The Toho universe has always operated under a different set of rules. Cities are flattened then rebuilt in days, but insurance premiums never go up. The existence of giant monsters, even those from outer space, is taken for granted (“Aww, crap, here comes that stupid Baragon again”), but drop a humanoid alien into the mix and it’s inevitably met with suspicion and doubt (“Are you really really SURE you’re an alien?”). Psychics and giant robots are commonplace, and the ever-hopeful self-defense force always rolls out the same array of weapons that’ve never worked in the past.

As the Godzilla franchise marched on through the ‘90s and into the early 21st century, it seemed to become more solidly grounded in a comprehensible and recognizable reality. Human characters were believable, even a little world weary,  dealing with monsters the same straightforward way they would deal with  a typhoon, a clogged toilet, or a boring old invading foreign army. Giant radioactive lizards and three-headed dragons aside, the world they lived and worked in looked and felt very much like our own.

There was a time though. Early in the franchise and often under the guidance of director Ishiro Honda, when things just got really fucking weird, when images straight out of Salvador Dali, Andre Breton, or Luis Buñuel were inserted into the reality of  the Toho universe, and none of the human characters really batted much of an eye about it. It’s the absurd, bizarre, utterly unpredictable world I always wanted to find waiting outside my front door every morning.

In King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Kong gets really stoned, then is floated back to Japan tied to a cluster of bright red balloons. Godzilla and the giant fiddler crab Ebirah play a game of volleyball with a huge boulder in Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966). While swimming from Monster Island to Japan in Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), Godzilla and Anguirus speak to each other in garbled English via cartoon-style word balloons. And in 1989’s Godzilla vs. Biollante the oversized villain is an evil rose bush.

There are big and small head scratchers in most every film the franchise has to offer, but for mind-boggling outlandish High Strangeness (as Jack Webb would call it) straight out of the Surrealist movement of the early 20th century, there’s no topping 1964’s Godzilla vs. Mothra. If you watch the film in the proper mindset, suspending disbelief and accepting all the conceits of the Toho universe, it’s no big deal. It’s another Japanese giant monster fantasy, albeit one with a lighter touch than most. But if you take a few steps outside the bubble and consider the imagery with a more critical eye, well...my god.

Since much of the film’s imagery can be traced directly back to Honda’s lesser-seen 1961 original, Mothra, we need to take a step back. First and foremost is the question, who in the hell thought it would be a good idea to make a giant monster out of a damn MOTH? What the hell’s a damned moth gonna do anyway, right? Eat a giant sweater?  I mean, ever since I was a kid moths have always given me the heebie-jeebies, but that apparently had nothing to do with the decision.

After releasing a handful of sci fi and fantasy films in the wake of ‘54’s Gojira (Rodan, The Mysterians), Honda and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka wanted to try something new. They wanted a more sympathetic monster, a monster with a clear purpose, one that would undergo a transformation, and one that would be elegant and beautiful. They also wanted something a bit more feminine than they’d done up to that point in hopes of attracting a larger female audience. Okay, so, hence a giant damn moth.

Although the film borrowed heavily from both King Kong and Gojira (which was a little redundant given how much Gojira itself borrowed from Kong), Mothra had a completely different feel. Despite all the standard giant monster trappings (collapsing buildings, crumbling dams, useless military weaponry, crowds fleeing in panic), it was more fairy tale than monster movie. Despite what the original ad campaign promised, it was a much gentler film. It was also a musical comedy with a couple of big production numbers and commentary on the environment, religion, nuclear testing, capitalist exploitation, greed, imperialism, and the political tensions between Japan and the West. That whole jumble of themes, together with a sympathetic (if clumsy) monster made Mothra a turning point for Toho’s kaiju eiga. It was the model Toho would follow from that point on, establishing genre-mashing “Japanese sci-fi fantasy” as an immediately identifiable genre unto itself.

Charmingly odd as the original Mothra was, all the weird little touches that made it that way were ramped up several notches for Honda’s requisite follow-up three years later. And since the most recent Godzilla film, 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, had been such a smash it was an easy decision to pit the lizard against the moth in the sequel. The results were, well, wonderment.

Let me just pull out a few random images, considering all the human characters seem to accept them as given.

As the film opens, a typhoon washes a gigantic egg ashore near a Japanese fishing village. I mean an enormous five-story chicken egg, just sitting there on the beach. For the rest of the film, eggs of all kinds would be a recurring reference point, with the giant egg itself being the focus of the story: who owns it, whether it should be returned to its rightful owner, how much profit can be made off it. For all the talk and arguing about the big egg, though, there’s very little speculation regarding what might be, y’know, inside it. We get recurring cuts back to a giant egg sitting on the beach of a poor fishing village as people go about their daily routines. This five-story-tall egg simply becomes part of the accepted reality.

The giant egg is purchased by a crooked conglomerate called Happy Enterprises. The first hint there might be something shady afoot, apart from all the sinister chuckling, is that “Happy Enterprises” is known for building factories and industrial complexes. Only after acquiring the egg do they decide to go into the entertainment business, turning the egg into a sideshow attraction.

Speaking of sideshow attractions, soon after cutting the deal, the CEO of Happy Enterprises is visited by the Mothra Twins, two tiny telepathic identical twin fairies who magically appear in his office. They dress in white fur, speak quickly in unison, and have a tendency to break into song (usually the same one) at the drop of a hat. Through them we learn the egg belongs to Mothra, the protector goddess of the nuclear test site Infant Island, and she wants it back. The twins are played by Yumi and Emi Ito, who had an immensely popular nightclub act at the time as the pop duo The Peanuts.

When they appear and start making demands, there is no moment when the normal-sized humans in the room stop and shriek “What the fuck is that?” or run into the kitchen to grab the nearest cleaver. What the hell would you do if two six-inch tall girls suddenly appeared over there in the corner and began chastising you?  Far from being at all startled at the sudden appearance of two miniature chicks in white fur, the CEO’s first impulse is to grab them and make them part of an advertising campaign.

Later on Infant Island the twin fairies (in unison) point out the last patch of green on an otherwise radiation-scarred wasteland. We also learn Mothra is near death and grumpy. When we eventually see Mothra (who does a lot of lurking behind trees) and the egg in the same shot, you can understand why she’s near death and grumpy. I mean, the damn egg is eight times the size of the creature that laid it! I know she’s a magical goddess and all, but how in the hell did that even work?

Then we get a couple production numbers and the Peanuts sing some songs, including their outrageously catchy hymn to Mothra.

When Godzilla emerges from the waters near the fishing village, people seem far more concerned that he might damage the egg somehow than they are about having a 350-foot tall radioactive lizard tromping toward their town.

The twins, who are carried around in a small mahogany box for convenience, sing their hymn to Mothra again.

When the egg finally does hatch three-quarters of the way through the film it reveals two enormous gray segmented moth larvae who wriggle about in the sand for a bit. Having no other defenses at their disposal, they spray Godzilla with liquid silk during the film’s climactic battle. Godzilla seems to find this very annoying. I’ve always wondered why he doesn’t just stomp on them, and maybe in fact that’s what he’s trying to do when he stumbles and falls into the ocean.

Okay, yes, eggs, especially the giant variety, have played a role in Japanese symbolic art for a very long time now. Not so sure about the big moth larvae though. Still, when you take things like tiny singing twins and grumpy moths out of the context of a fairly realistic story they seem ridiculous and bizarre. But that’s always been the magic of the visionary Honda and his special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya that they could take these images and work them into a story in an utterly acceptable and believable way much like the Surrealists did. Honda reportedly once dreamt of being an artist, so maybe it’s not such a stretch to think there may be a direct connection between the Surrealists and his visual style. He was dealing with some pretty surreal material to begin with, after all. To this day, every time I watch the film I still expect a character, maybe that hard-bitten newspaper editor, to look up from his desk and comment, “Oh, it seems the clock is melting again.”

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When you meet Mac and Kelly Radner, you instantly realize that they’re the world’s most adorable “only in the movies” couple. One unkempt but raunchily witty and the other gorgeous but chill, they’re a pair of thirty-something newlyweds with an even newer infant daughter. So, excuse them if they want the right kind of neighbors. You know, like that nice looking multi-cultural gay couple with their own newborn checking out the next-door home. It’s even totally understandable when that house becomes a makeshift fraternity Mecca for a group of party animals that the Radners throw a housewarming…with enough heat to hopefully burn the whole damn thing down.

Neighbors is that laugh-out-loud sleeper comedy that will play all summer long. As a movie that successfully marries the gross out hilarity of newlywed life and fraternity brothers bro-ing like it’s Animal House, this is exactly the outrageous comedy sketch set-up it sounds tailor-made to be. And fortunately, nearly every one of those sketches in the second half will shatter the funny bone, even as your sense of taste pulls away in shame.

Nicholas Stoller, who helmed Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek (not to mention wrote both recent Muppets movies), taps this project into that same good-natured depravity of his earlier works, though this story relies more on broadly drawn characters for its crassness. Luckily, this doubleheader farce can lean on solid casting in both residencies to elevate the situational archetypes.

As Mac, Seth Rogen gets to covertly follow-up his character from Knocked Up with a more affable co-star. Alongside, Rose Byrne in the part of Kelly, he plays off his onscreen wife with the requisite stream of filthy (and likely healthily improvised) one-liners and diatribes inherent with having sex in front of a baby girl or being too old to crash the nearby frat’s wild parties. He also develops an instant rapport with the said fraternity’s debauched leader, Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron). The younger actor gladly has fun shaking off his Disney image again as the good-times dumb-dumb that doesn’t realize taking off his shirt and getting drunk won't help him after graduation.

While Efron never elicits any great laughs on his own, bouncing against Rogen in wonderful fanboy-pandering moments like arguing who’s the better Batman, Michael Keaton or Christian Bale, will undoubtedly earn him some of the cool cred he’s still searching for. He’s also buttressed by a great supporting cast of fraternity hard drinkers, including Dave Franco, Jerrod Carmichael, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the latter of whom has an extraordinary new talent for raising frat money. And when all four get to try out their “De Niro For A Day” impressions, it was like seeing a million Greek Halloween costumes being birthed at once.

