For yesterday’s The Pull List, go here.

New Avengers #55 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 7.5

Though beaten out by another Marvel team book this week for Pull of the Week, New Avengers is still a great read. Coming off the “Who is the next Sorcerer Supreme?” storyline, this issue finds the Avengers back in New York where they continue their gauntlet with the Hood’s forces. As dissension grows amongst the Hood’s forces, the Wrecking Crew vocally airs their disappointment in their current arrangement. The Hood defends his position along with the help of his girlfriend, Madame Masque. Another of the Hood’s men, Chemistro, finds a piece of Stark-tech that would effectively disable the heroes powers, had it not been destroyed in their battle with the New Avengers.

Instead of giving the tech to his boss, the Hood, Chemistro takes it to Doctor Harrow hoping to reverse engineer it for their own purposes. The issue also follows up on the actions of Clint Barton after having called out Norman Osborn to the world as the former Green Goblin who has now been placed in charge of the nation’s security. A meeting of the Avengers has been called and Clint apologizes for his actions and going about them without talking to the team first. He then throws down his endgame plan… to kill Norman Osborn. This idea becomes the focus of the discussion between the underground Avengers until they receive word that a villain is letting loose in Times Square, Chemistro.

Coming off the not so surprising choice of Brother Voodoo as the new Sorcerer Supreme, this issue acts as a link back four issues before all the magical nonsense took place. The New Avengers are still up against this generation’s Masters of Evil, the Hood’s gang, and the events from a previous battle between the two have started to show some repercussions. No huge revelations occur within it but New Avengers #55 acts as a great setup issue for what is to come in the series. Solicits have shown that something big is going to happen between these two factions (don’t worry, we won’t spoil what they are) and this issue, from Bendis’s great dialogue amongst the Hood’s gang to the bleak cover showing a pile of New Avengers corpses laid out do a fantastic job of continuing the hype machine behind this series.

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Chris and Matt have been back from Comic-Con for a few days now and have had time for a little reflection about the Con, its highlights, lowlights and what it all means. Joined by special guest Elisabeth Rappe, the three try to explain the magic of the Con, its shortcomings, what they loved and hated about it and why you never, ever, piss off Gary Oldman.

The three also make their picks of favorite moments from the Con and talk about what the Con can do better to make it more enjoyable for attendees and exhibitors alike. Its a no-holds barred hour of discussion that leaves no topic unturned. If you missed the Con or even if you did attend and just want to make more sense of it, you don’t want to miss this.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email. Thanks for listening.

In spite of its ties to the Saw franchise, The Collector manages to, at points, rise above its torture porn roots and deliver a mostly solid 85 minutes of horror, suspense, action and, for the most part, good performances. The film, written by Saw IV, V and VI scribes Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton and directed by Dunstan, follows the same basic formula of the Saw films where a devious and virtually unstoppable villain, in this case The Collector instead of Saw’s Jigsaw, devises many ingenious, outlandish and over-the-top ways to kill the various members of the cast. Taken as only that, the film would most likely be relegated to obscurity very soon after watching it.

The conceit that saves The Collector from being regarded as just another Saw knockoff is the fact that the hero, capability played by Josh Stewart, is actually a criminal who breaks into a house where The Collector has already taken up residence and is in mid-torture of the wealthy family who resides there. Once inside, the criminal discovers The Collector’s crimes, is derailed from his purpose in the house to steal a gem to pay his wife’s gambling debts, and must become the reluctant hero. Instead of robbing the family, he must instead rescue them and get them, and himself, out of the house alive. This criminal versus killer concept is the main redeeming quality of the film.

Developing his character, giving him something to fight for and turning him into the hero enables the audience to have an interest in if he lives or dies and, more importantly, if he can save the family and their young daughter from the hands of The Collector and his box. This helps the film by being just original and different enough from other films like it to elevate it above the normal fare associated with this genre. However, as interesting as the particular conceit is, it doesn’t help the film quite enough and as such we are still treated to several scenes of torture and contrived situations which could have been lifted out of most other Saw films or various other cogs in the torture porn machine.

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With Twilight fans all over the world scratching their heads over the decision to release Rachelle Lefevre from her Twilight commitment, it looks like the real reason why the actress was let go is finally coming to light. Additional reporting from Variety has revealed that Summit Entertainment made the decision to recast the role of Victoria after Lefevre disclosed her commitment to Barney’s Version, an adaptation of a novel by Canadian author Mordecai Richler starring Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman on July 20.

The Twilight actress released a statement shortly after news broke of Howard’s casting, stating her dismay, but ultimate support of the franchise.

“I was stunned by Summit’s decision to recast the role of Victoria for Eclipse. I was fully committed to the Twilight saga, and to the portrayal of Victoria. I turned down several other film opportunities and, in accordance with my contractual rights, accepted only roles that would involve very short shooting schedules.

“My commitment to Barney’s Version is only 10 days. Although the production schedule for Eclipse is over three months long, Summit said they had a conflict during those 10 days and would not accommodate me. Given the length of filming for Eclipse, never did I fathom I would lose the role over a 10-day overlap. I was happy with my contract with Summit and was fully prepared to continue to honor it. Summit chose simply to recast the part.

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While much of the geek community, The Flickcast team included, was off in San Diego for Comic Con, Microsoft started this year’s Summer of Arcade with the release of TwistedPixel’s follow-up to The Maw, entitled ‘Splosion Man. You can read our interview with TwistedPixel CEO Michael Wilford here.

