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Is there any war more heated or everlasting than the battle between Aliens and Predators? One side is always seeking to slaughter the other. But between the fearsome survival skills of the Predators and the sheer, boundless numbers of Aliens, the fight will never be finished. All we humans can do is sit back and hope we don’t get caught in the middle.

This war returns to consoles this week as Aliens vs. Predator hits the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Gamers can pick one of three sides – Alien, Predator, or Colonial Marine – and fight for supremacy. As with many recent videogame releases, we’re giving Aliens vs. Predator the “If You Like” treatment, suggesting several Blu-rays you can turn to if the game doesn’t satisfy your craving for survival horror and interstellar carnage. This installment is a little easier than most, considering the Aliens and Predators have starred in numerous movies already. But we’ve selected several other films that capture that same sense of terror and dread at being trapped in the dark while something alien hunts you.

Alien Quadrilogy
Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Price/Retailer: $29.99/Amazon

The best entries in the Ripley vs. I Bleed Acid franchise have to be on anyone’s pre-game AVP roster. One half of the reason why we are buying this game is to go all Col. Hicks on a facehugger or Alien Warrior. Ridley Scott’s Alien is the only good “monster on a space ship” movie out there; in fact, it is one of the best entries in the genre.

And Aliens is that rare sequel that takes what was so great about the original and makes it that much better. James Cameron expanded the Alien lifecycle to incorporate an Alien Queen, and we hope that our little geek hearts get gamer thumb as we try to kill the Bitch with a Power Loader. Two of the best science fiction films ever made are not on Blu-ray yet – they be on their way around November/December of 2010. But we would be remiss if we didn’t give them and their standard-def discs a shout out. Watch them now. Watch them twice.

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Predator
Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Price/Retailer: $9.99/Amazon

Arnold’s 1987 guns and ammo convention taught us a very important lesson: Don’t ghost Mac, ’cause he don’t care who you are back in the World – he will bleed you, leave ya here – GOT THAT?!

But we also learned that if something bleeds, you can kill it. And by “kill it” we mean “jungle brawl until it leaks neon blood and arms its wrist nuke.” Arnold and his fellow bicep enthusiasts had no idea that Painless wouldn’t be enough to stop one of Hollywood’s best movie monsters.

The other half of the AVP equation is arguably the most badass. He is a hunter with a cloaking device. He carries a portable human-making trophy kit. And he has a shoulder-mounted photon torpedo launcher. The trailer for the game alone says that all of the above will get a serious workout. So we hope you brought your camouflage mud, boys!

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Alien vs. Predator
Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Price/Retailer: $12.00/Amazon

OK, we’re just going to tear this one off like a band-aid and move on. Yes, the movie we all were waiting for did not deliver. It’s not pure crap, but it’s not good either. It just kind of sits there, like a very expensive videogame minus the scares of the Alien franchise, and the R-rated awesome fest of the first Predator movie.

It’s a PG-13 misfire, but we can’t say “check out the game” without first telling you to take your chance on the movie. It will make you appreciate the game that much more, we promise.

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Pitch Black
Publisher: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Price/Retailer: $16.99/Amazon

Pitch Black managed to reinvigorate the claustrophobic sci-fi/horror sub-genre, even if too few people paid the film much mind when it originally hit theaters.

In this movie, a cargo ship crashes on a planet bathed in perpetual sunlight. At first the survivors cower in fear of escaped prisoner Riddick, but when the lights go out and the monsters come calling, the battle-tested, all-seeing Riddick becomes their best friend.

Pitch Black is one of those increasingly rare horror movies that understands monsters are better heard and not seen. It’s just too bad the attempt to turn Pitch Black into a franchise failed so miserably. But Alien and Predator fans should be familiar with that scenario already.

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The Thing
Publisher: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Price/Retailer: $12.99/Amazon

The Thing shares a lot more in common with the first Alien movie than might seem apparent at first glance. Both films feature a group of scientists locked in deep, inhospitable isolation. Both make a strange discovery that quickly proceeds to tear them limb from limb. But where Alien saw Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley battle face-hugging monsters in deep space, The Thing follows Kurt Russell’s R.J. MacReady and his band of Antarctic researchers as they confront an entirely different sort of alien threat. This monster can take any form it pleases, as they discover the hard way.