But the real show stealer in this movie is Byrne playing the temporarily bored young housewife Kelly. I emphasize temporary, because after she spends more than one sleepless night with a crying infant bawling to the sounds of late night pool parties, this mother becomes an absolute diabolical force, fixated exclusively on ruining bros and their lives with hoes. For a genre that is typically dominated by the “guy’s movie,” Byrne is Neighbors’ secret asset. Allowed the rare opportunity to use her Australian accent, she showcases her most wickedly funny streak yet, proving again after Get Him to the Greek and Bridesmaids that she’s an underrated comic resource. Her relationship with Rogen is as crude as black market fireworks and just as explosive, providing a subversive refrain from the sitcom trope of the slob and the dutifully patient wife. Indeed, they share one scene midway through the picture of the kind of grotesque intimacy not gleamed since a bridesmaids bathroom.

These stronger elements help forego that the movie’s somewhat basic premise takes a long time to get going. Despite its brisk 97-minute running time, Neighbors spends a protracted first act putting the pieces in place for the comedy overload. In fact, seeing the Radners trying to gel with the fraternity for the first half hour is as awkward as old folks at any college party. This bumpy start, however, proves to be a false alarm after airbags begin to disappear from cars and basements start to flood.

Neighbors is the perfect summertime R-rated comedy for those looking for a breezy break from the spectacle of superheroes, and it’s one that ticks off enough boxes to appeal to both genders for its guilt-inducing laughs. Not necessarily the most original or emotionally cathartic of laughers, it is still one of the funniest movies yet released this year that lands more often than many of Judd Apatow’s own recently purported tearjerker giggles. And with such a winning cast, it will engross you in its grossness, demanding a trip back to the theater to see it again.

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This article contains major spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Without question, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the most packed-to-the-gills vision of the Spider-Man legend ever put on screen. There are more villains, more iconic moments, and more hints and allegations about future friends and foes than we’ve ever seen, not not just in a Spider-Man movie, but possibly in any non-team superhero film. Spider-Man’s corner of the Marvel Universe is well-populated with some of the best villains and supporting cast members in all of comics, but in this film, as in earlier movies, sometimes what makes Spider-Man such a special, enduring character gets lost in the shuffle.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is deeply flawed, but chief among those flaws is a tendency to rush headlong through iconic moments in Spidey’s history, with little heed paid to why those moments are so crucial to the character and his history. That problem isn’t unique to this entry (although it does feature at least one of the most glaring examples of it), and it’s something that is likely to plague future installments of the franchise, as well. For years, fans were concerned about superhero films not being faithful enough to the source material. TheAmazing Spider-Man franchise may be too faithful for its own good.

In any given telling of the Spider-Man legend, there are certain expectations that must be met. Peter Parker must be loveable but difficult, competent but fallible, and while he must be surrounded by nurturing, genuine friends (some of whom may be festering, lurking enemies waiting to happen) and family members, these relationships must, at all times, be made as complicated as possible by his life as Spider-Man. These are all things which made Spidey great in the first place, and helped set him apart from the other guys with stronger jawlines and better posture. 

Those relationships, and the difficulty therein, are as important to the Spider-Man legend as his powers. Spider-Man’s supporting cast was initially established over years of serial storytelling, and while the Marvel Comics of the ‘60s and ‘70s allowed readers to get to know the characters, even those destined for bad ends (whether it’s villainy or death) first, before breaking our hearts. Because of the time constraints of film, this often isn’t possible, and a certain storytelling shorthand is both required and expected. Fair enough.

Essentially, what any Spider-Man movie should be doing (but most don’t) is introducing Peter Parker and friends to the audience as if we have never met them before. The first Spider-Man trilogy did a reasonable job of this with James Franco’s Harry Osborn, who, at least throughout the first film, gave the uninitiated little indication that his future held a descent into the same mental illness, obsession, and megalomania that claimed his father. Regardless of how you feel about Harry's emergence as a villain Spider-Man 3, you can't say that they rushed him.

When it comes to visual spectacle, putting Spider-Man into battle with some science-enhanced, animal-themed foe is easier than it’s ever been. Without giving the characters space to breathe and grow, these conflicts, many of which are fraught with personal ties and resentment, are rendered meaningless. The most important moments in Spider-Man’s history are rarely written in the details of his actual battles. Nobody cares about the comic book specifics of his first fight with Doctor Octopus (or the Lizard...or Electro). The defining moments of Spider-Man’s life, with very few exceptions, take place OFF the battlefield: the death of Uncle Ben, his first meeting with Mary Jane Watson, his personal, private triumph over the pre-Venom symbiote. The problem is, there are a finite number of these moments, and Hollywood seems more eager to put their stamp on them than on actually earning them.

To be certain, these are superhero movies, where subtlety is rarely rewarded or even expected. But the Spider-Man films in particular, perhaps because of the character’s pop culture ubiquity thanks to everything from Saturday morning cartoons to canned pasta (something which, until recently, one couldn’t say about Captain America, Thor, or Iron Man), seem willing to coast on audience expectations better than many of their contemporaries. But who, exactly, is the audience they're catering to?

The previous Spider-Man franchise raked in a collective $2.5 billion worldwide, a number that so handily eclipses the combined sales of Spider-Man comics over the last decade or more that it's hardly worth mentioning. Audiences come to a Spider-Man movie to see him do "whatever a spider can." They aren't buying their tickets to see careful adaptations of Steve Ditko or John Romita panels on the big screen. As long as the characters behave within established parameters and you don't mess with Spidey's costume too much, it's unlikely that fans will complain.

Considering how few actual comics are sold compared to movie tickets, it's safe to say that most ticket buyers have never read a Spider-Man comic, and likely developed a relationship with the character through previous films, animated series, or even video games. There's nothing wrong with that, as Spidey is now considerably bigger than his comic book roots. But it does make some of the storytelling (and marketing) decisions in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a little harder to understand.

When Gwen Stacy died in 1973’s The Amazing Spider-Man#121, these things simply weren’t done. The hero’s girlfriend always survived the latest encounter with the villain of the month, and then went about her business being generally oblivious to her boyfriend’s double life. For Gwen to die, not just as collateral damage in a battle between Peter and the Green Goblin, but potentially because of a miscalculation by Spider-Man himself, was absolutely unheard of. It was shocking.

To be fair, the moment of Gwen's death on screen was as sudden and violent as it was in the comics. But Sony was so intent on teasing Gwen Stacy’s demise that they even released promotional images with Gwen wearing the exact same clothes from The Amazing Spider-Man#121. Who were they appealing to? A comparatively small portion of the audience that already knew Gwen was getting her ticket punched?

Gwen's death should not only be the moment that once and for all sets this version of the franchise apart from Sam Raimi’s, it should be as devastating as it was to comic book readers in 1973. Instead, we saw Gwen’s final moments in nearly every trailer and TV spot, and finally in an endless slow-motion fall. Had the filmmakers allowed Gwen’s cinematic death to be as unexpected as it was in 1973, superhero movies would have their first bona fide tearjerker on their hands.

There are three potential solutions which present themselves. The first would involve moving Spider-Man out of the cinemas and into the realm of television, merchandising rights and special effects budgets be damned. Since this is only slightly less unlikely than Sony ever relinquishing their hold on the Spider-Man rights, it can be dismissed outright. But it’s difficult not to look at a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and see the influence of Spidey and his supporting cast echoing throughout those seven seasons and get a little wistful.

The other would be to get away from Peter Parker for a bit, and introduce Ultimate Spider-Man's Miles Morales, something which Andrew Garfield certainly seems agreeable to. Unfortunately, Avi Arad recently shot this prospect down. But if it's always going to be Peter Parker under the mask, then eventually, the franchise is going to run out of "important moments" from the comics to depict.

More realistically, Sony could simply take the Iron Man approach and churn out Spider-Man films that, while faithful to the spirit and tone of the Spider-Man mythology, aren't beholden to particular moments from the comics. People buy tickets to see Spider-Man. Spidey's rogues' gallery is endless, and even his secondary villains are better than Iron Man's top flight guys. And, unlike Tony Stark or even Steve Rogers, the character of Peter Parker comes with a certain built-in charisma that doesn't necessarily depart with his lead actor.

Marvel's most recent success story, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, is a perfect example. While heavily influenced by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's comics, other than a similar cast of characters and the broad theme of Cap's former partner returning as a villain, The Winter Soldier shared few actual story beats with its comic book counterpart. Instead, it operated firmly within the confines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, shared enough superficial similarities with its source material to keep the hardcore fans happy, but allowed plenty of surprises both for new audiences and ardent Marvel historians. The argument could be made that it also had a considerably more well-established cinematic playground to tell its story in, but its most crucial moments (the revelation of Bucky's return, the emergence of the Falcon as Cap's new partner, the collapse of SHIELD) all felt earned within its running time. The same can't be said of Harry Osborn's transformation or Gwen's death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The secret of Marvel's success might not be their shared universe (it sure as hell isn't their villains), but rather their willingness to play with the formula. Just as Iron Man 3 felt more like a Shane Black action film than a superhero movie and Captain America 2 flirted with the spy genre, so could Sony release Spider-Man vs. Morbius the Living Vampire in October or a cyber-thriller pitting Spidey against the Smythe family and their robotic Spider-Slayers...and these movies would still print money. While there is little danger that the Spider-Man franchise is in danger of becoming anything less than immensely profitable, the cinematic Peter Parker seems doomed to be caught in a Groundhog Day of diminishing returns, forced to relive the best and worst moments of his life over and over again. Unless, of course, filmmakers stop trying to replicate particular moments from Spidey’s comic book history, and instead focus simply on making better films.

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While you're waiting for Andy Serkis to show up in Star Wars: Episode VII, you can enjoy his masterful motion capture work in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which hits theaters in July. Fortunately, the first full length trailer for the latest installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise is here right now.

It's safe to say that human/ape relations aren't at their best as this film opens. We're not picking sides, though.

Watch it here...

UPDATED: There's also an international trailer for the film, which has even more new footage. Thanks to JoBlofor the trailer and ScreenCrushfor the tip.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apesopens on July 11th. It's directed by Matt Reeves and stars the aforementioned Andy Serkis, Judy Greer, Toby Kebbell, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, and Kerri Russell.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to rewatch the entire original franchise while we wait for July to arrive.

