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Since this is the first official post on the blog, I'm playing catch-up just little bit.  This is all news that broke earlier in the week but, hey, you know what they say--better late than never.


Chris Evans is "Captain America"
Marvel made it official on Sunday; they'd offered the part to Chris Evans on Friday and he'd accepted over the weekend.  The internet is abuzz with positive feedback on this casting but I'm not entirely convinced.  It'll be hard to say until we see some footage down the line.  Sure, Evans looks the part but I'm not convinced he can pull off the confident swagger than you need from Captain America.  Not to mention the fact that he's already played a Marvel superhero; has everyone forgotten that he was Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?  Yes, I know the FF rights are all tied up at Fox right now so those movies don't tie into these new Avengers set-up movies but, still, it bugs me.


Louis Leterrier Wants to Direct "Avengers"
Speaking of the Avengers, Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans director Louis Leterrier is now officially on the shortlist to direct the forthcoming Avengers movie.  While the obvious choice would be Iron Man director Jon Favreau, it's not gonna happen.  Favreau already took himself out of the running, leaving Thor director Kenneth Branagh (yikes!), Captain America director Joe Johnston, and now Louis Leterrier.  Or Marvel could just go outside the box and hire a new director altogether.  I'm go out on a limb here and say that the best person for the job would be Johnston.  Looking at his resume, I think his directing style fits best in the Avengers world and I'm pretty optimistic that Captain America is going to turn out well (despite my reservations about the casting).  Leterrier is a great action director, so I'm not gonna be upset if he does land the job but I'm gunning for Johnston.


Nintendo Announces the 3DS
Out of the blue on Monday, Nintendo issued a press release announcing that they were developing a new handheld console which, despite its temporary name, is not just another version of the 5-year-old Nintendo DS.  The 3DS will feature (you guessed it) 3D graphics and will be backwards compatible with all Nintendo DS games.  That's about all that Nintendo had to say about it but leaks are saying that the system uses a Nvidia chipset, features rumble feedback, and an analog control stick.  There's also speculation that a new 3D screen technology from Sharp may be present in the 3DS.


So what do I think?  So far I'm underwhelmed.  Obviously, there's not a lot to go on here but with the Nintendo DS already the best-selling handheld in history with a slew of different versions available (including the new DSi XL which goes on sale this Sunday), I couldn't care less about a new Nintendo handheld right now, 3D or not.  What we really need to here from Nintendo is what they're going to do to follow-up on the Wii.  The novelty has worn and the list of great titles for the system has dwindled.  With Sony & Microsoft gearing up for Playstation Move and Project Natal, Nintendo needs to beat them to market with some kind of announcement, at least.  I'm guessing we'll hear something before the end of the year and in the meantime, Nintendo is promising to have the 3DS fully playable at this year's E3 conference in June.


There's a cool YouTube video floating around that shows what the 3DS might be like.  It's a new Japan-only DSiWare game that uses the DSi's inner camera to track movement and give the appearance of 3D.  It's pretty freaky and, yes, it is kinda cool: