The Hangover II and Thor rounded out the top three with Source Code, I Am Number Four, and Sucker Punch close behind. The theory is that those films are popular amongst tech-savvy males while the thought of downloading makes a girl’s head hurt.

Overall, downloads are down significantly from last year. Fast Five was downloaded 9.3 million times, but last year’s top spot belonged to Avatar with a download tally of 16.6 million. It can be argued that these numbers fell because of Hollywood’s war on piracy, or that films were just suckier than usual this year. It’s also possible that TorrentFreak fudged the numbers to get the heat of Hollywood and the anti-piracy bill they’re trying to push through off their backs. It’s what Dom and Brian would do.

1. “Fast Five“(Universal): 9.3 million

2. “The Hangover Part II“ (Warner Bros. / Legendary): 8.8 million

3. “Thor“ (Marvel/Paramount): 8.3 million

4. “Source Code“ (Summit / Vendome): 7.9 million

5. “I Am Number Four” (DreamWorks / Disney): 7.7 million

6. “Sucker Punch“ (Warner Bros. / Legendary): 7.2 million

7. “127 Hours“ (Fox Searchlight): 6.9 million

8. “Rango“ (Paramount): 6.5 million

9. “The King’s Speech“ (Weinstein Co.): 6.3 million

10. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ (Warner Bros.): 6 million

(LA Times)

Also of interest is the news that those incredibly popular post-credits scenes are also going to continue. It wasn’t clear if this means that The Avengers will feature a teaser for Iron Man 3, or something else entirely. It’ll be nice to be surprised, right? Anyway, assuming The Avengers is the blockbuster everyone knows it will be, this will all culminate in a sequel to The Avengers, after which I’m sure they’ll just pack everything up in the interest of maintaining a high standard of quality. Ha ha, just kidding. (FirstShowing.net)

While it’s not an easy transition from most TV (considered a writer’s medium) to film (considered a director’s medium), HBO series in general, and Game of Thrones in particular have managed to buck that philosophy, with the latter creating a lush world that at the very least can be called cinematic.

It’s anticipated that the sequel will take a more epic approach, creating a world of Norse warriors undoubtedly similar to many of the characters in the HBO series. While nothing has been finalized, the thoughtful pace of Game of Thrones could be a welcome addition to the world of Marvel, which is often subjected to criticism that it’s a little too digestible at times.

If they’re going to go this route, I suppose it’s too much to ask for an R rating?

…in which an Israeli assassination team targeted a Hamas leader whom the Israelis believe murdered several soldiers and helped stockpile Iranian-made missiles. He was tracked to Dubai, and the Israelis managed to smuggle in an entire 17-person hit team to take him out in the corridor of a five-star hotel. The operatives were captured on a hotel security camera trailing after the victim, reemerging and getting on the elevator after he was killed.

Then Deadline goes on to say that WON’T be the plot of this film, but it will be in a similar vein. Thanks a lot, Deadline. It will probably just be Thor 2: Thorrin’ It! (as inspired by the conflict between Hamas and Israel).

(cue Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night”)

Call it a coincidence, but the scene wasn’t directed by Kenneth Branagh, but by Avengers director Joss Whedon. It all comes from an interview between Skarsgard and Empire, in which he divulges absolutely no other details about The Avengers except for his appearing in it, for fear of the Disney death squads who would bring violent death to anyone who reveals any of movie’s secrets. So, if you’re a Whedon completist, maybe you should try to get a hold of a DVD copy of the Thor post-credits scene – maybe there’s a cool director’s commentary.

The other new release to crack the top five was Priest, the Paul Bettany-hunts vampires-in-3D movie, which snagged the number four spot with a weekend gross of $14.5 million.Fast Five continued its triumph with a number 3 $19.5 million gross, and Rio continued its reign of terror at number 5, with $8 million. Who says CGI parrots can’t be funny? (Box Office Mojo)

Elsewhere in the top five are two new releases at spots three and four. At number 3 is Jumping the Broom with $13.7 million, and Something Borrowed with $13.1 million. I don’t have anything to say about these movies, other than they probably don’t have any giant magic hammers. (Box Office Mojo)

A word from Kat: “I don’t take crap from anyone, so that makes people think I’m rebellious. I’m not. I’m just not a pushover.”

