The story picks up where Part I left off. If you really need to know, you can always rewatch the last movie (Heaven help you), but I’m a casual fan and had no trouble jumping right in. Harry and co are holed up in the Weasley family safehouse with Mr. Ollivander (John Hurt) and one of the goblin bankers of the Wizard World’s enormous vault Gringott’s. The group needs him to break into the vault and destroy a chalice that holds part of the soul of Lord Voldemort (or “Horcruxes” for the Potter fans)—and break in (and escape) they do. I’m pretty sure the entire sequence is the most accurate movie representation of the US’s financial collapse we’re likely to see.

From there they travel back to the wizarding school Hogwarts to destroy another Horcrux and oust Snape as the acting Headmaster. At the same time, Voldemort’s army (why was the wizarding world so scared of him before? It appears the whole of them were his allies?) prepares to march on Hogwarts while Harry scrambles to finish up the tasks that will ensure Voldemort’s total destruction. I won’t dwell on recapping because 1) it’s not particularly necessary and 2) anyone reading this will likely already know, so we may as well just get right into the review.

For all the complaints that were and could be (justifiably) leveled against Part I, Part II is a rather wonderful return to form, evoking the grandeur of the previous Potter films but furthering it with higher stakes and a more serious tone. Many have lauded the later Potter films for their “darkness,” and while I didn’t quite agree with them then, the credit is now well deserved.

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Even though some people are already testing out iOS 5 (a bit jealous of our bosses Chris and Matt) others are still using a version of iOS 4 on their iPhone and iPad. To help those people out, Apple has just released iOS 4.3.4 for its iOS devices.

This update will work for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad and third and fourth-generation iPod touch devices. Not forgetting its Verizon customers, Apple has also released a comparable update for the CDMA iPhone 4 known as iOS 4.2.9.

These updates address the usual bunch of “fixes and improvements” but also features a security update that addresses a vulnerability with PDF files. It also patches the extremely popular jailbreak.me jailbreak solution, so it will no longer function on devices that update. Sorry hackers. You can read more about the update on Apple’s site.

iOS 4.3.4 and iOS 4.2.9 are available immediately via iTunes. Let us know if you have any problems with the update.

This is going to be a very difficult review. There is some splendid music on the album, and it plays well within the context of the film.

Ah, but it isn’t that easy, this isn’t just some film. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 is the final chapter in a generational defining cultural goliath, for over a decade the story of the boy who lived has captivated the world. The score as it plays in the film is enhanced by cues from the past, making the music in this movie a more complex, and ultimately satisfying, adventure.

Alexandre Desplat had a very difficult task when he came on board for the final two movies. The series started on the strength of the maestro, John Williams, who wrote amazing themes that stand up to this day.

Then came Patrick Doyle and Nicholas Hooper who both valiantly contributed to the franchise, but even then those talented composers came under fire for not having the same magical quality of Williams. Desplat brings the biggest pedigree since Williams left and brought with him huge expectations for an epic sound, does he deliver in the climax?

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The world of first person shooters runs rampant in the video game industry but there are very few third person shooters that receive the hype of Gears of War. Military shooters constantly clone Call of Duty hoping to unseat the champ and futuristic sci fi shooters like Resistance look to topple Halo. But Gears of War has gone largely unchallenged. Until now.

Enter Binary Domain, a futuristic cover based third person shooter where players must survive an onslaught of machines that just don’t seem to want to die. Not only does Binary Domain from SEGA look amazing but it doesn’t look to be a Gears of War rip-off either. Aside from the obvious difference in enemies being crazed robots as opposed to creepy underground monsters, the environments are also drastically different too. Binary Domain is more reminiscent of  with fairly clean city that hasn’t had the waste of war laid fully upon it yet.

Binary Domain, as seen from the trailer, looks to be quite the challenging game too as players won’t be able to just take out enemies with a few well placed pop shots like they can against mortal enemies. These robotic threats look like they can keep a licking and keep on ticking. After blowing off limbs, these mechanical attackers will continue coming at players, much like certain zombie games interestingly enough. This definitely changes up the pacing seen in most third person shooters thus far.

