This weekend, the Syfy series Haven took a bold step by tying its storyline to social media. Specifically, Twitter.

The network sent out a press release last Wednesday and began flooding Twitter with recommendations to follow two characters from the series, @DaveHaven and @VinceHaven, as well as a mysterious @ColdInHaven. In addition, the series made plans to use the hashtag #HavenNews for the show’s Twitter feed.

According to the press release, this would launch a special seven-episode arc, beginning on August 12.

While @DaveHaven and @VinceHaven tweeted back and forth a few hours before the show, the micro-blogging story stopped there.

As the August 12^th episode of Haven, “Roots,” began, fans expected live interaction from the show on Twittter.

Instead, viewers were merely introduced to the concept with a couple of amusing Twitter references in the show, as Dave and Vince both posted flyers in the sheriff’s office to entice viewers to follow them on their respective Twitter accounts.

As Twitter-savvy fans of the show turned up on the #HavenNews feed, they made amusing, sometimes snarky comments about the characters and storyline. But none of the characters tweeted during the episode.

One Twitter follower, @OmegaGreenbean summed up fans’ concerns, “They should have tweeted something at the beginning of the show, just to show it’s working. #HavenNews”

In the end, the Haven Twitter event started with a whimper, not a bang.

Viewers can follow the story on Twitter with the hashtag #HavenNews as well as on www.syfy.com/haven.

Warner Bros. has released a first look image from Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman film Man of Steel. The photo (see the larger version after the jump) shows Henry Cavill as Superman in the new costume.

Of course, it’s impossible to judge based on one image, but so far we like what we see. The image is desaturated of color. This may be the style of the film, or just this particular image. Designer Anthony Tackett (www.tackettdesign.com) bumped up the color on the official image to the appropriate level for the flesh tones. I think the comparison below shows the difference in color. The image on the right shows the primary colors we’re used to seeing in a Superman costume.

The original, desaturated image (left) compared to the full-color image.

The press release and full image from Warner Bros.:

BURBANK, CA, August 4, 2011 – Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have provided the first look at the new Man of Steel, revealing star Henry Cavill as Superman in the film from director Zack Snyder.

The film also stars three-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams (The Fighter) as Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane, and Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne (What’s Love Got to Do with It) as her editor-in-chief, Perry White. Kent’s adoptive parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, are Oscar® nominee Diane Lane (Unfaithful) and Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves).

Squaring off against the superhero are two other surviving Kryptonians, the villainous General Zod, played by Oscar® nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), and Faora, Zod’s evil partner, played by Antje Traue. Also from Superman’s native Krypton are Lara Lor-Van, Superman’s mother, played by Julia Ormond, and Superman’s father, Jor-El, portrayed by Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator). Rounding out the cast are Harry Lennix as U.S. military man General Swanwick, as well as Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy.

Man of Steel is being produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer and Nolan, based upon Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers.

Currently in production, Man of Steel is slated for release on June 14, 2013 and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Here’s the full image. Click on it to see it in all it’s glory. What are your thoughts? Do you like the new look?

You’ll have to wait until summer 2012 to see the new film (in 3D, no less). But until then, keep checking FilmGuru.Net for the latest news and information.

And as long as you’re enjoying your Spider-Man pictures, go over to Movie Smackdown and vote in their poll about which Spider-Man costume gets your senses tingling.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) uses his ring to summon a shield of willpower in Green Lantern (Warner Bros., 2011).

Imagine willpower given form by technology from beyond our world. Or willpower shaping technology made in the U.S.A. We’re starting a battle of wills between two fighters: one a hotshot test pilot turned intergalactic cop, the other a hotshot playboy industrialist turned superhero.

In the DC Comics universe, Green Lantern is one of the heavy hitters. He’s a man without fear, who uses an alien ring that transforms thought into reality by sheer force of will. So it only seems fitting that we pit him against Iron Man, the Marvel Comics version of Steve Jobs combined with Donald Trump. Iron Man is one man’s technology and ingenuity given form in the ultimate expression of man as machine.

