The Flickcast – Page 668 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

Game Review: ‘Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4’ For XBox 360

Posted on July 12, 2010

The LEGO games have always been known for taking popular franchises and turning them into enjoyable, family-friendly videogames. In the case of LEGO Harry Potter, they manage to achieve this and more. With an already beloved story and characters behind it, this game is certainly one of the summer’s greatest, but also quite possibly the best LEGO game to date.

LEGO Harry Potter starts at the very beginning of Harry Potter’s tale and progresses all the way through the fourth story in the series. While most games had a central home base where you could do everything (The Batcave in LEGO Batman, the Mos Eisley Cantina in LEGO Star Wars, etc.), LEGO Harry Potter uses The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley as sort of a starting point, but also utilizes Hogwarts Castle as a sort of “mission center.” This does away with the “rinse and repeat” feeling of the previous games, as you’d always access everything from the same area.

This also allows for an almost completely explorable Hogwarts, including Hagrid’s cabin, the Great Hall, and the Quidditch Pitch. While there are always missions available, including all the previous ones, it’s nice to have the option to just go run around, explore, and maybe do some shopping in Diagon Alley or ride a broomstick around in between getting the missions done. The game also includes the memorable film score by John Williams, adding to the experience and atmosphere of the game.

The typical gameplay of most of the LEGO games of building objects to overcome obstacles and move through the game is changed somewhat, as characters cast specific spells instead of building. This is a welcome change, as the task of choosing the right spells to complete each task is never as boring or tedious as just holding down a button and watching your character build something.

Instead, you’re using Lumos to chase away plant monsters and Wingardium Leviosa to move rocks out of the way or reassemble a suit of armor to progress in the game. And whereas LEGO Batman made you pick up the suit upgrades one at a time in Story Mode, LEGO Harry Potter’s spells are always available for easy access on the controller.

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Exclusive Interview: Artist John Romita Jr. Talks Marvel’s Heroic Age, ‘Kick-Ass’ and More

Posted on July 12, 2010

After many years of happily reading John Romita Jr.’s work on Wolverine’s “Enemy of the State” Arc, Spider-Man and Kick-Ass, I was thrilled to be able to interview John Romita, Jr. (or JR. Jr.) for Marvel’s return to a bright, new day with the “Heroic Age.”

I caught up with the delightful John while he was working hard on the Avengers.  It seems this is one man who can draw and answer in-depth questions at the same time.

As always he was humorous, insightful, and well…in need of a nap.  Read on, true believers, and enjoy the latest from the desk of the modest legend himself.

The Flickcast: Marvel takes the entire Avengers line of titles into “The Heroic Age.” You’ve been paired up with Brian Michael Bendis on the core “Avengers” title; is your opening run contained to the first arc or two, or do you plan on being involved for the foreseeable future?

John Romita, Jr: In the first year I’m doing it [Avengers] for a minimum of 2 arcs and I’m enjoying myself.  If the book is still doing well, I’ll do it for a second year.  It’s so difficult, though, that I may not survive the first year— it’s intense work.

I have to finish 25 pages in the next 17 days.  So, after doing Avengers, I may want to sleep for a year.  But doing the Avengers with Bendis is an amazing experience.  If I get through the year and I’m still healthy enough, I will do another one.

TF: What are the benefits and challenges of drawing iconic characters like Thor, Spidey, Iron Man, Wolverine, and Captain America vs. drawing characters you create?

JR: Oh, that’s on a strictly selfish scale, it’s much more fun to do a character you create because you create them and there’s a lot of gratification for that, but working on iconic characters is like driving your father’s classic car, it’s spectacular and fantastic, but it’s better off when it’s your own.

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RIP Harvey Pekar

Posted on July 12, 2010

Comic book writer Harvey Pekar, whose autobiographical comic series American Splendor was made into a 2003 Oscar nominated film starring Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, has been found dead in his Ohio home. He was 70.

Cleveland Heights, OH police Capt. Michael Cannon said officers were called to Pekar’s home by his wife Joyce Brabner about 1 A.M. Monday. Cannon said Pekar had been suffering from prostate cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and depression. Coroner’s spokesman Powell Caesar said an autopsy will be performed to determine final cause of death, although foul play was not suspected.

Pekar’s American Splendor comics, which he began publishing in 1976, chronicle his observations on work, love, money and life’s daily grind. The comic was done with stories from dozens of artists over the years in a wide variety of styles and was first illustrated by renonwed underground artist R. Crumb.

However, with each successive style, the voice remained the same: that of a witty, wry, observant man who’s study of human nature and the minutia of life through his own shortcomings never ceased to entertain and enlighten.

In addition to his writing, he was known for his appearances on Late Night With David Letterman. Check out his last appearance on the show after the break.

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New Report Shows Significant Android Market Share Gain

Posted on July 12, 2010

A new report from comScore on U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share reveals some interesting statistics for both domestic cell- and smart-phone users. For fans of Google’s open-source Android Platform, the good news is that Android is continuing to grab ever-larger shares of the U.S. smartphone market. With the sheer number of outrageously great Android-based smartphones being released in 2010, it makes sense that devices based on Google’s OS would jump a healthy 4.0% over the previous period.

