"Pokemon the Movie" No. 15 Now on DVD

VIZ MEDIA EXCITES FANS WITH THE DEBUT OF POKÉMON THE MOVIE: KYUREM VS. THE SWORD OF JUSTICE ON DVD

Latest Feature Film From The Leading Kids Entertainment Franchise Also Complemented By VIZ Kids Release Of Tie-In Manga Edition

San Francisco, CA, April 2, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, brings an exotic new animated POKÉMON adventure to fans of all ages with the DVD release of POKÉMON THE MOVIE: KYUREM VS. THE SWORD OF JUSTICE. Debuting today, the new film can be enjoyed by the entire family (rated ‘TV-Y7-F7’) and carries an MSRP of $19.97 U.S. / $24.98 CAN. A tie-in manga edition is also available now in stores under the VIZ Kids imprint, rated ‘A’ for All Ages and carrying an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

In the latest exciting POKÉMON feature film adventure, Ash and friends spot an injured Pokémon they don’t recognize during a train trip. They’re planning a rescue when the train is attacked by the Lengendary Kyurem! Ash and the others manage to get the unfamiliar Pokémon to safety, and they learn its story… The Mythical Pokémon Keldeo is on a mission to rescue its friends – Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion, the Swords of Justice – from Kyurem’s icy clutches. But Kyurem has other ideas, and when it transforms into Black Byurem or White Kyurem, for greater power, things look grim! Can Keldeo find the courage to stand up to this menace?

“Fans won’t want to miss the latest riveting adventure of hit franchise, POKÉMON THE MOVIE: KYUREM VS. THE SWORD OF JUSTICE,” says Charlene Ingram, Sr. Marketing Manager, Animation. “Anticipation for this feature film has built ever since Keldeo was revealed in the latest POKÉMON video game. Follow Keldeo, Ash, Pikachu, and friends as they embark on a dangerous quest in an exotic land to rescue the Swords of Justice!”

For more information on VIZ Media’s POKÉMON manga and anime titles, please visit www.VIZ.com/Pokemon/.

For more information on other VIZ Media kids titles, please visit http://www.vizkids.com.


About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages. VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products. Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.

10-Disc Blu-ray Collection "Marvel Cinematic Universe" Releases

MARVEL’S Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled Limited Edition 10-dISC – 6-MOVIE Collection

Synopsis: On April 2, 2013, fans will be able to immerse themselves in every aspect of Marvel’s elite Super Heroes with this limited-edition, 10-Disc “Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One Collection.” Complete with glowing Tesseract, this exciting collection includes stunning Blu-ray 3D™ and Blu-ray™ presentations of Marvel’s “The Avengers,” “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Thor,” as well as Blu-ray™ versions of “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2” and “The Incredible Hulk” in exclusive collectible packaging.

In addition, to possessing level 7 security clearance, fans will also be granted special access to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most confidential archives, including a top-secret Bonus Disc filled with never-before-seen deleted scenes, extended scenes, featurettes and more. Also featuring exclusive memorabilia (prop reproductions and artifacts) from the motion pictures, the must-own “Marvel’s Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled Collection” will verify owners status as the world’s greatest authority on the Marvel Super Hero mythos!

Collection: “Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled Limited Edition Collection” includes the following:
·“Marvel’s The Avengers” film (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
·“Captain America: The First Avenger” film (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
·“Thor” film (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
·“Iron Man 2” film (Blu-ray)
·“The Incredible Hulk” film (Blu-ray)
·“Iron Man” film (Blu-ray)

Top-secret Bonus Disc: “The Phase One Archives” (Blu-ray) includes:
·“And Then Shawarma After” featurette
·New deleted scenes, animatics and more from each film
·Collectible packaging with memorabilia from the Marvel’s Cinematic Universe

NEW BONUS MATERIAL – JUST ADDED - Exclusive inside look at Marvel’s Iron Man 3 and other films from Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Street Date: April 2, 2013
Suggested Retail Price: $219.00 U.S. / $239.00 Canada
For More Information: www.AvengersAssembled.com

Review: In "Darkness Falls" Scary Rises

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 159 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Darkness Falls (2003)
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for terror and horror images, and brief language
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Liebesman
WRITERS: John Fasano, James Vanderbilt, and Joe Harris; from a story by Joe Harris
PRODUCERS: John Fasano, John Hegeman, William Sherak, and Jason Shuman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dan Laustsen (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Tim Alverson and Steve Mirkovich
COMPOSER: Brian Tyler

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro, Sullivan Stapleton, Steve Mouzakis, Peter Curtin, Kestie Morassi, Jenny Lovell, John Stanton, Joshua Anderson, and Emily Browning

The subject of this review is Darkness Falls, a 2003 horror film produced by Revolution Studios and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, the film was co-written by Joe Harris, a comic book writer who has written X-Men and Spider-Man comics for Marvel Comics and Batman comics for DC Comics. Darkness Falls focuses on spirit exacting revenge on the town for a 150-year-old lynching and a young man called to help stop the spirit’s rampage.

