By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

This piece marks the first time I’m going out of my way to soften my words a bit. That’s not to say I’m regularly in the habit of offending people, or being “edgy.” But as far as Star Wars fanboys are concerned, this topic tends to be a bit heated at times. And as I’ve learned in the past, passionate fans can occasionally turn into rabid ones. *sigh* Okay, here we go…

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace returns to theaters this month, this time in 3D. Because even though George Lucas is tired of being ridiculed about the quality of his newer films, he certainly isn’t opposed to making additional money off them. I’m interested to see how much the movie pulls in during it’s stay, as The Phantom Menace was unquestionably the least well received of the Star Wars films. Even Lucas himself has talked about that.

It’s been well documented that the majority of die-hard Star Wars fans harbor negative feelings toward Menace that range from simple dislike to pure loathing. Hell, there’ve been entire films dedicated to just how bad people think this movie is. Red Letter Media did a video review of the film that’s nearly as  long as the movie itself. Yeesh…

By now, you’ve likely heard the common complaints: 1. Jar Jar Binks is an annoying cartoon character placed in the movie solely to appeal to kids. 2. Jake Lloyd’s acting is as bad as it is cheesy. 3. Darth Maul is the coolest character in the movie, but doesn’t get enough screen time. 4. The Force should be a spiritual gift, as opposed to biological one, which we learn about in this movie. And those are just a few.

But here’s the thing, and this is where it might get messy…I really don’t have much of a problem with The Phantom Menace. In terms of it’s execution, I think a lot of the dialogue (specifically the lines coming from Anakin and Jar Jar) is corny. But for my money it’s not half as bad as some of the stuff we got in Attack of the Clones, and especially Revenge of the Sith.

It took me years to break out of my state of denial about the prequels, and the fact that they are indeed of questionable quality. For the longest time I had this blind loyalty to George Lucas and the Star Wars universe because of how much the original films meant to me. But enough time has passed and I’ve grown up enough that I can finally be honest with myself about this. Not bitter or cynical, as a lot of fans are, but honest. And this is my honest opinion of The Phantom Menace.

1. A Kid’s Movie
Many moviegoers, perhaps understandably, questioned why we even needed to see Darth Vader as a young child. I remember when Attack of the Clones came out, some fans were saying that movie should have been Episode I, so that Lucas and his cohorts could have more time to explore Anakin’s turn to the dark side, the Clone Wars, etc. Menace takes place about 32 years before the events of the original film. Did we really need to go back that far? In the past, George Lucas has said things to the effect of: “The story simply is what it is.” Well, not necessarily. You wrote the story, you can change the story. Lucas certainly knows a thing or two about changing his creations…

Hindsight is always 20/20, of course. But if the story you’re going to go with is that at 8-years-old, this slave boy was discovered by warriors, taken from his mother and thrust into this intergalactic conflict, thus beginning his descent into darkness, it makes sense for us to actually see that separation. That way, we’re sitting next to Anakin during his entire journey, as opposed to entering in the middle. By doing that, we’re seeing that Anakin wasn’t born as this unstable individual on the path to bloody murder. At one point, he was a good person. That’s important to establish.

How well our look into Anakin’s childhood was executed? That’s another story. It wasn’t perfect. Anakin’s big “yipee!” after discovering that he’s leaving this barren desert world of child labor and slavery is a bit…awkward. Some fans also had a problem with the fact that he got in the starfighter and blew up the big ship at the end. That never bothered me, personally. We had established that this kid had Jedi talents, and he was already a skilled pilot. Plus, he didn’t even blow the ship up intentionally! His ship was shot down, and he ended up crashing INSIDE the damn thing. Far fetched? Maybe. But it’s a movie. Give it a break.

I would also take issue with people who’ve said Lloyd was a bad actor. He wasn’t Haley Joel Osment, but he wasn’t supposed to be. This 8 or 9-year-old kid was saying the lines that had been written for him, and doing the things he was directed to do. Who wrote those lines? Who was sitting in the director’s chair? George Lucas. When the buck stops with you, as it does with Lucas on almost all things Star Wars, inevitably so does all the criticism. If I’m not mistaken, The Phantom Menace was the first movie Lucas had done the actual screenplay for since Return of the Jedi in ’80s (and even then he had help from Lawrence Kasdan), and the first film he’d directed since the ORIGINAL Star Wars film in the ’70s! If I had to pick one factor to point to as the major cause of the prequels being inferior to the original films, it would be Lucas hogging both the pen and the director’s chair. For whatever reason, it worked in A New Hope, but the prequels suffered for it. So if you want to gripe about Jake Lloyd’s scenes in this movie, which really aren’t that bad to begin with, gripe about the man in the flannel shirt sitting in the director’s chair.