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Dr. Franklin Storm will make his big screen debut as part of the Fantastic Fourreboot from Josh Trank. Reg E. Cathey (The Wire, Banshee, House of Cards) will play the father of Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm (played by Michael B. Jordan) and Sue "The Invisible Girl" Storm (played by Kate Mara). There are no details yet on how large a role he'll play in the film, which is currently in production.

The Fantastic Four also stars Toby Kebbell as Victor von Doom, Miles Teller as Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm, The Thing. The new Fantastic Four movie is directed by Josh Trank and will be released on June 19, 2015.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was certainly filled with (some might say too many) villains. The film featured Harry Osborn, the Rhino, and Electro, with almost every second of the movie presenting a classic Spidey Marvel villain doing something dastardly to poor Peter Parker. As many villains that were actually in the film, even more were hinted at. We saw teases of the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, and Mysterio. We also got to experience the film debuts of the future creator of the Spider Slayers, Spencer Smythe, and the beautiful Felicia Hardy, the woman who will one day don the fur color and claws of the Black Cat.

Between these teases, the Lizard from Mark Webb’s first film, and the Sam Raimi trilogy, a fan would think that Hollywood has covered all the great Spider-Man villains. Well, that fan would be wrong, as there are plenty more to go. So here is a look at the evildoers that Mark Webb and Sony could look to provide future menace for the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, bad guys who have yet to appear in any of the Raimi movies or the new series, and that weren't even teased in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Just a note, we didn’t forget Venom, it has been well documented that a Venom film is in production co-written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and directed by Kurtzman. If Sony is going to keep up the Spidey movie pace like they claim, they are going to need more villains...and here are some of the best.

25. Stegron, the Dinosaur Man
First appearance: Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #19 (1974)
Created by Len Wein and Gil Kane

With ties to the Lizard, Stegron might be obscure, but he could be an intriguing possibility for a future Spidey film. Who wouldn’t want to see Spider-Man fight dinosaurs? Stegron controls dinosaurs, which if you think about it, might be the most useless power ever. Let’s say Oscorp creates dinosaurs and then creates Stegron. It could happen right? There’s some strange things going on behind Oscorp walls. A Stegron versus Lizard battle could be a modern day Godzilla versus Gamera type situation, and let’s not pretend that Spidey fighting a T-Rex wouldn't make the five year old in all of us hyperventilate with excitement.

24. Videoman
First Appearance: Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Season 1, Episode 7 (1981)

Yeah, Videoman. To any child of the 80s, Videoman was as integral a part of the world of Spider-Man as the Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus. Videoman was introduced in the first season of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friendsand he trapped our intrepid heroes in a stand up arcade console. He was originally created by Electro, so there you go; Videoman already has ties to the villain that thrilled audiences in the most recent installment of the franchise. 

Max Dillon was a lonely dude, he seemed the type to play endless hours of Animal Crossing or what have you. Maybe he zapped his Xbox or something and boom, Videoman. Listen, in the 80s, there wasn’t a comic film every two months, or a bunch of TV shows featuring our beloved comic icons. We took what we had, and what we had was Videoman, and we loved him.

23. Man Wolf
First appearance: (as John Jameson) The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963)
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Poor John Jameson was sort of wasted in his first and only film appearance in Spider-Man 2. The son of J. Jonah Jameson was cuckolded and left at the altar by Mary Jane and then never heard from again. An American hero and astronaut deserves better, especially one that has a tendency to transform into a werewolf. J.J.J. is now clearly part of Sony’s new Spider-verse so it would be a simple matter to introduce his son, a character that Spidey rescued in his very first issue back in 1963.

When Jameson is exposed to the Godstone during a space mission, he was transformed into the Man Wolf. At first, Man Wolf was a fairly typical werewolf, but then he took to the cosmos and found that in space; he could control the wolf and became a galactic champion called Stargod. Yes, he was like Flash Gordon, but a werewolf, how is Sony not all over that for a spinoff movie?

22. The Prowler
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #78 (1969)
Created by Stan Lee and John Buscema

When young prodigy Hobie Brown lost his job, he grew disenfranchised with the system and created the Prowler armor to stick it to the man. When Spidey was believed to be part of the death of Captain Stacy, the Prowler decided to bring the wanted wall crawler to justice. The death of both Stacys have occurred in the Amazing Spider-Man films, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to have Spidey connected to both tragedies.

Armored heroes are certainly popular, and the Prowler is the closest thing Sony has to an Iron Man. Prowler and Spidey end up becoming pals, so if Mark Webb and company ever want to introduce any of the Spider Armors into the cinematic universe, inventor Hobie Brown can be a way to go. The Prowler is one of the richest but least talked about latter day Stan Lee characters, and it’s about time such a cool anti-hero has his day.

21. Speed Demon
First appearance: (as the Whizzer) Avengers #70 (1969) (as Speed Demon) Amazing Spider-Man #222 (1981)
Created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema

The Flash is coming to television while Quicksilver is going to appear in two, count 'em two, film franchises in the next year. As all this proves, everyone loves a speedster and with the comic’s heroic runners present and accounted for across all platforms of media, maybe it’s time fans get to experience a faster than light d-bag. Recently, in the pages of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man (and if you’re not reading this title, what’s wrong with you?), the Speed Demon stole a puppy. At super speed. He’s a dick. And if featured in a future Spider-Man film he can be a high profile dick. Who wouldn’t want to see Andrew Garfield kick Speed Demon’s puppy stealing ass?

20. Swarm
First appearance: Champions #14 (1977)
Created by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne

He’s a Nazi made of bees, what else do you need to know? Who can forget his signature cry of “SWWWWARRRRMMMM” from his appearance on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends? Swarm could be another Oscorp experiment gone horribly wrong. I mean really wrong. I mean Nazi made of angry bees wrong. In a cloak.

19. Big Wheel
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #182 (1978)
Created by Marv Wolfman, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito

Of all the villains that have not yet appeared in a Spider film, none are more worthy… no, I can’t DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Big Wheel, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, what an ass. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’d like to buy a vowel HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Look at this schmuck HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ok, moving on.

The real 19. Hydro Man
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #212 (1981)
Created by Dennis O'Neil and John Romita, Jr.

Seriously, this list could almost be called the top 25 villains created by John Romita Sr and Jr...jeez, what a creative force of nature that family is. Anyway, we got to see Sandman featured in Spider-Man 3, and while that isn’t the best Spidey movie of the bunch, the Sandman scenes were really powerful and visually stunning. If Sony were to bring Sandman back, why not make it a duo with Hydro Man? If you think about it, Hydro Man has a pretty terrifying power, the ability to drown anyone, anywhere, or sneak into any facility through a faucet or a, eww, toilet.

The comics never really gave Hydro Man his due, but let’s all be honest, the second you saw the water aliens in The Abyssback in the day, you thought of old Hydro Man. And who can forget, Amazing Spider-Man#217 (1981), where Hydro Man and Sandman bonded to form the gigantic Mud Thing, an event so traumatic, it led to Sandman reforming, another seminal Spider event that would make good film fodder. And think of the Poland Spring endorsement deals!

18. Spider Queen
First Appearance: The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 2 #15 (2004)
Created by Paul Jenkins and Michael Ryan

Lots of classic villains on this list, but other than Morlun, there’s not a great deal of modern baddies. Well, the Spider Queen is certainly deserving of consideration. The Queen was originally the first female Marine to go into combat in World War II, when she was exposed to radiation from an atomic bomb test; her “insect gene” is activated. She wants to transform the world’s population into arachnid hybrids like her, and was the big bad in Dan Slott’s fantastic Spider-Island event. Yes Sony, we want to see a Spider Islandmovie. It isn’t really necessary to add the WWII elements, although they are very cool, just expose the future Queen to Parker’s blood at Oscorp, and boom, instant arch villain.

17. Jack O’Lantern
First appearance: Machine Man #19 (1981)
Created by Tom DeFalco and Steve Ditko

Another heir to Green Goblin legacy, the villain known as Jack O’Lantern started out as something of a joke. There have been a number of Jacks over the years, and they have gotten more deadly as time has marched on. The original Jack, Jason Macendale took up the legacy of the Hobgoblin, but it’s the newest Jack O’Lantern introduced in the pages of Venom that has become one of the most horrific new villains in the Marvel Universe.

If Sony needs another villain, or if the Venomfilm doesn’t go the Carnage route yet, Jack O’Lantern could be a perfect threat for the newly minted Venom to go up against. As a child, this new, unnamed Jack O’Lantern murdered his own parents under orders from the Crime Master and claims to have killed all the former wearers of the Jack O’Lantern suit. Ties to the Goblin legend and ties to Venom, and a cold blooded psychotic freak, this often overlooked spook show has all the makings of an A-list film villain.

16. Hammerhead
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #113 (1972)
Created by Gerry Conway and John Romita, Sr.

Spidey’s war with organized crime is on hold while he deals with Oscorp and their future cadre of enhanced killers, but crime is still rampant and the tattooed killer is still out there. Maybe the Rhino and his crew were stealing that plutonium for Hammerhead in ASM2, a mobster with a very deep history with the Russian mob? Hammerhead is the most Dick Tracy-esque of all Marvel villains, and might be a bit anachronistic for the big screen, or he might be the exact thing future Spidey films need to be different. How many hi-tech villains can one franchise have? Maybe we need a little old school evil, and this cigar chomping old school yegg fits the bill.

15. Tarantula
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #134 (1974)
Created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru

What’s cooler than a mustachioed mercenary with pointy shoes? Pretty much nothing really, am I right? Tarantula was one of the cooler Spidey villains introduced in the '70s and would fit into the animal themed villains prevalent in the new franchise. In the pages of the comics, Tarantula transforms into a Man Spider, and we all know how much Hollywood likes its giant beasties. C’mon, it’s a dude with a bandana mask and stabby boots, how is that not marketable?

