Meet the next Batman villain:

Fun Fact: Steroids make your nuts shrink

No, that isn’t Ronnie from The Jersey Shore’s pale, hairless brother that is a first glimpse of Bane, the next Batman villain.  Bane will be played by Tom Hardy, best known for his role as The Forger in last summer’s Inception.  

When I first heard Bane would be the next Batman villain I was a bit disappointed, I had been hoping for The Riddler or someone else who could psychologically challenge Batman.  However, I’ve had a change of heart and now think Bane is a great choice.  In Batman Begins, Ra’s-al-ghul presented a threat because he had extensive resources and a bunch of ninjas.  In The Dark Knight, the Joker challenged Batman because he constantly outsmarted everyone in Gotham.   Bane will be able to present a different challenge because he can beat the living hell out of Batman (in the comics Bane broke Batman’s back).  Using a villain like The Riddler would have created an enemy far too similar to The Joker.

I think Bane can help do what has been nearly impossible in movie history: make the third movie as good as either of the first two.  The Dark Knight Rises is set to release on July 20, 2012… I’m already excited.

The Hangover: part 2 Review: This seems oddly familiar…

Not as Hilarious the Second Time

Hilarious

I don’t think anyone expected The Hangover: Part 2 to surpass the original, but I had hoped the move to Asia would create some hilarious new situations.  Unfortunately, the sequel is obnoxiously similar to Part 1.

The first movie’s premise is what made it great.  Almost anyone who’s been to college can relate to waking up on the floor (or worse) with a splitting headache, and no idea what happened for part of the previous night.  But, the sequel does nothing to add to the original premise. Time and time again the same events happen in Bangkok instead of Vegas.  I don’t want to ruin the movie by giving specific examples but trust me; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sequel with more similarities to the original.  I also kept expecting a hilarious new character to show up, but the original cast carried the second movie, the few additions were extremely forgettable.

There are definitely laughs, Stu (Ed Helms) may even be funnier in the second movie, but he is the sole exception.  There are also no hilariously memorable moments (The tiger in the bathroom, Stu's song) that will make you want to watch the sequel multiple times.

If you decide not to see the Hangover: Part 2 in theaters you aren’t going to be “out of the loop.” You will get the exact same experience when the movie is released on dvd (and netflix) in 6 months.

E3 preview #1: Sony wants everyone to forget how badly it screwed up

*Crickets*

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is essentially Christmas for nerds because it is where many video game developers announce new releases.  E3 is closely watched by the video game media and goes a long way in determining how a particular console or game will perform in the upcoming year.  In anticipation of this year’s E3, which runs from June 7 to June 9, I will be doing a series of previews starting with one about Sony’s Playstation Network.

For those of you who don’t know, in mid-April the Playstation Network (PSN) was hacked and personal information as well as a few thousand credit card numbers were stolen.  For a good timeline of events through May 6^th check out this link, if you don’t care enough to click that link I’ll summarize in one sentence: After being hacked, PSN was down for close to a month before service was restored in North America on May 15^th (Playstation Store is still down), but lots of people are still (justifiably) upset with Sony.

Prior to the PSN debacle, Sony was poised for a strong year with a lineup of Playstation-exclusives including Killzone 3, Infamous 2, and Uncharted 3.  Now that they’ve gone and pissed off millions of Playstation owners, including the video game media, Sony will have to perform the difficult task of restoring confidence in the PSN while still selling next year’s game lineup to the public.  One thing is clear: Microsoft’s Xbox Live was regarded as the gold standard for gaming consoles prior to the hack, now Sony has fallen even further behind.

The full extent of the damage done to Playstation’s sales by the PSN hack is still unclear, so I will be watching with great interest to see how Sony deals with the situation and how the gaming community reacts.

5 Reasons Why X-Men: First Class will be awesome

For over six months I have been saying that X-Men: First Class will be the best movie of summer 2011. As the June 3^rd release date approaches I’m sticking to that.  Here’s why:

#1 The Director:

Matthew Vaughn isn’t a household name, few directors outside of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are (Michael Bay might be, but not for good reasons), but the next five years will see his notoriety grow substantially.  The only movies Vaughn has directed are Layer Cake, Kick-Ass, Stardust, and now X-Men.   Kick-Ass is the most well known of his movies, but Layer Cake is a fantastic movie and Stardust is a very good, underappreciated movie. 

 Each of Vaughn's three movies is great for very different reasons.  Layer Cake is a serious, British crime movie, with a great plot and great actors to boot.  Stardust is a quirky fantasy film revolving around a star that literally falls out of the sky.  It sounds a bit odd, but Stardust is extremely enjoyable to watch, with a great cast highlighted by Robert De Niro playing a cross-dressing sky-pirate (not kidding).  Kick-Ass was released last year and is a film adaptation of a comic about a nerdy teenager who decides to try and be a superhero.  Most directors have flops at some point in their career but I seriously doubt X-Men will be Vaughn’s.

#2 MAGNETO LIFTS A SUBMARINE OUT OF THE WATER:

Enough said

#3 Origin stories are great:

I love a good origin story, unfortunately the first three movies only vaguely referenced how the X-Men were formed and I like to pretend that X-Men: Origins never happened.  Finding out exactly how Magneto and Professor X’s friendship is destroyed (and how Magneto turns into such a douche) should make for a great plotline.  One of the best scenes in the first X-Men movie is a flashback where a young Magneto tears down a fence during the Holocaust, so I can only hope First Class has more cool glimpses into mutants’ pasts.

#4 Kevin Bacon is in it:

Sweet pants

#5 Takes place in the real world:

In my opinion, the best superhero movies are well grounded in reality (i.e. The Dark Knight, The Watchmen, X-Men 2). Superhero movies that drift towards the ridiculous tend to falter (i.e. both Fantastic Fours, Hulk, Spider-Man 3).  First Class is going to involve elements of the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as the Civil Rights Movement.  Combining  parts of those two events with some good storytelling should make for an excellent movie.

Welcome!

Gamot is my new blog about movies, video games, TV shows, and anything else interesting I feel like sharing.  My goal is to make posts accessible to anyone but entertaining and interesting for everyone. 

I will try to post at least once a day but bear with me as I work out the kinks over the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading!