That’s not even me being sarcastic, as I have been known to be. Who were the people, aside from the ones who made money directly from it, hoping for the return of Heroes? I could maybe understand Jeph Loeb looking for a comeback, but he’s busy with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, so I can’t pin this one on him.

When talking about Heroes with the many geek friends and acquaintances I have, the common thread is that it started strong and by the second season had fallen apart. After that, popularity, ratings and the fandom waned.

In the end during what we thought was the series finale, everything got wrapped up in a trite and contrived little package that most of us hoped would stay sealed away with our HD-DVD box sets of season 1. The plot holes, hanging threads and characters that devolved could all be laid to rest and we’d all be better for it.

Just when you thought we couldn’t get any more cool trailers for today, along comes this new one for Peter Jackson’s second installment of The Hobbit trilogy. Sorry, having to type ‘The Hobbit Trilogy” reminds us we were angry about this one book having to be split into three movies.

However, we’ll try to get over it, at least for today. That way, we can take a look at this trailer objectively and enjoy the fact that, at long last, we get a glimpse of the dragon Smaug.

From the looks of things, Jackson at least knows his way around a dragon. Plus, it’s nice to see Orlando Bloom show up again in what looks like two different roles. Guess he was jealous of John Rhys-Davies during the last trilogy.

Anyway, take a look at the trailer after the break. Look for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to arrive in theaters on December 13.

Yesterday, a video surfaced on a random YouTube page titled REVEAL PLAYSTATION 4 PS4 E3 2013 新しいプレイステーションE3プレゼ. Since most people over here in the US don’t read Japanese, they just assumed this as a mark of authenticity and speculation began running wild. Although later disproven when Sony, the king of “no comment”, actually remarked to Kotaku that the ad was a fake, the damage had been done and arguments had already began, friendships were ended and wars were started.

But why the debate? We have already seen what is arguably the most important aspect of the PlayStation 4 with the reveal and that was the gameplay. The only thing of significance “revealed” for the first time was the actual PS4 console. Does what the box itself looks like really matter? I don’t know about you but the box itself isn’t the visible focal point of my entertainment setup. While everything is either going into the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3, I never actually care to look at it as I am playing.

Been wondering exactly what happened to the Dixon brothers before meeting up with Rick Grimes in Atlanta? Well with The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct being tied into the AMC series, you’ll get some of those answers and you can get those answers today. Out today for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and the Wii U is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. If you take a look below, you get a better idea of what to expect from this stealth FPS experience.

It is fair to say that The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct has its work cut out for it. And not even because of anything that has been seen from the game before today. It is because it will inevitably be compared to Telltale’s The Walking Dead adventure game. Despite being different in almost every way from the art style to gameplay style and the continuity it chooses to follow, parallels will undoubtedly be drawn.

The hardest part will be people giving the game a fair shake and taking it for what it is doing which is trying to give a new experience by trying to combine stealth and FPS gameplay together while putting people in the world of the TV series they have become so invested in. (Hopefully Andrea doesn’t show up until the absolute end.)

Of all places to see the latest trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s latest Pacific Rim, most people wouldn’t expect the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But, low and behold, that’s where it came from. Much like the trailer explains that everyone looked to the skies for aliens only to find them underwater, this trailer surprised everyone when it was premiered at an electronics show, of all places.

There isn’t much explanation needed for Pacific Rim. The premise is simple but still something that if you are a fan of The Flickcast you’ll most likely love. Giant robots versus giant monsters. There’s a reason that certain film franchises are still so beloved over a half a century old that people keep revisiting them. People like big monsters and if they aren’t fighting other big monsters, people want to see big robots kicking their butts.

If there was one week for forget to check Apple Trailers  it was definitely this past week.  Usually there is at least one interesting trailer coming out everyday, but for some reason this weekend only had new cuts for films we already had seen trailers for, and has hardly anything new premiering in theaters or online.  Is this a preview of what we can expect in the fall?  At this rate, at the end of the summer we will have quite a boring couple months until Oscar season.

This week we have a franchise spin-off, a quirky indie comedy, and one documentary to throw in the mix.

Planes

Click to see the trailer

Yes, this is a spin off of the popular Pixar movie Cars, who’s sequel is set to come out this month.  No, this one is not being make by the talented team at Pixar, and is instead being brought to us by Disney alone.

