Battleship trailer 2: Does it still just feel like Transformers lite?

Well it kind of does, but then with Transformers: Dark of the Moon taking in over 1.1 billion dollars I don’t think Hasbro, or Universal, will be overly concerned with that descriptive.

It’s fair to say that the first trailer for Battleship met with a fair amount of scorn earlier this year. Not only because of its visual and audio similarities to the Transformers films, but  also because of what seemed like a nonsensical attempt to introduce game pegs and an actual game board into the film. Since then the tide has started to turn (Ho, ho, ho) with writer / director Peter Berg talking to various media outlets about the film and why exactly Aliens wanted to sink peoples’ Battleships. More than that MTV placed the trailer on its list of the 20 best trailers of 2011! (It really wasn’t, but hey it’s all good news.)

Synopsis...

“Peter Berg (Hancock) produces and directs Battleship, an epic-scaled action-adventure that unfolds across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force. Inspired by Hasbro's classic naval combat game, Battleship stars Taylor Kitsch as Lt. Alex Hopper, a Naval officer assigned to the USS John Paul Jones; Brooklyn Decker as Sam Shane, a physical therapist and Hopper's fiancee; Alexander Skarsgard as Hopper's older brother, Stone, Commanding Officer of the USS Sampson; Rihanna as Petty Officer Raikes, Hopper's crewmate and a weapons specialist on the USS John Paul Jones; and international superstar Liam Neeson as Hopper and Stone's superior (and Sam's father), Admiral Shane.”

So what of the full trailer? See for yourself...

Thor 2: Director Patty Jenkins leaves the film...

In a piece of sad news it turns out that Marvel Studios first female director, Jenkins, left Thor 2 due to the dreaded “creative differences”.

A director is a director and sex or colour shouldn’t really matter; but there’s no doubt that there was an interesting seeing what her take would be on such a male dominated genre. That was all the more pertinent given the emphasis (that has been hinted at) to be placed on the growing relationship between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) & Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).

Patty Jenkins

Branagh oon set with "Thor" Chris Hemsworth.

Patty Jenkins is still best known for directing movie Monster, for which Charlize Theron won an Oscar, and (for North American viewers) AMC’s pilot for The Killing. Having a director with her background was a perfect follow up to what seemed like an unusual choice of director for Thor in Kenneth Branagh. That choice worked out perfectly as Thor became a popular hit worldwide, despite being the most risky of Marvel Studios early releases, because of the elements of Alien races, connections to Mythology & magic as well as the use of technology as magic. Marvel Studios have yet to make a statement, but perhaps they will return to original front runner Brian Kirk, director of episodes of Luther & Game of Thrones.

 According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jenkins had been bust working on the film just this weekend so we await details with interest. Thor has become Marvel Studios most important character, after Iron Man of course, after his film made $267m outside of North America (American Superhero movies often take 2 sequels to reach  a higher gross outside North America than in it) and a total just shy of $450m. Thor 2 is due for release on the 15^th of November 2013. Thor will of course return n The Avengers in April / May 2012.

The Solo-Avengers...

Film		Year	North American Gross	International Gross	Worldwide	Budget
1	Iron Man	200 8	$318,412,101	$266,762,12	$585,174,222	$140m
2	The Incredible Hulk	2008	$134,806,913	$128,620,638	$263,427,551	$150m
3	Iron Man 2	2010	$312,433,331	$311,500,000	$623,933,331	$200m
4	Thor	2011	$181,030,624	$267,482,200	$448,512,824	$150m
5	Captain America: The First Avenger	2011	$176,654,505	$ 191,750,151	$368,404,656	$140m

 Perhaps Branagh has had enough time away from Thor (a delay to the release meant Branagh ended up on Thor duty for almost an extra 12 months, to return to the director’s chair himself?

John Carter (still not of Mars) trailer 2 takes off...

This film is finding itself near the top of a lot of “most risky” of 2012 lists. It isn’t hard to see why. Disney appear to be frightened of the film’s title (hence the dropping of the “...of Mars” portion. It has significant competition 2 weeks after opening from The Hunger Games, one week after that from the Clash of The Titans sequel (I know the 1^st was piss poor but still) and may yet find itself with competition a week after opening from Mirror, Mirror. Yes I know the trailer got a seriously stink filled buzz but hey...

Mirror, Mirror Trailer; Snow White movie number 1 has Julia Roberts play the Wicked Queen ‘Princess Bride’ style...

A $250m film that has neither an A-List star (such as is left of that breed) nor a “name” director like Cameron, Nolan or Spielberg (No disrespect intended for Andrew Stanton at all after he directed Wall*E and Finding Nemo) , and is very difficult to summarise in a way that makes it sound sensible, is a big risk in these times. That it is based on a popular, but aging, set of books is probably not as much of a boon as it could be either.

So after a fairly underwhelming teaser trailer, it falls to this to grab your attention and sell the film. And...

Well has that made the weekend of the 9^th of March a no g o area for anything other than seeing this film? They’ve certainly gone all out to show us the film will be full of effects and have some ‘original’ action in it. I’m still waiting for the part where we see that it isn’t really Mars at all. I'm maybe a little surprised at how much of the effects work they've shown off here, given that there's surely a fair amount of rendering still to go and there will inevitably be those complaining about the CGI not being of a high enough standard in places.

Ender’s Game: True grit star Hailee Steinfeld Joins Hugo’s Asa Butterfield on the wanted list...

Fans of the Ender’s game novel, of which I am an unashamed member, have another piece of casting news to smile about. The filmmakers are certainly setting the bar high as they attempt to gather a cast of children that would rival many high class adult casts. Oscar nominated Steinfeld is talks to play the character of Petra Arkanian; a child genius extremely gifted in military strategy and free thinking strategy. The only female member of Ender’s handpicked group of children, tasked with surviving a rigorous training schedule designed to find, and teach, the latent “Alexander The Greats” amongst the Earth’s children. Variety also believe that Harrison Ford is the prime candidate for one of the few adult roles in the film, Colonel Graff.

Ender’s Game: Lead role offered to ‘Hugo’ star Asa Butterfield...

The film is being directed by Gavin Hood, who has also written the screenplay. It is based on the award winning, highly popular, Orscon Scott Card novel ‘Ender’s Game’; which has spawned several sequels spin-off and has even been adapted by Marvel Comics into a series of comics / graphic novels. U.S release is set for the 15th of March 2013; U.K 29th of March 2013.