TOP 40 – 13/11/13 – Thor Hammers Opposition

It was always going to be a Thor: The Dark World triumph on this weeks guide2film Top 40, especially after it managed to place third last week before its domestic release. But as if to make doubly sure of this Thor 2 blew any opposition out of the water with over $80m in box office dough this weekend, which combined with its worldwide popularity makes it the biggest Marvel opening not to feature Robert Downey Jnr’s Iron Man. The incredible response to this slightly more serious version of the Asgardian prince means it will likely hold its ground until The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is released in a fortnight.

In second, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa continued its rather inexplicable run of popularity to maintain second place. The film placed second on the box office charts also, a surprising result after pipping the more fancied adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. That particular film managed only a lowly 15th, a testament to the alarming lack of hype for such an expensive film. The film has actually grossed less than critical bomb After Earth which holds a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared 60%.

Third went to Gravity which is still impressing late in its domestic run as well as pulling in good numbers offshore. Sandra Bullock is now the subject of Oscar murmurs after her performance in the space disaster film which has now made close to 500 million dollars, a sum which is not finished rising.

Monster’s University, the well-received Pixar prequel, went to fourth, up one from the previous week after Ender’s Games’ nose dive. The Conjuring is still capitalising on its status of the Halloween film of 2013 in sixth and in seventh is the ever-present Star Trek: Into Darkness which recently won the Best Movie award at the Hollywood Awards.

Man of Steel was one of the years most anticipated releases and it is preparing for its DVD release, in fact its out in some place now, and rises to seventh on pre-releases. Rival Marvel hero Iron man 3 comes in eighth. Kiddies film Despicable Me 2 is now active on both the box office and home entertainment market and ranks ninth. Rounding off the Top 10 is critics darling 12 Years A Slave which is gradually drawing more than anticipated box office attention ahead of the big award nominations.

Free Birds and Last Vegas both outscored Ender’s Game at the box office but at 19th and 21st they failed to conquer the sci-fi’s superior critical consensus. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey scored in at 11th due to the popularity of its sequel and the release of an extended cut and another DVD debutante Grown Ups 2 managed a solid 26th despite being a critical bomb (that’s putting it nicely).

The only other debut is Blue Is The Warmest Colour, the controversial Palme d’Or winner which managed to make a dent in the box office big enough for a finish in 38th.

See below for the full Top 40:

1. THOR: THE DARK WORLD       
2. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
3. Gravity
4. Monsters University
5. The Conjuring
6. Star Trek: Into Darkness
7. Man of Steel
8. Iron Man 3
9. Despicable Me 2
10. 12 Years A Slave
11. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
12. Pacific Rim
13. The Croods
14. World War Z
15. Ender’s Game
16. Turbo
17. Captain Phillips
18. The Great Gatsby
19. Last Vegas
20. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2
21. Free Birds
22. About Time
23. Rush
24. The Heat
25. Epic
26. Grown Ups 2
27. Insidious Chapter 2
28. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monster
29. The Hangover Part III
30. White House Down
31. Now You See Me
32. Carrie
33. The Counselor
34. Dallas Buyers Club
35. The Purge
36. All Is Lost
37. Enough Said
38. Blue Is The Warmest Colour
39. The Way, Way Back
40. Planes

Related articles

• Thor: The Dark World Hammers Weekend Box Office (gossipcop.com)
• ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Dominates The Weekend Box Office With Impressive Opening Gross (contactmusic.com)
• Top 40 – Bad Grandpa Top Again As Ender’s Game Stumbles (guide2film.wordpress.com)

PLEASE JUST DO WORLDWIDE RELEASES

Its ironic…to the point of being just plain stupid that Thor: The Dark World has been released down here in little ol’ New Zealand while American fans wait impatiently that extra week. Also a little unfair that the primary audience, the culture which embraced the idea of superheroes, must wait that extra week to see a film which they more than anyone else have waited patiently for.

Many comic book geeks have spent the past week avoiding the internet to dodge spoilers and giveaways now widespread across the blogosphere. Some poor buggers have probably given in to the enormous temptation and read the Wikipedia page. I haven’t checked but the dodgy pirated copies are probably already out there and being viewed by those cheapskates to whom fuzzy graphics beats shelling out ten bucks.