Take a look below at the weapons trailer for Binary Domain and stick to the Flickcast for more on this February 2012 release for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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Reboots are all the rage these days. Ever since Chris Nolan and David Goyer rebooted the Batman franchise 8 years after we got the first taste of rubber nipples, studios have been all about rebooting series that have either run their course or were never good to begin with.

That’s exactly what Sony Pictures has in mind when they couldn’t come to an agreement with Raimi, McGuire, and the rest of the cast/crew of the original Spider-Man trilogy. Now, Sony has charged 500 Days of Summer director Marc Webb to turn The Social Network‘s star Andrew Garfield into our new favorite neighborhood Spider-Man.

A lead like that and a director who has no real experience working on a superhero project is enough to worry most fans. However, a brand new batch of photos from the set have arrived thanks to EW, and they are pretty pleasing to a fan’s eye.

Web shooters? Check. Blonde Gwen Stacy? Check. Denis Leary as a do-gooder cop? Double Check. These images are more than enough to get us excited for the upcoming film, we just can’t wait to see how they look in motion with a trailer due any day now.

Check out the full gallery of images after the jump and expect to see more from Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man next week at Comic-Con International. The film is currently set to hit theaters July 3rd, 2012.

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With Captain America: Super Solider coming out next week, SEGA brought forth one last set of character dossiers to look at before the game’s release. From what we can see, Captain America: Super Solider is already visually more impressive than Thor: God of Thunder, which is a huge plus. Maybe because Chris Evan’s face is more obscured than Chris Hemsworth’s was in the Thor game but this title doesn’t leave us cringing when we see the trailers on TV.

What we are most curious about is the actual gameplay of Captain America: Super Solider since we haven’t gotten any advance hands on time with it. When we get our review copy next week, just in time for Comic Con, we will find out if developer’s promises live up to the hype they have given us for the game. While Thor: God of Thunder was a poor God of War / Dante’s Inferno ripoff, Captain America: Super Solider looks to be more of an action platformer instead of just a simple beat ‘em up.

We are looking forward to giving you our full review of it next week. Until then, enjoy the final look at the characters coming to Captain America: Super Solider for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS on July 19th.

In this all new behind the scenes feature for Captain America: Super Soldier, Game Director at Next Level Games, Brandon Gill, talks about the balancing movie, comic and video game in the creation of Captain America: Super Soldier.

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Martin Scorsese is a genius. No, I don’t mean he’s just talented or gifted or lucky (well, he may be those too). I mean he’s a certified genius. He’s one man who found his calling early, stuck with it and over the years has created some of the finest moments in cinema history.

And now, it looks like he’s done it again with his latest film Hugo. Based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, the film tells the story of orphan Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who lives inside the walls of a Paris train station.

His days are spent trying to unravel a mystery that links his late father to an ill-mannered toy shop owner living below him and a heart-shaped lock which seems to have no key. With the help from an eccentric girl named Isabelle (Chloe Moretz), he embarks on an adventure to solve the mystery. The film also features Jude Law as Hugo’s father and Ben Kingsley as Georges Melies, Isabelle’s godfather.

Based on this trailer alone I can safely say the movie looks terrific. Plus, Scorsese and Cholie Moretz. Forget about it, I’m in.

Hugo is set to arrive in theaters on November 23. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Quentin Tarantino will be making time during the pre-production of his upcoming western, Django Unchained, to appear in a film from legendary spaghetti western star Franco Nero. Before the announcement of what Tarantino’s next project would be, we heard rumors that he would be working with Nero on his next project.

Most assumed once Tarantino’s western was announced, that Nero would be involved in this film. Many were surprised that once the cast for Django Unchained had been announced, including names like Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson, that Nero’s name wasn’t among them.

It seems the rumors were true and they will be working together, just not on Django. According to Nero, Tarantino has agreed to make an appearance in the actor’s upcoming film The Angel, The Brute and The Wise. So now, instead of Nero acting in a Tarantino’s film, we’ll get Tarantino acting in Nero’s.

In a recent interview with Box Office Magazine, Nero explained his pitch to Quentin. “I said ‘Quentin, we are going to do a western. It would be an homage to Sergio Leone and John Huston, the director that discovered me, and would you be so kind to play a cameo?’ And he said…‘Oh, great, so I can come with Robert Rodriguez and my friends to play them?’ I said, yeah! That would be great!”

