It looks like Riddick has gone back to basics with this trailer…

and I’m sure Riddick fans wouldn’t have any other way. He returns to theaters September 9th 2013.

The 1/6th scale The Joker (Mime Version) Collectible Figure, slated for release 4th quarter 2013, features:

- Authentic and detailed fully realized likeness of Jack Nicholson as The Joker in the Batman (1989) movie in Mime Version
- Approximately 30 cm tall
- TrueType body with over 30 points of articulation
- Parallel Eyeball Rolling System (PERS) patented by Hot Toys Limited

- Six (6) pieces of interchangeable gloved palms including:
. One (1) pair of open palms
. One (1) pair of relaxed palms
.One (1) right finger pointing palm
.One (1) right palm for holding feather

Costume:

- One (1) black tall hat
- One (1) black tailcoat with white flower
- One (1) white shirt
- One (1) white vest with black dotted pattern
- One (1) black tie with white dotted pattern
- One (1) pair of black and white checker pants with suspenders
- One (1) pair of black and white spats shoes

Accessories:

- Three (3) feathers
- Figure stage with The Joker nameplate, movie logo, DX series title and backdrop

The special effects are up to par (for T.V.), it looks like it’s not constantly about uber powerful beings, and of course COULSON LIVES!!!   So with Joss Whedon at the helm, coming off the successful Avengers film, everything should be ok, right?

Ummm….

Theoretically it should.  Joss Whedon gets busy when it comes to telling a story.  He handles ensemble cast like no other, as well as juggles character development with action sequences superbly.  He has proven himself whether it was the 7 seasons of Buffy (8 if you count the comic) and 5 seasons of Angel.  He even was able to get a movie out of one season of Firefly with Serenity.  So yeah, he’s that gifted… but he also appears to be cursed…

on network television.

Joss Whedon has a string of cancelled shows, like Firefly.  They aired 11 of the 14 episodes; Dollhouse although it was well received it was still cancelled.  Both shows were on fox though, so everything should still be ok, right?

Well,  Angel was cancelled and it’s ratings was only second to Smallville.   Angel’s ratings were always good and actually growing as seasons progressed, but it was cancelled by the WB, I mean CW, I mean… whatever.   It’s almost like network television wants him to fail, yet they keep giving him opportunities.

Here’s hoping due to his success with the Avengers film in such a huge way, breaks the curse of his return to network television.

And I guess nothing’s more exotic and expensive than Team Galag putting together a street legal Tumbler that cost around $1.6 million. The car can go up to about 100mph… but the real amazing thing to me would be if you can parallel park that beast… or fit in a drive thru.

What makes this spoof of the Matrix so funny is because of Keanu Reeves… No matter how serious a movie, no matter how dramatic…. Reeves just can’t help but to some how play the slacker know nothing role of Ted of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

Enjoy.

Iron Man 1 had jokes but there they felt natural and organic. Shane had Tony quipping with everyone, every second he was on screen. This is Iron Man, NOT a Deadpool movie. Yes Tony is witty but he’s not always “on” like some insecure comedian! At one point I closed my eyes and was unsure if I was listening to Murtaugh and Riggs or Tony and Rhodey. Although the constant quipping between characters was annoying it didn’t bother me nearly as much as what was done to The Mandarin.

Seriously, I won’t spoil it for you but IM3′s treatment of the Mandarin, ( a major Iron Man villan in the comics ), in this movie is so fracking STUPID and disrespectful that it’s damn near criminal. I don’t know whose idea it was to do what they did but seriously…I want to find them and physically beat them about the face and neck with a Marvel Masterpiece hard cover! If I was in the room when the script was being discussed I would have spoken up, even at the risk of my job. I would have highly recommended they axe the Mandarin from the movie entirely, as to devote more energy and resources elsewhere. Doing so would have given the writer and director a great deal more latitude and breathing room to strengthen areas weakened by the Mandarin mistake.

Not giving away too much but there is a sort of bait and switch that transpires. Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it. What really baffles me about the situation is, I’m dying to know if there were any real comic book heads in that room when the decision was made? If someone from Marvel is responsible, then maybe it’s time that individual stepped down. What is done to the Mandrain feels like some real Hollywood B.S!

I could totally see Robert Downey Jr and Shane Black sitting in a room smoking a fatty, eating shawarma and discussing Iron Man. At some point they’re like, “What if we did this man? ( Inhale ) and “What about this bro?” ( Exhale ) and the next thing you know they’re pitching it to the producers at 4 AM. Downey’s Hollywood royalty now and I’m guessing he has some say-so about the direction old Shell-head flies in. My most sincere wish is that some real lessons are learned here and not repeated with other Marvel properties. I wish I could tell you more but when Iron Man 3 comes out on Redbox in 6 months you’ll know what I mean. One last thing about the Mandarin. In the comic book he’s Asian. In the movie he’s an Osama Bin Laden knockoff. If Marvel wanted to avoid stereotypes by switching ethnicities all they did was trade one stereotype for another. If that whole shady China deal didn’t sound whorish before…sigh*

Halfway through IM3 I found myself daydreaming about the trailer for The Man Of Steel.

