Theatrical Review: Thor- Love and Thunder

Date: Saturday, July 9 2022
Time: 1:45pm (movie began after 20 minutes of trailers)
Party: 3 (my mom, aunt and myself)

Director: Taika Waititi
Writers: Taika Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Composer: Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad

Cast:
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Dr. Jane Foster- Natalie Portman
Valkyrie- Tessa Thompson
Gorr the God Butcher- Christian Bale
Narrator/Korg- Taika Waititi
Zeus- Russell Crowe
Plus some cameos from the Guardians of the Galaxy and other former Thor franchise cast members

Review:

Note- some mild spoilers for all Thor films

Overall, the Thor franchise has been an interesting one. It started like a period piece that suddenly crossed paths with the modern world. The second film was a little more of the same plus “meeting” an infinity stone.

Then with the third one, things got a little strange. Someone at marvel had an epiphany that Thor didn’t have a distinct identity or personality and something needs to be done to fix that.

Personally I didn’t have a problem with the previous installments and really don’t know why anything needed to be “fixed.”

But Ragnarok gave Thor a self deprecating sense of humor, added Valkyrie as a cool badass female character and… not only destroyed Thor’s hammer but also his home. (For anyone who knows Norse mythology, that’s not a huge spoiler- ragnarok translates to destruction)

"Thor: Love and Thunder" builds on the previous film but also took a page from the guardians of the galaxy playbook— they added a killer soundtrack.

Fair warning, though- There’s at least 3 Guns N’ Roses songs so if that’s not your thing, hunker down.

Considering how often they’ve played the “sweet child o mine” trailers, I kept thinking how that better have been in the movie somewhere. It may be my favorite song of theirs, but with all the trailers, I was getting kinda sick of it flying in and out of my brain. (And yes, it was featured in the movie as well as the end credits)

Hopefully Axl rose, slash and the rest of the band received proper compensation for their work.

The only other song that sticks out in my memory was “our last summer” by abba. It was during a over-cheesy montage and I’ll never think of that mamma Mia track the same way again, haha

(And of course just thinking about this scene makes the song wanna run laps through my head for the next several minutes)

In case anyone’s curious, the guardians of the galaxy only have maybe 10 minutes of screen time in the entire movie… we appreciate the thought but a lot of us, including my aunt, were left wanting a lot more.

And their movie isn’t due for release until next may. Mega tease!

There’s a bunch of other cameos of characters from previous Thor films… very short lived cameos, but I appreciated their inclusion all the same

An interesting new approach they took for the movie- adding narration and flashbacks courtesy of Taki wait (also the film’s director and co-writer)

The movie also starts with the villain’s origin story and inspires some thought-provoking discussion on how the gods relate to their followers… his experience is so harrowing that you really can’t blame him for taking on the mission of destroying the gods. Possibly one of the most sympathetic villains in the history of cinema, except for maybe one thing…

His powers introduce a horror element into the marvel franchise… a little too creepy for me in some places but plenty of kudos to the visual effects people for bringing that to life.

We finally catch up with Dr. Jane Foster after years of absence… my memory of the previous sequels are so bad, I don’t remember the two of them even breaking up. The flashbacks explain them well enough but I’m also not sure if they rewrote that part of the story just so it fit into the odd humor this movie has.

We also learn that she’s very sick but doesn’t want to tell people. This is another good conversation this movie brings up. As soon as you tell anyone you’re dealing with whatever, they treat you differently. Either they feel sorry for you or trip over themselves to compensate for you… either way, the interactions you have with them aren’t what they used to be. Another regular topic of discussion- perseverance is an important quality to have but when does it get to a point when it’s better to rest? Because if we don’t allow ourselves a break every now and then, our bodies will make that decision for us and the timing won’t be convenient.

How Jane and Thor ultimately reunite- she read up on his hammer and supposedly it has medicinal properties. So she goes to New Asgard (part seafolk village, part tourist attraction- complete with its own reenactment cast… some great cameos here) to find the hammer. It’s now in shards on display in the village but something insane happens. It comes back together and bestows the power of Thor to her.

