You know, I was perfectly fine with the Sam Raimi incarnations of Spider-Man. No, they weren’t perfect. Tobey Maguire was a passable nerd and Kirsten Dunst had a really punchable face, but Alfred Molina was a surprisingly touching Doc Ock. Willem Dafoe chewed a lot of scenery as Norman Osborn – but, shitty armored costume aside, that’s what Stormin’ Norman does, right? I mean, have you read The New Avengers, lately? Oh, Norman…

Anyway.

It was a nice couple of flicks. Thank god, they didn’t make a third one*.

But, Sony decided to reboot the franchise. Tobey Maguire couldn’t stay a teenager forever and Kirsten Dunst was widely reported as feeling like her story was “done” after her last Spider-Man movie. Even if Durst might have been open to “considering” more Spidey, no one wants a lukewarm Mary Jane. Not even Harry Osborn at his loneliest – that’s what drugs are for!

So, with the trailer finally released, how does the new reboot look?

Check it out after the jump!

If you watched the Super Bowl yesterday for the actual football game, you are moaning with disappointment over the Patriots loss, chortling in a self-satisfied manner over the Patriots loss, or a poor, doomed resident of New Jersey enjoying the first modern mention of your state that does not involve the terms, “guido,” “Snooki” or “taint-scented.”

However, if you’re one of the smart ones who watched just for the commercials, you saw a new, thirty-second spot for the upcoming Joss Whedon Avengers flick with a bunch of not previously seen footage. That was sweet… but you know what’s sweeter? The extended version Marvel released online with even more not previously seen footage. Which you can see after the jump…

Avengers, assemble: Things that make you go "BOOM"!

Today was a big day on Twitter; Joss Whedon, Samuel L. Jackson, Gregg Clark, and Tom Hiddleston participated in a live chat to promote The Avengers movie. If you’re interested in catching up with the chat, in which Joss Whedon tells us that not only will there be Easter eggs in the movie, but that they will be “actual dyed eggs” (I’m not kidding), head on over to @Avengers on Twitter or go Marvel’s Avengers Assemble. A transcript of selected highlights from the chat can also be found at Slash Film. For example:

Can you enjoy Avengers without seeing all the other films?
Joss Whedon: “You don’t need to see any Marvel movies to enjoy Avengers! But you need to see Steel Magnolias, like, six times.”

Oh, I don’t know Joss. I can only take watching Julia Roberts die of kidney failure so many times before my face hurts too much from laughing. That’s just me though.

The chat ended with a link to a 10 second teaser trailer from the new 30 second commercial that will be aired this Sunday, February 5, during the NFL Super Bowl.

Check out the teaser, with new, previously unseen Avengers footage, after the jump!

We’ve discussed the possibility of Eric Powell’s The Goon as a feature length film here before.

This past Thursday, Powell updated his blog to clarify the status of the project and quell any rumors that the movie was dead in the water:

David Fincher and Blur still have the option for the Goon film and are still actively looking for funding. Recently some sites have been saying the Goon film has been nixed based on comments from Paul Giamatti saying he didn’t know where the film was at and we must have ran out of money. Let me assure you we have not run out of money… because we never had any money to run out of…Trust me, when someone steps up and we get this slated I will be screaming it from the rooftops. And if Fincher and Blur decide to pass, I will also let you know by posting something on thegoon.com. But there is zero change right now. We all remain dedicated and confident that we’ll get this thing done.

Fincher passed along to Powell that he is working to get the movie through the Hollywood development process and “emerge with our dignity and YOUR (Powell’s) hard fought independent voice intact.” So, what more could be done to help move this process along?

How about signing a petition?

More on the petition after the jump!

If you’re a genre fan around my age, you have fond memories of Jenny Agutter, whether you know you do or not. Granted, she hasn’t been in a lot that’s been on any American’s radar for quite a while, but she played Jessica in Logan’s Run and Alex in An American Werewolf in London, which means for a Generation X male geek, there’s a better than even chance she was the cause for the first time you said, “Mommy? My pee-pee’s broken. It’s pointing at the ceiling.”

Agutter’s making an appearance in the upcoming Avengers flick – after all, Joss Whedon is a male, Gen-X genre fan – which makes her newsworthy, particularly in England, where she’s apparently been working steadily since the 80s. Newsworthy enough to have done an interview for the Radio Times (Think England’s TV Guide) about the experience. An interview where she said that she was sworn to secrecy about anything that happens in the movie… and where she promptly dropped a massive spoiler that, if not a mistake on her part or the part of the reporter who wrote the story, is fairly fucking awesome:

Awesomeness. That’s what.

