‘Thor’ Review: A God Amongst Superheros?

THOR

In a summer swarmed with green alien lights, America’s own mascot, and a band of insecure mutants,  one had to wonder exactly how the loudest, most immature, and self conceited superhero of them all, Thor, would gain success at the box office. With little fan base, and probably one of the hardest superheros to bring to life, Thor needed a director who understood the balance of imagination and realism, the balance of pop and Shakespearian culture, and the balance of brute strength and subtlety; who better else to bring the ‘god of thunder’ to our world than director Kenneth Branagh?

Synopsis

Thrown out of Asgard by his father, the great and mighty Odin (Anthony Hopkins), for his immature and rash actions, our protagonist, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), must find what it takes to be a ruler. However, he is not alone in his dream to be king of Asgard; his brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), devises his own plan to take what he believes is his.  While on Earth, Thor, discovers the beauty of a world where his powers, strength, and life means nothing from what’s passed down in a children’s story. The question is will Thor find what it takes in himself to wield the power of the hammer and defend his father’s name?

The Good:

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

A lot of fans had their doubts when Australian actor, Chris Hemsworth, was cast as Thor; however, standing at 6’3′, Hemsworth proved that he not only has the pure physique, but also the acting chops to take on such a character. For those of you who think this was a simple character to portray, think otherwise. Thor has the danger of being a live cartoon because of who he is. Hemsworth discovered what actually made Thor human, and relied on that throughout the entire film.

Thor’s Character Arc

An audience falls in love with a character when there’s an arc that changes him from what he once was into the person is now. The writers of Thor handled his transition well. This is one of the reasons why I believe so many people fell in love with the God of Thunder.  Unlike, previous superhero films—Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, ect.—this film relies solely on the protagonist’s transformation.

The World of Asgard/Artistic Vision

Asgard was  more stunning than what’s shown in the trailers. From the rainbow bridge to the golden walls of the palace, the visual aspects were impressive. Branagh’s confidence to use color in a superhero film makes Thor stand out from the rest of the pack. Looking back on the days of  X-men 1, Hulk, and Spiderman, it seems as if Hollywood is learning the lesson that more color is better.

The Comedy

You can’t take Thor as seriously as Batman, and Branagh used that factor to his advantage by giving us some great comedy throughout. Most of the comedy takes place on Earth, which isn’t a problem, but unfortunately instead of trying to connect the two worlds together, it only made the transition between Earth and Asgard more obvious. Most of the great lines came from Thor, and Darcy (Kat Dennings) who is Jane Foster’s (Natlie Portman) assistant.

Stan Lee’s Cameo

Probably one of the best cameo’s he’s had to date. Enough said.

The Bad

Writing/Character Relationships

Unfortunately the film’s weakness lied in the relationships between characters; in particularly with Thor and Jane Foster( Natalie Portman). Don’t get me wrong, Portman was great as Jane, and she did best with what she was given, which wasn’t much; however, the relationship between her and Thor was like cheap toilet tissue. There was nothing to grab onto, and when there was something it was snatched away from us. We all understand that Jane wants to bone Thor, that was apparent from the squeals every time Hemsworth took of his shirt, but was there anything past looks for these two?

The 10 Minute Introduction

Exposition can be the death of any story, whether it’s a book, a play, or a film. The introduction to Thor’s world nearly shot this movie down in the first 10 minutes. For the audience to get that much back-story it should have been spread throughout instead of crammed in one spot. In fact, a lot of the back story was repeated later on in the film.

The Fight Sequences

Kenneth Branagh is a wonderful director with great vision. However, at this point in his career, and the fact that he hasn’t had much experience with action sequences, he should have handed the fighting to someone else. Yes, the use the hammer was brilliant, but that final battle between Loki and Thor should have been bigger. The camera angels were stale and boring. Most of the time we received a birds-eye-view looking down on the fight when we should have been in the fight.

The Hawkeye Cameo

This is a little complaint, but what the heck? Hawkeye’s cameo can go down in film history as the definition of what not to do with a cameo, especially when the cameo is not just an iconic weapon, but the character himself. To just have him hold his arrow and wait for a command was a waste. The audience should have been in an uproar when Hawkeye appeared, which is exactly what happened in Iron Man 2 when Captain America’s shield was spotted.

Overall: 3.5 Stars Out of 5

Thor was a great effort by Marvel and Branagh to put this character on the map. And yes, they achieved their goal: the film is a success in terms of box office numbers. Let’s just say that Thor was a great introduction to a really interesting character and a great start for next year’s Avengers.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” Review

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Directed by: Michael Apted

Screenplay by: Christoper Markus, Stephen McFeely, Michael Petroni

Score by: Harry Gregson-Williams, David Arnold

Cinematography by: Dante Spinotti

Starring: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Will Pouter, Ben Barnes

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

Running time: 113 minutes

The title should have been Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Yawn Treader. Honestly, this film suffered from the trilogy curse, like many other film franchises before it—the first movie is amazing, the second one is OK, and the third one is just a way for the Hollywood money monsters to make buck. There was no heart and almost little effort (from both the actors and the production team) put into The  Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

20th Century Fox has ruined a lot of movies for a lot of different fans—and I’m not referring to the hardcore fan boys. They don’t seem to care at all about characters, plot, and most importantly, the audience. When Disney dropped Voyage of the Dawn Treader from it’s 2010 roster after thinking that it wasn’t worth making (I’m sure that decision was based on the box office performance of Prince Caspian), 20th Century Fox decided to pick up the sinking ship and tried to bring the Narnia franchise back to life; the problem was that Fox guided The Dawn Treader right down into the deepest trenches of the ocean. Thanks, Fox.

