From comicbookmovie.com

Trailers are a director’s opportunity to generate interest in his/her project. Some directors miss the mark and drive fans away from their movies, others capitalize and convert newcomers into true-believers.

In light of the recent debate about the Thor, Green lantern, Captain America and X-Men-First Class trailers hitting the airwaves, I began to wonder, what truely makes a trailer stand out? What makes a trailer so good (or so bad), that fanboys will jeopardize all their accumulated “street-cred” to publicly proclaim it and the eventual movie a masterpeice?

Well, I got to thinking about this, and in so doing, researched all the comicbook movie trailers I could find. I established a criteria for evaluating the trailers and then compared my evaluations to the “general feel and concensus” others got from the trailer. Then I made a list.

The Criteria:
1. The Movie must have been published as a comic book (or Graphic Novel or Manga) before or shortly after the theatrical release of the movie.
2. Teasers, TV spots, Sneak Peeks, Behind-The-Scenes and Set-visits were not included in the viewing.
3. Both Green band and Red band trailers were acceptable, but red band versions were always considered over Green where available.
4. The Trailer length could not exceed 3 minutes.
5. In instances with multiple movie trailers (eg. Iron man Trailer 1, Iron man Trailer 2 etc), the trailer with the longest running length under 3 mins was selected)
6. Only live action movies were considered, fully animated movies were not included in the pull of considered movies.

The Nominees:
For a list of the nominees, please view the wikipedia list of Films Based on comics. I looked at every one of these movie’s trailers over the course of the last two months, then I spent time comparing their merits.

Selection Criteria:
1. Level to which the trailer engages and/or captivates the viewer.
2. Universality of content (how easily different kinds of people eg. men vs women, old vs. young, fan vs. newbie could understand the content
3. Story exposition or the extent to which the trailer communicates what the movie will be about without revealing the entire plot
4. General feel and concensus of the movie. What did fanboys and new comers to the content think about the trailers (youtube/traileraddict/google video comments and votes)
5. Box office movie performance, as well as movie reviews were not taken into consideration in evaluating the trailers.

And now, without further ado, I present to you…

The Top 10 Comicbook movie trailers…Ever!

10. Casshern

Years before Snyder and Rodriguez would cause us to marvel at the seamless melding of live action and CGI, Kiriya would give us this slick trailer that is a treat even to non-native japanese audiences.

9. Red

When you take so many seasoned actors and put them together in an action-comedy setting as was shown in this trailer, there is a universality about this that makes it something that all can appreciate.

8. 30 Days of Night

Even if you are not a fan of vampire films, the foreboding setting of this trailer will still make a lasting impact you.

7. American Splendor

This trailer screams of overcomplicated banality (a la Woody Allen), as do the characters. By the time the viewer reaches the end of the surprisingly engaging trailer, they realize that the movie seems to play on itself.

6. A History Of Violence

Perhaps revealing too much, this trailer successfully draws the viewer into a story about an otherwise modest character with a troubling past.

5. Sin City

The first of the ultra-stylized trailers to make the list. There’s something about the texturing of the visuals, the snippets that are shown, that pulls the viewer in.

4. Iron man

The sequel’s trailer only fails to create the same level of emotional draw that this trailer provides.

3. 300

Besides having one of the highest views on google and youtube, this trailer is extremely well crafted as it instantly signals entry into a completely different and fascinating world.

2. Spiderman 3

Throw some fast-paced climatic opera music on anything and watch it sparkle. This trailer does a great job of doing just that and it draws the viewer in with the murky layers of turmoil interspliced with special effects.

1. Watchmen

One half music video, the other half visual expedition, the watchmen trailer has pound for pound the highest net views and embeds (when the release date is taken into consiedration). The trailer sets a tone that can only be described as “intense” and causes the viewer to hit the “replay” button.