Over on The Mary Sue, Jill Pantozzi, who you may know as @TheNerdyBird on Twitter, recently shared this video mash up of Batman: The Animated Series and the sound footage of The Dark Knight Rises trailer (via Geek Tyrant):

It’s weird, but I somehow understand Bane better in this version. Maybe because I don’t have to look at the weird face mask/grill thing he wears in the movie:

That's some head gear! You need to look into other orthodontists.

The Dark Knight Rises is set to be released in US theaters on July 20, 2012.

Howdy, folks! Crisis On Infinite Midlives is recovering from an overdose of holiday cheer here in the home office. Did you know that no matter how many times you put a bottle of Poland Springs vodka through a Brita filter…it still tastes like burning death? And if you drink the whole bottle, you’ll find yourself sharing your Christmas wishes with the porcelain god rather than Santa. It’s true!

However, the internetz were still busy compiling awesome geek goodness while I was fetal in the bathroom. Comics Alliance reported that Christopher Nolan doesn’t care if you can’t understand Bane in the new Batman movie.

The filmmaker has acknowledged that the dialogue may be difficult to understand at times, but told Heat Vision earlier this month that the visuals are meant to help carry the load, “Otherwise it’s just a radio play.” An unnamed studio executive elaborated, saying, “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down. You’ve got to pedal faster to keep up.”

In a follow up interview, Nolan was asked, “Well, has anyone come forward and told you that Bane’s voice is awesome and you shouldn’t change a thing?” to which Nolan replied, “Yeah, your mom. While I was doing her in the sound editing room! Boom! Sick burn!”

Ok, that might have been funnier in my head when I thought of it. Stupid Poland Springs vodka.

Here’s something that’s funny though, after the jump.
Really. It’s funny. I promise.

Bleeding Cool is speculating as to whether The Hindustan Times has spoiled a surprise cameo in the new Avengers movie:

Casting is apparently underway for actors to dub the dialogue in The Avengers into Hindi for release against the English language version in India next April. The Hindustan Times (via CBM) have built a story out of this, specifically noting that sometime celebrity couple Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone have been offered a pair of key roles.

But which roles?

The Iron Man couple…Iron Man and his love interest Pepper.

 
Gwyneth Paltrow has publicly denied that she will be in the upcoming Avengers movie. Gwyneth Paltrow also likes to name her children after fruit. And thinks it’s possibly to “detoxify” the human body through Broccoli and Arugula Soup, among other things. It’s like she hasn’t even heard of that organ called a “liver”. Or, if so, certainly not my liver – which is probably the strongest muscle in my body. It’s godlike, I tell you. If she’s living on a diet of Broccoli and Arugula Soup, she’s probably light headed all the time and likely to say any damn thing, like “No, I’m not in The Avengers movie” or “Yes, Chris Martin, I will marry you despite your wuss rock” or “Yes, I should totally be in the Glee concert movie!”

You see? Completely batshit out of her head.

Oh, and I promised you Captain America speaking German. It’s after the jump.

Seriously. It’s after the jump.

Well, it’s finally out and far more viewable than the blurry cell phone footage that made its way to The Gothamist four days ago. I give to you, for your viewing pleasure, The Dark Knight Rises official movie trailer:

Just in the nick of time, now that the other, also blurry, cell phone footage of the 8 minutes of DKR prologue got yanked from the Internet by Warner Bros. I will say the brief snippets of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle are definitely getting me more interested in her/the movie’s take on the character. Oh, and it’s nice to finally be able to understand what Bane is saying without needing a script to follow – although the dialogue in that script refers to the DKR prologue, not that Bane was particularly intelligible in the trailer leaked on Dec. 15, either.

Since there’s a better than average chance that The Dark Knight Rises prologue we posted will be gone any second, even though it is of quality so shitty you will question whether you are seeing Commissioner James Gordon, Gordon Lightfoot, or perhaps the anthropomorphization of the voice in your head that tell you to burn things (…just me? Really? Okay.), we thought that it was only fair to provide you with a suitable back-up. DC isn’t the only comics company releasing a movie in 2012 after all; Marvel has a dog in this fight, so we at Crisis On Infinite Midlives are proud to present the newest, high-definition trailer for Marvel’s much anticipated… Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, starring Nicolas Cage!

…Ghost Rider? Really?

Huh. Really. Okay.

Seriously?

C’mon! That could be Nic Cage on any given Saturday night! Frankly, that could be me on any given Saturday night! Jesus, the big comics Web sites get crystal-clear Avengers shit, and we get Ghost Rider? (Rob: Just write the copy and put the video after the jump. We can feel bad about our place in the comics world later. -Amanda)

*sigh* Fine.