The Great Geek Manual

The full theatrical trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar was finally released yesterday. I’m still not sure whether I’m stoked or disappointed. The whole thing looks something like Last of the Mohicans meets Starship Troopers, with a pinch of the Battle of Endor. (Seriously, tell me you’re not getting some Ewok vibes.)

Sci-fi in 3D is rare enough that I would probably go see it no matter what, but the way these trailers are unfolding, my review is likely going to look like a Mad Lib.

The films I look forward to the most are the ones that take an established trope or hollywood cliche and turn it on its head, and this looks to one of those films. Daybreakers is a sci-fi vampire flick that looks a lot like 30 Days of Night meets Children of Men. In it, vampires have overrun the Earth, and the humans that they hunt as a food source are becoming scarce.

Unlike Twilight, which just sucked, this looks to be a sparkle and heart-throb-free film aimed at genre fans! Woohoo!

The downside is that it casts Ethan Hawke in a role that looks as if it may come perilously close to re-hashing his part in Gattaca. Still… no sparkling in sight!

I thought the cartoon had a lot of promise, but M Night Shyamalan has been dead to me since Lady in the Water. So, I’m not sure whether or not I’ll rent this when it comes out. Something about a martial arts film without a single asian actor just strikes me as wrong.

Read more at Slash Film.

The first trailer for the live-action adaptation of Robert Venditti’si graphic novel, Surrogates, staring Bruce Willis, hit the web today. It looks something like Die Hard meets I, Robot.

The film takes place in the future in which high-tech surrogates (androids) allow people to live their lives remotely through unflawed robotic versions of themselves in order to experience life without consequences. When a college student linked to the man who developed surrogate technology dies while using the technology, FBI agents are called in to investigate the murder, which is the first seen in fifteen years.

I hardly think we need another Bruce Willis cop flick, but here’s hoping that the intriguing concept will carry the story. Either that, or this is going to be the Babylon A.D. of 2009. Surrogates is set to open September 29th.

Check out the Surrogate BlogSpot for behind-the-scenes photos and movie posters.

Hot on the heels of Esquire calling The Road “the most important film of 2009,” its trailer has hit the web. By the looks of things, the film is going to do the book credit, unlike the Children of Men, the last big budget post-apocalyptic thriller to be based on a major literary work, which utterly twisted the story of the novel it was based upon.

The film is an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer winning book that stars Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, and Robert Duvall. In it, a father and son journey across a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape over the course of years following an unexplained global cataclysm. The trailer plays up the action angles of the story, but it’s hard to tell if that’s creative license on the writer’s part or just the fact that it’s a trailer. Either way, I’m pretty sure this is going to be one of the small hand full of must-see movies this year, and I’ll be counting the days to its release.

The Road hits big screens October 16, 2009.

This ridiculously awesome forty minute Lord Of The Rings fan film, The Hunt For Gollum, was created “by fans for fans,” but it’s not your average amateur production. It’s “adapted from elements of the appendices,” and it boasts a set of jaw-dropping production values.

The world will be able to watch it for free online beginning May 3rd, after it’s been screened at the Sci-Fi London convention. You can still check out the first and second film trailers now, though, at the official fan site.

Another clip of Tim Burton’s upcoming film 9 has hit the web, and it still looks pretty bad-ass. I had been figuring that the first clip had contained all the best action sequences, but this may end up being one of those uber-rare cartoons that holds your attention from beginning to end.

9 hits the theaters this September.

The official trailer for the upcoming film Moon has hit the web, and it looks like the film is going to be a seriously suspenseful psychological thriller. From the few brief clips shown in the trailer, the film appears to bear a striking similarity to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris and Sunshine. I’m not sure that it’ll be one to see in theaters, but I love the desolate space thrillers.

The posters for this film kind of kick ass, too.