The UK release of J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek Into Darkness has officially been moved up by a week to May 9 when it will go out in IMAX 3D, 3D and 2D cinemas. Paramount currently has the film set for a May 17 release in the States with IMAX 3D screenings on May 15. The shift has led some to wonder if the U.S. date may move to May 9 as well, but then what would happen to all those Super Bowl viewers who unlocked movie tickets for special early showings on the 15th? Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the film, just tweeted: “Looks like Star Trek Into Darkness will land in the UK first. Release date…

MovieByte has a five star rating system: 0.5 to 5.0. This frees our reviews to be fairly specific about the value of a film using 2.5 stars for a median in terms of entertainment value and quality. However, there are so few good explanations of star rating systems on the Internet. What does a “2.0” or “4.5” mean? Why do we use a 5 star scale instead of a 4 or 10 star scale?

We at MovieByte leave it up to our individual reviewers to determine how to gauge a film. Yet it is people’s natural inclination to give most movies a 1 or 5, which is something all star rating systems suffer from.…

TJ and Joe after The MovieByte Podcast #34

TJ and Joe talk about CGI Superman capes and other thoughts about the upcoming ‘Man of Steel’, the CGI animation of late actress Audrey Hepburn, thoughts about the state of the industry in general in regards to CGI and the idea of bringing an actress or actor back from the dead, the ‘Game of Thrones’ director shrugging off piracy and the general state of the industry and the stance of the content providers, ‘The Hobbit’ crossing the $1 Billion mark and how well it’s doing, and the dismal opening weekend of ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ and why might that be. And the main topic of discussion with that lead in, is ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ and why it’s a better film than many seem to think it is. TJ like it a lot, Joe just thought it was okay. But the discussion is a fun one and you won’t want to miss it!

Still don’t know if this will be any good, but my interest is picking up a bit. A lot of star power has been brought to bear here as well with voices from Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Beyoncé, Pitbull, Steven Tyler, Judah Friedlander, Aziz Ansari, and Blake Anderson.

The film is set to premiere on June 13.

EPIC is a 3D CG action-adventure comedy that reveals a hidden world unlike any other. From the creators of ICE AGE and RIO, EPIC tells the story of an ongoing battle deep in the forest between the forces of good who keep the natural world alive…

Watch the first minute from the mid-season premiere right now, along with a few comments from executive producer J.J. Abrams and creator Eric Kripke.

Warning, of course there may be some spoilers here, although I think everyone knew that the first minute of the mid-season premiere, picking up from were we left off in the cliffhanger mid-season finale, would work out pretty much this way. But it does leave us with yet another cliff hanger.

Anyway, I’m calling safe to watch, even if you are avoiding spoilers. But some people may not agree.

Man this sounds really great! I cannot wait to hear it all. It is somewhat reminicent of the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, and in my mind, that’s a good thing. I love Legacy’s soundtrack.

Apparently, M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez is socring Oblivion with TRON: Uprising composer Joseph Trapanese so I suppose it should not be a surprise that there’s a bit of influence from TRON.

Give it a listen, it sounds great!

“Why wouldn’t Tony Stark just call The Avengers if he’s having a problem in Iron Man 3?” It’s a questions fans have been asking for months in anticipation of the first film of Marvel Phase 2, out May 3rd.

Good question.

It’s a good question, and it’s sort of half and half. I am betting that like the comics you don’t have to keep – if you are reading a standalone “Iron Man” comic, they don’t spend every page explaining where every other Marvel hero is. The audience kind of accepts that there are times when they’re on their own and there are times when they are together. I’m betting…

Interview 101, don’t talk about yourself, you’re here to talk with and about your subject. This guy needs to figure that out. But it still makes for hilarity. And Mila handles it in stride. Actually, she seems thrilled to be talking about something other than herself and her films.

Oh yeah, and is it football or soccer?

Of course, I almost have to wonder if this whole thing was staged and the kid wasn’t really nervous and completely screwing up because you think someone would have stepped in at some point. And he didn’t really seem that nervous actually. Ah well, watch it anyway.