Thor:
Now this one was my second-to-least favorite of the franchise. Kenneth Branagh was an odd choice to direct an action movie, but he does a good job delivering the material to the silver screen, not as well as Ang Lee and Jon Favreu, but he does a satisfactory job. The plot is simple: Thor, played fantastically by Chris Hemsworth, is a brave, but cocky and hot-headed young demigod, the protector of Earth, and god of thunder. He is the brother of the god of mischief, Loki, played with glee by Tom Hiddleston, whom has always been jealous of Thor's popularity, being the elder son, and being the "favorite" of their father, Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins). Odin protests this theory, and proves it by banishing Thor to Earth and stripping him of his power, after re-engaging a war between Asgard (the good kingdom) and Jotunheim (the evil kingdom), home of the malevolent and eerie Ice Giants. Thor meets hot scientist Jane Foster (changed from a nurse to astrophysicist), played by Natalie Portman, and her co-workers, who must now help Thor back home, regain his power, learn to trust and help humans, and stop Loki from becoming king and destroying Jotunheim, which has hundreds of innocent civilians. The acting is satisfactory. Chris Hemsworth is new to the movie business, but not to blockbusters, as he made a cameo in Star Trek, and now stars in The Cabin in the Woods, Red Dawn, The Avengers, Snow White & The Huntsman, and Thor 2. Here is where he really shines, being able to capture Thor's ignorance, as well as his good-hearted nature, and has some bad-ass moments when he fights the Destroyer and the Ice Giants' pet monster. Natalie Portman is Jane Foster, she does okay, not the role for her, they obviously chose her because she's pretty eye candy. Her comrades are okay. One is a scientist played by Stellan Skarsgard, who does a good job. The other is Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, an annoying-as-hell character, who you want to see burnt down by the Destroyer, or crushed by Thor's hammer Mjolnir. Tom Hiddleston (War Horse) plays the tormented Loki. He is more sympathetic than in the comic series, as he is revealed to be a former Ice Giant, taken in by Odin after the defeat of the evil Ice Giants. This adds to his hate of Thor, and distrust of his father, and causes him to go insane with power once Odin falls into a coma (Odinsleep). Idris Elba does a good job as Heimdall, warrior and defender of the Bifrost, a means of teleportation from Asgard to other worlds. Colm Feore is menacing as Laufey, the Ice Giant king, who wants revenge on Odin because of his defeat centuries before, and secret father of Loki. Jaimie Alexander does a satisfactory job as Thor's friend and fellow warrior Sif, as do Tadanobu Asano, Joshua Dallas, and Ray Stevenson as the Warriors Three. Nick Fury and Agent Coulson return for cameos. Jeremy Renner makes a brief cameo as Hawkeye (referred to as Agent Barton). The Destroyer is a well-done CGI effect, who looks like he walked out of the Thor comics, as do Thor and Loki's costumes, and several other creatures and characters. That leads us to the special effects, which range from great to standard. The action in the film is well-done, but the film feels more like a comedic fish-out-of-water story than an action/comic book movie. Some jokes work, a lot don't. The film has uneven pacing, and the final action scene on Earth is a total let-down. You want to see The Destroyer, well, destroying some large city. No, it's some no-name trailer park town in Arizona, where Destroyer just fights Thor and blows up some cars and a gas station, that's it. And Hawkeye not getting to fire a single arrow or projectile is stupid, show his skills so people get excited to see more in The Avengers. And Thor doesn't even wear his battle helmet very long, barely, (and never once is it shown in The Avengers). But, with all the action, special effects, and good characters, Thor is worth a rental. 3/5 stars.
Notes: Stan Lee and comics writer J. Michael Straczynski make cameos as redneck truck drivers. When The Destroyer arrives on Earth, Coulson makes a passing mention of Tony Stark (Iron Man), because a fellow agent mistakes Destroyer for a Stark Industries machine. The post-credits scene features Nick Fury showing Stellan Skarsgard's scientist in the depths of the SHIELD base, being invited to work on the Avengers Initiative with Fury's science division, investigating a strange cosmic cube, the "Tesseract". Loki suddenly appears to the scientist (as he does to Thor in one scene) and persuades the scientist to accept the job.
