So awesome looking!!! Cant wait!

Looks a little like Gilliam's Baron Munchausen too.

Very beautiful, but seems like it's really depressing.

cannot find much info on this online, but it looks amazing

Sometimes I wonder how the same visual stimulus that enters my eyeballs can be interpreted by others in such a widely contrasting manner.

This looks simply and utterly awful.

If one person could make a movie worse than LXG, it would be Tarsem.

Come on, would a movie that was good be sitting on the shelf for over two years?

The Indian, The Ex-Slave, Charles Darwin...

Bravissimo!

Wow, that does look pretty excellent. Plague hates it, so that's a good sign.

@zeppelined:

Glad we're on the same page. I treat your comments the same way!
;)

I get a kind of steampunk Mystery Men vibe off this trailer.

Ok, I just figured out which "The Cell" we're talking about.

And Tarsem is a music video director.

I'm with Plauge on this one.

Steampunk-era? When was that exactly? Looks like colonial India to me. I guess I'll have to say it again: it's okay to like non-scifi. You don't need to poorly rationalize whenever something outside the genre catches your eye.

The telling of an adventure story to a child remembers Princess Bride to me - I'm looking forward to it.

Governor Odious? Was he using the Random George Lucas Character Name Generator?

can't wait!

I can't tell if this looks incredibly beautiful or if it's just the Beethoven's 7th that's making me think so. Or both. It's probably both.

@Tim Faulkner:
Shouldn't it be the other way around? I find myself trying to rationalize my enjoyment of anything that is even vaguely sci-fi. I'll watch Deadwood over Torchwood any day.

@Tim Faulkner: And colonial India doesn't overlap in any way with the steampunk era? At any rate, I had no idea that there were streamlined roadsters in the days of Charles Darwin's youth.

As an indiscriminate reader, I like quite a lot of non-genre stuff myself (I'll take Cormac McCarthy over George R.R. Martin any day), but I don't think it takes any "rationalization" to see this as a fantasy film. If not steampunk, then rattanpunk, if you will.

@lightninglouie: I would expect something to be steam-powered and/or more advanced for its era, no? I guess muskets and internal combustion engines qualifies now though. And men with mascara makes it punk?

@MrJellytree: Is this really a widespread phenomena? I can't seriously imagine someone coming out of There Will Be Blood and saying, "Yeah, that was a pretty good movie, but you know what would have made it better? Giant sandworms."

@Tim Faulkner: No, technically men with mascara makes it glam.

@Tim Faulkner: Charles Darwin is steam powered! Okay, I give up.

sweet.

Sucks that it wouldn't play in the US without two big directors' names as producers. Same thing happened to Hero. Fucked up country we live in.

well that looks funnish... I am so far out of the fanboy hatevibe i actually sort of liked League and even "Jumper"..

OK for a matinee.

But i don't know why this blog ignores good, even great SF&F movies like "Mr. Magoriam's Wonder Emporium" and last week's "Spiderwick" Too fantasy? No comic book tie-in? Too kiddy?

They were both worth while, non- insulting and beautifully made.

Come to think of it, i don't remember any comment on "Nightwatch/Daywatch."

Oh well. As long as there is "Speed Racer" to cream over.

Tarsem Singh can do no wrong. I absolutely loved The Cell: the plot was interesting, if not particularly original, and the visuals more than made up for the rather clumsy story--it was definitely a rare, rare case of style trumping substance. I'll watch anything the guy films. Hell, he even made me like an REM song thanks to his video for it (and that would be "Losing My Religion").

@Seth L: That's what I was thinking -- that it had that great Gilliam look to it, so color me there. Also Spike Jonze & David Fincher? Awesomeness.

@codydog: Because those are fantasy films and this blog is about science fiction.

...yeah, I think it's hair-splitting, too, and means that excellent speculative fiction films like Spiderwick get ignored while we spend lots of time talking about lesser stuff like Jumper. Just call it all Spec Fic and have done with it.