2. “Meesa Called Jar Jar Binks”
Even as a kid, I remember being amazed at how much grief this film got over Jar Jar Binks. Is he a bit over the top sometimes? Absolutely. When he does the big dive into the water during the first half of the movie? Too much. Also too far: When he shouts at Qui-Gon about “When’a yousa thinkin’ weesa in trouble?” But I never thought he was even remotely as annoying as other people thought he was. Maybe it’s the fact that I was fairly young when I saw this movie. Maybe I was just more tolerant of this kind of thing. Either way, I was mostly fine with the character.

The common thread running through the majority of the complaints is that he was too clowny and too childish. I can understand that complaint. The original films managed to get their humor across without having characters that were in the film specifically for that reason. And I suppose on some level Jar Jar’s humor feels a bit forced. At the very least, Jar Jar was something never seen before in a Star Wars film.

In defending his use of Jar Jar, Lucas at one point told BBC News: ”There is a group of fans for the films that doesn’t like comic sidekicks. They want the films to be tough like Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated about anything that has anything to do with being childlike. The movies are for children but they don’t want to admit that. In the first film they absolutely hated R2 and C-3PO. In the second film they didn’t like Yoda and in the third one they hated the Ewoks… and now Jar Jar is getting accused of the same thing.”

I can’t say for sure whether the droids and Yoda actually felt a backlash. The Ewoks definitely had one. But none of them even felt a portion of the wrath that Jar Jar has felt. The main thing I can say in defense of this character is that I saw this movie in the theater three times. Each time, the kids loved Jar Jar. For that young demographic, he was one of the best parts of the movie. I suppose what I would say to avid Jar Jar haters is to remember when you first fell in love with Star Wars. For most fans, it was when they were children. So, think about how your younger self have reacted to this character, and be honest…

Heesa not great, but heesa not so bad.

3. Jedi, Sith and Lip-Syncing
I’ve always enjoyed Liam Neeson’s presence in this movie. He always plays mentor characters rather well, and as we’ve learned in the last few years with movies like Taken and The Grey, he makes a great bad ass. In The Phantom Menace we get both.

Darth Maul obviously played a huge role in the marketing of this movie, which to an extent was not a good thing, as he gets considerably less screen time than you’d expect for a character advertised so heavily. Still, he’s become one of the most recognizable characters in the entire series, and most fans agree that the fight between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul is great.

One thing I’ve always complained about is that the lip syncing for Nute Gunray and Rune Haako sucks. If I could change anything in this movie in terms of the special effects, it would be that. Thankfully we don’t see them enough for it to be a hugely memorable problem.

Also, during the scene near the beginning of the movie where the Jedi are being shot at by the destroyer droids, there’s a brief moment where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan do a Force-induced dash away from the blaster fire. But when they do it we only see them from a distance, and initially I actually wondered if it was an editing error. I’d have clarified that moment a bit.

Will I see The Phantom Menace in 3D? Probably not, but that’s not because I have anything against the movie. It’s because I think, as Roger Ebert once said, “It’s a waste of a dimension” and “it adds nothing to the experience.” But George can always hear that money train coming, and when it comes to Star Wars, it’s never too late to jump on. In all honesty, I hope it does well. It may be a marketing slogan, but there’s really nothing like seeing Star Wars on the big screen.

Front page image from insideturnedout.blogspot.com. Image 1 from pariscine.com. Image 2 from starcasm.com. Image 3 from screened.com. Image 4 from hiphopjedi.blogspot.com. Image 5 from petergett.com. Image 6 from joblo.com. 

TITLE: Chronicle
STARRING: Michael B. Jordan, Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell
DIRECTOR: Josh Trank
STUDIO: Davis Entertainment, Adam Schroeder Productions
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 84 min
RELEASED: February 2, 2012

Well, it’s that time of the year again. The time when Hollywood, in all of their infinite wisdom, decides that it isn’t worth competing with the Super Bowl, so they give us a half-baked superhero movie that stars teenagers and usually has some sort of secret government plot.

