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Master swordsman Isao Machii is back! This time he’s here to cut a fastball in two.

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Movie trailers are what get us to fork over our box office dollars, but sometimes we don't always get our money's worth.

In fact, the movie we're sold on is often underwhelming or disappointing -- failing to live up to the quality of the ad that hooked us in. (We're looking at you, "Phantom Menace.") As theaters fill with previews for this Fall's coming attractions, here are 11 previews that proved to be better than the movie.

'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' (1999)
Back when trailers hit the internet in thumbnail vid sizes, if you wanted to really the prequel's first teaser, you had to buy a ticket to see (cringe) "Meet Joe Black." Today, we'd take a blank-faced Brad Pitt eating peanut butter over Jar-Jar any day.

'X3' (2006)
Wolverine's "gotta rally the troops" speech at trailer's end, in concert with the action-packed trailer music and visuals, convinced us that Brett Ratner taking over for Bryan Singer may not have been such a bad thing. We were so, so wrong.

'Spider-Man 3' (2007)
Another threequel, another trailer that tricked us into seeing a movie with emo Peter Parker and Harry's pervy line delivery about pie. The trailer's final line -- "This could be the end of Spider-Man" -- proved unfortunately prophetic.

'Die Another Day' (2002)
Oh c'mon! Ice guns, frozen tundras revealed to be curvy ladies -- what's not to love?! This teaser is way cooler than anything in Pierce Brosnan's final Bond film.

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (2015)
We're confident you watched this trailer more than the movie itself. "Ultron" isn't terrible, it's just, well, okay. And that's worse. But that creepy cover of "I Got No Strings" is the best.

'Quantum of Solace' (2008)
After "Casino Royale," we should have received -- as this trailer indicates -- "The Dark Knight" of Bond movies. Unfortunately, we had to wait another movie for that.

'Prometheus' (2012)
The first ad for the "Alien" prequel, borrowing from the 1979 film's trailer in chilling ways, is more of a true "Alien" prequel than the final film. They should have called it "Noble Misfire."

'Alien 3' (1992)
This first teaser for yet another threequel (seeing a pattern?) is very misleading -- especially with its promise of Earth's first xenomorph encounter.

'Where the Wild Things Are' (2009)
That Arcade Fire song, plus Spike Jonze's faithful (visual) adaptation of the much-beloved children's book, equals all the feels. The movie? Not so much.

'Sucker Punch' (2011)
Contrary to what the trailer makes you think, NO ONE wants to see flying girls punch giant, mini-gun wielding samurai.

'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012)
I'm just gonna leave this right here...

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Video: American Ninja Dinosaur

EA just held their Star Wars Battlefront beta test period - and like all betas, it was a glorious mix of ridiculous awesome badass gameplay and insane WTF glitches, only made better by the fact that this is the first Battlefront game to grace the world in about a decade. And regardless of whether you experienced the madness of Hoth or missed it entirely, you'll appreciate these 12 GIFs.

1. Probably not the best time to try to scratch your back, AT-AT.

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(photo by humblebee89)

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(photo via rocketnews)

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Video: The Slow Mo Guys: Jello Tennis

The post Creepy things to whisper… appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

I won’t even be able to handle all the feels when Chase Utley steps to the plate for his first at-bat against Jake Arrieta when they inevitably meet in the NLCS, because there’s a new bae in my shed, and this one has perfect beard.

I watched about 20 innings of baseball this year– nine at the one Phillies game I went to, the last three of Cole Hamels’ no-hitter (Arrieta’s last loss, by the way), six in the All-Star game. What’s that, 18? Two by accident. And, highlights of his no-hitter and mustache onesie notwithstanding, none of them included Jake Arrieta– Cubs ace, beardsman, and my new favorite player.

It took until only about the third inning last night – Arrieta’s complete game shutout of the Pirates – to be won over. His mound demeanor can only be described as Cliff Lee meets Drogo meets a wry-witted bull:

If his stoic excellence wasn’t enough, surely the stare-down after he was plunked in retaliation for hitting two batters himself – which cleared the benches [video] – put it over the edge:

At this point, my wife and I had the following conversation:

Me: Do you think he’s good looking?