Honorable mention: 20. X-Men: First Class, 19. Spiderman, 18. Thor, 17. Star Wars Episode 3, 16. Goemon, 15. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, 14. X-Men 2: X-Men United, 13. Superman Returns, 12. Wanted, 11. X-Men: The Last Stand.
Dishonorable mention: 98. Sucker Punch, 99. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, 100. Batman & Robin

So those are my picks, please share yours!

[comicbookmovie]

As we say goodbye to the Ultimate Universe’ Peter Parker, we welcome a brand new wall crawler with a brand new look.Check it out..

So, Ultimate Peter Parker will be climbing the big water spout in the sky by the time the “Death Of Spider-Man”(Bit of a giveaway really isn’t it?) arc finishes up. But there will be a new man behind the mask and Bleeding Cool have a look at his new duds..

What do you think?

Keep a look out over at ComicBreak.com for this comic to come out..

Charlie Sheen has moved from radio rants to a full-scale television blitz, appearing on the “Today Show” to discuss the personal and professional firestorm he’s lit.

The (former) “Two and a Half Men” star talks to Jeff Rossen about, well, a lot – including his “war” with CBS, violence against women, being a role model for his children, charges of anti-Semitism, turning his home into a “crisis management center,” and what he plans to do next.

At various points, Sheen quotes NBA star Allen Iverson, calls himself a “warlock,” directly addresses show creator Chuck Lorre with questions he’s scrawled on index cards, slams Will & Grace, reads sarcastically from the Alcoholics Anonymous handbook, and claims to have “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA.”

Charlie Sheen’s hilariously awesome ‘Unleashed’ radio interview. You gotta listen to this.

[shockmansion]

In a new profile in The Independent, Jesse Eisenberg said something that was actually not totally self-deprecating: “People recognize me all the time as [Michael Cera]. It’s annoying. I don’t like getting recognized as other people.” (Eisenberg is routinely compared to Cera by industry insiders and publications.) Don’t worry, Eisenberg made up for it with endearingly neurotic sound bites later: “The more people say nice things about me, the more I feel it’s false. Or the more I look for the things that are bad about me, and think those are the real ones. I could overhear somebody say something about me, and it destroys me for a week. Yet I could win an award or hear nice reviews and it feels meaningless. [Winning the National Board of Review prize] was great. But then I immediately found some reason to be miserable again. It’s terrible. I’m able to manipulate things into being bad, which is not a healthy way to live but that’s where I’m at now.” He added that “there has been no change in the type of scripts he has been receiving since The Social Network was released,” and he has not made new friends since the film’s release, either. He had to put in self-effacement overtime after that Cera comment! [Independent UK]

What do you guys think? Leave a comment and let us know.

Christina Aguilera mixed up the words to the National Anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday. When she was supposed to sing, “Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,” the Grammy winner went with, “Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, what so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last reaming.” Whoops. Twitter users were quick to notice, and Aguilera’s Wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect the error. But she otherwise sounded fine! Check it out, below:

Aguilera Flubs National Anthem [ArtsBeat/NYT]

What are your thoughts?

The Razzie noms are on their way. And for now we have a shortlist of several movies that may be honoured in the prestigious category of Worst film of the year. Click for the full list and the details..

The Golden Raspery Awards, or “The Razzies” are always a bit of fun. Every year they celebrate the very worst in film making. This year the nominations will be announced on January 26th but here are the shortlist of 12 films that could make the cut. There is only one true CBM(Jonah Hex) but many have spin off comics and have been covered here.

According to the Los Angeles Times Awards Tracker blog, the 12 finalists include ‘Little Fockers,’ ‘Sex and the City 2,’ ‘The Expendables,’ ‘Grown Ups,’ ‘Clash of the Titans,’ ‘Killers,’ ‘The Bounty Hunter,’ ‘Yogi Bear,’ ‘Jonah Hex,’ ‘The Last Airbender,’ ‘Vampires Suck,’ and ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.’ There is also a new category this year: worst eye-gouging misuse of 3-D. Among those eligible films: Piranha 3D, The Nutcracker in 3D and Resident Evil: Afterlife. (No Clash?) Also, Mickey Rourke is expected to receive a worst supporting actor for both The Expendables and Iron Man 2! That I do find a bit strange since I thought he was great in IM2 and about the only good thing in The Expendables! But different strokes I guess.

