The first trailer for the follow-up to 2010’s Clash of the Titans remake, titled Wrath of the Titans, has made its way online.

The sequel is surprising for multiple reasons, most notable of which is the fact that the original did not perform as well as was hoped both critically and financially (making only a small amount more than its budget domestically—though it did do much better overseas—and being generally panned by critics), followed by the fact that almost the entire cast came back to reprise their roles.

But how does Wrath of the Titans (with new director Jonathan Liebesman) look? Could it be one of the rare cases where a sequel does better things than its predecessor?

Click on over to the other side now to check out the trailer and share your thoughts below!

At a press conference this morning, which happened to fall on the 50th anniversary of the day when Sean Connery was announced as the first actor play Ian Fleming’s iconic superspy James Bond on the silver screen in Dr. No, it was finally announced to the world the name of the next installment in the James Bond franchise: Skyfall.

Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the producers of the Bond movie series, made the announcement at today’s press conference in London, which you can watch all 29 minutes video of here below. You can also check out the film’s shiny logo (which looks like an ad for a brand of vodka) and a brief plot synopsis.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Blu-ray Combo | DVD | On Demand
Directed by David Yates
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Warner Home Video
Release date: April 15, 2011

The tale of the wizard Harry Potter and his struggle against the evil Lord Voldemort has nearly reached its end in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the first of a two-part finale for the film franchise. The Harry Potter movies have come a long way in the 10 years since the first offering, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, when Harry was just a little boy and Voldemort was merely a named to be feared and never spoken. As Harry and his loyal friends grew older, the franchise got darker, with this latest one being the darkest and most frightening one of all.

Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes) power has grown strong and, as always, his one focus in life is to kill Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), the boy who lived, the Chosen One, the one destined to bring about his downfall. Thanks to his friends and powerful allies, Harry has managed to either stay hidden from the dark lord or escape his clutches whenever they’ve battled. But unlike the previous installments, in The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the wizard world itself has grown dark, too. Voldemort’s Death Eaters and other minions and loyal subjects have taken over the government with a mission to rule over the Muggle — non-magical — world and subjugate all Muggles and Muggle-born wizards and witches. No one is safe under this regime, so Harry and his friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are forced to go underground on their own while searching for the hidden Horcruxes, the magical artifacts that house pieces of Voldemort’s soul that the trio must figure out how to destroy.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Warner Brothers
Release Date: November 19, 2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the seventh installment in the Harry Potter franchise, in which Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and Ronald Wesley (Rupert Grint) are on a mission to find and destroy the horcruxes, mystical objects that grant immortality, so that the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is unable to use it to his advantage. The focus of this film is really the acting among the three actors who have been together for so long, and how they have made each character they play their own, and that’s really important when you have a setting when there’s not a lot of action going on, overall, but I’ll talk more about that a little later.

I’ve been a fan of the Harry Potter films for quite some time now, and if you haven’t been, The Deathly Hallows Part 1 isn’t going to change your mind. To everyone else, however… well, I hesitate to say that you’re going to love it.

Clash of the Titans
Blu-ray | DVD | Video On Demand
Directed by Louis Leterrier
Starring Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Mads Mikkelsen
Release date: July 27, 2010

Hollowness is found at the center in director Louis Leterrier‘s Clash of the Titans. What should be a glorious and romantically fueled approach to the classical Greek myth succumbs to the travesties of CGI. It results into an unnatural depiction; one in which charts Man’s rebellion against the Gods. The 1981 film of the same name managed to depict the same premise so naturally by using special effects of the older Hollywood tradition (stop-motion effects). Greek myths are almost impossible to re-imagine. Their fluency and fantastical aura surrounding them makes such tales inadaptable to the big screen. Their qualities work best when they are intertwined within a contemporary story and setting, working successfully as metaphors and allegorical tales. Leterrier’s version doesn’t depend on adventure tactics and characters’ motives. Its reliance is on solely adhering to so much CGI.

Leterrier imposes upon himself the duties of mythic storyteller. So burdened with this task he tries to elude previous depictions of this myth and venture out on his own limb and recreate the myth from his own vision. He does not want to stay in accordance with the 1981 film. All the more respect for him. But most of the time an untidy representation of this mythical world pervades Leterrier’s entire picture. His picture suggests no orderly activity, offering sporadic moments of engaging action set-pieces and others that hit rock bottom. The 1981 film feasted on extravagant action sequences that felt real and looked plausible enough to represent a Greek myth. Most importantly that film cashed in on the romantic and emotional qualities that managed to drive the film toward recognizing the different uniforms of humanity. Deliberate attention was paid to the emotional aspect whereas the 2010 film shows no inquiry into this subject, resulting with characters that manifest no worthy sentiment. We find our lack of caring and emotional attachment towards the film’s characters deriving mainly from their inabilities, or the script’s (either one), to evoke the slightest notion of feeling.