Thor (2011)

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Colme Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comic

Rating: B+

Many years ago a bitter war was fought between the Frost Giants of Jotunheim and the warriors of Asgard, over the future of the nine realms which the Asgardians protect.  Now, in the present, the king of Asgard, Odin (Hopkins), is preparing to adbicate his throne in favour of his son, Thor (Hemsworth).  Before he can do so, however, Frost Giants attack Asgard in order to retrieve the Casket of Ancient Winters, the source of their power, from the Asgardians.  In retaliation, Thor decides to lead an attack on the Frost Giants, accompanied by his brother Loki (Hiddleston), their childhood friend Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and the Warriors Three, Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Joshua Dallas), and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano).  The battle destroys the truce between the two races, and Odin must interfere in order to save the Asgardians.  As punishment, he strips Thor of his powers and exiles him to Earth, although he sends Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, as well, so that if and when Thor is worthy he can pick it up.  On Earth, Thor is found by astrophysicist Jane Foster (Portman), her assistant Darcy Lewis (Dennings), and mentor Dr. Erik Selvig (Skarsgård).  His hammer, however, is found by the local populace, and eventually attracts the attention of S.H.E.I.L.D.  Thor must find his hammer and return to Asgard, before the Frost Giants can take over.

This was a fun movie, as all the Marvel Cinemetic Universe films tend to be.  Thor is, in my opinion, absolutely amazing and clearly worthy of a standalone series - which is something that Marvel seems to struggle in distinguishing at times.  A lot of the Avengers are great, and most of them deserve their own opportunity to shine in the sun, but some don't.  Going into this film, I wasn't really sure about whether I thought Thor was one of those shining characters or not and I really questioned just how he fit into the greater scheme of the universe already established by characters like Iron Man and The Hulk.  In the end, however, I think he really fit well and did a great job of adding to the feel of this series.

The other thing that really worked was Loki.  The two most important characters in this film are the brothers (no offense to love interest Natalie Portman), and they really mesh well.  They both go through transitions in this film and I love how you see where they come from and where they end up.  Part of me would have liked a bit more back story to Loki - it feels almost like he starts this film a few steps ahead of the rest of us, and we're all left trying to catch up (although, Thor does take very big steps).  As for the Thor/Jane relationship... I love how it kind of sneaks up on both of them, even if the audience is completely expecting it the entire time.  Thor has to change in order to be the man for Jane, and it is this change that makes him the man that he needs to be in order to be the god that his father wants him to be.  I'm really looking forward to how this relationship continues to develop in later films - I was actually rather disappointed that she didn't make an appearance in The Avengers, but I do see how it could have potentially taken away from that film.  Either way, I really enjoyed this movie.

The Avengers (2012)

Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Joss Whedon

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comic

Rating: A

The Avengers was awesome.  So far, it’s definitely the best movie that I’ve seen of 2012, and I’ve seen more than a few.  The action was stellar, the special effects great, the comedy subtly genius.  The basic idea of this film was nicely set up in the previous Marvel movies (the Iron Mans, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulks), with the introduction of both many of the characters and the elements that were at play.  My one problem with this movie was that there were still a lot of names that I didn’t really pick up on, because they weren’t really said often enough.  Without doing an internet search I would be unable to tell you the superhero alter ego of Renner’s character.

The premise of the movie is a bit complicated.  Asgardian Loki (Hiddleston) has made a deal with an alien race; in exchange for retrieving the Tesseract he will receive an army that he can use to conquer Earth.  Using his scepter Loki manages to enslave Dr. Erik Slevig (Skarsgård), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Renner), and several other S.H.E.I.L.D. agents, while also stealing the Tesseract and blowing up S.H.E.I.L.D.’s remote research facility.  S.H.E.I.L.D. director Nick Fury (Jackson) reactivates the “Avengers Initiative” and calls in Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk (Ruffalo), and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson).  In the pursuit of Loki they are also joined by Thor (Hemsworth), Loki’s brother and the god of thunder.  The group don’t exactly work well together and are as likely to fight each other as Loki and with the exception of Romanoff none entirely trusts Fury, suspecting him of withholding the entire story.  It is up to the group of them to come together for the greater good, stop Loki, and save the planet.

The best part of a movie like this is the action, and The Avengers doesn’t fail to meet expectations.  It’s an action packed movie, and despite the league of some of the characters none of the fights are one sided.  There’s no moment when the bad guys line up and wait to be slaughtered one-by-one by the good guys, nor does the fact that Thor and Loki are gods make the outcome of a fight rather obvious.  Even the very human Phil Coulson (Gregg) gets a few good shots in.  The space bits were a bit over the top and I have to admit that the alien invasion kind of reminded me of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. 

The second best part of this movie was the cast.  Downey, as always, is stellar as Tony Stark.  I don’t think he was as funny as he was in the Iron Man films, and I would have enjoyed a little more between him and Pepper Potts, although his interactions with Jarvis did make up for it a bit.  Seeing him squaring off with Captain America, Loki, and Thor really gave us an idea of just how powerful Iron Man is, and for the first time he seemed to really be up against an opponent who is his match.  I liked Captain America more in this film than I did in Captain America, although I do hope that by the next movie he’s gotten an upgrade on his uniform.  I think I liked Thor more in Thor, although part of that is because he’s quieter and more stoic than the other Avengers and thus fades a bit when in a larger group.  Hiddleston makes an amazing villain; I spent part of the movie hoping for his sake that he doesn’t look as creepy in real life as he does when he’s playing Loki.  His timing was amazing, I just wish that he hadn’t been wearing that horrible horned helmet for so much of the film.  I enjoyed both Johansson and Renner’s characters, and I liked that the Black Widow was utilized more – I’d like to see standalone films for them in the future.  I’d also love to see a standalone film for Nick Fury.  Smulders character left me wanting more – it was nicely acted, I just found myself questioning who she was every time she appeared on screen (did they even mention her by name?).  I didn’t really care for Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, although he’s not my least favourite Bruce Banner.  When Stark asks Banner if he smokes pot I was waiting for him to say yes.  Ruffalo, however, had the distinction of playing two very different characters, and while his Banner was lacking his Hulk was amazing – easily the best part of this movie.  It says a lot about an actor when he manages to make the Hulk funny.