These researcher’s might not have had access to the finest technology Weyland-Yutani had to offer, but they did have a secret weapon of their own – MacReady’s beard. Seriously, that thing looked like it might spring to life and do battle with the eponymous Thing at any moment.

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The Descent
Publisher: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Price/Retailer: $15.49/Amazon

A movie about a group of adventurous girls taking a vacation in the Appalachian Mountains might not sound like the stuff creepy, violent horror films are made of, but The Descent doesn’t pull its punches.

These overeager spelunkers quickly manage to get themselves lost underground with little food and dwindling batteries. As if the encroaching darkness and crippling claustrophobia weren’t enough, the girls quickly discover there are are other creatures sharing the caves with them. As the girls make their final stand, it’s hard not to recall Ripley’s valiant fights against her Alien nemeses.

If you prefer your films to be allegorical, then the underground nightmare of The Descent is the perfect metaphor for the dark side of the human psyche. But if you just want blood and horror, the movie has you covered as well.

We left Predator 2 off this list for a very specific reason – it isn’t a very good movie. Trading Ahnuld and the jungles of Central America for Danny Glover and a goofy, near-future version of L.A. was not the best move for the health of the franchise.

But not all is lost. At least this ill-fated sequel gave the Internet one of its more memorable YouTube fads in recent memory. No Aliens vs. Predator experience is complete without a gander at this silly dance-off. We call for a Predator Dance Party mode as a future DLC in the game.

Remake or not, stepping onto the set of a Nightmare on Elm Street film is nothing to be taken lightly. There’s a sense of history here, of remembering your first glimpse of the child-killer, Freddy Krueger, arms stretched impossibly wide as he walked, silhouetted, down that midnight alley toward his first cinematic victim. Some might argue the point, but this was, without a doubt, Freddy at his finest – horribly burned, wounds still wet and bleeding; humorless and hungry, prowling the nightmares of his unsuspecting victims, scratching at the scabs in search of their greatest fears. Freddy was scary back then – back in the days before the one-liners and cartoonish kills – and if nothing else, he represented a universal terror: that in our sleep, we are, above all things, vulnerable.

Whatever you opinion of Platinum Dunes’ forthcoming remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, save your judgment just awhile longer because we here at IGN had the opportunity to spend an evening with Freddy himself and, if nothing else, can assure you of this: There is reason to hope. Sadly, we didn’t get to see much in the way of action or kills, but we did spend a substantial amount of time talking to the film’s major players, not to mention Freddy himself.

We spent some time strolling through a few of the nightmarish sets – a burned-out school-room and its water-logged opposite; a massive, candle-lit cave – and perused some of the film’s concept art and production design, shadowy and imposing and dreamlike. We even, dare we admit, got to wear the glove, clicking our fingers with a metallic glee that might certainly have killed us had the blades been sharp. But what little we saw – and really, how much can one see in a single evening – felt very connected to the spirit of the first film, full of raw, nightmarish potential and a return to the terrifying nature of dreaming so absent from the series over these many years.

- Warner Bros.

“I think that our dreams are much closer to the first film than anything else,” says producer Brad Fuller. “These nightmares are truly nightmares and that’s one of the things that [director] Sam Bayer is so great about. We all have nightmares, but it’s a difficult thing to communicate what they feel like, and I think that’s what Sam is really doing an amazing job with. When I’m watching it, I’ve had nightmares that feel this horrible and he’s bringing that to the film.”

“He’s a true artist,” adds fellow producer Andrew Form. “He’s a painter, a photographer. He does it all. We have a map in this movie that is the Nightmare Map. Sam was out there painting on it. It’s pretty amazing stuff that he brings to this film.”

But the question, of course, is how much have they messed with a good thing? Has Freddy been tragically redesigned, or have they honored the iconic look we all know and love – the stripped sweater, or the brown, tattered fedora? And we can say today that the look, while certainly different, feels absolutely familiar. The sweater, the hat, the glove – all very similar to how we remember it –and the only major departure is in the burn patterns across the face and hands. The visual we were fortunate enough to get was a live one, face-to-face with Jackie Earle Haley in full makeup, even if some of that makeup was comprised of patches of green-screen waiting for post-production.