In years past we have been the unfortunate benefactors of Jumper, Push, I Am Number Four and now this. We did miss a year, but they kind of made up for it with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It’s not quite the same, as I tend to relate Percy Jackson to Harry Potter more than random dudes with random super powers being chased by a random made up shadow organization.

So now they give us Chronicle. A movie which looks to try and break the mold by going the route of found footage movies like Cloverfield, or any number of recent horror films. While I enjoyed the other movies, I was not looking forward to this one. Found footage films have too much screaming and panicky filled nonsense. The previews looked like that was exactly what I was about to get, but with superpowers.

I could not have been more wrong. The found footage was woven into the story in a way that made sense, and it was pulled off quite well. Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is the awkward high schooler with no friends. He has a cousin Matt (Alex Russell), and Steve (Michael B. Jordan), who appears later. Cursed with a crappy home life, he decides to start recording everything as his outlet. While this seems like just a lazy excuse to get the camera into the hands of someone to accomplish this style of filmmaking, it didn’t feel forced at all. They didn’t always show the audience important or exciting things, like just him having lunch alone or just sitting at home editing videos. This let us get to know Andrew and get inside his world.

This also allowed for a nice story about high schoolers growing closer as their telekinetic powers manifest. We get to see them learn to fly, and use their ability to move objects. It is all of the little things that endear this trio of friends to us. But invariably things must go south so we can get to the final battle sequence where buses are flying into people. You would think that this would look utterly ridiculous, but it looks pretty damn good. When you think about all of the millions of dollars that movie like The Matrix spent and couldn’t give a good final confrontation, you just have to wonder what is wrong with Hollywood. This is a low-ish budget movie and it gives us the type of fight we wish The Matrix could have had. While providing a solid story and good characters, and Chronicle doesn’t feel the need to stretch the movie out unnecessarily to hit some arbitrary run time.

One of the things I had wondered about from the trailer was how they could keep the final confrontation in the same style as the rest of the movie ,with crazy battles happening high in the sky. But they pulled it off and it gave the audience some pretty cool and unique shots. One is from the camera mounted on a police car as it is racing towards the fight, only to get flipped over during the brawl. The found footage style lent itself to the action in a great way while still being able to show enough closeups of everything that is happening.

Overall, Chronicle is a great movie and a great superhero origin story. I have not been this impressed or elated with an original superhero story since Unbreakable. The originality and creativity is more of what movies need and this proves you do not need a big budget to pull it off.

RATING: 9/10

All images from rottentomatoes.com. 

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Universal Pictures has announced that Al Pacino will voice the villain in the upcoming sequel to Despicable Me.

Javier Bardem was originally pegged for the role, but he eventually passed on it.

Bardem was originally supposed to voice a character called El Macho, a villain who has three sons, much like Steve Carrell’s character Gru has daughters. Whether Pacino will play the same character is unknown.

The film is scheduled for release on July 3, 2013. In addition to Pacino and the returning Steve Carrell, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig and Miranda Cosgrove.

Source: Cinema Blend

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Following the success of last year’s X-Men: First Class, 20th Century Fox has reportedly signed director Matthew Vaughn to return for a sequel.

In addition, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and the rest of cast from First Class signed a multi-picture deal, so they can be expected to return for the sequel if they are asked to.

The script is being written by Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand, Sherlock Holmes, Jumper). Bryan Singer, who directed X-Men and X2: X-Men United is attached as a producer.

X-Men: First Class made $353 million worldwide, and was widely acknowledged as one of the best films of this past summer.

Source: ComingSoon.net
Image from igossip.com. 

TITLE: The Grey
STARRING: Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Nonso Anozie
DIRECTOR: Joe Carnahan
STUDIO: Open Road Films
RATING: R
RUN TIME: 117 min
RELEASED: January 27, 2012

 By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

I have decided to introduce a new term into my reviews that I’m sure has been used on other websites: “Cinematic blue balls.” This is when a movie builds to a moment and just when you think it’s about to happen, the movie ends. The Grey will no doubt cause this to happen to God knows how many moviegoers. That’s not to say this isn’t a good movie though. It is a film movie with several themes running through, dynamic locations and cinematography, skillful direction by Joe Carnahan, and excellent acting by the whole cast.

Ottway (Neeson) works for an oil company guarding a station from wolves and other animals that live in the harsh Alaska wilderness. On the way back home, their plane breaks apart and crashes. Ottway and six other men survive; now they must gather what supplies they can and stay alive while dealing with the elements and constant attacks by wolves.