14. The Beetle
First appearance: Strange Tales #123 (1964)
Created by Stan Lee and Carl Burgos

The original Beetle was created by Carl Burgos, the creator of Marvel’s Original super-hero the Golden Age Human Torch. That’s some cool stuff right there. Anyway, the Beetle is a unique visual with his odd extendy fingers, his unique helmet and his funky wings. The original Beetle armor would have a really cool retro vibe if put in the film, or Sony can go the route of the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon by making the Beetle a silent, armored killer. Whatever way they go, as all Thunderboltfans know, Abner Jenkins becomes more than a one note villain when he turns to the side of the angels while a member of the T-Bolts, and that little added wrinkle could be just the edge the Beetle needs to be a pretty compelling move villain.

[related article: The Potential Villains of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Sinister Six]

13. Shocker
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #46 (1967)
Created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.

No, it’s not true that Stan Lee was original going to call this guy the Vibrator. The Shocker has always been kind of a loser; actually he was always kind of more like movie version of Electro than the classic Electro was. With his vibro shock harness and a persecution complex, the Shocker can be dangerous, but he has always been played for laughs after his initial appearances. The films could certainly use more cannon fodder villains, or maybe there is a story there for a villain who has always been second rate.

Marvel’s portrayal of the Shocker in Superior Foes of Spider-Man (there’s that book again, think maybe you should check it out, hmm?), has added some fantastic comedic elements and some depth to a former one note character. And you got to love that costume. A classic Romita design if there ever was one. Maybe if he was called the Vibrator he would have gotten more respect, or at least an interesting licensing deal in the adult toy market...and I don’t mean high end action figures.

12. Sin Eater
First appearance: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107 (1985)
Created by Peter David and Rich Buckler

When Sin Eater arrived on the scene in the early 80s, things got very real for Spider-Man and his world. The Death of Jean Dewolffwas the first major work by legendary writer Peter David and it remains one of the most intense, grounded, and violent Spider-Man stories of all time. Any true Spider-Fan should be giddy with anticipation at the prospects of seeing the Sin Eater on the big screen.

It can be argued that the Sin Eater saga was when Spidey grew up and the saga also started Eddie Brock on his dark path as the photojournalist wrongly accused the wrong man of being the Sin Eater. Any movie focused on Sin Eater would be a departure for the Spidey films, but it would certainly make Sony’s flagship hero standout from the crowded super-hero pack.

11. Vermin
First appearance: Captain America #272 (1982)
Created by J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck

The current Spider-films certainly like their human/animal hybrids, and there are none of those combos more horrifically disturbing than Eddie Whelan, the creature known as Vermin. In the comics, Vermin was created by none other than Armin Zola, and while that particular immoral super scientist is currently locked inside of a Disney errr...I mean HYDRA computer, there is no reason that poor Eddie can’t be just another victim of an Oscorp experiment.

In fact, Jamie Foxx’s Electro also kind of reminded me of Vermin, not in terms of powers, but in terms of motivation. Vermin was the perpetual victim, a misunderstood and tormented creature suddenly given unspeakable power. Like Curt Conners’ ability to control lizards, Vermin can control rats and stray dogs, so there is film precedent for Vermin’s abilities. Vermin also ties into the classic Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline, and wouldn’t we all like to see that story adapted to the screen with Vermin along for the ride!

10. Tombstone
First appearance: Web of Spider-Man #36 (1988)
Created by Gerry Conway and Alex Saviuk

Lonnie Lincoln, albino gangster and cold-blooded killer, has been one of Spidey’s most enduring street level foes. In fact, when Daredevil absconded with Kingpin, Tombstone took over as head gangster of Spidey’s world. Tombstone is an incredible visual and is a very different animal than the science freaks Spidey has been fighting in the recent set of films. The comic Tombstone has a deep connection to Daily Bugle editor in chief Robbie Robertson, so once the Bugle crew is introduced in earnest; it could also be time to introduce the iciest gangster in Spidey history, the stone cold killer, Tombstone.

9. Carrion
First appearance: Spectacular Spider-Man #25 (1978)
Created by Bill Mantlo, Jim Mooney, and Frank Springer

Whoa Nellie, is this a complicated one. Carrion started out as the rotting clone of Miles Warren (more on him in a bi) but the Carrion persona ended up being wielded by two other sick and twisted individuals. A future film could jettison all that and just focus on the villain’s horrific power set, the ability to turn organic matter to dust, telepathy, levitation, telekinesis, and intangibility.  

No matter who wielded the power, Carrion was a freak of science, a lab-created nightmare and could be Harry Osborn’s ultimate weapon against Peter Parker or a master villain in his own right. Carrion was also a running buddy of Carnage and could fit into any saga that utilizes that particular maniac, like teaming John Wayne Gacy and Jeffry Dahmer, but with really, really scary super-powers.

8. Morlun
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #30 (2001)
Created by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr

Not every idea J. Michael Straczynski presented in his run on Amazing Spider-Man was gold (Gwen and Norman Osborn having an affair my webbed butt), but the introduction of the villainous Morlun was the stuff of legend. When Morlun appears, fans get the feeling that Spidey cannot win; he is the ultimate test for Peter and one that Peter has barely survived. Morlun is the devourer of those with Spider powers, an ancient evil that does not rest.

To Morlun, the ol' Web-Head is a totem, a being that carries an animal spirit, and to Morlun, these beings are dangerous and must be destroyed. As we all know, there are plenty of totemistic beings in the Spider film universe, which could be just what Morlun needs to make his big screen debut. Morlun would up the ante for Peter, a foe that really tests Peter’s power and will. Plus, Morlun rocks an ascot, so you know he’s badass.

7. The Jackal
First appearance (As Miles Warren) The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (1965) (As the Jackal) The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974)
Created by (Miles Warren) Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Jackal) Gerry Conway and Ross Andru

We all love Emma Stone, and there’s a way to bring the actress back, a convoluted way, but a way nonetheless. The mad geneticist Miles Warren, a former professor of Gwen and Peter, cloned poor Gwen, kicking off a cycle of torture for Peter Parker that ended with one of the most infamous stories of all time, The Clone Saga.

The Jackal was in love with Gwen and couldn’t live without her; he blamed Peter for her death and created a clone of Gwen and later, a clone of Spider-Man himself. Actually, with Gwen’s science and academic background and the marketing potential of bringing Emma Stone back, this story of the Jackal could be rather intriguing to Sony. Once Mary Jane is introduced into the fold, wouldn’t a clone of Gwen be just the right things to screw everything up for poor Peter?

6. Chameleon
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963)
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

He was the first costumed villain Spider-Man ever faced. He too could fit into the whole animal villain hybrid thing featured in Sony’s current Spidey series, and he fits right into the themes of conspiracy and paranoia that have been prevalent in the last two Spider-man films. He’s the Chameleon, and that may have been his mask in the latest round of Spidey 2 easter eggs (although we’re banking on that it’s Mysterio).

Chameleon has deep familial ties with Kraven the Hunter who Marc Webb seems to like as a potential villain for The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Whether with Kraven or solo, the Chameleon is one of Spidey’s deadliest foes because he could literally be anyone. The first Spider-Man villain definitely deserves some film love, and his power set would bring some unique challenges to the big screen.

5. Morbius, the Living Vampire
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (1971)
Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane

We saw his name in the latest film and we were shuddering with the prospect of Morbius coming to the big screen. One quick experiment utilizing bats at Oscorp and boom, Sony has Marvel’s first big screen vampire. Morbius has starred in a number of comic series over the years, and if done just right, the science vampire could carry a potential franchise of his own.

Morbius was once dying of a rare blood disease, but found himself transformed into a bat-like creature of the night when he tries to devise a cure for his ailment. This tale of life and death has enough drama to carry a film and present Spider-Man with a very different, very tragic sort of foe. A post modern, high tech vampire, now that’s a concept that deserves its time in the sun. This vampire don’t sparkle, he just kicks acres of ass, and it’s time mainstream Spidey fans get to experience the Living Vampire.

4. Hobgoblin
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (1983)
Created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr.

Spider-Man’s greatest foe of the post Bronze Age era. Many different men have worn the mask of the Hobgoblin to bedevil Peter Parker for decades. Whether it was the original Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley or the arrogant scoundrel Phil Ulrich of the modern era, the image of the Hobgoblin has always caused Spidey fans’ hearts to skip a beat. After the unthinkable act committed by Harry Osborne as the Green Goblin in the latest movie (hands up if got freaked when you saw poor Gwen’s green jacket), the  vile legacy of the Goblin is secure, and the Hobgoblin has always been the next step in that heritage of evil.

Sony is in this for the long game, and could feature different men behind the Hobgoblin mask or have Harry take up the legacy at some future date as his Goblin powers evolve. Seriously, who can forget the cover of Hobgoblin’s first appearance? The villain ripping an effigy of Spider-Man in half is burned into the brains of Spider-fans forever. Not many villains secure their legacy on their first cover appearance alone, but Hobgoblin did and it's time that legacy extended to other media.

3. The Scorpion
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #19 (1964)
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Possibly the longest running and most important Spidey villain not yet featured in a film, the Scorpion has deep ties to Spidey, Venom, and the freshly sort-of introduced J. Jonah Jameson. Max Gargan was a salty dude, a skell that was hired by Jameson to at first track Peter Parker and then, to be grafted into the Scorpion battle suit, a suit which he got trapped in, making him into a freak and a bitter killer. The hate filled Gargan dedicated his life to destroying both Spidey and Jameson.

The insect motif, the quest for vengeance, the obsession, all these aspects of the Scorpion would make Gargan a perfect screen villain. Gargan later became bonded to the Venom suit, so the villain can potentially start in a Spidey sequel and continue into Venom’s franchise, taking multiple villainous identities. C’mon Sony, the Scorpion is a no brainer and can fill out more than one dance card.

2. Carnage
First appearance (as Cletus Kasady) The Amazing Spider-Man #344 (1991)
Created by David Michelinie, Erik Larsen, and Mark Bagley

Just the words “Maximum Carnage” alone would send children of the Chromium Age into a tizzy. You can all but bank on the fact that Carnage will be the heavy in the aforementioned Venomfilm, but maybe serial killer Cletus Kasady can be introduced in a future Spidey film before being bonded with his symbiote in Venom.

