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Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
Spoilers Ahead!!! so if you don’t want the story ruined, beware!
Ok, first I have to say thanks to Cineworld for showing this as a Double Bill with Thor 1 (the Extended Cut) aswell, so a good catch up on the story and actually seeing Thor 1 on the big screen again actulaly made the first one STRONGER for me, is it was generally considered the weakest of the Avengers Phase 1 movie line up. The other big thing about Thor 1, was that it was considered the Star Wars style space opera of the Avengers film line up and Thor: The Dark World lives up to that comment immensely, and shows some of the Star Wars talent that has joined the Marvel/Disney line up now
The biggest thing you first notice (if you recognise the cast at all, which some didn’t), is that the cast list is majority bumped up in Thor: The Dark World with some big name actors and actresses returning from the first and getting a LOT more screen time aswell, but also some good cast changes
The setting is the strongest point here, it’s not set in America at all, but in our very own leafy London and also Asgard, but London has a solid half of the film time and Marvel, through some really clever and beautiful shots (and probably copious amounts of CGI) actually make the English capital City look pretty nice (I don’t like London to be honest, I actually don’t like cities at all, but London just makes me sad) and the main bad guy tearing up London is amusing on a geek level, considering Malekith is played by 9th (or is that 10th now?) Doctor Christopher Eccleston. He is genuinely creepy in his portrayal of Malekith, a Dark Elf that lost the war against Odins Father, Thor’s Grandfather, Bor (Tony Curran)
The biggest thing you notice between the two Thor movies is just how much Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has grown up and matured. The first film was about him changing from being a brat of a warrior, into a King and leader of men (and then becoming part of a team in Avengers), however in Thor: The Dark World, he is learning to love and be a symbol and a peace keeper in the 9 realms. Plus, for the ladies, more gratuitous naked chest shots (lots of gasps in the cinema last night).
On the other side of that character growth by Thor is his fathers, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is getting older, he wants to pass the mantle of king to Thor, but Thor won’t accept it, he has a job to do and peace to keep. But Odin is getting old, he’s getting weaker and there was a level of desperation to the character this time. Anthony Hopkins plays Odin amazingly, he looks fantastic in the costumes (I actually preferred his armour to Thor’s) and he gets to kick some ass in this film aswell, leading his army against the dark Elves, but looking like it takes him an effort. Anthony Hopkins has made this role his own, especially with his relationship on screen with wife Frigga (Rene Russo), which is nearly heart breaking, but Rene Russo is amazing, looks stunning and kicks ass aswell.
Now, the biggest, yet smallest cast change I noticed was in the Warriors Three, who play a much bigger part in the film this time, Ray Stevenson is back as Volstagg, kicking ass this time rather than lounging around mostly eating, Jaimie Alexander reprises the role of Sif, again pining after Thor, Tadanobu Asano is only in the film as Hogun for about 5 minutes, staying on his home realm to help rebuild after an attack, BUT Zachary Levi (Chuck) takes over the role of Fandral from Josh Dallas this time and it shows.
The Earth based support cast is unchanged (Actor wise) but are in very different places in life, Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) is rather unhinged after his possession by Loki in Avengers, and arrested by the police for streaking naked around Stone Henge, Stellan does an amazing job playing this role again, he brings incredibly humour, but also a level to the character that makes you believe he is a scientist that knows what he’s doing. Darcy (Kat Dennings) is still helping the group, but this time has her OWN intern/minion/lackey and makes the most of it. But of course Thor’s love interest, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), is the main billing here and after two years of searching for Thor and ways to connect to Asgard to find him, has finally started meeting other men and we first see her on a date with comedian Chris O’Dowd‘s character, Richard. SeaBass… SeaBass, SeaBass, SeaBass…
Yet again though, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steals the show. From initially being placed in Asgardian jail (which looks pretty swanky to be fair), to helping Thor and Jane Foster later in the film, to his obvious double crossing (didn’t see that coming…)But I am worried about the over arching use of Loki in the Avengers movies. He is brilliant for fan service, but he stands the chance of over shadowing the storylines of other villains, as we know that the big baddie for Avengers 2 will be Ultron and Avengers 3 will be Thanos, I wonder how Loki will get involved with this and pull the strings of the storyline over Avengers Phase 2 and 3.I love Tom Hiddlestons Loki, I would actually happily go and see a Loki film, as he has made the character strong enough to not only hold his own on screen, but actually totally over shadow Thor, who’s film it actually is.
As I said before, the Star Wars influences are totally seeping through in Thor 2, and it benefits from it a lot. Thor 2 is a far stronger movie than Thor 1 and I would actually say that it is stronger than IronMan 3 (which I gave an 8/10 for back in April), which was a little weak in the story department, but was about character and story development, especially with the building of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and the Extremis storyline that is being pushed in the tv show.
