The day many have been anticipating/ dreading arrived yesterday – the first real tangible fruits of Brett Ratner’s labour on X-Men 3. There’d been a lot of doomsaying since director Bryan Singer jumped ship for Superman Returns and the man responsible for bringing us Rush Hour (both parts!) took over the helm, but I have tried to hold out hope that a decent flick might still come out of it all (though studios announcing release dates before they have a director doesn’t usually instill great confidence). Well, USA Today was first with pics from the new film, including the first look at Kelsey Grammar as Beast. Yeah, he looks a little odd, but I actually don’t mind it. I’ve gotten used to the more feline Beast of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run, but the celluloid version looks more reminiscent of the 80s-era Hank McCoy (though with the current Beast’s fashion sense). There’s also some shots of Angel, whose torso looks inexplicably plastic. Not surprisingly, the peanut gallery at Newsarama had lots to say about the released images.

But that was just a teaser for what would come last night, with the online release of the teaser trailer for X3… and I gotta say, it’s not making me afraid. Of course, it’s relying on road-tested images to get the fans worked up (Magneto smashing stuff, Wolverine snikt-ing, Jean Grey without any pants on) with a smattering of new treats (Shadowcat, Juggernaut, Beast, Angel), but still, I’m glancing at my calendar to see how far off May 26 is. Newsarama is talking about the teaser, natch. I *think* you need to have iTunes installed to see the trailer – the latest version of Quicktime is bundled with it, so if you wanna see it, you gotta have it installed. Boo, Apple. Also new is the official “title” for X3 – The Last Stand. While I’m sure no one is going to say it, it appears they’re prepared for this to be the final X-Men movie (excepting the Wolverine spinoff slated for ’07). Considering how much trouble they’ve had coercing cast members to come back for each production (hello, Halle Berry), I’m not surprised and I won’t begrudge them if they wrap things up – I just hope it’ll be on a high note.

Also on the topic of Marvel-to-film, here are some screenshots from the Ultimate Avengers straight-to-DVD feature film that’s coming out in February. Looks good, and if the writing is half as good as the Ultimates story it’s based on, it should be a winner as well.

And apologies to anyone who saw the post title and was hoping for some Mogwai news… sorry. Mr Beast is still coming out March 7, but there’s no preview MP3 yet or anything. Mogwai do have a MySpace page, though, so you can add them as your friend and get Stuart Brathwaite to curse at you all fancy-like in Scottish.

Sigur Ros are currently streaming the entire two-hours-plus of their recent hometown show in Reyjkavik right here, a perfect treat for those who missed them on their North American tour this Fall (like me). The band will be returning to the US next February for more dates, but will be skipping Canuckistan. Alas. Thanks to Mishie for the link.

Chart surprises the hell out of me by posting a news item about the new EP and album from Amelia Fletcher’s Tender Trap. The EP is called Language Lessons, which is out today, and the album, Talking Backwards, is out in January.

More year end listiness. Indie Interviews and Marathon Packs have their lists up, Metacritic has scientifically calculated the best albums of the year from their meta-scores and Stylus is running down their 50 singles of the year all this week.

np – Supergrass / Road To Rouen