The Walking Dead Season 3 Comic-Con 2012 Extended Trailer Analysis...

It's that time of year again – the San Diego Comic-Con is once again under way – and for we fans of AMC's hugely successful hit show The Walking Dead (which returns in October), it means time again for another mouth-watering preview trailer. Check it out here, or if you're not American, then check it out here.

Find more Walking Dead memes HERE. 

What's more, these trailers have become synonymous with excellent clip selection and editing – details are kept hidden (their context often tweaked or totally changed), while still giving the fans a big old mouthful to chew on, and the music selection is always pitch-perfect. The trailer for season one featured “The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore” by The Walker Brothers, while season two's drool-inducing teaser brought Wye Oak's wonderful “Civilian” to our attention, and season three is no different in quality – it features “Black” by Kari Kimmel, which perfectly fits the tone of what we got to see. Read on for analysis and screenshots galore!

N.B. Spoilers for season two of The Walking Dead ahead - but not for season three. All comments are based on what you see in the trailer - if you want to remain completely oblivious to all things season three, don't read on ... otherwise, enjoy!

#1: Michonne's an arse kicker:

 

Introduced very briefly in the season two finale, we'll not only finally have a definitive answer as to how to pronounce her name, but we'll get one of the most beloved badasses of the comic on our telly screens. Here (and in a preview clip seen online earlier this week), she clears out a grocery store with her trusty sword in her own inimitable fashion, which includes a double decapitation.

#2: Michonne and Andrea team up:

It was fairly clear it would go this way when we were introduced to Michonne in the season two finale (where she saved an exhausted Andrea), but season three's extended trailer provided confirmation that these two death-dealing femmes will join forces. Michonne's already the ultimate bad ass, but at this stage we're still witnessing the evolution of Andrea. In season two she finally found her groove with firearms (so long old life as a Civil Rights Lawyer), and the season two finale also left her abandoned in the wake of the confusion of the incredible attack on Herschel's farm by a herd of walkers – a real trial by fire. Judging by this trailer, Andrea's up for a bloody good fight too, and this looks like it'll be an intriguing change-up when compared to the comics.

#3: Time in the wilderness:

 

Judging by Carl's shaggy hair, Herschel's beard, and Lori's unmistakable baby bulge, it looks like our band of survivors have been surviving on the road for quite some time. It would appear that the show-makers are seeking to condense time and events a little bit here (the prison storyline was spread out over six volumes of the trade paperbacks), which was further hinted at when we were told that we could be seeing the prison storyline spread across season three and season four.

Click "READ MORE" below for a whole shedload more trailer analysis and screenshots!

Double Bill Mini Musings: Breezy, Bothersome Booze...

The Rum Diary:
What's it about?
Bruce Robinson's film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name, which went unpublished for decades before being dug out, and eventually nurtured into the cinematic world by HST's friend (and star of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) Johnny Depp. Paul Kemp, a journalist struggling to get a foot on his career ladder heads to the rum-soaked and heat-hazed sights of Puerto Rico, where he gets involved with Sanderson, a shady property developer, and his fun-loving squeeze Chenault.
Who would I recognise in it?
Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli, Amber Heard, Richard Jenkins, Giovanni Ribisi.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
While still being relatively new to the world of HST (I've only so far read his most popular work Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Rum Diary), I was really taken with the source novel before seeing this flick ... and therein lies an indicator for how you might think of this film adaptation. If coming to it with virgin eyes, and expecting the drug-fuelled craziness of Terry Gilliam's barmy Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, you'll be disappointed - The Rum Diary is before the drugs took hold, before the wild rumours and stories became legend, and as such it is about the beginning of something - it's about the beginning of Paul Kemp (a version of HST himself, having based The Rum Diary on his own experiences) and where the seed of 'Gonzo journalism' took root - a theme more front & centre in the film's third act, than it is in the book.

Depp, wisely toning down his memorable Fear & Loathing performance to match the relatively calmer early days of HST, gives good as Kemp, who stumbles through the world of Puerto Rico in 1960 - when the great American dream machine was moving in to carve up the land for the whale-like tourists and their bloated wallets. Eckhart is suave, yet dangerous, as Sanderson (a combination of the sly Sanderson and the violent Yeamon, from the novel), while Rispoli admirably double-teams for the humour as photographer Sala (replacing Kemp's confusion with a resigned acceptance). Furthermore, Jenkin's editor Lotterman is every inch the snake-in-the-grass, Heard nails Chenault's seductress who's in over her head, and Ribisi plays a riotous and unpredictable degenerate in the form of Moberg. It's a great cast, all afforded tasty roles, in a film that will perhaps prove most successful with those who have read the source novel.

For those unfamiliar with the book, some pacing issues might present themselves - resulting in a Good/Alright for such viewers - but those, such as myself, who thoroughly enjoyed the book, should be well catered for indeed. I enjoyed the hell out of it, welcoming Robinson's changes as an intriguing alternative vision - great, but others might not agree.

Click "READ MORE" below to switch from rum to fine wine...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Benefitting and Broadcasting...

Friends With Benefits:
What's it about?
From Will Gluck, director of the brilliant Easy A, comes this moderately raunchier tale of two friends in New York, both recently out of long-term relationships and with their own batch of personal hang-ups, who decide to skip the complications of being in a relationship and go straight for the sex part. Naturally, being a romantic comedy, things don't stay that way for long.
Who would I recognise in it?
Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Woody Harrelson, and a bunch of other folk.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Simultaneously subverting, and conforming to, the various tropes of the romantic comedy sub-genre, FWB treads a sometimes unsteady line between ironic send-up and schmaltzy familiarity. Fortunately, on the fairly consistent strength of the script, and good chemistry between the two leads (with a chucklesome, but underused, supporting role from Harrelson as a matcho sports writer who happens to be gay), you can forgive the film for following some predictable paths at times and reaching a conclusion you saw coming from a dozen movies of it's kind before it. Decidedly better than the standard romcom fare by a county mile - the added wit provides a welcome spice to a sub-genre that is too often underwritten, and burdening the shoulders of actors who could be doing far better work elsewhere. FWB, with it's sparky yet friendly combination of the familiar with the cheekily sly, ends up being solid - good.

Click "READ MORE" below for Broadcast News...

"Gaia" film award - news gets about...

I see the local Bulmer Foundation have put up a little article on their website about the film award that Joe and I won from this year's Campfire Film Festival in Australia. The news was also spread around in various local newspapers, and it's nice to bump into people who you've not seen in years, who spotted the article in their local paper of choice, and offer their thumbs up.

The Walking Dead memes - where does Carl go?

Find more Walking Dead memes HERE.

A little pre-emptive fun in the run-up to Season 3 of The Walking Dead. There was much talk (and many memes) made of Carl's whereabouts in the second season, which certainly made me chuckle, and even though I don't watch Star Trek, the little connection made me giggle nonetheless - so I made this:

Where will Carl get to in season three, I wonder? That precocious little scamp.

Click "READ MORE" below for an alternate version of the above meme...