My Review: Thor: The Dark World (6/10)

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help."

Marvel Universe Season 2 Episode 2

The second phase of the Marvel universe began this summer with Iron Man 3 which was a film I enjoyed very much, but really hasn't seemed to stick with me. I'm afraid the same problem can be said about Thor: The Dark World, which was an entertaining movie but I don't think I'd enjoy it as much on a second viewing. Most of these films are fun and exciting as you experience them for the first time, but the magic seems to vanish for me after a few weeks. Perhaps The Avengers was so great that these sequels don't seem to live up to the standard set by Joss Whedon. I still had a great time in the movies and enjoyed the sequel to Thor considering I wasn't blown away by the first film either. By now Thor knows exactly who he is and doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, so we get to see him in action with his might hammer quite a bit. At times the film has a sort of Star Wars vibe to it mixed with The Lord of the Rings (with Jane reminding me of Frodo), but the final action scene suffers from something we've seen in way too many superhero films recently: buildings getting completely destroyed and blown up. It also mixes some elements near the end that we've seen in Jumper, but all in all the film succeeds thanks to the great chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. The way they played off each other and interacted was the highlight of the film, and Hiddleston was extremely funny here. I wasn't a huge fan of his in the first Thor, but after The Avengers I began to enjoy his performance, and his character in this sequel is better than ever. I wasn't blown away by the action scenes, but I did like the smaller comedic and light moments which the film had to offer. The film is entertaining enough to garner at least one watch.

The film picks up after the events of The Avengers with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) back in Asgard serving his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) trying to restore peace to the nine realms that his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has altered. Loki is sentenced to prison after his mother Frigga (Rene Russo) insists he shouldn't be killed. It turns out to be a good decision because Thor will need his service after the city is attacked by a race of beings known as the Dark Elves. Their leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), is searching for a weapon known as the Aether which had been taken away from him thousands of years ago by Odin's father. Since the aether couldn't be destroyed, the Asgardians had to hide it. In the meantime Jane (Natalie Portman), who hasn't seen or heard from Thor since he left two years ago, along with her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings) discover an anomaly very similar to the one that had brought Thor to Earth in the past. When she goes to investigate she is sucked by some sort of wormhole and ends up right next to the place where the aether had been hidden. After Heimdall (Idris Elba) warns Thor that Jane has disappeared, he goes after her, but somehow Jane has awaken Malekith which is what provoked his attack in Asgard in the first place.

Thor: The Dark World is pretty generic and follows a similar formula of most superhero films. That is the reason why so many scenes remind us of other scenes we've seen in other action films. I was never at the edge of my seat during any of the action scenes, but I did have a great time with the light and funny moments. Some people actually enjoyed the action sequences in this film, but it really didn't do anything new for me. The highlight of the film for me was Tom Hiddleston and the scenes he was in were probably the most memorable of the movie. Jamie Alexander, Zachary Levi, and Ray Stevenson all return for their supporting roles here as Thor's soldier/warriors but their characters aren't really developed too much. It is strange to see a summer blockbuster film in November but I guess that the timing was right considering all the superhero films that came out this year. Thor doesn't stand out (and I guess none really did this year), but it is still an entertaining movie. This Marvel universe is growing so fast with all these films that at times it feels like a TV series. So I guess it was a good idea that they brought in the Game of Thrones director, Alan Taylor. He has made an enjoyable film.

My Review: GI Joe: Retaliation (6/10)

¨Call me JOE¨

As a kid I was a huge fan of the GI Joe cartoons and had a vast collection of the action figures, but I never thought it was a very good idea to bring the franchise to the big screen. I didn’t like the first film despite all the great special effects because the entire concept was just way too silly, and I didn’t like this film all that much either despite the fact it had a better story and some more interesting characters. What really saved this film for me was a ten minute action scene in the mountains which was pretty amazing and made the entire movie worthwhile. It was one of the best action scenes I`ve seen all year. This second film was directed by Jon M. Chu (Justin Bieber Never Say Never and Step Up 2) and the screenplay co-written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland), but very few actors are back from the original movie (only five) so this felt like a totally different movie. Retaliation is much better than Rise of Cobra but it still felt a little light due to the nonstop action. It’s one of those movies you can enjoy for two hours but forget about once it’s over. What it does have going for it is that is includes better action stars like The Rock and Bruce Willis. The Rock is probably one of the best contemporary action stars and he already brought the Fast and Furious franchise back alive again. He doesn’t quite do the same with GI Joe, but he still makes this movie a little more enjoyable than the original one. Despite all the cheesiness of the plot I still had some fun, and the producers knew that the premise couldn’t be taken seriously so they just played around with it.