It would be hard to do Carnage justice in a PG-13 movie as he is more of a Freddy Krueger type than a classic Marvel villain. Carnage is sometimes maligned as being an empty one-note villain, but there can be no arguing that he is one of the most popular Spider-Man villains created in the last 25 years...plus, he has a cadre of maniacs and monsters that can also be used to bedevil Spider-Man. With Carnage can come Shriek, the Spider Doppelganger, Carrion, and other assorted maniacs and nightmares. 

1. Kingpin
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #50 (1967)
Created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.

This might be legally tricky, but after the whole Oscorp/ Sinister Six thing comes to head in the next film, Spidey will need a new type of enemy. Peter Parker is still searching for the man with the tattoo that killed Uncle Ben. What if that killer worked for Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime? Spider-Man has a rich history of fighting street level crime that equals his history fighting fantastic hi-tech, costumed foes. The Kingpin can bring in a whole range of super mobsters and assassins and provide enough fodder for a second Spidey trilogy.

The Kingpin is the logical villain in Marvel’s Netflix Daredevilshow, but if the character exists in that odd two studio nether realm like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, than he is a must for feature consideration. It’s only fair, after all, Kingpin started out a Spidey villain before becoming an integral part of Daredevil’s world, and that history between mob boss and web spinner is worthy of exploration.

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When director Ishiro Honda made Gojira (1954), his darkly poetic and somber parable about Japanese history and the nightmarish dangers posed by nuclear weapons, it’s probable he had no clue whatsoever the film would spawn even one sequel, let alone 27 of the damn things. It wasn’t exactly one of those big, flashy, instant franchise summer blockbusters after all. Besides, he killed off Godzilla pretty thoroughly there at the end.

It’s also likely he never could have guessed his vengeful demonic metaphor would evolve into a goofy cartoon for a while, become a defender of Japan, would have a couple kids, and would become a symbol of everything from environmental responsibility to the Cold War to the economy. And I bet he also couldn’t imagine his deeply tragic film turning into an action series or a string of hi-tech military thrillers. But all those things happened over the next sixty years, and no one has a clue where it will be headed next.

At this point in history, the Godzilla franchise actually consists of three distinct series which happened to occur in succession. Each has its own tone, its own style and focus, and apart from the presence of Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and the Mothra Twins, none has any connection with the other. They’re known, logically enough, as Series I (1954-1975), Series II (1984-1995), and Series III or The Millennium Series (1999-2004). Okay, with me so far?

Series I, also logically enough, begins in 1954 with Honda’s brooding and brilliant original. Although inspired by King Kong and the previous year’s Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, it took a much darker turn than either, filling the screen with death and mourning and mass destruction on a scale never seen in a monster movie before, and ended with a sacrificial suicide. It was the last time we’d be seeing anything like that in a Godzilla film.

The picture was such a hit producer Tomoyuki Tanaka rushed a sequel into production. The following year’s Godzilla Raids Again didn’t have Honda at the helm, and you can tell. After some fancy footwork to explain the presence of Godzilla after he’d been left a pile of bones in the original, he and the giant ankylosaurus Anguirus end up in Japan where they duke it out a couple times and crush a few buildings. Then Godzilla is buried in a man-made avalanche. There’s little connection with the original save for a few film clips and an appearance by Dr. Yamane to offer some questionable speculative biology.

While not a bad film, it’s not exactly an allegory, and lacks the poetry of the original. It’s just another giant monster picture. Much more than the original though, it was this sequel that established the general formula that most Godzilla films to come would follow. That is, the climax involves Godzilla wrestling (or more accurately wrasslin’) one or more other giant monsters, preferably in a major urban center to maximize the on-screen carnage. Prior to the fight a few human dramas would play out as characters wondered when, where, and if Godzilla would attack. Afterward Godzilla would either go away on his own accord or be dispatched in some decidedly temporary fashion.

It would be another seven years before Godzilla and Honda both returned to the franchise, and it was with 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla that Honda really put his mark on the series (again) and gave us the look and style and tone we think of today when we remember the classic Godzilla films. With his visual flair, he turned films like Mothra vs. Godzilla (1962) and Destroy All Monsters (1968) into bright, colorful, and surprisingly complex surreal fairy tales.

He also began to establish the mythology surrounding the giant monsters. It was a world in which kaiju were commonplace and recognized, but also a world of very short attention spans. No one in these films ever recalls Godzilla had stomped through Tokyo a year earlier, or that Rodan had passed through six months before that. Everyone’s so damned surprised when Mothra or King Ghidorah show up for the fifth time. After every attack it seemed, the flattened city was rebuilt good as new and everyone forgot about it. As the other monsters developed their own franchises, the universe and mythology Honda created would follow them. Apart from the monsters and the Mothra Twins, there is no continuity between the films in Series I, no through stories. The same actors may appear in several films, but always in different roles unconnected with any other film. Each picture is an independent entity.

Along with Honda, much of the credit for the lasting wonderment of these films must be given to composer Akira Ifukube. From his unmistakable three-note Godzilla leitmotif to the Mothra Twins’ song to the unique grandeur of the varied scores for each of the films, Ifukube’s soundtracks booted the films up several notches beyond the standard giant monster pictures, transforming them into magical and memorable experiences.

Franchise-wise, two important things happened under Honda’s watch. First, when it came to the human characters, he always focused on the little guy, the Everyman, the Outsider. The military might come tromping out in every picture to try and stop Godzilla, but they would always (ALWAYS!) fail miserably, and would for the most part remain a bunch of faceless drones. They never learned a thing from the experience and apparently had the attention span of most everyone else in Japan (“Aim the cannons at him!”). The heroes of his films were almost inevitably scientists, young reporters, or struggling inventors: intelligent, likeable people who stumble upon the one major clue that might save the day. He had little time for authority figures of any kind, and most of the businessmen and real estate developers in his films turn out to be aliens or stupidly crooked.

The other addition that marked his time at the series began with 1964’s Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. As Japan moved further away from the horrors of Hiroshima, audiences didn’t need any more reminders like, say, a giant scaly nuclear weapon showing up every year or so to ruin everything again. As a result, Godzilla started to evolve. At film’s end, confronted with a monster even nastier than himself, the demon Godzilla agrees reluctantly to defend the planet instead of destroying it. Slowly over the next several films he would become a heroic figure, a Good Guy, a demigod people called upon for help, even as he continued to knock buildings over and set things on fire in the process.

Around the time Honda left the franchise in the late ‘60s, this idea got a little out of hand. Finding their primary audience was the pre-teen crowd, Toho began aiming the films directly at them. This is always a mistake, and usually a dead giveaway a franchise is in deep trouble. A kid in shorts and a baseball cap was introduced as a recurring character type, and Godzilla had a son, Minya, who occasionally spoke English and was by all accounts not too bright. Godzilla himself changed physically, his eyes growing larger, his arms and legs and face becoming more human. In later films he even started dancing, using sign language, and doing funny tricks, anything to distract and amuse the youngsters.

Under other directors like Jun Fukuda the films remained colorful fairy tales, the focus stayed on scientists and inventors, and Ifukube’s scores continued to elevate the goings-on, but the stories grew simpler, the films started looking pretty shabby and threadbare, and Godzilla’s sparkle dimmed a bit as budgets and audiences alike shrank. It lasted until 1975, when after 21 years and 15 films Toho decided to give Godzilla a bit of a rest until they could figure out where to go next.

A decade later they returned with Godzilla 1985, a film which established the look and style of what became Series II. A number of changes had been made in order to recapture the magic of the classic originals, but for a new age. The special effects, which had been dealt a mighty body blow in the final years of Series I, were once again top notch, with sharp and believable monster suits, miniature cities, and heavy-duty pyrotechnics galore. Even if Ifukube didn’t do all the music, his themes were revived and placed front and center.

More so than in Series I, the saturated colors and overall style were more consistent from film to film, and there are even hints of the occasional through story (or at least returning characters). Instead of surreal fairy tales, the films became action-adventure fantasies aimed squarely at a teenage audience, complete with scattered pop cultural references (Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, etc.) in both the dialogue and the storylines. By the ‘80s, Japan was no longer recovering from a devastating war, and had in fact become a major economic world power. Under Honda the films had delved into several social and political issues beyond nuclear testing (pollution, land development, extraterrestrials), and Series II continued with that. The Cold War raged around Japan, there was a national debate over the development and use of nuclear power, the environment was still a concern, people were getting antsy over the nightmarish possibilities of genetic engineering, and all this was reflected in many of the stories.

Godzilla himself is no longer the goofball with anger issues he was toward the end of Series I, but once again an unstoppable destructive force who can be pretty darn mean when he wants to, and looks it. Gone are the big googly eyes and the long skinny arms and legs as he again resembles his original 1954 self. Still, he’s become a more complex figure. While he’s a volcano of sheer apocalyptic glee in Godzilla 1985, we’re told repeatedly it wasn’t his fault; he’s only what we made him. In later films in the series, however, he still has that heroic air about him as he defends the earth against assorted monstrous no-goodniks.

So he’s a complicated one, that Godzilla, and he’s made even more complex as the series progresses as assorted experts step forward to explain some crazy new theory about what he really is, where he came from, and why he does what he does. That hadn’t happened since 1955's Godzilla Raids Again. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s he was merely accepted for what he was, no one did much speculating about his motivations. Godzilla was simply a menacing and deadly potentiality is all, like tornadoes in the Midwest or massive earthquakes in California. There was no need to psychoanalyze him. That changed in the ‘80s when everyone was psychoanalyzing any damn thing they could get their hands on.

On the human end of things, there was another major change in Series II. The human characters in Series I tended to be outsiders—scientists working alone, inventors who couldn’t make a sale, reporters whose stories never ran—people scuffling around the edges of society. The focus in Series II is still on scientists, inventors and other eccentrics, but they tend more often to be people working for the government or large corporations.

Early in the series we’re introduced to The Counter-G Bureau, a vast and far-reaching government agency established to study, confront, and hopefully defeat Godzilla, and its military wing, G-Force (which is about as effective as the old Self-Defense Force was in the early films). The CGB is essentially Homeland Security focused on Godzilla instead of terrorists, if anyone can really tell the difference. Although still concentrated on the everyman, the focus was starting to shift to more powerful collective organizations.

