Hmm.  Well.  Yeah.

I’m on record as being 10,000% on board with the direction Marvel is taking Thor.  Kenneth Branagh is an inspired choice that remains shocking months later.  Unknowns in the leads adds some intrigue and takes away any baggage the viewer might have before sitting down for a movie that asks them to believe that these guys are literally gods on Earth.  Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins (to varying degrees) are capable of giving weight to comic book material that demands gravitas.

The first image, released to the God of Thunder’s MySpace page, is evocative and the costume looks great.

But this new image?  And its counterpart over at Collider?

We’re still in the “concept art” stage, so there’s no reason to get too high or too low.  All I know is that this is the first time I’ve been worried in the least about this project, and this character’s large role in the Marvel movie universe, since Branagh was announced.

via Collider

The headliners for the annual hip hop showcase are:

• Wu-Tang Clan (minus the late Dirk McGirk) performing Enter the 36 Chambers in full.
• Rakim (minus Eric B.) performing Paid in Full in full.  In full.
• KRS-One performing Criminal Minded in full.
• Slick Rick performing The Great Adventures of Slick Rick in full.

Of those four albums that will performed in their entirety, the most recent was released in 1993.  What does that say about the current state of big-money hip hop?  If Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne turn down a gig the only other option is to dip back into the late 80s early 90s?

The other acts on the tour show that hip hop is absolutely not dead–Clipse, Murs, and Wiz Kalifa are all legit artists in or around their primes–but top of the charts hip hop?  It certainly seems like the people behind this tour, one that prides itself on steering clear of vapid, transient acts, had some trouble finding anybody worth booking at the top of the current hip hop charts.

Sad.  Maybe some kids going to see Wiz Kalifa will be exposed to Wu-Tang and realize there was a time when some of the best hip hop out there was also some of the most successful.

One half of the Flight of the Conchords will follow in the storied footsteps of Vincent D’Onofrio and Lara Flynn Boyle, starring as one of the main villains in next summer’s long, long overdue second sequel to the serviceable 1997 Big Willy Style vehicle Men in Black.

Clement joins the previously announced Josh Brolin as the only additions to the cast announced thus far.  Of course, with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones already back, the big question becomes will Rip Torn return as Zed, or will he accidentally give a drunken performance in a black suit and sunglasses at a similar-looking neighboring set.

Look forward to good actors in funny situations deflated by mediocre-to-bad writing Memorial Day 2012!

via Dark Horizons

*BONUS*

In a surprise move, FotC already released their parody track and video for the new movie.  Pretty impressive makeup work here.  Too bad they took it a little bit too far with this one, something this absurd would never be used to market a $100 million movie, and if it was it certainly wouldn’t become popular.

The L Magazine sheds some light on how Sleigh Bells managed to be the first band–anybody has even a passing interest in–that didn’t watch in horror as their hugely buzzed album leaked weeks, or even months, in advance: they didn’t send out promo copies to music writers.  So let’s all pour a little out today for music writers, because this is officially the end of freebies, at least freebies from bands that don’t desperately need the publicity.

Anyway, as exciting as record label-music blog/magazine relations are, the album is good!  You should listen to it!  If you like it you can buy it on iTunes today!  If you like hard copies you’ll have to wait until June 22!

I caught the band live recently, and they really do pull off an impressive tightrope walk between genres and general musical sensibilities.  There aren’t many bands out there that make hearts vibrate in rib cages from pulverizing bass and drums, get the techno kids waving glow-sticks, and ingrain a sugar-coated pop scream in everyone’s head in the same album, let alone in the same moment.

Right now the only thing missing from the live show is a drummer.  The percussion on these songs is so devastating and essential to what makes each track memorable that a recording of drums behind Derek Miller’s live guitar and Alexis Krauss’ live vocals just doesn’t quite cut it.  Hopefully this album blows up the way it should, and they can afford to split the gig checks one more way.

The last time Abrams pulled a stunt like this we got Cloverfield.  For those with horrible memories, here’s the original teaser for the eventual blockbuster:

Hopefully Super 8, the new project’s supposed title, will be as good as Cloverfield, and, more ugently, hopefully the movie it appears before isn’t a community theater fireworks show like Cloverfield‘s counterpart.

A new JJ Abrams movie is good news no matter what kind of dog-and-pony-show he uses to promote it.  I’m more than a little disappointed this news leaked, though.

Abrams is clearly interested in mystery and suspense in all that he does.  As we’ve seen over the last decade, the way movies are being marketed is changing.  It’s great to see filmmakers who engage with the traditionally ugly, corporate business of mass-marketing art in a fresh way that is consistent with their vision on a whole.  The Dark Knight‘s marketing made a nation of fanboys drool months before Heath Ledger’s untimely death piqued the rest of the country’s morbid curiosity.  It made fanboys drool because it was an extension of the film itself, before anybody saw a frame of the film itself.  Movie blogs, product placement, film-whoring in disparate places and mediums, these things aren’t going away.  Thankfully, there are a few filmmakers who understand that the audience they’re shooting for will have higher hopes for a film if the requisite 12-month marketing machine amounts to more than screaming in the public’s face over and over.

