The Mighty Thor

If you keep track of the movies via such sites as trailers.apple.com, rottentomatoes.com, and imdb.com, you probably have heard that roaring thunder just over the horizon for some time now: Thor is going to be great. In fact, it's probably going to be the biggest single blockbuster of 2011.

RottenTomatoes weighed in earlier in the week with a massive 83% T-Meter, and an audience profile indicating that 92% of all Rottentomatoes readers wanted to see this movie. The score has fallen a bit, but this is still the highest-rated large-scale release on the board. By a vote of 148-37, the critics are saying this move is pretty fresh. 83% of audience members liked the movie.

I just got back from seeing Thor just a few moments ago. I loved it. There is a whole lot of entertainment and fun in this movie. This is good stuff, Maynard. This is probably my favorite movie of the year, with all due respect to The Adjustment Bureau. {Incidentally, Matt Damon was terrific in that flick. Obama was just trying to bust his balls.}

Yes, there are a few little quibbles here and there with this implementation of Thor. Thor was betrothed to the lady Sif, there was no Jane Foster hanging around. To be honest, they are running with a reboot origin that doesn't match the original comic book. Also, Loki was never a Frost Giant; neither in Norse Mythology nor the comic book

Frankly, none of this matters. Everything works well in the movie. Kenneth Branagh is to be congratulated for a stellar job directing. I can't believe this Shakespearian actor would ever have had an interest in directing a Marvel Comic book adaptation. (!!!) He must have been attracted the royal intrigue and grandeur of it all. Certainly, these themes are more than evident his past work like Henry V and Hamlet.

During the course of the movie, I wondered why it was all working so well. Largely, it was a bunch of well-cast actors making a good script shine. The effects and the 3d stuff are there in abundance, and give the movie a ton of visual appeal, but you like this story and these characters in the story. This is the thing that stayed with me.

Of course, you know I had to have a look at the cast list and their birthdays. I can tell you the Casting Directors made some very interesting choices Astrologically speaking. Oh yeah? Like what?

How about casting Anthony Hopkins (Capricorn) as Odin, the king of the universe? Capricorn is frequently called the greatest of the cardinal leadership signs. Consult Chuck Noll and Don Shula about that. We have no doubt that Anthony Hopkins is the king of the universe either. You're quite convinced that he's a great one, also. You know the archetype of Capricorn is "Father", right? This one is playing the "All-father".

The problem is that this king has a pair sons astrologically incompatible with himself. They are Chris Hemsworth (a Leo), and Tom Hiddleston (an Aquarius), and neither is a cardinal. Who shall he give the throne of the universe too when neither is the ideal type? One of these two will have to succeed him. It is interesting that the casting director chose to make a Thor a Leo, and his brother/enemy Loki an Aquarius.

Did you happen to know that the Archetype of Leo is the Hero/King? Did you happen to know that the Archetype of Aquarius is the Anti-Hero/Revolutionary rebel? Yep, check it out. Yet these are 180 degree opposites who have a strong complementarity, along with tremendous differences.

Reference Tom Brady and Randy Moss for an example of these differences and complementarity. For some, Brady would make a pretty good hero/king, and Moss would make a pretty good anti-hero/rebel. Yet the two of them came together for a time and had great dynamism.

Hemsworth is a pretty damn good example of what it is to be a Leo. He's a noble warrior, and seems like royalty. He even looks like a fucking lion. His leadership charisma is great, but his decision making is questionable. He is a hot head, and he wants battle and glory. He loves the spot light and loves to be the center of attention. He's loves it as all of Asgard shows up to cheer his proclamation as heir to the throne.

Hiddleston is a pretty damn good example of what it is to be an Aquarius. He's brainy. He's unconventional. He's more than a little bit bent. He's pretty otherworldly. He's not a particularly good looking leader from the Charisma standpoint, but you believe he has the brains for the job.

I don't know what you thought, but I thought these two guys had great acting chemistry together.

Naturally, you can understand why a Capricorn leader like Hopkins would have doubts about both of these boys. You can also understand why he had to chose the Leo son. Nevertheless, they have their conflicts. Firey Leo-Thor is a hot head. He wants to break out the chariots of victory and go to war. A stable, solid, realistic, feet-on-the-ground, down-to-earth, pragmatic, utilitarian, honest Capricorn King knows why that isn't a good idea. They have a pretty big wing-ding over it too.

It's all totally believable. Given the people you are looking at on screen, you just naturally believe this is what would happen.

This isn't the only bit of interesting astrological architecture going on in the flick. It's interesting that they give Thor two Sagittarius buddies, and Gemini for the Warrior-3. So you have two fire budies and an air sign for Leo-Thor's side-kicks. Perfect.

Sif is the non-conforming piece of data. She is a Pisces; incompatible with everybody. She must have been somebody's girlfriend.

Then we have the scientific trio of Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings. Guess what? All three scientists are Geminis. Gemini is a mental and mercurial sign, just fine for science. They are also nicely aspected towards a Leo like Hemsworth.