In one form or another, though the name might change slightly, some incarnation of the Counter-G Bureau would play a major role in most of the films to come. Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), in which he battles a giant genetically-engineered evil rose bush, also introduces Miki, a psychic working for the CGB. She can hear the thoughts of plants, has a psychic connection to Godzilla, and became the first returning (human) character in franchise history, appearing in several films. Godzilla’s latest son (he has one per series) likewise crops up in four of the films. He doesn’t do a whole lot, but at least he’s not quite as annoying as that little fucker Minya.

Also in Series II, films begin to make references to earlier entries. Idle speculation over the origins of the alien monster in Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994) brings up both Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992). Likewise, pieces of high-tech military machinery wrecked in one film are referenced or rebuilt in another. But the stories themselves remained independent and unconnected. It was an odd move, as if the series was finally becoming conscious of itself, but only tentatively. I’m thinking it may have remained so tentative and hesitant because self-consciousness was in direct contradiction to the mythology, in which every Godzilla appearance is a new and unprecedented catastrophe.

At the end of 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Godzilla dies after battling a monster evolved from the Oxygen Destroyer that killed him really, really dead in the ‘54 original. Before dying, however, he breathes angry life into his sedate adolescent son, who then walks off into the sunset, presumably to start making plans for his own first attack on Hokaido.

After ten years and another seven films, Toho once more sent Godzilla on a vacation in 1995, ostensibly to allow for a three-picture deal with Sony, who planned to produce a quick run of American Godzilla films, the first to be written and directed by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, which mercifully didn’t last long, and just four years after dying in the surf and sending his son off to take his place, Godzilla’s vacation was cut short. It turned out some serious damage control was necessary after the Sony mess, so he was called back to kick off the Millennium Series with ‘99’s Godzilla 2000.

Like Godzilla 1985, Godzilla 2000 was a stand-alone picture designed to re-establish the series for the new millennium and hopefully recapture the spirit of the old days while making everyone forget about Matthew Broderick. G-Force and the Counter-G Bureau are gone, replaced here by the Godzilla Prediction Network, a tiny operation run by an idealistic computer genius and his precocious if abrasive daughter. He’s convinced a better understanding of Godzilla could be used for the overall benefit of mankind. His arch-enemy is the brash young CEO of a multinational corporation obsessed with killing Godzilla. So once again we return to the standard franchise trope of heroic intelligent outsiders and evil businessmen.

Godzilla himself has undergone another major makeover, with larger, sharper back spines, heavier legs, and a smaller, meaner head. The special effects have advanced as well. And while in 1985 Godzilla found himself in the midst of a US and Soviet nuclear standoff, here he stays hep to the age when he’s confronted with an alien entity sucking up all the computer data in Tokyo.

The next two films were also stand-alones in the old style, but with more of an emphasis on military hardware and the return of a government agency now called the Anti-G Unit. The films also contain a number of sly in-jokes taking some well-deserved swipes at the ‘98 American version, just in case Godzilla 2000 didn’t get the whole job done. It wasn’t until 2002’s reboot of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla that the third series firmly latched onto a style and tone that set it apart from the others.

If the films of Series I were Surreal fairy tales and Series II were action-adventure fantasies, The Millennium Series was marked by hi-tech military action thrillers inspired by everything from the Matrix films, Tom Clancy novels, and Transformers cartoons to anime and video games. The occasional young eccentric scientist may sneak into the mix on occasion, but the focus here is on tough-talking soldiers and their equally tough-talking superior officers as they try to develop a giant bipedal weapons delivery system that might defeat Godzilla. For only the second time in franchise history, two of the three final films have an ongoing storyline, while the last film, Godzilla Final Wars (2004), though still fitting the above description, is essentially a remake of 1968’s Destroy All Monsters.

Honda, who was no fan of the military following the war, would likely have been mortified to see what his film had spawned. By this point Ifukube was long gone, and only the tiniest snatches of his music remain. What we get instead are mostly generic electronic and techno scores so common to the era, with occasional pop songs tossed in for the kids.

Visually, the films adopted all the annoying bad habits that were so popular at the time: that irritating digital grain, the shaky cam, the seizure-inducing quick cuts, the washed-out colors, and an absolutely adamant refusal on the part of the cinematographer to use lights. There are plenty of explosions and deafening Dolby sound effects though, and often those seem to fill in for some less than compelling stories. In an odd backwards twist, even though most of the special effects remain practical, overall the films look as if they’ve been CGI’d to death.

And Godzilla? Well, Godzilla is once again a hulking demon, a radioactive hurricane with a tail, and despite all the human hubris at play, our military force is still no match for him. That’s a good thing. At the same time, though, in these later films Godzilla is almost an afterthought, a placeholder, just a shadow to give all the military hardware on display something to fire at. Apart from the brief prologue, Godzilla isn’t even mentioned in Final Wars until the last 25 minutes of the film. It’s the interaction between the human characters, who are ultimately as faceless as soldiers have always been in Toho films, that remains the concern of the filmmakers. The films that give the Millennium Series its unique identity are war movies, in which the enemy doesn’t show up until the very end for one big bang, and by then we’re praying Godzilla incinerates all those annoying sonsabitches and their big, dumb, dickswinging machines. On the bright side, he usually does.

Okay, so the Godzilla films began with a focus on intelligent outsiders and oddballs in a string of stand-alone films, moved on to Series II’s bureaucratic government agencies and military units with some self-referencing and returning characters, then to the technology and military hardware itself in the Millennium Series with a slight leaning toward ongoing soap opera storylines. If the trend continues in this direction when the franchise returns to Toho, my guess is in Series IV we should be expecting, well, Pacific Rim as a limited-run mini on HBO.

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For years Christopher Mintz-Plasse has been a staple of R-rated comedies, often providing a familiar face for “awkward” characters, but also giving a subversive streak of genuine earnestness and sympathy in otherwise sarcastically smug fare. Yes, he was McLovin in Superbad, but he also is the put-upon nerd heart of the underrated Role Models and the desperate, disappointing son in Kick-Ass.

In Neighbors he is a stoner frat boy with a gargantuan dick that ends up wrapping all the way around a crucial conflict between a married couple (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) and his fraternity leaders (Zac Efron and Dave Franco).

An obvious departure for Mintz-Plasse, we were able to sit down with him last week to discuss the role, how it avoided the NC-17, and just what goes into making a successful raunchy comedy. We also were able to discuss his Funny or Die videos with Franco and potential upcoming projects like the definite How to Train Your Dragon 2 and the not-so-confirmed Kick-Ass 3.

What attracted you to Neighbors?

Christopher Mintz-Plasse: I was at an engagement party about a year and a half ago for [a friend] and Evan Goldberg, the writer and producer, is a mutual friend, so he was there. We were catching up, and he told me he was doing a draft on this movie, and it was called Townies at the time. He said there’s a bunch of frat kids, and he had a role in there for me that he wanted me to do. He told me that the character had a big penis [laughs] that was his main point, which is my character’s main point. And I was like, “Dude, I’ll do anything you guys work on. You guys have been nothing but kind to me.” So two weeks later, he sent me a script and an offer, and I just got attached. It was amazing.

Were you interested in working with Nick Stoller as well since this is your first collaboration?

It is. Stoller is one of my favorite comedic directors—one of my favorite directors that I’ve worked with to date. Sarah Marshall, Five-Year Engagement, Get Him to the Greek, there is always so much heart and so much hilarity in his movies, and to work with him on-set, to see that—this might have been one of his bigger movies—but to see how calm he is keeping on-set. There were 500 extras there one day, and for every party scene, there’s like a couple hundred people. But he kept it so calm and cool, and he’s making jokes, and in the comedy scenes, he’d be writing alts behind the camera, and pitching lines, and throwing you lines while doing coverage. It was pretty amazing.

Scoonie is a different role for you. He was a little more laid back, a little more relaxed.

Yeah, he was very laid back, but also he was an idiot! Which was very fun to play. I wanted to play him super dumb where the only thing he cares about is his penis.

So that was part of the selling point where this character only has this going for him?

Yeah, there’s actually like five scenes where I showed my “dick” again, but if they put that in the movie, it would be NC-17, so we had to keep it to one.

That will be the unrated version.

Yeah deleted scenes, there will be a lot in there.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie was when you were all doing Robert De Niro impersonations. Did you get to pick yours?

That was fun. You know, I think we were in the rehearsal, and I don’t think mine was written. I can’t remember, but they either told me I was “Raging Bull” or I pitched it, because I knew I would have my huge dick, and I thought it’d be funny if I was wearing those boxing shorts and having my junk hanging out of the [end]. So, if you look at me the next time you see it, when it’s a two-shot of Zac [Efron] and Dave [Franco] over here, and Jerrod [Carmichael] over here, you can see at the very bottom of my shorts, there’s just the head of the dick sticking out.

I did not catch that!

Yeah, no one will probably. Hopefully when people read this, they will.

When it comes to being in a movie fraternity, did you guys do anything to get in character or did you have any fraternity activities with Dave and Zac?

Dave and Zac, and I went out, and we got pretty drunk one of the first nights we hung out. We wanted to bond, so we went out to a bar and then a buddy’s party. And that was really fun; we got really close that night. But also my brother was in a fraternity at Fresno State, so I called him and asked him for a bunch of tips. He sent me over this creed that they would say, and it’s actually word-for-word what it is in the movie. We are Sigma-Delta-Psi, the light, the way, whatever that we say was ripped off from brother’s fraternity.

So you provided that for the movie?

Yeah.

Did you get Zac, or for that matter, Seth Rogen to play the “You’re So Hot” game with you and Dave?

No! But that would be fun. Seth would be amazing at that, but we just kept that between us. We actually shot a third one that’s going to be coming out soon, and we might have pushed the envelope a little too much on this one.

Where did the idea for these videos come from?

That was an improv game that me and my high school improv team would do, because we would do improv during school and we had to keep it “PG,” but we wanted to try some improv that was rated R-style. So, we made up that game, and I showed it to Dave on Fright Night when we were working together, and he fell in love with it. He’s like “we have to shoot this for Funny or Die,” and I was like, “Alright man, I’ll do whatever. It’s kind of wild, but I’ll do it!” And people seem to enjoy it weirdly enough.

They’re very funny.

They’re weird, but thank you. [Laughs]

Speaking of improv, how much of improvisation was on this movie?