However, as Valkyrie later explains, Jane may have the powers but some of the other hero stuff needs a little work. Notably- her slight obsession with figuring the perfect heroic catchphrase.

The two of them plus Valkyrie and Taki from the 3rd film run into the villain at new Asgard and put up good resistance. But when he leaves, he takes the children of the village with him and it’s up to the trio to get them back.

At one point they meet Zeus and try to recruit him to help take down the villain. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

What wasn’t expected- how over the top Russell Crowe portrays him. All I’ll say- hang back and enjoy the show.

Despite the seriousness of the situation at hand, there’s plenty of laughs to be had along the way. In addition to the tension between Thor and Jane, there’s also the “love triangle” between Thor and his weapons. The hammer still works really well and the fact it’s in pieces actually becomes an advantage in battle. But every now and then, when Thor longs for the good old days with the hammer, the camera zooms in on his axe and he tries to dispel any jealousy.

Also- there’s the little matter of the screaming goats… if there’s any gag people are going to take away from this movie, that’s the most likely candidate.

Another topic of curiosity I had to draw some attention to…. not to sound like an old codger or anything but “back in my day,” shit used to be a bad word. Granted, there are far worse 4 letter words out there that should never be used in civilized conversation and this movie was getting a PG13 rating anyway. But I couldn’t help but notice the liberal use of that word in this movie in particular. I wasn’t counting but it was at least a dozen times. If memory serves, one of those instances was from a kid. On the one hand, I’m like “what’s the world coming to?” But on the other, the recurring line (first introduced by Chris Pratt) about how it’s better to “feel shitty” about someone than nothing at all… that rhetoric is too perfect to argue with.

Outside the theater there was a sign alerting people with light sensitivity about some trigger points in this movie… I’m not sure exactly what they’re talking about unless it was referring to the rainbow bridge Thor’s vessel used to travel.

This movie was made to see on the big screen- but I think maybe we were just a little too close. Huge kudos to the cashiers for suggesting seating arrangements that allowed the three of us could sit together. However I wound up with a little bit of a headache after seeing the movie and I think the visual effects plus the fact we were in the back row of the first section of seats might have contributed to that.

So maybe choose seats a bit further away from the screen if you have that option.

Whether this is the best Thor movie ever… I can’t say for sure. I’d probably have to binge all of them to know for sure. But considering I haven’t seen a marvel movie in theaters since endgame, this particular movie was worth coming out to see.

We have Shang-Chi and the ten rings and Black Widow on dvd so I haven’t been completely out of the loop… there’s just been this weird void in my chest since “I am Iron-Man” was last spoken. Seeing his image briefly in the marvel logo at the start of this movie- not gonna lie- I almost choked up.

This particular section of the marvel universe has been the perfect cross section of eye candy, mythology and sci-fi… I don’t think I realized how much I needed it to get back into the swing of things, especially with how the last 2 years have been.

Grade: A

Trailers (a lot of repeat offenders...):

• Nope- Jordan peele movie
• Paws of fury- this trailer actually showed who did what voice
• Super pets
• Strange world
• Avatar

New trailers

• Bullet train- some movie with Brad Pitt being an agent and someone involved in one of his previous jobs comes back for revenge
• Amsterdam- the new David O Russell movie starring Margot Robbie and Christian Bale... looked really interesting

34. Black Swan (2010)

Code-name: Psycho-Lebanese
("Lebanese" is a "Glee" reference, by the way, Google it!)

