Theatrical Review: The Avengers- Infinity War

Date: Saturday April 28 2018
Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 1:40pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

Cast... oh boy... I might just copy & paste this whole thing

Tony Stark/Iron-Man: Robert Downey Jr.
Steve Rodgers/Captain America- Chris Evans
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Bruce Banner/The Hulk- Mark Ruffalo
Black Widow- Scarlet Johannson
Peter Parker/Spider-Man- Tom Holland
The Vision- Paul Bettany
Black Panther- Chadwick Boseman
Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch- Elizabeth Olsen
Loki- Tom Hiddlestone
Heimdell- Idris Elba
Star-Lord- Chris Pratt
Gamora- Zoe Saldana
Rocket- Bradley Cooper
Drax- Dave Baustisa
Groot- Vin Diesel
Mantis- Pom Klementieff
Doctor Strange- Benedict Cumberbatch
Sam Wilson/Falcon- Anthony Mackie
Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier- Sebastian Stan
Okoye- Danai Gurira
Thanos- Josh Brolin

Unless there are more people that come up in the movie, that's going to be the majority of them...

Duration: 160 minutes  (+ 7  trailers... trailers started on time, but the actual movie didn't start until 2:02pm)

Write-up:

Introduction

Man, I've been really bad at keeping this blog updated, but I really haven't been to the movies since 50 Shades back in February. Ever since our local theater burned down, I've felt less need to go to the movies and there've been a few I've wanted to see. Isle of Dogs for starters. And with all the success it had, I kinda regret not going to see Black Panther. There'll be another chance, I'm sure... when it comes on DVD and my dad sees it in-flight.
I also have yet to see the new Spider-Man movie. Having RDJ in it wasn't even enough incentive to get me to go. I guess I'm just sick of them trying to remake Spider-Man when Tobey Maguire did it right the first time.

With this movie, I don't have a whole lot of expectations. I've been disconnected from the Marvel universe for some time. It's been a while since the last time I saw an Avengers movie and I gave up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after that Ada story arc and the alternate universe. It just drove me too nuts that much of the series was about the team being split apart and fighting all season to get back together. Almost as frustrating as Once Upon a Time always starting a new season with a new memory-wiping curse... I really did love that show and I miss watching it, but it broke my heart one too many times.

And now I'm rambling...

I'd purposely avoiding spoilers, but it's getting rave reviews and on Twitter, I get the impression it's very dark ("and they call DC dark" I think was the quote). There's also talk of a lot of characters being killed off... I mean, losing Tony Stark would be emotional for me, but I'm dying for RDJ to do something other than Marvel. It does sound, though, he is working on a new Dr. Dolittle movie. It has an all-star cast, but of course, he's the only human among them, lol.

Getting into the movie...

This was a first for me. If our local theater hadn't burned down, I'm not entirely sure this would have been avoided. BUT we get there close to 12 for the 12:20 show... they have an electronic sign behind the ticket counter with all the movie times. I noticed within minutes the 12:20 flashing saying "sold out"... I'm like "whoa..." so we immediately get tickets for the next showing and are promptly told to get in line an hour beforehand so we'll get a good seat. An hour beforehand was half an hour of free time... but the line actually wasn't bad and we got really good seats.

Gotta say this for the Avengers crowd at the first weekend of a movie... you'll never find a better movie crowd. They care about everything so much that they will laugh at all the appropriate times in unison and will collectively stay silent when something serious is going down. Hell, I got shushed once during this movie when I was complaining how Spider-Man calls these movies he's referencing "old"... I did not appreciate that. It's not like I was like those little kids at the Beauty & The Beast movie last year that were chatting much of the movie and were promptly shushed when the big song came on. But I guess it's been a while since I'd been in a crowd like this and I'd gotten way too comfortable with interacting with movies. It's not like I do it ALL THE TIME in theaters. (Although I couldn't help but do so when I saw "Let's be cops" and "Ghostbusters" cuz I was the only one in the theater... best time ever)...

Again, I'm rambling...

Then there was the ending where everyone just fell completely silent and whether we said it aloud or not, we had all a sense of "that was it?!"

Trailers

I was able to ID these movies within 10 seconds so I was able to type them into my phone and lock so I could enjoy the rest.

