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As of today, the only thing we know about the Thor movie is that it’s set for release in June 4, 2010. We also know that Thor will figure in the Avengers movie that’s also being produced by Marvel, set for release in 2011. All the rest remains to be speculation.

Who will play Thor in the movie
There had been rumors earlier that Brad Pitt would grab the role of Thor, but when Stan Lee said that he’d like Leonardo di Caprio to be Marvel’s next superhero, the talk became a little more spiced up - was Stan Lee talking about di Caprio as Thor or Captain America.

What would be the plot all about
“Screenwriter Mark Protosevich has been hired to write a script for a live-action Thor film. In December 2007, he described his plans for it “to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential.” [Source]

I had said earlier that a Thor movie might not work if he came down from Heaven in true god-like fashion. It might also not work with the Avengers movie since both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were pretty much based on present-day realities. For the thunder god to even need a team means:

1. Thor has vulnerabilities, which is fine if he were man-turned-superhero but not if he is “The Soooon of Ooodiinnn”
2. The Avengers movie villain is too powerful for him to handle by himself… and I hope it’s not Hulk.

However we do find a story of Thor that is quite realistic. A guy named Donald Blake finds Thor’s hammer, the Mjolnir, and becomes the superhero. This is quite a safe assumption since it coincides with the comics, allows him to act schizophrenic god-like, and bridge the existence of other fictional figures in the comics such as Odin and Loki. The question is if he finds it in New York city or somewhere else in the world, how he goes about becoming Thor, and just how much power does he wield.

Who would be the Thor movie villain
Loki is probably the first one in anybody’s mind to be Thor’s nemesis in the movie. And honestly, I think he’s the only one who would make this movie interesting. The problem though, aside from who’s gonna play the role and if they’re gonna go with the hideous yellow-and-green costume, is how Loki’s story would originate itself. I mean, you wouldn’t want Thor to be a superhero with an alien on his tail.

Fritzified’s display of awesome photography/photo-editing skills inspired me to rip movie pictures off the internet to create wonderfully sarcastic mashups in hopes that whatever creative genes I have make one more regular BackLineMedia reader. After this try, I probably wont do it again.

If only for the purpose of getting readers into this site, I can probably just make random references to Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers and grab would-be searchers to my blog than kill my wrist trying to make the sponge tool work like it should.

Oh well.. the newsreel had The Dark Knight again today, saying the movie’s already grossed $400million. And even if it’s still 200 million dollars shy of Titanic’s world record ($600million domestic), the controversy savvy mainstream media had already raised the comparison.

Now, I’m not entirely sure if I like Leonardo di Caprio’s “Jack! ..Rose!” exchange with Kate Winslet more than Joker’s “You..complete..me” quip (in pink and white nurse clothing) but a 200 million dollar gap isn’t anywhere near talk-worthy to me.

So NO! Batman does not have a place in the Titanic.. YET! And if I’m being very frank, since I already turned this post into a no-hold-barred article, I am actually more amused with the way titles regarding this topic have been thrown by mainstream media:

1. Could ‘Knight’ Catch ‘Titanic’ Wave Herald Dispatch
2. Another Titanic Weekend for Dark Knight E! Online
3. Dark Knight Wont Sink Titanic’s Record MSNBC
4. Dark Knight Enters Titanic Territory Los Angeles Times
5. Can Dark Knight Sink Titanic Newsday.com
6. Titanic’s Been Unsikable.. Until the Dark Knight E! Online
7. Dark Knight Closes in on Titanic Telegraph.co.uk

LOLZ!

Forgive me for the long title, I wanted to give you a feel for what I had to say in this hohumm about the Dark Knight being too dark and haunting for kids. It seems to me all the glory that people gave in the passed week is taking a little bit of a curve with parents saying they should have been advised not to bring their 8 yr old to watch the PG-13 movie.

A PG-13 rating already suggests that some scenes from the movie may not suitable for kids, so if people are complaining that the Joker stuck a pencil in another man’s eye, that’s not really the rating board’s fault isn’t it? If anything, it’s the parent’s fault for bringing the kid into the cinema, and the parent’s responsibility to tell them not to do that in school.

Honestly, I dont know what was haunting about the Dark Knight. In a time where kids play Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto, what’s so bad about seeing Two Face’s half-burnt face and left eyeball? And since I already wrote it down, Hancock stuck a man’s head in another man’s ass and that wasn’t gross - oh what morals have we!?! Lolz! Seems to me that all this flak thrown to the Dark Knight is just media’s way of grabbing itself some audience by making news-worthy the same piece they praised during the premiere.

Tell you what, it would’ve been nice to have heard the advisory then…

Christopher Nolan’s version of the Dark Knight had been kept a buzz for more than a year, and for good reason - it cost 180 million dollars to make. That’s a particularly high number when you think that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was made only for $300 million. Warner Brothers must have lots of money.

Over the weekend, Dark Knight had already reached $155 million bucks making it a record weekend opening. And as the weekend isn’t over yet as of this writing, the movie is definitely gonna gross further. Some even hinting it could get its way onto the $200 million mark.

As for it’s other records..