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Choreography: Benjamin Millepied
Type: coming-of-age, R-rated sexy thriller

Cast:
Nina- Natalie Portman
Lily- Mila Kunis
Thomas Leroy-Vincent Cassel
Nina's mother- Barbara Hershey
Beth McIntyre- Winona Ryder
The Prince- David Millepied

Notable Awards and Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Actress- Natalie Portman
nomination-OSCAR-Best Picture
nomination- OSCAR- Best Director- Darren Aronofsky
nomination- OSCAR- Best Cinematography
nomination- OSCAR- Best Film Editing
Golden Globe- Best Actress (Drama)- Natalie Portman
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Picture- Drama
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Director- Darren Aronofsky
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Supporting Actress- Mila Kunis
AFI- Movie of the Year
nomination- Grammy- Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Write-up:

September 2011

The last Saturday of that month was when "Black Swan" came to HBO.
In more ways than one, one of the most stimulating and intriguing cinematic experiences I've ever had.

It got a lot of hype the previous awards season, but a lot of it was for... some could say... the wrong reasons. It wasn't released in a lot of theaters, but I'm willing to bet a lot of guys flocked (no pun intended, I promise) to theaters just to see Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in that racy lesbian sex scene.

My dad saw it in-flight and when he told us about it, there was an air of caution in his tone.
Words like "paranoia" and "lesbianism" came up.
Even before he gave his thoughts, I had wanted to see this movie for a couple reasons. One of them being that it looked really beautiful and stunning from a visual standpoint. Mila Kunis is a “That 70′s show” alum and I was definitely curious to see how she’d do in a big movie role like this, something REALLY challenging. Then of course the lesbianism was an intriguing idea on its own.

...I'll go into it in more detail, obviously, but it was an exhilarating, intense, artsy film that I got really invested in. It wowed me with all that it brings to the table.
I added that it was a "coming of age" story because an underlying theme was Natalie Portman's character maturing from a naïve girl into a woman. And as someone with zero sexual experience, I felt like it was one of those movies I saw when I was 25 that accumulated my mind to the subject. To the point where the occasional sex scene doesn't make me squirm quite as much, so long as it's brief and is important to the plot.  

Again, that's another entry on its own, addressing that, but let's just say I came across a few movies afterwards where sex was nauseatingly overused.
One happened to be a Robert Pattinson movie where it was kinda disappointing that he didn't die at the end... his philandering character had zero redeemable qualities.

But, anyway, back to business.

The Premise and its Players

Before getting too far ahead of myself, I want to give props to the real ballerina on set, Sarah Lane. She reportedly got very upset that she wasn't given enough credit for her performance as Natalie Portman's dance double.
Whatever you brought to the set, Sarah, it was AWESOME.

***

Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, an aspiring ballet who had been part of this company for several years. The director/choreography of the studio Thomas (played by the very handsome Vincent Cassel) announces that the next production will be a reimagining of “Swan Lake.” 

I knew very little about this show going into this other than the signature Tchaikovsky score.
But after hearing the story, it sounded vaguely like "Swan Princess."
One of my favorite animated movies as a kid... I haven't seen it in years.

In that version, Princess Odette and her Prince were betrothed since they were kids. Back then, they hated each other. But when they grew up, they fell in love. Until a sorcerer abducts her and casts a spell on her where she can only resume her human form at night when she's on the lake with the full moon overhead.
The dramatic climax does borrow from the plot of "Swan Lake" where the sorcerer's assistant disguises herself as Odette and has the Prince swear a vow of undying love, the only thing able to break the spell. Because of this, she almost dies.
Obviously the kid's version of this story because there is a happy ending for her and the Prince.

In the actual show, Princess Odette is turned into a swan and only love can break the spell. She gets the Prince to fall in love with her, but her evil twin, The Black Swan, seduces the Prince away from her.
Thomas's reimagining has two distant differences:
1) the show ends with Princess Odette's suicide, jumping over a cliff into a field of sharp, pointy rocks
2) he wants the same girl to play the innocent Princess Odette AND her evil seductive twin.

The role is made available to Nina because the star of the company is getting on in years and gets fired because it's time for someone younger to take over. Beth is played by Winona Ryder, whom I didn’t even recognize (a lot of people said the same thing). After being forced into retirement, Beth has a breakdown and runs into ongoing traffic.
Nina visits her in the hospital twice. Both occasions are pretty dramatic, one way the price of perfection is demonstrated in the film overall.

