The Screaming Viking

The first block buster of the summer was released this past weekend.  Fortunately enough it was playing at the local theater so the kid and I were able to catch it Sunday evening.  If you are in to the comic book genre, this is, so far, the top of the mountain as far as these movies go.  They have taken years to build up to this point, starting with Iron man, Hulk, Iron man 2, Thor and Captain America.  All of those films were building up to this point.  And it did not disappoint.

People don’t go in to this film expecting an oscar worthy performance.  You expect action, some dialoge and techno speak, more action…and more ass kicking action.  I do expect to have some story, nothing thought provoking but at least something that passes the initial comic book sniff test.  If you are not a comic book movie fan I can’t really explain what that is…watch any transformers movie then watch avengers…that is probably the best illustration of the “sniff test” I can give.  Transformers fails miserably, Avengers passes.  I came in to this expecting to be blown away by the fight scenes and laugh at some witty/funny lines…that’s exactly what I got.  There were two “slow” parts of the movie, one of which (the interrogation scene with black widow and Loki) that when it was over fit well into the movie.  For the most part though, it was action and one liners.

A few nerd gripes with the movie…none of which detracted from my enjoyment.  I would have liked to see ed norton come back as the hulk.  He did a very good job as bruce banner and I was disappointed not to see him back.  The new guy (Mark Ruffalo) did a good job, but he doesn’t have that “snap at any moment psycho” look that ed norton has.  Also, I thought the hulk looked a little better in Incredible Hulk.  He looked taller, more massive and just more of a rage filled ball of muscle.  In Avengers he looked a bit more “friendly” I suppose.

There were a few laughs to be had during this flick as well.  A couple of scenes with the hulk were pretty funny and some one liners between the heroes themselves were pretty good.  Overall, it’s a decent flick.

The next movie I’m looking forward to is Prometheus.  Hopefully that’s in botno opening weekend as well.

I came with the wife down to Fargo for the weekend.  I didn’t realize how much of a pita it is to only have one vehicle until we’ve come down here a couple of times.  I have very little interest in running around with her to do all the crap she does…and I don’t like going somewhere and depending on someone else for a ride, even if it is my wife.  I ended up sitting at the house for most of Friday afternoon.  I knew this was coming so I grabbed some movies.  One of the movies I wanted to see was a story about a kid with cancer, 50/50.  I had read some about this before and figured it was going to be something I wanted to watch alone.  I am quite close to the source material so I wasn’t sure how the flick would affect me emotionally.

Most of the reviews I’d read about this movie said it wasn’t all that great…after watching it I would say that most of the reviewers really are not all that connected to the subject matter.  There is a very select audience that will feel an attachment to this movie and the story it tells…but being one of those few I will say that it was quite an emotional tug.  The story went quite quickly and it was interesting to see how they acted out the part of the kid that was dying.  I would have liked to see a little longer film, but I doubt most people would have cared for much more story.

There were emotional ups and downs through the flick, but one that I found particularly powerful was at the end when he was going in for surgery.  No one was sure if he would wake up or not..and build up to that point was everything you would expect.  Then they came to wheel him away and it was like everyone kicked it up a notch…suddenly instead of being a 27 year old guy that was uncertain and/or angry about possible death…he became a child reaching out for someone to tell him he would be O.K.

In any case, if you have gone through the cancer process this movie is probably worth a watch.  If you have never really been close to someone fighting that battle…I doubt it would mean a whole lot.

I caught this movie on opening weekend in Bottineau.  I was pretty impressed that the small bottineau theater got this show the week it opened.  I went to the theater the week before t3 opened to see the hangover 2.  I noticed they upped their admission by 2 bucks.  That was kind of a bummer, but I’d pay a little more if that meant they got the big movies opening weekend.  If they show the movies on a delay like they have been, I wouldn’t be a fan of paying more.

Since I saw it in the smaller theater I’m not sure if I got the same quality of experience that another person (not watching imax or some mega screen) would have gotten.  I thought it looked pretty good and the sound was pretty good so I don’t have any complaints in that department.  The action sequences were pretty decently done.  They were big and expansive.  If you are going expecting to see robots beat the hell out of each other..by all means this is the show for you.  If you are expecting some kind of “plausible” story or any type of acting…avoid this flick.

People have said this is the best transformers of the series, and that might be true.  It was certainly better than the 2nd one but I’m not sure if it was better than the 1st or not.  The chic (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) is IMO a bit hotter than Megan Fox, but her acting is right there with her in the crapper.  For whatever reason, I thought her performance felt more “genuine” if that can be said about anyone in this flick.  Where fox had an “omg I’m hot, look at me” air to her I thought Rosie had more of a smirk on her face about it…”yeah, I’m hot…” with a wink and a smile.

I wonder if the people in this movie can actually act.  If they were given a solid script would they be able to put out a performance that I’d like to see?  As it stands, the people are in this movie just for comic relief.  How does a 6 foot person deal with a 60 foot robot shooting energy weapons whom is also as agile as any of our athletes…oh and they are fast as a vehicle….  It just doesn’t work well.  By the 3rd episode we should have been in space or something…seeing an all out robot war with very little involvement from the people.  Maybe something about the robots leaving the planet, some people coming with to explore or something and blamo we see why fragile little bags of water can’t hang with intelligent hunks of metal.

