Fox kicked off their CinemaCon presentation with a rousing performance by Ester Deen and B.o.B as they sang “Rio Rio” from the Rio 2 soundtrack. That was followed by Leslie Mann and Cameron Diaz coming on-stage to showcase The Other Woman. The footage was an extended look at the previously released trailer, with Carly (Cameron Diaz) discovering that she’s the “other woman” when she meets Kate (Leslie Mann), the wife of her lover. The two become friends, and eventually join forces when they discover he’s cheating on both of them with Amber (Kate Upton).
The new footage consisted of Carly and Kate getting into a cat fight when Carly tries to ambush Amber on the beach. This is followed by plenty of laughs as the three scheme to get back at the man who’s playing all of them. As the planning scene plays out, we discover that Carly has the knowledge of the kind of men that cheat, Kate has the knowledge of the man cheating, and Amber… well they’ll find out what Amber has knowledge of.
As the footage progressed the running gag was that Amber was the “dumb blonde” of the group. Despite this often overly used joke, it worked well with the trio of ladies showing promising on-screen chemistry as they take down the man that ruined their romantic lives.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Next up from 20th Century Fox was X-Men: Days of Future Past. The footage was almost entirely new as it showcased the first few minutes of the film. It began with two flying crafts slowing hovering over a futuristic city in ruins. Three sentinels are dropped from one of the crafts and start burrowing into the ground. We’re then transported down to the underground base of the mutants Blink (Bingbing Fan), Warpath (Booboo Stewart), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Sunspot (Adan Canto), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Bishop (Omar Sy), and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore).
As soon as the mutants realize the sentinels are nearby, Blink creates a portal to teleport herself and Warpath down to a lower level to warn the others. Bishop asks Sunspot to power up his weapon, as Sunspot shoots flames into Bishop’s left hand, which is transferred into the weapon in his right hand. Kitty Pryde grabs Bishop as the two run through objects on their way to the vault.
The sentinels break in and the fighting begins. These are the sentinels of the future that bear a striking resemblance to Nimrod. At first it appears as though the mutants are winning the battle. Blink is creating portals left and right to move people around and get them away from the sentinels. Sunspot engages the first one, lighting it up with a constant stream of flame. Meanwhile, Colossus starts to take on another, but not before getting a solid punch to the head. The punch clearly effects Colossus despite his metal plating. Iceman takes on the third sentinel, flying through one of Blink’s portals with his trademark ice slide.
It isn’t long before the tables begin to turn. We see the sentinel fighting Colossus mimic his power and cover itself in metal to go head-to-head with the Russian. At the same time, Iceman is covering his sentinel in a sheet of ice, slowing its movements. We see the flame-covered sentinel that’s fighting Sunspot suddenly mimic Iceman’s powers to combat the fire mutant. Shifting back to Iceman’s battle, his ice-covered sentinel begins to mimic Sunspot’s powers and covers itself in flames to break through the ice.
Before long all three mutants are down. These aren’t cute deaths either. Iceman is decapitated, leaving only a frozen head. Sunspot’s neck is snapped, and Colossus takes a severe beating on the ground. It isn’t long before Warpath is cornered at the entrance to the vault. All the while Kitty Pryde is focusing her powers on Bishop, presumably making an attempt to teleport them away. Warpath goes down with relative ease, then the sentinel mimics Sunspot’s power again to melt a whole through the vault door. As it begins to fire a blast at Kitty Pryde and Bishop, Kitty exclaims, “You’re too late, asshole!” as the two disappear.
The most recent trailer followed the footage, but it’s clear that at least the future portions of X-Men: Days of Future Past are dark and grim. Mutants are dying left and right by the time Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back in time to fix the past and create a better future.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the next film presented by Fox. The footage begins with a race. Humans are riding on dragons as they pick up sheep in order to score goals. It vaguely resembles Quidditch from the Harry Potter world. The humans are jumping around between dragons, stealing sheep from one another as they interact like high schoolers, poking fun and just having a good time.
At the end of the race we realize that Hiccup is nowhere to be found. It’s not long before we see Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) riding Toothless and performing more daring and impressive maneuvers than anything we saw in the race. Hiccup has added a piece of cloth to Toothless’ tail, then hooked it up to pedals that run up to the saddle. This allows Hiccup to really push Toothless to the limit of aerial maneuvering. It’s clear that had the two entered the competition, they would’ve easily won.
Soon after Hiccup asks Toothless if he wants to try “it” again. Hiccup jumps off and begins a free fall, while Toothless follows. Hiccup spreads his own makeshift wings and starts to glide, then a custom-made dorsal fin pops out of Hiccup’s back to give me addition gliding potential. The two land on top of a cliff and the play fighting scene that’s been shown in the trailers follows. So far everything is shaping up to raise the stakes in the sequel that takes place five years after the events of the original, and sees humans and dragons living side-by-side.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was the next film on display. As we see footage of the apes in the forest, text flashing on-screen proclaiming, “They created a home” and “Lived in peace”. We then see a small group of humans (one of them armed with a gun), stumble upon the ape civilization. The tension is high as the humans tell the apes they mean no harm.
It’s not long before we see Caesar (Andy Serkis) at the front of the pack. A little English is spoken, but the apes are mainly communicating as they naturally would. We then flash to a scene of humans in a rundown building arguing about what to do. Some are saying the apes want what they want and that fighting is unnecessary. Others want an all out war with the apes and blame them on the virus that wiped out most of the humans… despite the fact the virus was created by humans.