Thomas knows of her skill, but doesn't believe Nina carries the air of seduction needed for the Black Swan. To show her what she lacks, he points out another ballerina, Lily (Mila Kunis) who exudes the sexuality he desires for this role.

As a result, a rivalry ensues, all of which are mind games brought on by Thomas for pitting them against each other and Nina's increasingly addled mental state.
One detail I distinctly remembered about the filming was director Darren Aronofsky kept Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis separate when they weren't shooting to help create the needed tension between their characters. Supposedly, that also included threatening text messages sent to them from each other.
I thought the gist of the movie was that Mila Kunis was a lesbian because it would explain the sex scene all of this was building up to. Just the way that they exchanged dialogue, that's how it came off to me. Or maybe that was the story I wanted to see come out of this. The tension between them, sexual or not, was so on-point that I came more invested as time went on.

I was also blinded by Vincent Cassel because I found him so attractive. I failed to see that his methods were on the sadistic side, having sex with the ballerinas in the company to free their minds for better dancing.
The assignment he gives Nina to free the sexual disposition of the Black Swan:
"When you go home, touch yourself."

So yeah, not the greatest movie to watch in mixed company.
The third time she attempts to follow through with this winds up being the lesbian sex scene.
The first two times, she stops short of an orgasm because she discovers her overprotective mother asleep in the chair by her bed and she has a mental episode in the bathtub.

Which brings me to the one R-rated aspect of this movie I really didn't like...
Nina had all kinds of hallucinations throughout the film. My least favorite was when she peeled a lot of skin back on her fingers after clipping her nails too short and there was a lot of blood. I'm not quite one of those people that faints at the sight of blood, but it does make me cringe. The same thing goes for needles (all thanks to the stuff I went previous to and after my scoliosis surgery). I just thought it was overkill, honestly, her bleeding from random appendages.

Other hallucinations include a growing rash (that she oddly never scratches) and feathers coming out of her skin randomly. Also seeing Lily in random places and her reflection taking on a life of its own.
That stuff, I thought, made for a pretty good horror movie/suspense thriller. I'm not the biggest fan of the horror genre, but "Black Swan" had a lot of the same ingredients and made them work in a way that was very compelling.

The sex scene come about after a night of partying out on the town, something Nina never does with her sheltered life under the constant vigilance of her mother.
Lily invites her to come along with her and a couple friends. Nina was about as awkward as I am in large gatherings with people I don't know. So Lily slips her a tab of ecstasy to loosen her up. The atmosphere transforms into a freaking rave. What an adrenaline rush and there was no end for ages... it was pretty awesome.

!SPOILERS AHEAD!

So it was a bit of a letdown when it was revealed that the sex scene never happened. Nina and Lily see each other the day after and Lily said that Nina disappeared after a couple hours and she didn't see her again for the rest of the night.... seriously? buzzkill, much.

But after whatever shenanigans happened the night before, Nina's mother clearly believes she is not well and locks her in her room on the opening night of the show.
Of course, she does bust out and fights to get her role back from Lily, who had received it as her understudy.

It was also kinda disappointing that the entire movie built up to opening night, so there wasn't as much dancing as I would have liked. But make no mistake, all of the best stuff was saved for last.
However brief it is in the 108-minute span of this film, the Black Swan sequence is incredible! Especially since her arms transform into wings. I wondered if it was even possible for her to revert to other role because she'd finally crossed to the dark side :-P

It should be noted that you need to pay attention to everything in the movie because it becomes increasingly difficult to discern reality from the hallucinations.
Another one of those jaw-dropping double-take moments was the final confrontation between Nina and Lily.

!AGAIN, MORE SPOILERS

STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO GET THE FULL EFFECT OF THE SHOCK VALUE

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The tension hits a breaking point and Nina kills Lily...
only to find out later that she's still alive and she actually stabbed herself.

Despite that, she gives the performance of her life with the final stage of Odette's life... only to die in the name of perfection.

