The San Diego Comic-Con is upon us. With it — as with every year — comes a new motherlode of news in geek-friendly movies, TV and comics. Just in the past couple of days, I’ve seen three trailers that deserve mention here.

First, check out the new RED trailer. You may remember it from that brief article I wrote about the teaser and my thoughts about this movie have only been amplified. It was funny to see Bruce Willis as a grumpy and cantankerous older man, but his action scenes in the trailer look like a lot of fun as well. The thought of Dame Helen Mirren mowing down bad guys with heavy artillery is still an amazing contradiction, made even more so by her sweet disposition in the trailer (“I kill people, dear.” *adorable shrug*). And John Malkovich… it’s like he’s taking his paranoid and trigger-happy act from Burn After Reading, subtracting any leftover trace of rationality and multiplying it by finger-looping-around-the-temple insanity.

For the younger actors, it looks like Mary-Louise Parker is in the “straight man” role. Her scene with Willis in the elevator was kind of awkward, but that may have just been the editing (green band, remember). She doesn’t get many lines in the trailer, but it looks like she’s mainly an excuse for the real stars to be funny, which is just fine by me. Finally, there’s Karl Urban, who appears to be playing the villain of the piece. He sadly gets even less time than Parker does in this trailer, so I don’t have much to go on. However, as I’ve said before with Patrick Wilson in The A-Team, I have great respect for a young actor who goes from playing heroes to playing a villain. Even more so for Urban, since he’s still playing a good doctor in an ongoing franchise.

RED is due October 15th. I am so there.

Next up is a new trailer from Machete. Red band, this time.

Back in my write-up for the first trailer, I thought that the movie couldn’t possibly be so offensive that the only way to cut a green band trailer would be to make it unwatchable. Now, I’m not so sure. There’s clearly a great amount of nudity in this movie, along with copious amounts of blood. And that intestine stunt… seriously, it’s fucked-up enough that I had to type the phrase “intestine stunt.”

Unfortunately, that nauseating blurry-cam from the greenband is here as well. I’m really starting to worry that the effect will be employed in the actual movie. Fortunately, the redband didn’t use that effect for every single shot as its predecessor did, but the editing this time is still pretty bad. Some shots are so quick that trying to find out what’s happening is like looking for the darkness between the 24 frames in a second of film. Nevertheless, this trailer was at least watchable, which is a huge step up from last time.

Machete will be in theaters this September 3rd. I’ll be surprised and disappointed if people aren’t quoting “I absolve you of all your sins, now get the fuck out,” long before then.

But of course, no one’s talking about the above two trailers. No, everyone’s talking about this one. And I can’t blame ’em.

Nevertheless, Tron: Legacy is clearly being sold on visuals and nostalgia. We know that Flynn (Jeff Bridges, reprising his role from the original) went missing a couple decades ago and we know that his son goes after him, getting lost in the computer world in the process. As to what actually happens in the computer world, details are extremely scarce. We know what the story will look like but we don’t know what the story will be. Well, I guess that approach worked for Inception. And anyway, we know that David Fincher and the Pixar brain trust stamped their seal of approval on the movie, so there’s a ringing endorsement.

As to the new trailer, the “Young Flynn” effect is very good, though it still looks a touch plastic to me. I’m sure they’ll have the kinks worked out before release, but I honestly prefer it this way: It’s a computer-generated imitation of Bridges that could never be mistaken for the real thing. Just like Clu.

Unfortunately, my one gripe about the movie so far remains: The computer world looks far too tactile. The original movie’s production really did look like everything was made of energy and electricity. Here, it looks like everything’s made of plastic and glass. The costumes of the original looked like they really were the programs’ skin, while these costumes look like… well, clothing.

Aside from that persistent niggling complaint, my hype for this movie has not lessened. The new de-rezzing effect is great, the action looks solid, the new light vehicles are amazing and the cinematography has a light/dark contrast that I find very appealing. It’s also worth noting that the movie was shot and designed with the next generation of technology that James Cameron used for Avatar. That’s right, folks: No crappy 3D conversion for this baby!

Tron: Legacy is hitting theaters on December 17th. Be there and get your glasses ready.

Oh, and there’s something else. It’s not really a trailer, but worthy of mention anyway. See, at the San Diego Comic-Con… This happened.

I’ve been actively trying to ignore it in the hopes that it’ll go away, but the unfathomable greed of Disney has indeed pushed a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie into production. Gore Verbinski refused to take the reins again, so it’s Rob Marshall (he of Chicago) who will be directing this time. Jack Sparrow Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa will both be returning, though Will and Elizabeth Turner will (thankfully) be left alone. Everything else that’s currently known about this movie was pretty well summed up by Cpt. Sparrow himself up there.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is set for release on May 20th, 2011. Prepare for the marketing onslaught now.

SDCC is still ongoing and there’s bound to be more trailers coming out before it’s through. Watch this space.