The trailers have been around, but I finally saw Deadpool 2. And it seems like he's trying to put a league together of superheroes. Gee, I wonder where he got that idea... X-Men (which Colossus has been recruiting him for) or Avengers (cuz, you know, it worked so well)... Anyway, it looks like this movie has more of a budget than the last one and I hope they don't try to overachieve too much just cuz they know they have a good thing going.

Crimes of Grindewald- the newest installment of the Harry Potter "Fantastic Beasts" franchise. And it appears Jude Law is Dumbledore... I love Jude, but I don't know if I completely buy it. Cuz Harry Potter is born in 1980 and goes to Hogwarts in the 90's. This franchise takes place in the 20's and maybe 30's... Dumbledore looks A LOT younger here than he does in the Harry Potter franchise. Unless his inevitable duel with Grindewald ages him A LOT, I don't quite see that making sense. But it sounds like Dumbledore is asking Newt Scamander to kill Grindewald because he can't do it. J.K. Rowling said after the books were done that Dumbledore was gay and hinted that he and Grindewald might have been a thing... so I interpret his plea to Newt as "it's not that I can't do it, I just don't want to"...
but it's very exciting for this next movie to come out... too bad it isn't for months.

Mission Impossible: Fallout... WHY?! We don't need anymore of these movies. I'd rather see Jeremy Renner's next Bourne film (that's not a jest, I really do want to see another of those movies from him...)... I didn't know about this movie until ET trailers talking to Tom Cruise about his MI injury and I'm like "another injury?"... this trailer just made me want to see the new Jack Reacher movie that should be on HBO soon.

Venom with Tom Hardy playing the title role... I didn't know about this until I saw the movie posters and we promptly saw a trailer. This looks DARK and terrifying. Something I really have no interest in seeing. Supposedly there is this Indian guy running a company that's experimenting with something called Symbiants, which is some dark substance that takes refuge in the human body and is the next step towards evolution. Tom Hardy gets infected and this substance actually talks back to him in this deep threatening voice and sometimes black fluid comes out of him to attack people around him. Supposedly Venom will become an anti-hero. I know that people are disappointed with how Venom was treated in Spider-Man 3 (among other things...) but completely darkening it up is too far for me. I don't know or care enough about this character (or Tom Hardy for that matter) to proceed.

Solo- we saw this trailer on my dad's iPad ,but this had far better lighting. Woody Harrelson is in it as Han's boss, saying something like "if you expect everyone you know to betray you, you won't be disappointed"... which tells me someone betraying him is why Jabba the Hutt puts such a huge price on his head. And there's a scene with Lando and a card game and supposedly that's how Han gets the Millennium Falcon. My mom of course is excited cuz she loves Han Solo and Harrison Ford and she kinda likes this guy as well, but we'll see when we see the actual movie.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom... going back to dark and terrifying... OH MY GOD... this movie goes way beyond all the previous Jurassic movies. Not only is the island full of dinosaurs being threatened by a volcano, but Blue, the last of Owen's trained raptors gets captured and experimented on and of course, B.D. Wong has to create a new dinosaur (because Indominus Rex worked SO WELL in the last movie). There's a scene where the new dinosaur is in a girl's bedroom... so yeah, this is scary. And is this girl supposed to be Owen and Claire's kid? Why not bring back her nephews from the last movie? (I guess after the last movie, their parents don't want them anywhere near the island or dinosaurs again)...
anyway... it looks terrifying and like nightmare fuel (I'd been saying that a lot lately, although I don't really have nightmares all that much), but cuz I'd seen every Jurassic movie in theaters, I have to see this one. It's tradition.

Incredibles 2... I didn't like the last one that much, so I'm not really looking to see this one either... but the theme is that some organization wants to change the perception of superheroes and they want to use Elastic Girl to do it. Meaning Mr. Incredible is emasculated and has to be a stay-at-home dad. Meanwhile his daughter is going through, what the Quickster called "adolescence" (this franchise I think was closer to PG13 than other Pixar movies, so that's as family friendly as they can put it... although I think "Inside Out" did mention puberty towards the end) and Jack-Jack has a lot of different powers firing off at the same time.

Yikes... now I get the feeling I'm going to be saying more about the trailers than the actual movie. Sorry if that's disappointing...