• It was released in over 4360 cinemas, more than any other movie to date.
• Dark Knight had already set a midnight preview record of 18 million beating Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith which previously held the record at 16.9 million.
• With $155m currently in tow, this is also the best Batman film yet. Previous Batman movies only averaged 47million in the box office. Batman Begins grossed 205million domestically.
• It is the biggest movie of the year so far. Beating Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and, yes, Iron Man.
• Speaking of another Marvel record Batman smashed, Spiderman no longer holds weekend boy office record at 151million. Though there is argument that inflation helped Batman in this regard since Spiderman 3 sold more tickets at what was then 6.50 compared to the 8 bucks I had to pay for to see the Dark Knight.

For my review of the movie, please check out Dark Knight Review: All About the Joker

Cloverfield

A 50-ft. monster rampages on New York streets and Rob Hawkins’ (Michael Stahl-David) Japan send-off ends with him, his girlfriend, brother, brother’s girlfriend and pretty much most of New York dead and destroyed. A video of the destruction is later found in central park. It turns out to be of crappy quality with a mix of a video from an earlier travel.

Produced by J. J. Abrams and written by Drew Goddard, the videocam effect offered something fresh in as far as being The Blair Witch project of the 21st century. We should have something like that every 10 years.

Jumper

So you have Anakin Skywalker and that dude from the Green Day video battling Samuel Jackson. Oh boy, that’s gotta be good. Jumper isn’t the most exciting movie to watch but it does have a good story that’s not boring the first time. I do think Hayden Christensen was overshadowed by Jamie Bell in as far as acting and charisma, but hey, it’s a pop-corn movie.

Max Thieriot was also quite a revelation for me in this movie. Playing the young David Rice effectively (Hayden Christensen’s role), the kid from The Pacifier, Nancy Drew and Kit Kittredge served as a good base for creating the character’s frail persona.

21

I always liked Kevin Spacey, hence it was a nobrainer to watch 21. This one, of course, is not about him. I’d say he’s one that producers got to give the film some credibility. If not for him the movie might have gotten the Step Up 2 treatment - a talentless, substanceless movie filled with the all too predictable Hollywood stereotype. Oh yeah it did get that kind of review. I still like it though.

I’d recommend checking out the DVD for those who have not yet seen it. It’s a fun film.

Wall-E

Set 700 years after the Earth was evacuated, the idea of global warming was pretty much in tow even as it’s makers say there’s no political agenda behind the film. I know what you mean, makers of this film: the only people calling this movie political are those that have agendas themselves. And to quote Irvin McLovin, Wall-E is love! It takes you awhile to realize that he wont have lines but he made up for it by playing the genuine, loser guy (aka. The Michael Cera role).. You’ll love him for finding a plant, taking care of EVA, and bringing the fat dudes of the future back on their feet.

The Incredible Hulk

After a very boring first movie by Ang Lee, I didn’t have high expectations for this movie. In fact, I was highly skeptical about it and went on to question Edward Norton playing Bruce Banner and the chemistry his introvertedness would connect with Liv Tyler’s. Dont they both look too quiet?

Over time though, the comparisons were running high over the web and the one thing everybody said was that The Incredible Hulk was good. Indeed it was.

Hellboy II

Guillermo del Toro at the helm of Hellboy II The Gold Army wasn’t quite the movie experience I expected. I’d say too many lines did not connect - it started too specific, went a bit predictable, and ended lame. It’s really more of a big budgeted soap opera with heroes resembling the crayola box.

However, if you’re in for a two hour flick with pop corn and soda in hand, this one wouldn’t be a bad choice either. Del Toro proves himself as a master of horror by gracing us with several more of the creepy creatures in his head.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The 2nd installment of the Narnia franchise was far better than the first. The Pevensie kids were more mature this time, and were better actors. Ben Barnes played the role of Prince Caspian convincingly enough but was.. I dont know.. weak. I’d say Skandar Keynes (Edmund Pevensie, the second child) was the best of them all, and why not, he’s coming back for part 3. This movie follows after Lord of the Rings, Troy, X-Men, The League of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen and other films that manage to conduct huge wars without spilling a pint of blood.

Kung Fu Panda

The lesson of the story is that Panda’s, however fat they are or however hungry they get, will always beat a Bengal tiger in getting a darn scroll. The martial arts genre have always had some air of animation in it - of animal-styles, gravity defying sequences and paralyzing pokes.

To overkill, there had to be a film made up of a Turtle, Rabbit, Panda, Monkey, Tiger, another Tiger, Duck (the father of the Panda), Monkey, Snake and Mantis (and maybe a Rhinoceros). It was a star-studded cast but other than Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, the others were limited. So if you’re expecting some wacky Jackie Chan moments, no can do.

Iron Man

For the first time in his life Robert Downey is cool and everyone loves him. That’s what you get when you’re a super rich weapons specialist and genius inventor who has a digital-buddy named Jarvis, a personal assistant as hot as Gwyneth Paltrow, a pimped out body suit and a knack for making your own rules. And if that’s not enough, just have Samuel Jackson drop by your house. What’s not to love?

The movie also started a series of cameos that might build its way to the Avengers movie which stars Downey as Iron Man, along with Marvel superheroes Hulk, Thor, Captain America and Antman.

Wanted

The concept of the movie was simple - a loser-turned-hero, a nobody turned somebody.. overcoming struggles, and then coming back anew. Reborn like a butterfly, except that it’s Mr Tumnus and he can shoot wings of flies, curve bullets and make Morgan Freeman say “shoot this mutherfucker.” It’s good that they’re making a sequel coz I want more.