I saw this movie only once and the final 10 minutes a second time when my mom saw it. But I can still remember coming to the end.
I found it a little anti-climatic. The screen went white after her final line looking up at the camera: "I was perfect." with sirens in the background.
It would have been nice to know if she lived or not.

Some of the trivia I read does suggest that she does. The blood from her self-inflicted stab wound comes from a very suggestive place, which can be construed as an indication that she is officially a woman.
But personally, I prefer the more poetic ending that she died in the name of perfection. It really does make you think.

Not that any discipline I'd attempted in my life, other than schoolwork, demands that kind of perfection.
I'm a huge fan of gymnastics and figure skating, but more for the artistic expression than the skill. But it does help when the landings are stuck ;)

And for the record, the fact I'm doing this Darren Aronofsky film the same way his "Noah" production comes out is purely coincidence.

The same goes for my next film.

Coming Soon

With maybe one or two exceptions, my next slew of films are ones I'd loved watching for years. One was a 2010 film that introduced me to one of my favorite actresses.

But next week is a book-to-movie adaptation that worked out really well and it makes you rethink what you thought you knew about Biblical history. Unless of course you're an ultra-conservative Christian, in which case you're better off skipping out on this next one.

Theatrical Review: Thor- The Dark World

Day: Thursday, November 14
 Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 1:25pm
Party: 3 (my mom & my movie-going/book series lovin' aunt)

Director: Alan Taylor
Type: Marvel comic action/adventure

Length: 112 minutes (+6 trailers)

Cast:
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Jane Foster- Natalie Portman
Loki- Tom Hiddleston
Malekith- Christopher Eccelston
Darcy- Kat Dennings
Ian- Jonathan Howard
Sif- Jaimie Alexander
Heimdall- Idris Elba
Dr. Eric Selvig- Stellan Skarsgard
Odin- Anthony Hopkins
Frigga- Rene Russo
Richard- Chris O'Dowd

Program Notes:

Coincidentally, the next movie on my countdown is "Avengers." Stay tuned for when I go up the wall with that one 8-)
We've also made plans to see the next "Hunger Games," not this Sunday, but the following one.

Previews:

It's been a long time since I'd seen so many previews before a movie. While thrilling, after a while, it ran a little too long. Lots of great stuff, though.

1. the sequel to "Captain America"

The first few seconds, I saw what looked like a red-headed Scarlet Johannson and before I could manually connect the dots, there was Captain America.
The scale of this movie looks enormous and with the two of them together... just WOW, cannot wait for this one.

2. "Delivery Man"

It's common knowledge that when a studio isn't promoting its own brand, the accompanying trailers are up & coming. The trailers make this Vince Vaughn movie look really good... and part of me secretly hopes that's not a farce

3. a remake of "Robo-Cop"

I saw the original very briefly years ago. Everyone will take a remake as they do. I likely won't invest unless I hear good things or there's nothing on on HBO.

4. Jack Ryan- Shadow Recruiter

I saw the movie poster on IMDB. After Chris Pine came on screen, the pieces fell into place really easy. Looks like an exciting movie... which reminds me... I have yet to see any of the on-screen incarnations of this Tom Clancy character.

5. The Hobbit- Desolation of Smaug

Obviously we're going to see this in December. My mom went nuts when Legolas (Orlando Bloom) appeared on screen, but I'm in the same boat.

6. Hunger Games- Catching Fire

Another amazing trailer for the movie... makes me hope they haven't given all the visuals away by this point with the amount of promotion.

Write-up:

Considering this was a weekday and the movie had been out for quite a while, I was surprised how many people showed up. At least 100. Not a lively audience, though there was a few rare moments of universal hilarity.

Plot
and yes there are spoilers attached...

I'm not the best with Marvel terminology, so I won't go into a ridiculous amount of detail.

We begin with a flashback. A race of beings known as Dark Elves, led by Malekith, wanted to destroy the life and re-envelope the world in darkness. At their disposal was a mysterious dark element known as Aether (pronounced "ether").
They almost got away with it, if it hadn't been for Odin's father, who stealed the casket of Aether away with help of his troops. Meanwhile, Malekith allowed most of his people to die in battle, insisting their sacrifice was necessary for him and his second-in-command to one day exact revenge.