- Warner Bros.

Overall, Freddy’s appearance is less that of the freshly-burned killer and more like a man who’s had a short time to heal. The skin is pulled and misshapen, flesh-toned in places and red-raw in others. Patches of green-rubber suggest areas of deeply worn sinew along the cheeks and jaws, executed in post-production, suggesting something similar to the gaping wounds in The Dark Knight’s Harvey Dent. The ears are almost nonexistent, but the eyes are unobscured, allowing Jackie to emote effectively. In fact, the whole look, while horrifying in one context, is also, in another sense, rather sympathetic and wholly real. We can imagine that it will allow an actor such as Haley a greater range of emotion, depending upon his portrayal.

Makeup/FX artist Andrew Clement designed the more realistic look for this new version of Freddy, taking up the substantial challenge with re-imagining the look of an iconic character. “I came in with a really open mind, so I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I didn’t know if somebody was going to ask me to do a portrait, I didn’t know if somebody was going to ask me to do the same old stuff. When we really started seriously talking about it, one thing everybody really wanted was to step away from was the whole stretchy skin all over the place, which just thrilled me.”

“We spent months in the design phase,” continues Clement. “And even as we’re finalizing the sculpture, the design is still changing. I have a hard-drive full of hundreds of iterations. And then it became doing 20 different eye designs, 20 different this and that. Just seeing how well these things might come together. ‘Can you plug this eye into that design?’ It just wound up being a huge, huge thing.”

Jackie is sitting in the chair as Clement says this, his transformation nearly finished, patiently allowing his face to be stretched and deformed. And when asked if there was ever a temptation to simply go out and walk about the town in full Freddy makeup, the good-humored Haley, like a man at the end of a very long day, replies, “No… there’s a strong temptation to just rip it off my face, though.

“It’s kind of torturous for me,” admits the actor. “It’s just a long time in the chair and then wearing this stuff, my ears are killing me, and it pulls down on the back of my neck. I have to eat Advil. But at the same time, it’s kind of odd. It’s almost like I’m wondering if I could even like play this character if it wasn’t on. It kind of reaches this point where it starts to become the character. It’s kind of a trip, so it’s oddly encumbering and oddly empowering. The best Freddy research and motivation I could do is to sit in that torturous chair for three-and-a-half hours. I’m pretty ready to throw the glove on and start slicing just about anybody.

- Warner Bros.

“I think we’re focusing less on the camp and a little bit more of the scarier side,” continues the actor. “More of a serious side. And there’s definitely, I think, a little more focus on, you know, what makes this guy who he is. I’m playing a boogeyman, you know? So that’s what I’m really trying to embrace, but at the same time find out what makes this boogeyman tick. So there is room to look at his past and to see what’s happened and to see what makes him who he is – to see what’s made him the boogeyman that he is. But I think it’s really important that Robert Englund and New Line have done such a fine job over the years of creating this world and this character. It’s fun to kind of re-envision, but at the same time we need to remain true, to a point, of who Freddy is and what the franchise represents. It’s neat to get to re-envision it, but at the same time you don’t want to go so far that we’ve left out what makes it so cool.”

In terms of the specifics of the character, however, Haley’s process as an actor seems to be occurring deep below the surface.

“In terms of posture and voice and things like that, it’s not about sitting down and let’s try voices – although sometimes you do that. It’s just about working with the material… it’s when you’re not thinking about it, all of a sudden stuff bubbles up. I believe strongly in thinkubation. The conscious mind is but a mere oil slick on the top of your brain, I guess. On the conscious level we do logistical thinking, but so much of the creativity just bubbles down in here and kind of pops up. I mean how do you describe when an idea just kind of comes out? That’s a creative idea. So the process for me is really making sure I’m feeding that conscious level and giving it time for the subconscious to brew and put things in front of me. I don’t know if that makes any sense or if I sound like a madman.”

Lastly, Haley spoke at length about his predecessor in the role, Robert Englund, whose replacement in the series is something of a sore spot with fans.

- Warner Bros.