I haven’t seen all of the above movies but those I have I pretty much despised. What do you think of the shortlist?

"He wrote it in his blood." "Way to go kid!"

Ahhhh… Voice acting. Games these days need it. Unless you’re making a retro-styled, soon-to-be-showered-with-critical-Praise Indie Game, it’s pretty tough to tell a story without it. Even the most money tight budget titles I’ve played in the last two years have featured pretty passable voice acting. But it wasn’t always so Kids. And it was doubly-wasn’t so for Japanese games.

There’s a lot of reasons we could list for this. Different cultures; Hiring educational translation firms to read your lines for you; or Even just getting the one one fat, American programmer that’s on your Japanese-Based development team to do 80% of the characters. There’s a lot of methods at fault for the wackiness Japan has peed all over our consoles, like some kind of (probably) Japanese originating fetish or gameshow. But lets not look at the end results as bad, so much as we look at them as Awesome. Think about it, won’t you? Thank you.

PLUS: As their campaign for the “Best Picture” Oscar heats up, Pixar have released a series of hilarious parody posters comparing Toy Story 3 moments to previous winners…

The Guardian reports that the final part of Pixar’s animated adventure series is just ahead of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, which grossed $1.02bn (£661m), after raking in a whopping $1.05bn (£682m).

In third place is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which made $831m (£538m) despite only being in cinemas for six weeks, while director Christopher Nolan’s critically-acclaimed Inception is at four with $825m (£534m). The rest of the top ten are Shrek Forever After ($737m / £477m), Twilight: Eclipse ($693m / £449m), Iron Man 2 ($622m / £403m), Despicable Me ($539m / £349m), Clash of the Titans ($493m / £319m) and How to Train Your Dragon ($493m / £319m).

What do you think? Should Toy Story 3 get Best Picture?

If you can sit though this and not feel a little nostalgic you either don’t have a heart, or you don’t have kids. My children were raised on Pixar, we own everything they’ve put out and do our best to see them in the theater when we can. Seeing all these clips reminds me of the great times we’ve had together and how quickly they grow up. Thanks for raising my kids Pixar, you’re doing a much better job than Nintendo did raising me…

The Beauty of Pixar from Leandro Copperfield on Vimeo.

I thought it would be interesting to see which celebrities have passed on in 2010, so I’ve compiled a list of those who have passed on.

Recently, we in the “geek” universe lost two iconic figures in Irvin Kershner, director of The Empire Strikes Back, and actor Leslie Nielsen (Airplane). So I decided to look back over the rest of the year to see who else has passed on. For the sake of this being TheNoobNews.com, I will do my best to keep the dearly departed within the realm of our topics, and maybe just toss in a few others for good measure.

