Thor (2011) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"] Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

These days have to be a pretty exciting time for Marvel... I mean with the mega success of, The Avengers (2012), and their equally successful individual movies based on the Heroes that make up, 'The Avengers'... And with the slow resurrection of the series that helped Marvel really catapult in to the world of movies permanently... You just have to be impressed!

Now before I go on I should be honest and say that growing up I was a comic book fan... But the truth is, is if I had to choose between, 'The Avengers' or, 'The X-Men', I would have to say that, 'The X-Men' were always my favorite... But I will say that, 'The Avengers' were always pretty bad ass as well, (with, 'Thor' and, 'The Hulk' being 2 of my favorite characters...)

And that is why I was surprised the first time I saw, Thor (2011)... I don't know, I mean maybe it was because the movie took a decidedly different turn then the comic, I'm not really sure, but for whatever reason I just have to admit that I was very... 'meh', about the whole thing, that was until I saw the movie for the second time!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] 'Thor' (Chris Hemsworth) with his father, 'Odin' (Anthony Hopkins) in, 'Asgard'![/caption]

You see this movie, which was written by: Ashley Edward Miller (X-Men: First Class),  Zack Stentz (Agent Cody Banks), Don Payne (Thor: The Dark World) & Directed by: Kenneth Brannaugh (Hamlet), Joss Whedon (Angel). Starring: Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers), Natalie Portman (Star Wars: - Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace), Tom Hiddleston (Crimson Peak), Anthony Hopkins (Silence Of The Lambs), Stellan Skarsgård (The Glass House), Kat Dennings (Day One), Clark Gregg (Marvel's: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Colm Feore (The Chronicles Of Riddick) & Idris Elba (Prometheus), tells the story of how a young and some what arrogant, 'Thor' (Chris Hemsworth), ends up going on a quest to the, 'Frost Giant' planet of, 'Jotunheim' after the Frost Giants attempt to breach, 'Asgard' and steal back the, 'Casket Of Ancient Winters' (an artifact of great power and importance to the Frost Giants...)

Well after the massive defeat that Thor and his soldiers suffered there, Thor and his soldiers end up going back to Asgard only after, 'Odin' comes to their rescue... Because of this, Odin ends up banishing Thor out of Asgard and down to Earth along with his hammer... (But powerless.) While he is there of course, he is seriously out of place... That is until he meets, 'Jane Foster' (Natalie Portman), and her research staff... And starts to learn how to fit in...

[caption id="attachment_2012" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Thor as he is trying to get his hammer away from the, 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' agents that are studying it![/caption]

During this time though, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) decides to seize the throne of, 'Asgard' when Odin goes in to his sleep, and when he learns that he is actually the son of the King of the Frost Giants and not Odin's son, Loki adopts a plan that will not only destroy his true home world, but would also destroy the brother he was so envious of, and hopefully gain the love and affection that he always wanted from, 'Odin'.

I mentioned earlier that this movie for me was better the second time, well the truth is, is if you are like me, then you like special effects movies, but are not a fan of movies that are just butchered with to much CGI.  The truth is, is when I first saw this movie I couldn't see past that, but when I saw this for the second time, I found that in truth that this movie truly was a fun one, and well worth it, and in all honesty I guess really my main critique on this movie is just how much they changed the story between the movie and the comics!

In the end though, if you haven't already checked this movie out yet, then I would say, 'give it a try', you may end up having a better experience then I did the first and the second time!

http://youtu.be/JOddp-nlNvQ

Prometheus (2012) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignright" width="353"] Official Score = 2 Devils[/caption]

In history there has been few confirmed confusingly created movies… A couple of examples of this are as follows:

For many years there had been different attempts to create a great crossover movie between Jason Voorhees (of the, ‘Friday The 13th’ franchise fame) and Freddy Krueger (of the, ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ franchise fame), but it wasn't until New Line released, Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) that we saw the first and only studio sanctioned crossover of two of Hollywood’s greatest villains! (There has been some loose attempts to create Ash from, ‘The Evil Dead’ series as a crossover with both, ‘Jason’ & ‘Michael Myers’, as well as Leatherface mixing it up with some of these guys in print (as a matter of fact I have heard of a script that had been created to have Ash going to war against Jason, but nothing ever came to fruition on that.)

Another great example of this would be Indiana Jones part 4… Before George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws) came out with, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008), there had been many different but unfortunately failed attempts since, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, came out in 1989.

And the next example I have for you is the movie, Prometheus (2012). Now before I go in to this movie let me give you a little background on the series as whole…

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Some of the crew of the, 'Prometheus' as they are investigating the history of humanity on one of the Aliens planets![/caption]

Prometheus is a prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece, ‘Alien’. Now this movie (obviously of course with Ghostbusters as well) helped to catapult Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters) in to legendary status in the horror community (what with having done the first 4 Alien movies (as well as all of the currently released Ghostbuster movies…)

Then oddly enough, the producers or whomever decided to take the series in a whole different direction and had the movie more centralized around the Xenomorphs (the aliens from the, ‘Alien’ movie series) and the Predators from the movie, ‘Predator’ movie series and the war that they seemed to wage against each other in the, ‘Alien Vs. Predator’ movie series!

Fortunately though we were given the opportunity to go back to the classic original series (how the original series connects with the Alien Vs. Predator series… I don’t know, but some times you just have to take the good with the bad and admit that the Alien series is as good now as it was when it was first released over 30 years ago!

As for Prometheus though… This movie (which brought Ridley Scott back to the movie series) and which starred Noomi Rapace (The Girl With Dragon Tattoo), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), Logan Marshall-Green (Devil), Charlize Theron (Monster), Idris Elba (Janek), Guy Pierce (L.A. Confidential), does bring us back to the classic original series… But instead of starting where the original left off, Prometheus, attempts to explain how the story of how the, ‘Xenomorphs’ and humanity actually got in to contact initially with each other…

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The expedition team as they investigate the Alien outpost![/caption]

You see this movie posits the idea that mankind had been genetically engineered by a significantly more advanced race, and when evidence of where these Aliens might be, the Scientists who make the discovery ultimately decide to utilize the aide of Peter Weyland (Pierce) the ailing founder of the eventually dreaded, ‘Company’, ‘Weyland-Yutani Corporation’ (this company would play a major role in some ways for bringing Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) and the Xenomorphs together in the first 2 Alien movies)

Anyway, ultimately once the mission is under way and the crew have made it to the planet that may help to explain humanities origins, they discover a threat that is significantly worse than they could have ever imagined when they discover not only the origins of mankind, but the origins of the Alien species that would go on to make Ripley’s life a living hell centuries later!

Now I really enjoyed this movie (this is one of my favorite movie series), but the reality, is that chronologically you would have to do away with the Alien Vs. Predator movie series for this movie to make sense. Also… This movie does give insight in to where the Xenomorphs came from (just not why the face huggers are so big, and what happened to those little worm Aliens that were so popular in the original Alien series… Also there appears to be little to no correlation as to the Companies knowledge of the first mission (You would think with how the first mission turned out that they would have instructed the, ‘Nostromo’ crew a little better in how to capture the, ‘Xenomorph’ in Ripley’s time.

But I will admit that despite the plot holes in this movie, it is a fun one and if you are a fan of the series, then it is definitely worth owning, and if you are looking for a fun exciting Sci-fi movie to really sink your teeth in to, then this is certainly one of them!

http://youtu.be/sftuxbvGwiU