I’ll admit, I went into the theater to watch this film with low expectations. Maybe it’s the fact that the production company and guys behind the story were also behind the likes of Ice Age, Robots, Rio, and more. It did not instill confidence. And the trailers failed to inspire me. Couple those things with the entirely lackluster promotional campaign and one did not get the sense that this film would be any more than a bit of drivel peppered in amongst the big summer tent polls.

I was therefore exceedingly shocked to walk out of the theater at the end of the credits having thoroughly…

Award-winning composer Carter Burwell was all set to score Marvel‘s Thor: The Dark World. It would have marked his first superhero project to date. The studio even printed his name on the first official poster last month. But Deadline now confirms that Burwell is off the project altogether in what Marvel’s camp diplomatically describes as a creative split.

Huh. That’s kind of odd this far down the road. Patrick Doyle scored the first Thor film and it wasn’t great, which in my book is normal for Doyle, though I have to say I didn’t hate Thor‘s score as much as I have other work from…

Director James Mangold isn’t really interested in making a comic book movie. Not in the traditional sense. He’s not really interested in explosions or bombastic action sequences or 3D. He’s not interested in quip-spouting super heroes or nudging his audience in the ribs with a sly wink.

What he is interested in, is character. Mangold, whose previous works include Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma, is an actor’s director. He’s the man responsible for Angelina Jolie’s Lisa Rowe, Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash and Christian Bale’s Dan Evans. Mangold is unequivocally sincere…

Lucas found that the original title of the third film, ‘Revenge of the Jedi,’ was too harsh, so he softened that as well. It was ‘Return of the Jedi’ now. Everything in the “Star Wars” universe became cuter, cuddlier, and less dangerous, with the contemplative philosophical underpinnings of the previous film replaced with flimsy metaphysical hooey. Even the film’s climax faltered. The original film had one large-scale space battle that involved all the principle characters; it was cleanly told and easy to follow. For the sequel, things were stripped away even further – instead of a space…

“On his missions through the galaxies, Anakin has been going off doing his Jedi thing and a lot of Jedi have been getting killed - and it’s because they turn their back on him and he cuts them down.

“The president is turning into an Emperor and Luke’s mother suspects that something has happened to her husband. She is pregnant. Anakin gets worse and worse, and finally Ben has to fight him and he throws him down into a volcano and Vader is all beat up.

Hit up the link for more.

This sounds SOOOO much better than what we got. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? Why did Lucas…

Avengers 2 will not be able to use Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s code names, it has been claimed.

Only 20th Century Fox, which controls the X-Men rights, will be able to use the characters’ superhero titles, while Marvel can use the names Wanda and Pietro, according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit.

...

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the children of Magneto, first debuted in X-Men but have been important members of the Avengers over the years.

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It has also been claimed that Avengers 2 will not be able to refer to the twins as mutants.

Sigh. Can’t we all just…

The lady seated to my immediate right (very close quarters on bench seating) was fairly insistent about using her phone. I asked her to turn it off. She answered: “So don’t look.” I asked her whether I had missed something during the very pointed announcements to please turn off your phones, perhaps a special exemption granted for her. She suggested that I should mind my own business.

So I minded my own business by utilizing my famously feline agility to deftly snatch the phone out of her hand and toss it across the room, where it would do no more damage. She slapped me and stormed away…

Hey guys, I hope you’re having a great   Day. Personally, I’m getting a pretty late start here and I’m not to worried about that.

Last weekend apparently the box office got a little Fast and Furious with tickets sales… Here’s what we’ve got.

#1 - Fast and Furious 6

Budget: $160 Million
Totals: $96.7 Million Domestic Weekend Gross / $197 Million Current Foreign Total / $317 Million Worldwide Total
Week Number: 1

There must be something about this franchise that I’m just not getting. I don’t understand how something that looks like a pile of garbage can make this much money. And HOW…

I’m thinking Star Trek Into Darkness may still be the best thing to see in theaters this week as far as I’m concerned. The new releases this weekend are not looking great. I’ll be seeing Epic because we’re reviewing it on the Podcast next week, and because I’m mildly interested, and because I’ve already seen Star Trek Into Darkness twice.

Here’s what we’ve got:

New This Weekend

Epic - PG
This actually looks a little bit interesting, but that’s all I can muster to say about it. So, kind of “meh.” It looks like they’ve mixed a little Ferngully with a little Avatar, then added a smidge…