Film Review " Thor Love & Thunder"

Thor is one of my top five Marvel characters, which makes this frustrating for me. Of all the Avengers to be brought to life on the big screen during the Disney era of Marvel, Thor has yet to have a movie with a tone that suits his comic book persona. They are too silly or trying too hard to be a sci-fi movie and putting elves in spaceships. The first movie being the best of the previous 3.  Though it was apologetic to the fact that Thor and his family members are gods. He was also depowered most of the film, going to show the writers did not understand how to write the character as he is. While Ragnarök, is highly entertaining, the comedic elements brough in felt like forced attempt to tap into what Guardians of the Galaxy does. 

"Love and Thunder" adopts the Mighty Thor storyline from the comics where jane Foster takes up the hammer, in some ways, this movie makes more sense of it than the comics did. Since Thor is not deemed unworthy. He was already stripped of his powers in the first film, so to do this is would have gone to the well too many times, instead it is because Thor tells his hammer to always protect Jane which is why she is drawn to it. They did stick to her cancer from the comics.  But this is the only place where the writing exceeds the grasp of the comics, as Gorr the God Butcher is brought to life rather terribly.  It is more of problem regarding the writing than Bale's performance. Though Bale plays him more like Pennywise than a cosmic serial killer. 

Hemsworth has always done a decent job, though aside from fat Thor, his depiction in the Avengers moves felt better than his solo films.   He has bulked up and looks the most like the comic book Thor in this movie, though acts the least like him Even with his drunken escapades, the comic book Thor who is much less brutal than the deity Thor from Norse Mythology, is more stoic and not comic relief. Here thanks to director Taika Waititi, who should have stuck to comedies, the silliness tries way too hard and none of it made me laugh. Not that I like comedies in the first place. Visual there is plenty of eye candy when it comes to some of the scenery and Russell Crowe's Zeus works for him aside from the accent. But all the other actors just feel like they are there for a paycheck and just trying to act like they are having fun. 

The story is a bit of a mess with too much recapping to fill in the gaps, but the biggest problem is the ending. That is a lot considering the action scenes are the worst of any Marvel movie... note movie as they are still better than the terrible ones in Ms Marvel.  Ending have not been a strength of any Marvel movie. The same can be said of this movie. The last 15 minutes which should be the most climatic, was instead an excruciating snooze fest. Yes, the appearance of Hercules in the post credits scene might have been the movie's high light, the CGI used to make the five-foot ten actor playing him look as Hercules should was impressive and gives me hope for the character as long as they do not make him a joke, which would require Taki to exit the franchise , which after this bomb it is hard to expect Marvel to want him to stay , but they do not seem to learn from their mistakes and continue to double down on ruining the Marvel legacy 

Film Review : Thor Ragnarok

The third installment of the Thor movies is the most entertaining of the three, but is that really saying much considering how flawed the first two are. The first well Thor doesn’t have his powers most of the movie, the depowering route means the writers don’t know how to handle the character in their true form. The second movie was better to some extent though we had elves in space ships. The third film is fun , but has major problems. I am a huge Thor fan, I have the Walt Simonson Thor tattooed on me. So the bar is high, but I want to see Thor on screen. I like Chris as Thor, I think the script he has to work with most of the time leaves something to be desired.

Clearly this movie was following a blueprint laid out by the Guardians of the Galaxy films.As it tried to inject more humor into the story. To the point of making the Hulk come across like Drax when he was given something to do aside from smash. Sometimes this worked better than other, using the Hulk in a humorous context worked better on the first Avengers movie , if the Hulk was going to have a sense of humor which he is typically to angry to have one, it should be handled more like it was there. But of the movie’s problems this was actually the mildest one. I can understand on following the comic books frame for frame. When it comes to the actual Norse mythology, the comics have been more faithful to it than others , but have adhered to the basics, aside from obvious faults like turning Jane Foster in a Thor. I get that Valkyrie was not Brunhilde, though I did like the wink to her in the flashback sequence. The problem is Valkrie’s are not sworn to protect Asgard they are sworn to take dead warriors to Valhalla, pretty basic core stuff.

Another big plot fail is the fact Hel is the daughter of Loki, not his sister. OOPS, that pretty much pisses on the point of the movie. Toilet flushing inserted here. So with the basic premise being foolish, let's look at what I liked. Dr Strange being way more powerful was cool to see. I also liked Korg and Meik being included in the wink to the Greg Pak “Planet Hulk” storyline. Funny how it made it into this movie after having Beta Ray Bill replacing the Silver Surfer in the cartoon adaptation. Why Beta Ray Bill wasn’t in the movie I don’t know , while the Hulk is my favorite superhero I would have prefered Beta Ray Bill fighting Thor in the arena if we had to go that route. I thought Hel looked good and Skurge was fairly true to the character. The film leads us up to where Thor and Loki are going to fall into the Infinity War. We already know the Hulk buddies up with Rocket Racoon. So it’s too bad the Thor films never got it right , but at least this one was fun getting it wrong.  

Last Week in Marvel 6/22/2016

The 8th issue of the Ultimates was a waste of time as they keep re-telling events we have already seen and not really offering much difference in perspective than what we have already seen though that is their intention here. The 8th issue of the Mighty Thor continues to underwhelm. the next arc they are building into promises to be another snooze fest, if she is facing off against a woman who shoots gold bullets and the Silver Samurai , sounds like more fitting foes for X-23. Sadly Scarlet Witch continues to be a terrible book. The 7th issue is a drab bore. The art obtuse. This is one of my favorite Marvel characters getting mistreated here. The 8th issue of Ms. Marvel has no redeeming qualities. You just just chose  not to read Civil War Choosing Sides, as it's a waste of time.


The tenth issue of Sam Wilson Captain America is racist in it's attempt to not be racist as only the black superheroes got together to discuss WarMachine's funeral when the character has many other friends and some of the character shown here were hardly around him, when Black Widow or Hawkeye might have been more fitting. Some one should have asked ,where were you when the west coast Avengers were around. I don't like where Totally Awesome Hulk is heading, even with Bruce Banner back, I am glad the sales of this book are going down the drain it's time the fan's voice spoke louder than Marvel's sjw agenda.

Uncanny Avengers is getting a little better, not sure about this Ultronized Hank Pym, like the art work and at least the are trying to recapture and Avengers feel. The fifth issue of Power-man and Iron-fist was, fun, nothing ground breaking the book seems to be trying to find direction. Dr Strange's ninth issue was pretty good, I am still unsure why Scarlet Witch needs weapons when she has mutant abilities that are not dependent on external sources to generate magick, and why this hasn't been brought up or how everything seems to be working fine in her solo book.