The reviews for Shutter Island have been positive so far so that gives me hope and I enjoyed the book immensely (I may need to read it again before school starts next week...)

shutter Island will be a very good film, the reason why it was pushed back was that Paramont cliamed that they didn't have the money to promote the film. They're the same studio who promoted the living Hell out of Transformers 2 and GI Joe.

Wait a second...Watchmen was a dissapointment? Please do tell me what dissapointed you exactly... am very curious!

In addition to JB's list, I'm curious to see what Tim Burton does with Alice.

You're hopeless naive if you believe that generating additional revenue was not the PRIMARY reason for splitting this into two parts. Yes, you can cite tertiary reasons, but the bottom line is that WB can make double the money with two DEATHLY HALLOWS than they can with one. And, considering that each film will bring in >$1B worldwide (including BR/DVD sales), that's a helluva compelling reason to make two movies instead of one. Just don't try telling me that it makes sense based on content. I've read the book. This could have been done as one movie with a running length of less than three hours.

Speaking of breaking movies up, this is an article from Devin on CHUD earlier:


http://chud.com/articles/articles/22109/1/DAWN-COULD-BREAK-THIS-FALL/Page1.html


With the amount of money New Moon made, and the fact that Eclipse has a better than average chance to top The Dark Knight's opening weekend record, I don't think they have to worry.

I think Breaking Dawn can get away with one installment since half of the book or any of the Twilight books can be sum up as this:

Bella about Edward: He's so pretty.



Jacob about himself: I'm so emo and alone! Hey, guess I'm falling in love with this baby.

I once read a really involved article online about how Deathly Hallows could have been done in one film. I wish I could remember where it was.

Funny sidebar: Had they gone with one film, they'd have needed a new title, as producer David Heyman said that the Hallows themselves probably would have been cut.

I disagree based on the fact that they have left so much out of the last 2 movies that they need 2 movies to get all the information in or else they will confused anyone who hasn't read the books (still a sizeable portion of the audience for these movies). Sure the economical reason was probably the deciding factor, but you have to think that the cast & crew felt like doing 2 instead of 1 would help the storyline.

They have been leaving out more and more as time goes on. At this point, I don't think they care about those that haven't read the books.

Are you serious? I mean come on...

I'm sure I've heard that Rowling herself was behind this idea but I'm afraid I dont remember my source!

The problem is that all previous movies were written prior to the release of the final story and as a consequence, much of what is MANDATORY knowledge has been lost on those who have not read the books.

Honestly, the movies are diabolical adaptations however as stand alone movies I really do enjoy them.

All the information? If their intention was to "get all the information in," they would have split up the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth books into two movies as well, as those were just as long, or longer. They contained a ton of "information" as well. They managed to truncate the longest of the books into the shortest of the films and still got across the information they needed to in order to form a somewhat coherent plot for the film's universe. If they can cut out the entire Quidditch World Cup, they can cut out pieces of the final book to make it one movie. The ONLY reason to split the last book into two movies is to milk the franchise for all the money they possibly can.

And frankly, I'm worried about two movies with that book. I remember half the book being just them wandering from random place to random place looking for the damn Horcrux and finding nothing. I don't know how entertaining that would be to watch, as fine as it was to read. But books and movies are two totally different mediums, so what works in a book doesn't necessarily work in a movie.

The minute they pushed that back into a Feb. 10th release was the moment I lost hope in that movie. Once the trailer was released, I lost interest completely. Hopefully it'll surprise me, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Deathly Hallows... Opening fight with Broomsticks at Harry's step-parents, 30 minutes mucking about in tents and creeping round villages finding a Horcrux or two... extended tense scene at the Malfoys with a fight and a touching death scene... more exposition... 40 minute CGI-sodden assault on Hogwarts with spiders and giants and centaurs that wasn't ever written with the movie in mind oh no siree honestly... dealing with Snape... climactic showdown... kissy-kiss... end credits. I think it'd be a struggle to get all that into 3 hours and do it justice, especially if there's extra exposition required for those who haven't read the books. It's possible to include some kick-ass action scenes that extend the running time to 4 hours (hence 2 movies) and stilll appeal to the core demographic.

I'm very much looking forward to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. If there is one thing that Mr Burton does well it's eye candy. Has he ever made a movie that didn't look good? It's not as if there's a convoluted plot, sparkling dialogue and character development to worry about. This is going to be top-notch light entertainment.

I liked Tron so I'm looking forward to the sequel, albeit with a faint twitch in my sphincter.

Expendables... what's not to like? Guns, wisecracks, explosions.

Toy Story... meh. Pixar simply don't do crap, so I think this will be another good movie that will make good use of 3D, but I don't really see any need to visit these characters again.

Complaining about movies adapted from comics is kind of ridiculous. Does anybody complain when movies are adapted from novels? If anything, it's absurd that the film industry has taken this long to recognize comics as a viable storytelling medium. Never mind the fact that they're basically in ready-to-pitch form.

Now, if only we could stem the flow of all these damned superhero movies...

Fair point. I'm not a huge comic guy, so I'm referring to superhero movies when I complain about comics. It's typical Hollywood to capitalize and run into the ground anything that sells, but I'm sick of being inundated with superhero movie after superhero movie. I even enjoy quite a few, but the genre as a whole feels kind of tired to me.

Well the main reaosn why so many superhero films are being made is because they're one of the few things that Hollywood can count on to make a huge profit at the box-office, and Hollywood is ALWAYS going to favor money over integrity and originality no matter what, i'm not all that big on superhero films myself, but I can't say I hate the wave superhero films NEARLY as much as I hated the wave of foreign remakes.

I have read my fair share of comics. I like the genre, it has provided some really good movies over the years. But, as it is with all genres, you will get more turkeys than great ones. The reason they are so abundant now is that they are almost all spectacles. Bright colors, special effects, good vs. evil. The thing I like about comics is that opposed to adapting a novel, is that your playground is bigger.

The Harry Potter series has a pretty fantastic mythology surrounding it, but each movie has to tell that specific story. Comics on the other hand, can be molded into whatever shape you want. There are inspirations, such as Peter Parker calling it quits, was ripped straight from the comics, including the imagery. Spider-Man 2 is still my all time favorite superhero movie. It took what was familiar and built on it.

Since there are a wealth of characters to pull from, there doesn't appear to be an end in site. But, if they keep focusing on quality, I will not complain. I mean come on, Kenneth Branagh directing Thor? How crazy is that? Years ago, I had the idea(being a DC guy), that they should do one of each, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc and then get them all together for a Justice League movie. Marvel is really doing it now with their stable of heroes and I hope they can pull it off. I am a sucker for crossovers though.

Don't get me started on rebooting Spider-Man though...ugh.

I dig homages and all, but is anyone else bothered by the first shot in the Shutter Island trailer? You know, the one with Leo hugging the specter. Straight from Sunrise, no?

I wish I had everyone else's enthusiasm for this film, but this is easily the least excited I've ever been for a Scorsese film.