Iron Eagle II – Yuri Lebanov (1988)

Alright, this isn’t the best film in the world, but when you’re five years old, it’s not too bad. And it manages to dumb down Cold War politics to a level that even a five-year old can grasp. In case you can’t tell, I was like five when this movie came out, which also explains why Feore’s Russian accent seemed so genuine to me at the time.

Face/Off (1997)

As you can see from the photo above, Feore had a huge part in Face/Off. OK, maybe it’s a small role, but he does play the doctor in charge of the face-swapping surgery. Without him, there would be no Face/Off. Frankly, that’s a world I don’t want to live in.

Storm of the Century – Andre Linoge (1999)

When Andre Linoge shows up in the town of Little Tall Island during a blizzard, he sure seems to know a lot of the townsfolk’s secrets. That probably has something to do with the fact that he’s actually the demo Legion, and he wants one of the town‘s children as an heir. As far as made for TV movies from the 90′s go, this has to rank on the high end on the list, thanks in no small part to Feore’s performance as Linoge.

The Insider – Richard Scruggs (1999)

In 1999, Feore also played the real-life role of Richard Scruggs, a prominent Mississippi lawyer involved in a law suit against big tobacco. Looking at the picture above, it’s easy to see why he landed the part.

Trudeau – Pierre Elliott Trudeau (2002)

This one goes out to all our Canadian fans (all five of you). In 2002, Feore won a Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actor for his role as Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. I know what you’re thinking: “what’s a Gemini Award?” Well, it’s like an Emmy award, but for Canadians. Now you’re thinking, “what’s a prime minister?” Well, he’s sort of lik the American president, except white. Weird, right?

The Chronicles of Riddick – Lord Marshal (2004)

In The Chronicles of Riddick, Feore plays Lord Marshal, leader of the Necromongers, a warlike race attempting to reach the Underverse. As is the case with most warlike movie races, they’ll stop at nothing to reach their goal. Based on this picture alone, it’s clear that you do not want to f*ck with this guy.

A word from Jaimie: “Never be ashamed of what or how you feel….just be honest.”

Goofing around with a guy who fights robots and frost giants is not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Hemsworth seems to be having fun talking about his breakthrough role. He thought Red Dawn and Cabin in the Woods were good gigs, but The Avengers will probably be out before we see those movies.

Q: Could you eat a burger or something? You’re making me look bad.

CH: [Laughs] I’m about to shoot The Avengers. I have to play the character again so I’m back in the gym and force feeding myself full of protein.

Q: I get the sense Ryan Reynolds is sick of people talking about his abs. Does the body obsession amuse you?

CH: It’s funny. You’ve got to laugh at it. It’s all very new for me. He’s been in the spotlight for a lot longer than I have. At the moment I’m happy to be working and whatever attention is a plus.

Q Thor learns his lesson in this movie. Where do you go once he’s learned to respect humanity and be humble?

CH: I was just thinking about that. That’s the challenge with having sequels. You don’t want to go through the same arc again and you want to have new challenges. Now he’s more mature than he was. Whether he falls back into some old habits or whether it’s a completely new challenge he’s faced with, I can only hope for that to be the case. The writers and director put it on the page. I’m sort of at the mercy of them in a sense.

Q: Did you ever see the Thor in Adventures in Babysitting?

CH: [Laughs] I didn’t. With Vincent D’Onofrio. I’ve heard a lot about it.

Q: What is it like to swing that hammer?

CH: It’s good fun. It’s a fairly unorthodo weapon in a lot of ways so we had to invent fighting style around it. It became an extension of your body and very much boxing technique was a big influence there. We wanted it to have a sort of brutality and a power to it so we talked about broadsword technique as well and incorporating that. It was a lot of fun, standing on the set and having 12 stunt guys say, “Yeah, just hit us. Go for it.” And there’ll be no consequence.

Q: Have you been on set on The Avengers yet?

CH: I haven’t, no. They started shooting about a week ago and I come on board in about a week’s time.

