News items of the day: Tobey's Out, Vatican vs. Avatar

Today's top stories come from film, fantasy, and comics.

The in the world of comics no hero is as popular as Spiderman. In the world of comic adaptations Spiderman movies are close to the top. The last three movies have had Tobey Maguire heading the cast with Sam Raimi heading the crew. Well the actor and director have been given the boot in favor of a retooling of the iconic franchise. After months of rumors and stories about behind the scenes disagreements and struggles Sony Picture opted for a new s

pin for the web-slinger. Slated to come out in summer 2012 the new take on the series will focus on Peter Parker's struggles as Spiderman in high school. In my opinion they've went this root because the 34-year-old Maguire was getti

ng a bit old for the role as well as the success of the animated series, The Spectacular Spiderman. Its no surprise that this came out and its about time, I mean they could wait until 2099 to retool this franchise. (Oh! Pun.)

The other big news come from the Vatican. The media outlet from the spiritual leading capital criticized Avatar it for its "spiritualism linked to the worship of nature." So this isn't the first time the Vatican has criticized something for its opposition to the Christian fate, though this was by no means an attack by James Cameron. What came as a surprise was that wasn't the Vatican's biggest problem with the currently second top grossing film ever. They insulted Cameron's plot as "bland" and "unoriginal". Finally, me and the Vatican agreeing on something. While Avatar is visually stunning and ground breaking their isn't much substance. Now I'm not saying I didn't love it, I did, but the point of the matter is this film's hype is a bit too much for my likings. These comments will unlikely damage Avatar's box office success and even if it does, at this point it doesn't matter.