(PS -- Am stealing "hatevibe.")

@lightninglouie: Funny you should say that, because that was exactly my criticism of the movie...

@codydog:
If you think Mr. Magorium is "good or even great" then...
I... AM... HATEVIBE.

@braak: If it makes you feel any better, Edward Doheny, the real-life inspiration for Daniel Plainview, was the maternal grandfather of Larry Niven.

@92BuickLeSabre: The Jew, The Italian, and The Red-head Gay? Wait, that was a sketch from The State.

I must say I like the car/wagon with the human powered wheels. Maybe THAT'S the secret the car companies have been hiding. Also the MC Escher-esque stairwell scene.

@JennaW: Spike Jonze and David Fincher are in the roles of endorsing the movie. Very little else.

Their names are in the trailer simply to attract audiences.

It looks very pretty. I'm not so sure about the plot, but the visuals are fantastic.

There's nothing wrong with there will be blood that sandworms wouldn't fix. Or Juno for that matter.

@JennaW: steal away.. I coin words by the bushel.

Well, that's valid, don't want to spend all my time fighting the fantasy/sf battle. Come to think of it, the last four really memorable movies i saw, (not counting No Country) were fantasy. That would be "Pan's Labyrinth," "Mr. Magorium," "Enchanted" and "Spiderwick."

Sigh. Blow up some planets quick, i am coming down with elves.

@Plague: Enjoy it. And just to let you wallow more, let me say that Natalie Portman is ten times a better actor than Carrie Fisher, cuter, dresses better, and has a cooler hairdresser.

So there. I always try to please.

That does look good.

Makes me also think of The Adventures of Barron Munchousan. Particularly the hints of a blurry line between the story and reality as well as the role of the little girl.

@Jimmy Dare: i still have your underwear.
i still has the spice!

Here's my take. I an a paid critic for the local newspaper. I see it as my job to point out good books for people too busy or broke to wallow through the hundred or so books a year that i snarf down for fun.

If i find a book that is really bad, or that i just can't get into, i throw it back on the shelf for the next guy.

Always another book.

It does not make my dick one nanometer longer to put down some hard working author someplace,and defecate in his rice bowl.

I might attack an over-rated, and popular book, if i see it has a lot of errors in it, but it does not make me feel like superman. My editor likes snark.

Same with movies. I see about 50 a year, and i can do the math; my $8.00 and two hours against three years and a hundred million or so.

I try to like them. Why poison my system looking for stuff to rank down?

Do i think Nick Cage is going to worry it i don't like him? Will Tom Cruise learn to act if i disapprove of "War of the Worlds" Probably not.

So?

So i pay my money and eat my popcorn and try to have fun. I rate four grades of movies. Worth Full Price, Matinee Only, $2.50 Theater, and Pay Me To Watch It.

Nobody pays me to snark on the internet, so i try to maintain my coolth.

But fanboys? I do like to tease fanboys. They are so serious about stuff that matters not.

It's the piemaker!

@SoulCarnival: Ah, I see. I wasn't really paying attention to the text details.

Well, Tarentino presented some damn good films to me in his time (not that I probably needed any extra reasons to see this -- it looks SHINY!) so I'm okay with that.

i cannot wait
. this looks great.

I thought it was going to be cheesy, until the "I want you to do me a favor" part. Damn, I've got to see this. I just hope they don't side-line either story.

@Plague: Mr Magorium gave me a serious case of the haties.

@Seth L: HEY! thats exactly what i thought! especially one long shot... isn't that the same building that his horse jumps from?! anyhoo, the thing i loved about the comics was it displaced the concept of the "JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA" and put it in a world of victorian eraish literary characters. what a coooooool idea. this movie doesn't seem to have that (with the apparent exception of a guest appearance by chuck darwin) but it looks interesting... not sure if i like the pushing daisies guy though....

jin

drool drool drool.

