Chocolate Bones

The trailer for Zack Snyder's latest visual epic was released yesterday, merely two days after its debut at the San Diego Comic-Con. The trailer will be playing in front of the director's next movie, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, which is based on the first three installments of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole book series. However, if you don't think you can wait to catch it on the big screen when the movie drops late next month - or if you don't think you could sit through a two hour movie about cute little owls... What, am I the only one?? - you can catch the trailer online in high quality on Apple Trailers, or here on YouTube.

Set in the 1950's, the movie follows the bizarre journey of Baby Doll, played by Emily Browning (most noted for her role as Violet in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events), a young woman who, thanks to her cruel step-father, has been sent to a mental institution. Baby Doll dreams of her escape, thrusting herselt into an imaginary alternate reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and space, she's able to go wherever her mind will take her, and the lines between reality and fantasy quickly begin to blur. Aided by fellow inmates at the institution, Baby Doll must escape the fantasy world before her lobotomy, and, in doing so, may find the skills she needs to escape the institution with her mind still in tact.

I'm not particularly thrilled with the cast (Vanessa Hudgens in particular), and Snyder's movies aren't ground-breaking by any means, but his visual style is engrossing enough to make a movie more than enjoyable. If it worked with Alice in Wonderland and Avatar, there's no reason that it won't work for this movie. It's got dragons, mechs, Nazis, hot chicks, giant machine gun wielding stone samurai; the list goes on. In essence, it's crazy nerd fan fiction coming to the big screen, so what's not to love? Sucker Punch blasts its way into theaters March 25, 2011.



In other news, the sequel to Blizzard's award winning Star Craft RTS game hit shelves this morning at 12:00 am. The long awaited sequel twelve years in the making continues the story of the rebel Jim Raynor from previous game, and brings back the human Terrans, the elf-like Protoss, and the parasitic Zerg who were locked in conflict in its predecessor.

The original Star Craft, which was introduced in 1998, as well as its expansion Brood War, are widely seen as the first great real-time strategy games in gaming history, and are still hailed today as being far ahead of its time. With simple yet extensive game mechanics, well-written single-player campaign, and addictive online multiplayer, it didn't take long for Star Craft to take its place in gaming fame.

I haven't had a chance to get my hands on this game, but I'm a huge fan of the first game, and I'll pick it up as soon as I get the chance. Anyone who does have it, please, let me know what you think!