Prime Mover and Shaker

Week of 6/1 - 6/71. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)4. The Expendables II (8/17)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)7. Red Dawn (11/21)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)10. Iron Man 3 (5/3/13)

These were probably the two most anticipated movies for me in the last ten years.I liked them, but....They both kind of pissed me off in that they could have, and should have, been better.

Week of 5/25 - 5/311. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)4. The Expendables II (8/17)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)7. Red Dawn (11/21)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)10. Iron Man 3 (5/3/13)(Dropped G.I. Joe 2; Added IM3)

Yeah, there really isn't a good split point, like DH had. Plus, the first halves of these films wouldn't stand very well on their own, like DH1 did. I'd rather see one extended movie - but they'd have to be quite long to do it right (which is fine with me). Over 3 hours each, I think.

Years ago, I would have picked ID4.... but it's really sucah a stuipd story that fails on so many levels, and has aged poorly for it.So, it's MIB for me.Armageddon... meh.

He's in rehab, I guess:http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/missing-terminator-3-star-nick-stahl-checks-into-rehab.html

I chose Iron Man.... but really all of them are very close... except Spidey 2 - not as good.

I hear that a good deal from the ladies.

Talk about a superb scene. Chokes me up every time.

I find nothing really wrong with The Avengers - I quite enjoyed it, but it's only so deep, and superheroes only capture my immagination to a certain point.The Potter flicks are, for a lack of a better term, much more "magical". They pull me in, in a way I've not been pulled in since Star Wars (the original trilogy).Being a fan of the HP books, and not a comic reader, I was probably quite biased towards this outcome.I surely can't tell anyone they are wrong for liking The Avengers more than DH2. But DH2 moved me much more, and to me, that's what makes it the better film.

Week of 5/18 - 5/241. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)4. The Expendables II (8/17)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)7. Red Dawn (11/21)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)10. G.I. Joe 2 (6/29)

GoF, then OOTP, then HBP. Having seen the success of splitting DH, I think each of these could benefit from either one 3+ hour version, or two 2+ hour halves.

Week of 5/11 - 5/171. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)4. The Expendables II (8/17)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)7. Red Dawn (11/21)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)10. G.I. Joe 2 (6/29)

Iron Man made $318M domestically in 2008.I don't think I ever bothered to post this, but I was figuring The Avengers would do similar business, surely no more than $350M dom.So, as long as the world ends in the next few days, I'll be proven right.

All in all, very good. Great popcorn fun. The humor was better placed than in almost any action movie I've seen. The Hulk, after somewhat disapointing in the two movies from the last decade, is presented wonderfully here. Romanov was much better played than I expected. The more I enjoy a film, the more I tend to obsess over the few faults I find with it: Tom Hiddleston is very good at what he is doing.... but Loki, as done by Hiddleston, is simply not very menacing in a we-need-a-superhero-to-stop-him way (the "kneel" scene is the one exception to this). This performance came off to me as absolutely brilliant for a Bond villain - overconfident yet charming; ruthless yet refined. Think back to 2011 for a moment - the entire emotional punch at the end of "Thor" rests on the seemingly impossible task of reconnecting Asgard with Earth. While I understand that time is at a premium in an ensable show like this, it was very much glossed over. Thor isn't a favorite character of mine, but he deserved better depth in this instance. Why was the Hulk so out of control, nearly killing Romanov... but then quite capable of distinguishing friend from foe during the finale? There are probably plausable explanations for this, but they really weren't presented well. Who is this army aiding Loki? What is their story? Their motives? Granted, this is hinted at in the beginning, but what ends up coming across as a mindless enemy army could have been much more interesting with a bit more quality exposition. As has been pointed out - the "pull the plug and they all die" ending was not only dumb, but given the information we were not presented with about the invading army, it came off as Deus ex Machina. ...and I agree that Hawkeye was introduced poorly, given that he was instantly taken over by Loki's mind. But this was a very good movie - probably my second favorite Avengers-family flick after Iron Man.

Week of 5/4 - 5/101. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)4. The Expendables II (8/17)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)7. Red Dawn (11/21)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)10. G.I. Joe 2 (6/29)

Wow, quite the amazing year so far. I knew this would be big, but I had no idea it would be this big! As much of a HP fan as I am, it's a bit of a rough week for DH2. Avengers smashes DH2's opening weekend record... THG knocks DH2 out of the top 100 adjusted domestic list... and in another day, TGH will surpass DH2 on the unadjusted domestic list. Avengers wasn't the best movie, but it was loads of fun. There's no embarassment in seeing it take records, unlike that silly boat movie or those big stupid robot movies.

Week of 4/27 - 5/51. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Avengers (5/4)4. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Expendables II (8/17)7. Red Dawn (11/21)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)10. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)

Week of 4/13 - 4/191. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Avengers (5/4)4. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Expendables II (8/17)7. Red Dawn (11/2)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)10. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)

1. Up2. WALL-E3. The Incredibles4. Finding Nemo5. Toy Story6. Monsters, Inc.7. Toy Story 28. A Bug's Life9. Ratatoulle10. Toy Story 311. CarsNot a bad flick in the bunch. Even Cars is enjoyable. Ratatoulle used to be at the bottom of my list, but I think it's aged well.(I have not yet seen Cars 2)

Real men don't like Titanic.And this is coming form a grown man who has no problem watching the Harry Potter films.

Week of 4/6 - 4/121. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Avengers (5/4)4. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)5. Brave (6/22)6. The Expendables II (8/17)7. Red Dawn (11/2)8. Skyfall (11/9)9. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)10. Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)

Week of 3/30 - 4/51. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Avengers (5/4)4. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)5. American Reunion (4/6)6. Brave (6/22)7. The Expendables II (8/17)8. Red Dawn (11/2)9. Skyfall (11/9)10. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)Looking in: Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)

Week of 3/23 - 3/291. Prometheus (6/8)2. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)3. The Avengers (5/4)4. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)5. American Reunion (4/6)6. Brave (6/22)7. The Expendables II (8/17)8. Red Dawn (11/2)9. Skyfall (11/9)10. The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)Looking in: Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1)

Week of 3/16 - 3/221. The Hunger Games (3/23)2. Prometheus (6/8)3. The Dark Knight Rises (7/20)4. The Avengers (5/4)5. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (12/14)6. American Reunion (4/6)7. Brave (6/22)8. The Expendables II (8/17)9. Red Dawn (11/2)10. Skyfall (11/9)Looking in: Snow White and the Huntsman (6/1), The Amazing Spider-Man (7/4)(I dropped WWZ due to its schedule change)