THOR ‘WORLD PREMIERE’ TO BE HELD IN SYDNEY

The cast of “Thor”, many of whom we spoke to at last year’s Comic Con in San Diego, are headed to that analogous other realm, Australia. Paramount have announced that those in the cast that aren’t carrying child will be attending the World Premiere of the film in Sydney on April 17. Hopefully a couple of us will get to Sydney for some, um, Hammer Time.

THOR ‘WORLD PREMIERE’ TO BE HELD IN SYDNEY

ON SUNDAY APRIL 17

CHRIS HEMSWORTH AND DIRECTOR KENNETH BRANAGH

TO WALK THE RED CARPET

The World Premiere of the highly anticipated Marvel Studios film THOR will take place on Sunday April 17 at Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney. Walking the red carpet will be the film’s director Kenneth Branagh and Australian Chris Hemsworth in the title role of Thor, ‘The God of Thunder’ as well as Kat Dennings who stars as Darcy, Tom Hiddleston in the role of Thor’s brother Loki and Jaimie Alexander who plays Sif. The World Premiere will kick off a two-day promotional tour covering Sydney and Chris’ hometown of Melbourne.
Australian audiences will be the first in the world to experience THOR, four days after the World Premiere when it opens in cinemas on April 21.

THOR SYNOPSIS
An epic adventure spanning the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard, about a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. The warrior, Thor, is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans where he learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of the world, Loki, sends Asgard’s darkest forces to invade the Earth.
THOR opens in Australian cinemas on April 21 in 3D.

HTC Arrive Full Review

       

HTC Arrive

Review Summary:

If you're looking for a great voice phone with a good gaming and entertainment experience, the HTC Arrive deserves a look.

Pros

• Comfortable size
• Excellent display
• Responsive performance
• Very good voice quality

Cons

• Keyboard may not be right for some
• Disappointing camera
• Hit or miss navigation experience

The HTC Arrive is the first Microsoft Windows Phone 7 device offered by Sprint. This model has a 3.6-inch WVGA touchscreen display, a physical QWERTY keyboard, a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, and a 5-megapixel camera/camcorder with LED flash. 

It is currently available from Sprint for $200 with a two-year contract, or $450 without one.
BUILD & DESIGN
The HTC Arrive isn't the prettiest phone I've ever seen, but it has a certain retro, blocky sort of appeal. From the front, the Arrive doesn't have much to set it apart from most of its competitors. It's mainly black, with three buttons under the display. If you look closely, you'll see a long, narrow speaker grille at the top and bottom of the phone, surrounding the display.
The Arrive isn't the largest phone on the market since it has a 3.6-inch screen, slightly smaller when compared to some of the 4.3-inch behemoths currently available. Overall, the phone measures 4.6-inches long and 2.3-inches wide, which is a good size.
Since the Arrive has a physical QWERTY keyboard located under the screen, it is significantly thicker than a comparable touchscreen-only phone. It measures just over six tenths of an inch thick, which doesn't sound like much but is definitely noticeable when compared to the recent crop of ultra-thin mobile phones.
Even so, I found the Arrive to be very comfortable in the hand because it just fits. It is a little slippery to hold on to, since the back is mostly smooth platinum grey plastic. The top and bottom of the back side are rubberized black material that helps improve the grip and lends the Arrive some of its retro appeal.
ScreenEven though the WVGA (800 x 480) display is a little smaller than some, it's still excellent. The color reproduction is outstanding, with bright, vivid colors and true black tones. Even upon very close examination, I can't detect any pixelization, and it looks great no matter what you're doing, from surfing the web to looking at photos and videos.
The display does wash out somewhat in direct sunlight, but the screen is still visible even then, just with more muted colors. Of course it helps that all of the Windows Phone 7 menus, displays, and apps, are so vivid, with high contrast colors.
KeyboardThe physical QWERTY keyboard is located under the display; just press the top of the phone to the right to access it. You can even do it one-handed if you like, since the slider mechanism works so perfectly. You'll find that the display "pops up" into an angled position that makes it much easier to see when you're trying to compose a message.
It's hard for me to pass judgment on this keyboard. I really want to like it, since it's so large and well-illuminated for use in low-light situations. Even with practice, however, it just isn't for me.
The keys are quite spacious, and are made of a soft, rubberized material that is easy on fingertips that may be sore from too much texting. The problem is that there isn't really much definition on each key, so it's difficult to tell what key you're hitting unless you're actually looking at the keyboard.
The space bar is also either a little too short or just in a slightly awkward position, because I have to really stretch my right thumb to reach it when I'm typing out a text message.
All of this is a matter of personal preference, however, and I suspect that folks who are less dependent on physical feedback (or just have longer fingers) will like this keyboard much better than I do.
Other Buttons & ControlsThe headphone jack and power button are on the top edge of the phone, above the display. The volume button is on the left side, as is fairly standard these days, though I was disappointed by how hard it was to operate. There's nothing too distinct about it, so sometimes I turned the volume up when I was aiming for the opposite effect.
The charge/sync port is on the bottom left side, and the camera button is on the bottom right side. As I mentioned in the first-look review I did for this device, the camera button is in an absolutely terrible position. It's very hard to activate, and the awkward position caused me to drop the phone when I was trying to take a picture. Even when I'm able to keep my grip, I find that my finger really wants to slip off of the camera button, and it's very hard to hold the phone steady long enough to capture the shot.

Thor Review

Marvel's Thor (ably played by Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth) is the arrogant heir to the monarch-god Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and the proverbial big man on campus, which in this case is the floating celestial realm of Asgard. We meet Thor as he's poised to assume the throne from Odin. His brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) must remain waiting in the wings, and considering these are immortals that's a long time to play second banana.

When an incident occurs that threatens the long-standing peace between the Asgardians and their ancient foes, the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, Thor takes it upon himself -- bringing Loki and pals Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Joshua Dallas) and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) along with him -- to mete out some hammer-throwing justice on his icy enemies.


Enraged at this violation of the peace and by Thor's defiance, Odin strips his son of his power, his mighty hammer Mjolnir, and casts him out of Asgard and down to Midgard (aka Earth) to learn humility, which leaves Loki standing to gain the throne ... once Odin's out of the picture. Landing in the middle of the New Mexico desert, Thor is found by astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), her colleague Professor Andrews (Stellan Skarsgård) and her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings).

While earthbound, Thor attempts to retrieve Mjolnir from the crater it made when it landed. The area is now under the control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its agent on the scene, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg from the Iron Man films). Alas, Thor is not yet worthy to hold the hammer again. He must change if he's ever going to return to Asgard and stop Loki.

- Marvel/Paramount

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth).

Thor may be the proverbial fish out of water here, but we're thankfully spared many of the goofy things that come with that oft-tread movie territory. Thor understands Earth and humans; he's just a little out of step with our customs and tech. Judging from the taser and hospital clips that have been released, you might think the film is chock full of physical comedy, but happily they are just a few moments in an otherwise straightforward Thor tale.

Imaginative Pictures