Simple enough, right?

Fast-forward to the present.

Loki is given a life sentence in prison for his actions in "The Avengers." If it wasn't for Odin's wife, Frigga, he would have been executed for treason.

Thor and his comrades are restoring peace to the other realms, perhaps in an attempt to undo what damage Loki had caused. All the while, he is missing Jane and wants to be with her, but Odin more or less puts his foot down because she's just another mortal in his view.

When we finally get to Jane, we see her on possibly the most awkward date imaginable. Her date also happens to be that Irish dude from "Bridesmaids." (For me, it means my second "helping" of Chris O'Dowd at the movies this year, though providing a voice in "Epic" doesn't count for quite as much).
Lucky for her, her intern, Darcy shows up to bring new findings to her attention.

We also find out that Dr. Selvig kinda lost his mind after the there-after dubbed "battle of New York." He looked perfectly sane when Loki's trance was broken, but... well, Tony Stark suffered from PSTD after "Avengers" so I guess it's not too hard to believe.
Between this movie and "Mamma Mia," it seems that Stellan Skarsgard has an issue with wearing pants in his movies. He was found streaking at Stone Hedge, raving his new theories like a lunatic and was promptly thrown into the loony bin.

Through the course of the movie, the characters keep referring to a universal event known as "The Convergence" where the 9 realms will come into alignment. This is happening for the first time since Thor's grandfather's time.

Jane, Darcy, and Darcy's new intern, Ian, come to a site in London where there's unusual phenomena taking place. Particularly at the center of staircases in a building where you throw some things down and they reappear at the top of the shaft... some things don't come back, for whatever reason.

Going on her own, Jane gets sucked into a wormhole and somehow comes in contact with Aether that'd been buried underground for centuries.
You can say "curiosity killed the cat" and you'd almost be right... me, I'm watching this, thinking that Jane Foster was just an idiot for getting herself in this situation in the first place. As if she's nothing more than a damsel in distress, as most superheroes' girlfriends typically are.

After going to a few parties, Thor spends his time moping in the company of Heimdall, Asgard's gate-keeper. When Jane disappears into the Aether, Heimdall is astonished that he'd lost track of her, seeing as Thor's come to him periodically to watch her from above.

By the time Jane returns, the authorities had arrived and Thor is there as well.
For a fine "how do you do," she slap him twice. Once to make sure he's real and twice for not seeing her during "The Avengers".
(My response: "sorry, dude, but Tony Stark was the only dude who had on-screen time with his girlfriend in that movie"... unless you count Black Widow & Hawkeye as a "couple").

So apparently, the Aether got into Jane and when people try to touch her at times of stress, they get thrown away from her with excessive force. Thor takes it upon himself to take her to Asgard to remedy the situation.
Odin is not pleased and Asgard falls under siege of "invisible" invaders Heimdall was unable to see.

Malekith turned his second-in-command into a stone creature who went into the dungeon to free all the prisoners.... except Loki :-P
And sadly, Frigga is killed while protecting Jane from capture. For whatever reason, the Dark Elves decide to take their leave at this point, deciding not to rip the place apart to find her. There's a great funeral ritual for her and the fallen of the invasion. Loki is given word of her death and despite how he wanted nothing to do with Odin or Thor, he didn't take that well at all. (Aww, he does have a heart after all).

Thor and his comrades soon concoct a plan to get Jane out of Asgard to protect the realm from any further damage... quite the elaborate plan, but somehow, it all works out just as imagined.

1. The Bi-Frost was destroyed in "Thor," so they need another route out of Asgard. Because Loki is the only one who knows it, Thor needs to let him out of jail.

2. Thor and Loki have to navigate the corridors undetected to find Jane. (A lot of great laughs here as Loki tries on different disguises, one of them being a great spoof/cameo of Captain America)

3. Thor, Loki and Jane must take one of the fallen Dark Elves' spaceships to make their escape... and it isn't without resistance.

