Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice- Leaked/Un-Leaked

April 17, 2015 Jason Murphy

What an INSANE past two days. I feel like I'm back in Hall H with all theses trailers dropping. First Star Wars, now Batman V Superman. What a treat. I can only be grateful though since neither will have much, if anything, at SDCC. With Disney rumored to be pulling out in favor of its own D23 convention, its going to be DC's years to shine. With their biggest title dropping a trailer 'today', who knows what they'll bring to SDCC now. But that's a few months away. For now we have two days of nerdgasming to last us a while.

Lets take a look at what dropped today in the BvS trailer.

Warner Brothers was planning on showcasing the Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice teaser at theaters across the globe on Monday April 20th. Fans were instructed to find theaters showing the trailer near them and register for a pass to the event. I was a little concerned since the closet theater to me isn't very close, and I'm not sure I'd want to invest a lot of effort to get there for a 2 minute teaser trailer. Luckily "someone" leaked the trailer yesterday. Mind you it was a blurry, cellphone recording of the footage (in Portuguese), but it was still leaked. Warner Brothers did the only thing they could... they released the trailer early. Their plan was ruined, sucks for them but its good for the rest of us I guess. Saves me a hike to watch a 2 minute teaser.

Ill be honest, I'm glad I didn't go, while it is a decent trailer full of OMG moments, it wouldnt be worth the trip in my opinion. It didn't contain MUCH footage. Mostly random dialogue talking about weather Superman should be trusted or not. Basically a political expose of who Superman might turn out to be seeing as he has powers nobody on the planet can match. We didn't see a whole lot of Batman but more than ever before. Coming off the heels of The Force Awakens, I just don't think any movie in existence could possibly put out anything people would be over the top excited about as much as they were for SW. I'll tell you what though, If this was released Wednesday instead of today, its a WHOLE different ballgame. Its kinda like watching the last 2 minutes of the Super Bowl FIRST, then going back to watch the rest, "Tarantino style".

I'm not going to '4List' this one, I'm just gonna drop some Screenshots from the trailer. Here's my major gripe.. these screenshots ARE the trailer. Each shot would flash on the screen for a second, not much movement, not much action whatsoever. I guess the best part was the Dialogue at the end spoken by Batman (Affleck) in a computerized synthetic voice: "Tell me... do you bleed. You will". Why its computerized, I have no clue. As far as teasers go.. this one takes the cake.. it teases more than anything. I can only relate it to the first Force Awakens teaser when we only saw short unknown clips. This teaser IS great, but man oh man, Im sitting here typing and thinking of Star Wars.... sorry Snyder, sorry Warner Brothers.

not sure who these people are and why some have makeup on. Maybe some sort of street festival. Reminds me of Batman Forever though, just not glow in the dark paint.

Superman Guards. Possible implication that there will be a task force loyal to Superman. Quite odd

Dissension in the ranks. Religion plays a role here. Though shall not worship false gods afterall.

Show off. Superman shows off his might and spanking new "abs" while lifting a Russian something or other.

First official shot of Bruce Wayne. This shot was voiced over by Jeremy Irons (Alfred) speaking of Fear, rage and powerlessness turning men 'cruel'. We get a sense Batman may be the bad guy here

Batman is JACKED. This appears to be a far away shot of the 'battle armor' notice the easter egg on the column?.. ?....?.....?....?...

Consensus is this is the "Batwing". I'm weary of making that call. While it looks like it may be, its murdering badies (or good guys) Not in Batman's nature. Maybe this is Batman turning 'cruel'. Maybe its Luthor doing the killing. It remains to be seen.

First live action shot of Batman stepping out of something for literally 0.3 seconds. While the Nolan trilogy has a practical take on the Batsuit which was terrific, this is my favorite so far. Very true to the comics while still appearing grounded.

Dark Knight-esque shot. If you look close you will see Batman is holding a sniper rifle.. another Batman discrepancy. However it has been pointed out that Frank Miller had given Batman a sniper rifle once and it shot rubber bullets and grappling hooks.

Batarmor... lets face it, H'es gonna need it. Fans will remember this scene from SDCC

Here we hear Batman's new 'robotic' voice also with a Bale sort of raspy growl on top of it

another 0.3 second shot. This is the best screengrab I could pull off but its still pretty impressive

The full trailer is below, Batman v Superman drops on March 25th, 2016..

