BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (ULTIMATE EDITION) OUT NOW!
GEEK OUT! WARCRAFT: THE BEGINNING
Synopsis
Based on the Warcraft video game series and novels set in the world of Azeroth, The film portrays the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs and takes place in a variety of locations established in the video game series. The film is co-written and directed by Duncan Jones and stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky and Daniel Wu.
GEEK OUT! X-MEN: APOCALPYSE
Background
Whilst ostensibly, X-Men: Apocalypse deals with the emergence of the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse in the 80s, and the X-Men’s attempts to defeat his extinction level plan, it is actually the conclusion of the time-hopping trilogy that began with the Matthew Vaughn-helmed X-Men: First Class. With the re-introduction of beloved X-Men characters like Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheriden), Phoenix/Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Storm/Ororo Munroe (Alexandra Shipp), the movie sets the stage for the X-Men’s new adventures.
GEEK OUT: STAR TREK BEYOND TRAILER #2
Well obviously we held certain reservations when it was announced that Justin Lin (Fast & Furious) would be directing the new Star Trek movie. And whilst the first trailer did not allay those fears, this second trailer has gone a long way towards repairing awful first impressions.