The success of The Dark Knight means WB wants to do another Batman movie. But the success of Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc means WB has to try harder to do other movies.

The Wall Street Journal talks to Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov, and he states that of 8 big summer movies planned before 2011, at least 4 of those will be DC properties. The good news is none of those is going to be Justice League. WB plans to launch individual films following the Marvel Entertainment model. From the article:

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

Supermax, the Green Arrow prison break movie from David Goyer, is my big hope. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are long overdue, and Flash has enormous potential for chases and special effects.

You put a “2” behind a game title and you’ve got a safe bet: more of the same. Its makes it easier for developers to release another game, and players get what essentially amounts to more levels of a game they already like.

But there are some that dare to be different, and turn the entire idea of franchise gaming on the ear. For the purposes of this list, games that jump between generations are omitted as upgrades and changes are expected on new hardware.

Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES)

The first in the series is a great linear dungeon crawler. Its proven the test of time, and started a series still going very strong today (in 2D no less!). But wow, Simon’s Quest was really different. Its much more of an open world, introduces RPG elements, and even adds a night & day passage of time. Modern Castlevania games balance elements of exploration and action well, but this was uncharted territory at the time. Castlevania III, while a fantastic refinement of the game play of the first, misses out on the stuff in Simon’s Quest.

TMNT 2: The Arcade Game (NES) [Read the rest of this entry…]

This is the latest in Powet Editor Zac Shipley’s series on video game culture in Madison, WI for TheDailyPage.

Joe Rheaume’s Excellent Adventure: Chronotron goes from Madison to Penny Arcade Expo
The online comic strip and blog Penny Arcade has been a leading tastemaker in the gaming world for nearly a decade now. It has reached new heights over the last five years with its own convention, the Penny Arcade Expo, held every August in Seattle. Though gamers from all over the nation will find a weekend of fun and competition at this year’s con, Madison native Joe Rheaume will be an invited guest to show his hit time travel game Chronotron. >More

Play Chronotron now.

My first Animated figure and I’m quite impressed! Certainly Grimlock joins Starscream as another quality Voyager.

At a Star Trek event in Las Vegas today, Leonard Nimoy, better known to fans as the legendary Mister Spock, announced the biggest MMO since World Of Warcraft.

The game will be set several generations after the events of the last Star Trek theatrical film, Nemesis. This relieves my fear of the lack of progress after Voyager and Nemesis, Star Trek resorted to a prequel series called Enterprise and the 11th theatrical film will also take place before the original series. The game will start players out on their own ships in the Federation or Klingon Empire, with heavy emphasis on exploration in a vast space setting.

The Associated Press reports character creation will draw heavily from Star Trek’s database of species, but will also allow players to create new races. Any chance I can make Species 8472?

Star Trek Online has no set release date, but the above trailer is said to be in-engine and is supposedly very far along. Still, graphics and gameplay mechanics are secondary in a Massive Multiplayer Online game, which will likely require an extensive beta test and ongoing support. The game is being developed for PC, but developer Cryptic has teased an Xbox 360 or PS3 version may be released.

Star Trek Online details (AP)

Also of note: four new character posters from JJ Abram’s Star Trek are at Trekmovie.com, similar to ones handed out a Comicon.

I’m sure you’ve seen some music videos that knock heavily on scenes from movies, and here are five of my favorites. Excluding the obvious Weird Al ones, and stuff that just has movie scenes worked into the band playing, the Powet Top 5 are…

Jay-Z featuring Blackstreet
“City Is Mine”
The Usual Suspects

Sean Carter is interrogated by Detective Rappaport, in the same manner as Verbal Kint by Agent Kujan in the movie. The video mimics a couple scenes, and ultimately duplicates the movie’s twist. Who is Jay-Z?
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Galvatron has been one of my favorite Transformers ever, and I’m happy to say theres a new figure of Galvatron in Transformers Universe.

Welcome to the Powet Top Five, where we subjectively list the best of the best (or the worst of the worst) from the worlds of movies, games, comics, and toys.

In our first installment, in honor of The Dark Knight, I’m going to show you what I think are the top 5 fictional cars used in movies. If you think I missed one, leave a comment!

The Tumbler
When Batman Begins required a realisitc reboot of Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego, they made the drastic move of changing everything about the Batmobile. Previous incarnations, used in the Adam West TV series and in the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman movie, were nothing short of stylish and certainly fit in with the times and style of the movies themselves. What makes the Tumbler cooler than the rest is its an actual working car. Built from scratch with a Chevy 350 V8 engine, this gigantic beast does everything you’d expect from the movie version except use live ammo or jump across buildings. It will tear up a track better than any other Batmobile (top speed of the 89 Batmobile is said to be roughly 30 miles per hour), reaching speeds of 100 MPH on the highway chase scenes.
Is it practical? No way. Just because it works like it should doesn’t mean its a good daily driver, as its massive with limited visibility for the driver. Parallel parking would be a nightmare… of course you could just crush other cars and park where you want.

[Read the rest of this entry…]