The plot of this moive?  Well, um…it had something to do with sentinel prime being the last great hope for peace, his ship being shot…crashing in to the moon with a “super weapon”.   The space race of the 60′s was all a front to get to the moon and see what this thing is…then we never go back because we think we might have an idea of what it is?  I don’t get it.  Now the autobots are pissed cause they know the humans have kept this from them.  They use their ship to get to the moon, wake up sentinel, bring back 5 rods plus the controller…then a human realizes there should be 100′s of them.  The humans find out where they have gone, and tell the robots.  Autobots are betrayed by sentinel, and the decepticons plan to use these rods for a space bridge to bring cyberton to earth so the humans can work as slaves to rebuild it.  Humans are working with the decepticons…battle..\the autobots are told to leave the planet…which they do in one of ours/their shuttles, it’s blown out of the sky…and we have 40min of movie left.  battle…good guys end, optimus soliloquy…end.

Now, that plot sucks…I give that to you, but one of the large over all problems IMO is there is no solid story arc from 1 to 3.  They are not connected in any way.  Each one acts as completely separate episodes with very little knowledge the former existed.  In 1, yeah megatron is pissed and they fight…O.K. I get that…but in 2 the decepticons try to suck all the energy out of the sun…then in 3 they want to use them as slaves to rebuild cybertron.  Had they killed the sun, who would be their slaves to rebuild the planet?  Seems to me they should have enslaved the race first, rebuilt their home, then blown up the planet.  They don’t even try to explain the space bridge, “it violates the laws of your physics” is what the humans are told…well, if “our laws” of physics are violated, then they aren’t really laws and we are clearly wrong.  How can these things be so damn advanced and still suck at conquering earth?  I don’t get it.

Normally I get irritated at movies like this because the concept had so much more potential…with this one though, they are pretty much stuck where they are at.  Story would just get in the way of their eye candy.  I wasn’t all that in to this flick, but when sentinel (voiced by lenord nimoy) busted out a “good of the many…” line, I was done.

Horrible movie, don’t even rent it.

I caught Thor this past Sunday and it was alright.  I’m not sure I was in the right mindset to see the flick, but it just didn’t feel like a solid movie to me.  The only scene that paid off on what I expected out of this movie was when Thor, Loki, Sif, and the warriors three were battling the ice giants.  That fight scene really delivered on the type of action I expected out of this flick.  After that point, everything else was sort of “blah”.  For the most part I expected the middle of the movie to be a little dry.  Mainly because it’s a setup flick and it has to spend some time developing the characters.  For a drama movie or something like that this time spent on character development would be welcome (see my posts about the Game of Thrones series for how much I like good character development), but in the comic book genre of flicks…I don’t go to see the characters develop.  I’m there to hear the campy one liners and see the amazing action from the drawings come to life.

For a “professional” review of Thor, check out screen rant’s writeup.

In essence, the story was about Thor being powerful and arrogant, odin needing to knock him down a few notches…and Thor finding…well, I don’t want to say “humility” but I suppose the connection would be “humanity”.  Basically, he met a hot chic he wanted to hook up with.  For me, the switch between arrogant and humanity happened too quickly.  It was like someone flipped a switch..he was acting one way then suddenly acting another.  He didn’t gradually find out what it’s like to care for other people.  But, what depth do you expect from a comic book flick?

The final battle sequences were quite disappointing.  By far the battle at the beginning with the ice giants blew away the bit of fighting at the end.  The initial battle really showcased Thor’s strength and all balls no quit attitude.  At the end, it seemed like you were to assume the fight was a formality on the way to his victory.

Chris Hemsworth played the character well, IMO he was very good at the arrogant part…it felt right like it fit the character but I think humility took him a little to quickly and because of that it never felt like it was natural.  The only place I’d seen Hemsworth before this was the few min scene at the beginning of star trek.  He really had to bulk up for the role of Thor.  From what I read, he put on more muscle than the studio expected and the suit didn’t fit him when he showed up for shooting.  There is a scene for the ladies with his shirt off, and he looks cut well, but not overly muscular.  I would be curious to know if any HGH or ‘roids were used during the process…but given his good definition I think he could have hit this body type with just diet and exercise over the course of a year.  Looking over his movie list, Red Dawn releases after Thor, then he is shooting The Avengers.  I wonder if he’s going to try to cut weight for Red Dawn, then have to put it back on to play Thor again.  I would expect something like that to be pretty hard on his body.  I am curious if the body type he has to keep up to keep playing Thor is going to take it’s toll on him physically and limit the roles he will be offered in the future.  We’re not talking about a guy like Arnold who made a career first as a body builder then brought that body to acting…this guy wasn’t a large guy who had to get large to play a role.  I’ll be curious to see how this plays out.

Overall if you’re a fan of the comic book genre this movie is worth seeing…if you are a passing fan, wait to watch it on blue ray.  I read a few places that said this was the best comic book movie to date…and IMO that is just flat wrong.  It’s not up to the caliber of spiderman 2, and I don’t think it’s even as good as the Incredible Hulk (not the ang lee hack fest…I’m talking about the one with Ed Norton).

We still have x-men first class and captain america coming out this year for comic book movies.  Initially I thought x-men would suck, but from the previews I’ve seen it looks quite interesting.  The jury is still out on cap.  I think I’ll wait to rent that one unless it’s a really boring weekend in botno when it hits the theater up here.