James Aubry Actor (Lord of the Flies)
Michael Been Musician (The Call)
Glen Bell Businessman (Founder of Taco Bell)
Barbara Billingsly Actress (Leave it to Beaver)
Manute Bol Athlete (Philidelphia 76ers, Washington Bullets)
Tom Bosley Actor (Happy Days)
Stephen J. Cannell Film/TV Producer (Creator of The Rockford Files)
Art Clokey Cartoonist (Creator of Gumby)
Gary Coleman Actor (Different Strokes)
Robert Culp Actor (I Spy)
Tony Curtis Actor (Some Like it Hot)
Jimmy Dean Entrepreneur/Singer (Jimmy Dean Sausages)
Ronnie James Dio Musician (Black Sabbath, Dio)
Blake Edwards Director (The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
Doug Fieger Musician (The Knack)
John Forsythe Actor (Charlie’s Angels)
Frank Frazetta Artist (Creator of Conan cover Art)
James Gammon Actor (Character Actor)
Greg Giraldo Comedian (Comedy Central Roasts)
Peter Graves Actor (Mission: Impossible)
Paul Dedrick Gray Musician (Bassist for Slipknot)
Bob Guccione Businessman (Founder of Penthouse Magazine)
Guru Musician (Rapper from Gang Starr)
Cory Haim Actor (The Lost Boys)
Dennis Hopper Actor (Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider)
Lena Horne Musician (Stormy Weather)
Irvin Kershner Director (The Empire Strikes Back)
Andrew Koenig Actor (Growing Pains)
James MacCarthur Actor (Hawaii Five-O)
Simon MacKorkindale Actor (Casualty)
Kevin McCarthy Actor (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Rue McClanahan Actress (Maude, Golden Girls)
Fred Morrison Inventor (The Frisbee)
Patricia Neal Actress (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Ronald Neame Director (The Poseidon Adventure)
Leslie Nielsen Actor (Airplane!, The Naked Gun)
Arthur Penn Director (Bonnie and Clyde)
Zelda Rubenstein Actress (Poltergeist)
JD Salinger Author (The Catcher in the Rye)
Glenn Shadix Actor (Beetlejuice)
Peter Steele Musician (Type O Negative)
George Steinbrenner Businessman (Owner of the New York Yankees)
Gloria Stuart Actress (Titanic, The Invisible Man)
Ari Up Musician (The Stilts)

Obviously, there are many, many others who left us this year, but these are the few that stood out to me. We lost many talented actors, savvy businessmen, unique inventors and incredible musicians. Join me in “pouring one out” for these fine folks.

One of the best videos I’ve ever seen cut, Iron Man 2, Kick Ass, even Paper Man is here, check it out past the loop…

From genrocks at YouTube: This year’s movies have legitimately transformed my idea of what is creatively possible. To commemorate, I’ve remixed 270 of them into one giant ass video.

Music:
1. Ratatat – Nostrand – http://tinyurl.com/2ahhhj9
2. Kanye West – Power – http://tinyurl.com/27mpo83
3. Rooney – Not In My House – http://tinyurl.com/23vpakx
4. Apartment – Fall Into Place – http://tinyurl.com/2fnsnkc
5. Civil Twilight – Letters from the Sky – http://tinyurl.com/2fwrlys
6. SUNBEARS! – Little Baby Pines – http://tinyurl.com/26d9brn

Films in order of appearance: http://tinyurl.com/2g3p6bs

What do you guys and gals think? Comment below…

It’s no surprise that people in the movies are so dour and anxious these days: They aren’t getting any. A little over a decade ago, sex was still commonplace in cinema, and movies like Basic Instinct were sold primarily on carnal thrill. In the years since, however, movie characters have kept buttoned-up, and the rare film that makes sex a focal point of its promotional campaign usually tanks (witness the underperforming Love and Other Drugs, which promised to unclothe Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway everywhere from the stage of Saturday Night Live to the cover of Entertainment Weekly, yet couldn’t crack $10 million over the past three-day weekend). We don’t want to blame Janet Jackson’s nipple yet again for America’s recent prudishness — really, we don’t — so here are three other legitimate reasons why sex no longer sells movie tickets.

The Internet has demystified celebrity nudity.
Viewers may still want to see attractive movie stars in the altogether, but the Internet era has made it so commonplace and easy that paying ten dollars for the privilege no longer seems necessary. (Even the most nudity-averse stars have found themselves the victims of leaked cell-phone photos, sex tapes, and sleazy upskirt shots.) Hathaway and Gyllenhaal may be beautiful examples of Hollywood pulchritude, but a simple Google search turns up plenty of other movies where they went naked, and Love and Other Drugs was barely in theaters for a full 24 hours before screen captures and videos from that film popped up online, too. Long gone is the day when Halle Berry could demand an extra $500,000 to go topless in the 2001 film Swordfish, and when nudity is the only incentive to go to the theater, many men will simply torrent the film (or wait a few days for screen captures to hit the blogs) instead of paying the full-charge ticket price.