This is a test of wills. And only one man will be victorious.

Read the entire review over at MovieSmackdown.com »

In a prequel to the X-Men, Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) work together to stop a mutant group from starting WWIII in X-Men: First Class (20th Century Fox, 2011).

The last time we saw mutants on the big screen, it was the disappointing third installment in the X-Men trilogy, appropriately titled X-Men: The Last Stand. What had begun as a promising franchise under the steady hand of director Bryan Singer turned to crap under the watch of replacement director Brett Ratner. As Joel Schumacher had done with the Batman franchise, so too had Ratner done with the X-Men.

Now, after five years, the mutants are back. Instead of trying to resurrect the franchise by fixing the problems of the previous film (which included killing off two of the main characters), the new franchise is starting over at the beginning with a prequel. Now we have a chance to look at two different beginnings for the X-Men franchise and see which one works better.

Read the entire review over at MovieSmackdown.com »

Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Disney Pictures, 2011)

The idea seemed outrageous. Around the turn of the century, Disney & Co. decided to translate one of its most iconic theme park rides into a film. About pirates. Seriously.

It’s not like pirates were all the rage at the time. A good pirate movie hadn’t been made since, well… Ever? Look, I never was one to get lost in the swashbuckling days of yesteryear with Errol Flynn. In my lifetime, I couldn’t remember a single good pirate movie.

Yet, here we are. Having completed its first trilogy, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is now sailing into uncharted waters. No more ghost pirates. No Davy Jones. Will and Elizabeth, our young lovers from the original trilogy, are gone. All of which leaves Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) deservedly at the wheel.

Read the entire review over at MovieSmackdown.com »

Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph lead a group of colorful bridesmaids on a wild ride down the road to matrimony in Bridesmaids (Universal, 2011)

The world is probably a better place knowing that women can be just as depraved, insecure, crass, pathetic, disgusting and insanely funny as men. After all, fair is fair.

After spending over $32-million to make Bridesmaids, Universal Pictures followed up with an expensive nationwide spin-job selling their new movie as a bachelorette party version of The Hangover.

What made that original 2009 film a surprise R-rated hit was bringing the Wolf Pack to life in a story that shattered the formula of a raunchy guy’s film and took it to a new level where roofies were just another plot device. The question that Bridesmaids raises is pretty basic: can the same dynamic — bad decisions, outrageous behavior and same-sex bonding — work in a film about some girls who just wanna have fun, too? And, even if it can work, can that film actually be a better one that The Hangover?

Read the full review at MovieSmackdown.com »

Two lionesses watch over the pride in African Cats. (Disneynature, 2011)

If Disney has learned anything over the years, it’s that lions are kings at the box office. So the House of Mouse has gone back to Africa this year to bring us a new documentary about the king of the beasts. But from a different point of view. Don’t expect to see any singing warthogs or meerkats. This is a true story of life on the Savannah.

A few years ago, The Walt Disney Company established a new film label called Disneynature — with a mission to distribute nature documentaries like the old “True-Life Adventures” back in the 1950s. In a stroke of marketing genius, they tied the film releases to coincide with Earth Day. The first, appropriately titled Earth, came out in 2009. The next year, they released Oceans. These films looked at our planet in a new way, and they examined our influence on our environment.

It has become a tradition with my family to celebrate Earth Day each year with an outing to the theater to see the latest Disneynature release. This year, we continued with African Cats, a film that examines the lives of the lions and cheetahs of the Kenyan wilderness.

Read the full review at MovieSmackdown.com »

Amy Adams has been cast as Lois Lane in Zack Synder's new Superman film.

For the past few weeks, everyone has been asking my opinion on the latest casting rumors for Zack Snyder’s Superman film.