“Robert Englund’s done an amazing job over the years playing Freddy. Everybody that’s a fan of Nightmare loves Robert and so that’s a challenge when you’ve got to step in a big man’s shoes. You can’t please everybody. All I can do is really just try to work from the heart and do the best job at playing Freddy that I can. Robert and I aren’t competing with one another. It’s a thrill to be allowed to play this character,= because it’s such an iconic character, like Rorschach, but the difference is that one guy has played this character. It’s not like Frankenstein where you’ve got 20 guys playing Frankenstein over the years. So it makes it a little daunting, but it also makes it exciting and scary in its own right, too.”

Fuller concludes with a rather eloquent response to the same point and a well-stated defense of Platinum Dunes’ business model. “People are going to say we’re the devil because we’re making Freddy Krueger and it’s not going to be Robert Englund. I’ve certainly read that more than once, and I get it from a 14 year-old kid who’s typing from his basement, but the reality is, they’ve been remaking The Mummy for the past hundred years,” the producer explained. “And the person who invented The Mummy isn’t the person who made the second Mummy or the third Mummy, and Freddy Krueger is today’s Mummy. In 20 years, they’re going to make another Freddy Krueger movie.”

He continues, “Those characters, their first birth was in the ’80s, but horror has been reinventing itself from the beginning of time, so what we’re doing, although people see it as sacrilegious, it’s what the movie business has been doing from the beginning. I think that a lot of people who take runs at us don’t know their film history and aren’t aware that that’s what’s been going on since the beginning of time. There have been 40 or 50 werewolf movies, and they keep coming out and no one says anything. No one can tell me who made the first werewolf movie, and I just feel that the horror that Platinum Dunes is doing, this is our era right now, and hopefully my son’s generation will be making their own versions of Freddy and Jason, and those characters will continue.”

With Lost, Season 5 was the pivotal point when the long-running storyline went off the deep end, with episodes taking place both on and off the island in multiple timelines. Despite the increasingly complex layout of the show, Season 5 was also the point where answers finally started surfacing regarding the nature of the island and the various factions who inhabit it. It was a memorable ride, and Season 5 also enjoyed the best treatment the series has ever seen on Blu-ray.

Regardless of which version of Lost: Season 5 you buy, the audio and video quality are outstanding. The familiar jungle has never looked more lush, nor has the smoke monster ever sounded more menacing as it lurks in the distance.

Jungle love interruptus.

But those qualities aside, the Season 5 Dharma Orientation Kit goes several steps further in offering fans an incredible and comprehensive package. The set comes packaged in a cardboard box that looks like it could have been stolen straight from Dharma headquarters. Inside are pamphlets, embroidered patches, and even a VHS tape with a faux-orientation video on it. Even the Blu-ray discs themselves come packaged inside inserts that resemble old-school floppy discs. This set is a treasure trove of treats for the discerning Lost viewer. For those holding out for a complete series box set, we ask you this: How are they supposed to top a package like this?

Love him or hate him, Michael Bay was born to make movies like Transformers. Spectacle is his specialty, after all, not subtlety, so enjoying the sum of the parts sometimes requires dispassionate detachment or at least the willing suspension of disbelief. That’s a lot easier to do when you have visuals as impressive as those on display in Transformers. Beautifully shot, masterfully transferred, this film is near-flawless in its stunningly beautiful Blu-ray presentation.

The CG blends almost seamlessly into the environments — an effect which can often be aided by a lower-resolution release, obscuring where the digital overlays against the practical. Fortunately, the ILM effects work is so well crafted that the usual seams made evident by the detail of high-definition are virtually undetectable here. The transfer offers even more amazing coloration and rich contrast to what was already impressive on standard-definition formats. As for the sound, let’s just say we recommend you bolt down your furniture and everyday household items before putting this on. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track will punch, kick and shoot its way through your living room, leaving a path of sonic destruction in its wake.

Shia just realized that the girl to his right had relations with David Silver.

The superior technical quality on display here is complemented by a number of slickly produced bonus features that cover the usual ground, but with a greater focus than is normally found in similar material. There’s plenty of content here (and perhaps a few justifications) for the old-school Transformers fans as well as enough on-set, behind-the-scenes information for those looking for a Bay 101 master class. This was also one of the first titles to offer exclusive BD-Live content with more behind-the-scenes features. When this title came out, it knocked our socks off, and it still holds its own among the newer releases out there. This Blu-ray represents a showcase disc worthy of sitting at the very front of your collection.