The Actual Movie

Here's the tricky part... so much happens in this movie, good and bad... that I really don't want to go into every detail. It's one of those movies you just have to see. Especially if you love these movies.
I admit I'd been experiencing "Marvel fatigue" lately with all the movies that had been out... I think mostly because RDJ is stuck doing these movies when he could be off trying to win Oscars... for me, the latest Thor and Guardians installment were kinda disappointing because they either stepped way too far from what made the franchise great or just too dark a turn that I kinda lost faith. "Civil War" was really good and one of the better ones, but it's not the greatest feeling that not like Tony Stark and siding with Captain America when I'd always leaned one way more than the other.
This movie or less took all that fatigue away and now I'm dying for the next volume to come out... because this ending needs to be salvaged and reconciled.

I don't really want to give away which characters run into who because that's part of the fun. And also where they end up going.

Tony Stark and Pepper seem to be planning their wedding... which is amazing to me because in "Civil War," I thought they'd broken up so I have no idea how they reconciled. But needless to say, the events of this movie will put a further damper on things.
And he also winds up confronting a lot of his fears that have been with him since his moment of sacrifice in the original "Avengers" movie... so that's really good closure for his character. Meanwhile, the tech in this movie is RIDICULOUS... how advanced Tony's suit is and all of the extra features his suit for Spider-Man is... it was blowing my mind.
Gotta hand it to this franchise, they step up their technology every time and it's incredible how far we've come in the last 10 years.
Yeah, Iron-Man was released 10 years ago and I don't think any of us could have predicted all this.

Of course one thing people have been clamored for and RDJ had hinted about it on his Facebook page... the two Sherlocks (Downey from the Guy Ritchie franchise- where is Sherlock 3?!! and Benedict Cumberbatch from the PBS series) getting to have actual screen time together. It's pretty awesome. And it reminded me how I really should get Doctor Strange on disc at some point cuz I hadn't seen it since the movies.

On the other side of the galaxy, we have the Guardians. And in true-Guardians fashion, their arrival is announced by a change in music :P and they interact with a couple of different Avengers throughout their screen time. And of course they go how you expect them to... which includes another melee (that was a highlight of the first Avengers movie, so why not?... too bad the timing of it isn't exactly preferable).

If you view this movie in the canon of the whole franchise, seeing it right after the latest Thor movie... let's just say things get very dark, very fast.
Thor is in need of a new weapon to replace his beloved hammer and he gets to visit the forge inside a dying star that Mjolnir came from. I won't give away who he meets there, but let's just say Game of Thrones fans will be VERY happy. And his new weapon is extremely bad-ass.

Then there is Thanos... who had been hyped up since the end credits scene as the ultimate villain of this franchise... you'd think his motivation was just galactic/universal domination. But he has a very interesting motivation that falls almost in line with Dan Brown's Robert Langdon book "Inferno"... his concern is overpopulation, so he wants to obtain all of the infinity stones to rectify that. As far as motivations go, it's actually not too bad. It's well-thought out, actually. In the Pokémon video game franchise, the theme of Black & White was about separating Pokémon from people because certain characters truly believed that they did not benefit from their captivity. That fell in line with the critics of the series that said it was akin to dog fighting. When you really think about it, the antagonists might have a point and if you were in their circumstances, you might believe the same way. However, you have to resist and hold onto your ideals because it will get in way of your happiness and way of life.
I think my overall point to this is that you can side with Thanos and agree with where he's going... but you really don't want to because the price needed to be paid is way too high. Losing people you love and care about.

It was established in the first Guardians movie that Gamora was adopted by Thanos and left him to join the Guardians. Like with Tony Stark, everything kinda goes full circle for her as well and we see how she came into the care of Thanos.

As far as action goes... it's nearly relentless. We get some lulls where there are some good laughs and pop culture references and so on. But the fact the Stan Lee cameo is very early in the movie suggests that things will get pretty dark later on. (and yes, I know I used that word 9 times already... I'll try to stop).

It's incredible to watch, though. It keeps you on your toes. I audibly screamed once or twice because something came out of nowhere. (But in my defense, that has happened a couple of times recently, including one episode of Shadowhunters). The technology is insane and so cool to watch. Just when things look bad for the heroes, others show up to join the fight. We have a scene where all of the female characters get to fight against a common enemy. That was a pretty awesome moment, but I can't help but feel that was planted to pander to a certain demographic. Kinda like this latest trend of having diversity just for the sake of it. Whitewashing in a historical movie where it involves a certain culture or demographic is one thing, that's bad... but feeling the need to include non-white actors and actresses into movies so you can claim "hey, we're diverse, we're good"... to me, it comes off a little forced.
What we need is more good roles written by and for non-white characters. Like Randall in "This is Us" and the movie "Girls Trip" where the writers, director and main cast is black... that's a step in the right direction for sure. "The Good Doctor" also had an interesting episode where one character threatens to sue for unlawful discharge, proclaiming racism and the head of surgery (as black) berates him for an improper use of "the race card" (he was fired because he assaulted another doctor cuz another student said he was inappropriate with her)... he went into a little more detail than that, but I thought that was an interesting moment.