The Force Awakens - Teaser Trailer #2 (plus .gif overload!!!)

April 16, 2015 Jason Murphy

Star Wars Celebration kicked off in Anaheim this morning with a MASSIVE bang. Fans were treated to a 'Force Awakens' panel that concluded with teaser trailer #2 for the movie and HOLY SHIT did it impress. It's pretty pathetic that Ive watched it about 20 times so far. Thats why Im gonna break it down so I can stop watching it. It opens with a shot of a crashed Star Destroyer in a desert wasteland.. Tatoine? AAAHH me thinks not. Read far below for more.

We then hear Luke with what we first believe is dialogue ripped directly from Jedi. "The Force runs strong in my family. My father had it.... I have it... my sister has it...........You have that power too" Jesus Christ!!! This is new dialogue!!!!!!. Luke must be talking to an offspring of Leia's or his own. Whats cool about this part is we can almost deduce who is who in these shots.. When Luke says "My father has it" (HAS???) We see a shot of Vaders melted mask. When he says "I have it" we see a figure with R2 with a robotic hand I can only assume is Luke. When he says "My sister has it" We see someone handing Luke's lightsaber to what appears to be a "larger" woman who I can only assume is Leia. Pretty cool if this turns out to be true. Good editing I guess.... WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME...UGH.. I Keep watching the trailer over and over while trying to type all this.. You know what, screw it, watch the trailer for yourself below, then stick around for my 4 favorite parts below. I obviously can't write this without having nerdgasm after nerdgasm so let's not waste everyone's time.....enjoy some winding .gifs instead.

Top 4 things that made me drool

4. OH HELL'S YEAH...

If you watched the Celebration panel you know a little secret told by JJ himself. "This ain't Tatooine...." It's a planet referred to as Jakoo... or Jaqoo.. we don't know the spelling yet. Abrams stated this in the Panel. But this shot is utterly amazing.. and I hear its 100% practical. 98% of the budget was spent building this life sized crashed Destroyer.

3. Kylo Ren-

We've actually seen a lot of Kylo's face today thanks to concept art released this morning, but this is the first "official" release on film. His mask is looking to be exactly as described in all the rumors. Glad to put a face to the name. Looks like hes gonna fill the shoes of Vader quite well.

2. CHROME TROOPER?......YES PLEASE!!!!!!

1. .........................................................................................................................................

(speechless)

Daredevil- Second look

April 14, 2015 Jason Murphy

Well....I finished the first season of Daredevil. While it will take a bit to delve into the complete series, I can at least return to the last post in regards to Daredevil's suit in the new Netflix show. You get a much better look at it and it might be good to update previous conceptions that were based solely on a dark 'bust' image teaser.

I'm just gonna come out and say it.... I'm not a fan at all.

Getting the whole view of the suit really shines light on the direction they took.. Mainly, a 2002 motorcycle jacket.

-I really really wanted to like it. I am a very very big Daredevil fan and I wanted it to do the character justice. It simply does not feel or look like Daredevil. The color is actually a shade of purple, more than it is red...not grape purple like Grimmace but more of a 'wine' purple.. or a deep burgundy. I'm all for a dark red suit, but dark purple? Me thinks not. Look at the image above...Netflix is red, the Daredevil title is red, actual Daredevil is NOT. That's his actual color in the show as well. It's not a lighting trick.

-What's which the black padding? It has WAY too much black just thrown randomly throughout it in forms of "padding". It reminds me of an early 2000s motorcycle jacket. Couldn't they have just made it one color? It just doesn't say Daredevil if you look at it. There's even black design pieces on his back, reminiscent of a " paintball" vest. There's black padding EVERYWHERE. ON HIS LEGS ON HIS ARMS, ON HIS BACK ON HIS ELBOWS, ON HIS SHOULDERS, ON HIS THIGHS ON HIS ABS, ON HIS CROTCH ON HIS CHEST. WHY IS THIS ALL IN CAPS? I DONT KNOW, LOOK HOW LOUD I CAN TYPE......cough....sorry....Get rid of all the black, it just doesn't work in my opinion.