In all honesty, the mere fact that this is only a Disney film really scares me as to the quality of this film.  I would have normally thought that this is a terrible spin-off idea for this franchise, but if I hear that Pixar was still doing it, I would hold onto my hope just because of their impeccable track record with animation.  Disney, on the other hand, while I admire their effort in acquiring Pixar to stay on top of the animation industry, has had a long string of bombs in the past few years when it comes to producing feature animations by themselves.

Guys see movies for a lot of different reasons. Most will only admit to getting excited for the newest raunchy comedies or fast paced action movies, but how many of them are secretly enjoying themselves when they get dragged to a date movie and are forced to see something a little more “girly”? Everyone has a few guilty pleasures hiding in their DVD collection, and it takes a real man to admit that he’s popped in Love Actually just as many times as the Bourne Trilogy.

This week’s theme is both a literal and figurative.  We have one crazy movie about a girl, two movies to see with the girlfriend, and a documentary to check out when she’s not around.

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

Click to see the trailer

Stop the presses!  Here it is, this is the movie to watch for in 2011.  Based on the literary phenomenon The Millennium Trilogy, this film is a remake of the 2009 Swedish film of the same name.  Already dubbed “The feel bad movie of Christmas”, I think this film has a lot more in store for us than even this exciting teaser shows us.

Director David Fincher has been pumping out masterpiece after masterpiece the past few years, sending him on the fast track to becoming one of the most legendary filmmakers of our generation.  With an early track record including such film school favorites as Se7en and Fight Club, he has since settled into a core group of creative collaborators that he has worked with on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and, most recently, The Social Network, which has propelled him to the front of critical acclaim, box office success, and Oscar recognition.

When does a film not need a trailer to get you excited to see it?  While most people need to see what the film is about before deciding whether it is worth their time, I can sometimes be satisfied knowing that there is strong  talent that going into making the film.  If a film has a talented director with a reliable track record, or has managed to pull together a unique cast, that should be reason enough to want to go and see that movie.

Each of the trailers this week has an element that alone should get you intrigued enough to watch it.  We have a couple independent films with strong casts, a sequel to the great animation, and a fun 3D experience.

50/50

Click to see the trailer

Right off the bat this film feels like a great feel-good indie with strong characters and honest performances.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Hesher, 500 Days of Summer, Inception) alone is one of the most talented young actors working today.  And Seth Rogan (who is also producing), while fresh and talented in everything he does, could use this type of role to break out of this Apatow comedy type-casting.

Additionally we have the under-appreciated Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), who is simply enjoyable in everything she does, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard (Hearafter) in some strange Twilight reunion.  Not to mention the incomparable Anjelica Huston (The Royal Tenenbaums) rounding out the supporting cast.

I get a strange feeling that this could be a strange mixture of 500 Days of Summer and Up in the Air.

When people talk about movies they are most excited to see, they will normally stick to the big budget action adventures, raunchy comedies, or thrillers.  It is rare to see a grown adult get publicly excited about the newest children’s animation or cheesy chick-flick.  But when all is said and done, and we are alone in our living rooms browsing Netflix, most of the time we are actually in the mood for something light and fun.  Just admit it, we all love the occasional cartoon for family comedy.

This week we have two classic family franchises getting rebooted, a trailer for a superhero film that just doesn’t seem to want to ever come out, and a guilty pleasure indie flick.

While this past week had a few fun trailers, unfortunately there wasn’t anything that I’m going to be waiting in line opening night to see.  It seems that we have fully transitioned out of the exciting summer films and are now getting prepared for the mediocre releases that didn’t quite make the summer block.

This week we have a couple big budget films that I feel obligated to talk about, a couple smaller indies I’m a little more excited for, and — Moon Nazis!

Real Steel

Click to see the trailer

There was an early teaser that came out for this last year, but this is the first chance that we really get to see the story of this film.  On one level you instantly want to dismiss this film as “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie,” sure to be filled with terrible dialogue and cheesy one-liners.  But on another level you hope that this interesting premise might actually turn out to be a fresh take on inspiring boxing films.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men, The Prestige) is usually pretty decent in whatever he does, but who I would be most interested to see is Evangeline Lilly in this role, who is most famous as Kate from Lost.  Although she was in The Hurt Locker for a bit, this will definitely be her biggest step into features.

While part of me is excited to see some fun robot violence, I feel ultimately this film has to disappoint.  Everyone is going to be expecting Transformers quality CGI, but there is no way they had the budget to pull that off.  And, I get the feeling that people are going to want this film to have more heart that it will end up having.