When in the Dark Elves' realm, they hatch a plan for the Aether to taken back from Jane and they destroy it.
The second part of that doesn't go well... let's just say I could have sworn I heard all the Loki fangirls crying out at once...

Somehow, Thor and Jane find a wormhole (where she gets excellent cell reception with Chris O'Dowd... and we find where all the missing items went) back to earth.
Dr. Selvig was busted out of the psych ward (Stan Lee makes a great cameo in one of those scenes) by Darcy and Ian. So all of them put their heads together to come up with a plan for when the Dark Elves come to Greenwich for the Convergence.

The final battle comes and goes, lasts for a substantial length of time, Thor and Malekith battle one another through all the realms... and obviously, the good guys win.

Thor has a chat with Odin, which sounds like him abdicating his birthright to the throne... and we might not have seen the last of Loki (fan girls rejoice!)

Character Highlights and So On

I'm getting more versed with the Marvel universe all the time and I doubt I'll ever be able to wrap my head around it completely.

My mom and aunt were interested in seeing the movie just for the eye candy that is Chris Hemsworth. There was only one shirtless scene, but they didn't seem to mind.
His degree of maturity greatly surpasses that of "Thor," although he might not be as exacting or calculating as Loki. (See the "escape" scene for that debate).

For me personally... maybe it's because "2 Broke Girls" is one of my favorite shows right now and I only just saw it a few days ago... what can I say? Kat Dennings was a scene-stealer whenever she was on screen. Her dialogue is just so naturally hilarious, as if she wasn't even acting.
It's also kinda cool she bags a potential love interest by the finale.

To her credit, Natalie Portman did the level of scientific ass-kicking she brought to the original and the "damsel in distress" archetype went out the window after a while.

She didn't get a lot of screen time, but Jaimie Alexander as Sif gets to show off how tough she is when the situation calls for it. Yeah, girl power!

Then there's the conundrum of Loki.
It's strange. The first movie where we get to know him, we see him as a master manipulator. He reminded me of a character from "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," Wormtongue, who manipulated the King of Rohan to commit acts very much unlike him.
Then in "Avengers," he was equally as annoying, but at the same time, you knew you couldn't take him seriously and that he was no HUGE threat (unlike his alien allies).

Here, I don't know why, but I found myself gravitating towards him, wanting more screen-time and curious to see how things would play out. Maybe it's because I figured he'd be the least of Thor's problems, considering all the stuff happening, there'd be room to see him be a good ally. If only temporarily.

The Marvel Universe

However big it might be, I'm loving how all the little pieces seem to fit together perfectly. The movies keep on building upon one another, keeping us entertaining while keeping us wanting more.

The first post-credits scene (I did not stick around for the second, but based on the synopsis, I didn't miss too much) shows Sif and one of Thor's comrades returning the Aether to someone who calls himself "The Collector" and says after they leave "one down, five to go." The way he moved around... he was not of this world... to me, he looked like a cross between a magician and a rock star like David Bowie. IMDB says he's in "Guardians of the Galaxy," the next big release from Marvel.
Let's just say that the nerdgasm taking place in my brain was so big, it exploded before it could begin to comprehend anything.

As far as this movie's execution goes, taking into account all the Marvel films so far, it's among the best I'd seen. I came out of the theater, thinking "oh shoot... I think this might have been better than the latest 'Iron-Man' film.'

Let me put it this way (opposed to a crazy-long thesis comparing the two movies):
I find Tony Stark (with & without the suit) more engaging as a character than Thor.
But when it comes to the big picture, this movie was stronger and more consistent from one scene to the next, and better executed.
As a sequel, "Thor- The Dark World" succeeded because there was a natural progression. They upped the ante, but it wasn't so chaotic that it collapsed on itself. You got see more character development that was organic and natural. And of course, the most important part is leaving just enough room for further sequels that the audience would welcome with open arms.

Grade: A