Among my friends and family, I am considered the expert on all things Kryptonian. I have been reading Superman comics since my youth. I even wrote my master’s thesis on the dual nature of the Clark Kent / Superman persona. (True story.) I have Superman statues in my home, a Superman action figure on my desk at work, and I have seen nearly every Superman film and television series made.

Now Snyder is planning to reboot the series, much as Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise in 2005. He’s pretending that all the previous films are not there, and building a new Superman story for moviegoers.

He’s starting from scratch. That means a brand new cast. And with every announcement, someone is pontificating about how the actor or actress selected will affect the film.

But I don’t think it’s fair to judge a film by its casting (or its choice of director for that matter). It’s like trying to judge a meal based on the ingredients in the kitchen. Sure, I may hate mushrooms, but if you do it right I might love the sauce.

So it is with the Superman reboot. And I’ve kept relatively quiet about the casting choices.

Sure, I twitched when I heard they were casting a Brit in the iconic superhero role. But aside from Stardust and The Tudors, I haven’t seen much of Henry Cavill. So I’m willing to cut him some slack. After all, until this year’s Academy Awards, I had no idea that Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) is from Australia. And he apparently has a heck of an accent when he’s not playing an American.

For the casting of Jonathan and Martha Kent, my opinions are split. Diane Lane is (in my opinion) too young — and way too hot — to play Ma Kent. I keep thinking of her 20 years ago as a rock singer in Streets of Fire. She was amazing. I can’t imagine her as Martha. Casting Kevin Costner as Pa Kent, however, seems pretty spot-on. You can’t get a more American-Heartland-homespun-type than Costner.

Then, this weekend, news came out that Snyder had picked three-time Academy Award nominee Amy Adams to play Lois Lane. I love her work, and I have enjoyed her in everything from Enchanted to Julie & Julia to Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

She’s (pardon the pun) super. But is she Lois Lane?

I’ll ignore the physical here. After all, makeup can make anyone look like anything. So, I’ll forget the fact that her red hair and fair complexion don’t match the traditional look of the character.

She certainly has some acting chops, and she’s always a delight to see on screen. But every film I’ve seen her in she has been cheerful and perky. Granted, I haven’t seen some of her more serious work. So I’m going to say… maybe. It might work.

Actually, that’s been my reaction to most of the news coming out of Snyder’s Superman reboot. It’s all so… maybe. It could be good. But I refuse to get my hopes up.

And now word has come through that actors Michael Shannon and Edgar Ramirez are being considered as villains in the film. I’m not sure what to think of either of them, as I have no idea which parts they might play. People keep guessing Zod as a villain, but Snyder flatly denied that. So my guess is either Bizarro or Brainiac.

At the end of the day, I don’t think it’s fair to judge Snyder’s Superman film until we see it in context. Who knows? He might have a great new take on the characters.

Whatever Snyder decides to do, I hope he brings something new to the story without throwing out the decades of Superman canon.

If he does it well, I’ll be willing to admit that all my fears were for nothing.

This is it for fans of The Cape. Instead of airing the final remaining episode on television, NBC has decided to dump it online beginning at midnight Friday, March 11. You will be able to find the video on NBC.com

Titled “Endgame” (according to the Internet Movie Database), the episode promises some surprises but — unfortunately — no resolutions. TV Guide had a sneak peek at the episode and provided this synopsis:

The finale will find Police Chief Marty Voyt (Dorian Missick) behind bars, in the hands of ARK Corporation. Vince’s “widow” Dana (Jennifer Ferrin) will take on Marty’s case — and ARK — in hopes of learning more about her husband’s disappearance. And The Cape/Vince (David Lyons) will find his double identity blurred when Max (Keith David) and the carnival of crime attempt to protect Dana, Marty and his family.

The network has no plans to renew the series. The original order for 13 episodes was cut to 10 earlier this season, after disappointing ratings. Since then, NBC has stopped actively promoting the series. Even the winner to the early-hyped “Submit Your Villain” contest was announced with little fanfare.