The Joes continue to serve and protect the world under the leadership of Captain Duke (Channing Tatum) and his team which consists of Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock), Flint (D.J. Cotrona), and Jaye (Adrianne Palicki). They have a couple of successful missions until the team is betrayed by the US president (Jonathan Pryce) who is actually Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) infiltrated as him. Thus the Joes are forced to fight enemy forces inside their own government and are forced to receive help from the only person they can trust: retired General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis). Meanwhile Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) has conceived a plan with Firefly (Ray Stevenson) to free their imprisoned Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey). Snake Eyes (Ray Park) is determined to stop him with the help of Jinx (Elodie Yung), but the Joes are running out of time with the President threatening the world with a nuclear war. Will the Joes be able to stop the Cobra team before they destroy the entire world?

Channing Tatum and The Rock shared some funny scenes together and had great chemistry, but I would have enjoyed more screen time with them. Adrianne Palicki looked great in that red dress and was a good addition to the film. Cotrona and Willis didn’t do much, but the highlight of the film was the mountain action sequence between Park and Lee. The film had its extremely cheesy moments, and I couldn’t believe they even didn’t care about the explosion of London. They continued as if nothing ever happened and celebrated the success of the mission without considering the devastating loss. I think that was probably the worst part of the film and the entire scene was probably used to attract people through the trailers. Retaliation is big and loud, anticipation for what is to come in the blockbuster summer movies. By the time summer gets here we will probably have forgotten all about this movie, but it was still a fun and entertaining two hours. Even those people that will end up hating this film will have to agree that the ten minute action scene between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow was pretty entertaining. As long as you don’t think too much about what`s going on you might enjoy this senseless film.

My Review: The Three Musketeers (5/10)

¨All for one and one for all¨

Here comes another adaptation of Alexandre Dumas`s famous novel of the same name, this time directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (the guy responsible for bringing us the Resident Evil franchise game to the big screen). I have to admit I was a fan of the Resident Evil movies, but that is about the only films I enjoy coming from Anderson, and with The Three Musketeers that only makes my position even stronger. This film was totally massacred by Alex Litvak and Andrew Davies, the men responsible for adapting the screenplay. It`s really hard to bring such a famous novel to the big screen and most films have failed in doing so, but I have to admit this is one of the weakest efforts. Anderson really takes his work lightly here and tries to give us a modern version of the Three Musketeers, but despite all the special effects he does nothing to make these characters interesting. They are all entirely one dimensional with no exceptions. There are several talented actors in this film, but not even Christoph Waltz as the infamous Cardinal Richelieu seemed to fit the part. Being a musketeer is what every boy dreams of, but after watching this film my guess is that very few will feel like being Athos, Aramis, Porthos, or D`Artagnan because the film focused on the special effects, flying ships, explosions, rather than on the great characters that Dumas created in his novel. The Three Musketeers should focus on the characters, not on the special effects. Anderson tried to approach this novel in a much lighter way, but it didn`t work at all. The film felt empty, the characters had a huge void, and the best performances actually came from the villains than the heroes.    

Everyone who is familiar with Dumas`s novel or that has seen any of its numerous film adaptations knows the plot. We are first introduced to our main characters: the three musketeers; Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Aramis (Luke Evans), and Porthos (Ray Stevenson) who serve as King Louis XIII (Freddie Fox) of France`s personal guards. However there seems to be no much more need for the three musketeers since Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) has everything under control with his special guards who serve under the leadership of Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen). The King is too young and naïve to control the country and the Cardinal wants to take advantage of that and take over the kingdom. The three musketeers spend most of their time getting drunk and starting fights with Richelieu`s guards. Their descent began a year ago when Athos was deceived by his lover Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich) who stole some secret plans from them containing information on a powerful weapon, and gave them to the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom) so now England can have the advantage over France if a possible war ensues. This is exactly what Richelieu wants: to provoke a war so the people of France rely on a much stronger leader, himself. This is where D`Artagnan (Logan Lerman) enters the scene; the son of a former musketeer himself sets out to Paris in order to become one himself. Despite being hot headed and young, he inspires the rest of the musketeers with the values they have long lost: courage and fidelity to the King.  

A film about the Three Musketeers should focus on the characters, but this movie like most of its predecessors fails to do so. Logan Lerman, known for his work in Percy Jackson & the Olympians doesn’t have the charisma that his character, D`Artagnan needed. The three musketeers aren`t developed really well either as the movie decides to focus more on the special effects and the action rather than on the characters. One would also expect a lot more sword fighting in this movie, but there are actually more explosions and gunshots than anything else. The heroes aren`t done justice in this film and I was disappointed despite not expecting much from it either. I have to admit it`s always a difficult task to bring a highly loved novel to the big screen, and Anderson isn`t the right guy for the job as he is mostly known for focusing on the action rather than on the characters. The Three Musketeers isn’t a terrible film; it just doesn’t do the story justice. Some people may enjoy this light film since it is nonstop action, but it just wasn`t what I was expecting. There are some funny scenes however involving Orlando Bloom`s character and his discussions about fashion with King Louis. Those were the highlights of the film for me, and that is about it. I didn’t have a terrible time either, I just don`t think the three musketeers were made justice.

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