Trailers: GI Joe Retaliation, Star Trek Into Darkness

The incomparable Jonathan Pryce as the President in the upcoming GI Joe Retaliation (GI Joe 2).  Originally schedules to be released last June, Paramount Pictures was so disappointed with the dismal box office returns of Battleship (which I loved), they decided to re-do GI Joe 2 in 3D and possibly resurrect Channing Tatum's character Duke for more screen time.  This is one of three upcoming films focusing on the president as a major device in a film's narrative (Olympus Has Fallen with Gerard Butler and Channing Tatum's White House Down being the other two I am thinking of) so we will be comparing how each film incorporates the president and depicts him. Please note, on this shot, how E Pluribus Enum is showing on the flag; what other film has taken time to remind Americans of our national motto? Resident Evil Retribution. Who said action films don't have some substance?

These two newest trailers for G.I. Joe Retaliation, coming out March 28 (finally!) reveal some new material but they also highlight significantly the ninja fight scenes in the mountain (uh, yea, I am definitely catching this in 3D); this one, with foreign sub-titles, focuses a bit more on the villain, Cobra:

Where have we seen "flying" similar to what we see in this ninja fight scene?

Actually, we have seen it in two places: The Amazing Spider Man (when Spidey swings by his web strings across the streets and buildings of New York) and Madagascar 3 in the "trapeze Americano" acts. It may be that there is no similarity once we see the film, however, it keeps us alert to what's going on and insures nothing will slip by our radar undetected. 

It's odd,... there is still speculation over who plays the villain in the film. Pictured is Benedict Cumberbatch, "rumored" to be playing "Khan." I have to tell you, when I hear the name "Khan," I think of Wrath Of Khan from 1982 with Ricardo Montalbon (of Fantasy Island fame) but the only thing I can remember from that film is a white grub worm being put inside the ears of two captives and the grub worms ate their brains,... but that's enough to remember, and that's probably why I never watched Star Trek episodes growing up! As I was originally saying, it's still not definite who plays the villain or even who the villain is. While the "motion poster" below definitely sounds like Cumberbatch,  that doesn't mean he's the villain. This might be a totally fantastic set-up twist for the audience that someone unnamed is actually the villain,... but probably not.

This "motion poster" for Star Trek Into Darkness was just released 4 hours ago. Here's the plot: When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Visually, what does this scenery remind you of?
9/11?
The Avengers?
We could even say New York City in Total Recall or apocalyptic images from Dredd, or the upcoming total earth destruction films After Earth (Will Smith) and Oblivion (Tom Cruise); what's important is that you are probably used to seeing images of a huge city totally destroyed, and we have to ask ourselves why? What has happened to America that destruction doesn't shock us? Let's say we saw a world of puppy dogs, rainbows and unicorns, rather like the start of Lemony Snickett's A Series Of Unfortunate Events; would that fly with us now, in today's world?... probably not. So that's not what we're getting, because that's not the world in which we live anymore, hence films such as Into Darkness.
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner
Post Scriptum--Let's not end this little posting on such a dark note, let's have a light-hearted interview with Thor's Hammer on why he deserves an Oscar (this is funny!):