FINAL FANTASY 13 TRAILER

The trailer for the long-awaited FINAL FANTASY XIII has been posted on the front page of the Square Enix site! If you can't wait, here's a lower quality version:



It certainly looks impressive, but will the latest Final Fantasy game be able to replicate the success of the previous entries in the series? The new game looks much more sci-fi than the last couple of games, but the real test will come with the gameplay itself.

SUPERMAN- DOOMSDAY FOR THE LEGENDARY HERO?

With DC's apparent U-turn on all of their comic book movies, (see this article) it seems that the original DC superhero, Superman himself, is in limbo once more. With the Superman Returns film being something of a damp squib with fans, critics and the box office, it was clear that the franchise needed a new direction to survive. Now, there had been many attempts to bring Superman back to the screen before that film, and most of them would have fared better than what was eventually released. It wasn't the fault of Brandon Routh or director Bryan Singer- it was a pedestrian script and a lackluster story that just came off flat and tired, which was a shame.

How should Superman come back to the screen? We need a better villain than tired old Lex Luthor, for a start. Braniac or Darkseid would be fantastic, but then again, they might not have enough of an impact to really invigorate the series, so how about adapting that most hard-hitting (literally) of modern Superman stories...

DOOMSDAY.

If Superman was to face off against Doomsday, as in the Death of Superman story from the early 90s, we would have a massive film full of action and drama that could tie into the larger DC movie universe that so sorely needs to be created for the DC movies to survive and grow beyond the blinkered view that everything should be like The Dark Knight now. It would also provide Warners/DC with huge merchandising opportunities for the character, not to mention the other DC heroes that show up in the story. It could even be the precursor to a Justice League movie, if you think about it.

The Death of Superman storyline would even be a good idea for a trilogy of films. There could be the Death of Superman story to start with, then the second film could be the World Without a Superman/Reign of the Supermen stories rolled into one. The third would take care of the Return of Superman and maybe the second Doomsday story. think about it. It has the potential to be the greatest superhero movie trilogy ever, with genuine danger and something at stake as the heroes take on this terrifying foe.

The source material is there. The ideas are there. The graphic novels are there to be adapted. The talent is out there. Come on Warners, give us a Superman film we can be thrilled with. It's been far too long since Zod did his stuff.

80's Ninja Movies. I blame you for making me this way.

Joseph Lai has a lot to answer for. He was the man that filled the 80s with a million and one insane Ninja movies. Some of those films, such as NINJA THE PROTECTOR, NINJA HUNT, RAGE OF A NINJA and NINJA CAR BOOT SALE (I made that last one up) were amongst the most deliriously odd things ever committed to film. Haven't seen any of them? Don't, unless you are drunk, insane, or work in a comic shop. Well, go on then, watch them, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Here was a genre all by itself; Asian action movies intercut with footage of European and American actors in luridly coloured Ninja costumes, beating the hell out of each other (usually in a forest) and acting like superheroes. These Ninja movies made little sense, regularly defied all notions of physics and story, and were really quite brilliant. The fact that these films got released at all astounds me, and they remain a guilty pleasure of many geeks to this day.

Watching a film in which the major action sequences take place with a different cast and have little to do with the film itself is an odd experience, and I do wonder how many of these have been used as models for modern Hollywood flicks. They make about as much narrative sense.

I blame Joseph Lai and his merry band of demented, costumed action heroes, plots on secret documents and crime lords, explosions made of coloured smoke, music made on someone's watch and NINJA headbands for turning me into this seething mass of oddness. have you any idea what you did to my teenaged self? It's all your fault, Lai, and now I'm going to spin in the air and transform into a superhuman ninja and fly through the air, shooting fire, smoke and plastic shuriken at you.

Seriously though, you can't go wrong with guys in white/yellow/pink/red/silver ninja costumes beating each other to death with the same sound effect (BOOOCH) for every hit. These were grown men playing dress-up, with swords that shot smoke, magic teleportation powers, blunt swords and the acting abilities of a shoelace.

Quite simply, they were awesome, and you know it.

Plus, they kick the ass of pirates any day. Fact.

COWBOY BEBOP- COWBOY KEANU?!!!

Altogether now: Whoooa. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox are going to be bringing anime classic Cowboy Bebop to the big screen, with none other than Keanu 'One trick Pony' Reeves as lead character Spike. Now, I like a bit of anime myself, and to be frank, this is about as needed as, well, that Dragonball movie Fox are spitting out.

Maybe I'm wrong and this wwill be fantastic, but thus far we're yet to see any anime adaptations that really kick any ass. Hmm. I'll have a think about it, but I really can't think of any that have really grapsed the original feel of the source material. Maybe the two recent Appleseed movies, but they were animated!

Oh, hang on, yueah- the Death Note movies
were pretty spot on, as well as the Boogiepop adaptations, but nothing from a US based studio has been that good, and with a franchise as beloved as Cowboy Bebop, can a movie version actually do anything other than be picked apart?

Prove me wrong, Hollywood. I dare you.

TRANSFORMERS: SIDESWIPE REVEALED!

He may not be the red Lamborghini Countache that we remember from our childhoods, but he's certainly in the movie. Taken from a leaked toy packaging image, this is the internet's first look at Sideswipe from TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, this summer's dose of giant robots beating the hell out of each other.

It certainly looks like the makers of TF2 are tonibng down how 'busy' the robot designs are, which is going to make for some much clearer onscreen action and more fun for viewers who found the uber-complicated designs in the first film a bit hard to follow. Everything is pointing at this sequel kicking all kinds of ass, even though we still have to stare at Shia Labeouf's sole facial expression.

CHUN LI MOVIE POSTER REVEALED

Um, is that it? Sorry, but that's not much of a movie poster is it? Especially considering the franchise the movie is from. The Japanese poster included the proper Street Fighter logo, and actually looked pretty cool (moreso than the lacklustre trailer did), so why the half-arsed attempt shown here (click to view the full image)?

Surely this five minute photoshop job isn't the best they could come up with for the first 'serious' Street Fighter movie? It looks like some kind of Fast and Furious knockoff instead of a film based on a huge video game phenomenon with a global following.

Plus, there's no sign of the proper Chun Li costume, and the film's lead star, the lovely Kristen Kreuk, doesn't even get that much space on the damn thing. I hope the film is better than this sorry excuse for a poster.

That was the year that was...

Right then. Christmas and new year are over and done with, and we can get back to bickering about films and whether or not Greedo shot first. Everyone at Starstore hopes you had a great time and wishes you well for the year ahead. Updates here and across our other sites will now recommence, and wit some fantastic stuff to look forward to in the next 12 monthsm we certainly won;t be short of things to get you angry/excited about.