http://rel” rel=”nofollow”> I don’t know what you noticed in the first 52 seconds of that trailer, but I’ll tell you what I did. […….

While I was in LAX there was an Earthquake tremor. First time (and hopefully last!) I’ve ever experienced something like that. We were about to board one of Sir Richard’s disco planes to JFK. I looked up at the terminal roof and half expected it to start descending towards us. Very scary. I thought this might delay our boarding time, but no, on we got ten minutes later….I don’t understand why they don’t do structural checks on planes after a tremor…

I honestly can’t tell if that’s LA or not in that scene, and to tell the truth it never occurred to me that it would be only because I never imagine the coast viewed from a perspective looking south as it’s shown in the clip. It *could* be the LA basin, but I can’t tell.

At first I thought it was Manhattan, but now I don’t think so — I don’t believe either the Hudson or East Rivers are that wide.

I don’t want to go on a tangent (I’ll leave that to you, Female … you’re much better at it than I am), but when I first considered the possibility that scene could be LA, I immediately thought of this song, popular in 1969-1970 by a band called Shango about California sliding into the sea after an earthquake. It wasn’t very popular after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. I thought everyone would enjoy this song. For wolfe, it has a nice steel drum bridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi6NykrfduA

Very nice pictures BTW. I specifically mentioned Sydney because the Opera House is iconic and unique and beautiful. It would be a shame to see it slide into the sea.

Here, check out my pics of our coastline.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29739817@N00/3664161071/

If you want to see more of what a very tiny part of Sydney looks like, check my Sydney set.

I won’t comment on the quality of the movie, which looks like the sort of supremely stupid yet typical Hollywood CGI idiocy they excel in, precisely the sort of formulaic but highly profitable brainless shlock I never see because it makes me too angry to sit through entirely without loud and abusive comment. (In the past my indulgent family has had to endure my tirades until they tell me, in so many words, if I would kindly stuff my fist in my mouth so they can see the last hour in peace. We agreed to stop watching movies together as a family that feature things blowing up. Or at least not to invite me.)

I won’t be seeing the movie.

But I too am interested in the images selected for the trailer. Not offended, mind you, but I think it’s odd.

This is a world-wide cataclysm, right? So why aren’t there more scenes of world-wide destruction?

I think Danny is right where he conjectures if the trailer is edited for different parts of the world. This one seems to be exactly targeted to Americans.

Considering how abysmally ignorant Americans are of geography, or really of anything outside of the United States, including scenes of Sydney, or Kolkata, or Kuala Lumpur, or Jerusalem would have had little emotional impact. They had to show images that had some emotional resonance.

And knowing how little Americans understand of religions other than Christianity, the destruction of other non-Christian and especially non-Western symbols would have little relevance to them.

this is the same movie which has humanity escaping from earth on giant colony space-ships. There’s even a website where you can pick up a ticket to escape on them…

http://www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/

lololols well well I wonder if Sir Richard is a major investor of this movie.
I’d go see it but John Cusack…really?? It fails the eye candy test which is the only incentive to see any Hollywood movie. Yeah, I’m just like a guy like that hahaha

Speaking of movies about escaping from a destroyed earth on a colony ship… Seen Pandorum?>
No I haven’t seen it nor heard of it. I don’t watch much Sci-Fi, although two of my fav movies are sci-fi – i,Robot and A.I.

“The 99″ seems interesting…never heard of it before.

I do wonder if the trailer is different for other parts of the world they are releasing it in. Replaying it, there is actually a 1/2 second showing of the Mosque in Mecca. Maybe they destroy it during the movie also? I haven’t seen it yet. I’m pretty sure it will be showing the “hegemony of the west®” as this is the same movie which has humanity escaping from earth on giant colony space-ships. There’s even a website where you can pick up a ticket to escape on them…

http://www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/

Speaking of movies about escaping from a destroyed earth on a colony ship… Seen Pandorum? I thought it was pretty good but apparently the movie lost 30 million.

I think the producers most definitely do want as many people in as many countries as possible to see the film to get the best return on their investment. I’m equally sure that if they blew up a mosque, not many Islamic people would want to see it or be too happy, and it would probably end up with a million fatwas being placed on their heads. Though it would certainly generate them much media controversy and free promotion. Must have been a hard decision for them to make. Kidding. Have you ever heard of the comic ‘the 99′?

Kuwait psychologist devised the idea to create Islamic superhereos for Islamic children so they could have heros other than suicide bombers.
Allah apparently only has 99 powers so each of the heros is based on one of these. They aren’t all male heros, some are female, and they are from all different countries. The comic is put together in New York. The editing is very strict, they have to be so careful with every little thing so as to avoid offence. Female characters in western comics are typically drawn overly curvaceous and sexualised, but in ‘the 99′, even the curve of a character’s back has to be monitered to make sure it’s not too titillating.

I believe the creator still might have a few fatwas on his head. He is basically trying to influence young people away from extreme fundamentalism (aka death wish religion) and towards normal, civilised human qualities. There is also a theme park in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia based on the comic.

I don’t think it’s a stupid idea for Hollywood to be careful but my point was that regardless of their motivation for not blowing up a mosque, this is still a movie in which the hegemony of the West is promoted even if western symbols are seen to be destroyed in it.

I think you could make a comparison between the Danish cartoon incident(s) and the publishing of works which mock Christianity. The biggest outrage I can think of was the Monty Python movie “The Life of Brian”. I don’t remember hearing about death threats or bounties being placed on their heads. The movie was banned in some states, many boycotted it…but no one was kidnapped or killed over it (to my knowledge at least).

Female: I’m sure they could have blown up a mosque. There are quite a few of them and they are certainly art, even if not considered so by all who visit them. You may be right, they might not have intended for the world outside of the West to watch the movie. It may just be an attempt to show people what the producers believe will sell. There are certainly a lot of folks who use their platforms in movies to mock Christians only here in the states though. Who knows?