Review – Thor 2: The Dark World

Thor2

The latest edition of Marvel’s assault on cinemas everywhere is a charming little beast. Thor was always going to be one of the more difficult characters to make the transition from inky page to silver screen, (certainly when compared to his Avengers brethren) but given most of the legwork was done in *Thor* and *The Avengers*, very little time is wasted getting on with the plot, such as it is. Rather than *The Dark World*, they should have called it *The Wibbly Wobbly Time/Space Shifting Shenanigans*. Anthony Hopkins knocks out a bit of exposition (primarily to let you know who to boo – it’s evil elves this time, led by Malekith, played by a virtually indistinguishable Christopher Eccleston) and on with the show we go.

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Review: Ender’s Game

Ender's Game

Have you ever seen that one movie? You know the one, it’s based on a young adult novel and it’s starring a hot young actor alongside a few veteran adults? The one where the trailer looked pretty cool but then when you saw it you realized that they had cut _so much_ of the actually important parts of the story that the movie ended up not being very good?

Yeah I saw that movie tonight. It’s called _Ender’s Game_.

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Orson Scott Card Won’t Make Money From Ender’s Game Movie So Feel Free To See It And If You Want To Boycott Something Stop Buying His Books

Ender's Game

Good News Everyone! [The Wrap](http://www.thewrap.com/orson-scott-card-boycott-enders-game-box-office-book-instead) has learned that notorious homophobe and mysoginyst Orson Scott Card signed a deal for the movie rights to _Ender’s Game_ a decade ago and it doesn’t include any backend, meaning even if the movie makes a billion dollars Card won’t see a dime more from it.

This actually eases my mind a bit as I didn’t really want to contribute to his bank account by seeing or recommending the movie.

He does, however, still make money off the novel itself which has had a surge lately and even topped the New York Time Best Seller List for paperback fiction recently. So here’s an idea: let’s all stop buying his books.

Go to the library! Borrow a copy! Buy it used! Just don’t buy it new, or from an ebook store, or even the Marvel graphic novel adaptation because the man is an ass and doesn’t deserve your money.

And just in case you’re not sure you agree? Check out this article from Salon.com: [Orson Scott Card’s Long History of Homophobia](http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/sci_fi_icon_orson_scott_card_hates_fan_fiction_the_homosexual_agenda_partner/) or even just this statement he gave to Entertainment Weekly where he basically said “[now that gay rights activists are winning the argument please be tolerant of my intolerance](http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/07/08/enders-game-orson-scott-card-statement/)” should be enough to make your skin crawl.

More than a little ironic that the guy who wrote a great story that is effectively about empathy seems to have very little of it himself.

Open Grave Trailer: Sharlto Copley Has No Memory and New Friends

Open Grave

Imagine if you will that you’ve just woken up. You’re freezing and you don’t know where you are and you’re surrounded by bodies. Worse yet, you have no memory of who you are or why you’re there. Pretty much you’ve just imagined the opening to _Open Grave_, or at least the opening to the trailer. Let’s watch!

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Review: All Is Lost

All Is Lost

Robert Redford is a hell of an actor. His career spans decades and he’s appeared in some of the most memorable film roles in history. If you wanted to make a movie about a man alone at sea in a sinking boat you could certainly do worse than to cast him. So that’s what JC Chandor did in _All Is Lost_. Good thing too because it turns out that _All Is Lost_ is probably going to go down as one of those most memorable roles I mentioned.

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Awesome: How To write An Awesome Movie According To Awesome Writers

Awesome Writers

I’ve always found it pretty fascinating to get a glimpse inside the head of a writer and here Buzzfeed provides insights from 18 writers on the task of writing a movie.

> All aspiring writers have experienced the conception of a story, that little atom of an idea that explodes into a vision of a journey in a big bang “aha!” that rattles the brain. But the difference between the daydreamers and actual filmmakers starts right after that revelatory moment, when the disparate strands of an idea either begin to take shape — and, at some point, migrate over to Final Draft — or just fade away.

> BuzzFeed spoke with some of the industry’s top writers and directors to learn how they develop a tiny germ of an idea into award-winning screenplay. They discussed everything from how they get started, to how to sit down and write, and how to balance dialogue and structure.

And they talked to:

* Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise trilogy, Dazed and Confused)
* Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids, The Heat)
* Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult)
* Richard Curtis (Love Actually, About Time, Four Weddings and a Funeral)
* Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said, Please Give)
* Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter (500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now)
* David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models)
* Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick)
* Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter)
* Lake Bell (In A World)
* David Gordon Green (Prince Avalanche, Pineapple Express)
* Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)
* Mark and Jay Duplass (Jeff Who Lives At Home, Cyrus)
* Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendants, The Way, Way Back)
* Brian Koppelman (Rounders, Oceans Thirteen).

That’s a pretty impressive list and there is some great stuff in [the article which you can read here](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/how-to-write-a-movie-according-to-screenwriters).

Review: The Counselor

The Counselor

When I first heard about _The Counselor_ I was intrigued. Ridley Scott directing and a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy? Sounds good to me! Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz starring? Sounds great!

Then [there was a trailer](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/07/the-counselor-trailer-you-dont-have-any-friends/) and I became ever more excited for what sounded, and now looked, like a great movie.

Turns out I was wrong. _The Counselor_ is a bit of a mess.

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