The Cell was beautiful but severely flawed movie. Now this looks like it may actually be a good story as well as beautiful.

Looks like it has a bit of flavor from Baron Munchausen and Neverending Story too.

The inner story looks awesome. The frame looks predictably unpleasant.

Awesome.

Come on, would a movie that was good be sitting on the shelf for over two years?

Sure. Especially if it's an indie film doing the festival circuit looking for distribution. Not every director has the good fortune to be Guillermo Del Torro The Indie Darling, who gets his films distributed world wide as soon as they're done. And even he had to shop The Devil's Backbone around for a while.

Hollywood is extremely insular. It took Quintin Tarentino smacking the Weinsteins around to get a film like Hero, which was a huge movie in China, to even be seen in the US.

Did you know that there is a trilogy of high budget, live action Asterix films being made in France? I didn't until last week when I accidentally ran across a story about it online. This is the European equivalent of a Super Man trilogy being made for a world audience but no one here knows about it because it has one fatal flaw: no one from Hollywood is invovled.

The Cell was a visual/art direction feast. I'm looking forward to this. Also, Lee Pace! <3

@FoolsRun: What kind of trouble has the Piemaker gotten himself into this time. Will he finally get to kiss Chuck? Will he be able to save her from the evil governor Odious without touching her?

Back on topic, I think that The Cell would have been a fine movie if it hadn't been a J-LO vehicle. Vincent DiNofrio is amazing. I liked LXG, I even bought a copy. If you go to see a big budget sci-fi movie expecting a masterpiece you are most likely to be disappointed. The best sci-fi movies are done by newcomers with studios willing to take a risk.
Ex. A New Hope.

@reddingofish: I think cell would have been a good movie had it not been for the seal-boy nightmare. That freaked me the **** out.

I think I'm going to have to see this. The trailer made me weepy, though.

Here's why it may be having some trouble getting released:

[www.variety.com]

@Gyrus:

Some of use knew about those Asterix movies... But 90% of Americans are unaware of it because it is French, not because Hollywood isn't involved.

As for Hero, they (Harvey and Co.) buy HK action movies by the ton, then hold on to them for years. It's what they do. But bringing a foreign film to an English speaking audience is in no way equivalent to having an unknown film sit on a shelf due to lack of interest. Your example doesn't work because there was a demand for Hero due to the director Zhang's track record. The Weinstein's recently bought the visually delightful "The Banquet", held on to it for over a year, then renamed it "Legend Of The Black Scorpion" so no one will have a clue it's the same film. It's just not the same deal as a movie that sits on a shelf because the studio won't promote it because they know it stinks.

@codydog:
You'll get no argument from me on Portman v. Fisher

"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" should've been a TV series, not a movie. With a movie, by the time you're done explaining the premise, two hours are over. A TV show would've let them sink into the world and develop it.

In my dream world, HBO would take on something genre and give us this.

Looks nice!

If anyone's interested, I'm pretty sure that car's a famous Delage - from so long ago that France not only built cars that weren't crap, they were actually splendid.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen wasn't nearly the worst movie adaptation ever. Just in the realm of this website's purview, we have the original Fantastic Four, I, Robot, Starship Troopers... the list is endless.
-Kle.

You had me until you mentioned Big Fish. God, I fucking hated that movie.

This looks fucking amazing.

@Seth L: Agreed, looks very Munchausenesque

This movie looks quite epic, I think I shall have to see it post haste.

All I had to see was Lee Pace to know that this must be good. It is also quite possibly one of the most beautiful looking films not Japanese or Chinese in orogina that I have seen in quite a while. I love the technicolor feel of it, and the hugeness of the cinematography. This is one I have to see, and own, and cherish, I can already tell.

Again though, I say LEE PACE!!!

@Seth L: Awesome reference! I actually enjoyed Baron Munchausen.

Have to see this movie. Charles Darwin. Who on Earth would've thought of making Darwin a hero!