Incidentally, Portman and Hemsworth sure seem to have some sensational chemistry together. This would be typical. Gemini chicks frequently go after Leo boys. Interestingly enough, when you look at their numbers (using Sirus 1.1) they have some fantastic scores... in everything but romantic and sexual attraction. They aught to be in business together, and given this movie, I guess they are.

Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth

Data for Natalie Portman: Data for Chris Hemsworth:
June 9, 1981 August 11, 1983
12:00 PM 12:00 PM
Standard time observed Standard time observed
Jerusalem, Israel Melbourne, Australia
31 N 46 35 E 14 37 S 49 144 E 58
Tropical PLACIDUS Tropical PLACIDUS
Time Zone: 2 hours East Time Zone: 10 hours East

Sun 18 deg 28 min Gemini Sun 17 deg 51 min Leo
Moon 17 deg 44 min Virgo Moon 20 deg 14 min Virgo
Mercury 5 deg 13 min Cancer Mercury 13 deg 48 min Virgo
Venus 5 deg 04 min Cancer Venus 8 deg 28 min Virgo
Mars 2 deg 59 min Gemini Mars 28 deg 18 min Cancer
Jupiter 0 deg 41 min Libra Jupiter 1 deg 19 min Sagittarius
Saturn 3 deg 01 min Libra Saturn 29 deg 02 min Libra
Uranus 27 deg 15 min Scorpio Uranus 5 deg 04 min Sagittarius
Neptune 23 deg 37 min Sagittarius Neptune 26 deg 40 min Sagittarius
Pluto 21 deg 40 min Libra Pluto 27 deg 03 min Libra
Asc. 23 deg 55 min Virgo Asc. 3 deg 07 min Sagittarius
MC 23 deg 30 min Gemini MC 11 deg 29 min Leo


Category Totals
1. Romantic and Sexual Attraction: 32
2. Similarity of Interests and Temperament: 257
3. Mutual Success and High Achievement: 223
4. Problem Solving, Communication, and Mutual Understanding: 75
5. Mutual Kindness, Friendliness, Pleasantness, and Peace: 184
6. Aggressiveness, Competition, Power, Success, or Violence: 143
7. Adventurousness, Surprises, Disturbances: 131
8. Shared Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration: 34

Given above are your compatibility scores in 8 different categories. A score of 100 is average. A score above 100 indicates that the trait is strong, and a score below 100 indicates that the trait is weak. More specifically, you can interpret the scores as follows:

Above 150 is very high. This trait is VERY strong!
125 to 150 is above average. The trait is strong.
115 to 125 is slightly above average. The trait is slightly strong.
85 to 115 is average.
75 to 85 is slightly below average. The trait is slightly weak.
50 to 75 is weak.
50 or lower is VERY weak!

I’m actually excited about going to the movies again

Intro

On 3/5/2011, you would think a guy of my ilk would be pretty excited about the fact that the NFL owners have not locked out the NFL players. Excited? No. Optimistic for the first time? Yes. Strangely enough, I am excited about the movies this morning. I was not excited about movies throughout the majority of 2010.

Folks, they never should have held the 83^rd Academy Awards ceremony. They should have canceled the Chicky-Super Bowl this year. Hollywood did not deserve any gold statues for what happened during 2010. The fact that they held the ceremony was travesty and miscarriage of justice.

What we should have done is round-up all the heads of each major studio, and all the major Hollywood producers, taken them out behind the woodshed and kicked them in the nuts 20 or 30 times each. That is what they deserved for last year’s cinematic output. It was a fucking lousy year for the movies. The movies of 2010 stank, by and large.

Better still, let’s get Adam Vinattieri to kick them in the nuts 30 or 40 times each. I’m talking about a full soccer-style kick too. After that, we’ll get Deacon Jones to stuff them all into a burlap sack and beat the sack with a baseball bat. Or we could stuff them in a food processor and then an industrial microwave oven…

Now it’s 2011

As I surf to movies.Yahoo.com and look up my favorite local theater, I am absolutely astounded to find a fairly exciting list of choices here. Two movies just opened up yesterday that are on my must-see list: Rango and The Adjustment Bureau. There are several other reasonable choices also.

Rango looks like the first brilliant 3d movie since How to Train Your Dragon, and I think it’s going to be considerably better than that. The animation art looks truly awesome. I have high hopes. This is basically western with anthropomorphized animals, with a Looney Tunes style of humor. The preview looked good. I hope it does not disappoint.

The Adjustment Bureau looks like the bright star on the horizon. This movie has a chance to windup on my short list of all-time favorites, if everything works out as it should. I was intrigued by what I saw in the preview, but more so by the NPR interview I heard last night on the drive home.

