In The News... Yesterday

I was busy with both school and work (feels weird to write that at 25), so wasn't really able to check the feed and post anything so here's a little digest.

The Muppets Take-Over
The Muppets have been making the rounds on the internet for months promoting the new movie. AMC Theaters has jumped in on the action, but the big news of yesterday was the trailer:

So in the new film, three fans of the Muppets trek to Los Angeles to find that their heroes are no longer the Hollywood big shots they once were. After getting the gang back together, they are on a mission to regain their fame. Cameos and musical numbers abound. That sounds fantastic. Then I watched this trailer and saw the "Mooppets" (sp?). The hell? From my understanding, this is a work of love of Jason Segel's, but there's a twinge of Disney dumbing the movie down. That's definitely something to remain wary about, but I'm still eager to watch it.

Hammer Time
I will someday think of something else clever when it comes to Thor, but until then what you get is "hammer time."

...

Anyway, I consider Thor to be just below The Incredible Hulk on the scale of Iron Man to Iron Man 2. While I've loved all of Marvel's movie, I felt Thor was lacking a little something. Perhaps it was too weighed down by the split between Asgard and Earth. If they were trying to limit the absurdity of Asgard, they should have gone the Ultimate road and questioned Thor's validity as a Norse god. But the plus side of the film, was the performances of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. I attribute some of that to Kenneth Branagh's direction, but due to Marvel Studios' strict release schedule (more on that later) a new director has been sought out. Confirmed yesterday, is the director of Monster, Patty Jenkins.Monster was another film where incredible performances were present, but that was a very particular kind of film. The rest of Jenkins' work (according to IMDB) does not endear me to her taking over, except for the single episode of Arrested Development which still does not completely match up to Thor.

Also, in Thor movie news, Disney has decided The Lone Ranger is a better summer blockbuster. What does that have to do with Thor you say? Well, this has forced Disney to push Thor's release date November 15, 2013. I'm not exactly a fan of forcing a release date on these films. Look at what the time constraint did to Captain America and Iron Man 2. Neither was as good as they should have been. It's the classic comic book convention of editorial mandates. "You'll have your movie out by this time and they have to push our ensemble event." Captain America obviously avoided most of it, having taken place in the past, but it was still present. But back to the topic at hand, the extra few months for Thor may be a blessing.

Pacific Rim
Speaking of scheduling shifts, Guillermo del Toro's Godzilla and the Monsters film was been pushed up a couple months to May where it will compete with films like Iron Man 2, Fast 6, and the aforementioned The Lone Ranger.

And Finally...
The red band American Reunion trailer has bee released. It focuses on Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan. Here it is:

I liked the first American Pie film. It came at the perfect time for all the gags they pulled. I was getting ready to go to high school, and hormones were raging. Nowadays, the gags seem juvenile (especially the one in the trailer). I think it will be interesting to see where all the characters have gone, including the ones who got left out of the sequels. Otherwise, I can put this in a category with the direct-to-DVD America Pie spin-offs. Read into that what you will.