So the fact I am doing a lot of sidetracking kinda suggests I don't really want to talk about certain things in the movie.
As a general rule, I REALLY don't like it when villains are unbeatable. All of them have to have one weakness that gives the good guys a chance to overcome him. Certain parts of this movie were like that, but the camaraderie between heroes and the last minute saves helps with that. But ultimately, that emotional rollercoaster was just toying with our emotions.
The body count (if you can call it that) is substantial. But considering how many of these characters have upcoming franchise installments, it's hard to be completely devastated. Not to mention they did bring a couple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents back from the dead, so it's impossible to kill anyone off, really...

And the fact I'm not a complete wreck but merely just felt numb in all my extremities after the movie ended... that's kinda telling of one of the survivors...
And for those curious, there is a post-credits scene, but it's after ALL of the credits. (Made me wonder how much of the lengthy run time was for credits alone). And it's more fallout from the end of the movie. But there is hope because back-up does get called, but all they give us is a symbol and I have no idea what it is. Who else is there left? Unless they actually bring the cast from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the movie as well... that'd be something.

Grade: A (if not for the somber ending, it'd be an A+ easily... probably the best of the whole franchise)

...oh and another thing... why the heck is Black Widow blonde in this movie? Were the movie runner afraid we'd confuse her with Wanda? I'm sorry, that aesthetic change just doesn't work for me.
And the dynamic with Bruce Banner and The Hulk gets even more interesting in this movie-- somewhat of a reverse of how things went down in the latest Thor film. Some of its kinda frustrating, but it also has its entertaining moments.

Theatrical Review- Thor: Ragnorak

Date: Sunday, November 5th 2017
Location: Cinempolis in Roxbury Township, New Jersey
Time: 1:40 pm
Party: 3 (my mom, aunt and myself)

Director- Taika Waititi (his most significant credit is directing some episodes of Flight of the Conchords)
Writers- Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Composer- Mark Mothersbaugh (I think he was originally in an 80's band, but I know him best as the composer of the Rugrats music)

Cast:
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Loki- Tom Hiddlestone
Odin- Anthony Hopkins
The Hulk/Bruce Banner- Mark Ruffalo
Hela, goddess of Death- Cate Blanchett
Heimdell- Idris Elba
Grandmaster- Jeff Goldblum
Valkyrie- Tessa Thompson
Skurge- Karl Urban
Doctor Strange- Bendict Cumberbatch

Write-up:

Opening Comments and Coming Attractions

Gotta start off in saying the amount of commercials was so annoying! It's bad enough we get them at home and now YouTube is making you sit through 2 ads for videos... as if they're trying to kill us inside until we crack and invest in a YouTube Red subscription. It was just overkill.
It was a good sized crowd, but we wound up being in a row where people kept having to get up and use the rest room or buy more popcorn. And they'd do it during action scenes- guys, if you're doing stuff you'd be doing while watching movies at home, maybe you should have waited for this movie come on DVD.  

This got glowing reviews, but I read a few that said that this movie is lighter in humor like "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Deadpool"... but that it also didn't take itself too seriously. The latter part of that is what helps the movie from becoming self-parody. And many of the jokes were funny. At times, there were maybe too many and some tried too hard, but most were genuinely laughable in the best way.

I don't think I'd seen any of the trailers before, but there were 6 of them. Which is a lot, plus all the other commercials, PLUS the ad for the Cinemapolis chain.

Jumanji- this goes way beyond the original version with Robin Williams and the Caldecott Award winning book (yeah, all these years later, I remember the Caldecott. That was a big deal- when a children's book would win every year for outstanding illustration). It stars Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson, but they are actually avatars in a video game. Four kids are playing this video game and they get sucked into the game and they're put inside these avatars that look completely different from them in real life. So it gives the actors a chance to act against type, which I find kinda interesting.
I don't know whether this movie is going to bomb or be hilarious, but it's an interesting prospect. It's kinda funny how all the avatars in the game have different strengths and weaknesses and apparently, Kevin Hart's weakness is cake and the trailer shows him eating cake and potentially exploding.

