Cinematical

Late last week, news broke that Anthony Hopkins had joined the cast of Thor as the Nordic paterfamilias, Odin. As I was writing up the news, I could practically see the Thor coverage that will titter across USA Weekend, Entertainment Tonight, and the local newspapers that are still landing on your driveway by 2010 and 2011. There will be so many articles shocked (shocked!) that an actor of Hopkins' caliber has chosen to embrace the pulp of the colored panels, smirking at pervasiveness of the geek trend, and engaging in shallow cultural criticism. It will look remarkably like USA Weekend's goggle-eyed look at the ladies of Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and The Incredible Hulk back in 2008.

Now, there's no doubt that the pages of Marvel, DC, and all the Dark Horses in between are being taken far more seriously than they once were. I think it's also becoming a bit of a Hollywood trend, and that many A-List actors want a little piece of the superhero pie, to permanently become part of the Marvel or DC universe. I believe a very similar trend sprung up around Disney animation in the 1990s, when everyone longed to voice a Disney character of their own and be permanently installed at the Magic Kingdom. Nowadays, animated characters are so superfluous that even McLovin' has a CG-3D flick to his resume, and the characters are forgotten as soon as the next Burger King tie-in comes out.

When I first began writing this column, I believed that comic book adaptations would reach such a point of saturation as to eat its own tail. But then Disney bought Marvel, and DC ballooned into something equally huge, and there's no end in sight. We're rapidly reaching a point when superheroes are going to become casual mentions on an Oscar winning resume. But you know what's really surprising? That's not new.

DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon has been on my radar due to its literary roots (it's based on a 2003 book by Cressida Cowell) and its large and charming cast. But we all know that doesn't necessarily make a memorable animated movie. Too many kid flicks end up flimsy, and feel like extended fast food commercials. I figured Dragon would be one of them.

Happily, I might be wrong. A surprisingly charming trailer for Dragon has debuted at Yahoo! Movies. While I'm an easy mark thanks to a weakness for Scottish accents and Viking villages, the trailer is refreshingly free of Shrek's self-conscious hipness . Why, there's barely any snark to be found! It's all about a gentle lad (you'll recognize the voice of Jay Baruchel immediately) and the most adorable dragon you've ever seen. His limpid eyes and froggy mouth immediately makes the Viking-on-dragon violence rather horrific, and may cause you to feel hatred towards the brogue of Gerard Butler. (I know, I didn't think it was possible either.) Plus, there's a young Viking lass who wields an axe! If this could inspire a few girls to don Viking berserker costumes next Halloween, I will praise it no matter what its flaws and Burger King tie-ins.

The trailer is below the jump thanks to an embed from Yahoo! Movies. Watch it, share your thoughts, and squee over that squishy dragon. If there's a plush version that has that skeptical expression, I want it for my desk.

I didn't think it was possible for any movie to be too big for Michael Bay, especially not a Transformers movie. But judging from this candid DVD extra, even Bay thinks Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen veered on excessive, and he's promising to scale back when he tackles #3. As we speak, Bay is combing through the Transformers lore that Hasbro has sent him and pondering who or what will be smashing crap up in another installment. Just the way he says "Transformers lore" makes me want a story centered on Bay exploring ancient catacombs to uncover the missing Transformers arcana with Megan Fox as his sidekick. (She'll be packing a Ph.D in Hasbro lore because she's not afraid to be smart and sexy.)

As Bay ponders how to go sideways from Revenge (his words, not mine), he does have a few ideas in mind. He wants more Bumblebee, and to explore the powerful relationship he has with Sam. He wants more characters, and more emotion. He wants it to be "more undercover" and "less exposed" which might be difficult for our transforming pals when they destroyed the Great Pyramid of Giza.

At the end of the video, Bay decides to abandon plot ideas and offer a cash reward. Then he says "Just joking!" because come on, the man has to eat, and Fallen didn't make a kajillion dollars, just a few hundred million. However, maybe a few of you more skilled in Transformers lore than he is can make use of the address, and write him with what you want to see in #3.

Check out the video of slippery promises below the jump.

After so much hype surrounding the casting and a handful of beefy stills, the trailer for Disney's The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is finally here, and we have it courtesy of IGN. From the comments left on Todd's preview of the trailer, I know you've been as eager to see its swashbuckling as we have.

It really looks like Jerry Bruckheimer and Mike Newell have taken the best of Pirates of the Caribbean, and employing it here. The costumes and sets are lush and exotic, the cast is gorgeous, there's plenty of crazy action sequences, and the special effects look as solid as golden sands of time can look. My only issue with it is that we only see a few glimpses of wit and fun. Part of what made Pirates so enjoyable was the chemistry and dialogue, and a cast that seemed to be relishing every moment it spent swashbuckling. There was a healthy sense of the ridiculous inherent in it. Everyone in Persia seems to be taking magical daggers, destines, and demons very, very seriously and such earnestness can be offputting for an audience who wants to be transported. Luckily, there's some promising flickers of humor at the end of the trailer (Do jokes about body searches ever get old? Not if they're delivered with the right twinkle in the eye.), and I hope it's a sign that it's not going to be grim and humorless stuff.

Check out the trailer below the jump, and let us know what you think. Thanks again to IGN for the embed.