Disney’s new motion capture 3D super flick – Mars Needs Mom produced by Robert Zemeckis cost $150million and made a shocking $6.9mil at the box office this weekend.  I’m not very surprised, mostly due to I’ve never heard of this movie til now, but $6.9 off a $150million budget film!? Lets slap another $50million on marketing.. Wow someone’s getting their arms and legs cut off for this!

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Michael Bay has come out and admitted that Transformers 2 sucked. I guess he looked around and noticed that he was the only person not living on Cybertron who hadn’t said it. So I’ve got to give him props for acknowledging that it was not a good film. Even though you know the only reason for this, is the lack of enthusiasm about Transformers 3 coming out in July. It feels like he’s groveling to the audience saying “It’s okay it’’s okay, this is going to be better I swear”. Let hope he starts by leaving those racist robots out.  But even though he has said this, he still isn’t taking responsibility for it. He’s blaming the writers strike. Sure it’s understandable that no writers can explain why the script was weaker then Shia LaBeouf looks. But if you don’t have a script, maybe you shouldn’t start shooting large action scenes with the hope they will fit in somewhere. Just a suggestion.

How many trailers over the last year can you think of, that were cinematically stunning but still had an emotional impact? There probably aren’t many, maybe Black Swan or Toy Story. It seems that these days most trailers are about showing you three things. 1. Slapstick comedy: people falling down, being hit in the face or the pinnacle of movie humour, the nut shot. 2. Explosions: lots of cars blowing up, buildings blowing up, helicopters blowing up or somebody driving a car into a helicopter which in turn crashes into a building that proceeds to blow up. 3. Running: there are always people running in trailers, running away from, to or with something indicates urgency, urgency leads to suspense, suspense lead to drama (drama leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side). What would you say if I told you that one of the most cinematic, emotionally stirring and well crafted trailers out at the moment was for a new zombie killing video game? Don’t believe me? Well have a look at Dead Island. Warning it is a bit graphic so if you don’t like blood and violence don’t click play. Hopefully that warning will actually encourage more people to watch it. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNUw7ui_ruY]

If you haven’t heard Kevin Costner and Diane Lane have signed on to play Jonathan and Martha Kent in the new Superman Reboot. I can see that. Although when I picture the Kents’ I generally think of old old, (unless I think of  Smallville, but why would anyone do that) where as these two are just regular old. Then again the movie isn’t coming out till December 2012 so I think Costner could cross the line of old old by then. But this could be a really good choice after all Kevin Costner is American through and through just like Jonathan Kent. So I’m starting to picture this movie as field of dreams but with superman instead of the ghosts of baseball players. Also rumored (assuming she can keep out of jail long enough) is Lindsay Lohan playing the villain Ursa. If Ursa shows up in the new movie we all (nerds) know that means General Zod wont be far behind and Aragorn himself Viggo Mortensen maybe up for the role. Lets face it no one sports and intimidating beard like Viggo.

It seems to be the trend at the moment to get former ‘A’ list actors for the supporting cast in superhero movies. We are also having Martine Sheen (insert Charlie Sheen joke here) and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May in the new Spiderman movie. I think this is great. Sure the roles are smaller but these are the characters who influence the hero more then anybody else so having good actors makes all the difference. Again it’s another case of trying to recreate the Batman Begins/Dark Knight template. But why wouldn’t you?

You know how sometimes you just hear announcements out of Hollywood that make you wonder, “What the fuck is going on in that place.” For example did anyone see that G.I. Joe movie a couple of years back? It was an over the top spy, action, sci-fi movie with colourful characters, explosions and special effects. I can’t remember a single thing about the story but there was a wicked chase scene through Paris. Not really a good movie but a lot of fun, especially if you happen to be a teenage boy, which I was…once. There is no surprise that there is a sequel in the works. The WTF is that it will be directed by Jon Chu the director of Step Up 2, Step Up 3D and that Justin Bieber movie I can’t sit through the trailer of. I’m no big fan of G.I. Joe but doesn’t that just seem bazaar. The guy has only directed dancing movies, (and a dance TV show) so I don’t know why he’d be picked for a big expensive action movie. Maybe the producers know something we don’t or maybe they just didn’t think there was enough popping and locking in the first film. I guess in a year or so time we can all look forward to seeing G.I. Joe 2: The Streets.