Maybe it's not a conscious story choice on their part, but a result of a little desensitisation caused by the frequency of catastrophic destruction we've seen on the screen over the years, from 2012, Transformers 3, Avengers etc. and the fact that it's all done in computers with nary a practical effect involved - no blowing up a building or model and no actors/extras being directed on a set to be killed.

I suspect that the creative teams behind GI Joe Retaliation, Star Trek Into Darkness and Man of Steel either aren't even aware of the scale of collateral damage in their movies. It's just a wow moment.

I'm likely to raise my ire if I go any further, and I'm really trying to avoid working myself up these days. Suffice it to say, I consider AOTC to be 'Transformers bad'. Almost everything in it rubs me the wrong way, more so for the 'detective' subplot than the ultimately harmless love story part.

I get the impression this was due in part to Hayden Christensen? Apologies if it's not, just that over the years I've interacted with quite a few female fans of Star Wars who seem to like the prequels almost solely because of him at first, going positively gaga over him. Seems teenage girls respond to the angst-ridden, bad boy character as well as the pretty face.

I'm not sure how you can edit around Yoda incredulously fighting Dooku and that duel's lacklustre resolution, or that Yoda starts a war to save a single Jedi and then acts like it had nothing to do with him.

Tis a Babylon 5 reference my dear fellow, hence the picture above. The eponymous station gets its 5 designation because 1-4 were destroyed and/or disappeared.

And here's the part where I recommend watching that series.

How about enticing them with the gateway drug that is Young Guns? Then accidentally on purpose replace Young Guns II in the player with the bluray of The Searchers - my favourite western of them all.

And if you haven't yet seen The Searchers on bluray, then I would highly recommend it. That and Ben-Hur have resulted in the most satisfying experience with the HD format for me so far - they really do look superb.

I thought I read somewhere else that Lucas hadn't even spoken with Abrams yet? Wouldn't it be difficult to make that kind of judgement then?

I turned the trailer off just before Smaug appeared as I didn't want to be spoiled on what he looked like, but is that real Trey? Looks like a cartoon.

I enjoyed this one. Didn't have any major issues with it although I did think the ending fight went a little long and the twisty-turney snake creature was completely unnecessary.

I confess was distracted by three things throughout - 1) why do they give Zod and his mates a huge great ship to take into the phantom zone? 2) why must Zod chose Earth as the site of the new Krypton, and 3) why is Superman not being heroic and taking the fight out of inhabited areas?

Regarding this last question, one thing that has struck me this year is that I've seen three big tentpole movies where the third act sees literally millions of people getting killed and the heroes failing to stop it happen. I'm not sure what this storytelling element is supposed to do, be dark?

I thought Henry Cavill did a great job and was surprised by the strong performances by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. Jor-El was really good at playing Russell Crowe as well

edit - how can anyone say this film hasn't any stakes? The lives of the entire human race are at stake, Superman's life is at stake. The life of that screaming pretty brunette from the Daily Planet we barely know is at stake.

So I was watching jewtube and came across this ad, and surprised myself by watching the whole thing.

I think that Frodo poster the only poster I still have lying around. It's a really good one. I also liked the Two Towers one.

And the ROTK with Aragorn continued that minimalist 'central theme' of the movie.

I much preferred these versions to the standard ones (used for the DVDs etc.) which just have a bunch of floating heads, which I loathe in poster design.

Same here. Got tickets to see it Saturday.

I'm not that invested in the character or the franchise, unlike with Thor say, so I won't be gutted if it turns out average. I figure that as long as it doesn't have a miscast Lex Luthor in it, I'll be fine.

Space? Check.
Lea Thompson? Check.
Funky sentient robot? Check.
80s soundtrack? Check.