What the heck happened to Clash of the Titans this weekend?

Good afternoon everyone. I came online to check the box office results and was BLOWN away by what I saw. Let's break it down a bit.

Number 1 this week, How to Train Your Dragon. WHAT?!?! It just all of a sudden leap froged a few spots to number one? I saw the film, and loved it, absolutely loved it. It was action, adventure, dragons, the whole nine. It was performing pretty steadily at the box office, but just couldn't grab the number spot, until this week. (NOTE: That might change as of tomorrow because the race between the first and second place movies was so close).

Number 2 went to a new-comer, Kick Ass. In all my estimations, I thought this movie was going to open number 1, and it stay may do so tomorrow. The movie has been getting great reviews, has a funny story line, and has a great cast. In fact, 13 year old actress Chloe Moretz is getting a lot of attention for her role as "Hit-Girl". Must be all that swearing and killing she's doing in the movie.

Number 3, Date Night. Just like this week, last weeks box office winner came down to the wire. Date Night looked like they had the top spot until Monday morning. They were battling it out with Clash of the Titans for number 1. So to see it drop to three isn't necessarily a bad thing, just surprising. Surprising because "Dragon" has been out for awhile now, and to see it take a leap above a movie that's been out for 10 days, that's crazy.

Number 4, also a newcomer, Death at a Funeral. Not a huge surprise; the movie landed where I think it was supposed to. I think it will do about the same number for the weeks coming up.

Number 5, surprise of the week, Clash of the Titans. What the heck? It was first place last week and drops to fifth place this week? Wha, who, ha, how? Well, after 2 seconds of thinking about it, I figured out why it dropped; BECAUSE THE MOVIE SUCKED. It took the movie crowds a few weeks to see it, but they finally came to their senses. There are a few other factors involved in the drop.

First is the fact that Kick-Ass and Death at a Funeral both came out this week. Kick-Ass especially demanded more screens at theaters. This gave "Titans" less screens, and less of a battle against the other movies in the top five.

Second is the fact that "Titans" was an abomination in 3D. So what do you think the theaters did? Including Valencia, CA... theater owners opted to use their 3D screens for "Dragon" rather than "Titans". This obviously boasted the ticket sales of one apposed to the other.

I guess, the overall theme of this rambling post is this; we're not going to pay for lame 3D movies anymore. These studios need to understand that the movie-going public will not just buy 3D tickets anymore, JUST to buy 3D tickets. The movie has to be shot in 3D, not just converted in post-production. Movies like "Dragon" that utilize the technology to better tell their story is the way to do it; rather than using it as a gimmick for kicks.

This blogger made a promise to himself never to see another 3D movie that was converted in post-production. This happened after the debacle that was Alice in Wonderland. No comment.

Tony: X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

Yes, the long awaited prequel to the X-Men movies has finally been released. And what a release its been; to the tune of 90 million dollars! That's all fine and dandy, but was it deserving of such an opening? I'm afraid the answer is no boys and girls.

Hugh Jackman plays the title character of Wolverine and does a great job. The rest of the characters were cast very well. Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth is a menacing mutant that has the same regenerative abilities as Wolverine, and without really spoiling anything, it may be because they're brothers. Ryan Reynolds (one of my favorites) plays Deadpool (one of my favorites), and does a fantastic job. He does what he can with what little face time he gets. But its been confirmed he's getting his own spin off, so stay tuned for that one.


Now for what was the most exciting and somewhat disappointment part of this movie; Gambit. My personal favorite super hero and a fan favorite amongst those who follow the genre, was just a sidekick. The casting was wrong on this one, Taylor Kitsch is too young for the role, Gambit was a Cajun thief in his late 20's, Kitsch is just too young for that. Gambit's weapon of choice are playing cards which he charges with kinetic energy, yeah... It was shown for 10 seconds in the movie. He truly is just a sidekick to Wolverine.

Ready for the worst part of the film? The special effects. For a genre film of this kind, you need to spend the money for special effects. The audience shouldn't know where reality ends and cgi (computer generated images) begins. What made The Dark Knight so great was its on-location filming and the reality it presented. The last 30 minutes of this movie were so obviously filmed in front of a green screen that my wife noticed all of it; and she's not that into these movies. Not to mention the infamous "jump into a moving helicopter" scene (you'll all see for yourselves).

I do have to compliment the writers. The script was clever in weaving together characters and filing in plot holes we'd never seen as an audience. There are a couple of "wink wink" moments for the audience that reference the X-Men movies, especially when showing us characters in their younger years. I did like the explanation of where the name Wolverine came from, it was very well done. But the clever writing wasn't enough to save this film.

Overall, I'd save the 12 bucks (that's right, 12 dollars a ticket in Valencia, CA) and wait for the DVD. And if you're a hardcore fan (which I would like to think I am), don't anticipate much and you'll be fine. Go in thinking they were under budgeted for the special effects and you'll appreciate the movie. But for me, I think I'm going to disapprove of this one folks. Either way, we can all agree to disagree!