Darkness Falls is a creepy, atmospheric little thriller with all the requisite bumps in the night, and a boogeyman (woman) who hits her mark every time she rockets out of the dark to deliver hot death. She’s a fearsome old thing, even in her worse moments.

In this horror tale, a vengeful spirit has taken the form of the Tooth Fairy and has been exacting revenge on Darkness Falls, the town that killed her, for the 150 years since her unjust execution. The Tooth Fairy visits a child on the night he loses his last tooth. If anyone looks at her during one of her visits, she whacks him. As the story begins, she has her sights on Michael Greene (Lee Cormie) who did see her. Desperate to save her little brother, Caitlin Greene (Emma Caulfield) calls on Kyle Walsh (Chaney Kley), a childhood friend who survived one of the Tooth Fairy’s attacks and who is the sole opposition to the murderous supernatural creature.

Darkness Falls isn’t great, and the script is light on character development even though it has many good characters and backstory that easily connects the characters to one another. The credit goes to director Jonathan Liebesman (a South African who won some notable awards for his short film Genesis and Catastrophe) who deserves all the credit for making Darkness Falls creepy and fun. It’s an effective suspense thriller directed with a veteran’s flair, and those who are not burnt out and made cynical by overdone heavily laden special effects horror films should enjoy this.

6 of 10
B

Original "Star Wars" Script to Become a Comic Book

Apparently, this is NOT an April Fool's joke, as this announcement was first made yesterday (Sunday, March 31, 2013) at WonderCon.  The above is a page of art from "The Star Wars" comic book, coming in September 2013.

LUCASFILM AND DARK HORSE ANNOUNCE THE BIGGEST EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF STAR WARS COMICS!

George Lucas’s original-draft screenplay for The Star Wars to be adapted by J. W. Rinzler and Mike Mayhew!

APRIL 1, MILWAUKIE, OR–It’s no April Fools’ prank! Dark Horse is honored to announce a dream project: working with J.W. Rinzler, executive editor at LucasBooks, and artist Mike Mayhew (Avengers) to adapt the rough-draft original screenplay which spawned the biggest franchise in film history!

Three years before his 1977 film, George Lucas put down on paper his first story set in a galaxy far, far away—a tale of fantastic adventures, daring escapes, “lazer swords,” romance, and monsters. A story of Jedi Annikin Starkiller and General Luke Skywalker, an alien named Han Solo, and evil Sith Knights. The screenplay was titled The Star Wars!

“I’m not sure where I first read about The Star Wars—it was years and years ago—but the idea of Luke Skywalker being an older Jedi General, and Han Solo being a six-foot-tall lizard, turned my Star Wars fan brain on its side,” said longtime Star Wars editor Randy Stradley. “I always assumed this would be one of those stories that would be ‘lost to history,’ so getting to work on bringing it to life is kinda like a dream come true.”

“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” said writer J.W. Rinzler. “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”

Originally conceived in 1974, The Star Wars has been the subject of rumor and legend in the fan community throughout the history of the galaxy far, far away. Now, Lucas has seen fit to grant Dark Horse the right to adapt this fabled story into an eight-issue comic series launching in September!


About Dark Horse
Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent such as Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Brian Wood, Gerard Way, Felicia Day, and Guillermo del Toro, and comics legends such as Will Eisner, Neal Adams, and Jim Steranko, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties, including The Mask, Ghost, Timecop, and SpyBoy. Its successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Mass Effect, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Emily the Strange, Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys, Serenity, and Domo. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading publishers of both creator-owned content and licensed comics material.

About Lucasfilm Ltd.
Lucasfilm Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is a global leader in film, television and digital entertainment production. In addition to its motion-picture and television production, the company's activities include visual effects and audio post-production, cutting-edge digital animation, interactive entertainment software, and the management of the global merchandising activities for its entertainment properties including the legendary STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES franchises. Lucasfilm Ltd. is headquartered in northern California.

Lucasfilm, the Lucasfilm logo, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. TM & (c) 2013 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

April Fool's Negromancer in 2013?

We've made it to April 2013.  Welcome to Negromancer, a ComicBookBin blog (www.comicbookbin.com). This is rebirth of the former movie review website as a movie review and movie news website and blog.

After three years and about two months, we finally posted our 1000th movie review on Negromancer V.2.  Last month, we started re-posting reviews of films from the year 2003 that had not been transferred from the old version of Negromancer.  Be patient with us, please, as you will be seeing a lot of old movie reviews of old movies.

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 (2013) – straight-to-video
Running minutes: 76 minutes (1 hour, 16 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of action violence and some suggestive content
DIRECTOR: Jay Oliva
WRITER: Bob Goodman (based on the characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and the comic book by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson)
EDITOR: Christopher D. Lozinski
COMPOSER: Christopher Drake
ANIMATION STUDIO: Moi Animation Studios

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION

Starring: (voices) Peter Weller, Ariel Winer, Michael Emerson, David Selby, Mark Valley, Maria Canals-Barrera, Michael Jackson, Robin Atkins Downes, Carlos Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, Paget Brewster, Grey DeLisle, Michael McKean, Frank Welker, Greg Eagles, Gary Anthony Williams, Jim Meskimen, and Conan O’Brien

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 is a 2013 direct-to-video, superhero animated film from Warner Bros. Animation. It is the follow-up to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Starring Batman, one of DC Comics’ most famous superheroes, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is also the 15th feature in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. Once again, Bruce W. Timm is an executive producer on the film.