Captain America, The First Avenger:
This is my least favorite of the Avengers franchise, I can't explain why, it just wasn't as good as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk or Iron Man 2. Joe Johnston was a good choice to direct. He was a production designer and artist for Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and directed films like The Rocketeer (a comic book film set in the same time periodas this movie), The Wolfman, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Jumanji. This film's plot follows young, tiny-bodied geek Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, and his big-built best buddy Bucky Barns, played by Sebastian Stan (changed from sidekick to a Captain America equal), enlisting in the Army during WWII. Steve always gets beat up, and is rejected, but German scientist Abraham Erskine, played by Stanley Tucci (originally Dr. Reinstein in early comics) enlists him in a new super-soldier program for the military. Helped by Iron Man's father Howard Stark, an up-and-coming lab assistant (later a millionaire weapons producer), Erskine turns Rogers int the ideal soldier, Captain America. Erskine is killed by German spy Heinz Kruger, working for the menacing and creepy Johann Schmidt, played by an eerie Hugo Weaving, whom is harnessing the energy of the Tesseract (found in a Norse cave dedicated to Odin) to make super-weapons. Rogers eventually becomes a laughing stock as a showbiz performer, and promotional speaker for the army. Rogers later goes in to save Bucky from a Nazi group called Hydra (a terrorist organization), and encounters Schmidt (revealed to be a scarred figure known as "Red Skull"), and destroys their air base, gaining him fame and respect, becoming a leader in many strikes. Bucky is later killed on a dangerous mission (making his rescue pointless), and Captain America leads his squad to take down Red Skull, and stop him from destroying the world. Evans has a good role as the ordinary guy turned super soldier, and goes from sympathetic bully victim to bad-ass action hero. Hayley Atwell is good as the tough love interest Peggy Carter, a British officer. The suave, cool Howard Stark (played by Dominic Cooper) is just like his future son, and the Howling Commandos, including Dum Dum Doogan (played by Neal McDonough, a SHIELD agent in comics) are great. Stanley Tucci is satisfactory as the German scientist Erskine who is tragically killed, after bonding with Rogers, causing Rogers to feel distraught. Toby Jones is good as Red Skull's right-hand-man Arnim Zola, who realizes Red Skull is insane far too late. Tommy Lee Jones is great in as minor role as WWII general who trains the new recruits in the army. Hugo Weaving is menacing and creepy as Red Skull. This brings us to the make-up and special effects section. Although Red Skull's swastikas on his jacket are replaced with Hydra symbols in order to be able to sell an action figure, the makeup is amazing, and looks just like an illustration of the psychotic Nazi. Captain America's suit is made to look just like the comics, but more grimy and old-looking, like something from the 1940's. The special effects are great, with some scenes designed to look like a 1940's film (like a flashback to the time when Red Skull became Red Skull). The action is well done, and seems like a more traditional action film, but with some sci-fi technology thrown in. Captain America: First Avenger, despite it's sometimes mediocre acting, is worth checking out. 3/5 stars. (Editorial note, March 26, 2013: I have thought after some consideration and a few re-watchings that this film is in fact quite good, and that it is my fourth favorite out of the series, right above Incredible Hulk and Thor, right behind Iron Man 2, Iron Man, and The Avengers.)
Notes: Stan Lee makes a cameo as a general. Nick Fury appears at the end of the film to introduce Rogers to the new world, and to the Avengers.