It seems it is Nero’s lucky day, as he gets a cameo from not only Tarantino, but he also get Robert Rodriguez and some of  Tarantino’s other celebrity friends.

Even though Tarantino’s role is more of an extended cameo than a co-starring role, Nero will undoubtedly have to accommodate Tarantino and his friends when it comes to production.

On the heels of Netflix announcing they are raising prices by up to sixty percent, Blockbuster is trying to provoke  a mass exodus to their service. Blockbuster began rescuing upset Netflix customers by launching a limited time, nationwide promotion for all Netflix customers who switch to Blockbuster Total Access.

“Blockbuster quickly responded to the cries of Netflix customers,” said Michael Kelly, president of Blockbuster. “Blockbuster Total Access is Netflix ‘without the wait.’ The combination of DVDs by mail and unlimited in-store exchanges provides more than 100 million people living near Blockbuster stores immediate convenience and unparalleled choice.”

There are many additional benefits that Blockbuster Total Access provides over Netflix, including things like sooner availability of many new releases, unlimited in-store exchanges, game rentals included in their plans, and no additional charge for Blu-ray movies. The only thing this plan is missing will be the same thing missing from the new Netflix plan, unlimited streaming. Blockbuster is looking to keep it’s current on demand/pay-per-view streaming model.

In order to woo Netflix customers, those who “switch” to one of Blockbuster’s two most popular Total Access plans will receive a 30-day free trial. Once the free trial ends, customers can choose between the $9.99 per month, “1 Disc” at a time option, or $14.99 per month for “2 Discs” at a time. In other words, for the same price as Netflix’s by mail service,Blockbuster will offer much more.

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We cover a lot of things here at The Flickcast and one of them is comics. Sadly, we don’t get to do as much comics coverage as we would like but we still try to bring you cool stuff when we see it.

Case in point this time is a preview for Marvel’s upcoming series Ultimate Comics X-Men with issue number one. From writer Nick Spencer and artist Paco Medina comes a story featuring Iceman, Kitty Pride and the Human Torch “who discover the true history of the x-gene as the divide between Mankind and Mutantkind grows deeper than ever before.”

“Who are the X-Men and how will they handle the fallout of this universe shattering discovery?” That’s just something you’re going to have to find out for yourself when the first issue arrives.

Judging from the preview images, it looks to be a very cool series. We’re looking forward to it.

Check out the preview after the jump. Look for Ultimate Comics X-Men in comic book stores on September 14th.

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Apparently, today is turning out to be new trailer day. What with the first one for John Carter already being released and now a brand new one for The Thing just coming out as well.

Of course, we’ve got it for you right here, curtesy of the folks over at MSN Movies. Here’s some info on the film for you.

It’s directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton. It was originally set for release on April 29th but that was changed to October. Not a good sign that this film will be any good.

Still, the trailer looks pretty awesome so perhaps the movie will end up being better than expected? Could happen. Although, the fact that the director hasn’t done any other feature film, let alone one with this many effects, doesn’t bode well either. Oh Hollywood, will you never learn.

In case you’re not familiar, here’s a brief synopsis of The Thing:

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

Check out the trailer after the jump. The Thing arrives in theaters on October 14th, 2011.

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I know what you’re thinking. Comic-Con in San Diego is still coming up next week and we need to get through that so how can you possibly be thinking about another event already? Well, as much as I like Comic-Con, I kinda prefer this other event coming up in Austin.

That event is, of course, the amazing Fantastic Fest, which runs from September 22-29 and showcases some of the most interesting, disturbing and awesome films being made today. On that note, the Fest has just announced its first slate of programming and we’ve got it for you below.

According to the release, the first slate of films “spans the globe from Japan, Belgium, Mexico, Russia, Hong Kong, Korea and of course the USA.” The Fest is “debuting digital restorations of Italian horror classics and a stunning 3D epic with more objects flying in your face than Michael Bay and James Cameron combined.”

Here’s the list of films announced so far. Expect more announcements, and lots of coverage, soon.

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