Q: What was the read through like

with you, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Evans?

CH: We didn’t have one. That was the plan and then different schedules made that impossible. We’ve all individually spent a lot of time with Joss talking about the script and our characters. There may have been certain people who worked together more than others doing rehearsals and what have you but my main intro into it is going to be next week when I get there.

Q: Does it feel different than doing your own Thor movie?

CH: Sure, yeah. You can never have the same sort of attention that you have in your own movie obviously, because there’s seven other people who’ve got to fit into it. But it’s interesting and probably nicer to not carry all the weight and be surrounded by some people who are going to elevate your game and you can learn from. That’s exciting. They’re actors I’ve admired for years and the idea of working with them and the superheroes that they’re playing I think is going to be pretty iconic.

Q: Will your hammer as broadsword style apply to the fights in that film or will it be a completely different style?

CH: Oh no, you’ve still got to have the same somewhat fight sequence. I think you want it to be an evolution and you want to add in some new flairs or have some kind of new technique and moments. You don’t want to repeat the same things but still the structure of it is going to be pretty similar.

Q: Will changing the Chinese to Koreans really help Red Dawn?

CH: [Laughs] I have no idea. You have to ask the producers who made the decision. We as the actors, it was all kept pretty vague to us even when we were shooting. The Russians were in there, then the Chinese, now it’s the North Koreans. It wasn’t a political statement on anyone’s behalf. For us, the film was about the relationship of the kids and their interaction and banding together. So you’d have to ask the producers.

Q: Do all the MGM shenanigans hurt Red Dawn and Cabin in the Woods?

CH: I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it. When you film a film, you want it to come out soon. You want people to see it. It’s the representation of who you are at that point. It’ll be sort of a Benjamin Button effect when these films come out. I’ll get younger and younger.

Q: What is your character in Cabin in the Woods?

CH: He’s one of the young college kids. It’s the same, there’s a big secrecy around that just like there is with the Marvel films but it’s a blend. The Truman Show meets Night of the Living Dead is a pretty good comparison.

Q: That’s the thing. It’s been a secret for two years now, so by the time the film comes out people still won’t know what it is.

CH: I don’t know, once again my job is to go in there as the actor and do my bit. Everything beyond that, politically and what have you, I’m kept out of the loop. I think the secrets around it or people no knowing the story sometimes builds up an anticipation about it and some excitement. Hopefully that’s the case with this.

Q: How much of your life is tied up in Marvel-land the next few years?

CH: A lot of it. I do Avengers next. I’ve just done Thor and if this is a success, hopefully we do another one but that wouldn’t happen for probably quite a while. I’d love to launch into something else and not wear a big heavy costume and cape in the next one.

Q: Do you enjoy talking in Thor-speak?

CH: Sure, there was an old English sort of Shakespearean tone to it. It didn’t go as far as what the comic books head into but it certainly makes you feel or sound more like that period or those characters, as opposed to if you’re doing an American accent in a modern day speak. I guess I wouldn’t feel as much like someone from another realm.

Q: But even to speak like that in a Midwestern diner…

CH: Yeah, that was rather odd. That was strange because we’d shot everything in Asgard first. Then we’d come to Santa Fe and we shot that section, it felt like a completely different film. I felt very fish out of water during that period which the character was meant to feel so I guess it was beneficial. It was much harder to maintain that Thor-speak in that environment.

Thor crashes into theaters Friday.

It’s not known yet whether Hemsworth will actually take the role that Viggo Mortensen considered insufficient for his needs – “sloppy seconds,” if you will. (Deadline)

The film’s only good action sequence is the battle against the Frost Giants on their planet. Thor gets some good hammer whacks in and each of the Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson, Josh Dallas and Tadanobu Asano) and Sif (Jaimie Alexander) get to display various weapons and powers. You might as well do the whole movie on Asgard, but of course then Thor couldn’t joi The Avengers. The rest of the action is just beefy man fights.

The film even struggles to make Earth matter. All Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is doing on Earth is trying to get his hammer back. He goes out drinking with a scientist (Stellan Skarsgard) in a pointless scene, but what does Asgard do for us? Eventually Loki (Tom Hiddleston) unleashes the Destroyer so Thor has to defend us. That’s it? Asgard sends baddies to Earth and Thor fights them?