- His gloves are even black.... Why?. I'm starting to think there's more black than red on this suit . And there's meaningless , flat, silver buckles that look like a cosplayer just tossed them on for effect. They don't fit. A lot of small accent prices are floating around on this suit that makes it look muddled. Daredevil has one of the most simple suits in all of comics!!!!! Plain red suit. There's no reason for a load of tacky garbage.

-His mask..... I do like the horns, it is the ONLY piece of the suit that tells you it's Daredevil. but there are scenes where the mask looks two toned burgundy and black, and scenes where it looks just burgundy. Which one is it? At times he looks like a 1920s bandit. The neck cowl?..why is it so thick?. Looks like something I'd wear skiing. And for all that his holy, I hope they redesign this entire suit next season and bring the bottom of the eyes 'down' rather than having them go up. In its current state it looks like Batman or Nite Owl from Watchmen. The Affleck mask got closest, with it angling down under the eyes. This mask just goes in the wrong direction. I didn't see it at first and I should have. I only blame myself for that. If they're going for practicality, and this practicality calls for redesigns of the suit that make it completely indistinguishable, then why bother? Spider-man never seems to get such abrupt redesigns. He still wears the skin tight suit in all iterations. I feel the look may or may not fit well for Daredevil but this direction just seems to be the "wrong" direction hands down. It seems to resemble a late 90's early 2000's version that you'd see on the 'CW'. Not a Marvel designed suit, or from ABC Studios (who produces Daredevil... they are owned by Disney after all)

At at the end of the season..I was wishing for the original black clothes back. I ain't gonna lie. The entire show I was sitting quietly, enjoying everything Daredevil was. Its a GREAT show, don't get me wrong....this is obvious by my 5 star Netflix rating ,but the 13 episode wait for such a poorly designed suit had me feeling slightly betrayed. There was dialogue exchanged in the show that the suit was "incomplete" so I can only wait until season 2 to see if they ultimately get it right. I'd hate to see such an amazing show made "campy" by such an odd design choice. Fingers crossed!

Daredevil- First Look

April 9, 2015 Jason Murphy

We FINALLY got our first look at the red Daredevil suit today courtesy of Marvel entertainment via their Twitter page and Youtube. I for one am very excited. My first comic book experiences were Spiderman and Daredevil and I never looked back. Check out the video below for Marvel/Netflix's teaser of the red suit. The series drops April 10th on Netflix so stay tuned for a full length review once I binge watch the entire season.

I love the new suit. It fits right in with the current Marvel universe and reminds me of Captain America more than anything.

-The only thing I'm not keen to is the 'black" fabric neck liner. I for one am more used to an entirely red character. It's one thing I loved about Daredevil. He was one uniform color. This black fits in with current designs we see throughout the current Marvel universe, however, how cool would it look if all that black was a uniform 'red'. I guess I can only dream. It still looks terrific in my opinion

- It looks like a form of Kevlar body armor which makes sense in this day and age so I have no complaints there. I only hope it eventually has the "double D's" on the chest. It doesn't appear to, but still looks great. Like I said, it reminds me very much of the current Captain America uniform.

- Shoulder pads, I guess that makes sense. Ive never seen shoulder pads on Daredevil before. I can only assume we'll eventually see elbow and possibly knee pads as well. They appear to be designed to fit in seamlessly with the suit.. good job

-The cowl is very Daredevil-esque. I'm glad they made it a point to make the mask the most recognizable feature of the costume. It stays true to its roots while still becoming practical and grounded.....horns and all

4 Star Wars Builds of 2014

March 28, 2015 Jason Murphy

Yeah yeah yeah... its 2015.. I know.. zip it. I just never got around to posting these builds until now.

Backstory: In late 2013 I was contemplating Cosplay ideas. I had just done Magneto from Xmen First Class and I had already tackled Lando Calrissian (right). I wanted to do another Star Wars character.

steam producing, wing expanding, jetpack

It crossed my mind that a Jawa or Ewok might be cool but I didn't want it to be like everything else. Both are small, half the size of an adult. I didn't want to be on my knees or be an unauthentic large Jawa or a tall Ewok. I started playing around with the idea of stacking two Jawas on top of each other, resembling one Jawa riding on another's shoulders. Or an Jawa riding an Ewok... basically all sorts of combinations. Drawings weren't coming out to my liking (left) so I tried to fabricate some things to get a better idea of their size, and if they would even look authentic in a "shoulder riding" scenario. What transpired was an idea that snowballed and turned into what I can only describe as my homemade "Star Wars Collection" collection.