I remember taking my little cousin to see Transformers the weekend it was released.  When the 1-18-08 trailer ended he looked at me amazed and asked what it was about.  The fact that I had absolutely no clue resulted in us running home after the movie, only to find more riddles online.  HOW COOL IS THAT!?!  We were along for the ride and couldn’t wait to see where it took us–the fact that where it eventually took us was a place we wanted to go didn’t hurt either.

It’s coming again.  This time it’s been partially spoiled.  We still don’t really know anything about the movie itself.  Unfortunately, there just won’t be that moment before Iron Man 2 where you turn to the person next to you and ask, “wait…what the hell’s the title?”

Will someone please explain how this is cool?  This should not be cool.  This should be an embarrassment worthy of a 5,000 word post about tarnishing the legacy of the greatest song by one of the greatest DIY punk bands of all time.

Too bad it’s really cool–so much less fun to talk/write positively about a glee club.  Alas, that’s where we stand.

No doubt this performance, the planning behind it, and the video itself were undertaken with the hopes of going viral.  Sometimes an interesting idea can be immediately off-putting because the viral machinations behind it are evident just from reading the video’s title.  This feeling is completely present with this video.  Please don’t disregard it so quickly, though.  Wait until that first “I WAIT, I WAIT, I WAIT, I WAIT!” comes from out of nowhere–the whole project makes complete sense, in an exceedingly bizarre way.

Great job by everyone involved.  I’d love to know what Ian MacKaye would think.  The reaction would surely be either amusement mixed with pride at a DIY job well done, or projectile vomit.

via Monitor Mix

Check it out here.

The developer mentions the game took over a year to create, which seems like way, way not enough time.  This isn’t a quick little video game photoshop with one 8-bit character superimposed over another.  Each character gets his or her (Metroid spoiler alert) own music, sound effects, weapons, and special powers.

It’s really an incredible piece of work.  Maybe it will get the video game hacking community to step their collective game up–it’s hard to go from this purchase-worthy re-imagining back to “hey cool, you can play Mario online, but this time Mario is a walking penis!”

If this game awakened a heretofore unknown desire to waste hours on your computer playing 8-bit games created in the 21st Century, by all means, continue with  Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead.

via BWE

Here is the email sent out to members of the band’s mailing list:

Hi everyone!

As you may have heard, there is a low quality leak of our new album, High Violet, spreading across the Internet as we speak. We wanted to let you know the New York Times – http://www.nytimes.com – will be streaming the real thing starting Friday April 23rd. We hope you’ll take the time to hear the album at its intended level of quality.

High Violet will be released by 4AD worldwide on May 10th/11th.

–

thanks for your support!
/the national

The National have become such a revered band since the release of their last two albums that I’m not sure if this move is entirely necessary from a financial standpoint.  I didn’t download the low-quality leak, because it’s a low-quality leak; once those internet magicians convert this high-quality stream into a torrent I will download it and listen to the s*** out of it.  You know what else I’m going to do?  Buy the High Violet vinyl the day it comes out.  I doubt I’m in the minority there in regards to National fans.

So good on them, they probably realize a certain group of people will be out in droves to buy the album, no matter how many times they’ve already heard it.  Look at this as less a business decision than a decision that, if the fans are going to be listening to the album one way or the other, it should be on something better than crappy half bit-rate mp3s–and that’s awesome.

In case anybody was wondering whether or not Eric Wareheim is a real artist and not (just) some doofus with a stoner following.

Don’t let the blood and gore fool you into thinking less of this than you should.  The gruesome bits stick with you after it’s over, but it’s the atmospheric beauty of the quieter chase shots that draw you in to begin with.  The art direction is remarkable, the special effects contribute to the nightmare quality, and the ending pushes it over the edge.  Looking at this as simply a memorable video because of its shocking violence is really a disservice to the director.

This is an early frontrunner for music video of the year.

First up, we have a new trailer for The Expendables.  If you haven’t heard of The Expendables, man, it’s time to start watching more Spike TV and drinking more Amp Energy (I’m pretty sure they rolled out in-can viral marketing for the movie).  Sylvester Stallone co-wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, which stars *big breath* Stallone, Jason Statham (sold already), Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Arnold.  It’s about bad people with guns, and the need to defeat those bad people with guns with bigger guns and possibly punching.  Boobs will also likely play a role.

HD and standard versions here.

Now that we got the classy stuff out of the way, here’s a compilation of 160 Arnold quotes from 25 different movies that clocks in at just under 10 minutes.  Whoever compiled this had an awesome weekend.

Not to criticize such an impressive feat, but how the hell do you keep the camel punch out?  I don’t care if it’s not really a line, slap it on at the end and this video goes from exuberant applause to eruptive standing ovation.

Oh well, time to go bathe in motor oil and watch some foxy boxing.