Guardians of the Galaxy is the summer blockbuster I’ve been waiting for for longer than I can remember.

The usual adjectives of effusive praise are appropriate: funny, clever, touching, and, of course, fun. While Marvel Studios has certainly found the formula for successful films, they’ve been progressively more and more serious and, worse, self-important. Guardians has the good sense to mock itself and its concept, which is likely due in large part to its star, Parks & Recreation‘s Chris Pratt, and writer/director James Gunn (Slither), and perhaps almost as large a part being that it’s relatively free of the Marvel Universe around which every other film it’s made snugly revolves. I doubt we’d see even Tony Stark using a space-rat as a make-believe microphone, especially in the first two minutes.

So Gunn and Pratt bring a delightfully refreshing sense of self deprecation to their film, Pratt playing the somewhat well-known Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, intergalactic swashbuckler. The promotional writeups describe him as a mix of Han Solo and Marty McFly, but I think Indiana Jones may be more appropriate, since they’re both adept at getting into and out of particularly sticky situations.

This time Star-Lord has snatched an orb of potentially unimaginable power, which puts him in the sights of nearly everyone across the galaxy, from assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to planetary ravager Ronan (Lee Pace) to Yondu (Michael Rooker), Star-Lord’s kind-of adopted father, to genetically modified raccoon Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and his Ent-ian-ish pal Groot (Vin Diesel). After a three-way battle on the universal capital planet, the four are imprisoned and…blah, blah, blah. They team up, everyone tries to kill them, and so on.

In 1977, at the age of 8, I sat in a theater and experienced the awe and wonder that was Star Wars. At the time, no one had any idea what kind of cultural significance it would have or what it would mean for cinema in general and science-fiction films in particular. Though there have been many books, essays and college theses that have attempted to quantify and examine those impacts over the years, at age 8 I didn’t really care about such things.

If I’m being completely honest I should admit that I still don’t, I just remember sitting in the darkened theater being completely pulled into a new and completely realized new universe of awe and wonder and being completely captivated and immeasurably entertained by it. Thanks to James Gunn and Guardians of the Galaxy, that feeling has returned 37 years later.

Oliver Stone is a very capable director. His visual style makes almost anything he crafts watchable. Unfortunately, lately his choices in films have not really allowed him to embrace his more frenetic skill sets.

That is about to change when the gloriously chaotic Savages hits theaters. For those unfamiliar with Stone’s new film here is the synopsis:

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry—raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Blake Lively).  Life is idyllic in their Southern California town…until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

Sounds like a ton of fun, and now thanks to MTV we get a chance to see the trailer deliver on that promise. The film looks like a cross between Domino and Traffic with all the best parts of each preserved. Of course we wont know if that for sure until the movie is actually released, but this trailer has put Savages high on our to-see list.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

We told told you recently that Peter Weller and Alice Eve had signed on to the cast of the new Star Trek sequel, joining the original crew and Benicio Del Toro who was in talks to play the villain. The speculation ran wild that Del Toro would be playing Kirk nemesis extraordinaire Kahn Noonian Singh. The one thing we can now know for certain is that Del Toro will not be Kahn, because he will not be in the movie.

Vulture is reporting that the talks between the actor and the producers broke down due to monetary issues. The speculation of the movie’s villain being Kahn had a lot to do with the fact that Del Toro fits the same mold that Ricardo Montalban so famously inhabited. J.J. Abrams has denied these rumors, but J.J. loves to keep things secret and anything he says about a movie in this stage of development is far from an official proclamation.

Those rumors might just get another boost as Variety reports Edgar Ramirez is now in talks to take over Del Toro’s assumed role. There is enough in common between Del Toro, Ramirez and Montalban that should keep the flames of Kahn hope alive and well for a few more weeks. 

He may have his hands in half a dozen TV projects, and Zach Quinto may want to quit acting, but that isn’t stopping J.J. Abrams from continuing in his reimagined world of Star Trek with a second film.

First, Abrams announces that he wants She’s Out of My League starlet Alice Eve to have a juicy role in the upcoming sequel. This is the first hard confirmation of new casting news, seeing as the deal with Benicio del Toro has yet to solidify. From Variety.

As is common with Abrams, secrecy has surrounded the pic since the helmer officially announced he would be back — including which characters the new actors will play. Sources say Eve’s character is new to the “Star Trek” universe, unlike del Toro, would insiders believe will be playing someone familiar to Trekkies.

As if that isn’t juicy enough for all you diehards out there, an official date has also been announced, which will make it hard for actors like Quinto to continue to drag their heals.

Tales from the Crypt, the campy-yet-excellent horror staple of the early 90s television, is back in news as producers are hoping to reignite that spark once again with a modern reboot. After 15 years of being off the small screen, the horror series will be returning to television.

The new series is being developed by Gil Adler, a producer on the original HBO series, and Andrew Cosby, best known for his work on Eureka. The hour-long series will be based on the comics. Unlike it’s predecessor, the new series will not follow the anthology format, but will follow a standard series format using the characters in an ongoing storyline format.