Whatever your preference for who played the better Bond, there was little denying back in 2006 that Daniel Craig’s blonde-haired, dead-eyed portrayal of the complex secret agent was the shot-in-the-arm needed to keep the Bond franchise both interesting and relevant to modern audiences. It was a controversial choice, but one which proved, without a doubt, to be absolutely, 100-percent on the money(penny). The addition of drama, character and a real, honest love-interest to Casino Royale gave fans exactly what had been missing from the Bond films — legitimate substance. Not to mention that the action sequences were first-rate, the women hotter than hot, the acting exemplary and the finale a perfect set-up for the first direct Bond sequel ever made, Quantum of Solace.

So when the first Bond Blu-ray hit directly on the heels of the film’s theatrical release, it was the measure against which all other Blu-ray’s were judged — amazing picture and sound with a smattering of worthwhile bonus features. Sure, it was the early days of Blu-ray at that point, but we knew a good disc when we saw one, and the measure of a movie’s quality was the distance between our jaw and the floor upon seeing the picture. But then, of course, in preparation for Quantum, they went and did it all over again.

“Nope, that’s not my Walther PPK.”

Casino Royale is still among the very best Blu-ray reference discs. With the exception of the purposely grainy black and white opening, Casino Royale’s image quality is crystal clear — even during high action sequences such as the free running sequences in Madagascar that have the actors zipping by jungle foliage and through sand pouring from above. Likewise, the stylized, flat-shaded opening credits are pristine with clean and straight edges. Casino Royale’s audio is outstanding. Given the outrageous stunt sequences that have Bond running on top of metal girders in a hotel construction zone, flipping a car at full speed, or shooting foes inside a sinking building, the soundtrack is surprisingly natural. Because fans cried out for a commentary on the film’s first release, Sony delivers — and then some — with director and producer giving us the play-by-play. The free-running sequence and Bond’s torture are well-worth the listen — the best bonus on the set, clearly. The second best extra has to be “The Road to Casino Royale,” the making-of not just the film, but also the genesis and evolution of Ian Fleming’s source material. With help from Bond fan and biographer John Cork, filmmakers and archived stills, the book, the TV movie and the development of Craig’s first Bond are chronicled with the attention to detail reserved for an encyclopedia entry.

The director of such insanely dark fare as Seven and Panic Room tackles a story with more Forrest Gump than Seven Deadly Sins, turning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button into a mortality play that uses advanced special effects in support of one man’s living in reverse, and in doing so allows director David Fincher to flex new director muscles in the telling of his most heartfelt film to date.

And since this is Fincher, the visual presentation trends toward the reference quality side of things. Although some sequences were shot on 35mm film, most of Benjamin Button was shot digitally. Fincher’s strong sense of visual style comes across in pristine clarity, without a trace of a flaw. From the golden and sepia tones of Benjamin’s youth to the cold, cool present-day hospital room where Daisy spends her final moments, the film looks even more impressive than it did in the theater. The occasional pops of color – like Daisy’s yellow coat and that iconic red dress – look mighty fine.

DJ Jazzy Button, ladies and gentleman!

Any fear that viewers may have had that the CG applied to Benjamin’s face would simply look too prevalent or distracting in gorgeous high-def can certainly be set aside. This is another beautiful transfer from the master.

Watchmen is a divisive comic book movie. Fans laud its faithfulness to the original comics and its hard-hitting portrayal of superhero vigilantes in a twisted Cold War landscape. Others point out that a film needs to do more than be faithful to the source material and deride Watchmen for being overly long and coldly impersonal.

Whatever your opinion, however, it’s hard to muster anything negative to say about the Director’s Cut Blu-ray. The movie was a visual showpiece in theaters, and it’s no less so on the small screen. The movie lends itself well to the HD format, with deep, rich colors and fine, sharp lines. In between the dark, black shadows, director Zack Snyder fills each scene with background details that enrich the world and reference the original source material, and none of that work goes to waste. The sound, whether depicting massive explosions or Dr. Manhattan’s deep monotone, is equally fantastic.

