Can’t do anything about that – I think she’s hot.

Ewww. Just ewww.

I think the princes just don’t use magic – just like a RPG where only the magic users can practice (recall that one prince used a soothsayer to predict his route).

Lightning can be harnessed in a canister, but daggers and swords are still the preferred weaponry?

Maybe it took someone outside the wall to think of using it in that manner.

The second complaint would be casting. In full disclosure, I do not and never have liked Claire Danes.

Can’t do anything about that – I think she’s hot.

Secondly, there are rare cases in which an ensemble cast can consist of both wildy famous and completely unknown actors. Putting legends like Pfeiffer and De Niro on the screen with the random dude named Charlie Cox just causes a strange enough paradox to be distracting.

I come from the other side – I don’t care about stunt casting, I just want actors who are good for the part. Sometimes they become famous and the whole movie looks different later (I don’t think Hugh Jackman was the most famous face they could have put on Wolverine). I also think a famous actor can sometimes be too distracting, when you’re focused on them more than their character. That said, I felt that the most crucial pairing was Cox/Danes, and they had a good chemistry.

I promised to get back to De Niro and here we are. Although his character is set up to elicit some guffaws from the audience, his performance was pretty lackluster for a man who defines his generation.

He was a minor character (in the book as well), and too much of him would have sent the movie off on a tangent. I’m hoping for nice DVD extras.