This movie delivers in many ways. Carnahan has an uncanny eye for the wilderness and can make this frozen hell seem both deadly and beautiful at the same time. His scenes never feel like predictable Hollywood, and every wolf attack or force of nature comes out of nowhere and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The plot is very basic; the plane crashes, there are survivors, and they must find a way to get home before they die. But the story of these characters and the themes that are woven into the it is what elevates this film. You get the standard stuff that comes with men trying to survive in the wilderness: humans being more like animals, trying to hold onto their humanity, etc. The strongest themes are the struggle of these men to find meaning in their life, to keep going on when death seems a certainty, and how this inhospitable land clarifies everything for them. These characters are described in the beginning as being outcasts at the end of the world; their journey to survive is more about them finding something worth living for. Neeson’s Ottway and ex-con Diaz (played by Frank Grillo) are the best examples of the themes in the film and they are fantastic in their individual roles.

As great as I think the majority of this The Grey is, there are one or two flaws that it has. The first being the use of the wolf pack as a stand-in for the how the survivors function; sometimes it is just implied and this helps ratchet up the tension in some scenes, but sometimes it is so overt that it the next scenes become very predictable.

Then we come to the ending [THIS MIGHT BE A SPOILER, SO STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW MORE]. I understand that there is more to this film than what has been advertised prominently. But when you get to the end and the scene that has brought the audience to the seats starts and it feels like a completely natural and logical end to the film, don’t cut to credits right before the action. Our journey has led us to this point, and it has been developed over the course of the film to be the natural ending. Cutting to credits at that big moment does more than hurt the movie, it really pisses the audience off.

This is a big flaw in the movie but I still believe that The Grey is a strong film filled with fantastic performances, a compelling story, beautiful cinematography, and expertly directed scenes.

RATING: 8/10

Images from rottentomatoes.com.
For more from Liam Neeson and Joe Carnahan, check out The A-Team.

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Columbia Pictures has released the official plot synopsis for this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which comes out July 3. It is as follows…

One of the world’s most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man. Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.

The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

Source: ComingSoon.net
Image from newsarama.com.

TITLE: Red Tails
STARRING: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds
DIRECTOR: Anthony Hemingway
STUDIO: Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox
RATING: PG-13
RUN TIME: 125 minutes
RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2012

By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

George muthafuckin Lucas; I have never met a single icon who has gone from beloved by so many to being hated by the same people so fast. With his credibility beaten to a pulp, can he still help create a great movie? Red Tails has been a passion project of his for years, and he spent his own money to finance the film, so is the final result worth it?

Inspired by the true story of The Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails follows a group of African American pilots who are stuck far away from the frontlines of World War II and are eager to prove themselves to a military that does not believe they have what it takes to be fighter pilots.

One of the few things that this movie has going for is the aerial combat scenes, which are spectacular. The effects are exquisite and the dogfighting scenes pull you into the film and kick the whole production up a notch. The performances are also strong for the most part and help elevate the screenplay past its obvious limitations; the most memorable being David Oyelowo’s rebellious pilot Lightning.

Too bad the rest of the film suffers from substantial problems. The screenplay by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder is filled with some very corny dialogue; the first few minutes of the film make it clear when bomber pilots recite the action in the most obvious and wooden way possible. The characters are distinctive enough to make them somewhat entertaining and distinctive, but most come off as walking clichés and never develop so much that the audience will genuinely care about what happens to most of them. The attempts to create conflict are present but lack any real substance.

The beginning may be corny, but it establishes the story and the film’s strengths well. The ending closes the film out effectively despite some wooden dialogue and acting, but the middle is bogged down by a poorly developed story; the romance subplot that was fun in the beginning dragged on for too long and the attempts at character conflict drag the whole thing down, making a two hour movie feel like four. The score by Terence Blanchard shifts between strong orchestral arrangements (that fits this type of film) and a bad ’80s soundtrack that fits horribly with the movie.

I get what the filmmakers were going for; they were trying to create a film that duplicated the war films in the ’40s where every line seems like it was ripped straight from a recruiting poster, and in that regard they succeeded in making a quality film. The film’s air combat scenes and the few scenes where characters shine keep the film entertaining; but the overall devotion to this style of film, the weak screenplay, and the dreadful score keep Red Tails from flying high.