Downsizing- it stars Matt Damon and Jason Sudekis. The idea of downsizing is an irreversible procedure where people are "downsized" and get put into an made-up community for tiny people. Matt Damon and his wife were going to do it, but she (I think she was Kristen Wiig) calls him after he has the procedure done and says she can't go through with it.
Yeah, between Jumanji and this, and the next trailer, I had a hard time comprehending reality at this point. I believe the term, sorry for the profanity, is mindfuck.

The Disaster Artist-
apparently starring the Franco brothers, it's about this weird British actor who kinda reminds me of Russell Brand who doesn't get a role in a movie he fought for. And then he decides with his friends to make a movie. It was just a very off-beat sense of humor and weirded me out big time.
I don't think James Franco has done any movies I've really liked. And in the case of the Spider-Man movies, he wasn't the reason I liked that movie.

then we got to some really good ones...

The Last Jedi-
This was maybe the first full trailer I saw of this and of course we're excited for it. But there was so much going on that I couldn't process it all. What stood out was Luke saying how this isn't going to end how you think, Raye being in pain and maybe her and Kylo Ren joining forces.

The Justice League-
yeah, we're crossing the line to DC here, but this is a pretty big deal because a lot of people (myself included) never thought that this movie was going to happen. I mean, it's a tall order getting Batman and Superman in the same movie. But then again, they did that and it had mixed reviews despite all the money it made.
I think we might wind up seeing this one because it's the next big blockbuster to come out this year and it's coming soon.

Black Panther-
Not sure what to expect with this movie, but the character in Captain America: Civil War was really good.

The Main Event

Ragnorak is the Norse equivalent of “the end of days”- this is addressed at a couple points in the movie (in the beginning and the end to tie it all in a nice little bow). This isn’t quite a spoiler because it’s in the title and the way it comes about isn’t what you’d immediately expect. An interesting twist on Armageddon, I guess you could say.

After an obligatory opening battle scene set to music (Thor has a new theme song apparently and they kick ass together-- "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin- that song starts with the two "ah-ah-ah!" lines before actual lyrics), Thor and Loki locate Odin (who is M.I.A) with the help of a Doctor Strange cameo.
Interesting new touch on this- usually, the after-credits scenes are stand alone to tease about the next movie in the marvel story arc. The one from the end of Doctor Strange is the actual scene in this movie. Some might say Doctor Strange is just showing off with his teleportation powers, but it’s pretty funny what happens to Thor and Loki in these scenes.
Finally, they find Odin who is departing from existence (what’s with these superhero movie killing off Gods lately?) cuz it’s just “his time”. But his absence is quickly filled by Hela- the goddess of death and his firstborn. Cate Blanchett is in fine form and quite a bad ass in this role, which would be great if she wasn’t so evil and hard to kill. She actually knocks Thor and Loki out of the rainbow bridge on the way to Asgard- who does that?

Thor turns up on another planet where he is forced to fight in an arena. And if you saw any of the trailers, you know he’s up against the Hulk- who’s apparently got a following. Kinda nuts. Of course, it’s a great fight (at one point, Loki- who of course befriended Jeff Goldblum The Grandmaster in charge of all this- celebrates, bringing us back to one of the most memorable Avengers scenes) and how it ends was frustrating- putting it mildly and spoiler-free.
While we do meet some cool characters like the other gladiators and a former Valkyrie (who is in charge of Thor and has him in her power) this part of the movie where Thor plots his and the Hulk’s escape just takes too damn long. It’s bad enough Hela is unbeatable, but throw in another impossible scenario, hopelessness is exhausting.
Together with Loki, all four of them do manage to get away, but it’s an uphill battle. But along the way, we have killer chase and battle scenes and occasional comic relief with Thor and Loki. Gotta love Loki even if he is an opportunistic weasel. And Valkyrie is another bad ass chick. She’s been called this movie’s equivalent of Han Solo.

There’s also a couple of funny Hulk/Bruce Banner scenes, including one where he does his best Tony Stark impression. I mean, I’m kinda sick of Robert in that role cuz it’s not going to win him an Oscar, but that scene (I won’t elaborate) made me badly wish he was in this movie right now. But that’s mainly cuz I haven’t seen him in a while- nothing against this movie. It’s its own unique brand of fun through most of it. The rest- you can decide for yourself

Grade: B+

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