Giant Freakin Robot

With all of the hype surrounding Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spider-Man coming home to Marvel, the laundry list of characters scheduled to appear in Captain America: Civil War, and the ever expanding world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it feels like Ant-Man is the forgotten step child. It’s one of two Marvel movies coming out this summer, but there isn’t much connection between them. Even though the Ultron promos make it pretty clear that Tony Stark creates Ultron, many of us expected Hank Pym, who creates him in the comics, to show up in that movie at least for a moment, but that’s apparently not happening, and Joss Whedon explains why.

Inhumans is well known among comic book fans, but as far as more mainstream audiences go, it’s not the biggest title out there. Almost everyone already had at least a passing familiarity with the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, and the Hulk, even before the movies, but Inhumans falls into a similar category as Guardians of the Galaxy. While it’s an important part of the world, it wasn’t one casual fans were too acquainted with. Now that there is an Inhumans movie on the way, Marvel is preparing to do some work to familiarize people with the title, and that begins in this new promo for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Just so you know, if you’re not caught up with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there are some potential spoilers.

Well this is going to be crazy, and potentially awesome. Japanese wingnut auteur Takashi Miike is venturing back into science fiction with a live action adaptation of the popular manga Terra Formars, which is just nuts enough to make this a damn near perfect combination.

Miike is an insanely prolific filmmaker, and has been for years. He has 98 official directing credits to his name, and though he is probably most widely known for his ultra-violent gangster pictures, like Ichi the Killer and the Dead or Alive trilogy, he’s dabbled in just about every genre you can imagine. This includes horror with the likes of Audition, westerns (Sukiyaki Western Django), and even a full on musical with Claymation sequences in The Happiness of the Katakuris and a historical epic with 13 Assassins.

Most of the recent attention focused on Star Wars centers on The Force Awakens. That makes sense, as it’s the first new film addition to the franchise since Revenge of the Sith in 2005, and it drops in less than ten months. Still, in addition to the Episode films, we also have a variety of standalone projects in the works, and one of them may have just found their lead.

Be warned, there are potential spoilers for the standalone Star Wars films beyond this point.

Around these parts, we’re pretty stoked for Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming robot saga Chappie. Even if we didn’t love his last picture, Elysium, he has a fantastic visual sense, and his debut, District 9, ranks up there among our favorite recent sci-fi pictures. And it’s about robots, which you probably noticed, we’re quite fond of. The film features a strong cast, including Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, and Sigourney Weaver, but in an unusual bit of casting, it also stars Yolandi Vi$$er and Ninja, better known as South African rap-rave duo Die Antwoord. It’s a move that has raised some eyebrows, but this new featurette digs into the choice and the influence of the two musicians.

In this behind-the-scenes look, they talk about their style, known as Zef, which involves a lot of street swagger and an I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude. It’s easy to see why Blomkamp, also a South African, would choose them to lend an air of authenticity and organic credibility to his latest endeavor.

If you’ve never given much thought to whether or not you wanted to watch a surreal, post-apocalyptic Ethiopian love story, you should, because you’re definitely going to want to check out Crumbs. The film, which fits all of these criteria, recently premiered, and if this trailer is any indication, this is going to one hell of a ride.

You can’t help but get an Alejandro Jodorowsky vibe from this short look at Crumbs. There’s a definite kinship with films like El Topo and The Holy Mountain. There is all kinds of craziness going on here, and the entire trailer is full-to-bursting with stark, unsettling imagery. There’s what appears to be an evil Santa Claus, a Nazi with what looks like Mickey Mouse ears, decrepit carnival rides, lions, and much more. And that’s not even counting all the strange things tumbling through space, like knick-knacks, a Michael Jackson album, and a toy sword (when we hear about the first scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, where a lightsaber reportedly falls to the surface of a planet, this is how I picture it looking).