 |  When you think about it, Ben Affleck's Batman is a lot like Beyoncé. The release of their first pictures after a major life event (recasting / giving birth) is international news; the paparazzi trail them, desperate for a shot, and their weight and outfits are endlessly dissected online. The good news is that Ben Affleck's Batman, judging by the first picture released this week, looks pretty damn cool and shows no signs of dropping a surprise album. To put it in context, we've taken a whirlwind tour through the Batsuits and Batmobiles down the years in the wake of this picture. But Affleck isn't the only gigantic, heavily-muscled city-botherer in the movie news this week: Godzilla returns to our screens, and we've been celebrating with a refresher on all the Godzilla movies to date as well as a look back at Gareth Edwards' Monsters and a trip through the big lizard's appearances in pop culture. We also have robot sharks, X-Men and Nien Nunb on the site this week, so screw your courage to the sticking place and check it all out. Helen O'Hara
Deputy Online Editor, Empire
 
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY OFFER! Subscribe And Get 12 Issues Of Empire From Just £18!
Subscribe to 12 months of Empire for just £18 and you will get the world's greatest movie magazine delivered to your door every month, with exclusive subscriber covers, all at the same price as the first ever issue. Buy the new issue online now VIP print and digital packages Subscribe to Empire magazine Take a look inside this issue of Empire magazine Buy single iPad editions on the App Store View all subscription offers
  New Transformers: Age Of Extinction Trailer
Smash! Bang! Wallop! If you are hearing crunching noises, metallic screams and portentous dialogue somewhere in the distance this Thursday morning, that's because there's a new trailer for Michael Bay's Transformers: Age Of Extinction. Have a look below and see what you think. More: First Trailer For Monsters: Dark Continent Anyone seen the giant bug spray? First Trailer For Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner Timothy Spall's ship goes down. New Deliver Us From Evil Trailer Down in the park where the chant is death... Japanese Trailer For The Grudge 10 Online It's The Beginning Of The End... First Trailer For V/H/S: Viral Online Hold onto your tickets! New International Lucy Trailer Leaps Online Scarlett Johansson has the power(s). New Trailer For Petrolhead Documentary Road Catch up with the speed-addicted road racing doc. New Trailer For The Riot Club Shirty rotten scoundrels. First Teaser Trailer For The Inbetweeners 2 Aboriginal sins.
  Some rather ingenious EarSkinz. If you've ever known the frustration of Apple's ill-fitting EarPods continually falling from your ears then this marvellous little invention may be just what you need.
 I'm choking on Ron Howard's face!  Nick eats a promotional cupcake a little too fast.
An Essential Guide To All The Godzilla Movies
An atomic-era beastie who has been eating cities for 60 years now and is still going strong (and scaly), Godzilla is the pride of Japanese movie studio Toho. In 30 movies the killer kaiju has been set against mutant monsters great, deadly and, in King Caesar's case, strangely canine, emerging missile-worn but ready to wreak havoc again. In the next instalment in Empire's Kaiju Week ahead of the release of Gareth Edwards' film on Thursday (not included here yet to avoid spoilers), we chart the highs and lows of the 'Zilla cannon. Don your protective headware, gather your largest mothballs and take the plunge... | |
|  | | The Empire Podcast #111
In the first Godzilla movies, The King Of The Monsters was actually just a guy in a suit, but with the advent of modern SFX, men stomping on miniature cities are no longer required. But if they were, Gareth Edwards would be the megaphone weilder shouting "Punch the water tower!" and "Drop kick that battleship!", as he's the director behind the new reboot of Toho's beloved scaley scoundrel. He's joined in the Empire Podcast this week by Two Faces Of January's Viggo Mortensen (actor) and Hossein Amini (director), who talk about everything from The Parthenon to Montesquieu. |
|  | | The Definitive Game Of Thrones Viewers' Guide
With approximately 72,000 principal characters and at least a million different plot strands (give or take a White Walker), HBO’s Game Of Thrones is an epic of epic epicness, drawing its viewers into an addictive world of dastardly double-crossings, lengthy sex scenes and increasingly uncuddly dragons. It’s so all-consuming that it can be quite alarming to spot a GoT actor outside of George R.R. Martin’s televisual universe. Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, has taken The Cinnamon Challenge on camera and appeared on the Empire Podcast, thereby proving that she is, in fact, an actual person. But what about the rest? To help you identify and further enjoy the work of the Game Of Thrones cast, here they all are, each with our specific tip for what else to watch in their back catalogues. |
|  | | 100 Hollywood Stars' Embarrassing / Brilliant / Boring First Tweets
Tweeting your first tweet is a dangerous business. Without prior knowledge of how the microblogging social media service works, it’s hard to gauge what’s worthy of 140 characters or fewer. As this extensive list of movie making’s great and good proves, many plump for a good ol’ fashioned “Hello!”, but quite a few others dive in at the deep end. With fan favourites Andy Serkis and Robert Downey Jr. recent additions to the Twittersphere, see how they match up with their peers below. |
|  | | The Batmobile And Batsuit: A Visual History
Superman Vs. Batman director Zack Snyder unveiled his new-look Batmobile and a glimpse of Ben Affleck in his new Batman costume yesterday. It was met with wide acclaim, some condemnation (as is inevitable in any discussion of Batman) and lots of jokes about Batman's bulked-up look. But how does it compare to previous suits and cars through the years? We've gone back to take a look... |
|  | | The Man Who Made Doby
"There's only one robot shark in the business," says Judd Apatow on the Anchorman 2 DVD/Blu-ray commentary track, as Doby attempts to mangle Ron Burgundy. "We should throw our money into a pool and start a competing company," muses Will Ferrell. "Does anyone have an animatronic giraffe?" asks Adam McKay. After almost 30 years working in creature effects, business is still booming for Walt Conti, founder of Edge Innovations, specialist in aquatic creations and Oscar-nominee for The Perfect Storm. In a strange bit of universe-blending, the shark he provided for Anchorman 2 also appears in The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, and will pop up again later this year in Angelina Jolie's Unbroken. We rang Conti up to ask how he ended up terrorising A-listers with a RoboJaws. |
|  | | Win A Film Download, Takeaway Every Sunday With Fox Searchlight!
Throughout 2014, Empire will be giving readers the chance to win a Digital HD copy of a Fox Searchlight film, plus a £25 hungryhouse.co.uk voucher to order their favourite takeaway online. Just head to Twitter each Sunday (make sure you're following @empiremagazine ) and answer the quiz question posed, tagging your tweet with #SearchlightSundays. In addition, there will be a chance to win flights to Utah and hotel accommodation during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival! Click here for full details |
|  | | From The Simpsons To Shrek 2: A History Of Godzilla In Pop Culture
Godzilla is everywhere. If he's not on your computer screens (Mozilla Firefox) or your TV screens (reality show Bridezillas), he's stomping around your local metropolis, kicking over the fire hydrants and waking up the children. He's also firmly engrained in popular culture, getting hat-tipped all the way from Armageddon and back, as this surprisingly long list proves... |
|  | | I'm Listening: Kelsey Grammer Talks Frasier, Ten Years On
"Goodnight, Seattle," Frasier Crane intoned in the Season 11 episode of the same name, the 264th and final instalment of the urbane sit-com. Shortly before, the radio shrink had quoted from the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem Ulysses, reflecting on the triumphs and travails he'd experienced while on air at KACL. The moment was both meta and emotionally charged: the series had been a rollercoaster ride for star Kelsey Grammer too, seeing him reach dizzy heights of fame and fortune, but also work through a divorce and substance abuse problems. |
|  | | H. R. Giger: An Empire Tribute
Swiss artist H. R. Giger, who has died at the age of 74, was known for biomechanical visions replete with horror and strange beauty. Few designers with an eye for all that is strange and spectacular in sci-fi have remained uninfluenced by his remarkable work. Empire's Ian Nathan, author of Alien Vault: The Definitive Story Behind The Film, pays tribute. |
|  | | Star Wars Archive: 'Rise.... Darth Farmer'
As part of our Star Wars coverage when Revenge Of The Sith hit cinemas in 2005, we spoke to many of the series' original cast and crew. One key, and towering, figure was David Prowse, the Englishman who played Darth Vader. Hidden by a mask and dubbed by James Earl Jones, he may not have seen the stardom that stuck to his castmates, but he remains an essential part of the appeal of the ultimate bad guy. Here he talks us through his experience... |
|  | | Classic Feature: Adventures In The Infected Zone
Made on a shoestring, shot on the hoof in Central America, VFX done on a bedroom computer: giant-alien, road-movie love story Monsters is 2010's guerrilla filmmaking success story. Director Gareth Edwards writes us his personal guide through the madness, while below Empire meets stars Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able... |
|  | | Classic Scene: Roxanne
A bar room boor unimaginatively insults C.D. Bales (Steve Martin) as "Big Nose", to which C.D. contends he can think of much better witticisms regarding his extraordinary proboscis. The number is established on a throw of darts... |
|  | | The Secret History Of Star Wars
Exposed! The truth behind Star Wars' most famous myths - with testimony from those who were there... |
|  | | Empire Presents the New York Film Academy
New York Film Academy has built a reputation as one of the premier film schools in the world. With its innovative hands-on approach to teaching, students find themselves completely immersed in their course of study, surrounded by award-winning faculty and working with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Learn Filmmaking, Acting for Film, Photography, Musical Theatre, Game Design, Animation and more. |
 Some pop / rap / rock star cupcakes to mark the home entertainment release of Made In America this coming Monday. Just be careful of the Ron Howard one (see above).
 
