Programme 33: Review Of 2013

The Watchers Film Show: Review Of 2013 from The Watchers Film Show on Vimeo.

Our latest programme is available to view - and it's a bumper show for Christmas!

The three of us are together for the first time since Matt joined us in August and we discuss our favourites of the year, what we didn't like, and what we're looking forward to in 2014.

Enjoy and have a very merry Christmas!

Rhys, Tez & Matt
The Watchers

News From Comic-Con 2013

This year's Comic-Con International took place from July 18-21. A veritable Mecca for film-goers, TV geeks and comic-book fans, it boasted an array of panels, press conferences and events to showcase the big things coming in film and TV over the next twelve months (and further ahead).

Sadly, we couldn't be there this year- all tickets sold out in a mere 93 minutes- but here's a round-up of the biggest news from the event.

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Man Of Steel vs The Dark Knight

The biggest news of the event was the announcement that the sequel to Man Of Steel will feature Superman and Batman on screen together for the first time. As you can imagine, this news sent the Twittersphere alight with comments ranging from 'OMFG best thing EVER!' to '#ruined'. What we know so far is this: 

Zack Snyder is back to direct and is co-writing the story with David S. Goyer. Goyer will then write the screenplay. Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas (from the Christian Bale Batman trilogy) are acting as executive producers.

Henry Cavill will reprise his role as Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent. Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane will also reprise their roles from Man Of Steel as Lois Lane, Perry White and Martha Kent respectively.

The new Batman has not yet been cast.

The anticipated release date is Summer 2015.

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Karen Gillan has a Close Shave!

At the panel for Guardians Of The Galaxy, Karen Gillan- renowned for her flowing auburn locks- revealed a startling new look.

She has shaved her hair off for her role in the Marvel superhero movie! 

It's also been confirmed that she will be playing villainous space pirate Nebula in the James Gunn directed movie alongside Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora,  Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Benicio Del Toro as The Collector, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, John C Reilly as Rhomann and Djimon Hounsou as Koranth.

Character art and props from the movie (including Star Lord's helmet and Drax The Destroyer's knives) were also shown.


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Marvel's Upcoming Slate

You can imagine that DC's announcement of the Superman/Batman collaboration was a major gauntlet thrown down to their rivals Marvel.

In addition to the Guardians Of The Galaxy panel, Marvel also released new posters and showed clips from Thor: The Dark World (presented by Tom Hiddleston in character as Loki) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as a one-shot short showing what Peggy Carter- played by Hayley Atwell- did after the events of Captain America: The First Avenger

Joss Whedon announced that his sequel to The Avengers, due in cinemas on May 1 2015, is called Avengers: Age Of Ultron. For those who don't know, Ultron is an evil robot created by Dr. Hank Pym (aka Ant-Man). However, Whedon has played down reports that Pym will appear in The Avengers sequel as Edgar Wright is directing an Ant-Man movie for the third phase of Marvel Studios' cinematic universe.

Ant-Man will be released on November 6 2015 whilst three further as yet untitled movies are scheduled for release on May 6 2016, July 8 2016 and May 5 2017.

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The Best Of The Rest

There were panels for many of the major films coming out over the next twelve months.

Many of the cast members of X-Men: Days Of Future Past attended their panel, where a preview of the film was shown:

New trailers and character posters were shown for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire:

There was a lot of fun at the panel for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with Andrew Garfield appearing as Spider-Man for the first part of the panel:

There was a press conference for Divergent, based on the first novel in a trilogy by Veronica Roth where a young girl rebels against the restrictive rules of her society. and starring Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, Theo James and Kate Winslet:

There was also a special poster released for this:

There were also panels for TV shows including Doctor Who, Game Of Thrones, Sherlock, True Blood and Once Upon A Time plus a special 20th anniversary panel for The X-Files!

Programme 32: Superman Special

The Watchers Film Show: Ep32 Superman Special from The Watchers Film Show on Vimeo.

The Watchers Superman Special is here!

In this programme, we take a look at the Superman movie franchise from Superman: The Motion Picture (1978) to Man Of Steel (2013), giving our thoughts on each classic instalment- and yes, that includes Superman Returns (2006)- and then turning our eyes onto Man Of Steel. But is it a worthy successor to the films that have gone before? You'll have to watch to find out.

Enjoy!

Review: The Cold Light Of Day (UK cert 12A)

I went and saw this on a free Sunday evening, the cinema was half empty and I didn’t know what to expect. From the trailer, I thought I was in for a run-of-the-mill thriller.

How wrong was I! What we have here is a very well-executed espionage thriller with what could have easily been a very simple premise. Our hero Will Shaw (played by Henry Cavill) is suddenly thrown into a spy game. His family is kidnapped while on holiday in Spain and he discovers his father (Bruce Willis) is and has been a spy for all of Will's life. Will must track down his family while avoiding the cat and mouse of various factions out for their own game.

The web of spy games here is so well written- without using spoilers. This film, like I said, could have been a very simple tale: family kidnapped, hero runs around action scene by action scene getting closer, while being used as a puppet in a spy game. But what this film manages to do is, at every key plot point the story takes a twist and not a twist where you the viewer screams “oh come on!” No. This film keeps the twists very believable and even a film buff like myself wasn’t sure who was telling Will the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (It's hard to talk plot with this film)

The pace, direction, editing, music and cinematography comes together superbly here, which is not surprising when you see the credits and realise it's very much a European movie (and it shows). After various films I've watched the last few months, it is a refreshing change to actually see a film well crafted and well written

The actors involved give brilliant performances. Sigourney Weaver plays a real, believable, strong female character and Bruce Willis as ever is on form. But my real reason for wanting to see this film was Henry Cavill (the actor will be seen next summer in Superman: Man Of Steel). He was a fantastic, believable, focused and= when needed- vulnerable leading man. He will make an amazing Clark Kent and I, for one, am now so excited about Man Of Steel.

This film, however, is well worth a watch – it's a seat-of-your-pants action adventure with (most importantly) a well written script and characters with depth. Enjoy.

Rating: 4 out 5

Rhys