The bonus features cover a wide range of topics from the production process to the legacy of the comic. Aside from the animated “Tales From the Black Freighter” segments, it’s hard to imagine much more material being included here.

While the even more comprehensive Watchmen Ultimate Cut recently hit stores (complete with Black Freighter segments inserted into the movie), ultimately the Director’s Cut stands out as a better film. Unless you need the longest version possible or crave the Watchmen motion comics on a Blu-ray, stick to the Director’s Cut version.

10. X-Men: The Last Stand

We had an argument in the IGN office over which X-Men film to include in the list; X-Men: The Last Stand or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Both are seriously flawed films, but the eventual consensus was that whilst Wolverine was unfocused and strangely unmemorable; it wasn’t an utter dog’s dinner like Last Stand.

Yup, X3 was a big mess. The screenwriters tried to cram so many plotlines into the 104 minute running time (included the fan-favourite Phoenix story) that none felt fleshed out or reached a satisfying conclusion. Major characters were either killed off or stripped of their mutant powers in the blink of an eye, with no dramatic build-up or warning. The moody atmospherics and water-tight storytelling of the first two X-Men films was entirely absent. Despite having the odd stand-out moment (basically all the scenes featuring Ian McKellen’s terrifying Magneto), X-Men: The Last Stand proved a desperately disappointing end to a fine series.

9. Daredevil

Boy gets nasty chemicals spilled on him, loses his sight but his other senses become heightened to superhuman levels and naturally he decides to fight crime when he grows up. There’s a great movie desperate to be made out of the Daredevil premise (which is probably why it’s in the process of being rebooted), but this 2005 effort isn’t it.

Hiring Ben Affleck as the lead probably wasn’t a good move, with the actor cementing his reputation as a lightweight thesp with this charisma-free performance as Matt Murdock. However, he wasn’t the only guilty party here; helmer Mark Steven Johnson didn’t help matters with some slipshod direction of the fight sequences, whilst Colin Farrell’s turn as the villainous assassin Bullseye was one of the worst of his career.

8. Spider-Man 3

This, along with X3, is the second three-quel on the list, and like Brett Ratner’s movie it suffers from similar problems, namely shoe-horning too much plot into one movie. Peter Parker has to do battle with not only the Sandman, the new Green Goblin and Venom, but also a moody, vengeful version of himself after a symbiote attaches itself to his moped.

Yep, this is the Spidey film that tried to be a bit more like Batman Begins and go “dark,” which meant we had to suffer through an emo Tobey Maguire – replete with floppy fringe and eyeliner – nauseatingly dance-walking down the streets of New York. An embarrassing moment in an exhausting and muddled movie.

7. Ghost Rider

Nicolas Cage is Johnny Blaze, a second-tier Marvel hero who transforms into a super-strong skeleton, replete with flaming skull, in the presence of evil. Despite his reputation for over-acting, Cage is the only reason to watch this thoroughly mediocre effort (directed – once again – by Mark Steven Johnson).

Feeling like a quick cash-in, the film is at turns ridiculous, camp, corny and at times utterly logic-defying. Eva Mendes shows off her cleavage but adds little else to the mix, whilst Peter Fonda hammily mocks his role in Easy Rider as baddie Mephistopheles. A sequel – with Cage once again attached – is planned.

6. Fantastic Four

The team behind Fantastic Four deserved kudos for at least trying to make this Marvel adaptation a slice of humorous, escapist, family fun that ran counter to many of the serious comic book films of the mid-2000s. However utterly inept filmmaking and some cheapskate casting scuppered their good intentions; F4 was neither fun nor thrilling.

The likes of Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, and Jessica Alba were the light-weight thesps tasked with delivering F4’s pun-filled dialogue. Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon surpassed them all, however, with an embarrassing, horribly-overblown turn as the villainous Dr Doom. Bargain basement production design, patchy CGI and some of the most brazen product-placement we’ve ever seen contributed to an experience that utterly failed to capture the goofy, earnest charm of the comics.

5. Elektra

Daredevil was not exactly The Dark Knight in the first place, which makes the decision to give his slain love interest her own movie somewhat bizarre.