Thor: The Dark World is a special effects tour de force, it looks and sounds great, although I wasn’t bothered by the 3D, which seemed underused, as it did in IronMan 3 aswell. I would actually happily go and watch it again at the cinema, but this time in 2D
The trailer for Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is here, and it’s no teaser clocking in at 2 minutes 18 seconds.
There’s so much to process, without even mentioning Wolverine’s streak of grey hair. It seems alliances will be formed, and broken, and that this will be the biggest X-Men film to date.
Watch it now:
X-Men: Days of Future Past is out in theatres on May 22nd, 2014 in Europe and May 23rd in the US.
The International Military seek out a leader who can save the human race from an alien attack. Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young mind, is recruited and trained to lead his fellow soldiers into a battle that will determine the future of Earth.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Ender Wiggin is the youngest and most gifted of his family, in a world living in constant fear of invasion by Giant Bug people known as the Ferricks …. Fernics … Formics (thank you Wikipedia because they only mention their name once in the film)
He must pass through a rigorous mental training consisting of Zero G paintball, mentally taxing iPad games and “Photo Realistic” space battle simulations. (So any gamers perfect weekend minus the Mountain Dew and Internet Porn.)
So Ender Wiggins is played by Asa Butterfield, at 16 years of age I never expected his acting skill to be incredible but I have to say that after watching him for the best part of two hours he … wasn’t … at all. Now I’m not sure if this was intentional by the actor appearing out of place throughout the majority of the movie, only really feeling like he fits in the film after Ender gets promoted to the rank of Commander. If this is intentional then it’s a commendable performance and one that really makes you feel as out of place as Ender does, but then I think back to Asa’s performance in the 2011 film Hugo where his performance was very similar and honestly kind of annoying.
Ender’s character was by no means the worst in the film Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff was more disheartening due to the fact that Ford just looked like he was picking up a paycheck for the whole film. This is Harrison Fucking Ford, a man that the entire planet knows can act he just shows little to know enthusiasm throughout the entire film.
A trait that thankfully the other heavy hitter in the film Ben Kingsley has managed to avoid, Kingsley plays Mazer Rackham the war hero that drove the Formics away after their first invasion, and is now charged with training Ender so that he is able to save humanity. Kingsley plays Rackham as a mysterious yet open character making him about the only character in the film I actually cared about.
Never having read the book I was left with the feeling that allot of the character development was chopped out of the film.
The leader of the Salamanders, Bonzo (Moises Arias), is the My way or the high way kind of leader that clashes with Ender on multiple encounters finally culminating in a fist fight in the showers that ultimately leaves Bonzo horribly crippled and I felt nothing. I didn’t care if he was going to die or if he’d just never walk again, my main concern was hopefully the idiot who put a step in the middle of a shower room was fired.
I came away from the film with the urge to read the book purely to see if it built up on these characters and actually made me care about them.
Anyway let’s get away from the bad, Enders game is visually beautiful both the CG visuals and the stylised set pieces are incredible. Everything gives of this very Mass Effecty vibe from the IF uniforms to the massive planet destroyer MMD ship. The visuals were crisp and vibrant, really it was the main reason why I wanted to see the movie in the first place and it’s well worth it just to see.
The Formics themselves were a race that I wanted to know more about, but I think the directors decision to limit what the viewer knows/can learn about this threat to humanity really helped you to empathise with Ender and the rest of the IF’s fear and lack of understanding about these creatures. Even know I’m sat trawling through Wikipedia articles on them just to try and gleam some more information on this mysterious race. I wanted to learn about them in the same way that Ender did, and to be honest I felt his frustration at the end of the film regarding the hefty decisions that the IF made for him.
All things said and done I’d say that Ender’s Game is worth a watch even if it’s just for the visuals. I felt it could have benefited from some heavier character development or conversely a greater focus on the actual strategy and tactics behind the epic space battles, each of which is over in less than two minutes.
The first action-packed trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier has arrived.
And it shows Cap in fine baddie-bashing form.
The story finds everyone’s favourite 1940s Avenger now well and truly transplanted into the modern day, and dealing with all the weird repercussions that come from a 70 year time hop. Throw in the return of his wartime partner as a robot-armed sleeper assassin, a co-starring role from fellow Avenger Black Widow, and a host of explosion-y action scenes, and we’re sold.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits UK cinemas from March 2014.
Like the look of Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Let us know below!
Everyone loves Superman (yes, even those snearing at the back, so shut up) and as one of Supes’ biggest fans, Zack Snyder not only directed Man of Steel but also the super 75th b’day homage trailer to the very first super hero
Check it out below
I personally love the various pushes towards the big events in Supes’ life, from the orginal black and white, awful video games, through to Christopher Reeve flying in orbit, through to Death of Superman, the Smallville years, the animated series, upto the current day New 52 look (which, the more I see it, the more I prefer the New 52 outfit)
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