Comic-Con | Through the Shattered Lens

Above is the new trailer for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ which finds George Miller returning to “reboot” the ‘Mad Max’ trilogy he wrote and directed almost three decades ago. The film stars Tom Hardy as Max (previously played by Mel Gibson), and the most recent official synopsis is below:

Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa (Charlize Theron). They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.

This thing has been in production since forever and so I for one am SO excited that it is finally here. The ‘Mad Max’ trilogy is my second favorite action franchise behind ‘Lethal Weapon’. The footage has a very visceral high octane tone and the plot and destruction seems on par with ‘The Road Warrior’. The best part of it all of course are the practical effects. Last I heard there were a couple hundred cars and bikes created and destroyed during the films lengthy production, and there is very little CGI (compared at least to most blockbusters).

Pretty safe to say that this is near the top of my most anticipated films of 2015 list. Screw all that DC and Marvel nonsense…GIVE ME ‘FURY ROAD’!

This past week saw the largest collection of nerd, geek and comic book fandom gathered in one magical place. The place in question is San Diego and the event is called San Diego Comic-Con or simply just uttered in awed whispers as Comic-Con. It is a place that many outsiders have shunned as a place that has no place in good, normal society yet they continue to arrive in larger numbers to ply their products to those they shun. Even this blog has it’s shamers and ignorant individuals who spew insults yet they too continue to visit because deep in their subconscious they know, like those who ridicule Comic-Con and those who attend them with a passion, that they’re the ones out of step with whats not accepted in society.

What does this mean when it comes to the latest trailer for Kick-Ass 2 that just came out of Comic-Con?

Absolutely nothing other than the trailer and the film itself is just another weird meeting of the two cultures. It’s a film that celebrates the ridiculousness and absurdity of the comic book culture, yet it’s one that’s funded by the very same people who insulted the scene just a decade ago.

The first film was a revelation and helped introduced the world to one Chloe Grace Moretz, but it also showed that comic books and films made from them didn’t have to be PG or even PG-13. There was a place for ultra-violence in our comic book films. It also helped bring the name of Matthew Vaughn into the forefront of comic book fandom. While he’s not directing this sequel (he elected to go with X-Men: First Class and we’re all the better for it), he did help in bringing it to life and hand-picked his successor in Jeff Wadlow.

While Kick-Ass 2 is not getting the same sort of buzz from Comic-Con the original film did it is still one film I’m quite interested in seeing just to find out what has happened to our young superheroes and vigilante crime fighters since the last film. Plus, it’s main villain likes to call himself “Motherfucker”.