Suddenly a random shot goes off in the forest scene and it leads to war between the humans and the apes. Caesar speaks in English, “Apes together, strong!” then we see two humans sitting at the end of a long alley. One is holding an automatic weapon, while another gun sits to the side. The area looks almost like a bunker, although not well fortified.
On the opposite end of the alley an ape appears. The humans are clearly startled as the one holding the automatic weapon points it at the ape and tells him to go away. The ape continues moving in and sits down next to the nervous humans. He takes a sip of their alcohol and immediately spits it out.
The humans are now at ease, but it’s clear to the audience that something isn’t right. The ape picks up the other gun, which puts the humans back on alert. However, the ape isn’t really pointing the gun anywhere. He looks like you’d expect an ape to look if it randomly picked up a gun. In a flash the ape guns down the human holding the automatic weapon, then points it at the other. Both pause as the tension builds, then the screen cuts to black.
As if to relieve some of the tension in the room, Fox brought out Hazel Grace Lancaster, who plays Shailene Woodley, the lead role in the romantic drama, The Fault in Our Stars. The first scene from the film shows Woodley dreaming. She looks like any normal teenage girl would, but then she snaps out of the dream and we see her sitting in a support group with an oxygen tank.
Woodley has a fatal illness, but in the support group she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) a recovering cancer patient. It’s not long before the two fall in love, but Shailene keeps Gus at a distance. In a powerful scene, she tells Gus that one day she’ll obliterate everything around her and she doesn’t want to hurt him. His reply is that nothing she can do will change the way he feels.
During another scene we see the two standing outside, Shailene still with her oxygen tank. Gus pulls out a cigarette to puzzled looks from Shailene. She’s clearly displeased to see this, but Gus tells her that he has never lit a cigarette. It’s a metaphor for him. He holds it between his teeth, as a sign that he controls his own life.
The footage ends with the same dream sequence seen at the beginning of the footage, only this time Shailene has her oxygen with her, no longer looking like a normal teenager. Fox is very proud of the movie, and the footage backs up their pride. The movie releases in June.
Footage of The Maze Runner was next on the slate. It begins with Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) sitting in a lift as it climbs to the top of something. As light emerges from above, we see several other boys above. They welcome him to day one as he climbs out of the lift. Thomas remembers nothing, as the others inform him that he’s at the beginning of a maze. When someone enters the maze, they never return.
We then see the maze, which is large in structure, at least several stories tall. As the group traverses the maze in several shots, we learn that after Thomas’ arrival, everything changed. Flashing back to the lift, we see Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who immediately recognizes Thomas. As the first girl to arrive, the others are puzzled… even more so when they see she still has her memories.
The footage was very reminiscent of The Hunger Games, in the traps featured in the maze and the survival factor of the film. At the very least the footage poses questions that audiences will want answers to. Who’s in charge of the maze? Why is it there? Why are only teenage boys trapped in the maze? Hopefully we find out when the film hits theaters in September.
A quick montage of Gone Girl followed, showcasing Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) as the husband of a wife (Rosamund Pike) who has gone missing. We see all of the expected scenes when someone goes missing. People are searching for her, there are vigils held, and the police questioning people. It’s not long before Dunne begins to crack and the police start to wonder if he killed his wife. We see scene of Dunne and his wife arguing, as well as what appears to be a dead wife, floating underwater. It was fast and frantic, but it definitely looks promising.
The final new piece of footage that Fox had on display was for Secret Service, the new film from Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class). The first scene showcases Uncle Jack (Colin Firth) sitting in an English pub with his nephew, Eggsy (Taron Egerton). We learn that Eggsy’s father was skilled in combat, as is Jack. However, Eggsy has slacked off after it looked as though he was following in his father’s footsteps.
Eggsy has a thick Cockney accent and tells Jack that he stopped because his mother didn’t want to lose him like she lost his father. It’s at this point that the two are interrupt by a gang of no-goods. They clearly don’t want Eggsy in their territory, but Jack cordially asks them to allow the two to finish their drinks before getting into this. The delinquents treat Jack like any other old man and tell him to get out.
Jack walks toward the door as one of the gang members yells out a rude remark. Jack locks the door, then uses the handle of his umbrella to fling a beer glass at the leader’s head, knocking him unconscious. He then proceeds to systematically take down every member of the gang is rapid succession. It’s not long before we see him use his watch as a stun gun, showcases the fact that there will be high-tech gadgets similar to the classic Bond films.
At the end of the fight, the leader wakes up and pulls a gun on Jack. He immediately opens his umbrella, which is revealed to be bulletproof, and has a high-tech display on the inside. Jack finishes off the leader, then sits back down next to the shocked Eggsy. It’s not long before we see Jack training Eggsy and explaining what the Secret Service is.
The film was the highlight of the Fox presentation and reminded many of the classic Avengers. Not the Marvel Avengers, then British Avengers. It’s now one of our most highly anticipated films of the year. The October 24th release date can’t come soon enough.
Fox finished off the day by allowing Damon Wayans Jr. and Jack Johnson to interrupt the presentation. At first we were told there was no new footage, but luckily the two brought it with them. That footage was the newly released trailer for Let’s Be Cops, which can be seen below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2TpGj6q_qY
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Bryan Dawson has been writing professionally since the age of 13. He started his career as a video game writer and has since worked for Random House, Prima Games, DirecTV, IGN, AOL, the British Government, and various other organizations. For GNN, Bryan taps into his passion for movies.