I scoured Home Depots and craft stores for simple supplies that I could turn into something resembling what I needed. Hot Glue, PVC piping, styrofoam, fabric, LEDs, wire, more hot glue, more fabric, foam board, faux leather, more glue, brads, buttons, more hot glue, connectors, paint, clay, Modge Podge, trinkets . What came next was simply "ART" Most of the things I used for these builds were things i spotted while walking around somewhere. Id notice shapes of things and determine, "that'll work. When all was said and done i had some cool pieces. I ultimately didn't do another Star Wars Cosplay, I ended up going in a different direction and doing an extremely elaborate and functional Steampunk Kid Icarus (right) instead. I was my first attempt at anything Steampunk and id say it was 500% more fabrication than the Star Wars builds combined....gotta admit I was more than impressed with the outcome..3 out of the 3 contests agreed.

Below are the 4 build progessions

Ewok #1

This was my 2nd build. I planned on building a scale Ewok to get an idea of its head size. I ended when I realized that the bust of this build was simply a great piece to showcase rather than just use for size comparisons. As you can see its more of a generic Ewok. I didn't really have any vision when fabricating this other than "I want it to look Ewok-ish".. this is what I got. .....

Beginning of an Ewok.. not looking good

Foam block head, shaped by hand, pvc stem, .. this fabric was later removed

ouch... all face pieces are made of hardened hot glue. originally made out of clay, then molded out of plaster. poured hot glue in and let in cool cuz I'm a hack

eye balls are clear plastic domes cut down to thin lenses then colored with markers on the back side. Teeth are foam

Molded face. Coated in clay around molded eyes nose and mouthpieces

Clay let to semi-dry before it started to crack, then coated in Modge Podge to seal. Clay gave the head a decent weight.

Faux fur glued on in strips. angled out in certain areas to better appear authentic

initial ear test and cowl. ears are faux fur and a multicolored fabric stuffed with cotton fill

teeth reshaped

Cowl redesigned to resemble ROTJ

new ears

Ewok #2: Wicket

Wicket was my 3rd build. I was so Impressed with Ewok #1 , I wanted to see if I could make one that more resembled the most well known Ewok; Wicket. Having an easily distinguishable Ewok seemed like a more difficult task to accomplish, so I dove head first into it to see what would happen ...

this is NOT the Wicket build, I dont have pictures pre faux fut but it was basically identical to the 1st Ewok

Initial faux fur hot glued into place

Fur coloring begins to resemble Wicket's facial fur

Original ewok cowl

New nose molded. Painted lighter brown, more smooth than the original

Tusken Raider #1 and #2

the Tusken Raiders came about a few months after the Wicket build. I had decided I was going to give Ewok #1 as a gift to my niece, and thought it would be a good idea to make something for my brother too. What better gift to give to a Star Wars nerd than a homemade Tusken Raider bust. The things you can do with a pile of craft store junk!.. I made one and I liked it so much I wanted one to keep for myself....

Raider #1 build. Base (PVC, fabric glue), foam head, more PVC, shaped wood posts, funnel tips

beer added for excitement

Similar to Ewok builds, used clay for shape and added weight, coated in modge podge to seal

fabric wrapped, nose area wrapped in faux leather, nose carved out of wooden broom handle end, mouth is hotglued fabric warped into shape. PVC piping painted chrome

fabric wrapped stuffed with cotton filler to shape, head wrap weathered with extremely watered down acrylic paint mixtures.

shoulder area added, stuffed and weathered. Neck tank fabricated with PVC, chrome paint, metal tubing, faux leather

Raider #2

...Larger mouth area. I wanted a tighter fabric packed into this one.

initial fabric wrap. mouth area packed and glued

Nose was made with hot glue inside a mold I fabricated. painted chrome

#1 left ....#2 right

weathering complete

Wicket/ Raider #1

Jawa

the Jawa was my first build. I simply wanted to build two in order to get a feel of the size of 'two Jawas on top of each other' and if I'd even be able to fit inside any such costume and make it look believable. Once I started I decided it was looking so good, I'll just keep making it look life like. It would be a great piece to showcase rather than a generic Jawa I was going to tear apart once It was no longer 'doable' as a costume....