The plot was stale and extremely slow. And even worse, the character transformations were disappointing. Transformations are suppose to make us look back and think about how much that character has changed. At the end, the only person who had changed was Eustace and even then I felt like Fox was pulling the audience’s leg a bit by having him cry. There’s nothing worse than having a character cry for the sake of making the audience feel for him. For example, in Toy Story 3, not a single character cried, and yet Pixar had the whole audience boohooing like a baby that had just taken its first breath.

The special effects were lackluster and the actors seemed to have lost interest in the franchise as well; you know when the actors loose interest, it’s probably time to pack things up and call it a day. There were a couple of awkward moments within the script that made took me out of the movie. Plus, the script wasn’t that great; the actors did the best with what they were given. The connection between Caspian (Ben Barnes) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) was hardly what it should have been; now that Edmund’s older brother, Peter, wasn’t present, I was expecting some sort of rivalry between Edmund and Caspian.

The film wasn’t all bad. I enjoyed Lucy (Georgie Henley)  and her internal struggle of trying to obtain her older sister’s beauty. Honestly, that was the best aspect of the film and I wish the script contained more of the darker struggles within each character. I also wanted more of the White Witch, but she only made two short appearances.

The action sequences were also great; there’s a point in the movie where a giant sea-snake attacks the ship, and I remember sitting up and really getting into the story at that point. The battle with the sea-snake is probably the best action sequence, second to the final battle at the end of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Narnia franchise has always felt as if it was trying to be something it wasn’t. Maybe Disney tried to have a franchise of their own that would compete with Harry Potter, who knows. But, this film was disappointing on several levels.

I’m going to give this film a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

“Salt” DVD Review

Angelina Jolie is the only actress in Hollywood who can actually get paid 20 million bucks for playing Evelyn Salt. Guess who was asked to play the role before Jolie. Tom Cruise. That’s right. The studio originally had Tom Cruise in mind and so they wrote the original script with a male as the lead role. Mr. Cruise turned down the role because of fear that Salt was too similar to his Mission Impossible character. With the snap of a finger Mr. Evan A. Salt turned into Mrs. Evelyn Salt. Personally, I’m glad he turned down the role because Ms. Jolie did one hell of a job; the plot could have used a little more work though.

Let’s start with the good—the pacing. The movie works so well because of this aspect. As the audience, screenwriter Kurt Wimmer and director Phillip Noyce makes sure that we’re following Evelyn Salt from beginning to end. I don’t think there was one instance where I knew what was going to happen next. At one point, I thought I had the entire movie figured out and then a minute later I realized I was wrong. The movie keeps you guessing from beginning to end.

The cast was strong as well. Pulling Angelina Jolie on board and transforming the role from a male to a female was a smart move by the studio. Not to mention, Tom Cruise hasn’t performed well in terms of box office numbers. Knight and Day anyone? After all the advertising the film went through, it was still a flop. After Mr. and Mrs. Smith, many people thought Angelina’s days as hot action star were done and over with. But Angelina showed that she still had power to pull people to the box office when she played Fox in the 2008 film Wanted. Mr. Liev Schreiber has come a long ways as well. We’re seeing him more nowadays in action packed movies. What I like about him is that he can play the villain and the hero.

What keeps the film from being great is the plot. We’ve seen a lot of detective movies in the past, and Salt needed to give the genre a breath of fresh air. Yes, the producers did try by casting a female lead, but the story itself is nothing new. Salt doesn’t reinvent the genre in any way and I’m not so sure if reinventing was the goal of the producers. There were a couple of questionable moments in the plot that really took me out of the story. Another problem I had with the film was the importance being placed on her husband when really his character didn’t do much for the film in the first place. I also thought the ending could’ve been handled much better. It leaves you wanting more, but not in a good way. I felt like a kid opening a Happy Meal and realizing there’s no toy inside.

Now lets get the the fun part—the action. Salt is a great action film. If you’re looking for a film that delivers the punches and the explosions then this film is for you. What I liked about the action in Salt is that it wasn’t the same old boring stuff; it was new, fun, and dangerous.

Will I see Salt 2 if it goes into production? Yeah, I will, but I’m only seeing it once. I’m giving the movie 3.5 stars out of 5. Go check it out.

‘Black Swan’ Takes Off!

Visually beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, “Black Swan” is probably one of the best movies of the year. Academy Award-nominee and director, Darren Aronofsky, and Oscar Award-winning actress, Natalie Portman team up to create a visual masterpiece which tells the story of a ballerina whose goal is to reach perfection, but perfection by whose standards? “Black Swan” seeks to answer at what point does perfection turn into a obsession?