Captm0rgan77: I saw the Abrams trailer. It showed a pickup truck riding down a train track for a head-on collision with a train. The train derails, huge explosions, etc. and something inside one of the cars, which is all steel and rugged looking, starts banging on the door, denting it outwards. That's really all there was, except that when I saw the names Spielberg and Abrams, I peed myself a little in excitement.
Actually the Conan set looks like the village from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Eric Idle was going through saying, "Bring out your dead!"
Yes, the Mandarin's rings were alien technology.
IM2- Saw it and loved it. Cheadle was an improvemnent but still not quite right. "Agent Romanov" should have had a hint of Russian accent in a couple places but I'm being very nitpicky...
Mandarian- Given it was the 60's, it had to be alien tech but with the advances we now have, it doesn't have to be now. Besides, Indiana Jones has pulled the "grounded with magic" thing for years so there are ways to make it fit...
I think a lot of folks on here have an incorrect perception of what Conan should look like. If you read the original REH stories he is not described as the muscle bound superhero we've come to know him as from the comics and films. He should have a "rangy" athletic build Momoa height weight and physique are more or less spot on.
@Vandal092 Conan has nothing to do with Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia did not exist in Conan's time. I would say that the Hyborian Age and our Stone Age are are separated by hundreds of thousands is not millions of years. In Howard's "time line" King Kull's Atlantians degenerate into savage near animals after their civilization is destroyed. Eventually the evolve into Cimmerians (Conan's people). After a cataclysm that separates the Hyborian age and the Stone Age wipes them out they regress to animals again and Conan's people eventually evolve into the Picts who existed in the Pre Roman (pre historic) British Isles and are lead by King Bran Mak Mourn. The Picts are driven underground and eventually degenerate into subhumans that are the basis of the tales of dwarfs and trolls. The few that survive into modern times a sort of worm like creatures. So if a people can degenerate and evolve three or four times that should give you an idea of how old Conan's Hyboria is. Howard created the Hyborian Age so he could tell stories of historical fiction without the dates and ages getting in the way. It is a world where Romans (Aquilonians) could exist at the same time as medieval knights and Mongol hordes (all thinly veiled as fictional races). All kinds of technology can and does exist in Conan's time. I cant think of gunpowder ever appearing in a Conan story though... no cannons or firearms so if you need a line in the "historic" sand I would make it there.
Vandal,
Why do you think Conan is set in Mesopotamia? Howard suprimposed his world over a map of Europe, Asia and North Africa. Conan orginates in the far north in Cimmeria but his stories range all over the world. He is eventually King of Aquilonia (Western Europe) but is also a reaver off the coast of Stygia (africa) an Afghuli chieftain (Central Asia) etc. If the images are of his home village, think Germanic culture, not Mesopotamian.
Axia,
I agree. Thor and the Asgard are Gods. To change that cheapens the charactr and the setting.
I thought Mandarin's rings originated with Alien Technology and weren't actually "magic"? Dr. Strange is the Magician. Mandarin found the technology and forged it into rings.
And for the record, I nominate Al Leong of the famed Henchmen from 80's Action Movies to portray Mandarin. He already looks the part with his mustache and beard.
@Kerrith - Totally!
Besides, this is the Marvel Universe we are all talking about! Who else wants a Dr. Strange movie to be made? Ya! Dr. Strange kicks ass! He is MAGIC and there is nothing any one can say different. The Marvel Universe has a rich history of MAGIC characters. This trying to get rid of the magic side of the Marvel Universe in the movies is total B*LLSHIT. I liked the more realistic Batman movies. That was all good. But the is Marvel where mutants(X-Men), Magic(Dr. Strange), and Gods(Thor) exist next to the products of Science(The Hulk or Captain America). They had better not change that!
I also agree in the changing of the Mandarin character. He is very 1970's in his representation of the Asian demographic. They need to update it so he is more like some bad ass Yakuza style scientist who finds the Ten Rings of Power to try and take over the world. That could happen in either Iron Man 3 or The Avengers 2! I also agree that they had better stay Alien Technology. That is what they have always been in the comics. Who else thinks that they need to add in Fing Fang Foom when the Mandarin fights Iron Man? That would be bad ass! Maybe way to bad ass. That would be so bad ass it would need to be in the Avengers 2.
ON CONAN Anyone confused about the history of Conan can read here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimmeria_%28Conan%29
Cimmeria (Conan)
Cimmeria is a fictional land of barbarians in antediluvian earth (cp. the Hyborian Age) and the homeland of Conan
Fictional History
The origins of the Cimmerians stretch back to the Thurian Age. The Cimmerians are the descendants of colonists from Atlantis. Living on the main Thurian continent, the colonists survived the great cataclysm which submerged Atlantis and destroyed most of the Thurian civilizations. The survivors, at this point reduced to a stone-age level of sophistication, eventually found themselves locked in multigenerational warfare with survivors of a Pictish colony. This prolonged conflict caused the Atlanteans to further devolve into little more than ape-men. With no memory of their history or even of language and civilization itself, these beings eventually redeveloped into a people known as Cimmerians.
Geography and Culture
Cimmeria is described as a harsh landscape with rugged mountains and dark shadowy forests. Howard often makes reference to the Cimmerian people's hardiness and military prowess, as well as to their many other impressive skills. They can climb seemingly unscalable cliffs, track humans and animals with ease, and stalk their prey without making a sound. They are tall, dark with light colored eyes, and exceptionally strong. Despite these almost super-human attributes, he goes on to point out that they are an "uncivilized" and tribal people. Their governing body is vaguely alluded to as the elders, suggesting a sort of tribal oligarchy. The apparent primitiveness of the Cimmerians and their sense of justice is often juxtaposed with the malevolence of the "civilized" races in Hyboria. This creates a very different sort of fantasy world, with the "barbarians" as the just and noble, while the kings and "civilized" men and women who would be the heroes of traditional medieval fantasy become ruthless, corrupt, and cold.
The inhabitants of fictional Cimmeria are loosely based by Robert E. Howard on the historical Cimmerians, who lived on the northern Black Sea coast in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. They also may be based on the Cimbri, a Teutonic-Celtic people. Howard endeavoured to connect the fictional peoples of the Hyborian Age with later historical groups, such as the Cimmerians (depicted as ancestors of the ancient Gaels), their hereditary enemies the Picts (compare to the Picts of eastern and northern Scotland), and Vanir (sea-roving Danes, i.e. Vikings) to the west and north respectively and their allies the Aesir (generally depicted in the Hyborian Age as a fair Nordic-type race, linked by Howard to ancient Britons and Gauls) to the northeast.[1]
I nominate Jet Lee for the part of the Mandarin! He is bad ass and he is a great actor. Plus he really is Chinese! How cool is that huh?
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
Conan- freaking lame looking so far. Seriously, how good can this movie be? The originals were great cuz Arnold was in it, and it was pretty much the first of it's kind. Now that it's been like 10 yrs later, these type of movies are so played out that i dont think this will have any sort of appeal. Plus, I think I'M buffer than this dude! haha
Can't wait to watch Iron Man tonight! Even over the Laker game! but thank God for DVR. hehe
Looking forward to MIB3 as long as WIll Smith is in it. With his SUPER DUPER star status, it should be interesting to see him come back to this role after so long. It's kinda like Michael Jackson returning to the Jackson 5 after his solo success.