This two-part movie is an adaptation of the four-volume, comic book miniseries, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which was written and drawn by Frank Miller, with inks by Klaus Janson and colors by Lynn Varley. First published in early 1986, the series tells the story of a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne, coming out of retirement to once again fight crime as Batman. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 pits Batman against his greatest nemesis, the Joker, and his greatest rival/friend, Superman.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 opens in Arkham Asylum, where the Joker (Michael Emerson) has taken notice of the return of Batman (Peter Weller). After years in a catatonic state, the Joker begins to plot his next crime wave, but feigns regret for his crimes to his attending physician, Dr. Bartholomew Wolper (Michael McKean). Wolper helps the Joker get a guest appearance on “The Dave Endochrine Show” for some banter with host, Dave Endochrine (Conan O’Brien).

Meanwhile, the President of the United States (Jim Meskimen) asks Superman (Mark Valley) to put an end to Batman’s vigilantism, one way or another. Framing this request, the United States and the Soviet Union escalate hostilities over each nation’s claim to the small South American island of Corto Maltese.

As I wrote in my review of The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, I was excited to hear that Warner Bros. Animation was adapting the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns comic book as one of their direct-to-DVD animated films. However, I also felt trepidation about the project, wondering would the filmmakers mess this up, one of my all-time favorite comic books, by delivering an inferior product? The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 turned out to be quite good, and The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 is actually even better.

In the first film, the filmmakers seemed to focus on making the animation and production design duplicate the graphic design and visual style of particular scenes or panels from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight comic book, the source material for this two-part movie.

In this second film, the emphasis is on the plot, which the filmmakers execute through fast-moving, often violent action scenes: fights, chases, military clashes, aerial battles, gun battles, riots, street-fighting, etc. In that regard, the animation, especially the character animation, serves this film well. Most of the fisticuffs and duels are a ballet of non-stop, nearly seamless motion that drags the viewer into the fray. Mostly, this is dude versus dude, and the animation does not fail the fights.

I found the voice acting to be surprisingly good, especially because I thought the voice performances in Part 1 to be mostly bad. Michael Emerson does some kind of weird, alternating soft voice/gruff voice thing that makes the Joker just a little more menacing. Peter Weller’s Batman, this time around, is much better, and Mark Valley gives Superman the depth he did not have in Frank Miller’s comic book. Also, Jim Meskimen does a great Ronald Reagan riff as the President.

There is an undercurrent of humor throughout this film, which makes me look at Frank Miller’s comic book a bit differently. The sly satire and effusive humor makes this film more than just an adaptation of a famous comic book. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 is a great Batman movie – better than The Dark Knight Rises.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Scorsese Developing "Gangs of New York" TV Series

Miramax and Martin Scorsese Join to Develop Television Series Based on Successful Scorsese Film “Gangs of New York”

LOS ANGELES & SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global film and television studio Miramax and Academy Award®-winning director Martin Scorsese announced today that they are developing a television series based on the film “Gangs of New York.” The original film released in 2002 by Miramax and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis focused on early confrontations between rival gangs in New York in the mid to late 1800’s. The series will draw from the multitude of events surrounding organized gangs at the turn of the century and shortly thereafter in America, not only in New York, but in other cities such as Chicago and New Orleans and the birth of organized crime in America.

“This time and era of America’s history and heritage is rich with characters and stories that we could not fully explore in a two hour film. A television series allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life. I am excited to partner with Miramax in telling these stories,” stated Martin Scorsese.

“No one better exemplifies what the new Miramax is and will be better than Martin Scorsese. His dedication to quality and the art of storytelling continues to excite everyone that works with him and watches his films and television programs. We could not think of a better partner for this project than the creator of the wonderful film on which it is based,” stated Richard Nanula, chairman of Miramax and a principal at Colony Capital.


About Miramax
Miramax is a leading worldwide film and television studio with a library of more than 700 motion pictures. The Miramax library holds some of the world’s most original and acclaimed independent films including Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, The English Patient, Kill Bill Volume I and II, Life is Beautiful, Reservoir Dogs, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Cinema Paradiso and My Left Foot – as well as scores of commercially successful films such as The Aviator, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bad Santa, Chicago, There Will Be Blood, and the Scream, Hellraiser, Scary Movie and Spy Kids franchises. Collectively, the Miramax library has received 284 Academy Award® nominations and 68 Oscars®, including four Best Picture awards.

Miramax is headquartered in Santa Monica, California with a sales office in London. For more information, please visit www.miramax.com, “like” the company on Facebook and follow Miramax on Twitter @Miramax.