Movie Talk

Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong hits theaters next week, though I really can't say I'm too hot about the 3 hour length. Early word in reviews has it that Jackson kind of treated KK with the same eye for detail and depth as LOTR, which is really not necessary given that most of the characters aren't that important aside from Ann Darrow (played by Naomi Watts) and Kong itself (motion-captured by Andy Serkis). Still, the action and effects are supposed to be awesome and worth the watch once you get past the plodding opening. We'll see about this.

A new Mummy film is supposedly on the drawing board. How many times can Imhotep come back??! Fear not, apparently the next and third Mummy film will have a totally new linen-wrapped villain all the way from China! The new Mummy will be a former Chinese Emperor out to resurrect his dead army (turned into terra-cotta warriors) for world conquest. Apparently the third film will also have parts for Brendan Frasier and Rachel Wiesz once more, but their participation is yet to be confirmed.

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe looks cool, and it is the film I am excited to see this December. I'm really not expecting the same depth or feel as LOTR, but with WETA behind the effects, you know this is going to be a dazzler.

An early teaser trailer for X3 is online! SPOILERS WARNING

It seems that Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen) is back from the dead, though the entire film doesn't seem to be necessarily about the Pheonix or Dark Pheonix saga. Overall, it seems the theme is about a 'Last Stand', perhaps between the X-men and the Brotherhood, or mutants against humans. Magneto (Ian McKellen) is back as the villain, with a large group of new recruits for his latest plot. Also confirmed in the movie are Prof. Xavier (Patrick Stewart), veteran X-men Storm (Halle Berry), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin), as well as Mystique (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos). Other mutants in the spotlight include Colossus, Shadowcat, Iceman and more. The teaser trailer also shows for the first time X-men Beast (Kelsea Grammar) and Angel. From the look of the trailer there seems to be a LOT of action... we'll see how the post-Bryan Singer X-men film does when it hits theaters in May 2006.

Hah! I'm talking as if I'm going to have lots of time to spare to watch movies... looks like I'm gonna be busy for most of the month. Oh well. Let's see what we can squeeze in.