Analog-Theater 2.0

I got bored the other days so I decided to get together with my friend Alan and catch a movie.  We ended up seeing Angels and Demons.  Now I had read the book by Dan Brown and thought it was okay, not great but okay.  So I knew going in that the movie was going to be iffy.  Few movies are as good as the book.  The movie managed to live up to my low expectations.

The first thing that jumped out was the supposed Illuminati.  Having down extensive reading on the Illuminati, I consider myself not an expert but more knowledgable than the average Joe.  The Illuminati was organized in Bavaria in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt.  Thus it would have been very difficult for Galileo to have been a member when he died in 1642, 134 years before the group existed.  Also, the group was not destroyed by the Catholic Church, but by politics.  The Bavarian government outlawed them in 1784 and the French hunted them down a few years later.

Okay, thats enough history.  One of the many changes between the book and the movie was that the book took place before the Da Vinci Code, however the movie is set after it.  The movie also changes the Illuminati Dimond brand (the fifth brand) to the papel crossed keys.  I can’t figure out why as it was not an ambiagram like the others and the diamond was the ultimate ambiagram.  And the book actually showed it, so they did have a pattern they could have used.  There are numerous other changes, some of them major plot and character changes.  Like they left out the romance between Langdon and Vittoria.

On a more scientific note, CERN released a statement after the movie came out saying that since the colider came online, they have created 10 billionths of a gram of antimatter which has the destructive power of a firecracker.  So we can’t blow up the Vatican even if we wanted to.

On the plus side, I liked Nikolaj Lie Kaas as the assassin.  I thought he did a really good job.  So did Armin Mueller-Stahl as Cardinal Strauss, he was very believable.  Too bad he didn’t become the pope like he did in the book.

I’ll give this movie 4 bananas, more than I have given any of the other lame movies.

And here is the great list of up coming films:

June 26th, 2009: Transformers 2, starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Isabel Lucas, Rainn Wilson, Jennifer Alden.

The world is going to end (again) on July 10, 2009 in the movie 2012. Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Thomas McCarthy, Woody Harrelson, Chin Han, Morgan Lily, and Beatrice Rosen.

On July 17, 2009 Harry Potter returns to the big screen in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint reprising their respective roles.

August 9, 2009: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring: Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Said Taghmaoui, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Arnold Vosloo, Christopher Eccleston.

September 4, 2009, Gamer starring Gerard Butler as an unwilling participant in a gamer where he and others are controlled by players in real battles.  Also starring Logan Lerman.  Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.

September 25, 2009, Surrogates starring Bruce Willis as a cop in the near future where people live in isolation and only interact through robotic bodies that serve as surrogates.  After a near fatal encounter, the Willis’s surrogate is destroyed and forces him to bring his human form out of isolation and unravel a conspiracy behind the crimes.  The film is directed by Jonathan Mostow.

On November 20, 2009 we get to see Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in action as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes.

December 2009: The Sorceror’s Apprentice, a modern day retelling of the story from Fantasia, which was a retelling of a 1797 poem by Goethe titled Der Zauberlehrling, starring Nicholas Cage as the Sorceror, Jay Burachel as the apprentice, and Teresa Palmer as the female lead(rumors have it that the broom is female in version) and directed by Jon Turteltaub.

March 5th, 2010: Tim Burton’s vision of Alice in Wonderland hits the big screen starring Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Sheen, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Crispin Glover, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman.  This might be interesting.

A remake of Clash of the Titans directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Lawrence Kasdan is due for release on March 26, 2010. Ray Harryhausen is involved, and Sam Worthington is in talks to star.

April 30, 2010: Iron Man 2, with Robert Downy, Jr returning as Tony Stark.  Scarlett Johansson has signed on to play the Black Widow and Mickey Rourke as the villain Whiplash.  And with a cameo by Thor.

May, 6 2011: Spiderman 4: Tobey Maguire and Director Sam Raimi have agreed to do another film, but they do not have a script yet.

June 17, 2011: Thor.  There is still no word on the cast, but the prowrestler Triple H and Kevin McKidd of the tv series Rome have expressed interest in the role, though Marvel is looking for an unknown blonde actor with experience.  They have also approached Natalie Portman to play Thor’s love interest.

June 17, 2011 Green Lantern, a live action movie about the Green Lantern Hal Jordan.  It will be direct by Martin Campbell.  Chris Pine (the new Captain Kirk) is rumored to be playing Hal Jordan.

July 22, 2011: Captain America: The First Avenger which will be set entirely in World War 2.  There has been no word on who will play Captain America.

Also sometime in 2011: Grayskull: Masters of the Universe, produced by Joel Silver and written by Justin Marks.

Battle Angel Alita in 2011 directed by James Cameron.

Superman: Unleashed in 2011, Brandon Routh is still set to return as Superman.

Sometime in 2011, Director Scott Derrickson is planning to film Paradise Lost in 3D. Discussing his interpretation of the story, he sees Satan as an anti-hero and not the villain, and that it shall be a “litmus test” for the audience when they stop sympathising with the character. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are producing.

Also in 2011, Keanue Reeves will have to work hard to impress us as Spike Spiegel in the live action Cowboy Bebop movie.  There is no news yet about who the rest of the cast is, but Sunrise Inc and the creators of Cowboy Bebop are involved in the production, so there is hope that the movie will stay true to the series.

In Mid 2011 we can plan on seeing more of J.J. Abrams alternate Star Trek time line as the crew of the Enterprise launches again on its mission to find hot new aliens for Kirk.

May 4th, 2012: Avengers with Robert Downy, Jr., Edward Norton, Samuel L. Jackson, and whoever plays Captain America and Thor.

Micheal Bay is planning on a third installment of the Transformers series for July 4th, 2012.

In 2012 Johnny Depp will be back as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Geoffrey Rush has expressed interest in returning as Barbossa, but has not signed on yet and Director Gore Verbinski will not sign on without a complete script.

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