Sure, Marvel are going to make a mint in the US. Perhaps the added anticipation will be a healthy thing. On previous occasions where this sort of situation has occurred I have driven my American friends crazy on Facebook, dropping little hints which they must then dwell on for a week to see if I was telling the truth. I have no problem with a good marketing strategy. At the present moment the Marvel/Disney partnership is the best marketing partnership in film.

What is wrong with a simple worldwide release. Potter did it and suffered no box office effects and the anticipation for Thor 2 has not been minimal. For American fans the $109m grossed overseas is a tantalising glimpse at just how good this film is but has also left them quite ludicrously open to spoilers which will all but destroy their enjoyment of the film if Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster doesn’t.

With equality at the forefront of public thinking at this time I’m tempted to start a campaign for film release equality. And its not just Americans suffering.

Gravity was released here in New Zealand a week after it was released domestically in America and in that one week we were teased by critics with endless streams of praise for Cuaron’s masterpiece. But in that one week, almost the whole plot and its conclusion was revealed to me by the Internet. Luckily for me Gravity was so good nothing could ruin my experience but my annoyance is at the fact there seems little real reason for this sort of timing which ticks more boxes under cons than pros.

It seems almost every self-respecting franchise is doing worldwide releases now. I say all for one and one for all. Its time to restore the surprise and unpredictability of cinema viewing for those who care for such things.

REVIEW – THOR: THE DARK WORLD

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Director: Alan Taylor

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christopher Ecclestone, Kat Dennings, Tom Hiddlestone, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Stellan Skarsgard

Apparently it was inevitable. At some point Marvel would produce a stinker to thwart the progress made by their excellent work so far. So if it really was inevitable then why was Thor: The Dark World so enjoyable.

The film picks up where The Avengers left off. Loki (Tom Hiddlestone) is imprisoned on Asgard and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is roaming The Nine Realms, keeping the peace. But that peace is disturbed when Thor’s human  sweetheart Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) awakens an ancient force, The Aether, and consequently the villainous Malekith (Former Doctor Who star Christopher Ecclestone) who wishes to harness its power. With the universe under threat Thor is forced to free Loki in a desperate attempt to save everything he loves.

The problem with Thor has always been the believability of his character within the Marvel Universe and once again the studio succeed in drawing attention away from these sorts of plot holes to focus on an enjoyable story.

The storyline is dynamic and far superior to the original Thor (2011), revelling in the glorious contrast between Thor and his twisted brother Loki, a relationship which dominates the whole film. Tom Hiddlestone is delightfully greasy as Loki and in my not so humble opinion the best on-screen super-villain (the Joker doesn’t count). The character really makes a case for not just killing off villains between films, Loki is brilliant as a constant worry to Thor, whether as more of an entertaining side-plot as he is in this film, or as the main event as he was in The Avengers.

Loki: After all this time, now you come to visit me, brother? Why? To mock?

Thor: I need your help. And I wish I could trust you…

Loki: If you did, you’d be the fool I always took you for

The film starts slowly but quickly picks up the pace with some neat action and special effects sequences. Bringing on the creative team from The Game of Thrones was a masterstroke as they know what the fan boys (and fan girls for equalities sake). Minus the XXX content of Thrones, the all out action and traditional combat make for an entertaining sci-fi.

Kudos to Marvel for showing that they can bring the superhero action into space ahead of the release of Guardians of the Galaxy next year. Asgard is beautifully done and ‘The Dark World’ appropriately desolate. The battle scenes on Asgard, hell the whole movie,  should be a example to JJ Abrams and the Star Wars Episode VII team, it blending sci-fi with fun, not taking itself to seriously.

Thor himself is well played by Chris Hemsworth who has done well to portray the increasing maturity of the prince. I do have a few gripes about Natalie Portman’s character Jane…she’s annoying. In the style of Margot Kidder as Lois Lane she is genuinely frustrating and her character lacks depth. I for one am on Team Sif (Jaimie Alexander), who seems positively badass, although I seemed to get a hint of a Sif-Loki thing. But hell, I even liked Kat Dennings as the super dumb science prodigy better than Portman’s  empty eye candy.