Over 234 million Americans age 13 and older are currently using mobile devices and comScore’s report ranked mobile equipment manufacturers (OEMs), smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers, and finally mobile content usage (how mobile device owners used their devices).

In terms of top manufacturers of mobile devices, manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 22.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up one percentage point from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).

Of all mobile device users, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. RIM, with their business-friendly Blackberry phones was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share and Microsoft with 13.2 percent.

Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

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Marvel To Recast The Hulk In Joss Whedon’s ‘Avengers’, Edward Norton Out

Posted on July 12, 2010

It goes without saying most genre fans enjoyed Edward Norton’s Incredible Hulk. At least, we enjoyed it far more than when Ang Lee or Bill Bixby had a crack at it. The film did moderately well in the box office, considering how much of the year was dominated by Marvel’s other film, Iron Man. Now it seems that Norton and Marvel will be parting ways, as they’ll be recasting the jade giant for The Avengers.

In a report by Hitfix, they announced Marvel is starting to shop around for a new Hulk for Joss Whedon’s upcoming superhero team flick. In direct response to their article, President of Production at Marvel, Kevin Feige, put out a statement.

We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.

Given the size of the production and cast, this decision probably made sense as far as Marvel was concerned. However, Edward Norton may have other ideas, at least according to his agent.

In a direct response, Norton’s Agent Brian Swardstrom of WME, said:

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Box Office: Not Despicable At All

Posted on July 12, 2010

Animated films are having a pretty stellar summer. This weekend, Toy Story 3 just became the highest grossing Pixar film of all time (surpassing Finding Nemo.)   Illumination Entertainment just released their first film, Despicable Me, and cleaned up at the box office.  Despicable made over $60 Million during its opening weekend, earning the distinction of being the highest opening weekend for an animated film not made by Pixar or Dreamworks.  Just like that, we have some serious competition for the animation studios.   Not too bad for a movie with no built in audience.

Illumination spent about $69 Million for the animation in Despicable Me, which is well beneath the average for a Dreamworks or Pixar film.  The film enjoyed a healthy “A” cinemascore rating by exiting audience members, which typically indicates long legs and good word of mouth.  Despite the fact that the movie played in 3D, it was limited in its amount of theaters, because Toy Story and The Last Airbender are both still playing in quite a few 3D venues.  There is no doubt that Despicable take would have been higher had it been able to capitalize on more 3D screens.

Twilight: Eclipse was bumped down to the number two spot this week.  It had about a 48% drop from opening weekend, typical of the franchise that is historically heavily front-loaded.   It still managed to make about $33 Million, hardly a number to scoff at.  This brings the 12 day total to $237 Million, which is pretty astounding, and topped the total for New Moon in the same time period ($235 Million.)

Predators scared up a decent $25 Million over the weekend.  With a modest budget of $40 Million, this bodes well for the film. Toy Story 3 nabbed the fourth spot with $22 Million.  Its four week total is $340 Million.

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Check Out A New Teaser for ‘The Social Network’

Posted on July 12, 2010

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are so popular they are starting to consume more and more time. People flock to them to update their status, communicate with friends and generally let the world know the ins and outs of their daily lives. It’s hard to believe Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg knew what he was starting back in the day but whatever he thought, I would bet the success of Facebook has surpassed even his wildest estimations.

If success means you end up having a movie made about your life and the social networking site you founded with a few friends, then check Zuckerberg off the list, he’s made it. David Fincher’s The Social Network tells the story of the founding of Facebook and the trails and tribulations associated with something that got very big very fast.

In it Zombieland‘s Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg and soon-to-be-Spider-Man Andrew Garfield plays co-founder Eduardo Severin. Plus, the film also features Rashida Jones, Josheph Mazello and Justin Timberlake. To help get you ready for the film, we’ve got a new teaser to share with you today, so click through to check it out.

The Social Network hits theaters on October 1st. What do you guys think? Are you interested in a movie about the founding of Facebook?

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SDCC10: San Diego Comic-Con Announces Sunday Schedule

Posted on July 11, 2010

The last piece of the puzzle has been released and we now have the complete schedule for San Diego Comic-Con. Now that Sunday is out of the bag, planning can really begin and we cans tart figuring out what we can and can’t see.  Like the previous days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sunday brings more stuff for us to want to see and be envious of those who will get to see it. Oh well, the trick is just to have fun, so we will.

Some of the highlights of Sunday include the Smallville screening and Q&A, the Castle panel, the women of Marvel panel, panels from Archaia comics and Wildstorm, the DC Town Hall, the FX panel featuring Sons of Anarchy, the Glee panel and a whole lot more. Sunday is also kid’s day so look for lots of programming and events geared to the Con’s younger attendees.

Click through for the complete Sunday schedule. Be sure to check back right here at The Flickcast for all your San Diego Comic-Con 2010 news needs. Plus, don’t forget to keep an eye out for more details on our awesome event on Saturday during the Con. You won’t want to miss it.

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