To be fair, Jennifer Garner actually does kick ass as the titular heroine, imbuing all the star quality she can muster into a seriously underwritten role (she spends much of the movie rearranging fruit). Sadly, the rest of the film is as gloomy and humourless as they come, with much of Elektra taken up with Garner unconvincingly battling her “inner demons.” Lifting a treetop martial arts sequence straight out of House of Flying Daggers was also less than inspired.

4. The Punisher (both versions)

Will there ever be a decent movie version of The Punisher? In the space of five years there’s been two attempts to bring Marvel’s gun-toting vigilante back to the big screen (after Dolph Lundgren first played the character a 1989 version), with both failing to hit the mark.

The first was unleashed in 2004, with Thomas Jane playing the title role. Horribly violent, grim, humourless and emotionally detached, it was a failed attempt to ape the classic action films of the ’70s and ’80s. The 2009 reboot, Punisher: War Zone, repeated many of its predecessor’s faults, with Ray Stevenson this time donning the skull-emblazoned shirt to similarly forgettable effect. Expect another reboot in a couple of years time.
3. The Spirit

As we approach the summit of our list, the films move from the merely mediocre to the truly, truly horrible. The Spirit sadly falls into the latter category; an almost unwatchable disgrace directed by legendary comic book artist Frank Miller (who also co-helmed Sin City).

The likes of Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson (in garish eye-liner), Eva Mendes and the unfortunate Gabriel Macht (in the title role) all contribute career-worst work; giving wide-eyed, over-the-top-performances and spouting pretentious, nonsensical dialogue. The scene where Johansson and Jackson dress up as Nazis for no reason is the bizarre low point.

2. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

No wonder Alan Moore hates Hollywood. It must be truly dispiriting to see your intricately constructed and extremely clever graphic novel transformed into a bafflingly stupid, watered-down train wreck of a movie by bumbling studio buffoons.

Famously, League was beset by behind-the-scenes problems, with star Sean Connery apparently arguing nonstop with director Steven Norrington throughout. However, these issues don’t explain the frankly insulting script, which assumed cinemagoers hadn’t heard of the League’s literary members, and filled the first hour of the movie with exposition explaining who they were. When the action does finally arrive, it’s shoddily edited and full of continuity errors. Not good.

1. Catwoman

This isn’t just a bad comic book movie; it’s a strong contender for the title of “worst film of the decade” as well. Bearing no similarity to other incarnations of the DC character in the past or any of the Batman films, Catwoman exists all by herself in a bizarre, quality-free vacuum.

Halle Berry, fresh off the back of Oscar success, is Patience, the frumpy (yeah, right) designer bullied by her boss and utterly lacking in self-esteem. That is until she is murdered and, umm, revived by cats. Newly reincarnated as a strong, superhuman and ultra-sexy superhero, she does battle with Sharon Stone’s ridiculous cosmetics magnate, who is preparing to unleash a face cream which dissolves your skin if you stop using it.

Cue a litany of filmmaking crimes. We have the most inept, CG-augmented fight sequences we’ve ever seen, with a digital Berry bouncing weightlessly around the screen. Then there’s the glossy, but simultaneously cheap-looking production design and cinematography, which smothers every frame in a layer of greasy slickness. Or how about the woeful, logic-starved script that is – at best – aiming for camp silliness, but is utterly lacking in any sense of fun or humour.

Sadly, Catwoman is truly is as bad as you’ve heard, and rivals Batman and Robin as perhaps the worst ever entry into the genre.

Now that Riddick 3 is being made at Universal, there’s one important question to ask. Will the third film be a continuation of the Necromonger-focused Chronicles story line, or a return to the Pitch Black-style action? Rumors say the latter.

Hollywood Reporter has the inside scoop on the new Riddick plot line:

Though billed as a back-to-basics approach to the character popularized by Diesel, the script features the character — the most wanted man in the galaxy — left for dead on a barren alien planet, dealing with “trisons” (three-legged bisons) and “mud demons.” He must then contend with two squads of bounty hunters, one of which ride rockets called jetcycles.

While we’re still extremely curious about the mysterious half dead Necro race, and we really want to see Riddick “keeping what he kills” i.e. the Lord Marshall’s seat at the head of the Necro fleet. We have no problem with some good, old fashioned Furyan death-dealing. As long as Tombs comes back.

