Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

After the events of Thor and The Avengers, many worlds have been altered.  Mortals now know about the existence of gods and while a demi-god named Thor (Chris Hemsworth) pines away on Asgard for a mortal named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).  Jane is the catalyst in this sequel for accidentally unearthing a dark matter aka 'the ether' which is being pursued by the leader of the dark elves, Malekith (a scary looking Christopher Eccleston).

This put all the Nine Realms and Earth in danger as once-in-a-lifetime event that lines up all the realms together can change the universe irrevocably.  The story allows for Jane to see Asgard for the first time and meet Thor's parents, Odin (a disapproving Anthony Hopkins) and Frigga (Rene Russo).  We also see Asgard and its people suffer great losses as the kingdom is brutally attacked by the elves who want to possess the ether.

But where's foster brother Loki (a great Tom Hiddleston) in all this? He's unfortunately in a fine dungeon dig snarling at everyone and biding his time. In general, it's Loki being Loki and it's great fun.  And we're all waiting until he'll be unleashed. And the unleashing occurs as the brothers have to work together to save Asgard and the realms from Malekith's grand plans. The good and bad part of Thor is that his counterpart and sometime nemesis Loki is much more interesting than him. Tom Hiddleton as Loki has such an mischievious smirk on him, you're often rooting for him over Thor.

But I must say, there need to more moments of levity when Thor interacts with the mere mortals of this world. His interactions with Darcy (Kat Dennings) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgaard) were great, but nothing beats the shot of Thor of using the underground to get to his destination. Or quietly hanging up his hammer on the coat rack of Jane's flat.  I came thisclose to missing Thor: The Dark World in cinemas.  I'm glad I didn't because the film was a enjoyable experience. I hope I can say that about the next installment of Thor's saga too.

Directed by Alan Taylor; Screenplay by Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley; Story by Don Payne and Robert Rodat; Cinematography by Kramer Morgenthau; Editing by Dan Lebenthal and Wyatt Smith; Music by Brian Tyler

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Around the World in Posters: Before Midnight, The Bling Ring and Only God Forgives!

Check back in with Celine and Jesse in the third part of the story in Before Midnight.

Waiting for Star Trek Into Darkness? Check out the Enterprise crew plus director JJ Abrams in Empire magazine.

I'm suddenly reminded of The Rocketeer (1991) in this new IMAX poster of Iron Man 3.

Let's count down the days to Spike Lee's adaptation of Chan-wook Park's Oldboy.

Neon-sign dragon welcomes us to the world of MMA fighting in Only God Forgives.

 Stylish new poster for brand-conscious The Bling Ring.

 

It's hammer time! Chris Hemsworth returns in Thor: The Dark World.

Meet the fastest snail on the track, it's Turbo!

New Thor: The Dark World Trailer!

Debuting along with Iron Man 3 this Friday in theaters is the first ever Thor: The Dark World trailer.  After going back to his world Asgard at the end of Thor, we meet the hulky Norse God (Chris Hemsworth) once again on Earth as he is reunited with his lady love, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).  Familiar faces return (Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings) and some new ones are introduced (Christopher Eccleston's Malekith) but the one face we were looking forward to is definitely back, the fiendish Loki (Tom Hiddleston).  A Thor sequel without him would be unthinkable. Directed by Alan Taylor, the film releases this November 2013.  What do you think?

Movie Reviews Roundup

This week has been super productive for only one reason.  I managed to view all the big summer blockbusters that I missed in theaters the first time around.  With the rising cost of movie tickets and the fact that these movies sometimes have a short run in theaters, it's better to catch them at your own convenience in your "home theater".  So in short span of four days, here are my quick reviews of the summer movie fare.


X-Men: First Class - I love the stories from the X-Men universe especially the ones that feature Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender).  This current installment directed by Matthew Vaughn tells us how the two met and later went on their separate paths.  Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) aka Beast and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) aka Mystique also show up as  youngsters along with other mutants like Banshee and Havok.  The big bad in this film is Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) who singlehandedly wants to start World War III by inciting USA and Russia into war.   The moments of the film that focused on Prof. Xavier and Magneto are the whole film because the actors who play them are riveting.  I wish it could have been more on their complicated relationship while the sequences featuring the younger mutants felt a bit amateurish.

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 Captain America: The First Avenger - Decent film about an earnest hero who gets a second chance at being a part of the war effort.  The movie is an origin story how Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans) becomes Captain America along with his fight against Hitler and the Nazis but mostly with rogue ex-Nazi, Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).  Along with a good supporting cast of actors as Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), it is this summer's second introduction to next summer's big Avengers film.  It is a hardly outstanding but I think that has to do with the subject matter.  It was missing that extra spark of excitement.  But eventually serves to introduce us further into the world and universe of Avengers.