The Avengers:
After the last two films, I was really surprised. I'm glad I saw this at the premiere show. This is like The Dark Knight, maybe better. Joss Whedon was the perfect directing choice, being a geeky fanboy, he knows what comic and movie fans want to see, and he delivers, and piles on even more than that! The plot is this: Loki as come back from the depths of space after his disappearance in Thor, and now has a powerful staff from the Chatari (Skrulls from Fantastic Four comics) army, who have sent him to retrieve the Tesseract (the new element form Iron Man 2, the cosmic cube from Thor, and Red Skull's energy cube in Captain America) and start intergalactic war. Nick Fury must reassemble the proposed team from the scrapped Avengers project. He also deals with the fact that the scientist from Thor and Hawkeye have been hypnotized by Loki to do his bidding. The Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, must retrieve Bruce Banner (The Hulk), played exquisitely by Mark Ruffalo, from India, Phil Coulson is sent to retrieve egotist Tony Stark (Iron Man) from the new Stark Tower, and Nick Fury himself confronts the frustrated and distraught Steve Rogers (Captain America), who has just been reawakened from a cryogenic sleep, to join the team. Loki soon attracts the attention of Chris Hemsworth's Thor, and with this many troubled characters and egotists together, can the group become a real team and stop the alien invasion, or will they tear each other apart? The film is driven by loads of action and drama. There are only two massive action scenes in the film, and two or three smaller ones in between. The film builds with tension and drama, and then finally has the payoff of going into a all-out action mode at the end. The 35-minute battles in Transformers are redundant, stupid, incoherent, and unoriginal with dumb and unlikeable characters. This is the opposite: original, intriguing, believable effects, lovable characters, coherent, and it feels fresh and new. Robert Downey Jr. is as funny as ever, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans are just as cool and bad-ass, with more drama as Steve is in a whole new world (no Disney pun intended) and Thor has lost his brother to evil and madness. Black Widow and Hawkeye are revealed to be close and old friends, maybe even possible love interests. Props to Johnasson and Renner, brining far more depth to their characters than in previous films. Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, and Clark Gregg are just as good as Pepper Pots, JARVIS, and Agent Coulson. Loki is now not just a sympathetic character, but a real menace and now a much more violent and threatening character, I give a lot of credit to Tom Hiddleston for really getting into the role. Nick Fury is shown to be a darker character. Cobie Smulders joins the cast as SHIELD agent Maria Hill, in a small supporting role. Mark Ruffalo is the best Bruce Banner to date, being a tortured, but sometime humorous character, topping the mediocre performances by Edward Norton and Eric Bana. Ruffalo is a close friend of Norton, and took over the Hulk role for any sequels to this film or of the Hulk franchise, as Norton could not because of disagreements with Marvel Studios. The transformation into the Hulk is delayed, but the suspense is always building, and the payoff when it happens is great. All the character interactions are brilliant, some are funny (Captain America and Iron Man), some are very frightening (Loki and Black Widow.) The soundtrack kicks ass, too. From the rousing and epic main theme by Alan Silvestri, to Soundgarden's rock single "Live to Rise" that was recorded for the credits, this soundtrack is awesome. The humor is the film is fantastic, on par with Iron Man's humor, and better than Thor's jokes. The jokes are hilarious, and come one after another. This and 21 Jump Street are the most times I've laughed in a theater in a while. The action in the film is fantastic, with awesome special effects and new costumes and looks (a new Iron Man suit, a new Steve Rogers costume, and the new look of the Hulk), and it's fast-paced, exciting, and spread out evenly throughout the film. If you want to see an even more in-depth look at the film, see Mathew Buck's "Projector" review on Blip-TV and That Guy with the Glasses.com. I've seen this film twice already, and I haven't had a cinema experience since The Dark Knight where I've wanted to see a film twice. I give Marvel's The Avengers a 5/5 stars. See this movie, it's fucking awesome!! (Review the entire film series first, as the film picks up with the characters already established).
Notes: Stan Lee makes a cameo near the end on a news report. Avi Arad makes a cameo as a German man who stands up to Loki early on in the film.
There are two post-credits scenes. (SPOILERS ahead) The first (after the first half of the credits), it shows the leader of the Skrull forces (voiced by Whedon collaborator Alexis Denisof) bowing to an unseen master, asking for forgiveness in his failure, as Earth fought back valiantly. He says challenging the Avengers again will "court death". The master turns to the screen, revealing himself to be unstoppable galactic supervillain Thanos. I just turned to my big brother and said "That's going to be fucking awesome." I realized it was 3 years to the next film and then said "Fuck it, it's worth the wait to see the Avengers go against the Skrull forces AND Thanos." The one after all the credits I will not spoil, cause I'll ruin a funny joke from the end fight.
This summer, I'll be review superhero films, shows, and all the films I see. So get ready. It's a Superhero (and everything else) Summer.
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