Wife: Maybe without the beard.

Me: WHAT?

Wife: I don’t know, the beard just makes him seem like, who is it, Paul Bunyan? Like he should have an ox.

Me: Yes. Yes, he should have an ox.

Is this post a bit gay? Yeah, maybe a little. But that’s fine. I’m man enough to say it. I’m married, Jake’s married…

Photo credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

… oh what he’s a family man, too?! Total package.

Related: Will Leitch, a Cardinals fan, swoons over Arrieta.

This isn't the quirky, fast talking David Tennant fans remember from Doctor Who.

In the latest trailer for Netflix's Jessica Jones, the show's title character (played by Krysten Ritter) can be seen standing in her Alias Investigations office at 2:33 in the morning, putting up various photographs of what appear to be different crime scenes.

While she's tacking the photos up on her board, Tennant — who plays the villainous Kilgrave — delivers an incredibly creepy voiceover.

"Jessica," he starts, "I know your secrets. I know about your friends, about your gifts, Jones."

It ends with Tennant ominously declaring that he knows everything about the new superhero before Jones stomps out of the office, his face forming in the numerous...

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Everyone figured that the reason Sean Murray, director of the space-travel/exploration/combat game No Man's Sky, was announced as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was to give a launch date for the highly anticipated title. Nope. Colbert himself tried to cut to the chase in the first question, but got bupkis.

Doing a talk show with a game developer about an unreleased game is a lot less dynamic than doing a segment with an actor plugging an upcoming movie. Colbert still hangs in there, getting off a couple strong lines while still getting the bottom of what will — or should — make No Man's Sky unique, which is the application of big things like evolution and physics.

There is, at least, a demo beginning around 2:40,...

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Space fans, rejoice: today, just about every image captured by Apollo astronauts on lunar missions is now on the Project Apollo Archive Flickr account. There are some 8,400 photographs in all at a resolution of 1800 dpi, and they're sorted by the roll of film they were on. (more…)

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Man Builds Custom-Made Monopoly Board to Propose to His Girlfriend

That man has a lot of guts, assuming anyone will still love him halfway through a game of Monopoly.

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When I’m leaving a party and there are people near the door. [video]

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The post Rob the Balloon Guy appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

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me af

1. The Rise and Fall of Steve

For some, most of EVE Online seems as rousing as multiplayer Microsoft Excel, but the star-faring MMO's in-game hardware is still quite impressive to behold. Nothing in the game is so awe-inspiring as the mighty, mighty Titans. And while people do want to know everywhere they go, it's usually to better cower in fear of the gargantuan starships' literal Doomsday Weapons and massive support fleets. That, or to make like Dallas and cowboy up to bring down the monsters in glorious, suicidal battle. That's the kind of respect these big fish get now, in the very, very big pond that is EVE Online's single-server world. Now imagine what it must have been like when just one Titan existed in the entire game.

The Titan in question was dubbed Steve (what a great name) by its builder CYVOK, then-leader of then-powerhouse alliance Ascendant Frontier. Steve was an Avatar-class monster, with shape and girth enough to make Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer blush. It took six real-world months to build, and even then was completed before EVE developer CCP Games thought to implement its undocking process into the game. When construction was finished, some Icelandic intern must have spat coffee onto their CRT monitor while desperately trying to launch the ship manually (after verifying that Steve's conception was legit).

Being so expensive, Steve was mostly relegated to "deterrent" status in Ascendant Frontier's long-running conflict with the equally powerful Band of Brothers alliance. That is, until 60 unlucky seconds made sci-fi spreadsheet history. For reasons unknown, CYVOK logged out-of-game just minutes after taking young Steven out on a failed skirmish. No big deal, right? If he wasn't logged on, nobody could touch him or his 180-day bender boat. Except, that's not how it works in EVE Online. Stir up trouble, or wind up on the receiving end, and it's 15 minutes before you can exit safely; log off anyway, and the timer resets, except you're not there to protect your stuff. Yet that's exactly what CYVOK did, with only about a minute left on his original 15-minute window. Steve paid the price.

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