It was a good amount. I’d say 60 percent was written, 40 percent was improv. They obviously encourage improv, but the script is so funny at first. You come on and do a couple of takes that way, do a little improv, and then you have Stoller, Seth, Evan, and the two writers behind the camera just writing new alts. So, they’d be just tossing new lines. For every one joke, they’d have seven or eight extra. It’s pretty amazing.

Did any of your improvisations or any of the alternates they gave you end up in the movie?

Probably. I’m trying to think. I’m not in too much of the movie. I know a lot of my stuff got cut, because a lot of my stuff involved my dick. So, there’s probably a lot more in the deleted scenes that made it.

Well that means you’re going to be one of the biggest selling points for the unrated version.

Absolutely! I should have my own commercial.

How would you compare this set with being on a [Judd] Apatow movie, because I know that he did not produce this movie?

He did not, but it’s very similar. Superbad to this set is so easy-going, and everyone’s just laughing and having a good time. So, it’s very similar, absolutely. They encourage improv and try to make everything catered to how natural you can be, and what your strong suits are.

I mentioned this character is a little different. Do you have any interest in doing more varied kind of characters, even dramatic ones?

Of course, I would love to. I think right now, I have a nice thing going in the comedy world. I think with age, because I still look very young, but with age, I think doing more dramatic things would be awesome. But I also look at projects like, “Who do I respect and who do I want to be on set with for four months?” Then also, you’re going around to different cities promoting the movie too, so you want to surround yourself with people you like. It’d be difficult doing all this press with an actor I didn’t like. So, I look at “do I like the director? Do I like what he’s done? And am I going to want to hang out with this person for a while?”

Did you always lean more toward comedy?

Yeah, I think I did comedy from a young age. I was always naturally weird and goofy, so I think that’s where I naturally […] shifted to.

What about music? I know you’re the drummer for the Young Rapscallions.

Yeah, I play drums with three of my other best friends, and we’re making an album right now. And it’s going to be great. It’s going to be fun and really badass.

Do you see yourself doing music more in the future?

I think both. I think the thing about acting and making music is that it’s easy to do both. I’ll shoot a movie for three months, and then I won’t have to work for however long I want to. So, I can do a movie for a couple of months and then come and do music for a couple. But whatever’s hot at the moment is what I’ll gravitate toward.

I know a lot of your scenes were cut, but were some of your favorite scenes in Neighbors?

I have one favorite scene. It’s a very small scene, but Dave is obviously one of my closest friends and he cracks me up in this scene at the end where they’re running away from the party, and he’s telling Zac how much he loves him. Zac is telling him “I get it, man. I get it.” And he’s like, “No, stay in this moment with me! I love you!” And he won’t leave Zac alone. That part always get me for some reason. It cracks me up.

This is a question raised in the movie: Michael Keaton or Christian Bale?

Val Kilmer?

Really?

I think that’s right around the time where I was old enough to start seeing Batman movies, and then I went and watched the Michael Keaton ones, and he’s great. But then Christian Bale is great too—can I take them all?

George Clooney?

Ugh. I love Clooney, but that was not good. What about you, who was your Batman?

Christian Bale is great, but I grew up with Keaton, so I like both.

Yeah, he’s amazing.

To change gears to superheroes for moment, I also really loved the first Kick-Ass, and you’re great in both movies—

Thanks. I appreciate it.

I know the Chris D’Amico is still very much alive at the end of Kick-Ass 2, and Mark Millar and John Romita are still writing Kick-Ass 3 [the comic book series], so is there any movement?

I haven’t heard anything. You know, the second one didn’t make that much money, so it’s hard to make a third one when there’s not a big audience for it. I mean, I would love to put an end to the series, but as of right now, I don’t think anything’s going to happen.

I am disappointed to hear that.

Me too.

What about Pitch Perfect 2, which is now casting?

They haven’t hit me up about it, which means maybe I didn’t do a good job on the first one. [Laughs] No, I’m kidding. I think it’s one of those things where it’s a cameo in the first one, and you leave it where it is, but I’m sure it’s going to be a great movie.

Getting away from sequels, what do you have coming up?

Well, to stay on sequels [Laughs], I have How to Train Your Dragon 2 coming out in June.  Then, I have a couple scripts I have meetings for in the next couple weeks and hopefully something picks from up that, [but] I can’t talk about, and then just making an album with the band right now.

Is your character going to have a more prominent role in How to Train Your Dragon 2?

I think it’s the same kind of role as the first one, maybe a little more of a role. The kids go on a journey together, but this one is a little darker than the first one, which is nice. I like when kids movies do that like Toy Story 3 was fantastic and it got super dark.

Because you play a comedic element in that, could you compare voice acting with live-action acting?

Yeah, it’s awesome, because in live-action, most of my comedies have been rated R, so I’m trying to make adults laugh. While animation is a completely different world where you’re trying to make children laugh. So that difference is a blast to do. And in animation, no one gets to see your face, so you can really mess up with your voice, like I did ParaNorman, I was a bully in that, which was so much fun to do. In How to Train Your Dragon, I’m a little Viking character. So, it’s kind of exciting to play these roles that you normally wouldn’t get to play in a live-action movie.

Is there a lot of improvisation in voicing an animated movie?

Some movies do. These ones were pretty straight to the book, because the script was so strong, and it’s pretty pivotal to the story. So, I want to say not too much. But they’ll let you go there if you want. If you have some ideas, they’ll let you go do it.

Getting back to Neighbors, who do you think audiences should root for: the fraternity or the family?

That’s the beauty of it. I think people are going to gravitate both ways, because there’s no real villain and no real hero. In the beginning, Seth breaks his promise to Zac, so he’s kind of in the wrong. And we put them in harm’s way, which is wrong. I think people are going to side with both, which is the beauty of it.

Did you watch any fraternity movies to prepare for this and what are your favorites?

Well obviously Animal House is one of the greatest of all time, and Old School is amazing. I love Old School. But there is this amazing documentary that Todd Phillips made. I think it might be called [Frat House], but it was before he was well known, so nobody recognized him. He and his buddy joined a fraternity to show what they do when they haze pledges, and it’s a very dark documentary. I’d recommend checking it out; it’s fantastic.

Was it good research for this role?

It was. It’s a lot darker than Neighbors is, but it was very entertaining to watch.

Thank you for doing this.

Yeah, thank you. It’s been a pleasure.

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Goonies 2 continues to take shape, if by "take shape" we mean in the form of candid comments from people theoretically involved. In a recent segment on HuffPost Live, original Gooniesstars Corey Feldman and Sean Astin ended up in a brief chat about Goonies 2.

The most significant bit of info came from Sean Astin:

"I happen to know that they are actively trying to secure a writer based on an outline that they feel really confident about. When Steven [Spielberg], who ultimately is the decision-maker on this, when he has felt the magic and he and [Richard Donner] are in agreement, which I believe will happen, then it will be a thing."

Corey Feldman had even more to add, though. "What Dick [Donner] told me," said Feldman, "was that they had Chris Columbus back." Astin confirmed this, saying that [original Goonieswriter] Chris Columbus "is partnered up with them in some way." 

So, what does all this actually tell us about Goonies 2? Not much. Based on a series of offhanded quotes from Richard Donner and now Corey Feldman and Sean Astin here's the shape of this mythical sequel so far: Richard Donner is probably directing, but at the very least producing Goonies 2. Steven Spielberg has a Goonies 2story, and it's possible that Chris Columbus is going to script from Spielberg's outline. As for the cast, well, it's clear that both Astin and Feldman are eager to do it.

Thanks to Geek Tyrant for the catch.

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The Autobots of Transformers: Age of Extinction are getting ready to roll out, with some big names joining the cast. The biggest news is that John Goodman and Ken Watanabe have joined the cast as Hound and Drift, respectively. But Transformers 4has also added John DiMaggio as Crosshairs and Mark Ryan as Lockdown.

That all sounds fun, but let's seem them compete with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker!

The news was first revealed via Michael Bay's Twitter feed:

#johngoodman& @Watanabe join #autobot voice cast of #transformers4#transformers#michaelbayhttp://t.co/CzMr9pVWEOpic.twitter.com/abhLhjcnff

— Michael Bay Dot Com (@S4TE) May 8, 2014

Deadlineconfirmed more details shortly thereafter.

Transformers: Age of Extinction will hit theaters on June 27th. I realize I'm just asking for trouble, but I'm rather looking forward to this one...

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It is hard to believe that film has become an art form lasting long enough to support three generations of a burgeoning cinematic dynasty. But here we are with Gia Coppola, granddaughter of Francis and niece to Sofia and Roman, making her directorial debut in this year’s teen collage of suburban angst, Palo Alto. And it’s a relief to say that some of the same filmic finesse is present in this enjoyable if appropriately aimless look at the adolescent wasteland of youth.

Based on a short story collection of the same name by James Franco, who published these musings after his own Silicon Valley childhood in 2010, the movie has an apathetic sincerity about the vices and distractions of youthfulness. Franco himself originally considered directing an adaptation before being impressed by 20-something Coppola’s still photography art. And given the comparison to Franco’s own recent directorial efforts, we are probably all the better for this passage of helming duties. By stringing together Franco’s disparate and bemusing literary yarns about growing up in the Northern California ‘burbs, Coppola makes an engrossing, if somewhat aloof picture with her first talented bow.

Palo Alto centers on four high school kids whose lives all intersect via friendship, romance, or lust, but ultimately inform different perspectives of the American teenager experience. There is Teddy (Jack Kilmer), who is a fresh-faced slacker that passively lets his life be dictated to him by circumstance and his abrasive best friend Fred (Nat Wolff). As a boy who was born on the wrong side of the tracks from an oddball father (an amusing cameo by Chris Messina), Fred is the kind of permanently frustrated young man who at 17 already knows his life is going to end in disappointment. And with a little push, perhaps Teddy’s will too when he is caught in a DUI by his mate instead of staying at the party with his not-so-secret crush, April.

April (Emma Roberts) is also going through her own drama as the star soccer player at her high school and the apple of her coach’s eye. But that eye makes things very confusing, not to mention skeevy, when Mr. B (James Franco), a single dad who April also babysits for, starts making moves on his teacher’s pet with one kiss, and then another. Finally, there is Emily (Zoe Levin), the most fleeting and interesting character in the movie.

Palo Alto is a fractured mosaic of the ritualized anxiety all adolescents face. Indeed, Coppola seems very aware of the familiar territory she has crossed by presenting her characters in a world where Phoebe Cates’ immortalized scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High is both still adored and knowingly mocked by the more realistically girlish April—an irony, considering that Cates was actually a teenager in that film while Roberts is 23.

On the whole, Coppola strives for an authenticity not often found in the teen subgenre, which is reflected in her mostly juvenile cast. This decision can lead to some mixed results since Jack Kilmer, the 19-year-old son of actor Val Kilmer, believably sells the anguish of Teddy, but stumbles in creating a persona beyond that raw agony of capricious hormones. But conversely, Wolff fairs much better by demonstrating once again that he is a young actor to watch. He was by far the best thing about last year’s Stuck in Love, and the 20-year-old actor (who was 19 during production on Palo Alto), creates a startlingly engrossing portrait of a growing man-child filled with pent up anger at the world. He might be in the closet, but is ultimately too emotionally circuitous to fully read. It is a great realization of that guy everyone knew in school, and one that Coppola and company will likewise try to distance themselves from by the end credits.

One of Fred’s outbursts comes at the repeated expense of Levin’s Emily, a composite character of several personalities in Franco’s book. In the movie, we never spend enough time with her to get a full handle on the character, which may be why she is so intriguing and lingers longer than others. As the (too) easy-going good time girl at her high school, Emily lets herself be used and abused by several boys throughout the film, but is given remarkable empathy and compassion by Coppola who idles on her bedroom set during the one time Fred is invited over for a visit. Still littered with the toys, animals, and sparkling iconographies of childhood, Emily is meant to be a sympathetic ode to the suburban princess that isn’t ready for adult decisions, leading to her making the worst kind. Levin uses her limited screen time well, and one wishes Coppola could explore this obvious interest further.

In the movie’s biggest claim to pop culture awareness at the moment, Franco has an artistic moment that may have gone on to imitate life when his chosen role of Mr. B seduces his 17-year-old student with the creep factor turned up to 11. Obviously, hindsight makes it an interesting choice for the actor (if the social media story is indeed a real one), however it is treated as a chance for Franco to participate in his stories from a very different perspective than the original author of the material. Roberts also gives a more nuanced and layered performance than most of the cast as April, a young woman who is presented to be very bright. However, the movie could have done more to develop April’s consequentially stupid decisions around her sketchy teacher, as all of the character’s actions are left to Roberts’ inversed and expressive eyes.

Palo Alto is a respectable first film with a few notable performances that gives a stimulating, but detached view of a time when everyone felt removed at arm’s length from their peers. The narrative is not entirely coherent or conclusively satisfying, as the short story source material is still evident in the way certain scenes or characters fail to develop upon intriguing foundations. However, it is a forthright and undeniable account of a certain age. Plus, it features the disembodied voice of Grandfather Francis Ford as an omnipotent judge midway through the picture. Like the passionate forces of that age, it is hard to resist that vocal presence or the movie at large.

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In anticipation for its world premiere at Cannes next week, A24 has unveiled the first clip from The Rover. Below you can watch a quietly powerful exchange between Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce in the clip "God put a bullet in you."

In the new film from David Michod (Animal Kingdom), The Rover is set 10 years following the collapse of society when a man will go to any lengths to take back the thing that still matters to him. Sparse and mysterious, this film is engulfed by the arid Australian desert when Eric (Pearce) has his last sole possession stolen by a roaming gang of post-apocalyptic thugs. Teaming with the gang’s weakest and abandoned member, Rey (Pattinson), Eric sets out to steal it back.

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After a seemingly insufferable wait, Snowpiercerwill finally be riding into U.S. theaters on June 27th. Based on the acclaimed French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Jean-Marc Rochette and Benjamin Legrand (which was recently compiled in a two-volume set by Titan Books for English-speaking markets), the film chronicles life aboard a train whose passengers are the remnants of humanity following a botched experiment to stop global warming.

Yahoo has just premiered a new red band trailer for the film, which features an unrecognizable Tilda Swinton going on and on about order and Chris Evans looking sadder than Captain America at Peggy Carter's bedside. John Hurt and Octavia Spencer also co-star. Take a look:

As a huge fan of the source material, I am curious to see how director Joon-ho Bong -- director of the underrated 2006 monster flick The Host -- shapes the complicated story into a more coherent narrative. Although given that part of the film's lengthy journey into theaters had to do with a skirmish between Bong and distributor Harvey Weinstein over the film's length and editing, maybe coherence won't really be in play too much here. (The pair did eventually settle their differences, with Bong's intended cut hitting theaters, albeit in a limited run capacity).

The perfectly paced trailer is filled with stunning visuals and some genuinely strange and exciting moments. If this turns out to be half as weird and satisfyng as The Host, we are in for a first class moviegoing journey.

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Robbery may not be as easy as pie, but it can be as funny. In her latest star vehicle, Melissa McCarthy will celebrate in the Independence Day weekend as Tammy, a fast food robbing woman who has not figured out what to do with her life. But if it’s anything like the trailer, she certainly has making audiences laugh down in spades.

In a film co-written by McCarthy, and directed and co-written by Ben Falcone, Tammy is having a bad day.  She’s totaled her clunker car, gotten fired from her thankless job at a greasy burger joint and, instead of finding comfort at home, finds her husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house. It’s time to take her boom box and book it.  The bad news is she’s broke and without wheels.  The worse news is her grandma, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), is her only option—with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls.  Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind.  But on the road, with grandma riding shotgun, it may be just what Tammy needs.

Tammy crashes into theaters on July 2, 2014.

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There is no denying that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have left their writer’s stamp on the modern movie blockbuster. The scribes of the first two Transformers movies, Cowboys & Aliens, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and, of course, the J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek movies, these guys are current Hollywood blockbusters.

Thus it was interesting to hear of the ending of their writing partnership, so as they can pursue different directorial careers. For Kurtzman, this has meant aiming to helm Sony’s upcoming Venom film, but Orci has remained planted on space…the final frontier.

And his hopes to direct the third Star Trek movie after Abrams’ departure has proven fruitful, because Deadline is reporting that the initially cautious Paramount Pictures has begun negotiation discussions to tap Orci for this dream sci-fi project.

As Deadline is quick to point, this is another major blockbuster franchise being handed off to a first-time theatrical feature director. Sure it worked (at least in the box office) for Snow White and the Huntsman’s Rupert Sanders and his muse Kristen Stewart, but it also led to examples like this year’s Transcendence.

Still, Orci has been openly lobbying for this job for a while. So, we may soon see what his vision is for Captiain Kirk and crew.

The previous franchise installment, Star Trek IntoDarkness, Orci wrote alongside Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof. The movie was directed by J.J. Abrams and earned $467 million at the worldwide box office.

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The Double is the second movie about a man confronting his doppelganger to come out this spring. The first, Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy, was based on a novel by Jose Saramago (coincidentally called The Double) and was a bleak, psychosexual affair that channeled David Cronenberg right down to its sterile, utilitarian Toronto settings. The new film, directed by Richard Ayoade (Submarine) is adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s book and takes a decidedly more satirical, Gilliam-esque approach to the material.

Either take is valid, but The Double might have the edge by taking the bizarre nature of the material and making it more entertaining by accepting the humor inherent in the situation. Both stories are about adult men -- ground down to hollow shells by routine, apathy and unfulfilled desires -- who are suddenly faced with more confident, swaggering, sexual versions of themselves. With The Double, Ayoade takes an irreverent approach that, while still ultimately dark, undercuts the potential for this to become just another existential d**k-swinging contest.

He’s helped immeasurably by his cast, which is topped by Jesse Eisenberg as Simon James, a mildly ambitious but still meek cog in some nameless company who tries desperately to please his boss (the always welcome and captivating Wallace Shawn) and make some sort of meaningful connection with Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), the ethereal girl who works one floor down in a different department and also lives across the street from him. But Simon is barely acknowledged by his boss, his co-workers, Hannah or even his own mother; everything for him seems to be pointing toward a life of quiet, earnest, well-intentioned failure.

Enter James Simon, who shows up at the office one day and looks exactly like Simon -- except that no one notices except for him. But their resemblance aside, James is nothing like Simon -- he’s cocky, socially smooth and predatory in matters both personal and business. James soon begins taking over everything in Simon’s life -- executing his ideas at work and taking credit for them, positioning himself for ascension on the corporate ladder and, worst of all, engaging romantically with Hannah -- which drives Simon to the edge and beyond of anger and finally madness.

Eisenberg is excellent in the two roles, effectively capturing Simon’s deer-in-the-headlights approach to life while taking his usual smarmy onscreen persona into a more sinister new realm with his portrayal of James (side note: this movie more or less sealed the deal for me in terms of whether Eisenberg can play Lex Luthor -- the answer is yes). Eisenberg follows a difficult path, trod by the likes of Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers, Nicolas Cage in Adaptation and Dominic Cooper in the little-seen The Devil’s Double, and makes you feel like you’re watching two completely different people onscreen for the entire running time.

All this takes place in an unidentified city, like that of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, that at once seems set in both the future and the past. We rarely see daylight, and even street scenes seem to exist under some weird, claustrophobic ceiling. The interiors of both Simon’s apartment building and his office are dusty, dank and archaic, indicating a society that itself has ground to a halt. But it’s all in service of the movie’s central theme, which is about how one’s own sense of self-worth and identity can get quickly lost in a world of faceless bureaucracy and pointless one-upmanship, and how easily replaceable each human being is in such a soulless world.

Ayoade makes his statement more than clear with The Double, and if anything the movie eventually becomes heavy-handed in that message without necessarily adding any new wrinkles to it. It can also be hard to care about a character like Simon, whose self-sabotage seems more like a function of the plot than of anything deeply rooted in his character. Yet despite those flaws, The Double is still compelling to watch, thanks to Ayoade’s quirky eye and tone (on just his second feature) and the terrific performances from Eisenberg, Shawn and Wasikowska. And yes, if you’re in the mood for a marathon of existential despair, it should make for a nice double bill with Enemy.

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