It’s a turnoff to women.
You can’t blame women for being wary of the ways that Hollywood presents sex. Much of the time, actresses are little more than heavily objectified love interests or sex objects, and most films are told from a male point of view. Still, women rejected the equal-opportunity Love and Other Drugs, and it may be for the same reason that the female-targeted (and woman-directed) Jennifer’s Body flopped last year: Movies that hard-sell the female lead’s sex appeal are a turnoff to many women. Perennially unclad actresses like Megan Fox don’t top the average woman’s list of favorite performers, and even the sexually charged Angelina Jolie still has a large swath of her gender to win over (it may be why she’s traded the allure of her early roles for action heroism). Though Amanda Seyfried is an up-and-coming romantic lead who women like, they deserted her at the box office earlier this year when she disrobed and hit the sheets with Julianne Moore for the erotic thriller Chloe, and not enough men were there to pick up the slack.

The MPAA is too constrictive.
Audiences might be more receptive to sexually forward films if there were more of them — then Love and Other Drugs could have been sold more as a romantic drama than as an “Oh my God THEY’RE NAKED” novelty — but as long as the mortifyingly Victorian ratings board of the MPAA is in place, there are few directors and studios willing to chance it. Blue Valentine was recently slapped with an NC-17 despite its less-than-ample amounts of nudity and sex, and while violent movies appear to flout ratings boundaries all the time, the merest hint of sexual thrusting or female orgasms can send the ratings board into a conniption fit. Despite all the big-screen burnouts, there’s plenty of proof that sex can sell — unrated shows on premium cable thrive on nudity and daring onscreen assignations — but when you couple the already risk-averse studios with the ultratimid MPAA, you’re looking at several years of cinematic blue balls yet to come.

What do you all think? Lets Talk about it…

The trailer for medieval buddy comedy Your Highness released yesterday makes it look like a pretty funny Apatow-ian comedy, albeit one with wall-to-wall special effects, which is an unusual combination. Some big-budget comedies have worked (Men in Black), but sometimes too much concentration on eye-popping action can make laughs secondary (The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Ghostbusters 2). Do glossy explosions and effects kill comedy, or is it all must a matter of execution?

In what could go down as one of the worse ideas in movie history, Warner Bros. is, according to Deadline.com, after director Robert Zemeckis to helm an actual remake of the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz.

Writes Mike Fleming, “Warner Bros is in early talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct a live-action remake of the The Wizard of Oz and plans to use the original script from the 1939 classic. Warner Bros owns the screenplay because Ted Turner bought it along with the MGM library before Warner Bros bought Turner’s empire…Whenever you remake a revered Hollywood film, there’s bound to be controversy, but going right to the original material is certainly an interesting approach.”

A BIT OF EDITORIALIZING: Fleming’s wrong – going right to the original material is certainly NOT an interesting approach. Gus Van Sant tried it in the ’90s with the remake of Psycho, which also used the original script as its source material, and that was a disaster.

What do you think?

What Movie Will You See This Weekend?
This weekend’s new releases are all over the map. Will it be Morning Glory, the newsroom romantic comedy (newsromedy)? Or Unstoppable, the locomotive on the loose movie pairing living legend Denzel Washington with next-big-thing Chris Pine? Maybe your Eric Balfour fascination will lead you to alien adventure flick Skyline? Is buzzy indie film Tiny Furniture coming to a theater near you? Or are you staying close to your DVR? What’s your pick and why?

We’ve seen a rash of behind the scenes trailers andexclusive clips, making us wonder what’s left to see when the movie opens up in just ten days. Sure, readers already know the plot anyway, but will the visuals seem like an anticlimax when we’ve seen this much? Or does it just get you more excited to check it out?