Those of you who read the original comic books will see this is a strange turn of events as the comics didn’t have much in the way of returning characters. Other than The Crypt-Keeper, The Vault-Keeper and The Old Witch, all other characters and the “victims” of the stories always changed. It is also being reported that  The Crypt-Keeper, The Vault-Keeper and The Old Witch are not going to be part of the new series.

The original HBO series, which spawned collectibles and movies through out the 90s, ran for seven seasons. It attracted an impressive stable of directors and actors including Robert Zemeckis, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Buscemi, Tim Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, Teri Hatcher, Kirk Douglas, Joe Pesci, Brad Pitt, Ewan McGregor, Malcom McDowell, Bob Hoskins, Brooke Sheilds, Benicio Del Toro, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, William Friedkin, Tobe Hoober and Michael J. Fox.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff on the radar this week. An Avatar alumni could face off against Conan, Modern Warfare developers bring a fight to Activision, and director Guy Ritchie may be breathing new life into the heroes of Camelot.

Fox finds its shadow for $1 million and David Slade may be the man

Fans of the comic book series The Shadow rejoice as it seems the reboot continues to move forward.  While it was thought Sony and director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Army of Darkness) would bring a new version of the character to the big screen things have changed somewhat.

After Raimi began shopping the property around Fox decided to purchase the rights. Sadly, it sounds like Raimi may no longer direct, possibly replaced by David Slade.  Slade directed the vampire film Thirty Days of Night which, unfortunately, felt just that long in the theater. Here’s hoping he can put a little more adrenaline into The Shadow.

How I Met your…Smurf?

Neil Patrick Harris will be venturing to the land of blue, three apples tall creatures in Smurfs: The Movie.  The How I Met Your Mother star won’t be playing a Smurf though.  As this film will be a mix of live action and animation, Harris will be playing the lead live action character.  Too bad, I would have liked to know just which Smurf he’d play.  “Awesome” Smurf maybe?  Let us know your picks in the comments.

‘Wolverine 2’ starts shooting next January

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty good, but it was missing one thing: ninjas!  Hopefully that will be rectified in the sequel which is set to begin shooting next January.  Delving into Wolvie’s Japanese mythos the script follows stories penned by two pretty big names:

“Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. ‘It’s a beautiful story,’ says a source, ‘and will be very different than the first film.'”

Okay, I’m not really sold on the “love story” angle but considering the number of women that went to see Wolverine (pretty much for mutant hunk, Hugh Jackman) at least this will be one you can take your girlfriends to.

In news for a film that could be considered dead in the water already, the site and online marketing campaign for Universal’s upcoming The Wolfman has gone live. The film has been bounced around more times than the Watchmen property back in the mid 90’s, and doesn’t look like it’s for the better.

Production began back in 2006 (which is now nearly 4 years ago) when Universal announced that Benicio Del Toro would be taking on the titular role. A year later, a list of names that included Mark Romenek, Brett Ratner, Frank Darabont, and Martin Campbell were at one point attached to the project, all falling off and leaving way for Joe Johnston (Jumanji, The Rocketeer) to take the helm in early 2008.

From there, the project was bumped from it’s original release date twice, due to reshoots and tweaks, with a final release date of February 12, 2010. The site includes some nice features, including Twitter integration, a full moon calendar, and an interesting history of Universal Monsters.

Check out the site, and be prepared for the film (and supposed Universal attraction to follow) hitting theaters on February 12.

If you were debating whether or not you wanted to see Benicio Del Toro in Wolfman because it was too folky and epic, how would you like it if the film was set to a generic rock tune?

Well, Universal Pictures answered your prayers with the newest trailer for Wolfman. It’s got more Benicio, more Wolf, and a Marilyn Manson soundtrack.

The film itself has had quite a tumultuous post-production. Originally, the film was set to have Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) as director, who later stepped down. Then, the studio met with names like Brett Ratner, Frank Darabont, James Mangold, and Martin Campbell, until finally deciding on Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer).

Once finished, the film bounced around with three separate release dates, two being in 2009, and then finally sticking to a release of February, 2010. It’s on record that January and February is where movies go to die.

Either way, check out the cool new trailer after the jump, and catch Benicio and the gang in theaters on February 12, 2010.

It looks like today is Trailer Day, after Fox released the first teaser trailer for Avatar earlier. Now Universal has released the first trailer for their Wolf Man reboot starring Benicio Del Toro. The film, which finished it’s production a few months ago, looks to be a pretty fair reinterpretation of the original Universal Monster movie.

Company favorite Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park 3) took the helm for this film, which is the last project he is doing before taking the director’s seat over at Marvel Studios for The First Avenger: Captain America. The writing team consisted of David Self (Road to Perdition) and Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en).

The film also stars Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, Anthony Hopkins, along with Benicio Del Toro, who is doing an American accent for the first time. Check out the brand new trailer, courtesy of Yahoo Movies,  after the jump.

Universal’s The Wolf Man hits theaters February 12 of next year.