RATING 4.5/10

Front page image and interior stills from collider.com.

TITLE: Haywire
STARRING: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
STUDIO: Relativity Media
RATING: R
RUN TIME: 93 min
RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2012

By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

Steven Soderbergh is a director who I have always respected. Apart from his more commercial work, when he gets an idea for a movie or sees someone to build a movie around he follows it through to the end. The result is sometimes not the best film, but I admire his determination to follow through on his idea. The latest example is the film Haywire, a movie in which Soderbergh builds a spy film around MMA fighter Gina Carano.

Mallory Kane (Carano) is a former Marine and an independent contractor who is hired to handle work that intelligence agencies feel requires her skills. After a job in Barcelona, she is asked to partner up with another agent (Fassbender) for a routine assignment. Mallory discovers that she is being framed by her boss and ex-boyfriend (McGregor), so she goes on the run to clear her name.

Soderbergh has built the whole movie around Carano, and she delivers for the most part. She has charisma and does well with the material; she is not the best actress, but she shows some skill, carries the movie, and should improve over time if Haywire is a hit. The main draw is the action scenes and they deliver better than I expected; they are kinetic, brutal, and Carano shows exactly why Soderbergh would want to build an action movie around her skill.

The plot of the film is window dressing for the action scenes; but it gets the film moving forward, has a couple of nice character moments, and it doesn’t clog the movie up and overshadow the action sequences. To help sell the film, Soderbergh has assembled a superb supporting cast that helps give the film some weight.

The cast is both a benefit and a bit a hindrance. The story could have used some fleshing out here and there, but the way it is doesn’t fully utilize the amazing supporting cast that the film has.The movie was made for action scenes for Carano, which are great, but because other areas are lacking, the movie doesn’t become too noteworthy. Soderbergh stages some great action scenes, but one or two could have been great but became too stylized and take from the action.

Haywire may not stick with people for a very long time, but Carano and Soderbergh have still come up with a very entertaining action film and that it’s worth the ticket price.

RATING: 7.5/10

TITLE: Underworld: Awakening
STARRING: Kate Beckinsale, Sandrine Holt, Theo James, Michael Ealy, India Eisley
DIRECTOR: Måns Mårlind & Björn Stein
STUDIO: Lakeshore Entertainment, Sketch Films, Screen Gems
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 88 min
RELEASED: January 20, 2011

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

With the Underworld films, it’s important to not really think too much into it. While the back story itself — heavily infused with a centuries-long war between the Vampire and the werewolf-like Lycan clans — actually makes sense and doesn’t really allow itself to get stuck into laborious debates about the whole logic of it all, it’s not really ever presented in the films as the main draw.

That would be more or less reserved for what you know everyone comes to these movies to see: guns, explosions, and Kate Beckinsale running around in that outfit of hers, kicking all sorts of supernatural ass. Beckinsale returns as the Death Dealer Vampire Selene in the fourth installment — her third go-round as the character — of the Underworld franchise.

Awakening picks up six months after the events of Underworld: Evolution, with Selene and the others having found themselves in a kill-or-be-killed battle with the humans, who have finally learned of the existence of vampires and werewolves. Naturally, the humans view the Lycans and Vampires as humans infected with a virus, and are looking to pretty much eradicate all of the infected, so as to not risk another breakout. The whole introduction to the chaos is a bit rushed, and could have benefited from expanding in its own right, but instead, Selene and Michael Corvin — the first Vampire/Lycan hybrid — are captured.

The film then flashes forward 12 years later, with Selene waking up from a cryogenic suspension chamber in a medical research facility. From here on out, it follows her search for Michael, who she thinks was in the other chamber with her. She ends up finding out that the other test subject was Eve, a child that the scientists created while Selene was frozen using her and Michael’s DNA. The rest of the film follows a bit of a conspiracy theory trail to find out why the Lycans are thriving and growing in numbers despite the particularly thorough purge over a decade ago.