Natalie Portman Is All Over Thor In New Trailer

I get the arc Thor goes through but it’s still contrived. Oh, the hero learns a lesson. Loki tricks Thor, but he’s no Iago. He just says something that isn’t true. It’s not like he’s incepting Thor. Even though I’ve never read a Thor comic, I knew exactly what would happen when he tried to get his hammer back, and what would happen the second time.

The Asgard parts are like a modern day Clash of the Titans, gods standing around talking about battle but with better production value. They actually get through a lot of plot really quickly in the first act, but that only means they’re making room for more on Earth.

Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) discovers Thor during her physics research. She gets to be a love interest and explain the science of interplanetary travel, via her layman assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings). Coulson (Clark Gregg) is like a stealthy MIB type in this one, so I guess his character changes per movie. SHIELD investigates Thor’s hammer and blah blah blah. The Tony Stark reference is nice though.

They derive some good comedy when earthlings react to Thor-talk. The fish out of water joke gets old when he’s walking through traffic intersections. When Sif and the Warriors show up again they just get downright goofy. And I’m sorry, armor on earth looks silly.

At least Kenneth Branagh knows how to shoot destruction. The film looks good, and steady with no shaky cam. Even when he tilts the camera for establishing shots, the framing is still right. The 3D makes the backgrounds look like flat backdrops even though they’re probably actual graphic designs, but the perspective work is good. They make the frost giants tower over Odin (Anthony Hopkins).

The visual effects look like live-action people shooting through space, ice beasts and weather swirls. So, just like every other CGI movie. Honestly, why spend years on complex computer shots just so we can see the same effect? There is a tag after the credits though so stick around for your Easter egg.

Recently, Marvel Head Kevin Feige confirmed there would be sequels to both Thor and Captain America. In an interview, Branagh was asked about the announcement, and he had no idea there was an announcement. I guess he doesn’t subscribe to The Daily Bugle. Here was Branagh’s response:

“…I’m thrilled they’re that confident. I shall wait for the audience to tell us whether there should be a second one, and then if that’s a nice conversation to be had between all of us, that’d be thrilling. But I’ve got too much Irish superstitious blood in me to assume that Thor 2 will happen. But if Marvel says so, then I guess it must be true.”

Wow, someone wants to wait and see if a movie’s successful before working on the sequel. That’s so crazy, it just might work. Or rather, it’s not crazy at all, and it’s how things should be. You can tell Branagh how many Thor-s you want by going, or not going, to see the movie on May 6th. (Movieline)

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So now it’s time to take part in the Internet’s favorite pastime – mindless speculation. I’m mindlessly speculating that the villain in The Avengers will be … Don Draper! They can do a storyline in which Draper discovers the secret to eternal youth that gives him superpowers, so it could still be set in the present day. Make this happen, Marvel. (The Daily Blam)

2. Large security guards.

3. Sleepy medicine. (See above clip.)

I’ve got to say, Chris Hemsworth‘s Thor is looking like a total jackass in the preview footage. Director Kenneth Branagh seems to be leaning more towards goofy than ass-kicking. Of course, these are minute long previews, so it’s hard to judge, but these clips aren’t getting me psyched. Neither are the lame posters. Is there a Norse God of Good Movie Marketing they can pray to before May 6th?

Then, in a strange out-of-nowhere shot, it’s a Hawkeye cameo. There he is, hanging out in a metal airlift in the pouring rain. I’d say lightning would be a problem, especially cause Thor can summon lightning as one of his powers. However, judging by this Thor’s strength and survival skills, I think that won’t be an issue.

Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, struggles in the mud and into theaters May 6th. (IGN)

Thor descends into theaters April 27th, along with Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins.

The posters feature six characters from the movie, and they look like they should be holding cards with their heights and weights. There’s Chris Hemsworth at Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and Jaimie Alexander as Sif. Now you know a little bit more about Norse mythology than you did before. Thanks, Marvel! (via Firstshowing.net)