The Adjustment Bureau is a heavy existentialist and mystical piece, wrapped up in the look and feel of a modern Sci-Fi movie. The question is deep: can a man control his own fate, or is your destiny controlled by something else? Is the leaver controlling your destiny in your own hands, or are their unseen--but keenly felt--beings or forces in an unseen realm, pulling strings and punching buttons, making things turn out the way they see fit? If there are such shadowy figures manipulating your outcomes, is it possible for you to resist them, and re-set your course as you prefer it to go? Is it is wise thing to resist them, just because you don’t like what they are doing?

At its core, this is actually a sweet romance about a man and woman who really love each other, and want to be together. She’s a ‘dancer’ and he’s a politician. It’s difficult to determine which profession is more slimy, but the politicos don’t want their bright star muddied-up with this greazie girl. Forces conspire to push them apart. They resist.

It’s a good thing that the casting directors chose a pretty Pisces girl (Emily Blunt) to play the love interest. That’s one way to catch my attention. Pisces is on my 7^th House.

Folks, this is the kind of movie I really go for. Neptune is in Scorpio in my natal chart. I am part of a 14 year group of people who are attracted to and fascinated by strange, weird, unusual, mystical, macabre and bizarre subjects. The weirder and more paranormal it is, the more entertaining it is also. This is reflected in the music, art and fashion of our age cohort. We’re the guys who love Chariots of the Gods, UFO stuff, 2012 documentaries, the X-Files, Lost, and Unsolved Mysteries.

Uncle Broonmee

In spirit of the last paragraph, I should include the 3^rd interesting release of the week. If it weren’t enough that they opened two must-see movies this week, there is a third option in very limited release. It’s called Uncle Broonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. That is quite a mouthful.

Evidently this is a Philippine movie about man who is dying. He has decided to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside, away from the public. He’s a good man, and better than Al Davis. Didn’t I mention this subject recently?

He has a number of very strange supernatural visitors. The closer he gets to death, the closer he gets to the other side. The more contact he makes with those on the other side, the more he learns about his past incarnations, and accumulates hints about his next incarnation.

Wow… sounds pretty damn weird, macabre, paranormal and entertaining. I want to see this one for sure. As Spock would say: “Facinating!”

But wait! There’s more!

As if it weren’t enough that there are three must-see movies opening this week, there is still more! I Am Number Four has been getting pretty good word of mouth inside my circle of friends and associates. Those who have seen it have praised it as a good adventure.

I’ve been building an interest in this movie all week long. It also helps that this movie features an absolutely ravishing (and I mean ravishing) Pisces female named Teresa Palma. You want to talk about a knock-out bombshell… Believe me, she puts about 850 foot-pounds of torque on my crankshaft. One of the interesting things about Teresa is that she was born on 2/26/1986; just 2 weeks, or 14 days, away from my theoretical max birthday of 3/12/1986. This is close enough to give Teresa a very impressive set of scores. Believe me, I’m feeling that synastry.

But wait! There’s more!

As you all know by now, Liam Neeson opened a new mystery/thriller a week or two ago called Unknown. We can describe it as a drama about identity theft on a whole different level. Of course, it helps that he has a stunning Cancer woman named Diane Kruger in that movie. I don’t mention it often, but Cancer and Virgo are very good together. We don’t have particularly good scores, but I admire her anyhow.

The general forecast for 2011

I spent a good part of last week hauling down some 63 movie previews from trailers.apple.com. If you own the pro copy of Quicktime, you can export these .Mov files as .Mp4 files. There is no transcoding, it’s just a different meta-wrapper. Once these files are in the .MP4 package, I like to drop them on a USB2 memory stick, formatted in Fat32, inside a directory called “VIDEO”. I can then plug that memory stick into my PS3, and watch all the previews I want on the big screen.

There are many other ways to do it, but this is how I like to do it. The speed of the flash memory means instant starts and instant stops. It’s very cool.

Looking at these 63 previews suggests that it is going to be a very interesting year indeed.

Surprisingly enough, it looks like they have done a re-origin and reboot on Marvel’s Thor, and it looks like it just might turn out to be entertaining after all. I sure hope so. The information about Captain America is currently too sketchy to determine whether this might be good or bad. It looks like they are playing it close to the comic book origin. No reboot here. That’s all I can tell you right now.

Kill the Irishman is actually based on a completely outrageous true-crime mobster story. I’ve seen several documentaries on this epoch of Cleveland history, and it’s truly a case where truth is stranger than fiction. If they do that story well, it could turn out to be one of the all-time mobster classics.

The Bleeding looks like the next hilarious grindhouse comedy. I am convinced that they didn’t have a serious bone in their bodies as they made this movie. This is camp stuff, and played for laughs. I loved Planet Terror, John Carpenter’s Vampires, and Black Dynamite. Machete disappointed me, but I hope this one won’t.

I am deeply worried that Green Lantern won’t turn out well, but still, I hold out some hope. It looks like they have spent quite a bit of money on special effects, and they won’t dumb down the Sci-Fi journey’s of the Green Lantern Corp. Still, I worry that this will be the next Fantastic Four. That one didn’t come together or work out well.

These are just a few of the movies that have caught my attention. There are many others.