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 The Hangover Part II - The inevitable followup to Hangover which was the surprise breakout hit of summer 2009.  Here's the thing, Hangover was genuinely funny with outrageous yet hilarious situations.  This sequel tries to replicate that same magic again as the gang (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Leong and Justin Bartha) all heads to Thailand for Stu's wedding.  This time round, the characters face more outrageous scenarios to gain laughs.  And those were too few in coming.  I think this film was trying too hard, I much prefer the first film.  You could almost guess what was coming next in the film, it became that predictable.  I'm glad I didn't see this in the theaters, I'd have been disappointed to spend money on this.

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Thor - I've never been a fan of the character Thor but I admit I was intrigued by Kenneth Branagh directing this comic book film.  The result was highly enjoyable.  I had no clue about the character so the film did well to introduce me to its universe and the characters.  Anthony Hopkins as King Odin was well cast and I was quite impressed with Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hiddleston as Loki; their sibling rivalry looks to spill over to next Avengers film.  Natalie Portman doesn't have much to do except smile here.  I also didn't quite recognize Idris Elba as Heimdall, the mask he wears totally obscures his face.  Like the other films, this one too sets itself up for future sequels.  I'd be interested to see where the story goes.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes - I saved the best for last.  I'm regretting missing this film in the theaters as it would have been amazing to view.  A scientist, Will Rodman (James Franco), testing a drug as cure for Alzheimer's for his father (John Lithgow), brings home a baby chimpanzee born in the lab.  As the chimp Caesar grows, so does his intelligence as he has genetically gotten the ALZ-112 drug in his DNA.  But Caesar begins to wonder about his place in society, he yearns to be free and be normal.  After an attack on a neighbor puts Caesar in an animal facility, he gets firsthand an experience of how other simians are treated.  He then assumes his role as the leader of the apes.  This is a well enacted film in all aspects; there is never a single dull moment.  The VFX is astonishing mostly because Andy Serkis' motion capture performance of Caesar.  The animation of all the other apes is well done too, the emotion seen in the eyes is especially chilling.  I enjoyed this movie immensely and wouldn't mind seeing it again.

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Trailer Time: Super Bowl Edition

Well, the Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 but the real reason to tune in were the commercials.  In particular, lots and lots of movie trailers.  There's a long list ahead of us so let's get started.

Oh, brother, I'm trying very hard to control myself and not laugh at Chris Evans here.  It was all fine when the posters and stills were released of him as Captain America: The First Avenger.  But the effects seem really cheesy and what are they aiming for? A Hulk-like body?  Not working for me.  Let's reserve judgement until the next trailer.

Moving on, here's a character who doesn't think much of his body image.  It's Po the Panda from Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom who's back with Furious Five to "wok you".  Don't get it?  Watch the trailer.  They will wok you!

I'm sure you've wanted at some point in your life to watch a movie about cowboys or aliens. But in Jon Favreau's new film, Cowboys vs. Aliens you don't have to chose. You get both! And you don't pick Bond over Indy, you get both. Do you see where this is heading? Still no clue what the movie is about, I'm just going to watch it as two-for-one feature sci-fi meets western.



The robots are back but not Megan Fox. Although...nevermind, I'm not going to go there. It's Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. I grow weary of this title.



Here's yet another Avenger, Thor, and while he may not be as buff as Captain America (no one is!), he sure is angry a lot. And he has a big hammer. You don't want to piss him off.



More Jack Sparrow awesomeness in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, thanks to Johnny Depp. To think an entire franchise rest solely on this one character, without him, there would be no films. Prepare yourself to lots of cheeky one-liners.



This is the one for me. What I was waiting for, a J.J. Abrams film after what seems like forever, Super 8, named after the old cameras.  I swear I got goosebumps when the somewhat familiar music and "From Steven Spielberg" tagline came up. This is totally giving me a sinister E.T. vibe. I cannot wait for this film.

Finally, I saved the best for last. You won't find a more colorful trailer than this, the misadventures of Blu the macau all the way from Brazil. You had me at Rio.

Thor Trailer Debuts

I love this poster, the dominant red and the rest in strong black and white.  Perfect.  

It's finally here, the Thor trailer debuts. From director Kenneth Branagh and strong cast of Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) as Thor, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Natalie Portman, and Stellan Skarsgard, the trailer shows how Thor is banished from Asgard and has to live on Earth where he meets Jane, Portman's character. The film is due to release in May 2011 and I am really keen to see how Branagh turns this hero epic into Shakespearean saga. Come on, you know, there will be hidden metaphors in this all over.