Thor: The Dark World
Just a word of warning before you start to read this review. I'm one of the few that enjoys Thor more than any of the other Marvel Universe storylines. I know it's considered by many to not be as good as the Iron Man and Captain America films, but better than the Incredible Hulk film. Well, I've enjoyed all the Marvel Universe films, with Iron Man actually being the least interesting to me. I mean sure, Robert Downey Jr. is great in the role and all, but the films themselves just don't grab me like the others do. Steve Rogers annoys me to no end with his everprevelant nationalism and old fashioned morals (yes, I know that's part of who he is, and I like the fact that they make fun of it), and I wish they could finally settle on a person to play Bruce Banner. (Mark Ruffalo is perfect, by the way.) However, Thor has everything going right for it. The storyline is different, it's got less to do with SHIELD, it's more fantasy than action, and it's the funniest of the franchise.
I thought that the first Thor film was just about perfect. I know I'm alone in that assumption. I liked it's small scale, I liked the fact that it didn't take itself too seriously (Are you listening DC Comics?), and the casting was superb. I feel like the Asgard setting takes the franchise to another level over the other films. It makes the franchise approach the genre of sci-fi or fantasy to a larger degree than the other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which are mostly just action films with some sci-fi elements. And with this, the second Thor film, the franchise is taken even farther into the fantasy realm.
So the story here is that an ancient race that Odin's father defeated long ago, the Dark Elves, aren't as defeated as the Asgardians had hoped. The villainous Malekith awakens and searches for the old weapon that will make him invincible, the Aether, which Odin's father hid in a stone column. Well, back on Earth, Jane (Natalie Portman) is pining away over her Thor who has been gone for two years when he said he'd be right back. She discovers these portals in an abandoned building and accidentally falls through one which, wouldn't ya know it, leads to the Aether, which overtakes her body. Now when people touch her, they sort of... explode. Thor finds out about this, returns to Earth to take her to Asgard. (Daddy is none to pleased with that, as he dislikes the fact that Thor loves a mortal.) Then Malekith and his enhanced Kursed Dark Elves attack Asgard and do some friggin' serious damage. Then there's some stuff with Loki, who's in the Asgard prison after what he did in The Avengers, there's more stuff with portals, Stellen Skarsgard goes around in the nude ranting and raving and hugs people without any pants, cars suddenly become weightless... Lots of stuff, people, that would take me hours to explain.
As goofy as the plot is, the movie is very fun and easy to keep interest in. There's more time spent on Asgard in this one, which is a blessing. The CGI workers on this film have made a fantastic city that I just wanted to spend more time seeing, and they give you lots of time to do so here. The stuff on earth is kept to about 1/3 of the screen time, which is enough so that people expecting just another run of the mill action superhero film will stay happy. However, Thor's realm is Asgard, and that's where the franchise should base itself. Sure, you have to have the Earth in peril to get people interested, but you can get that in any other superhero film.
The humor is well balanced throughout the film. It never becomes too serious, which I think is what makes these Marvel films so popular. You want serious, go see a modern DC Comics film. I'm not sure that having Stellen Skarsgard's character become quite eccentric was the right way to go, as it becomes a bit cliche after a while. He basically turns into the Walter Bishop character from Fringe. Everyone else is played pretty much as they were in the first film. Loki is in this film quite a bit, obviously. It wouldn't be a Thor film without him. He's Thor's sort of brother and is the x factor for the whole franchise. He's played more sympathetically than he was in The Avengers or the last Thor film, which was refreshing. I like my villains to have feelings sometimes. They don't all have to be Michael Myers or The Joker or Green Goblin. Sometimes you need a Doc Oc or a Two-Face, villains that still have something of a sense of empathy or remorse however buried. In fact, I thought Loki was in a way a better character in this film than Thor himself was, mainly due to some character development between films, which Thor has had little of. Odin has become an even bigger jerk, however.
Overall, I thought the movie was fantastic. I can't wait to own it on blu-ray in a few months. It's up there with Pacific Rim as my favorite popcorn film of the year. I was about to give this film 6 1/2 stars out of 7, but for the scene before the end credits. Due to that scene and it's implications, I must remove a full star from my total. It was that disappointing, that bad, so much of a stupid moment it's unforgivable.
Final score: 5 1/2 out of 7
Ender's Game
The 1985 book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite books. I first read it my first year of college, which means I read it almost exactly 10 years ago now. I quickly went from that book to reading it's companion novel which came out years later, Ender's Shadow, which is the same story told from the perspective of the character Bean. In other words, it's Bean's story during the same time-frame. The book series split off into two. There's the continuing story of Ender, which is a very meditative and spiritual series after the first book (no more action folks, sorry), and then there's the story of Bean, Petra and the other former Battle School kids back on Earth under the rule of Peter Wiggin while Ender is on his spiritual journey away from the others. I recommend both series for different reasons.
I've been waiting for this movie to come out for years now. I had figured it would never get made, at least not in live action due to Ender being such a young character in the novel (he's like 8 or 9 in the novel) and the cost of the special effects. Also it wasn't your usual science fiction story. Still, I was proven wrong after the film had been in development hell for many years. I was not looking forward to it when I heard that the guy that directed the horrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine was writing the screenplay and directing. Nor did I like the fact that they were upping the age of the main character by about 8 years. However, my concerns were surprisingly unwarranted. This is a fine film with just a few small problems.
The movie has a lot going for it. It's got a great cast with Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, and Abigail Breslin among others. It didn't raise the ages of all the kids in Battle School, which was a relief. The special effects are really very good and the Battle Room came out exactly like I had imagined it. (The Battle Room is a zero gravity room with obstacles that the cadets train in.)
There's only a few things wrong with the film, and they are quite minor, even unnoticable, if you haven't read the book. First of all, the film is sadly very streamlined. The characters other than Ender have become archetypes or cliched. Graff has no redeeming qualities in the filmed version, Petra warms up to Ender straight away, and it almost feels as if the whole film takes place in a matter of days instead of years, Stilson isn't killed, there's no mention of Demosthenes or Locke (which are very much important in the sequel books of both series), and a lot of the morality themes are gone. Now this may seem like a lot, but as the film probably won't be getting a sequel due to it's mixed reception and not that great box office, it doesn't matter. This is an adventure film a moral base. Think of it as the inverse of Starship Troopers. Heck, it even has big bugs! I stand by my assessment that those that did not read the book will not notice all of the subplots that are missing, nor would they want them. For those that did read the book and wanted a great adaptation, I think you've pretty much got it. The film is interesting, great to look at, well acted, and sticks pretty darn close to the book. There aren't many, if any, plot changes here. There's simply omissions for the sake of time and pacing.
I loved this film, which is remarkable as it's an adaptation that I believed could not be done. It was amusing, fun, thought-provoking, and well adapted. I highly recommend it, even if the book's author is a homophobic evil person. (Seriously, look up the stuff he's said or done in the past twenty years. It ain't pretty. However, he's a good story-teller, and that's all that matters here. If you want to read the books, I would suggest your local library instead of giving him money through book sales, but that's just me.)
Final score: 6 out of 7
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