It didn’t have to be like this but here’s why it may happen yet again. You guy’s liked it! lots of people I know thought Iron Man 3 was a solid movie and because of that Marvel may not get the lesson. Iron Man 3 is not a true comic geek flick like Iron Man 1. This here was a general audience movie…a Disney movie. Hold onto your Underoos a moment, I’m making a point. The reason these movies initially took off is because geeks were the original targeted audience. Sure the general audience is factored in, money’s money but here’s the thing. The studios know if they do comic book flicks right, unlike other genres, geeks will be repeat customers. We geeks go multiple times with our significant others, our children, other geeks and alone. If it’s awesome like the Avengers or The Dark Knight then the skys the limit. Geeks are fanatics about whatever it is we geek for. Iron Man 2 was relatively harmless and seemed more like an extended-trailer for the Avengers but IM3…Three was done with the general movie going audience in mind first. You see the geeks have already done their job, we got the initial buzz going. It’s like, “What are they on line at midnight for, ohhh, I wanna go too.” Now that the general audiences are hooked on these, they don’t have to work as hard to keep the geeks. There’s wayyyyyyy more regular movie going folks out there.

But what about War Machine and Pepper?

Someone that saw an early screening said something like, “War Machine’s given more to do here than in previous films, yadda, yadda yadda”. Ummm, it’s not War Machine anymore and he sure does a whole lot more…Of nothing. Don Cheadle does ok as Jim Rhodes here but because of the material, his seasoned acting talents are vastly underutilized.War Machine is relegated to saying crap like, “I’m getting to old for this shit,” and diving behind things to avoid gunfire. When he’s not doing that he’s quipping with Tony during life or death situations….Ok maybe I’m exaggerating a little but that’s what it felt like. If you’re a War Machine fan and expecting a nice payoff for your patience, you can forget it! I hate to be the one to tell you this but there is no Santa. As for Ms Potts, although I personally can’t stand Gwyneth Paltrow, she did just fine. Pepper gets her expansion pack here and is given a larger role but what it amounts to is another bad idea.

Kid connection – Mini spoiler…kinda

In another throwaway Disney-esq plot thread, Tony finds himself in the company of a really intelligent kid that he actually teams up with. Not to get too detailed here but I promise you I can think of at least three or four other people or uses from within the Marvel Universe that could have better occupied that screen time. Scott Lang, Hank Pym, Amadeus Cho just to name a few.

“Scared money don’t make money” Not a big deal mini spoiler.

Iron Man 3 kinda reminds me of former Vice President, Al Gore. When Al Gore was running for President he did everything in his power to distance himself from former President Bill Clinton because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The problem was people seemed to resent Gore’s refusal to acknowledge the dynamic duo’s former connection. Since you’ve never heard of President Al Gore, I’m sure you’ve surmised that that particular stratagem failed. The reason I bring this up is because although IM3 references NY and the Avengers as a recurring motif, it purposely steers clear of any contact with Shield, Nick Fury or any of his fellow Avengers. To me this is a mistake. You’ve already shown us these things, we know they exist. You can’t have a super terrorist show up and not bring Shield up AT ALL!! Seriously I understand wanting this film to stand on it’s own but pretending they just weren’t around seriously screws with my suspension of disbelief. I promise you this could have been easily rectified by showing a monitor with a live feed of the Avengers and Shield dealing with another threat or natural disaster far away. Nick could have been like, “We’ll be there ASAP Tony, you and Rhodes hold it down until we get back”. If that doesn’t work I’m sure you could have come up with a multitude of scenerios. My point is don’t be afraid of the Marvel Universe, we already accept these things as part of the world these characters inhabit. Try bending normal around the characters and crazy situations, not the other way around.

Armor, Action and the destruction of a Malibu mansion

Technically Iron Man 3 was fine. The CGI, stunts and all of the physical aspects and set designs looked really great. What bothers me is they were barely used. Yes there is the scene with all of the armors (as advertised ) in the big showdown, but it’s just not enough. Some good moments, sure but nothing mind blowing here. I promise you it’s like that final showdown in X-Men 3. Magneto brought a lot of mutants to the fight but I promise you most of them had the same leaping in the air for no reason power….”Nuff-said!” Tony spends an awfully large portion of the film out of the armor and that doesn’t sit well with me. I can just hear some tight ass, non comic book reading executive arguing for less Iron Man. “Look guy’s the ladies love Robert and he cost an arm and a leg, we might as well show as much of him as we can.” “Let’s make this one about Tony and put the armor in the background.” Yeah that’s nice and it made for a pretty safe 90′s style throw-back buddy-film too. The problem is we were expecting Iron Man 3…A post Avengers Iron Man 3. Not Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2 meets Lethal Weapon 6.

In conclusion, yeah I’m one pissed off geek, so what!!!

A fellow geek and I were talking about Iron man 3 the other day and somehow I found myself saying something I never thought possible. I respect SpiderMan 3 more than Iron Man 3…Ducks to avoid flying graphic novels, yikes* Hold on, let a brother explain. Ok, Spiderman 3 really annoyed the $H!% out of me but at least it failed memorably. I can look at Spiderman 3 and honestly say, it had more memorable scenes in it than Iron Man 3. I loved Peter and Harry’s street clothes brawl in the sky, it’s one of my favorite comic book moments captured on film. I’m also fond of the Sandman transformation, the scene where Spidey saves Gwen from falling and the Eddie Brock to Venom Transformation was fracking bad-ass. It just so happens that so much of the other stuff there was just plain goofy.

I didn’t hate Iron Man 3, it was just ok to me. I wouldn’t recommend it, and if I ever own it it will be because it was in the 5 dollar bin at Target on check day. I’m not a hater of these movies I’m a lover of them. I’m a geek and this is what we do. While I’m not crazy about the new Thor trailer ( looks like Game of Thrones ) I’m very excited by what I’ve seen and read so far about Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If all else fails, we’ve always got 2015′s Avengers 2.

“Excelsior”

Chandler Windham is a contributor to Geek Mode and this article as well as his other postings can be found on his blogspot “The People’s Mic”