From a visual standpoint, Underworld: Awakening is on par with past entries in the series, with its dark, gothic tone intact, and the Lycans looking as gruesome as ever. But I must admit how much better 3D films such as this look when they’re actually filmed with 3D cameras. Despite how much I hate the format’s obvious attempts to try and raise ticket prices even more, when it’s done well, it’s done well, and credit must be given. Although there’s quite a few in your face gags throughout, the subtle bits that added to the atmosphere of the film were pretty well done. One example in particular was the way a certain type of gas filled the room during a shootout between Selene and the Lycans.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t all that much holding the story together, and it’s hard to not look at it without a little bit of the old been there, done that. Granted, I’d take this over the teen romance drama of the Twilight films any day, but once you strip away all the flash and action, there really isn’t that much in terms of cohesive plot. The story serves more of a purpose to string along each fight, either between Selene and humans, or her and the Lycans, with not much of a true resolution. Well, that and overwrought slow motion shots of Beckinsale walking all pouty and “bad ass” in front of the camera.

Worst of all, Awakening ends with a bit of a lead-in for an obvious sequel, should they choose to go that route. Nothing about the film is terrible; it’s just that Awakening is going through the motions already laid out in previous installments. Ultimately, I would have rather seen what happened that lead to the humans learning of their existence rather than another fight between the clans. Something like that could have lead to a very interesting team up between the two. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, isn’t it?

RATING: 6/10

Front page image and interior stills from collider.com.

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Lionsgate announced this week that it has purchased Summit Entertainment for $412.5 million.

Summit’s most famous films in recent years include the Twilight movies, The Hurt Locker, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and American Pie.

The following press release was published this week:

Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment today announced that Lionsgate has completed a transaction to acquire Summit for a combination of cash and stock valued at $412.5 million.

The transaction unites two leading studios with powerful brands and complementary assets, solidifying Lionsgate’s position as the world’s largest and most diversified independent entertainment company. By acquiring Summit, Lionsgate enhances its feature film and home entertainment offerings and further broadens its 13,000 title filmed entertainment library to include such titles as The Twilight Saga, The Hurt Locker and Red. The integration of both Summit’s domestic and international theatrical film operations will significantly enhance Lionsgate’s production and distribution capacity, while also extending the Company’s worldwide reach and creating a dominant international sales organization. 

The transaction brings together Summit’s Twilight Saga feature film franchise, which has already grossed more than $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office, and Lionsgate’s highly anticipated Hunger Games franchise, which opens on March 23, 2012. Lionsgate will also continue to benefit from its premier television production and distribution business, its array of branded film and television properties, its suite of branded channels and its success as an innovator in creating and distributing content for digital platforms. Both the Lionsgate and Summit labels are expected to continue and be active in the production and distribution of films, although the combined company expects to realize significant synergies through the consolidation of administrative and other costs. 

“This transaction continues Lionsgate’s long-term growth strategy of building a diversified worldwide media company through a combination of disciplined, accretive strategic acquisitions and organic growth while maintaining a solid balance sheet,” said Lionsgate Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer and Vice Chairman Michael Burns. “We are uniting two powerful entertainment brands, bringing together two world-class feature film franchises to establish a commanding position in the young adult market, strengthening our global distribution infrastructure and creating a scalable platform that will result in significant and accretive financial benefits to Lionsgate shareholders. Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger have built a remarkable organization, and we’re pleased to welcome Summit’s talented team to the Lionsgate family. Lionsgate’s growth has been built over the years in part by the successful acquisition and integration of companies like Trimark, Artisan, Redbus, Debmar-Mercury, Mandate and TV Guide Network and, in each case, Lionsgate has emerged stronger and the Company’s brand has become more resonant.”

“Jon Feltheimer, Michael Burns and the rest of the Lionsgate team have built an exciting and entrepreneurial content leader over the past 12 years, and we’re delighted to join together these two great companies,” said Summit Entertainment’s Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger. “We believe that the combined entity will be even greater than the sum of its parts and our dramatically enlarged media platform will create tremendous opportunities for all of us within the Summit and Lionsgate families. We want to thank our employees, whose hard work and creativity have led to the successful evolution of Summit into a leading worldwide studio, and the combination of Lionsgate and Summit will be the next chapter in creating a true global media powerhouse.”

“As demonstrated by this acquisition, Lionsgate remains focused on preserving a strong balance sheet while pursuing its long-term growth strategy,” said Dr. Mark H. Rachesky, Co-Chairman of the Lionsgate Board of Directors. “We are big believers in the increasing value of content and this transaction strengthens Lionsgate’s asset base while providing significant financial benefits, including highly visible cash flow and revenue. We are looking forward to realizing the value of a Lionsgate-Summit combination for all Lionsgate shareholders.”

Source: ComingSoon.net