‘Splosion Man – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10)

Score: 8.5

‘Splosion Man is anything but your typical platform game. The main character, aptly named ‘Sposion Man, is completely bat-crap insane. He runs around his world completely enflamed trying to escape the research laboratory he is held in. All four buttons on the controller do the same thing, ‘splode. ‘Sploding acts as both an offensive, defensive and acrobatic maneuver. As ‘Splosion Man advances through the levels he must leap to higher areas. In most games, this would be achieved by jumping, but not ‘Splosion Man.

No, he blows himself up to launch himself in to the air, not once, not twice but three times to create the most violent looking triple jump in a long time. The best ‘splosions, however, come from when ‘Splosion Man blows himself up near various flammable barrels which send him rocketing across the level. In addition, he can constantly ‘splode as he passes by various scientists, turning them in to piles of meat. As the game progresses, the ‘splosions take a defensive turn as they can be used to deflect and redirect enemy missiles and projectiles.

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Now that we have your attention: NO, this is not a hoax, and YES, this is actually a fan-made trailer of the footage shown during last week’s San Diego Comic-Con. Done by the cool dudes over at ScreenCrave.com, this is a shot-for-shot, word-for-word reenacted (or “sweded”) version of the trailer that was shown to the lucky thousands who waited for a seat in Hall H. Only with this one, it was done in a few hours on the streets of San Diego.

Note the authenticity and intricacy of the soft drink lid as Iron Man’s nuclear powered heart or the paper-and-pen combination for Nick Fury’s eye patch. Also note the interesting casting decision when selecting their Don Cheadle. The video is a laugh riot but more importantly you get the idea of what the trailer was like.

After the first run through, your brain knows to replace the main actor with Robert Downy Jr. and the white dude with a post-it on his face with Sam Jackson, so it’s almost like you’re getting the full experience.

Check out the video after the jump, and prepare to laugh.

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The newest film from the Coen brothers, A Serious Man, has just hit the internet with it’s first trailer, and it’s already got lots of folks excited. Set in the 1960s, A Serious Man is the story of a man’s life unraveling after his wife decides to leave him because of his deadbeat brother.

Several sources are calling this “trailer of the year” and I’d have to agree. While I don’t quite know what to make of this movie yet, the trailer is edited put together quite well, and we hope that the film will follow in style and innovation.

Written, directed, and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, the sibling team behind Raising Arizona and No Country for Old Men, the film stars Michael Stuhlbarg (Body of Lies), Simon Helberg (Big Bang Theory), Richard Kind (Spin City), and Adam Arkin (Life).

A Serious Man hits theaters October 9th and you can check out the trailer right after the jump.

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Twilight fans should prepare themselves for a new face when the third installment of the series, Eclipse hits the big screen in 2010. Variety is reporting that Bryce Dallas Howard has joined the cast of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Summit Entertainment’s wildly popular vampire franchise. Howard replaces Rachelle Lefevre as the character of Victoria.

Although Lefevre originated the role in Twilight and appears in the upcoming sequel New Moon, Summit is stating scheduling conflicts forced her to leave the picture.

“We are incredibly happy that Bryce has agreed to come into the franchise,” said Erik Feig, Summit’s president of worldwide production and acquisitions. “Rachelle brought Victoria to great screen life and Bryce will bring a new dimension to the character. The franchise is lucky to have such a talented actress as Bryce coming in to fill the role.”

Eclipse begins shooting in Vancouver in August and has a release date of June 30, 2010.

We brought you some screen images from Activision’s upcoming racing game Blur before here at the site. And now we’ve got some moving images — in the form of a brand new trailer — to share with you now. This game, according to Activision, is “the ultimate wheel-to-wheel racing experience, dropping players into heart-pumping, electrified action with multiple cars trading paint as they charge towards the finish line.”

And as if that weren’t enough, the game also has a story and is not just about racing around really, really fast and causing myhem in your wake. The game’s story unfolds via a “unique and innovative community-based interface, enabling players to build a network of allies, rivals, fans and personalized racing experiences with friends both inside and outside the game.”

Sounds good to me. Blur hits store shelves later this year . Check out the brand new trailer after the jump.

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Cult actors have come and gone throughout the years cinema has been around, but one man manages to stay in the spotlight, and the hearts, of fans everywhere. That man is Bruce Campbell. During his career, Campbell has written a series of books, directed, acted, and even done some cologne commercials, but he never seems to really fade away.

We got a chance to talk to Bruce Campbell recently about a series of things including where his character Sam Axe is headed in the current season of Burn Notice, what his thoughts were on Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell, and some info on his newest project, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Check out the interview after the jump. You can catch Burn Notice Thursdays on the USA Network.

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Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox has picked up quite a lot of marketing steam in the past few weeks since the first images popped up online. Now, the very first trailer has hit the web, and it already looks to be a new direction into the world of stop-motion animation from the Anderson camp.

The film stars George Clooney in the titular role of Mr. Fox, where he must outwit three mean-spirited farmers who try relentlessly to take out Fox and his family. The story was originally adapted from the Roald Dahl children’s book and also stars Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Willem Defoe and a few Anderson favorites such as Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman.

The film hits theaters November 13th, and you can catch the first trailer after the jump.

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Of the mid season shows kicking off on NBC this year, one has seemed to stick out above the rest. Done in the vein of Smallville or Muppet Babies, Merlin is the episodic adventures of the great English wizard when he was only a teen, coming to terms with the mystical world he would one day rule.

The series was created by the same team that brought the witch drama Hex to the BBC a few years back. In fact, Merlin originally aired on the BBC back in September of 2008, and now NBC is bypassing BBC America to bring it straight to primetime network television. Merilin airs on NBC every Sunday night, with episode 9 hitting this weekend.

Check out a brand new clip from the series after the jump.

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