Now that we know that Christopher Nolan’s third Batman movie is getting underway, rumors about the choice of villain and plot are beginning to trickle online. Surprisingly, they don’t seem entirely impossible…

According to an anonymous source to ComicBookMovie.com, the third movie will feature not only the Riddler as the main villain – figuring out Batman’s secret identity, in a move swiped from the comics – but also cameos from other villains within Arkham Asylum, as well as appearances by Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson and mentions of Lex Luthor and Metropolis, setting up a cross-continuity with any future Superman movie.

Ignoring the fact that Barbara Gordon would be too young to be Batgirl in the movie continuity, all of this seems potentially legit, especially considering that The Dark Knight featured villain cameos, Nolan is overseeing a Superman movie reboot and the non-powered-but-mentally-troubled Riddler seems a particularly strong choice for villain. But with the outline for the story only apparently being started recently, it seems a little early for this news to be leaking, unless it’s a wishlist from the producers of things they’d want to see in the movie. But stranger things have happened…

Fast Five — that’s what Universal is calling the fifth installment of the Fast and the Furious series — is happening. And yes, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker will be back for the film, as will director Justin Lin and producer Neal Moritz.

According to Variety, Chris Morgan is also back, writing the film — he previously worked with Lin on the third and fourth pictures in the ever-profitable series. The story for Five will find “Dom (Diesel) and Brian (Walker) as fugitives being pursued by relentless lawmen.”

- Universal

Vin and Paul, together again.

Last year’s Fast & Furious was the highest-grossing film in the series, bringing in $350 million worldwide. So the franchise still has gas in its tank.

Production on Fast Five is set to start later this year for a 2011 release.

In spite of the overwhelming temptation to do so, we’re not going to start this preview with something about loving it when a plan comes together. Nope. Not even given the fact that we’ve been waiting for the movie version of the The A-Team to… err, happen for a long time. At last, two decades after the original series went off the air, a movie version of the TV action-comedy is finally coming to theaters.

This time around, the soldiers arrested for a crime they didn’t commit are Liam Neeson as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith, Bradley Cooper as Templeton “Face” Peck, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as B.A. Baracus, and Sharlto Copley as “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock. Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson also star as the military police who are after the squad of former special forces operatives-turned-mercenaries.

We’ve wondered, throughout the movie’s many years of development, what tone it would strike. Remember Michael Mann’s Miami Vice? There’s a TV-to-film adaptation that took itself too seriously. On the other hand, nobody wants to see a corny Starsky & Hutch-esque parody. It had to strike the perfect balance. Based on what we’ve seen thus far, we think that’s what director Joe Carnahan has delivered.
In spite of some choppy editing, the trailer for the flick has us pretty stoked. The famous opening voiceover portentously delivered by “trailer guy” was a highlight, as was the chance to see Hannibal deliver his catchphrase: “I love it when a plan comes together!” There’s also aerial tank action. And, really, who doesn’t love that?

In an exclusive interview, Carnahan told us, “When a summer film really works, it does so because it really reaches the human parts of us… For me, what I always loved about the show wasn’t so much the situational stuff but the camaraderie and the affection that these guys had for one another. I think that if you’re a fan of that show and you have any doubts about the movie, you should have none. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

One question Carnahan hasn’t answered is which members of the original cast (if any) will cameo in the new movie. We’ve heard that Dwight Schultz could appear. Dirk Benedict (Face) is also expected to pop up. But what about Mr. T? All signs, unfortunately, point to “no.”

- 20th Century Fox

Click for A-Team image gallery awesomeness.

Even if it doesn’t have Mr. T, the new A-Team is still likely to be solid. But the movie’s fate wasn’t always so sure. It’s gone through its share of development fits and starts. John Singleton was once expected to direct and Bruce Willis was eyed for the Hannibal role. Ice Cube was even considered for the B.A. part. Nothing against the Four Brothers helmer, the Die Hard star, or the rapper-turned-actor, but we like the final version better.

So, we’ve got an all new cast. What else will be different in the new A-Team? The setting has been shifted from Vietnam to the Middle East, an appropriate contemporary choice. And how about the classic TV show’s opening song? There are no hints of it in the trailer, but composer Alan Silvestri would be crazy not to at least pay homage to it in his score, if not rework it in a main theme.