Malekith does his job and goes about his universe-destroying duties without really being memorable but is used to introduce many plot points for future films.

I’ll write another article discussing the direction Marvel has used Thor to steer its universe into to avoid spoilers. Lets just say there are plenty of Easter Eggs in there for those eagle-eyed enough to spot them.

So now the onus on poor old Captain America to keep up the Marvel magic. Bring It!!!!!!

Related articles

• ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Review: Laughs and Character Make for One of Marvel’s Best (slashfilm.com)
• Review: Thor The Dark World (valleyofthedeer.wordpress.com)
• ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Cast Talk New Story, Darker Villains, More Action & Better Humor (screenrant.com)

TOP 40 – BAD GRANDPA TOP AGAIN AS ENDER’S GAME STUMBLES

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa became the first film not at the No.1 Box Office place to top the guide2film Top 40 pouncing on weaker than expected box office results for Ender’s Game, which came in at a disappointing 4th. The adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel suffered from a lack of hype which left it floundering at the lower end of sci-fi opening weekend takings just one week before the US release of Thor: The Dark World. Thor managed a remarkable 3rd despite not being released to the US domestic market, banking $109m overseas and scoring positive reviews. Gravity stayed second to continue its magnificent run which is still going strong after 5 weeks on the market.

On the home entertainment front Monsters University reached 5th place on its DVD release carrying on the long running Pixar tradition of producing top quality animated films.. The Conjuring clocks in a sixth after a Halloween season release while another scary season favourite World War Z was in at 8th. Star Trek: Into Darkness comes in at 7th while Iron Man 3 is 9th, both are long-time features on tis chart and are showing few signs of letting up. And finally in tenth is Despicable Me 2 on a wave of popularity which sees it continuing to feature on the box office charts as well as DVD charts for pre-sale.

Other notable changes include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rising to 13th after the release of the extended Blu-Ray cut and building hype for its sequel. Captain Phillips is down to a respectable 15th but failed to maintain the box office hype for a top 10 finish. Last Vegas is 16th on its opening weekend and fellow debutant Free Birds is 25th. Critics darling 12 Years A Slave is 20th, only lacking the hype to accompany its reviews. Man Of Steel has been pushed into the top 20 by pre-sale hype.

Check out all 40 below:

1.  Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
2. Gravity
3. Thor: The Dark World
4. Ender’s Game
5. Monsters University
6. The Conjuring
7. Star Trek: Into Darkness
8. World War Z
9. Iron Man 3
10. Despicable Me 2
11. Pacific Rim
12. The Croods
13. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
14. Turbo
15. Captain Phillips
16. Last Vegas
17. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2
18. Man Of Steel
19. The Great Gatsby
20. 12 Years A Slave
21. This Is The End
22. The Heat
23. Krrish 3
24. Carrie
25. Free Birds
26. Rush
27. Epic
28. Insidious: Chapter 2
29. The Hangover Part III
30. Now You See Me
31. Oblivion
32. Prisoners
33. The Way, Way Back
34. Mud
35. The Purge
36. Enough Said
37. We’re The Millers
38. Dallas Buyers Club
39. The Internship
40. All Is Lost

The Top 40 is based on box office performance by weekend and total gross, critical reception, internet hype/popularity and fan reception.

Related articles

• Weekend Wrap Up: “Ender’s Game” Wins (cupof-joe.com)
• TOP 40 – Bad Grandpa Finally Sinks Gravity (guide2film.wordpress.com)
• Weekend Box Office: ENDER’S GAME Wins Frame with $28 Million; THOR: THE DARK WORLD Hits $109 Million in International Debut (collider.com)

NOVEMBER 2013 RELEASES

The big releases of November 2013…

UPCOMING – Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World is an upcoming super hero film which serves as a follow up to Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012). It will follow Asgardian prince Thor as he faces off against Malekith the Accursed on his home planet. The film is directed by Alan Taylor and stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christopher Ecclestone, and Tom Hiddlestone. Its release date is October 30, 2013.