The X-cast all went back to Simon Kinberg's place after the New York premiere of Days Of Future Past. 
The Wolf Of Wall Street was 40 minutes shorter in Dubai. 
There is a game called "Plop Trumps", which details different species' poo. 
Viggo takes his tea like he takes his, um, Orcs: black with no sugar. 
Thranduil's elk in The Hobbit is played by a horse called Moose.
 |  | |  | |  | |  |  | | Insanely cool origami. | | Dog upset by haircut. | | Correlation is not causation. | | X-Men: First Class, The High School Comedy. |
If you have any timewasters to share, then e-mail them in to us. |  A LEGO X-Men Vs The Sentinel set. We were very excited about playing with these, but then Ali put his claws through two of the minifigs and Phil blew up another with his optic blasts.
 
Godzilla 
Edwards' film boasts great filmmaking, noble intentions and cracking monster action. Yet it never reconciles its B-movie origins - preposterous premise, clichéd characters - with its solemn, Nolanised tone. This Godzilla stomps but very rarely romps. Also Out
 
12 Years A Slave 
Falling between the twin pillars of the art house and prestige period flick, 12 Years A Slave is history lesson as horror film, powerful, visceral and affecting. And after years of being great in everything, Chiwetel Ejiofor shines in a lead worthy of his immense talent. Also Out
 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment