As sporadic as always this was meant to posted at the beginning of the month. April seems to be a great month for pop culture. Especially if you are a fan of Marvel and Star Wars. This month sees the release of the highly anticipated Daredevil TV Series and the even more anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron. Along with announcements expected to be made at C2E2, Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. Finally we have the Star Wars Celebration to look forward to, which is now the end of this week again more on that later.
Right first up. April 10th saw the release of the Daredevil Netflix series. And it is fantastic!! I have used every spare hour, or even not spare, to watch this series. I finished it the Sunday evening after its release and very much plan on re-watching it. I had high hopes for this series and it has been on my radar since its announcement however long ago. The casting is perfect, Charlie Cox plays Matt Murdock brilliantly alongside Elden Henson who really brings Foggy Nelson to life. The fight scenes in this series are incredible. I don't want to write to much just now as I don't want to give away any spoilers but if you haven't watched it yet. What are you doing? Get on Netflix now and give it a watch!
Next Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now and I already seen it twice! This is another great instalment into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not quite as bigger game changer as some of the other films, but lets not forget we have Civil War approaching next year. I was not disappointed by the portrayal and appearance of two of my favourite Marvel characters Vision and Scarlet Witch, as played by Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen. There was no need for my concern that there would be to many characters for the film they all played off each other really well. The major disappointment was the lack of a Star Wars Teaser Trailer before the film.
Star Wars Celebration ran from the 16/04/2015 till the 19/04/2015. 4 days of Star Wars madness. If only it wasn't in America and so far away I would have definitely tried to go. But without attending there was still plenty to take in, with there very impressive live stream feed from the event. The convention opened with a panel that had both Writer and Director of Force Awakens J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy in attendance. The new cast members, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaacs took to the stage, followed by a familiar droid and the new fully functioning, not CGI, BB8, how the hell does that thing work? Finally original cast members took to the stage, Anthony Daniels, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Peter Mayhew. This was a panel not be missed and althoug not being there I got to watch the whole thing live at home. Now rumours stated a new trailer would be released, which was true, and that this may contain original cast members which was also true. I've lost count of how many times I've watched it but the fact that this has been viewed 88 million times within 24 hours of release says it all. The new teaser trailer creates far more questions than answers, which obviously is its purpose, all I now know is I want it to be the 18/12/2015 more than ever. Check out the trailer below.
As if the panel and trailer for the upcoming film weren't enough another trailer made its debut in the form of EA Games Star Wars: Battlefront. This unfortunately did not contain any gameplay footage, but did display game engine footage. However the press and people who got to see a scripted demo of the game have confirmed the gameplay graphics are just as impressive as the in engine visuals. I've had my copy pre-ordered for sometime but the news of the free downloadable content on the 01/12/2015, The Battle of Jakku, linking directly into Force Awakens is another reason worth pre-ordering this for. Here's still to hoping a collectors edition will be announced. See what you think of the in engine footage below.
Now there are a couple more things I am really excited about, Saturday saw the Star Wars Rebels panel take place. This included new details and footage from Season 2, unfortunately there was no news on the home release of Season 1 on Blu-Ray or DVD. Season 2 looks to be as good or even better than the first, with fan favourite Clone Wars characters making their first appearances. Rebels was a huge success as far as I am concerned and I look forward to seeing the crew of The Ghost become part of a larger Rebellion. For the Season 2 trailer check it out below.
Finally also on Saturday there was the Star Wars Marvel Comics panel, this saw the announcement of not one but two new titles to come from the publisher, although these were announced prior to the panel. As expected one of these is be part of the Journey To The Force Awakens publishing initiative, called Shattered Empire coming from writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto. Along with the announcement of Lando #1 a limited series from Charles Soule and Alex Maleev, so that will certainly be a limited series worth checking out.
Next Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now and I already seen it twice! This is another great instalment into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not quite as bigger game changer as some of the other films, but lets not forget we have Civil War approaching next year. I was not disappointed by the portrayal and appearance of two of my favourite Marvel characters Vision and Scarlet Witch, as played by Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen. There was no need for my concern that there would be to many characters for the film they all played off each other really well. The major disappointment was the lack of a Star Wars Teaser Trailer before the film.
Star Wars Celebration ran from the 16/04/2015 till the 19/04/2015. 4 days of Star Wars madness. If only it wasn't in America and so far away I would have definitely tried to go. But without attending there was still plenty to take in, with there very impressive live stream feed from the event. The convention opened with a panel that had both Writer and Director of Force Awakens J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy in attendance. The new cast members, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaacs took to the stage, followed by a familiar droid and the new fully functioning, not CGI, BB8, how the hell does that thing work? Finally original cast members took to the stage, Anthony Daniels, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Peter Mayhew. This was a panel not be missed and althoug not being there I got to watch the whole thing live at home. Now rumours stated a new trailer would be released, which was true, and that this may contain original cast members which was also true. I've lost count of how many times I've watched it but the fact that this has been viewed 88 million times within 24 hours of release says it all. The new teaser trailer creates far more questions than answers, which obviously is its purpose, all I now know is I want it to be the 18/12/2015 more than ever. Check out the trailer below.
As if the panel and trailer for the upcoming film weren't enough another trailer made its debut in the form of EA Games Star Wars: Battlefront. This unfortunately did not contain any gameplay footage, but did display game engine footage. However the press and people who got to see a scripted demo of the game have confirmed the gameplay graphics are just as impressive as the in engine visuals. I've had my copy pre-ordered for sometime but the news of the free downloadable content on the 01/12/2015, The Battle of Jakku, linking directly into Force Awakens is another reason worth pre-ordering this for. Here's still to hoping a collectors edition will be announced. See what you think of the in engine footage below.
Now there are a couple more things I am really excited about, Saturday saw the Star Wars Rebels panel take place. This included new details and footage from Season 2, unfortunately there was no news on the home release of Season 1 on Blu-Ray or DVD. Season 2 looks to be as good or even better than the first, with fan favourite Clone Wars characters making their first appearances. Rebels was a huge success as far as I am concerned and I look forward to seeing the crew of The Ghost become part of a larger Rebellion. For the Season 2 trailer check it out below.
Finally also on Saturday there was the Star Wars Marvel Comics panel, this saw the announcement of not one but two new titles to come from the publisher, although these were announced prior to the panel. As expected one of these is be part of the Journey To The Force Awakens publishing initiative, called Shattered Empire coming from writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto. Along with the announcement of Lando #1 a limited series from Charles Soule and Alex Maleev, so that will certainly be a limited series worth checking out.
